Kanda XI, adhyaya 8, brahmana 1

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

1. Verily, even as this cart-wheel, or a potter's wheel, would creak^[1] if not steadied, so, indeed, were these worlds unfirm and unsteadied.

2. Prajāpati then bethought him, 'How may these worlds become firm and steadied?' By means of the mountains and rivers he stablished this (earth), by means of the birds and sun-motes^[2] the air, and by means of the clouds and stars the sky.

3. He then exclaimed, 'Wealth!'--now, wealth^[3] (mahas) means cattle, whence they (cattle) thrive (mahīyante^[4]) exceedingly in the homestead of one who possesses many of them; and this (Sacrificer), indeed, possesses many of them, and in his homestead they do thrive exceedingly. Wherefore, if people were either to forcibly drive him from his home, or to bid him go forth, let him, after performing the Agni-hotra, approach (the fires) saying, 'Wealth'; and he becomes firmly established by offspring and cattle, and is not deprived of his home.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Sāyaṇa apparently takes 'krand' in the sense of 'to shake, or wabble,'--'even as a cart-wheel or some other wheel, not standing on the ground for want of the wooden rest (ālambana-kāṣṭha,? axle-pin) or some other thing, would wabble (hvalet).' What Sāyaṇa means to say, probably, is that the verb used by the author expresses the effect of the action intended.

[2]:

Or, sun-beams (raśmi), as Sāyaṇa takes 'marīci'; cf. Weber, Ind. Stud. IX, p. 9, note.

[3]:

Or, joy;--cp. II, 3, 4, 25, which would seem to be the passage referred to in the present paragraph.

[4]:

Or, perhaps, 'they enjoy themselves, gambol,' as the St. Petersb. Dict. takes it. Differently, again, Sāyaṇa,--yata ebhiḥ paśubhir mahīyate (he thrives?), ata ete mahaḥ.