CHAPTER
XVI
The Angirasa Rishis
THE name Angirasa occurs in the Veda in
two different forms, Angira and Angirasa, although the latter is
the more common; we have also the patronymic Angirasa applied
more than once to the god Brihaspati. In later times Angirasa,
like Bhrigu and other seers, was regarded as one of the original
sages, progenitors of clans of Rishis who went by their names,
the Angirasas, Atris, Bhargavas. In the Veda also there are these
families of Rishis, the Atris, Bhrigus, Kanwas, etc. In one of the
hymns of the Atris the discovery of Agni, the sacred fire, is attributed to the
Angirasa Rishis (V.I 1.6), but in another to the
Bhrigus (X.46.9).¹ Frequently the seven original Angirasa Rishis
are described as the human fathers, pitaro manuṣyaḥ., who discovered the Light, made
the sun to shine and ascended to the heaven of the Truth. In some of the hymns
of the tenth Mandala
they are associated as the Pitris or Manes with Yama, a deity
who only comes into prominence in the later Suktas; they take
their seats with the gods on the barhis, the sacred grass, and have
their share in the sacrifice.
If this were all, the explanation of the part taken by the
Angirasa Rishis in the finding of the Cows, would be simple and
superficial enough; they would be the Ancestors, the founders
of the Vedic religion, partially deified by their descendants
and continually associated with the gods whether in the winning back of the
Dawn and the Sun out of the long Arctic night
or in the conquest of the Light and the Truth. But this is not all,
the Vedic myth has profounder aspects. In the first place, the
Angirasas are not merely the deified human fathers, they are also
brought before us as heavenly seers, sons of the gods, sons of
heaven and heroes or powers of the Asura, the mighty Lord,
¹Very possibly the Angirasa Rishis are the
flame-powers of Agni and the Bhrigus the solar
powers of Surya.
Page – 152
divas putrāso asurasya vīrāḥ (111,53.7), an expression which,
their
number being seven, reminds us strongly, though perhaps only
fortuitously, of the seven Angels of Ahura Mazda in the kindred
Iranian mythology. Moreover there are passages in which they
seem to become purely symbolical, powers and sons of Agni the
original Angirasa, forces of the symbolic Light and Flame, and
even to coalesce into a single seven-mouthed Angirasa with his
nine and his ten rays of the Light, navagve angire daśagve
saptāsye, on and by whom the Dawn breaks out with all her joy and
opulence. And yet all these three presentations seem to be of the
same Angirasas, their characteristics and their action being
otherwise identical.
Two entirely opposite explanations can be given of the
double character of these seers, divine and human. They may
have been originally human sages deified by their descendants
and in the apotheosis given a divine parentage and a divine
function; or they may have been originally demi-gods, powers of
the Light and Flame, who became humanised as the fathers of
the race and the discoverers of its wisdom. Both of these pro-
cesses are recognisable in early mythology. In the Greek legend,
for instance. Castor and Polydeuces and their sister Helen are
human beings, though children of Zeus, and only deified after
their death, but the probability is that originally all three were
gods, — Castor and Polydeuces, the twins, riders of the horse,
saviours of sailors on the ocean being almost certainly identical
with the Vedic Ashwins, the Horsemen, as their name signifies,
riders in the wonderful chariot, twins also, saviours of Bhujyu
from the ocean, terriers over the great waters, brothers of the
Dawn, and Helen very possibly the Dawn their sister or even
identical with Sarama, the hound of heaven, who is, like
Dakshina, a power, almost a figure of the Dawn. But in either
case there has been a farther development by which these gods or
demi-gods have become invested with psychological functions,
perhaps by the same process which in the Greek religion converted Athene, the
Dawn, into the goddess of knowledge and
Apollo, the sun, into the divine singer and seer, lord of the prophetic and
poetic inspiration.
