Aitareyabrahmana 7.31

7.31

teṣāṃ yaś camasānāṃ raso 'vāṅ ait te 'varodhā abhavann,
atha ya ūrdhvas tāni phalāny
eṣa ha vāva kṣatriyaḥ svād bhakṣān naiti,
yo nyagrodhasyāvarodhāṃś ca phalāni ca bhakṣayaty.
upāha parokṣeṇaiva somapītham āpnoti,
nāsya pratyakṣam bhakṣito bhavati.
parokṣam iva ha vā eṣa somo rājā yan nyagrodhaḥ,
parokṣam ivaiṣa brahmaṇo rūpam upanigachati yat kṣatriyaḥ:
purodhayaiva dīkṣayaiva pravareṇaiva
kṣatraṃ vā etad vanaspatīnāṃ yan nyagrodhaḥ,
kṣatraṃ rājanyo.
nitata iva hīha kṣatriyo rāṣṭre vasan bhavati pratiṣṭhita iva,
nitata iva nyagrodho 'varodhair bhūmyām pratiṣṭhita iva
tad yat kṣatriyo yajamāno nyagrodhasyāvarodhāṃś ca phalāni ca bhakṣayaty,
ātmany eva tat kṣatraṃ vanaspatīnām pratiṣṭhāpayati kṣatra ātmānaṃ
kṣatra ha vai sa ātmani kṣatraṃ vanaspatīnām pratiṣṭhāpayati,
nyagrodha ivāvarodhair bhūmyām prati rāṣṭre tiṣṭhaty,
ugraṃ hāsya rāṣṭram avyathyam bhavati
ya evam etam bhakṣam bhakṣayati kṣatriyo yajamānaḥ

vii. 31 (xxxv. 5). ‘The sap of the goblets which went downwards became

the descending growths; that which went up the fruits. This Kṣatriya does not depart from his proper food, who eats the shoots and the fruits of the Nyagrodha. Mysteriously verily he obtains the Soma drinking; it is not consumed openly by him. The Nyagrodha is mysteriously Soma the king; mysteriously does the Kṣatriya assume the form of the holy power, through the Purohita, through the consecration, through the ancestral invocation. The Nyagrodha is the lordly power of the trees, the Rājanya is the lordly power, for the Kṣatriya here dwells fastened as it were to the kingdom, and supported as it were, and the Nyagrodha is fastened as it were by its descending growths to the ground, and supported as it were. In that the Kṣatriya as sacrificer eats the descending growths of the Nyagrodha and the fruits, verily thus he establishes in himself the lordly power of the plants and in the lordly power himself. In the lordly power, in himself he establishes the lordly power of the plants, like the Nyagrodha with its descending shoots in the earth, in the kingdom he finds support, dread becomes his sway and unassailable, who as a Kṣatriya when sacrificing eats thus this food.'