Vedaśiras (Saptarshi of the Raivata Manvantara)

Vedaśiras · veda-śiras, “he who has the Veda as his head”

Prāṇa has other meanings too: see all meanings of Prāṇa. Kṛśāśva has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kṛśāśva.

Vedaśiras is one of the saptarshis, the seven ṛshis of a manvantara, in the age of Raivata Manu, the fifth of the Manus. The Brahma Purāṇa names him third among the ṛshis of that age, after Devabāhu and Yadudhra, and before Hiraṇyaroma, Parjanya, Ūrdhvabāhu and Satyanetra.

The saptarshis of the Raivata manvantara

In Chapter 5, the Manvantara-kīrtana (“the telling of the manvantaras”), the munis ask Lomaharshaṇa how many Manus there are, what their times are and what happened in each. The Sūta answers that the history of the manvantaras cannot be told in full even in a thousand years, so he tells it in brief: for each Manu, the saptarshis, the line of sons and grandsons, and the groups of devas.

Of the fifth manvantara he says that the saptarshis in the time of Raivata Manu were Devabāhu, Yadudhra the muni, Vedaśiras, Hiraṇyaroma, Parjanya, Ūrdhvabāhu, called Somaja, and Satyanetra, called Ātreya. The deva-gaṇas of that age were Abhūtarajas and Prakṛti. The sons of Raivata were Pāriplava, Raibhya, Dhṛtimān, Avyaya, Yukta, Tattvadarśī, Nirutsuka, Araṇya, Prakāśa, Nirmoha, Satyavāk and Kṛti.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 5

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 5