Shloka 23
Adhyāya 166: Kṛtaghna-doṣa (कृतघ्नदोषः) — the fault of ingratitude and the limits of expiation
प्राजापत्यमदत्त्वाश्चमग्न्याधेयस्य दक्षिणाम् । अनाहिताग्निरिति स प्रोच्यते धर्मदर्शिभि:,जो अग्निहोत्र आरम्भ करके प्रजापति देवताके लिये अश्वरूप दक्षिणाका दान नहीं करता, धर्मदर्शी पुरुष उसे अनाहिताग्नि कहते- हैं
prājāpatyam adattvāś ca agnyādheyasya dakṣiṇām | anāhitāgnir iti sa procyate dharmadarśibhiḥ ||
Bhīṣma sprach: Wer das Agnyādhāna-Ritual (die Errichtung der heiligen Feuer) beginnt, aber die vorgeschriebene, Prajāpati geweihte dakṣiṇā—die dakṣiṇā in Pferdegestalt—nicht gibt, wird von denen, die das Dharma wahrhaft erkennen, ‘anāhitāgni’ genannt (einer, der die Feuer nicht ordnungsgemäß errichtet hat).
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Ritual acts are incomplete without fulfilling their prescribed obligations—especially the proper dakṣiṇā. Merely lighting or commencing the sacred-fire rite does not confer the status of an ‘āhitāgni’ unless the rite is completed in accordance with dharma.
In Bhīṣma’s instruction on dharma in the Śānti Parva, he defines a normative standard: a person who starts Agnyādhāna but withholds the Prajāpati-related dakṣiṇā is judged by dharma-knowers as effectively ‘not having established the fires’ (anāhitāgni).