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IX KANDA, 4 ADHYAYA, 3 BRAHMANA, 8. 243
one he throws up first (at the Soma-sacrifice); (he does so) whilst sitting to the right (south) of it: the significance of this has been explained 1.
6. On this (Agnidhriya) he puts eight bricks,the Gâyatri consists of eight syllables, and Agni is of Gâyatra nature: as great as Agni is, as great as is his measure, so great he thus builds him up. The variegated stone is the ninth of them: there are nine vital airs-seven in the head and two downward ones-it is these he thus puts into it. The fire which is placed on the erected (hearth) is the tenth; there are ten vital airs, and the Âgnidhra is the middle (between the Gârhapatya and Ahavaniya fires) he thus puts the vital airs in the middle of it; for the vital airs, being in the middle of the body, move along it in this direction, and in that direction.
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7. Twenty-one he places on the Hotriya (hearth), and there are twenty-one enclosing-stones: the significance of this has been explained.
8. Six (he places) on the Mârgâliya,—these are the six seasons, the Fathers; for the seasons, the
1 See VII, I, I, 21 seq., where the way in which the bricks of the Gârhapatya hearth are laid down is described in detail.
2 When Agni was led forwards from the Gârhapatya to be installed on his newly built altar, as the Âhavanîya or offering fire, a variegated stone, meant to represent the sun, was deposited near the place (on the northern edge of the Vedi) where the Âgnîdhra shed and hearth would afterwards have to be erected; see IX, 2, 3, 14-19.
3 That is, including the central one, the outlet of which is the navel; cf. VIII, 1, 3, 10
The numbers of bricks and enclosing-stones are the same as for the Gârhapatya hearth, for which (with their symbolic meaning) see VII, 1, 1, 32-35..
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