Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

II.
MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
CHAPTER IV.
THE FIRE.
Section I.—AGNI.
HOOK When the old Yedic faith had been long overlaid by an
elaborate sacerdotal ceremonialism, Agni still remained, as
it had been from the first, a name for light or heat as per-
vading all things or as concentrated in the flame of fire.
In the Satapatha-Brahmana, Svetaketu tells king Janaka
that he sacrifices to two heats in one another which are ever
shining and filling the world with their splendonr. When
the king asks how this may be, the answer is ' Aditya (the
snn) is heat : to him do I sacrifice in the evening in the fire
(Agni). Agni is heat: to him do I sacrifice in the morning
in the snn (Aditya). When to Somasushma, who says
that he sacrifices to light in light, the king puts the same
question, the Brahman replies,
c
Aditya is light ; to him
do I sacrifice in the evening in Agni. Agni is light ; to him
do I sacrifice in the morning in Aditya.' 1
Thus Agni, like Indra, is sometimes addressed as the one
great god who makes all things, sometimes as the light which
fills the heavens, sometimes as the blazing lightning1
, or as
the clear flame of earthly fire. The poets pass from one appli-
cation of the word to another with perfect ease, as conscious
that in each case they are using a mere name which may
denote similar qualities in many objects. There is no rivalry
or antagonism between these deities. 2 Agni is greatest,
Varuna is greatest, and Indra is greatest ; but when the
1 Max Muller, SansJerit Lit. 421. has never been taken into consideration
2 Professor Max Muller, making this by those who have written on the history
remark, adds, 'This is a most important of ancient polytheism.' Sanskr. Lit.
feature in the religion of the Veda, and 546.