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India has a very rich cultural history. The Ashwamedh Yagya, an important ritual and experiment from Vedic times, aimed to refine consciousness. Since the Vedic era, many Ashwamedha Yagyas have been performed. In light of scriptural texts and archaeological findings, the present study aimed to retrospectively analyze the performers and sites of the Ashwamedha Yagya in medieval India. The study found that 27 kings from 18 dynasties had performed a total of 81 documented Ashwamedha Yagyas from the 1st century BCE to the 18th century CE. Although the study tried to comprehensively identify all instances of Ashwamedha performed in medieval India, there may be more awaiting further study. The study observed that these findings were based on archaeological evidence, including copper plate inscriptions, stone inscriptions, brick and pillar inscriptions, yagya kunds, and coins. Ashwamedha sites were present throughout present-day India. An interdisciplinary approach combining archaeological, inscriptional, scriptural, and sociological findings, along with expertise from ritualistic scholars, could unveil new research directions on the rich history of Ashwamedha Yagya in Indian culture.

Herbal medicines have a long therapeutic history and are still serving many of the health needs of a large population of the world. However, the quality control and quality assurance still remains a challenge because of the high variability of chemical components involved. T. cordifolia is commonly referred to as Amrita or Guduchi. All the parts of the plant are immensely useful due to the presence of different secondary metabolites. We aimed to investigate the qualitative and quantitative (carbohydrate and poly-phenolic compound) analysis of secondary metabolites present in extracts of Tinospora cordifolia powder and its herbal fume (generated from Yagya), followed by the study of its antimicrobial activity against E. coli and P. aeruginosa. The present study's powder and fume cocktail (hexane, ethyl-ether and methanol) extracts (10 mg/ml) showed 30 mm and 21.67 mm Zone of inhibition against E.coli respectively indicating equivalent efficiency of herbal fumes. Similarly, fumes contained all secondary metabolites qualitatively to that of powder extract. In addition, carbohydrate and poly-phenolic compound present in the fume extracts (0.277 mg/g and 0.29mg/g), were equivalent or higher than powder extracts (0.131 mg/g and 0.26mg/g) indicating Tinospora cordifolia's fume holistic utility.

Yagya Mandap is the place where the activities of Yagya take place. Yagya- Mandap is consist of 8 parts which are Mandap base, pillars, Valliya, Ganduk, Vedi, Toran, Dhvaja and Pataka. All these parts play a significant role in Yagya as they represent a particular deity depending upon the type of yagya. There are several variations in the dimensions of all these parts which are believed to be dependent on the Purpose and type of yagya and also the availability of the sources for the construction of yagya Mandap. The Mandap is classified on the basis of category, purpose, size and number of instruments used for its constructions. Yagya Mandap plays a vital role in the procedure of Yagya and its final outcome. The purpose of the present paper is to discuss the mathematical aspect of the construction of the Yagya Mandap i.e. deciding the size of Yagya Mandap, ii) preparing Mandap base, iii) placing Pillars, and iv) preparing the roof. The study summarized scriptural dimensions, types and placements of Mandap Base, pillars, roof for different sizes of Yagya Mandap. Mandap can be classified on the basis of area i.e. adham (small), madhyam (medium) and uttam (large), for upto 20 hast 16 pillars and 32 Valliya ( column creating roof structure) used for creating Mandap, where as big Yagya Mandap can be from 20 hast to 100 hast and required more number of pillars and Valliya depending upon the size of the particular yagya Mandap. Mandap must be at the height of 12 angul or 1 hast from the ground level where base is of square shape and the area varies with a number of kund. Stambh are of two sizes the inner-pillar of 8 hast and outer pillar of 5 hast. Ganduk is the top most portion of roof of Mandap and is situated at the top of the Mandap and consists of 4 valliaya. Summarily, the depth of attention for Yagya kund construction indeed stresses out the need of Yagya Mandap to be very beautiful and systematic with reasonable efforts.

