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180
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
omentum, the animal cake, and the chief oblation, for of that much consists the animal sacrifice.
23. On the eighth day (after full moon) he collects (the materials for) the fire-pan; for sacred to Pragâpati is that day, the eighth (after full moon), and sacred to Pragâpati is this (sacred) piece of work, the fire-pan on a day sacred to Pragâpati he thus performs the work sacred to Pragâpati.
24. And as to why (it is performed) on the eighth day; that eighth day no doubt is a joint of the year, and that fire-pan is a joint of Agni (the fire-altar): he thus makes joint upon joint.
25. And, again, why on the eighth day;-eightfold doubtless is the pan1-the bottom part, the two sideparts, the horizontal belt (or rim), that makes four; and four upright (bands), that makes eight: he thus makes the eightfold on the eightfold (or eighth).
26. He performs the initiation on the day of new moon; for from out of the new moon the sacrifice is spread: 'Whence the sacrifice is spread, thence will generate the sacrifice,' so he thinks.
27. And, again, why he (does so) at new moon;when he performs the initiation, he verily pours out his own self, as seed, into the fire-pan, the womb; and when he becomes initiated, he makes for it (his self) that world (or place) beforehand, and he is
1 For the construction of the fire-pan, in which the sacred fire has to be kept up for a year, during which the initiation-ceremony is repeated day after day, see VI, 5, 2, I seq.
* There is kept up in these paragraphs a play on the word 'loka,' meaning both 'space' and 'world (or place of living),'—and applying both to the space occupied by a brick, in building up the altar; and to the place which the Sacrificer, by this performance, gains for himself in another world. The initiation period is here represented
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| SR No. | 007679 |
| Book Title | Satapatha Bramhana Part 03 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Julius Eggeling |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1894 |
| Total Pages | 2382 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 45 MB |