Myths & Truths Behind The Ekkos Clan

Myths & Truths Behind The Ekkos Clan
Myths & Truths

Behind
The Ekkos Clan
Myths & Truths

Behind
The Ekkos Clan
Sudipto Das
5
Published by
Sudipto Das
http://www.sudiptodas.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudipto_Das
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ekkos_Clan
Text Sudipto Das
Editor: Arpita Ghosh, Petals

Cover Design: Kamalika Dutta & Arun Francis, Pixel Passion
Layout: Sudipto Das
Other than actual historical persons and events, portrayed according to the authors
interpretation, all characters appearing in this book are a work of the authors
imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons is entirely coincidental.
All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system
without prior written permission and consent of the Publisher.
6
To the innumerable unnamed unknown poets of the Rig Veda
Praise for
The Ekkos Clan
A promising debut in the growing realm of modern Indian fiction.
Jug Suraiya
For a debut novel The Ekkos Clan is quite promising, with echoes of
Dan Brown in the storytelling. Kratu Sen, an engineer in Stanford,
suddenly realises that the stories he and his sister have grown up
listening to about their grandmother Kubha are not as simple as
they sound. Meeting Afsar, a linguist palaeontologist, encourages
Kratu to decode the chhele bholanor golpo (tales told to pacify
children). He discovers that the names of the characters and places
have a striking similarity with the Rig Veda and the Aryans. Could the
stories preserved for centuries have a greater significance? The
Ekkos Clan is like any fast-paced thriller, replete with murder and
miraculous escapes. The Telegraph
If you are a history buff and a thriller aficionado, then The Ekkos
Clan by Sudipto Das might just be the book for you. Ancient Indian
history, linguistic palaeontology, mathematics and interesting insights
on music are held together by a gripping mystery in Sudiptos debut
novel. The Hindu
Historical fiction, The Ekkos Clan combines the struggle for survival
with Kubha's determination to safeguard her lineage in turbulent
times [It] is a folktale packaged for the contemporary reader.
Bangalore Mirror
A tale of the Indian civilization and culture, The ekkos Clan written by
debutant author Sudipto Das takes you on a roller coaster ride, telling
9
the mystery behind the Aryan race as well as delving into the origin of
stories behind mankinds greatest book, the Rig Veda The author
brings out Indias amalgamation of so many cultures, languages,
races... Exploring multiple generations of a family, the book follows a
pattern where one gets to read about linguistics, history, archaeology,
music, engineering and philosophy moving from chapter to chapter.
The New Indian Express
For a novel whose setting stretches from the Partition-affected villages

of Noakhali, Bngladesh to Arkaim in the Southern Urals, The Ekkos
Clan is a daring novel. The scope of the narrative is magnanimous and
deftly handled... Involving elements of ancient history, mathematics,
music, orality and linguistics, author Sudipto Das has weaved a
cinematic tale of migration, revenge, and how the everyday preserves
history in unique ways, unceremoniously occupying our locale The
Ekkos Clan should be read for its sheer aspiration and the intelligent
handling of historical material. The Sunday Guardian
Written by debutant author Sudipto Das, The Ekkos Clan is
essentially a mystery novel, but is grounded in a substantial base of
research and exploration into our past. This journey was not made
with the aid of tangible historical remains and proofs, which diminish
once you try to step further after going back a few millennia, but
instead, a more living, breathing form of residue from our ancient past
is combed through: language[The] Application of linguistic
palaeontology amidst a mystery novel marked with glimpses of
mythology and historical narrative is unique in an Indian setting, and
places both the author and the novel at a space currently occupied by
a very few. Newsyaps
10
Contents
Preface
13
1. Timeline
16
2. Aryan Trail
18
3. Languages of Aryan Trail
43
4. Arkaim
62
5. The Rig Veda
70
6. People & Conflicts
82
7. Amagamatiom with Native People
92
8. River The Stream of Life
96
9. Rig Vedic Gods
106
10. Vala Myth
115
11. Creation Myth
120
12. Battle of Ten Kings
123
13. Suryas Bridal
133
14. Chariot, Constelations, Polestar
142
15. Preparation of Soma
162
16. Horses
164
17. Origin of Indian Music
169
18. Trivias
179
19. Later Vedas and Avesta
183
Acknowledgement
203
Selected Reference
206
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12
Preface
Someone wants Kratu's whole family dead. Is it personal vendetta or

is it because they have access to Kratu's grandmother Kubha's
stories, which conceal perilous secrets?
The eventful lives of Kubha and her family span a hundred
years and encompass turbulent phases of Indian history. From her
ancestors, Kubha inherited a basketful of stories. Kratu, a graduate
student at Stanford mentions Kubha's stories to Afsar Fareedi, a
linguistic palaeontologist, in a casual conversation. Afsar quickly
figures out that the bedtime tales contain rich linguistic fossils and
layers of history. Afsar, Kratu and his best friend Tista travel across
continents to trace the origin of her stories. Their journey also leads
them to discover one of the oldest civilisations of the world. But, will
their efforts also unearth the causes behind the series of murders?
Kratu finds himself suspended deep in a clash between two
mysterious forces, and sets on a quest to find answers to questions
that man has posed to himself every now and then: Where did I come
from?
The Ekkos Clan is essentially a mystery novel, where there are
a lot of riddles in the form of Kubhas stories, each leading to some
prehistoric event or anecdote, all of which together tell a tale of our
civilization, our culture. It deals with fanaticism in the garb of an
extremist nationalism, something that gave rise to Nazism. It deals
with the identity of India and the Indian civilization. It deals with the
gradual evolution of hierarchies in a society and many more.
The Ekkos Clan is a work of fiction. Along with all the other
elements that create a story the characters, the turn of events, the
mystery, the climax and above all the love and passion history also
plays a very important role in it. The Ekkos Clan tries to bring into
life the history of an obscure age, the history that has been very
controversial ever since its importance was first realized, the history
that has been interpreted and misinterpreted multiple times to fit
into a preconceived idea of the scholar, historian, linguist or even a
dictator and a number of nationalists.
13
As this history has barely left behind any discernable mark its
best left to the imaginations of the future generations, to recreate and
reconstruct it in bits and pieces. But a reconstruction always has
some degree of creativity in it. It takes the color of the prism through
which the creator recreates it. It never looks bare and ruthless as
reality. It always looks pleasant and wonderful like a poem, like a
piece of art, like music. A detective, or rather someone really very
boring, can always uncover the layers of creativity and dig out the
bare history and find it silly. The Ekkos Clan may not be for these
detectives. Its for those who can let free their imaginations, go a few
thousand years back into antiquity and realize the thrill and
amazement of the poet who had composed the first ever poetry of the
mankind, feel the excitement of someone who had made the first
chariot, understand the inspiration that had driven a group of people
to cross thousands of miles just to see new lands, make new friends
and learn new things. The history is not about the wars they fought
or battles they won. Its about their culture, their language and the
way of their lives that evolved gradually over thousands of years and
finally comprised almost half the world. Its the saga of a group of
adventurous and wonderful people who lived on this earth more than
five thousand years ago. They believed that to see is to learn. For
them vision was akin to vidya, knowledge, wisdom. They had just one
word, weid, for vision, wisdom and knowledge. Their yearning for
seeing and learning severed them from their original homeland, their
urheimat, and took them to unknown lands which eventually became
their new homes. They never looked back. They kept on travelling for
thousands of years. No one knows what finally made them stop their
journey. Did they reach their final destination? Did they attain that
knowledge, that vidya, for which they had travelled thousands of
miles for thousands of years? Or did they get weary of their long trail?
Or did they really stop their journey? Cant it be that they are still
travelling but, no one knows of it?
This is where the history opens up for imagination. This is the
premise of The Ekkos Clan. This is where we can liberate the string
of reasoning and let the kite of imagination fly high, but the latai, to
which is wrapped the kites string, should be held strong on the
ground. The Ekkos Clan is meant to let loose the imaginations but
not the history. Like the latai, the history, should be held strong on
14
its ground. Myths & Truths Behind The Ekkos Clan is an endeavor to
provide the historical ground of The Ekkos Clan. The strings of
imaginations are left to the readers.
The history were talking about is the history of the IndoEuropeans, the history of the Aryans and the history of their trail
from their Urheimat to India. Its the history how the original word
weid, which meant to know and to see evolved into Sanskrit veda
and vidya meaning knowledge, Greek oida meaning to know, Latin
video and viso meaning to see, German wissen meaning to know
and English wise, wisdom and vision.
Kubhas stories, which form the basis of all the mysteries in The
Ekkos Clan, are all about the Aryan Trail and the Rig Veda. Myths &
Truths Behind The Ekkos Clan is meant to provide the historical
background behind each of Kubhas stories, some of which is
provided in The Ekkos Clan too in bits and pieces. But, as mentioned
in the beginning, the historical background were talking about is not
meant purely for any academic purpose, but for a leisurely reading
rather, trying to bridge the gap between the fiction and the facts on
which its built.
Ive relied heavily on the papers written by Michael Witzel of
Harvard University, for most of the historical background. Im
indebted to him for the correspondence he exchanged with me and
the time he spared to browse through some of the chapters.
As many of the topics are very controversial and still not
accepted unanimously by everyone, academician and layman
included, one particular line of thought has been presented all
throughout, may be often in a partisan manner which fits into the
thought process of The Ekkos Clan. I have followed the school of
thought espoused by Witzel et al.
15
1
TIMELINE
BC
Indus Valley: Ravi Phase
3300 Bronze Age
Late Indo-European (IE) people

Kurgan (Pit Grave) Culture
3200
3100
Indo-European Language
3000 M ohenj odaro City

Long Distance Voyage with
2900 Mesopotamia
2800
Indo-Iranian (IIr.) people

Separated from IE (Hut Grave)
City States (Sumer) , Old

2700 Kingdom (Egypt) & Elam (Iran)
2600 M ature H arappan Phase
2500 Elamo-Dravidian Language
Centum-Satem division complete

IIr. a Satem language
2400 First dock at Lothal
2300 Prominence of Babylon
2200
Non IIr. BMACin Central Asia &

IIr. Andronovo Culture
16
BC
2100
2000
Indo-Aryan & Iranian breakup

(The Aryan Trail)
1900 Prominence of Ashur (Assyria)
Early Andronovo people in BMAC
1800
Later Andronovo people in BMAC
Decline of Indus Valley

1700 Spreading of Natives India-wide
Aryan migration to Swat & Syria

Decline of BMAC
1600
Remnants of Indo-Aryans in
Gandhara Graves
Start of Aryan/ Vedic Age

1500 Earl iest Vedas: Rig Veda
Ochre Colored Pottery Culture
1400 Origin of I ndian M usic
1300 Probable Mahabharata War

Settlements outside Punjab
1200 Prominence of Kuru Kingdom
Black & Red Ware Culture
Atharva Veda mentions Iron

1100 Beginning of Iron Age
Eastward expansion of Aryans
1000 Use of Iron: Impact of Plough
900 Prominence of Panchala
Painted Grey Ware Culture
800 Kasi, Kosala & Videha
17
2
ARYAN TRAIL
The Aryan Trail, the actual path by which the Aryans came to India,
is a very controversial topic. Even more controversial is the original
homeland of the Indo-Europeans. For centuries people have
misinterpreted history and come up with various theories
of Urheimat, the original homeland. There's no doubt that the original
Indo-European people or the Proto Indo-Europeans, as the historians
and linguists prefer to say, were the progenitor of some of greatest
cultures and civilizations of the world. They were the predecessors of
the Greeks, the Romans, the Persians, the Germans, the Slavs and
the Aryans. Many people across ages have tried to claim themselves
as the original Indo-Europeans and establish their supremacy over
other races. One extreme instance of such an attempt was Nazism
which claimed the supremacy of a fictitious Aryan race. Many Indian
historians believe that the Aryans originated from India and
eventually moved to the west creating the Iranian, Greek, Latin,
German and Slavic cultures and languages.
Due to the German propaganda the proto Indo-European people
are often wrongly designated as Aryans. Truly speaking the Aryans,
along with the Iranians, belong to the eastern branch of the IndoEuropeans. This branch, the common ancestors of both the Aryans
and the Iranians, is referred to as the Indo-Iranians or the Proto IndoIranians. They are also designated as Proto Aryans at times because
of the close similarities between the Aryan and Iranian cultures. We'll
stick to the following designations:
1. Proto Indo-European (PIE) the original Indo-European
people, the progenitor of all the branches of Indo-Europeans
like the Aryans, Germans, Romans, Greeks, Iranians, etc.
2. Proto Indo-Iranians (PII) the eastern branch of the IndoEuropeans (IE), and the progenitor of the Indo-Aryans and
Iranians. The prefix proto in both the above cases may be
skipped at many places.
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3. Aryans or Indo-Aryans the composers of the Rig Veda. Their

culture and way of life later became the foundations of
Hinduism.
4. Iranians the Persians, Avestans, Scythians, Parthians and
all other people of Iranian descent.
Coming up with the correct Aryan Trail is not simple mainly
because of the paucity of credible historical, archaeological and
linguistic data of those antique times. Its easy to come up with any
theory because its really hard to disprove it. Equally hard is to prove
the same theory due to nonexistence of any conclusive proof. But
then, nonexistence of the proof of anything is not the proof of its
nonexistence. This is the grand lacuna which can be exploited by
anyone, novice or expert, to formulate any theory. The earliest
linguistic materials available for any branch of the Indo-Europeans
are the archaic verses of the Rig Veda composed by the Indo-Aryans
in an equally archaic form of Sanskrit. Compared to the timelines of
the Proto Indo-Europeans the Rig Veda is quite young. Its believed
to have been composed since 1700 BC whereas even the late IndoEuropean phase dates to fourth millennium BC. Still, with the wealth
of historical information embedded in the Rig Veda it might not have
been that hard to sketch the history of the Rig Vedic Aryans with a
certain degree of authenticity. But here also the archaic verses have
been used by people amateur and pro, nationalistsand fanatics,
self-proclaimed and real historians to prove and disprove the same
theory, thus creating too much confusion among laymen, who are
not that adept in either Sanskrit or linguistics.
We would like to stick to one school of thought which believes that

the Indo-European Urheimat is somewhere in the Eurasian Steppe,
north of the Azov Sea. We find reasons to believe that the researches
done by people like Witzel, Asko Parpola, J P Mallory and their likes
are more credible than that of others who espouse to other theories.
19
The Various Phases of the Aryan Trail
Legends
1. Pit Grave Culture or Kurgan Culture (3500 2800 BC): The
Pit Grave Culture extends over the entire Pontic Steppe. This is
the late PIE (Proto Indo-European) phase of Indo-European
unity where the PIE people stayed together prior to their
disintegration and movement towards various destinations.
2. Catacomb, Hut Grave Culture (2800 2000 BC): This is the
Proto Indo-Iranian (PII) Bronze Age culture which existed in the
Ukrainian Steppes. Relics of the culture are widespread in the
region along the Dnieper River, the coastal region the Sea of
Azov, Crimea and along the Don River.
20
3. Timber Grave Culture (2000 800 BC): Around Samara on the

Volga Basin, this is the Proto Iranian Culture. The Proto IndoIranian people arrived here from the Azov Sea. The Iranians
stayed back and the Indo-Aryans proceeded further east to
Arkaim-Sintashta.
4. Andronovo Culture, Arkaim-Sintashta (1800 900 BC):
South of the Ural Mountains this is an Indo-Aryan Culture. The
Indo-Aryans, the eastern branch of the Indo-Iranians eventually
reached Northern Iran, Afghanistan and Indian subcontinent in
the next few centuries.
5. Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, BMAC Culture
(2200 1700 BC): This is an Indo-Aryan Culture in Central
Asia. It's contemporary to the northern Andronovo Culture
(1800 900 BC). From here the Indo-Aryans moved to northern
Iran, Afghanistan and India.
6. Vakhsh Biskent Culture: Contemporary to BMAC and
Andronovo, it's an Indo-Aryan Culture. The last segment of the
Aryan trail to India may be through Vakhsh, via Vakshu or
Oxus/Vakhsh, Kabul, Swat rivers.
7. Kalash Culture (1700 BC till date): A very unique group of IndoAryans in the Hindukush has preserved many of the pre Rig
Vedic and early Indo-Aryan features including language and
culture. Kalash is the last place in the Aryan trail before
reaching the final destination in India.
8. Gandhara Grave Culture (1700 1400 BC): Rig Vedic Culture
in Punjab in Pakistan & India
1. Kurgan Culture: 3500 - 2800 BC
This is the beginning of the Aryan Trail. This can be treated as one of
the original homelands, Urheimat, of the Indo-European people. The
Anatolian and the Tocharian branches of the Indo-European people
have already separated by this time. This culture is characterized
by kurgan or burial mounds near rivers. Burial mounds may not be
a unique thing but burial near rivers is something which perhaps has
reference only in the Vedic texts. Though burial is not common
among the Hindus now but in the early Rig Vedic times it was indeed
21
very much in practice. In one hymn there's a reference to going to the

house of clay, mrinmayam griham.
In the kurgans the corpses were covered with red ocher and laid
either in supine position or on their sides with flexed legs. The
excavated grave goods provide important information about the
socio-economic structures of the culture. Their major economic
occupation was animal husbandry. Agriculture, hunting and fishing
were of secondary importance. They usually lived in surface
dwellings, often on high hills, in fortified settlements. Oval houses
were secured with walls and moats. Fortification may imply conflicts.
The houses were constructed with clay and reeds. Extensive copper
items were found in the settlements. Excavations at kurgans revealed
primitive carts pulled by oxen. Incidentally the area north of the Azov
Sea in Ukraine is the site where the horse was first domesticated
during the Srendy Stog Culture between 4500 and 3500 BC. As the
horses are the trademarks of the Aryans and the Indo-Europeans
many scholars espouse to the Kurgan Theory of identifying the
Kurgan Culture with the proto Indo-Europeans.
An interesting linguistic observation is that all the IndoEuropean languages have cognates for various parts of a solid wheel
like the wheel itself, the axle and the nave, center of the wheel. But
there's no cognate for chariot and spoked wheel. This may imply that
when all the Indo-European people stayed together the chariot and
the spoked wheel were still unknown. All they knew was the ancient
cart with solid wheel and accordingly they had words only for that.
The Latin colus, Greek kuklos, Persian charkh, Sanskrit chakra
all come from the Indo-European keklo, meaning wheel. The cognates
for axle are aksha in Sanskrit, axis in Latin, akson in Greek, all
coming from Indo-European aks. Similarly nave, the center of the
wheel, comes from Indo-European nebh Sanskrit nabhi,
Avestan naba, Persian naf, Latin umbilicus, Greek omphalos and
German nabel are its cognates.
But on the other hand the Sanskrit ratha for chariot doesn't
have any cognate in any other IE language with the same meaning.
Ratha and Latin rota, come from the Indo-European roto meaning
wheel and not chariot. Interesting is also the word ara in Sanskrit,
meaning spoke. It comes from the IE root ero, meaning to move. The
Sanskrit ri comes from the same root and has the same meaning, to
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move. But theres no cognate for ara, spoke, in any other IE language.
It's very likely that both ratha and ara for chariot and spoke were
later creations of the Aryans after the chariot and spoked wheels had
been discovered. Incidentally the first remains of chariot and spoked
wheel appeared much later, around 2000 BC near Arkaim-Sintashta.
Storozhova Mohyla, a place in Dnepropetrovsk on Dneiper
River, is one of the sites for kurgan or burial mounds. It dates back
to 3000 BC. This is perhaps the place where the earliest of the
Kubhas stories The Land of the Ekkos Sea and the Dhanush Rivers
begins. The story starts like this:
On the bank of the Dhanush river there is a village which is very
cold in the winters but pleasant in summers. When the bitter
winds blow from Ghimenthe cold areas of the northfor six
months, everyone moves to warmer places near the Ekkos Sea.
They take their cattle along with them and return to their village
only in spring. The return of the cows to the village marks the
beginning of a new year for these people. Aggem, Pethui and
Laba live in this village
The adventurous people of the village who set out regularly
to explore new places had told them of the nearby Ekkos Sea that
looks like a horses face. One bright, clear winter morning Pethui
wakes up and decides he wants to see the sea. He convinces his
friends Aggem and Laba to go with him. He offers prayers to God
Bello and sets out with his friends
The people of the village tell the three boys that deep inside,
the sea is always so stormy, dark and violent that no sailor has
ever returned ashore. But near the shore the sea is very
shallow The villagers tell them that the sea was formed when
a huge flood had drowned the whole worldthe water receded
gradually from everywhere else but not from this part. The huge
body of water eventually became the Akkhain Sea, the name by
which they call the Ekkos Sea
The Dhanush River is perhaps Danus River danus is the PIE
word from which the name of the river Dnieper is derived. Ghimen is
perhaps the PIE gheimen, which means winter and is akin to Sanskrit
hima and Latin heims. The northern areas of Pontic Steppe can
23
become severely cold during winters. So its possible that the

northern areas were designated as Gheimen same way as north in
Sanskrit is designated uttara, udach, udichi, all coming from the root
ud, which means up and surely refers to the northern Himalayas.
Compared to the northern Gheimen the southern areas near the
Black Sea are quite warm and comfortable in winter. Seasonal
movement of cattle herders along with their cattle to warmer places
in winter is a common phenomenon still seen in many places across
the world, especially in the mountains. In fact, the Sanskrit word for
year is vatsara, which etymologically means the movement, ra, of the
calves, vatsa. The reckoning of a year, as seen in the aforementioned
Kubhas story, with the cows returning to the villages at the end of
the winter is similar to the phenomenon behind vatsara.
The proper names Aggem, Pethui and Laba are perhaps Agwem,
Plethui and Laba all PIE words.
Agwem means mountain, something which cant move. Its akin
to Sanskrit aga and agasti Agasti is the author of many Vedic
hymns. It has become Aggem in Kubhas story. Pethui can be the
simplified version of the Indo-European plethui, meaning earth. Its
akin to Sanskrit prithvi and Latin planus. Laba has perhaps come
from the IE lab, meaning skill and work the Sanskrit Ribhu, the
skillful artist and engineer in Rig Veda, and Latin labor come from
this word.
The God Bello may be Welnos, from which comes the Sanskrit
Varuna and Greek Uranos both are important Gods in two of the
greatest Indo-European cultures.
It has been argued in The Ekkos Clan that these four names
Aggem, Pethui, Laba and Bello are actually PIE words, none of
which has managed to survive in its original form anywhere else other
than Kubhas story. Like the Rig Veda, which is a sort of a tape
recorder which has preserved many archaic Sanskrit words never
used later, Kubhas stories have perhaps preserved these PIE words.
Till now the PIE words have been only hypothetical reconstructions
of the linguists theres no proof that these words were actually used
in the day to day conversations of the Indo-Europeans some five
thousand years back. This story of Kubha may be the only proof that
these words are real.
24
Its explained in The Ekkos Clan how the horse shaped Ekkos
Sea is actually the Black Sea. Interesting is the reference to Akkhain
Sea, another name used for the Black Sea in Kubhas story. The
Greeks used to refer to the Black Sea as Pontos Axeinos, which means
inhospitable sea black may be a euphemism for inhospitable,
stormy. The Sanskrit (Skt.) root kshai means bright, shining.
Prefixing with an a is often used for negation so akshai should
mean unlit, or dark. Akshai and axeinos are no doubt cognates. The
Zoroastrian Avesta, written in an early Iranian language, has the
formation xaena which means bright and shining. The Greek (Gk.)
axeinos is very likely to have come from the Iranian (Ir.) formation.
So Akkhain of Kubhas story may be then akin to Skt. akshai,
Gk.axeinos and Avestan (Av.) xaena.
2. Catacomb Culture: 2800 - 2000 BC
It was a continuation of the Pit Grave Culture. It's the first place
where the Indo-Iranians arrived after leaving the IE Urheimat.
Eventually these proto Indo-Iranian (PIIr) people moved further east
and finally entered into Iran and India. The Indo-Iranian (IIr) branch
is at times referred to as the Aryan branch by many scholars.
The area of Catacomb culture is adjacent to the original
homeland of the Indo-Europeans, the Pontic Steppe. It's believed that
the IIr people stayed back in the Pontic Steppe even after the other
branches of the Indo-European people had already separated from
them and dispersed to the west and south. An immediate linguistic
impact of this separation was the Centum-Satem split in the IE
languages around 2500 BC. This refers to the two types of evolution
of the PIE word kemtom, meaning hundred, in the various IndoEuropean languages. The evolution of kemtom to centum in Latin
represents a type of phonetic change whichs seen in almost all the
western branches of IE, like German, Greek and Latin. In Greek it
evolved to hekaton. On the other hand the evolution of kemtom to
satem in Avesta represents the change that's seen in almost all the
eastern IE branches like Persian, Sanskrit and Russian. First the
original consonant ke in the eastern branch changed to cha and we
had chatam as the PIIr word for hundred. Then chatam evolved
to shatam in Sanskrit, satem in Avestan and sad in Persian.
25
Many reconstructions of ancient events can be done using

linguistic palaeontology. Let us consider a scenario where the IE loan
words in the Finno Ugric languages, spoken in north Eastern Europe,
act as linguistic fossils. Finnish is one of the Finno Ugric languages.
IE loan words in Finno Ugric languages imply that the ancient Finno
Ugric people stayed close to the Indo-Europeans and had good
interaction with the latter. It's beyond any contention that the
ancient Finno Ugric people always stayed in north Eastern Europe.
A portion of their territory was indeed adjacent to the sites of Kurgan
and Catacomb Cultures of the Indo-Europeans in the Steppe.
A very important IE loan word is the Finnish orja, whichs akin
to Sanskrit Arya, which along with its cognates like the German Ehre,
the Irish Erin, and the Persian Ariya are the self designation of IndoEuropeans in many languages. The names of the countries Ireland
and Iran bear traces of these cognates. Iran comes from Ariyanam,
meaning of the Aryas. The English word Aryan also comes
from Ariyanam. The corresponding PIE root is ar. The Finnish
word orja is no doubt a loan from the IIr arya and not from any of its
other cognates. Similarly Finnish sata meaning hundred is again a
loan from the IIr chata or sata. But on the other hand the Finnish
kehra, meaning spindle, seems to have come from the PIE kettro and
not from the Aryan branch where it's chattra in Sanskrit. This means
that the Finno Ugric people stayed adjacent to the proto IndoEuropeans, from whom they took the loan kehra, and that they also
stayed adjacent to the Aryan branch, from whom they took the
loan orja and sata. This is possible only if we believe that (1) the
eastern Aryan branch, who had satem and arya, stayed back in the
original IE homeland north of Azov Sea and that (2) the western
branch, who had centum and kettra, separated from them.
Another interesting reconstruction is possible from the Finnish
word orja which means slave, unlike the IE meaning master or lord.
This can only mean that the Finno Ugric people defeated and
subsequently subjugated the Aryas and hence arya became
synonymous to subjugation or slave.
It's very intriguing that Don, Donets, Dnieper, Dniester and
Danube, the names of the main rivers here, have all come from the
IE danus, which means river, stream or fluid. Its danu in Persian
(Per.) and Skt. and danus and damos in Latin and Greek. The
26
etymology of Dnieper and Dniester is interesting. Coming from west

and travelling towards east first you get Dniester and then Dnieper
so Dniester is the anterior and Dnieper the posterior river. The older
name of Dniester is actually Danastius which comes from
Iranian Danu nazdya, the anterior river. Similarly the older name of
Dnieper is Danapris which comes from Iranian Danu apara, the
posterior river.
The people of the Catacomb Culture practiced herding and
primitive subsistence farming and produced metal objects. During its
existence the patriarchal system replaced the matriarchal order. The
dead were usually buried in a crouched position in catacomb niches
of burial pits and sprinkled with red ocher dye. Excavations of the
grave-goods reveal three social groups the priests, the warriors and
the traders similar to the later Aryan Brahmin, Kshatriya and
Vaishya.
Major excavations took place in the 1950s at the Kut burial site,
which is now inundated by the Kakhivka Reservoir on the Dnieper
River. The tribes of this culture are known to have had cultural
and trade relations with the people of northern Caucasia. Later
stages are marked with conflicts for lands, cattle and water.
3. Timber Grave: 2000 - 800 BC
From the coastal area of the Sea of Azov the Indo-Iranians might have
travelled along the Don and Volga rivers till they reached the Big
Crescent, the Samara Bend, near Samara. Eventually the Aryans
separated from the Iranians and moved eastward to Arkaim and
Sintashta in search of more minerals while the Iranians stayed back
at the same place. Timber Grave Culture may be initially Indo-Iranian
and then Iranian. An important site is Potapovka near Samara on the
Sok River.
Excavations conducted between 1985 and 1988 in Potapovka
exposed four burial mounds, or kurgans, dated between 2200 2000
BC. Beneath kurgan 3, the central grave pit had remains of a man
buried with at least two horse heads and the head of a sheep, in
addition to pottery vessels and weapons. After the grave pit was filled,
a human male was decapitated, his head was replaced with the head
of a horse, and he was laid down over the filled grave shaft. This
27
unique ritual provides a convincing antecedent for the Rig Vedic myth
of Dadhyac Atharvan who knows the secret of making Soma juice,
the nectar of immortality. The Asvins insist that Dadhyac tell them
the secret. He refuses. They cut off his head and replace it with the
head of a horse, through which he becomes an oracle and tells them
the secret.
The Kubhas story The Land of the Ekkos Sea and the Dhanush
Rivers has the following:
So again one morning during summer an entire village wakes up
early and moves on like a caravan with all their cattle, cows and
belongings They travel along the shallow shore of the Akkhain
Sea till they reach the other end of the Dhanush River. They enter
into the Dhanush River upstream. The headman knows that soon
the Dhanush River will fork into two if they take left they will
return to the place they have just left and if they take right it will
lead them to the wonderful country of the mighty and legendary
Rasho River. They take the right fork of the Dhanush River.
The huge caravan keeps moving for days and months
towards east till they reach a bend where the river almost
changes its direction completely from east to west. The headman
is confused now Accompanied by Rabha and Ajam he decides
to move around and find out the right way to the Rasho River
They reconstruct the log-boats and sail on Rasho. They
travel again for weeks and finally come to a place where Rasho
forms a big crescent.
Rabha and Ajams journey from the Sea of Azov to Samara on
the Volga (big crescent on Rasho) is perhaps the journey of the IndoIranians from the site of the Catacomb Culture, the land of the
Dhanus Rivers (or the Danus rivers, Dnieper, Donets and Don all
the three names are connected to danus, the PIE word for river) and
the Ekkos Sea (The Black Sea) to that of the Timber Grave Culture,
sometime around 2000 BC. The PIE names Agwem and Laba Aggem
and Laba in Kubhas story, discussed earlier have evolved presently
to the Indo-Iranian (IIr) Ajam and Rabha. The PIE agwem means
mountain, something that doesnt move. It comes from the PIE gwem,
meaning to go. The Skt. gam, Old Persian jam, German kommen,
28
English go, come and Latin gvemio, venio are all cognates of the PIE
gwem. The name of the Rig Vedic poet Agasti has a similar etymology
as Agwem and Ajam. Laba comes from PIE lab, meaning work, skill
and is akin to Skt. ribhu, rabh, Latin labor and English labor. In the
Rig Veda Ribhu is a skillful artist. He works with iron and builds
chariots.
4. Andronovo Culture, Arkaim and Sintashta: 1800 900 BC
East of Potapovka near the Ural Mountains are Arkaim and Sintashta
settlements where the earliest known chariot was discovered
at Krivoye, a small lake in the Chelyabinsk Oblast of Russia,
southeast of Magnitogorsk, near the Kazakhstan border. It dates to
around 2000 BC. This settlement is a part of the large Andronovo
Culture which spreads across a wide area of Russia and Kazakhstan.
Funeral rites of Andronovo include kurgan graves in wooden or
timber lining or stone box. Grave items may be horse, ox,
ram, pottery items made by hand and on potters wheel, good
metallurgical works and even chariots. They invented the light weight
chariots with spoked wheels. It's evident that horse and chariots are
very special to this culture. This is a very strong connection to the
Rig Vedic Aryans who are obsessed with horse, spoked wheel and
chariot. There are horse hymns in the Rig Veda. Spokes, wheels and
chariots appear in multiple places in the Rig Veda as metaphors. For
example, in the verse 1.32.15 (15th verse of 32nd hymn of the 1st book
of the Rig Veda), it's said that Indra protects the world like a wheel
encircling the spokes. Each and every part of a spoked wheel of a
chariot rim nemi; spoke ara; axle aksha; center of the wheel, nabha;
even the peg of the axle, dhura appear in hymns.
As mentioned earlier, the chariots and spoked wheels being
much later creations than the age of Indo-European unity, there is
no cognate for either chariot or spoke in any other IE language.
Social structure here is again stratified. Very much like an
Aryan society, they have elites and commoners, as evident from grave
goods.
Sintashta settlements are square, oval or round layouts fortified
with two concentric walls built with clay, sometimes with stone
bases. It's further fortified by a wooden fence or wall or a moat. In the
29
center is a common square. Small trapezoidal or rectangular lodgings

are enclosed between the walls and the central square. Copper is
smelted in the center. Each house can also have provision for
smelting. Metallurgy is a very important aspect of this culture. The
settlements are not far from sources of copper and tin or fertile
plots. Fortified settlements imply conflicts.
The settlement at Arkaim is very well preserved. It resembles
the Vedic tripura, the three fold fort. It also resembles a spoked
wheel.The pur described in so much detail in one of Kubhas story
The Story of the Pur is perhaps this structure.
Layout of settlement at Arkaim

