The Sacred Books of the East (THE SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA, PART IV: BOOKS VIII, IX, AND X)

The present volume completes the exposition of the agnikayana or construction of sacred Fire-altar. Whilst to the general reader the section of the Brahmana treating of this ceremony and extending over no less than five of its fourteen Kandas or rather more than one third of the whole will probably appear the least inviting part of the work a special interest attaches to this ceremony and the dogmatic explanation of its details for the student of Indian antiquity. The complicated ritual of the Fire-alter as has been pointed out before does not seem to have formed part of the original sacrificial system but was probably developed independently of it.