The Children of Agni

Markandeya had just finished telling the exiles how the fire-god hid in the waters and how Angiras, the third son of Brahma, took up the office of fire and then handed it back, and how the price Angiras asked was that he be made Agni's first child. Yudhishthira sat with the question still open in his hands.

"There is but one fire," he had said at the beginning, "but according to the nature of its action, it is seen to divide itself into many."

That was the thing he could not get past. A man kindles a fire in the morning for the daily oblation, and it is called by one name. The same flame under a corpse is called by another. The heat that digests his food, the heat in the belly of the sea, the heat that goes up in a full moon sacrifice with the ladle behind it, the heat that flares out of a man in a fever, all of these are given separate names by the Brahmanas and separate offerings and separate hymns, and yet a fire lit from a fire is the fire it was lit from.

"In this connection," Markandeya said, "I shall describe to thee the religious sorts of fire of great effulgence which are here variously known in the Brahmanas by their respective uses."

He did not begin with a definition. He began with a marriage.

That is the way the epic answers questions of this kind. Where a philosopher would draw a distinction, the rishi gives a genealogy, because a genealogy tells you not only what a thing is but whose it is, and what is owed to it, and where in the ritual it stands. What follows is a list of names, and the names are fires, and the fires are a family, and every one of them has a place at somebody's altar.

"He who was the third son of Brahma," Markandeya said, "had a wife of the name of Subha."

By Subha, Angiras had a son and eight daughters, and the son is named first because everything afterwards descends from him.

Brihaspati was very famous, large-hearted, of great bodily vigour. His genius and his learning were profound, and he had a great reputation as a counsellor, which is the office he holds in heaven to this day. He was the eldest, and he is the one the rest of this history follows.

Then the daughters, and each of them is a name with a reason attached.

Bhanumati was the first-born, and she was the most beautiful of all the children of Angiras.

The second was called Raga, and she was so named because she was the object of all creatures' love. Raga is desire itself, the pull a living thing feels toward what it wants, and it stands in this family as a daughter of the house of fire.

Siniwali was the third. Her body was of such slender make that she was visible at one time and invisible at another, and for that reason she was likened to Rudra's daughter. She is the moon on the day when the last thread of it is there and not there, and a man looking up cannot say honestly whether he sees it.

Archismati was the fourth, so named from her great refulgence.

Havishmati was the fifth, so named from her accepting havis, the clarified butter that is poured into a fire and does not come back.

The sixth was Mahismati the pious.

The seventh, Markandeya told the king, is known by the name of Mahamati, and she is always present at sacrifices of great splendour.

And the eighth is the worshipful daughter whom they call unrivalled and without portion, about whom people utter the words kuhu kuhu in wonder, and who is therefore known by the name of Kuhu. She is the day of the vanished moon, the night with no share in the light, and she has no portion because there is nothing left in the sky to give her.

Eight daughters, and among them the appetite of every creature, the two edges of the moon, and the ladle that empties itself into the flame.

Brihaspati had a wife called Tara, who belonged to the lunar world. By her he had six sons partaking of the energy of fire, and one daughter.

The first was Sanju, of great ascetic merit. He is the fire in whose honour oblations of clarified butter are offered at the Paurnamasya, the sacrifice of the full moon. At the Chaturmasya, the four-monthly rites, and at the Aswamedha, the horse sacrifice, animals are offered first in his honour, and this powerful fire is indicated by numerous flames. His wife was Satya, of matchless beauty, and she sprang from Dharma for the sake of truth.

Sanju's own sons carry names a listener in that forest would have known from another life entirely. The fire honoured with the first oblations at any sacrifice is Bharadwaja. The second son is Bharata, in whose honour clarified butter is offered with the sacrificial ladle, the sruk, at all the full moon rites. There was a daughter too, Bharati. Vira was Bharadwaja's wife, and she gave birth to Vira, who is worshipped like Soma, with the same hymns and the same butter, and who is called Rathaprabhu and Rathadhwana and Kumbhareta. By his wife Sarayu he begot Siddhi, who enveloped the sun with his own splendour.

Then the fire Nischyavana, who praises the earth only and never suffers in reputation. His son is Satya, blazing with pure flame, undefiled by sin, the regulator of time, who has the second name Nishkriti because he accomplishes the relief of all creatures, and who when properly worshipped vouchsafes good fortune. And Satya's son is Swana, the generator of all diseases, who inflicts on people the sufferings for which they cry aloud, and who moves in the intelligence of the whole universe.

The third son of Brihaspati is Viswajit. The fourth is Viswabhuk, who is the internal heat by which the food of all creatures is digested, self-restrained, a Brahmacharin, worshipped by Brahmanas at the Paka sacrifices; the sacred river Gomati was his wife. The fifth is Vadava, the terrible water-drinking fire of the sea, which moves upward and is therefore called Urdhvabhag, seated in the vital air called Prana. The sixth is the great Swishtakrit, by whom oblations become swishta, excellently offered, and to whom the udagdhara oblation is always made.

And the daughter is Swaha, who is present in all matter, and who becomes the fire called Manyauti, filled with fury, when all creatures are claimed.

