one vast reservoir of flame, which was propelled from its voluminous bed by some invisible but omnipotent agency, and threatened to fling its fiery ruin upon everything around. In some parts, however, of the pitchy vapour by which the skies were by this time completely overspread, the lightning was seen only occasionally to glimmer in faint streaks of light, as if struggling, but unable, to escape from its prison, igniting, but too weak to burst, the impervious bosoms of those capacious magazines in which it was at once engendered and pent up. So heavy and continuous was the rain, that scarcely anything, save those vivid bursts of light which nothing could arrest or resist, was perceptible through it ... . Day after day the same scene was repeated with somewhat less violence, though at intervals the might of the hurricane was truly appalling .... The breaking up of the monsoon is frequently even more violent, if possible, than its setting in, and this happened to be the case during the first season after my arrival in India. It was truly stupendous, and I shall never cease to remember it to the latest moment of my existence.'
1 The Academy, Oct. 25, 1884— Feb. 14, 1885.
■^ Ibid., Jan. 31, 1885.
Introduction. Xxv
as the Haoma of the Avesta. The Hum shrub, accordinsf to this description, grows to the height of four feet, and consists of circular fleshy stalks (the thickest being about a finger thick) of whitish colour, with hght brown streaks. The juice was milky, of a greenish white colour, and had a sweetish taste. Mr. Schindler was, however, told that, after being kept for a few days, it turned sour and, like the stalks, became yellowish brown. The stalks break easily at the joints, and then form small cylindrical pieces. They had lost their leaves, which are said to be small and formed like those of the jessamine. This description, according to the above naturalists, would seem to agree tolerably well with the Sarcostcimna (akin to the common milk-weed), or some other group of Asclepiads, such as the Periploca aphylla which, as Mr. Baker states, has been traced by Dr. Haussknecht to 3000 feet in the mountains of Persia, and, according to Dr. Aitchison, is common also in Afghan- istan. A quotation from a medical Sanskrit work, to which attention was drawn by Prof. Max Muller many years ago, states that, ' the creeper, called Soma, is dark, sour, without leaves, milky, fleshy on the surface ; it destroys (or causes) phlegm, produces vomiting, and is eaten by goats.' The foul, sour smell of the Soma-juice is also alluded to in our Brahma;/a (see the present volume, p. 366). Accord- ing to Prof. Spiegel \ the Pirsis of Bombay obtain their Homa from Kerman, whither they send their priests from time to time to get it. The plant at present used by the Hindu priests of the Dekhan, on the other hand, according to Haug, is not the Soma of the Vedas, but appears to belong to the same order. ' It grows (he informs us, Ait. Br. H, 489) on hills in the neighbourhood of Poona to the height of about four to five feet, and forms a kind of bush, consisting of a certain number of shoots, all coming from the same root ; their stem is solid like wood ; the bark grayish ; they are without leaves ; the sap appears whitish, has a very stringent taste, is bitter, but not sour : it is a very nasty drink, and has some intoxicating effect. I tasted it several times, but
^ Eranische Alterthnmskunde, III, p. 572.
XXVI 5'ATAPATHA-BRAHMAA'A.
it was impossible for me to drink more than some teaspoon- fuls.' In fact, several varieties of Sarcostemma or Ascle- piads\ somewhat different from those of Persia and Afghanistan, which are not to be found so far south, seem to have been, and indeed seem still to be, made use of for the Soma-sacrifice. And notwithstanding the objections raised by Dr. G. Watt, in his useful ' Notes,' appended to the translation of Professor Roth's papers, every probability seems to me to be in favour of the identity of the original Soma-plant with the shrub, the stalks of which are used by the Parsis in preparing their Hum juice, or with some other plant of the same genus. It certainly would seem to have been a plant with soft, succulent stems. Dr. Watt remarks, ' We know of no instance of a succulent plant re- taining, for weeks or months, its sap within isolated twigs, and, indeed, we can recall but few plants which could with- stand, even for a day or two, the dry climate of India, so as to retain the sap within their isolated and cut twigs.' But, though at the time of the Vedic hymns fresh and juicy plants were probably used for the preparation of the sacred drink, in later times, when the plants had to be conveyed some considerable distance into India, the withered and shrunk plants were apparently found, with the admixture of water and other ingredients, to serve the same purpose. For we know from the description given in the Sutras, that water was poured on the plants previously to their being beaten with the pressing-stones. This moistening or steeping is called apyayanam, or ' the making (the plants) swell.' After being then well beaten and bruised, they were thrown into the vat, or rather trough, partly filled with water, and were pressed out with the hand. Dr. Watt thinks Professor Roth ought rather to have published briefly the leading passages in the hymns descrip- tive of the plant, from which naturalists might have drawn their own conclusions. One might as well ask a Hebrew
* Especially Sarcostemma intermedium, S. brevistigma, and S. viminale (or Asclepias acida). See R. Roth, Zeitsch. der D. Morg. Ges. vol. xxxv, p. 681 seq.
