Satapatha Bramhana Part 03

SR No.: 007679
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Julius Eggeling
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1894
Total Pages: 2382
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 45 MB

Page 2056

XIII KÂNDA, I ADHYAYA, 2 BRÂHMANA, 9. 279
when he says, 'I sprinkle thee for all the gods,' he makes all the gods take a concern in the horsesacrifice; whence all the gods are concerned in the horse-sacrifice. But his wicked enemy seeks to lay hold of him who performs the horse-sacrifice, and the horse is a thunderbolt ;-having killed the foureyed dog, he — with Undone is the man! undone is the dog!'-plunges & it under the horse's feet: it is by means of the thunderbolt
Mahfdhara explains parah' by parâbhâtah, adhaspadam nitah,' i. e. defeated, laid low. Perhaps it may mean, 'Away is the man, away the dog!' As given in the Vâg. Samh., this is only the last part of the formula, pronounced by the Sacrificer; whilst during the killing of the dog, he is made to say, “Whosoever seeketh to slay the steed, him Varuna besetteth.'--According to Kâty. XX, 1, 38 segg., the priest says to an Ayogava (the offspring of a Sûdra father and a Vaisyå mother)or, to a lewd man, according to others— Kill the four-eyed dog!' whereupon the man kills a dog by means of a club of Sidhraka wood; and (the priest ?), by means of a rattan hoop (? or mat, kata, comm. kataka), makes the dead dog float beneath the horse. According to the comment. on Kâty. XX, 1, 38, in case a four-eyed dogi.e. a (two-faced) one 'yasya dve mukhe' and hence looking in the four (intermediate) directions (vidis), Sây.-is not available (!). a dog with marks about the eyes should be used. The mention of the four-footed' dog in the formula is, however, doubtless meant merely symbolically, as representing evil threatening the Sacrificer from every quarter.
• Harisvâmin seems to connect this with the sprinkling of the horse itself-prokshanam suna upaplåvanam ukyate-perhaps in the sense that the water flowing down from the sprinkled horse would soak the dog, in which case the horse would apparently be supposed to stand on the dry ground. See, however, comm. on Käty. XX, 2, 2, Svânam asvasyâdhahpradese galamadhye plåvayati târayati.' The offerings of drops' to be performed immediately after this ceremony might seem to be offered with reference to the drops of water flowing from the horse, and as it were falling outside the sacrifice; but see paragraph 5.
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