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IX KÂNDA, 3 ADHYAYA, I BRÂHMANA, II.
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the Maruts' (cakes) are the vital airs : he thus puts the vital airs into him (Agni). [He does so] after offering the Vaisvânara ; for the Vaisvânara is the head: he thus puts vital airs into the head. . 8. That (Vaisvânara oblation) is a single one, for single, as it were, is the head; the others (viz. the Mârutas) are seven in number, of seven potsherds each; and though 'seven-seven' means 'many times,' here it is only seven 1: he thus places seven vital airs in the head.
9. That (Vaisvânara oblation) is (performed in a) distinct (voice), for the head is distinct; but indistinct the other (oblations), for indistinct, as it were, are the vital airs. Standing he offers the former, for the head stands, so to speak; sitting the others, for the vital airs are, so to speak, seated.
10. Now, the first two Mâruta (oblations) he offers are these two vital airs (in the ears): he offers them in the middle of the Vaisvânara (oblations), for these two vital airs are in the middle of the head.
11. And the second pair are these two (vital airs
1 See VIII, 1, 1, 2 Also VI, 5, 3, 11, where the translation should be altered accordingly.
? In baking the cakes, the Vaisvânara is placed on the centre of the fire, and the first two Maruta cakes are placed north and south of it, then the following pair of cakes behind the first, but more closely together, and behind these the third pair, still more closely together, and finally the last cake forming, as it were, the apex of a phalanx of Maruta cakes (or wind-deities) protecting that of) Agni Vaistânara In offering the cakes a similar method is to be followed; except that the first pair of Mâruta cakes may be offered, not in the fire itself, but on the previously flattened out Vaisvânara cake lying on the fire Whilst the Kâtîya-sūtia (XVIII, 4, 23) admits this as an alternative mode (though not very clearly expressed), our passage seems to require it as the only possible mode. Both the Vaisvânara and the Mâruta cakes are offered whole.
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