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David M.

Knipe
ONE FIRE, THREE
FIRES, FIVE FIRES:
VEDIC SYMBOLS IN
TRANSITION
In the famous "five-fire doctrine" of Chandogya-upanisad 5,1
Gautama, the conservatively learned father whose son, Svetaketu,
the establishment graduate, has just been put down in the local
assembly for his inability to answer five far-out questions, hears
for the first time about the journey of the self (purusa) after death.
He discovers that the cosmos is really five great sacrificial fires in
which the gods make a series of offerings. The gods offer "faith" in
the "heaven" fire in order to produce soma, then soma in the
Parjanya fire to produce "rain," then rain in the "earth" fire to
produce "food," then food in the "man" fire to produce "semen,"
and finally semen in the "woman" fire to complete the journey
with a new embryo. This final ritual product, the garbha, will be
born some ten months later and, Gautama is informed, will live
until it makes its appointment with the (funeral) fire "from which
he came."2
Now the curious thing about this teaching of the divine ritual
production of a new being is the matter of five sacrificial fires. Why
An earlier version of this article was presented as a paper to the Asian Religio
ns'
section of the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in New York,
October 23, 1970.
* The following abbreviations will be employed for frequently cited Vedic texts:
AiB., Aitareya-brahmana; AV., Atharvaveda-samhita; BAU., Brhadaranyakaupaniaad; ChU., Chandogya-upanisad; KB., Kausltaki-brahmana; KS.,
Kathaka-samhita; MS., Maitrayanl^amhita; PB., Paficaviip&a-brahmana; RV.,
Rgveda-samhita; SB., Satapatha-brahmana; TB., Taittiriya-brahmana; TS.,
Taittirlya-saiphita; TU., Taittiriya-upanisad; and VS., Vajaaaneyi-sarphita.
2 ChU. 5.4-9. The five fires are loka, parjanya, prlhivi, purusa, and yosd. The
five offerings are sraddhd, soma, varsa, anna, and relas,
28
History of Religions
five, when the whole range of ancient Indian expressions demonstrates a predilection for triads modeled upon the triadic cosmos,
when the Vedic doctrine of sacrifice seems largely to be dependent
upon trivalent forms, and when the brahmanical system, ever
preoccupied with the creation of new beings from old and the
proper establishment of man in the universe, relies for its great
srauta ritual schema upon three fires that are at once the projection
of the sacrificer's single household fire, identical to his "self," and a
replication of the triadic cosmos, identical to his "Self-to-be"?
In fact, if we turn to the very next lesson of the Chandogya text,
we find the same Gautama, now transfigured to an articulate and
esoterically knowledgeable father-guru, categorically declaring
to Svetaketu an orthodox triad of elements as the essential basis of
all beings. Everything, insists ChU. 6.1-5, is of a threefold form
(rupa), although one in origin.
Does this suggest that the "five-fire doctrine" in ChU. 5 is a
unique statement, an innovation in upanisadic numerical symbolism ? On the contrary, pentadic expressions and systems are
present in most Vedic and upanisadic texts, if not equitably
distributed among them. The Taittkiy a-upanisad, for example,
propounds a different five-staged journey of the self after death.
On leaving this world, the selves (of man-)3 consisting of food,
breath, thought, knowledge, and bliss are attained in succession.4
Elsewhere (TU. 1.7), there is collected an aphoristic list of three

