[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Religion and philosophy](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion) › [The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads)](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.bloomfield-1908) › c9.28 # The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c9.28 The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c9.28 - **Language:** English ### [c9.28](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.bloomfield-1908.c9.28) After having been kindled Agni is placed upon the altar or, if we trust the testimony of the ritual texts of the Veda, upon three altars.¹ Fagots are now piled on, fat oblations are poured in; he waxes big; his tongues, three, or seven, shoot up; he has four eyes, or a thousand eyes—both things mean that he is sharp-sighted; his jaws are sharp; and his teeth shine golden, or his iron grinders clutch. Then the figure is changed: he is flame-haired, tawny-haired, tawny-bearded; his glowing head faces in all directions. Ghee, or melted butter, is his food: he is therefore called ghee-backed, ghee-faced, ghee-haired. Once, even more boldly, Agni himself says, ghee is his eye. This is the point where Agni begins to take on a little more of the flesh and blood of personality upon the skeleton of his elemental qualities. For he receives the offerings neither passively nor selfishly. At as late a time as that of the great Epic, the Mahābhārata² he is made to say: "The ghee that is poured into my mouth, in the way prescribed in the Veda, nourishes the Gods and the Manes . . . called by my mouth the Gods and the Manes come to eat the ghee." - [Previous: c9.27](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.bloomfield-1908.c9.27) - [Next: c9.29](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.bloomfield-1908.c9.29) - [Up: c9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.bloomfield-1908.c9) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.bloomfield-1908.c9.28](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.bloomfield-1908.c9.28) · Pramāṇa