Gārhapatya
Gārhapatya · gārha-patya, “the fire of the master of the house”
Grammar: masculine noun, from gṛhapati (the master of the house): “belonging to the householder”, the householder’s fire.
Meaning: the sacred fire kept by the householder, the first of the three fires of the Vaidika yajña, with the āhavanīya (the fire into which offerings are made) and the anvāhāryapacana (the southern fire).
In the scriptures:
The three fires. Śuka tells Parīkshit that Purūravas churned Agni from the two araṇis, and with the knowledge of the three Vedas divided that Agni into three forms: Āhavanīya, Gārhapatya and Anāhāryapacana, as the third is printed. He made that Agni his son, and through it, desiring the loka of Urvaśī, he worshipped Bhagavān Śrī Hari, the Yajñeśvara (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 14).
Dhṛtarāshṭra’s end. Nārada Maharshi told Yudhishṭhira that Dhṛtarāshṭra, who had renounced all action, would leave his body on the fifth day, and that as his body was burned to ash together with the fires gārhapatya, āhavanīya and anvāhāryapacana and with his leaf hut, Gāndhārī would enter the fire too (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 13).
Forms of Śrī Kṛshṇa. Śuka says that the place and time of a yajña, its materials, the mantras, the method of the karma, the ṛtvijas, the fires beginning with the gārhapatya, the devatās beginning with Agni, the yajamāna, the yajña itself and its puṇya are all forms of Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa; the brāhmaṇas of that yajña later spoke the same words of him (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 23).
Related terms: Āhavanīya · Dakshiṇāgni · Agni · Agnihotra · Yajña · Araṇi
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 13; Skandha 9, Chapter 14; Skandha 10, Chapter 23