pentadic series each to explain the fivefold (pdnkta) nature of


material objects (adhibhutam) and of the self (dtman). First among
the ratter's three series is the well-known list of five vital breaths.
In another important upanisad, BAU. 1.4.17 declares "this
sacrifice is fivefold [pdnkta], the sacrificial animal is fivefold, a
person [purusa] is fivefold, all this world, whatever there is, is
fivefold. He who knows this, attains this."5 And Aitareyaupanisad 3.3 defines the dtman not only as Brahma, Prajapati,
Indra, and all the gods, but also as the five great elements
earth, air, space (dkaAa), water, and light.6
3 For the benefit of the general reader, plural inflections in one-word citation
s
such as this are replaced by a hyphen.
4 TU. 2.8, a prefiguration of the influential "five sheaths" {panca-kosa-) doctr
ine
of the Paingala-upanisad, Vedanta-sutras, etc. The series here is anna-, prdna-,
mano-, vijnana-, and dnanda-maya.
6 sa esa pdhkto yajnatt pdnktak pa&ufy pdnktak purusafy pdnktam idam sarvam yad
idam kim ca f tad idam sarvam apnoti ya evam veda.
6 .. . panca mahabhutdni prthivi vdyur dkdsa dpo jyotimsUy .... Prasnaupanisad 4.8 has tejag for jyotis, while TU. 2.1, which derives the five in succ
ession
from the dtman to make a fivefold purusa, has agni.
29
One Fire, Three Fires, Five Fires
Centuries earlier the brahmanas had made statements concerning
the "fivefold" (pahkta, pahcin, pancadhd, pancavidha, etc.) nature
of man (AiB. 2.15; PB. 14.5.26; etc.), his cosmic correspondences
(niddna-, bandhu-, sampad-, etc.) with the pentadic winds (vdta-),
vital breaths (prana-), regions or directions (did-), seasons (rtu-),
the sacrifice (yajna), meters or syllables (e.g., the pahkti meter), etc.,
on to the very five layers (dkatu-) or forms (rupa-) of the cosmos
itself. Although each brahmana reveals such expressions, it is
above all the Satapatha-brahmana, one-third of which is devoted
to the agnicayana (the ritual construction of and speculation
upon the five-layered fire altar), that is preoccupied with
pentavalent symbolisms. To this brahmana and its rites we shall
return.
Nor is there a lack of pentads in the samhitas. Cosmogony,
according to TS. 4.3.11.5? (and MS. 2.13.10;' KS. 39.10), was a
fivefold process. The sacrificer's part in the new-and-full-moon
rites (TS. 1.6.1.2; MS. 1.4.4; KS. 5.6) begins by establishing ghee
as the cosmic ground for the five winds, five seasons, five quarters,
five peoples, etc. Elsewhere, in the rites for renewing the sacred
fires, the sacrificer represents himself in five grain-cake offerings on
five potsherds, the sacrifice (yajha) itself being declared fivefold
(TS. 1.5.1-2; MS. 1.7.2-5; KS. 8.15; cf. Kapisthala 8.3-5), and on
the grandest of srauta scales, in the Taittiriya-samhita version as
in the Satapatha-brahmana, the agnicayana demonstrates the fivelayered macro-microcosmic correspondence. The Atharvaveda also
reveals a share of pentadic rites and speculations, as in the
combinations of five grain-cake offerings (on limbs and navel) of
the sacrificial goat (9.5) or white-footed sheep (3.29), or in speculations upon such divinities as the androgynous primordial being,
Viraj (8.10).
The Rgveda itself is more reluctant than the ritual texts to
reveal pentadic expressions, and those that occur, such as allusions
to the fivefold sacrifice (yajnam .. . pahcayamam) in 10.52.4 and
10.124.1, are characteristically susceptible to more than one
interpretation, lacking as they do the liturgical context and self-

analysis of many later texts. A mystical series of five (pahkti)


seems also to be indicated by 10.117.8. In 9.86.29 the five directions
(pradid-) are mentioned, and again obliquely in 2.13.10. The five
directions may be implied in the obscure verse 1.164.12. On the
other hand, some twenty-five references to the "five peoples" (or
7 paHcabhir dhata vi dadhdv idarn yaL
30
History of Religions
tribes, races, nations?) occur throughout the ten mandalas. Some
appear to indicate a mythical or historical set of five Aryan tribes
(Yadus, Turvasas, Druhyus, Anus, Purus), while other references
may be to mankind in general, located at the "five directions"
(cf. AV. 3.24.3).8
Thus, we see that the Chandogya five-fire doctrine, however
innovative for upanisadic prefigurations of samsdra, is by no
means a unique departure from orthodox tripartite man-firesacrifice-cosmos homologies, for it is precisely upon such a Refold
structure (pentavalent man, fire, sacrifice, cosmos) that the above
mystico-liturgical passages appear to center, from the samhitas to
the upanisads. This is important not only for our understanding of
Vedic rites and speculations, but also for making sense of the
significant legacy of pentadic symbols and expressions in early
Hinduism, in Buddhism, Jainism, Samkhya-Yoga, etc.9 Such later
8 See A. A. Macdonell and A. B. Keith, Vedic Index of Names and Subjects
(London: J. Murray, 1912), vol. I, s.v. tlpanca-jandh," for various opinions and
the
citations for the term and its counterparts, paiica hj-sfayah, panca ksitayab, p
anca
carsanyab, and panca mdnusdh.
9 Important series or groups of fives (pancavarga- or pancaka-) are everywhere,
but there is not space to discuss them here. Even the sacred texts themselves ma
y
be constructed pentadically, as in the case of the puranas with their traditiona
l
five topics. See also the pancasastras of the Vaisnavas, and especially the Pafi
caratra sect. Ritually speaking, there come first to mind the classical five dai
ly
sacrifices (pafica-yajfla- or mahdyajnci-) of orthoprax Hinduism. One of the fiv
e,
devayajOa {devapuja), has regional variants, such as pailcdyatanapuja, that
demonstrate the tenacity of the fivefold structure of man and sacrifice, althoug
h
pujd has long since replaced yajnct. Basic paiicdyatana to the five deities (Vis
nu
Siva, Brahma, or their counterparts, etc.) may be celebrated with the use of fiv
e
stones, five colors, five combinations of the deities in each of the five direct
ions,
etc. Then, too, there are the five ritual products of the cow (paiica-gavya), th
e five
foods of immortality (pancdmrta), the ritual use of the five jewels (panca-ratna
) or
five sacred leaves (panca-pallava), and occasionally the five-stranded bramanica
l
thread (parXca-vata) in place of the usual three-stranded one. Man's final sacri
fice
(antyespi) or funeral, as well as the later Srdddha-, involves symbols of five a
nd
reveals the fact that "death" itself is a literal return to "fiveness," that is,

