Vedic Mythology c6.s5.1

c6.s5.1

— Closely connected with the Aṅgirases are the Virūpas, whose name is mentioned three times in the plural. The Aṅgirases, the Virūpas, are sons of heaven (3, 53⁷). The Virūpas are seers, sons of Aṅgiras, born from Agni, from heaven (10, 62⁵. ⁶). Virūpa once occurs as the name of a single being, who sings the praises of Agni, in a stanza (8, 64⁶) immediately following one in which Aṅgiras is invoked. The name also has the singular sense in the adverb *virūpavat*, ‘like Virūpa’, as is indicated by the occurrence in the same stanza (1, 45³) of *Priyamedhavat*, *Atrivat*, besides *Aṅgirasvat*. The word once occurs in its patronymic form in a verse (10, 14⁵) in which Yama is invoked with the Aṅgirases and the Vairūpas. As the word is most usually a simple adjective meaning 'of variable form' and, when a name, is always found in company with that of Aṅgiras or the Aṅgirases, it would seem to have been hardly more than an epithet of the latter.