Ghora Āṅgirasa
By Swami Harshananda
Ghora Āṅgirasa means ‘the terrible descendant of the sage Aṅgiras’.
Ghora was one of the eight sons of the sage Aṅgiras. Hence he was known as ‘Ghora-Āṅgirasa’.[1] The Chāndogya Upanisad[2] has mentioned that the sage Ghora Aṅgirasa taught the science of puruṣayajña[3] to Kṛṣṇa (Devakiputra). This is apparently contradicted by the Visnupurāna[4] and Bhāgavata[5] which state that Sāndīpani of Avanti was the teacher of Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma.
If Sāndīpani belonged to the Aṅgiras gotra (lineage) and had the appellation ‘ghora’ (‘the terrible’), since he was a strict disciplinarian, the two sages can be deemed as one and the same person. But there is no clinching evidence to prove it.
References[edit]
- The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore