In today’s mini-episode, we’ll meet the God of Fire! We’re talking of course about Agni.
You may have seen the picture of a god sitting on a ram, all bright and red and in flames. That’s Agni. And don’t worry. The Ram…. is flame resistant.
I’ll do one small story of Agni this time.
It starts with one of the Seven hall-of-fame rishis, called the Saptarishis. And that rishi was Brighu. Brighu was off one morning to take a bath. And like all baths in Ancient India, this one was in a river. He left his wife Puloma who was expecting alone back home. He did leave a fire going outside but there was no risk of burning down the neighborhood, because back then fires did not spread the way they do now. For reasons that will soon be clear.
While Puloma was sleeping inside. Who should pass by outside but Puloma? Yes, this was another Puloma. But he was actually someone that knew the other Puloma. Puloma and Puloma had actually been engaged. Talk about a confusing married life for the two.
A misunderstanding broke off their engagement, but Puloma(the guy) hadn’t forgotten Puloma(the girl).
When he was passing by he happened to notice Brighu and Puloma’s names on the mailbox.
His memories came rushing back. He wanted to verify if this was the very Puloma that he knew.
Instead of ringing the doorbell and checking like a normal person, Puloma asked the fire:
“Hey, Agni – just wondering if, you know, the lady inside is the Puloma I used to know”
The fire did not respond. Of course. Who heard of a talking fire?!
But when he asked again, this time Agni did respond. But he strongly cautioned Puloma against doing anything about it. But Puloma did do something about it. He barged in and abducted the pregnant Puloma.
But as he was dashing away, Puloma the girl gave birth. The boy, had some special powers the moment he was born Puloma was incinerated. I mean the bad guy was incinerated. Not the mom. That would have been terrible.
So when Brighu returned and heard everything that happened, instead of hugging his baby and congratulating his wife, he thought it was more important to play the blame game. And he knew exactly whose fault it was. He decided based on some crazy logic that it was all Agni’s fault!
And so he cursed Agni to just consume everything around him. That’s why fire spreads.
It got out of control and Agni withdrew from public life. That was a step backward for civilization generally. So, my dad, Brahma decided to do something about it. He tweaked the curse so that Agni gained some purifying abilities.
In some versions, Agni is the son of Brahma, just like me.
Agni has six hands and 3 legs and 2 heads because… why not? The heads signify life and immortality.
Agni’s wife is Svaha. A name you may recognize from many Indian festivals – it’s a name that is invoked in front of a ceremonial fire.
That’s all for this mini-episode.
Next Time
In this weekend’s full episode we’re back with the final showdown between Hari Pot breaker and the wizard Voldemort.