30
There are other Rig Vedic connections too in this part of the
world. There's an Indar Lake on the South Ural River. The most
famous Rig Vedic God Indra might have been already known to these
people. The ancient Greek name of Volga is Rha, a cognate of IndoIranian (IIr) rasa or raha and Latin ros, meaning moisture. There's a
mythical river Rasa in the Rig Veda (RV). The name Volga comes from
the Slavic words vlaga and vologa meaning wetness and humidity.
Even now a small group of people who speak the Mordvinic languages
in the Volga basin refer to Volga as Rav, surely a cognate of rasa,
Rasho in Kubhas story.
5. BMAC Culture: 2200 - 1700 BC
This is a very crucial phase of the Aryan Trail. It's quite close to India
and also quite young compared to the other cultures. But still it's
equally mysterious to historians due to the lack of proper linguistic
and archaeological evidences. We'll present a very interesting
scenario proposed by Asko Parpola and J P Mallory.
In the Rig Veda (RV) it's mentioned that the Panis steal the cows
and imprison them in a cave. The cows are freed by the Angirasa
seers. The Panis are said to be miser, niggards and envious demons
watching over wealth. They are shown as enemies. Another group of
people inimical to the Aryans are the Dasas. Indra kills many Dasa
Kings, one of whom is Pipru. The Gods of the Dasas are called asuras,
generally considered demons by the Aryans whose Gods are
called devas. The Dasas have forts with concentric, often multiple
concentric walls. Moreover the Dasa forts are not regularly inhabited
cities but temporary shelters, especially for the protection of the
cattle. Indra is often called the slayer of the asuras.
A very confusing thing in the RV is that though the Dasas are
held as enemies and their Gods, asuras, demons, there are also
instances where asuras and devas are both treated as Gods. The
Monier Williams Sanskrit dictionary states one of the meanings
of asura as the supreme spirit. Asura is generally used in the RV as
an epithet for Varuna. Varuna is indeed the highest God of the Dasas,
like Indra is of the Rig Vedic Aryans. But in one instance it's
mentioned in the RV that a Dasa King Balbutha Taruksha starts
31
worshiping Indra. Similarly Varuna is also elevated to the ranks of

one of the RV Gods.
The names Dasa and Pipru seem to be IE dasa coming from
the Skt. root das and Pipru from pri. Also asura and Varuna are IE
words. Asura comes from the Sanskrit root as meaning to become,
to dwell and is akin to Latin est and English is. Etymologically
asura can't be associated with demon. Asura also has an Iranian
cognate, Ahura; and Ahura Mazda is the highest God of the
Zoroastrians. Varuna is one of the oldest IE Gods akin to the
Greek Uranos. So it's evident that none of the words dasa and asura
means enemies or demons.
Interestingly Ptolemy's Geography written in 2nd century AD
talks about a North Iranian tribe called Daha (Daai in Greek texts
and Dahi in Latin) who lived in the lower course of Margos (Murghab
River). The 1st century Greek historian Strabo mentions Parnoi
(Iranian Parna) as one of the Daha tribes. Daha is a cognate of Dasa
and Pani can be a derivative of Prini, a low grade variant of Parnoi.
Prini, like Pipru, should come from the same root pri.
The Wakhi language of Iranian origin spoken in the Pamirs has
a word dai that means a man, a male person. A related but now
extinct Khotanese language of the ancient Khotan Kingdom in the
nearby Xinjiang province of China had the noun daha that also
meant man. Many people call themselves by their native word for
man or human beings. A very common example is the word arya that
means a noble man and which along with its cognates have been
self designations of many IE people. This means that Daha or Dasa,
which also means man, might have been the self designation of the
tribe known by that name. This also implies that the Wakhi language
has preserved the original meaning of dasa which has nothing to do
with enemies or demons. Wakhi and the Rig Vedic Sanskrit descend
from the same Indo-Iranian branch of IE. This implies that the
meaning of dasa got changed in the branch whichs perpetuated
through the Rig Vedic Aryans. So now, the question is why did it
happen?
That's where scholars have reconstructed a scenario that
clarifies all the confusions.
It's possible that the Indo-Aryans from Sintashta and Arkaim
came to Central Asia, where a civilization, something similar to and
32
contemporaneous to the last phase of Indus Valley Civilization, had

already flourished since long. This civilization, which stretched
between the ancient Bactria (modern Balkh in northern Afghanistan)
and Margiana (around modern Mary in Turkmenistan) is called
Bactria Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC). The remnants of
BMAC have been excavated recently at Gonur and Togolok near Mary
and Balkh. Fortified temple forts protected by three walls have been
excavated at all these places. The most striking among these is the
complex with circular walls which resemble closely with the definition
of tripura, forts protected by three walls.
This structure no doubt reminds us of the structure at Arkaim.
More interestingly, traces of ephedra, a candidate for the Rig Vedic
Soma plant, have been found at many of these temples. All these
connect them both to Arkaim and also to the RV where Soma ritual
is a very important aspect.
Tripura at Dashly near Balkh

There was a sudden surge of wealth in BMAC around 1900 BC.
This could have been due to the arrival of the sophisticated IndoAryans from the northern Arkaim-Sintashta settlements. It's seen
that the structured society of Arkaim, with very good leadership
provided by the elites, helped the people of Arkaim to exploit their
abundant natural resources and create a prosperous culture. A
similar leadership might have suddenly made the people of BMAC
very prosperous around 1900 BC. They might have happily accepted
the leadership of the Indo-Aryan (IA) elites, who could have been the
33
Dasas or the Panis (or Prini or Greek Parnoi or Iranian Parna). Pipru
could have been one of the Dasa or Pani Kings. Eventually the BMAC
natives would have adopted the language and culture of the Dasas
whole heartedly. Interestingly there are quite a few Central Asian loan
words in Sanskrit and Iranian languages. There are no corresponding
IE cognates in any other IE language for these words. Some of these
words are Skt. ishtaka and Persian (Per.) hist, meaning bricks; Skt.
kadru and Per. qahd, meaning brown; Skt. ushtra and Per. ushtur,
meaning camel; khar, meaning donkey in both Skt. and Per.;
Skt. bhang and Per. bang, meaning marijuana; Skt. kapota and
Per. kabutar, meaning pigeon; Skt. kashyap and Per. kashaf,
meaning tortoise, which later became kacchap in Skt. As there were
no corresponding words for these in the vocabulary of the IndoAryans, its very likely that the BMAC people retained their native
words.
After a hundred years or so, around 1700 BC, a second lot of
Indo-Aryans from the north would have again arrived in BMAC. This
lot of Indo-Aryans, who eventually composed the Rig Veda, can be
called the Rig Vedic Aryans and the older Indo-Aryans the Dasas. It's
very likely that the Rig Vedic Aryans entered into a confrontation with
the Dasas and the other BMAC natives. That was when the defeated
Dasas became slaves and their Gods demons to the Rig Vedic Aryans,
who fought against the rich Dasa kings staying in Tripura like forts.
The Panis surely tried to protect their wealth and hence came to be
known as envious demons watching over their wealth. But eventually
the Rig Vedic Aryans would have figured out that continuous
warfares were not good for prosperity and made a compromise. That
was when the asura became a Rig Vedic God and Varuna promoted
to the same rank as Indra's.
Here lets recall Kubhas story The Country of Moru:
One day comes from the side of the Tortoise Sea, a group of
people who call themselves Prano. Their leader is Pipru, a
wonderful person, brave, intelligent and sensitive. They advise
and guide the people of Moru to work more, cultivate more crops
and produce more things. Over the years the natives of Moru
become very rich and happily accept the Pranos as their leaders
and teachers. The Pranos stay in tripur, strongholds secured with
34
three layers of walls. They worship Asur, their own pantheon of

Gods, and Borun is the chief of Asur. But they are highly
influenced by the worship of a native Goddess who rides on a
lion. She is the symbol of power, strength and security for the
people of Moru. Pipru and his kin start worshipping Her as the
protector of their stronghold, Tripur. Eventually She becomes their
Tripuri Goddess.
For many years the Pranos stay happily in Moru till come
more people from the Tortoise SeaThey fight fiercely with the
Pranos. The people of Moru, along with their cattle, take shelter
in tripur and the Pranos guard them till the end Eventually they
befriend the Pranos and start staying peacefully together in
Moru.
The Pranos of this story may be very well the Iranian Parna, the
people who later came to be known as the Panis of the Rig Veda. The
Tortoise Sea may be Kashyapa Sea. The word Caspian is believed to
be a cognate of Kashyapa, a loan word from Central Asia.
Interestingly Caspian Sea is referred to as Kashyapa Sea in Sanskrit
and Hindi. The God Borun is no doubt the Rig Vedic Varuna. Finally
the Pranos and the more people from the Tortoise Sea may refer to
the two waves of Indo-Aryans (1) the earlier Dasa people, whose
leader is Pipru, and (2) the later Rig Vedic Aryans.
Central Asia is extensively mentioned in the Avesta, the Zoroastrian
texts written in a language whichs surreptitiously similar to the Rig
Vedic Sanskrit. Complete verses in Avesta can be converted to Rig
Vedic Sanskrit by virtually transliterating each word.
The Zoroastrians were among the Indo-Aryans who stayed back
in Central Asia and Afghanistan. Eventually they separated from the
Vedic Aryan people and moved to Iran. Thereafter they stayed close
to the Iranian people emigrating from middle Volga areas (Timber
Grave Culture). During the time frame of BMAC Culture, the
predecessors of Zarathrustra, whose followers were later known as
Zoroastrians, and those of the Rig Vedic Aryans were the same lot.
The separation of the Zoroastrians and the Vedic Aryans few
hundred years later than the RV, sometime around 1000 BC during
35
the time frame of Atharva Veda might have been due to intellectual
conflict between the two groups. There are enough indications, both
in the Vedas and the Zoroastrian texts, to believe that Zarathrustra
might have risen against the Vedic cult of worshiping Deva Indra,
something whichs referred to in the Zoroastrian texts as Deva
Yasna, yasna being an Avestan cognate of Skt. yajna, the Vedic
sacrificial ritual, and Persian yashn, meaning celebration.
Zarathrustra propagated the cult of worshiping Ahura Varun or
Ahura Mazda, something whichs referred to as Ahura Yasna. It lay
importance on moral character and righteousness and stuck to
monotheism, whereas Deva Yasna supposedly paid less importance
to morality in religion.
The Avesta talks about an Airyanem Vaejo, an Aryan expanse,
surrounded by fifteen Aryan countries, all of which are in Central
Asia. The names of the fifteen Aryan countries seem to be
enumerated in an anti clock-wise manner. The commonly identified
places from the list are as follows:
Sughdha modern Sughd Province in Tajikistan and ancient

Sogdiana
Bakhdi modern Balkh in Afghanistan and ancient Bactria,
Skt. Vahlika
Mouru ancient Margiana, areas around modern day
Mary/Merv in Turkmenistan. Mouru may be a cognate of Skt.
maru meaning desert and also mountain.One of Kubhas
stories The Country of Moru perhaps talks about this
region.
Vehrkana modern day Gorgan in Iran, Skt. Vrika
Haroyu modern day area around Herat in Afghanistan, Skt.
Sarayu, Persian Harirud River.
Haraxvaiti cognate of Vedic Saraswati, modern Arghandab
and Greek Arachosia, a tributary of Helmand
Haetumant modern Helmand River in Afghanistan. Though
Arghandab matches etymologically with Saraswati, but
Helmand basin is generally identified with Saraswati.
Varena modern Bannu, Skt. Varnu
36
Hapta Hindu - Skt. Sapta Sindhu or the land of the Seven

Rivers, the Punjab
Central Asia as depicted in Zoroastrian text Avesta
6. Vakhsh Biskent Culture (~ 1700 BC)

This is often considered a part of Andronovo Culture which extended
across a wide area of Russia and Kazakhstan. Areas around modern
day Vakhsh (Skt. Vakshu) in Tajikistan are the sites where cremation
rites came into existence for the first time. The cemeteries here are of
Kurgan type, as found in Arkaim-Sintashta and other places of
Andronovo Culture, but the pottery, grave goods, are of contemporary
Bactria. It's believed that the Indo-Aryans of BMAC passed through
Vakhsh before entering India.
37
Kubhas story has the following description about the location of the
Country of Moru, which is perhaps Mouru, the Greek Margiana and
the present Merv region in Turkmenistan:
Moru desh is surrounded by eight different countries. You can
remember the names of these eight countries with this poem
Kam, Kuru, Bakkhu
Sughdo, Balik, Brikkhu
Badogis, Bannu
Apart from the various Avestan places or Aryan countries of
Central Asia there seems to be another important country during the
BMAC or even earlier time frame the country of the Kom tribes.
The kam in Kamboj is of obscure origin, may be a substrate of an
older Central Asian language which existed before the arrival of the
Indo-Iranian (IE) languages this ancient language can very well be
the Proto Burushaski language, lingua franca of the big stretch of
Central Asia from Caspian to Pamir. Kamboj is a later formation, but
four thousand years ago, during the time period of BMAC, it could
have been known as just the country of Kam or Kom. Ptolemy
mentions a tribe variously called as Komaroi, Komedai, Khomaroi,
Komoi and Tambyzoi which was wide spread in the Highlands of
Bactriana and Sogdiana. Spread across Central Asia, the names like
Karakum and Kyzylkum may carry the same kam till date. The Kam
people should have been very powerful because the name Kamboj
has spread quite far. Many Persian kings had the name Cambyses, a
cognate of Kamboj. Between Central Asia and Caucasus many places
and rivers bore the name Cambyses across ages. A probable epicenter
of the Kom people may be north of Pamir, a likely location of Parama
Kamboja, one of the distant countries mentioned in Indian epics like
Ramayana and Mahabharata. Unlike the Dasas and Parnas, the Kom
people might not have been Indo-Europeans. In Kubhas story Kam
very likely refers to the same Kom.
Interestingly, Burushaski, which was perhaps a major language
in the Central Asia, is now a dying language spoken by the few
surviving Burusho (the ancient Mruza) people staying in isolated
38
pockets of present day Pakistan occupied Kashmir hidden deep

inside high mountains.
Kuru and Kabmoj, Cyrus and Cambyses always go side by side.
Uttara Kuru, the northern Kuru Kingdom, and Parama Kamboja are
placed side by side in Mahabharata. So, this places Kuru and Kam
side by side in Kubhas story too.
Bakkhu cant be anything but Vakshu, modern day Vaksh.
Sughdo has to be the Avestan Sughdha, the Greek Sogdiana
and the present Sughd in northwest Tajikistan.
Balik is the Bengali cognate of Skt. Vahlik, Avestan Bakhdhi,
Bactria of the ancient Greeks, and the present Balkh in northern
Afghanistan.
Brikkhu is perhaps the Skt. Vrika and Avestan Vehrkana,
modified to rhyme with Bakkhu of the previous line of the poem.
Gorgan, the name of a place in northeast Iran, may be a cognate of
Avestan Vehrkana and Persian Varkana. Vrika means wolf in
Sanskrit it comes from the IE root ulkuo and is akin to Greek lukos,
Latin lupus, English and German wolf and Persian warqa. Monier
Williams mentions Vrika also as the name of the people and country
belonging to Madhya Desha Madhya is akin to Madra of
Mahabharata and the later Median and Mada Kingdoms of Persia. In
Mahabharata, Vahliki, the princess of Vahlika, is also referred to as
Madri, princess of Madra this means Madra and Vahlika are either
same or neighbouring countries. Hence Vrika, Madra, Vahlika should
be all in the same region. As Vahlika can be unambiguously identified
with modern Balkh, the other two places, Madra and Vrika, should
be also somewhere in Central Asia identifying it with the present
Gorgan is not illogical.
Badogis is the present day Badghis in north western
Afghanistan, bordering Turkmenistan. Badghis is akin to the Avestan
Vaitigaesa and Skt. Vatakesha, another name for the group of minor
Gods referred to as Gandharvas. Vata in Skt. means wind and kesha
is hair. Its akin to Avestan gaesa and the Persian gesu. So Vatakesha
or Vaitigaesa would mean someone whose hair is tossed by winds.
Going by the Rig Vedic style of allegories and simile, Vatakesha or
Vaitigaesa actually refers to a real place known as the home of the
winds, where trees, imagined as the hair of the world, are tossed by
the strong winds. Its interesting that Vayukon, the northwest
39
direction, is considered to be the direction of Vayu, the wind, in Vastu

Sashtra, the Indian science of architecture northwest with respect
to the Punjab, the site of all early Aryan activities in India, is actually
the direction of Badghis, the home of the winds.
Bannu is still a place in the North West Frontier Province of
Pakistan. Its referred to as Varnu in old Skt. literature.
So the eight places mentioned in The Country of Moru are
spread across various areas of Central Asia comprising the BMAC
and the Vakhsh-Biskent Culture.
7. Rig Vedic Culture, Kalash & India: 1700 BC onwards
Kalash is a very interesting place that has preserved till date vestiges
of some ancient Rig Vedic traditions which have disappeared from
everywhere else. Kalash people presently stay only in the
three valleys of Bumboret, Rumbur and Birir in Hindukush, in the
Chitral district of Pakistan.
Recent excavations in Chitral are unearthing innumerable
Aryan graves. These graves are little older or contemporaneous to the
Gandhara Grave Culture (since 1500 BC) which is considered the
entry of the Aryans in India. On their way to Punjab from BMAC and
Vakhsh, some Indo-Aryans would have stayed back in the
Hindukush and preserved some aspects of the pre Rig Vedic culture.
The present Kalash people may be direct descendants of either the
first lot (Dasa people of BMAC) or the second lot (Rig Vedic people) of
Indo-Aryans.
Logically, the two different lots of Indo-Aryans of BMAC would
have entered India in two separate waves. The first lot (Dasa people)
would have left BMAC around 1700 BC with the arrival of the second
lot. They would have reached India around the same time. Few
centuries later when the Rig Vedic Aryans entered India they came
across the older Aryans from the first lot.
In The Battle of Ten Kings, described in details in the Rig Veda,
Kavasha is referred to as famed and ancient ruta, vddham. He
may be a Druhyu King and one of the leaders of the enemies. The
reference to famed and ancient Kavasha may imply that the
Druhyus might have been a group of powerful and famous people,
much older than the composers of the Rig Veda. The Druhyus are
40
also referred to as distant people. Incidentally none of the ten Kings,

who are fighting against Sudas, is referred to as non-Aryan. Druhyu
is in fact one of the five people or Pancajana or Pancakrishti Yadu,
Turvasha, Anu, Druhyu and Puru of the Aryans. But still some of
these tribes or people are considered older and distant compared to
the others. This may imply that the Aryans migrated to India in waves
some came late and some early from distant places.
Around 1500 BC the Dravidian people arrived in the Punjab and
started interacting with the Indo-Aryans. That was when many
Dravidian words started appearing in the middle Rig Vedic books (3,
7, 8 and 9). It's not unlikely that the Rig Vedic Aryans of the second
wave would be averse to both the newer Dravidians and the older
Aryans of the first wave. Eventually they would have pushed both of
them to the periphery of their settlement.
In the Atharva Veda, composed around 1000 BC, the people of
Magadha, Gandhara, Anga and Mujavat are all referred to as
despised.
Magadha and Anga are areas around Vanga to the east.
With respect to the early Aryan settlement in India (the Punjab)
Gandhara is a peripheral area to the west and Mujavat the land of
the Burushaski speaking Mruza (present day Burusho) people to
the north.
The following diagram depicts a probable scenario in India around
1000 BC where
1. The Rig Vedic Aryans (the 2nd wave of Indo-Aryans) are settled
in the Gangetic plains;
2. The older Aryans (Dasas of BMAC) along with the Dravidian
people are pushed to the peripheries Punjab, Sindh,
Gujarat, Maratha, Dravida, Utkal (Orissa) and Vanga
(Bengal);
3. The despised Gandhara people along with some Indo-Iranian
tribes are pushed to the north of the Punjab;
4. Further north, beyond the Hindukush, around the Pamir
region are the despised Mujavat, the Mruza people;
5. To the west of the Punjab are the Avestan people, in
Afghanistan and Iran.
41
Doesn't this diagram look like the sixteen Aryan countries

mentioned in Avesta? Here too the central core area of Aryan
settlement is surrounded by peripheral countries.
Language Map in 1000 BC
42
3
LANGUAGES OF ARYAN TRAIL
Main Languages of Aryan Trail till 1500 BC

Fino-Ugric: North of Urals
Indo-European: Across Europe, Central Asia & India, along the Aryan Trail
Sumerian: East of Mediterranean Sea, in Ancient Sumer
Burushaski: Around Pamir, north of Hindukush
Munda: North Indus Region
Meluhhan: South Indus Region
43
Legends
1. Pit Grave Culture or Kurgan Culture (3500 2800 BC): The
Pit Grave Culture extends over the entire Pontic Steppe. This is
the late PIE (Proto Indo-European) phase of Indo-European
unity where the PIE people stayed together prior to their
disintegration and movement towards various destinations.
2. Catacomb, Hut Grave Culture (2800 2000 BC): This is the
Proto Indo-Iranian (PII) Bronze Age culture that existed in the
Ukrainian Steppes. Relics of the culture are widespread in the
region along the Dnieper River, the coastal region the Sea of
Azov, Crimea and along the Don River.
3. Timber Grave Culture (2000 800 BC): Around Samara on the
Volga Basin, this is the Proto Iranian Culture. The Proto IndoIranian people arrived here from Azov Sea. The Iranians stayed
back and the Indo-Aryans proceeded further east to ArkaimSintashta.
4. Andronovo Culture, Arkaim-Sintashta (1800 - 900 BC): South
of the Ural Mountains this is an Indo-Aryan Culture. The IndoAryans, the eastern branch of the Indo-Iranians eventually
reached Northern Iran, Afghanistan and Indian subcontinent in
the next few centuries.
5. Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, BMAC Culture
(2200 1700 BC): This is an Indo-Aryan Culture in Central
Asia. It's contemporary to the northern Andronovo Culture
(1800 900 BC). From here the Indo-Aryans moved to northern
Iran, Afghanistan and India.
6. Vakhsh Biskent Culture: Contemporary to BMAC and
Andronovo, it's an Indo-Aryan Culture. The last segment of the
Aryan trail to India may be through through Vakhsh, via
Vakshu or Oxus/Vakhsh, Kabul, Swat rivers.
7. Kalash Culture (1600 BC till date): A very unique group of IndoAryans in Hindukush have preserved many of the Rig Vedic and
early Indo-Aryan features including language and culture.
Kalash is the last place in the Aryan trail before entering into
the final destination of Punjab.
8. Gandhara Grave Culture (1700 1400 BC): Rig Vedic Culture
in Punjab in Pakistan & India
44
Most of the Aryan Trail has been deciphered with extensive use of
linguistic palaeontology. In fact some reconstructions of the ancient
past of the Indo-European (IE) people can't be supported explicitly by
archaeological evidences. In such a scenario, the different other
languages, which have influenced or have been influenced by the IE
languages, are very important to us. In Aryan Trail we've seen how
the IE loan words in Fino-Ugric languages divulge interesting
information about the early stages of the migrations of the IE people.
In this section we'll see how various other languages have
preserved linguistic fossils of the ancient Aryan trail.
As it can be seen from the previous diagram, the Fino-Ugric
people stayed to the north of the locus of the early Indo-European
(IE) and Indo-Iranian (IIr) people. The diagram is a snapshot of the
spread of the IE people around 1500 BC. At this point of time the
Indo-Aryans have already reached India, passing through the
Arkaim-Sintashta, BMAC and Vakhsh-Biskent Cultures. Central
Asia, the locus of the BMAC Culture, plays a very important role in
the development of the Iranian and Indic languages. Earlier we've
mentioned that there are quite a few loan words in Iranian and Indic
languages from Central Asia. But we don't know what language was
spoken in Central Asia during that time. It's possible that multiple
languages were spoken by the various people between Caspian Sea
and Pamir but still it's likely that there was a lingua franca, which,
we've reasons (discussed later) to believe, may be Proto Burushaski.
Now Burushaski, the language of the Burushos, is a language isolate
spoken in isolated pockets of Hunza, Nagyr and Yasin, all in Pakistan
Occupied Kashmir.
Not very far from the BMAC, to its south along the coast of
Arabian Sea, are the Indus Valley, Elamite and Sumerian settlements
stretching from east to west. The Sumerian name for the southern
Indus Valley settlement (Mohenjo-daro) in Sind and Baluchistan is
Meluhha. To its west is an area referred to as Marhashi by the
Sumerians. Further west is the Elamite settlement of Shimashki. The
languages of Meluhha and Marhashi are believed to be the same we
call it Meluhhan. The language of Shimashki is Elamite. BMAC
artifacts have been found in all these places and also in the northern
Indus areas (Harappa). This implies that there were trade links
between all these areas. Hence the languages of these areas are likely
45
to have some common loan words between them. As the Indo-Aryans

were present in Central Asia and India for a considerable amount of
time it's likely that their language (Rig Vedic Sanskrit) would have
substrates from all these older native languages from the areas
around.
On linguistics terms the Rig Veda (RV) can be categorized into three
classes:
1. Early (1700 - 1500 BC) - Books 6, 4, 2 & 5
2. Middle (1500 - 1350 BC) - Books 3, 7 & 8
3. Late (1350 - 1200 BC) - Books 1 & 10
Apart from Burushaski, RV has, from the earliest books, a lot
of substrates of a language which has similarities with the present
day Munda languages. This should be the language of the northern
Indus people with whom the Rig Vedic Aryans are likely to have lot of
interaction since their early days of settlement in India. We call it a
para Munda language.
RV suddenly has lot of Dravidian substrates/loan words in the
books of Middle Age, especially in books 7 and 8. The books of Early
Age have virtually no Dravidian substrate. This implies that the
Dravidian people would have reached the Punjab and started
interacting with the Rig Vedic Aryans only around 1500 BC the time
period of the Middle Age books.
So there seems to be another language in this area a Proto
Dravidian language. Many place names in Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat
and Maharashtra still bear the Dravidian palli, meaning village.
Palli has become wala in Punjab (Jallian-wala, Gujran-wala, Dogarwala); vali in Maharashtra (Boro-vali, Sara-vali); and wari-wadi in
Gujarat and Maharashtra (Chanda-wari, Amba-wadi, Dangra-wadi)
and Sindh (Kadan-wari, Shanh-wari, Bathe-wari, Fateh-wari, Kardewari) p of palli changes to v/w and l to r. This implies that Sindh,
Punjab, Gujarat and Maharashtra are within the locus of the
Dravidian people. It's highly possible that they were among the Indus
people in Sindh during the last phase of Indus Valley civilization
46
(1900 1500 BC) and that they migrated to the Punjab in the north
and Gujarat-Maharashtra in south around 1500 BC.
The Meluhhan language of Sindh is still an elusive thing to us.
The Indus scripts are yet to be deciphered. But Sumerian records
have some words which are believed to be Meluhhan. Some of these
words have striking similarities to the present day Burushaski
language. Such a connection is possible only if we assume that
Burushaski or a related language was spoken in BMAC, whose
connection with Indus people is supported by archaeology. Hence
a proto Burushaski language is considered as the lingua franca of
Central Asia before the arrival of the Indo-Aryans.
In Sumerian records there are names of persons with Meluhha
as personal names. Urkal and Urdlama are called sons of Meluhha.
There's also a village called Meluhha.
The products of Meluhha include
gis-ab-ba-me-lu-hha (abba wood from the land of
Meluhha),
si-in-da (Sindh wood),
gis-ha-lu-ub (haluppu or perhaps Harappa wood),
gis-gisimmar (shimmar/shimmal wood), etc.
The word Sinda is quite interesting. Burushaski has the
word sinda for river. It's possible that during the timeline we're
talking about, the Proto Burushaski language, the lingua franca of
BMAC people, had a similar word from which came the Skt. Sindhu,
the name of the river that gave the identity to a country, religion and
civilization. Monier Williams, in his Skt. dictionary, mentions that the
word Sindhu is of improbable origin.
The shimmar of gis-gisimmar is very likely related to Skt.
Shalmali (a tree, Shimul in Bengali) which seems to be Munda and
hence from the North Indus language.
Based on the above discussions a plausible language map of Central
Asia and Western India in 1900 BC, just before the arrival of the IndoAryans, would be something like this.
47
Language Map in 1900 BC
Meluhhan: Stretching from South Indus, till Eastern Iran, across Balochistan
Elamite: Southern Iran, along the coast of the Arabian Sea west of Marhashi
Burushaski: Across Central Asia
Munda: North Indus Region
Dravidian: South Indus Region
48
Now let's move on to a little later period of time 1700 BC.
Language Map: 1700 BC

The diagram above shows the language map during 1700 BC.
The Indo-Aryans have arrived in BMAC and reached the north
western fringes of India, may be Kalash in the Hindukush Mountains.
This is the early Rig Vedic period where the early books (6, 4,
and2) are being composed. The BMAC substrates have already
appeared in Sanskrit. Similarly the Burushaski and Para Munda
(Northern Indus Language) substrates are also visible. The
Hindukush is probably the place where retroflexion appears for the
first time in Sanskrit. This may be an influence of the Burushaski
spoken in the Pamir areas north of Hindukush.
Retroflexion has been always considered an Indian
phenomenon that differentiates the Indo-Aryan from the other
members of the IE languages family. The t in vrishti and the d
49
in pinda need the tip of the tongue to be curled and touched against
the top of the mouth to produce the correct sound. It's close to the
t in street and the d in donkey as pronounced by an English
rather than a French. Most of the European languages don't have
these sounds.
Following are some probable Burushaski (Bur.) substrates in
Skt.
Skt. mesha, ram ~ Bur. mesh

Skt. kuhu, new moon ~ Bur. kuha
Skt. karpasa, cotton ~ Bur. gupas
Skt. Sindhu, Indus River ~ Bur. sinda
Skt. kilala (amrita) and kilata (cheese) ~ Bur. kilay, sweet
drink ~ Tamil kilan, curd
Skt. muja, people and also the Mujavat Mountain, the Meru
Mountain ~ Mruza, the ancient self designation of the
Burusho people who speak Burushaski now ~ Avestan Muza
~ Tibetan Bruza ~ Skt. Purusha, another name for Mount
Meru. Muja, Muza, Purusha and Burusho all have come from
the original word Mruza.
Following are some probable Munda substrates in Skt.

