Panchamahayajna

(“[the] five great sacrifices”) Set of
five ritual actions—brahmayajna, pitryajna, devayajna, bhutayajna, and
nryajana—that are prescribed in the
dharma literature, (texts on religious
duty). These five actions are prescribed
daily religious observances for a “twiceborn” householder, that is, a householder
who has been born into one of the three
“twice-born” groups in Indian society—
brahmin, kshatriya, or vaishya—and
who has received the adolescent religious initiation known as the “second
birth.” Each sacrifice (yajna) is directed
toward a different class of beings—from
the Absolute Reality down to animals—
and is satisfied by different actions: to
Brahman by teaching and studying the
Veda, to the ancestral spirits (pitr) by
offerings of water (tarpana), to the gods
(deva) by offering clarified butter into
the sacred fire, to the animals and social
outcasts (bhut) by putting out food for
them, and to human beings (nr) by
showing hospitality to guests. In the
time since the dharma literature was
composed, Hindu life has seen significant changes in emphasis, and although
some of these are still important in
modern Hindu life—particularly the
stress on hospitality to guests—in most
cases the others have been either elided
or replaced by other religious forms.