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VIII KÂNDA, 3 ADHYAYA, 2 BRÂHMANA, 8.
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with avaka-plants ; for avaka-plants mean water : he thus bestows water on that season, whence it rains most abundantly in that season.
6. Then the two upper ones, with (Vâg. S. XIV, 16), 'Isha and Urga, the two autumnal seasons,' —these are the names of those two (bricks): it is by their names he thus lays them down. There are two (such) bricks, for a season consists of two months. He settles them only once: he thereby makes (the two months) one season. He places them on avaka-plants, for the avaka-plants mean water : he thus bestows water before that season, whence it rains before that season. He does not cover them afterwards, whence it does not likewise rain after (that season).
7. And as to why he places these (four bricks) in this (layer),--this fire-altar is the year, and the year is the same as these worlds, and the middlemost layer is the air (-world) thereof; and the rainy season and autumn are the air (-world) thereof: hence when he places them in this (layer), he thereby restores to him (Agni) what (part) of his body these (formed), this is why he places them in this (layer).
8. And, again, as to why he places them in this (layer),—this Agni (the fire-altar) is Pragâpati, and Pragâpati is the year. Now the middlemost layer is the middle of this (altar), and the rainy season and the autumn are the middle of that (year): hence when he places them in this (layer), he thereby restores to him (Agni-Pragàpati) what part of his
As in the case of the live tortoise, in the first layer ; see VII, 5, I, II with note— Blyxa octandra, a grassy plant growing in marshy land (" lotus-flower,” Weber, Ind. Stud. XIII, p. 250).'
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