The Atiratra Agnicayana or piling of the altar of Agni is an ancient ritual of Vedic religion. The entire ritual takes twelve days to perform, in the course of which a great bird-shaped altar is built out of more than a thousand bricks.

In 1975 Indologist Frits Staal documented in great detail the performance of an Agnicayana performed by Nambudiri Brahmins in Kerala. The last performance before that had been in 1956, and the Nambudiris were concerned that the ritual was threatened by extinction. It had never before been observerd by outsiders. In exchange for a financial participation of the scholars towards the cost of the ritual, the Nambudiris agreed that it should be filmed and recorded. The ritual was performed from 12 to 14 April, 1975.

After the 1975 Agnicayana, there have been three Nambudiri shrauta rituals, the 1984 Agnistoma at Trivandrum, the 1990 Agnicayana at Kundoor, and the 2003 Agnistoma at Trichur, all from native resources.

References

• Frits Staal, Agni, the Vedic ritual of the fire altar (1983).
• Itti Ravi Mamunne, Agni and the Foreign Savants EJVS 10 (2003)