In the Veda it is possible that another tendency has been at
Page – 153
work, — the persistent and all-pervading habit of symbolism dominant in the
minds of these ancient Mystics. Everything, their
own names, the names of Kings and sacrificers, the ordinary
circumstances of their lives were turned into symbols and covers
for their secret meaning. Just as they used the ambiguity of the
word go, which means both ray and cow, so as to make the concrete
figure of the cow, the chief form of their pastoral wealth, a
cover for its hidden sense of the inner light which was the chief
element in the spiritual wealth they coveted from the gods, so
also they would use their own names, gotama "most full of
light", gaviṣṭhira "the steadfast in
light" to hide a broad and
general sense for their thought beneath what seemed a personal
claim or desire. Thus too they used the experiences external and
internal whether of themselves or of other Rishis. If there is any
truth in the old legend of Shunahshepa bound as a victim on the
altar of sacrifice, it is yet quite certain, as we shall see, that in the
Rig-veda the occurrence or the legend is used as a symbol of the
human soul bound by the triple cord of sin and released from it
by the divine power of Agni, Surya, Varuna. So also Rishis like
Kutsa, Kanwa, Ushanas Kavya have become types and symbols
of certain spiritual experiences and victories and placed in that
capacity side by side with the gods. It is not surprising, then, that
in this mystic symbolism the seven Angirasa Rishis should have
become divine powers and living forces of the spiritual life
without losing altogether their traditional or historic human
character. We will leave, however, these conjectures and speculations aside and
examine instead the part played by these three
elements or aspects of their personality in the figure of the cows
and the recovery of the Sun and the Dawn out of the darkness.
We note first that the word Angiras is used in the Veda as an
epithet, often in connection with the image of the Dawn and the
Cows. Secondly, it occurs as a name of Agni, while Indra is said
to become Angirasa and Brihaspati is called angiras and āngirasa,
obviously not as a mere decorative or mythological appellation but with a
special significance and an allusion to the psychological or other sense
attached to the word. Even the Ashwins are addressed collectively as Angirasa. It is therefore clear
that the word Angirasa is used in the Veda not merely as a name
Page – 154
of a certain family of Rishis, but with a distinct meaning inherent
in the word. It is probable also that even when used as a name it
is still with a clear recognition of the inherent meaning of the
name; it is probable even that names in the Veda are generally,
if not always, used with a certain stress on their significance,
especially the names of gods, sages and kings. The word Indra
is generally used as a name, yet we have such significant glimpses
of the Vedic method as the description of Usha indratamā
angirastamā, "most-Indra", "most-Angirasa", and of
the Panis as
anindrāḥ,
"not-Indra", expressions which evidently are meant to
convey the possession or absence of the qualities, powers or
functionings represented by Indra and the Angirasa. We have
then to see what may be this meaning and what light it sheds on
the nature or functions of the Angirasa Rishis.
The word is akin to the name Agni; for it is derived from a
root ang which is only a nasalised form of ag, the root of Agni.
These roots seem to convey intrinsically the sense of pre-eminent
or forceful state, feeling, movement, action, light,¹ and it is this
last sense of a brilliant or burning light that gives us agni, fire,
angati, fire, angāra, a burning coal and angiras,
which must have
meant flaming, glowing. Both in the Veda and the tradition of the
Brahmanas the Angirasas are in their origin closely connected
with Agni. In the Brahmanas it is said that Agni is the fire and
the Angirasas the burning coals, angārāḥ; but in the Veda itself
the indication seems rather to be that they are the flames or
lustres of Agni. In X.62, a hymn to the Angirasa Rishis, it is said
of them that they are sons of Agni and have been born about
him in different forms all about heaven, and in the next clause it
is added, speaking of them collectively in the singular, navagvo
nu daśagvo angirastamaḥ
sacā deveṣu
mamhate, nine-rayed, ten-rayed, most angiras, this Angirasa clan
becomes together full of
plenty with or in the gods; aided by Indra they set free the pen of
cows and horses, they give to the sacrificer the mystic eight-eared
kine and thereby create in the gods śravas, the divine hearing or
inspiration of the Truth. It is fairly evident that the Angirasa
¹For state we have agra, first, top and Greek agan,
excessively; for feeling, Greek agape,
love, and possibly Sanskrit anganā, a woman; for movement and action
several words in
Sanskrit and in Greek and Latin.
Page – 155
Rishis are here the radiant lustres of the divine Agni which are
born in heaven, therefore of the divine Flame and not of any
physical fire; they become equipped with the nine rays of the
Light and the ten, become most angiras, that is to say most full
of the blazing radiance of Agni, the divine flame, and are there-
fore able to release the imprisoned Light and Force and create
the supramental knowledge.
