The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c27.s6.24

v1.c27.s6.24

Of the three fires the Gārhapatya alone was continually maintained: the other fires, the Āhavanīya and the Dakṣiṇa, were derived from it, and the leading forward of the fire is already referred to in the Rigveda, though it is not possible to prove that the process was identical with that applied in the ritual.³ The central position of the Gārhapatya is also to be seen in its relation to the man who goes on a journey: he takes formal leave of it first and then of the Āhavanīya, on his return he as solemnly greets first the Āhavanīya, and then the Gārhapatya.⁴ The Āhavanīya, with which Hillebrandt seeks to identify the Vaiçvānara of the Rigveda, is the fire for the offering, not that, as a Brāhmaṇa says, in which the cooking is done, but that in which the cooked food is made over to the gods: the Gārhapatya therefore serves to cook the food and to warm the dishes, an act which seems clearly both in its nature for which no practical purpose is seen, and through the assertion that thus the demons are destroyed, to have been a piece of magic.⁵ But the relations of the two fires are not in practice so simple as this: there are cases in which the functions are inverted.⁶ The third fire is the Dakṣiṇāgni, also called the Anvāhāryapacana because the sacrificial fee for the new and full moon sacrifices, which was called Anvāhārya, was cooked on it. This fire was probably in its origin, as shown by its place at the south, intended to drive away by its flames the evil spirits and the souls of the dead, but it was natural that it should serve also for offerings to such spirits, though in the case of the Fathers pits were also used. We are expressly told that the fire served to avert danger from the Fathers,⁷ and in the rite of the royal consecration a brand is taken out of this fire, and used as the place for an offering to drive away evil spirits, and in the same rite another fire-brand is taken out and an offering made on it to Nirṛti.⁸ The Dakṣiṇāgni is also used both at the monthly offerings to the Fathers, and at the annual offering connected with the Sākamedhas, the third of the four-month sacrifices of the Çrauta ritual.¹