The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c22.s1.8

v1.c22.s1.8

The view of Hillebrandt¹ is that the Aṅgirases were originally a family which was rather outside the main Vedic tradition, as shown by their lack of prominence in the books ii–ix, and which practised the cult of its ancestors, so that, when the Aṅgirases came into the Vedic tradition at all, they carried with them their ancestors as semi-divine. With this view may be compared that of Weber² that we have in them Indo-Iranian priests. The alternative view³ is that they were originally regarded as a race of beings higher than men, and intermediate between them and the gods, as attendants of Agni who as Aṅgiras is the messenger⁴ between the sky and the earth, the name being identic with the Greek ἄγγελος. The evidence is too slight to allow of any certain conclusion, except that the conception of Aṅgiras in the historical period clearly generated a family, if there was not originally a family involved.