Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c24.8

c24.8

The accounts in the Brahmāṇḍa and Vāyu collated suggest the probable text; but they are not a genuine genealogy, for they mix up mythological persons as the Āṅgirasa deities and Ṛbhus with historical persons and have confused the relationships of the rishis. We must therefore consider the various Āṅgirasa rishis according to the information available elsewhere. A remarkable point is that the genealogy gives the first Aṅgiras the name Atharvan and makes Atharvan Aṅgiras the progenitor of all the Āṅgirasas,⁶ so that ‘Atharvan’ and ‘Aṅgiras’ become equivalent, and they may all be designated Atharvāṅgiras.