Dasa Dasyu
Source: https://rigvedaanalysis.wordpress.com
Identity of the Dasa and Dasyu –
(Based on references from Mandala VI and II )
Tribe or Race?
In all of Mandala VI, there is not a single instance of the Dasyu mentioned as a tribe or race.
In contrast the Dasa are unequivocally called out as a “viz” (tribe) in RV 6.025.02.
(The actual reference is in plural, hence suggestive that the Dasa were a collection of tribes, much like and at par with the Arya who were a collection of tribes as well).
RV 6.025.02
With these discomfit hosts that fight against us, and check the opponent’s wrath, thyself uninjured.
With these chase all our foes to every quarter: subdue the tribes of Dasas to the Arya.
However, in RV 6.021.09 – 11
RV 6.021.09
Bring to our help this day, for our protection, Varuna, Mitra , Indra, and the Maruts,
Pusan and Visnu, Agni and Purandhi, Savitar also, and the Plants and Mountains.
RV 6.021.10
The singers here exalt with hymns and praises thee who art very Mighty and Most Holy.
Hear, when invoked, the invoker’s invocation. Beside thee there is nonelike thee, Immortal!
RV 6.021.11
Now to my words come quickly thou who knowest, O Son of Strength, with all who claim our worship,
Who visit sacred rites, whose tongue is Agni, Gods who made Manu stronger than the Dasyu.
In verse 11 Indra is implored to visit the sacred rites along with the other Vedic deities mentioned in verse 9. With the very Gods that have made Manu stronger than Dasyu.
Equating Dasyu with Manu is extremely significant. If Manu in this context were to represent the figurehead from whom all Arya descended, than this one statement, clearly seeks to differentiate origins of the Dasyu from the Arya.
Since we know that Nahusa is a descendant of Manu and therefore the oft mentioned five tribes of Nahusa would also have descended from Manu, this one statement then establishes that the Dasyu, whoever else they may have been, were not people that belonged to the five tribes.
RV 6.022.10
Give us confirmed prosperity, O Indra, vast and exhaustless for the foe’s subduing.
Strengthen therewith the Arya’s hate and Dasa’s, and let the arms of Nahusas be mighty.
Why would the “arms” of Nahusa become “mighty” if one of its own constituents were subdued? The only plausible explanation therefore is that the Dasa tribe was not one of the five tribes.
Reaffirmation that the Dasa were a tribe (viz) may be found in Mandala II – RV 2.011.04. Indeed, the suggestion is that the Dasa were a collection of tribes.
RV 6.011.04
We who add strength to thine own splendid vigour, laying within thine arms the splendid thunder-
With us mayst thou, O Indra, waxen splendid, with Surya overcome the Dasa races (viz).
So it seems clear that the Dasa were a collection of tribes, distinct from the five tribes of Nahusa.
we can say for sure that the Dasyu were a people not part of the five tribes, whether they too were a distinct tribe or somehow related to the Dasa is not yet clear.
Religious beliefs
Verses RV 6.018.03 and6.024.08 tell us something odd, yet significant about the Dasyu.
RV 6.018.03
Thou, thou alone, hast tamed the Dasyus; singly thou hast subdued the people for the Arya.
In this, or is it not, thine hero exploit, Indra? Declare it at the proper season.
The Sanskrit word in the above verse is actually “adamya”, meaning untameable. Untameable in what context? Battle? Curiously, in all of Mandala VI, there is no mention of any battle between the Arya and the Dasyu.
RV 6.024.08
Extolled, he bends not to the strong, the steadfast, nor to the bold incited by the Dasyu.
High mountains are as level plains to Indra: even in the deep he finds firm ground to rest on.
RV 6.024.08 tells us that the Dasyu incited people characterized as bold.
Taking the two verse together, my inference is that the Dasyu had a belief system at odds with the Arya and despite the efforts of the Arya, refused to give up those beliefs.
Instead, we see that the Dasyu are guilty of inciting certain people who then feel emboldened to even stand up to the might of Indra.
what it means is that there were a section of people that did not conform to the way of life of the Arya. In particular, it was the religious beliefs of the Arya that they were at odds with.
RV 6.014.03 is very clear that the Dasyu did not follow the Arya rites, and hence called the riteless.
The foeman’s wealth in many a place, Agni, is emulous to help.
Men fight the fiend (dasyu in the original Sanskrit text), and seek by rites to overcome the riteless foe.
we may now conclude that the Dasyu were a people who did not have the same religious beliefs as the Arya. the Arya found them unwilling to accept the former’s beliefs and hence called them untameable. Worse, the Dasyu incited others, who emboldened were ready to face the wrath of Arya.
It is not surprising that the Bharadvaja composer of RV 6.023.02 felt compelled to call the Dasyu as “daring”.
RV 6.023.02
Or when on that decisive day thou helpest the presser of the juice at Vrtra’s slaughter;
Or when thou, while the strong one feared, undaunted, gavest to death, Indra, the daring Dasyus.
Though it is clear that there were stark differences between the religious beliefs between the Dasyu and Arya, we cannot infer anything about the religious beliefs of the Dasas.
