Pākayajña
Pākayajña · pāka-yajña, “the yajña of cooked offerings”
Grammar: masculine noun; a compound of pāka (cooking, what is cooked) and yajña: “the yajña of cooked offerings”.
Meaning: the domestic yajña in which cooked food is offered, kept by the householder in the home fire; one of the three groups of yajñas, beside the havir-yajñas and the soma-saṃsthās, each with seven forms (saṃsthās).
In the scriptures: Pushkara, telling the śrauta and smārta dharmas, names the forty-eight saṃskāras by which a man attains Brahmaloka: garbhādhāna, puṃsavana, sīmantonnayana, jātakarma, nāmakaraṇa, annaprāśana, cūḍākarma and upanayana; the four Veda-vratas, the snāna and vivāha; the five great yajñas to the devas, pitṛs, men, bhūtas and Brahmā; then the seven pākayajña saṃsthās, the seven havir-yajñas and the seven soma-saṃsthās; and the eight ātma-guṇas. The seven pākayajña saṃsthās are the three pārvaṇa śrāddhas together with the ashṭakā, the Śrāvaṇī, the Āgrahāyaṇī, the Caitrī and the Āśvayujī (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 166).
Among the prāyaścittas, Pushkara teaches that the avakīrṇī, a brahmacārī who has broken his vow, must worship Nirṛti alone at night at a crossroads with a black donkey, by the method of the pākayajña. Then he offers ghee to Candra, Indra and Guru (Bṛhaspati) with the ṛk “Saṃ mā siñcantu marutaḥ”. Or, covering himself with the skin of a donkey, he wanders the earth for a year (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 169).
Related terms: Yajña · Saṃskāra · Ashṭakā · Śrāddha · Havir-yajña · Soma-saṃsthā
Sources
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 166, 169