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D.; D.: KOSAMBI ;
TRIŚIRAS AS PURE : MYTH. 51. 12:. Tlie proposition must now be considered that all Rgvedic stories are purc'myth, from which no histórical information is to be derived. The very survival of a myth indicates thc cxistence of a class of people interested in repcating it till such time as it camc to be recorded. Gcncrally, in primitive societies, this implics connection witli ritual and thc priesthood that survivės by performing that'ritual. Thc cxistciicc of an carly written version of the Rgveda is extremely unlįkcly, though not absolutely impossibic , Indic as well as extra-Indian Aryans had had violent contact with ancient litcratc 'civilizations. Writing was unnecessary at the intcrmcdiate pastoral and pioneering stage, from which settlements gradually arosc to dcvclop into kingdoms of an entirely different typc. The priesthood was all the more necessary, and there is no reason to doubt thic gencrally accepted theory of an entirely mncmonic transmission of the oldest veda in its carly days. . The point, however, is not material in our casc.
Identification of ancient city ruins in the Indus vallcy with Dasyu cities ''destroyed by Aryans can no longer be stigmatized as Euhcmcristic. Thus,
the ritual that developed at the earliest period could not be the YajurvedicBrāhmaṇic rite but something connected with, or insucnced by, these clashes. The later vcda preserves little or no tracc of this, cvcn in symbolic form, simply becausc thc-social, political, and cconomic situation had changed.completely, Looking specifically at the story of Indra (or Trita-Thraetona) striking off the three hcads of Tvāşțra, we find its narration and survival almost a casual feature of the Rgveda. Latcr vcdas use it only to introduce more prominent stories, such as the killing of Vitra, which motivate purification and Soma ceremonies. Therefore, the initial ritual, if any, has faded. Yet we have the thrce:or fourfaced god and several three-headed bcasts on Mohenjo Daro scals, as well as broken images with a human torso and one or more head-sockets. Moreover, the trimūrti continues to this day, with a totally different thcology, as representing a deity synthesized from threc later gods, of whom the four-hcaded Brahma is. onc(though allotted ynly one of the three hcads). Finally, there is now no · striking off, the heads of the image, which shows that both ritual and myth;
follow changes in the relations of production. If thc. Tvāştra story indicates, on any. Aryan ceremonial, it can only be the killing of a priest by the king, for
priestly gentes continue to derive their name from Tvāştra, even from his severed heads; the line of descent from Brahma at the end of Bșhadāranyaka Upanişad: ivshows two Tvāştras. But the only other such parallel story is the, striking off a horse's licad from DadhyañcĀtharvan:(also in that line of descent), which head continues to be immortal and prophetic in lake Saryaņāvant, and from which perhaps.Indra fashioned a powerful weapon, like Samson from the, jawbone of an ass (Brhaddevatā iï.22-23; Rv. i.84.13-14 ; Sat.Brāh.xiv. i.i.18-25). This is the exact opposite of what has been propounded about such
