The
Atiratra Agnicayana ( "the building up of the fireplace performed overnight") or
Athirathram is the piling of the
altar of
Agni. It is a
Srauta ritual of the
Vedic religion and is considered to be the greatest ritual as per the Vedic ritual hierarchy. It has been claimed as the world's oldest surviving ritual. Its
mantras are first attested in the
Yajurveda Samhitas (Taittiriya, Kathaka; Vajasaneyi) of the
Kuru Kingdom, c.1000 BCE, and its theological explanations are in the
Brahmana texts. The practice of this ritual was generally discontinued among
Brahmins by the late Vedic period, during the rise of Jainism and Buddhism in India. Nevertheless, a continuous, unbroken 3,000 year tradition has been claimed to exist among a few
Nambudiri Brahmin families in
Kerala,
South India.