20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

614 Jan E.M. Houbenin the first part of the verse therefore amounts to: with invigorationthey invigorate invigoration. Or: with strengthening they strengthenstrengthening. Is this not like pulling one-self out of the swamp by one’sown hair? 25 However, in whichever way we understand the first part, thesecond part of the statement makes clear that this situation is not consideredcounter-logical or otherwise problematic; on the contrary, it constitutes the“first dharmas” or foundational institutions.In his explanations of the first line, the 14 th century commentatorSāyaṇa confirms, perhaps unknowingly, that the statement would indeedamount to a paradox in a straightforward interpretation by proposingdiverging interpretations of the central term yajñá. He first proposes thatthe ritual worship (yajñá) that is worshipped is one of the three fires on theplace of sacrifice, the Āhavanīya; but that the ritual worship (yajñá) withwhich the worship is done is the fire produced with the fire-drill (nirmathyaagninā). According to his second proposal, ritual worship (yajñá) doeshave the same referent in both cases (as yajñéna and as yajñám), namelyfire (agní), so that the statement amounts to the following: with fire thegods worshipped fire. Here, however, agner eva mūrtibhedena devatvaṁca paśutvaṁ ca draṣṭavyam “we have to understand that the same Agni is,through a distinction in form, both god (to whom ritual worship is given)and victim (instrument of the ritual worship)”.Lines cd of V 1.164.50 continue as follows: té ha nkaṁ mahimnaḥsacanta yátra prve sādhyḥ santi devḥ “These greatnesses reached upto the vault of heaven, where the ancient Sādhyas reside as gods”. The“greatnesses” that reach up to the vault of heaven are interpreted by Sāyaṇaas referring to the sacrificers “provided with greatness” (māhātmyayuktāḥ).In the light of the intimate relation between this hymn and thePravargya ritual and taking into account the position of the verb at theend of the third “liturgy” in this hymn (HOUBEN 2000), the “greatnesses”correspond in the ritual domain with the great pillars of flame that emergefrom the heated pot when freshly milked milk is added to it. The Pravargyaitself is, inter alia, a ritual worship (yajñá) of a ritual worship (yajñá), viz.the Agniṣṭoma (or any Soma-sacrifice), where the Pravargya, which cannotoccur independently, is optionally embedded.process with regard to inspiration and the suprahuman power inherent in inspired poetry.... Strengthened by the hymns of the poets the gods ... will continue furthering theirinspirations”.25J.C. HEESTERMAN possibly hinted at something similar with regard to theSādhyas, divine beings (mentioned in the second half of our verse) who succeeded(according to AiB 1.16.36) in their ritual by offering fire into fire, when he characterizedthis as “eine Münchausen-artige tour de force” (1996: 121).