Agrawala_Fire in the Rgveda

7/28/2019 Agrawala_Fire in the Rgveda

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08/06/13 JSTOR: East and West, Vol. 11, No. 1 (March 1960), pp. 28-32

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TEXT AND NOTES

Fire Ill the ~ i g v e d a

Agni is the supreme deity in the ~ i g v e d a .It is spoken of as the immortal p r i n d p l ~amongst mortals ( m a r l e ~ v agniramrito nidhiiyi~ V D ~ 4. 4; yo m a r l y e ~ u am.ri.ta ri l-iivii lwl-ii,

~ l , 77. 1; idam jye>tirmnritam. martyesu),the deathless light amongst those who arebound to tlie, the ever.lastiog proter.tor of theLaw amongst those who are J>rone to perish.In many hymns this special and divine featuref Aggi ~ i z e d As a matter of faet. thegross material body is mortal and porishah].,ann the divine Principl" that resides withinthe body is Agoi or Fire of Life. To the Vetiicseer!') the divine nature of Agni is the most pa tent act. Agt1i, as \\'e see i.t, is horn of thesticks or fuel. That is tloe manifestation ofAgni on the material plaue. Energy becomesmanifest only through matter. Therefore Xample. within the human bo


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Sorvahuta l 'ajiia in the ~ i g v e (X, 90. 8-9).Who is the P u.rusha or Prajiipati of this cosmicyajfia? It is Agni, Infinite Nature, the CosmicEnergy with i t$ inherent active principle, i.e.Adit i and Daksha together.There is a dear 8p:ubology of cause and ef.

feet, both iuterdependent in the ani" principium or ab intra stage uf the r.osmos. Aditithe Mother and Daksba (the symbol of acth-esacrifice or progenition) is her Son. F rom an other point o view Daksha (as the dormantpr.nciplo of preceding active maoifestation) isthe Father and Aditi is his daughter ~ X.72. 4-5).As noted above the single principle ofEnergy b ~ - c o m e s differentiated as Maller, L.feand ~ f i n d There are the three births of Agni,his three dear stations , three Mothers. Agniis therefore called l ryarnbaka (l,lv. VII, 59.12), which is alw an epithet of Rudra, because Agni and Rudra are identical accordingto the un iversall)' accepted statement of t he

l i b m a ~ (Agrri.r rai R udra!t, Satapatha V,3. I . 10 , VI. 1. 3. 10; TaQ._)ya XII. 4. 24;Taittiriya I. 1. 5. 8-9, 1. ). 6. 6. , I. 1. 8. 4)and also the enunciation of the ~ i g v e d a ( IT. 1.6, l ~ ' < l l n . dgne RLulra() . As a roatler of fact,the am:ient eytmologists and exegetes had goodreasou to speak o Agni as R udra. Rudra isthe principle of " hunger (asarriiyii), or insimtlle terms l< as6imilatiou n that penadeseach living system confined or active withinit& DyavaP rithivi, or tl1e two valves of an organism. A fanciful etymology for R udra isgiven, viz. the principle of Life (MadhyaPrtiQa, also called l ndlua, or esoterically lmlra)when it is awakenec:t or acti,ated , weep , ancltherefore is called rudra (from the root rut/," to weep '' Satapatha VI . 1. 3. 10). T be implication is quite valicJ. I t means that thesleeping nueleus of " l ife , the slumbering" child within each " seed >> becomes activoanrl immerliately it cries for


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of Heat (aush(F) generateol by the two Oppositc clashing forces (called in the languageof ritual as upani.iu and ant.aryiim.(l, or whichi-. the same thing as P rii.rJa and Apana). Whatit prooluced by this fric.tion is the Divine Heator Temperature (devtuoShrJya), and he is verilyP u.rusha (Ma it. Up. l l , 6); what is Pu.rushai the same as Agni ~ v a n a (atha yai< puruslwl. so ' gn.i.r vaisviinarai> ( yacd cipnot tasmad apai


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enters the womh or the waters of Soma andquickens it . The mo t her in the cow takesabotlt a year to become ready with the calfand the milk in her teats. The milk is themiraculous )ife-giviug principle that fee Life and Mind. In


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nuisa, chaturmruya, ayana and samvatsara, theseed is again reproduced as the seed. It isconceived of as one unified yajiia through asuccession of intermedi.ary yajiias as enume.rated above. Each creative process unfoldingitself in time and gradually finding its completion or fuliilment so as to be merged in thenext one is a yajiia. Day and night (ahoratraAgnilwtra), the two halves of the month(Darsa Paun;wmasa), the three seasons(Spring, Summer and Autumn, the Chaturmasya or Fourmonthly sacrifices), the twosemesters (Ayaneshtis) and the year (Sariwatsara yajiia) are the units of time, amongstwhich the Saritvatsara offers the completeexample of the revolving wheel of time. Ineach yajiia or creative process, there is a pasutied to its stake, viz. the organism that is beingproduced, the > ( h i r ~ y a y a vetasa,l,{v. IV, 58. 5) viz. the body that takes formand becomes manifest from the streams ofGhrita or seed poured into the womb. The em.bryo (garbha) is the five joined Golden Reedand its complete development gives birth tothe Boy (kumara) who is called Chitra Sisu

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(l,tv. X . 1. 2) which means both the Chityaagni (the fire generated through successive al .tars) and the roiracolous Chid i.e. Agni calledAdbhuta (l,{v. VI. 15. 2; A r a ~ y a k a p a n a n213. 2; MiirkaQ(Ieya PuriiJ)a 94. 7). This leadsus to the very importan t topic of Kuniiira Agniwho is the son of Rudra , or a manifestationof Agni as Rudra, described at length in theSatapatha Br. VI. 1. 3. 120 (chitasya namakaroti... chitrwu'imanain karoti chitrosili sar.

v ~ i hi c h i t r ~ y a g n i ~ ) : to him (Agni) whenbuilt up (chilD) he gives a name. He calls himby the illame of Chitra (the Built .up one, theMiracolous one), saying, "Thou art Chitra ;for Agoi is all the builtup things. Th e meaning of this is not lifficult to seek. Whereverwe have a living organic substance it is theresult of Agni become manifest through thegross material elements , which therefore iscalled chita, i. e .grown or developed throughthe yajiia , and hence the same born as Chitraor the miraculous Boy, the Wonderful Hero(Adbhuta KumAra; cf. mahadbhuta, A r a ~ y a .kaparvan 212. 5).

This miraculous Boy is the fire of Life thatat first. sleeps in the seed and then wakes upby a quickening proceu that i& common to> theplant, animal and human kingdoms. The awa-kened nucleus is thrown into rhythmic vibration, a throbbing pulsation, a process ofexparu;ion and contraction (called samaiichanaprasiiral}a, Satapatha Vlll. I . 4. 10). Thesource of this tremor in the individuated cen-tres of living organisms is the same as thecosmic palpitation in the Sun. Both are ma.nifesting the quiverings of a single Fi re orEnergy, and both represent the birth of anidentical divine Child called VAmadeva, Manu,Skanda and many other names.

V. S. Agrawala

Agrawala_Fire in the Rgveda

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