Dasa Totally Explained

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The Dāsa are a tribe identified as the enemies of the Aryan tribes in the Rigveda. The word Dāsa, later acquired derogatory connotations, meaning 'servant', implying that they were subordinated by the Aryans.
The identity of the Dasa has caused much debate, closely tied to arguments over Indo-Aryan migration, the claim that the Indo-Aryan authors of the Rigveda entered India from outside, displacing its earlier inhabitants. During the nineteenth century Western scholars identified the Dasa with darker Dravidian-speaking peoples, but more recent scholars, notably Asko Parpola, have claimed that they were fellow Indo-Iranians of the BMAC, who initially rejected Aryan religious practices but were later merged with them.
A similar term for enemy people, Dasyu, is also used in the Rig Veda. It is unclear whether the Dasa and Dasyu are identical.

Dasa, Dasyu and Arya

Dasyu is a term that could also be applied to Vedic kings, if their behaviour changed. In the battle of the Ten Kings (Dasarajna) in the Rig Veda the king Sudas calls his enemies "Dasyu" which included Vedic peoples like the Anus, Druhyus, Turvashas, and even Purus. (RV 7.6, 12-14, 18)
There is also a Dasa Balbutha Taruksa in RV 6.45.31 who is a patron of a seer and who is distinguished by his generosity (RV 8.46.32). There are several hymns in the Rigveda that refer to Dasa and Aryan enemies and to related (jami) and unrelated (ajami) enemies (for example 1.111.3, 4.4.5); still, in the battle of the ten kings, there are Dasas and Aryas on both sides of the battlefield and in some Rigvedic verses, the Aryas and Dasas stood united against their enemies..

Etymology of Dasa and related terms

Dasa and related terms have been examined by several scholars. While the terms Dasa and Dasyu have a negative meaning in Sanskrit, their Iranian counterparts Daha and Dahyu have preserved their positive (or neutral) meaning. This is similar to the Sanskrit terms Deva (a "positive" term) and Asura (a "negative" term). The Iranian counterparts of these terms (Daeva and Ahura) have opposite meanings.

Dasa

ť See also Dahae

The meaning of the word dāsa, which has been long preserved in the Khotanese dialect, is "man". Two words that contain "dasa" are the Vedic names Divodās (meaning "divine man") and Sudās (meaning "good man"). Dasa is also in Iranian "Daha", known to Graeco-Roman authors as the Dahae (Daai), designating probably Iranian tribes. The term Daha occurs in a Persepolis inscription of Xerxes (h 26).
Daha also referred to a dasyu tribe in Margiana. Dahistan (east of the Caspian Sea/Gorgan) derives its name from this tribe . The Greek historians Q. Curtius Rufus (8,3) and Ptolemy (Geography: 6,10,2) located the region of the Dahas on the river Margos (modern Murghab) or in Margiana (Parpola 1988). The Dahas are also mentioned by Pomponius Mela (3,42) and Tacitus (Ann. 11,10). Strabo wrote about the Dahae the following: ť "Most of the Scythians, beginning from the Caspian Sea, are called Dahae Scythae, and those situated more towards the east Massagetae and Sacae."
(Strabo, 11-8-1

)

Strabo's description places Dahae nomads in the area around modern Turkmenistan. Tacitus, in the Annals, writes of the Parthian king Vardanes I that he subdued "the intermediate tribes as far as the river Sindes, which is the boundary between the Dahae and the Arians."
Dasyu
Dasyus is in Iranian "dahyu" and means tribe, province and district. "Dah-" means "male, man" in Iranian. The "dahyu-pati" (also dahyunam) was the head of the tribe. The Greek "des-potes and the English "despot" correspond to this term (Windfuhr 1999). A "dahyu-sasti" (command of dahyus) is a confederation of two or more dahyus.
Related terms
ť See also Panis

Other hostile tribes, besides the Dasas and Dasyus, that are mentioned in the Vedic texts are the Panis (Afghan Pannis?), Pakthas (Pakthun or Pashtuns?), Parshus (Persian tribes?), Prthus (Parthians?) and Bhalanas (Baluchis?). The Irish term Déisi may be cognate; it originally described "vassals" or "subjects" and was later the proper name of certain population groups.

Anasa

In RV 5.29.10, the word anasa is in connection with the Dasyus. Some scholars have translated anasa as "noseless". Although there's only one instance in the Rig Veda where this word occurs, this has led to belief that the Dasyus were "flat-nosed" people. But the classical commentator Sayana translated anasa as "without mouth or face" (anas = an "negative" + as "mouth"). Sayana's translation is supported by the occurrence of the word mrdhravacah in the same verse. Sayana explains the word mrdhravacah as "having defective organs of speech" (Rg Veda 1854-57:3.276 n.).

