The Satapatha-Brahmana, Part II (Julius Eggeling) — page scans

Now, if this myth were a purely Indian one, one might be content to relegate it to the category of Vedic ' paradoxes ' to the vindication of which M. Bergaigne declares himself ready to devote his life. But as there can be no reasonable doubt that the myth goes back to Indo-European times, and that its object is simply to account for the mysterious effect of spirituous liquor or the ' fire-water,' so to speak, I for one find it impossible to accept M. Bergaigne's ex- planation of this myth, at least so far as the identification of Soma and the lightning is concerned^. On the other hand, his theory undoubtedly receives a considerable amount of support from the fact that the Soma is fre- quently compared with the vSyena. But we saw that the same term is applied to Indra, as it also is to the Maruts (X, 93, 6), to the Aj-vins (IV, 74, 9 ; VIII, 73, 4), and to Surya (V, 45, 9) ; and there is in my opinion no evidence to show that this comparison has any connection with the myth which makes the fiery liquor to be brought down by a vSyena. Moreover, wherever that comparison occurs, it undoubtedly applies to the Pavamana, or the drops or streams of Soma flowing through the filter into the vat ; and I can see no reason why we should not consider the showers of rain as the exact counterpart of the clarifying Soma. But, of course, the real divine Soma is not the rain-drop itself, any more than he is the drop of juice ex- pressed from the Soma-plant ; but he is the spark of celestial fire enclosed in the drop. It would seem, then, that, as the masses of cloud overspread the sky. Soma, the heavenly light, is conceived as entering into union with the celestial cows or waters, released by the thunderbolt from their mountain keep, and coming down with them to the earth.

' For the same reason I find it impossible to accept M. Bergaigne's inter- pretation of the hymn IV, 27, put forward at the end of his work (vol. iii, p. 322 seCj.). According to that interpretation, Soma, in the first verse, declares that he himself flew forth from his prison as an eagle ; and then, in the second verse — as it were reproving those who might imagine the eagle to be a different being from himself — he adds, ' It was not he (the eagle) that bore me away with ease, but I triumphed by my own cleverness and bravery ! ' I am afraid this critical specimen of the feathered tribe will not find many admirers among

Introduction. Xxi

But while I find it impossible, as regards the myth of the Soma-bearing bird, to identify with M. Bergaigne the winged bearer (probably the lightning) with its burden, the Soma ; the descent of the fiery god is pictured in various other ways, and it might still be possible that one or other poet had conceived of the bull-like Soma, as the lightning, uniting with the heavenly cows in their earthward course, so that before reaching the earth the rain-drops would be im- pregnated with Soma's essence, and would, in fact, be of the same nature as the Soma-juice. I am not prepared, there- fore, entirely to reject the identification of Soma with the lightning ; only I do not think that any one of the crucial passages adduced by M. Bergaigne in favour of that iden- tity necessarily requires the interpretation he proposes. Thus, in IX, 41, 3, 'The sound of the mighty Pavamana (the clarifying Soma) is heard like that of the rain : the lightnings pass in the sky,' it surely seems rather far- fetched to take the lightning, instead of the rain, to be the object with which Soma is compared, merely because in the same hymn Soma is also compared with the sun and the heavenly river Rasa. The same may be said of IX, 108, 1 1, ' That joy-pouring (mada-i-yut) thousand-streamed bull they have milked out from the sky,' and several other passages. The verse IX, 87, 8, divo na vidyut stanayanty abhrai//, somasya te pavata indra dhara, ' Thy stream of Soma, O Indra, clarifies itself, as (does) the thundering lightning of the sky by means of the clouds,' is more favourable to

prosaic Sanskritists. I should prefer, with Prof. Roth, to read 'nir adiyat' instead of ' nir adiyam,' unless it were possible to read ' ^yena^avasa ' instead of ' jyeno ^avasa.' M. Koulikovski, in the paper referred to, throws the hymns IV, 26 and 27 together, and takes them as a sort of mytho-critical controversy between the god Soma and some other person (perhaps the author himself), advocating two different versions of the Soma-myth, viz. Soma contending that it was himself who brought the divine plant, while his interlocutor ('who has the last word in the hymn ') maintains that it was brought by a falcon. Thus, according to this scholar, the falcon was already (!) distinguished from Soma ; and these two hymns ' are, as it were, an echo of a religious, or rather mytho- logical dispute, which had divided the theologians of the Vedic epoch.' Perhaps Prof. Oldenberg's theory of Akhyata-hymns, or detached pieces of poetry connected by prose narratives, might have a chance with these hymns.

XXll 5'ATAPATHA-BRAHMAA^A.

M. Bergaigne's view, as may also be the doubtful passage, V, 84, 3, yat te abhrasya vidyuto divo varshanti vr/sh/aya/^, ' When the rains of the cloud rain thee (O earth) lightnings from the sky (?).' As regards VII, 69, 6, addressed to the Ajvins, ' Come, ye two men, to our libations this day, like two thirsty bulls to the lightning,' M, Bergaigne (I, 168) thinks that the identification of Soma with the lightning can alone explain this passage ; since it would be impossible to imagine that the two bulls could anticipate the falling of rain from the appearance of the lightning. Though a poetic figure like this hardly bears such critical handling, perhaps M, Bergaigne will allow me to ask whether, if the passage had read, ' Come ye hither to our libations, like tw^o bulls to the thunder V he would have thought it so very bold a figure for a Vedic poet to use ?

