Agnisala: Facts and Figures

Sunil Poudel
Sunil Poudel August 18, 2020
9 Min Read
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Nepal in overall is rich in art and artifacts. The three adjacent districts of Nepal i.e. Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhaktapur are known as the cities of MaThas.

In Lalitpur District, very close to the MaTha of purnachandi lies a place that most of the denizens of Kathmandu may not know.

In ancient times, most of the citizens of Patan use to take fire flame from this place. But people do not have one voice regarding how this AgnimaTha came into existence. This Agnisala bears Archaeological importance. According to Kaligata sambat, it is said to be established in 736.

There are five different fire pits where the fire is said to be established by five different methods. In this MaTha there are no sets of statues. According to the president of this Agnisala Mr. Nrigendra Rajbhandari, this MaTha was established before the culture of establishing statues in the MaTha.

This MaTha is conserved by Dev Brahmans (Agnihotris). There is no concept of the priest in this MaTha but the Agnihotris conserve the fire by not letting it extinguish.

There is no written fact regarding how and when this MaTha was established. But since the fire never extinguishes in this MaTha, it is known as Agimmaya or Agnisala in Newari language. This Agnisala is divided into three parts; they are the outer part, the inner part, and the Garva Griha.

In the outer part, there are the MaTha of Ganesh, the Ancient well, Shivalingam, a water tank, MaTha of Seshnarayan and a pati.

In the inner part there is a main entrance gate which is in the east direction, there is a roundabout in the middle of this place. From the roundabout we can behold of fire flame in the north direction from a window. In front of it there is a long stone which is believed to be the symbol of ‘the god of naagas‘. In the same way, adjacent to the door is a long stone which is believed to be a form of naaga that came from the NaagDaha.

On the west side of the roundabout, a residential home for Agnihotri has been made. In front of the house of Agnihotri lies a MaTha of Siddhalaxi (Purnachandi), on the north part of the wall lies a place for Bishowkarma Dev and adjacent to it is a great tree of barun.

What is Barun Tree?

According to legend, some five thousand years ago, two Brahmins Yoshodhar and Bidhyadhar came to this place near kumaripati. When they came, due to their old age, they were carrying walking stick along with them. It might have been a cold season, so they ignited a fire and they placed their stick on the ground. In the morning the sticks they had kept in the ground started propagating shoots and the fire they had ignited for the night hadn’t been extinguished. They believed that this place has a certain energy. Thus they left the stick there and did not even extinguish the fire. It is believed that this way the stick and fire has been ever since in that place.

Barun tree is believed to be the incarnation of Lord Shiva. The leaf of this tree is considered sacred for worshipping Lord Shiva during the time of Maha Shivaratri. The fruit of this tree is used for the treatment of kidney stones, removing the negative particles of body, uric acid, urine infection etc. It is believed that in ancient times the yogis who meditate for a long time used to consume this fruit before meditation.

Inside the Garva Griha, there are five kundas and they are Bishnukunda, Rudrakunda, Suryakunda, Brahmakunda and Savya kunda. In these kundas fire flame were established from Tantrik Methods which are still in existence.

Suryagni (the fire flame which was formed from the rays of Sun), Pashanagni (the fire flame which was formed from the stones), Kasthagni (the fire flames which are formed from the woods), Jalagni (the fire formed from water) and the Jatharagni ( the fire formed from the navel of a female). For the purpose of worshipping, a Naag Kalash brought from Sankhamul is used.

What is Naag Sadhana?

According to one of the famous artists Jeevan Rajopadhya who had seen the process during his young age remembers, ‘In kalasha they didn’t use to bring water but the Naag itself from a Tantrik method. There is a belief that the lid of the Kalas should not be opened at all. The person who carries this Kalas need to bear a lot of hardship when bringing it. Though the Kalas is small, it is very heavy. There is a special route for bringing this Kalas to the MaTha and while bringing it the person needs to walk non-stop and is not permitted to rest anywhere. The Naag Kalas thus brought is of prime importance and center of attraction even to this date. When the Agnihotri dies, it is believe that even the Naag inside the Kalas dies. There is a special route to carry the dead corpse of Agnihotri. From this special route, Agnihotri is taken to chovar for the last rituals. In around 2026B.S one of the Agnihotri had died and I had seen his funeral.’

According to the president of the management committee of this MaTha, Mr. Nrigendra Rajbhandari, ‘In 2026(B.S.),  after the main Agnihotri had died, during the process of Kalas sadhana and Tantra sadhana in the bank of Bagmati river at Sankhamul, there was scorching heat but when they started doing the Naag sadhana, the weather changed in to a cloudy one and after completing the Sadhana it had rained. After the Tantrik sadhana of around 15-20 minutes, the Tantrik had stated that the Naag had already come into the Kalas. After that from a special rout Kalas was brought to the Agnisala. The very same kalas after the death of Agnihotri, is taken to the crematory place and is burned along with the body of the Agnihotri.

But this time when this Agnihotri passes away, there is going to be the scarcity of Tantrik who knows this method and even Agnihotri himself might not be an eligible candidate and even his wife might not be able to produce fire from her navel. It might have happened due to the lineage not being transferred to another generation and people are not in the pure form to practice the sadhana.

Importance of Agnisala

This MaTha bears Archeological and historical importance. In this MaTha on the first of Magh (Makar Shankranti) a special festival is celebrated. In the month of Kartik, Kartik Mahatmya is celebrated. During the middle age, the Malla kings were also interested about the AgnimaTha and they had even published a book regarding this MaTha.

In the Agnisala, every morning there is a special prayer for the departed souls and forefathers. For doing the last rituals (Shraddha), no one is asked for their name and Gotra. There is a custom of not asking the Gotras and name for doing this rituals. It is done every morning.

An interesting fact; Agnikunda is half the size of the man. The people around this MaTha believe that all five of the Agnikunda are of same size as the wife of Agnihotri need to ignite fire from her navel (Jatharagni). Thus all five Agnikundas are of identical size.

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