The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c18.s2.33

v1.c18.s2.33

Tanūnapāt is even more obscure than Narāçaṁsa. His name means either ‘son of his self’, a reference to the fact that Agni generates Agni, fire being *sui generis*, or ‘own son’, i. e. of the divine father as suggested by Bergaigne.² He is contrasted with Narāçaṁsa and Mātariçvan as the divine embryo. The dawns kiss Agni, the Tanūnapāt of the ruddy one. He takes the sacrifice to the gods: Varuṇa, Mitra, Agni honour him thrice a day. Who is meant is impossible to say: Hillebrandt,³ who once identified him with Agni as a guardian of the Soma and as lunar fire, has abandoned⁴ the suggestion: in the Brāhmaṇas he is variously identified with summer and Indra, while in the ritual he plays a part only in the Tānūnaptra ceremony in which the patron and the celebrants of the rite engage not to injure one another: in this rite he serves, it seems, as the god who watches over the fulfilment of the mutual oaths of fidelity.