Jaiminīya (Talavakāra) Brāhmaṇa 2-8.418
English (machine translation) 2-8.418
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2-8.418
Whatever is that tenth day yonder, that consists of ukthas. They say: 'It must be mounted indeed. Fortune indeed belongs to the mid-space. Thus is the attainment of fortune.' There is a hundred-stringed harp. A man has a life of a hundred [years], a hundred faculties, a hundred vital powers; [it is] for the securing of that very faculty and vital power. Regarding this they say: 'The hundred-stringed harp should not be made. When the Brahmins knew the continuous sequence of this, then this one, having once joined it, lay saying in the assemblies of kings: "I enter!" What should they do then to him who is not now as formerly?' But on that they also say: 'Why indeed should it not be now as formerly? Formerly, having praised with a single sāman, they used to go to the heavenly world. Moreover, having come up from the purificatory bath, it should be made. Thus the hundred-stringed harp is for the wholeness of speech.' Its continuous sequence is this: 'Bhūḥ, bhuvaḥ, svaḥ! Speak, speak, speak, speak, speak, speak! Wide, broad, easy of path, easy of access, active, making, making, about to make! Indra's speech, great, multiform, bestowing a hundred-year lifespan, utter forth, divine harp!' Then he scratches it with an arrow-reed and with a willow-branch, saying: 'Mind is light', 'Speech is truth', 'Mind is auspicious.'
2-8.418.p1
His sons approached Ahīnas Āśvatthi and said: 'Reverend sir, we are undertaking a sacrificial session; instruct us!'
2-8.418.p2
He said: 'Do not speak thus!
2-8.418.p3
Difficult to overcome indeed is the year.
2-8.418.p4
Just as spokes are fixed in the navel of a chariot wheel, so all deaths are fixed in the year.
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And yet you say this!'
2-8.418.p6
They said: 'You alone are our physician, you are our expiation; do instruct us!'
2-8.418.p7
This was pleasing to him.
2-8.418.p8
He said: 'If you speak thus, establish yourselves on the six supports.'
Linked texts (1)
- Jaiminīyabrāhmaṇa — Sanskrit