History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c34.192
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c34.192
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The daily homa must be offered by the man himself and Dakṣa says that the merit secured by performing homa by one-self cannot be secured by getting it performed through another, but he adds that homa performed on one's behalf by a priest, by one's son, teacher, brother, sister's son, or son-in-law is equivalent to *homa* made by oneself.¹⁶³¹ We saw above (*n.* 1617) that the Āśv. gṛ. (I. 9. 1) allows the wife, a son, an unmarried daughter or a pupil of the householder to attend to the worship of the householder's gṛhya fire. Śāṅ. gṛ. II. 17. 3 is to the same effect. The Smṛtyarthasāra (p. 34) adds that the wife and the daughter should perform all the acts in homa except *paryukṣaṇa*. Āp. Dh. S. II. 6. 15. 15-16¹⁶³² and Manu XI. 36-37 lay down that the wife, an unmarried daughter, a young married daughter, one who has studied little, a stupid person, a diseased person or one whose upanayana has not been performed should not offer agnihotra (on behalf of the householder); if they do so, they and he both fall into hell; therefore the person to offer agnihotra for another should be one proficient in śrauta sacrifices and master of the Vedas. These passages have been explained by the Sm. C. (I. p. 161) and other writers as applicable to the performance of śrauta sacrifices only; while as regards the daily homa in the gṛhya fire the wife and others specified by Āśv. are held to be competent if the sacrificer is ill or has gone abroad. Haradatta (on Āśv. gṛ. I. 9.
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1-2) says that either the husband or the wife must always be near the gṛhya fire.¹⁶³³ Laghu-Āśvalāyana (I. 69) says that one who has kindled the gṛhya fire should not leave the boundary of his village without his wife, as the texts lay down that homa is to be performed in the place where the wife stays. A brāhmaṇa¹⁶³⁴ may go abroad on business, leaving his fire in charge of his wife and after appointing a priest; but he should not stay away long without cause. A priest should not offer homa on behalf of a householder, when both the spouses are absent, because such homa by him in the absence of both is useless.¹⁶³⁵ If an householder has several wives of the same caste or wives of different castes, the texts lay down who is to be associated with him in religious rites. These rules have already been set out above (pp. 559-60). 'When a householder's wife dies he should not give up his Vedic fires, but that (i. e. the Agnihotra) should be performed till one's life by means of an *upādhi* (i. e. by marrying another savarṇa wife or by associating with himself an asavarṇa wife)' says Gobhila smṛti¹⁶³⁶ III. 9. Gobhila then refers to the story of Rāma, who performed sacrifices with a golden image of his discarded wife Sītā kept by his side.
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In spite of Gobhila's dictum, allowing a golden image or a kuśa representative of an absent or dead wife, Aparārka condemns the practice as opposed to the rule laid down by Satyāṣāḍha in his śrauta sūtra ''there¹⁶³⁷ is no *pratinidhi* (representative or substitute) in the case of the owner (i. e. yajamāna), the wife, the son, the (proper) place and time (for an act), fire, the deity (to be invoked), of a rite and of a text (directed to be employed in a rite).' His argument is that the wife's co-operation is required in such actions as looking at the clarified butter, in unhusking grains &c. and as an image of kuśa or gold cannot perform these acts, the image cannot be employed in place of the wife. The Sm. C. replies to this argument by saying that the words of Satyāṣāḍha have reference only to a human substitute for a wife and that other smṛtis allow a substitute made of gold or kuśa. For example, Vṛddha-Hārīta¹⁶³⁸ expressly prescribes that a man may perform agnihotra and the offering of the five daily sacrifices throughout his life in the company of his wife's image made of kuśa grass (if the wife be dead &c.). If a person loses his wife or if he goes abroad or becomes *patita* his agnihotra may be continued by his son ¹⁶³⁹ (Atri, verse 108). The Ait. Br. (32. 8) also says that even one who has lost his wife (or who has no wife) should perform agnihotra, as the Veda orders a man to offer sacrifice.¹⁶⁴⁰