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III PRAPÂTHAKA, 17 KHANDA, 5.
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libation. The Gagatî has forty-eight syllables, the third libation is offered with Gagatî hymns. The Âdityas are connected with that part of it. The Prânas are the Âdityas, for they take up all this (âdadate).

6. If anything ails him in that (third) age, let him say: 'Ye Prânas, ye Âdityas, extend this my third libation unto the full age, that I, the sacrificer, may not perish in the midst of the Prânas or Âdityas.' Thus he recovers from his illness, and becomes whole.

7. Mahidâsa Aitareya (the son of Itarâ), who knew this, said (addressing a disease): 'Why dost thou afflict me, as I shall not die by it?' He lived a hundred and sixteen years (i.e. 24+44+48). He, too, who knows this lives on to a hundred and sixteen years.


Seventeenth Khanda[1].

1. When a man (who is the sacrificer) hungers, thirsts, and abstains from pleasures, that is the Dikshâ (initiatory rite).

2. When a man eats, drinks, and enjoys pleasures, he does it with the Upasadas (the sacrificial days on which the sacrificer is allowed to partake of food).

3. When a man laughs, eats, and delights himself, he does it with the Stuta-sastras (hymns sung and recited at the sacrifices).

4. Penance, liberality, righteousness, kindness, truthfulness, these form his Dakshinâs (gifts bestowed on priests, &c.)

5. Therefore when they say, 'There will be a


  1. Here we have a representation of the sacrifice as performed without any ceremonial, and as it is often represented when performed in thought only by a man living in the forest.