Appendix 38
See RV 10, 46.2, ed. K. Geldner (1951); cf. V. Rydberg, Teutonic Mythologie (1907), p. 587. Geldner, vague as ever, spells it “der Gewässer Behausung." Agni, however, is a title, and the Rigveda stresses time and again that three Agnis already have gone away, “consumed” by the “sacrificial service.“Agni, too, is not only coming from the confluence of the rivers like Gibil, but is also born in the “highest sky” (RV 6.8.2): “Im höchsten Himmel geboren wachte Agni über die (Opfer) regeln als ihr Hüter. Der Klugsinnige mass den Luftraum aus.” In fact, he has three birthplaces as a rule, in the “three worlds.” (We have mentioned already that one of the Agnis had “seven mothers,” like Heimdal.)
But wherever one of the Agnis is “found," he is a very busy surveyor. Says RV 6.7.6: “Durch das Auge des Vaisvānara, durch das Wahrzeichen der Unsterblichkeit sind die Höhen des Himmels ausgemessen. Auf seinem Haupte (stehen) alle Welten, wie die Zweige sind seine sieben Arme (?) gewachsen.” RV 6.7.1-2 calls the same Agni Vaisvānara, “head of the sky, leader [1] of the earth, born at the right time . . . the navel of the sacrifice.” Stanza 5 of the same hymn states: “Vaisvānara! Diese deine hohen Anforderungen hat noch keiner angetastet, o Agni, der du im Schosse der beiden Eltern geboren, das Wahrzeichen in der Reihenfolge der Tage fandest.’ It is of another Agni, “just born”, “the best path-finder,” that RV 8.103.11 states: “Der bei (Sonnen-) aufgang die angebundenen Schätze erkundet.” Whoever minds the “implex” is not going to think of the daily sunrise, if it is the sun at all: this is a conjecture of Geldner; we are up either to the heliacal rising of the “Agni-in-charge” at the vernal equinox’ or at the rising day of Sirius, We wonder when the glorious. day will finally arrive when the philologists begin to realize the purely cosmological significance of “sacrificial” and of “victims” chained to a “sacrificial post” or to a mountain.
The overwhelming amount of evidence on Agni and Soma (“lord of the world poles”) as colures will have to be dealt with in the fitting frame, by means of an investigation of the so-called Shunashepa Hymns of the first Mandala of the Rigveda, Shunashepa being literally the same as Cynosoura, “Dog’s Tail,” i.e.. Ursa Minor. In the present context we wish to point to only one more name of Agni — being himself a title — that is, Apām Napāt, a designation which belongs also to Iranian Tishtriya, Sirius. Usually it is translated into “child of the waters,” but we cannot agree to this interpretation of napāt (whence also Neptunus) as “child.” Not only does Boissacq allow only for nephews and nieces in connection with this radical, but we are always dealing with nephews in mythology, beginning with our own hero Amlethus; with Horus, nephew of Seth; with Kullervo, nephew of Untamo; with Reynard Fox, nephew of Isengrim; and so forth. What counts is a kind of “broken” relation, a subject deserving an extensive chapter, but since the understanding of the graphical sign that expresses best this “relation” ( ) comes from Mande tradition, West Sudan (where it marks circumcision, and the star of circumcision: Sirius), we postpone investigation of the whole complex.
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- Geldner’s rendering of Sanskrit arati into “Lenker” (Wagenlenker) has been contested by P. Thieme (Untersuchungen zur Wortkunde und Auslegung des Rigveda [1949], pp. 26-35). Arati (fem.) from ará, the spoke, being the totality of spokes, according to Thieme, he translates RV 6.7.1: “(den Agni), das Haupt des Himmels, den Speichenkranz der Erde,” pointing also to 1.59.2: “Agni ist das Haupt des Himmels, der Nabel der Erde. So ward er der Speichenkranz der beiden Welten.”