a resumption of the preexistent fivefold space-time. The marriage samskdra also has a sh
are
of pentadic symbols, some regional variants including the ascension of a fivestepped platform. In Samkhya-Yoga and in the ascetic traditions, the five breath
s
have ritual significance as do the five heating fires {panca-tapas) of the ascet
ic.
There are also the famous five "M's" of tantric ritual (pancamalcdra). The meditational division of the syllable om into a, u, and m, plus the pair ndda and bi
ndu,
creates a familiar mystical series. Pentads also occur in Sikh rites, and techni
cally
the Ichdlsa is said to exist "where five are gathered," a conception found elsew
here
as well. In the context of myth and iconography, there are the five faces {pancd
nana) of Siva and Brahma in a type of orientation padcavarga with the fifth face
toward the zenith, the five eyes (panca-caksus) of the Buddha, who is also frequ
ently
depicted with five rays of light emanating from his head, and the five Pandava
brothers of the Mahabharata as an expressive pancavarga. Most important in
sectarian Hinduism are the explanations for the five-staged manifestations of
supreme being (e.g., the vyuha doctrine of the Pancaratras) or the five actions
(pancafcrtya) by which the sacred projects itself. Architecturally, there are
pancdyatana temples with four shrines surrounding a fifth central one. The divin
e
31
One Fire9 Three Fires, Five Fires
pancavarga- are, of course, no more remarkable in themselves than
the triads, tetrads, or heptads so frequently encountered in the
same schools or sects and their literatures. What should be noteworthy, however, are the principles that operate in the growth and
formation of these symbols and the religious statements and
notions they seek to convey. It is imperative for historians of
religion to review the Vedic substrata and perceive essential
religious structures and meanings, especially since large and fertile
areas of the Vedic corpus have lain fallow, neglected by hermeneutics, after a rough century's harvesting with the implements of
the textual critics.
THE IMAGERY OF "x PLUS ONE"
It is remarkable, considering our foregoing review, that the
Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics article on number symbolism
by Keith,10 who, along with his contemporary Caland, displayed
and/or brahmanical partition of the sacrificial body (animal, human, divine) int
o
five, as we have seen, is part of the background of upanisadic elaborations, and
these are continued with fivefold divisions of the subtle as well as the gross
elements, the organs of action and of sense (paHcendriya), the declaration of th
e
five colors (paHca-varna) corresponding to the five gross elements, and so forth
.
The five subtle elements (tanmdtra-) of the Samkhyan tradition (sdbda, spars'a,
rupa, rasa, and gandha) produce the five gross elements {mahabhuta-; see n. 6
above), while some Vedanta traditions explained the suksma-sdrira as a threefold
set of pentads {jnana-, karma-, and prana-) distinct from the ethuta-sarira's si
ngle
series of five bhuta-. Although the Buddhists did not include dkdsa among the
mahabhuta-, allowing but four, the five aggregates (skandha-) that make up what
the non-Buddhist calls the individual became a point of departure for every

school of metaphysics, demonstrating a clear continuity with Vedic cosmology


and ontology. We recall, too, that the Buddha passed through the five forms of
existence (apparently a parallel of the post-samhita paHca-jana-) and was theref
ore
Paneagatisamatikranta. There is also the lesser known Fivefold Path, the pancahgika-magga of the Pali texts. Pentads occur in the ethical texts as well, suc
h as
the paiica-Ma, the fundamental code of the Buddhists, and the five vows of the
Jains, both following the brahmanical pattern. At the monastic level the Buddha
also advised the proper use of the pafleabala, the five forces. The panca-mahdpd
taka,
the "five deadly sins" of the dharma-aastras (also known to the Buddhists), are
well known, and Manu discusses as well the five life-destructive kitchen implements, including fire, for which expiation must be made.
10 A. B. Keith, "Numbers (Aryan)," Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, ed.
J. Hastings (Edinburgh; T. & T. Clark, 1917), 9:407-13. Here he follows E. W.
Hopkins, "Numerical Formulae in the Veda and Their Bearing on Vedic Criticism,"
Journal of the American Oriental Society 16 (1896):27581, which also omits five.
At the other end of the Indian chronology, the chapter on "The Power of Numbers"
in J. Abbott, The Keys of Power: A Study of Indian Ritual and Belief (London:
Methuen, 1932), pp. 284-309, assembled a great deal of information on contemporary Hindu, Muslim, and assorted village and regional beliefs and practices
concerning "five," but made no attempt to connect them with anything beyond
current popular articulation. See also Abbott's Appendix E, "The Power of the
Cardinal Points," ibid., pp. 528-29. E. Polome, in his brief remarks on "The Ind
oEuropean Numeral for 'five* and Hittite panku- 'all,*" in Pratiddnam, ed. J. C.
Heesterman et al. (The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1968), pp. 98-101, discusses the
hand with its five fingers as the basis for the proto-Lido-European systom of
32
History of Religions
the greatest acumen of any Western scholar in the full literary
expanse of sruti, discusses "three" and "seven" at length but
ignores "five" entirely. Oldenberg's sections on "die Zahlen"11
and "das eine und die drei Opferfeuer"12 are of little use where
understanding five is concerned, and the same is true of the works
of Hillebrandt and MacdoneU. And Eggeling's twenty years of
labor on the Satapatha-brahmana translation, with its lengthy
introductions and notes, left the basic pentadic symbolism of the
agnicayana for the probing of others.13 Actually, we must go back
to Bergaigne's "Farithmetique mythologique"14 for some fundamental insights into the Vedic world view. Despite his preoccupation with a few favored themes, including a stringent imposition
of the characters of Agni and Soma and a male-female dichotomy
upon the Vedic ideology, and his focus upon the Rgveda in
splendid isolation from its ritual and speculative textual colleagues, Bergaigne's great effort deserves far more attention
than it has received. In general, Bergaigne was the first to articulate clearly and comprehensively the Vedic doctrine of cosmic
correspondences. In particular, two of his insights concern us
herefirst, the formation of sacred numbers by a principle that we
shall label "x plus one":
Plusieurs des nombres mythologiques du Rg-Veda paraissent s'etre formes
par addition d'une unite* a un nombre deja consacre, ou sont du moins, ce
qui revient au meme pour 1'etude des conceptions religieuses des Rishis,
decomposes dans certains passages en deux parties, dont Tune est un
nombre consacre et l'autre Funite.16
And second, his understanding of Vedic man's quest for cosmic
orientation and an interpretation of the correspondences that the
numeration and offers parallels in Bantu and Nama, the latter a Hottentot

