Kauṣītaki (Śāṅkhāyana) Brāhmaṇa 10.p2

10.p2

x. 1. The sacrificial post is a thunderbolt. In that they erect the post on the fast day, verily thus with a thunderbolt they smite away the evil of the sacrificer. It should not be bent, as it were, for to be bent in the stomach is the symbol of one hungry. Again it should be turned towards the Āhavanīya; that is the symbol of one well fed; his wives are not like to be hungry, who makes a post so formed. One of Palāça wood he should make who desires splendour, of Bilva wood he who desires proper food, and of Khadira he who desires heaven. It should be three cubits with the symbol of these worlds, four cubits with the symbol of cattle, five cubits with the symbol of the Paṅkti, six cubits with the symbol of the seasons, seven cubits with the symbol of the metres, eight cubits with the symbol of the Gāyatrī, nine cubits with the symbol of the Bṛhatī, ten cubits with the symbol of the Virāj, eleven cubits with the symbol of the Triṣṭubh, twelve cubits with the symbol of the Jagatī. These measures are suitable forms for the post. One suitable form should he produce and make the post. They say, however, ‘One should not measure the post; let it be unmeasured; the measured by the measured one wins; the unmeasured by the unmeasured; (therefore it serves) to win the incommensurable.’ ‘Both for the post and the altar (he should choose) the size which he considers in his mind suitable’, (Kauṣītaki) used to say. Mind is Prajāpati; Prajāpati is the sacrifice; the sacrifice itself rejoices in the sacrifice when mind in mind. The post in the Vājapeya alone is determined as of seventeen cubits. It is placed in with eight corners, for the attainment of all desires. Then they wash it; thus what of it has here been harshly treated as it were with the axe and hewn as it were, that of it verily he makes whole, that he heals. Then they anoint it; thus the waters which are in man, these they place in it; well anointed himself should the sacrificer make it; so does the sacrificer become not rough as it were.