Navagwas : Nine-rayed Vedic Rishis, descendants of Aṇgiras, who sacrificed for nine months. They are often associated with the Dashagwas (ten-rayed) whose session of sacrifice lasted for ten. The Navagwas themselves might well have become Dashagwas by extending the period of sacrifice. The two are not different classes of Angirasa Rishis, but rather seem to be two different powers of Aṇgirashood.
... enthroned by Indian astronomy in the constellation of the Great Bear. But they are also described as Navagwas and Dashagwas, and if in VI.22 we are told of the ancient fathers, the seven seers who were Navagwas, pūrve pitaro navagvāḥ sapta viprāso , yet in III.39.5 we have mention of two different classes, Navagwas, and Dashagwas, the latter ten in number, the former presumably, though it is not expressly... forgotten the tradition and was confusing the Dashagwas and Navagwas? Such a supposition is inadmissible. The difficulty arises because we suppose the Navagwas and Dashagwas to have been in the minds of the Vedic Rishis two different classes of Angiras Rishis; rather these seem to have been two different powers of Angirashood and in that case the Navagwas themselves might well become Dashagwas by extending... seven-headed Thought that was born out of Page 174 the Truth and as singing the hymn to Indra. According as the Navagwas are seven or nine, Ayasya will be the eighth or the tenth Rishi. Tradition asserts the separate existence of two classes of Angiras Rishis, the one Navagwas who sacrificed for nine months, the other Dashagwas whose sessions of sacrifice endured for ten. According to this ...
... the statement that in this ranging of Agni constituted by the action of the Navagwas his tongue takes the appearance of the thunderbolt of Indra, the Bull who wars for the cows, loosed from his hand and leaping forward, undoubtedly to assail the powers of darkness in the hill of heaven; for the march of Agni and the Navagwas is here described as ascending the hill ( sānu pṛśneḥ ) after ranging over ...
... friends the Navagwas, following on his knees the cows, when with the ten, the Dashagwas, Indra found the true Sun (or, as I render it, the Truth, the Sun,) dwelling in the darkness." The passage is conclusive; the cows are the Cows of the Panis which the Angirases pursue entering the cave on their hands and knees, the finders are Indra and the Angirases who are spoken of in other hymns as Navagwas and Dashagwas ...
... of Light and Immortality described in the Veda as the True, the Right and the Vast (Satyam, Ritam, Brihat). Perhaps the most important discovery that was made by the Angirasas (also described as Navagwas and Dashagwas) was that of the turiyam svid, a certain fourth world, a world higher than the three worlds of ordinary experience, the earth, the mid-world and the heaven, prithwi, antariksha... was discovered, according to the Vedic legend, as a consequence of the discovery of the seven-headed thought which was born from the Truth. This discovery was made by Ayasya, the companion of the Navagwas. We are told that Ayasya became by this discovery universal, embraced the births in all the worlds and manifested a fourth world or four-fold world, turiyam svid janayad vishwa janyah. 2 ...
... of the ancestral Thought, pitryā dhīḥ , the Thought of the fathers which can be no other than the Swar-possessing thought hymned by the Atris, the seven-headed thought discovered by Ayasya for the Navagwas; for in this hymn also it is spoken of in connection with the Angirases, the Fathers. "The thought expressing itself from the heart, formed into the Stoma, goes towards Indra its lord." Indra is,... fathers, they who were fighters for the cows; Indra of the mightiness, Indra of the achievement released upward for them the fortified pens,—there where, a comrade with his comrades, the fighters, the Navagwas, following on his knees the cows, Indra with the ten Dashagwas found that Truth, satyaṁ tad , even the sun dwelling in the darkness." This is the usual image of the conquest of the luminous cattle ...
... 39.5), the divine consciousness in the heart of Matter. * Reminiscent of Homer and the "herds of Helios." Such is the secret of the Veda, the victory of the seven Rishis Angiras and the Navagwas, who discovered the "path of the gods" : "Our fathers by their words broke the strong and stubborn places, the Angiras seers shattered the mountain rock with their cry ; they made in us a path to ...
... Then the Rishi speaks of the great and ancient example which men are called upon to repeat, the example of the Angirases, the achievement of Sarama. "Here the stone was set in motion whereby the Navagwas chanted the hymn for the ten months, Sarama going to the Truth found the cows, the Angiras made all things true. When in the dawning of this vast One (Usha representing the infinite Aditi, mātā devānām ...
... shining steeds, O strong stander in heaven, thou didst cast out from Heaven and Earth those who observe not the law of thy working ( avratān ). They fought against the army of the blameless one; the Navagwas set him on his march; like bullocks who fight against the Page 235 bull they were cast out, they came to know what was Indra and fled from him down the slopes. O Indra, thou foughtest ...
... through the periods of the sacrificial year symbolising the periods of the divine labour by which the Sun of Truth is recovered out of the darkness. Those who sacrifice for nine months of this year are Navagwas, seers of the nine cows or nine rays, who institute the search for the herds of the Sun and the march of Indra to battle with the Panis. Those who sacrifice for ten months are the Dashagwas, seers ...
... accomplished by the Angirasa Rishis" as being the "conquest of Swar" which is the solar world of truth and immortality. This conquest is "the aim of the sacrifice" which those Rishis carried on as Navagwas and Dashagwas, literally meaning "nine-cowed" and "ten-cowed", - "each cow representing collectively the thirty Dawns which constitute one month of the sacrificial year". Sri Aurobindo follows up ...
... panis, who are the enemies of light-seekers (cow-seekers) and who have stolen and concealed the light in the cave of the hill. Sarama threatens the panis with the coming of the Rishi Ayasya and the Navagwa Amgirasas. 32 Indra plays a decisive role. In Rig Veda, 33 we find a prayer which prays to Indra: "That rapture of the Soma we desire by which thou, O Indra, didst make to thrive the Might of Swar ...
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