History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c47.s2.1
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c47.s2.1
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v3.c47.s2.1.1
According to Gau. VIII. 20 there are seven forms of haviryajñas of which agnihotra is the second. From the evening of the day of agnyādheya the house-holder has to perform agnihotra²²⁵⁷ (burnt offering of cow's milk &c.) twice daily in the evening and morning to the end of his life or till he becomes a saṁnyāsin, or as the Śat. Br. (XII. 4. 1. 1) says 'Those who offer agnihotra indeed enter upon a long sacrificial session; agnihotra indeed is a sattra that ends with old age or death, since he becomes free from it only by old age or death.' Satyāṣāḍha prescribes (III. 1) that from the time of setting up the three śrauta fires, agnihotra and darśapūrṇamāsa are obligatory on all members of the twice-born classes and he holds that the niṣāda and rathakāra also are bound to perform them, though other sūtrakāras are opposed to this. Vide pp. 45-47 above. Jai. (VI. 3. 1-7 and 8-10) holds that agnihotra being obligatory, it may be undertaken even by him who is not able to perform every detail of it in its entirety, but that a kāmya rite should be undertaken only by him who is able to carry out every detail. Vide also Jai. II. 4. 1-7 where 'yāvaj-jīvam-agnihotraṁ juhoti' is explained as laying down a characteristic required of the performer. The several sūtras present differing details and mantras.²²⁵⁸ According to one view all the three fires are permanently maintained by the house-holder²²⁵⁹ (Kāt. IV. 13. 5); according to others only the gārhapatya is permanently kept (Āp. VI. 2.
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13) and the dakṣiṇāgni is permanently kept only if it was set up by attrition at the time when the house-holder performed agnyādheya. The house-holder calls upon the adhvaryu to bring the āhavanīya from the gārhapatya in the evening and also in the morning; this is so only if the yajamāna engages an adhvaryu in the daily agnihotra, but if the yajamāna does the daily agnihotra himself this call is unnecessary. As to the dakṣiṇāgni in the daily agnihotra, Āśv. (II. 2. 1) mentions several alternatives viz., it may be brought from the house of a vaiśya or from the house of any rich man or it may be produced by attrition or it may be kindled into flames if it is kept permanently. He should take burning coals from the kindled gārhapatya in a vessel and carry them to the place of the āhavanīya with the mantra ‘devam tvā devebhyaḥ śriyā uddharāmi’ and should repeat when carrying the burning coals towards the east the mantra ‘raise me up from sin that I knowingly or unknowingly may have committed; save me from all the sin that I may have committed in the day’ (this in the evening agnihotra, in the morning agnihotra it being said ‘sin that I committed at night’). Vide Āśv. II. 2. 3 and 6, Āp. VI. 1. 7, Baud. III. 4. He should face the sun and place the burning coals in the āhavanīya mound with the mantra (amṛtāhutim &c., in Āśv. II. 2. 4, Āp. VI. 1. 8, Baud. III. 4). In the morning agnihotra also he should face the sun and do other things stated above. According to Kāt. (IV. 13.
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2) the evening agnihotra is to be commenced before the sun sets and the morning one before the sun rises. Āśv. says that the homa is performed after the sun sets. There have been two views on this point from very ancient times viz. whether agnihotra is to be performed before sunrise or after sunrise. Vide Ait. Br. 24. 4-6 and Kauṣītaki Br. II. 9. Āp. (VI. 4. 7-9) mentions four views as to both evening or morning time for agnihotra viz. it should be the *saṁdhi* of day and night for both or it may be when the first star is seen or in the first watch of the night or in the 2nd (for evening agnihotra) and at dawn, or when a part of the disc of the sun just appears on the horizon or after the sun comes up. The householder performs agnihotra after finishing his *saṁdhyā* adoration. There is a difference of opinion, some holding that the homa in the gṛhya fire should precede the agnihotra in the Vedic fires, while others hold that it should come after the Vedic agnihotra.²²⁶⁰ The house-holder after performing saṁdhyā follows either of two modes (Kāt. IV. 13. 12 and IV 15. 2, Āp. VI. 5. 3, according to his *śākhā*), goes towards the āhavanīya through the space between the places of the gārhapatya and dakṣiṇāgni or by a route to the south of these two fire places and having gone round the āhavanīya sits down to the south in his usual place (or crosses from the western side of the āhavanīya and sits down to its south) and the wife also sits in her place (Kāt. IV. 13. 13, Āp. VI. 5.
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1-2). The householder then sips water (*performs ācamana*) with the words 'vidyudasi vidya me pāpmānam-ṛtāt satyam-upaimi mayi śraddhā' (Āp. VI. 5. 3). The wife also sips water.²²⁶¹ Then both husband and wife should observe silence till the agnihotra (morning or evening) is gone through. A man who has no wife can perform the daily agnihotra (vide Ait. Br. 32. 8). The adhvaryu performs *parisaṁūhana* (wiping with the wet hand from the north-east to the north) thrice for the three fires. He strews round the āhavanīya fire darbha grass (performs paristaraṇa) in such a way that the darbhas to the east and west have their ends turned to the north and of those to the north and south turned to the east and the strewing proceeds from the east, then to the south, then to the west and then to the north. In the same way he strews darbha grass round the gārhapatya and then round the dakṣiṇāgni. Taking water in his right hand, he sprinkles it round the āhavanīya first, beginning from the northeast and ending in the north. Then he walks towards the west pouring a continuous stream of water from the āhavanīya up to the gārhapatya. He then sprinkles (performs *paryukṣaṇa*) the gārhapatya from left to right and then the dakṣiṇāgni. Or one may sprinkle water (and this is the usual order now in the Deccan) round the gārhapatya first and then round dakṣiṇāgni and then pour a stream of water from the gārhapatya to the east up to the āhavanīya (Āśv. II. 2. 14). Āśv. (II. 2.
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11-13) says that the mantra in paryukṣaṇa is 'ṛtasatyābhyāṁ tvā paryukṣāmi' and each fire is sprinkled thrice, water being taken freshly at each time and the mantra being repeated each time and that sprinkling may first be done round the dakṣiṇāgni, then round gārhapatya and then āhavanīya. Vide Kāt. IV. 13. 16-18, Āp. VI. 5. 4.