AGNI

 CHAPTER V,

AGNI.

Agni, the god of Fire, is one of the most prominent of

the deities of the Vedas.

With the single exception of

Indra, more hymns are addressed to him than to any

other deity.

Professor Williams gives the following-

spirited description of Agni :—

“ Bright, seven-rayed god, how manifold thy shapes

Revealed to us thy votaries: now we see thee

With body all of gold; and radiant hair

Flaming from throe terrific heads, and mouths,

Whose burning jaws and teeth devour all things.

Now with a thousand glowing lioms, and now

Flashing thy lustre from a thousand eyes,

Thou’rt borne towards us in a golden chariot,

Impelled by winds, and drawn by ruddy steeds,

Marking thy ear’s destructive course with blackness.”

Various accounts are given of the origin of Agni.

He

is said to be a son of Dyaus and Prithivi; he is called

the son of Brahma, and is then named Abhimani; and

he is reckoned amongst the children of Kasyapa and

Aditi, and hence one of the Adityas.

In the later

writings he is described as a son of Angiras, king of

the Pitris (fathers of mankind), and the authorship of

several hymns is ascribed to him.

In pictures he is

represented as a red man, having three legs and seven

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THE VED1C DEITIES.

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arum. dark eyes, eyebrows and hair.

He rides on a

rant, wears, a poifca (Btuhmanical thread), and a garland

of fruit.

Flames of lire issue from his mouth, and seven

streams of glory radiate from his body.

The following

passage, for every sentence of which Dr. Muir * quotes

a text from the Vedas, gives a good idea of the character

and functions of this deity in the Vcdic Age.

Agni is an immortal who has taken up his abode with

mortals as their guest,

lie is the- domestic priest who

rises before the dawn, and who concentrates in his own

person anil exercises in a higher sense all the various

sacrificial offices which the Indian ritual assigns to a

* Muir, (X 8. T.. v. 119 If.

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of different human functionaries.

He is a sage,

the divinest among the sages, immediately acquainted ,

with all the forms of worship; the wise director, the j

successful accomplished and the protector of all cere­

monies, who enables men to serve the gods in a correct

and acceptable manner in cases where they could not

do this with their own unaided skill.

He is a swift

messenger, moving between heaven and earth, commis­

sioned'both by gods and men to maintain their mutual

communication, to announce to the immortals the hymns,

and to convey to them the oblations of their worshippers ;

or to bring them (the immortals) down from the sky to

the place of sacrifice.

He accompanies the gods when

they visit the earth, and shares in the reverence and

adoration which they receive.

Ho makes the obla­

tions fragrant; without him the gods experience no

satisfaction.

Agni is the lord, protector, king of men.

lord of the house, dwelling in every abode. He is the

He is a

guest in every home; he despises no man, he lives in

every family.

He is therefore considered as a mediator

between gods and men,and as a witness of their actions;

hence to the present day he is worshipped, and his bless­

ing sought on all solemn occasions, as at marriage,

death, etc.

In these old hymns Agni is spoken of as b

dwelling in the two pieces of wood which being rubbed

together produce fire ; and it is noticed as a remarkable S

tiling that a li ving being should spring out of dry (dead)

wood.

Strange to say, says the poet, the child, as soon

as born, begins with unnatural voracity to consume his

parents.

Wonderful is his growth, seeing that he is

born of a mother who cannot nourish him ; but he is

nourished by the oblations of clarified butter which are

poured into his mouth, and which he consumes.

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highest divine functions are ascribed to Agni.

Although *.in some places he is spoken of as the son of

heaven and earth, in. others he is said to have stretched

them out; to have formed them, and all that flies or

walks, or stands or moves.

He formed the sun, and

adorned the heavens with stars.

Men tremble at his

mighty deeds, and his ordinances cannot be resisted.

Earth, heaven, and all things obey his commands.

All

the gods fear, and do homage to him.

He knows the

secrets of mortals, and hears the invocations that are

addressed to him.

The worshippers of Agni prosper, are wealthy, and live

long.

He watches with a thousand eyes over the man

who brings him food, and nourishes him with oblations.

No mortal enemy can by any wondrous power gain the

mastery over him who sacrifices to this god.

He also

confers and is the guardian of immortality. In a funeral

hymn, Agni is asked to warm with his heat the unborn -

(immortal) part of the deceased, and in his auspicious ,

form to carry it to the world of the righteous.

He

carries men across calamities, as a ship over the sea.

He commands all the riches in earth and heaven; hence

he is invoked for riches, food, deliverance, and in fact all

temporal good.

He is also prayed to as the forgiver of

sins that may have been committed through folly.

All

gods are said to be comprehended in him ; he surrounds

them as the circumference of a wheel does the spokes.

The main characteristics of this deity are taught in

the following verses by Dr. M uir:— *

“ Great Agni, though thine essence lie but one,

Thy forms are three; as fire thou blazest here,

As lightning flashest in the atmosphere,

In heaven thou flamest as the golden sun.

* Muir, 0. S. T., v. 221.

was i'1 heaven thou Ixadst thy primal birth;

By art. of sages skilled in sacred lore

Thou wast drawn down to human hearths of yore,

And thou abid’st a denizen of earth.

“ Sprung from tho mystic pair,* by priestly hands

In wedlock joined, forth flashes Agni bright;

But, oh! ye heavens and earth, I tell you right,

'J he unnatural child devours the parent brands.

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“■ But Agni is a god; we must not deem

That he can err, or dare to comprehend

His acts, which far our reason’s grasp transcend ;

He best, can judge what deeds a god beseem.

“ And yet this orphaned god himself survives:

Although his hapless mother soon expires,

And cannot nurse the babe as babe requires,

Great Agni, wondrous infant, grows and thrives.

