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I KÂNDA, 8 ADHYÂYA, 3 BRÂUMANA, 13.
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12. Should he desire rain, let him take up (the prastara), with this text (Vâg. S. II, 16 d), "Be ye in harmony with each other, O heaven and earth!' for when heaven and earth are in harmony with each other, then indeed it rains!: for this reason he says, 'be ye in harmony with each other, O heaven and earth !'-—'May Mitra and Varuna favour thee with rain!' whereby he says, 'may he who rules over the rain favour thee with rain!' Now he that rules over the rain is undoubtedly that blowing one (Vayu, the wind); and he, it is true, blows as one only; but, on entering into man, he becomes a forward and a backward moving one; and they are these two, the out-breathing and the in-breathing. And Mitra and Varuna assuredly are the out-breathing and inbreathing; and hence he says by that (prayer), 'may he who rules over the rain favour thee with rain!' Let him then take it up, with this text, for then the rain will at all times be propitious. He anoints it (the prastara) : thereby he makes him (the sacrificer) an oblation, thinking, 'May he, as an oblation, go to the world of the gods!'
13. He anoints the top (of the prastara with the butter) in the guhd, the middle part (with that) in the upabhrit, and the lower end (with that) in the dhruvâ; for the guhd is, as it were, the top, the upabhrit the middle, and the dhruvâ the root.
· Cf. Ait. Âr. III, 1, 2, 2-4 (Max Müller, Up. I, p. 249): "The first half (of a samhita or combination of final and initial letters) is the earth, the second half heaven, their uniting the rain, the uniter Parganya. And so it is when he (Parganya) rains thus strongly, without ceasing, day and night; then they say also (in ordinary language), "Heaven and earth have come together." See also Sat. Br. I, 7, 2, 16.
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