Even if this interpretation of the symbolism is not accepted,
yet that there is a symbolism must be admitted. These Angirasas are not human
sacrificers, but sons of Agni born in heaven,
although their action is precisely that of the human Angirasas,
the fathers, pitaro manuṣyāḥ; they are born with
different forms,
virūpaṣaḥ, and all this can only
mean that they are various forms
of the power of Agni. The question is of what Agni, the sacrificial flame, the
element of fire generally or that other sacred
flame which is described as "the priest with the seer-will" or
"who does the work of the seer, the true, the rich in varied light
of inspiration," agnir hotā kavikratuḥ satyaś citraśravastamaḥ (1.1.5)? If it is the element of fire, then the blazing lustre they
represent must be that of the Sun, the fire of Agni radiating out as
the solar rays and in association with Indra the sky creating the
Dawn. There can be no other physical interpretation consistent
with the details and circumstances of the Angirasa myth. But
this explanation does not at all account for the farther description of the
Angirasa Rishis as seers, as singers of the hymn,
powers of Brihaspati as well as of the Sun and Dawn.
There is another passage of the Veda (VI.6.3-5) in which
the identity of these divine Angirasas with the flaming lustres of
Agni is clearly and unmistakably revealed. "Wide everywhere, O pure-shining Agni, range driven by the wind thy pure shining
lustres (bhāmāsaḥ); forcefully overpowering the heavenly Nine-rayed ones (divyā navagvāḥ) enjoy the woods¹ (vanā vananti,
significantly conveying the covert sense, ‘enjoying the objects of
enjoyment’) breaking them up violently. O thou of the pure light,
they bright and pure assail2 (or overcome) all the earth, they are
thy horses galloping in all directions. Then thy roaming shines
¹The logs of the sacrificial fire, according
to Sayana.
²Shave the hair of the earth, according to Sayana.
Page – 156
widely vast directing their journey to the higher level of the
Various-coloured (the cow, Prishni, mother of the Maruts). Then
doubly (in earth and heaven ?) thy tongue leaps forward like the
lightning loosed of the Bull that wars for the cows." Sayana tries
to avoid the obvious identification of the Rishis with the flames
by giving navagva the sense of "new-born rays", but obviously
divyā navagvāḥ here and the sons of Agni
(in X.62) born in
heaven who are navagva are the same and cannot possibly be
different; and the identification is confirmed, if any confirmation
were needed, by the statement that in this ranging of Agni constituted by the
action of the Navagwas his tongue takes the appearance of the thunderbolt of
Indra, the Bull who wars for the
cows, loosed from his hand and leaping forward, undoubtedly
to assail the powers of darkness in the hill of heaven; for the
march of Agni and the Navagwas is here described as ascending
the hill (sānu pṛśneḥ) after ranging over the
earth.
We have evidently here a symbolism of the Flame and the
Light, the divine flames devouring the earth and then becoming
the lightning of heaven and the lustre of the solar Powers; for
Agni in the Veda is the light of the sun and the lightning as well
as the flame found in the waters and shining on the earth. The
Angirasa Rishis being powers of Agni share this manifold function. The divine
flame kindled by the sacrifice supplies also to
Indra the material of the lightning, the weapon, the heavenly
stone, svarya aśmā, by which he destroys the powers of
darkness
and wins the cows, the solar illuminations.
Agni, the father of the Angirasas, is not only the fount and
origin of these divine flames, he is also described in the Veda as
himself the first, that is to say, the supreme and original Angirasa, prathamo
angirāḥ.
