A sacred post or pillar used in Vedic ritual in ancient India. Animals were, typically, tied to it before being sacrificed. By extension, something to which offerings are made.

A post set up as a marker to which offerings may be presented. Described in the Maitreyāvadāna (“The Story of Maitreya”), which in the Kangyur is found within the Bhaiṣajya­vastu (in Vinayavastu, Toh 1, Degé Kangyur, vol. kha, folios 29.a–32.b); a matching passage from the Divyāvadāna is translated in Rotman (2008), pp. 121–24.

A post set up as a marker to which offerings may be presented. Described in the Maitreyāvadāna (“The Story of Maitreya”), which in the Kangyur is found within the Bhaiṣajya­vastu (in Vinayavastu, Toh 1, Degé Kangyur vol. kha, folios 29a-32b), see Yao (2021), 3.139 (the term is translated as “divine pillar”); a matching passage from the Divyāvadāna is translated in Rotman (2008), pp. 121–24.

“Pillar” is a rather loose rendering for this term, which refers more specifically to ceremonial or memorial columns, or to the sacrificial posts used in Vedic rituals (cf. Monier-Williams).