Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/450

418 BOOK II When the old Vedic faith had been lon^ overlaid by an elaborate sacerdotal ceremonialism, Agni still remained, as it had been from the beat. first, a name for light or heat as pervading 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 splendour. When the king asks how this may be, the answer is, " Aditya (the sun) 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 sun (Aditya)." When to Somasushma, who says that he sacrifices to light in light, the king puts the same question, the Brahman replies, "Aditya is light; to him do I sacrifice in the evening in Agni. Agni is light ; to him do I sacrifice in the mornmg in Aditya."^

The ma- Thus Agni, like Indra, is sometimes addressed as the one great A^^'ni.*^ sod who makes all things, sometimes as the light which fills the heavens, sometimes as the blazing lightning, or as the clear flame of earthly fire. The poets pass from one application 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." Agni is greatest, Varuna is greatest, and Indra is greatest ; but when the one is so described, the others are for the time unnoticed, or else are placed in a subordinate position. Thus Agni is said to be the creator, who knows all that exists, to comprehend all other gods within him- self, as the circumference of a wheel embraces its spokes;^ and not

' Max Miiller, Saiiskrit Lit. 421. tant feature in the religion of the Veda, Professor Miiller traces the name to the and has never been taken into considera- root contained in the Greek wkvs, the tion by those who have written on the Lat. agilis, the idea first impressed on liistoryof ancient polytheism." — Sanskr. men being that of its quick movement. Lit. 54.6.

— Hihhert Lectures, p. 206. ' Muir, Principal Deities of R. V. 570.

" Professor Max Miiller, making this remark, adds, " This is a mo^i impor-