Atiratra Agnicayana (Atiratra Yagnam)
The Atiratra Agnicayana (ati-rātrá agní-cayana "the building up of the fireplace performed over-night") or Athirathram (Malayalam: അതിരാത്രം); the piling of the altar of Agni is a Śrauta ritual of the Vedic religion, the predecessor of modern day Hinduism which is considered to be the greatest ritual as per the Vedic ritual hierarchy. It is also the world's oldest surviving ritual.Its mantras
and theological explanations in the Brahmana texts are first attested
in the Yajurveda Samhitas (Taittiriya, Kathaka; Vajasaneyi). The
practice of this ritual was generally discontinued among Brahmins
by the late Vedic period, during the rise of Jainism and Buddhism in
India. Nevertheless, a continuous, unbroken 3,000 year tradition has
been found to exist among a few Nambudiri Brahmin families in Kerala, South India.
Overview
The entire ritual takes twelve days to perform, in the course of which a great bird-shaped altar, the uttaravedi "northern altar" is built out of 10,800 bricks. The liturgical text is in chapters 11 to 18 of the White Yajurveda; the corresponding exposition of the ritual is in Books 6 to 9 of the Shatapatha Brahmana.
The original essence and purpose of the ritual is not correctly known.
But, the immediate practical purpose of the Agnicayana is to build up
for the sacrificer an immortal body that is permanently beyond the
reach of the transitoriness, suffering, and death that, according to
this rite, characterize man's mortal existence.
The ritual emerged from predecessor rituals, which were incorporated
as building blocks, around the 10th century BC, and was likely
continuously practiced until the late Vedic period, or the 6th century BC. In post-Vedic times, there were various revivals of the practice, under the Gupta Empire in the north (ca. 4th to 6th century), and under the Chola Empire
in the south (ca. 9th century), but by the 11th century, the practice
was held to have been discontinued; except for the Nambudiris of Kerala.
To observe the ritual, goat sacrifice is essential.Since animal sacrifice is frowned upon by the Hindu society since the
end of Vedic age and is a punishable offense in modern India, all
documented Agnicayanas have been performed without this and may be
deemed incomplete.
In 1975 Indologist Frits Staal documented in great detail the performance of an Agnicayana conducted performed by Nambudiri Brahmins according to Samaveda traditionat Panjal, Kerala.
The last performance before that had been in 1956, and the Nambudiris
were concerned that the ritual was threatened by extinction. It had
never before been observed by outsiders. In exchange for a financial
participation of the scholars towards the cost of the ritual, the
Nambudiris agreed that it should be filmed and recorded. The ritual was
performed from 12 to 24 April 1975. An effigy was used to symbolize the
goat sacrifice. Staal (1989) bases a general analysis of the similarities of grammar and ritual on this performance.
After the 1975 Agnicayana, there have been several more Nambudiri performances: in 1990 Agnicayana at Kundoor, and in 2006 at Sukapuram.Belief holds Sukapuram to be one among the 64 villages originally established by Parashurama, the sixth avatar of Vishnu after creating Kerala by throwing his axe into the ocean. The Somayagam (Agnistoma) was performed for the first time in 222 years at Aluva from 25 April till 1 May 2009.
An Athirathram Yagna was conducted at Panjal ( Trichur district,
Kerala), home to most of the yagnas in Kerala including the 1975 one
and where most of Samavedic Namboodiris reside from April 4–14, 2011.
