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SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
15. With three verses he sows each time!,-threefold is Agni : as great as Agni is, as great as is his measure, with so much he thus puts food into him.
16. With twelve verses he sows on the ploughed ground,—twelve months are a year, and the year is Agni : as great as Agni is, as great as is his measure, with so much he thus puts food into him.
17. On the ploughed ground he sows, whence food ripens on ploughed ground. Were he to sow only on the ploughed ground, and not on the unploughed, food would only ripen on ploughed ground, not on unploughed; and were he to sow only on unploughed ground, and not on ploughed ground, food would only ripen on unploughed ground, and not on ploughed ground. He sows on both the ploughed, and the unploughed, ground: hence food ripens both on ploughed, and on unploughed, ground.
18. With three (verses) he sows both on the ploughed, and on the unploughed, ground, -threefold is Agni: as great as Agni is, as great as is his measure, by so much he thus puts food into him.
19. And, again, why he sows all (kinds of) herb (-seed), -the gods at that time, being about to put him (Agni-Pragâpati) together, in the first place healed him by healing medicine; and in like manner does this one now, being about to put him together, first heal him with healing medicine.
20. It is (seed) of all herbs ;-all herbs is the
1 The sowing of the seed is done after the manner of the watering of the site, viz. so as to finish the sowing of every four furrows with the completion of the muttering of three verses (Våg. S. XII, 75-86); whereupon the remaining seed is scattered over the whole site with additional three verses (87-89).
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