Śrauta
[8] A homa, in all its Asian variations, is a ceremonial ritual that offers food to fire and is ultimately descended from the Vedic religion.
[8] The tradition reflects a ritual eclecticism for fire and cooked food (Paka-yajna) that developed in Indian religions, and the Brahmana layers of the Vedas are the earliest surviving records of this.
[24] These texts are written aphoristic sutras style, and therefore are taxonomies or terse guidebooks rather than detailed manuals or handbooks for any ceremony.
[26] The Smartasutras, in ancient vedic and post-vedic literature, typically refer to the gṛhyasūtras (householder's rites of passage) and sāmayācārikasūtras (right way to live one's life with duties to self and to relationships with others, dharmaśāstras).
Their topics include instructions relating to the use of the śruti corpus in great rituals and the correct performance of these major vedic ceremonies, are same as those found in the Brahmana layers of the Vedas, but presented in more systematic and detailed manner.
— Apastamba Yajna Paribhasa-sutras 1.1, Translator: M Dhavamony[14][30]Baudhayana srautasutra is probably the oldest text in the śrautasūtra genre, and includes in its appendix a paribhāṣāsūtra (definitions, glossary section).
[31] The śulbasūtras or śulvasūtras are appendices in the śrautasūtras and deal with the mathematical methodology to construct geometries for the vedi (Vedic altar).
[33] They provide, states Kim Plofker, what in modern mathematical terminology would be called "area preserving transformations of plane figures", tersely describing geometric formulae and constants.
[44] The discussions about substituting animal sacrifice with vegetarian offering, states Usha Grover, appear in section 1.2.3 of the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajurveda.
[45] This section, states Grover, presents the progressive change in the material offered to gods during a Śrauta ritual.
[45] The change, adds Grover, may be related to Ahimsa (non-violence principle), or merely a means to preserve the number of cattle, or lack of availability of sacrificial animals.
However, according to Grover, the ancient text suggests that "animal sacrifice was given up", and offering had become "vegetable, grains, milk and ghee".
[47] This period saw a shift from Śrauta sacrifices to charitable grant of gifts such as giving cows, land, issuing endowments to build temples and sattrani (feeding houses), and water tanks as part of religious ceremonies.
[50] Some Śrauta traditions have been observed and studied by scholars, as in the rural parts of Andhra Pradesh, and elsewhere in India and Nepal.
[4][58] Women reciting mantras at śrauta ceremonies of Hinduism from ancient times have been suggested by a number of scholars such as Mary McGee, Stephanie Jamison, Katherine Young, and Laurie Patton.
[61][62] The Śrauta rituals were complex and expensive, states Robert Bellah, and "we should not forget that the rites were created for royalty and nobility".
[64] The Upanishads, states Brian Smith, were a movement towards the demise of the Śrauta-style social rituals and the worldview these rites represented.
The formulation of a monistic philosophy of ultimate identity – arguably one indication of Vedism dissipating and reforming into a new systematic vision of the world and its fundamental principles – was born outside the normative classification schema of Vedic social life and became institutionalized as a counterpoint to life in the world.
[71] Bodewitz states that this reflects the stage in ancient Indian thought where "the self or the person as a totality became central, with the self or soul as the manifestation of the highest principle or god".
