Vedic Mythology c4.s1.23

c4.s1.23

The Vedic conceptions on the subject of the origin of man are rather fluctuating, but the human race appear generally to have been regarded as descended from a first man. The latter is called either Vivasvat’s son Manu, who was the first sacrificer (10, 63^7) and who is also spoken of as father Manus (1, 80¹⁶); or he is Yama Vaivasvata, Vivasvat’s son, who with his twin sister Yamī produced the human race. The origin of men, when thought of as going back beyond this first ancestor, seems to have been conceived as celestial. Vivasvat (§ 18) is the father of the primeval twins, while once the celestial Gandharva and the water nymph are designated as their highest kin (10, 10⁴). Men’s relationship to the gods is sometimes also alluded to³; and men must have been thought of as included among the offspring of Heaven and Earth, the great parents of all that exists. Again, Agni is said to have begotten the offspring of men (1, 96²⁻⁴), and the Aṅgirases, the semi-divine ancestors of later priestly families, are described as his sons. Various other human families are spoken of as independently descended from the gods through their founders Atri, Kaṇva, and others (1, 139⁹). Vasiṣṭha (7, 33¹¹) was miraculously begotten by Mitra and Varuṇa, the divine nymph Urvaśī having been his mother. To quite a different order of ideas belongs the conception of the origin of various classes of men from parts of the world giant Puruṣa⁴ (§ 8, p. 13).