The Aryans

IN the dawning time of history, somewhere in the lands beyond Afghanistan and north of Persia roamed bold tribes of fair-complexioned men and women with their horses and cattle. From stories that have come down to us about them, from words that they used which have still place in our speech, and from rites of worship still observed by many of their descendants to-day something can be known of their life and thoughts. They were a rough, brave, hardy, adventurous race, of honest and simple soul.

Some of them gradually limited their wanderings to Irān, the land of Persia. There they settled and there they stayed, becoming the ancestors of the Parsis now in India; and their speech became the old Zend language and their religion, with its sacred literature, the Avesta of Zoroaster, developed into Zoroastrianism.

Others of these tribes, more daring, by long marches, and through many generations approached and entered India from the north-west. These were the men who called themselves ‘Āryās’, Aryans, a word meaning ‘kinsmen’ as distinct from the aboriginal tribes already dwelling in the land.¹ And though much concerning them is obscure, not a little is evident, and to-day it is possible to look back across the many centuries that separate us from those nomads and learn what manner of men they were. Having some conception of the men themselves, remembering that they were once alive, and vastly concerned with matters that fill men’s lives, even to-day, it will be possible to go on to some survey of their hymns and their beliefs, their hopes and their fears, their gods and their demons, not as to a dry study of abstractions but in hope of finding the vital beginnings of faiths that still sway the hearts of millions in India.

From the names of the rivers mentioned in their hymns it is clear that about the time that they were composed, the chief settlements of the Aryans in India were in the neighbourhood of the Sindhu, the modern Indus, a river which after receiving the waters of its tributaries is so wide that people on one bank cannot see the opposite bank. The Himalayas would prevent them from turning towards the north, and it is thus clear that before they crossed the Yamuna, the modern Jumna, and made their way to the Ganges, the Aryans dwelt mainly in East Kabulistan and the Panjab. The Saraswati was their southern boundary during that period.

As to other races that were in the land there is little information in the hymns of the Aryans and the science of ethnology has to help us. From it we learn that before the Aryans came India was sparsely peopled by some of the races that are now often called ‘jungle tribes’. Among them the majority would be Dravidians. The Gonds, Bhils and Santals are modern survivors of those races. Some were very humble in the scale of humanity burying their dead in the cells made of stone-slabs, called Kistvæns by scientists and ‘Pāndava vidu’—the houses of the Pāndava brothers when in exile—by the Tamil people of the south to this day. Those in the south were never so subject to the Aryans as the tribes of the north and grew into the powerful and civilized Tamil and Telugu nations, but there is no hint of this in the Rig-veda.

There these aborigines are named ‘Dasyu’ ‘destroyers’ or ‘Dasa’, or ‘injurious’. Their skins were much darker than those of the Aryans and so they were stigmatized as ‘black’ or ‘black-skins’. From the shape of their broad noses they were called ‘goat-nosed’. They possessed herds, they had strongholds called ‘pur’. Those who were captured were made slaves, and the very word ‘dasa’ came to mean ‘slave’ in later Sanskrit and cognate languages. The references to their religion describe them as offering no sacrifices, being unbelievers in the gods of the Aryans, and thus grievously impious. There are two passages in which they are called sisna-devah, ‘whose god is the phallus’ (Rig-veda vii. 21.5; x. 99. 3), and it will be remembered that the phallus, as the linga, came to be the chief symbol of the god Siva in later Hinduism.²

From the first these Dasyus were the enemies of the Aryans, but their demon worship greatly affected the Aryans, especially in the simpler domestic religion that has always been that of the ordinary folk.

Probably the conditions of climate and soil were then much as they are now and the Aryans who had lived in tents while they were nomads became dwellers in houses. The roofs of these houses were of long bamboos laid on rafters supported by pillars or corner posts. The spaces between the pillars were filled in with straw or reeds, tied in bundles. In places where stone was readily obtainable it was sometimes used, and Indra is said to have destroyed a hundred cities of stone. The roof would be of thatch, and the various timbers were fastened together with bars, pegs, ropes and thongs. The house had a door fastened by a strap. A number of these houses made a village. Such villages were near to streams or rivers for the sake of crops and cattle. There were ramparts and ditches to protect the village from enemies or from flood. But there were no cities, if by city is meant a collection of houses near to each other surrounded by a wall.

