5. This (the hymns of this Sastra) as a whole (if properly counted with the Stobha syllables) comes to one thousand (of Brihati verses). That (thousand) is the whole, and ten, ten is called the whole. For number is such (measured by ten). Ten tens are a hundred, ten hundreds are a thousand, and that is the whole. These are the three metres (the tens, pervading everything). And this food also (the three sets of hymns being represented as food) is threefold, eating, drinking, and chewing. He obtains that food by those (three numbers, ten, hundred, and thousand, or by the three sets of eighty trikas).

Footnotes

^224:1 The uktha is to be conceived as prana, breath or life, and this prana was shown to be above the other powers (devatas), speech, hearing, seeing, mind. The uktha belongs to the Mahavrata day, and that is the most important day of the Soma sacrifice. The Soma sacrifice, lastly, is above all other sacrifices.

^224:2 All these are technicalities connected with the singing and reciting of the uktha. The commentator says: The stoma is a collection of single Rik verses occurring in the trikas which have to be sung. The Trivrit stoma, as explained in the Sama-brahmana, is as follows: There are three Suktas, each consisting of three verses, the first being upasmai gayata, S. V. Uttararkika I, 1, 1 = Rv. IX, 11. The Udgatri first sings the first three verses [*a]^224:a Hinkri with dative is explained as gai with accusative.

^226:1 The Samagas sing the Ragana at the Mahavrata, and in that Saman there are, as usual, five parts, the Prastava, Udgitha, pratihara, Upadrava, and Nidhana. The Prastotri, when singing the Prastava portions, sings them five times. The Udgatri and Pratihartri sing their portions, the Udgitha and Pratihara, five times. The Udgatri again sings the Upadrava five times. And all the Udgatris together sing the Nidhana five times.

^226:2 The Stobha syllables are syllables without any meaning, added when verses have to be sung, in order to have a support for the music. See Kh. Up. I, 13. In singing the five Samans, each five times, one thousand of such Stobha syllables are required.

^226:3 There are in the Nishkevalya hymn, which the Hotri has to recite, three sets of eighty trikas each. The first, consisting of Gayatris, begins with indro ya ogasa. The second, consisting of Brihatis, begins with ya kid anyad. The third, consisting of Ushnihs, begins with ya indra somapatama. These three sets form the food of the bird, as the emblem of the sastra. The hymns which precede these, form the body, head, and wings of the bird. This is one order. Then follow the three sets of eighty trikas each; and lastly, the fifth order, consisting of the hymns which form the belly and the legs of the bird.