What do the Vedic poets wish us to
understand by this description? We can best understand by a
glance at some of the passages in which this epithet is applied to
the bright and flaming deity. In the first place it is twice associated with
another fixed epithet of Agni, the Son of Force or of
Energy, sahasaḥ
sūnuḥ,
ūrjo napāt. Thus in VIII.60.2, he is ad-
dressed "0 Angirasa, Son of Force", sahasah sūno angiraḥ, and in VIII. 84.4, "O Agni Angirasa, Son of Energy", agne angira
ūrjo napāt. And in V. 11.6, it is said "Thee, O Agni, the
Angirasas
found established in the secret place (guhā hitani) lying in
wood
and wood (vanevane)"
or, if we accept the indication of a covert
sense we have already noted in the phrase vanā vananti, "in
each
object of enjoyment. So art thou born by being pressed (mathyamānaḥ) a mighty force; thee
they call the Son of Force, O
Angirasa, sa jāyase mathyamānaḥ saho mahat tvām āhuḥ sahasas
putram angiraḥ.
It is hardly doubtful, then, that this idea of
force is an essential element in the Vedic conception of the Angirasa and it
is, as we have seen, part of the meaning of the word.
Force in status, action, movement, light, feeling is the inherent
quality of the roots ag and ang from which we have agni
and
angirah. Force but also, in these words. Light. Agni, the sacred
flame, is the burning force of Light; the Angirasas also are burning powers of
the Light.
But of what light? physical or figurative? We must not
imagine that the Vedic poets were crude and savage intellects
incapable of the obvious figure, common to all languages, which
makes the physical light a figure of the mental and spiritual, of
knowledge, of an inner illumination. The Veda speaks expressly
of "luminous sages", dyumato viprān and the word sūri,
a seer,
is associated with Surya, the sun, by etymology and must originally have meant
luminous. In 1.31.1, it is said of this god of the Flame, "Thou, O Agni, wast the first Angirasa, the seer and auspicious
friend, a god, of the gods; in the law of thy working the
Maruts with their shining spears were born, seers who do the
work by the knowledge." Clearly, then, in the conception of
Agni Angirasa there are two ideas, knowledge and action; the
luminous Agni and the luminous Maruts are by their light seers
of the knowledge, ṛṣi, kavi; and by the light
of knowledge the
forceful Maruts do the work because they are born or manifested
in the characteristic working (vrata) of Agni. For Agni himself
has been described to us as having the seer-will, kavikratuh, the
force of action which works according to the inspired or supra-
mental knowledge (śravas), for it is that knowledge and not
intellectuality which is meant by the word kavi. What then is this
great force, Agni Angirasa, saho mahat, but the flaming force of
the divine consciousness with its two twin qualities of Light
and Power working in perfect harmony, — even as the Maruts
are described, kavayo vidmanā apasaḥ, seers working by the
knowledge? We have had reason to conclude that Usha is the
divine Dawn and not merely the physical, that her cows, or rays
of the Dawn and the Sun are the illuminations of the dawning
divine consciousness and that therefore the Sun is the Illuminer
in the sense of the Lord of Knowledge and that Swar, the solar
world beyond heaven and earth, is the world of the divine Truth
and Bliss, in a word, that Light in the Veda is the symbol of knowledge, of the illumination of the divine Truth. We now begin to
have reason for concluding that the Flame, which is only another
aspect of Light, is the Vedic symbol for the Force of the divine
consciousness, of the supramental Truth.
In another passage, VI. 11.3, we have mention of the "seer
most illumined of the Angirasas", vepiṣṭho angirasam vipraḥ, where the reference is not at all clear. Sayana, ignoring the
collocation vepiṣṭho vipraḥ which at once fixes the
sense of vepiṣṭha as equivalent to most vipra,
most a seer, most illumined,
supposes that Bharadwaja, the traditional Rishi of the hymn, is
here praising himself as the "greatest praiser" of the gods; but
this is a doubtful suggestion. Here it is Agni who is the hotā, the
priest; it is he who is sacrificing to the gods, to his own embodiment, tanvam
tava svām (VI. 11.2), to the Maruts, Mitra, Varuna,
Heaven and Earth. "For in thee", says the hymn, "the thought
even though full of riches desires still the gods, the (divine)
births, for the singer of the hymn that he may sacrifice to them,
when the sage, the most luminous of the Angirasas, utters the
rhythm of sweetness in the sacrifice." It would almost seem that
Agni himself is the sage, the most luminous of the Angirasas.
On the other hand, the description seems to be more appropriate
to Brihaspati.
