Re: Indo-European Studies
Peter Metcalfe (P.Metcalfe@student.canterbury.ac.nz)
8 Jul 95 14:54:47 +1200
In article, geroldf@sdd.hp.com (Gerold Firl) writes:
[deletions]
> In any case, the migration down from the passes of the hindu kush was
> *long* before anything was written down. Within a few generations, such
> memories get very vague. I have always pictured the myths of the battles
> between the aryans gods and the dark-skinned demons as allegories of the IE
> conquest, but now that you mention it, I'm not sure whether there is a
> sense that the demons had been here first, and the gods arriving later.
I think the demons are a conflation of two enemies. The Sanskirt word
'Deva' denoting a good being is roughly cognate our 'devil' whereas
their word for devil 'ashura' (IIRC) is cognate with our 'angel'. The
cognates are much closer in the Iranian texts of Zoastorianism. Thus it
appears that the Aryan invaders of India and the Iranians hated each
others guts when they split off.
The 'Drasa' in the Indian texts are thought to be natives of india at
the time of the Aryan invasion and so-called for their squat noses. This
is thought to be indicative of the fact that people similar to the negritos
of the Andaman islands were also found among the mainland. Nowadays, the
mainland negritos have long since been absorbed into the mainland gene pool,
although their languages has adapted with the times and still survives to
this day.
More information in support of the Aryan Invasion (swiped from Campbell's
Oriental Mythology) can be found in the traditions of the kings who asked
various questions of the Brahmans. When the Brahmans were unable to answer,
the Kings (Khshahtri? my memory is not very good) told them the answer.
This is _consistent_ with the importation of new religious thought with
the Aryan invasion.
All of the top of my head, naturally. I don't go for the BJP stuff.
--Peter Metcalfe
|