Agnihotra
Agnihotra · agni-hotra, “the offering into the fire”
Grammar: neuter noun; a compound of agni (fire) and hotra (offering, from the root hu, to offer into the fire): “the offering into the fire”.
Meaning: the daily offering into the sacred fire, kept by one who has set up the fires; one of the havir-yajñas, the yajñas of offered havis.
In the scriptures: among the forty-eight saṃskāras which Agnideva lists, by which a man becomes equal to the devas, the agnihotra is the twenty-third. It stands among the seven havir-yajñas: ādhāna (setting up the sacred fires), agnihotra, darśa (the new-moon rite), paurṇamāsa (the full-moon rite), cāturmāsya, paśubandha and sautrāmaṇī (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 32).
In the rules of conduct which Pushkara teaches Paraśurāma, after the bath one offers tarpaṇa to the devas and pitṛs and a jalāñjali (water in cupped hands) with the Purusha sūkta; then one performs the agnihotra, gives dāna as one is able, and takes refuge in Parameśvara for yoga-kshema (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 155). The king too, after his bath, his sandhyā and the pūjā of Śrī Mahāvishṇu, performs the agnihotra and offers pitṛ-tarpaṇa (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 235). The vānaprastha wears jaṭā, performs the agnihotra, sleeps on the ground, wears a deer-skin, lives on milk, roots, wild grain and fruits, accepts no gifts, bathes three times a day, keeps brahmacarya and honours devas and guests (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 160).
The agnihotra shortens the āśauca (impurity) after a death: a brāhmaṇa who keeps the agnihotra and studies the Veda is pure in one day, one lower than he in three days, one lower still after five nights, and one who is a brāhmaṇa in name only in ten days. For one who does not keep the agnihotra, āśauca begins at once when a sapiṇḍa dies; for one who keeps it, only after the cremation (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 158).
The agnihotra, speaking the truth, study of the Veda, honouring guests and the bali-vaiśvadeva are called ishṭa (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 209). In the Gavāyurveda, the Āyurveda of cows, Dhanvantari says in praise of the cow that the ṛshis use the products of the cow in the homa of their agnihotras (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 292).
Related terms: Homa · Havir-yajña · Ādhāna · Saṃskāra · Ishṭa · Agni
Sources
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 32, 155, 158, 160, 209, 235, 292