Names of people
Kavasha, son of a slave girl elevated to the rank of Rishi

reminiscent of absorption of local people
Shambara, name of a chieftain of enemy
Kushika, name of a lineage of poets
Kulitara, name of a chieftain of enemy
Kikata, name of a place despised of in the Rig Veda.
Interestingly ki in Suremian means country.
Srinjaya, King
Sribinda, demon; related is Vindhya Mountains; both may be
from the same Munda root bind
Kurunga, name of a chieftain of Turvasha, one of the Pancha
Krishti, the Five People of the Rig Veda.
50
Names of places and rivers
Rivers Ganga, Gandaki and place names like Magadha,

Gandhar all may have come from the Munda gad/gand
Shatadru (Sutlej) River old name Shutudri may have come
from she-tu-da, tu means float in Munda
Vipasha (Beas) River old name Vipash may have come from
Munda vipaz/vibal. There's a Vibali River of indefinite origin
in the RV. The name Vishpala in RV may also be related
Kubha and Krumu, modern Kabul and Kurram rivers
Other words, mainly related to plants, animals, agriculture, food

and local traditions
kimshuka, name of a flower/tree

kinash, cultivator of land, niggard
karambha, a food
shalmali, tree
shakunta, shakuntaka, bird. Also related is Kunti, a tribal
name
kaparda, hair knot in the shape of cowrie shell
kumara, boy
kurira, woman's head dress
kulaya, nest
sharvari, night
There is no direct Meluhhan substrate in Sanskrit. But the

Skt. Mlechchha (or even Mridhra) meaning out-caste may be a
derivative of meluhha. The reason why it means out-caste is also
understandable the same reason why Finnish orja, derived from
arya, means slave.
Now let's consider the etymology of two words: langala meaning sickle
and godhuma meaning wheat in Skt.
The words meaning sickle or to reap in various languages
seem to be similar. It's:
51
niggal in Sumerian,
nigal in Afro-Asiatic (Egyptian),
nankal in Proto Dravidian,
nakel in Proto Munda,
nahel in Santal (a Munda language spoken by some tribes
in eastern India),
ankal in Khmer and tengala in Malay.
The Dravidian people of Sindh would have taken the
word nankal from the Meluhhans (south Indus).
The Aryans, few centuries later, took the word langal from the
north Indus people who spoke a para Munda language.
The Khmer and Munda are both members of the same
Austroasiatic language family that might have originated in India.
How and when the Khmer people reached present day Cambodia and
Vietnam is not clear.
Similarly, the words for wheat are similar across various
languages Hittite kant, Old Egyptian xnd, BMAC gantum, Dravidian
godi, Avestan gantuma, Persian gandum and the Rig Vedic godhuma.
The Avestan, Persian and Sanskrit words have surely come from
BMAC. The Dravidian godi might have come from Meluhhan.
Tracking the etymologies of words like these are classic
examples of how linguistic palaeontology can help us reconstruct
some obscure ancient past which otherwise hasn't left much in pots
and pans, that's archaeology.
Referring to the next language map, it's not unlikely that the
Sumerian, Egyptian, Hittite, and the languages of BMAC and Indus
Valley would have between them many loan words related to
agriculture, plants and animals because these are the terms which
are likely to be transmitted through trade and commerce.
Indo-European: East Europe, North of Black Sea & Hittite
Afro-Asiatic: Egypt
Sumerian: East of Mediterranean Sea, Iraq
Burushaski: Central Asia, Southeast of Caspian Sea
Elamite: Southern Iran
Meluhhan: Between South Indus & Eastern Iran
Dravidian: Perhaps South Indus
Austro-Asiatic: Munda (North Indus, North India) & Khmer (Cambodia)
52
Language Map of Asia: 1900 BC

Next we fast forward another two centuries and we're in 1500 BC
middle Rig Vedic Age. Here suddenly we see a surge of words of
Dravidian origin.
Skt. phala, fruit ~ Tamil (Tam.) palu

Skt. pinda, dympling ~ Tam. pinti, flour
Skt. mayura, peacock ~ Tam. mayil [The Proto Munda mara
is related]
Skt. danda, stick ~ Telegu danda [The Santal (one of the
Munda languages) danta is related]
Skt. ulukhala, mortar ~ Tam. ulukkai
Skt. path, read ~ Tam. patu, sing
53
Skt. nagara, city ~ Tam. nakar

Skt. kuta, hammer
Skt. kunda, vessel ~ Tam. kuttam
The following diagram shows a plausible language map of this

era. The Burushaski has been majorly replaced by the Indo-Aryan
speech across Central Asia.

In general the Aryans picked mostly names of places (Gandhar,
Kikata), rivers (Sindhu, Vipash, Shutudri) and people (Shambar,
Pramaganda, Kulitara) and words of local plants (shalmali), animals
and large number of agricultural terms (phala,ulukhala, langal) from
local languages and retained only a few from PIE vocabulary for
agriculture like krish, sa (sow), sita (furrow) and sira (plough). This is
quite natural for immigrating people like the Aryans.
54
As seen in the Aryan Trail, the Aryans entered India in two waves.
Then, around 1500 BC, the Dravidian people appeared in the Punjab
and started interacting with the Indo-Aryans. The Rig Vedic Aryans
of the second wave were averse to both the newer Dravidians and the
older Aryans of the first wave. Gradually they pushed both of them
to the periphery of their settlement.
It's possible that the first batch of the Aryans from the first
wave, along with the Dravidian people in the Punjab, made way for
the younger Rig Vedic Aryans and moved out to the peripheries, to
the west (towards Gandhar) and east (towards Magadha, Vanga) quite
early, may be sometime around 1500 BC. This implies that the Proto
Bengali and Magadhan people of the east and the Gandhar people of
the west were all the same lot thousands of years back.
Gandhar falls in the area marked Other Indo-Aryan and IndoIranian in the following diagram. People here now speak mainly
Pashto (East Iranian branch of Iranian), Nuristani (Iranian branch)
and Khowar and Kalash (Dardic branch of Indo-Aryan).
Eventually more such batches of despised people moved out to
the south west towards Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Not all the Indo-Aryans from both the waves early and late
left the BMAC and Vakhsh areas in Central Asia and Afghanistan and
entered India. Lot of them stayed back. They are the people who later
became Zoroastrians in the Rig Vedic time frame we can call them
Proto Avestan people.
In the years after the Rig Veda the Proto Avestan people
gradually separated from the Vedic Aryans due to intellectual conflict
between the two groups of the Aryans. Zarathrustra, the first Prophet
of the world and the founder of the Zoroastrian religion, belonged to
the former group. Weve observed earlier that the language of Avesta,
the earliest texts of the Zoroastrians, has surreptitious similarities to
the Rig Vedic language. Most of the philosophic concepts of Avesta
more or less have corresponding counterparts in the Rig Veda. So it's
apt to consider Avestan in the repository of the languages of Aryan
Trail.
55
The following diagram depicts the language scenario little after

1500 BC.
Scenario after 1500 BC

It shows the four despised people of the Atharva Veda the
people of Magadha, Gandhara, Anga (Vanga) and Mujavat being
pushed to the peripheries.
Lets fast forward a few more centuries. The following diagram depicts
a probable scenario in India around 1000 BC where the Rig Vedic
Aryans are settled in the Gangetic plains and the older Aryans along
with the Dravidian people pushed to Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat,
Maratha, Dravida, Utkal (Orissa) and Vanga (Bengal).
There are good linguistic evidences in favor of such a
scenario.The peripheral IA languages (Punjabi, Sindhi, Gujarati,
Marathi, Oriya and Bengali) are the ones that have more Dravidian
influence than Hindi. Incidentally Hindi is spoken precisely in the
56
area shown in the diagram as the locus of the Aryans since the Late
Rig Vedic period.

It's quite interesting that among all the Indo-Aryan languages Bengali
is perhaps influenced the most by Dravidian language. This means
that there was a considerable Dravidian population in Bengal. This
might be really the case if we believe that the oldest lot of Aryans
may be the Dasa people of BMAC from the first wave of the Aryans
along with a considerable number of Dravidian people preferred to
leave Punjab soon after the arrival of the Rig Vedic Aryans. They
eventually moved to the eastern part of India and settled in the
ancient Vanga and Magadha regions. Close association with a good
number of Dravidian people for a very long time induced strong
57
Dravidian aspects into the Magadha Prakrit (the predecessor of

Bengali) and the Bengali language.
Following are some of the commonalities between Bengali
(Beng.) and Dravidian languages:
Bengali is the only IE language where the negation is applied

after the verb. For example in English we always say I'll not
go here the negation not appears before the verb go.
Same is true for all Indo-Aryan languages. In Hindi we say,
Hum nahin jayenge the negation nahin is applied before
the verb jayenge. But in Bengali we say Ami jabo na the
negation na is applied after the verb jabo. All Dravidian
languages have the same structure for negation.
Similarly the plural forming suffix ra in Bengali comes

directly from Tamil ar. For example pola means a boy and
pola ra means boys both pola and ra are of Dravidian origin.
Since the time of Buddha in the 6th century BC, Pali, the
language of Buddhist scriptures, and the neighboring
Magadha Prakrit languages showed some peculiarities that
are no doubt Dravidian. We see dhamma in place of dharma,
kamma in place of karma, Pukkusathi in place of
Pushkalavati. Buddhist scriptures are full of such derivatives
of the original Sanskrit names or words. Bengali still uses
these forms in colloquial conversations. It's surely a
Dravidian phenomenon where two consonants can be joined
only when they belong to the same varga, class. In dharma
r and m, belonging to different varga were joined in Sanskrit.
Following the Dravidian phonology of joining consonants of
same varga, dharma is converted to dhamma. Same is true
for the other words.
In all the above three cases the structure of a language itself is

changed by another language. Such changes require very long and
extensive interaction between the speakers of the two languages.
In all the other Indo-Aryan languages, the Dravidian influence
is restricted only to loan words mainly names of places, rivers and
58
people and agricultural terms. This implies that the interaction with
Dravidian people in these cases has been quite limited. But in case
of Bengali there are Dravidian words for a very wide range of things.
gurra, horse in Telegu ~ ghoda in Beng., Hindi ~ in Barishal

district of Bangladesh ghoda is pronounced almost like gurra
akali, hunger in Telegu, Tamil ~ akal in Beng.
koka, kuki, son/daughter in Tamil ~ khoka, khuki in Beng.
khadal, sea in Tamil ~ khadi in Beng.
khattai, a piece of wood in Tamil ~ khonta, peg in Beng.
kutta, to pick, gather in Tamil ~ khonta, to pick up in Beng.
gandra gol in Telegu ~ gando gol, problem, commotion in

Beng.
goda, wall in Telegu ~ goda means base or foundation in

Beng.
pillai, son in Tamil ~ pile in Beng.
ban, rain in Tamil ~ ban in Beng.
mot, heavy luggage in Telegu ~ mot in Beng.
tandu, central stem of the solid portion of banana plant

~ thod in Beng. Interestingly the banana flower and the tandu
or thod are used as vegetables only among the Bengalis and
Tamilians.
palli, village in Tamil ~ palli in Beng. In Sindh, Punjab,

Gujarat and Maharashtra palli is changed to vali, wara,
wada, wadi, wala etc. But in Bengali it's exactly same.
Weve observed earlier that the people of Bengal may be the

older Indo-Aryan Dasa people of BMAC who were the earlier IndoAryans to enter into India and were eventually pushed out later to
59
the east by the later Rig Vedic Aryans. There's a striking aspect in
Bengal that links the Bengali people to BMAC.
Below is a seal found in BMAC. It's a Goddess sitting on a lion.
Doesn't it look like the Goddess Durga worshiped mainly in the
eastern India, especially Bengal and Assam?
BMAC seal of a Goddess on lion: Proto Durga?

The word durga means stronghold, fort. It's also the name of
an asura slain by the goddess Durga, More intriguing is the fact that
Durga is also known as Tripura, the protector of the fort, durga,
the tripur of the Dasas of BMAC.
In the Rig Veda asura is mentioned as the God of the Dasa
people. Subsequently the Rig Vedic Aryans make truce with the
Dasas and asura is promoted to the ranks of deva, the Gods. The
term tripur is not present in the Rig Veda. It appears in the
Brahmanas, written some thousand years later than the encounter
with the actual tripur and Dasas of BMAC. By that time asura has
again become a demon. But the question is who has kept the
memories of tripur alive after thousand years? It has to be the Dasa
people, the Proto Bengali and the Magadhans, who still remember
their ancient religious traditions of BMAC. By this time Anga has
60
again become despised people, hence their God asura again

becoming a demon is understandable.
1000 BC is also the time when the Avestan people separated from the
Indo-Aryans. They settled in the Airyanem Vaejo surrounded by the
fifteen Aryan countries in Central Asia. The speakers of Burushaski
languages reduced considerably with the decline of the BMAC
Culture. The Dardic branch (Kashmiri, Khowar, Kalash) of IndoAryan languages started shaping up in the Himalayas and
Hindukush.
61
4
ARKAIM
Arkaim plays a vital role in The Ekkos Clan. The Aryan settlement of
Arkaim-Sintashta is indeed a very crucial part of the Indo-European
history. Perhaps its the place where the chariot and spoked wheels
were discovered by the Aryans sometime around 2000 BC. Horses
and chariots are among the most typical trademarks of the Aryans.
Like the entire IE history, Arkaim too is shrouded in mystery
and controversy. Arkaims connection to the Aryans is not
unanimously accepted by all.
The Arkaim settlement the pur of Kubhas story at the
junction of Karaganka and Utyaganka Rivers looks like this.
62
In Arkaim the ecliptic comes very close to the horizon around autumn
and spring equinoxes, as mentioned in Kubhas story. During these
times it's very easy to map the twenty seven nakshatras, the
lunar mansions, to the twenty seven houses of the inner circle of the
pur.
Following are the sky maps as seen in Arkaim close to full
moons around Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes in 2000 BC. Thats
perhaps also the timeline of Kubhas story The Story of the Pur.
63
[The red lines are the ecliptics, quite close to the horizon in both
cases; some of the visible nakshatras and the associated stars are
marked along the ecliptic]
9th April 2000 BC was a full moon closest to the Vernal equinox.
The sky map shows the location of moon in the nakshatra Anuradha
on 10th April. As the moon moves from one nakshatra to another with
every passing day, its location on 9th April, a day earlier, should be
the adjoining nakshatra Vishakha.
Similarly the location of the moon on 4th October, the full moon
close to the Autumnal Equinox, should be Krittika five mansions
apart from where the moon is seen on 9th October in the sky map.
The location of sun on a vernal equinox is same as that of the
full moon around autumnal equinox and vice versa. So we can say
64
that the sun was in Krittika and Vishakha respectively on Vernal and
Autumnal equinoxes around 2000 BC.
Based on these sky maps the twenty seven lunar mansions at
the time of sun rise on a Vernal Equinox sun in Krittika, rising from
the east can be interpolated and mapped to the twenty seven
houses in the inner row of the Arkaim settlement as follows:
65
In The Ekkos Clan, Kratu, Afsar and Tista arrived at Arkaim with a
big troupe on 5th October 1995. Three days later, 8th October, was the
full moon after the Autumnal Equinox. The sky map of Arkaim on
that day was like this.
The moon is in Uttara Bhadrapada. This means that the sun is

in the same nakshatra on Vernal Equinox.
66
And on 5th October 1995, three days before the full moon, the
sky map of Arkaim was like this.
One end of the ecliptic is Pleiades and the other end is the
Jupiter, the bright object exactly on the horizon in the south west
direction. In between is the moon, roughly in the south east
direction and very close to the moon, exactly in the south east
direction, is the Saturn.
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The following sky map shows the full moon (17th March, 1995) around
Vernal Equinox. The moon is in Uttara Phalguni. This means that
sun is in the same nakshatra on an Autumnal Equinox.
As can be seen in the above sky-maps, around 2000 AD, full moons
at Vernal and Autumnal equinoxes are respectively in Uttara
Phalguni and Uttara Bhadrapada, the two nakshatras diagonally
opposite to each other in the ecliptic. Likewise the sun is also in these
two nakshatras, Uttara Phalguni and Uttara Bhadrapada on
Autumnal and Vernal Equinoxes.
68
Comparing between 2000 BC and 2000 AD, the position of sun

on a Vernal Equinox has changed from Krittika to Uttara
Bhadrapada. This is a phenomenon called Precession of Equinoxes.
69
5
THE RIG VEDA
Three religions now stand in the world which have come down
to us from time prehistoric Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and
Judaism. They have all received tremendous shocks and all of
them prove by their survival their internal strength. But while
Judaism failed to absorb Christianity and was driven out of its
place of birth by its all-conquering daughter, and a handful of
Parsees is all that remains to tell the tale of their grand religion,
sect after sect arose in India and seemed to shake the religion of
the Vedas to its very foundations, but like the waters of the
seashore in a tremendous earthquake it receded only for a while,
only to return in an all-absorbing flood, a thousand times more
vigorous, and when the tumult of the rush was over, these sects
were all sucked in, absorbed, and assimilated into the immense
body of the mother faith.
That's what Swami Vivekananda had read out in the Parliament
of Religions in Chicago on 19th September, 1893. What he had
mentioned as the religion of the Vedas, started taking shape around
1500 BC in the present day Punjab in India and Pakistan.
Aryan Migration
The once prosperous Indus Valley Civilization was on decline since
1700 BC. The natives, the original inhabitants of Indus Valley were
leaving their ancestral homes in the Indus Valley and spreading
across India in search of better place to live. It was during this period
that a group of Indo-Iranians, better known as the Indo-Aryans or
simply Aryans, started drifting eastwards from Central Asia towards
the Indian subcontinent. The separation of the Indo-Aryans from the
Indo-Iranians had started since 2000 BC. By 1700 BC the first group
of Aryans would have already reached the Kalash valleys in the
70
Hindukush Mountains in Pakistan. Remnants of these people can be

seen in the innumerable Aryan graves spread across Swat and
Chitral districts of Pakistan. The unique trademarks of these Aryans,
unlike their peers and contemporaries, were horses and chariots.
Remains of horses have been recovered from at least one grave.
Contrary to the popular belief that the Aryans entered into India
as invaders and destroyed the Indus Valley Civilization, in reality,
they arrived in quite lesser numbers as compared to that of the
natives. During the early period of Aryan migration and settlement in
the Indian subcontinent the Aryans not only entered into
confrontations with the natives but also indulged into constant
warfares amongst themselves; but, there is no historical or
archaeological evidence of any massacre or massive destruction of
the Indus Valley Civilization by the incoming Aryans. It's not that the
Aryans were always the rulers and the native people poor and
exploited subjects. There were instances of non-Aryan elites too. But,
it's indeed true that, in general the natives had lower economic and
social status than the Aryans.
The Aryans brought with them a language and culture, which
owes its origin to the ancient Indo-European and Indo-Iranians, to
which they had belonged in the remote and recent past. No doubt
their language and culture was very powerful. Eventually, over the
next few hundreds of years, most of North India adopted their
language and culture, which itself absorbed bits and pieces from the
existing languages and cultures of the pre-Aryan native people of
India. Even today there are traces of the older languages in the
modern family of Indo-Aryan languages weve discussed about
these older substrates in the previous chapters.
It was between 1700 and 1500 BC that the Aryans started giving
shape to the world's earliest book in any language that's the Rig
Veda.
Considering the fact that the Rig Veda is the earliest known
book written by anyone in any language in the hirstory of mankind
it's quite fascinating to see the maturity of the literal and philosphical
aspects of it. No one expects a child to speak a sophisticated language
when she first learns to speak. More she sees the world, more she
learns and gradually matures her language. But from the
sophistication of the Rig Veda it's very hard to believe that it was the
71
first book of the Aryans. It's very likely that the Rig Veda, as we see
it now, might have been the manifestation of literary efforts over a
long period of time. No doubt the Aryans were a much enlightened
race with a very high degree of self realization and maturity, which
manifests abundantly in the Rig Veda, but still it's not possible that
all the realization happened to a single composer at a particular
moment. Keeping aside the theological and religious aspect, the Rig
Veda is a wonderful compilation of lyrical hymns, full of poetic
ornamentations like alliteration, rhythm, rhyme and allegory. It is full
of surprise and astonishment the composers might have felt as they
tried to understand the world around them. They were stuck with
awe at the natural forces which control us, control the world and the
universe. They were filled with excitement when they tried to explain
what was there behind each and every force of nature. It's not that
they had answers for all the questions which came to their mind but
still they did find explanations for some of their queries. They did
realize that the nature with its all engulfing force and enegry can
create and also destroy at the same time. Very naturally they
developed a reverence for the natural forces. The Rig Veda is all about
their reverential praises for these natural forces. The reverence very
soon manifested into a form of worship.
Worshipping nature and natural forces is not uncommon
in most civilizations. From that point of view there's perhaps nothing
unique about the Aryans. But what's indeed unique is the humble
and fascinating way the reverence, realization, knowledge and
feelings are expressed in words, creating the first literature of the
mankind. The entire realization process took several centuries to
come to a concrete form. In Swami Vivekananda's words its the
accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by different persons
in different times. Just as the law of gravitation existed before its
discovery, and would exist if all humanity forgot it, so is it with the
laws that govern the spiritual world. The moral, ethical, and spiritual
relations between soul and soul and between individual spirits and
the Father of all spirits, were there before their discovery, and would
remain even if we forgot them.
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Around the World

Around 1500 BC when the Aryans were settling down in India,
the Kassites were establishing a strong kingdom in southern
Mesopotamia in present day Iraq. They had attacked Babylonia in the
1600s during the rule of Hammurabi's son but could not conquer
Babylon. Later after the fall of Babylon to the Hittites (present day
Turkey) in 1532 BC, the Kassites gained control over the northern
parts of Babylonia. By 1475 BC they had conquered parts of southern
Babylonia. The city of Babylon lost it's supremacy for some time
during the Kassite rule for the next 500 years and the city
of Ashur became a very important center for learning and religion in
the kingdom of Assyria (Syria). The other contemporary kingdoms in
Middle East were Elam (Iran), Egypt and Mittani (western Syria), the
Hurrian speaking vassal of Hittite Kingdom. The Kassites established
good trade relations with all the existing kingdoms Hittite, Egypt,
Assyria and Elam.
The rulers of Mittani were also Indo-Aryans, who had migrated
from Central Asia to Syria around 1600 BC. This west bound Aryans
reached Assyria and gained good control over the native Hurrians.
Eventually they became the rulers of Mittani. There's an evidence
that after signing a treaty with the Hittites in 1380 BC the ruler of
Mittani, after swearing by a series of Hurrian gods, also swears by
the Gods Mitrail, Uruvanail, Indara, and Naatianna, which can
be identified as the Vedic gods Mitra, Varuna, Indra, and
Nsatya. The Mittani Aryans may be contemporaneous to or little
younger than the Rig Vedic Aryans, both of whom had stayed
together in Central Asia till 1700 BC the Mittanians moved to the
west and the Rig Vedic Aryans to the east.
Contents of the Rig Veda
Rig comes from the Sanskrit root rik, meaning praise, and Veda
comes from the root vid meaning knowledge and vision. It's quite
metaphorical to associate knowledge with vision. But it's quite logical
too. The root vid is also related to words meaning vision in many
modern day languages of the IE family. So the Rig Veda means the
Knowledge of Praise. Though it's written with the intention to praise
73
the natural forces, still it provides some information about the history
and the people of India at that time. It speaks about several Kings
and tribal confederations across north India. Some of the tribes
mentioned in the Rig Veda are Kuru, Puru, Gandhari, Chedi, Kikata
and Parsu. Kikata is perhaps Magadhi and Parsu Persian. The
association of Parsu with Persians is based on an Assyrian
inscription dated 844 BC, referring to the Persians as Parsu, and also
an inscription of the great Achaemenid Emperor of Persia Darius I
referring to Parsa as the origin of Persians. Gandhari and Kikata were
referred to as despised people, perhaps because of the fact that they
might have been non Aryans either native people or the older
Aryans, who had moved to India before the Rig Vedic Aryans. Out of
these tribes mentioned in the Rig Veda Chedi, Magadha and Gandhar
eventually became prominent confederations or Janapada, meaning
foothold of people, and finally Maha Janapadas by 700 BC. The Kuru
and Puru tribes and the respective confederations or kingdoms were
quite prominent in the early Vedic Period till 1000 BC.
From the geographical description with the mention of the rivers
like Yavavati (Ravi?), Shutudri (Shatadru or Sutlej), Vipash, Vitasta,
Sindhu and Sarasvati it's almost certain that the land of the Rig
Veda was Punjab.
From the various descriptions it can be said that the life of the
Aryans during 1500 BC was nomadic in nature. The Aryans were
involved in constant confrontations with the natives and also among
themselves. Horses and Chariots, the signature of the Indo-Iranians
and Indo-Aryans, were important and differentiating factors for
Aryans. The priests used to conduct Yajnas, sacrificial ceremonies
around fire, for the welfare and betterment of the Kings. The hymns
of the Rig Veda, praising the various Gods or natural forces or
elements, used to be part of these ceremonies. Animals were
sacrificed as a part of the ceremony. It's quite interesting to note that
the Aryans were not vegetarians. They used to eat animal meat, even
horse meat, after the animals had been sacrificed. The spread of
vegetarianism in India may be linked with the spread of Buddhism
and Jainism some 1000 years later.
74
In the present form, which was compiled much later, at least a

thousand years later, the Rig Veda starts with the praise for Agni, the
Lord of Fire.
Agnime purohita yajasya deva tvjam |

hotra ratnadhtamam || 1 001 01
I Laud Agni, the chosen Priest, God, minister of sacrifice,
The hotar, lavishest of wealth.
aghni prvebhiribhiryo ntanairuta |
sa devneha vakati || 01 001 02
Worthy is Agni to be praised by living as by ancient seers.
He shall bring hitherward the Gods.
aghnin rayimanavat poameva dive-dive |
yaasa vravattamam || 01 001 03
Through Agni man obtaineth wealth, yea, plenty waxing
day by day,
Most rich in heroes, glorious.
aghne ya yajamadhvara vivata paribhrasi |
sa iddeveu gacchati || 01 001 04
Agni, the perfect sacrifice which thou encompassest about
Verily goeth to the Gods.
75
aghnirhot kavikratu satyacitraravastama |

devo devebhir gamat || 01 001 05
May Agni, sapient-minded Priest, truthful, most gloriously
great,
The God, come hither with the Gods.
The hymn 6.27 (27th hymn of the 6th book) of the Rig Veda refers to a
battle at a place called Hariyupiya between the Vrichivans and
Abhyavartin Chayamana, aided by Lord Indra. The battle was fought
on the banks of Yavyavati (Ravi?) river.
vadht indro varaikhasya eo abhyvartine cyamnya ikan |

vcvato yat hariypyy han prve ardhe bhiyasparo dart || 6 027 05
In aid of Abhyavartin Chayamana, Indra destroyed the
seed of Varasikha.
At Hariyupiya he smote the vanguard of the Vrichivans,
and the rear fled frighted.
triacchata varmia indra ska yavyvaty puruhta ravasy |
vcvanta arave patyamn ptr bhindnnyarthnyyan || 6 027 06
Three thousand, armoured, in quest of fame, together, on
the Yavyavati, O much-sought Indra,
Vrichivan's sons, falling before the arrow, like bursting
vessels, went to their destruction.
Many people associate Hariyupiya with Harappa, implicating
that this hymn speaks of a confrontation between the people of Indus
76
Valley and the Aryans. From the mention of three thousand

Vrichivans perhaps a non-Aryan tribe gathered on the banks of
Ravi some rough idea about the number of people in a tribe can be
made. There is also a mention of a Battle of Ten Kings, often
associated with the battle of Mahabharata, which might have taken
place sometime in 14th century BC. These were the period of lot of
chaos as the Aryans were settling down gradually in a new home and
coming in contact with new people, new cultures and languages. The
battle described in Mahabharata, perhaps in a much exaggerated
manner, might not be totally fictitious.
The verse 3.62.10 (19th verse of the 62nd hymn of the 3rd book) is the
source of the popular Gayatri Mantra, which is in praise of the creator
of the universe, referred to as Savitri.
tat saviturvareya bhargho devasya dhmahi |

dhiyo yo na pracodayt || 3 062 10
Ram Mohan Roy has interpreted it as, We meditate on the
worshipable power and glory of Him who has created the earth, the
nether world and the heavens (i.e. the universe), and who directs our
understanding. This hymn clearly shows the ever inquisitive mind of
the Aryans. Even at such early stages of human civilization they were
perplexed with the complexities about the creation of universe.
Irrespective of the religion and creed it's indeed a very noble thought
and gesture to show obeisance, without any compulsion, to
a Creator who has created this wonderful world of ours.
The penultimate hymn of the Rig Veda speaks about the Creation of
heaven, earth, day and night.
77
ta ca satya cbhddht tapaso adhi ajyata |

tatortri ajyata tata samudro arava || 10 190 01
FROM Fervour, kindled to its height, Eternal Law and
Truth were born:
Thence was the Night produced, and thence the billowy
flood of sea arose.
samudrt aravt adhi savatsaro ajyata |
ahortri vidadhat vivasya miato va || 10 190 02
From that same billowy flood of sea the Year was
afterwards produced,
Ordainer of the days and nights, command over all.
srycandramasau dht yathprvamakalpayat |
diva capthiv ca antarikamatho sva || 10 190 03
Dhtar, the great Creator, then formed in due order Sun
and Moon.
He formed in order Heaven and Earth, the regions of the
air, and light.
But, very interestingly in the same Rig Veda there is also
another hymn (10.129) called the Song of Creation, which
deals with skepticism the knowledge about the creation of
universe:
Who verily knows and who can here declare it, whence it
was born and whence comes this creation?
The Gods are later than this world's production. Who knows
then whence it first came into being?
78
He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all

or did not form it,
Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily
knows it, or perhaps he knows not.
In reference to the above hymn, Amartya Sen has remarked
in Argumentative Indian that ever since the early days of
civilization, Indians have been by and large always
argumentative. They never blindly accepted anything without
any reason. They never attached unnecessarily unreasonable
theological or religious importance to things of reasoning and
logic. Creation of universe has been claimed to be an
achievement of the supreme God in almost all religions. But very
interestingly even in a book of praise for Gods the Aryans didn't
make such a claim without skepticism. That's perhaps one of
the earliest instances of an all inclusive forum where various
thoughts and ideas, irrespective of their contradictions and
divergence, were given equal space. That's perhaps the
beginning of the 3500 years old Indian tradition of absorbing
and assimilating contradicting elements in its culture and
reigion.
There is a reference to twelve months and 360 days of a year
in another hymn. There's also reference to dance and gambling
as forms of entertainment.
The last hymn of the Rig Veda is really very unique. It speaks of
unity among people. Though written some 3500 years back but
still the message is relevant even in today's world for every nation
and people irrespective of their caste, creed and social status.
There's nothing extra ordinary in this hymn of unity. But what
may attract the most is the simplicity with which such an
important and necessary aspect of humanity and mankind has
been expressed. It's nice to know that people have been thinking
of such issues since so long. It's one of the favorite Vedic hymns
of Tagore. He had set it to a wonderful tune.
79
sa-samid yuvase vannagne vivni arya |

ias padesamidhyase sa no vasni bhara || 10.191.1
THOU, mighty Agni, gatherest up all that is precious for
thy friend.
Bring us all treasures as thou art enkindled in libation's
place
sa ghachadhva sa vadadhva sa vo mansi jnatm |
dev bhgha yath prve sajnn upsate || 10.191.2
Assemble, speak together, let your minds be all of one
accord,
As ancient Gods unanimous sit down to their appointed
share.
samno mantra samiti samn samna mana saha cittamem |
samna mantram abhi mantraye va samnena vo havi juhomi ||
The place is common, common the assembly, common the
mind, so be their thought united.
A common purpose do I lay before you, and worship with
your general oblation.
samn va kti samn hdayni va |
samnamastu vomano yath va susahsati || 10.191.4
80
One and the same be your resolve, and be your minds of

one accord.
United be the thoughts of all that all may happily agree.
Many more hymns from the Rig Veda, dealing with a wide range of
subjects, have been discussed in details in the subsequent chapters.
It would be a great injustice to the finesse of the Rig Veda to
associate it only with scriptures. Considering it just as a religious
book like Bible or Qoran would rip it off its literary value. It should
be seen as a piece of literature too. It's no ordinary literature it's the
first available literature of the entire mankind. It's the manifestation
of the realization, feelings and understanding of the people of an
ancient age. It's a creative composition, which when attributed to
humanity, rather than divinity, has much more value than just
assuming those were God's word.
Another fascinating thing about the Rig Veda is the tradition of
preserving the entire literature for over a millennium just by oral
transmission across generations. The earliest script, Brahmi, was
available in India only by 500 BC, more than a millennium after the
Rig Veda came into existence. The book might have been first written
even a millennium later, sometime during the Gupta period. Just
think about the indigenous techniques that the Aryans would have
perfected in order to preserve the literature for more than 2000 years.
One of the available manuscripts of the Rig Veda is included
in UNESCO's Memory of the World list as one of the four entries from
India.
Along with the Rig Veda, the other three Vedas Yajur (about
sacrificial worship), Sama (about songs for worship) and Atharva
(about prayers) started taking shape respectively in the subsequent
centuries. Rig Vedic period was still within Bronze Age, which
continued in India till 1100 BC, when Iron Age started.
81
6
PEOPLE & CONFLICTS
To know about the Rig Vedic people, the best way is to refer to some
verses from the Rig Veda.
RV Hymn Verse
Book
6 20
4 30
4 30
4 19
2 14
2 12
Description
Indra kills Dhuni, Chumuri.
Refers to
Conflict with
natives
Indra kills Kulitara's son Shambara Conflict with
on lofty mountains. He crushed
Munda natives
100,000 Varchins, like the felly
(pradhi) of the wheel of a chariot
Arna, Chitraratha, both Aryan
Conflict among
people, killed by Indra on the other Aryan people
side of Sarayu
Indra breaks the mountains and
Vala Myth
frees the obstructed rivers. The
rivers run like mothers running
towards their children. [It's similar
to killing Vala and releasing the
cow; breaking the dams (of the
Indus people ?) and releasing the
river]
Indra subdues Kutsa, Atithigva and Conflict among
Aryan people
Ayu [Not all non-Aryan Kings]
Shambara (Munda) is discovered on Conflict with
the 40th autumn in his mountain
Munda natives
hideouts. [Implicates fightings in
mountains, most likely the
Hindukush]
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2 14
Indra destroys Shambara's 100

