Dhuni

(from Sanskrit dhu, “to ignite”) A
smoldering fire that is kept burning by
ascetics. This fire serves multiple purposes in ascetic life: It is a means to
stay warm in cold climates, a means to
perform physical asceticism by withstanding heat, particularly in the summer, and its care and tending is also a
form of religious observance. The
dhuni is a natural gathering place, and
for many ascetics it is the center of
ascetic life, providing heat for warmth,
a fire for cooking and making tea, and
coals for lighting the chillum, a
straight pipe used to smoke tobacco
mixed with hashish (charas). The fire
itself is seen as the deity Agni in material form. Agni is a witness to the conversation around the dhuni, which
should be of a serious and spiritual
nature. The dhuni’s sacred character
can be seen by certain restrictions that
were designed to maintain its purity:
one should not blow directly on the
fire (lest some saliva should contaminate it), but through a tube used for
this purpose; one should keep clean
the boundary around the dhuni (usually of made of hardened clay); and
one should not touch this boundary
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Dhuni
Ascetics gather around a dhuni, a smoldering fire used to stay warm and perform ascetic rituals.
with one’s feet. Certain ascetic centers
have a long history of a continuous fire.
One such example is the sacred village
Triyuginarayan in the Himalayas, where
a fire is claimed to have been burning for
the past three cosmic ages (yugas).