More Purnadhuti
April 15, 2007
The final offering in a yagya is called, as you saw in my previous post, purnadhuti. It is a mixture of various ingredients that is offered into the yagya fire at the end of a yagya. It is usually accompanied by special mantras and frequently, loud music when musicians are present. In looking through my collection of yagya photos, I came across several of the final offering and you can see the variety of ingredients.
In this first one, the offerings include a silk sari inside which are a variety of nuts, and herbs, bark, leaves, spices, etc.
This photo shows puffed rice, some dark brown dates, a dried coconut, some green betel leaves, and sesame seeds. These will be wrapped in the silk and offered as seen in the photo above.
The following photo gives an idea of how varied (and mysterious) the offerings can be! Other than the fruit I can’t really identify any of what is being included, but the priests go to great lengths to obtain every required ingredient and spend quite a bit of time and money to do so.
Once all this has been offered into the fire, they usually add quite a bit of wood and pour in the last but of ghee to make quite a blaze (as you can see below). Then the fire is very carefully tended to let itself burn out. The priests say “Agni is eating!” Once the fire is completely out, the ash is carefully saved as it is considered to retain much of the positive energy of the yagya.
