AGNI

AGNI. - The fire god, Agni (pron. agnhi), shares with Indra the primacy among the gods of ancient India. The Ṛgveda devotes about 200 hymns to him, and both begins and ends with his name. His figure is scarcely anthropomorphic because the constant presence of the god in the form of fire precluded fantastic representations. His nature, however, is mysterious and complex. He is the only Agni kindled in many places; immortal and at the same time generated by men at every new kindling, achieved by rubbing two pieces of wood together. The Ṛgveda, III, 29, 13, states: “Mortals have generated the immortal. The ten sisters (i.e., the fingers) have roused him.” And since the woods must be rubbed with force, Agni is also called “son of strength.” The god has a threefold abode: in the sky as the sun; in the waters, whither he descends with the rain from the lightning-charged clouds; and in plants, into which he penetrates with the waters and remains latent until, freed from the wood, he returns to the sky in smoke and flame. A late hymn of the Ṛgveda, X, 51-53, represents the gods seeking Agni hidden in the waters and plants to relieve them of the arduous task of messenger between earth and sky. His luminosity betrays him, and when discovered by Yama, he is persuaded by Varuṇa, the spokesman of the gods, to continue the work of his predecessors in exchange for immortality and a share in the enjoyment of sacrificial offerings. Agni is not always depicted as the bearer of the offering; sometimes he is himself “the mouth and tongue of the gods,” consuming the sacrificial foods on their behalf. In any case, Agni is the essential element of sacrifice and is therefore equated with the chief of the officiating priests and called the divine Hotṛ. It was the merit of H. Oldenberg to have highlighted an aspect of Agni that, though not prominent in the Ṛgveda, later acquires full prominence in the Gṛhyasūtras or rules of domestic cult: namely, his role as god of the hearth and thus patron of the family and the home. In this capacity, he is also charged with the mission of destroying evil spirits. In the mythology of the Mahābhārata (q.v.), Agni appears in the dual aspect of sacrificial fire and cosmic fire. Son of Brahmā, he has for his consort Svāhā and for son Skanda, the god of war; latent in all beings, nothing is unknown to him of what the triad contains. His greatest exploit consists in the destruction of the Khāṇḍava forest, which he devoured to sate his implacable hunger. Agni is also one of the Lokapālas or “guardians of the world” and protects the south-eastern region.