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(6) Prajapati(c Lord of creatures') bethought himself: 'Come, let me provide him a firm basis! J So he created woman. When he had created her, he revered her below. — Therefore one should revere woman below. — He stretched out for him- self that stone which projects. With that he impregnated her.

(6) Then he spreads apart her thighs, saying: ( Spread yourselves apart heaven and earth! ' Coming together with her and joining mouth with mouth, he strokes her three times as the hair lies, saying:— 'Let Vishnu make the womb prepared! Let Tvashtri shape the various forms! Prajapati — let him pour in! Let Dhatri place the germ for thee! O Simvali, give the germ; O give the germ, thou broad-tressed dame! Let the Twin Gods implace thy germ — The Asvins, crowned with lotus-wreaths!

(1) And she then bethought herself- ' How now does he copulate with me after he has produced me just from himself? Come, let me hide myself/ She became a cow. He became a bull. With her he did indeed copulate. Then cattle were born. She became a mare, he a stallion. She became a female ass, he a male ass; with her he copulated, of a truth. Thence were bom solid-hoofed animals. She became a she-goat, he a he-goat; she a ewe, he a ram. With her he did verily copulate. Therefrom were born goats and sheep. Thus, indeed, he created all, whatever pairs there are, even down to the ants.

(5) The threefold offspring- of Prajapati — gods, men, and devils (asura)— dwelt with their father Prajapati as students of sacred knowledge (brahviacarya). Having lived the life of a student of sacred knowledge, the gods said: ' Speak to us, Sir/ To them then he spoke this syllable, 'Da.' £ Did you understand? ' ' We did understand/ said they. ' You said to us? ct Restrain yourselves (damyata)? ' ' Yes (Om)! ' said he. « You did understand/

(6) When [the son] is born, he [i.e. the father] builds up a fire, places him on his lap, mingles ghee and coagulated milk in a metal dish, and makes an oblation, ladling out of the mingled ghee and coagulated rnilk, and saying: — The first quatrain occurs also at AV. 5. 25. 5; the second (with slight alterations) at AV. 5. 25.3. 'In this son may I be increased, And have a thousand in mine house! May nothing rob his retinue Of offspring or of animals! Hail! The vital* powers (prana) which are in me, my mind, I offer in you. Hail! What in this rite I overdid, Or what I have here scanty made — Let Agni, wise, the Prosperer, Make fit and good our sacrifice! Hail I'

(7) From him the many Devas too are begotten, the Sâdhyas (genii), men, cattle, birds, the up and down breathings, rice and corn (for sacrifices), penance, faith, truth, abstinence, and law.

(1) Verily, in the beginning this world was Brahma, It knew only itself (atmanam): is the source of Kshatrahood. Therefore, even if the king attains supremacy, he rests finally upon Brahmanhood as his own source, So whoever injures him [i.e. a Brahman] attacks his own source. He fares worse in proportion as he injures one who is better. is. He was not yet developed. He created the Vis (the commonalty),those kinds of gods that are mentioned in numbers: the Vasus, the Rudras, the Adityas, the Vi^vadevas, the Maruts.

(1) In the beginning this world was just the Self (Atman), one only. He wished; c Would that I had a wife; then I would procreate. Would that I had wealth; then I would offer sacrifice.' So great, indeed, is desire. Not even if one desired, would he get more than that. Therefore even today when one is lonely one wishes: ' Would that I had a wife, then I would procreate. Would that I had wealth, then I would offer sacrifice. So far as he does not obtain any one of these, he thinks that he is, assuredly, incomplete. Now his complete- ness is as follows: his mind truly is his self (dtmaii); his voice is his wife; his breath is his offspring; his eye is his worldly wealth, for with his eye he finds; his ear is his heavenly [wealth], for with his ear he hears it, his body (dtman\ indeed, is his work, for with his body he performs work. The sacrifice is fivefold. The sacrificial animal is fivefold. A person is fivefold. This whole world, whatever there is, is fivefold. He obtains this whole world who knows this.

(6) Then he comes to her and says: — ' This man (ama) am I; that woman (so), thou 1 That woman, thou; this man am I! I am the Saman; thou, the Rig! I am the heaven; thou^ the earth! Come, let us two together clasp!* Together let us semen mix, A male, a son for to procure! ' of barley or rice cooked with milk. RV. 10. 59.6; 10.167.3; VS 34-3,9; AV.i.iS.2; 5.7.4; gat. Br. 5. 2. 3.2, 4. Specifically invoked, as here, to favor procreation at AV. 6. 131. 2; 7. 2 (21). 2. In the ritual, associated with the day of the full moon, Ait. Br. 7. n. VS. 10. 2; 3at. Br. 5 3. 3 2; 13. 4. 2. 12, this epithet of Savitn is usually taken as from another */su, with the meaning { whose is true impelling.'