Swaha had three sons, and they came from her by the working of the three qualities.

By sattwa she had a son equalled by none in heaven for personal beauty, and for that the gods surnamed him the Kama-fire. By rajas she had Amogha, the invincible, the destroyer of his enemies in battle, who is assured of success and therefore curbs his anger, and who is armed with a bow and seated on a chariot and adorned with wreaths of flowers. And by tamas she had the great Uktha, praised by three Ukthas, the originator of the great word, called also Samaswasa, the means of rest.

It is the third of them, born of the heaviest of the qualities, who wanted a son.

Uktha performed a severe penance lasting many years, with the view of having a pious son equal unto Brahma in reputation. The invocation was made with the vyahriti hymns and with the aid of the five sacred fires, and five men stood at them: Kasyapa, Vasistha, Prana the son of Prana, Chyavana the son of Angiras, and Suvarchaka.

Out of that invocation there arose a very bright energy, full of the animating principle, and of five different colours. Its head was of the colour of blazing fire. Its arms were bright like the sun. Its skin and its eyes were golden. Its feet were black.

The five colours were given to it by those five men by reason of their great penance, one colour apiece, so that the being is described as appertaining to five men and is the progenitor of five tribes. His name was Tapa, which is penance.

Tapa performed a penance of his own for ten thousand years, and then produced the terrible fire that belongs to the Pitris, the fathers, in order to begin the work of creation. From his head and his mouth he created Vrihat and Rathantara, day and night, who quickly steal away everything they touch. From his navel he created Siva. From his might, Indra. From his soul, wind and fire. From his two arms sprang the hymns Udatta and Anudatta. He produced the mind and the five senses, and other creatures besides.

Then he produced the five sons of the Pitris: Pranidhi son of Vrihadratha, Vrihadratha son of Kasyapa, Bhanu the godson of Chyavana, Saurabha son of Suvarchaka, and Anudatta son of Prana. Twenty-five beings in all are reputed to have been created by him.

Tapa also created fifteen gods who obstruct sacrifices, and Markandeya named every one of them, because a man who does not know their names cannot appease them.

They are Subhima, Bhima, Atibhima, Bhimavala and Avala. Then Sumitra, Mitravana, Mitasina, Mitravardhana and Mitradharaman. Then Surapravira, Vira, Suveka, Suravarchas and Surahantri. Three classes of five.

They are located here, in this world, and what they do is destroy the sacrifices of the gods in heaven. They frustrate the objects of those rites and spoil the oblations of clarified butter, and they do it out of spite against the sacred fires who carry the offerings up. That is the whole of their grievance: the fires are couriers to heaven, and these fifteen were not given the work.

There is a remedy, and it is entirely practical. If the officiating priests are careful, they place oblations in the honour of these fifteen outside the sacrificial altar. To the place where the sacred fire itself is set, the fifteen cannot come. So the priest puts a share on the ground beyond the line, where they can reach it, and they carry that oblation of their votaries away by means of wings. When they have been appeased with hymns, they do not frustrate the rites.

The other sons of Tapa are gentler. Vrihaduktha belongs to the Earth, and he is worshipped here in this world by pious men performing the Agnihotra. Of the son called Rathantara, the officiating priests say that the oblation offered in his honour is offered to Mitravinda.

The celebrated Tapa, said Markandeya, was thus very happy with his sons.

It is a strange sentence to arrive at after a list of fifteen saboteurs, and it is meant to be. This is a family in which the obstructors and the carriers are brothers, and both have a portion, and the ritual is arranged so that the ones who would wreck the offering are fed first and outside. The Brahmanas did not pretend that spite could be argued out of the world. They gave it a plate and set the plate beyond the altar.

The fire called Bharata was bound by severe rules of asceticism. Another name of his is Pushtimati, because when he is satisfied he vouchsafes pushti, development, to all creatures, and for that reason he is called Bharata, the Cherisher. The fire named Siva is devoted to the worship of Sakti, and because he always relieves the sufferings of creatures afflicted with misery he is called Siva, the giver of good.

When Tapa had acquired great ascetic wealth, a son named Puranda was born to inherit it. Then a son named Ushma, who is observed in the vapour of all matter. Then a third son, Manu, who officiated as Prajapati. After those, the Brahmanas learned in the Vedas speak of the exploits of the fire Sambhu, and then of the bright Avasathya of great refulgence, the fire of the house. Tapa thus created five Urjaskara fires, all bright as gold, and these all share the Soma drink at sacrifices. The sun-god, when he is fatigued after his day's labours, is known as the Prasanta fire.

Angiras created the Prajapati Bhanu, son of Tapa, whom Brahmanas call Vrihadbhanu, the great Bhanu. Bhanu married Supraja, and married also Brihadbhanu the daughter of Surya, and had six sons.

The fire who gives strength to the weak is Valada, the giver of strength, his first son. The fire who looks terrible when all the elements are tranquil is Manjuman, the second. The third is the one to whom clarified butter is offered at the Darsa and the Paurnamasya, and who is known in this world as Vishnu, and who is called Angiras, or Dhritiman. The fourth is Agrayana, to whom with Indra the Agrayana oblation is made. The fifth is Agraha, the source of the oblations made daily for the Chaturmasya rites. And the sixth is Stuva.

