There is a general tendency among many scholars to identify the Dasa/Dasyus with dark tribes of India. The word ‘krishnatvac’ (darkskinned) is used as a major ‘evidence’ for this identity ‘discovered’ by them. Now, we are going to verify this evidence and discovery. The aim of this essay is to determine whether these scholars were right or wrong in their assumption.
An overview of Rg Veda shows that Dasa/Dasyus were one of the greatest enemies of the Vedic Aryans. They were described by the Vedic Aryans in the most contemptible manner – ‘anasah’ (noseless), ‘krishnatvac’ (darkskinned) etc. These words are used by many scholars as evidence for their theory that Rg Veda speaks about the fight for the land between the ‘invading’ fair skinned Aryans and the ‘dark aborigines’. Giving further boost to their claim are the verses which identify Maruts (friends of Indra) as fair complexioned. At a passing look, these claims appear to be very sensible. But do they represent the actual facts? The interpretation of Rg Veda keeping in mind the philosophical, theological and mythical beliefs of the Vedic people throw a completely new light upon the above mentioned cases. Also, a study of Avesta is included to find out the actual identity of the Dasa/Dasyus and the use of the words in the ancient Indo-Iranian languages (Dahyu is found in Avesta and it refers to country, district etc. We shall see that the Vedic Dasyu is nothing but a reference to the Iranians who called themselves Dahyu/Daha.)
First, let us consider the mythical beliefs of the Vedic Aryans and their impact upon the interpretation of the Dasa/Dasyu verses.
Rg Veda (5-14-4) says that Agni with his brilliant light killed both Dasyus and darkness (tamah).
In the above verse, the parallel has been established between darkness and Dasyus. Thus, the Dasyus were considered as representing the darkness which is dispelled by the Devas. The fight between the forces of light and darkness has been the theme of most of the ancient faiths. The Vedic people saw such a conflict as well and they identified Dasyus (their enemies) with darkness. In some cases, a few Dasyus were elevated to a supernatural state and they appear as forces of darkness dispelled by Indra and Agni. The Vedic seers identified their enemies (Dasyus) as the representative of the darkness fought by their Gods.
The word ‘krishnatvac’ used for referring to the Dasas and Dasyus appear to be the result of this identification of Dasyus as representatives of darkness. This makes much more sense because of the following reasons:
1. The Avesta (e.g. Yasna 1.11, 2.5, 2.11, 3.7 etc) have the word ‘Dahyu’ and uses the term as referring to the country, district etc. Similarly, Daha is a term used by the ancient Iranians to refer to a particular tribe. Even in the Rg Veda, Sudas himself has the word ‘Dasa’ in his name. It appears to have used in the sense ‘man’ (‘Sudas’ itself means ‘good man’). Thus, the words ‘Dasa’ and ‘Dasyu’ appear to be Indo-Iranian words. In all probability, these words were used by the Vedic Aryans to refer to their Iranian (Avestan) enemies.
2. The fact that Iranians and the Vedic people became enemies over a period of time and developed different modes of worship gives strength to the above point. Iranians called their God as Asura (Ahura) and their demons as Daevas.
3. No community in the subcontinent has been identified as ‘Dasyu’ community while the terms ‘Dahyu’ and ‘Daha’ were common in ancient Iran.
4. The above three points clearly establish the identity of the Dasa/Dasyu as Iranians. As the Iranians were definitely white in colour, clearly the description of Dasyus as ‘krishnatvac’ seems to be the result of the identification of the Dasyus with forces of darkness.
5. Rg Veda (1.130.8) says that Indra tore off the black skin of the ‘avrata’. But immediately it adds that Indra burns the enemies (tyrannical men). The seer appears to provide a reason for the riteless’ (avratas) black skin (after all the Dasyus are fair in colour). Also, it must be noted that ‘krishnatvac’ can also mean covered by black/darkness.
6. Rg Veda (7.5.6) states that Agni drove away the Dasyus and brought light to the Vedic Aryans. Once again, this shows that the Dasyus were associated with darkness and it justifies the claim made by us that the term ‘krishnatvac’ does not have any anthropological meaning.
The word ‘anasah’ actually proves right that our interpretation of ‘krishnatvac’. The word literally means ‘noseless’ or ‘mouthless’. There is/was no human race/community which lack nose or mouth. Some scholars try to interpret it as flat-nosed. But they forget that the Dravidians are Caucausians as well. As such, they are not flat-nosed. Moreover, they seem to forget a very basic thing when interpreting the word – figure of speech. Even today, the words ‘naak cut gaye’ (nose was cut) is very common phrase used in Hindi to refer to a person who was thoroughly insulted. In Ramayana, Lakshmana is said to have cut the nose of demoness Surpanaka. As such, lack of nose is a matter of insult. Thus, ‘anasah’ is a word of insult used to refer to the Dasa/Dasyus. It could also refer to the fact that the Iranians spoke a variant dialect of the Vedic. As some of their pronunciations were not perfect according to the Vedic standard (use of ‘h’ instead of ‘s’), they could very well be called as ‘noseless’/’mouthless’. The mention of an example of Asura/Mleccha speech in Satapatha Brahmana (3.2.1.23,24) is interesting to note.
All in all, we can see that the words ‘Dasa/Dasyus’ must have been used to refer to the Iranians and not to the tribes of India (especially considering the fact that there are no Dasyu/Dasa tribes in India while the Iranians used the terms to refer to themselves).
Finally, it will do well to go through the commentary of Sri Sayanacharya. Sayana describes the word ‘krishnatvac’ as ‘skin of Krishna’. Krishna is the name of a demon (a force of darkness) mentioned in Rg Veda (he has got nothing to do with the later Sri Krishna who is considered as an avatar of Lord Vishnu). This interpretation does not give any quarter for racial quarrel being mentioned in the Rg Veda. Considering the fact that most of the enemies of the Devas are supernatural beings and atmospheric demons (who are agents of darkness as opposed to the Devas – beings of light), it is more sensible to discard the unnecessary imposition of the western theories of racism on this ancient text. A cursory reading of the later Vedic texts show that there was no colour based discrimination against dark skinned people. After all, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad places the birth of a black skinned son above that of a white skinned son.
