Aitareya-Aranyaka: First Aranyaka, Fourth Adhyâya, Second Khanda

1. Next follows the right wing. It is this world (the earth), it is this Agni, it is speech, it is the Rathantara, it is Vasishtha, it is a hundred. These are the six powers (of the right wing). The Sampâta hymn (Rv. IV, 20) serves indeed for obtaining desires and for firmness. The Pankti verse (Rv. I, 80, 1) serves for proper food.

2. Next comes the Sûdadohas verse. Sûdadohas is breath, thereby he joins all joints with breath.

3. Next follows the left wing. It is that world (heaven), it is that sun, it is mind, it is the Brihat, it is Bharadvâga, it is a hundred. These are the six powers (of the left wing). The Sampâta hymn (Rv. IV, 23) serves indeed for obtaining desires and for firmness. The Pankti verse (Rv. I, 81, 1) serves for proper food.

4. These two (the right and the left wings) are deficient and excessive. The Brihat (the left wing) is man, the Rathantara (the right wing) is woman. The excess belongs to the man, the deficiency to the woman. Therefore they are deficient and excessive.

5. Now the left wing of a bird is verily by one feather better, therefore the left wing is larger by one verse.

6. Next comes the Sûdadohas verse. Sûdadohas is breath, and thereby he joins all joints with breath.

7. Next follows the tail. They are twenty-one Dvipada verses. For there are twenty-one backward feathers in a bird.

8. Then the Ekavimsa is the support of all Stomas, and the tail the support of all birds.

9. He recites a twenty-second verse. This is made the form of two supports. Therefore all birds support themselves on their tail, and having supported themselves on their tail, they fly up. For the tail is a support.

10. He (the bird and the hymn) is supported by two decades which are Virâg. The man (the sacrificer) is supported by the two Dvipadas, the twenty-first and twenty-second. That which forms the bird serves for the attainment of all desires; that which forms the man, serves for his happiness, glory, proper food, and honour.

11. Next comes a Sûdadohas verse, then a Dhayya, then a Sûdadohas verse. The Sûdadohas is a man, the Dhayya a woman, therefore he recites the Dhayya as embraced on both sides by the Sûdadohas. Therefore does the seed of both, when it is effused, obtain oneness, and this with regard to the woman only. Hence birth takes place in and from the woman. Therefore he recites that Dhayya in that place.