Saṃvartaka Agni
Saṃvartaka Agni · saṃvartaka agni, “the fire of the dissolution”
Grammar: masculine; saṃvartaka (belonging to the saṃvarta, the rolling-up of the worlds at pralaya) and agni (fire): “the fire of the dissolution”. It is also called saṃvartāgni, kalpāgni (the fire of the end of the kalpa) and pralayāgni.
Meaning: the fire that burns the worlds at the end of the kalpa, at pralaya. This is the fire, not Kālāgni Rudra.
In the scriptures: in the Brahma Purāṇa, the account of Mārkaṇḍeya and the banyan of Purushottama-kshetra opens with the pralaya at the end of the kalpa. The sun, the moon, the wind and the whole world, moving and unmoving, perish; the fierce pralaya sun rises; clouds thunder, lightning flashes and thunderbolts fall; meteors strike the worlds, and the rivers and lakes dry up. Then the saṃvartaka fire, together with the wind, enters the world lit up by the suns. It breaks open the earth and enters Pātāla, bringing fear to the devas, the dānavas, the yakshas and the rest. It burns Nāga-loka, burns the earth leaving not a trace, and in a moment destroys everything below. With the wind spreading over a hundred thousand yojanas, the pralaya fire burns devas, asuras, gandharvas, nāgas and rākshasas. This fierce (raudra) fire, blazing with terrible flames and a great roar, is heard in the śrutis as the kalpāgni; it blazes with the light of a crore suns and burns the three worlds (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 52).
In that pralaya Mārkaṇḍeya, a ṛshi devoted to dharma, wandered the earth parched and afraid, finding no place to rest. Meditating with a one-pointed mind on Purushottama, he reached the king of banyans named Purushottama and sat at its root. There there is no fear of kālāgni, embers do not rain, the saṃvartāgni does not enter and thunderbolts do not fall; in that abhaya-sthāna, the place free of fear, the ṛshi rested (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 52).
Vyāsa tells the munis the same burning in the naimittika pralaya. After the hundred years of drought and the seven Sūryas, the fire of the time of pralaya, with the heat of the breath of Rudra and Ādiśesha, burns the seven pātālas, then goes up to Bhūloka and to Svarga and burns the three lokas one after another, until they are like a pan being heated; then Bhagavān Vishṇu in the form of Rudra makes the Saṃvartaka clouds, whose rains put out the fire (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 232). Near Yama, those who die in pāpa see Mṛtyu standing with the radiance of the kālāgni (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 215).
Related terms: Pralaya · Kalpa · Agni · Saṃvartaka · Kālāgni
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 52, 215, 232