click for more info
It is not really a baptism by fire nor is it playing with fire. In fact, it is a homage paid to the lord of fire. Athirathram, the world's 'oldest Vedic ritual', which means constructing a fireplace and performing yagna or yajna (an oblation conducted overnight) returns to a quaint village called Panjal in Thrissur district in Kerala after 35 years.
The 12-day ritual was officially discontinued in the late Vedic period at a time when Jainism and Buddhism was on the rise in India. Nevertheless, a few Namboodiri Brahmin families in Kerala kept up an unbroken 3,000-year tradition and this edition of the ritual begins today. It is not a myth if you think so. It is just that a few individuals have come together to form a trust to put the clock back 5000 years to perform rituals that many scholars regard as inseparable from the myth surrounding athirathram.
There are many including the one called Putrakameshti (blessing the childless couples). But that isn't first on the priority list of the members of the Varthathe Trust, formed by a group of individuals from India and abroad who think alike. The yagna has more universal ideas to implement in its wish list.
Says Dr Sivakaran Namboothiri, an Ayurvedic doctor and a participant of this large-scale Somayagna: "The yagam hopes to achieve two goals, propitiate world peace, and energise and protect the environment by destroying undesirable elements. Fire is believed to cleanse, and that is what this ritual is all about."
It involves the chanting of selected mantras from three Vedas, the ancient sacred texts of Hinduism, Rig, Yajur and Sama. Beginning today, the yagna will be conducted by the best in the business, where 'best' means the only ones who can recite the mantras impeccably.
At the time this correspondent visited the village the Yajaman or the main conductor, Puthillathu Ramanajan Somayaji, a frail 77 year-old who seldom betrays the fact that he is graduate and has worked in a bank, was training a group of Vedic scholars to chant the Sama Vedas with the right intonation for maximum positive impact on the environment. When the world is being ravaged by repeated disasters from earthquakes to tsunamis, from civil wars to nuclear leaks Somayaji will invoke the forces of fire to preserve the flora and fauna of the earth.
And what better time than this warm month of spring to conduct this mammoth feat that stands on the thin line that divides myth from reality. About 5000 years ag, sometime after our ancestors had controlled fire and accepted it as a deity, but long before they were telling ghost stories, mankind in these parts of the world huddled around a fireplace to meditate and partake in spiritualistic rituals.
Today, when we slow down for a yellow light on the road, relish the glow of the metal gold or do anything, really, that involves working memories about gold, we have these ancient brainstorming sessions to thank. And it is the yellow of a fire that will exude a mystical smoke that will ward off all evils. Psychologists like Matt J. Rossano have often argued that ritualistic gatherings sharpened mental focus.
There are many including the one called Putrakameshti (blessing the childless couples). But that isn't first on the priority list of the members of the Varthathe Trust, formed by a group of individuals from India and abroad who think alike. The yagna has more universal ideas to implement in its wish list.
Says Dr Sivakaran Namboothiri, an Ayurvedic doctor and a participant of this large-scale Somayagna: "The yagam hopes to achieve two goals, propitiate world peace, and energise and protect the environment by destroying undesirable elements. Fire is believed to cleanse, and that is what this ritual is all about."
It involves the chanting of selected mantras from three Vedas, the ancient sacred texts of Hinduism, Rig, Yajur and Sama. Beginning today, the yagna will be conducted by the best in the business, where 'best' means the only ones who can recite the mantras impeccably.
At the time this correspondent visited the village the Yajaman or the main conductor, Puthillathu Ramanajan Somayaji, a frail 77 year-old who seldom betrays the fact that he is graduate and has worked in a bank, was training a group of Vedic scholars to chant the Sama Vedas with the right intonation for maximum positive impact on the environment. When the world is being ravaged by repeated disasters from earthquakes to tsunamis, from civil wars to nuclear leaks Somayaji will invoke the forces of fire to preserve the flora and fauna of the earth.
And what better time than this warm month of spring to conduct this mammoth feat that stands on the thin line that divides myth from reality. About 5000 years ag, sometime after our ancestors had controlled fire and accepted it as a deity, but long before they were telling ghost stories, mankind in these parts of the world huddled around a fireplace to meditate and partake in spiritualistic rituals.
Today, when we slow down for a yellow light on the road, relish the glow of the metal gold or do anything, really, that involves working memories about gold, we have these ancient brainstorming sessions to thank. And it is the yellow of a fire that will exude a mystical smoke that will ward off all evils. Psychologists like Matt J. Rossano have often argued that ritualistic gatherings sharpened mental focus.
