{"id":6353,"date":"2011-04-16T07:24:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-16T07:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eastrovedica.com\/wordpress\/?p=6353"},"modified":"2011-04-16T07:24:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-16T07:24:00","slug":"athirathram-at-panjal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eastrovedica.com\/wordpress\/?p=6353","title":{"rendered":"Athirathram at Panjal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"480\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/G6hW1KTqQto\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>After 12 days of chanting mantras and peforming Homam, rain lashed the Kerala village, as the Vedic fire ritual ended yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>I could see the black clouds hovering around 0600 PM at Trichur. I was aware of the Athirathram which concluded yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>Along with virtue, Athirathram is the age old Fire Festival which will bring in rains and good harvest. Inevitably, there is rain on the last day everytime it is performed, <br \/>after the Yaga Shala is set on fire and yesterday again it was proved to be true.<\/p>\n<p>In 1975, Frits Staal, Indologist and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and South\/Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley documented the ritual in a two-volume Vedic treatise &#8212; &#8220;Agni: The Vedic Ritual of the Fire Altar&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>200,000 people had assembled at the Yaga Shala and they erupted into thunderous applause as rain fell. <\/p>\n<p>Fritz Staal thanked the scholars for sharing their knowledge. <\/p>\n<p>The venue was selected based on  geographic and Vaasthu principles.  The Yagashala is uniquely positioned to imbibe the Solar Energy , which has made Panjal the venue for key Yagas in Kerala in the past. <\/p>\n<p>Staal, 81, , watched the proceedings from behind an enclosure. &#8220;Not much has changed. The ritual is alive and well. But it is a real pleasure to be back to Thrissur.&#8221; said he. <\/p>\n<p>A team from Harvard University led by professor Micheal Witzel is also studying the Sama Vedic chants. &#8220;It is one of the oldest living Vedic traditions and has not changed much,&#8221; Witzel said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After 12 days of chanting mantras and peforming Homam, rain lashed the Kerala village, as the Vedic fire ritual ended yesterday. I could see the black clouds hovering around 0600 PM at Trichur. I was aware of the Athirathram which concluded yesterday. Along with virtue, Athirathram is the age old Fire Festival which will bring &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eastrovedica.com\/wordpress\/?p=6353\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Athirathram at Panjal&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eastrovedica.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eastrovedica.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eastrovedica.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eastrovedica.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eastrovedica.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eastrovedica.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6353\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eastrovedica.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eastrovedica.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eastrovedica.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}