File:Agni Hindu Fire God by Nandalal Bose (3).jpg

Identifier: indianmythlegend00inmack Title: Indian myth and legend Year: 1913 (1910s) Authors: Mackenzie, Donald Alexander, 1873-1936 Subjects: Hindu mythology Publisher: London, Gresham Contributing Library: Indiana University Digitizing Sponsor: Indiana University

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Text Appearing Before Image: re twice fivesisters, but the reference is clearly explained in anotherpassage: The ten fingers have given him birth, theancient, well-loved Agni, well born of his mothers .* Dawn, with its darkness-consuming fires, and starryNight, are the sisters of Agni; they celebrate his threebirths, one in the sea, one in the sky, one in the waters(clouds) . Typical of the Oriental mind is the mysteriousreference to Agnis mothers owing their origin to him.The poet sings: Who among you hath understood the hidden (god) ?The calf has by itself given birth to itsmothers. Professor Oldenberg, who suggests that the waters arethe mothers, reasons in Oriental mode: Smoke isAgni, it goes to the clouds, the clouds become waters .^ In his early humanized form Agni bears some resem-blance to Heimdal, the Teutonic sentinel god, who has ^ RignjeJa, v, 2. * Rig-veda, i, 95. • Rig-veda, iv, 6. 8. * Rig-veda, iii, 23. 3. Rig-veda, i, 95. 4, and note, Oldenbergs VeJic Hymns {Sacred Books of the East,vol. xlvi).

Text Appearing After Image: AGNI, THE FIRE GOD From a painting by Nanda Lall Base (By permission of the Indian Society of Oriental Art, Calcutta) THE GREAT VEDIC DEITIES 21 nine mothers, the daughters of sea-dwelling Ran, and isthus also a son of the waters; he is clad in silvernarmour, and on his head is a burnished helmet with ramshorns. Horsed on his swift steed, Gulltop, he watchesthe demons who seek to attack the citadel of the gods. . ..His sight is so keen that he can see by night as well as by-day. . . . Heimdal is loved both by gods and by men,and he is also called Gullintani because his teeth are ofgold. There was a time when he went to Midgard (theearth) as a child; he grew up to be a teacher among menand was named Scef. Scef is identified as the patriarchScyld in Beowulf^ who came over the sea as a child androse to be the king of a tribe. Mankind were descendedfrom Heimdal-Scef: three sons were born to him ofhuman mothers—Thrall, from whom thralls are descended;Churl, the sire of freemen, and Jarl

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