Development of Hinduism

Author(s): M M Ninan
Publisher: M M Ninan

Page 26

1. VEDIC RELIGION
• Agni 218
Agni is the demi-god ruling fire, riding on a Ram. Latin ignis (the root of English ignite). The sacrifices made to Agni go to the deities because Agni is a messenger from and to the other gods. He is ever-young, because the fire is re-lit every day; but also he is immortal. Agni is represented as red and two-faced (sometimes covered with butter), suggesting both his destructive and beneficent qualities, and with black eyes and hair, three legs and seven arms. He rides a ram, or a chariot pulled by goats or, more rarely, parrots. Seven rays of light emanate from his body. One of his names is "Sapta jihva", 'seven tongues'. He is worshipped under a threefold form: fire on earth and lightning and the sun.
Soma 123 (most of them in the Soma Mandala) Haoma in Avestan), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sauma-, was a ritual drink of importance among the early Indo-Iranians, and the later Vedic and greater Persian cultures. . In the Avesta, Haoma has an entire Yasht dedicated to it.
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