For Brihaspati is also an Angirasa and one who becomes
the Angirasa. He is, as we have seen, closely associated with the
Angiras Rishis in the winning of the luminous cattle and he is so
associated as Brahmanaspati, as the Master of the sacred or
inspired word (brahman); for by his cry Vala is split to pieces
and the cows answer lowing with desire to his call. As powers of
Agni these Rishis are like him kavikratu; they possess the divine
Light, they act by it with the divine force; they are not only
Page – 159
Rishis, but heroes of the Vedic war, divas putrāso asurasya
vīrāḥ (111,53.7) sons of heaven, heroes of the Mighty Lord, they are,
as described in VI.75.9, "The Fathers who dwell in the sweetness (the
world of bliss), who establish the wide birth, moving
in the difficult places, possessed of force, profound,¹ with their
bright host and their strength of arrows, invincible, heroes in
their being, wide overcomers of the banded foes": but also,
they are, as the next verse describes them, brāhmaṇāsaḥ pitaraḥ somyāsaḥ,
that is, they have the divine word and the inspired
knowledge it carries with it.² This divine word is the satya
mantra, it is the thought by whose truth the Angirasas bring the
Dawn to birth and make the lost Sun to rise in the heavens. This
word is also called the arka, a vocable which means both hymn
and light and is sometimes used of the sun. It is therefore the
word of illumination, the word which expresses the truth of which
the Sun is the lord, and its emergence from the secret seat of the
Truth is associated with the outpouring by the Sun of its herded
radiances; so we read in VII.36.1, "Let the Word come forward
from the seat of the Truth; the Sun has released wide by its rays
the cows", pra brahmaitu sadanād ṛtasya, vi raśmibhih sasṛje
sūryo gāḥ.
It has to be won possession of like the Sun
itself and the gods have to give their aid for that possession
(arkasya sātau) as well as for the possession of the Sun (sūryasya
sātau) and of Swar (svarṣātau).
The Angirasa, therefore, is not only an Agni-power, he is
also a Brihaspati-power. Brihaspati is called more than once
the Āngirasa, as in VI.73.1, yo adribhit prathamajā ṛtāva bṛhaspatir āngiraso haviṣmān,
"Brihaspati, breaker of the hill (the cave
of the Panis), the first-born who has the Truth, the Āngirasa, he
of the oblation". And in X.47.6, we have a still more significant
description of Brihaspati as the Āngirasa: pra saptagum
ṛtadhītim
sumedhām bṛhaspatim
matir acchā jigāti, ya āngiraso
namasā upasadyaḥ.
"The thought goes towards Brihaspati the
¹Cf. the description in X.62.5 of the Angirasas as sons of Agni, different in form, but all
profound in knowledge, gambhīravepasaḥ.
²This seems to be the sense of the word
Brahman in the Veda. It certainly does not
mean Brahmanas by caste or priests by profession; the Fathers here are warriors
as well as
sages. The four castes are only mentioned in the Rig-veda once, in that
profound but late com-
position, the Purushasukta.
Page – 160
seven-rayed, the truth-thinking, the perfect intelligence, who is
the Āngirasa, to be approached with obeisance." In 11.23.18
also, Brihaspati is addressed as Angirasa in connection with the
release of the cows and the release of the waters: "For the glory
of thee the hill parted asunder when thou didst release upward
the pen of the cows; with Indra for ally thou didst force out, O
Brihaspati, the flood of the waters which was environed by the
darkness." We may note in passing how closely the release of the
waters, which is the subject of the Vritra legend, is associated with
the release of the cows which is the subject of the legend of the
Angirasa Rishis and the Panis and that both Vritra and the Panis
are powers of the darkness. The cows are the light of the Truth,
the true illumining sun, satyam tat.. .sūryam; the waters released
from the environing darkness of Vritra are called sometimes
the streams of the Truth, ṛtasya dhārāḥ and sometimes svarvatir
āpaḥ,
the waters of Swar, the luminous solar world.
