Prapathaka 4

Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda 4.4 belongs to the Agnicayana complex, where liturgy, cosmology, and material construction are fused into a single sacramental technology. The chapter advances the consecration of the fire-altar through tightly sequenced yajus that “install” divinities into measured space: earth, directions, seasons, meters, and vital powers are ritually mapped onto bricks and layers. The text’s characteristic prose-yajus style functions as performative speech, converting clay, water, and fire into a living altar identified with Prajāpati and the year. Recurrent themes include protection (rakṣā), expansion (vṛddhi), and the stabilization of the sacrificer’s sovereignty through the altar’s correct geometry and deity-allocation. The chapter also illustrates the Brāhmaṇa-like hermeneutic embedded in the Saṃhitā: each placement is simultaneously a physical act and a cosmological reconstitution, ensuring that the sacrificer’s offering reaches the gods along a properly reassembled universe.