Handbook of History of Religions

SR No.: 007634
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Edward Washburn
Publisher: Sanmati Tirth Prakashan Pune
Total Pages: 678
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 2 MB

Page 135

[Footnote 11: Bergaigne, i. p. 32 ff. The question of priestly names (loc. cit. pp. 47-50), should start with Bharata as [Greek: purphoros], a common title of Agni (ii. 7; vi. 16. 19-21). So Bhrigu is the 'shining' one; and Vasishtha is the 'most shining' (compare Vasus, not good but shining gods). The priests got their names from their god, like Jesuits. Compare Gritsamada in the Bhrigu family (book ii.); Viçv[=a]-mitra, 'friend of all,' in the Bharata family (book iii.); Gautama V[=a]madeva belonging to Angirasas (book iv.); Atri 'Eater,' epithet of Agni in RV. (book v.); Bharadv[ra]ja 'bearing food' (book vi.); Vasishtha (book vii.); and besides these Jamadagni and Kaçyapa, black-toothed (Agni). ']
[Footnote 12: De Isid. et Osir. 46. Compare Windischmann, Ueber den Somacultus der Arier (1846), and Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, vol. ii. p. 471. Hillebrandt, Vedische Mythologie, i. p. 450, believes haoma to mean the moon, as does soma in some hymns of the Rig Veda (see below).]
[Footnote 13: Compare Kuhn, Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertrankes (1859); Bergaigne, La Religion Védique, i. 148 ff.; Haug's [=AJitareya Br[ra]hmana, Introduction, p. 62; Whitney in Jour. Am. Or. Soc. III. 299; Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, vol. V. p. 258 ff., where other literature is cited.]
[Footnote 14: RV. X. 34. 1; IX. 98. 9; 82.3. The Vedic plant is unknown (not the sarcostemma viminale).]
[Footnote 15: RV. III. 43.7; IV. 26.6 (other references in Muir, loc. cit. p. 262.) Perhaps rain as soma released by lightning as a hawk (Bloomfield).]
[Footnote 16: See the passages cited in Muir, loc. cit.]
[Footnote 17: A complete account of soma was given by the Vedic texts will be found in Hillebrandt's Vedische