We see then that the Angirasa is in the first place a power of
Agni the seer-will; he is the seer who works by the light, by the
knowledge; he is a flame of the puissance of Agni, the great force
that is born into the world to be the priest of the sacrifice and
the leader of the journey, the puissance which the gods are said
by Vamadeva (I V.I.I) to establish here as the Immortal in mortals, the energy
that does the great work (arati). In the second
place, he is a power or at least has the power of Brihaspati, the
truth-thinking and seven-rayed, whose seven rays of the light hold
that truth which he thinks (ṛtadhītini) and whose seven mouths
repeat the word that expresses the truth, the god of whom it is
said (IV.50.4,5), "Brihaspati coming first to birth out of the great
Light in the highest heaven, born in many forms, seven-mouthed,
seven-rayed (saptāsyaḥ saptaraśmiḥ), by his cry dispelled the
darkness; he by his host with the Rik and the Stubh (the hymn
of illumination and the rhythm that affirms the gods) broke Vala
by his cry." It cannot be doubted that by this host or troop
of Brihaspati (suṣṭubhā ṛkvatā gaṇena) are meant the
Angirasa
Rishis who by the true mantra help in the great victory.
Indra is also described as becoming an Angirasa
or as becoming possessed of the Angirasa quality. "May he become
most Angirasa with the Angirasas, being the Bull with bulls (the
Page – 161
bull is the male power or Purusha, nṛ, with regard to the Rays
and the Waters who are the cows, gāvaḥ, dhenavaḥ), the Friend
with friends, the possessor of the Rik with those who have the
Rik (ṛgmibhir
ṛgmī),
with those who make the journey (gātubhiḥ, the souls that advance on the path towards the Vast and True)
the greatest; may Indra become associated with the Maruts
(marutvān) for our thriving." The epithets here (1.100.4) are
all
the proper epithets of the Angirasa Rishis and Indra is supposed
to take upon himself the qualities or relations that constitute
Angirasahood. So in III.31.7, "Most illumined in knowledge
(vipratamaḥ,
answering to the vepiṣṭ̣ho angirasām
vipraḥ of
VI. 11.3), becoming a friend (sakhīyan, the Angirasas are friends
or comrades in the great battle) he went (agacchat, upon the path,
cf. gātubhiḥ,
discovered by Sarama); the hill sped forth its pregnant contents (garbham)
for the doer of the good work; strong
in manhood with the young (maryo yuvabhiḥ, the youth also
giving the idea of unaging, undecaying force) he sought fullness
of riches and won possession (sasāna makhasyan); so at once,
chanting the hymn (arcan), he became an Angirasa." This Indra
who assumes all the qualities of the Angirasa is, we must re-
member, the Lord of Swar, the wide world of the Sun or the
Truth, and descends to us with his two shining horses, harī,
which are called in one passage sūryasya ketū, the sun’s
two
powers of perception or of vision in knowledge, in order to war
with the sons of darkness and aid the great journey. If we have
been right in all that we have concluded with regard to the esoteric sense of
the Veda, Indra must be the Power (Indra, the
Puissant,¹ the powerful lord) of the divine Mind born in man
and there increasing by the Word and the Soma to his full
divinity. This growth continues by the winning and growth of the
Light, till Indra reveals himself fully as the lord of all the luminous herds
which he sees by the "eye of the sun", the divine
Mind master of all the illuminations of knowledge.
Indra, in becoming the Angirasa, becomes marutvān, possessed of
or companioned by the Maruts, and these Maruts,
luminous and violent gods of the storm and the lightning, uniting
in themselves the vehement power of Vayu, the Wind, the
¹But also perhaps "shining", cf. indu,
the moon; ina, glorious, the sun; indh, to kindle.