Conflict with
ancient or distant (purvi) castles
Munda natives
(pura) with his thunderbold (ashman)
2 14
Indra killed Dhribhika, Urana,
Conflict with
Arbuda, Shushna, Pipru, Namuchi, natives
Rudhikra. [Pipru may be IA, but the
other names seem to be non-IA]
3 53
Kushika (probably Munda) among Natives treated as
Aryan offerers
elites
3 53
What is the use of cattle in Kikata? Conflict with
They don't pour ashira (mixture of Munda natives
milk and soma); they don't heat
vessels for preparing soma. Let Indra
bring the wealth of Pramaganda,
King of Kikata. [Kikata and
Pramaganda both Munda names]
8 46 32 Dasa Balbutha and Taruksha
Dasa (a tribe of the
(Munda) have made a gift of 100
1st lot of the Aryans,
camels to the sage. [Implies Dasas generally inimical to
and Munda people are not always the Rig Vedic
enemies points to amalgamation of Aryans) treated as
elite, at par
various people]
8 12 9 Like rays of Sun Indra consumes
Conflict with
Arshasana (Iranian Ersan)
Iranian tribes
8 32 2 The strong (ugra) Indra kills the
Conflict with
Dasa Sribinda (Munda), Anarshani Iranian tribes
(Iranian Ersan), Pipru (Aryan),
Ahishuva and set free the waters.
[Iranian, Munda and Aryan people
seen as enemies]
8 5 37 Kashu (Avestan Kasu) gives 100
Iranian people
camels (ushtra) and 10000 cows to treated as elites, at
the priest
par with the Aryans
8 6 46 Parshu (Persian Parsa) & Tirindira Iranian people
(Tiridates) give 100000 gifts
treated as elites
1 112
Ashvini helped Karkandhu,
Aryan non Aryan
Shryata, and Vishpala. [All Munda amalgamation
names]
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1 53 8
Indra kills Parnaya, Karanja [Both

Munda names]
Conflict with
Munda natives
The above verses are arranged chronologically in the probable

order they might have been composed. We can divide the ten books
of the Rig Veda into the following three classes:
1. Old Books 6, 4, 2 and 5 (1700 1500 BC)
2. Middle Books 3, 7, 8 and 9 (1500 1350 BC)
3. Late Books 1 and 10 (1350 1200 BC)
Refering to these verses and recalling some of the discussions in
the previous chapters, the following may be summarized:
The Dasa (Daha) and Pani (Parnoi) people of BMAC were
Indo-Aryan people who arrived in the Central Asia around
1900 BC. They stayed in tripur style forts fortified by three
walls.
Around 1700 BC a second group of Indo-Aryans arrived in
the Central Asia. They were the Rig Vedic Aryans who later
composed the Rig Veda.
The Rig Vedic Aryans first fight with the Dasas and later enter
into a truce. Asura, the gods of the Dasa people are first
considered demons and then promoted to the ranks of Aryan
Gods. There are instances where Dasa Kings (like Balbutha)
are referred to as offerers in the prayers.
The Aryans entered India in two waves. The first wave was
around 1700 BC, probably the Dasa people. The second wave
was around 1500 BC the Rig Vedic Aryans. At least one of
these people entered India through the Hindukush
Mountains, passing through the Kalash valleys in Chitral
and traveling along Kabul and Panjkora rivers. It's likely that
on their way they fought with the native tribal people. Many
of the people with whom they fought in the mountains seem
to have Munda names like Shambara and Kulitara. It's
possible that the local people of north Indus areas spoke a
para Munda language and the Indo-Aryans confronted them
84
first in the mountains of Hindukush. The confrontation with

Shambar is mentioned a number of times throughout the Rig
Veda.
Like the amalgamation with the Dasa people, there are also
instances of friendship with the Munda people. Kushika and
Taruksha, both Munda names, are listed as Aryan offerers in
rituals. The Rig Vedic doctor twins Ashvini Kumars are said
to have helped Karkandhu, Shryata and Vishpala all
Munda names.
There are multiple references to the Five People, Pancha
Jana or Pancha Krishti or Pancha Kshiti Yadu, Turvasha,
Anu, Druhyu and Puru. Krishti originally meant cultivable
land, then an inhabited land, then its inhabitants and finally
an Aryan race. The word krishti is derived from the Skt.
root krish which means to plough or to make furrows on
the ground with plows. The designation Pancha Krishti
literally means Five Furrows or the tribes dwelling between
the five furrows or divisions of the earth. The five divisions of
the earth are most likely the four directions, East, West,
North and South and the fifth one the region in the center.
The Battle of Ten Kings is a sort of civil war between the
various tribes. King Sudas of the Tritsu tribe and a
descendant of the legendary King Bharata is fighting against
ten other tribes Bhrigu, Druhyu, Turvasha, Paktha,
Bhalanas, Alina, Vishanin, Shiva, Anu and Puru. Many of the
kings of these tribes seem to have Munda names like
Kavasha and Shimyu. The Bhrigu lineage still exists among
Hindus. The Paktha may be the Pakhtun or Pashtun people
of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Bhalanas people should be
related to the Bolan Pass in Pakistan. The present day Puris
may be the Rig Vedic Puru.
There are a number of people with Iranian sounding names
Kashu (Avestan Kasu), Kanita (Scythian Kanites), Tirindira
(Trinidates), Parshu (Old Persian Parsa), Anarshani (Iranian
Ershan) which appear suddenly in the Book 8. There's also
a surge of Dravidian words in this book. It's mentioned in
the Languages of Aryan Trail that the Dravidian people
arrived in Sindh from eastern Iran during the last phase of
85
Indus Valley civilization (~1900 BC or earlier). In the next few

centuries, after the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization,
they migrated to north and south. The Dravidians, who
migrated north, started mingling with the Rig Vedic Aryans
around 1500 BC. Some of these Iranian sounding tribes may
be the Dravidian people the pre Iranian native inhabitants
of east Iran. Here also not all the Iranian people are
considered enemies.
Now let's focus on some of these Iranian tribes mentioned in the
later books.
atam aha tirindire sahasra parv dade |

rdhsi ydvnm || 8.6.46
A hundred thousand have I gained from Parshu, from
Tirindira,
And presents of the Yadavas.
If the Parshu people referred to in this verse are taken to be the
proto Persian people the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranians then
they are kins of the Aryans. So, it's not surprising that they are also,
at times, considered among the elites. In fact the term Persia comes
from the Old Persian (OP) Parsa, modern Fars. A related word in OP
is parsava, meaning border, borderlands. Both parsa and parsava
seem to be akin to Skt. parshva, which is derived from parshu and
means near. Even the Skt. term Parshava means the Parshu people.
Parshu may be one of the early Iranian tribes who have moved into
Iran from the Steppes (Timber Grave Culture, possibly a proto Iranian
culture) during the middle Rig Vedic Age (post 1500 BC) and are now
neighboring, bordering, close to the Aryans.
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In the following diagram, which weve already seen earlier, the

early Iranian people (Persians, Medians and Parthians) may be
located in northern Iran, within the locus of the Proto Avestan
people.
The next two verses seem to be referring to the Parthians and

Medians. The term Parthia comes from OP Parthava which is surely
akin to Skt. Prithu and Parthava (of Prithu). Similarly Media comes
from OP Mada and Avestan Maidiia, akin to Skt. Madhya, meaning
central, middle. The country of Madra, which appears later in the
Skt. epic and is no doubt located to the north west of India, may
possibly refer to Media. It's possible that around 1500 BC the
Parthians, Medians and the Persians, all of whom later adopt
Zoroastrianism and eventually create three of the biggest empires of
the world, are all located side by side in northern Iran, the Medians
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being in the middle, madhya. All of these people seem to be in close

interaction with the neighboring Indo-Aryans in Afghanistan and
India.
yuv nar payamnsa pyam prc gavyanta pthuparavo yayu |

ds ca vtr hatam ryi ca sudsam indrvaruvasvatam || 7.83.1
Looking to you and your alliance (pya), O ye Men,
the Prithu-Parshus (pthu-parava) went forward
(prc yayu), fain for spoil (gavyanta, the desire for go,
cattle).
Ye smote and slew his Dsa and his ryan enemies, and
helped Suds with favour, Indra-Varua.
mo na in vyadanti mdhya stotra te atakrato |

sakt su no maghavan indra maydh piteva no bhava || 10.33.3
As rats eat weavers' threads (in), the Madhyas do the
same to worship (stot), O Shatakratu (Indra).
Have mercy on us once, O Indra, Bounteous Lord
(maghavan), be thou a Father unto us.
In the verse 7.83.1 it's mentioned that Indra-Varuna have killed
the Dasa and Aryan people both of them are Sudas' enemies. The
Dasa people, we know by now, may be the earlier Aryans from the
first wave. So here the enemies of Sudas are his own folks. This
particular verse is important because it explicitly says that the Rig
Vedic people don't see the natives discriminately as their only
enemies. There are instances where the natives are treated as elites
and also their own folks treated as enemies.
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The next verse is important because it introduces the term Kuru for
the first time. Kuru eventually becomes one of the most important
clans in India. But unlike the later Vedic and epic literature they are
not omnipresent in RV.
kururavaam vi rjna trsadasyavam |

mahiha vghat i || 10.33.4
I chose as prince most liberal (mahiha) Kurushravana,
the son of Trasadasyu.
I, the priests' i (vghat i)
The Skt. Kuru is surely a cognate of OP Kurush, the original
name of the Persian King Cyrus the Great (Cyrus is a Greek
formation).
The Skt. Kuru comes from the root kri and means action,
performance, to do, to build, to make. It has cognates in many IE
languages Old Irish cruth, Old Prussian kura, Lithuanian kurti, all
meaning to make, build. Shravana means fame. So Kuru Shravana
may simply mean famous, or literally fame of action.
The meaning of Kurush in OP is not clear. One of the meanings
connects kurush to khur, meaning sun, coming from khwar in
Persian and akin to svar, surya in Sanskrit. In the same way the
ancient region of Khorasan (parts of north-eastern Iran, northern
Afghanistan and southern Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) is also
connected to khur, sun.
Kuru does sound like khur but the phonetic association must
be a much later event. It's very likely that the OP Kurush and the
Skt. Kuru are same. It's also possible that Kurushravana
degenerated to sound like Khorasan much later in historical times.
The Kuru people should be a powerful tribe coming into picture in
Central Asia in the later Rig Vedic Age (1500 BC onwards). Later, in
India they are the main people of Mahabharata and in Iran the
emperors (Cyrus) take their name.
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Other Probable Early Dynasties and Kingdoms of India

1700 - 1500 BC
There are references to various dynasties and kings in the ancient
literatures. Not everything can be historically correct. But still from
the various references in the epics, Vedas and Puranas it can be
roughly said that one important dynasty (or tribe or confederation of
tribes) might be the mythical Sun Dynasty ruled over India
between 1700 and 1500 BC. Rama, the main character of Ramayana
and belonging to this dynasty, might have ruled around 1500 BC.
Another important dynasty, ruling over western part of Indian
subcontinent precisely the regions of the early Aryan settlement in
India, might have been that of the mythological King Bharata who
would have ruled over Northern India sometime around 1600 BC.
Bharata is seen as the first king to consolidate a major part of the
Indian subcontinent. Such effort for consolidation was not
uncommon around 1500 BC, the period when the earliest pieces of
the Rig Veda were being composed. It was a very natural instinct for
the tribes and the kings to indulge into continuous warfares among
themselves. Hence the instance of the earliest consolidation around
1600 BC under a victorious king or tribe doesn't seem to be unlikely,
even though the name of the king or the tribe can be debatable.
The Bharata dynasty might have ruled between 1700 and 1500
BC, contemporaneous to the Sun dynasty.
1500 - 1300 BC
The Puru dynasty, a descendant of the Bharata dynasty, might have
ruled between 1500 and 1400 BC, followed by the Kuru dynasty (to
which belonged the cousins Pandavas and Kauravas of the
Mahabharata) between 1400 and 1300 BC. With the Mahabharata
war attributed to sometime in the 14th century BC, the kings
mentioned in Mahabharata would have ruled around 1300 BC.
Another important kingdom or confederation in the east could
be Magadha (Kikata, mentioned in the Rig Veda), coming to
prominence around 1400 BC. The Magadhan King Jarasandha is
mentioned in Mahabharata as a party to the war. So it can be
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assumed that he would have also ruled sometime around 1300 BC,
the period of the Mahabharata War.
It may be noted that though the Mahabharata war is believed to
be a fictional/literary depiction of the Rig Vedic Battle of Ten Kings,
but the dates of the two need not be same. Its also possible that an
older Battle of Ten Kings was recreated with characters inspired by
later Kings.
1300 - 1100 BC
The Pandavas consolidated their rule after the victory in the
Mahabharata war and their dynasty, same as the Kuru dynasty,
would have ruled between 1300 and 1100 BC. The Kuru King
Parikshita is mentioned in the Atharva Veda, dated sometime around
1100 BC. Much later, the Kings of Taxila Ambhi and Porus, who
fought against Alexander in 4th century BC were also referred to as
the descendants of the Pandava dynasty. The present day people with
last name Puri are believed to be descendants of the Purus.
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7
AMALGAMATION WITH NATIVE PEOPLE
A very interesting thing about North India is that almost all the
languages and dialects here are derived from Sanskrit or Persian,
both of which are Indo-Iranian (IIr) languages. Apart from the few
pockets of tribal areas, where Austro Asiatic Munda languages are
spoken, IIr languages are spoken almost everywhere from
Afghanistan to Assam. This means that the IIr languages took over
almost all the native languages, of which Munda and Burushaski
may be the only two known to us. Dravidian languages were never
native to northern India. So we discount those as being taken over
by Indo-Iranian languages.
Let's see some of the other cases of language takeover in
historical times.
The most recent scenario of immigrating foreigner elites
imposing their language on the subdued natives is the arrival of the
Europeans in the American continents. The mainly English people
subjugated the Native Americans in what later became USA. Traces
of the ancient native languages in USA are now limited only to names
of places and rivers like Mississippi and Missouri. English is the
dominant language in USA now but the American Indians still speak
their native language. Even centuries of subjugation and elite
dominance couldn't impose English and Christianity on them. The
Bolivian and the Peruvian Indians may be Spanish speaking
Christians now, but a large part of them still speak the native
Queucha as well. Many native customs and tenets of the Inca religion
still survive, often in a Christian garb.
After the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 AD the elite
dominance of the Norman French people influenced heavily and
nearly replaced the Anglo Saxon, Welsh and other native languages
of England. But in the end nothing happened. Apart from a few family
names there are only very few remnants of that conquest and
centuries of elite domination by the Normans.
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The Russian language was enforced on the erstwhile Soviet

Republics of Central Asia Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan etc.
Now that the USSR has disintegrated the fate of Russian in all these
countries is questionable. The Turkish language didn't survive in the
Ottoman Empire in Balkans. Even the bloody Arab dominance on the
Parsis, which led to the coining of the term persecution, couldn't
replace the Persian with Arabic. Even centuries of elite dominance by
the elite English people in India couldn't replace any of the regional
languages.
So it's quite obvious that an elite dominance, very rarely results
in a complete language takeover, something which happened in India
with the advent of the Indo-Aryans people. It's logical to believe that
such a feat was not achieved by elite dominance of the Aryans. It was
possible perhaps through amalgamation with the native people. More
than everything, the Aryans showed better ways of lives to the native
people. They brought considerable change in their standard of living.
They made them prosperous.
The following passage from The Ekkos Clan refers to elite
dominance and language takeover.
Ive been thinking about this since evening, she said. Today I
saw you with Baron and his folks for the first time. You did
mention that you were enjoying all the extra attention and the
feeling of being their boss, though youve never consciously
wanted to be the boss or act as if you were superior to them. But
somehow I felt your attitude towards them was what I would call
elitist, uppish. Its not quite the same as the elite dominance
which the Aryans have often been accused of, but still
She paused, not to check my reaction but to take a breath.
Unlike the elite dominance in Latin America, where the few
European colonialists imposed their language and religion on the
natives, the Aryans, even fewer in number, didnt impose
Sanskrit on India. They became the rulers not by force. The
natives, far greater in number, must have, en masse, adopted
their language and culture and accepted them as their rulers or
bosses spontaneously; otherwise such a near-complete language
takeover wouldnt have been possible in the subcontinent. But
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the Aryans too had an elitist attitude towards the indigenous

Indian population.
What do you mean by this? I was irritated, but she didnt
seem to notice.
While purporting, on the surface, to see Baron and his
people as different and good, she continued in her characteristic
academic style, the way you deal with them actually
perpetuates prejudice. They seem to be acceptable to you only
because they learn to be more like you, speaking Bengali and
cooking Bengali food. They seem to exist just to make you feel
that youre adventurous, fearless and open minded, but in the
process an age-old prejudice is revealed, that they are inferior.
Perhaps you wouldnt have been so close to them had they been
rich Americans
I see the same situation throughout Aryan history. The
Aryans do make the natives a part of their society, but the same
prejudice, that the natives are inferior, does spill out in their
actions, in their hymns
In the Rig Veda there are enough instances where native
Kings are promoted in status only when they adopt the Aryan
way of life and worship the Aryan gods like Indra and Agni
Indus Valley didn't know the use of plough. They had a primitive way
of cultivation, using the fertile silt left by the periodic flooding of the
rivers. Artificial dams and barrages were used to flood the river. This
very flooding, which was so essential for farming, might have been
one of the causes for the decline of their civilization. Lack of better
agriculture in Indus Valley is a striking difference from contemporary
Mesopotamia and Sumer. Indus Valley had no canals as in
Mesopotamia. This resulted in much less surplus in grains and might
have been the reason for the lack of internal competition and also
external attack. This might have been the reason too for minimal
change over 1500 years. The Aryans might have destroyed the dams
and brought greater areas under cultivation. RV mentions Indra
destroying Vritra, which means restrainer, obstacle, and may refer to
the barrage that obstructed the water. Indra is said to have
removed rodhas, obstacles, which in the context of Indus Valley
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might be the dams and embankments. The Aryans broke barriers

between primitive and conservative tribes which had managed to
preserve their archaic religion and tools for long. They introduced
better production techniques. Several groups of people separated for
ages were brought together. Various skills, which were local secret,
became public, thus stimulating more trade and prosperity.
A similar thing would have happened in BMAC around 1900 BC
when there was a sudden surge of wealth with the arrival of the IndoAryans from the northern Arkaim and Sintashta Cultures.
The Aryans never displaced anyone or enslaved entire lots of
natives. The Aryans brought in new techniques and knowledge and
provided the much needed guidance that led to their prosperity by
better harnessing the natural resources, producing more and
enhancing trade and commerce. This made the Aryans very much
acceptable to the natives as their elites.
In most cultures the natives were always enslaved by the
intruders. But in case of the Aryans there are multiple instances
where the natives were promoted to the ranks of elites. In fact the
addition of shudra as the fourth class was to accommodate the
natives. It may be still argued that the natives were put in the lowest
stratum of the society. But still that's much better than treating them
as slaves.
Coming back to the topic of language takeover, it's important to
understand that such a thing was possible not through force. Rather
it was done through amalgamation and cooperation. It's a very rare
instance in the history of mankind that a few elites make such a great
positive impact on the lives of the natives that they eventually adopt
not only the language but also the culture and religion of the former.
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8
RIVER THE STREAM OF LIFE
DOUBLE MEANINGS IN THE RIG VEDA
Aurobindo Ghose has provided a very interesting interpretation to the

various aspects of the Rig Veda. His interpretations seem very
logical.
A cursory glance at the Rig Veda may lead to the apparent belief
that the hymns are desperate pleadings of a bunch of helpless people
seeking divine intervention in almost everything. The invokers of the
hymns seem to be lazy guys who want to win every battle with the
help of the Gods. It also appears that the people of the Rig Veda have
nothing else to do than to fight among themselves and also with the
natives, who in most cases are demoted to the ranks of demons.
But a close look into the hymns reveal something more
profound whichs hidden under the garb of simplistic physical,
natural or historical things like fights, rivers, days and nights,
mountains, clouds, floods, cows and, not to forget, horses and
chariots. Going by Aurobindo's interpretation, each of these physical
and natural things very logically point to deeper meanings which very
consistently flow all along the Rig Veda. If we go by the literal
meaning of all the words, then this continuity of thoughts is broken
at various places. In other words RV is full of double meanings. The
simplistic meanings are meant for the normal people and the
profound meanings for the learned.
The River, interpreted as the inspiration of life, is one of the various
such instances of double meanings in RV.
In this context it's interesting to trace the etymologies of some
words used in different forms at various places. All these words may
appear to have different meanings in different contexts if we go by
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their literal sense. But they all convey the same meanings if
we consider their original roots.
In the early days of human civilization whenever man wished to
have words for abstract things, like strength, power etc., his readiest
method was to apply simplistic ideas of physical actions. Many words
for strength across all languages had originally this idea of a force or
injury because that was what it meant to the early humans to secure
their existence and prove their strength and superiority in this world.
The same is true for the Indo-European languages.
Let's consider the related Skt. roots damsh, dams, daksh. The
various words which evolved from these roots have quite diverse
meanings.
1. daksha, from the root daksh, means dexterous, intelligent,
strong etc. in Skt., akin to Latin dexter, Greek doxa and
PIE deks, all meaning strong.
2. damsa and dasra, from the root dams, mean wonderful
deeds in Skt., coming from the PIE dans meaning to teach.
3. dasha, from the same root dams and damsh, means state or
condition of life in Skt., akin to Latin decet, Greek decto, all
coming from the PIE dek meaning respect, gain.
Another meaning of daksh is to hurt and that of dams and
damsh is to bite, akin to Greek dakno and PIE denke.
Similarly the root kri in Skt. means to do, but also means to
hurt. The Skt. kratu means resolution, power and is akin to Greek
kratos meaning strong. It comes from the PIE kert from which also
come the Skt. kartati and Greek korno, meaning to cut.
So it can be seen that the original and nascent word for cutting,
biting, hurting etc. evolves gradually to mean strength, power,
resolution, respect etc. It also means to teach or to direct
(PIE dans and Skt. dish). Here the simple physical meaning of the
words gradually gets profound philosophical meanings. That's
exactly what we see in RV too profound philosophical
interpretations behind simple physical and historical events. It's
possible that the original physical meanings of the words were still
not forgotten during the Rig Vedic age and the composers of RV used
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the same technique of double meaning to present deeper thoughts

under the garb of simplicity.
Now let's see some of the common double meanings in RV.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Yajna, the sacrificial ritual of RV, is work and the person

who does the work is actually the soul or the personality of
the person. The Gods are the personifications of the
elements or traits of the personality or the various strengths
in the personality.
Agni symbolizes the divine will, the force or the fire in
humanity which initiates any action. Hence Agni is invoked
at the beginning of any yajna. A life without a will or desire
to achieve something is like death. Even an animal has to
have the will to survive and only then can it search for food
without this fire of will within, it perishes. This will drives
us throughout our lives in all our actions. So Agni is that
element or strength of our personality which comes into
play the moment we're born.
Ashvins are the twin divine powers whose special function
is to direct the life energy in the sense of action and
enjoyment. They represent the prana or the life energy
which moves and acts and desires and enjoys. The life is
full of violent actions breaking each obstacle that comes
in our way, moving continuously towards our destination
and enjoying the every single moment. Through our
actions we learn many things and become matured, aware,
thoughtful and conscious. The Ashvin twins are akin to the
twins Castor and Polydeuces (Pollux) of the of Graeco-Latin
mythology. Like the twin stars Castor and Pollux that
protect the sailors in their voyages, save them in storm and
ship wrecks, the Ashvins are the powers that carry the
Rishis of RV, as in a ship, to the other shore beyond the
thoughts, to the state of infinite consciousness.
Indra is the illuminated mentality or the mind power and
his horses are the energies of that mentality. He comes
impelled by thought and driven by the illumined thinker
within dhiyeshita viprajuta. He comes with the speed and
force of the illumined mind power. Indra is that element of
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5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
our personality which comes into play in the third stage of

our life, after Agni's will and Ashvini's actions. The
experiences of all the actions in our lives arouse the
consciousness, the intellect.
Mitra-Varuna represents the Truth Power, the power of
discernment and greater consciousness, the power of the
perfected, enriched and purified intellect or thoughts.
Mitra-Varuna is that element of our personality which
comes into play at quite an advanced stage of life when
we're close to infinite consciousness and infinite bliss.
Surya represents the illumination of ritam, the truth, rising
upon the mind. Dawn represents the dawning of
illumination in human mind.
Soma represents the intoxication of Ananda, the divine
delight. Ghritam, the purified butter, is the intellect or
thought that is offered in the yajna. The fruits of the
offerings are the cow, go, which is light or knowledge or
consciousness in the form of knowledge. It's akin to the
Homeric kine of Helios (Sun). Horse is the energy, force or
the consciousness in the form of force. Go and ashva, the
cow and the horse, represent two companion ideas of Light
and Energy, consciousness and force.
Saraswati represents the divine inspiration. Association of
river with inspiration is seen in Greek mythology too. River
Hippocrene, the fountain of Horse, sprang when the divine
horse Pegasus smote the rock with his hoof. The waters of
inspiration gushed out. Pegasus, akin to Skt. pajas, means
strength and also brightness. Here force is associated with
inspiration. The rock is the symbol of formal existence of
physical nature. From this gushes out the waters of
inspiration which elevates the physical existence to infinite
existence, raises the level of consciousness in man.
The rivers are the streams of truth and bliss, rtasya dhara,
concealed by Vritra and freed by Indra. The seven streams
or the seven rivers, Sapta Sindhu, lead to the truth. They
are themselves the source of the truth. They flow into the
unobstructed and shore less Vast Ocean. The seven rivers
are the seven states of consciousness. Kindled by fire, Agni,
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the divine will or the cosmic will, they flow towards the Vast
Ocean the same way a mortal human moves towards
infinite consciousness.
10. There may be a connection between the Greek Bellerophon,
the slayer of Bellerus, and Indra referred to as Valahan, the
slayer of Vala, the enemy who captivates the cows (light,
rays) in caves. Indra smites the dragon Ahi and releases the
water from the mountain. Gods or the elements of
personalities bring light, increases truth, vastness, infinite
bliss and gives a feeling of freedom from all bondage, all
limitations. On the contrary the demons are powers of
division and limitations, coverers, tearers, confiners etc.
River the Stream of Life is a very important aspect of Kubhas story.
Whenever theres a serious crisis and life seems to come to a
standstill Kubha always gives the example of the unbeatable river
that stops at nothing and keeps flowing to its destintion all its life,
with all its life.
In the high altitudes of the Snow Mountain a powerful Indar,
with his thunderbolts and fire, breaks into pieces the glaciers that
crawl like Ahi, a big dragon. He melts the ice, releasing from
captivity the swollen waters. Full of life the liberated waters flow
like streams of milk. The river thus formed rushes and gushes
through the slits and splits of mountains like freed cattle running
towards their mother, sometimes breaking big stones, sometimes
plunging from great heights and sometimes meandering violently
through deep ravines. With all her force she surpasses all
obstacles and flows down towards the plains. She is always
directed by the stars in the sky, specially the twin stars named
Jam and Jami. By the time she reaches the plains she has
acquired enough water and silt form the hills. She no longer
rushes and gushes but flows magnificently and thoughtfully
fertilizing the lands with her silt and feeding the people with her
sweet waters. More she flows, bigger and wider she becomes
and finally she merges happily with the vast ocean of limitless
waters.
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The river is an allegory for life. Kubhas story uses this river
perhaps in the same way as its used in the Rig Veda too.The Indar
mentioned in the story is no doubt the Indra of RV. The Jam-Jami
stars are the Gemini twins of Greek mythology, the Yama and Yami
of the Hindus. Indras breaking into pieces the glacier and releasing
the river is like Pegasus smiting the rock with his hoof and releasing
the river Hippocrene. Its like Agni igniting the fire of will at the
beginning of a life. The violent movements of the river through the
mountains represent the actions of prana that finally lead to
consciousness, the strength of mind. Like a faltering child, who
becomes conscious after each fall and eventually grows into a
matured man, the cascading small rivulet finally grows into a wide
and calm river.The infinite vastness of the ocean, into which the river
flows at the end, represents the infinite consciousness, the eternal
bliss, the eternal truth, rita.
Following are the hymns where the concept of Agni, Ashvin, Indra
and Mitra-Varuna are introduced in the first book of RV.
Agni
agnir hot kavikratu satya citraravastama |

devo devebhir gamat || 1.1.5
May Agni, the Priest with a seer's will towards action
(kavi kratu), truthful, most rich in varied inspiration
(chitra shravastama),
The God, come hither with the Gods.
The main aspect of Agni is kavi kratu, the seers will, the
resolution towards action, and chitra shravastama, most rich in
varied inspiration. The word shravas generally means fame, glory.
But it comes from the root shru, meaning to hear. In RV drishti and
shruti, vision and hearing, are used in the sense of revelation and
inspiration. The Vedas are called shruti, the knowledge that's heard,
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and the knowledge that's meant to inspire us throughout our lives.

