The pañcāgnividyā and the pitṛyāna/devayāna

Important issues aremostly treated in texts representing (almost) all theVedas. Sometimes theparallel passages showa chronological relation, since they seem to react on each other’s versions. In the case of the theme of the two paths to life after death we may expect a similar competition between the Vedas. Since this subject is connected with the theories of rebirth and release, which aremissing in oldVedism, it is only to be found in later Vedic texts (Upaniṣads and late sections in the Brāhmaṇas). Here it turns out indeed that all the Vedas contributed to the treatment of the topic. The theme consists of some subthemes. In order to analyse its development we first have to define these subthemes. The resulting sketch of the interrelation between the passages does not claim to trace the actual development of ideas on rebirth and release. It is quite possible that theories concerning these subjectswere formulatedoutside the classical circles of Vedic traditionand that the Vedic texts gradually accepted them. This gradual process of influencing may have been reflected in these textswhich continued to use old formulations and frames of reference. The subthemes are the following: 1. The connection with the Agnihotra ritual 2. The motif of the Kṣatriya who teaches the theory to a Brahmin 3. The description of the cycle of rebirths in the form of five symbolic sacrifices (Agnihotras) (the pañcāgnividyā) 4. The description of the journey to heaven with its tests and of the destiny of the rejected 5. The separation of the path of the released and of the one who will be reborn which already takes place on earth (the devayāna and the pitṛyāna) 6. The ultimate situation of the one who follows the devayāna.