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448
SATAPATHA-BRİHMANA.
sacrifice he thus prepares (the pot);-with its hairy side (upwards),- for the hairs are the metres : on the metres he thus prepares it ;-(spread out) on the left (north) side 1,--for the north is the quarter of men ;-on (the skin) with its neckpart to the east, for that (tends) towards the gods.
3. With a spade (he digs out the clay), for the spade is a thunderbolt, and the thunderbolt is vigour: with vigour he thus supplies and completes it (the Pravargya).
4. It is made of Udumbara (Ficus glomerata) wood, for the Udumbara is strength :: with strength, with vital sap, he thus supplies and completes it.
5. Or of Vikankata (Flacourtia sapida) wood; for when Pragâpati performed his first offering, a Vikankata tree sprang forth from that place where, after offering, he cleansed (his hands); now an offering is a sacrifice, and (consequently) the Vikarkata is
pot, on the present occasion, the order of proceeding is to a considerable extent the same as that followed at the Agnikayana, in providing the materials for, and making, the fire-pan, for which, see VI, 3, 3, I seqq. Cf. also the Âpastamba Srautas. XV, with Garbe's Translation and Notes, Journal of Germ. Or. Soc., vol. xxxiv.
That is, immediately north of the lump of clay (previously prepared by a potter) and the other objects to be used for making the Mahavira pot, which have been previously deposited near the antahpâtya peg marking the middle of the west or hinder side of the Mahâvedi.
* The locative, instead of the accusative, is rather strange here. As it stands, the locative is evidently parallel to 'yagñe' and 'khandahsu,' and one has therefore to supply-he collects (prepares) the Pravargya, viz. by putting the lump of clay and the other objects thereon.
See VI, 6, 3, 7 seqq.
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