Vedic Mythology c5.s3.t2.27

c5.s3.t2.27

The accounts given of Agni's abodes or birthplaces sometimes involve cross divisions. Thus his brilliance in heaven, earth, air, waters, and plants is referred to (3, 22²) or he is said to be born from the heavens, the waters, stone, woods, and plants (2, 1¹). Longer enumerations of a similar kind occasionally occur elsewhere (AV. 3, 21; 12, 1¹⁹; Āp. ŚS. 5, 16⁴). When Agni is said (1, 70⁴, cp. 6, 48⁵) to dwell in a rock (*adrau*) the reference is probably to the lightning latent in the cloud (cp. p. 10). The same is probably the case when he is said (2, 1¹) to be produced from a stone (*aśmanaḥ*) or to have been generated by Indra between two stones (2, 12³); but here there may lurk an allusion to the production of fire from flint. Animal heat is of course meant when Agni is said to be in the heart of man (10, 5¹), or in beasts, horses, birds, bipeds and quadrupeds (AV. 3, 21²; 12, 1¹⁹. 23³; TS. 4, 6, 1³). As being the spark of vitality and so widely diffused in nature, Agni naturally comes to be described as the germ (*garbha*) of what is stationary or moves and of all that exists (1, 70³; AV. 5, 25⁷).