Agni Purāṇa
32 - Narration about the purificatory rites
Agni said:
1. An intelligent man has to do forty-eight purificatory rites1 among the initiatory rites for attaining liberation. You hear them, by which one may become a celestial.
1. The purificatory rites are referred to as twelve. See Manu 2.27.
2. One has to perform garbhadhāna as soon as the conception takes place, then the puṁsavana2 rite, the simantonnayana3, the jätakarma4, and the naming ceremony.
2. The rite performed after the conception of a child to ensure the birth of a son.
3. The rite of parting the hair performed on the fourth, sixth and eighth month of pregnancy.
4. The rite performed soon after the birth of a child.
3. (One has to perform the rites of) giving food (to the new born child), then the tonsure, and the brahmacharya (the life of celibacy practised by a boy while studying the Vedas). (One has to perform) the four (rites)—the vaishņavi, pārthi, bhautiki and srautis5, and making a gift of cows, entering the life of a householder after completing one's vedic studies.
5. These are special rites performed as a mark of respect to the four sages who are like the guardian deities for the different kändas of the Vedas.
4-7. The seven kinds of Pākayajñas6 are ashtakä, pärvaņaśräddha Śrävaņi, agrayaņi, chaitri and ašvayuji. The Haviryajñas7 are seven. (You) hear them. (They) are (agni) ādhāna, agnihotra, darśapūrņamāsa, chāturmāsya, pasubandha, and sautrāmaņi. (You) hear the seven kinds of Somasaṁsthäs8 agnistoma the excellent sacrifice atyagnistoma, uktha, sodasi, vājapeya, atirātra and aptoryāma. These are of thousand kinds.
6. This is a simple or domestic sacrifice. The text has omitted the sthalipaka and names only six.
7. Sacrifices in which oblations of clarified butter are offered.
8. Sacrifices in which soma is pressed for oblation.
8-9. They are hiranyanghri, hiranyaksha, hiranyamitra, hiranyapåņi, hemāksha, hemänga, hemasūtraka, hiranyāsya, hiranyanga, hemajihva, and hiranyavat. The ašhvamedha is the excellent among them. Now you hear the eight virtues.
10-11. They are-compassion towards all beings, forbearance, sincerity, purity, ease, wishing the welfare of all, liberality and freedom from avarice. A hundred oblations are to be offered with the basic mystic syllable. The same procedure is to be followed in the initiation (ceremony) related to Saura,shakti (the female deity) and Vishņu.
12. Being purified by these purificatory rites, one may get enjoyment, release (from bondage). Such a man becoming free from diseases remains like a god. By the recitation (of the names of god), by offering oblations and by worship and meditation on the deity one gets his cherished desire.
Summary of chapter 32 of the Agni Purāṇa is as follows:
The thirty-second chapter celebrates dāna — the giving of gifts — as one of the supreme dharmic acts. The Purāṇa distinguishes between ordinary dāna and mahādāna (great gift-giving), listing the ten mahādāna-s: gifting of a cow (godāna), land (bhūmidāna), sesame seeds (tiladāna), gold (hiraṇyadāna), ghee, cloth, grain, a bride (kanyādāna), a house, and a horse. For each type of dāna, the appropriate occasion, recipient, and mantra are specified. The chapter emphasizes that the worthiness of the recipient (pātra) multiplies the merit of the gift exponentially — a gift to a true devotee or a learned brāhmaṇa surpasses all others. The cosmic principle that all wealth ultimately belongs to Bhagavān, and that dāna is the human being's participation in divine generosity, is affirmed.
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