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II KÂNDA, 2 ADHYAYA, 3 BRÂHMANA, 8.
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beloved abode, and the latter gives up to him both kinds of forms, domestic and wild. In that (fire) those two kinds of forms are seen: such is the ascendancy (which one obtains by the punarâdhyeya),people, indeed, envy him ; thus he thrives, and a conspicuous position (is obtained by him).
6. To Agni belongs this sacrifice. Agni is the light, the burner of evil: he burns away the evil of this (sacrificer); and the latter becomes a light of prosperity and glory in this, and a light of blissin yonder, world. This, then, is the reason why he should establish the fires (a second time).
7. Let him establish the fires (the second time) in the rainy season. The rains are all the seasons, for the rains are indeed all the seasons: hence, in counting over years, people say, 'In such and such a year (or rain, varsha) we did it; in such and such a year (or rain) we did it.' The rains, then, are one of the forms of manifestation (rapa) of all seasons ; and when people say, 'To-day it is as if in summer,' then that is in the rainy season; and when they say, ‘To-day it is as if in spring,' then that, too, is in the rainy season. From the year (or rain, varsha), indeed, (is named) the rainy season (varshah).
8. There is, moreover, an occult form (through which the rains manifest themselves in the seasons) 3. When it blows from the east, then that is the characteristic sign of spring ;—when it thunders, it is that of
1 Gyotir amutra punyalokatvâ, lit. a light by (way of) blissful state.' The Kanva text has the same reading.
3 This speculation is based on the identity of the words for year (varsha; also rain') and the rains, or rainy season (varshân).
: The characteristics of the seasons here selected are supposed to have a special connection with the rain and rainy season.
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