Dasa
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The Dasa are a tribe identified as the enemies of the Aryans in the Rig-Veda. The word Dasa, later acquired derogatory connotations, meaning 'servant', implying that they were subordinated by the Aryans.
The identity of the Dasa has caused much debate, closely tied to arguments over Aryan invasion theory, the claim that the Aryan authors of the Vedas entered India from outside, displacing its earlier inhabitants. During the nineteenth century Western scholars identified the Dasa with dark-skinned Dravidian speaking peoples, but more recent scholars, notably Asko Parpola, have claimed that they were fellow Indo-Europeans, who initially rejected Aryan religious practices but were later merged with them.
A similar term for enemy people, Dasyu, is also used in the Rig Veda. It is unclear whether the Dasa and Dasyu are identical.
Other hostile tribes, besides the Dasas and Dasyus, that are mentioned in the Vedic texts are the Panis, Pakthas (Pathans?), Parshus (Iranian tribes?), Prthus (Parthians?) and Bhalanas (Baluchis?).
Dasyus is in Iranian "dahyu" and means “tribe”, the meaning of the word dAsa, which has been long preserved in the Khotanese dialect, is "man". Two words that contain "dasa" are the Vedic names DivodAs (meaning "divine man") and SudAs (meaning "good man"). Graeco-Roman authors equated the Parthians with a Scythian tribe called the Parni (i.e. Greek Parnoi), which has been equated by some authors (Asko Parpola) with the Panis. Dasa is also in Iranian "Daha", known to Graeco-Roman authors as the Dahae (Daai), designating probably Iranian tribes.
The Dasyus may also designate mythological "serpent-like" demons, because the Dasyus are called noseless, handless and footless. Some early commentators of the Rig Veda have proposed that the Dasyu may refer to flat-nosed people, because they are called in only one instance anasa (noseless). But "anasa" could also mean speechless, and furthermore, there are very few flat-nosed people in India, even among the tribals. The classical commentator Sayana translated anasa as "without mouth or face" (an-as).
Dasyu is a term that could also be applied to Vedic kings, if their behaviour changed. In the battle of the Ten Kings (Dasarajna) in the Rig Veda the king Sudas calls his enemies "Dasyu" which included Vedic peoples like the Anus, Druhyus, Turvashas, and even Purus. (Rig Veda VII.18, 6, 12, 13, 14)
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The religion of the Dasas/Dasyus
The main difference between the Aryas and the Dasas in the Rig Veda is a difference of religion. Already A.A. Macdonell and A.B. Keith (1912) remarked that: "The great difference between the Dasyus and the Aryans was their religion... It is significant that constant reference is made to difference in religion between Aryans and Dasa and Dasyu." The Dasas and Dasyus are also described as brahma-dvisah in the Rig Veda (e.g. RV 5.42.9; 8.45.23; 10.36.9; 10.160.4; 10.182.3), which Ralph T.H. Griffith translates as "those who hate devotion" or "prayer haters". Thus Dasa has also been interpreted as meaning the people that don't follow the same religion as the Aryans. Rig Veda 10.22.8 describes the Dasa-Dasyus as a-karman (non-performers of Aryan sacrifices), anya-vrata (observers of other rites) and in Rig Veda 10.105.8 they are described as anrc (non-singer of laudatory hymns). In RV 8.70.11 they are described as a-deva-yu (not regarding the Aryan gods).
Symbolical and spiritual interpretations
Some authors like Sri Aurobindo believe that words like Dasa are used in the Rig Veda symbolically and should be interpreted spiritually, and that Dasa does not refer to human beings, but rather to demons. Many Dasas are purely mythical and can only refer to demons. There is for example a Dasa called Urana with 99 arms (RV II.14.4), and a Dasa with six eyes and three heads in the Rig Veda.
According to Aurobindo (The Secret of the Veda), RV V.14.4 is a key for understanding the character of the Dasyus: "agnir jato arochate, ghnan dasyun jyotisa tamah, avindad ga apah svah - Agni born shone out slaying the Dasyus, the darkness by the Light, he found the Cows, the Waters, Swar." In this verse the struggle between light and darkness, truth and falsehood, divine and undivine is described. It is through the shining light created by Agni, god of fire, that the Dasyus, who are identified with the darkness, are slayed. The Dasyus are also described in the Rig Veda as intercepting and withholding the Cows, the Waters and Swar ("heavenly world"). (RV V.34.9; VIII. 68.9)
Sethna (1992) writes: "According to Aurobindo,(...) there are passages in which the spiritual interpretation of the Dasas, Dasyus and Panis is the sole one possible and all others are completely excluded. There are no passages in which we lack a choice either between this interpretation and a nature-poetry or between this interpretation and the reading of human enemies."
