Homa (ritual)

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A homa being performed

Homa is a Sanskrit word that refers to a ritual, wherein an oblation or any
religious offering is made into fire.[1][2] A homa is sometimes called a "sacrifice
ritual" because the fire destroys the offering, but a homa is more accurately a
"votive ritual".[1] The fire is the agent, and the offerings include those that are
material and symbolic such as grains, clarified butter, milk, incense and seeds.[1]
[3]

It is rooted in the Vedic religion,[4] and was adopted in ancient times by Buddhism
and Jainism.[1][3] The practice spread from India to Central Asia, East Asia and
Southeast Asia.[1] Homa rituals remain an important part of many Hindu ceremonies,
and variations of homa continue to be practiced in current-day Buddhism,
particularly in parts of Tibet and Japan.[4][5] It is also found in modern Jainism.
[4][6]

A homa ritual is known by alternative names, such as yajna in Hinduism which

sometimes means larger public fire rituals, or jajnavidhana or goma in Buddhism.[3]
[7] In modern times, a homa or havana tends to be a private ritual around a
symbolic fire, such as those observed at a wedding.[8]

Contents
1 Etymology
2 History
3 Hinduism
4 Buddhism
5 Jainism
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Etymology
The Sanskrit word homa (???) is from the root hu, which refers to "pouring into
fire, offer, sacrifice".[9][10][11]

History
Homa traditions are found all across Asia, from Samarkand to Japan, over a 3000-
year history.[4] A homa, in all its Asian variations, is a ceremonial ritual that
offers food to fire and is ultimately linked to the traditions contained in the
Vedic religion.[4] The tradition reflects a reverence for fire and cooked food
(pakayaj�a) that developed in Asia, and the Brahmana layers of the Vedas are the
earliest records of this ritual reverence.[12]

Inner Homa, body as temple

Therefore the first food which a man may take,
is in the place of Homa.
And he who offers that first oblation,
should offer it to Prana, saying svaha!
Then Prana is satisfied.
If Prana is satisfied, the eye is satisfied.
If eye is satisfied, the sun is satisfied.
If sun is satisfied, heaven is satisfied.

� Chandogya Upanishad 5.19.1�2

Transl: Max Muller[13][14]
The yaj�a or fire sacrifice became a distinct feature of the early sruti rituals.
[4] A srauta ritual is a form of quid pro quo where through the fire ritual, a
sacrificer offered something to the gods and goddesses, and the sacrificer expected
something in return.[15][16] The Vedic ritual consisted of sacrificial offerings of
something edible or drinkable,[17] such as milk, clarified butter, yoghurt, rice,
barley, an animal, or anything of value, offered to the gods with the assistance of
fire priests.[18][19] This Vedic tradition split into srauta (sruti-based) and
Smarta (Sm?ti-based).[4]

The homa ritual practices were observed by different Buddhist and Jaina traditions,
states Phyllis Granoff, with their texts appropriating the "ritual eclecticism" of
Hindu traditions, albeit with variations that evolved through medieval times.[4][6]
[20] The homa-style Vedic sacrifice ritual, states Musashi Tachikawa, was absorbed
into Mahayana Buddhism and homa rituals continue to be performed in some Buddhist
traditions in Tibet, China and Japan.[5][21]

Hinduism
A homa altar with offerings
A Hindu homa in progress
A homa altar with offerings (top), and a ceremony in progress
The homa ritual grammar is common to many sanskara (rite of passage) ceremonies in
various Hindu traditions.[22][23][24] The Vedic fire ritual, at the core of various
homa ritual variations in Hinduism, is a "bilaterally symmetrical" structure of a
rite.[25] It often combines fire and water, burnt offerings and soma, fire as
masculine, earth and water as feminine, the fire vertical and reaching upwards,
while the altar, offerings and liquids being horizontal.[25] The homa ritual's
altar (fire pit) is itself a symmetry, most often a square, a design principle that
is also at the heart of temples and mandapas in Indian religions.[26] The sequence
of homa ritual events similarly, from beginning to end, are structured around the
principles of symmetry.[25] ).[25]

The fire-altar (vedi or homa/havan kunda) is generally made of brick or stone or a

copper vessel, and is almost always built specifically for the occasion, being
dismantled immediately afterwards. This fire-altar is invariably built in square
shape. While very large vedis are occasionally built for major public homas, the
usual altar may be as small as 1 � 1 foot square and rarely exceeds 3 � 3 feet
square.[citation needed]

