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X KÂNDA, I ADHYAYA, I BRÂHMANA, 3.
281
TENTH KÅNDA.
THE MYSTERY OF AGNI, THE FIRE-ALTAR.
First Adhyâya. First BRÂHMANA.
1. In the first place that Agni (the Fire-altar), the year, is built !; thereafter the Great Litany (mahad uktham) is recited 2. When Pragâpati became relaxed, the vital fluid flowed upwards 3.
2. Now, that Pragâpati who became relaxed is the year; and those joints of his which became relaxed are the days and nights.
3. And that Pragâpati who became relaxed is this very Fire-altar which here is built ; and those joints of his, the days and nights, which became relaxed are no other than the bricks ;-thus, when he lays down these (in the layers of the altar), he thereby restores to him those joints of his, the days and nights, which had become relaxed : and thus
Or, possibly, 'that Agni is built in a year, as paragraph 4 might seem to suggest. Sâyana, however, takes it in the above sense,-eshosgnih Samvatsaratmakah purastât pûrvam kîyate. The Agnikayana, when properly performed, requires a full year, whence Agni-Pragâpati is constantly identified with the year and the seasons.
According to Sayana, the intermediate Mahâvrata-saman (see note 1, p. 283), chanted prior to the recitation of the Mahad uktham. is likewise implied here.
* Thus- urdhvalokam agakkhat-Sâyana takes 'agram.'
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