The religion of the Dasas/Dasyus

The main difference between the Aryas and the Dasas in the Rig Veda is a difference of religion. Already A. A. Macdonell and A. B. Keith (1912) remarked that: "The great difference between the Dasyus and the Aryans was their religion... It is significant that constant reference is made to difference in religion between Aryans and Dasa and Dasyu." The Dasas and Dasyus are also described as brahma-dvisah in the Rig Veda, which Ralph T.H. Griffith translates as "those who hate devotion" or "prayer haters". Thus Dasa has also been interpreted as meaning the people that don't follow the same religion as the Aryans. Rig Veda 10.22.8 describes the Dasa-Dasyus as a-karman (non-performers of Aryan sacrifices), anya-vrata (observers of other rites) and in Rig Veda 10.105.8 they're described as anrc (non-singer of laudatory hymns). In RV 8.70.11 they're described as a-deva-yu (not regarding Deva ).

Devas versus Asuras

This divide goes back to the composition of the Rig Veda. Both the religions believe in the holiness of the Veda except that the Zarathustrians believe in certain sections of the Rig Veda. When the Rig Veda was being written, there occurred a divide among the Brahmanas writing it. The Brahmanas of the Pauravas (Indians) or Parthas believed that Aditi was the good mother of the gods while the Irani or Dasa Brahmanas believed that Diti was. The Pauravas' chief god was Shri Indra and said that He has overtaken Shri Varuna as the leader of the gods. The Irani believed that Shri Varuna was still the chief of the gods. In the Irani pantheon, Shri Indra was given the status of a demon while they worshipped an Indra-like character who accepts the law of Varuna known as Indar. From this originated the Dasarajna war in which the ten kingdoms of the Irani, represented by the Brahmana Vishwamitra fought against the Indian King Sudas. From then on, the Indians referred to the asuras as the demons while Devas were the gods and the Irani, viceversa. When Zarathustrianism was established, Shri Varuna who Zarathustra referred to as the Ahura Mazda (Rigvedic Assur Mehda or Assur Mahad) was God Almighty while all other spirits were given the status of angels.
That the Dasa were Iranic is no doubt as the Rig Veda mentions, that the Dasa, along with the Dasyu and Panis live beyond the Rasa River. That the river was a division between the "Devas" and the "Asuras" is also acknowledged in the Vedas. Scholars such as Tilak have connected "Rasa" to the Avestan "Rangha", which is supposed to have been near the Hapta Hindu.

Symbolical and spiritual interpretations

Religious Hindu authors like Sri Aurobindo believe that words like Dasa are used in the Rig Veda symbolically and should be interpreted spiritually, and that Dasa doesn't refer to human beings, but rather to demons who hinder the spiritual attainment of the mystic. Many Dasas are purely mythical and can only refer to demons. There is for example a Dasa called Urana with 99 arms (RV II.14.4), and a Dasa with six eyes and three heads in the Rig Veda.
According to Aurobindo (The Secret of the Veda), RV 5.14.4 is a key for understanding the character of the Dasyus: ť Agni born shone out slaying the Dasyus, the darkness by the light, he found the Cows, the Waters, Swar. (transl. Aurobindo)

Aurobindo explains that in this verse the struggle between light and darkness, truth and falsehood, divine and undivine is described. It is through the shining light created by Agni, god of fire, that the Dasyus, who are identified with the darkness, are slain. The Dasyus are also described in the Rig Veda as intercepting and withholding the Cows, the Waters and Swar ("heavenly world"; RV 5.34.9; 8.68.9). It isn't difficult, of course, to find very similar metaphors, equating political or military opponents with evil and darkness, even in contemporary propaganda. K.D. Sethna (1992) writes: "According to Aurobindo,(...) there are passages in which the spiritual interpretation of the Dasas, Dasyus and Panis is the sole one possible and all others are completely excluded. There are no passages in which we lack a choice either between this interpretation and a nature-poetry or between this interpretation and the reading of human enemies." And according to Koenraad Elst: "When it's said that Agni, the fire, “puts the dark demons to flight”, one should keep in mind that the darkness was thought to be filled with ghosts or ghouls, so that making light frees the atmosphere of their presence. And when Usha, the dawn, is said to chase the "dark skin" or "the black monster" away, it obviously refers to the cover of nightly darkness over the surface of the earth."

