Shloka 82
Śiva-stavarāja: Upamanyu’s Preface and Initiation of the Śarva-Nāma Enumeration
Anuśāsana-parva 17
महामेघनिवासी च महाघोरो वशी कर: । अग्निज्वालो महाज्वालो अतिधूम्रो हुतो हवि:
mahāmeghanivāsī ca mahāghoro vaśī karaḥ | agnijvālo mahājvālo atidhūmro huto haviḥ ||
قال فايُو-ديفا: «إنه يقيم بين السُّحُب العظيمة (ولا سيّما سُحُب الفناء)؛ وهو شديدُ الهول، المُسيطر الذي يُخضع الجميع، وعاملُ الدمار. يتوهّج كالنار، بلهيبٍ أعظم؛ وفي زمن الاحتراق الكوني يكتنفه دخانٌ كثيف. وهو النارُ التي تسرّ بالقرابين، وهو كذلك القُربانُ نفسه—السمنُ المصفّى، واللبن، وكلُّ ما يليق أن يُسكب في اللهيب المقدّس».
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse fuses cosmic and ritual theology: the same divine principle is both the fearsome power of dissolution (terrible, controlling, destructive, smoky time-fire) and the beneficent sacrificial fire that accepts offerings—indeed, it is also the offering itself. Ethically, it points to seeing the sacred as pervading both awe-inspiring cosmic forces and everyday dharmic acts like yajña.
Vāyu-deva is describing a deity in a litany of epithets—portraying him with pralaya imagery (great clouds, terror, destruction, smoke) and with yajña imagery (Agni who is pleased by oblations, and the oblation itself). The passage functions as praise/identification through names and attributes.