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192
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
Agni as he is taken forward!'-'Agnidh, follow up with the single sword (-line)!'-' Brahman, mutter the Apratiratha (hymn)!'
2. For at that time, as the gods were about to come up in order to perform this sacrifice, the Asuras, the mischievous fiends, tried to smite them from the south, saying, 'Ye shall not sacrifice! ye shall not perform the sacrifice!'
3. The gods said to Indra, 'Thou art the highest and mightiest, and strongest of us: do thou hold those fiends in check!'-'Let the Brahman (n.) be my ally!' he said.-'So be it!' They made Brihaspati his ally, for Brihaspati is the Brahman (the priesthood); and having had the Asuras, the mischievous fiends, chased away in the south by Brihaspati and Indra, they spread this sacrifice in a place free from danger and devilry.
4. Now what the gods did then, that is done on this occasion. Those fiends, it is true, have now been chased away by the gods themselves, but when he does this, he does so thinking, 'I will do what the gods did;' and having had the Asuras, the mischievous fiends, chased away in the south by Indra and Brihaspati, he performs this sacrifice in a place free from danger and devilry.
5. As to that Indra, he is that Apratiratha (irresistible hymn); and as to that Brihaspati, he is the Brahman (priest): thus, when the Brahman mutters the Apratiratha (hymn) he (the Sacrificer), having the Asuras, the mischievous fiends, chased away in the south, by Indra and Brihaspati, performs this sacrifice in a place free from danger and devilry. This is why the Brahman mutters the Apratiratha (hymn, Våg. S. XVII, 33-44; Rigv. S. X, 103, 1-12).
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