A ritual space of homa, the altar is temporary and movable.[1] The first step in a
homa ritual is the construction of the ritual enclosure (mandapa), and the last
step is its deconstruction.[1] The altar and mandapa is consecrated by a priest,
creating a sacred space for the ritual ceremony, with recitation of mantras. With
hymns sung, the fire is started, offerings collected. The sacrificer enters,
symbolically cleanses himself or herself, with water, joins the homa ritual, gods
invited, prayers recited, conch shell blown. The sacrificers pour offerings and
libations into the fire, with hymns sung, to the sounds of svaha.[27] The oblations
and offerings typically consist of clarified butter (ghee), milk, curd, sugar,
saffron, grains, coconut, perfumed water, incense, seeds, petals and herbs.[28][29]

The altar and the ritual is a symbolic representation of the Hindu cosmology, a
link between reality and the worlds of gods and living beings.[10] The ritual is
also a symmetric exchange, a "quid pro quo", where humans offer something to the
gods through the medium of fire, and in return expect that the gods will
reciprocate with strength and that which they have power to influence.[10][16]

Buddhism
Shingon homa
Conch shell for Japanese homa
Shingon Buddhist priests practice homa ritual, which sometimes includes beating
drums and blowing horagai (lower, conch).[30][31]
The homa (??, goma) ritual of consecrated fire is found in some Buddhist traditions
of Tibet, China and Japan.[5][21] Its roots are the Vedic ritual, it evokes
Buddhist deities, and is performed by qualified Buddhist priests.[5][32] In Chinese
translations of Buddhist texts such as Kutadanta Sutta, Dighanikaya and
Suttanipata, dated to be from the 6th to 8th century, the Vedic homa practice is
attributed to Buddha's endorsement along with the claim that Buddha was the
original teacher of the Vedas in his previous lives.[32]

In some Buddhist homa traditions, such as in Japan, the central deity invoked in
this ritual is usually Acalanatha (Fudo Myoo ????, lit. immovable wisdom king).
Acalanatha is another name for the god Rudra in the Vedic tradition, for Vajrapani
or Chakdor in Tibetan traditions, and of Sotshirvani in Siberia.[33][34] The Acala
Homa ritual procedure follows the same Vedic protocols found in Hinduism, with
offerings into the fire by priests who recite mantras being the main part of the
ritual and the devotees clap hands as different rounds of hymns have been recited.
[35] Other versions of the Vedic homa (goma) rituals are found in the Tendai and
Shingon Buddhist traditions as well as in Shugendo and Shinto in Japan.[36][37][38]

In most Shingon temples, this ritual is performed daily in the morning or the
afternoon, and is a requirement for all acharyas to learn this ritual upon entering
the priesthood.[39] The original medieval era texts of the goma rituals are in
Siddham Sanskrit seed words and Chinese, with added Japanese katakana to assist the
priests in proper pronunciation.[40] Larger scale ceremonies often include multiple
priests, chanting, the beating of Taiko drums and blowing of conch shell (horagai)
around the mandala with fire as the ceremonial focus.[30][31] Homa rituals (sbyin
sreg) widely feature in Tibetan Buddhism and B�n and are linked to a variety of
Mahayana Buddhas and tantric deities.[41]

Jainism
Homa rituals are also found in Jainism.[4][6] For example, the Ghantakarn ritual is
a homa sacrifice, which has evolved over the centuries, and where ritual offerings
are made into fire, with pancamrit (milk, curd, sugar, saffron and clarified
butter) and other symbolic items such as coconut, incense, seeds and herbs.[42][43]
The mantra recited by Jains include those in Sanskrit, and the 16th-century
Svetambara text Ghantakarna Mantra Stotra is a Sanskrit text which describes the
homa ritual dedicated to Ghantakarna Mahavira in one of the Jaina sects.[42][44]

The Adipurana of Jainism, in section 47.348, describes a Vedic fire ritual in the
memory of Rishabha.[45] Traditional Jaina wedding ceremonies, like among the
Hindus, is a Vedic fire sacrifice ritual.[43][46]
See also
Dhuni
Holocaust (sacrifice)
Kupala Night
Lag BaOmer
Walpurgis Night
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External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Homa fire.
Organization for promoting Homas
Agnihotra Firehoma
Association for Homa-Therapy agnihotra-online.com
Tantric Fire
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