Āhavanīya
Āhavanīya · ā-havanīya, “the fire of offering”
Grammar: masculine noun (āhavanīya agni), from the root hu (to offer into the fire) with the prefix ā: “the fire to be offered into”.
Meaning: the sacred fire into which the havis is offered in homa; one of the three fires of the Vedic household, with the Gārhapatya and the Anvāhāryapacana.
In the scriptures: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa tells how the three fires came to be and names the āhavanīya in the lives of kings, ṛshis and Śrī Kṛshṇa himself.
Śuka tells Parīkshit that Purūravas, longing for the loka of Urvaśī, churned fire with mantras, meditating on the lower stick as Urvaśī, the upper stick as himself and the wood between as the son. From the churning Agni was born, and by worshipping this Agni a man gains all prosperity. With the knowledge of the three Vedas, Purūravas divided Agni into three forms, Āhavanīya, Gārhapatya and Anāhāryapacana, made that Agni his son, and through it worshipped Śrī Hari, the Yajñeśvara (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 14).
When Bhagavān Ṛshabha had crowned his son Bharata, he established the āhavanīya fire within himself by bhāvanā, left everything in the palace and went out from Brahmāvarta as an avadhūta (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 5).
Nārada told Yudhishṭhira that Dhṛtarāshṭra, who had renounced all action, would leave his body on the fifth day; his body would be burned to ash with the fires gārhapatya, āhavanīya and anvāhāryapacana and with his leaf hut, and Gāndhārī, standing outside, would enter the fire too (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 13).
When Nārada went from house to house in Dvārakā to see Śrī Kṛshṇa’s life as a householder, in one house he saw him offering homa into the yajña fires, the āhavanīya and the others (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 69). The devatās who came to Dvārakā with Brahmā praised Śrī Kṛshṇa: “The ṛtvijas, holding the havis in restrained hands, offering homa into the āhavanīya fire in the way laid down in the Veda, meditate on your lotus foot; seekers meditate on it in adhyātma-yoga; and the great bhaktas always worship your lotus foot alone” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 6).
Related terms: Gārhapatya · Dakshiṇāgni · Anvāhāryapacana · Tretāgni · Homa · Agnihotra
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 13; Skandha 5, Chapter 5; Skandha 9, Chapter 14; Skandha 10, Chapter 69; Skandha 11, Chapter 6