FIRST BRAHMANA.

1. Verily the dawn is the head of the horse which is fit for sacrifice, the sun its eye, the wind its breath, the mouth the Vaisvanara fire, the year the body of the sacrificial horse. Heaven is the back, the sky the belly, the earth the chest , the quarters the two sides, the intermediate quarters the ribs, the members the seasons, the joints the months and half-months, the feet days and nights, the bones the stars, the

flesh the clouds. The half-digested food is the sand, the rivers the bowels , the liver and the lungs the mountains, the hairs the herbs and trees. As the sun rises, it is the forepart, as it sets, the hindpart of the horse. When the horse shakes itself , then it lightens; when it kicks, it thunders; when it makes water, it rains; voice is its voice.

2. Verily Day arose after the horse as the (golden) vessel , called Mahiman (greatness), which (at the sacrifice) is placed before the horse. Its place is in the Eastern sea. The Night arose after the horse as the (silver) vessel, called Mahiman, which (at the sacrifice) is placed behind the horse. Its place is in the Western sea. Verily, these two vessels (or greatnesses) arose to be on each side of the horse.

As a racer he carried the Devas, as a stallion the Gandharvas, as a runner the Asuras, as a horse men. The sea is its kin, the sea is its birthplace.

Footnotes

^73:1 It is the third Adhyaya of the Aranyaka, but the first of the Upanishad.

^73:2 This Brahmana is found in the Madhyandina text of the Satapatha, ed. Weber, X, 6, 4. Its object is there explained by the commentary to be the meditative worship of Virag, as represented metaphorically in the members of the horse. Sayana dispenses with its explanation, because, as part of the Brihadaranyaka-upanishad, according to the Kanva-sakha, it had been enlarged on by the Varttikakara and explained.

^73:3 Agni or fire, as pervading everything, as universally present in nature.

^73:4 Pagasya is doubtful. The commentator suggests pad-asya, the place of the feet, i.e. the hoof The Greek Pegasos, or ippoi peloi, throws no light on the word. The meaning of hoof would hardly be appropriate here, and I prefer chest on account of uras in I, 2, 3. Deussen (Vedanta, p. 8) translates, die Erde seiner Fusse Schemel; but we want some part of the horse.

^74:1 Guda, being in the plural, is explained by nadi, channel, and sirah; for we ought to read sira or hiragrahane for sira, p. 22, l. 16.

^74:2 Klomanah is explained as a plurale tantum (nityam bahuvakanam ekasmin), and being described as a lump below the heart, on the opposite side of the liver, it is supposed to be the lungs.

^74:3 'When it yawns.' Anandagiri.

^74:4 Voice is sometimes used as a personified power of thunder and other aerial sounds, and this is identified with the voice of the horse.