|
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 earier inhabitants. During the nineteenth century Western scholars identified the Dasa with dark-skinned Dravidian speaking peoples, but more recent scholars, notably A. 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 mentionned 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"). Greco-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 Greco-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 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.
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)
Literature
- Koenraad Elst, Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate, Chapter 4 [1] (http://www.bharatvani.org/books/ait)
- David Frawley, In Search of the Cradle of Civilization, Chapter 6
|