Bread, milk and products from milk, such as butter, cakes of flour and butter, vegetables and fruits were the usual articles of food. But meat, roasted or boiled, was eaten, though probably only at great feasts and family gatherings. The late Dr. Rajendralala Mitra occupied the highest rank among Indian scholars, and in his Indo-Aryans, he has a chapter headed, ‘Beef in Ancient India.’ It begins as follows:

The title of this paper will, doubtless, prove highly offensive to most of my countrymen; but the interest attached to the inquiry in connexion with the early social history of the Aryan race on this side of the Himalaya, will, I trust, plead my excuse. The idea of beef—the flesh of the earthly representative of the divine Bhagavati—as an article of food is so shocking to the Hindus, that thousands over thousands of the more orthodox among them never repeat the counterpart of the word in their vernaculars, and many and dire have been the sanguinary conflicts which the shedding of the blood of cows has caused in this country. And yet it would seem that there was a time when not only no compunctions, visitings of conscience, had a place in the mind of the people in slaughtering cattle—when not only the meat of that animal was actually esteemed a valuable aliment—when not only was it a mark of generous hospitality, as among the ancient Jews, to slaughter the ‘fatted calf’ in honour of respected guests—but when a supply of beef was deemed an absolute necessity by pious Hindus in their journey from this to another world, and a cow was invariably killed to be burnt with the dead.

Dr. Rajendralala Mitra quotes Colebrooke’s opinion as follows:

It seems to have been anciently the custom to slay a cow on that occasion (the reception of a guest) and a guest was therefore called a goghna, or ‘cow killer’. In the Uttara Rama Charitra the venerable old poet and hermit Valmiki, when preparing to receive his brother sage Vasista, the author of one of the original law books (Smritis) which regulates the religious life of the people, and a prominent character even in the Vedas, slaughtered a lot of calves expressly for the entertainment of his guests. Vasista, in his turn, likewise slaughtered the ‘fatted calf’ when entertaining Visvamitra, Janaka, Satananda, Jamadagnya, and other sages and friends.³

Cows and oxen were sacrificed on certain occasions even in later Vedic times and on such occasions priest and sacrificer would eat part of the flesh of the victim.⁴

Salt is not mentioned in the hymns, though it abounds in the Northern Panjab.

For drink the Aryans used sura, a brandy made from corn or barley, and soma, the sap of a herb of the Sarcostemma species, which on account of its stimulating and exciting character was deified.

The Aryans kept herds of cattle and horses. Goats, buffaloes and camels are mentioned. There are many prayers for these in the hymns, especially for cows that yield the white milk from which mead and butter, ’the favourite food of gods and men’, were prepared. An Aryan called his daughter duhitri or milkmaid, and the word gopa, cowkeeper, came to mean any protector.

Agriculture was the principal industry. Plough and harrow, mattock and hoe were used, and sometimes water was conducted in irrigation channels. There were two harvests in the year, especially for barley. The grain was threshed; the chaff was winnowed away; the corn was ground in a mill; and bread was made from the flour. Agriculture was more important than hunting with the bow, or capturing game with snares, or than fishing.

Wood-workers, who had tools such as hatchets and planes, built wagons and war-chariots, or carved wooden cups. There were tanners who made leather from the hide of slaughtered cattle, and manufactured it into waterbottles, bow-strings, slings and the like. There were workers in metal, smiths who made weapons and rims for the wheels of carts, and potters. Women spun and wove wool and made garments. There were even barbers.

Trade existed as barter, and the value of goods was calculated at so many cows. Golden ornaments were beginning to be used. Goldsmiths are spoken of and usurers are mentioned. The Babylonian minā of gold seems to have been called manā in Sanskrit which may be an indication of very early intercourse between India and the western Semitic races. Ships are mentioned.

