The Flood is a dire geological reality. It occurred at about
9,600 BC, precisely the date given by Plato for the destruction of Atlantis.
In the tragic event, some 70% of all great mammals, and a multitude of
other smaller species, became globally extinct.
 Mammoths, cave-bears, saber-toothed tigers,
mountain lions and hundreds of other such magnificent animals were smashed
to bits by an unimaginably great cataclysm of global extent. Two species
of Man, the Cro-Magnons and the Neanderthals, became extinct at about this
occasion, and in all probability owe their demise to the catastrophe. Such
is the event registered in myths as the Deluge or Flood, and in the geologic
record as what the paleontologists call the Quaternary Extinctions.
Angiras is also known as Brihaspati, "the
Lord of Prayer". He is, as such, associated with the Sacrificial Pyre of
the
agnihotras, whose smoke rises to heaven itself establishing
a link between the gods and the mortals. Indeed the smoke carries up the
smell of burnt flesh, that of the sacrificial victims. And that giant pyre
is no other than an allegory of Atlantis destroyed by fire.
The Incending of the Forest of Kandhava
More exactly, these sacrificial victims
correspond to the creatures (humans included) burnt in the Conflagration that destroyed the
world then, and to the Flood that eventually quenched it. Such is the real
meaning of the Cosmogonic Hierogamy of Fire and Water. The Hindus vividly
relate this tragic event in detail in many myths, the most impressive of
which is that of
The Incending of the Forest
of Kandhava.
This magnificent myth seems to be the dual and fiery counterpart of the watery destruction of the Flood myth of Manu and the Fish. The Fish, (Matsya), was/is the first avatar of Vishnu. And Manu is the true archetype of Noah
(or Manoah = Manu), as well as of all such Flood Heroes, including Utnapishtin, his Sumerian counterpart.
The giant pyre of Brihaspati corresponds
to the sacrificial fire lit up by both Noah and Utnapishtin shortly after
the Flood. The smoke of his sacrificial pyre also "rose up to the skies and
attracted the gods as flies to a slaughterhouse", just like the ones of the Bible and of the Sumero-Babylonian Flood myth. For, apparently, burnt
sacrifices pleases the gods, particularly when they are of human victims.
The "fall" of Angiras prefigures that of
Adam, whose skull became the Holy Mountain (Mt. Calvary), just as did that
of Angiras. Other Judeo-Christian myths that are likewise related to the
fall of Angiras as the
vajra (or "thunderbolt") are those of Christ
and of Satan. These two also fall from the skies "like lightning bolts".
The
Book of Revelation is full of similar relations. In it, both
Michael and Satan the likes of Indra and Vritra also fall from the
skies in like manner while they are fighting for hegemony.
The Vedic Sacrifice of the
Agnishtoma
Another important Vedic ritual is the
agnishtoma
("praise of Agni"). The
agnishtoma corresponds to the Soma sacrifice
in honor of Agni. It was performed in Spring, on the occasion of the New
Year, and lasted several days. A sacrificial fire was lit up and kept for
its entire duration. Soma was ritually prepared and drunk freely, as well
as offered in libation to the fire. A goat was sacrificed in great pomp,
just as in the Ashvamedha.
The
agnishtoma was a fertility ritual.
Both Agni and Indra are the personifications of Fire and Water or of the
Conflagration and the Flood which periodically ravage the earth. These two gods were
the main personages, the celebrants of the ritual. But all gods, with a single exception (Shiva) assembled for the great
sacrifice, just as they do when the earth is to be destroyed by the Flood.
The
agnishtoma ritual commemorates
the renewal of Nature and the restoration of fertility. It was intended
both to bring rains and to commemorate the lighting of fires for the New
Year that was starting. The ceremony was also accompanied by ritual mating
of both animals and people, just as in the Tantric rituals of modern India
or the
akitu festival of the Sumero-Babylonians.
The lighting of the New Fire was called
Agnyadheya ("lighting of fires") and was an important preliminary
at all Vedic sacrifices. The holy fire was lit by means of the Vedic fire-drill
(pramantha). The
pramantha has been associated by Max Mueller
and other Sanskritists with the myth and the name of Prometheus.
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