language in which the numeral "five" is also the word for "whole." Sanskrit
paUca does not enter his discussion, but he does relate Hittite panku, "all, who
le,"
originally an adjective and often used substantively to express "totality." I am
indebted to Alfred Hiltebeitel for bringing this article to my attention.
11 H. Oldenberg, Vorwissenschaftlicke Wissenschajt: Die Weltanschauung der
Brahmana-Ttxte (Gottingcn: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1919), pp. 46-50.
12 H. Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, 4th ed. (Stuttgart: J. G. Cotta'sche,
1923), pp. 346-51.
13 Including P. Mus's remarks in the preface and elsewhere in his Barabudur
(Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1935).
14 A. Bergaigne, La religion vedigue d'apris les hymnes du Rig- Veda (Paris:
F. Vieweg, 1883), 2:114-56.
15 Ibid., p. 123. Among the familiar examples of the extension of the principle
into the brahmanas are the numbers thirteen (twelve plus one), as with the
thirteenth month being the "total" year (&B-); seventeen (sixteen plus one), the
sacred totality that is Prajapati (KB.); twenty-five (twenty-four plus one), as
with the transcendent half-month that again comprises a new, complete year.
33
One Fire, Three Fires, Five Fires
Rgveda establishes between the five directions and the "five
races."16
Among the few who have appreciated and utilized Bergaigne's
contributions at these points have been the prolific Vedic scholars
in the Netherlands, the successors to Caland.17 In his "Excursus on
the Symbolism of Numbers" it is Heesterman who ventures to say
that numbers are "neutral" and "have no specific value in themselves. ... As a number is in itself neutral, the size of the number
is irrelevant."18 Although his point is clear, that the formation of a
number (i.e., x plus one equals totality) is of greater significance
than its size, I beg to differ on the matter of neutrality. It is
apparent that a Vedic delight in numerical symbolism and the
doctrine of homologies combine to assure an incredible fluidity in
the application of numerology within the rites and speculations.
One need only consult the "offerings to the numbers" utilized in the
aSvamedha (TS. 7.2.11-20), where numbers from one to 100 and
1,000 to "ten hundred thousand million," with only moderate
omissions, are praised. But if all numbers are (neutrally) equal,
some are decidedly more "equal" than others. There is little doubt
that three, four, and five have priority in Vedic texts. It is the
point of our essay here that the major religious expressions of the
Vedic texts reveal these basic triads, tetrads, and pentads precisely
because they declare the ontology and cosmic orientations of
Vedic man. It is readily apparent that specific numbers have
special mythico-ritual spheres of influence; for example, Visnu
admits a mystical relationship to the series three, and the number
seventeen is the nearly private domain of Prajapati. "Die Zahlenreihe," as Oldenberg expressed it, "wurde als ein brdhman (heilige
Formel) geehrt." But we must also recognize that the series most
frequently resorted to in Vedic expression, the dyads through the
pentads and septads, have deliberately private experiences to
reveal. They are there because they are departures from unity,
16 Ibid., pp. 125-27, 129 ff.
17 See, for example, G. J. Held, The Mahdbharata: An Ethnological Study
(London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1935), pp. 123 ff.; J. C. Heesterman, The
Ancient Indian Royal Consecration (The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1957), pp. 34-39,
176-77; F. B. J. Kuiper, "The Three Strides of Visnu,*' in Indological Studies i
n
Honor of W. Norman Brown, ed. E. Bender (New Haven, Conn.: American
Oriental Society, 1962), pp. 137-51; J. A. B. van Buitenen, The Maitrdyaniya