In that sense shravas should mean inspiration. Also resolution and
inspiration make a perfect combination. To achieve anything we need
to have a will and also an inspiration. Agni stands for both.
Ashvin
avin yajvarrio dravatp ubhas pat |

purubhuj canasyatam || 1.3.1
YE Avins, swift footed (dravatp), much enjoying
(purubhuj), Lord of bliss (ubhas pat),
Take delight (chanasyata) in the energies of the sacrifice
(yajvarr ia).
avin purudasas nar avray dhiy |
dhiy vanata gira || 1.3.2
Ye Avins, rich in wondrous deeds (purudasas), ye
heroes with powerful thoughts (avray dhiy),
Accept our songs (gira) with mighty thought (dhia).
dasr yuvkava sut nsaty vktabarhia |
yta rudravartan || 1.3.3
Lord of the voyage, Nsatyas, and wonder-worker,
Dasra, yours are these libations with clipt grass
(vktabarhia)
Come ye with the fierce speed on the path (rudravartan).
Ashvin signifies the power of action and the power of movement
which drive our prana, life energy, in all our deeds, karma. Nasatya,
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coming from the the Skt. root nas and the PIE nek, means to reach.
It's very aptly the name of one of the Ashvinis, known as the Lord of
the voyage the voyage or journey to reach the destination of life. The
other Ashvin is named Dasra, the doer of wonderful deeds and
actions. The words dravatpani and rudravartani signify the swiftness
in the actions, the wonderful deeds, purudamsa. Throughout our
lives we've to keep on doing actions and move towards our
destination, overcoming all obstacles with all fierceness and
swiftness and Ashvin signifies all of these.
Indra
indr yhi citrabhno sut ime tvyava |

avbhistan ptsa ||
O Indra marvellously bright (citrabhna), come, these
libations long for thee,
Thus by fine fingers purified.
indr yhi dhiyeito viprajta sutvata |
upa brahmi vghata ||
Impelled by mind (dhiyeita), driven forward by the
illumined thinker (viprajta), come, Indra, to the prayers
Of the libation-pouring (vghata) priest (brahma).
Indra stands for the power of the mind and intellect. It's the
power that's impelled by thoughts and driven forward by the
illumined thinker (dhiyeita viprajta). We attain this power only
through the actions and deeds we do throughout our lives. This is
the consciousness and the intellect that we acquire through the
various experiences of our life.
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Mitra Varuna
mitra huve ptadaka varua ca ridasam |

dhiya ghtc sdhant || 1.02.07
Mitra, of purified strength and discernment (ptadaka),
I call, and foe-destroying (ridasa) Varua,
Who accomplish (sdhanta) perfecting the bright
thoughts (dhiya ghtc).
tena mitrvaruv tvdhv tasp |
kratu bhantamthe || 1.02.08
Mitra and Varua, through Law, lovers and cherishers of
Law,
Have ye obtained your might power
The main aspects of Mitra-Varuna are ptadaka and dhiya
ghtc, the power of the perfected, enriched and purified intellect or
thoughts. When the consciousness acquired through our deeds and
actions is perfected, enriched and purified, we possess the profound
knowledge, the Truth. Beyond this are infinite delight, infinite
consciousness and infinite existence, something that's referred to
variously as salvation, nirvna etc.
These interpretations of the powers of Agni, Ashvins, Indra and
Mitra-Varuna and the corresponding phases of life they come into
play form the foundation of the Vedantic (post Vedic) concepts of the
seven worlds, sapta loka, seven planes of existence and the seven
planes of consciousness. The following table correlates the Rig Vedic
concepts with those of Vedanta philosophy.
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105
9
RIG VEDIC GODS
In the previous chapter we've seen that the main Rig Vedic Gods
Agni, Ashvin, Indra, Mitra-Varuna are personifications of the
various strengths and traits of the personality of human beings. This
interpretation is more profound and more logical too than the
simplistic view that each of these Gods signifies some specific virtues.
In this section we'll see some of the hymns that talk about the
simplistic virtues normally associated with the main Gods in RV.
Varuna
Varuna is one of the oldest of the Vedic gods, and is commonly
thought to correspond to the Greek uranos, although with a more
spiritual conception. He is often regarded as the supreme deity,
styled as hating falsehood and seizing transgressors with his noose;
possessing extraordinary power and wisdom called maya; pardoning
sin, the guardian of immortality, etc. He stands for truth and law.
yac cid dhi te vio yath pra deva varua vratam |

minmasi dyavi-dyavi || 1.25.01
Whatever law of thine, O God, O Varua, as we are men,
Day after day we violate. 1.25.01
106
m no vadhya hatnave jihnasya rradha |

m hnasya manyave || 1.25.02
Give us not as a prey to death (vadhya hatnave), to be
destroyed by thee in wrath,
To thy fierce anger when displeased. 1.25.02
vi mkya te mano rathr ava na sanditam |
grbhir varua smahi || 1.25.03
To gain thy mercy (mka), Varua, with hymns we bind
(smahi) thy heart, as binds
The charioteer his tethered horse. 1.25.03
The three verses above speak of Varuna as the upholder of
law, vrata. He is also shown as someone who pardons the sins of the
human beings, vish, who violate the law day after day, dyavi dyavi.
The third verse shows the obsession of the Aryans with horses and
chariots, something that's the signature of the Indo-Europeans. It's
says that to gain Varuna's mercy, mridika, the offerer wants to
bind Varuna's mind, manas, with the hymns, gira, as the charioteer,
rathi, binds the horse, ashva.
The more profound significance of Varuna, as seen earlier, is
putadaksha and dhiyam ghritachi, the power of the perfected,
enriched and purified intellect or thoughts. He stands for the truth,
ritam. Its logical that simplistically He would possess extraordinary
wisdom and be the upholder of law and truth.
ved yo vn padam antarikea patatm |

veda nva samudriya || 1.25.07
He knows the path of birds that fly through heaven,
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He knows the ships that are thereon. 1.25.07

veda mso dhtavrato dvdaa prajvata |
ved ya upajyate || 1.25.08
True to his holy law, he knows the twelve moons with their
progeny:
He knows the moon of later birth. 1.25.08
veda vtasya vartanim uror vasya bhata |
ved ye adhysate || 1.25.09
He knows the pathway of the wind, the spreading, high,
and mighty wind:
He knows the Gods who dwell above. 1.25.09
The above three verses speak of Varuna as the God with
extraordinary knowledge and wisdom. He knows the paths, padam,
of the birds, vi, which fly through the skies, antariksha; He knows
the ships, nava, of the oceans, samudra.
The second verse is very interesting. It says that He, who is the
upholder of law, dhritavrata, knows of the twelve moons and their
progeny, prajavata; He also knows about the moon of the later birth,
upajayate.
Here the twelve moons refer to the twelve months and the
progeny the cycle of new moons. The moon of the later birth is surely
a reference to the intercalary month or the thirteenth month of a lunisolar calendar. This month is later known as the extra month or
the adhika masa.
This verse has tremendous historical significance as a proof of
the astronomical knowledge possessed by the Rig Vedic Aryans.
Conceptualizing the luni-solar calendar and synchronizing the lunar
and solar orbital movements many thousands of years back was
indeed incredible till date the Hindus follow the same luni-solar
calendar.
108
mo u varua mnmaya ghha rjan aha gamam |

m sukatra maya || 7.89.01
Let me not yet, King Varua, enter into the house of clay:
Have mercy, spare me, Mighty Lord. 7.89.01
This verse speaks about going to the house of clay, mrinmayam
griha. This surely refers to the early Rig Vedic tradition of burial after
death. In fact throughout the Aryan Trail the Indo-European people
have left behind the marks of their graves, which are their only
archaeological remnants. Cremation is a much later invention by the
Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-Europeans. The earliest traces of
cremation have been found in the Vakhsh-Biskent Culture sometime
around 1700 BC.
Agni
mainam agne vi daho mbhi oco msya tvaca cikipo m arram |

yad ta kavo jtavedo athem ena pra hiutt pitbhya || 10.16.01
Burn him not up, nor quite consume him, Agni: let not his
body or his skin be scattered.
O Jtavedas, when thou hast matured him, then send him
on his way unto the Fathers. 10.16.01
ta yad karasi jtavedo athem ena pari dattt pitbhya |
yad gacchti asuntim etm ath devn vaanr bhavti || 10.16.02
When thou hast made him ready, Jtavedas, then do thou
give him over to the Fathers.
When he reaches the world of spirits, he shall become the
Deities' subject. 10.16.02
109
srya cakur gacchatu vtam tm dy ca gaccha pthiv ca

dharma|
apo v gaccha yadi tatra te hitam oadhu prati tih arrai || 10.16.03
The Sun receives thine eye, the Wind thy spirit; go, as thy
merit is, to earth or heaven.
Go, if there be thy good, unto the waters; go, make thine
home in plants with all thy bodies. 10.16.03
The above three verses on Agni talk about cremation. This verse
is from the tenth book of the Rig Veda, one of the later books. It says,
Agni, burn (daho) him not, consume (shocho) him not, don't scatter
(chikshipa) his skin (tvacha) and body (sharira); when you cook,
mature or purify (shrita) him, send him to to his Fathers (pitri); when
he reaches the world of spirits (asuniti), he will become the subjects
(vashani), of the Gods; as per his merits (dharma) he will go to the
earth (prithivi) or to the sky (dya), to the waters and to the plants.
These verses have reflections of Krishna's words in Bhagavat
Gita composed at least a thousand years later Weapons cannot
destroy the Self, Fire cant burn it, nor can water wet it, wind can't dry
it.
The Kalash people of Hindukush seem to have similar hymns
for their goat sacrifice Angar, dont burn the shish, his head, dont
consume the baza, athi, ka, ech, agu, his arms, bones, ears, eyes and
fingers, dont scatter his skin and body, when you mature him, make
him ready, send him to his bozorg.
Indra
Indra is the Indian Jupiter Pluvius or lord of rain. He fights against
and conquers with his thunder-bolt vajra, the demons of darkness,
and is in general a symbol of generous heroism. The word Indra
is derived from root ind, PIE yend, meaning strong. It's akin to Old
Greek hadro.
Weve observed that there may be a connection between the
Greek Bellerophon, the slayer of Bellerus, and Indra, referred to as
Valahan, the slayer of Vala, the enemy who captivates the cows (light,
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rays) in caves. The physical power and strength of Indra whichs

praised throughout the RV is actually the power of the illumined
mind. Indra signifies the illuminated mentality or the mind power
and his horses are the energies of that mentality. He comes impelled
by thought and driven by the illumined thinker within dhiyeshita
viprajuta and liberates us of all our confinements and bondages.
The verses below are typical of Indra and similar things come
innumerable times throughout the Rig Veda. The episodes of Indra
killing the Vala or Vritra or Ahi are all similar in significance and all
represent the philosophy of setting everything free, breaking all
obstructions and removing all confinements.
indrasya nu vryi pra voca yni cakra prathamni vajr |

ahann ahim anu apas tatarda pra vaka abhinat parvatnm || 1.32.1
I WILL declare the manly deeds of Indra, the first that he
achieved, the Thunder-wielder.
He slew the Dragon, then disclosed the waters, and cleft
the channels of the mountain torrents. 1.32.1
ahann ahi parvate iriya tvasmai vajra svaya tataka |
vr iva dhenava syandamn aja samudramava jagmurpa || 1.32.2
He slew the Dragon lying on the mountain: his heavenly
bolt of thunder Tvaar fashioned.
Like lowing (vr) kine (dhenava) in rapid flow (syandamna)
descending the waters glided downward to the ocean.
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Aherytra kamapaya indra hdi yat te jaghnuo bhraghacchat |

nava ca yan navati ca sravant yeno na bhtoataro rajsi || 1.32.14
Whom sawest thou to avenge the Dragon, Indra, that fear
possessed thy heart when thou hadst slain him;
That, like a hawk (yena) affrighted through the regions,
thou crossedst nine-and-ninety flowing rivers (sravant)?
indro yto avasitasya rj amasya ca ghio vajrabhu |
sedu rj kayati caranmarn na nemi pari t babhva || 1.32.15
Indra is King of all that moves and moves not (avasita), of
creatures tame (ama) and horned (ghia), the Thunderwielder.
Over all living men (cara) he rules as Sovran, containing
all as spokes (ara) within the felly (nemi). 1.32.15
The last verse above is again an instance of the Indo-Aryans'
obsession with spoked wheel of a chariot. Throughout the RV there
are several references to spoked wheel, chariot and horses,
sometimes in quite intricate details. Horses are trademarks of IndoEuropean people and chariots and spoked wheel of the Aryans.
In this particular verse it's said that Indra rules over men
(referred to as cultivators, charshani) like the rim of the wheel (nemi)
containing or encompassing the spokes (ara). Interestingly the IndoAryan or Indo-Iranian settlement at Arkaim, dating few centuries
before the Rig Veda, resembles very much a wheel with spokes
encompassing a central courtyard. Connections to wheel is also
found in the Avestan list of the fifteen Aryan countries surrounding
the central Aryanem Vaejo, the Aryan expanse, the purest of the
Aryan lands, as though like a rim.
Ashvin
The Ashvins appear in the sky before the dawn in a golden carriage
drawn by horses or birds. They are the Lords of the journey the
journey of life, the journey of fierce and violent actions and wonderful
deeds we've to accomplish everyday in our lives. They represent
the prana or the life energy that moves and acts and desires and
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enjoys. Simplistically they bring enjoyment to men and women by

averting misfortune and sickness. They are considered as the
physicians of heaven.
The following verses show Ashvin as the divine physician who
helps a woman with an impotent husband (vadhrimati) by giving her
a child; gives a poet (kavi) a perfect vision (vichaksha); gives Vishpala
an artificial leg of metal (ayasijangha) when she loses her leg
(charitra) in the battle of Khela.
The first verse refers to the Dadhyach Myth (a man with a
horse's head) which has ancient Indo-European connections. In this
context, it can be recalled something which was mentioned in an
earlier chater in one of the graves in the Timber Grave Culture, the
central grave pit had remains of a man buried with at least two horse
heads and the head of a sheep.
tad v nar sanaye dasa ugram vi komi tanyatur na vim |

dadhya ha yan madhu tharvao vm avasya r pra yad m uvca ||
That mighty deed of yours, for gain, O Heroes, as thunder
heraldeth the rain, I publish,
When, by the horse's head, Atharvan's offspring Dadhyac
made known to you the Soma's sweetness. 1.116.12
ajohavn nsaty kar v mahe yman purubhuj puradhi |
ruta tac chsur iva vadhrimaty hirayahastam avinv adattam ||
In the great rite the wise dame (puradhi) called, Nsatyas,
you, Lords of many treasures (purubhuj), to assist her.
Ye heard the weakling's wife (vadhrimat), as twere an
order, and gave to her a son Hirayahasta. 1.116.13
113
sno vkasya vartikm abhke yuva nar nsatymumuktam |

uto kavi purubhuj yuva ha kpamam akuta vicake || 1.116.14
Ye from the wolf's jaws, as ye stood together, set free the
quail, O Heroes, O Nsatyas.
Ye, Lords of many treasures, gave the poet his perfect
vision as he mourned his trouble. 1.116.14
caritra hi ver ivcchedi param j khelasya paritakmyym |
sadyo jagm yas vipalyai dhane hite sartave prat adhattam ||
When in the time of night (paritakmy), in Khela's battle, a
leg (caritra) was severed like a wild bird's (ja) pinion
(para),
Straight ye gave Vipal a leg of iron (jagm yas) that she
might move what time the conflict opened. 1.116.15
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10
VALA MYTH
Throughout the Rig Veda Indra is shown as the liberator. His enemy
is anyone who is a confiner, restrainer, and coverer. Two of Indras
most popular enemies are Vala and Vritra. In Monier Williams
Sanskrit dictionary the word vala means an enclosure or cave and
vritra coverer, restrainer, an enemy, foe, hostile host.
Vala has an Avestan counterpart Vara. Vala is said to imprison
the cows in a cave in an island of the mythical Rasa River. Indra kills
Vala and liberates the cows. In the Rig Veda cow is often used as a
simplistic symbol for sun rays, light and wealth.
The entire episode of Vala imprisoning the cows and Indra
freeing them may be a poetic rendition of the Rig Vedic Aryans
fighting in the Central Asia with the Dasa people belonging to the
older lot of the Aryans. The Dasa people and the two lots of the Aryans
have been discussed in details in earlier chapters. Its possible that
the Dasa and Pani people Pipru is one of their leaders took shelter
in their fortified strongholds, tripurs, along with their wealth (cattle,
cow, go) and the Rig Vedic Aryans had to break into the tripurs and
free the cows. Here again a historical event may be hidden under
layers of double meanings and mysticism.
Vritra is the Vedic personification of an imaginary malignant
influence or demon of darkness and drought. It takes possession of
the clouds, causing them to obstruct the clearness of the sky and
keep back the waters. Indra is represented as battling with this evil
influence in the pent up clouds, poetically pictured as mountains or
castles which are shattered by his thunderbolt and made to open
their receptacles. Vritra is often identified with Ahi, the dragon. Ahi
may be the personification of a frozen glacier that confines the
waters. Indra kills Ahi, liberates the waters and allows the rivers,
ritasya dhara, the streams of truth, to flow like kines running
towards their mother.
115
One of Kubhas stories about a river is perhaps about this myth

thats repeated in the Rig Veda in various forms:
In the high altitudes of the Snow Mountains a powerful Indar,
with thunderbolts and fire, breaks into pieces the glaciers that
crawl like a big dragon named Ahi. He melts the ice, releasing
from captivity the swollen waters, full of life, that flow down like
streams of milk. The river thus formed rushes and gushes
through the slits and splits of mountains like freed cattle running
towards their mother
The following verses are some of the many ones in the Rig Veda about
the myth of Vala and Vritra.
indrasya nu vryi pra voca yni cakra prathamni vajr |

ahann ahim anu apas tatarda pra vaka abhinat parvatnm || 1.32.01
Will declare the manly deeds of Indra, the first that he
achieved, the Thunder-wielder.
He slew the Dragon Ahi, then disclosed the waters, and
cleft the channels of the mountain torrents.
ahan ahi parvate iriya tvasmai vajra svarya tataka |
vr iva dhenava syandamn aja samudram ava jagmur pa ||
He slew Ahi lying on the mountain: his heavenly bolt of
thunder Tvaar fashioned.
Like lowing kine in rapid flow descending the waters
glided downward to the ocean.
116
ahan vtra vtratara vyasam indro vajrea mahat vadhena |

skandhsva kulien vivkhi ayata upapk pthivy || 1.32.05
Indra with his own great and deadly thunder smote into
pieces Vtra, worst of Vtras (vtratara).
As trunks of trees (skandhsa), what time the axe (kulia)
hath felled them, low on the earth so lies the prostrate Ahi.
ayoddheva durmada hi juhve mahvra tuvibdha jam |
ntrd asya samti vadhn sa rujn pipia indraatru || 1.32.06
He, like a mad weak warrior, challenged Indra, the great
impetuous many-slaying Hero.
He, brooking not the clashing of the weapons, crushed
Indra's foe the shattered forts in falling.
apd ahasto aptanyad indram sya vajram adhi snau jaghna |

vo vadhri pratimna bubhan purutr vtro aayad vyasta || 1.32.07
Footless and handless still he challenged Indra, who
smote him with his bolt between the shoulders.
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Emasculate yet claiming manly vigour, thus Vtra lay with

scattered limbs dissevered.
nada na bhinnam amuy ayna mano ruh ati yanti pa |
y cid vtro mahin paryatihat tsm ahi patsuta r babhva ||
There as he lies like a bank-bursting river, the waters
taking courage, flow above him.
The Dragon lies beneath the feet of torrents which Vtra
with his greatness had encompassed.
ncvay abhavad vtraputrendro asy ava vadhar jabhra |
uttar sr adhara putra sd dnu aye sahavats na dhenu || 1.32.09
Then humbled was the strength of Vtra's mother: Indra
hath cast his deadly bolt against her.
The mother was above, the son was under and like a cow
beside her calf lay Danu.
atihantnm aniveann khn madhye nihita arram |
vtrasya niya vi caranti po drgha tama ayad indraatru || 1.32.10
Rolled in the midst of never-ceasing currents flowing
without a rest for ever onward.
The waters bear off Vtra's nameless body: the foe of Indra
sank to during darkness.
dsapatnr ahigop atihan niruddh pa paineva gva |
ap bilam apihita yad sd vtra jaghanv apa tad vavra ||
Guarded by Ahi stood the thralls of Dsas, the waters
stayed like kine held by Pani, the robber.
But he, when he had smitten Vtra, opened the cave
wherein the floods had been imprisoned.
The last verse is a very direct reference to the Dasas and the
Panis as people who confined cows and wealth, referred to as apa,
water, perhaps in the tripurs, referred to as caves, bila. The
background of this particular event the Dasas and Panis seen as
robbers of cows and wealth has been discussed earlier with
reference to the conflict between the two lots of the Aryans in BMAC
in Central Asia.
118
This is a classic example of how a historical event has been used

as a pretext, an external faade, to explain something which is much
deeper philosophical in the Rig Veda.
119
11
CREATION MYTH
ta ca satya cbhddht tapaso adhi ajyata |

tato rtri ajyata tata samudro arava || 10.190.01
FROM Fervour kindled to its height Eternal Law (ta) and
Truth (satya) were born:
Thence was the Night (rtri) produced, and thence the
billowy flood of sea arose.
samudrd aravd adhi savatsaro ajyata |
ahortri vidadhad vivasya miato va || 1.190.02
From that same billowy flood of sea the Year (savatsara)
was afterwards produced,
Ordainer of the days nights, commandover all.
srycandramasau dht yathprvam akalpayat |
diva ca pthiv ca antarikam atho sva || 1.190.03
Dhtar, the great Creator, then formed in due order Sun
and Moon.
He formed in order Heaven and Earth.e air, and light.
1.190.03
This is the creation hymn, the penultimate hymn of the Rig
Veda, mentioned earlier in a chapter about the Rig Veda. Now lets
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consider the following description of Big Bang and the creation of the
universe:
At the very beginning when the temperature was very high and
the random movement of the particles relativistic, the basic laws
of material physics were not applicable. Gradually, with cooling
and expansion, the laws of material physics started governing
the elements of universe. Some of the protons and neutrons
combined to form deuterium and helium nuclei in a process called
Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. Most of the protons remained
uncombined as Hydrogen nuclei. Further these nuclei and
electrons combined to form mostly Hydrogen atoms and fewer
Helium atoms. These atoms filled almost uniformly the universe
like a sea. Initially the hydrogen created was nonionized and
readily absorbed all light. Hence this is called the Dark Age. Over
long period of time slightly denser regions of uniformly
distributed matter in the universe started gravitationally
attracting nearby matter forming proto galaxies or molecular
clouds. Stars were formed due to gravitational instability inside
this molecular cloud, often trigerred by shock waves, massive
stellar explosions or galactic collisions which created regions of
higher densities. These regions increased in density due to the
gravitational forces between the materials within. As density
increased the gravitational enegry was converted into heat
energy and the temperature increased, thus creating a proto star.
Stars spend 90% of their lifetime fusing hydrogen to produce
helium in high temperature and high pressure reactions near the
core. As helium increases, to maintain the required rate of nuclear
fusionin its core, the temperature of the stars increases
gradually. Finally the stars collapse as they exhaust burning
hydrogen, helium, carbon and iron. For old stars a large core of
iron accumulates in the center. The heavier metals move towards
the surface and are shed eventually. These heavier metals,
which spread across the galaxy, form planets.
The above scientific description can be paraphrased a little
poetically in the following way:
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At the very beginning the fervour was kindled to its height

(temperature was extremely high) and there was lawlessness
every where (basic laws of material physics were not
applicable).
Gradually the eternal law and truth were born (with the
cooling and expansion of the universe laws of material physics
came into action).
Then, it was a very long night (Dark Age).
Eventually a billowy flood of sea (molecular cloud, proto
galaxy) was created.
First was created the sun (star) and then the moon and earth
(planets).
Does it not sound very much like the Creation Hymn?
From Fervour (tapas) kindled to its height Eternal Law (ta) and
Truth (satya) were born.
Thence was the Night (rtri) created.
And thence the billowy flood of sea arose.
Dhtar, the great Creator, then formed in due order Sun and
Moon.
He formed in order Heaven and Earth.
122
12
BATTLE OF TEN KINGS
Socio-economic conditions in India in 1300 BC
The Aryans the Indo-Aryans, the descendants of the IndoEuropean and Indo-Iranians started migrating into India since
1700 BC through the Gandhara region, the present day Swat in
Pakistan. The once prosperous Indus Valley civilization was declining
at that time. The Aryans came in some sort of conflict with the people
of Indus Valley, the Meluhans, the Proto Dravidians and the Para
Mundas, who were gradually getting scattered throughout India.
Though historical and archaeological records suggest that the
earliest Aryans settled in Punjab since 1600 BC, it's not unlikely that
the Aryans entered into India across several centuries. The Aryans
settled in the Punjab were indeed the composers of the Rig Veda
around 1500 BC, but earlier Aryans could have entered India before
that. The Aryans were nomadic and pastoral people moving and
settling in groups. Unlike the people of the Indus Valley, they didn't
know the art and science of urban dwelling. They stayed in villages
and constructed houses with woods and other easily perishable
materials. Perhaps that was the reason why there's absolutely no
archaeological evidence of the Aryans, where as the cities of the
earlier Indus Valley civilization didn't perish even after 5000 years.
The only accounts of the life and society of the early Aryans can be
constructed from their literature the Vedas, the Upanishads and
the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata.
It can be argued that literature can't be treated as historical
accounts. But it's also true that till recent past, most of the works of
literature used to be period dramas based on some historical events.
Most of Shakespeare's works are based on historical events. Same is
the case with Kalidas' works. Most early literatures across the world
in any language used to derive their content directly from interesting
123
historical events. In some cases they were also based on mythology,

but then mythologies are also some sort of literary creations. It's
always possible to segregate the historical content from the
imaginations of the writers. Each and every dialogue between
Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, as depicted by Shakespeare, may not
be accurate from historical point, but most of the characters and the
chronology of events are indeed historical. Even if some of the
characters are not historical, but the depiction of the society, the lives
of the people and the political and economic conditions of the nation
and kingdoms are very accurate in most cases. Even in the accounts
of Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle gave a very true picture of
London and England of the 19th century. So it's not unrealistic to
depend on the Rig Veda for an account of the earliest Aryans in India.
Even if we discount the authenticity of the names of the Kings and
Kingdoms still we can get a picture of the Aryan society of that period.
The Rig Veda speaks about several confederations of tribes,
many of which are referred to as non-Aryans they can be either the
native people of India like that of the Indus Valley or the earlier
Aryans. The initial few years, since the Aryans had started entering
into India around 1700 BC, were marked with several conflicts
between the different Rig Vedic tribes, and also between the Rig Vedic
and non Rig Vedic people. These conflicts are mainly for control over
more pastures. The tribes were generally led by kings chosen
democratically by the people but the kingship also became hereditary
at many places. There was no direct form of taxation for the people.
Warfares provided one of the main sources of accumulating wealth
by the kings. The plunders of the wars were shared among the people.
Apart from the accumulation of wealth there was also the urge for
consolidation.
Such warfares among the various tribes were not unique to
India. Even in Mesopotamia there were continuous warfares between
the various city states till Hammurabi consolidated most of them
under Babylonian Empire (Iraq) around 1700 BC. He drove the
Elamites (Iranians) out and created quite a big Empire. The Kassites
attacked Babylon in the 1600s during the reign of Hammurabi's son.
In the mean time the Indo-European Hittite Kingdom (Turkey) was
gaining prominence to the west of Babylon, which finally fell to the
Hittites in 1532 BC. By that time the Kassites had already gained
124
control over the northern part of Babylonia. By 1475 BC they gained

control over the southern part too. By the 1300s the various
kingdoms ruling over Middle East were Kassite (Iraq), Elam (Iran),
Assyria (Syria), Hittite (Turkey) and Mittani, the Hurrian speaking
vassal of Hittite, to the west of Assyria. It's not something exceptional
that around the same time in India too the various smaller kingdoms
or confederations of tribes were involved in constant flights with the
urge to create a consolidated empire in India. Also that was the period
when the culture and language of the Aryans were influencing most
of the native people in Northern India. Though the Aryans were a
minority compared to the native people, still, in due course most of
the earlier languages and cultures were finally absorbed into their
language and culture. It's very likely that all these amalgamations
would be associated with conflicts and confrontations between
opponent parties. Nevertheless, none of these conflicts can be termed
as Aryan invasion. These conflicts were just natural events in course
of amalgamation of different languages and cultures.
Battle of Ten Kings
The Rig Veda mentions a battle of ten Kings in the various hymns.
An interesting one is the 18thhymn in book 7 (7.18)
puro it turvao yakursd rye matsyso niit apva |

rui cakrur bhgavo druhyavaca sakh sakhyam atarad vico ||
Eager for spoil was Turvaa Purodas, fain to win
wealth, like fishes urged by hunger.
The Bhgus and the Druhyus quickly listened: friend
rescued friend mid the two distant people. 7.18.06
pakthso bhalnaso bhanantlinso viina ivsa |
yo anayat sadham ryasya gavy ttsubhyo ajagan yudh nn ||
125
Together came the Pakthas, the Bhalanas, the Alinas, the

