Shrauta

Śrauta Brahmins specialize in the Sruti corpus of texts and have maintained the complex fire rituals of the Brahmanas in the Vedas, as described in the Śrauta Sutras. These rituals continue to be performed in coastal Andhra.

Classification

Shrauta traditions presently alive are:

Practices

The Shrauta tradition places more emphasis on the performance of rituals rather than having a set of beliefs. The practices of the Shrauta tradition mainly consist of yajnas. The yajnas are divided into two categories, nitya-karma and kaamya karma. Nitya-karma refers to those yajnas that have to be performed daily or as per occasion. Kaamya-karma refers to those yajnas performed with a particular purpose, such as wishing for rain, cattle, overlordship or for a son (e.g. Putrakameshti).