Vedic Mythology c5.s3.t2.36

c5.s3.t2.36

In consequence of his main function in the Veda of officiating at the sacrifice, Agni comes to be celebrated as the divine counterpart of the earthly priesthood. He is therefore often called generically the ‘priest’ (*ṛtvij*, *vipra*) or specifically the ‘domestic priest’ (*purohita*), and constantly, more frequently in fact than by any other name, the ‘offerer’ (*hotṛ*) or chief priest, who is poet and spokesman in one. He is a Hotṛ appointed by men (8, 49¹; 10, 7⁵) and by gods (6, 16¹). He is the most adorable, the most eminent of Hotṛs (10, 2¹. 91⁸). He is also termed an *adhvaryu* (3, 5⁴) and (like Bṛhaspati, Soma, and Indra) a *brahman* or praying priest (4, 9⁴). He combines in himself the functions, in a higher sense, of the various human priests called by the above and other specific names (1, 94⁶; 2, 1² &c.). He is constantly invoked to honour or worship the gods (3, 25¹; 7, 11³ &c.), while they in their turn are said to honour Agni three times a day (3, 4²). He is the accomplisher of the rite or sacrifice (3, 3³. 27²), promoting it by his occult power (3, 27⁷), making the oblations fragrant (10, 15¹²), and causing the offering which he protects to reach the gods (1, 1⁴). He is the father (3, 3⁴), the king (4, 3¹), the ruler (10, 6³), the superintendant (8, 43²⁴), the banner (3, 3³. 10⁴; 6, 2³; 10, 15), of sacrifice. In one hymn (10, 51) it is related that Agni grew weary of the service and refused to fulfil his sacrificial offices, but on being granted the remuneration he required from the gods, continued to act as high priest of men³⁹. Agni's priesthood is the most salient feature of his character. He is in fact the great priest, as Indra is the great warrior. But though this phase of Agni's character is so prominent from the beginning to the end of the RV., it is of course from a historical point of view comparatively recent, due to those mystical sacerdotal speculations which ultimately led to the endless sacrificial symbolism of the later ritual texts. From the ordinary sacrificial Agni who conveys the offering (*havya-vah* or *-vāhana*) is distinguished the form of Fire which is called 'corpse-devouring' (*kravyād*: cp. § 71). The VS. distinguishes three forms, as the Agni who devours raw-flesh (*āmād*), the corpse-devouring or funereal, and the sacrificial Agni (VS. 1, 17, cp. 18, 51). The TS. (2, 5, 8⁶) also distinguishes three, the Agni that bears the oblation (*havyavāhana*), as belonging to the gods, the Agni that bears the funeral offering (*kavyavāhana*), as belonging to the Fathers, and the Agni associated with goblins (*saharakṣas*) as belonging to the Asuras.