Ashes

upa tvãgne dive-dive

doshãvastar, dhiyã vayam/

namo bharanta emasi//

One day at a time, O Agni,

Who illuminates darkness, we come to you/

In contemplation, bringing homage//

One of two (along with Indra) principal deities of the Rig Veda is Agni, the anthropomorphism of Fire, who figures most prominently within the religious culture of the priestly-governed Aryans who moved southwards into what is presently called the sub-continent of India, physically displacing the indigenous populations, assimilating portions of their languages, and implementing a new culture and belief system based upon the caste system of varnas, which originally means "colors." From the Aryans, a descendent form of a  proto-Indo-Eurpean language, known prophetically as Samskrita "the perfected," was introduced into that part of the globe with a roughly estimated time of arrival: 1500 BCE. This is known as the beginning of the Vedic Period.