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ORIGIN OF DRAHMIN (IOTRAS
prctation is not in doubt, and whcthcr Vstra was a rcal person (pcrhaps a Pani): or not, killing him as a dcmon of darkness ranks Indra with Ahuramazda, Ashur, Marduk and a long linc of Tiamat-killers. But Indra's chariot, weapons, and killing of specific pcoplc Icavcs little doubt that in some cascs at lcast, human actions arc mcant. One is somctimcs tcmpied to cquatc asura with Assyrian. It would makc bcticr scnsc to rcgard thc Asuras as luman, if not Assyrians, at lcast in x.138.3, 1.30.4 and vii.99.5, for thc intcrprctation that these Asuras were gods worshipped by the fuc is quitc unconvincing. Thcir traditional battlc-cry hclayo helayah, rcportcci by Patañjali as an examplc of barbarous speech, is still familiar and recognizable in "Hallelujah." As a general principic, howcycr, wc may note that the more rcmote the cvent, thc grcater the tendency to rcgard it as superhuinan rather than human. This may be taken as a reasonably safc guidc. Now onc tradition which I shall utilize with special cmphasis concerns king Sudós and his pcoplc. Thcsc arc helped by Indra, and as the battlcs take place with "ton kings" (by actual count of scattered rcfcrcnccs, ncarcr threc tincs that number)in quitc well-dctcrmincel river vallcys, wc arc safc in taking thic referencc as historical.
The second point is a matter of gcography. Thcrc cxistcd Aryans outsidc India, cven in the oldest days, and therc is no cvidcncc for the hypothesis that all spread out from India, so that the Indo-Aryan tribes of the Rgveda
oc taken as invaders. Thc god Viśyakarman of x.81,82 has a grcat dcal in common with cxtrancous dcitics like Ashur (perhaps hiinsclf cxplicit in x. 31.6) or Ahura-mazda, bcing the only god with both arms and wings (x.81.3); the storm-gods, thc Maruts, cannot bc unconnected with thc Kassitc Maruttash. Thc gcncral story is of an advancc to the cast, thc Drang nach Oslen being proved by thc displacement of namcs such as the Sarasvati, idcntificd with thc Hilmand, with a strcam in Arachosia, and so progressively down to a strcam in south-cast Punjab which, for all Indic tradition, is the real Sarasvati. This is unfortunate in one way, as some doubt is raised thercby whcthcr thc events connected with Sudās happened in India at all, for the story could havc bccn transferred with the river names. The answer is that there is no reason to doubt thé accounts which mention thc Yamunā and the Gangā but nothing further cast. Thc wholesale transplantation of storics not known in any other Aryan tradition would be extraordinary. Also, wc have amplc archacological cvidcncc to the cffect that before 1500 B.C. fully developed cities of a prc-Aryan civilization were destroyed by invaders, so that the fortificd citics (pura) and fortresses (durga v. 34.7) destroyed by Indra have a dcfinitc cxistcncc.
There is ample cvidcncc for the co-existence of more than onc strcam of tradition, ever in the oldest sources. Thc first man is Manu in i.36,19, but also Yama in x.135.1-2; and as thc first mortal (voluntarily choosing death for the
