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IX KÂNDA, 4 ADHYÂYA, 3 BRÂHMANA, II.
245
there are in each hearth) so many enclosing-stones there are (in each); for with that (fire-altar) there are as many enclosing-stones as there are such bricks in it 1: he thus makes the clan obedient and subservient to the chief.
10. He then scatters a layer of earth on (each of) these (hearths): the significance of this has been explained ?. Silently 3 (he scatters it), for indistinct is the clan (or people). Then, after the cake-offering of the Agnishomiya (animal sacrifice)", he prepares the propitiatory oblations to the Regions;—that fire-altar is the regions : it is to them he offers these oblations, and thus by offering makes them a deity, for only that one is a deity to whom an oblation is offered, but not that to whom it is not offered. There are five (such oblations), for there are five regions.
11. As to this they say,—Let him prepare this
well as the dug-in circle of enclosing-stones, are identified with the ruling power; whilst the dhishnyas as well as the circles of stones lying loosely around them represent the clan.
This is not clear to me: whilst there are 395 such bricks with special formulas in the five layers of the great altar, it is enclosed by only 261 parisrits; see p. 158, note 1. Besides there are no
yagushmatî' bricks in these hearths, but only lokamprinâs'; one would therefore expect'ishtakâs' (bricks) for 'yagushmatyas' the first time (cf. comm. on Kâty. Sr. XVIII, 7, 13). The Hotri's hearth contains twenty-one bricks, the Brahmanakkhamsin's eleven, the Mârgálîya six, and the others eight bricks; and in each case the common formula, 'Lokam prina, &c.' (see VIII, 7, 2, 6), is pronounced once after every ten bricks, and after any odd bricks remaining over at the end. Cf. Katy. Sr. XVIII, 6, 8 seq.
· See VIII, 7, 3, I seq.
: He does not use any such formula as that used in covering each layer of the great allar with earth; see VIII, 7, 3, 7.
. See part ii, p. 199, note 2 (where the reference at the end should be to IV, 2, 5, 22).
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