Agnikaryam () or Agnikarya is the act of offering oblations to the sacrificial fire of a

yajna In Hinduism, ''Yajna'' or ''Yagna'' (, Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ɐd͡ʒɲə ) also known as Hawan, is a ritual done in front of a sacred fire, often with mantras. Yajna has been a Vedas, Vedic tradition, described in a layer of Vedic literature ...

(ritual-fire ceremony) performed by brahmacharis (celibate bachelors).

Description

The agnikaryam is dedicated to and named after the god of fire,

Agni Agni ( ) is the Deva (Hinduism), Hindu god of fire. As the Guardians of the directions#Aṣṭa-Dikpāla ("Guardians of Eight Directions"), guardian deity of the southeast direction, he is typically found in southeast corners of Hindu temples. ...

. The fire of the agnikaryam is conceptualised as a cosmic element during the performance of the rite. It is featured in the text Sarasvati Suktam. The agnikaryam is performed with the help of ''samits'' or small wooden sticks or twigs usually of ''arali'' (''

Ficus religiosa ''Ficus religiosa'' or sacred fig is a species of fig native to the Indian subcontinent and Indochina that belongs to Moraceae, the fig or mulberry family. It is also known as the bodhi tree, bo tree, peepul tree, peepal tree, pipala tree or ...

'') tree. This homa is performed daily twice: once in the morning and again in the evening. These two are respectively called the ''pratah agnikaryam'' and the ''sayam agnikaryam''. The agnikaryam is also known as ''samidadhanam''. The method and

mantra A mantra ( ; Pali: ''mantra'') or mantram (Devanagari: मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words (most often in an Indo-Iranian language like Sanskrit or Avestan) belie ...

s of performing the agnikaryam are different for the

Rigveda The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' (, , from wikt:ऋच्, ऋच्, "praise" and wikt:वेद, वेद, "knowledge") is an ancient Indian Miscellany, collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canoni ...

and the

Yajurveda The ''Yajurveda'' (, , from यजुस्, "worship", and वेद, "knowledge") is the Veda primarily of prose mantras for worship rituals.Michael Witzel (2003), "Vedas and Upaniṣads", in ''The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism'' (Edito ...

References

{{Worship in Hinduism Yajna Hindu rituals Fire in Hindu worship