(6) Verily, he who knows procreation (prajatf) procreates himself with progeny and cattle. Semen, verily, is procreation. He procreates himself with progeny and cattle, who knows this. The contest of the bodily functions for superiority, and the supremacy of breath l

(1) Unto you (O Ahura and Asha!) the Soul of the Kine (our sacred herds and folk) cried aloud: For whom did ye create me, and by whom did ye fashion me? On me comes the assault of wrath, and of violent power, the blow of desolation, audacious insolence, and (thievish) might. None other pasture-giver have I than you, therefore do ye teach me good (tillage) for the fields (my only hope of welfare )!

(1) Then he rubbed thus. From his mouth as the fire-hole (yoni) and from his hands he created fire (agni}< Both these [i.e. the hands and the mouth] are hairless on the inside, for the fire-hole (yom) is hairless on the inside. This that people say, £ Worship this god! Worship that god!' — one god after another — this is his creation indeed! And he himself is all the gods. Now, whatever is moist, that he created from semen, and that is Soma. This whole world, verily, is just food and the eater of food. That was Brahma's super-creation: namely, that he created the gods, his superiors; likewise, that, being mortal, he created the immortals. Therefore was it a super-creation. Verily, he who knows this comes to be in that super-creation of his.

(7) Both of them first thought this, that one of them should please the other, as he is a man for him; and the first deed done by them was this, when they went out they washed themselves thoroughly; and the first words spoken by them were these, that Aûharmazd created the water and earth, plants and animals, the stars, moon, and sun, and all prosperity whose origin and effect are from the manifestation of righteousness.

(2) 'And through their satisfaction he (the sacrificer or eater) himself is satisfied with offspring, cattle, health, brightness, and Vedic splendour.

(1) He bethought himself: 'Verily, if I shall intend against him, I shall make the less food for myself.' With that speech, with that self he brought forth this whole world, whatsoever exists here: the Hymns (re) [i.e. the Rig- Veda], the Formulas (yajus) [i.e. the Yajur-Veda], the Chants (sdman) [i.e. the Sama-Veda], meters, sacrifices, men, cattle. Whatever he brought forth, that he began to eat. Verily, he eats ( Vad) everything: that is the adtti-oaiure of Aditi (the Infinite). He who knows thus the tf&fz-nature of Aditi, becomes an eater of everything here; everything becomes food for him.

(5) He said to him: 'No one but a true Brâhmana would thus speak out. Go and fetch fuel, friend, I shall initiate you. You have not swerved from the truth.' Having initiated him, he chose four hundred lean and weak cows, and said: 'Tend these, friend.' He drove them out and said to himself, 'I shall not return unless I bring back a thousand.' He dwelt a number of years (in the forest), and when the cows had become a thousand,

(4) f Let us hear what anybody may have told you/ [con- tinued Yajfiavalkya]. ' Udanka Saulbayana told me: "Brahma, verily, is the breath of life (prana)" ' As a man might say that he had a mother, that he had a father, that he had a teacher, so did that Saulbayana say, f< Brahma is the breath of life." For he might have thought, " What can one have who is without the breath of life? " But did he tell you Its seat and support? ' I He did not tell me. c Forsooth, your Majesty, that is a one-legged [Brahma].' c Verily, Yajfiavalkya, do you here tell us. should worship It as the dear (przya).' £The breath of life itself, your Majesty/ said he. c Verily, out of love for the breath of life, your Majesty, one has sacrifice offered for him for whom one should not offer sacrifice, one accepts from him from whom one should not accept. Out of love of just the breath of life, your Majesty, there arises fear of being killed wherever one goes. The highest Brahma, your Majesty, is in truth the breath of life. The breath of life leaves not him who, knowing this, worships it as such. All things run unto him. He, having become a god, goes even to the gods/ I 1 will give you a thousand cows with a bull as large as an elephant/ said Janaka, [king] of Videha. Yajnavalkya replied: c My father thought that without having instructed one should not accept/

(3) Pragâpati brooded on the worlds. From them, thus brooded on, the threefold knowledge (sacrifice) issued forth. He brooded on it, and from it, thus brooded on, issued the three syllables, Bhûh, Bhuvah, Svah.

(1) When the Father produced by intellect And austenty seven kinds of food, One of his [foods] was common to all, Of two he let the gods partake, Three he made for himself, One he bestowed upon the animals On this [food] everything depends, Both what breathes and what does not. How is it that these do not peiish When they are being eaten all the time He who knows this imperishableness— He eats food with his mouth (pratika), He goes to the gods, He lives on strength. Thus the verses.

(1) 'Therefore the first food which a man may take, is in the place of Homa. And he who offers that first oblation, should offer it to Prâna (up-breathing), saying Svâhâ. Then Prâna (up-breathing) is satisfied,