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SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
the gods restored (recruited) him beforehand with food, with these oblations; and in like manner does this (Sacrificer), now that he (Agni) is about to go forward, restore him beforehand with food, with these oblations.
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5. He takes (ghee) in five ladlings, for fivefold divided is that vital air in the head,-the mind, speech, the breath, the eye, and the ear,-he thus lays that fivefold divided vital air into this head. [He offers it, with, Vâg. S. XVII, 16], ‘Agni, with sharp flame, (may destroy every demon! Agni gaineth wealth for us)' thus with a (verse) containing (the word) 'sharp': he therewith sharpens his head so as to become sharp.
6. He then takes (ghee) in sixteen ladlings: eight vital airs, and eight limbs',-this (the symbolical) amount. He takes it in the same spoon, for, indeed, the vital airs and the limbs are in the same body. Separately he offers: he thereby makes a distinction between the vital airs and the limbs. With two (verses) addressed to Visvakarman he offers: Visvakarman is this Agni, it is him he thus puts together. Three oblations he offers,-threefold is Agni: as great as Agni is, as great as is his measure, with so much food he thus restores him. With seventeen verses (he offers),-Pragâpati is seventeenfold, and Pragâpati is Agni: as great as Agni is, as great as is his measure, with so much he thus restores him.
1 Viz. the upper and fore-arms, the thighs and legs.
That is, he offers this ladleful (obtained by sixteen ladlings with the dipping-spoon) in two separate libations (âhuti) or, according to Kâty., in two halves.
Viz. Vâg. S. XVII, 17-32 (sixteen verses, eight for each oblation) and verse 16 (given above) used with the oblation of five ladlings.
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