> [[parpola]]. *The Roots of Hinduism: The Early Aryans and the Indus Civilization*. Oxford, 2015. [academia](https://www.academia.edu/43518470/The-Roots-of-Hinduism), [pdf](a/a-parpola2015.pdf) `a-parpola2015.epub` ## Extracts “worship, sacrifice” (yasna in Avestan, yajña in Vedic) “prayer, spell” (manthra in Avestan, mantra in Vedic) the cultic phrase “with hands raised up in homage” (ustānazastō . . . nmŋhā in Avestan, uttānahasto namasā in Vedic). “ārya (Old Indo-Aryan) and arya (Old Iranian)”. Old Iranian genitive plural aryānām, “(country) of the Aryas,” -> "Iran". “many philologists think it originally stood for “hospitable, noble,” or for “master of the household, lord.” “Not surprisingly, Early PIE had a word for horse, *éḱwos*. Moreover, the horse is the only animal to figure prominently in the personal names of several peoples speaking early IE languages, such as Old Indo-Aryan, Old Iranian, ancient Greek, Gaulish Celtic, and Old English, who in addition worshipped deities associated with the horse and offered horse sacrifices.” “ kléos áphthiton (Iliad 9,413) and Sanskrit śrávo . . . ákṣitam (RV 1,9,7), both of which mean “imperishable fame” and derive from PIE *ḱlewes *ṇdhgwhitom URALIC “The homeland should be in the neighborhood of the Ural Mountains, because Proto-“Uralic has words for the Cembra pine, *sïksi, and the Siberian fir, *ńulka, and these trees do not grow west of the Kama and Pechora rivers. In addition, Proto-Uralic has native terms for metals, the most important being *wäśka, “copper or bronze,” which suggests primitive native metallurgy, such as that of the Chalcolithic Garino-Bor culture of the Kama Valley before the arrival of the Abashevo people (Fig. 7.2).” “Another loanword for a metal object is Proto-West-Uralic *vaśara, “hammer, ax,” from Proto-Indo-Aryan *vaj’ra-, “weapon of the war-god”; it probably originally denoted the ax or mace of the Sejma-Turbino warriors, but later acquired the meaning “hammer” from the Nordic war-god Thor. ” PIE *medhu-* "honey; mead" --> Proto-Uralic *mete-* Grk. *méthu* "wine" “In Vedic India, the reception of a respected guest included a “drink mixed with honey” (madhu-parka, madhu-mantha). Alcoholic drinks are assumed to have played a vital part in the life of the early Indo-European and Aryan elites.” --- “Several Proto-Aryan religious terms have become part of Proto-Uralic, too. From Proto-Indo-Aryan *stambha-s, “pillar, world-pillar,” comes Proto-Finnic “*sampas, “pillar, world pillar”; it figures as a much coveted treasure in ancient Finnic epic poetry in the form of a magic mill called Sampo that has a star-speckled cover. (The vault of heavens rotates around the axis of the world-pillar supporting the heavens; its being conceived as a magic mill that grinds riches for its owner is due to Germanic mythology.) Even more important is *juma- (in this spelling j is the semivowel corresponding to y in English yoke), “god, highest god, heaven” (Jumala is the word for “God” with a capital G in modern Finnish), from Proto-Indo-Aryan *dyuma(n)t-, “heavenly, shining; epithet of Indra, the god of thunder and war. “In view of this religious intercourse and interethnic collaboration of peoples who probably spoke Proto-Indo-Aryan and Proto-East-Uralic in the steppes, even as far as southern Turkmenistan (see below), I have ventured to propose that the name of the Aryan god Indra, which has defied earlier etymological explanations, might come from that of the Proto-Uralic god of weather, thunder and sky, *Ilmar / *Inmar. Ilmarinen, one of the chief war heroes in ancient Finnic epic poetry, is also mentioned as the smith who made the vault of heavens and Sampo; in Finnish, ilma is the usual word for “air, atmosphere, weather.” The change of the Udmurt form Inmar into Indra is not too difficult to imagine: after a metathesis ar > ra, occasioned by the fact that so many Aryan words end in -ra (including *vaj’ra, which denotes Indra’s weapon), the insertion of d between the nasal and r is to be expected (compare Greek anēr, “man,” genitive an-d-ros).” --- “In the Rigveda, marya- means “young man, young warrior, suitor, lover, husband,” corresponding to Avestan mairiia-, “rascal” (this pejorative sense refers to those who opposed the Zoroastrian