Upanisad: A Critical Essay, with Text, Translation and Commentary (The Hague:
Mouton & Co., 1962), and "The Large Atman," History of Religions 4 (1964):
103-14; J. Gonda, "The Number Sixteen," in Change and Continuity in Indian
Religion (The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1965), pp. 115-30, and The Savayajnas,
Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afd.
Letterkund, N.R. 71 (Amsterdam, 1965): 130-31, 240, and passim.
18 Heesterman, pp. 3435.
34
History of Religions
each in a special mode, and Indian expressions are a constant
reminder that this should be so.
It is our contention here that each of the basic triadic, tetradic,
and pentadic series makes a unique statement, still discernible
within the convolutions and contradictions of the texts. "Three" is
the vertical cosmos, the cosmos envisioned in elevation, reaching as
it does to the third and highest world; "four" is the horizontal
cosmos, the cosmos in plan, stretching to the four points of space;
and "five" is quite simply both at once and therefore the most
complete expression of all, one that provides transcendent closure
to the world view. The facility of five lies in this expansion and
comprehension: at its center it expands the verticality of the triad,
and by the very declaration of a protected and integrated center,
a navel (nabhi, a cynosure that four, reaching outward, cannot
precisely disclose), it surpasses the orientational values of the
tetrad. If the religious statement of three is ascension, and of four
orientation, then the true expression of five is, as we shall see,
orientation for ascension. The center of five then is in communication, and therefore correspondence (bandhu), with all three worlds
and all four quarters. At such a point of comprehension, no further
homology can be allowed.
Satapatha-brahmana 1.5.4.6-16 relates a myth to seize this
point exactly. The devas and asuras became engaged in a verbal
contest, having previously failed to decide a physical one, and the
competition took the form of matching numerical pairs. Indra,
gamesman for the gods, said eka, "one" (masculine), and the
asuras matched it with eka, "one" (feminine). Indra said dvau,
"two" (masculine), and the asuras doggedly countered with dve,
"two" (feminine). The match continued through "threes" and
"fours" until the moment when Indra uttered panca, "five"
(masculine and feminine), and the asuras, helpless without a
correspondent to panca, were forced to surrender.
TRANSCENDENCE OR SUBORDINATION
Three is of course the dyad plus one and, therefore, a totality
succeeding duality. "Wide-striding" Visnu's third step, after he
ranges from earth to heaven, is one into the zenith, into the total
mystery, the unitive source that lies beyond the pale of human
perception (RV. 1.155.5; 7.99.1).19 But it is also mythically true
19 See Kuiper, pp. 139-40, and, in the same volume, S. Kramrisch, "Two; Its
Significance in the Rgveda," pp. 109-36. On the "primordial totality" see also
M. Eliade, Mephistopheles and the Androgyne (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1966),
pp. 114^17.
36
One Fire, Three Fires, Five Fires
that, after That One (tadekam) became two, heaven and earth, there
occurred between this pair that was no longer one, between the
heaven that was "propped up" and the earth that was "spread
out," the mid-space, the atmosphere (antariksa). Now antariksa
can scarcely be a "totality" that encompasses, succeeds, and completes the duality of heaven and earth, in the same manner as
Visnu's third invisible stride. It is a gap, an interstice, a breathing

