Excerpt from The Aitareya Brahmanam of the Rigveoa, Vol. 2: Containing the Earliest Speculations of the Brahmans on the Meaning of the Sacrificial Prayers, and on the Origin, Performance, and Sense of the Rites of the Vedic Religion Dikshantya Ishfi, tcith the Initiatory Riles.) Agniy among the gods, has the lowesti Vishnu the highest place; between them stand all the other deities. i Syana whom M.MulIer follows in his translation of the first six chapters of the first book as gfiven in his History of Ancient Sanscrit Literature, (paees 890-405)explains the words eamma and parama by first and last. To prove this meaning to be the true one, S yana adduces the mantra (I 4. AsVal. Sr.

S.2) agnir mtikkaift prathamo deoatdndm samgatdndm uttamo Vishnur diit, t.e, Agni was the first of the deities assembled, (and) VUhnu the last. In the Kaushitaki-Br hmanam (7, 1)Agni is caJled avardrdhya (instead of avama) and Y%mxpardr(Viya (instead of parama) i, e, belongfing to the lower and higher halves (or forming the lower and higher halves). That the meaning first cannot be reasonably given to the word avama, one may learn horn some passages of the Rigged 8 amhit, where avama and parama are not applied to denote rank and dignity, but only to mark place and locality. See Rigreda I, 10S 9, 10: avamoiydm priiMoydmmadhyamasydmparamatydm uia, t. in the lowest place, the middle (place), and the hieat (place). Aifni the fire, has, among the gods, the lowest place; foit he resides with man on the earth; while the other gods are either in the air, ot in the sky.

VWtnu occupies, of all gods, the highest place; fbr he re presents (ia the Rigyeda) the sun in its daily and yearly courM. In ita daily coarse it reaches the highest point in the sky, when pAslng tba akiith on the horizon; thence VUhnu is caDed the highest of the gods. Sftyana vnderstands flrst and last in reference to the respec Sve order of deities ia the twelve liturgies (Shastra) of the Soma day at the Agnishtama sacrifice. For, says he, The first of these litargiea ti Kso-called 4 Jya Sha$tra, (ee 3, 81) belongs to Agni, and in the last oat of the twelve, in the so lIed Agnamdruta Shasira (see 3, 82-38) there is one verse addressed to Vishnu. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work.

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