Vedic Mythology c5.s3.t2.40

c5.s3.t2.40

Although Agni is the son of Heaven and Earth he is nevertheless called the generator of the two worlds (1, 96⁴, cp. 7, 5⁷), his ordinance, which does not perish (2, 8³), being followed by heaven and earth (7, 5⁴). He stretched them out (3, 6⁵; 7, 5⁴) or spread them out like two skins (6, 8³). With his flame or his smoke he supported the vault of heaven (3, 5¹⁰; 4, 6²). He kept asunder the two worlds (6, 8³). He supported earth and heaven with true hymns (1, 67³). He stands at the head of the world or is the head of the earth at night (10, 88⁵·⁶), but he is also the head and summit (*kakud*) of the sky (1, 59²; 6, 7¹; 8, 44¹⁶). He measured out the air and touched the vault of heaven with his greatness (6, 8²). He measured out the aerial spaces and the bright realms of heaven (6, 7⁷). He caused the sun to ascend the sky (10, 156⁴). The notion that the kindling of Agni exercised a magical influence on the sunrise seems not to be entirely absent in the RV.⁴³. Such appears to be the meaning of the poet when he exclaims: ‘Let us light Agni, that thy wondrous brand may shine in heaven’ (5, 6⁴). This notion is clearly stated in a Brāhmaṇa passage: ‘By sacrificing before sunrise he produces him (the sun), else he would not rise’ (ŚB. 2, 3, 1⁵, cp. TS. 4, 7, 13³). Otherwise the kindling of Agni and the sunrise are represented merely as simultaneous in the RV.: ‘The sun became visible when Agni was born’ (4, 3¹¹). This trait of the Agni myth resembles the winning of the sun in the Indra myth, but the original point of view in the two cases is clearly different. Agni is further said to have adorned the sky with stars (1, 68⁵). He created all that flies, walks, stands, or moves (10, 88⁴). He placed the germ in these beings (3, 2¹⁰), in plants, in all beings, and engendered offspring in the earth and in women (10, 183³). Agni is once spoken of as having generated these children of men (1, 96²); but this is a mere incidental extension of the notion expressed in the same stanza, that he created heaven, earth, and the waters, and cannot be interpreted as a general belief in Agni as father of the human race⁴⁴. Finally, Agni is the guardian (7, 7⁴) and lord (7, 4⁶) of immortality, which he confers on mortal men (1, 31⁷).