Nisa was another wife of that same Manu who is known as Bhanu, and she bore one daughter, the two Agnishomas, and five other fire-gods. Vaiswanara is honoured with the first oblations in company with the presiding deity of the clouds. Viswapati is the lord of all the worlds. The daughter is Swistakrit, because by oblations unto her one acquires great merit. Sannihita has its seat in the vital airs of all creatures and animates their bodies, and is the cause of our perceptions of sound and form. The fire Kapila, marked with black and white, free from sin, whom the wise regard as a great Rishi, is the propounder of the Yoga system called Sankhya. And Agrani is the fire through whom the elementary spirits receive the offerings called Agra.

The rest of the fires, Markandeya said, were created for one purpose: the rectification of the Agnihotra when the rite has been marred by a defect.

A householder keeps three fires and feeds them morning and evening for as long as he lives, and the whole arrangement rests on their remaining separate, undisturbed and clean. Fires, however, are in the world, where a wind blows and an animal dies at the wrong moment. The books do not pretend otherwise. They give a fault and a fee, and the fee is almost always the Ashtakapala, a cake baked in eight potsherds, offered to a fire named for that particular accident.

If the fires interlap each other by the action of the wind, the rectification is made with the Ashtakapala rites in honour of the fire Suchi.

If the southern fire comes into contact with the two other fires, the rectification is made in honour of the fire Viti.

If the fires in their place called Nivesa come into contact with the fire called Devagni, the Ashtakapala must be performed in honour of Suchi.

If the perpetual fire is touched by a woman in her monthly course, the rites must be performed in honour of the fire called Dasyuman.

If at the time of the Agnihotra the death of any creature is spoken of, or if animals die, the rectification is made in honour of the Suraman fire.

The Brahmana who, suffering from a disease, is unable to offer oblations to the sacred fire for three nights, must make amends by performing the Ashtakapala rites in honour of the northern fire.

He who has performed the Darsa and the Paurnamasya must make his rectification in honour of the Patikrit fire.

And if the fire of a lying-in room, where a woman has given birth, comes into contact with the perpetual sacred fire, the rectification is made in honour of the fire Agniman.

The list of accidents and the list of relatives are the same list. A man whose fire has gone wrong is not being fined. He is being told which of Angiras's descendants to speak to.

One story was left, and it is the oldest injury in the family. Mudita, the favourite wife of the fire Swaha, used to live in water, and Swaha, regent of earth and sky, begot in her a highly sacred fire called Adbhuta, whom learned Brahmanas call the ruler and inner soul of all creatures. Under the name Grihapati he is worshipped at every sacrifice and carries every oblation made in this world. His son, the Bharata fire, consumes the dead bodies of all creatures, and his first Kratu at the Agnishtoma is known as Niyata.

The prime fire is always missed by the gods, because when he sees Niyata approaching he hides in the sea for fear of contamination. The gods searched every direction and could not find him. He, meanwhile, had found Atharvan.

"O valiant being, do thou carry the oblations for the gods," the fire said to him. "I am disabled from want of strength. Attaining the state of the red-eyed fire, do thou condescend to do me this favour."

Then he went away to another place, and his hiding place was divulged by the fish.

"You shall be the food of all creatures in various ways," he told them, and that curse is why they are eaten.

Entreated by the gods, he still would not carry their oblations. He became insensible and gave up the ghost, and leaving his material body he entered the bowels of the earth, and where he touched it he made the metals. Force and scent arose from his pus, the Deodar pine from his bones, glass from his phlegm, the Marakata jewel from his bile, black iron from his liver, the clouds from his nails, corals from his veins. Wood and stone and iron, and the whole world embellished with the three.

The penance of Bhrigu and Angiras roused him, and he blazed forth, and then he saw Atharvan and fled back into the water. The frightened world turned to Atharvan, and Atharvan rummaged the whole sea before all those waiting beings, found the fire, and began the work of creation himself.

Now he carries the oblations of all creatures, and travelling about the countries he produced the fires named in the Vedas. Their mothers are rivers: the Indus and the five rivers of the Punjab, the Sone, the Devika, the Saraswati, the Ganga, the Satakumbha, the Sarayu, the Gandaki, the Charmanwati, the Mahi, the Medha, the Medhatithi, the three Tamravatis, the Vetravati, the Kausiki, the Tamasa, the Narmada, the Godavari, the Vena, the Upavena, the Bhima, the Vadawa, the Bharati, the Suprayoga, the Kaveri, the Murmura, the Tungavenna, the Krishnavenna and the Kapila.

"All this race of fires," Markandeya said, "sprang also from the race of Atri, who conceived these sons in his own mind, desirous of extending the creation. Know that all these fires are one and the same. This adorable being, the first-born fire, must be considered as one, for like the Jyotishtoma he came out of the body of Angiras in various forms."

Which was the answer to what Yudhishthira had asked before any of the names were spoken.