Lord Agni of the Vedas

Among the prominent Vedic Gods, Agni is the chief terrestrial deity, being celebrated in 200 hymns of the Rig Veda. Next to Indra he is the most prominent of the Vedic gods. He is represented as having flame-hair and having a tawny beard. He has burning jaws, golden teeth, bearing many gifts in his hands for men. Sometimes he is said to have three heads and three or seven tongues, facing in all directions. Agni is likened to various animals like a bull, a calf, a horse, an eagle, or a celestial bird. He darts with rapid flight to the gods. He is also likened to various objects like gold, a hatchet, a car, wood, ghee and riches.

Agni is intimately connected with domestic life. He is considered to be the master of the house, the head of the clan, and the domestic god:

“In every home you are a welcome guest
The lord of the household:
Son, father, mother, brother and friend.”

Agni takes birth in wood and plants. He is the navel of the earth and takes birth in the sky as lightning. He is in the sun and in fire. He is brilliant-flamed, of golden form, and destroyer of darkness.

“Mighty Agni though you are one
Your forms are three: you blaze on earth as fire,
And as lightning in the atmosphere.
You are the golden sun flaming in the heaven.”

Interestingly, most domestic rituals in India today have been handed down from Vedic times to the present with little change or elaboration. Today, however, priests do not control the house rituals as was the case in the Vedic times.

During fire sacrifices, people offered their possessions to the gods. The most important sacrificial offerings were placed in a fire. People believed that the god Agni conveyed their offerings to the other gods through the fire. Agni was thought to be both the god of fire and the sacrificial fire itself. As the god of fire, he was the medium through which humans could relate to the other gods:

“You, oh Agni, are Indra, the bull of all that exists;
You are the wide striding Vishnu, worthy of reverence;
Oh Lord of the Holy Word (Brahaspati), you are the chief priest
You, oh Agni, are King Varuna, whose laws are firm;
You are Mitra, the wonder-worker to be revered.
You, oh Agni, are Rudra, the Asura of lofty heaven;
As the troops of Maruts, you control sustenance.”

In sacrifices, Agni represented all the other gods. As the messenger to them, Agni linked humankind to the divine world. Because he could assume various forms of fire, Agni was believed to be an example of the divine world throughout nature. Agni quickly became an all-important deity. In the celestial region, Agni was the sun. In the atmospheric region, he was lightning. Finally, by lightning he was brought to the earth, and rekindled as fire from the trees in which he was hidden. When shrauta rituals were performed, three kinds of fire were kept so that they might symbolically represent Agni of the sky, of the atmosphere, and of the earth.

Courtesy-www.allaboutbharat.org