AGNI is the god of fire in ancient and traditional India. Derived from an Indo-European root, the Sanskrit word agni ("fire") is related to such other forms as Latin ignis and Lithuanian ugnis. A cognate appears in a Hittite text found at Bogazköy in the name Ak/gniš, identifying a god of devastation and annihilation. Although his mythological and ritual roots are reflected in Old Irish, Roman, and Iranian sources, the peculiar development of the god of fire as Agni owes as much to the ritualizing tendencies, the priestly vision, and the strong asceticism of the Indian context as it does to the god's Indo-European heritage.

The Ritual Context

Fire and heat play a central role in Vedic people's understanding of themselves within the cosmos. Fire is at once the most intimate and the most universal of elements; it can simultaneously inflict pain and bring purity, and...