Shloka 23
Adhyāya 166: Kṛtaghna-doṣa (कृतघ्नदोषः) — the fault of ingratitude and the limits of expiation
प्राजापत्यमदत्त्वाश्चमग्न्याधेयस्य दक्षिणाम् । अनाहिताग्निरिति स प्रोच्यते धर्मदर्शिभि:
prājāpatyam adattvāś ca agnyādheyasya dakṣiṇām | anāhitāgnir iti sa procyate dharmadarśibhiḥ ||
भीष्म बोले— जो अग्न्याधान का आरम्भ करके प्रजापति के लिए नियत दक्षिणा (अश्व-रूप दक्षिणा) नहीं देता, उसे धर्मदर्शी पुरुष ‘अनाहिताग्नि’ कहते हैं।
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).