Shivas, the Vishanins.
Yet to the Tritsus came the rya's Comrade, through love
of spoil and heroes' war, to lead them.7.18.07
This hymn (7.18) is dedicated to Lord Indra, who is mentioned
to take side with King Sudas of the Tritsu tribe. Sudas is fighting
against at least ten other tribes. Eight of the tribes opposing him, as
mentioned in the above verses, are Druhyu, Bhrigu, Turvasha,
Paktha, Bhalanas, Alina, Vishanin and Shiva. Indra is referred to
as the friend of Arya, Sadhama Aryasya.
The Bhrigu and Druhyu tribes are referred to as friends
rescuing friends (sakha sakhayam atarad) mid the two distant
people. They may be historically identified with the people of Central
Asia (the BMAC culture) more specifically Bactria, present Balkh in
Afghanistan and the Sanskrit Balhika of the epics. They are also
sometime identified with the people of the Gandhar region (present
day Kandahar). Whatever be the true historical identification of the
Druhyus, the reference to distant people may point to the fact that
they are not native people. The Bhrigus may be the people who
eventually separate from the Rig Vedic Aryans and become the
followers of Zoroaster, who himself may be one of the Bhrigus. There
are striking similarities between the language and the content of the
Rig Veda and the Avestan Gatha, the earliest books of the
Zoroastrianism (present day Parsi religion) and believed to be
composed by Zoroaster himself. Historically the Gatha is younger
than the Rig Veda and contemporary to the Atharva Veda.
Paktha may be identified with present day Pathan or Pasthun
or Pakhtun in Afghanistan. The name of Bolan Pass in Pakistan may
be related to the Bhalanas. The Alinas are sometimes identified with
the people of Nuristan in Afghanistan.
arsi cit paprathn sudsa indro gdhni akot supr |

ardhanta imyum ucathasya navya pa sindhnm akod aast ||
126
What though the floods spread widely, Indra made them

shallow and easy for Suds to traverse.
He, worthy of our praises, caused the Shimyu, foe of our
hymn, to curse the rivers fury. 7.18.05
The climax of the battle is fought on the banks of the river
Parushni, the modern Ravi in Punjab. Sudas, the leader of the
Tritsus crosses the river even though the flood is spreading wildly.
Indra is praised for making the river shallow and thus facilitating
Sudas to cross it easily. But Shimyu, the leader of the ten kings
fighting against Sudas, is swept away by the furious flood. He curses
the river's fury.
yur gvo na yavasd agop yathktam abhi mitra citsa |

pnigva pninipreitsa rui cakrur niyuto rantaya ca || 7.018.10
They went like kine (gvo) unherded (agop) from the
pasture, each clinging to a friend as chance directed.
They who drive spotted steeds (pnigva), sent down by
Pni, gave ear, the Warriors (rantaya) and the harnessed
horses (niyut).
eka ca yo viati ca ravasy vaikarayor jann rj ni asta |
dasmo na sadman ni iti barhi ra sargam akod indra em ||
The King who scattered one-and-twenty people of both
Vaikarna tribes through lust of gloryAs the skilled priest (dasma) clips (iti) grass (barhi) within
the chamber, so hath the Hero Indra, wrought their
downfall. 7.018.11
127
adha ruta kavaa vddham apsu anu druhyu ni vag vajrabhu |

vn atra sakhyya sakhya tvyanto ye amadan anu tv || 7.018.12
Thou, thunder-armed (vajrabhu), oerwhelmedst in the
waters (apsu) famed (ruta) ancient (vddha) Kavasa and
then the Druhyu.
Others here claiming friendship to their friendship, devoted
unto thee, in thee were joyful.
These three verses give a graphical description of the war. The
enemies, the warriors of the confederation of ten Kings, are running
like unherded cattle. This may imply that most of the leaders of the
enemies are killed and hence they are unherded, agop. Kavasha
along with the Druhyus are killed in the waters. Kavasha, referred to
as famed and ancient, ruta, vddham, may be a Druhyu King and
one of the leaders of the enemies. The reference to famed and ancient
Kavasha may hint at the reputation of the Druhyus as a powerful
and strong race of ancient times.
In the first of the three verses above, it's mentioned that the
enemies are riding spotted horses, pnigva, brought by Prishni.
Spotted horse or Appaloosa is a horse breed one of the oldest breeds
known to humanity and depicted in cave paintings in Asia and China
which originated in Central Asia. It became a subject of art around
1400 BC in Egypt and Greece. It was also very important in ancient
Persia, where it was worshiped. So from the timing of the Rig Veda
and the probable dating of the battle of Ten Kings (around 1300 BC)
it's likely that the spotted steeds or pnighva might have come
from Central Asia. Then Prishni, the person who brought these
spotted steeds, might have been a King of the Druhyu or Anu or
Bhrigu, all of whom may be identified with the people of Central Asia.
A later verse of the same hymn mentions the other two tribes in
opposition Anu and Puru. So the list of ten tribes is: Bhrigu,
Druhyu, Turvasha, Paktha, Bhalanas, Alina, Vishanin, Shiva, Anu
and Puru. All these Ten tribes are led by their respective Kings and
thus making the Ten Kings. Few other tribes, like Aja, Yakshu and
Shigru, are also mentioned as oppositions in connection to the Battle
of Ten Kings. But they may not be led by their own Kings. Not all the
Kings are named. Some of them may be Kavasha, Bheda and Prishni.
128
vi sadyo viv dhitni emindra pura sahas sapta darda |

vi navasya ttsave gaya bhgh jema pru vidathe mdhravcam ||
Indra at once with conquering might demolished all their
strong places (pura) and their seven castles.
The goods of Anu's son he gave to Trtsu. May we in
sacrifice conquer scorned (mdhravca) Puru
ni gavyavoanavo druhyavaca ai at suupu a sahasr |
airvrso adhi a duvoyu vivedindrasya vry ktni || 7.018.14
The Anus and Druhyus, seeking booty (gavya), have slept,
the sixty hundred, yea, six thousand,
And six and sixty heroes. For the pious were all these
mighty exploits done by Indra.
About Puru it's said that they speak a slang language, mridhravacham, language or vacham of the mridhra. A probable etymology
for the word mridhra or mleccha is interesting. The Babylonians
referred to the people of Indus Valley Civilization as Meluhha, which
may be the source of mleccha and mridhra, both meaning a foreigner,
barbarian, non-Aryan, man of an outcast race, any person who does
not speak Sanskrit. This makes sense only when we assume that
the Aryans immigrated from outside into India, the native place of
the people of Indus Valley. Here it may not be implied that Puru spoke
the language of Indus Valley. Probably they spoke some dialect which
was different from that of the Tritsus, the people who won the Battle
of Ten Kings. This logically leads to the idea that not all the Aryans
spoke the same language. This goes well with the observation made
earlier that the Aryans came in waves carrying with them different
but still related cognate languages.
No doubt all these tribes did exist during the time of the Rig
Veda. It may not be illogical to place all these tribes and the battle
129
around 1300 BC little later than the arrival of the Rig Vedic Aryans
in India sometime round 1500 BC. As most of the dates we mention
here are not unanimously accepted by all and theres always a lot of
questions unanswered as to what would be the most authentic date,
we can, for the sake of simplicity, stick to something which seems
plausible. And, a date of 1300 BC for the Battle of Ten Kings does
seem plausible from many aspects.
A very interesting thing in the second verse above is the use of
six thousand synonymously with sixty hundred. This means that the
Aryans used the same numeric system, the place value system with
ten as the unit, which we still use now and which was later evolved
significantly into the modern day place value system by Aryabhat in
5th century AD and which traveled to Europe via Arab much later.
The same verse mentions that in the battle of ten Kings, the
tribes Anu and Druhyu lost 6666 people. Though this figure may not
be taken very seriously, but it's indeed a rough indication of the order
of number of people belonging to any tribe in those days.
In another verse we get to know that the Tritsu wore white robes
and made hair knots, like cowry shells, on the right sides of their
heads.
dhrea cit tad veka cakra sihya cit petven jaghna |

ava sraktr veyvcad indra pryacchad viv bhojan sudse ||
Een with the weak (dhra) he wrought this matchless
exploit: een with a goat (petva) he did to death a lion
(siha).
He pared the pillar's angles (srakti) with a needle (besh).
Thus to Suds Indra gave all provisions (bhojana).
7.018.17
130
avanto hi atravo rradhu e bhedasya cicchardhato vinda randhim |

martena stuvato ya koti tigma tasmin ni jahi vajramindra ||
To thee have all thine enemies (atru) submitted: een the
fierce Bheda hast thou made thy subject (randhi).
Cast down thy sharpened (tigma) thunderbolt, O Indra, on
him who harms the men (marta) who sing thy praises.
7.018.18
vadindra yamun ttsavaca prtra bheda sarvatt muyat |
ajsaca ighravo yakavaca bali ri jabhrur avyni || 7.018.19
Yamuna and the Trtsus aided Indra. There he stripped
Bheda bare of all his treasures (sarvata).
The Ajas and the Sigrus and the Yaksus brought in to him
as tribute (bali) heads of horses (riavyni).
The above verses give some more details about how Sudas,
leading the Tritsus, inflicts a decisive defeat over his enemies. Bheda,
perhaps a King of the enemy tribes, is stripped off all his belongings
and finally killed. Three other Kings or leaders from the enemy side
Aja, Shigru and Yakshu bring the heads of all the horses killed in
the battle.
A very important thing that comes out in the first of the three
verses is that this battle is a very skewed one as if the goats (petva)
are fighting against lions (simha). This reminds of the skewed battle
that the Pandavas fight against the mighty Kauravas in
Mahabharata.
Various things discussed in this chapter appear in Kubhas
story too:
In The Battle of Ten Kings, on one side is Sudas, the powerful
King of the Bharat clan and on the other side are the ten chiefs
of Drujju, Anu, Bhrigu, Bolan, Puru / Bishoni, Alin, Pakhto, Shibo,
Turu
Sudas decides to capture all the cows from the surrounding
ten villages where fierce people like him have been living for long.
He sits on his favourite milk white horse while his enemies ride
on horses with black spots. Sudas attacks Simmu, the chief of
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the Turu people. When Simmu figures out that he alone cant fight
against the powerful Sudas, he makes a plan. He talks to the
protectors of the nine other ghottas and forges an alliance against
Sudas. Now with a much bigger army he chases Sudas and his
small army. Sudas is now like a meek goat fighting against
powerful lions. Simmu pushes Sudas to the edge of the river
Pusni. Sudas has no option but to jump into the river. His warriors
follow him. Suddenly the river becomes very shallow, allowing
Sudas to get across. He reaches the other side with his army.
When Simmu tries to follow him with his huge army the waters
of Pusni rise like the surging baan, the high tide in the Meghna.
Simmu and his forces drown in the river.
Drujju, Anu, Bhrigu, Bolan, Puru, Bishoni, Alin, Pakhto, Shibo
and Turu of Kubhas story are actually the Druhyu, Anu, Bhrigu,
Bhalanas, Puru, Vishanin, Alina, Paktha, Shiva and Turvasha people
mentioned in the Rig Veda. Simmu is Shimyu and Pusni the river
Parushni, the present day Ravi.
This Battle of ten Kings has striking similarities with the war depicted
in the Mahabharata. Both the wars are some form of civil war
involving multiple parties, with one side, the much weaker one, being
supported by some divine power. Both the wars are for consolidation
of power over North India. In the Mahabharata the weaker Pandavas
are helped by Krishna and here Indra is helping the Tritsus. Keeping
aside the divinity and other super natural elements in the
Mahabharata as poetic license, the historical elements are not very
hard to identify. Various people have given different dates for the
historical period of the Mahabharata War. The most logical period
appears to be sometime in the 14th century BC, mentioned also by
Jawaharlal Nehru in his Discovery of India. This period coincides
with the probable date of the Battle of the ten Kings.
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13
SURYAS BRIDAL
The hymn 10.85 of the Rig Veda is about the marriage of Sun (sry)
with Moon (soma). This hymn is important because it throws light on
quite a few real things about the lives and thoughts of the people who
composed the Rig Veda. The personification of Sun and Moon as the
bride and the bridegroom respectively may have more of poetic
significance, but the detailed description of the marriage ceremony
may not be a thing of imagination or poetic license. After her marriage
in her own house Surya goes to the groom's house in an elaborate
procession (vahatu). She is wearing a wonderful dress. She has put
kajal on her eyes. Accompanying her in the bridal procession is her
close friend Raibhi and the Ashvin twins from the groom's side. Still
now in India most Hindu marriages happen in the same way as
described in this hymn.
In this hymn more important is actually something else. It's the
natural phenomenon that's actually poetically depicted as Surya's
marriage. Throughout the Rig Veda, many real events and simple
natural phenomena are poetically expressed through allegories and
personifications. Often there are quite deep inner meanings and
layers of philosophical thoughts hidden behind the simplistic event.
In this case the event of Sun's going to a new house and beginning a
new life is actually the beginning of a new revolution of Sun or the
starting of a new year. The heavenly bodies are things of deep interest
to the Rig Vedic people. The stars and the constellations and the
night sky are observed with great enthusiasm and often used as
personifications in various hymns.
somendity balina somena pthiv mah |

atho nakatrm em upasthe soma hita || 10.85.02
133
By Soma are the dityas strong, by Soma mighty is the

earth.
Thus Soma in the midst of all these constellations hath his
place. 10.85.02
Soma in the above verse is surely not the Moon, who is Sun's
groom. Here Soma is something that binds the constellations,
nakatra. What else can it be other than the gravitational force that
has its place in the midst of all these constellations? What exactly
was meant by this verse by the composer is surely a matter of
contention. But gravitation seems to be a very likely candidate for the
natural phenomenon which is personified here as Soma.
raibhi sd anudey nrasi nyocan |

sryy bhadram id vso gthayaiti pariktam || 10.85.06
Raibhi was her dear bridal friend (anudey), and Narasamsi
led her home.
Lovely was Srya's robe: she came to that which Gatha
had adorned. 10.85.06
cittir upabarhaa cakur abhyajanam |
dyaur bhmi koa sd yad ayt sry patim || 10.85.07
Thought (citti) was the pillow (upabarhaa) of her couch,
sight (caku) was the unguent (abhyajana) for her eyes:
Her treasury (koa) was earth (bhmi) and heaven (dyau),
hen Srya went unto her Lord (pati). 10.85.07
134
stom san pratidhaya kurra chanda opaa |

sryy avin vargnir st purogava || 10.85.08
Hymns were the cross-bars of the pole of the carriage
(pratidhi), meter, as though the head-dress of the bride
(kurra), the canopy (opaa).
The bridesmen (var) were the Avin pair, Agni was leader
(purogava). 10.85.08
somo vadhyur abhavad avinstm ubh var |
sry yat patye asant manas savitdadt || 10.85.09
Soma was the suitor (vadhyu): the groomsmen (var) were
both Avins, when
The Sun-God Savitar bestowed his willing Srya on her
Lord. 10.85.09
Raibhi is the anudey, bride's maid, accompanying Surya in the
bridal procession to her husband's house. Surya is wonderfully
dressed in a lovely robe made by Gatha. The wonderful thoughts of a
new life are like soft pillows, upabarhaa, into which she can
immerse herself for the rest of her life and spend nights of peaceful
sleep. All the beautiful things she is seeing around herself are like
the adornment of her eyes, abhyajana, whichs making her look
more beautiful. She is so happy that she feels as if both the earth
and the heaven are her treasury. Like the cross bars of the
pole, pratidhi, which keep the wheels of her chariot fastened strongly
to the axle, the divine marriage hymns, stoma, add strength and
tranquility to her life. The ceremonial plume, kurira, she is wearing
on her head, is like a decorative canopy, opaa, of her chariot. The
Sun God Savita bestows Surya to her husband. Bestowing is an
integral part of a Hindu marriage where the eldest of the family from
the girl's side gives the bride to the groom.
The above verses are indeed very rich in poetic ornamentations.
They also throw light on how important chariot is to the Rig Vedic
people there's even a name, pratidhi, for the small piece of cross bar
that is affixed to the axle of the wheel in order to keep the wheel
steady and prevent it from sliding along the axle. As pointed out at
several instances, horses and chariots are the most significant trade
marks of the Rig Vedic Aryans.
135
The following verses describe Surya's chariot as gold hued

hirayavara, strong wheeled suvta, fast rolling sucakram,
colorful vivarpa, and decked with Kimshuka and Salmali
flowers. A later verse describes Surya's chariot as spirited
manasmaya. These verses also have an indirect reference to the
beginning of a new year at the time of Surya's marriage.
navo-navo bhavati jyamno ahn ketur uasm eti agram |

bhga devebhyo vi dadhti yan pra candrams tirate drgham ayu ||
He (the moon), born afresh, is new and new for ever,
ensign (ketu) of days (ahna); he goes before the Mornings
Coming, he orders for the Gods their portion. The Moon
prolongs the days of our existence. 10.85.19
sukiuka almali vivarpa hirayavara suvta sucakram |
roha srye amtasya loka syona patye vahatu kuva || 10.85.20
Mount this, all-shaped (vivarpa), gold-hued (hirayavara),
with strong wheels (suvta), fashioned of Kimsuka and
Salmali (sukiuka almali), light-rolling (sucakra),
Bound for the world of life immortal (amtasya loka), Srya:
make for thy lord (patye) a happy bridal journey (vahatu).
10.85.20
The Moon is referred to as born afresh and new forever, navonavo bhavati jyamno a direct reference to the fact that the moon
is born afresh every time there's a New Moon.
The Moon is also referred to as ahn ketu the ensign or the
leader of days. A leader carries the ensign or the flag and marches
ahead and all his people follow him. So an ensign of the days may
refer to first day or rather the beginning of the lunar year. In the same
verse it's mentioned that the Moon prolongs the days, which may
136
refer to the longer days of summer. So the complete verse may refer
to a beginning of year in the summer.
The verses below throw some more light on the time of the year when
Surya gets married.
ano manasmaya sryrohat prayat patim || 10.85.12

Srya, proceeding to her Lord, mounted a spirit-fashioried
car. 10.85.12
sryy vahatu prgt savit yam avsjat |
aghsu hanyante gvo arjunyo pari uhyate || 10.85.13
The bridal pomp of Srya (vahatu), which Savitar started,
moved along.
In Magha days are oxen slain, in Arjuni they wed the
bride. 10.85.13
It says that Surya is proceeding to her Lord, pati, on a spirited
chariot, manasmaya. Her bridal procession vahatu, which was
started by Savitri, is moving along with her. It's also mentioned that
before her marriage the oxen were slain on a Magha (agha) day and
finally she is married on a Phalguni (Arjuni) day. This last line is very
important for us as this has tremendous historical value.
Firstly, it speaks about a tradition that's still a part of any
Hindu marriage. Till this day most Hindu marriages are preceded by
an equally grand engagement ceremony. Slaying of oxen is indicative
of the grandeur of such an event. A thing to be noted here is that
slaying oxen, which indicates beef eating, seems to be a popular thing
during the Rig Vedic times.
Next, it's mentioned that the engagement happens on a Magha
day. It refers to a time of month when the Sun is in the Magha
asterism, nakshatra. It's also mentioned that the actual marriage
137
happens on a Phalguni day which refers to a month when Sun is in

Phalguni nakshatra.
We've seen earlier that the Surya's bridal is a euphemism for a
new year, a new beginning of a journey. In all ancient civilizations
and cultures a new year was always reckoned with one of the four
cardinal points the two equinoxes and the two solstices. Even today
many new years begin on one of these four days. The Nauroz of the
Persians falls on Spring Equinox. The new year of the Kalash people
begin on a winter solstice. Tilak and Jacobi find reasons to believe
the New Year began on a summer solstice during early Rig Vedic
period. The Frog Hymn below further corroborates a summer new
year.
devahiti jugupur dvdaasya tu naro na pra minanti ete |

savatsare prvi gaty tapt gharm anuvate visargam || 7.103.09
They keep God-appointed (devahiti) order (tu) of the twelfth
(dvdaasya), and never do the men neglect the season.
Soon as the Rain-time (prv) in the year returneth, these
who were heated kettles gain their freedom (visarga).
7.103.09
It says that the frogs preserve the sacred order, the God
appointed order of the twelfth, devahiti dvdaasya. Men never
forget this important season when the rains, prv, return after a
year and when the hot glow, tapta gharma, of the sun finds its
end, visarga. Here the word twelfth is very important. It refers to that
time of the year when rains come, when frogs croak and when the
hot summer comes to an end. This word twelfth here can be taken as
an ordinal, the twelfth month. This makes sense because it's also
mentioned that the frogs maintain the order of the twelfth, which
can't be anything other than the year, the order of the twelve months.
The cyclic order of a year can be preserved only when the origin is
identified and this twelfth month is nothing but the origin. So this
means that this hymn actually points to the twelfth month or the
beginning of a new year when the hot summer ends and the rains
138
appear. If we assume that a new year can begin either on a solstice

or an equinox then this actually points to the summer solstice.
At present (2000 AD) sun appears in Mrigashira on summer
solstice and in Uttara Bhadrapada on a spring equinox.
This corresponds to Taurus (since Dec 1989 AD) in summer

solstice and Pisces (since 67 BC) in spring equinox. If we consider
that a Phalguni day, when Surya gets married, is actually a Summer
Solstice then it points to a date that's around 3000 BC. That's due to
a phenomenon called Precession of Equinoxes, which is a very
important tool for historians to ascertain ancient dates. Precession is
a phenomenon where the earth spins like a top with its tilted axis
moving in such a way that the locus of its poles forms a circle. The
axis makes a full circle in roughly 26000 years.
Due to this phenomenon the sun moves from one nakshatra to
another on solstices and equinoxes and returns to the same
nakshatra every after 26000 years. As there are 27 nakshatras, it
139
implies that the sun stays in one nakshatra for close to 1000 years
on an equinox or solstice.
The following figure below shows the location of sun on Spring
Equinox and Summer solstice in 3000 BC.
We know that the Rig Veda was not written before 1500 BC. So
the question may arise how such an ancient date (3000 BC) is
referred to in the Rig Veda. It's possible that the Rig Vedic people
remembered a much older phenomenon from a much older period
when the Proto Indo-Iranian people, the predecessors of the Rig Vedic
Aryans, had not yet separated from the Proto Indo-Europeans 3000
BC is indeed the age of Indo-European unity. Later the Aryans did
align the reckoning of their years with respect to the current position
140
of sun. Later Vedic texts mention Kritiika as the position of sun on a

spring equinox. This corresponds, as we've seen, to a date around
2000 BC and that's very much within the time line of the Rig Veda.
For a long time Krittika was considered as the starting nakshatra as
New Year began from spring equinox when sun was in Krittika.
Some of the aspects of Suryas Bridal discussed in this chapter
appear in Kubhas story The Battle of Ten Kings:
Sudas grows up hearing heroic tales of his ancestor Bharat.
Finally comes the day of his coronation. Its the beginning of a
new year and a very auspicious day when Suri and Mastruk, the
Sun and Moon, get married every year with the first splash of
rain. The frogs mark the day by croaking and jumping merrily
into the lakes. Sudas wears a milk white robe. Like the Muzo
people he ties his long hair in a kaparda, a big knot, on the right
side of his head. The knot looks like a jhinuk, a cowrie shell. His
wife wears her kurir, the decorated bridal crown that decks her
head like the sky. She adorns herself with simmal flowers.
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14
CHARIOT, CONSTELLATIONS, POLESTAR
Chariots are the trademarks of the Aryans. So it's very logical that
everything they do would have chariots in it. The Rig Veda has several
references to chariots. Chariot and its spoked wheel appear in double
meanings to represent multiple things. In the discussions on Rig
Vedic Gods we've seen that one hymn says Indra rules over the world
like the rim, nemi, of the wheel containing the spokes, ara. Even an
intricate part of a wheel like dhura, the peg with which the axle
pole aksha is fastened to the center nabha, appears in hymns. Almost
each and every part of a spoked wheel and chariot is mentioned in
RV.
Unlike the chariots and spoked wheels, constellations are not
the trademarks of the Aryans. In fact the Babylonians were the first
in the world, at least in the recorded history, to have stared at the
night sky with bewilderment and amazement. They were surely the
earliest sky gazers, predating the Aryans by at least a thousand
years, if we consider the date of RV from 1700 BC onwards. It may
not be unnatural for any one to stare at the night sky and feel
profoundness within. The unending darkness sprinkled with an
unending number of sparkles of stars vanishing into nowhere has
always aroused lot of questions in the minds of humans. The Aryans
were not unique in this regard.
Staring at the sky for hours can very easily bring out some basic
facts:
1. The sky, in the shape of an inverted bowl, along with millions
of stars, seem to revolve around you: this is nothing but the
celestial sphere in astronomical terminology.
2. the sun, moon and the visible planets always appear in a line,
rather, an arc: this arc or line is the ecliptic; in astronomical
lingo it's the projection of the earth's orbital plane on the
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celestial sphere; simplistically it signifies the plane on which

earth orbits round the sun; it's also roughly the plane on
which all the planets orbit round the sun.
3. the ecliptic can be marked with a number of bright fixed stars
which can divide it into several compartments the sun, moon
and the planets seem to be moving from one of these
compartments to the other in a fixed cycle of time: the
Babylonians were the first to study these stars, which are
located close to the earth's orbital plane, and which later
constituted the twelve zodiac constellations; for the Rig Vedic
Aryans these stars that compartmentalize the ecliptic
constituted the twenty seven asterisms, nakshatras; the
number twenty seven comes from the twenty seven
lunar days which roughly make a lunar month dividing the
ecliptic into twenty seven compartments makes the moon
appear everyday in a new compartment, which is eventually
named lunar mansion.
4. there's only one star that doesn't seem to revolve it doesn't
move, doesn't rise, doesn't set, remains at the same place as
long as the night sky is visible: this is the Polestar, the star
that's located exactly to the north of or above the earth's
north pole; each and every other star appears to be rotating
around the Polestar.
It can be assumed that it didn't take much intelligence for the
Rig Vedic Aryans to observe these basic things about celestial sphere,
ecliptic, lunar mansions and Polestars. Incidentally almost all the
ancient civilizations made the same observations. Perhaps, what's
different in the case of the Rig Vedic Aryans is that they used these
basic astronomical observations liberally in their double meanings
and poetic creations.
Before proceeding further let's see how the night sky looked like
around 2000 BC in Arkaim the site of an early Aryan settlement,
which plays an important role in The Ekkos Clan. Astronomy too
plays an important role in The Ekkos Clan. Many things discussed in
this chapter are referred to in The Ekkos Clan in bits and pieces.
143
Following are a number of sky-maps, all with the same legend

and in the same format the red arc is the ecliptic; the constellation
boundaries are marked in green; the names of the constellations and
the bright stars visible very easily with naked eyes are marked in
yellow and red.
This sky map shows how the night sky looked like on 10th April,
2000 BC in Arkaim. It was just a day before the full moon nearest to
Vernal Equinox. Some of the lunar mansions with very bright stars
like Spica, Arcturus, Antares and Shaula are marked on the ecliptic.
In 2000 BC Thuban of the Draco constellation was very close to being
the Polestar (it was the Polestar around 2800 BC). Due to the
Precession of Equinoxes different stars, all arranged in a circle,
144
become Polestars at various points of time. Thuban (2800 BC),

Polaris (now) and Vega (12000 BC & 14000 AD) are marked in the
sky-map. On this particular day, 10th April, the moon is in the
nakshatra Anuradha.
Following are the sky-maps of 9th and 8th April, 2000 BC.
9th was a full moon coinciding with the Vernal Equinox,

something that happens once in roughly nineteen years. On 9th and
8th the moon was respectively in the adjoining nakshatras Vishakha
(full moon) and Swati. These sky maps show how the moon passes
from one nakshatra to another with each passing day.
145
146
Next, is the sky-map at the time when the sun is rising on the
Vernal Equinox on 9th Apr, 2000 BC, in Arkaim.
The sun is in Krittika and the full moon in Vishakha. Identifying

the stars during the day time is not that trivial. But it may not be
tough to interpolate the nakshatras from the knowledge of their
locations in the night. It has been observed earlier that at a place like
Arkaim, where the ecliptic comes quite close to the horizon, it's quite
trivial to observe the stars and map them to their respective
nakshatras on ground.
Next is the sky-map on 4th October, 2000 BC the full moon close to
Autumnal Equinox. It can be recalled that the location of full moon
around Autumnal Equinox is same as that of the sun on Vernal
Equinox and vice versa. The full moon at Vernal Equinox was in
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Vishakha and the sun in Krittika. Hence the full moon around
Autumnal Equinox should be in Krittika that's what is seen in the
sky-map too.
These observations, which can be noticed in the night sky without

much difficulty, had left deep impact in the minds of the people of
the Rig Veda. Very poetically they have merged their favorite chariots
with these and composed some wonderful hymns. Let's see some of
these hymns.
148
sapta yujanti ratham ekacakram eko avo vahati saptanm |

trinbhi cakram ajaram anarva yatrem viv bhuvandhi tasthu ||
Seven yoke to the one-wheeled (ekacakra) chariot (ratha); the
single Courser, bearing seven names (saptanm), draws it.
Three-naved the wheel is, sound (ajara) and undecaying
(anarva), whereon are resting all these worlds of being (viva
bhuvana). 1.164.02
ima ratham adhi ye sapta tasthu saptacakra sapta vahanti av |
sapta svasro abhi sa navante yatra gav nihit sapta nma || 1.164.03
The seven on the seven-wheeled car (saptacakra ratha) are
mounted; seven horsesdraw them onward.
Seven Sisters (saptasvasra) utter songs of praise (navante)
together, where Cows with seven names are laid (nihita).
1.162.03
The first verse talks about a single wheeled chariot, ekachakra
ratha, yoked to seven horses and driven by a single horse. In the next
line it stresses on the fact that the wheel is three naved, trinabhi,
undecaying and strong, ajaram anarvam, and on it rests the whole
world, vishva bhuvana. It's really tempting to identify the single wheel
with seven horses with the ecliptic, which is also a sort of wheel that
carries the seven horses the sun, moon and the five visible planets,
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The stress on the point
that the wheel is three naved, or with three centers, again point very
simplistically to the ecliptic. The part of ecliptic that's visible to
anyone during night does appear like an ellipse with its three foci,
an ellipse really has three centers or naves. Another interesting thing
in this verse is the term driven by a single horse. Perhaps this is
the first usage of an expression that means horse power. The
gravitational power that drives the wheel, the ecliptic, is wonderfully
and poetically referred to as the power of a single horse.
The next verse talks about the seven horses, sapta ashva,
driving a seven wheeled chariot, sapta chakra ratha, on which rests
the Seven. This seems to be a reference to the Big Dipper asterism,
the seven stars of the Ursa Major constellation representing the seven
sages, Saptarshi.
149
In another verse there's a reference to the One that's beyond the

seven sages, sapta rishi; the One that has fixed firmly, tastambha,
the six regions of the sky, rajamsi; the One on whom rests the whole
world, vishvani bhuvanani tasthu; the One that supports the skywheel, rajas, like a peg, dhura, with which the axle pole of the wheel
is affixed. The outer and simplistic identity of this One is surely the
Polestar, the One that's at the center of the celestial sphere, the entire
sky that rotates round it. Knowing that many natural things are used
as the outer layers for something more profound and philosophic, it's
very likely that the Polestar, that doesn't move, doesn't rise or set,
remains unchanged, unaltered and firm since ages, would be used in
the Rig Veda very effectively.
Indeed it's referred to in several verses as the ONE, who's
respected even by Vishwakarma, who's strong in mind, vimana
vihaya, and who's the Maker and Disposer, dhata vidhata; someone
who's sought after even by He who has made us and who knows the
whole world, bhuvanani vishva; someone who has created all things
that have existence, bhutani; someone who's older than the Gods and
the Asuras and earlier than the earth and heaven, prithivi and diva;
someone who's like the germ primeval, garbham prathamam.
The following few verses talk about this One in the typical Rig
Vedic style of double meaning.
acikitv cikitua cid atra kavn pchmi vidmane na vidvn |

vi yas tastambha a im rajsi ajasya rpe kimapi svid ekam || 1.164.06
I ask, unknowing (acikitva), those who know (cikitua), the
sages, as one all ignorant (na vidvn) for sake of knowledge
(vidmane),
What was that ONE who in the Unborn's image hath
stablished and fixed firm these worlds' six regions (a
rajsi). 1.164.06
150
indra ca y cakrathu soma tni dhur na yukt rajaso vahanti || 1.164.19

And what so ye have made, Indra and Soma, steeds bear
as twere yoked to the region's car-pole (dhura). 1.164.19
vivakarm viman d vihy dht vidht paramota sandk |

tem ini sam i madanti yatr saptan para ekam hu || 10.82.02
Mighty in mind and power (vimanvihy) is Visvakarman,
Maker (dht), Disposer (vidht), and most lofty Presence.
Their offerings (ini) joy in rich juice where they value
One (ekam), only One, beyond the Seven is. 10.82.02
yo na pit janit yo vidht dhmni veda bhuvanni viv |
yo devn nmadh eka eva ta sampranam bhuvan yanti any ||
Father who made us, he who, as Disposer, knoweth (veda)
all races (dhmni) and all things existing (bhuvanni viv),
Even he alone, the Deities' name-giver (devn nmadh),
him other beings (any bhuvan) seek for information.
10.82.03
151
ta yajanta dravia sam asm aya prve jaritro nabhn |

asrte srte rajasi niatte ye bhtni samakvan imni || 10.82.04
To him in sacrifice they offered treasures (dravia),is of
old, in numerous troops, as singers,
Who, in the distant (asrta), near (srta), and lower region
(rajas), made ready all these things that have existence
(bhtni). 10.82.04
paro div para en pthivy paro devebhir asurair yad asti
ka svid garbham prathama dadhra po yatra dev samapayanta vive
That which is earlier than this earth (pthiv) and heaven
(diva), before the Asuras and Gods had being,
What was the germ primeval (garbha prathama) which the
waters (po) received where all the Gods were seen
together? 10.82.05
tam id garbham prathama dadhra po yatra dev samagacchanta vive |
ajasya nbhv adhi ekamarpita yasmin vivni bhuvanni tasthu ||
The waters, they received that germ primeval wherein the
Gods were gathered all together.
It rested set upon the Unborn's navel (ajasya nbha), that
One wherein abide all things existing. 10.82.06
It's worth mentioning that the Seven Sages of Saptarshi, the Big
Dipper asterism, made a perfect circle around the Polestar Thuban
during the timeline of the Rig Veda (~ 1700 BC).
But now the stars of Big Dipper don't make a tight circle around
the current Polestar Polaris.
The terms like beyond the seven sages and the One that
supports the sky-wheel like a peg surely made much more sense
when the Polestar was really at the center.
The following sky-map shows how the Big Dipper stars revolved
round the Polestar Thuban forming a perfect circle in 2000 BC. The
dotted lines show the locations of the asterism at different times of
the same night.
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The following sky-map shows the locus of the Big Dipper

asterism as seen now. Had the Rig Veda been written now the
Saptarshi stars might not have been so important in this context it
no longer makes a proper circle around the current polestar Polaris.
153
Finally let's see how the ideas about these constellations impacted
the calendar system in India. It's worth mentioning that a very
precise and scientific calendar system has been in place in India
since the Rig Vedic times.
Let's recall the following diagram we've seen in the discussions
on Surya's Bridal. It depicts the scenario during 3000 BC sun is in
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Mrigashira on Vernal Equinox and Uttara Phalguni on Summer

Solstice.
From a few verses of RV it can be deduced that one of the

beginnings of year during Rig Vedic times is this Summer Solstice
when the sun is in Uttara Phalguni. On the other hand another name
of Mrigashira is Agrahayana, which means the commencement of a
year. This means that the Vernal Equinox is also a beginning of year.
In fact one or more of the four cardinal points the two equinoxes
and two solstices have been considered beginnings of year in RV.
From the circular arrangement of the nakshatras we can
identify that the nakshatra diametrically opposite to Mrigashira on
the ecliptic is Mula that's the location of sun on Autumn Equinox
and full moon close to Spring Equinox. A lunar month in India is
named after the nakshatra where the moon resides on the central full
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moon of that month. So the month of Vernal Equinox around 3000

