Indian Antiquary Vol 42

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 84

80
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(MARCH, 1913.
have been in the mantras, Hindu commentators on the Veda, from the authors of the Nirukta, down to Sayans, have explained it as "the son of the Lord,” “the wise performer of the (firerites)" "wise worshippers," "practisers of fire-rites," "he who has attained a high position through the performance of fire-rites.” On the other hand, innumerable passages in the mantras describe the Dasya as “devoid of (fire-rites,) " " opposed to the ire-rites,)” " without Indra,' "offerers of worthless libation," "fire-less,” etc. From this it is evident that the Dasyus incurred the hatred of the Aryas, because they did not worship the Aryan god Indra, and did not like the Aryas, offer sacrifices throngh Agni, the fire-god, the mouth of the Aryan gods and the mediator between them and their human worshippers. The Dasyos, like the Aryas, killed animals in sacrifice to their gods, and we may presume that, like the followers of many modern non-Aryan Hindu colts, they poured the blood of the slaughtered victims at their altars. The Dasyus must have hated the fire-rites of the Aryas as a strange innovation, and they are described as "revilers" of the (Arya) gods and rites, and are said to have frequently interrupted their performance. The Nirukta defines a Dasyu to be one that " destroys fire-rites.” Besides offering animal sacrifices through fire there was a special libation that distinguished Årys worship. More than the flesh of balls and goats, Indra, the Ârya god, loved the intoxicatiug juice of the soma plant, and his worshippers, inspirited by liberal dranghts of soma juice, ventured forth to raid Dasyu settlements, and bring back their cattle and their women as prizes of war. In comparison with soma, the offerings of the Dasyus to their gods were regarded by the Aryas as "worthless oblations." The Aryas also frequently refer to the Dasyas as "prayerless," "enemies of prayer," "those that do not employ hymns." This indicates another line of cleavage of cult between the Aryas and the Dasyus.
All Aryan sacrifice, of animal or of soma, of corn or of cake, was accompanied with recitations of "prayers," either composed for the occasion or taken from a pre-existing stock of mantras. These mantras were composed in an early literary form of the tongue that later gave birth to classical Sanskrit. This Vedic language must have entered India primarily as the hieratic dialect of the followers of the fire-and-soma colt. Before the Vedic tongue reached India, dialects of two linguistic families other than Indo-Germanic were spoken in India. To-day those of the speakers of the Dravidian and Munda languages that have not yet been Aryanized still follow " fireless" cults. As similar cults are universal among the an-Aryanized part of the people of North India also, we may be certain that the Dravidian and Munda languages now associated with the fireless cult were once spread throughout India. Those of the people that became Åryans, i.e., joined the fire-and-soma colt necessarily learnt the language in which the rites were conducted. It must be added that there is no indication in the Vedic mantras as to what the languages of the Dasyus were.
The fire and soma cult and the Vedic speech, then, and not differences of race, distinguished the Vedic Aryas from the Vedic Dasyns, in so far as we can judge from the Vedas. There remains to be discussed the question whether this cult and this speech were suddenly transplanted among the Aryas by any considerable body of foreigners, or whether they were slowly spread among them, undergoing changes in the process. The mere entry into a country of a foreign cult and a foreign tongue does not prove any appreciable ethnic disturbance of it. Dr. Haddon says: “It is astonishing with what ease a people can adopt a foreign language, which, however, almost invariably undergoes a structural and phonetic modification in the process." It is well known to students of comparative grammar that the Vedic parent of Sanskrit is profoundly different from the original Indo-Germanic. In this, as well as in certain respects of structure, most of the Euro-Indo-Germanic dialects are nearer the original
• The soma plant has not yet been identified, but, judging from the methods of preparation of some and its effects on man as desoribed in the Vedas, it must be akin to the bhang (bemp) of modern times. The soma juice was drank without being fermented, and mixed with milk or ourds, Or was oooked with flour and boney.
Haddon, The Wanderings of Peoples, p. 10.