Aitareyabrahmana 7.2

7.2

As to this, they say: If an āhitāgni should die on the upavasatha day, how should his sacrifice proceed? They say: One should not perform the sacrifice for him, for he has not attained the sacrifice. As to this, they say: If an āhitāgni should die when the agnihotra is set on the fire, or when the sāṃnāyya, or the sacrificial offerings are [on the fire], what is the expiation there? One should throw them in alongside [his body] right there, so that all may be consumed together. That is the expiation there. As to this, they say: If an āhitāgni should die when the sacrificial offerings have been set down, what is the expiation there? With ‘Svāhā to the deities’ for which those sacrificial offerings were taken, one should offer them into the āhavanīya fire as a complete offering. That is the expiation there. As to this, they say: If an āhitāgni should die while away from home, how should his agnihotra be [conducted]? One should offer with the milk of a cow whose calf is fostered by another. This milk is, as it were, different, which belongs to a cow with a foster calf; this agnihotra is, as it were, different, which belongs to the deceased. Or else they should offer with milk from wherever it comes. Furthermore, they say: Just so they should kindle these [fires], continuously without offering, until the bones are brought back. If the bones cannot be found, having fetched three hundred and sixty palāśa stalks and made of them an effigy, as it were, of the man, they should perform that rite on it. Then, having touched them with the bones when fetched, they should consign them [to the fire]: one hundred and fifty in the trunk, fifty in each thigh and twenty in [the shanks], twenty-five in each of the upper arms, and the rest he should place upon the head. That is the expiation there.