BC is Mula because thats the position of the moon on the central full
moon in that month. The word mula in Skt. means root, or the lowest
part of anything. With respect to a year the root month is nothing
but its first month. So this again corroborates that Vernal Equinox
is also a beginning of year. In fact later Vedic texts start the list
of nakshatras with Krittika, the location of sun on a Vernal Equinox
around 2000 BC. The present enumeration of nakshatras starts with
Ashvini. The sun was in Ashvini on Vernal Equinox around 500 BC.
That's the time line of Surya Siddhanta, the astronomical treatise
based on which the present list has been derived.
Now let's see the circular arrangement of the nakshatras in another
format.
The location of each nakshatra in the ecliptic, in terms of the
longitudinal degrees it comprises, is specified starting from 0 degree
for Ashvini.
Along with the nakshatras, which divide the ecliptic equally into
twenty seven compartments or lunar mansions, is given the location
of the twelve zodiac constellations.
There's a difference between the Zodiacs (or Indian Rashis) and
the Zodiac constellations. The former divides the ecliptic into twelve
equal regions, very much like the nakshatras. But the constellations
are the actual boundaries of the groups of stars that comprise them.
While Zodiacs are all of the same length the constellations are quite
different the constellation Libra is smaller than half of Virgo.
The sky maps presented earlier show the boundaries of the
constellations the constellations roughly along the ecliptic, shown
in a read arc, are the Zodiac constellations.
156
157
158
During the time frame of Surya Siddhanta (the centuries

following 500 BC and more precisely the years around 0 AD), when
the Western and the Indian astronomies both took proper shapes,
the constellation Aries, the Indian nakshatra Ashvini, and the zodiac
(rashi) Aries (Mesha) all started at the same point the point of the
Vernal Equinox or, more correctly, the position of sun on the Vernal
Equinox at that time.
The Rashis or the Indian zodiacs are still at the same locations
as they were in the past. Due to the precession of equinoxes the
Vernal Equinox no longer aligns with the start of Aries.
But, the Western Zodiacs have drifted in such a way that the
start of Aries is still aligned with the present Vernal Equinox (2000
AD).
The Indian Zodiac is called sideral, relative to the fixed
nakshatras, whereas the Western tropical, relative to the drifting
equinoxes.
The positions of the nakshatras, the Zodiac constellations and
the Rashis are fixed. The positions of Vernal equinoxes with respect
to these fixed entities are shown in the above chart.
The Western Zodiac has an offset against the Indian Rashis. The
offset is around twenty four degrees that's the amount by which the
equinox has precessed over the past two thousand years.
Next let's see the scenario around 0 AD, the time when the Western
Zodiac and the Indian Rashi began their reckoning and were aligned
to each other.
Vernal Equinox is at the beginning of the zodiac Mesha (Aries)
and nakshatra Ashvini.
The sun enters into the zodiac Karka, Cancer, on Summer
Solstice.
Like wise the sun enters into the zodiac Makara,
Capricornus, on Winter Solstice.
159
If Spring Equinox is taken as the beginning of the year then the

year starts precisely when the sun enters into the zodiac Mesha,
Aries. Though Vernal Equinox is no longer at the beginning of Mesha,
still, even now, half of India (north, east, Tamil Nadu) celebrates new
year when sun enters into Mesha, sometime around 14th April it's
called Vaishakhi. The rest of India (Maharashtra, Gujarat, south),
celebrates new year on the new moon day just after the Vernal
Equinox, sometime in late March or early April it's called Ugadi.
Beginning of a month on a new moon day has been the tradition in
India since long. In fact that's the most logical thing to do for a lunar
or a luni-solar calendar. In a luni-solar calendar the twelve lunar
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months totaling to roughly 356 days are synced up with solar year of
roughly 365 days by adding an extra or intercalary thirteenth month
from time to time. Weve seen that the Rig Veda has reference to
intercalary month.
A lunar month generally starts and ends with a new moon. Even
the ancient Roman calendar, the predecessor of Julian and Georgian
calendars, had lunar months. An interesting trivia is that in the
ancient Roman Kingdom the first day of the month, the new moon
day, used to be announced loudly to the people. That's why in Latin
a new moon or the first day of the month was called kalendae, coming
from PIE root kale, meaning to shout, and akin to Skt. krand and
Greek kalein. No points for guessing that the word calendar comes
from the Latin kalendae.
Referring to the previous diagram, the sun entered into Makara
zodiac on a Winter Solstice around 0 AD. Passage of sun into a zodiac
is called samkranti in Sanskrit and Makara Sankranti refers to sun's
entry into Makara zodiac. Today the Winter Solstice is no longer on a
Makara Samkranti, but still this is the only Samkranti that's
celebrated in India with much veneration. A closer look will reveal
why this is such an important day. In a tropical country like India,
where winters are not at all dreadful, a winter solstice may not evoke
any special feeling. But if we consider that the Rig Vedic Aryans
actually came from, a much colder, northern Steppes we can
understand why the day, which heralds the end of winter and the
beginning of longer days, is so important to them. It's possible that
the Rig Vedic Aryans remembered their ancestors' veneration for the
winter solstice. Much later, in historical times, when astronomy,
astrology and rituals were being codified and given proper shapes in
India, this ritual of celebrating the winter solstice was retained. As it
coincided with the Makara Samkranti the latter name would have
remained. Even later, when winter solstice no longer coincided with
Makara Samkranti other significances were added and the ancient
ritual was retained for ever in India in its various later avatars.
It's worth remembering that the biggest festival of the Kalash
people of the Hindukush is Choumos, celebrated around winter
solstice.
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15
PREPARATION OF SOMA
yatra grv pthubudhna rdhvo bhavati sotave |

ulkhalasutnm aved vindra jalghula || 1.28.01
THERE where the broad-based (pthubudhna) stone (grva)
raised on high to press the juices out,
O Indra, drink with eager thirst the droppings (suta) which
the mortar (ulkhala) sheds. 1.28.01
yatra dvviva jaghandhiavay kt |
Where, like broad hips (jaghana), to hold the juice the
platters of the press (adhiavaa) are laid,
O Indra, drink with eager thirst the droppings which the
mortar sheds. 1.28.02
yatra nri apacyavam upacyava ca ikate |
There where the woman learns the pestle's constant rise
and fall (apacyavaupacyava),
O Indra, drink with eager thirst the droppings which the
mortar sheds. 1.28.03
In The Ekkos Clan a reference to the preparation of Soma plays a very
important role in deciphering the mystery behind Kubhas stories, as
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it triggers in Afsars mind a curiosity which finally leads to the

unravelling of the mystery. The following passage from the novel talks
about the preparation of Soma:
Theres a very detailed description of how Bobhru crushed
the stuff to get the juice out of it. I remember it well because of
something interesting.
Whats that?
First you are supposed to crush the stuff with a broad stone
which is called gabo. Then you join the base of your palms in the
same way as the hips appear to be joined, like this. I joined my
palms making a V shape, joining the two mounds of Venus to
appear like hips. And then you press the crushed stuff between
the palms. As kids we would love the comparison of palms with
hips. Interestingly, thats a very good way to press anything
really hard. The stuff weve got [] is dried and hence theres no
question of pressing the juice out of it, but this is a good way to
make the stuff finer so it can be easily put inside cigarettes.
Afsar tried to join her palms like me. I helped her. Staring at
the joined palms she suddenly seemed to be thinking about
something. What are you thinking? I asked.
That hip stuff you just mentioned, somehow it sounds
familiar to me even though the comparison is really weird. Im
trying to figure out where I might have heard it. I too remember
the stuff because of the weird comparison.
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16
HORSES
Horses and chariots were the trademark of the Indo-European
people. Most ancient civilizations had totems and the horse seems to
be the most prominent totem of the Indo-Europeans. In The Ekkos
Clan, the Aryan race is implicitly referred to as the Horse Clan, the
Ekkos Clan, the Ashwa Gotra, the lineage of the family of the Horse.
Horse appears in the Rig Veda in various ways. Following are few
verses which talk about horses.
yamena datta trita enam yunag indra ea prathamo adhyatihat |

gandharvo asya raanm agbht srd ava vasavo nir ataa ||
This Steed which Yama gave hath Trita harnessed, and
him, the first of all, hath Indra mounted.
His bridle (raan) the Gandharva grasped. O Vasus, from
out the Sun ye fashioned forth the Courser. 1.163.02
tmna te manasrd ajnm avo div patayanta patagam |

iro apaya pathibhi sugebhir areubhir jehamna patatri || 1.163.06
Thyself from far I recognized in spirit,a Bird (pataga)
that from below flew through the heaven.
I saw thy head (ira) still soaring, striving upward by paths
(pathin) unsoiled by dust (areu), pleasant to travel (suga).
1.163.06
164
hirayago ayo asya pd manojav avara indra st |

dev id asya haviradyam yan yo arvanta prathamo adhyatihat ||
Horns made of gold (hirayaga) hath he: his feet (pda)
are iron/metal (ayas): less fleet than he, though swift as
thought, is Indra.
The Gods have come that they may taste the oblation
(havir) of him who mounted, first of all (prathama), the
Courser (arvan). 1.163.09
rmntsa silikamadhyamsa sa raso divyso aty |
has iva reio yatante yad kiur divyam ajmam av || 1.163.10
Symmetrical in flank (silikamadhyama), with rounded
haunches (rmnta), mettled like heroes (raa), the
Celestial Coursers
Put forth their strength, like swans (hasa) in lengthened
order, when they, the Steeds, have reached the heavenly
causeway. 1.163.10
tava arra patayiu arvan tava citta vta iva dhrajmn |
tava ghi vihit purutrrayeu jarbhur caranti || 1.163.11
A body (arraa) formed for flight (patayiu) hast thou, O
Charger; swift (dhrajmn) as the wind (vta) in motion is thy
spirit (cittaa).
Thy horns (ghi) are spread abroad in all directions
(purutr): they move with restless beat in wildernesses.
1.163.11
These verses describe horses in different ways, some very
poetic, some purely physical. Its said that the Vasus have created
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(tashta) the horse from the Sun, the Gandharvas hold tight (gribh, akin
to English grip) its bridle (rashana) and Indra is the first one to mount
on it. The horse is compared to a bird (patanga) with its head soaring
high, flying through the heaven. Its extolled for its aerodynamic
(patayishnu) body with golden horns (hiranyashringa), metallic feet
(ayaspada), rounded hips (irmanta) and symmetrical flank (silikamadhyama or shirsha-madhyama).
The following verses talk about the horse-sacrifice (ashva-medha)
ritual.
yad dhaviya tuo devayna trir mnu pari ava nayanti |

atr pa prathamo bhgha eti yaja devebhya prativedayan aja ||
When thrice the men lead round the Steed, in order, who
goeth to the Gods [as oblation, sacrifice],
The goat (aja) precedeth him, the share of Pan, and to the
Gods the sacrifice (yaja) announceth. 1.162.04
hotdhvaryur vay agnimindho grvagrbha uta ast suvipra |
tena yajena svaraktena svaiena vaka padhvam || 1.162.05
Invoker (hot), ministering priest (adhvaryu), atoner, firekindler (agnim-indha) Soma-presser (grva-grbha), sage
(suvipra), reciter (ast),
With this well ordered (svarakta) sacrifice (yaja), well
finished (svia), do ye fill full the channels of the rivers
(vaka). 1.162.05
ypavrask uta ye ypavh cala ye avaypya takati |
ye crvate pacana sambharanti uto tem abhigrtir na invatu || 1.162.06
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The hewers of the post (ypa-vraska) and those who carry it

(ypa-vha), and those who carve the knob (cala) to deck
the Horse's stake/post (ava-ypa);
Those who prepare the cooking-vessels (crvate pacana) [for
the Steed],may the approving help /song of praise
(abhigrti) of these promote our work. 1.162.06
ye crvato msabhikm upsata uto tem abhigrtir na invatu ||

And, craving meat (msa-bhik), await the distribution,
may their approving help promote labour. 1.162.12
yan nkaa mspacany ukhy y ptri ya secanni |
maypidhn carm ak sn pari bhanti avam || 1.162.13
The trial-fork (nkaa) of the flesh-cooking (ms-pacana)
cauldron (ukha), the vessels (ptri) out of which the
broth/juice (ya) is sprinkled,
The warming-pots (maya caru), the covers (pidhna) of the
dishes, hooks (aka), carving-boards (sn),all these
attend/decorate the Charger (ava). 1.162.13
Its said that the horse is the oblation (havishya), leading to the
God (devayana). As a part of the horse sacrifice ritual, the goat goes
first and the people go round the horse. The invoker (hotri), the
ministering priest (adhvaryu), the fire-kindler (agnimindha), the Somapresser (grava-grabha), the sage (suvipra), the reciter (samstri) everyone
does his part of the job and makes the sacrifice well ordered
(svaramkrita) and well finished (svishta). The cutters of the sacrificial
post (yupa-braska), those who carry it (yupa-vaha), those who carve the
knob (chashala) to deck the post (ashva-yupa), those who prepare the
cooking-vessels (charvatepachana) everyones contribution is
important. The laddles (nikshana) of the flesh-cooking vessels (ukha),
167
the lids (pidhana), the hooks (anka) everything, its said, embellishes
and adorns the horse. The dress, the upper and the lower garments
(vasa and the adhivasa), with which the horse is covered, and its golden
ornaments everything is said to be gifted to the God. The horse, its
said, is well roasted so that nothing is raw the fire doesnt kill the
horse, but it purifies and leads it faster to the God.
Following is a portion from The Ekkos Clan:
Thats Indrunkot, said ghomitta, the place under the Tok tree
where we will offer a goats heart into angar. Well sing: Angar,
dont burn the shish, his head; dont consume the baza, athi, ka,
ech, agu, his arms, bones, ears, eyes and fingers; dont scatter
his skin and body; when you mature him, make him ready, send
him to his bozorg. Then well cook the meat properly. The cooking
vessels, the ladles, the pots and the dishes, everything will be
onjeshta, pure
I noticed Afsars eyes flashing motley expressions, a
supersaturated mixture of suspicion, amazement and excitement.
What? I asked her.
He is quoting almost verbatim from the Rig Veda, she
whispered
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17
ORIGIN OF INDIAN MUSIC
Oldest Legacy of Music

Indian movies are often considered silly and unrealistic in the west
because of the excessive song and dance sequences. Even now the
most serious movies in India can't be thought without any song.
Music and songs are so much part of our culture and civilization that,
irrespecttive of what others perceive of us, we can't do away with it.
Everything from marriages and worships to mourning or victory
ceremonies is incomplete without music, especially songs. For
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thousands of years music has been so much a part of everything that

it's really impossible to take it out of us. In fact we, as a civilization,
have the oldest tradition of music in the world. No other civilization
or culture has an uninterrupted legacy of music for close to 4000
years. Perhaps that's one of the reasons why music is so deeply
rooted into us.
Music has been always an integral part of spirituality, religion,
art and entertainment in any civilization and culture. But the
position, influence and stature of music in Indian civilization is,
perhaps, much more crucial than anywhere else. Apart from the
antiquity, the varied hues and colors that poured into India's palette
for the past 4000 years gave rise to a dazzling and gorgeous plethora
of a stunning and matured music.
This long tradition of Indian music can be traced back to the
early Vedic Age, since the time of the Rig Veda.
Like the light and air, music has existed ever since the world
was created. It might be preposterous to claim that before the Vedic
Age there was no music in India. Music is as old as life and it existed
in all civilizations in all ages in some form or other. Any natural
sound is melody to ears. The chirping of the birds, the flowing of the
rivulets, the sound of the breeze, the roaring of the seas, the falling
of the rains everything is music and has always mesmerized the
living beings, both humans and animals. Humans have
always endeavored to create the same melody they have heard
around them. But archaeological evidences of all those early
endeavors of mankind are mostly lost. The Vedic music, which in
turn might have imbibed many of the legacies and practices from the
Indus Valley and other native civilizations and cultures, may be
treated as the most ancient tradition of music that didn't get lost. The
present day Indian Classical Music can trace back its origin to the
chants of the Vedas.
Rig Vedic Music
The Rig Veda, the first of the four Vedas, is thought, though
controversially, to have been composed around 1500 BC. Though
compiled or written much later, there did exist a strict way of
chanting the hymns of the Rig Veda. If we consider 1500 BC (16th
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century BC) as the rough period of the composition of the Rig Veda,
we may assume that in 15th century BC the Rig Vedic chants would
have attained a definitive shape. This tradition of chanting, like the
complete texts, has been preserved very authentically by successive
generations of Brahmins for nearly 4000 years.
The two earliest treatises on Indian Music - Natyashastra
(probably 1st century AD) and Naradiyashiksha (probably 5-6th
century AD) provide some good information about Vedic chants,
specially the Sama Gana or the Songs of Sama Veda.
Three different pitches or accents or swars udatta, anudatta
and swarita were used for chanting. Even today in Bengali, the
language that has retained the maximum words from Sanskrit
among all the descendants of Sanskrit in India, the term "udatta
kantha" means a voice which can sing freely and loudly without any
inhibition. That's exactly what it meant also in the context of
chanting the Rig Vedic hymns. Udatta was the principal accent, a
raised one. Preceded by udatta was the anudatta which literally
means that which is not udatta an accent not raised. The third
accent swarita meaning sounded was a transitional one marking
the transition from a raised to unraised accent. For many centuries,
till the Rig Veda was finally written down, the accents were
represented by signs with the fingers of the hands. This is the earliest
form of notation for music.
Much later after the advent of scripts, when the Rig Veda was
finally written down, a very simple form of written notation was used.
This is again the earliest form of written notation for music in the
world. In Rig Vedic texts udatta (U) is not marked with any notation;
anudatta (A) is marked with a horizontal line under; and swarita (S)
with a vertical line above the syllable.
Agnim e purohita yajasya deva tvjam |

hotra ratnadhtamam ||
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I Laud Agni, the chosen Priest, God, minister of

sacrifice,
The hotar, lavishest of wealth.
The three different accents indirectly correspond to three

different pitches. Various recensions use different pitches for these
accents. The staff notation of a typical Vedic chant in one of the
recensions where anudatta has the lowest pitch (B flat), udatta the
middle (C) and swarita highest (D flat) is presented below.
This particular style of using three consecutive notes

alternatively is perhaps the earliest form of Indian music, the legacy
of which can be still visible in the Dhrupad style of Hindustani
Classical Music. Though the term Dhrupad is much new compared
to the Rig Veda, nevertheless, the style remained in some form or
other in Indian music.
Following is the staff notation the Alaap or the first movement
of three Ragas sung in Dhrupad style. The Rig Vedic pattern of the
usage of three consecutive notes is quite visible in these notations.
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In the early treatises on Indian music the Rig Vedic chants were
classified as natya (drama) of pathya (recitation) type. Drama was
considered an important element of music. So the Rig Vedic chants
not only gave form to the earliest Indian music, but also to the earliest
Indian drama. Indeed the Rig Veda contains all the elements of
drama characters, events, narration, emotions, actions etc. The
pitch modulation through raised (udatta), unraised (anudatta) and
the transitional (swarita) accents originated to give expression to
dramatization of the Rig Vedic chants. The relation between drama
and music has been always very strong in India in all ages and the
Rig Veda might have created that close association for the first time.
Sama Vedic Music
The Sama Veda is believed to have been composed between 1400 BC
and 1100 BC. The Sama Vedic chants took the proper form of music
over time. To facilitate singing of the verses the three accents or
pitches or notes of the Rig Vedic chants eventually expanded to a full
fledged scale of seven-notes and twenty two intermediate tones
(shruti) of varying pitches.
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The Naradiya Shisksha is a very good treatise on Sama Vedic

music. It speaks of the origin of each of the seven notes from natural
sounds produced by animals and birds. Apart from the seven notes
of the scales there were also the five qualitative types of tonal color
(bright, extended, mournful, soft and moderate). Each of the seven
notes was assigned one of the five qualitative tonal colors and also
one of the three Rig Vedic accents. So if you needed to express
sadness in a low (unraised) voice then there was a note for you which
would match your requirement. This can be seen as the earliest
foundation of the Indian Ragas, which is a much later concept in
Indian music than 1400 BC.
In the absence of any written text of the Sama Veda in the initial
years, the seven notes were represented by seven signs with fingers
an extension to the three signs used in Rig Vedic chant.
When texts came into being, the seven signs were represented
by the seven numerals starting from one. The first note referred to
as krushta, meaning loud note was Madhyama or Ma.
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A very interesting thing about the Sama Vedic scale is that it's
a diminishing one in contrast to what we've now in all the styles of
music in the world. The scale used to start from Ma and end at Pa
instead of starting from Sa and ending at Ni. In later times the scale
was changed from Ma Ga Ri Sa Ni Dha Pa to Sa Ni Dha Pa Ma Ga
Ri with the Sa in the higher octave to allow for the usage of higher
notes for better audibility. Also at later times the scale was converted
from the diminishing to the present day ascending one.
Another interesting thing of the Sama Vedic music is the modification
and addition of syllables to the original texts, which themselves are
derived from Rig Vedic verses, to fit into singing styles. In contrast to
the rigidity maintained in the pronunciation and accents of the Rig
Vedic verses this is indeed a very remarkable change for the sake of
music. Such flexibility is perhaps the biggest asset of Indian music
till date. No other book, considered sacred in any other religion, has
been allowed to be altered so much just for the sake of music!
The original Sama Vedic texts (known as Samhita) can be
chanted in the same way as the Rig Veda with the three Rig Vedic
accents, which are represented (or notated) in Sama Veda by
numerals udatta is 1, swarita is 2 and anudatta is 3.
namaste agna ojase grinanti deva krishtayah

amairamitramardaya
O Agni, God, the people sing reverent praise to thee for
strength:
With terrors trouble thou the foe
The Sama Vedic song books had two flavors Gramageya or
songs for village singing and Aranyageya or songs for forest
singing both adapted from different portions of the Sama Veda
Samhita (texts).
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Below is the song adaptation (along with numeric notation) of

an original Sama Vedic text presented earlier. It can be noted that
the word Namaste in original text is converted to namastau in the
song adaptation. Similarly agna is converted to hognaai. Sylables
like au, ho and vaa are also added for the sake of singing.
A very simplified staff notation for the above song can be created
based on some simple principles of the Sama Vedic notation. The
salient features of this notation are as follows:
Numerals 1-7 denote the seven Sama Vedic notes in a

diminishing scale (considered here as the C major scale)
Numerals above any syllable denotes the pitch/note used for
pronouncing/singing that particular syllable
Numerals within the text denote elongation of the preceding
vowel
In general simple vowel has a single beat duration. The
compound vowel has a three beat duration by default, but two
beat if notated with an additional r along with the numeral on
top of the syllable
A ^ on top of the syllable means a three beat duration
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In contrast to this simple notation in reality the Sama Veda is

sung in a much more complicated way (with kampan or vibrato) as
depicted in the staff notation presented next.
The sequence and combination of the notes in this notation

clearly point to what later developed into Indian Ragas. Starting from
the seven notes and scales to the sequence of notes, the legacy of
Sama Vedic music is omnipresent in Indian Classical Music in
various forms.
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Though the Sama Vedic music reached a great height even at such
an early stage of Indian civilization around 1400 BC, still the concept
of taal or beat was still unknown. The duration of a single beat note
was not fixed and changed from syllable to syllable.
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19
TRIVIAS
Units of measurements
Some units used in ancient India can be traced back to the Rig
Veda. The later Sanskrit literature has many more units. It's
not possible to confirm how many of these units were in use
since the Vedic Age. Below is a list of some units widely used in
ancient times.
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Yojana, the unit of distance, is interesting. It's found in the Rig

Veda. Literally yojana means yoking or harnessing. It's possible
that the distance which could be traversed in a single
harnessing, or without unyoking, eventually came to be known
asyojana.
Krosha, another unit of distance, also has an interesting
etymology. Krosha means loud cry. It surely means the range of
the voice in calling.
The corresponding values of each of these units are not
mentioned explicitly in the Vedas. Scholars have interpolated
from various references in later literature.
Zeus or Jupiter is Vedic Dyu or sky; Daphne and Athena are

Vedic Dahana and Ahana the dawn; Uranus is Varuna;
Prometheus is Pramantha
Yava in RV probably meant wheat and barley or food grains in

general, any grain or corn yielding flour and meal. Yava or
barley corn was also used as a measure of length and weight.
As a unit of length it was 1/8th or 1/6th of a finger and as weight
it was same as 6-8 mustard seeds or 1/2 gunja.
Dhana means fried barley, one type of food. There's no mention

of rice (vrihi) in the Rig Veda. Vrihi is mentioned in the Atharva
Veda (AV) for the first time along with yava, matha andtila
Pakti means prepared cakes or any cooked food; purodasa,

mentioned in RV/AV as leavings of an offering, can be
interpreted as food, also referred to as Soma juice; apupa,
mentioned in RV, kind of fine bread, cake of flour or any meal;
karambha, mentioned in RV, groats or coarsely ground oats, a
cake of flour or meal it's likely to be a Munda word.
Plough is called sira (RV). Datra and khanitra are two tools for
agriculture mentioned in RV. Settlers (vish) were peasants
(krishti), unploughed lands were akrishivala.
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The main source of wealth is cattle, horse and mahisha, buffalo,

referred to as powerful beast. Fights were for cow/cattle (goshu),
children (tanaya) and water (apsu). Indra is referred to
as apsujit, who wins apsu.
During Yajur Vedic (post Rig Vedic) time crops were rice (vrihi),
barley (yava), beans (makushta), sesame (tila), kidney beans
(mudga), vetches, wheat (yava), lentils, millet and wild rice.
Metals in Yajur Vedic times gold, bronze, lead, tin, iron,

copper. The Rig Veda has no reference to iron.
Gold was given to priests in units of krishnalas or gunja (Abrus

Precatorius) seeds still used by Indian Goldsmiths for small
weights
During the Yajur Veda horse meat is no longer eaten. Horse

sacrifice is still very important, something that started in RV.
The Yajur Veda mentions extensive land clearing. Introduction

of iron might have enabled more efficient agriculture and land
use with better equipments. We see extensive usage of canals
and ploughs with yokes of six or eight oxen. Makara Samkranti
coincides with the 2nd sesame crop in western India example
of modified rituals suited to the crops.
Music: mute, flute, harp, and type of drums
Dress: undergarment (nivi), garment (vasa) and over garment

(adhivasa)
Ornaments: karna sobhana, earrings; kurira kind of head

ornament worn by females; khadi, kind of ring worn as an
armlet or anklet; nishka gold ornament worn on neck or
breast; mani, any ornament or amulet, globule
The Old Testament place name Goshan seems to be derived

from go, cattle. It marks the invasion of Cannan by strange
pastoral raiders of a new type, may be the Aryans, the
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descendants of the Mittani Aryans of Syria. The name

Shashank, common to Pharaos of 22nd and 23rd dynasties of
Egypt (around 1000BC) has a definite Aryan sound.
Name of Ikshaku, founder of Kosalan line of Kings, the lineage

of Lord Rama, seems to have pre Aryan trace. Dasaratha sounds
like Mittanian Tuzaratta.
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19
LATER VEDAS AND AVESTA
Later Vedas
Like the the Rig Veda, the only sources for the post Rig Vedic history
of India are the later three Vedas Yajur, Sama and Atharva Veda.
There is no concrete proof of the timelines of these three Vedas.
Commonly accepted chronology is that the Yajur Veda and Sama
Veda, composed perhaps between 1400 BC and 1100 BC, are older
than Atharva Veda which was composed perhaps between 1100 and
900 BC. The present forms of all the four Vedas didn't take place for
sure within these time frames. It had taken several more centuries
before they would have arrived to the present forms. Yajur Veda has
references to fully developed caste systems, considerable advances in
art, handicrafts, trade and occupation, which are evidently of much
later date of early first millennium.
The four Vedas Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva are the earliest
literature of the mankind. They also form the basis of the way of life
that gradually metamorphosed into a religion, commonly and also
erroneously at times, known as Hinduism. At their core the four
Vedas are just books of knowledge and enlightenment as realized by
the learned people of the time. The Rig Veda is the Knowledge of
Recited Praise, Yajur Veda the Knowledge of Sacrifice, Sama Veda the
Knowledge of Chanted Hymns and Atharva Veda the Knowledge of
Prayers, Charms and Spells. Apart from the Yajur Veda, all the other
three are composed as perfect metrical verses. Many verses of the Rig
Veda are reused in various forms in all the other three later Vedas.
Almost all the ancient civilizations were worshipers of nature
and natural forces. So it's nothing extraordinary or exceptional for
the Indians to worship fire, water, sky, wind and earth the five basic
natural forces. At the dawn of civilization, when the human race was
still under the spell of the powers and mysteries of the nature, it was
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very natural that most of her rituals would be centered on pleasing

these mysterious forces. Metaphorically each of these forces was
given a shape and form of super humans or Gods. Lot of non religious
knowledge about philosophy or environment or mathematics or
governance was packaged into the widely respected ritual manuals.
Though the Vedas are regarded as religious books, still they have
wealth of valuable information and knowledge and tremendous
literary value. No other religious book in any other religion perhaps
has such great value beyond religion and spirituality. Most of the
content in Vedas is relevant even now. That's precisely what makes
the Vedas so unique. Most importantly the history of the ancient
India is impossible to construct without the Vedas.
Yajur Veda
Two versions of the Yajur Veda Shukla (White) and Krishna (Black)
have remained till date in various recensions or shakhas or
theological schools specialized in learning various Vedic texts.
It's quite fascinating to know that some 3000 years ago Indians
were equally concerned about the harmony between man and nature.
The Yajur Veda speaks about being in accordance with the earth.
It stresses about an all expanding growth of mankind spreading with
a hundred branches in absolute harmony with the nature.
When the people were settling down at newer places across
India they were cutting down forests to setup habitats. Its perhaps
logical to think that the crisis of natural resources which we see today
couldnt have been a matter of concern some 3000 years ago, when
the population was sparse and resources plenty. Still, some where in
their mind they did have this concern about the vices of exploiting
the natural resources. It's indeed quite incredible to find that all the
thoughts we see today towards eco-friendliness, preserving forests
and natural resources and the stress on a greener way of living did
come to the minds of our ancestors. These thoughts were considered
so important that these were included in the religious manuals to be
reminded to everyone during the practice of rituals.
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Shukla Yajur Veda: 5.43

dyamma lekhirantarikshamma himsih prithivya sambhava
ayam hi tva svadhitistetijanah praninaya mahate saubhagaya
atastvandeva vanaspate shatavalsho viroha sahasravalsha vi vayam ruhema
Graze not the sky. Harm not mid-air. Be in accordance
with the earth.
For this well-sharpened axe hath led thee forth to
great felicity.
Hence, with a hundred branches, God, Lord of the
Forest, grow thou up.
May we grow spreading with a hundred branches.
The following verses from Shukla Yajur Veda mention the numbers
upto ten raised to the power of 12 in steps of powers of 10 ayuta
(10 raised to the power 4, or 10K), niyuta (100K), prayuta (1million),
arbuda (10 million), nyarbuda (100 million), samudra (1billion),
madhya (10 billion), anta (100 billion) and parardha (1trillion).
Shukla Yajur Veda: 17.2

ima me'agna'ishtaka dhenavah santveka cha dasha cha dasha cha
shatancha shatancha sahasrancha sahasrancha ayutancha ayutancha
niyutancha niyutancha prayutancha arbudancha nyarbudancha
samudrashcha madhyancha antashcha paradhashchaita me'agna'ishtaka
dhenavah santvamutramushmilloke
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O Agni, may these bricks be mine own milch kine: one,

and ten, and ten tens a hundred, and ten hundreds a
thousand, and ten thousand a myriad (ayuta), and a
hundred thousand, and a million (niyuta), and a hundred
millions (nyarbuda), and an ocean (samudra, 1 billion)
middle (madhya, 10 billion) and end (anta, 100 billion), and a
thousand billions, a trillion (parardha). May these bricks be
mine own milch-kine in yonder world and in this world.
A similar list is available in the Taittiriiya Samhita of Kriha
Yajur Veda (4.4.11 and 7.2.20), Maitryai Samhita 2.8.12,
Kathaka Samhita (17.10) etc. The Atharva Veda Samhita (6.25.1
through 6.25.3, 7.4.1) specially emphasizes the common relationship
between one and ten, three and thirty, five and fifty, nine and ninety,
clearly indicating that the people of the Vedic age had a good grasp
of the basics of decimal system for positive integers.
The number four three two (four hundred and thirty two) million
occurring frequently in Sanskrit works occurs in the Atharva Veda
(8.3.21).
Yajur Veda also has the first reference to numeric infinity
(purna or fullness) stating that if you subtract purna from purna
you're still left with purna.
It's quite a unique development in the field of science and
mathematics on the part of the Indians compared to their
contemporaries. At the same time it's quite confusing to learn that
the same people, who had such in depth knowledge about
mathematics, lacked the knowledge of technology and engineering.
The people of the Indus Valley Civilization might not have known
such level of mathematics, but they were masters in technology
of town planning, navigation, ship building and many others.
Sama Veda
The Sama Veda is the first book of songs known to mankind. It forms
the earliest foundation of Indian Classical Music. It also sets the
foremost legacy of using songs as a form of worship, which over the
ages has been proved to be the most popular form of worship in all
religions. Music and sound not only play important roles in
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spirituality, but also in our normal lives. The Sama Veda used the
sound, lyrics and music in a wonderful way to create the right aura
and ambiance for spirituality and divinity.
The texts of the songs from the Sama Veda were taken mainly
from the Rig Veda. The original Rig Vedic verses were altered to fit
into lyrical forms of the Sama Veda. Many syllables were further
modified and even added, where ever needed, to suit singing. Even a
notation was also followed, though it was textually represented much
later when the Vedic texts were first written. This was, no doubt, the
first instance of notated music in the world. The text of the Sama
Veda, without modification and additions of syllables, is known as
the Sama Veda Samhita. The song book has two variants
Gramageya, containing songs meant for singing (geya) in villages
(grama), and Aranyageya, containing songs meant for singing in the
forest (aranya).
Sama Veda (Samhita): 4.9.2.7