Nature of conflicts
The second significant difference between the Dasa and Dasyu as obtained from Mandala VI is this:
Not a single Dasyu is named in the 75 verses of Mandala VI. Contrast that with several names of Dasas, such as Cumuri, Dhuni, Sambara, Pipru, and Susna.
Verse after verse recounts Indra’s crushing/wrecking of the forts/castles (pura) of the Dasas (RV 6.018.08, RV 6.020.10, RV 6.031.04, RV 6.032.03, RV 6.047.02).
The defeat of prominent Dasas by Indra are available in individual verses as well.
In contrast, there is not a single reference to individual or collective battles/conflicts between the Arya and the Dasyus. All that we have are references and/or allusions to Dasyus being slayed or killed.
In RV 6.045.24 Indra is called the Dasyu-slayer
May he with might unclose for us the cow’s stall, whosesoe’er it be,
To which the Dasyu-slayer goes.
And in RV 6.023.02, Indra is praised as the strong, who undaunted, put to death, the daring Dasyu.
Or when on that decisive day thou helpest the presser of the juice at Vrtra’s slaughter;
Or when thou, while the strong one feared, undaunted, gavest to death, Indra, the daring Dasyus.
In verse RV 6.016.15, we find Agni being named as the Dasyus most destructive foe as well.
Agni, not Indra.
Agni being an integral part of sacrifices and therefore rites , their firm belief was that rites would help them overcome the Dasyu, Agni would have over time acquired the symbol of a Dasyu-slayer.
RV 6.016.15
The hero Pathya kindled thee the Dasyus’ most destructive foe,
Winner of spoil in every fight.
The curious case of sleep and slumber…
When I first read verse RV 6.020.13 I interpreted sending someone to sleep and slumber as a hyperbole to mean putting someone to death. This is repeated in RV 6.026.06 and RV 7.019.04.
RV 6.020.13
This Indra, was thy work in war: thou sendest Dhuni and Cumuri to sleep and slumber.
Dabhiti lit the flame for thee, and worshipped with fuel, hymns, poured Soma, dressed oblations.
RV 6.026.06
Made glad with Soma-draughts and faith, thou sendest Cumuri to his sleep, to please Dabhiti.
Thou, kindly giving Raji to Pithinas, slewest with might, at once, the sixty thousand.
RV 7.019.04
At the Gods’ banquet, hero-souled! with Heroes, Lord of Bay Steeds, thou slewest many foemen.
Thou sendest in swift death to sleep the Dasyu, both Cumuri and Dhuni, for Dabhiti.
Question is, why not simply say they were put to death or Indra “slew” them, the term used so very often in all other instances related to Dasas. Dhuni and/or Cumuri are always put to sleep or slumber, never slayed or killed in one or more grotesque ways that other Dasas are put to their death. So, could it possibly, just possibly be, the poets way of describing an act that they were not familiar with – the act of burial?
This line of thinking was reinforced by RV 8.086.03 where the riteless, godless man – meaning the Dasyu – is said to “sleep”. The only logical inference I could draw here is the term sleep could have meant the practice of burial that the Dasyu may have followed.
RV 8.086.03
The riteless, godless man who sleeps, O Indra, his unbroken steep,-
May he by following his own devices die. Hide from him wealth that nourishes.
Should there be the faintest merit in this argument, then we have a direct identification of who the Dasyu are – the ancients who were known to bury their dead, as proven by archealogical evidence, were the Harappans.
…and the high and haughty
The other curious case is the use of the terms “high and haughty” and “presumptuous high-born”.
RV 6.019.12
Give up the people who are high and haughty to these men and to me, O Thunder-wielder!
Therefore upon the earth do we invoke thee, where heroes win, for sons and kine and waters.
RV 6.042.04
To him, Adhvaryu! yea, to him give offerings of the juice expressed.
Will he not keep us safely from the spiteful curse of each presumptuous high-born foe?
Indra is asked to create conditions that the “high and haughty” may yield to the Arya. That Indra protect the Arya from the spiteful curse of the “presumptuous high-born” foe.
So who where these people that the Arya undoubtedly had so much envy for? We have already seen in Part I, the use of terms such as bold, untamed and daring while referring to the Dasyu.
Taken, together, a consistent bigger picture begins to emerge. The Dasyu were clearly a group of people that held religious beliefs different from the Arya. The Dasyu clearly considered themselves superior than the Arya. The behaviour or the way of life of the Dasyu compelled the Arya to concede that the former were better (hence the use of “people who are high and haughty”).
The jig-saw pieces can now be put into place.
The Dasa were a tribe very distinct from the five tribes.
They lived in settlements that had distinctive features that can at best be referred to as “pura”. (What pura meant, needs further investigation).
But we know nothing of their religious beliefs.
On the other hand, we have the Dasyu, clearly a “superior” class of people, and based on the descriptions we have from Mandala VI, they were either heads of their society or religious authorities of some sort, or both. Merge the two together and the jigsaw becomes complete.
Dasa was the generic name of the people and Dasyu were the ruling/religious figure heads of these people.
That explains why the terms are used interchangeably especially when referring to the likes of Dhuni, Cumuri and Sambara.
we now have a reasonable case, basis the evidence in Mandala VI alone, that the Dasa/Dasyu were completely distinct from the Arya and the five tribes of Nahusa.
Source:https://rigvedaanalysis.wordpress.com/
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