XIII, 1, 7. Seventh Brâhma<I>n</I>a

Satapatha Brahmana Part V (SBE44), Julius Eggeling tr. [1900], at sacred-texts.com

13:1:7

SEVENTH BRÂHMANA.

THE INITIATION OF THE SACRIFICER.

13:1:7:11. Pragâpati desired, 'Might I perform a horse-sacrifice ¹?' He toiled and practised fervid devotion. From the body of him, when wearied and heated, the deities departed in a sevenfold way: therefrom the Dîkshâ (initiation) was produced. He perceived those Vaisvadeva ² (oblations). He offered

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them, and by means of them he gained the Dîkshâ: and when the Sacrificer offers the Vaisvadeva (oblations) it is the Dîkshâ he thereby gains. Day after day he offers them: day after day he thus gains the Dîkshâ ¹. Seven of them he offers; for seven were those deities that departed (from Pragâpati); it is by means of them that he (the priest) gains the Dîkshâ for him.

13:1:7:22. But, indeed, the vital airs depart from those who exceed (the duration of) the Dîkshâ. For

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seven days they observe it; for there are seven (outlets of) vital airs in the head, and the Dîkshâ is the vital airs: it is by means of the vital airs he gains the Dîkshâ, the vital airs, for him. He makes offering by dividing (each) deity into three parts ¹; for the gods are of three orders ², and of three orders are these worlds: he thus establishes himself in these worlds in prosperity and vital power.

13:1:7:33. They amount to one and twenty (single invocations and oblations),--there are twelve months, five seasons, these three worlds, and yonder sun as the twenty-first,--that is the divine ruling-power, that is the glory: that supreme lordship, that summit of the fallow one (the Sun), that realm of light he attains.

13:1:7:44. Thirty Audgrabhanas ³ he offers,--of thirty syllables the Virâg (metre) consists, and the Virâg means all food: thus (he offers) for the obtainment of all food. Four Audgrabhanas he offers (on each day), and three Vaisvadevas;--they amount to seven; for there are seven vital airs of the head, and the Dîkshâ is the vital airs: by means of the vital airs he thus gains the Dîkshâ, the vital airs,

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for him. A full (-spoon)-oblation ¹ he offers last for the sake of invigoration and union.

Footnotes

289:1 Or, 'might I make offering with the life-sap of the horse?' the natural, as well as the technical, meaning of the term 'asvamedha' being generally understood in these speculations.

289:2 The oblations offered prior to the initiation--here, as at any Soma-sacrifice--are called Audgrabhana (elevatory) oblations. On the present occasion he, in the first place, performs, on each of the first six days of the Dîkshâ, the four oblations of this kind offered at the ordinary Soma-sacrifice (for which see III, 1, 4, 1 seqq.); whilst on the seventh day he offers, instead of these, the six corresponding oblations of the Agnikayana (which forms a necessary element of the Asvamedha), see VI, 6, 1, 15-20; for a further and final oblation offered on all these occasions, see p. 292, note ¹. He then performs on each day three additional oblations p. 290 (increased to four on the last day) which are peculiar to the Asvamedha, and vary from day to day in respect of the deities to whom they are offered. But whilst, in the Srautasûtras, these special oblations are likewise called Audgrabhana (Katy. XX, 4, 2-10), the author here applies to them the term Vaisvadeva, owing apparently to the fact of their being offered, not to the Visve Devâh properly speaking, but to different deities. In the dogmatic explanation of the Audgrabhanas of the ordinary sacrifice, reference was also made (at III, 1, 4, 9) to the Visve Devâh, but only incidentally. Harisvâmin, indeed, points out that the designation Vaisvadeva refers in the first place to the invocations (Vâg. S. XXII, 20) used with these special oblations (as is, indeed, evident from paragraph 2; cf. also part ii, p. 20, note 1); and the total of seven applied to them does not therefore refer here (as it does in paragraph 4) to the four ordinary and the three special Audgrabhana oblations, but to the series of dedicatory formulas relating to the latter oblations, as explained p. 291, note ¹; and, of course, by implication, to the oblations themselves.

290:1 Though the Initiation only becomes perfect by the Sacrificer being girded with a hempen zone, whilst kneeling on a double black-antelope skin, and by a staff being handed to him (III, 2, 1, 1-32); on the present occasion, the Sacrificer is on each day, after the performance of the Audgrabhana oblations, at least to sit down on the antelope skin; whilst on the seventh and last day of the Dîkshanîyeshti, the remaining ceremonies take place, after which those of the Agnikayana, viz. the placing of the Ukhâ, or fire-pan, on the fire and the putting of thirteen fire-sticks in the pan (VI, 6, 2, 1 seqq.), &c.

291:1 The kandikâ XXII, 20 is made up of seven parts, each of which consists of three distinct invocations addressed to the same deity; the seven deities addressed in the whole formula being Ka, Pragâpati, Aditi, Sarasvatî, Pûshan, Tvashtri, and Vishnu; whilst the three invocations to Ka, for instance, are 'Kâya svâhâ! Kasmai svâhâ! Katamasmai svâhâ!' Cf. XIII, 1, 8, 2 seqq.

291:2 Viz. either the Vasus, Rudras, and Âdityas (cf. IV, 5, 7, 2); or those of the sky, the air, and the earth, headed by Sûrya, Vâyu, and Agni respectively.

291:3 That is, the four Audgrabhanas of the ordinary Soma-sacrifice offered on each of the seven days of the Dîkshâ, and two more added thereto on the seventh day.

292:1 For a full discussion of this final Audgrabhana oblation, the only one, it would seem, offered with the regular offering-spoon (guhû) filled by means of the dipping-spoon (sruva), see III, 1, 4, 2; 16-23; cf. also VI, 6, 1, 21.