The Dasas/Dasyus and krsna or asikni
In the Rig Veda, Dasa, Dasyu and similar terms (e.g. Pani) occur sometimes in conjunction with the terms krsna ("black") or asikni ("black"). This was often the basis for a "racial" interpretation of the Vedic texts. But Sanskrit is a language that uses many metaphors. The word cow for example can mean Mother Earth, sunshine, wealth, language, Aum etc. Words like "black" have similary many different meanings in Sanskrit, as it is in fact the case in most languages. Thus "black" has many symbolical, mythological, psychological and other uses that are simply unrelated to human appearance.
Also Iyengar (1914) commented on such interpretations: "The only other trace of racial reference in the Vedic hymns is the occurrence of two words, one krishna in seven passages and the other asikini in two passages. In all the passages, the words have been interpreted as referring to black clouds, a demon whose name was Krishna, or the powers of darkness." (6-7, Iyengar, Srinivas. 1914.)
There are only three instances in the Rig Veda where the word krsna (or asikni) tvac occurs. This has been translated by some as meaning "black skin". Maria Schetelich (1990) who has analyzed these three instances finds this as symbolic expression for darkness. Similary, Michael Witzel (1995b) writes about terms like krsna tvac that "while it would be easy to assume reference to skin colour, this would go against the spirit of the hymns: for Vedic poets, black always signifies evil, and any other meaning would be secondary in these contexts". The rigvedic commentator Sayana explains the word tvacam krsna as referring to an asura called Krsna whose skin was torn apart by Indra. Koenraad Elst (1999) writes: "And when Usha, the dawn, is said to chase the "dark skin" or "the black monster" away, it obviously refers to the cover of nightly darkness over the surface of the earth. (This is admitted in so many words by Sir Monier-Williams in his A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, entry tvac, Reference is to Rg Veda 1:92:5 and 4:51:9.)"
Sri Aurobindo (The Secret of the Veda, p. 220-21) commented that in the RV III.34 hymn, where the word Arya varna occurs, Indra is described as the increaser of the thoughts of his followers: "the shining hue of these thoughts, sukram varnam asam, is evidently the same as that sukra or sveta Aryan hue which is mentioned in verse 9. Indra carries forward or increases the "colour" of these thoughts beyond the opposition of the Panis, pra varnam atiracchukram; in doing so he slays the Dasyus and protects or fosters and increases the Aryan "colour", hatvi dasyun pra aryam varnam avat." Thus, Aurobindo sees the Arya color or lustre of the thoughts that Indra increases as psychological.
The term krsnavonih in RV 2.20.7 has been interpreted by Asko Parpola as meaning "which in their wombs hid the black people". Sethna (1992) writes, referring to a comment by Richard Hartz, that "there is no need to follow Parpola in assuming a further unexpressed word meaning "people" in the middle of the compound krsnayonih", and the better known translation by Griffith, i.e. "who dwelt in darkness" can be considered as essentially correct.
Literature
- Aurobindo, Sri. 1971. The Secret of the Veda. Pondicherry: Shri Aurobindo Ashram.
- Bryant, Edwin: The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture. 2001. Oxford University Press.ISBN 0195137779
- Elst, Koenraad Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate. 1999. ISBN 8186471774 [1] (http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/books/ait/index.htm), [2] (http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/aid.html)
- Frawley, David The Myth of the Aryan Invasion of India, 1995. New Delhi: Voice of India; In Search of the Cradle of Civilization, Chapter 6
- Hock, Hans. 1999b, Through a Glass Darkly: Modern "Racial" Interpretations vs. Textual and General Prehistoric Evidence on Arya and Dasa/Dasyu in Vedic Indo-Aryan Society." in Aryan and Non-Aryan in South Asia.
- Iyengar, Srinivas. 1914. "Did the Dravidians of India Obtain Their Culture from Aran Immigrant [sic]." Anthropos 1-15.
- Macdonell, A.A. and Keith, A.B. 1912. The Vedic Index of Names and Subjects.
- Parpola, Asko: 1988, The Coming of the Aryans to Iran and India and the Cultural and Ethnic Identity of the Dasas; The problem of the Aryans and the Soma.
- Schetelich, Maria. 1990, "The problem ot the "Dark Skin" (Krsna Tvac) in the Rgveda." Visva Bharati Annals 3:244-249.
- Sethna, K.D. 1992. The Problem of Aryan Origins. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.
- Talageri, Shrikant G. 2000. The Rig Veda - A historical analysis. [3] (http://www.voi.org/books/rig)
- Trautmann, Thomas R. 1997, Aryans and British India. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Witzel, Michael. 1995b, 325, fn, "Rgvedic History" in The Indo-Aryans of South Asia.