Ahnika is an act performed in a day or daily routine of rituals. Ahnika can be derived in two ways –
- As a thing that relates to a day (through the derivation ahni Bhava)
- As an act that can be done in a day (through the derivation ahna nirvrittah sadhyah).
There are several interpretations for the word ahah mentioned in the texts on Dharmashastra, besides Vedas. Sometimes, the word ahah is distinguished from night and sometimes it stands for the period from sunrise to sunrise. Rig Veda (VI 901) mentions night as the dark day and the day as the bright day. The day time is again divided into parts such as purvahna (the period before noon) and aparahna (afternoon). Daytime is also divided into three parts morning, mid-day and evening which correspond to the three libations of soma juice in pratahsavana, madhyandinasavana and tritiya or sayam savanna as mentioned in Rig Veda (III 53.8).
The day of twelve hours was often divided into five parts, namely, pratah or udaya (sunrise), sangava, madhyandina (midday), aparahna (afternoon) and sayana or astagamana or sayam evening. Each of these five parts of the time will be equal to three muhurtas.
Many of the smritis, however, divide daytime into eight parts. Daksha (II 4-5) divides the day into eight parts and then treats, at length, the duties to be performed during those eight parts and enjoins that the king should assign three parts after the first to the investigation of judicial proceedings.
The actions to be performed in each day have been summarized as follows – bathing in morning in light, recitation, kindling of fires, pleasing the gods, feeding the guests and Vishwadeva are the six rituals one should do daily.
The one and half hours before sunrise is called brahmamuhurta. Everyone should get up before this. Sleeping during sunset and sunrise is included under severe sins to be atoned immediately by abstaining from all activities, including food and communication and holding the breath till one becomes tired. Then, one should think of good deeds done, to be done and the problems to be attended to. He must think the day to be barren if he cannot remember any good deed done. Then, he must pray to the gods to make life good for him, a prayer to the gods to make like good for him, a prayer that is called suprabhatam. After physical cleansing, he should go for ablution which is both physical and religious. Ablutions by sprinkling holy ash, dust kicked by cows, etc., have been suggested for the sick and old, who could not have a cold bath.
Then comes the most important and well known of the rituals, viz., sandhyavandanam which is to be performed thrice a day. One cannot abstain from this rite, even during the impurity caused by birth or death in the family. One has to scatter dust, if water is not available and meditate, identifying the self with the cosmic soul. Then, one has to recite the mantras to which he has been initiated.
This is to be followed by the kindling of the fire called aupasana which has to be done immediately after sunrise and in the night after sunset. After morning homa, brahma yajna or svadhyayadhyana or recitation of Vedic portions must be done and water libations are offered to the sages, who imbibed the Vedic mantras and passed on to posterity. The homa and brahma yajna release a man from the debts, viz., debt to gods and debt to sages.
Then, the forenoon can be spent on studies and earning one’s livelihood. In the midday again one should bathe, offer water libations to ancestors, perform worship to family or tutelary deities or ishta devatas followed by vishwadeva. A person who partakes of food without offering it to God, is considered to be a thief. One should be grateful to Bhagavan for blessing him with that day’s food. A householder may have necessarily and unknowingly committed some violence by sweeping the floors, winnowing the food, preparing the gravies and pastes required in baking and cooking the food, and in filtering, boiling and other uses of water. So, he was to necessarily perform an expiatory ceremony called vishwadeva, to purify his thoughts and as far as possible those who eat it. Then, the food is to be offered to birds and insects and this is called bali. Afterwards, food is to be offered to guests and people who seek it, viz., students and mendicants.
He should have the food after feeding the dependents. Thus, the pleasing of gods, sages, ancestors, creatures and fellow-beings are enjoined upon everyone. The afternoons are to be spent on studies. The sandhya worship, kindling of fire, and vishwadeva are to be repeated at sunset. On special days of fasting and feasting, the order of these rituals may change depending on the time in which the special rites are to be performed. For example, the occasional ancestral worship may have to be performed after that. Any penitential worship will be performed in the second part of the five parts division of the day.
But since this routine is to be followed by all the initiates in general, it is called ahnika, daily routine. Such of those applicable things like brahma yajna, etc., are to be done by initiated students, too. Each of these daily routine rituals has been elaborately discussed in the digests on the Dharmashastras citing earlier authorities.
Patanjali, in is magnum opus Mahabhashya, uses the term ahnika for the chapters. Mahabhashya consists of eight five ahnikas.