The Arctic Home in the Vedas c10.16.3

c10.16.3

Philologically the name of Atharvan appears as Athravan, meaning a fire-priest, in the Avesta, and the word Aṅgiras is said to be etymologically connected with the Greek Aggilos, a ‘messenger’ and the Persian Angara ‘a mounted courier.’ In the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa (III, 34) Aṅgirases are said to be the same as Aṅgârâḥ, ‘burning coals or fire’ (Cf. Rig. X. 62, 5). Whether we accept these etymologies as absolutely correct or not, the resemblance between the different words sufficiently warrants the assumption that Atharvan and Aṅgiras must have been the anci at sacrificers of the whole Aryan race and not merely of the Vedic people. Therefore, even though Manu, Atharvan, Aṅgiras be not the names of particular individuals, still there can be little doubt that they represented families of priests who conducted, if not originated, the sacrifices in primeval times, that is, before the Aryan separation, and who, for this reason, seem to have attained almost divine character in the eyes of the poets of the Ṛig-Veda. They have all been described as more or less connected with Yama in X, 14, 3-6; but it does not follow therefrom that they were all Yama's agents or beings without any human origin. For, as stated above, there are a number of passages in which they are described as being the *first* and the most ancient sacrificers of the race;