The Secret Of The Veda Aurobindo - HolyBooks.com

164 The Secret of the Veda
rayed ones (divyā navagvāh. ) enjoy the woods 3 (vanā vananti,
significantly conveying the covert sense, ‘enjoying the objects
of enjoyment’) breaking them up violently. O thou of the pure
light, they bright and pure assail 4 (or overcome) all the earth,
they are thy horses galloping in all directions. Then thy roaming
shines widely vast directing their journey to the higher level of
the Various-coloured (the cow, Prishni, mother of the Maruts).
Then doubly (in earth and heaven?) thy tongue leaps forward
like the lightning loosed of the Bull that wars for the cows.”
Sayana tries to avoid the obvious identification of the Rishis
with the flames by giving navagva the sense of “new-born rays”,
but obviously divyā navagvāh. here and the sons of Agni (in
X.62) born in heaven who are navagva are the same and cannot
possibly be different; and the identification is confirmed,
if any confirmation were needed, by the statement that in this
ranging of Agni constituted by the action of the Navagwas his
tongue takes the appearance of the thunderbolt of Indra, the
Bull who wars for the cows, loosed from his hand and leaping
forward, undoubtedly to assail the powers of darkness in the
hill of heaven; for the march of Agni and the Navagwas is here
described as ascending the hill (sānu pr. ´sneh. ) after ranging over
the earth.
We have evidently here a symbolism of the Flame and the
Light, the divine flames devouring the earth and then becoming
the lightning of heaven and the lustre of the solar Powers; for
Agni in the Veda is the light of the sun and the lightning as
well as the flame found in the waters and shining on the earth.
The Angiras Rishis being powers of Agni share this manifold
function. The divine flame kindled by the sacrifice supplies also
to Indra the material of the lightning, the weapon, the heavenly
stone, svarya a´smā, by which he destroys the powers of darkness
and wins the cows, the solar illuminations.
Agni, the father of the Angirases, is not only the fount and
origin of these divine flames, he is also described in the Veda
3 The logs of the sacrificial fire, according to Sayana.
4 Shave the hair of the earth, according to Sayana.