Apostle

प्रेषितः (‘one sent,’ from √preṣ) is a plain, non-technical formation naming a sent, authorized messenger. गुरुः is rejected because it invokes the entire guru-śiṣya-paramparā (teacher-disciple lineage) system central to nearly every classical school’s transmission of authority. ऋषिः is rejected because a Vedic ṛṣi is specifically a ‘seer’ credited with directly perceiving (not authoring) the eternal, uncreated (apauruṣeya) Vedic mantras — a fundamentally different theory of religious authority than a historically commissioned apostle.