Page – 162
Breath, the Lord of Life and the force of Agni, the Seer-Will,
are therefore seers who do the work by the knowledge, kavayo
vidmanā-apasaḥ,
as well as battling forces who by the power of
the heavenly Breath and the heavenly lightning overthrow the
established things, the artificial obstructions, kṛtrimāṇi rodhāmsi, in which the sons of Darkness have entrenched themselves, and
aid Indra to overcome Vritra and the Dasyus. They seem to be
in the esoteric Veda the Life-Powers that support by their
nervous or vital energies the action of the thought in the attempt
of the mortal consciousness to grow or expand itself into the
immortality of the Truth and Bliss. In any case, they also are
described in VI.49.11, as acting with the qualities of the Angirasa
(angirasvat), "0 young and seers and powers of the sacrifice,
Maruts, come uttering the word to the high place (or desirable
plane of earth or the hill, adhi sānu pṛśneḥ, VI. 6.4, which is probably the
sense of varasyām), powers increasing, rightly moving
(on the path, gātu) like the Angirasa,¹ give joy even to that which
is not illumined (acitram, that which has not received the varied
light of the dawn, the night of our ordinary darkness)". We see
there the same characteristics of the Angirasa action, the eternal
youth and force of Agni (agne yaviṣṭha),
the possession and
utterance of the Word, the seerhood, the doing of the work of
sacrifice, the right movement on the great path which leads, as
we shall see, to the world of the Truth, to the vast and luminous
bliss. The Maruts are even said to be (X.78.5) as it were "Angirasas with
their Sama hymns, they who take all forms", viśvarūpā
angiraso na sāmabhiḥ.
All this action and movement are made possible by the
coming of Usha, the Dawn. Usha also is described as angirastamā and
in addition as indratamā. The power of Agni, the
Angirasa power, manifests itself also in the lightning of Indra
and in the rays of the Dawn. Two passages may be cited which
throw light on this aspect of the Angirasa force. The first is
VII.79.2,3. "The Dawns make their rays to shine out in the
¹It is to be noted that Sayana here hazards
the idea that Angirasa means the moving
rays (from ang to move) or the Angirasa Rishis. If the great scholar had
been able to pursue
with greater courage his ideas to their logical conclusion, he would have
anticipated the
modem theory in its most essential points.
Page – 163
extremities of heaven, they labour like men who are set to a work.
Thy rays set fleeing the darkness, they extend the Light as if the
sun were extending its two arms. Usha has become (or, come into
being) most full of Indra power (indratamā), opulent in riches and
has given birth to the inspirations of knowledge for our happy
going (or for good and bliss), the goddess, daughter of Heaven,
most full of Angirasahood (angirastamā), orders her riches for
the doer of good works." The riches in which Usha is opulent
cannot be anything else than the riches of the Light and the
Power of the Truth; full of Indra power, the power of the divine
illumined mind, she gives the inspirations of that mind (śravāmsi)
which lead us towards the Bliss, and by the flaming radiant
Angirasa-power in her she bestows and arranges her treasures
for those who do aright the great work and thus move rightly
on the path, itthā nakṣanto angirasvat (VI.49.11).
The second passage is in VII.75, "Dawn, heaven-born, has
opened up (the veil of darkness) by the Truth and she comes
making manifest the vastness (mahimānam), she has drawn away
the veil of harms and of darkness (druhas tamaḥ) and all that
is unloved; most full of Angirasahood she manifests the paths
(of the great journey). Today, O Dawn, awake for us for the
journey to the vast bliss (mahe suvitayā), extend (thy riches) for
a vast state of enjoyment, confirm in us a wealth of varied brightness (citram)
full of inspired knowledge (śravasyum), in us mortals, O human and
divine. These are the lustres of the visible
Dawn which have come varied-bright (citrāḥ) and immortal; bringing to birth the divine workings they diffuse themselves,
filling those of the mid-region", janayanto daivyāni vratāni,
āpṛṇanto antarikṣā vyasthuḥ (Riks 1-3). Again we
have the
Angirasa power associated with the journey, the revelation of
its paths by the removal of the darkness and the bringing of the
radiances of the Dawn; the Panis represent the harms (druhaḥ, hurts or those who hurt) done to man by the evil powers, the; darkness is their cave; the journey is that which leads to the
divine happiness and the state of immortal bliss by means of our
growing wealth of light and power and knowledge; the immortal
lustres of the Dawn which give birth in man to the heavenly workings and fill
with them the workings of the mid-regions between
earth and heaven, that is to say, the functioning of those vital
planes governed by Vayu which link our physical and pure mental
being, may well be the Angirasa powers. For they too gain and
maintain the truth by maintaining unhurt the divine workings
(amardhanto daivyā vratāni). This is indeed their function, to
bring the divine Dawn into mortal nature so that the visible
goddess pouring out her riches may be there, at once divine and
human, devi marteṣu
mānuṣi,
the goddess human in mortals.