space. There is then perhaps another dimension to consider in "x


plus one," that is, "x plus a subordinate or interstitial one" as
well as "x plus a transcendent one."
If we look to "four," the number that completes the triad as well
as the number of primary orientation to the quarters of the earth,
it is remarkable to see how this bifurcation took effect. The
addition of a subordinate fourth to a cosmic triad is easily illustrated. In various discussions of cosmogony, Vac, Purusa, and
brahman, the absolute creative power, are all hidden triads that
have, in creation, extended themselves by a "manifest" fourth
without disturbing their primordial integrity. In RV. 1.164.45, Vac
has three parts that are hidden (guhd), while a fourth (turiya),
obviously debased, is human speech. Similarly, in the cosmogonic
Purusasukta (RV. 10.90), only a fourth of Purusa's real extent is
manifest. In that manifestation, the upper three parts of the
primordial sacrifice victim, the mouth, arms, and loins that produce the upper three varna-, are augmented by a diminutive
fourth, the feet that are the source of the lowly s'udra class.20
With this model, we can see other vulnerable tetrads, that is to say,
significant Vedic or Hindu series of fours that reveal an essential
triad complemented by a subordinate fourth. For example, the
classical set of "four vedas" is really an artificial construction by
those who appended the Atharvaveda-samhita to an existing
triadic canon.
The transcendent or unmanifest fourth, on the other hand, is
illustrated in Vedic ritual by the role of the brahman, the fourth
mahartvij whose supervisory capacity demonstrates his summation
of and superiority over the other three, the hotr, adhvaryu, and
udgdtr, just as brahman summarizes and surpasses the re-, yajus-,
and sdman-. Later, in the set of dirama-, the samnydsin displays
such a transcendent role in a (fourth) stage of life that is literally a
20 TS. 7.1.1.4-6 and TB. 6.1.6-11 provide illustrations of the incompleteness of
such a fourth. Matching the three upper parts of the god and the three upper soc
ial
classes of men are three deities (Agni, Indra, and Visve Devah) and (in TB.) thr
ee
seasons (spring, summer, and rains). But the feet/swdra varna have no deity and
no
season.
36
History of Religions
return to the unmanifest, to the invisibility that lies beyond the
brahmacdrin, the grhastha, and the vanaprastha. So, too, in the
Hindu caturvarga, moksa is the transcendent aim over and above
the trivarga, the three aims of life (icama, artha, dharma). And
turiya is well known, with no further definition, as "the fourth
(state)" of the yogin who attains total reintegration and the
transcendence of conscious states.21
Turning again to "five," it is apparent that many of the pentads
we reviewed above are also vulnerable in that an essential tripartition is barely concealed within them. This means that, in
addition to being the figure of terrestrial orientation par excellence
a tetrad plus the completing, centering fifthfive can also be a
formation of (1) an extended triad, either (a) three plus a transcendent pair or (6) three plus a subordinate pair, or (2) an expanded
triad, three opened up to include two insertions. We have already
witnessed with our point of departure in the ChU. five-fire doctrine,
such a pentad constructed by extending an accepted triad: in that
case, a subordinate pair of divine "fires," man and woman, were
appended below the triad of cosmic fires, heaven-atmosphere (in

the guise of "Parjanya")-earth. The common series of five seasons


may also reveal such a reduction to an essential triad (spring,
summer, and autumn or rains) with a subjacent pair.22 On the
other hand, the triad with a transcendent pair is illustrated in the
psycho-physical series of the five "sheaths" or fcosa- (n. 4 above),
in which, taking the TU. 2.8 listing, vijudna-maya and anandaraaya surmount the anna-maya, prdna-maya, raano-maya series.23
21 See also van Buitenen, "Large Atman," p. Ill, on rnahaa as the transcendent
fourth beyond the vydhfti-, the three great ritual utterances (bhur, bhuvas, and
suvas), and for other upanisadic tetrads from TU. 1.5.14. See also G. Tucci, The
Theory and Practice of the Mandcda (London: Rider, 1961), p. 117, for parallels
of
Vac as the fourth sound beyond the vydhrti-; brdhman as the macrocosmic fourth
beyond earth, atmosphere, and heaven; brahmarandhra as the microcosmic fourth
beyond sexual organs, heart, and brain; and turiya as the psychical fourth beyon
d
jdgrat, svapna, and susupti.
22 Again, as in the example in n. 20 above, illustrations occur with comparative
hierarchies for guidelines; e.g., Bharadvaja-srauta-sutra 5.2 gives the seasons
when members of the varrta- should set up their srauta fires. After the brahmana
,
rajanya, and vaisya classes are assigned, respectively, the spring, summer (or
winter), and autumn, the next two, rathakdra in the rains and "all varna-'y in t
he
cool season (siHra), seem to be artificially tacked on. Bauomayana-dharma-sutra
2.18.8 declares the correspondence between the five breaths and the five ritual
fires, both within the sacrificer's own body: prana, apdna, and vydna and gdrhap
atya,
daksindgni, and dhavaniya are the two essentially correlative triads, appended b
y
uddnalsabhya fire and samdnafdvasathya fire. One notes that traditional prioriti
es
have been changed, as prarta, the supreme breath, is not here assigned to the ea
st,
the supreme quarter and the locale of the offering fire.
23 Another type of "extension" may also be considered. In a communication to
me on this subject, Alex Wayman, of Columbia University, has pointed out that
the five Buddhist ekandha- can be seen as a triad {vedand, samjfla, and samskdra
)
with extensions at each end (rupa and vijndna).
37
One Fire, Three Fires, Five Fires
The third type of hidden triad, and the one that best illustrates the
expansive character of the pentad when employed as a kind of
axis mundi linking the lowest and highest modes of being, can be
seen in the five elements themselves (n. 6 above). We see again, in
the order in which they occur in Aitareya-upanisad 3.3, the earthafco^a-heaven (jyotis, "light") triad, this time spaced out to allow
vdyu ("wind" or "air") and dpas ("water") in the second and
fourth "levels," respectively.
FIVE IS THREE IS ONE
It is in the clarity, growth, and continuity of the doctrine of
sacrifice that we may best perceive the meaning of this "spacedout" pentadic stepladder to the beyond. The mysterious five steps
(panca paddni) upward from the navel of rta are in the primary
Vedas already a subject of speculative contrast with the three
steps (trinipaddni) upward (cf. RV. 10.13.3; AV. 18.3.40; 2.1.2; VS.
32.9). Persistently, the major sWauta rites maintain the visibility of
the essential triadic skeleton: Agni is threefold (RV. 3.20.2) and
has three sacred locations (RV. 2.36.4). Since man is "in yajna-

