Anoop Verma's Diary: Darshana & Itihasa: Agni: The Offspring of the Waters

Sunday, October 4, 2020

Agni: The Offspring of the Waters

The Rigveda contains verses in which Agni is identified as Apām Napāt, the son of waters, who is conceived in the womb of the water laden clouds as lightning. Here’s an excerpt from the 35th hymn in the 2nd Mandala of the Rigveda (Ralph T.H. Griffith’s translation):

“The Waters' Son hath risen, and clothed in lightning ascended up unto the curled cloud's bosom; And bearing with them his supremest glory the Youthful Ones, gold-colored, move around him.” “Golden in form is he, like gold to look on, his color is like gold, the Son of Waters. When he is seated fresh from golden birthplace those who present their gold give food to feed him.”

In the above verse, Agni (Apām Napāt) is being depicted as a divine entity that emerges from the waters in the form of golden lightning.

Writing more than 2500 years after the Rigveda was composed, Sayana (also known as Sāyaṇācārya), the fourteenth century Vedic philosopher, has remarked that the name Apām Napāt designates Agni as the grandson and not the son of the waters—this is because the herbs and trees are born of the waters and Agni is born from the herbs and trees.

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Nirad C. Chaudhuri

“In the south the temples have survived, and in the north they have not. Over seven centuries from the eleventh to the end of the seventeenth all the great cities of northern India dating from Hindu times were sacked by the Muslim invaders and conquerors of India. All the temples there and in all other centres of Hinduism were systematically destroyed. None were left standing at Ujjain, Ajmere, Delhi, Mathura, Brindaban, Kanauj, Prayag, or Benares—which were the centres of the political, cultural, and religious life of the Hindus. In most of these places mosques were built on the sites of the temples, and in some with pillars taken from them. This religious vandalism also worked its fury on the Buddhist centres. Moreover, it was not simply that the great temples in the cities were destroyed; so were the village temples. For most of the period of Muslim rule, there was a ban on building new temples and rebuilding the old in the regions the Muslims controlled.” ~ Nirad C. Chaudhuri

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“Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.” ~ James Joyce

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Sunday, October 4, 2020

Agni: The Offspring of the Waters

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