Agni is the Hindu god of fire.

He is regarded as the friend and protector of humanity, in

particular, he safeguards the home. Various forms of fire are associated with Agni and
include the sun, lightning, comets, sacrificial fire, domestic fires, the fire of the funeral-
pyre, and the digestive fire which is within all humans. Agni was especially important
in the Vedic period (1500 - 500 BCE) and the Vedas contains more hymns to him than to
any other deity. He is still considered today omnipresent though not directly
worshipped. Agni knows the thoughts of all people and is a witness to all important
actions, hence the use of fire in many important Hindu ceremonies such as marriages.
He is also referred to in sacred texts such as the Mahabharata as the 'Oblation-devourer'
and the 'Purifier'. With flaming hair and riding a goat he is easily identified in Hindu
art.

Agni (Sanskrit: , pronounced English: /gni/ AG-nee[5]) means fire, and connotes
the Vedic fire god of Hinduism.[6][7][8] Agni also refers to one of the guardian deities of
direction, who is typically found in southeast corners of Hindu temples.[9] In
classical cosmologyof Indian religions, Agni as fire has been one of the five inert
impermanent constituents (Dhatus) along with space (Akasa), water (Ap), air (Vayu) and
earth (Prithvi), the five combining to form the empirically perceived material existence
(Prakriti).[7][10][11]

In the Vedic literature, Agni is a major and oft invoked god along
with Indra and Soma.[7][12] Agni is considered as the mouth of the gods and goddesses,
and the medium that conveys offerings to them in a homa (votive ritual).[6][13][14] He is
conceptualized in ancient Hindu texts to exist at three levels, on earth as fire, in
atmosphere as lightning, and in the sky as sun. This triple presence connects him as the
messenger between gods and human beings in the Vedic thought.[7] The relative
importance of Agni declined in the post-Vedic era,[15] as he was internalized[16] and his
identity evolved to metaphorically represent all transformative energy and knowledge
in the Upanishads and later Hindu literature.[17][18][19] 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 Agnipradakshinam (seven steps and
mutual vows), as well being part of Diya (lamp) in festivals such
as Diwali and Aarti in Puja.[7]
Agni (Pali: Aggi) is a term that appears extensively in Buddhist texts,[20] and in the
literature related to the Senika heresy debate within the Buddhist traditions. [21][22] In the
ancient Jainism thought, Agni (fire) contains soul and fire-bodied beings,[23] additionally
appears as Agni-kumara or "fire princes" in its theory of rebirth and a class of
reincarnated beings,[24] and is discussed in its texts with the equivalent term Tejas.[25]
Agni's wife is the daughter of King Nila who impressed the fire-god by being the only
woman in the kingdom who managed to kindle a flame in the royal palace. In some
myths Karttikeya (Skanda), the Hindu god of war, is Agni's son and the result of
Agni's conquest of the Pleiades, the wives of the Seven Sages.

AGNI & VARIOUS FIRES

Agni is the son of the Celestial Waters and that element is closely connected with fire
which is thought to be carried down to earth within rain. From there fire is drawn up by
vegetation and so when two sticks are rubbed together fire appears. Agni is also
responsible for lightning which is born from the god's union with the cloud goddess.
Another fire Agni is associated with is the funeral-pyre; in this role he leads the dead to
their final judgement by Yama, ruler of the Underworld.

Agni is perhaps most closely associated with sacrificial fires where he is thought to carry the
offerings of humans to the gods. According to various myths, Agni was at first afraid to take on
this duty as his three brothers had been killed already whilst performing the task.
Consequently, Agni hid in the subterranean waters but, unfortunately, fish revealed his hiding
place to the gods. As a result Agni cursed them so that fish would become the easy prey of men.
In another version it is frogs, then elephants, and then parrots which reveal Agni's attempts at
hiding and the god punished them all by distorting their speech ever after. The final hiding
place of Agni in this version was inside a sami tree and so it is considered the sacred abode of
fire in Hindu rituals and its sticks are used to make fires. Reluctantly taking up his duty again
Agni did negotiate by way of compensation to always receive a share of the sacrifice he carried
to the gods and he was given the boon of ever-lasting life.

Agni appears in all forms of fire and even those things which burn well or have a
certain lustre. In the Brhaddevata we are told that at one point Agni is dismembered and
distributed among earthly things. The god's flesh and fat becomes guggulu resin, his
bones the pine tree, his semen becomes gold and silver, his blood and bile are
transformed into minerals, his nails are tortoises, entrails the avaka plant, his bone
marrow sand and gravel, his sinews become tejana grass, his hair kusa grass, and his
body hair becomes kasa grass which was used in sacrificial rituals.

Over time Agni's importance as a god diminishes, a fact explained in the Mahabharata as
due to his over-indulgence in consuming one too many offerings. In the Visnu Purana he
is described as the eldest son of Brahma and Svaha is his wife. Together they had three
sons, Pavaka, Pavamana, and Suchi who in turn had 45 sons which, including their
fathers and grandmother, totals 49, the number of sacred fires in the Vayu Purana.
Agni, according to one Rigveda hymn attributed to the sage Vasistha, also has a darker
side. Similar in nature to the 'flesh-eater' demons, the raksasa, he has two wickedly sharp
iron tusks and he devours his victims without mercy. However, when called upon by
the gods, Agni destroys the raksasa with his flaming spears. This episode, when Agni
becomes a servant of the gods, is illustrative of his fall from the pinnacle of
the pantheon.