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:,४३० महामेघनिवासी--प्रलयकालिक महामेघोंमें निवास करनेवाले, ४३१ महाघोर: --प्रलय करनेवाले, ४३२ वशी--सबको वशमें रखनेवाले, ४३३ कर:--संहारकारी, ४३४ अग्निज्वाल:--अग्निकी ज्वालाके समान तेजवाले, ४३५ महाज्वाल:--अग्निसे भी महान् तेजवाले, ४३६ अतिथधूम्र:--कालाग्निरूपसे सबके दाहकालमें अत्यन्त धूम्र वर्णवाले, ४३७ हुत:--आहति पाकर प्रसन्न होनेवाले अग्निरूप, ४३८ हवि:ः--घी-दूध आदि हवनीय पदार्थरूप
mahāmeghanivāsī ca mahāghoro vaśī karaḥ | agnijvālo mahājvālo atidhūmro huto haviḥ ||
Vāyu-deva said: “He dwells amid the vast clouds (especially those of dissolution); he is exceedingly terrible, the controller who brings all under subjugation, the agent of destruction. He blazes like fire, with a flame greater still; in the time of universal burning he is thick with smoke. He is the Fire that is pleased by offerings, and he is also the oblation itself—ghee, milk, and all that is fit to be poured into the sacred flame.”
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.