The most important of all passages, however, undoubt- edly is IX, 84, 3 : a yo gobhi/z srz^yata oshadhishu .... a vidyuta pavate dharaya suta/z, indraw somo madayan daivya;« ^anam. M. Bergaigne translates (I, 172) the first pada by ' Lui qui est repandu avec les vaches (i. e. the rain- drops) dans les plantes,' which, of course, fits either view equally well ; the only question being, whether Soma is already united with the rain-drops when they are poured forth by the clouds, or whether, in the shape of lightning, he is still separate from them. The third p^da, M. Bergaigne remarks (I, 170), may be boldly (hardiment) translated by ' II se clarifie, exprime en un torrent qui est I'eclair.' This rendering, if correct, would doubtless settle the point ; but to my mind it is not only a very doubtful, but a highly improbable explanation. What I believe to be the true interpretation of the passage had been given by Prof. Ludwig two years before the publication of M. Bergaigne's volume, viz. ' Expressed in a stream, he clarifies himself by the lightning — Soma who exhilarates (or inebri- ates) Indra and the divine race.' It will be seen that this alters the case completely. The lightning would be

1 Cp. IX, 100, 3: 'Send forth mind-yoked thought, as the thunder sends forth rain.'

Introduction. Xxiii

compared with the filter of white sheep's wool, through which the Soma-juice percolates into the vat. The same simile, in my opinion, is implied wherever the formula pa- vate (a) vr/sh/im, ' he clarifies himself into rain,' is used (IX, 49, I ; 3 ; ^5^ 3; 24 ; 96, 14 ; 108, 10). And, in truth, the simile seems to me a very striking one ; but we must not, of course, think of single flashes of lightning such as we are accustomed to in our northern climes (and as are doubtless implied in the Vedic conception of the Va^ra or thunderbolt), but of that continuous and widespread electric illumination (vi-dyut) which forms a characteristic feature of the monsoon, when the showers of rain seem to flow through an immense space of light ^.

' For a description of this phenomenon in the districts where we must imagine the Vedic poets to have composed their hymns, see Elphinstone, Account of the Kingdom of Cabool, p. 126 seq.

I cannot forbear here to quote a few extracts from a graphic descriplioa of the setting in of the monsoon in India proper, given in the Rev. H. Caunter's Oriental Annual (1834) :— 'There was a slight haze upon the distant waters which seemed gradually to thicken, although not to a density sufficient to refract the rays of the sun, which still flooded the broad sea with one unvarying mass of glowing light .... Towards the afternoon, the aspect of the sky began to change ; the horizon gathered blackness, and the sun, which had risen so brightly, had evidently culminated in darkness, and to have his splendour veiled from human sight by a long, gloomy period of storm and turbulence. Masses of heavy clouds appeared to rise from the sea, black and portentous, accompanied by sudden gusts of wind, that suddenly died away, being succeeded by an intense, death-like stillness, as if the air were in a state of utter stagnation, and its vital properties arrested. It seemed no longer to circulate, until again agitated by the brief but mighty gusts which swept fiercely along, like the giant heralds of the sky. Meanwhile the lower circle of the heavens looked a deep brassy red, from the partial reflection of the sunbeams upon the thick clouds, which had now everywhere overspread it ... . From the house which we occupied we could behold the setting in of the monsoon in all its grand and terrific sublimity. The wind, with a force which nothing could resist, bent the tufted heads of the tall, slim cocoa-nut trees almost to the earth, flinging the light sand into the air in eddying vortices, until the rain had either so increased its gravity, or beaten it into a mass, as to prevent the wind from raising it. The pale lightning streamed from the clouds in broad sheets of flame, which appeared to encircle the heavens as if every element had been converted into fire, and the world was on the eve of a general conflagration, whilst the peal, which instantly followed, was like the explosion of a gunpowder-magazine, or the discharge of artillery in the gorge of a mountain, where the repercussion of surrounding hills multiplies with terrific energy its deep and astounding echoes. The heavens seemed to be

XXIV S-ATAPATHA-BRAHMAiVA.

The striking coincidences between the Vedic Agnish/oma and the Homa ceremony of the Parsis, pointed out by Martin Haug (Ait. Br. I, p. 59 seq.), leave no doubt as to the complete development of the Soma-ritual in its essential features before the separation of the Indo-Iranians. The exact identity of the plant from which their sacred liquor was prepared is still somewhat doubtful. An official inquiry which has been set on foot in consequence of two papers published by Prof. Roth (Journal of Germ. Or. Soc. 1881 and 1 883), and translated by Mr. C. J. Lyall, secretary to the Chief Commissioner of Assam, and which, it is understood, is now carried on, on the part of the Government of India, by Dr. Aitchison, botanist to the Afghan Boundary Commis- sion, will probably ere long settle the matter once for all. The appearance of the first official blue-book on the sub- ject has already led to a renewed discussion of the matter, in the columns of a weekly journaP, in which Profs. Max Miiller and R. v. Roth, as well as several distinguished botanists, especially Drs. J. G. Baker and W. T. Thiselton Dyer, have taken part. Of especial interest in this discus- sion is a letter '•^,by Mr. A. Houttum-Schindler, dated Teheran, December 20, 1884, in which an account is given of the plant from which the present Parsis of Kerman and Yezd obtain their Hum juice, and which they assert to be the very same