Effect of Agnihotra on the germination of rice seeds

Abstract

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Vedic ritualistic sacrifices have been in vogue in India since time immemorial. Recently they have become very popular around the globe because of their therapeutic values. An important component of these sacrifices are the <i style="">mantras</i>, which are sound forms reputed to contain mystic energy. The most common sacrifice still being practiced in India is the <i style="">Agnihotra</i>, which involves ritual offerings to the fire at sunrise and sunset to the accompaniment of specific <i style="">mantras</i>.

This practice was revived in Akkalkot, Maharashtra, and is being popularized throughout the country. In the current investigation, rice seeds were germinated in four rooms in petridishes for a period of 15 days. One room was used as the control with germination under normal conditions. A fire was lit in a second room for a specified period at sunrise and sunset. In a third room, Agnihotra <i style="">mantras</i> were chanted at the same time of the day, but no fire was lit. The last room was the experimental room, in which the full Agnihotra ritual, with fire and <i style="">mantra</i>, was conducted at sunrise and sunset.

Three sets of data were collected for three seasons, autumn, winter and summer for a period of 15 days each. Four parameters, viz. Root length, shoot length, fresh weight and dry weight were measured. An analysis of the data showed that the Agnihotra sacrifice with <i style="">mantra</i> was overwhelmingly more effective in the germination process than the other three cases. Statistical analysis of the data using the standard SPSS package corroborated this conclusion.

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