Elements of Hindu Iconography v4.c33.s2.1

v4.c33.s2.1

Agni was also a very important deity in the Vēdic age and with Indra and Sūrya formed the Triad of that period. As with Indra this principal deity came, in course of time, to occupy a very minor place in the Hindu Pantheon. He was the most adorable to all *hōtris*, he it was who knew the proper seasons to worship the gods with oblations, he was the medium through whom the gods received their share of offerings and he was believed to be concealing himself in waters or plants. He was the lord of the house, the resplendent guest of the house and is friendly to man. He was also a terror to the *rākshasas* and *yātudhānas*, whom he crushed between his iron teeth. His birth is accounted for in various ways. He is said to have been brought down from the sky, generated by Indra between two clouds, by Dyaus and in the waters. He has a triple existence, namely, as fire on earth, as lightning in the atmosphere and as the sun in the sky and that the sun entered into him at night and emerged out of him at dawn. Agni was actually generated in the Vēdic age by the rubbing of one piece of wood with another vigorously: the lower piece was called the araṇi and the child thus born, that is, the fire, was found to consume its own mother, the wood. The description of Agni as he was conceived by the Vēdic bards is that he had two heads, four horns, three feet and seven arms.