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I KÂNDA, 3 ADHYÂYA, I BRAHMANA, 21.
75
ground), he (the Âgnidhra) carries it eastwards. In the case of one whose Åhavaniya fire is used for the cooking, he (now in the first place) puts it on the Åhavanfya, thinking, ‘My oblation shall be entirely cooked on the Åhavaniya?!' The reason why he first puts it thereon (viz. on the Garhapatya) is, because he will have to make the wife look at it: for it would not be proper, if he were to take it (from the Ahavaniya) to the west in the midst of the performance, for the purpose of making the wife look at it; and if he were not to let the wife look at it at all, he would thereby exclude her from the sacrifice. And in this way, then, he does not exclude the (sacrificer's) wife from the sacrifice: therefore he does not take it eastwards till after melting it close by the wife (on the Garhapatya), and making her look at it. In the case of one who (through death or from other causes) has not his wife with him, he puts it from the very beginning on the Ahavaniya. He then takes it again from thence and puts it down within the altar.
21. Here now they say,– He must not place it within the altar; for from that (butter) they make the oblation to the wives of the gods 2: he therefore excludes the wives of the gods from the company (of
1 According to the ritual of the Black Yagus, the butter, after the sacrificer's wife has looked at it, is again heated on the Garhapatya fire, in order to remove the impurity which has thereby been imparted to it.
• The patnisamyågas are four oblations of butter to Soma, Tvashtri, the wives of the gods, and Agni Grihapati respectively, made at the end of these sacrifices. See I, 9, 2, 1. It would seem that, according to the ritual of the Black Yagus, the butter is not put on the altar, but on a line drawn with the wooden sword north of the altar. See p. 74, note 2.
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