Angiras

For other uses, see Angiras (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Angiris.
Angiras
Angiras
An 18th-century painting of Angiras
Personal
ReligionHinduism
SpouseSurūpa, Smriti
ChildrenUtathya, Brihaspati and other children[1]
Parent(s)Brahma or Agni (father; as per Puranic scriptures)
This article contains Indic text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks or boxes, misplaced vowels or missing conjuncts instead of Indic text.

Angiras or Angira (Sanskrit: अङ्गिरा, IAST: Aṅgirā, Sanskrit pronunciation: [ɐŋɡirɐ:]) was a Vedic rishi (sage) of Hinduism. He is described in the Rigveda as a teacher of divine knowledge, a mediator between men and gods, as well as stated in other hymns to be the first of Agni-devas (fire gods).[1][2] In some texts, he is considered to be one of the seven great sages or Saptarishis, but in others he is mentioned but not counted in the list of seven great sages.[3] In some manuscripts of Atharvaveda, the text is attributed to "Atharvangirasah", which is a compound of sage Atharvan and Angira.[4][5] The student family of Angira are called "Angira",[1][6] and they are credited to be the authors of some hymns in the first, second, fifth, eighth, ninth, and tenth books of the Rigveda.[7] By the time of the composition of the Rigveda, the Angirases were an old Rishi clan, and were stated to have participated in several events.[8]

  1. ^ a b c Roshen Dalal (2010). Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide. Penguin Books. pp. 29–30. ISBN 978-0-14-341421-6.
  2. ^ George M. Williams (2008). Handbook of Hindu Mythology. Oxford University Press. pp. 55–56. ISBN 978-0-19-533261-2.
  3. ^ John Brough (2013). The Early Brahmanical System of Gotra and Pravara: A Translation of the Gotra-Pravara-Manjari of Purusottama-Pandita. Cambridge University Press. p. 66. ISBN 978-1-107-62398-9.
  4. ^ Maurice Bloomfield (1899). Atharvaveda. K.J. Trübner. pp. 7–11.
  5. ^ Moriz Winternitz; V. Srinivasa Sarma (1996). A History of Indian Literature. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 109–111. ISBN 978-81-208-0264-3.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Wilkins was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Stephanie Jamison; Joel Brereton (2014). The Rigveda: 3-Volume Set. Oxford University Press. pp. 1673, 1675, 1679, 1684, 1689–1693. ISBN 978-0-19-972078-1.
  8. ^ Witzel, Michael (2012). "Ṛṣis". Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism Online. Brill.