Aupāsana
Aupāsana · aupāsana, “the rite of the house fire”
Grammar: neuter noun; from upāsana (attendance, tending): “that which belongs to the tending of the fire”.
Meaning: the house fire and the daily rite done in it; one of the Pāka-yajñas.
In the scriptures: the Bhavishya Purāṇa counts Aupāsana first among the seven Pāka-yajñas: Aupāsana, Vaiśvadeva, Pārvaṇa, Ashṭa, Māsa-śrāddha and the rest. With the other saṃskāras of the forty-eight it brings a brāhmaṇa to brahmatva (Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 2).
King Śatānīka says to Sumantu Muni that one with no fire in his house is as one dead, and that even a best of brāhmaṇas then has no fitness for arcana. Sumantu answers that the devas are pleased by vratas, upavāsas, various dānas and such niyamas (Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 16).
Related terms: Pāka-yajña · Saṃskāra · Vaiśvadeva
Sources
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapters 2, 16