Dear Walter,

Thank you for the KGS excerpt. From the general tenor of the Hāyanasundara (which contains no other ritual references), though, I would be surprised if this udagagni turned out to refer to any sort of ritual fire. It is tempting to emend the text (I can think of several neat solutions), but all witnesses agree in reading codagagni-. All witnesses, that is, of the text quoting from the Hāyanasundara -- the only witness I have of the Hāyanasundara itself suggests a copyist having succumbed to the emendation urge and reads, unmetrically, caurāgne ripor api.

Robbers, fire, enemies, violence, evil passions, fever, and disorders of bile and blood are all typical astrological significations of an ill-placed Mars. The thunder and lightning mentioned in the present verse is unusual, though, and I wondered if perhaps udagagni could be some other natural phenomenon of this kind, but if so, I can't think what. (Northern lights would be neat, but for one thing you don't get them in India, and for another they're not dangerous.)

Cheers,
Martin

PS: I haven't forgotten about that Harṣa paper. Soon, I hope...

Den 2019-05-17 kl. 14:17, skrev Walter Slaje:

Dear Martin,

here is a reference to northern and southern fires in the context of wedding preparations. The fires are explained by Devapāla as non-sacrificial (laukika).

Kāṭhakagṛhyasūtra 19.3:

[...] vā dvāv agnī prajvālya dvau paśū upākaroty aryamṇe dakṣiṇaṃ, prājāpatyam uttaram ।

(Devapāla’s Bhāṣya)

[...] laukikau dvāv agnī prajvālya dvau paśū chāgau kanyāsaṃskārārtham upākuryāt । paśukalpavat । ekam aryamṇe dakṣiṇabhāgavartiny agnau, dvitīyaṃ prajāpataye uttaradigbhāgavartiny agnau [...]

(Quoted from Raik Strunz' forthcoming edition).

Best wishes,

Walter