Vedic Mythology c5.s3.t2.15

c5.s3.t2.15

The divergent accounts given of the births of Agni are not inconsistent, because they refer to different places of origin. His daily terrestrial birth by friction from the two *araṇīs* or firesticks⁶ is often referred to (3, 29². 23²⁻³; 7, 1¹; 10, 7⁹). In this connexion they are his parents, the upper being the male and the lower the female (3, 29³). Or they are his mothers, for he is said to have two mothers (1, 31²)⁷. The two sticks produce him as a newborn infant, who is hard to catch (5, 9³⁻⁴). From the dry (wood) the god is born living (1, 68²). The child as soon as born devours the parents (10, 79⁴). He is born of a mother who cannot suckle him (10, 115¹). With reference to this production by friction, men are said to have generated him (1, 60³; 4, 1¹; 7, 1¹), the ten maidens⁸ that produce him (1, 95²) being the ten fingers (cp. 3, 23¹) employed in twirling the upright drill, which is the upper *araṇī*. *Pramantha*, the name of this fire-drill, occuring for the first time in a late metrical Smṛti work⁹, the Karmapradīpa (1, 75)¹⁰ has, owing to a superficial resemblance, been connected with Προμηθεύς¹¹. The latter word has, however, every appearance of being a purely Greek formation, while the Indian verb *math*, to twirl, is found compounded only with *nis*, never with *pra*, to express the act of producing fire by friction.