The Dasas/Dasyus and krsna or asikni

In the Rig Veda, Dasa, Dasyu and similar terms (for example Pani) occur sometimes in conjunction with the terms krsna ("black") or asikni ("black"). This was often the basis for a "racial" interpretation of the Vedic texts. But Sanskrit is a language that uses many metaphors. The word cow for example can mean Mother Earth, sunshine, wealth, language, Aum etc. Words like "black" have similarly many different meanings in Sanskrit, as it's in fact the case in most languages. Thus "black" has many symbolical, mythological, psychological and other uses that are simply unrelated to human appearance.
Also Iyengar (1914) commented on such interpretations: "The only other trace of racial reference in the Vedic hymns is the occurrence of two words, one krishna in seven passages and the other asikini in two passages. In all the passages, the words have been interpreted as referring to black clouds, a demon whose name was Krishna, or the powers of darkness." (6-7, Iyengar, Srinivas. 1914.) Sri Aurobindo commented that in the RV III.34 hymn, where the word Arya varna occurs, Indra is described as the increaser of the thoughts of his followers: "the shining hue of these thoughts, sukram varnam asam, is evidently the same as that sukra or sveta Aryan hue which is mentioned in verse 9. Indra carries forward or increases the "colour" of these thoughts beyond the opposition of the Panis, pra varnam atiracchukram; in doing so he slays the Dasyus and protects or fosters and increases the Aryan "colour", hatvi dasyun pra aryam varnam avat." Thus, Aurobindo sees the Arya varna or lustre of the thoughts that Indra increases as psychological. In several Lord Indra is also said to be a white bull with and his friends are the Maruts, who are horses so when the Rig Veda speaks of a certain color they mean the color of god as an animal. For example, the twin deities Nastya and Dasra are said to be "horse princes." In some Rig Vedic verses, even Lord Agni is said to be the red bull that stands out from the dark bulls.(External Link

) The term krsnavonih in RV 2.20.7 has been interpreted by Asko Parpola as meaning "which in their wombs hid the black people". Sethna (1992) writes, referring to a comment by Richard Hartz, that "there is no need to follow Parpola in assuming a further unexpressed word meaning "people" in the middle of the compound krsnayonih", and the better known translation by Griffith, for example "who dwelt in darkness" can be considered as essentially correct. Another scholar, Hans Hock (1999), finds Karl Friedrich Geldner's translation of krsnayonih (RV 2.20.7) as "Blacks in their wombs" and of krsnagarbha (RV 1.101.1) as "pregnant with the Blacks" "quite recherché" and thinks that it could refer to the "dark world" of the Dasas.
In RV 4.16.13, Geldner has assumed that "krsna" refers to "sahasra" (thousands). But this would be grammatically incorrect. If krsna would refer to "sahasra", it should be written as krsnan (acc. pl. masc.). Hans Hock (1999) suggests that "krsna" refers to "puro" (forts) in this verse.

Tvac

There are three instances in the Rig Veda where the phrase krsna (or ashikni) tvac occurs, literally translating to "black (or swarthy) skin": ť 1.130.8de

   — "Plaguing the lawless he [Indra] gave up to Manu's seed the dusky skin" (trans. Griffith) ť 9.41.1

   — "active and bright have they come forth, impetuous in speed like bulls, Driving the black skin far away." (trans. Griffith) ť 9.73.5cd

   — "Blowing away with supernatural might from earth and from the heavens the swarthy skin which Indra hates." (trans. Griffith) Tvac "skin" does, however, also take a secondary, more general meaning of "surface, cover" in the Rigveda, in particular referring to the Earth's surface. For this reason, there can be debate on whether instances of krsna tvac should be taken to refer literally to a "black skinned people". Maria Schetelich (1990) considers it a symbolic expression for darkness. Similary, Michael Witzel (1995b) writes about terms like krsna tvac that "while it would be easy to assume reference to skin colour, this would go against the spirit of the hymns: for Vedic poets, black always signifies evil, and any other meaning would be secondary in these contexts". Hans Hock argues along similar lines This interpretation could also be viewed as nothing more than political bias against the suggestion of racism.
   The Rigvedic commentator Sayana explains the word tvacam krsna (RV 1.130.8) as referring to an asura (demon) called Krsna whose skin was torn apart by Indra.

Dasa, in Hinduism

The present day usage of Dasa in Hinduism has respectful connotation and not derogatory. It always means 'slave of god'. In the past, many saints from all castes added it in their names signifying their total devotion to god. An example is Mohandas Gandhi. Another example is Surdas, the blind Brahmin poet. 'Das' is one of the common surnames of Brahmins, especially in East India. '. As any other proper word to translate the word "slave" is absent in Sanskritized Hindi, the word Dāsa is used for the same. Further more in the bhakti yoga a person can be in a relationship with God in any of the 5 ways and one of the relationships is Dasyu-bhakta, meaning being a "slave of God" as said before. All initiated male members of ISKCON have the word "dasa" at the end of their initiated names, meaning "servant", and all initiated female members of ISKCON have the words "devi dasi", which means "goddess servantess" (dasi is the feminine form of das) Example: Urmila devi dasi. Then the first part of their names is a name for something connected with divinity: often a name of Krishna or of Radha.

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