DIVINEINFORMATION PART 20 Dear friends,
While going through one of my externalmemory device, I came across some good information from Kanchi SankaraMatam. I thought of sharing interestingones from them as a series. Inpart 20 , I am starting with 77th item in this posting. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 30-05-2021.In72 77 Differenttypes of Agni (fire) As already mentioned, the Daksinagniand the Ahavaniyagni are made from the Garhapatyagni. When srauta rites for the fathers havebeen performed in the Daksinagniand other srauta rites in the Ahavaniyagni, the two fires no longer have the exalted name of"srautagni" and are just like any other ordinary fire and they have to be extinguished. Only the Garhapatya and Aupasana fires are tobe kept burning throughout. On every Prathama (first day of thelunar fortnight), a pakayajna and a haviryajna have to be performed in thegrhyagni and srautagni respectively. The first is called sthalipaka."Sthali" is the pot in which rice is cooked and it must be placed onthe aupasana fire and the rice called "caru" cooked in it must beoffered in the same fire. The rite that is the basis of manyothers (the archetype or model) is called "prakrti". Those performedafter it, but with some changes, are known as "vikrti". Forthe sarpabali called sravani and the pakayajna called agrahayani, sthalipaka isthe prakrti. The haviryajna performed on everyPrathama is "darsa-purna-isti", "darsa" meaning the newmoon and "purna" the full moon. So the "istis" orsacrifices conducted on the day following the new moon and the full moon (thetwo Prathamas) are together given the name of darsa-purna-isti. The two ritualsare also referred to merely as "isti". This is the prakrti for haviryajnas. For soma sacrifices"agnistoma" is the prakrti, the word "stoma" also meaning asacrifice. In conjunction with "agni", the "sto"becomes"sto" -- "agnistoma". "Sthapita" becomes"establish" in English: here the " sta" of the first wordbecomes "sta" in the second. Some unlettered people pronounce"star" and "stamp" as "istar" and"istamp". Such phonetic changes are accepted even in the Vedas. I will now deal briefly with theremaining paka, havir and soma sacrifices. 77A pakayanjaand Yagasala Pakayajnas are minor sacrifices and areperformed at home. Even srauta rites like the first four haviryajnas - adhana,agnihotra, darsa-purna-masa and agrayana - are performed at home. Thelast three haviryajnas - caturmasya, nirudhapasubandha and sautramani - areperformed in a yagasala. Theyagasala is also known as a "devayajna". The Kalpa-sutras contain adescription of it, not omittingminute details. There are altars called "cayanas" to be built withbricks. (There are no cayanas for havir and pakayajnas. ) As I said before there is theapplication of mathematics in all this. Severalkinds of ladles are used in making offerings in the fire, "tarvi","sruk" and "sruva". Their measurements are specified, alsothe materials out of which they are made. No detail is left out. In a nuclear or spaceresearch laboratory even the most insignificant job is carried out with theutmost care, so is the case with sacrifices which have the purpose of bringingforth supernatural powers into the world. To repeat, pakayajnas are simple,"paka" meaning "small", "like a child". Cookedfood is also "paka"; that is why the art of cooking is called "pakasastra" andthe place where cooking is done is called "pakasala". Just as in sthalipaka cooked rice isoffered in the fire, so too in pakayajnas cooked grains are offered in thefire. The watery partis not to be drained off - this rite is called "caruhoma". But in aupasana unbroken rice (notcooked) is offered. Inthe pakayajna called "astaka" purodasa is offered in thefire. Astaka is performed for the fathers. The bright half of a month (waxingmoon) is special to the celestials while it is the dark half (waning moon) forthe fathers. The latter is called the"apara-paksa" since during this fortnight rites for the fathers areperformed. The eighth day of the dark fortnight(Astami) is particularly important for them. The astaka sraddha must be performed on the eighth day ofthe fortnight during the Sisira and Hemanta seasons (the first andsecond half of winter) - in the [Tamil] months of Margazhi, Tai, Masi and Panguni. The astaka performed in Masi is said tobe particularly sacred. The rite gone through on the day following the astakais "anvastaka". "Parvani",one of the pakayajnas, is the prakrti (or the archetype) for sraddhas. Since it is performed every monthit is called "masisraddha". (This is according to theApastamba-sutra. According to the Gautama-sutra "parvana" denotes thesthalipaka performed during each "parva" ). 77bSarpabali The pakayajna "sravani" isalso called "sarpabali". On the full moon of the month of Sravanacaru rice and ghee are placed in the fire and flowers of the flame of theforest are offered similarly by both hands. Designs have to be drawn with rice flour over an anthillor some other place and offerings made to snakes with the chanting of mantras. This ceremony must be held everyfull-moon night up to Margazhi (mid-December to mid-January). On the Margazhi full moon, apart fromcompleting the sarpabali, the pakayajna called "agrahayani" must beperformed. Like "sravani", the name "agrahayani" is alsoderived from the name of the month of the same name - Agrahayani is Margazhi. "Hayana" means"year" and the first month of the year is "Agrahayana". Inancient times the year started with this month. The first of January [of theGregorian calendar] falls in mid-Margazhi. It was from us that Europe took thisas their new year. Though we changed our calendar later, they stuck to theirs. Thereare two more pakayajnas called "caitri" and "asvayuji":these fall respectively, as their names suggest, in Cittirai and Aippasi. 77cCaitri Caitriis conducted where four roads meet. Since it is performed for Isana it iscalled "isanabali" : Isana is Paramesvara (Siva). In theother pakayajnas the deities worshipped are different but through themParamesvara is pleased. It is like a tax paid to the ruler through thesub-collector. In Caitri itis as if the tax is paid directly to the ruler. InAippasi, kuruva rice is harvested [inTamil Nadu]. This is first offered to Isvara in the rite called"asvayuji" before it is taken by us. Similarly samba rice is eaten only afteragrahayani is performed in Margazhi. 77dHaviryajna and Somayanja The haviryajnas are more elaborate,though not so large in scale as the somayajnas. Anything offered in the sacrificial fire iscalled "havis". In Tamil workslike the Tirukkural it is referred to as "avi". However, ghee is specifically referredto as "havis". Sacrifices in which the soma juice is offered are called somayajnas and those that are not elaborate are categorised as pakayajnas. Nowthe other srauta sacrifices among the forty samskaras are called haviryajnas. 78Different priests When I spoke to you earlier aboutsacrifices I referred to the men who conduct them. The sacrificer is the yajamana and thosewho perform the sacrifice for him are rtviks (priests) who consist of the hota,adhvaryu, udgata and brahma. Inpakayajnas there are no rtviks; the householder (as the yajamana) performs the rites with his wife. In haviryajnas there are fourrtviks and the yajamana. But the udgata's place is taken by theagnidhra. The udgata is the one who sings the Saman. It is only in somayajnasthat there is Samagana, not in haviryajnas. 79Chaturmasya Incaturmasya and pasubandha there are more than the usual number of priests. Butthere is no need to dealwith them here. I wanted togive you only a basic knowledge of the important sacrifices that had beenconducted for ages until recently. "Agrayana" is performed onthe full moon of Aippasi.In this syamaka grains are offered in the fire. Caturmasya gives the impressionthat it includes a number of sacrifices. Some of you probably know that "caturmasya" isa term that refers to sannyasins staying at the same place during the rainyseason. But it is also the name of a haviryajna to be performed byhouseholders once every four months, in Karttigai, Panguni, Adi. From this onwards the sacrifices are to be performed in ayagasala [built in a public place]. Iwill continue with Haviryanja in next posting -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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