The Agni akhara was first established in
Benares, and this remains their most
important site. All of the akharas have
particular features that define their
organizational identity, including
specific patron deities; the Agni akhara’s
patron deity is the goddessGayatri,
considered the embodiment of the
Gayatri Mantra.
Agnihotra
(“fire sacrifice”) Religious rite in
which offerings are made to the
sacred fire, considered to be the god
Agniin material form. The term can
also refer to the maintenance and care
of the sacred fire itself. The roots of
worshipbased on a sacrificial fire go
back to the Vedas, the oldest and most
authoritative Hindu sacred texts. This
type of worship is still present in mod-
ern times, although much diminished
in emphasis.
Agnikula
(“fire lineage”) A collective name for
the four main clans of Rajputs
(warrior princes): the Pariharas,
Chauhans, Solankis, and Pawars.
According to tradition, this collective
name refers to the Rajputs’ descent
from a single mythical king
who had arisen from a sacrificial fire
pit at Mount Abu in the state
of Rajasthan. Although their
historical origin is unclear, these
four clans ruled over much of
northwestern India, either as
independent kings or feudal vassals,
after their appearance at the end
of the first millennium. The Pariharas
ruled southern Rajasthan. The
Chauhans ruled the region around
Delhi. The Solankis ruled in Gujarat.
The Pawars ruled in western Madhya
Pradesh. Although their days as
warrior princes have passed, they
remain influential in politics, both
as politicians and as constituent
communities.
Agnipradakshinam
(“circling the fire”) A common rite in
many modern Hindu marriage cere-
monies, usually performed as part of
the saptapadi, in which the bride and
groom take seven steps to definitively
seal their marriage. The saptapadi and
the agnipradakshinam are combined so
that the bride and groom make seven
revolutions around a small fire. As the
god Agni, the fire is the divine witness to
the marriage bond between bride and
groom, a bond often symbolized by
tying the end of the groom’s turban to
the fringe of the bride’s sari. The fire is
also a sign that the celebration of mar-
riage is a yajna, or sacrificial rite.Agnipravesha
(“entering fire”) Death by fire, which
could occur in several different contexts.
This was often used to refer to the
practice of sati, in which a widowwould
be burned on her husband’s funeral pyre.
Death by fire was also one of the man-
dated forms of religious suicide; this
could be done either as a means of relief
for someone afflicted by an incurable
disease, or as part of certain rites of
sacrificesuch as the sarvasvara, which
was performed to send the sacrificer
to heaven. By the beginning of the
eighteenth century, religious suicide had
been condemned and had fallen into
disuse. In the nineteenth century, British
horror at the practice of sati led them to
ban it wherever they were able to do so.Agnishtoma
Particular rite of sacrificeprescribed
in the later strands of the Vedas, the
earliest Hindu sacred texts. The
agnishtoma was most often performed
in the early spring and was dedicated
to the Vedic god Agni(fire). The rite’s
two central elements were the press-
ing and consumption of the mysteri-
ous sacrificial drink called soma(seen
as a material form of the Vedic god
Soma), and the slaughter of sacrificial
animals, which were burned on theAgnihotra