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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






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