Posted: March 18th, 2022

Altar of Fire

Altar of Fire
The documentary Altar fire documents the events of a ritual that took about 12 days to perform. Looking at the number of days and the time that the film runs one would argue that it is a highly abbreviated presentation of the events. When looking at the temples of the time one could see that they were made of temporary structures, but the alter temples were made of permanent structures. The altars were made of clay. The priests are the ones that make the calls for the gods to come down and take part in the sacrifices. The priest sits while the observers stand. The ceremony does not include women and the only woman is the wife of the Ajamaha. There does not seem to be much difference between the priests and the observers in terms of the dress. All of them are dressed in wrappers around their waist. However one thing that seems different between the priests and the observers is the roles that they are engaged in. it is the priest that seem to chant the vernacular liturgy while the others are just quiet and just watching as the process goes on. There is quite a difference when looking at the two religions Buddhism and Jainism. While Buddhism is based on the life teaching of Quatama Buddha, Jainism is based on the life teaching of Mahavira. In addition, as the rituals show, Jainism is a polytheistic religion and the goal is to achieve a nonviolent liberation of the soul. On the other hand Buddhism is a polytheistic religion that has the main goal being enlightenment. It is seen that during this ceremony there is the sacrifice of human body parts to the deity. The process of building the altar takes about 12 days.
The priest is the only person that knows the charting that they make. The priest has been able to reconstruct the Liturgy. There is something peculiar about the mantra. The priests have to memories it and say it the right way. They seem to have a good memory to be able to memories the mantra and be able to recite it in the right way. In the process of reciting the mantra the focus is on calling the gods to come and take part in the process.
The ritual is said to have come to India in the 1500 BC and was brought by the Nomads that spoke the Indo-European language. They evolved complex rituals that involved the cultures of soma and fire. Some of the later religions of India accepted the Vedic culture. The Hinduism accepted in while the Buddhism rejected it. That is the reason that one can see a clear difference between the religious culture of Hindus and that of the Buddhists. Despite the difference most of these religions still retained most of the rituals and recitations that were practiced during this period. Traveling though Asia one can see that people still worship Agni the fire by following Vedic mantras.
Culture is an important thing and would often explain the origin of the society. Looking at the documentary one cannot fail to appreciate the culture of these people. It clearly shows their beliefs in the deities and how they have been able to keep these religions for such a long time. Though the documentary is short it still show much about the people

Works cited
Aangirasa. “Altar of Fire Documentary Full.” YouTube. N.p., 2016. Web. 17 Apr. 2018.

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