Homa-Kuṇḍa

Homa-Kuṇḍa · homa-kuṇḍa, “the pit for the fire offering”

The homa-kuṇḍa is the sacred fire-pit of the homa. Into it the fire is installed, given its saṃskāras (purifying rites) as a living being, and fed with the āhutis (offerings) of ghee, samidhs (fuel-sticks), sesame and grain. Every great rite of the Agni Purāṇa, the daily agni-kārya, the pratishṭhā (installation) of a mūrti, the dīkshā (initiation), the laying of a temple’s stones and the graha-yajña, is done at a kuṇḍa.

The Agni Purāṇa gives its form in full. Nārada teaches the square kuṇḍa of one hasta (cubit): twenty-four aṅgulas (finger-widths) a side, girdled by three mekhalās (raised bands) named after the three guṇas, with a yoni (lip) shaped like an aśvattha leaf. From it the round, half-moon and lotus kuṇḍas are drawn with a cord. Parameśvara teaches that the kuṇḍa grows with the number of homas, from a fist for fifty homas to eight hastas for a crore, and that its shape follows its direction around the vedi (altar). Agni Deva teaches that the kuṇḍa is the body of Kuṇḍa-Lakshmī: her head to the east, the kuṇḍa her belly, its yoni her yoni, its three mekhalās the three guṇas. The kuṇḍa is purified with mantras before the fire is placed in it, and Agni’s face is contemplated as the length and breadth of the kuṇḍa.

The square kuṇḍa

In Chapter 24 Nārada teaches the agni-kārya, the fire-rite that fulfils all desires, and begins with the kuṇḍa.

• A square field of twenty-four aṅgulas is measured with a cord and dug out evenly, with even sides.
• Leaving two aṅgulas from the edge of the pit, the mekhalās are made, like the bands of a girdle. They bear names beginning with sattva, after the three guṇas. They face east and are twelve aṅgulas high. The first is eight aṅgulas wide and the second two aṅgulas.
• The yoni is ten aṅgulas long and stands in front. Its height rises in steps of six, four and two aṅgulas, and the part on the west is made gradually deeper.
• The yoni has the shape of an aśvattha (pipal) leaf and is built slightly drawn into the kuṇḍa. Its nāla (channel) is four, five or ten aṅgulas long; its root is three aṅgulas and its tip six aṅgulas.
• These are the marks of a kuṇḍa of one hasta. For kuṇḍas of two hastas and more, every measure is doubled.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 24

Round, half-moon and lotus kuṇḍas

Nārada then tells of the round and other kuṇḍas, with one mekhalā or with three. They are drawn by turning a cord.

• The round kuṇḍa (vartula). The cord is placed at the half of the kuṇḍa; the half of the cord left over at the corner is placed on the direction and turned, and a circle results.
• The half-moon kuṇḍa (ardhacandra). The part of the corner beyond half the kuṇḍa is halved, carried outward on the north side, stretched to east and west, and the cord is turned from the middle. This gives an auspicious half-moon kuṇḍa.
• The lotus kuṇḍa (padma). It is a round kuṇḍa shaped like a lotus, with petals made on its mekhalā.

In the pratishṭhā, Hayagrīva tells Brahmā that the kuṇḍas are of four shapes: square, half-moon, round or lotus-shaped.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 24, 56

Size by the number of homas, shape by the direction

In Chapter 95 Parameśvara teaches the installation of the liṅga in a temple, which gives bhukti (enjoyment) and mukti (moksha). Between the vedi and the pillars of the maṇḍapa (pavilion), nine or ten kuṇḍas are built. Or there may be a single kuṇḍa only, in the north-east (īśāna) or in the east: that is the place of the guru.

The size of the kuṇḍa follows the number of homas to be offered in it.

Its shape follows its direction.

The kuṇḍa is made level on all sides and sunk. On top, on the outside, mekhalās of four, three and two aṅgulas in width are built in order, each of the same shape as the kuṇḍa. On them, in the middle, is a yoni shaped like an aśvattha leaf, one aṅgula high and eight aṅgulas wide, as long as half the kuṇḍa; the middle of the yoni is like the throat (kaṇṭha) of the kuṇḍa. The yonis of the kuṇḍas in the east, south-east and south face north; those of the other kuṇḍas face east; the yoni of the north-east kuṇḍa faces north or east.

