Indian Myth and Legend. Donald Alexander Mackenzie
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here identified with Agni; Mitra also means “friend” or “ally” (iii, 5. 3, and note). Scyld in Beowulf, the mysterious child of the sea, became a king over men. Agni “indeed is king, leading all beings to gloriousness. As soon as born from here, he looks over the whole world.... Agni, who has been looked and longed for in Heaven, who has been looked for on earth—he who has been looked for has entered all herbs” (i, 98).76 To Agni's love affairs upon earth there are epic references, and in the “Vishnu Purana” he is mentioned as the father of three human sons.
The reference to the Bhrigus, to whom Agni is carried, is of special interest. This tribe did not possess fire and were searching for it (Rigveda, x. 40. 2). In another poem the worshippers of Agni are “human people descended from Manush (Manu)” (vi, 48. 8). The Bhrigus were a priestly family descended from the patriarch Bhrigu: Manu was the first man. Two of the Teutonic patriarch names are Berchter and Mannus.
Agni was the messenger of the gods; he interceded with the gods on behalf of mankind and conducted the bright Celestials to the sacrifice. The priest chanted at the altar:
Agni, the divine ministrant of the sacrifice, the greatest bestower of treasures; may one obtain through Agni wealth and welfare day by day, which may bring glory and high bliss of valiant offspring.
Agni, whatever sacrifice and worship thou encompassest on every side, that indeed goes to the gods. Thou art King of all worship.... Conduct the gods hither in an easy-moving chariot.77
Like Indra, Agni was a heavy consumer of Soma; his intensely human side is not lost in mystic Vedic poetry.
Agni, accept this log, conqueror of horses, thou who lovest songs and delightest in riches....
Thou dost go wisely between these two creations (Heaven and Earth) like a friendly messenger between two hamlets....
His worshippers might address him with great familiarity, as in the following extracts:—
If I were thee and thou wert me, thine aspirations should be fulfilled.
If, O Agni, thou wert a mortal and I an immortal, I would not abandon thee to wrong or to penury: my worshippers should not be poor, nor distressed, nor miserable.
These appeals are reminiscent of the quaint graveyard inscription:
Here lie I, Martin Elginbrodde.
Hae mercy on my soul, Lord God,
As I wad dae were I Lord God,
And ye were Martin Elginbrodde.
The growth of monotheistic thought is usually evinced in all mythologies by the tendency to invest a popular deity with the attributes of other gods. Agni is sometimes referred to as the sky god and the storm god. In one of the hymns he is entreated to slay demons and send rain as if he were Indra:
O Agni, overcome our enemies and our calamities;
Drive away all disease and the Rakshasas—
Send down abundance of waters
From the ocean of the sky.
Indra similarly absorbed, and was absorbed by, the wind god Vayu or Vata, who is also referred to as the father of the Maruts and the son-in-law of the artisan god Twashtri. The name Vata has been compared to Vate, the father of the Teutonic Volund or Wieland, the tribal deity of the Watlings or Vaetlings; in old English the Milky Way was “Watling Street”. Comparisons have also been drawn with the wind god Odin—the Anglo-Saxon Woden, and ancient German Wuotan (pronounced Vuotan). “The etymological connection in this view”, writes a critic, “is not free from difficulty.”78 Professor Macdonell favours the derivation from “va” = “to blow”.
The Indian Vata is invoked, as Vayu, in a beautiful passage in one of the hymns which refers to his “two red horses yoked to the chariot”: he had also, like the Maruts, a team of deer. The poet calls to the wind:
Awake Purandhu (Morning) as a lover awakes a sleeping maid.... Reveal heaven and earth....
Brighten the dawn, yea, for glory, brighten the dawn....
These lines recall Keats at his best:
There is no light
Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown....
A stirring hymn to the wind god loses much of its vigour and beauty in translation:
Sublime and shining is the car of Vata;
It sweeps resounding, thundering and crashing;
Athwart the sky it wakens ruddy flashes,
Or o'er the earth it sets the dust-clouds whirling.
The gusts arise and hasten unto Vata,
Like women going to a royal banquet;
In that bright car the mighty god is with them,
For he is rajah of the earth's dominions.
When Vata enters on the paths of heaven,
All day he races on; he never falters;
He is the firstborn and the friend of Ocean—
Whence did he issue forth? Where is his birthplace?
He is the breath79 of gods: all life is Vata:
He cometh, yea, he goeth as he listeth:
His voice is heard; his form is unbeholden—
O let us offer sacrifice to Vata.
Another wind or storm god is Rudra, also the father of the Maruts, who are called “Rudras”. He is the “Howler” and “the Ruddy One”, and rides a wild boar. Saussaye calls him “the Wild Huntsman of Hindu Mythology”. He is chiefly of historical interest because he developed into the prominent post-Vedic god Shiva, the “Destroyer”, who is still worshipped in India. The poets invested him with good as well as evil qualities:
Rudra, thou smiter of workers of evil,
The doers of good all love and adore thee.
Preserve me from injury and every affliction—
Rudra, the nourisher.
Give unto me of thy medicines, Rudra,
So that my years may reach to a hundred;
Drive away hatred, shatter oppression,
Ward off calamity.
The rain cloud was personified in Parjanya, who links with Indra as the nourisher of earth, and with Agni as the quickener of seeds.
Indra's great rival, however, was Varuna, who symbolized the investing sky: he was “the all-enveloping one”. The hymns impart to him a character of Hebraic grandeur. He was the sustainer of the universe, the lawgiver, the god of moral rectitude, and the sublime sovereign of gods and men. Men worshipped him with devoutness, admiration, and fear. “It is he who makes the sun to shine in heaven; the winds that blow are but his breath; he has hollowed out the channels of the rivers which flow at his command, and he has made the depths of the sea. His ordinances are fixed and unassailable; through their operation the moon walks in brightness, and the stars which appear in the nightly sky, vanish in daylight. The birds flying in the air, the rivers in their sleepless flow, cannot attain a knowledge of his power and wrath. But he knows the flight of the birds in the sky, the course of the far-travelling wind, the paths of ships on the ocean, and beholds all secret things
Art. “Aryan Religion”, Hastings'
The air of life = the spirit.