MR J. MUIR ON THE PRINCIPAL DEITIES OF THE RIGVEDA. 569 



ings, of their worshippers. On the part of men, he invokes the gods, invites them 

 to attend the ceremonies instituted in their honour, arrives with them seated in 

 the same chariot, and receives them with reverence and adoration. In other 

 places, lie is somewhat differently described as the mouth, and the tongue, 

 through which both gods and men participate in the sacrifices. He is the banner, 

 symbol, or outward manifestation, the father, guardian, protector, lord, and king, 

 of sacrifice; the lord of the house; the lord and king of the people; and the 

 father, mother, brother, and son, of his worshippers, some of whom claim with 

 him a hereditary friendship. 



In the descriptions of the Rigveda, the element of fire is frequently, and 

 almost inevitably, confounded with the deity who is supposed to be its representa- 

 tive, — many of the epithets applied to the latter being quite as appropriate, if 

 not more appropriate, to the former. Thus, although Agni is often said to have 

 been generated by the gods, or to be the offspring of heaven and earth, or to have 

 been brought from heaven by Matarisvan ; he is also constantly alluded to as 

 having been first kindled by Manu, or some other ancient sage, and his birth is 

 described as resulting from the homely process of rubbing together two pieces of 

 stick ; which are spoken of as his parents, — parents, whom their infant offspring 

 afterward unnaturally devours. This infant is, however, like the wriggling brood 

 of a serpent, very difficult to catch ; but when seized, he is nourished with oblations 

 of clarified butter. This nourishment is alluded to in the epithets " butter-haired," 

 and " butter-formed." The following are some of his other appellations ; " smoke- 

 bannered," " black-pathed " (this alludes, of course, to the way in which fire 

 chars the wood which it consumes) ; " brilliant-coloured," " brilliant-flamed," 

 "flaming-haired," "golden-haired," "golden -bearded," "golden-formed," " sharp- 

 weaponed," " sharp-toothed," " golden-toothed," " four-eyed," " thousand- 

 eyed," and " thousand-horned." His flames roar like the winds, like the wave^ 

 of the sea, like a lion, like a bull ; he envelopes the woods, and blackens them 

 with his tongue ; he shears the hair of the earth ; he shaves the ground, as a 

 barber a beard. He rides on a chariot of light, or of lightning, or of a brilliant 

 or golden colour, drawn by fleet horses, of a ruddy or tawny hue. 



In some passages, Agni appears to be identified with light in general, as where 

 it is said (Rigveda, x. 88, 6, 10, flP.) " Agni is by night the head of the earth; 

 from him is produced the sun which rises in the morning .... With a hymn 

 the gods, through their power, produced in the heaven Agni, who fills the world. 



They made him to exist in a threefold character When the adorable gods 



placed him in the sky as the solar orb, the son of Aditi, then they beheld all the 

 worlds." The " threefold character" here alluded to, means, according to an old 

 commentator, the three forms of fire upon earth, lightning in the atmosphere, 

 and the sun in the heavens.* 



* See Nirukta, vii. 28, and xii. 19 ; and my Sanskrit Texts, vol. iv. p. 55 f. 



