Kanda 5

Prapathaka 1

Agnicayana (Śrauta) — the Soma-sacrifice expansion into the construction and consecration of the fire-altar (citi), especially the preliminary consecratory and ordering acts that establish the ritual space, fires, and the sacrificer’s sacral status for the altar-building sequence.

Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda, Kāṇḍa 5 Prapāṭhaka 1 inaugurates the Agnicayana complex by shifting from general Soma-sacrificial procedure to the specialized technology of altar-construction (citi) and its sacral prerequisites. The chapter frames the altar not as masonry alone but as a ritually generated body of Agni and a cosmogram in which meters, seasons, directions, and social/ritual roles are coordinated. Its mantras and prose formulae articulate (i) the establishment of controlled ritual space, (ii) the stabilization of fires and officiants, and (iii) the symbolic mapping of cosmic strata onto the forthcoming layers of the altar. The text’s characteristic Black-Yajurvedic style—interleaving yajus with brāhmaṇa-like explanations—emphasizes efficacy through correct sequencing, substitutions, and identifications (bandhu). Prapāṭhaka 5.1 thus functions as a programmatic threshold: it authorizes the transition into citi-operations by ritually ‘making ready’ Agni, the sacrificer, and the arena in which the altar will be generated as a microcosmic replication of the world-order.

11 anuvakas