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Ancient text

The Satapatha-Brahmana, Part I (Books I and II), Sacred Books of the East vol. XII

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An Indian priestly text, over 2,500 years old, explaining the fire ritual line by line. It also holds an early flood story, in which a fish warns Manu. Part I covers books one and two.

Public domain copy

Made byAnonymous (Vedic)
TranslatorJulius Eggeling
LanguageEnglish
FileTXT 1.2 MB
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Where this comes from

This is a public-domain copy. The line below says where the file comes from and why we may host it.

Why we can share it: Internet Archive metadata: possible-copyright-status NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT, copyright-region US. Eggeling died 1918; item date range 1882-1900.

Read the story behind it

EventManu and Matsya (the fish)In the oldest Indian flood story, humanity's savior is a fish small enough to fit in a man's cupped hands. Manu raises it in a jar, then a trench, then the sea, and when the waters rise he ties his ship's rope to its horn; scholars debate whether the tale was borrowed from Mesopotamia. Where does the fish tow him?

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