bandhu" with Agni (RV. 4.1.9), man is also tripartite fire. In


setting out his sacrificial fires (the agnyddhdna), he simultaneously
represents Agni, the triadic cosmos, the three classes of men, and
his own sacrifice-self. The domestic fire (gdrhapatya) is the earth;
the prophylatic fire (daksindgni) is atmosphere, mid-space; the
offering fire (dhavaniya) is heaven (cf. SB. 12.4.1.3). At the same
time, the fivefold structure of the agnyddhdna is underscored (SB.
2.1.1.2), including the five ingredients and the fivefold nature of the
attendant animal sacrifice (as in AV., above). The animal victim,
like the sacrificer, Vedic man himself, is "heaven bound" (svar-ga).
A long Atharvaveda-samhita hymn (9.5) stresses this ascension
theme of the triad with the sacrifice of a goat and five rice offerings.
The goat, too, is a tripartite body, his breast, his innards, and his
back corresponding to earth, mid-space, and heaven, and all three
being "fire." At the same time, the victim is declared "fivefold"
and an integrator of the quarters. And the goat, as sacrifice-being,
as unity, represents the sacrificer.
Most expressive of all the rites that display this unity in trinity
in fivefoldness is the agnicayana, the ceremonial reconstitution in
five sections (in plan)24 and five layers (in elevation) of Agni24 Again, as in the Atharvavedic goat sacrifice or the agnyddhdna, the design of
orientation for ascension is prominent. The sacrifice victim is laid out in plan
with
a navel (ndbhi) or central body (dtman) surrounded by an oriented tetrad of a
head, two limbs or "wings," and a tail, the assembled fire altar thus permitting
the
38
History of Religions
Prajapati, the cosmic Person who once projected (dismembered)
himself into being. "If Agni is one (sacrificial brick, istakd, or
course of bricks), how does it happen that he is five (bricks,
courses)?" asks SB. 6.1.2.30, and it is the task of the agnirahasya,
the mystery of the fire altar, to explain such correspondence. The
five layers are in SB. 6.1.2.31 declared as earth, animal, gold ( =
sun, in mid-space), wood, food ( = soma, in heaven). Thus, the
"animal" and "plant" layers have become interstices expanding
the triad. The skeletal nature of courses one, three, and five is
reinforced by the references to "naturally perforated" bricks.
These svayamdtrnnd- are placed at the center of three of the five
layers in order to allow the sacrifice person "to breathe" and also,
according to TS. 5.2.8.1, to permit the sight of heaven. The
implication is that layers two and four are ephemeral stuff,
interfering with neither breathing nor sighting through. The construction, its symbolic declarations, and its skeleton of the normal
three-fire system and three-leveled cosmos appear in figure 1.
Taittiriya-samhita 4.1.2 concerns itself with the search for
Agni25 in preparation for the agnicayana and affords a variation in
3 Offering fire HEAVEN
-r
2 Southern fire ATMOSPHERE
T""1
c
1 Domestic fire
EARTH
5 Soma
(food)
] 4 Plant (wood)
3 Sun
(gold)
2 Animal
1 Earth
Fjg. I
anthropomorph-bird (syena, the eagle who flies to and from heaven) homology to