The family was the unit and the father of the family was its high-priest and head, and controlled the worship of the ancestors of the family in all details. He knew the peculiar ritual which was traditional in his family, and which had to be maintained unchanged, if the favour of the dead was to be retained. He alone had the power to pass on the rites to his son. The reverence and the power which his priestly position brought him made him supreme in the household. He had full power over his wife and his young children, and his grown-up sons were under his authority. The property of the family was altogether in his hands. This was the source of the paternal authority (patria potestas) of the Roman father, and of the prominent place held by the father in Greece, Persia, India, and among Teutonic and Slavonic peoples as well. This type of family, which is known as the patriarchal, succeeded an earlier and less developed type.⁵

The Father

Youths and maidens saw each other at festivals. Should the youth be attracted he generally but not always asked for the maiden in marriage from her father through a friend. It was considered improper for the marriages of younger sons or daughters to be arranged before those of their elder brothers and sisters. If the suitor was approved he occasionally had to purchase his bride by giving gifts to her father. A dowry was sometimes given with the bride. The marriage was performed in the presence of both families and their friends in the house of the bride’s parents. The fire was kindled on the domestic altar and the bride was handed by her father to her husband. The bridegroom took hold of the right-hand of the bride with his right-hand repeating the formula:

By thy right-hand for happiness I take thee, That thou may’st reach old age with me, thy husband. Aryaman, Bhaga, Savitar, Puramdhi, Gave thee to me to rule our home together.

Rig-veda x. 85. 36

After repeating other verses he led his bride round the altar, from left to right (pradakshina), and she was then his wife, and he her husband. Then followed a feast and the wife was taken to her husband’s house on a wagon decked with flowers and drawn by white cattle. Here hymns or parts of hymns were chanted, full of goodwill to the wife, and her authority was solemnly declared.

Here now remain, nor ever part; Enjoy the whole expanse of life, With son and grandson joyous sport Be glad in heart within your house. So rule and govern in thy home Over thy husband’s parents both; His brother and his sister, too, Are subject likewise there to thee.

Rig-veda x. 85. 42, 46.

Clearly the Aryan bride was of an age fitting her to be wife and mother and mistress of a home when she was married. In the home the wife took part with her husband in the daily sacrifice.

Some kings and nobles might have more than one wife. The two Asvins had together one wife, Surya, the daughter of the sun-god. But the ordinary condition was ‘a united pair, with one heart and one mind, free from discord’. The marriage of blood relations was thought wrong. The birth of a daughter is nowhere sought, but sons are earnestly desired.

Widows

There is no evidence in the Rig-veda that when her husband died the Aryan widow had to burn herself on his funeral pyre. The eighteenth hymn of the tenth Book of Rig-veda refers to the death of a husband, to the vicissitude of life and to the funeral ceremonies. The seventh verse runs as follows in Kaegi’s translation:⁶

The women here, still happy wives, not widowed, shall come and bring rich oil and precious ointment; and tearless, blooming, rich adorned, may they first approach the resting-place of the departed.

Rig-veda x. 18. 7.

The words ‘may they first approach the place’ are a translation of the Sanskrit words ā rohantu yonim agre. By the most awful crime in the history of literature this phrase was altered in later times. It then read ā rohantu yonim agneh meaning ’let them enter the place of fire’, and by this terrible falsification the verse was made to justify the burning of widows.

The exact opposite was the fact. Among the early Aryans the widow might marry again. The very next verse of the same hymn calls on the widow to rise from beside the bier or pyre and take the hand of her new husband, ‘doubtless’, says Prof. Macdonnell (Sanskrit Literature, p. 126) ‘a brother of the deceased, in accordance with an ancient marriage custom’ of which a trace remained among the Hebrews. I quote his translation.

Rise up; come to the world of life, O woman; Thou liest here by one whose soul has left him. Come: thou hast now entered upon the wifehood Of this thy lord who takes thy hand and woos thee.

Rig-veda x. 18. 8.