namah sakhibhyah purvasadbhyo namah sakannishebhyah |
yunje vacham shatapadim ||
Praise to the friends who sit in front to those seated
together, praise
I use the hundred-footed speech.
yunje vacham shatapadim gaye sahasravarttani |
gayatram traishtubham jagat ||
I use the hundred-footed speech, I sing what hath a
thousand paths,
Gayatra, Trishtup, Jagat hymn.
187
gayatram traishtubham jagadvishva rupani sambhrita |

deva okamsi chakrire ||
Gayatra, Trishtup, Jagat hymn, the forms united and
complete,
Have the Gods made familiar friends.
Atharva Veda
The Atharva Veda, the last of the four Vedas, is often criticized for
dealing with super naturals. But philosophically it's perhaps much
deeper than the other three Vedas. It, no doubt, deals with topics
more complex in nature.
It's the first Vedas that speaks about medicine and physiology.
The first book of the Atharva Veda speaks of the following:
Hymn 2: A charm against dysentery
Hymn 3: A charm against constipation and suppression of
urine
Hymn 4: To the waters, for the prosperity of cattle
Hymn 5: To the waters, for strength and power
Hymn 6: To the waters, for health and wealth
Hymn 11: A charm to be used at child-birth
Hymn 22: A charm against jaundice
Hymn 23: A charm against leprosy
Hymn 24: A charm against leprosy
Hymn 25: A prayer to fever, as a charm against his attacks
Hymn 26: A charm to obtain invisibility
The following verse speaks about the importance of Sabha and
Samiti, the two popular forms of meetings during the Vedic Age. The
main purpose of these meetings was to discuss things of relevance
openly in a common forum. The importance of such meetings is great
in the proper governance of a state. It's clear from this verse that
these meetings were taken quite seriously by the people. It's being
pointed out that everyone should be fair in their words and every man
should respect every other man in these meetings.
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Atharva Veda: 7.12.1

sabha cha ma samitishchavatam prajapaterduhitarau samvidane |
yena samgachchha upa ma sa shikshancharu vadani pitarah samgateshu ||
In concord may Prajapati's two daughters, Sabha and
Samiti, both protect me.
May every man I meet respect and aid me. Fair be my
words, O Fathers, at the meetings.
The following verse speaks about atoms as the smallest unit of any
object.
Atharva Veda: 12.1.26

shila bhumirashma pamsu sa bhumih samdhrita dhrita |
tasyai hiranyavakshase prithivya akaram namah ||
Rock earth (shila bhumi), and stone (ashma), and dust (pamsu),
this Earth is held together, firmly bound.
To this gold-breasted Prithiv mine adoration have I paid.
Here atoms (psu) are seen as forming the stone (ashma),
the stones agglutinating to form the rocks (shila) and the rocks held
together to form the Earth (bhumi).
This is quite a unique realization made by the Indians some
3000 years back much before the concepts of atoms and molecules
in modern science came into existence.
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Most importantly the Atharva Veda refers to iron as a metal for the
first time, thus heralding the start of the Iron Age and the end of
Bronze Age sometime around 1100 BC.
Atharva Veda: 11.3.5, 6, 7

ashva kana gavastandula mashakastushah ||5||
kabru phalikaranah sharo'bhram ||6||
shyamamayo'sya mamsani lohitamasya lohitam || 7||
Horses are the grains, oxen the winnowed ricegrains,
gnats the husks. (5)
Kabru is the husked grain, the rain cloud is the reed. (6)
Grey (shyama) iron (ayasa) is its flesh, copper its blood.
(7)
The above hymn is in glorification of Odana or the boiled rice, a
staple diet for most Indians even now. It glorifies Odana
metaphorically in many ways by saying that Brihaspati is its head,
Brahma the mouth, Heaven and Earth are the ears, the Sun and
Moon are the eyes, the seven Rishis are the vital airs inhaled and
exhaled, and so on.
The Atharva Veda mentions the Kuru King Parikshita. The Kuru
kingdom or the confederation of tribes would have been an important
one in northern India around 1100 BC. The first reference to Anga is
found in the Atharva Veda along with Magadha (referred to as Kikata
in the Rig Veda), Gandhara (present day Kandahar region in
Afghanistan) and Mujavat (perhaps an ancient non Aryan settlement
beyond the Himavat, the Himalayas, and the Hindukush in the Pamir
region), apparently as lands of despised people. Champa, capital of
Anga, was one of the biggest cities and ports in Ancient India with
trade links with far off places like Thailand (perhaps referred to as
the mythical Suvarnabhumi) and Vietnam. Chedi, mentioned in the
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Rig Veda, was also another important kingdom. All of these early
kingdoms later became Mahajanapadas, or Great Kingdoms, over the
next few centuries.
Avesta
Perhaps the most important thing contemporary to the Atharva Veda
is Gatha, the earliest Zoroastrian text, believed to be composed by
Prophet Zarathushtra Himself. Like the Vedas the timeline of Gatha
too is shrouded in mystery. The actual dating of Zarathushtra and
his first sermons in the form of Gatha is a matter of debate and
controversy. Here also we'll stick to one particular view point that
appears more logical than the others. We'll consider 1100 BC as the
timeline of the Atharva Veda, Zarathushtra and Gatha.
Gatha is a very important part of the Zoroastrian scripture
known as Yasna. It's a collection of highly philosophic and profound
hymns considered most sacred by the Zoroastrians. It's like the
Bhagavat Gita, which is inserted in the Mahabharata and which
forms the crux of Hindu spirituality and philosophy.
First let's take a look into the language of Gatha. The
Zoroastrian scriptures are called Avesta and the language Avestan.
The language of Gatha is an early form of Avestan. Following is a
verse from the second hymn of Gatha. It's presented in Devanagari
script, transliterated by Jatindra Mohan Chatterji.
Gatha 2, Yasna 29.2

Now let's see the Rig Vedic translation of the verse. It will show
how close the two languages Gathan Avesta (Av.) and Rig Vedic
Sanskrit (Skt.) are. Each and every word in Gatha has a very close
Rig Vedic cognate. The cognates sound so similar that entire texts in
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Gatha can be translated to Rig Vedic Sanskrit by simply

transliterating each word.
Avestan
Ad tash gush peresat ashem
Kath ti gavi ratush |
Hyat hm dt kshayat had
Vstr gaody thwaksh |
km hi usht ahurem
Y dregvdebsh ashemem vdyit ||
Rig Vedic
Ada tasa goh aprisat asham
Katha te gave ratus |
Yah him dhata kshayan sada
Vastra godhah tvakshah |
Kam asya ushatha asuram
Yah drugvadbhi ishmam vadhayayet ||
Skt. tasa, Creator related to the root tvaksh and Av.

Thwaksh meaning creation
Skt. go and gava, cow, cattle used here in the sense of
people, signifying the world.; godha is used in the sense of
sustainer (coming from Skt. root dha) of the world (go)
Av. asha, arsh, eresh, arta come from Skt. rita meaning divine
law, truth in general, righteousness; Skt.rita Av. arta
arsha asha; Like the RV rita the Avestan asha is also a
very important concept; ratu, a related word, is used in the
sense of Prophet, apostle, someone who stands for
righteousness and truth
Skt. vastra, coming from root vas meaning to remain, to live,
to shine, is used in the sense of active
Skt. kshayan, powerful, dominant comes from root kshi
Skt. asura and Av. ahura God
Skt. and Av. dru, meaning enemy drugvadbhi comes from
dru, used in the sense of wicked.
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Then the Creator of the world asked Asha, Where is thy Prophet
for the world who, capable, world-forester and vigorous, would
sustain her always? Whom do you intend as her Lord, as one
who can thwart the violence of the wicked? --Translated by
Jatindra Mohan Chatterji, 1967
Upon this the Creator of the Kine (the holy herds) asked of
Righteousness: How (was) thy guardian for the Kine (appointed)
by thee when, as having power (over all her fate), ye made her?
(In what manner did ye secure) for her, together with pasture, a
cattle-chief who was both skilled and likewise energetic? Whom
did ye select as her (life's) master who might hurl back the fury
of the wicked? -- Translated by L. H. Mills, 1898
Then the Ox-Creator asked of the Right: Hast thou a judge for
the Ox, that ye may be able to appoint him zealous tendance as
well as fodder? Whom do ye will to be his lord, who may drive
off violence together with the followers of the Lie? -- Translated
by C Bartholomae
Let's see another hymn from Gatha. This is from Yasna 28.8.
Yasna 28.8
Avestan
Rig Vedic
Vahishtem thw vahisht m

Ash vahisht hazaoshem |
Ahurem s vunush
Vahishtham tvm Vahishthah ayam

Ashay Vahishthay sujoshm |
Asuram yse vanvnah
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Nari Ferashaoshtri maiby c |

Yaibyas c t rnghanghi
Vspi av vanghush manangh ||
Nare Prishoshtrya mahyam ca |

Yemyah ca rsasi
Vishvya yavya vasoh manasah ||
Skt. Vasishtha and Av. Vahishta means most excellent, the

superlative of Skt. vasu and Av. vohu come from the Skt.
root vas, meaning to shine, to grow bright; The Persian
behest, meaning heaven and the English best come from
Av. vahishta; Vasishtha is a composer of RV and very famous
personality in Hinduism.
Skt. sujosham, Av. hazaoshem come from the Skt. root jush
and Av. zaosha, meaning to be delighted, enjoy, love, cherish
used in the sense of divine love and enjoying divine delight
- I, the best, will enjoy You, the best, with Asha, the best
Skt. vanvana, meaning loving, comes from root van, akin to
Eng. win and Lat. venus; winning by physical means of
hurting and injuring is transformed into winning by means
of love; another example of simplistic physical meanings
getting transformed into something more profound
philosophic
Skt. rarasi, meaning bestowing, comes from root ra
This one (myself), being at his best (Purity), would realize You,
the best (Deity), with Rectitude, the best (faculty). I, beloving,
would worship Ahura, for manly Frashoshtra, and for me, as well
as for those, to whom You consign Conscience, for all time. -Chatterji
The best I ask of Thee, O Best, Ahura (Lord) of one will with the
Best Asha, desiring (it) for the hero Frashaostra and for those
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(others) to whom thou wilt give (it), (the best gift) of Good Mind
through all time. -- Mills
The similarities in the languages indeed mean that the composers of
Gatha and those of the Rig Veda were very closely associated. In
the Aryan Trail we've mentioned that a group of Indo-Aryans stayed
back in Central Asia and Afghanistan while the others entered India.
For a very long time the Indo-Aryans of India and Afghanistan had a
very good relation, practiced almost the same religion and followed
the same tradition. Around the timeline of the Atharva Veda there
seems to be an intellectual conflict between two groups of Aryans that
leads to their separation. One group continues to stay in Afghanistan
and very soon comes in close contact with the Iranian people coming
from the steppes (Timber Grave Culture) and settling in various parts
of Iran. We may call this group of people proto Avestan as their
language gradually moves away from the Rig Vedic Sanskrit and
takes the shape of Avesta. Zarathushtra, one of them, eventually
founds the Zoroastrian religion. As the Avestans stay close to the
Iranians their kins, being members of the same Indo-Iranian people
their language starts picking up more Iranian components. It's not
a surprise that Avestan, despite the strong Rig Vedic connection, is
classified as an Iranian language.
The other group of Indo-Aryans, who separates from the proto
Avestan people, move towards India and stay connected to the
culture and religion of the Aryans of India.
Now if we assume that the proto Avestan people stayed in
Central Asia and Afghanistan for a long time then we should expect
the reference to places from this region in their texts. In fact they are
better than the Rig Vedic people in this respect. The first chapter of
Vendidad, a later Avestan text, is about sixteen perfect lands created
by Ahur Mazda, the Highest God of the Zoroastrians.
The Vendidad starts with:
Ahura Mazda spake unto Spitama Zarathushtra, saying:
I have made every land dear (to its people), even though it
had no charms whatever in it: had I not made every land
195
dear (to its people), even though it had no charms whatever

in it, then the whole living world would have invaded the
Airyana Vaeja.
It continues:
Asanghmca shithranmca vahishtem frthweresem azem Ahur Mazd
The best (vahishtem) lands and countries which I, Ahura
Mazda, created (frthweresem, from the Av. root thwaksh)
Then it gives the list of the sixteen best Aryan countries:
1. the Airyana Vaeja
2. the plain which the Sughdhas inhabit, gum im Sukhdhshayanem modern Sughd Province in Tajikistan and
ancient Sogdiana
3. the strong, holy Mouru, Murum srem ashavane ancient
Margiana, areas around modern day Mary/Merv in
Turkmenistan. Mouru may be a cognate of Skt. maru
meaning desert and also mountain.
4. the beautiful Bakhdhi with high-lifted banner, Bxdhm
srrm eredhw-drafshm Balkh in Afghanistan and ancient
Bactria, Skt. Vahlika
5. Nisaya, that lies between the Mouru and Bakhdhi, Nisim
im atare Murumca Bxdhmca as mentioned, it's a place
between Merv & Balkh.
6. the house-deserting Haroyu, Harym im vish-harezanem
area around Herat in Afghanistan, Skt. Sarayu, Persian
Harirud River.
7. Vaekereta, of the evil shadows, Vakeretem im dzhaksayanem probably some place in north east Iran.
8. Urva of the rich pastures, Urvm pouru-vstrm area
around Hamum Lake in Iran
9. Khnenta which the Vehrkanas inhabit, Xnetem im
Vehrkn- shayanem Gorgan in Iran, Skt. Vrika
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10. the beautiful Harahvaiti, Harahvaitm srrm Vedic

Saraswati, modern Arghandab, Greek Arachosia, a
tributary of Helmand.
Central Asia as depicted in Avesta

[With reference to Kubhas stories]
11. the bright, glorious Haetumant, Hatumatem ravatem
hvarenanguhatem Helmand River in Afghanistan. Though
Arghandab matches etymologically with Saraswati, but
Helmand basin is generally identified with Saraswati.
12. Ragha of the three races, Rakhm thrizatm modern Rai,
south of Tehran
13. the strong, holy Chakhra, Caxrem srem ashavanem a
place by the name Carx in the ancient Khorasan in
Central Asia (Northern Iran)
14. the four-cornered Varena, Varenem im cathru-gaoshem
Bannu, Skt. Varnu
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15. the Seven Rivers, Hapta Hedu Skt. Sapta Sindhu or the
land of the Seven Rivers, that's the Punjab.
16. the land by the sources of the Rangha, where people live
who have no chiefs, upa aodhashu Ranghay asr
aiwyxshayeiti Rangha or Rasa, a mythical river in the
Rig Veda with strong Indo-European connections, may
be one of the unexplored or lesser explored northern
tributaries of Indus in Hindukush region.
Its likely that the Airyanem Vaejo, the Aryan expanse, is
surrounded by the other fifteen Aryan countries, all of which are in
Central Asia and are perhaps enumerated in an anti clock-wise
manner.
Ahura Mazda is the Supreme God of the Zoroastrians and
Zarathushtra is His Prophet. Av. Ahura is akin to Skt. Asura, which,
we've seen in Aryan Trail, means both God and demon in the Rig
Veda. Mazda is akin to Skt. medha, which means intellect. So Ahura
Mazda stands for the divine intellect. Opposite to Ahura Mazda is the
devil Angra Mainyu. Each of the sixteen verses that defines the
sixteen holy lands of the Aryans ends with a reference to the
devil, Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he
counter-created Winter, a work of the Daevas.
Av. Mainyu is surely a cognate of Skt. manu, mind and Angra
may refer to the Rig Vedic Angirasa here also Av. Angra and Skt.
Angirasa seem to be cognates. This is the clue to the conflict between
the two groups of Aryans in Afghanistan this conflict finally leads
to the separation of the two.
We've argued in the Aryan Trail that the Dasa people, the first
lot of Indo-Aryans to arrive in Central Asia in BMAC around 1900
BC, used to call their Gods Asura. The Rig Vedic Aryans, the later lot
of Aryans appearing in BMAC around 1700 BC, first fought with the
Dasa people and later came to a truce. The term Asura meaning
demon and then being elevated to the status of God may be an
indication of the animosity and eventual truce between the two
groups of Aryans. The word Asura means supreme spirit and in the
Rig Veda is generally said of Varuna, one of the oldest Indo-European
198
Gods. We've pointed out in many discussions that Varuna is the

upholder of truth and law (satyam-ritam); He stands for wisdom and
discernment (putadaksham); He stands for perfected intellect
(dhiyam ghritachim). So the Avestan Ahura Mazda (Skt. asura
medha), which stands for divine intellect and is associated with Asha
(Skt. rita), is very likely none other than Varuna.
Varuna being the oldest God the cult of Varuna worship can be
very well called the path leading to the elders, the pitris, or pitriyana.
Both the Rig Veda and Atharva Veda mention Pitriyana.
Though Varuna is an older God still Indra seems to have more
authority among the Rig Vedic Aryans. He is the chief of all
the deities, deva. Like the epithet asura, which is associated with
Varuna, deva is associated with Indra. So the cult of Indra worship
may be called devayana.
We've seen that Indra is the power of mind and intellect,
impelled by thoughts and driven by the illumined thinker, dhiyeshita
viprajuta. When the intellect, the thought is further perfected and
enriched we see the power of profound knowledge, wisdom and
consciousness that's represented by Varuna. But going by the double
meaning in the Rig Veda, Indra is always represented by a physical
strength that destroys and kills enemies. He stands for generous
heroism. In contrast Varuna is the more lofty and spiritual one. The
following verse from the Rig Veda depicts the popular image of Indra
and Varuna:
Vtryanya samitheu jighnate vratnyanyo abhi rakate sad |

Havmahe v va suvktibhir asme indrvaru arma yacchatam ||
One of you Twain destroys the Vtras in the fight, the
Other evermore maintains his holy Laws (vrata).
We call on you, ye Mighty (vaa), with our hymns of
praise (suvkti). Vouchsafe us your protection, Indra-Vauna.
7.83.9
We can very well assume that going by the popular images of
Indra and Varuna, their worshipers the devayanists and the
199
pitriyanists would surely be two different lots. There are references

to devayana and pitriyana in the Rig Veda and Atharva Veda.
Following is one instance from the Atharva Veda.
Anrina asmin anrinah parasmin tritiye loke anrinah syama |

Ye devayanah pitriyanah ca loka sarvan patho anrina a kshiyema || 6.117.3
May we be free in this world and that yonder, in the
third world may we be unindebted.
May we, debt-free, abide in all the pathways the devayana and pitriyana.
It's not unlikely that these two groups of people
the devayanists and pitriyanists, the worshipers of Indra and Varuna
would have intellectual conflicts between them because at a very
low level their Gods are so very different one stands for lofty
spirituality and the other for heroism. With passage of time the
deeper meanings and inner significances of Indra and Varuna might
have been superseded by the simplistic and more popular aspects.
The breakup of the two groups of Aryans in Afghanistan might have
been due to this conflict. The proto Avestan group is surely
the pitriyanists, the worshipers of Varuna, Who eventually becomes
Ahura Mazda.
Now let's again shift our focus to the Atharva Veda. The
term atharvan is derived from an obsolete word athar, which means
fire. Atharvan literally means fire priests and Atharva Veda is the
book of hymns of the Fire Priests, the Atharvans. In Avestan
too atar means fire. The Avestan cognate for Atharvan is Athravan
and Zarathushtra, the founder of Zoroastrianism, Himself is an
Athravan. He is said to be a descendant of someone called Spitama.
As the Avesta and Zarathushtra are so closely associated with the
Fire Priests Atharvan (and in turn the Atharva Veda) let's find out the
identity of Spitama and his connection to the Atharvans.
Gopatha Brahmana, a later Vedic text refers to Atharva Veda as
Bhrigu Angirasi Samhita, the samhita or the book written by Bhrigu
and Angiras. But now only Angiras is associated with the Atharva
200
Veda. Both Bhrigu and Angiras are no doubt fire priests. The term
Bhrigu and Angiras refer to the individuals Bhrigu and Angiras and
also to the people, the descendants or the followers of the Bhrigu and
Angiras. The word angiras comes from the root ang or ag, and directly
means fire. Bhrigu comes from the root bhraj, which means to shine,
sparkle and glitter, and the mythical Bhrigu race is closely connected
with fire in the Rig Veda. The name Spitama, the ancestor of
Zrathushtra, seems to be a cognate of svetatama, meaning brightest
and surely an epithet for Bhrigu. So it may not be illogical to deduce
that Zarthushtra Himself is one of the Bhrigu atharvans, having
descended from Spitama, also a Bhrigu atharvan.
So now we know that the Avestan people are pitriyanists,
worshipers of Varuna, Ahura Mazda, while the other group of Aryans
is devayanists. We also know that Zarathushtra descends from
Spitama, one of the Bhrigu atharvans. If we correlate these two points
we can say that the Bhrigus, the ancestors of the Avestans, are
pitriyanists and the Angirasas devayanists. We can also infer that the
aforementioned two conflicting groups of Aryan people in Afghanistan
were the Bhrigus and the Angirasas, who eventually broke up from
each other around the time frame of Atharva Veda the Angirasas
are then associated with the Atharva Veda in India and the Bhrigus
with the Avesta in Afghanistan. So the Bhrigu-Angirasa Samhita
mentioned in Gopatha Brahmana may refer to the parallel
development of Atharva Veda and Avesta by the Angirasas and
Bhrigus. It also finds credence in Angirasa being referred to in Avesta
as a devil, Angra Mainyu, in contrast to Bhrigu, Spitama.
Around the World
Early Vedic Age is contemporary to 18-20th dynasties of New Kingdom
of Egyptian Empire. Around 1100 BC Greek City States, Troy being
one of the most important ones, came to a spectacular end.
The Homeric Trojan War is also believed to have occurred sometime
in the 12th century BC.
In west Asia the Kassites have been ruling in Babylon since 16th
century BC. Their rule came to an end in 1155 BC when it fell
to Elam (Iran). Finally after five centuries Babylon was conquered
back by native ruler Nebuchandrezzar I in 1125 from the Kassites.
201
Around the same the Hittites (Turkey) were declining and

the Assyrians becoming more and more powerful. The first Assyrian
Empire was established around the same time. Also Israel was
getting formed.
202
Acknowledgement
In the acknowledgement of The Ekkos Clan Ive mentioned the names
of each and everyone without whose contribution and support the
novel woudnt have been possible. It was an honor for me to talk
about them and express my humble gratitude. But I never got a
chance to acknowledge the contribution and support of many other
people without whom The Ekkos Clan wouldnt have reached to so
many readers. Writing a book is one thing and creating the awareness
about it among the readers and making it available to them is a
totally different thing. It takes a lot of effort to promote a book and
create the initial interest about it among the readers, especially if its
a work of a debutant author. The idea of compiling something like
Myths & Truths Behind The Ekkos Clan came only when The Ekkos
Clan had already attained a certain degree of acceptance among its
readers, many of whom expressed their interest to read more about
the research work that had gone behind the writing of the book. So
its very important to acknowledge the support and help of all those
people whove selflessly and earnestly worked towards popularizing
The Ekkos Clan. Without them this present book wouldnt have made
any sense.
I would like to start with Pallavi Mishra, who, immediately after
the release of The Ekkos Clan in July 2013, methodically called an
endless number of book stores across India, rebuking them for not
keeping my masterpiece. Soon my book was available at many
stores in Bangalore. She would make it a point to read my book in
the Volvo buses while commuting to and from office, making sure
that she talked to at least one person about the book in each trip.
One day the PR person of a leading bookstore in Bangalore whom I
was pursuing hard for a book launch called me up and said that she
had seen someone talking excitedly about my book in the bus. Soon
she agreed for the book launch. Had it not been for Pallavis
contagious positivity which she would always excude, her persistent
encouragement and insistence, I wouldnt have painstakingly gone to
the various book stores across Bangalore, after the hectic days at
office, and spent the evenings meeting people and talking tirelessly
about my book to them. Soon the store managers started keeping my
book at the most advantageous locations and talking about it
203
themselves to their customers. I wish Pallavi all the success in all her
endeavors. I also wish she were available to promote my next
masterpiece!
That Tirthankar Ghose was my hall-mate in IIT KGP and my flatmate in Bangalore, is just a very small aspect of our association.
Among many things he has done for me over the past twenty years,
he has also painstakingly hand delivered so many copies of my book
to people across Bay Area, just to make sure that my book reached
out to as many people as possible.
When The Ekkos Clan was not yet available outside India,
Sourav Das, my brother, took the pain of couriering each copy of the
book to interested people across the US.
Shrey Goyal, Urvashi Verma, Aditi Sharma, Abhinav Gupta,
Kamalesh Ghosh and many other present and previous students of
IIT KGP helped me with online and other forms of promotions among
the IIT fraternity, which gave a much needed boost to the initial sales
and popularity of the book.
Sahana Gupta helped me with the first book launch in
Bangalore, within a fortnight of its release in July 2013. Mona
Gantayat not only helped me with the launches of The Ekkos Clan at
the Oxford Book Stores in Bangalore and Delhi, she was also
instrumental in getting my first interview-feature in the media and
liaisoning for a series of book talks at major corporate houses in
Bangalore.
Kavya Hegde and the team at JustBooks did a wonderful
promotion of The Ekkos Clan by making it a featured book, arranging
a series of talks at their stores across the country and enabling
effective media coverages in Mysore, Pune and Cochin. Tarunjeet
Rattan, Juthika Sinha and the team at Neucleus did a fabulous job
in handling the overall PR and media coverage for my book.
Kamalika Dutta and Arun Francis of Pixel Passion managed the
entire social media and graphic design for all sorts of promotional
activities.
Sravasti Datta, Shevlin Sebastian, Sooraj Rajmohan, Arka
Sengupta, Samhita Chakraborty, Chandreyee Ghose and Ayesha
Tabassum wrote wonderful articles about me and my book in leading
dailies across India.
204
Thanks are also due to Sulagna Chaudhury, Prerna Narula,

Debojit Saha, Rakesh Godhwani, Aroon Raman, Sudeshna Sanyal,
Jonali Saikia, Dipankar Khasnabish, Utkal Ranjan Mohanty,
Shivanand (Shivoo) Koteshwar, Ritushree Dutta, Sharmin Ali
(Bonny), Sonal Ranjan, Munish Jassi, Sarathi Socio Cultural Trust
and many others for their direct and indirect support in promoting
The Ekkos Clan.
Prof. Joy Sen of IIT Kharagpur has been a great motivation
behind my delving more into the various aspects of the IndoEuropean studies Ive used in my book. Giving me an opportunity to
deliver a talk at IIT KGP in February 2014 on A Scientific Exploration
of the Rationale and Basis of Indo-European Language Systems
(IELS), as a part of a lecture series under the SANDHI (A Scientific
Approach to Networking and Designing of Heritage Interfaces)
Project, and making me a part of the Science-Culture interface, a new
initiative (2014 2017) which attempts to conduct a number of
research and exploratory projects to look at Indian and World
Heritage Systems through the lens of scientific exploration,
catalyzed my urge to finally compile Myths & Truths Behind The
Ekkos Clan and publish it in the form of a coffee table book.
205
Selected Reference
1. A Dictionary of the Vedic Rituals: Based on the rauta and
Ghya Stras, by Chitrabhanu Sen
2. A History of Civilization in Ancient India: Based on Sanscrit
Literature, by R C Dutt
3. An Introduction To The Study Of Indian History, by D D
Kosambi
4. Ancient India, by R C Majumdar
5. Ancient Indian History and Civilzation, by Shailendra Nath
Sen
6. Archaeology and Ethnic Politics: The Discovery of Arkaim, by V
A Shnirelman, published in UNESCO journal Museum
International, Volume 50, Issue 2, April-June 1998
7. Archaeology Online:
http://www.archaeologyonline.net/artifacts/archaeologyindia.html
8. Argumentative Indian, by Amartya Sen
9. Arkaim: http://arkaim-home.narod.ru
10. Arkaim Center: Official Site: http://www.arkaim-center.ru
11. AvestaZoroastrian Archives: http://avesta.org
12. Bright Stars:
http://www.cosmobrain.com/cosmobrain/res/brightstar.html
13. Database of Indo-European etymology: http://starling.rinet.ru/cgibin/query.cgi?basename=\data\ie\ piet&root=config
14. Discovery of India, by Jawaharlal Nehru
15. Encyclopaedia Iranica: http://www.iranicaonline.org
16. Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, by J P Mallory,
Douglas Q Adams
17. Encyclopaedia of Ukraine: http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com
18. Eurasian Stepppe Archaeological Research:
http://users.hartwick.edu/anthonyd/home.html
206
19. Frances Pritchett, Columbia University webpage:

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00fwp
20. Georg Morgenstiernes Page:
http://www.nb.no/baser/morgenstierne/english/index.html
21. Google Books: http://books.google.co.in
22. Harrappa.com: http://www.harappa.com
23. History of Civilizations of Central Asia, by Ahmad Hasan Dani,
Vadim Mikhalovich Masson
24. History of Indian Theatre, Volume 1, by Manohar Laxman
Varadpande
25. India: From Indus Valley Civlization to Mauryas, by Gyan
Swarup Gupta
26. Indo-European Grammar & Etymology Dictionary:http://indoeuropean.info
27. Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction, by
Benjamin W Fortson IV
28. Indo-European Lexicon:
http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/ielex/PokornyMaster-X.html
29. Internet Archive: http://archive.org
30. Stephen Knapp homepage: http://www.stephen-knapp.com
31. The Ancient History of India, Vedic Period: A New
Interpretation, by K C Singhal, Roshan Gupta
32. The Aryas: Facts Without Fancy and Fiction, by Malati J
Shendge
33. The Aryans in the Rigveda, by Franciscus Bernardus Jacobus
Kuiper
34. The Empires of Indus, by Alice Albinia
35. The Indo-Aryan Controversy: Evidence and Inference in Indian
History, edited by Edwin Francis Bryant, Laurie L Patton
36. The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia: Language, Material
Culture and Ethnicity, edited by George Erdsy
37. The Origin of the Indo-Iranians, by Elena E Kuzmina, J P
Mallory
207
38. The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan
Migration Debate, edited by Edwin Bryant
39. The Rig Veda, translated by Ralph T H Griffith: http://sacredtexts.com/hin/rigveda/index.htm
40. The Secret of the Veda, by Aurobindo Ghosh
41. The Spring Festival of The Kalash Kafris, published in India
Antiqua, by Georg Morgenstierne
42. Michael Witzel, Harvard University various papers:
http://indiatimeline.tripod.com/indian_history.htm, http://
indiatimeline.tripod.com/Indo_European.htm, http://indiatimeline.
tripod.com/linguistics.htm, http://indiatimeline.tripod.com/vedas. htm,
http://indiatimeline.tripod.com/kalash.htm
43. Michael Witzel, Harvard University webpage:
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm
44. Monier Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary:
http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/monier
45. Useful Links: http://www.sudiptodas.com/usefullinks.php
46. Vedas Original Texts in Sanskrit and English Translations:
http://www.sudiptodas.com/usefullinks.php
47. Vedic India As Embodied Principally in The Rig Veda, by
Zenaide A Ragozin
48. Voice of Dharma online books: http://voiceofdharma.org/books
49. Websters Kalasha - English Thesaurus Dictionary
50. Wikipedia
51. Your Sky: http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky
52. Zoroastrian Heritage:
http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/index.htm
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