Satapatha Bramhana Part 05

SR No.: 007680
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Julius Eggeling
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1900
Total Pages: 2017
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 44 MB

Page 1000

MANDALA IV, HYMN 2.
321
Verse 11.
Note 1. I read mártâm (gen. plur.); comp. above, verse 3, note 2. It is possible, however, to leave the text unchanged; in this case the translation would be: 'May he, the knowing one, distinguish wisdom and folly, the (wise and foolish) mortals like straight and crooked backs (of horses).'
Note 2. Comp. vîtáprishtha, 'straight-backed,' a frequent epithet of horses.
Note 3. For Prof. Max Müller's interpretation of this passage, comp. vol. xxxii, p. 256. See also Bergaigne, Rel. Védique, III, 97; Pischel, Vedische Studien, I, 297 seq. It is very strange that the poet should ask the god to keep off Aditi (comp. I, 152, 6. áditim urushyet) who must here be considered, consequently, as a malevolent deity. I think that this conception of Aditi is derived from the idea of this goddess as punishing sin; it is the same goddess who may free the sinner from the bonds of sin and who may fetter and destroy him. Keeping off Aditi seems to mean, consequently, removing from the mortal the danger of being bound by the fetters of sin; the idea is the same as above in IV, 1, 5, where Agni is invoked to make Varuna, the son of Aditi, go away (comp. H. O., Religion des Veda, p. 336, note 1). In that case granting Diti would mean granting freedom from those same fetters. (On Diti, who very appropriately has been called a mere reflex of Aditi, see M. M., loc. cit.; Bergaigne, III, 97 seq.)
Verse 12.
Note 1. On Âyu, the mythical ancestor of the human race, see Bergaigne, Religion Védique, I, p. 59 seq.
Note 2. On padbhik, comp. Pischel, Ved. Studien, I, 228 seq.; Bartholomae, Bezzenberger's Beiträge, XV, 3 seq.; Bloomfield, Contributions to the Interpretation of the Veda, Second Series, p. 32 seq. (American Journal of Philology, XI, 350 seq.). I believe that in our verse padbhíh should be derived from a noun pás, and translated, 'with thy eyes,'
[46]
Y
Digitized by
Google