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272
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
for, indeed, whenever Agni is placed on the built (altar), this whole Agni passes into that very brick 1: thus whenever he offers in the fire, then these oblations of his will be offered even as would be his oblations, when offered on a complete Sândila firealtar built up with wings and tail.
62. And, indeed, he who carries about Agni ? becomes pregnant with all beings, and with all the gods; and he who builds him when he has not been carried about for a year kills all beings in the form of an embryo. But, surely, he who kills a human embryo, is despised, how much more then he who kills him (Agni), for he is a god : 'Let no one become an officiating priest for an (Agni) who has not been carried about for a year,' said Vâtsya, 'lest he should be a participator in the killing of this, a god's seed 8!'
tion begins, it would seem, from Kâtyâyana's rules, that it runs from the beginning of paragraph 58,-XVIII, 6, 33. In case of inability to perform a second) kityâ, at a repeated Soma-sacrifice, (he may lay down) one or other kind of the Svayamâtrinnas, Visvagyotishas, or Ritavyâs; 34. The Punaskiti; 35. Or no building (at all a second time); 36. Because the (Agni) Kitya has become the Ahavanîya.
I That is (as would seem from Sayana's interpretation), into the Ähavaniya fire, considered as the last brick of the altar; and hence the Sacrificer's offering-fire will for ever thereafter remain for him the Kitya Agni.
? During the time of initiation (dikshâ), which, if at all possible, is to last for a year, the Ukhya Agni has to be carried about by the intending Sacrificer, for at least part of each day, in the fire-pan (ukhâ), suspended in a sling from his neck; the pan-fire being afterwards transferred to the newly built Garhapatya and thence to the great fire-altar, to serve as the Kitya Agni, or the Ahavanîya fire. See VI, 7, 1, 12 seq.
In the original this last clause is in the first person, or in the oratio directa, from the point of view of him who is asked to officiate
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