Agni is fire itself deified — one of the most important Vedic deities, invoked in the very first hymn of the Rigveda and addressed in more hymns than any deity except Indra. As the mouth of the gods, Agni consumes the offerings poured into the ritual fire during havans and yagnas and conveys them to the devas, making him indispensable to Vedic ritual. Agni remains central to Hindu life-cycle rites: the sacred fire is the witness (sakshi) around which couples take their seven steps (saptapadi) at weddings, and cremation, the antyeshti rite, entrusts the body to Agni. He is depicted with two heads, riding a ram, symbolizing both the domestic hearth fire and the sacrificial fire.