This project begins with the proposition that 'Asian Ritual' represents a more fundamental category of study than 'Asian Religion.' It investigates shared ritual technologies in Asian practice without being limited by the traditional sectarian and geographic categories that often characterize Religious Studies scholarship.

Fire sacrifice represents perhaps the oldest and most widespread of Asian practices. In various forms and religious contexts, it continues to provide meaning to millions of Asians worldwide. Homa, an apotropaic sacrifice that consists of burning various substances in a ritual fire, has had a particularly long and diverse history across a wide range of Asian regions and traditions. This project challenges the assumption that homa rites are Vedic in origin and argues, instead, that they developed out of a shared Indo-Iranian ritual paradigm. Then, it compares the ritual use of fire and water in three 'ritual universes'—Vedic, Tantric, and Zoroastrian—to demonstrate that, though the ritual rules governing Asian fire rites have remained remarkably constant for millennia, these rules come to be appropriated in theologically specific ways.