Camakam, anuvāka 9 — the fires, the horse-sacrifice, the Veda's own forms
The popular claimFire, the heated pot, the sun; earth, Aditi, Diti, sky; and then the ṛc, the sāman, the yajus, the vow.
The ninth anuvāka is the Camakam's turn from the equipment of the sacrifice to its forms — the fires, the great rites, the hymns and chants. It uses the verb kalpatām twice, at the two places it changes register.
The fires and the breath
Agniś ca me gharmaś ca me. — Fire, and the gharma. Gharma — the heated clay pot of the Pravargya rite, in which milk is boiled to the point of glowing and offered to the Aśvins; also heat itself.
Arkaś ca me sūryaś ca me. — The arka, and the sun. Arka — the ray, the hymn of praise, and the sun as what is praised; Sāyaṇa reads it as the fire of the Pravargya, or as the sun by another name.
Prāṇaś ca me'śvamedhaś ca me. — Breath, and the horse-sacrifice. Prāṇa — the life-breath — sits beside aśvamedha, the king's great rite, in one clause. The commentators read the pairing through the Bṛhadāraṇyaka's opening, where the sacrificial horse is the cosmos and its breath is the wind.
Earth, mothers, sky
Pṛthivī ca me'ditiś ca me ditiś ca me dyauś ca me. — Earth, and Aditi, and Diti, and sky. Aditi — the boundless, mother of the Ādityas, the gods; Diti — the bounded, mother of the Daityas, their rivals. The Camakam asks for both mothers. Earth and sky frame them.
The first "may they be fit"
Śakvarīr aṅgulayo diśaś ca me yajñena kalpantām. — The fingers as the śakvarī verses, and the directions — may they be made fit by the sacrifice. Śakvarī — a class of verses in a particular metre, and the name for the fingers when they are used in the rite to count and to gesture; aṅgulayaḥ — fingers. The sacrificer's own hands are asked to be fit, along with the directions they point in.
The Veda's forms
Ṛk ca me sāma ca me stomaś ca me yajuś ca me. — The ṛc, and the sāman, and the stoma, and the yajus. The three Vedas by their forms — the verse, the chant, the formula — and stoma, the arrangement of verses into a fixed number for chanting. This is the Yajurveda asking for the Ṛg and Sāma and itself.
Dīkṣā ca me tapaś ca ma ṛtuś ca me vrataṁ ca me. — Consecration, and austerity, and the season, and the vow. Dīkṣā — the sacrificer's initiation into the rite, with its fasting and silence; tapas — the heat of discipline; ṛtu — the right season for the rite; vrata — the vow undertaken for it.
The second "may they be fit"
Ahorātrayor vṛṣṭyā bṛhadrathantare ca me yajñena kalpetām. — By the rain of day and night, the Bṛhat and the Rathantara — may the two be made fit for me by the sacrifice. Ahorātra — day-and-night; vṛṣṭi — rain; Bṛhat and Rathantara — the two greatest sāmans, the chants sung at the midday pressing on alternate days, named as a pair in the dual, with the verb in the dual: kalpetām, may the two be fit. Sāyaṇa reads the rain as what the two chants bring.
What the ninth anuvāka is
After the cups and the ladles, the section that asks for what is sung and said. It places the fingers beside the metres, the breath beside the horse-sacrifice, Aditi beside Diti, and ends with the two great chants and rain. It is the anuvāka where the Camakam asks for the Veda — as a thing to be made fit, like grain or stone.
What this page does not say
It does not resolve arka, which the commentators read three ways, and it does not read the prāṇa–aśvamedha pair as more than the Upaniṣadic gloss offers. It opens the twenty-one items and marks the two verbs so that ṛk ca me sāma ca me is heard as what it is: the Yajurveda asking for its sisters.
Source — Taittiriya Samhita 4.7.9 (Camakam, ninth anuvaka), Krishna Yajurveda; Sayana's bhashya on the Taittiriya; the Pravargya and Ashvamedha sections of the Taittiriya for the terms; Bhattabhaskara's commentary on the Camakam
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