The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c22.s4.1

v1.c22.s4.1

In the Rigveda there can be no doubt as to who is the real first man: it is Manu or Manus, whose name, cognate perhaps with the Gothic *manna*, and the root *man*, ‘think’, appears as a definite forefather of men nearly forty times in the Rigveda. He is essentially the first of sacrificers, and the establisher of sacrifice, though he appears with other old sacrificers also, Aṅgiras, Bhṛgu, Atharvan, Dadhyañc, Atri, and Kaṇva. The gods, Mātariçvan, or Kāvya Uçanā, are said to have given Agni to Manu.⁸ Again it is the three lakes of the Soma of Manus that Indra drinks to strengthen himself for the fight with Vṛtra. A bird brings Soma to Manu. In the Brāhmaṇas he constantly appears as connected with the sacrifice, and the dictum is laid down that, whatever Manu said, was medicine, a fact which accounts in part for the tradition which makes him the great legal authority of India.