Agni 18th Century Miniature

Agni (English: , sa, अग्नि, translit=Agni) is a Sanskrit word meaning fire and connotes the Vedic fire deity of Hinduism. He is also the guardian deity of the southeast direction and is typically found in southeast corners of Hindu temples. In the classical cosmology of the Indian religions, Agni as fire is one of the five inert impermanent elements ('' pañcabhūtá'') along with space (''ākāśa''), water (''ap''), air (''vāyu'') and earth (''pṛthvī''), the five combining to form the empirically perceived material existence (''Prakṛti'').

In Vedic literature, Agni is a major and oft-invoked god along with Indra and Soma. Agni is considered the mouth of the gods and goddesses and the medium that conveys offerings to them in a ''homa'' (votive ritual). 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 human beings in the Vedic scriptures. The relative importance of Agni declined in the post-Vedic era, as he was internalised and his identity evolved to metaphorically represent all transformative energy and knowledge in the Upanishads and later Hindu literature. 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'' or ''Agnipradakṣiṇam'' (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 ''Aarti'' in Puja.

Agni (Pali: ''Aggi'') is a term that appears extensively in Buddhist texts and in the literature related to the Senika heresy debate within the Buddhist traditions. In the ancient Jainism thought, Agni (fire) contains soul and fire-bodied beings, additionally appears as ''Agni-kumara'' or "fire princes" in its theory of rebirth and a class of reincarnated beings and is discussed in its texts with the equivalent term Tejas.

Etymology, meaning and other names

Sanskrit अग्नि (''Agni'') continues one of two core terms for fire reconstructed to Proto-Indo-European, '' *h₁n̥gʷnís'', other reflexes of which include ''*En'' or ''*Enji'' () is the reconstructed name of the fire god in the Albanian pagan mythology, which continues to be used in the modern Albanian language to refer to Thursday (''e enjte'')
Latin ''ignis'' (the root of English ''ignite''), Lithuanian '' ugnis'', Kurdish agir, Old Slavonian огнь (''ognĭ'') and its descendants: Russian огонь (''ogon), Serbian oganj, Polish '' ogień'', etc., all meaning "fire".

The ancient Indian grammarians variously derived it:
*from root ''aj'', which in Sanskrit means "to drive" in the sense of "nimble, agile";
*from ''agri'', the root of which means "first", referring to "that first in the universe to arise" or "fire" according to '' Shatapatha Brahmana'' section 6.1.1; the Brahmana claims this is cryptically called as Agni because everyone including the gods are known to love short nicknames;
*according to the 5th-century BCE Sanskrit text '' Nirukta-Nighantu'' in section 7.14, sage Śakapūṇi states the word Agni is derived from three verbs – from 'going', from 'shining or burning', and from 'leading'; the letter "a" (अ) is from root "i" which he claims implies 'to go', the letter "g" (ग्) is from the root "añj" meaning 'to shine' or "dah" meaning 'to burn', and the last letter is by itself the root "nī" (नी) which means 'to lead'. None of the three explanations cited above is plausible in the modern scientific sense.

In the early Vedic literature, Agni primarily connotes the fire as a god, one reflecting the primordial powers to consume, transform and convey. Yet the term is also used with the meaning of a ''Mahabhuta'' (constitutive substance), one of five that the earliest Vedic thinkers believed to constitute material existence, and that later Vedic thinkers such as Kanada and Kapila expanded widely, namely Akasha (ether, space), Vayu (air), Ap (water), Prithvi (earth) and Agni (fire).V.S. Agrawala (1960)
Fire in the Ṛigveda
East and West, Volume 11, Number 1 (March 1960), pages 28–32

The word Agni is used in many contexts, ranging from fire in the stomach, the cooking fire in a home, the sacrificial fire in an altar, the fire of cremation, the fire of rebirth, the fire in the energetic saps concealed within plants, the atmospheric fire in lightning and the celestial fire in the sun. In the Brahmanas layer of the Vedas, such as in section 5.2.3 of Shatapatha Brahmana, Agni represents all the gods, all concepts of spiritual energy that permeates everything in the universe.N. J. Shende (1965)
Agni in the Brahmanas of the Ṛgveda
Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Volume 46, Number 1/4, pages 1–28 In the Upanishads and post-Vedic literature, Agni additionally became a metaphor for immortal principle in man, and any energy or knowledge that consumes and dispels a state of darkness, transforms and procreates an enlightened state of existence.

Agni is also famously known as:
* Pāvaka – sanctifier of everything;
* Havyavāhana – one who carries the sacrificial butter;
* Saptajihvi – one with seven tongues (flames); consumes the sacrificial butter very fast;
* Vahni – travelling with wind;
* Anala – as one of the Vasus;
* Hutāśana;
* Chitrabhānu – colourful light;
* Jvalana – glowing;
* Vaiśvānara;
* Vibhāvasu – whose light is wealth.

Other names include Śikhī, Pingesa, Plavanga, Bhūritejaḥ, Rudragarva and Hiraṇyakṛt.

Origins

There are many theories about the origins of the god Agni, some tracing it to Indo-European mythologies, others tracing to mythologies within the Indian tradition.

The origin myth found in many Indo-European cultures is one of a bird, or bird like being, that carries or brings fire from the gods to mankind. Alternatively, this messenger brings an elixir of immortality from heaven to earth. In either case, the bird returns everyday with sacrificial offerings for the gods, but sometimes the bird hides or disappears without trace. Agni is molded in similar mythical themes, in some hymns with the phrase the "heavenly bird that flies".

The earliest layers of the Vedic texts of Hinduism, such as section 6.1 of ''Kaṭhaka Saṃhitā'' and section 1.8.1 of ''Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā'' state that the universe began with nothing, neither night nor day existed, what existed was just Prajāpati (also referred to as Brahman). Agni originated from the forehead of Prajāpati, assert these texts. With the creation of Agni came light, and with that were created day and night. Agni, state these ''Saṃhitā

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