t mythical ancestors of certain
families or of what would have been to the poets of the Veda, the
whole human race, the other consisting of the fathers who had but
lately departed, and who were still, as it were, personally remembered
and revered.

The old ancestors in general approach more nearly to the gods. They
are often represented as having gone to the abode of Yama, the ruler
of the departed, and to live there in company with some of the Devas
(Rig-Veda VII. 76, 4, devana_m_ sadhamada_h_; Rig-Veda X. 16, 1,
devana_m_ va_s_ani_h_).

We sometimes read of the great-grandfathers being in heaven, the
grandfathers in the sky, the fathers on the earth, the first in
company with the Adityas, the second with the Rudras, the last with
the Vasus. All these are individual poetical conceptions.[281]

Yama himself is sometimes invoked as if he were one of the Fathers,
the first of mortals that died or that trod the path of the Fathers
(the pit_ri_ya_n_a, X. 2, 7) leading to the common sunset in the
West.[282] Still his real Deva-like nature is never completely lost,
and, as the god of the setting sun, he is indeed the leader of the
Fathers, but not one of the Fathers himself.[283]

Many of the benefits which men enjoyed on earth were referred to the
Fathers, as having first been procured and first enjoyed by them.
They performed the first sacrifices, and secured the benefits arising
from them. Even the great events in nature, such as the rising of the
sun, the light of the day and the darkness of the night, were
sometimes referred to them, and they were praised for having broken
open the dark stable of the morning and having brought out the cows,
that is, the days (X. 68, 11).[284] They were even praised for having
adorned the night with stars, while in later writing the stars are
said to be the lights of the good people who have entered into
heaven.[285] Similar ideas, we know, prevailed among the ancient
Persians, Greeks, and Romans. The Fathers are called in the Veda
truthful (satya), wise (suvidatra), righteous (_ri_tavat), poets
(kavi), leaders (pathik_ri_t), and one of their most frequent epithets
is somya, delighting in Soma, Soma being the ancient intoxicating
beverage of the Vedic _Ri_shis, which was believed to bestow
immortality,[286] but which had been lost, or at all events had become
difficult to obtain by the Aryans, after their migration into the
Punjab.[287]

The families of the Bh_ri_gus, the Angiras,