Altar of Fire (1976)

This film records a 12 day ritual performed by Mambudiri Brahmins in Kerala southwest India in April 1975 This event was possibly the last performance of the Agnicayana a Vedic ritual of sacrifice dating back 3000 years and probably the oldest surviving human ritual Long considered extinct and never witnessed by outsiders the ceremonies require the participation of seventeen priests involve libations of Soma juice and oblations of other substances all preceded by several months of preparation and rehearsals They include the construction from a thousand bricks of a fire altar in the shape of a bird