Message-ID: <alpine.NEB.2.11.1503292237520.2646@panix5.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.wvu.edu>, Wryting-L <WRYTING-L@listserv.wvu.edu>
Subject: Measurement
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2015 22:39:51 -0400 (EDT)
Measurement "These measures are suitable for the post. One suitable form should he produce and make the post. They say, however, 'One should not measure the post; let it be unmeasured; the measured by the measured one wins; the unmeasured by the unmeasured; (therefore it serves) to win the incommensurable.'" (Kausitaki Brahmana, Adhyaya X 1) "Agni is the lowest of the gods; Visnu the highest; between them are all the other deities. A cake to Agni and Visnu on eleven potsherds they offer in connexion with the consecration; verily they offer it without omission to all the deities. All the deities are Agni; all the deities are Visnu; Agni and Visnu are the two terminal forms of the sacrifice. In that they offer the cake to Agni and Visnu, verily thus at the ends they prosper as regards the gods. They say 'In that the cake is on eleven potsherds, and Agni and Visnu are two, what is the arrangement here for the two, what the division?' That for Agni is on eight potsherds; the Gayatri has eight syllables; the metre of Agni is the Gayatri. That for Visnu is on three potsherds, for thrice did Visnu stride across this. This is the arrangement here for the two, this the division. (Aitareya Brahmana, Pancika I, Adhyaya I 1) trans. Arthur Berriedale Keith, Harvard Oriental Series, Vol. 25, Rigveda Brahmanas, Motilal Banarsidass reprint http://www.alansondheim.org/measured.jpg