The Upanishads, Part 1 (SBE01), by Max Müller, [1879], at sacred-texts.com

p. 189

SECOND KHANDA.

1. Next follows the right wing. It is this world (the earth), it is this Agni, it is speech, it is the Rathantara 1, it is Vasishtha, it is a hundred 2. These are the six powers (of the right wing) 3. The Sampâta hymn (Rv. IV, 20) serves indeed for obtaining desires and for firmness. The Paṅkti verse (Rv. I, 80, 1) serves for proper food.

2. Next comes the Sûdadohas verse. Sûdadohas is breath, thereby he joins all joints with breath.

3. Next follows the left wing. It is that world (heaven), it is that sun, it is mind, it is the Brihat, it

p. 190

a, it is a hundred 1. These are the six powers (of the left wing). The Sampâta hymn (Rv. IV, 23) serves indeed for obtaining desires and for firmness. The Paṅkti verse (Rv. I, 81, 1) serves for proper food.

4. These two (the right and the left wings) are deficient and excessive 2. The Brihat (the left wing) is man, the Rathantara (the right wing) is woman. The excess belongs to the man, the deficiency to the woman. Therefore they are deficient and excessive.

5. Now the left wing of a bird is verily by one feather better, therefore the left wing is larger by one verse.

p. 191

6. Next comes the Sûdadohas verse. Sûdadohas is breath, and thereby he joins all joints with breath.

7. Next follows the tail. They are twenty-one Dvipadâ verses 1. For there are twenty-one backward feathers in a bird.

8. Then the Ekavimsa is the support of all Stomas, and the tail the support of all birds 2.

9. He recites a twenty-second verse. This is made the form of two supports. Therefore all birds support themselves on their tail, and having supported themselves on their tail, they fly up. For the tail is a support.

10. He (the bird and the hymn) is supported by two decades which are Virâg. The man (the sacrificer) is supported by the two Dvipadâs, the twenty first and twenty-second. That which forms the bird serves for the attainment of all desires; that which forms the man, serves for his happiness, glory, proper food, and honour.

11. Next comes a Sûdadohas verse, then a Dhayyâ, then a Sûdadohas verse. The Sûdadohas is a man, the Dhayyâ a woman, therefore he recites the Dhayyâ as embraced on both sides by the Sûdadohas. Therefore does the seed of both, when it is effused, obtain oneness, and this with regard to the

p. 192

woman only. Hence birth takes place in and from the woman. Therefore he recites that Dhayyâ in that place 1.

Footnotes

189:1 Rathantara is the name of the whole number of hymns to be recited at this part of the sacrifice. It was made by Vasishtha, and consists of one hundred verses.

189:2

These hymns and verses are given Ait. Âr. V, 2, 2, 1. Here we also learn that hymn Rv. IV, 20, is called Sampâta, and that the last verse is a Paṅkti.

189:3 The six powers are earth, Agni, speech, Rathantara, Vasishtha, and a hundred.

190:1 The hundred verses are given Ait. Âr. V, 2, 2, 5.

Though there are said to be 100 verses before the Paṅkti (No. 16), I can get only 99 or 101. See the following note.

190:2 The right wing, is deficient by one verse, the left wing exceeds by one verse. I count 99 or 101 verses in the right, and 100 or 102 in the left wing.

191:1 These verses are given Ait. Âr. V, 2, 2, 9.

191:2 The other Stomas of the Agnishtoma are the Trivrit, Pañkadasa, Saptadasa, the Ekavimsa being the highest. Cf. I, 5, 1, 3.