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LECTURE IV.
163 maker of all things, was originally Agni, the god of fire, and more particularly, the god of the fire and the light of the morning. Agni, as the god of the morning (aushasya), is often conceived as a priest, who, with his splendour, pours out the whole world and offers it as a morning sacrifice. Such a sacrifice is represented as taking place either at the beginning of every day, or at the beginning of a new year, or, by another step, at the beginning of the world. The light of the morning sun was perceived by the poet as illuminating the world, like the actual fires lighted in the morning on every hearth., Or the poet might see in the light of the rising sun a power that brings forth the whole world, brings it into sight and being, in fact makes or creates the world. This is a poetical, perhaps a fantastic idea; nevertheless it is conceivable; and in interpreting the words of the Veda, we must never rest till we arrive at something that is at least conceivable.
The poet again seems to think of Agni, the fire, when he says of Visvakarman that he settled down as a father among men. The germ of this conception lies in the light of the morning appearing first as something distant and divine, but then, unlike other divine powers, remaining with men on earth, on the very hearth of every dwelling. This thought that Agni is the first to take up his abode with men, that his presence is the condition of all human activity, workmanship, and art, and that through his blessing alone men obtain health and wealth, is expressed in many Vedic songs in ever varying ways.
If we transfer these thoughts to the Visvakarman, the maker or shaper of all things, some of the dark
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