A History of Sanskrit Literature c7.132

c7.132

A numerically definite group of ancestral priests, rarely mentioned in the *Rigveda*, are the seven Rishis or seers. In the Brāhmaṇas they came to be regarded as the seven stars in the constellation of the Great Bear, and are said to have been bears in the beginning. This curious identification was doubtless brought about partly by the sameness of the number in the two cases, and partly by the similarity of sound between *rishi*, "seer," and *ṛiksha*, which in the *Rigveda* means both "star" and "bear."