[Advaita-l] pAni agni - A rigvedic practice

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms
Hare Krishna

It is not relating to advaita vedAnta  of shankara but relating to the 'dharma/karma jignAsa.

I was talking to Sri Anand Hudli prabhuji about 'agni' in the palm of Rigvedi-s in Face Book and asked for some clarification.  It seems he is busy, hence I am posing this question to the group.  Any pointers with reference would be helpful.

In Rigveda AshvalAyana, the existing practice is that they don't do any hOma kArya during the shraddha because of the belief that they have the agni in palm hence they will do only pANi hOma.  Sri Ananda Hudli prabhuji said that since the right hand of a brAhmaNa has agni in the normal case he will do the pANi hOma.  I again asked him the clarification whether 'agni in hand' is applicable to every brAhmaNa or only rigvedi brAhmaNa??  And whether pANi homa practice is observed only in shrAddhAdi karma or in all vaidika karma??  Since I have attended somany Rigveda prayOga as well as a ritvik (sva-shAkha is yajurveda, Apasthambha) I saw this practice only in shrAddha karma.  In all other vaidika shanti and samskAra karma-s rigvedi-s would do agni pratishtApana with the formalities of AshvalAyana agnimukha prayOga and name the agni differently for different purposes.  For example during choula hOma (during upanayana) the agni is called 'sabhya', 'samuddhava' for upanayana pradhAna hOma.  Likewise, for samAvartana, vivAha vihita hOma-s we do the pratishtApana of agni with different names.

My questions is why this pAni hOma practice existing in only shrAddha karma  and need more detail on this pAni agni.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar