Caru
Caru, “grain cooked as an offering”
Grammar: masculine noun: an oblation of grain, cooked. The caru-sthālī is the pot for the caru, and caru-homa is homa made with it.
Meaning: rice, barley or other grain cooked in milk with ghee, consecrated with mantras, offered in the sacred fire, and partly eaten by the guru and the disciples.
In the scriptures: the Agni Purāṇa gives the caru in the agni-kārya, in Vaishṇava and Śaiva dīkshā, in the pratishṭhās and in vratas.
The Vaishṇava caru. In the agni-kārya which Nārada teaches, the caru-pot is sprinkled with the praṇītā water along with the ghee-pot, the kuśa and the ghee; and having consecrated the fire for Vishṇu, a Vaishṇava caru is offered (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 24). In the dīkshā, Nārada gives each step of cooking the caru with its mantra. The vessel is washed, wiped inside with a fragrant lotus and filled with ghee and cow’s milk. The guru looks at it with the Vāsudeva mantra; with the Saṅkarshaṇa mantra he pours rice grains smeared with ghee into the consecrated milk; with the Pradyumna mantra he stirs it gently with a ladle; when it is cooked he takes it down with the Aniruddha mantra; and with the Nārāyaṇa mantra upright marks of bhasma are put on the vessel. Thus the caru is properly consecrated. It is divided in four: one part to the Deva, the second to the kalaśa, the third for three āhutis, and the fourth the guru eats together with the disciples (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 27). In the adhivāsa of the mūrti, which Hayagrīva teaches Brahmā, the fire is kindled with the Vishṇu-Gāyatrī, the caru is cooked on it with the Gāyatrī, balis are given and brāhmaṇas are fed (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 59).
In the pratishṭhās. At the installation of a sacred book, the nyāsa of the Purusha Sūkta and the Vedas is done on it, then prāṇa-pratishṭhā, pūjā and caru-homa (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 63). At the installation of wells and water-bodies, a caru cooked with yava (barley) is placed in all directions and offered in homa, consecrated with the vyāhṛtis and the Gāyatrī or with the mūla-mantra; then, reciting the mantra “varuṇasya”, 108 homas are made with ghee and with the yava caru (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 64). In the general rite of pratishṭhā, the sādhaka takes brahmakūrca and, with the mantra “tad vishṇoḥ paramaṃ padam”, cooks a yava caru in the milk of a kapilā (tawny) cow; with oṃkāra he pours ghee into it and stirs it. He makes caru-homa with the mantra “tad viprāso” joined with the vyāhṛtis and the gāyatrī, and the pañcagavya and the caru are eaten with a Vaishṇava mantra ending in vaushaṭ. In the māsopavāsa that follows, a Vaishṇava caru cooked from tila, rice, nīvāra and śyāmāka, or barley in place of śyāmāka, mixed with ghee, is offered with the mūrti-mantra; twelve caru oblations are made with the mantra “irāvatī”, and with the anuvāka “yuñjate” and the praṇava the caru is served on a plate of aśvattha leaves and eaten (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 66). At the procession festival, caru is cooked and offered at the river, and after it pāyasa-homa (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 68).
In the Pavitrāropaṇa. In the evening rite of the pavitrāropaṇa which Agni Deva teaches, the caru-pot is among the vessels set out, and the caru is set on the fire and cooked (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 34); outside the maṇḍapa, on the east, the pañcagavya, the caru and the tooth-stick are placed on three maṇḍalas plastered with cow dung (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 35).
The Śaiva caru. In the Śaiva Pavitrārohaṇa, the caru, rice cooked in milk for the homa, is purified by the sampāta-āhuti and divided with the small ladle into three parts, for Śiva, Agni and oneself; the parts of Śiva and Agni are offered in the kuṇḍa, and one’s own part is kept safely (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 78).
The caru of the dīkshā. For the samaya-dīkshā Bhagavān Śiva gives the rite in full. The ahaṅkāra-bīja is placed on a pure hearth, and the hearth, “a body made of dharma and adharma”, is set to the right of the kuṇḍa. The vessel, wiped with ghee, is set on it; cow’s milk, consecrated a hundred times with the prāsāda-mantra, is poured in, with śyāmaka and other grains: five measures of rice for one śishya, five more for each further śishya. The fire is lit with the astra-mantra, the vessel covered with the kavaca-mantra, and, facing east, the caru is cooked in the Śivāgni with the mūla-mantra. Ghee is sprinkled on the hot hearth (taptābhighāra) and again when it has cooled (śītābhighāra), with one homa for each śishya; the caru is purified with the saṃhitā-mantra, taken with vashaṭ, and made amṛta with the dhenu-mudrā, and the śānti-homa is done on the vedi (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 81). In the nirvāṇa-dīkshā, each disciple is given three or eight mouthfuls of caru: the seeker of mukti in a cup of palāśa leaves, the seeker of bhukti in a cup of aśvattha leaves. At the close, the nirmālya is removed and the remaining caru is offered into the fire, and the pañcagavya and caru are eaten with the mantra “oṃ pālī hili śūlapāṇaye namaḥ svāhā” (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 83).
Related terms: Homa · Pāyasa · Āhuti · Pañcagavya · Dīkshā · Caru-sthālī
Sources
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 24, 27, 34–35, 59, 63–64, 66, 68, 78, 81, 83