be declared. For the continuation of this speculation on the pentadic purusavidh


afy
in the upanisads (TTJ. 2.2; Maitrayaniya-upanisad 6.33; cf. ChU. 4.11-13), see
van Buitenen, Maitrayanxya Upanisad, pp. 29-33, 65, passim. For example, the
prefiguration of the pancakosa- series in the TU. is paralleled in the Maitrayan
iyaupanisad: a vertical triad is extended from its pentadically defined base into a
vertical pentad by the addition of the transcendent pair (4) atmavid and (5)
brahman, equivalent to (4) vijhanamaya cUman and (6) anandamaya dtman, respectively, of the TU. series. This speculation appears in a part of the Maitrayaniy
aupanisad understood by van Buitenen to be older than the TU., although still
derivative from such SB. expressions as that of 10.5.4.3, where the triad of wor
lds
becomes a pentad by the addition of a transcendent pair of citi-.
25 One of the more intriguing but unstudied motifs in Vedic myth-ritual is that
of the "earth diver," particularly in connection with the search for Agni. Zoological figures (ant, boar, tortoise, rat, mole, crab, goat, antelope, etc.) and
botanical
symbols (soma, soma substitutes, lotus) form a cosmogonic complex that explains
the findings of a micropresence and from it the establishment of a foundation
(pratisphd) of earth upon the primeval waters.
39
One Fire, Three Fires, Five Fires
this pentadic tower, with water in the atmospheric (third) level
and gold in the second level. In order, from the bottom up, the
layers are established on a lotus leaf "afloat" on a black antelope
skin: earth (clay from an anthill), gold, water, plants, and food.
Still another variant of this ritual collection of layers is that of
the sutras which set out the details of the pravargya. If we are
meant here to understand a hidden correspondence between gold
and the earth procured from an anthill (the classical nuggets
mined by ant miners ?), we have the following pentad: earth (clay
dug up by a boar), gold (anthill earth), plants (pMika, a soma
substitute), animal (hairs from a goat or black antelope), and food
(goat's milk).26 These five substances are the components of the
clay that is ritually lumped together to form three balls and,
consequently, the iconic mahdvira figure. The mahavira pot, with
its head, trunk, and loins modeled from the three clay balls, is an
anthropomorphic, trileveled cosmos. His creation, then, if our
analysis of the five substances in series is not mistaken, is parallel to
the reconstitution of Agni-Prajapati; it is an assembly of five to
make three to make one.27
26 Apastamba-srautaautra 15.1.8-14 (see J. A. B. van Buitenen, The Pravargya:
An Ancient Indian Iconic Ritual Described and Annotated [Poona: Decean College,
1968}, pp. 56-57) actually specifies only the first four of these ingredients. B
ut
Baudhayana, Manava, and Katyayana all supply goat's milk; for Baudhayana the
milk is the fifth ingredient and is addressed when placed as "the seed of Prajap
ati."
27 We have made no mention of pentadic symbols older than the Rgvedic
expressions. There is little to suggest proto-Indo-European substrata. Astonishingly, however, the Avesta, while in general displaying far less interest than t
he
Rgveda in pentadic expressions, does suddenly deliver in the midst of all the
favored triadic formulas a precise cosmogonic speculation based upon a hierarchy
of five fires! This occurrence creates an intriguing problem, since we have note
d
that Vedic and then Hindu myths, rites, and speculations develop an increasing
proliferation of fivefold symbols while holding onto the preeminent triadic and

unitive structures. Yasna 17.1-10 (cf. the further elaboration in the Pahlavi
Bundahisn 18) opens with a standard invocation of Fire, d^ar, the son of Ahura
Mazda, then continues with the praise of the fires torozi&avah, vohufrydna,
urvaziSta, vdziSta, and spSniSta. Respectively, these are the fire that is befor
e the
Lord, i.e., in heaven; the fire in the bodies of men and animals; the fire in tr
ees and
plants; the fire of lightning in the clouds, the fire that strikes the demon spd
njagrya
who hinders rainfall (cf. Videvdat 19.135); and the fire that works on earth. It
requires no stretch of the imagination to see that we have here the five ingredi
ents
collected in the cosmogonic search for Agni in TS. 4.1.2 and the same pentadic
series, with parts rearranged, that we discussed in the agnicayana and the prava
rgya
myth-rites. The SB. pattern assigns gold (the sun) as the representative of the
atmospheric mid-space, while in the Yasna it is the rain clouds, the atmospheric
waters:
3. Heaven
bzrozisavah
5. Heave
n
urvaziSta
4. Plants
2. Atmosphere
vdziSta
3. Water
vohufrydna
2. Animals
1. Earth
spsniSta
1. Ea
rth
Thus, the statement here, unlike that well-known hierarchy of the amoSa sp9nta(in which fire is specifically in correspondence with asa, cosmic order, truth,
and
40
History of Religions
Again, to return to the Satapatha-brahmana and the agnicayana,
the former attempts to reconcile the hidden triad by declaring
that "they [the three parts of Agni] become five through the
correspondences [te panca sampadd bhamnti...]" (6.3.1.25). The
great rite dissolves then into a recognition that the "search" for
Agni, the "collecting" and reassembly of Agni (and the sacrificer
and the cosmos), amounts to an affirmation of his very presence
in every element. To realize his unity, the five seasons (time), the
five regions (space), the five victims (mankind), the five breaths,
the five elements, and the five bodily parts all were collected to
establish the one great fire signaling a return to the mystery of
unmanifest being. The sacrificer then has become one fire (Agni),
returned from his nature as Visnu with one body in three places
(VS. 23.50) and from his nature as Purusa with one spirit in five
places (VS. 23.52; cf. SB. 13.5.2.11 fF.). He has collected and controlled and transcended the fivefoldness, and there is no death for
him whose body is made of the one fire of yoga.28
justice), is that fire is in all the cosmic elements. This is precisely the Vedi
c statement regarding Agni. There is not space here to discuss other important dimensions such as the Iranian correspondence of three hierarchical fires and social
classes, with a highest "king of fires" that could be seen as transcendent fourt
h, or
the myth-ritual collecting of sixteen (or seventeen) fires, a drama as complicat
ed as
the agnicayana itself. See chap. 2 of my Tapas and Correspondence: The Religious
Significance of Heat in Ancient India (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1971;
University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Mich.).
28 Svetaivatara-upanisad 2.12: prthvyapyatejo'nilakhe eamutthite pancdtmake
yoga-gune pravrtte / na tasya rogo na jard na mrtyuh prdptasya yogagni-inayam

4artram,
41

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