Agnicayana

'over-night piling up of the fire')[1] or Athirathram (Malayalam: അതിരാത്രം) is a category of advanced Śrauta rituals.

After one has established the routine of the twice-daily routine of Agnihotra offerings and biweekly darśa-purna-masa offerings (Full and New Moon rites), one is eligible to perform the Agnistoma, the simplest soma rite.

The immediate purpose of the Agnicayana is to build up for the sacrificer an immortal body that is permanently beyond the reach of the transitory nature of life, suffering and death that, according to this rite, characterizes man's mortal existence.

[9] The ritual emerged from predecessor rituals, which were incorporated as building blocks, around the 10th century BCE,[citation needed] and was likely continuously practiced until the late Vedic period, or the 6th century BCE.

[citation needed] In post-Vedic times, there were various revivals of the practice, under the Gupta Empire in the north (ca.