Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s6.102

v1.c3.s6.102

Rṣi, ‘seer,’ is primarily a composer of hymns to the gods. In the Rigveda¹ reference is often made to previous singers and to contemporary poets. Old poems were inherited and refurbished by members of the composer’s family,² but the great aim of the singers was to produce new and approved hymns.³ It is not till the time of the Brāhmaṇas that the composition of hymns appears to have fallen into disuse,⁴ though poetry was still produced, for example, in the form of Gāthās, which the priests were required to compose themselves⁵ and sing to the accompaniment of the lute at the sacrifice. The Rṣi was the most exalted of Brāhmaṇas,⁶ and his skill, which is often compared with that of a carpenter,⁷ was regarded as heaven-sent.⁸ The Purohita, whether as Hotṛ or as Brahman (see Ṛtvij), was a singer.⁹ No doubt the Rṣis were normally¹⁰ attached to the houses of the great, the petty kings of Vedic times, or the nobles of the royal household. Nor need it be doubted that occasionally¹¹ the princes themselves essayed poetry: a Rājanyarṣi, the prototype of the later Rājarṣi or ‘royal seer,’ who appears in the Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa,¹² though he must be mythical as Oldenberg¹³ points out, indicates that kings cultivated poetry¹⁴ just as later they engaged in philosophic disputations.¹⁵ Normally, however, the poetical function is Brahminical, Viśāmitra and others not being kings, but merely Brāhmaṇas, in the Rigveda.