The Philosophy and Science of Yagya (Yajóa) lies at the core of the great values, vast expanse, and universal importance of the Indian Culture and the Vedic Science of holistic wellbeing. Yagya was an integral part of the spiritual teachings and research experiments in the Gurukuls in ancient India. It was also prominent in the cultural activities and ethno practices (for the maintenance of good health, and purity and protection of the environment) in the Indian Society till the Medieval Age. Despite substantial cultural devolution and loss of original texts of wisdom in the medieval times of destructive foreign invasions, substantial information on Yagya may still be found in the Indian scriptures available today. Though in distorted form, it is also practiced as an important sacrament (as “fire-ritual”/havan) in many sections of the Indian society till date. However, the wisdom and science of Yagya is completely missing from the streams of science and education. In concordance with the noble objectives of the Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidalaya (DSVV), the “Yagyavalkya Center for Yagya Research” of this university has initiated thorough interdisciplinary research and scientific experiments on Yagya for past three years. Towards advancement and expansion of this research, the centre had organized a one-day national symposium for a brain storming session and interaction among distinguished experts and researchers in different fields of medical, biological, chemical, and mathematical sciences, and engineering/technology. The symposium was held in the DSVV campus at Haridwar on December4, 2021. The present consensus paper outlines the background, purpose, and outcome of the symposium with a focus on the promising scope of advanced research on Yagya for holistic Health and a pure Environment.

Yagya kund has five parts - Khat, Nabhi, Kant, Mekhla and Yoni. The construction of Yagya kund shall be done with proper consideration of all of its parts. The final shape and appearance of the Yagya kund came after the construction of Mekhala. Mekhala is an object which surrounds another object by keeping that object in the middle. For Yagya kund, Mekhala surrounds the fire pit which provides the shape to the Yagya kund. The present paper attempts to describe the mathematical and scriptural aspects of Mekhala i.e. description of Mekhala and Khat, shape, number of Mekhala, and significance. The number of Mekhala varies by the size of Yagya Kund, the number of offerings, and the purpose of Yagya. The study also described the dimension of all types the Mekhala construction for 1 hast Kund indicating the important role of Mekhala in the Yagya Kund construction.

Yagya kund construction is the outcome of great research of ancient India. Indian scripture has given very sophisticated Vedic mathematical formulations for construction of Yagya kund. There are different types of shapes described for Yagya kund; Circular & Lotus, Semi-circular, Vulvar, Trigonal, Square, Pentagonal, Hexagonal, Heptagonal, Octagonal. Irrespective of shapes,all these Yagya kunds have same surface area. Based on the fact given in the literature, 1000 offerings (ahutis) require construction of BhuHastatmakaKund (1 hand or 24 angul long). In addition, height of the all one-hand long kunds are same. Hence, the present research tests the hypothesis that the volume should be same for all different shaped kunds. In the present study, the volume of 1 hast Yagya kund (24 angul) for all these shapes is calculated using the dimensions given in the scripture using available simple available mathematical formulas. Volume of all these kunds is compared with circular shape kund. The difference in the volume of different shapes is foundbelow 0.3% in all the kunds except for vulvar, pentagonal and octagonal shapes which is observed to be 7.48%, 1.76% and 2.83% respectively. The difference isdueto inappropriate mathematical formula for these complex structures having different angles in the slants and multiple sides of the bases.

Effect of traditional metal pots made up of copper and brass along with clay pot are used for water storage in India in routine use as well as in rituals and Yagya. During Yagya herbal fumes are exposed to water stored in copper and clay pot. To understand the utility of the copper and clay container during Yagya, in the present study, the pH of water in copper, brass, clay and glass containers were recorded in the presence and absence of herbal fumes exposure. The study used only mango wood fumes in one set of experiments and in other set of experiment herbal mixture plus mango wood fumes in Gayatri Yagya was used. The herbal fumes plus mango wood fumes and mango wood fumes both significantly made water pH alkaline in nature. Specifically, herbal fumes during Gayatri Yagya caused significant increase in water pH in copper (mean difference 0.42; n=3; p= 0.0032) and clay pot (mean difference 0.46; n=3; p=0.0013) compared to control. Interestingly, poring of water in brass pot (7.44 + 0.06; n=6; p

To investigate the effect of yagya with Gayetri mantra on the seed germination and seedling growth of Tritieum aestivm, systematic research has been conducted on yagya in which effect of yagya fumes on seed germination has been observed. It has been reported that the germination rate index is 85.08% and 48.15% respectively in seeds that are kept in presence of yagya fumes and control ( in absence of yagya fumes) respectively and coefficient of velocity of germination is 77.021% and 36.076% respectively in seeds kept in presence of yagya fumes and control. While mean germination time has been reported to be 1.29 days and 2.77 days respectively in seeds which were placed in presence of yagya fumes and control. The germinated seeds were observed for seedling development and it has been found that the growth of root length and shoot length were 11.875 cm and 11.762 cm respectively in the germinated seeds which were kept in presence of yagya fumes while the growth of root and shoot length were 8.352 cm and 7.904 cm respectively in the germinated seeds that kept in absence of yagya fumes.