The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c18.s1.64

v1.c18.s1.64

The derivation of Agni’s name, Latin *ignis*, Lithuanian *ugnis*, is uncertain, though connexion with *aj*, ‘drive’, is not impossible. In the Avesta the name is unknown as such and it does not appear among the Mitanni gods, which speaks in favour of the view that it is a specific development of the Indian priest.⁵ But the worship of fire itself, apart from the special conception of it as Agni, is undoubtedly strongly marked in the period of the unity of the Indo-Iranians. The fire in the Avesta is the centre of a strong and developed ritual: the fire priests Āthravans are clearly the same in origin as the Vedic Atharvans, and Ātar must have been conceived as a great and powerful god, giver of food, of fame, of offspring, the friend of the house, the repeller of foes, probably known as in the lightning and the plant-born forms. Oldenberg⁶ holds that, as in Greece and in Rome Hestia⁷ and Vesta are feminine, there cannot have been an early Indo-European worship of fire of any distinct character. This is true so far as the personification of the fire is concerned, but the close connexion of the fire with the home which is emphasized by these two faiths, and which is also in harmony with the indications of Vedic religion, suggests that the cult of fire must have been a very real one in the Indo-European period, a conclusion the more natural if, as is probable, the original home of the Indo-European is to be placed in a comparatively cold climate.¹ The stress laid on the fire in India would, therefore, be changed in emphasis, as not the domestic, but the sacrificial fire became the more important in a land where the sun provided for many things which elsewhere fire was required to accomplish.