The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c22.s4.10

v1.c22.s4.10

It seems that Manu was already in the Rigveda considered to be the son of Vivasvant, whose name he actually bears in one case.⁶ In the later texts he is quite regularly called son of Vivasvant.⁷ He is accordingly a brother of Yama, or a duplication of that personage, but Manu unlike Yama is concerned with the living, and Yama with the dead: hence in the Çatapatha Brāhmaṇa⁸ the difficulty is reconciled by making Manu the ruler of men, Yama of the dead. Yāska,⁹ relying on an obscure passage of the Rigveda, finds in him the son of Vivasvant, and the *savarṇā* who was substituted for Saraṇyū, when that lady left her husband,¹⁰ and in the Rigveda¹¹ we actually hear of Manu Sāṁvaraṇi, whose epithet may be either a mistake for Sāvarṇi which would point to a very early date for the legend, or may have been misunderstood and have created the legend.