One twenty-fourth part of the kuṇḍa is its aṅgula, and by that measure the mekhalā, the kaṇṭha and the nābhi (navel) of the kuṇḍa are fixed.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 95

The kuṇḍas of the great homas

The great homas of ten thousand (ayuta), a lakh (laksha) and a crore (koṭi) offerings each have their kuṇḍa.

• Chapter 149. Parameśvara tells Pārvatī that the agni-kuṇḍa for the laksha-homa is four hastas deep, and for the koṭi-homa eight hastas deep.
• Chapter 167. Agni Deva teaches the graha-yajña. For the ayuta-homa a maṇḍapa is made in the house, with a kuṇḍa of one hasta that has mekhalās and a yoni; four ṛtviks (priests) do it, or one may do it alone. In the laksha-homa everything is tenfold: the kuṇḍa is four or two hastas, with ten or eight ṛtviks. For the koṭi-homa the kuṇḍa is four or eight hastas, with twelve ṛtviks. The grahas are invoked in a maṇḍala to the north-east of the agni-kuṇḍa and vedi. For the abhicāra homa, done against an enemy, the kuṇḍa is triangular.
• Chapter 267. Pushkara teaches Paraśurāma that eight or sixteen brāhmaṇas perform a laksha or koṭi homa in a square kuṇḍa of four hastas, with sesame, ghee and rice.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 149, 167, 267

Kuṇḍa-Lakshmī

In Chapter 34 Agni Deva teaches the homa of the pavitrāropaṇa. After the fire has been made Vaishṇava by its saṃskāras, the homa is done meditating on Lakshmī in the middle of the kuṇḍa, as one who has bathed after her season (ṛtusnātā).

The Lakshmī within the kuṇḍa is called Kuṇḍa-Lakshmī. She is Prakṛti, made of the three guṇas. She is the source of all beings, of all mantras and of all vidyās. Agni Deva, whose nature is the Paramātmā, is the cause of moksha and the giver of mukti.

Her form lies across the kuṇḍa:

• her head is towards the east;
• her arms are towards the north-east and the south-east;
• her legs are towards the north-west and the south-west;
• the kuṇḍa itself is her belly;
• the yoni of the kuṇḍa is her yoni;
• the three mekhalās are the three guṇas, sattva, rajas and tamas.

Meditating thus, the sādhaka offers fifteen samidhs in homa with the mushṭi-mudrā (the fist).

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 34

Preparing and purifying the kuṇḍa

Smearing and the lines (Chapter 24). The agni-kuṇḍa is smeared and the vajra-nāsikā lines of one aṅgula are drawn in it: first one line with its tip to the north; on it two lines facing east; and between them three lines, in order from the south. The knower of mantra then sprinkles water uttering the praṇava.

The lines of the havana (Chapter 34). Washing both hands, the sādhaka draws in the agni-kuṇḍa or on the vedi three lines pointing east, from south to north, and over them three lines pointing north, from right to left. He washes the lines with arghya water.

The acts on the kuṇḍa (Chapter 75). Maheśvara teaches Skanda. Covering his body with cloth and holding the arghya vessel, the worshipper enters the fire-hall and by divine sight gathers every implement of the yajña. Facing north, he looks at the agni-kuṇḍa, sprinkles it with kuśa and cleans it. Then:

1. tāḍana (striking), with the astra mantra, phaṭ;
2. abhyukshaṇa (sprinkling), with the kavaca mantra;
3. abhisheka, with the kavaca mantra, huṃ;
4. bhū-kuṭṭana (digging the ground), with the śara (astra) mantra, phaṭ;
5. sweeping, smearing, shaping its form as made of kalās, girding it with the triple thread, and arcana, all with the kavaca mantra.

From outside, with the astra mantra, he wipes the kuṇḍa with kuśa and wets it with water uttering huṃ. On the mekhalās outside the kuṇḍa he spreads kuśa with the astra mantra, the tips pointing east on the north and south sides and pointing north on the east and west sides. On them, with the hṛdaya mantra, he places the paridhis (enclosing sticks) and the seat.

The pavitraka (Chapter 33). In the pavitrāropaṇa, the sacred thread-garland offered to the kuṇḍa reaches as far as its mekhalā.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 24, 33, 34, 75

The fire in the kuṇḍa

The Vaishṇavī Śakti (Chapter 24). Having drawn the lines and sprinkled the water, the knower of mantra, uttering Oṃkāra, sets up a pīṭha (seat). On it he adorns the embodied Vaishṇavī Śakti, and, remembering Bhagavān Vishṇu, places the fire.

