, the recipient of the evening agnihotra.
Preliminaries The ritual is conducted twice daily, right before or after
sunrise and after sunset or the appearance of the first night star. The morning and evening agnihotras differ by the mantras and chants made by the officiants. At least four people take part in the sacrifice: the sacrificer, who hires priests to perform the ceremony (
Brahmin), his wife, an
Adhvaryu () and a milker. Vedic rituals are typically performed by four priests: the aforementioned
adhvaryu, who is responsible for the physical details of the sacrifice and chants the
Yajurveda, a
hotṛ () who recites the
Rigveda, an
udgātṛ () who sings hymns of the
Samaveda, and a
brahman () who supervises the ceremony, and recites the
Atharvaveda while correcting any errors that may occur. There are three fires: an eastern offertorial fire called an
āhavanīya () lit in a square
fire pit, a western fire called the
gārhapatya () lit in a circular fire pit, which represents the householder's fire, and a southern fire simply called the
dakṣiṇāgni (Southern fire) (). During the ceremonies, a ritual poker, pot (), a spoon (), and ladle () are all used. At the centre of the ritual space is an
earthen altar () where the tools to perform the ritual are placed. The most common offering in the Agnihotra ritual is milk. The
Kātyāyana Śrautasūtra advises devotees to sacrifice with milk to obtain cattle or a position in heaven. Alternative offerings for different goals are also recommended: the acquisition of a village with rice gruel, strength with plain rice grains, refined senses with curds, and "sharpness" or "spirit" () with
ghee. Performance of the Agnihotra as a purely ritual obligation is known as
nitya (), while performance with a special purpose is called
kāmya. ()
Ritual When the sacrificial area has been cleaned and the sacrificial fire lit, a cow is brought to the grounds and the milker, an
ā́rya and not a
śūdra, recites mantras before it, then brings the calf to the right side of its mother before beginning the milking. The milk is kept in the
agnihotrasthālī, which can also only be made by an
ā́rya. When the milking is complete, the adhvaryu pours water around the three fires, before boiling the collected milk on coals collected from the
gārhapatya. The
adhvaryu draws milk into the ladle, pouring it first onto the
āhavanῑya twice: first while reciting mantras, and the second silently as an offering to
Prajapati. The mantra for offering the milk during the evening is "
Agni is the light. The light is Agni,
svaha". (). In the morning,
Surya is substituted for Agni: (). When the
libations are complete, the ladle is cleaned with
Darbha grass and refilled with water. It is then heated on the
āhavanīya as additional mantras are recited, and poured onto the altar as an additional libation. In certain versions of the ritual (but not that contained in the Tattirīya Brahmana), this is followed by a blade of grass being offered to the
āhavanīya. When the ceremony is complete, the
adhvaryu sips some of the leftover water, recites the mantra "From
Rta I have found
Satya" and pours water on his head.
Ithihasa The
Brāhmaṇas give several explanations for the origin of the agnihotra. In one,
Prajapati creates
Agni, and then offers the sweat of his brow (which became ghee) or his eye after hearing his voice commanding himself to sacrifice, creating
Surya. The origin of the exclamation
svāhā, said as offerings are made into the sacrificial fire, is explained as a combination of
svā (own) and
āha (spoken). In another, the agnihotra is a condensed version of a thousand-year sacrifice
Prajapati and the other
devas performed to gain divine power. ==Agnihotra rituals in Nepal==