Kauṣītaki (Śāṅkhāyana) Brāhmaṇa 14.3

Therefore he should pass over without breathing in.

Breath indeed is immortality.

By means of immortality he crosses over death.

With the subsequent half-verse recited continuously, he sounds the praṇava.

Thereby he hurls a thunderbolt at his evil rival.

These amount to ten gāyatrīs.

For the tenth pada has eight syllables.

That which is the anuṣṭubh is indeed a gāyatrī.

The gāyatrī is the metre of Agni.

At the morning pressing, the adhvaryu draws ten draughts.

They praise with nine [verses] in the bahiṣpavamāna [stotra].

The hiṃ-sound is the tenth.

These [recited verses] are ten.

Doing this variously, they produce the virāj.

That virāj is indeed complete food and nourishment.

Having produced that, he establishes it in the sacrificer.

With three times the first and three times the final, they amount to eleven.

The offering verse is the twelfth.

The year indeed consists of twelve months,

for the obtaining of the year.

When recited, they amount to sixteen gāyatrīs.

Thus the ājya [recitation] attains the gāyatrī.

He sacrifices with a verse to Agni and Indra.

Thereby he makes Indra share half of the pressing.

‘In it he causes the deities to share,’ Kauṣītaki used to say.

The virāj indeed consists of thirty-three syllables.

The deities are thirty-three.

He makes the deities share in the syllables.

Leaving the pada: ‘O Agni and Indra, in the house of the giver’ [RV 1.108.7], he breathes in at the half-verse of the virāj.

The virāj is prosperity, food and nourishment.

Thus he firmly stands in prosperity, in the virāj, in food and nourishment.

With the subsequent half-verse of the virāj he utters the vaṣaṭ-call.

Thereby he establishes the sacrificer in the heavenly world.

He utters the secondary vaṣaṭ-call for the pacification of the offerings,

for the firm standing of the offerings.