History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c34.168

v2.c34.168

The three fires (often called Tretā) are the Āhavanīya, Gārhapatya and Dakṣiṇāgni. The Āhavanīya fire-place is a square, Gārhapatya is round (as the earth is round) and Dakṣiṇāgni is in the form of half the orb of the moon (vide Vṛddha-Gautama p. 604, Jīvānanda). In the Brāhmaṇas and Śrautasūtras elaborate discussions are held about the kindling of fires (agnyādhāna), about the several sacrifices and the various details connected therewith. It has been decided, in view of the vastness of the subject of śrauta rites and the academic nature for modern times of the treatment of most of those rites, to pass them over in this work and to give in a separate chapter at the end of this volume only some information about the śrauta sacrifices. For about two thousand years hardly any animal or soma sacrifices have been performed (except rarely by kings, nobles and rich people). In medieval times there were many brāhmaṇas who performed the New and Full moon sacrifices, the Āgrayaṇa iṣṭi and the Cāturmāsyas. But in modern times even such agnihotrins have become very rare and in certain parts of India one can hardly find a single agnihotrin keeping śrauta fires even among thousands of brāhmaṇas.