Agni
is the mightiest of the old divinities. In an epic hymn to him it is
said: "Thou art the mouth of the worlds; the poets declare thee to be
one and three-fold; as carrier of the sacrifice they arrange thee
eight-fold. By thee was all created, say the highest seers. Priests
that have made reverence to thee attain the eternal course their acts
have won, together with their wives and sons. They call thee the
water-giver in the air, together with lightning. On thee first depends
water. Thou art the creator and Brihaspati, thou art the two Horsemen,
the two Yamas, Mitra, Soma, Wind" (i. 229. 23 ff.).[21] And yet this
is in a pantheistic environment! The Rig Veda is directly invoked,
though, of course, not directly cited, in the old hymn to the
Horsemen, who are, however, elsewhere put with low animals and
Guhyakas, demons (i. 66).[22] They are the "physicians of the gods,"
the "first-born" the golden birds which weave the white and black of
time, create the wheel of time with all its seasons, and make the sun
and sky (i. 3. 55 ff., "_v[=a]gbhir [r.]gbhis_"). Indra himself is
extolled in Kadr[=u]'s hymn; he is the slayer of Namuci, the lord of
Cac[=i]; he is the great cloud, cloud and its thunder, creator and
destroyer; he is Vishnu, 'Soma, greatly praised,' as well as fire,
air, time in all its divisions, earth and ocean; when lauded he drinks
the _soma_, and he is sung in the Ved[=a]ngas (i. 25. 7 ff.). Praised
with this hymn in time of need of rain, Indra "commanded the clouds,
saying, 'rain down the ambrosia'" (26. 2); where there is still the
rain as synonymous with ambrosia, and Indra not very differently
conceived from his Vedic self. Thus in comparisons: "As Indra standing
in heaven brings bliss to the world of the living, so Vidura ever
brought bliss to the Pandus" (i. 61. 15). But at the same time what
changes! The gods assemble and sing a hymn to Garuda, the epic form of
Garutman, the heavenly bird, who here steals the _soma_ vainly guarded
by the gods. Garuda, too, is Praj[=a]pati, Indra, and so forth.[23]
The gods are no longer divinities distinct from the dead Fathers, for
they are "identical in being." So Agni says when the latter is cursed
by Bhrigu: "The divinities and the Manes are satisfied by the oblation
in fire. The hosts of gods are waters, so, too, are the Manes. The
feasts of the new and full moon belong to the gods with the Manes;
hence the Manes are divinities and the divinities are Manes. They a