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Bloomfield, Maurice, 1855-1928

"Cerberus, The Dog of Hades The History of an Idea"

I shall present two
versions of the story, a kind of [Greek: Gigantomachia] in order to
establish the equation between the terms "two dogs of Yama," and "two
heavenly dogs."
"There were Asuras (demons) named K[=a]lak[=a]njas. They piled up a fire
altar in order to obtain the world of heaven. Man by man they placed a
brick upon it. The god Indra, passing himself off for a Brahmin, put on
a brick for himself. They climbed up to heaven. Indra pulled out his
brick; they tumbled down. And they who tumbled down became spiders; two
flew up, and became the two heavenly dogs." (Br[=a]hmana of the
_T[=a]ittir[=i]yas_ 1. 1. 2.)
"The Asuras (demons) called K[=a]lak[=a]njas piled bricks for an altar,
saying: 'We will ascend to heaven.' Indra, passing himself off for a
Brahmin, came to them; he put on a brick. They at first came near
getting to heaven; then Indra tore out his brick. The Asuras becoming
quite feeble fell down; the two that were uppermost became the dogs of
Yama, those which were lower became spiders." (Br[=a]hmana of the
_M[=a]itra_ 1.


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