The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c39.s3.43

v2.c39.s3.43

The place of the seers is in view of their relation to the sacrifice one of great importance: they are the means by which in the normal case men secure the essential knowledge of the ritual, and they are often indebted to the gods for it; Nodhas is taught a Sāman by them in reward for his learning. They even declare that Çiçu Āṅgirasa was entitled to call the Fathers ‘my children’ owing to his knowledge of the ritual, as in the Atharvaveda the seer may by insight win the position of father of his father. The Vaikhānusas, the seers, whom Rahasyu Devamalimluc slew at Munimaraṇa, were revived by Indra, and the same god revived Upagu Sauçravasa, whom his royal master Kutsa had killed for persisting in the worship of Indra.¹ Atri, on his part, saves the sun from the grip of the Asura Svarbhānu, the darkness disappearing as a succession of variously coloured sheep,² and Bharadvāja warns the gods of the presence of the Asuras in the Ukthas, and so saves them.³ Vasiṣṭha constrains the god Indra to show himself to him in bodily presence, and Indra must agree.⁴ Even if the gods seek to keep, as they sometimes do, knowledge from the seers, the latter triumph: they recognize that the gods have put the sacrificial post in upside down, and they find the Nigadas and Praiṣas, which they had at first omitted. The seer also can rely on the gods to enable him to convince men of his seerhood: Kavaṣa Ailūṣa, despised by other priests, is shown to be a seer by the conduct of the Sarasvatī, which pays him reverence by flowing round him:⁵ Vatsa walks triumphant through the fire, when his claim is disputed by Medhātithi.⁶