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44
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
the regions it is the regions he thus bestows (on the air-world). And these are those same regions not separated (from the air) wherewith Vâyu on that occasion1 stepped nigh: it is them he thereby bestows. But prior to these same (bricks) he lays down both the bunch of Darbha grass and the clod-bricks; and these (disyâs) being yonder sun 3, he thus places yonder sun over the regions, and builds him up upon (or, in) the regions. But were these (laid down) at the same time (as the bunch of grass and the clod-bricks), they would be outside (of the altar); and outside of the womb (foundation), indeed, is that sacrificial work regarding the fire-altar which is done prior to the lotus-leaf. When he
empty space a foot square, and the two southern Disyâs are halfbricks lying north and south of each other.
'See VI, 2, 3, 4. The second naturally-perforated brick represents the air-world with which Vâyu, the wind, is most closely associated.
That is to say, he laid them down on the site of the altar, before the first layer was commenced, viz. the darbha-bunch in the centre of the 'body' of the altar, where the two spines (anûka) intersect each other (VII, 2, 3, I seqq.); and the clod-bricks (logesh/aka) on the four ends of the two spines (VII, 3, 1, 13 seqq.), that is, in the middle of each of the four sides of the square of which the 'body' consists.
The symbolic interpretation here seems somewhat confused, inasmuch as the Disyâs, which are now apparently identified with the sun, have just been stated to represent the regions. At VI, 7, 1, 17 the sun was represented as the central point of the universe to which these three worlds are linked by means of the quarters (as by the strings of a scale). The clod-bricks, on the other hand, were indeed, in VII, 3, 1, 13, identified with the regions (quarters); and the bunch of grass, being laid down in the centre, might be regarded as marking the fifth region, that upwards from here. Cf. IX, 5, 1, 36.
• The lotus-leaf is placed in the first layer is about to be laid down.
centre of the altar when the See VII, 4, 1, 7 seqq., where
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