Agni, the light of Vedic civilization

Agni, the God of fire is perhaps the most important Vedic divinity. Without use of fire, none of the important Vedic rituals are possible. In Ṛg Veda Agni does not only represent fire, but also light. Agni kills the darkness with his light in Ṛg Veda  5.14.4. Agni is also identified as the Sun shining in the sky in Ṛg Veda 10.88.11.

Agni is also closely associated with Tapas or ‘heat’ referring to extensive ascetic practices. Indeed, in creation hymn of Ṛg Veda 10.129.3, it is stated that the whole universe was produced from the Tapas.
Agni is the blazing energy which fills the universe. Indeed, he is called Vaiśvānara for the same reason. Vaiśvānara is in turn identified with Puruṣa or the whole universe personified as a cosmic man from Ṛg Veda 10.90 in Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 10.6.1.11.

Puruṣa is also called on as Viśvakarman or as Prajāpati or the creator. In Vedic rituals, the fire altar which is built up represents the body of Prajāpati. By building up the fire altar and performance of Vedic rituals, the restoration of fragmented Prajāpati takes place as stated in Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 6.1.2.21, Pañcavimśa Brāhmaṇa 21.4.2, Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa 3.9.81 etc. This could be ritualistically viewed as reunifying the core essence of the whole universe, since Prajāpati represents whole universe or manifested Brahman in Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 7.3.1.42.

Ṛg Veda 2.1.3-7 and  5.3.1-3 identifies various deities as forms of Agni and it is stated that all the deities are centered in Agni. All the deities are also unified with association of Agni in Ṛg Veda 6.9.5. Agni was a unifying factor among the Vedic deities, also acted as ‘connector’ between Vedic deities and men in ritual, since it is Agni who carried the oblations to the deities.

Agni is also called as Jātavedas, or knower of births. Since the Vedic sacrificial fire is maintained generation after generation, Agni indeed knows all the births happening within a Vedic family.
Another epithet of Agni is Apām Napāt, or the Child of waters. Apām Napāt is mentioned as creator deity in Ṛg Veda  2.35.8, Apām Napāt also finds place in Iranian Avesta Yašt 19.52 as the creator deity, apart from the supreme God Ahura Mazdā, possibly hinting at predominance of Apām Napāt during earlier Indo-Iranian period.

This concept of Apām Napāt has parallel in the concept of Hiraṇyagarbha which arose in later parts of the Ṛg Veda . Hiraṇyagarbha is the golden cosmic womb from which Prajāpati or the creator representing the whole universe took birth. Hiraṇyagarbha floated on cosmic waters representing non-existence before it gave birth to the existence represented by Prajāpati from Ṛg Veda  10.121.

Hiraṇyagarbha is in fact a prototype of Agni. Like Hiraṇyagarbha Agni is also called as a garbha or womb in Ṛg Veda 1.70.2, also in Atharva Veda 5.25.7 where Agni is the womb of everything.  Also like Hiraṇyagarbha, Apām Napāt is described golden in color at Ṛg Veda  2.35.10. In Ṛg Veda 10.121.7 there is also special mention made of Agni in association with garbha which floated on the primeval waters. Also as noted before, Prajāpati who was born from Hiraṇyagarbha is also closely linked with Agni ritualistically.

The Vedic association of Agni with waters also later transformed into the legend of Skanda or Karttikeya. As the popular legend narrated in the Purāṇa-s  goes, it was Agni who dropped Śiva’s seed in the waters which later transformed into Skanda. In another version of Skanda’s birth found in Vana Parva of Mahabharata, Skanda is son of Agni himself.

So to conclude the matter presented here, Agni is by far the most important Vedic divinity who had various epithets and functions, going back to the Indo-Iranian and perhaps Indo-European period. Agni was a unifying factor among all the Vedic deities. The legends associated with Agni kept transforming in Vedic and post-Vedic era, giving rise to new concepts like Hiraṇyagarbha, Prajāpati and birth legend of Skanda.