Talk:Saḍvimśa Brāhmana
By Swami Harshananda
Saḍvimśa Brāhmana (‘the twenty-sixth Brāhmaṇa’)
The most important Brāhmaṇa of the Sāmaveda is the Tandy a Mahābrāhmana. It is also known as Pañcavimśa Brāhmana since it contains pañcavimśa or twenty-five sections.
The Sadvimśa Brāhmana is the twenty-sixth (= saḍvimśa) section. It is more an appendix of the former and probably added later.
There are five prapāṭhakas or chapters in this work, the fifth one being known as the Adbhuta Brāhmana. (See ADBHUTA-BRĀHMANA for its details.)
The first four prapā tfiakas deal
exhaustively with various aspects of Somayāgas. The subjects dealt with may
be summarised as follows: pravargya (an independent rite, but performed as a part of Jyotiṣtoma sacrifice); upasad (another rite of the iṣṭi group); chanting of the Subrahmaṇyasāma (a mantra of the Sāmaveda inviting Indra); how to extract the soma juice during the three periods (morning, noon and evening); some prāyaścittas or expiations for lapses in the performance of the rites; methods of selecting the ṛtviks or priests; certain ābhicārika (magical) rites; explanations of Svāhā and Svadhā considered as deities and so on.
See also TĀNDYA-MAHĀ-BRĀHMANA.
References[edit]
- The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore