Revisiting the Bhrgus and Angirases - Socio-politics during
Originally shared by KIRON KRISHNAN
Revisiting the Bhrgus and Angirases - Socio-politics during
*Vedic period*
_________________________________________________________________
Between the peaceful, universal verses of love and unity in Rigveda are hidden some of the clashes between different warring religious and political groups across Indian subcontinent and later Iran.
The Rigveda though presents the Indo European speakers as a single united group, also sometimes reveals the presence of warring political and religious groups in the background. Of these some have been opposed by Vedic people themselves - the "Dasa" and "Dasyu" clans. (Later Central Asian "Dahae" and "Dahyu") No wonder why "Dasa" came to mean "slave" and "Dasyu" came to mean "enemy" in later Sanskrit. Even some clan names like "Druhyu" came to be demeaned in later India (interestingly also in select far Indo European areas in Europe too) and "druh-" the root came to be used for violence and irritation. (think of "droha" - disturbance, brutality, violence)
The list of Rigvedic period tribes of Indo European speakers is very large and diverse, in culture and religion too. It ranged from the highly spiritual and theistic poets or bards, to the common agnostic man, to the staunch atheist ("nendras"), anti-theists, anti-socials and even robbers and plunderers, cowboys...
All of these people can be seen in the Vedic literature right from Rigveda itself. The Pani tribe (may be later "Parnoi" of Afghanistan) were the top cowboys, who stole and hid the cows from the social Aryan groups of subcontinent. The several tribes also formed "Dasas" and "Dasyus" of which Dasas may have been political rivals while Dasyus were religious rivals of the "Aryans". The Dasyu is determined as such :
"The inactive enemy, who follows a different rule (derogatory sense), is inhuman".. or some times as "speaking harsh, violent killers"... and they were anti-religious, targeting the practices of the Aryans.
The Bhrgus and Angirases caused a schism, later remembered in India as "VasiSTha - VishvAmitra" controversy, which shows up in the Vedas too. In fact, the major socio-political drifts in India caused polarisation of different warring groups,of which each claimed to be the real "Aryans" (nobles) and these caused the mighty dasarajna war - The Battle of Ten Kings. It was one of the biggest wars recorded at the time, and many tribes including ancestors of Persians (Parshus) fought for India. But Sudas, leading the Puru-Angiras clans, won India. Rigveda exclaims at this miracle : "The lamb has slain the lion"; for Sudas's army was miraculously smaller than the other nine allies.
And Indra began to lose his charm after the war - for Veda tells that the war was won by Sudas because all his opponents could not successfully cross the Indus and tributaries - they got trapped in a flash flood. And our ritualists made Indra responsible for this loss. So that made Indra's status a bit tough. In later ages, as Bhrgus gained acceptance, the Indra was purged off as a mere foolish god.
For Vedic sages, the Indra was the God, but for the common Brahmanic ritualists, Indra was the king of gods who reigned and rained.
The losers retreated to Iran, where they started Zoroastrianism later. In India, everything that had connection with the olden Persian tribes were demonised, and both Indo Aryans and neo Iranian Airyans began an era of cold war in religious philosophy.
The reaction in Iran was obvious - Devas made them flee from India through natural calamities - so Devas became false gods and cheaters in Iran. But still, the older name for God, "Asura"/"Ahura" remained divine name in Iranian culture. This was followed in India by a counter attempt to demonise Asuras and glorify the devas and sacrifices for devas. These sacrifices initially became more materialistic in India as people were fully confident that "Devas will help them". The ritualists started their course in India.
However he remaining tribes in India also soon suspected Vedic deities (actually concepts of God in Vedas that evolved to deities due to ritualists) of tricking and cheating, for not all sacrifices were obviously effective. Later, the "Vedic deities" were to be shunned and new gods taking over their place.
Now came the testimony of poems that each group had. The Rigveda was obviously well preserved if not prone to retroflex-isation. The Yajurveda took the pain of reinstating spirituality among the horrible ritualists who thought that anything could be achieved by material sacrifices. Samaveda was also sung in the best way, even preserving the pronunciations much detailed.
But what happened to another collection of mantras that were common to both Angiras followers (Indo Aryan) and Atharvan (later Iranian) followers? The collection called "atharvAngirasaH", was considered as Veda initially, but soon lost the status in the mainstream. Most of the Indians did not want to remember the common lineage they had with the proto Iranians. Atharva veda was rumoured to be a corpus of blackmagic and "spells which on uttered is sin". Much people did not even agree that as Veda. Atharvan was forgot or marginalised in later Indian mythology, while interestingly, Angiras became the Satan of Zoroastrianism - the "Angra" Mainyu. (though the Greeks held Angelos as divine, English also comes from same root as Angiras)(On the other hand, Greeks also noted the "Phrygians" (Bhrgus?) who made fire and popularised fire rites - compare Atharvan of Rigveda, Atharuuan of Avesta)
It is also speculated that the "alInAs" who fought in Dasarajna most probably, were Hellenes. Anyhow, we can see that the Anus and Bhrgus got a divine status in some parts of Europe.
The Bhrgus left in India came to power later, where they popularised Vishnu clan, and later clans all reformed the blind Brahmanic religion to a different level of multiplicity, borrowing from non Indo European sources too.
Anyhow as we see, the growth of the Indo Aryans and Iranians as distinct groups with opposite philosophy is not a very big surprise. It was the proto partition of Airyan homeland. Though not as bloody as later Indo-Pak one.
Revisiting the Bhrgus and Angirases - Socio-politics during
*Vedic period*
_________________________________________________________________
Between the peaceful, universal verses of love and unity in Rigveda are hidden some of the clashes between different warring religious and political groups across Indian subcontinent and later Iran.
The Rigveda though presents the Indo European speakers as a single united group, also sometimes reveals the presence of warring political and religious groups in the background. Of these some have been opposed by Vedic people themselves - the "Dasa" and "Dasyu" clans. (Later Central Asian "Dahae" and "Dahyu") No wonder why "Dasa" came to mean "slave" and "Dasyu" came to mean "enemy" in later Sanskrit. Even some clan names like "Druhyu" came to be demeaned in later India (interestingly also in select far Indo European areas in Europe too) and "druh-" the root came to be used for violence and irritation. (think of "droha" - disturbance, brutality, violence)
The list of Rigvedic period tribes of Indo European speakers is very large and diverse, in culture and religion too. It ranged from the highly spiritual and theistic poets or bards, to the common agnostic man, to the staunch atheist ("nendras"), anti-theists, anti-socials and even robbers and plunderers, cowboys...
All of these people can be seen in the Vedic literature right from Rigveda itself. The Pani tribe (may be later "Parnoi" of Afghanistan) were the top cowboys, who stole and hid the cows from the social Aryan groups of subcontinent. The several tribes also formed "Dasas" and "Dasyus" of which Dasas may have been political rivals while Dasyus were religious rivals of the "Aryans". The Dasyu is determined as such :
"The inactive enemy, who follows a different rule (derogatory sense), is inhuman".. or some times as "speaking harsh, violent killers"... and they were anti-religious, targeting the practices of the Aryans.
The Bhrgus and Angirases caused a schism, later remembered in India as "VasiSTha - VishvAmitra" controversy, which shows up in the Vedas too. In fact, the major socio-political drifts in India caused polarisation of different warring groups,of which each claimed to be the real "Aryans" (nobles) and these caused the mighty dasarajna war - The Battle of Ten Kings. It was one of the biggest wars recorded at the time, and many tribes including ancestors of Persians (Parshus) fought for India. But Sudas, leading the Puru-Angiras clans, won India. Rigveda exclaims at this miracle : "The lamb has slain the lion"; for Sudas's army was miraculously smaller than the other nine allies.
And Indra began to lose his charm after the war - for Veda tells that the war was won by Sudas because all his opponents could not successfully cross the Indus and tributaries - they got trapped in a flash flood. And our ritualists made Indra responsible for this loss. So that made Indra's status a bit tough. In later ages, as Bhrgus gained acceptance, the Indra was purged off as a mere foolish god.
For Vedic sages, the Indra was the God, but for the common Brahmanic ritualists, Indra was the king of gods who reigned and rained.
The losers retreated to Iran, where they started Zoroastrianism later. In India, everything that had connection with the olden Persian tribes were demonised, and both Indo Aryans and neo Iranian Airyans began an era of cold war in religious philosophy.
The reaction in Iran was obvious - Devas made them flee from India through natural calamities - so Devas became false gods and cheaters in Iran. But still, the older name for God, "Asura"/"Ahura" remained divine name in Iranian culture. This was followed in India by a counter attempt to demonise Asuras and glorify the devas and sacrifices for devas. These sacrifices initially became more materialistic in India as people were fully confident that "Devas will help them". The ritualists started their course in India.
However he remaining tribes in India also soon suspected Vedic deities (actually concepts of God in Vedas that evolved to deities due to ritualists) of tricking and cheating, for not all sacrifices were obviously effective. Later, the "Vedic deities" were to be shunned and new gods taking over their place.
Now came the testimony of poems that each group had. The Rigveda was obviously well preserved if not prone to retroflex-isation. The Yajurveda took the pain of reinstating spirituality among the horrible ritualists who thought that anything could be achieved by material sacrifices. Samaveda was also sung in the best way, even preserving the pronunciations much detailed.
But what happened to another collection of mantras that were common to both Angiras followers (Indo Aryan) and Atharvan (later Iranian) followers? The collection called "atharvAngirasaH", was considered as Veda initially, but soon lost the status in the mainstream. Most of the Indians did not want to remember the common lineage they had with the proto Iranians. Atharva veda was rumoured to be a corpus of blackmagic and "spells which on uttered is sin". Much people did not even agree that as Veda. Atharvan was forgot or marginalised in later Indian mythology, while interestingly, Angiras became the Satan of Zoroastrianism - the "Angra" Mainyu. (though the Greeks held Angelos as divine, English also comes from same root as Angiras)(On the other hand, Greeks also noted the "Phrygians" (Bhrgus?) who made fire and popularised fire rites - compare Atharvan of Rigveda, Atharuuan of Avesta)
It is also speculated that the "alInAs" who fought in Dasarajna most probably, were Hellenes. Anyhow, we can see that the Anus and Bhrgus got a divine status in some parts of Europe.
The Bhrgus left in India came to power later, where they popularised Vishnu clan, and later clans all reformed the blind Brahmanic religion to a different level of multiplicity, borrowing from non Indo European sources too.
Anyhow as we see, the growth of the Indo Aryans and Iranians as distinct groups with opposite philosophy is not a very big surprise. It was the proto partition of Airyan homeland. Though not as bloody as later Indo-Pak one.
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