A yajur-vedic legend from shathapatha brAhmaNa

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Dear devotees,

 

This is from pravargya brAhmaNa of shathapatha: (Not a verse by verse

translation) I am reserving my comments and questions for a later

time, and would like to know the opinions of bhAgavatAs.

 

The brAhmaNa reads as if two stories are fused together and here is

story #1:

 

The devas Indra, Makha, Agni and Vishnu (maybe Soma was included too)

enter a sacrificial session (sattra) and whoever first finishes it

would become greatest of the devas. Vishnu first completed it and he

became the greatest of the devas. Vishnu himself is the sacrifice -

he who is this sacrifice is yonder aditya (????!!!! Yagnyo vai

vishnu: ).

He, then displays vainglorious behavior. He takes a bow and three

arrows and stepped forward. The devas didn't dare to attack him and

sat down surrounding him.

Upadika ants ask the devas, "what will he obtain, he who gnaws the

bowstring?" (Apparently devas reply) "He will find water even in

desert". {Upadika ants are a variety, that can spot water in unlikely

places }.

The ants gnaw the bowstring and the ends of the bow spring asunder

and cut off Vishnu's head. { A variation from Taittriya aranyaka and

Maitrayaniya samhita - Indra took the form of vamri ant and cut off

the bowstring }.

Vishnu's head gets tossed into the sky and becomes the sun. His

headless torso falls in the eastern direction with the sound "ghrIN".

Hence the name "gharma" (gharma = theratti paal, used in pravargya

rite). { Taittriya Aranyaka's variation is that the head goes upto

the heaven and falls down with the "ghrIN" sound and hence the name

gharma }.

Vital essence starts oozing out of Vishnu's body. Indra reached first

and smeared the vital sap on his body and hence he became "makhavAn".

The devas divided Vishnu's body into three parts corresponding to

three soma pressings in a sacrifice (Remember - Vishnu = Yagnya). Few

more verses on what deva gets each soma pressing.

 

The continuation of this legend looks like another story. So story

#2...

The devas were sacrificing and toiling with the headless yagnya.

Dadhyanc atharvaNa knew the secret of putting back the head of the

sacrifice and hence completing it. Indra warned Dadynac that if he

revealed this secret to anybody, he would cut his head off. Ashvins

wanted to learn the secret and hence they approached Dadhyanc. He

told them about Indra's warning and hesistated. They told him that

they would cut his head off, replace it with a horse's head and then

he can teach them. Once, Indra cuts the head (i.e. the horse's head),

they would fix back the original head.

Agreeing to this, Dadhyanc revealed the secret to the Ashvins after

they replaced his head with the horse's head. Indra did as he warned

and the ashvins put back his original head.

 

(And the shathapatha brAhmaNam continues as brihadAranyaka upanishad

after the pravargya rite discussion)

 

I would like to know the opinion of the devotees regarding this

legend.

 

Regards,

Kasturi Rangan .K