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SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
earthen womb;-'Aditi offered it unto her sons, thinking, They shall bake it!'--for Aditi, indeed, having fashioned it, offered it to the gods, her sons, to bake it; and in like manner does this one now, after fashioning it, offer it to the gods to bake it.
22. Now some make three (fire-pans), saying, "Three (in number) are these worlds, and the fire-pans are these worlds ;' and also for mutual expiation, thinking, 'If the one will break, we shall carry (Agni) in the other, and if the other (breaks), then in the other (or third).' Let him not do so; for that first bottom part is this world; and that first (lower) sidepart is the air; and the upper one is the sky; and that fourth, the prayer, doubtless is the quarters; and just as much as these worlds and the quarters are, so much is this whole (universe). But were he to add anything thereto, he would make it to be redundant, and whatever redundant (act) is done in the sacrifice is left over for the Sacrificer's spiteful rival. And as to the expiation in case of the (fire-pan being) broken, that (will be told) in a subsequent chapter 1
THIRD BRÂHMANA. 1. Of that same (clay) she (the queen) forms the first, the 'invincible' (brick); for the invincible one (Ashâdha) is this earth, and this earth was created first of these worlds. She forms it of that same clay, for this earth is (one) of these worlds. The (Sacrificer's) consecrated consort (mahisht) forms it; for this earth is a 'mahisht' (female buffalo, a cow). She who is first taken to wife is the consecrated consort.
1 VI, 6, 4, 8.
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