Amazing PataJjali, lakSaNa, and vyAkaraNa (contd.)

[Palaniappa at aol.com]

I forgot to mention in connection with the author of Rig Veda 10.71,
bRhaspati aGgirasa, that Frits Staal in his work on Agnicayana ritual says, "
Even if a word is Indo-European, like asura, for example, it might refer to
things indian and pre-Vedic. It is possible that aGgirases were singers, and
reasonably certain that they were priests of a fire cult. They are directly
related to the asuras in Rgveda 3.53.7 and 10.67.2, where the aGgirases are
called "heroes of asura" (asurasya vIrAH). Following Hillebrandt, it would
not be farfetched to suppose that the aGgirases were originally an indigenous
tribe or family that was incorporated into the Vedic cult at a relatively
early stage. It is conceivable that the agnicayana was incorporated into the
Vedic ritual through their intermediary, since they were primarily priests of
a fire-cult. Thus the theory of Kosambi (1950), criticized in Brough (1953,
xiv-xvi), that the Vedic brahmins were to a large extent recruited from the
priest class of the conquered pre-Aryan population, would seem to be valid at
least in the case of the aGgirases". (Agni: The Vedic ritual of the Fire
Altar, Volume I, page 138)

Thus the name  bRhaspati aGgirasa is one more clue to the pre-Vedic/Dravidian
origin of the concepts of text and grammar.