The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c7.s1.3

c7.s1.3

For this purpose, we must turn to another component of the fire altar, the *ukhā*, “fire pot,” in which the fire is to be carried during the year preceding the actual building of the brick construction. This ukhā, which is identical with the milk pot used in the pravargya ritual, is also a form of the “head of the sacrifice” or the head of Prājapati.⁴⁹ Thus the *Kāṭhaka* says that when Prajāpati carried the fire in the ukhā, his head “rolled off”; then the gods exerted themselves with his head and finally restored the head under the form of the ukhā.⁵⁰ Finally when the fire altar is built, the human head is put in the ukhā in the center of the first layer.⁵¹