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422
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
threshes (the rice), while standing north of the Dakshina-fire, with his face towards the south. He cleans it but once l; since it is once for all that the fathers have departed.
9. He places the two mill-stones on the black antelope skin, so as to be inclined) towards the south?; and puts the six potsherds on the south part of the Gârhapatya hearth. The reason why they keep the southern direction is because that is the region of the fathers : this is why they keep the southern direction.
10. Thereupon he raises a square altar south of the Dakshinagnis. He makes the corners point towards the intermediate quarters. There are doubtless four intermediate quarters, and the fathers are the intermediate quarters: this is why he makes the corners point towards the intermediate quarters.
11. In the centre of this (altar) he lays down the fire. From the east, indeed, the gods came westwards to the men : hence one offers to them while standing
Not thrice, as at an ordinary ishti; see I, 1, 4, 23. ? Not towards the east, as at the Darsapůrnamâsa; cf. p. 38, note 3. At offerings to the Manes the south, as a rule, takes the place of the east, the west that of the south, &c.
At the conclusion of the Aptya ceremony (cf. I, 2, 2, 18-3, 5) he erects south of the (ordinary) Dakshina-fire a (quadrangular) shed (see further on, paragraph 20) with a door on the north side. Inside it he prepares a quadrangular altar (of the same size as at the Darsapůrnamâsa; cf. I, 2, 5, 14) with the corners towards the intermediate quarters, in the centre of which he makes the (new) Dakshinâgni hearth. [According to Taitt. Br. I, 6, 8, 5-6 no digging takes place in preparing the altar (which is to be square) at the Pitriyagña. When the Dakshina-fire is transferred to the new fire-place, the Pranîtâ-water (see p. 9, note) is carried after it, followed by the Brahman and Sacrificer, and placed east (not north) of the hearth. The laying down of the fire is preceded by the usual fivefold lustration of the hearth (see p. 2).
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