INTRODUCTION. XXVll
scholar to give accurate descriptions of the ' lily of the valley ' to enable the botanist to identify and classify the lovely flower which delighted the heart of kig Solomon, It is exactly the want of an accurate knowledge of the nature of the Soma-plant which prevents the Vedic scholar from being able to understand some of the few material allu- sions to it. Thus the term amsu, commonly applied to the Soma-plant, used to be taken to mean simply ' plant ' or 'sprig, shoot;' but Professor Roth seems now inclined, perhaps rightly^ to take it as referring to the internode, or cylindrical piece between two joints of the stem. The substitutes approved of by the vSatapatha-brahmaz/a, in case no genuine Soma-plants can be obtained, will be found enumerated at pp. 421-423 of the present volume. A de- scription of these plants, so far as they have been identified, is given in Professor Roth's paper.
I cannot conclude these remarks without expressing my hearty thanks tothose scholars who have done me the honour of reviewing the first volume of this work. To Professor Whitney I feel especially indebted for his most careful examination of my translation, and the searching, yet appre- ciative, criticism he has been good enough to apply to it. I shall feel content, if the present volume finds at least one reader as conscientious and painstaking. While I agree with most of Prof. Whitney's suggestions ^, there are one or two points raised by him, and these perhaps of the more important, on which I have been unable to take his view ; and as some of these points involve renderings adhered to in the present volume, I take the opportunity here briefly to advert to them.
The most important of these points probably is my rendering of the term kapala by 'potsherd,' instead of ' cup, dish/ as proposed by Prof. Whitney. Instead of speaking of a sacrificial cake on eleven or twelve potsherds, we are to call it a cake on so many cups or dishes. The term
' American Journal of Philology, vol. iii, pp. 391-410; Proceedings of the American Oriental Society, October 1882, p. xiv seq.
XXVlli ^ATAPATHA-BRAHMAA^A.
' Or perhaps the lower shell which represents the earth, being as it were a symbol of firmness and safety.
Introduction. Xxix
bones of the skull (and the plates of the tortoise-case). Hence the Medini says (lanta yi), kap^lo 'stri .riro-'sthni syad, gha/ade/^ j-akale, vra^e, — kapala may be used in the sense of 'head-bone,' in that of 'fragment of a pot,' &c., and in the sense of ' collection.'
Professor Whitney takes exception to my occasionally translating at man by 'body,' — an inaccuracy, he remarks, that might easily be avoided. I do not quite understand on what grounds he objects to this rendering. The original meaning of atman doubtless is (breath) 'self, soul;' but surely there can be no question that it also commonly means ' body, trunk,' in contradistinction to the limbs, wings, &c. Thus we read Sa.t. Br. IV, i, 2, 25, 'The sacrifice is fashioned like a bird : the Upamsn and Antaryama are its wings, and the Upawi"usavana is its body\'
My rendering of ' videgho ha mathava/z' (I, 4, i, 10) by ' Mathava the (king of) Videgha,' instead of ' Videgha (the) Mathava,' is rightly objected to. Indeed, I had already taken occasion, in the introduction to the same volume (I, p. xli, note 4), to make that correction.
Prof. Whitney's remarks on ' yupena yopayitva ' are adverted to at p. 36, note i of the present volume ; as are also those on ' ed ' at p. 265, note 2. In regard to the latter point he rather does me wrong by supposing that I appa- rently regarded the particle (or particles) ' ed' (for which the Kawva text seems to read 'a hi ') as a verb-form from the root 'i,' to go. The fact is that I followed Prof. Weber (Ind. Stud. IX, p. 249) in taking it to be a popular expres- sion, with a verb of motion understood, somewhat in the sense of the German 'hin;' e.g. 'Shall we go there.?' — ' Hin denn ! ' i. e. ' Let us go then.'
My translation of II, 4, 2, 19 is not quite approved of by
^ Professor Max Mliller has been kind enough to send me a number of passages from Upanishads and Ara«yakas, in which atman has the sense of 'body, trunk,' and is usually explained in the commentaries by Jarira (atmana/2 = Jariravayava//, B;-zhadar. Up. I, i, 2, 7). The adverb adhyatmam, he remarks, always means ' with reference to the body ; ' cf. Taitt. Up. I, 7 > SaX. Br. IV, i, 3, i, the present volume, p. 265, note x.
XXX ^ATAPATHA-BRAHMAiVA.
Prof. Whitney. There offering is made severally to the sacrificer's grandfather and great-grandfather with the formula 'N.N., this for thee!' to which some authorities add ' and for those who come after thee.' This addition is rejected by the author on the ground that ' svayam vai tesha?;/ saha yesha;;z saha,' which I translated by ' since he himself is one of those to whom [it would be offered] in common.' Prof. Whitney takes exception to this, remark- ing that in that case, the phrase ' and those who (come) after thee ' might be added, without any reason to the contrary. But he forgets one important point, namely, that it would be a fatal thing for the sacrificer in this way to associate himself with the departed ancestors, and even make offering to himself along with them : it would simply mean that ' he would straightway go to yonder world,' that he would not live his fulness of days. The clause under discussion is elliptic, its literal translation being ' Himself surely (is) of those withal of whom (he is) withal.' This may either be taken in the sense in which I took it (see also St. Petersb. Diet. s.v. saha) ; or in a general way, ' He surely is one of those with whom he associates himself;' i.e. he would himself be a dead man.