There may have been instances of widow burning in early Aryan times but it was during a much later period (A.D. 650-1200) that the custom of burning a widow with her husband’s body came gradually into force. Such a widow is highly praised in the Garuda Purana; she was called a sati (pronounced suttee) emphatically a ‘good’ woman. Hence the modern name of the custom. At the same time it became customary for a widow who did not ascend her husband’s pyre to live a life of asceticism and privation, and precepts sanctioning the practice were inserted in the later sacred books. Farquhar quotes one:

If a woman’s husband dies, let her lead a life of chastity, or else mount his pyre.

Vishnusmriti xxv. 14.

Position of Women

Since the head of the family was a man and every clan and family wanted men to protect it from its enemies, there was a tendency to set less value on women. The general opinion of the female sex seems to have been that put into the mouth of Indra: ‘Indra himself hath said, The mind of woman brooks not discipline. Her intellect hath little weight’ (Rig-veda viii. 33. 17), and ’the hearts of women are those of hyenas’ (x. 95. 15). From a very early date prostitution was an institution.

That women were not debarred from hearing the Vedas is clear, for the authors of some of the hymns of the Aryan tribes were women. Apala composed a hymn that is now the eightieth in the eighth book of the Rig-veda, and Ghosha, a leper maiden, was author of two, the thirty-ninth and the fortieth in the tenth book.

The King

Beyond saying that the king, raja, was a ruler it is not possible to define his exact rank and authority. Probably it entirely depended on the individual. He was the chief of a group of families. Sometimes he was chosen. Sometimes his rank was hereditary. In time of peace he was ‘judge and protector’ of his people, who brought to him voluntary gifts. In time of war he was the leader of the warriors, and before a battle he would offer sacrifice for his tribe, or cause a priestly singer to offer it. This was the beginning of that difference of office which lay at the root of the later distinction of the warrior and priest castes among the Aryans.

Morality and Crime

Morality was a family and tribal matter. Truth, right-conduct, kindliness, loyalty to one’s neighbour and comrade, bravery, and later careful observance of religious rites and liberality to priests were counted high virtues. Fraud, malignant speech, lying and treachery were roundly condemned. Violence to defenceless maidens and the adultery of a wife were regarded as grave crimes.

Such crimes as one would expect to find among tribal peoples entering on a new civilization are mentioned in the hymns. Raiders carry off cattle. Robbers are found on highways. A thief steals an honest man’s clothes. There are sorcerers who utter harmful spells, and seducers of women.

For protection from his enemies the Aryan trusted the gods and his own right arm. For crimes in the community there were judgements, ordeals and punishments, and the vengeance of the gods.

Gambling

Gambling was a terrible curse to the Aryan. The hymns say that the father’s punishment of the dissolute son is of no effect; the player is unmoved by the destruction of his home; he remains indifferent though his wife becomes the property of others; he rises early and indulges in the passion of play till evening; defeat in play is equivalent to starvation and thirst. In one of the hymns⁷ a gambler vividly describes his own experience:

1. The tumbling, air-born (products) of the great Vibhidaka tree (i. e. the dice) delight me as they continue to roll on the dice board. The exciting dice seem to me like a draught of the soma-plant growing on mount Pujavat.

2. Hooking, piercing, deceitful, vexatious, delighting to torment, the dice dispense transient gifts, and again ruin the winner; they appear to the gambler covered with honey.

3. Never play with dice; practice husbandry; rejoice in thy property, esteeming it sufficient.

At a sacrifice, the Kshatriya in particular used to play at dice with his wife, or wives, and sons.

Dancing

Dancers or actors afforded entertainment to the Aryans. Ushas is said to display herself like a dancer who decks herself with ornaments. Allusion is made to the living going forth to dance and laugh after a funeral. Drums are mentioned, and a hymn in the Atharva-veda is addressed to that musical instrument.

