The all -consuming Agni Dev is the Vedic god of fire in our Sanatana Dharma. He is one of the Astadikpalas and guards the South East direction. He is invoked along with the deities of Indra and Soma and is also one of the Panchabhutas or the five elements that pervade in the Universe.
Nothing stands in front of Agni and all perish in his powerful fire. However, it was not the same when he was born. It once happened that Rishi Bhrigu asked Agni to guard his wife Puloma while he was away. Agni agrees to this, but a demon carries away Puloma on her own will. But Rishi Bhrigu gets furious with Agni and curses him to be the destroyer of whatever he touches. Agni gets upset that he was cursed for no fault of his and hides from the world. Brahma Ji searches for him and finds him in a cave. He asks Agni to come back to his duties, but Agni fears that he would destroy all because of Bhrigu’s curse. Brahma Ji then changes the curse into a boon that whatever would be touched by him would become pure and hence he would be invoked during all sacred rituals and would be considered the purest form of offerings.
After this, all offerings came to be given to the Devas through Agni Dev. In this course, a king named Swetaki performed a Yagna for twelve years and continuously poured pure ghee into Agni. Because of this consumption of ghee, Agni started to suffer from indigestion and lost all his radiance. When he approached Brahma Ji for a solution, the creator told him to consume the Khandava forest with many medicinal herbs which would cure Agni’s indigestion. When Agni tried to do the same, his attempt was foiled by Devraj Indr as Indr’s friend Takshak, the king of snakes was residing in the Khandav forest. Despite several attempts, Agni fails to tackle Devraj Indr‘s power and seeks refugee of Brahma Ji. Brahma ji asks him to approach Nar and Narayan who incarnated as Arjun and Shri Krishna to help him in his task.
Agni rushes to Shri Krishna and Arjun and seeks their help. Shri Krishna agrees to this, but says although they are knowledgeable in warfare, they do not have the perfect weapons to fight Devraj Indr. Agni then requests his friend Varun, the water god to provide them with divine weapons, and thus Shri Krishna gets his Sudrashan Chakr and Arjun, his Gandiv. Set by the divine weaponry, both of them start guarding the forest form the downpour of Devraj Indr while Agni consumes the forest. Devraj Indr comes to a battle with all his army, but cannot withstand the power of Shri Krishna and Arjun. They successfully help Agni to consume the entire forest and get rid of his indigestion and glow back with his power.
When Devraj indr was worried about his friend, Brahma Ji appears and mentions to Indr that Takshak was already taken to a safe place by the Nagas and there was nothing to worry about. Indr is pleased by this and grants Shri Krishna and Arjun protection from his thunderbolt that it can never harm them. Thus Agni was cured from his indigestion and was also the one who granted the divine weapons to Shri Krishna and Arjun which made them the greatest warriors of the Dwapar Yug.