1. The Pranîtâ water, doubtless, is the head of the sacrifice 1; and when he leads forward the Pranîtâ water, it is the head of the sacrifice he thereby forms, and he should know that it is that head of his own that is then being formed.
2. The fuel, indeed, is its breath (of the mouth), for it is by the breath that everything here is kindled (animated) that has breath and moves twinkling with its eyelids: let him know that it is he himself that is that fuel.
3. The kindling-verses, indeed, are its spine: let him therefore say (to the Hotri.) regarding them, 'Recite for me, making them, as it were, continuous 2;' for continuous, as it were, is this spinal column. And the two libations of ghee are its mind and speech, Sarasvat and Sarasvatî 3: let
5. And that cake which is offered to Agni is its right flank; and the low-voiced offering is its heart; and inasmuch as they perform this in a low voice, this heart is, as it were, in secret.
6. And that cake which is offered to Agni and Soma (at full moon), or Indra's Sânnâyya (at new moon), is its left flank; the Svishtakrit is that part between its shoulders; and the (Brahman's) fore-portion 2 is the poison 3.
7. And when he cuts off the fore-portion,---even as there they cut out what was injured 4 in Pragâpati, so do they now thereby cut out what in this (body) is clogged and hardened, and affected by Varuna
9. The three after-offerings are these its three downward breathings; and the Sûktavâka and Samyorvâka its arms (or fore-feet); the four Patnîsamyâgas the four supports--the two thighs and the two knee-bones; and the Samishtayagus is the two (hind) feet.
10. These are twenty-one offerings;--two libations of ghee, five fore-offerings, two butter-portions, and Agni's cake: this makes ten; Agni and Soma's low-voiced offering, Agni and Soma's cake, the Agni Svishtakrit, the Idâ, three after-offerings, the Sûktavâka, the Samyorvâka, further his seizing (the two spoons) at the same time there at the Patnîsamyâgas 2 and (last) the Samishtayagus.
11. These are twenty-one offerings,--there are twelve months and five seasons in a year; and three worlds--that makes twenty; and yonder burning (sun) is the twenty-first--that is the goal 3, that the resting-place: he thus reaches that goal, that resting-place.
12. Now, as to this Âruni said, 'Every half-month, indeed, I become a sharer of the same world with yonder sun: that is the perfection of the Full and New-moon sacrifices which I know.'
14. And a god-offerer, doubtless, is he who knows, 'I am now offering sacrifice to the gods, I am serving the gods,'--such a one is like an inferior who brings tribute to his superior, or like a man of the people who brings tribute to the king: verily, he does not win such a place (in heaven) as the other.
35:1 Yagña, the sacrifice, is here, as so often, to be understood as the abstract representation of the victim (here the horse), as well as of the Purusha,--i.e. Pragâpati, and the Sacrificer.
35:2 The kindling-verses, being in the Gâyatrî metre, consist of three octosyllabic pâdas each. Whilst after each verse a kindling-stick (samidh) is thrown into the fire by the Adhvaryu, the Hotri does not make any pause in his recitation at this point, but he does so after the second pâda of each verse, thus connecting the last pâda with the first two pâdas of the next verse.
35:3 See XI, 2, 5, 9 .
36:1 See I, 5, 3, 16.
36:2 See I, 7, 4, 10 seqq.
36:3 Instead of 'visham,' the MS. of Sâyana's commentary reads 'dvishan' (hater, enemy), which is explained as meaning 'satrubuddhi'; the cutting out' of the fore-portion being compared with the annihilation of enemies (satrunirasanârtham),--all this is, however, manifestly fanciful. What is intended would seem to be the poison (real or figurative) caused by the enemies’ (or Rudra's, or Varuna's) shafts, in accordance with the myth regarding Pragâpati and his daughter, I, 7, 4, 1 seqq.
36:4 Literally, what was pierced (by an arrow), cf. I, 7, 4, 3. 9.
37:1 See I, 8, 1, 12 seqq.
37:2 See I, 9, 2, 19.
37:3 Saishâ sûryarûpaiva gatih gantavyabhûmih; eshaiva pratishthâ kritsnaphalasyâsrayah, Sây.
38:1 Upadhîyate upasthâpyate, Sây.