Agni as one’s own ātmā (Chapter 34). The sādhaka shows the yoni-mudrā and, contemplating Agni as his own ātmā, installs Agni in the kuṇḍa that has a yoni.

The fire born in the kuṇḍa (Chapter 75). The fire in the kuṇḍa is given the saṃskāras of a child: garbhādhāna with the Sadyojāta mantra, puṃsavana with the Vāmadeva mantra, sīmantonnayana with the Aghora mantra, and jātakarma with the Tatpurusha mantra, after which it is bathed with water consecrated by the astra mantra.

Agni’s face and his seven tongues (Chapter 81). In the Samaya-dīkshā, Bhagavān Śiva teaches that the guru goes to the yajña-kuṇḍa with the arghya in hand. On his left he keeps arghya, gandha, ghṛta (ghee) and the rest; on his right samidhs, kuśa, sesame and the rest. He purifies the kuṇḍa, the fire, the ghee and the sruk (ladle) as before, and worships Bhagavān Śiva in the fire whose face is turned upward. Contemplating the length and breadth of Agni Deva’s face as the length and breadth of the agni-kuṇḍa, and uttering the name-mantras of the tongues of Agni ending in namaḥ, he offers the desired substances and satisfies Agni.

The seven tongues of Agni are Hiraṇyā, Kanakā, Raktā, Kṛshṇā, Suprabhā, Atiriktā and Bahurūpā. Their faces are, in order, in the north-east, the east, the south-east, the south-west, the west, the north-west and the centre.

Maheśvara, the four-armed one and Kriyā-śakti (Chapter 96). In the adhivāsana of a Śiva-liṅga, the ācārya goes to the kuṇḍa and makes the nyāsa of Maheśvara inside it, of the four-armed one (caturbhuja) on its mekhalā, and of Kriyā-śakti in its nābhi. In the kuṇḍa he worships the Ādhāra-śakti and does tarpaṇa, and then in order the tattva, the tattveśvara, the mūrti and the mūrtīśvara with ghee and the rest.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 24, 34, 75, 81, 96

The kuṇḍas of the pratishṭhā and the laying of the stones

The laying of the stones (Chapter 41). Hayagrīva teaches the pāda-pratishṭhā, the foundation consecration of a temple. First a maṇḍapa is built, and on it four kuṇḍas: in order, the auspicious seats for the kumbha-nyāsa (placing the jars), the ishṭakā-nyāsa (placing the bricks), the door and the pillars. Three of the four parts of each kuṇḍa are filled with gravel and the like and levelled, and on it the vāstu-devatās are worshipped. Later the vāstu-kuṇḍa is wetted with gomūtra, the garbha (the sacred deposit) is placed in it, a cow and cloth are given to the ācārya and food to others, and when the garbha-pātra and the bricks have been placed, the kuṇḍa is filled.

The mūrtipālakas (Chapters 56, 96). The ācārya gives rings and other ornaments to the learned men who are the mūrtipālakas, the guardians of the mūrti, and seats them at the kuṇḍas. In the adhivāsana, the bearers of the mūrti sit facing the nābhi of the kuṇḍa and, by the guru’s order, purify their own kuṇḍas. The ācārya produces the fire and has it placed in all the kuṇḍas, and takes fire from the eastern kuṇḍa first for the dhūpa, the dīpa and the caru. For the fullness of place and time and to calm bad omens he performs homa and gives the pūrṇāhuti (final full offering), cooks the caru and offers it in each kuṇḍa.

Carrying the fire to the kuṇḍas (Chapter 59). In the adhivāsa of a mūrti of Bhagavān Vishṇu, the Vaishṇava fire is brought forth by the saṃskāras beginning with birth, and then carried to the kuṇḍas (agni-praṇayana): into the southern kuṇḍa with Agniṃ dūtam, into the eastern with Agnim agnim, into the northern with Agnim agniṃ havīmabhiḥ, while Tvam agne dyubhiḥ is recited. In each kuṇḍa, with Oṃkāra first, a thousand and eight palāśa samidhs are offered, with barley and the rest.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 41, 56, 59, 96

Sources

• Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 24, 33–34, 41, 56, 59, 75, 81, 95–96, 149, 167, 267