The Science of the Shulba: A Study in Early Hindu Geometry c10.49

c10.49

³ *TS*, v. 2. 5. 1ff. In the early *Saṃhitā* and *Brāhmaṇa* is found a mythological relation between the *Agni* and the *Veṇu* ("bamboo-rod"). Thus *Taittirīya Saṃhitā* observes, "He metes with a bamboo; the bamboo is connected with Agni; (verily it serves) to unite him with his birth place" (v. 2. 5. 2). The connection has been narrated in that work thus: "Agni went away from the gods; he entered the reed; he resorted to the hole which is formed by the perforation of the reed." This mythology reappears in the *Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā* (iii. 2. 4) and *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*. The latter describes, "Agni went away from the gods; he entered into a reed, whence it is hollow, and whence inside it is, as it were, smoke-tinged” (vi.3.1.26); again “Agni went away from the gods. He entered into a bamboo-stem; whence that is hollow. On both sides he made himself those fences, the knots, so as not to be found out; and wherever he burnt through, those spots came to be” (vi.3.1.31).