16. Bṛhát the stirring-stick, rathaṁtará the spoon.
The comm. paraphrases āyavana with udake prakṣiptānāṁ taṇḍulānām miçraṇasādhanaṁ kāṣṭham.
17. The seasons the cooks; they of the seasons kindle fire.
18. Heat (gharmá) burns upon the pot of five openings, the boiler (ukhá).
19. By the rice-dish of him who hath an offering (?) all worlds are to be obtained together.
The translation implies emendation of the unintelligible yajñavacás to yajñavatas, the Ppp. reading, as reported in the minor Pet. Lex. ⌊and Roth's notes⌋. The comm. explains the word as = yajñāir agniṣṭomādibhiḥ prāptavyatveno ’cyamānaḥ.
20. In which ⌊rice-dish⌋ are set (çritá), one below the other, the three, sea, sky, earth.
21. In the remnant (úchiṣṭa) of which took shape six times eighty gods.
The comm. paraphrases akalpanta by samarthā vīryavanto ‘bhavan.
22. Thee here I ask of the rice-dish, what is its great greatness.
23. He who may know the greatness of the rice-dish—
24. May not say "[it is] little," not "[it is] without onpouring," nor "[it is] this thing soever."
Upasecana is explained by the comm. as 'milk, butter, curd, or the like, that is poured on'—we might render by 'sauce.'
25. As much as the giver may set his mind upon, that one should not overbid (ati-vad).
26. The theologues (brahmavādín) say: hast thou eaten (pra-aç) the rice-dish as it was retiring (párāñc), or as it was coming on (pratyáñc)?
The pluta- or protracted syllables in this and the next verse are quoted in Prāt. i. 105, but nothing is said as to their accentuation, from which it seems most plausible to infer that the protraction made no difference in the accent; and though in the Brāhmaṇas a protracted syllable is always accented ⌊see Gram. §78 a⌋, that is not the invariable rule in the Vedic texts (thus, only once among the three instances occurring in RV.). Here the mss. are greatly at variance. ⌊SPP's V. (a then living çrotriya) read prā́çī́3ḥ; and by his ms. Dc the reading prā́çī́ḥ3 is given secunda manu. Among our mss., O.R.Kp. (and E.?) give prā́çī́ḥ3. SPP. reports that 16 of his authorities agree in giving pratyáñcā́3m; and (apart from the presence or position of the 3) this seems to be the reading of many of W's mss.⌋ SPP's text gives an accent to the protracted syllable in both cases in both vs. 26 and vs. 27.—⌊SPP's pada-reading in vs. 26 is prá: āçī́3ḥ, and in 27 it is prá: ā́çī́3ḥ. An accented ā́ in āçī́3ḥ would require pra॰ā́çī́3ḥ (cf. vs. 28); but one does not see why the ā should be accented.⌋
27. Hast thou eaten the rice-dish, or the rice-dish thee?
The mss. again disagree as to the accent of prāçī3s, the majority (including our Bp.P.M.) having prā́çī3s as odaná happens to have its natural accent on the final, there is no discordance as to odanā́3ḥ.