Chariot Races

The Aryans delighted in chariot races. The sixty-ninth hymn in the eighth book of the Rig-veda is a prayer to Indra, called Satakratu the god of a hundred rites, for success in a coming chariot race. It reads as follows in Griffith’s translation:

1. O Satakratu, truly I have made none else my comforter. Indra, be gracious unto us.

2. Thou who hast ever aided us kindly of old to win the spoil, As such, O Indra, favour us.

3. What now! As prompter of the poor thou helpest him who sheds the juice. Wilt thou not, Indra, strengthen us?

4. O Indra, help our chariot on, yea, thunderer, though it lag behind: Give this my car the foremost place.

5. Ho there! why sittest thou at ease? Make thou my chariot to be first: And bring the fame of victory near.

6. Assist our car that seeks the prize. What can be easier for thee? So make thou us victorious.

War

These chariot races were a training for war. And the tribes of the Aryans were constantly at war, sometimes among themselves and sometimes with the Dasyus, the races in India before the Aryans entered it. These Aryan expeditions were often raids for cattle or reprisals on tribes that had attacked the Aryan villages. Indeed the term gosuyudh ‘fighting among or for cows’ is used in the Veda as a name for a warrior in general (i. 112, 122) and a common word for battle is gavisti, literally ‘striving for cows’.

The bands of the Aryans marched under their leaders, who had banners. They would sing or shout the prowess of their ancestors, and boast of the aid which Indra or Brihaspati granted them. Conches were blown as horns. Sometimes the leader drove in a war-chariot covered with cowhides; some warriors used bows and arrows; others had darts. The bands often slew all in the villages they conquered. Sometimes they were content to carry off the plunder. When an invader attacked an Aryan settlement, ramparts were thrown up, trees were made into barricades, and the gods were called to aid. The ‘Weapon-song’ is a hymn that echoes with the clamour of the strife.⁸

The Childhood of the Aryan Race

From the Vedas it is clear that like their civilization, the science of the Aryans was of a rude and elementary character. The earliest Aryans only knew a few stars or constellations, and there is no certain evidence that the planets were known to the singers of the Rig-vedic age. Aryan ideas of the origin of the universe are utterly inadequate and primitive; and though Aryan medical science distinguished several diseases, its remedies were charms and amulets and herbs used in conjunction with incantations. The world was very wonderful to the Aryans as they lived and fought in the Land of the Five Rivers. But theirs was a very limited life, unsophisticated in its aims, direct and frank in its activities, lived in the open air, full of health from sun and wind and rains. As Max Müller says:

In the hymns of the Veda we see man left to himself to solve the riddle of this world. We see him crawling on like a creature of the earth with all the desires and weakness of his animal nature. Food, wealth and power, a large family and a long life, are the theme of his daily prayers. But he begins to lift up his eyes. He stares at the tent of heaven, and asks who supports it? He opens his eyes to the winds, and asks them whence and whither? He is awakened from darkness and slumber by the light of the sun, and him whom his eyes cannot behold, and who seems to grant him the daily pittance of his existence, he calls ‘his life, his breath, his brilliant Lord and Protector’.⁹

And it is only as this is remembered that it is possible to appreciate the hopes and fears, the prayers and aspirations, the courage and the patience of the bards who sang, in those far away centuries, the very heart’s thoughts of the men whose pilgrimage into India was to have such a mighty effect on the history and the thought of the world.

Their Hymns

They were the direct ancestors of many of the tribes comprised in the great Brahman caste of modern India. Their speech was the mother language of many of the languages spoken in India to-day, and from it all have borrowed the terms of philosophy, worship and faith. Their religion was the beginning of religions that have stirred the hearts of millions. To know how they prayed and built their earliest altar-fires and offered sacrifice with song is to know how the forefathers of Hindu and Greek and Briton sought divine grace and divine protection. One of the most precious heir-looms of the ages for all thinking men are the hymns which were first sung by the poets among those primitive warriors and herdsmen. For those hymns have come down to us, and however much they may have been changed between the moment that the inspired bard chanted them to his tribesmen and the time when they were written down to abide forever, they bring those far away days back to us. Through them the hopes and fears of the singer and his hearers ring in our ears. In them we come face to face with the joys and sorrows, the war and peace, the funerals and festivals of forty centuries ago.

Footnotes