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Agni

This article is about fire and the fire god in Indian religions. For other uses, see Agni (disambiguation).

Agni
God of Fire[1][2]
Member of Pancha Bhuta
Agni upon his mount, a sheep, with flames leaping upwards from his crown
Other namesMātariśvan
AffiliationDeva, Dikpāla
AbodeAgniloka
MantraOm Agni Devaya Vidhmahe Jathavedaya Dhimahi Tanno Agni Prachodyata
WeaponĀgneyāstra
MountSheep[3]
Genealogy
Parents
ConsortSvāhā
ChildrenPāvaka, Pāvamāna, Śuchi, Nīla, Agneya
Equivalents
AlbanianEnji[4]
GreekHephaestus
Indo-Europeanh1n̥gʷnis
RomanVulcan

Agni (Sanskrit: अग्नि [ˈɐgni]) is the Hindu god of fire.[5][6][7] As the guardian deity of the southeast direction, he is typically found in southeast corners of Hindu temples.[8] In the classical cosmology of Hinduism, fire (Agni) is one of the five inert impermanent elements (Pañcabhūtá) along with sky (Ākāśa), water (Apas), air (Vāyu) and earth (Pṛthvī), the five combining to form the empirically perceived material existence (Prakṛti).[6][9][10]

In the Vedas, Agni is a major and most invoked god along with Indra and Soma.[6][11] Agni is considered the mouth of the gods and goddesses and the medium that conveys offerings to them in a homa (votive ritual).[5][12][13] He is conceptualized in ancient Hindu texts to exist at three levels, on earth as fire, in the atmosphere as lightning, and in the sky as the sun. This triple presence accords him as the messenger between the deities and humans in the Vedic scriptures.[6] The relative importance of Agni declined in the post-Vedic era,[14] as he was internalised[15] and his identity evolved to metaphorically represent all transformative energy and knowledge in the Upanishads and later Hindu literature.[16][17][18] Agni remains an integral part of Hindu traditions, such as being the central witness of the rite-of-passage ritual in traditional Hindu weddings called Saptapadi (seven steps and mutual vows), in the Upanayana ceremony of rite of passage, as well being part of the diyā (lamp) in festivals such as Deepavali and Arti in Puja.[6]

Agni (Pali: Aggi) is a term that appears extensively in Buddhist texts[19] and in the literature related to the Senika heresy debate within the Buddhist traditions.[20][21] In the ancient Jainism thought, Agni (fire) contains soul and fire-bodied beings,[22] additionally appears as Agni-kumaras or "fire children" in its theory of rebirth and a class of reincarnated beings[23] and is discussed in its texts with the equivalent term Tejas.[24]

  1. ^ Williams, George M. (2008). Handbook of Hindu Mythology. Oxford University Press. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-19-533261-2.
  2. ^ O'Flaherty, Wendy Doniger (1994). Hindu Myths. Penguin Books. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-14-400011-1.
  3. ^ van der Geer, Alexandra Anna Enrica (2008). Animals in Stone: Indian Mammals Sculptured Through Time. BRILL Academic. p. 324. ISBN 978-90-04-16819-0.
  4. ^ Sarao, K. T. S. (2021). Baku's Temple of Eternal Fire: Its Connections to Baba Nanak and the Udasi Sadhus. Bloomsbury. p. 13. ISBN 9789354350986.
  5. ^ a b Olivelle, Patrick (1998). The Early Upanishads: Annotated Text and Translation. Oxford University Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-19-535242-9.
  6. ^ a b c d e Lochtefeld, James G. (2002). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of sanatan dharm (Hinduism). Vol. A–M. The Rosen Publishing Group. pp. 14–15. ISBN 978-0-8239-3179-8.
  7. ^ Jamison, Stephanie W.; Brereton, Joel P. (2014). The Rigveda: 3-Volume Set. Oxford University Press. pp. 40–41. ISBN 978-0-19-972078-1.
  8. ^ Kramrisch, Stella; Burnier, Raymond (1976). The Hindu Temple. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 92. ISBN 978-81-208-0223-0.
  9. ^ Wynne, Alexander (2007). The Origin of Buddhist Meditation. Routledge. pp. 31–32. ISBN 978-1-134-09741-8.
  10. ^ Vatsyayan, Kapila (1995). Prakr̥ti: Vedic, Buddhist, and Jain traditions. Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. pp. 7, 94–95. ISBN 978-81-246-0038-2.
  11. ^ Cavendish, Richard (1998). Mythology, An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Principal Myths and Religions of the World. ISBN 1-84056-070-3
  12. ^ Payne, Richard (2015). Witzel, Michael (ed.). Homa Variations: The study of ritual change across the longue durée. Oxford University Press. pp. 1–3. ISBN 978-0-19-935158-9.
  13. ^ Michaels, Axel (2016). Homo Ritualis: Hindu hitual and its significance for ritual theory. Oxford University Press. pp. 237–248. ISBN 978-0-19-026263-1.
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference williams49 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Skorupski, Tadeusz (2015). Witzel, Michael (ed.). Homa Variations: The study of ritual change across the longue durée. Oxford University Press. pp. 78–84. ISBN 978-0-19-935158-9.
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference shende1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hopkins1968p98 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference baumer203 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ Davids, T.W. Rhys; Stede, William (1905). The Pali-English Dictionary. Asian Educational Services. pp. 4–5. ISBN 978-81-206-1273-0. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  20. ^ Buswell, Robert E. Jr.; Lopez, Donald S. Jr. (2013). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton University Press. pp. 852, 962. ISBN 978-1-4008-4805-8.
  21. ^ Abe, Masao; Heine, Steven (1992). A Study of Dogen: His philosophy and religion. State University of New York Press. pp. 158–162. ISBN 978-0-7914-0837-7.
  22. ^ Chapple, Christopher Key (2006). Jainism and Ecology: Nonviolence in the Web of Life. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 31, 43–44, 56, 173–175. ISBN 978-81-208-2045-6.
  23. ^ von Glasenapp, Helmuth (1999). Jainism: An Indian Religion of Salvation. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 263–264. ISBN 978-81-208-1376-2.
  24. ^ Bäumer, Bettina; Vatsyayan, Kapila (1988). Kalatattvakosa: A Lexicon of Fundamental Concepts of the Indian Arts. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 226–227. ISBN 978-81-208-1402-8.

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