The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c17.73

v1.c17.73

Next to Indra in importance rank Agni, 'the fire,' and the Soma. To the priest indeed there can be little doubt that these gods were of even greater importance than Indra, but the latter was seemingly more of a national god, and more nearly alive in the hearts of the people. Agni has three forms, the sun in the heaven, the lightning, and the terrestrial fire; and his descent from his highest form is variously pictured. He seems in his growth to have vanquished older gods, like Trita and Apāṃ Napāt, 'the child of the waters,' who were forms of the lightning, and Mātariçvan, a form of celestial fire. The Soma must have owed its original divine rank to its wonderful intoxicating power; but priestly speculation by the end of the Rigvedic period had succeeded in identifying the Soma and the moon, a *tour de force* which can indeed be rendered less unnatural by recognising the potent effect of the moon in the popular imagination on vegetation, but which is none the less remarkable in the success in which it finally imposed itself on the religious conscience. The Soma hymns are among the most mystical of the Rigveda; and one of the legends, that of the bringing of the Soma from heaven by the eagle, appears to be a reflection of the fall of rain to earth as a result of the lightning which rends the cloud just when the rain begins to fall.