Kauṣītaki (Śāṅkhāyana) Brāhmaṇa 18.9
English (machine translation) 18.9
- Language
- English
18.9.1
Now, if it should be an eight-footed one [pregnant], how should it be?
18.9.2
Cooking the skin of the embryo in the form of the omentum, the husks of grain, [and] the embryo in the slaughterer’s hearth, they should offer them in the slaughterer’s hearth at the vaṣaṭ-calls of the other.
18.9.3
Demons indeed attack the sacrifice when such an occurrence takes place here.
18.9.4
By that [offering] he strikes them away.
18.9.5
Thus it is free from demon attack.
18.9.6
Such is the case if the anūbandhyā is an animal victim.
18.9.7
And if it is a curd offering,
18.9.10
or if it is a bovine victim,
18.9.11
Mitra and Varuṇa are praised together with the cow.
18.9.12
Therefore it is a bovine victim.
18.9.13
Now, as to why the offering verses are in the Triṣṭubh metre:
18.9.14
The Triṣṭubh is strength and heroic power.
18.9.15
Thus he bestows strength and heroic power upon the sacrificer.
18.9.16
“You two put on clothes with fat” is the offering verse for the omentum.
18.9.17
“With fat” is the form of the fat of the omentum.
18.9.18
“Which is thickest, not pierced through, O generous givers” is for the sacrificial cake.
18.9.19
By “thickest,” for thick, as it were, is the sacrificial cake.
18.9.20
“Stretch forth your arms for life, not [for harm]” is for the sacrificial oblation.
18.9.21
“Arms” is the form of the limbs of the sacrificial oblation.
18.9.22
He departs northward.
18.9.23
For northward is the world of the living.
18.9.24
Having departed northward, he offers a full oblation with a verse addressed to Viṣṇu.
18.9.25
Viṣṇu is the sacrifice.
18.9.26
Thus he takes hold of the sacrifice.
18.9.27
There is a sacrificial cake on five potsherds.
18.9.28
The Paṅkti has five feet.
18.9.29
The sacrifice is fivefold, for the attainment of the sacrifice.
18.9.30
Or, if it is on eight potsherds, the ritual paradigm is that of the Full Moon sacrifice.
18.9.31
The Full Moon sacrifice is a firm foundation, for firm support.
18.9.32
This indeed is the direct form of the re-establishment [of the fires], that the offering verses and invitatory verses are [in the metre of] padapaṅktis.
18.9.33
They are interwoven in the same way.
18.9.34
When it is concluded, the sacrificer offers the agnihotra.
18.9.35
For when the establishment of the sacred fires is concluded, the agnihotra is offered.
18.9.36
Therefore, when it is concluded, the sacrificer should offer the agnihotra; thus [it is said], the sacrificer should offer the agnihotra.
Translations (1)
- Rigveda Brahmanas: The Aitareya and Kauṣītaki Brāhmaṇas of the Rigveda (HOS 25) — Arthur Berriedale Keith 1920, English
Linked texts (1)
- Kauṣītakibrāhmaṇa — Kauṣītaki, Sanskrit