“ Smoko-bannered Agni, god with crackling voice

And flaming hair, when thou dost pierce the gloom

At early dawn, and all the world illume,

Both heaven and earth and gods and men rejoice.

“ In every home thou art a welcome guest,

The household tutelary lord, a son,

A father, mother, brother, all. in one,

A friend by whom thy faithful friends are blest.

“ A swift-winged messenger, thou callest down

From heaven to crowd our hearths tho race divine,

To taste our food, our hymns to hear, benign,

And all our fondest aspirations crown.

“ Thou, Agni, art our priest: divinely wise,

In holy science versed, thy skill detects

The faults that mar our rites, mistakes corrects,

And all our acts completes and sanctifies.

* The two pieces of wood from which fire is produced.

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Thou art the cord that stretches to the skies,

The bridge that scans the chasm, profound arid vast,

Dividing earth, from heaven, o’er which at last.

The good shall safely pass to Paradise.

“ Hut when, great god, thine awful anger glows,

And than revealest thy destroying force,

AH creatures lice before thy furious course,

As hosts are chased by overpowering foes.

“ Thou loveliest all thou touchest; forests vast

Tliou shear’st, like beards which barber’s razor shaves.

Thy wind-driven flames roar loud as ocean’s wares.

And all thy track is black when thou hast past.

“ But tliou, great Agni, dost not always wear

That direful form ; thou rather lov’st to whine

Upon our hearths, with milder flame benign,

And cheer the homes where thou art nursed with care.

<! Yes ! thou delightest all those men to bless

Who toil unwearied to supply the food

Which thou so Invest -logs of well-dried wood,

And heaps of butter bring, thy favourite mess.

“ Though I no cow possess, and have no store

Of butter, nor an axe fresh wood to cleave,

Thou, gracious god, wilt my poor gift receive :

These.fe-.v dry sticks I bring—I have no more.

“ Preserve us, lord ; thy faithful servants save

From all the ills by which our bliss is marred ;

Tower like an iron wall our homes to guard,

And all the boons bestow our hearts can crave.

“ And when away our brief existence wanes.

When we at length our earthly homes must quit,

And our freed souls to worlds unknown shall flit,

Do thou, deal gently with our cold remains.

“ And then, thy gracious form assuming, guide

Our unborn part across the dark abyss

Aloft to realms serene of light and bliss,

Where righteous men among the gods abide.”

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a celebrated hymn of the Rig-Veda, attributed to

Yisishtha, Indra and the other gods are called upon

to destroy the Kravyads (the flesh-eaters), or Eakshas,

enemies of the gods,

Agni himself is a Kravyad, and as

such takes an entirely different character.

He is then

represented under a form as hideous as the beings he, in

common with the other gods, is called upon to devour.

He sharpens his two iron tusks, puts his enemies into

his mouth, and devours them.

He heats the edges of

his shafts, and sends them into the hearts of the

Rakshasas.” *

“ In the Mahabharata, Agni is represented as having

exhausted his vigour by devouring too many oblations,

and desiring to consume the whole Khandava forest, as

a means of recruiting his strength.

He was [at first]

prevented from doing this by Indra; but having obtained

the assistance of Krishna and Arjuna, lie baffled Indra,

and accomplished his object.’'’ f

According to the Ramayana, in order to assist Vishnu

when incarnate as Rama, Agni became the father of Nila

by a monkey mother; and according to the “ Vishnu

Parana,” he married Swaha, by whom he had three

sons— Pavaka, Pavarnana, and Suchi.

Agni has many names; those more generally known

are the following :—•

Vahni, “ He who receives the horn, or burnt sac­

rifice.”

Vitihofera, “ He who sanctifies the worshipper.”

Dhananjaya, “ Ho who conquers (destroys) riches.”

Jivalana, “ He who burns."

Dhumketu, “ He whose sign is smoke.”

* Dowson, “ Dictionary of Hindu Mythology.”

f Ibid, s.v,

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; v€hliagaratha, “ He who rides on a ram.”

Saptajihva, “ He who has seven tongues.”

Brihaspafci and Brahmanaspati are generally regarded

as being identical with Agni.

Nearly the same epithets

are applied to them, with this additional one— of pre­

siding ov0r prayer.

In some few hymns they are

addressed as separate deities.

In “ The Religions of

India,” M. Barth, regarding these as names of one and

the same deity, thus describes him :—

“ Like Agni and Soma, he is born on the altar, and

thence rises upwards to the gods; like them, he was

begotten in space by Heaven and Earth ; like Indra, he

wages Avar with enemies on the earth and demons in the

air; like all three, he resides in the highest heaven, he

generates the gods, and ordains the order of the uni verse.

Under his fiery breath the world was melted and

assumed the form it has, like metal in the mould of the

founder.

At first sight it would seem that all this is a

late product of abstract reflection; and it is probable, in

fact, from the very form of the name, that in so far as

it is a distinct person, the type is comparatively modern ;

in any ease, it is peculiarly Indian; but by its elements

it is connected with the most ancient conceptions.

As

there is a power in the flame and the libation, so there

is in the formula; and this formula the priest is not the

only person to pronounce, any more than he is the only

one to kindle Agni or shed Soma,

There is a prayer in

the thunder, and the gods, who know all things, are not

ignorant of the power in the sacramental expressions.

They possess all-potent spells that have remained hidden

from men and are as ancient as the first rites, and it was

by these the world was formed at first, and by which it

is preserved up to the present.

It is this omnipresent

power of prayer Avhich Brahmanaspati personifies, and

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S%-:^rnot without reason that he is sometimes confounded

with Agni, and especially with Indra.

In reality each

separate god and the priest himself become Bralnoana-

spati at the moment when they pronounce the mantras

which gave them power over the things of: heaven and

of earth.”