A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.98

c5.98

ANGIRASAS, ANGIRASES. Descendants of Angiras. "They share in the nature of the legends attributed to Angiras. Angiras being the father of Agni, they are considered as descendants of Agni himself, who is also called the first of the Angirasas. Like Angiras, they occur in hymns addressed to the luminous deities, and, at a later period, they become for the most part personifications of light, of luminous bodies, of divisions of time, of celestial phenomena, and fires adapted to peculiar occasions, as the full and change of the moon, or to particular rites, as the Aswa-medha, Rāja-sūya, &c."—*Goldstücker*. In the Satapatha Brāhmana they and the Ādityas are said to have descended from Prajāpati, and that "they strove together for the priority in ascending to heaven."