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X KÂNDA, 4 ADHYAYA, I BRÂHMANA, 18.
347
built here ; and the Kya is this his food, to wit, the Mahâvratiya-graha : that combined) makes the Arkya in respect of the Yagus. And the Great one (mahân) is this (Agni), and this rite (vrata) is his food : that makes the Mahâvrata in respect of the Saman. And 'uk' is this (Agni), and 'tha' his food : that makes the (Mahad) Uktha in respect of the Rik. Thus, whilst being only one, this is accounted threefold.
16. And this Agni is Pragâpati, the year 1: the Şâvitra (oblations) are one half thereof, and the Vaisva-karmana (oblations) o the (other) half; the Såvitra are eight digits (kala 3) thereof, and the Vaisvakarmana (the other) eight; and that which is performed between them is the seventeenfold Pragâpati. Now what a digit is to men that a syllable (akshara) is to the gods.
17. And loma (hair)' is two syllables, “tvak (skin)'two, 'asrik (blood)' two, medas (fat)'two, mâmsam (flesh)' two, snâva (sinew)' two, 'asthi (bone) 'two, 'maggå (marrow)'' two,—that makes sixteen digits; and the vital air which circulates, therein, is the seventeenfold Pragàpati.
18. These sixteen digits convey the food to that vital air; and when they take to conveying no food to it, then it consumes them and departs (from the body): hence he who is hungry here, feels very
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Or, perhaps, this Pragâpati-Agni is the year. ! For these two sets of formulas and oblations, see IX, 5, 1, 43 and note.
• A kala' is the sixteenth part of the moon's diameter, and then a sixteenth part generally.
* Pronounce 'tu-ak.' 6 For five of these parts of the body, see X, 1, 3, 4.
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