religion)” --- “In the Veda, the “adhvaryu-pair” of priests, that is, the Adhvaryu and the Pratiprasthātar, are equated with the two Aśvins, the divine charioteers (Taittirīya-Āraṇyaka 3,3 *aśvinādhvaryū*). These two priests are actually in charge of the gharma ritual, in which hot milk is offered to the Aśvins (chapter 11). The word adhvaryu- literally means “one connected with the road(s)” and may originally have meant “charioteer,” who keeps the chariot on the road. Thus the word prati-prasthātar- may originally have denoted the “chariot-warrior who stands in front opposite (to the charioteer).” --- “The royal archive of the Hittite kings at Boğasköy also contained a peace treaty between the Hittite king Suppiluliuma I and the Mitanni king Šattivaza. This contract, made around 1350 BCE, reduced the Mitanni empire to a vassal kingdom. Four Indo-Aryan deities are asked to be divine witness of the treaty: Mitra (Mi-it-ra-), Varuṇa (A-ru-na-), Indra (In-da-ra-), and the Nāsatya twins (Na-aš-ša-at-ti-ya-). After the text has mentioned about a hundred divine witnesses on the Hittite side follow two dozen divine witnesses of the Mitanni king, the Indo-Aryan gods being in the middle. These same deities are mentioned, in the same order, in Rigveda 10,125,1: aham mitrāvaruṇobhā bibharmy aham indrāgnī aham “aśvinobhā; the only difference is that instead of Indra in the treaty, Indra-and-Agni are mentioned here, and the divine charioteer twins are mentioned by a different name; yet the name Nāsatya, “rescuer, savior” is very commonly used in the Rigveda for the Aśvins (Thieme 1960).“In addition to the Indo-Aryan gods mentioned in this treaty come two further Indo-Aryan deities, the fire-god Agni (A-ak-ni-iš), mentioned in Hittite ritual texts, and the sun-god Sūrya (Šu-ri-ya-áš), equated with the Akkadian sun-god Šamaš in a glossarial cuneiform tablet from Babylonia during the Kassite rule (c. 1570–1155 BCE). The Kassite rulers were a “minority elite (like the Indo-Aryans of Mitanni) whose homeland since the eighteenth century BCE seems to have been Luristan in the Zagros Mountains east of Babylonia; their language is without known relatives.” --- # NAMES “a chief called Pṛthuśravas, “widely famed,” - Kirta (Ki-ir-ta) "father of" - Šuttarna (Šu-ut-tar-na) "son of Kirta" - Parsatatar (Par-sa-ta-tar) "father of Sauštatar" - Saušsatat(t)ar, Sauštatar (Sa-uš-sa-ta-(at-)tar in Alalaḥ, Sa-uš-ta-at-tar in Nuzi) "son of Parsatatar" Artatama (Ar-ta-ta-a-ma) (son or descendant of Sauštatar) = Vedic ṛtá-dhāman-, “having Law as his abode” (for Arta-, cf. also the Old Persian names in Greek sources, such as Artabazos, Artaphernes) Šuttarna (Šu-ut-tar-na) II Artaššumara (Ar-ta-aš-šu-ma-ra) (son of Šuttarna) = *Ṛta-smara- Tušratta (Tu-uš-rat-ta, Tu-iš-e-rat-ta, Tu-uš-e-rat-ta) (younger son of Šuttarna) = Proto-Indo-Aryan *Tvaišaratha > Vedic tveṣá-ratha-, “having a rushing chariot” “Parattarna (Par-ra-at-tar-na) I Šattivaza (KUR-ti-ú-a(z)-za) = *Sāti-vāja-, “obtaining booty” (cf. Vedic vāja-sāti-, vājasya sāti-) “Two previously unexplained royal Mitanni names, Sauštattar and Parsatattar, can be explained, I believe, from the Indo-Aryan terms savyasthātar and prasthātar, which both denote “chariot-warrior” (Fig. 8.11). Mayrhofer (1974) has mentioned *Su-sthātar-, “provided with good horse drivers,” as the most likely earlier proposal, noting that such a compound would be semantically suitable as the name of a nobleman; the problem is that this compound is not attested in Vedic or Avestan. Mayrhofer has suggested reading Parsatattar as Puraḥ-sthātar-, “one who stands in front, leader,” attested in Rigveda 8,46,13. As Sauštattar’s descendants’ names are all connected with Vedic chariotry, I propose *Savya-šthātar-, “one who stands on the left (in the chariot), chariot-warrior” (as opposed to the charioteer, who stands on the right in the chariot, cf. TB 1,7,9,1 dvau savyeṣṭha-sārathī; other parallels in Vedic texts are savya-ṣṭhā- in AV 8,8,23, and savya-ṣṭha- in ŚB 5,2,4,9; 5,3,1,8; 5,4,3,17–18). Parsatattar could be *Pra-sthātar-, “chariot-fighter who stands in front.” “Besides the names of the Mitanni kings, a number of other Proto-Indo-Aryan personal names are known, many of them being maryanni. Several names are compounds ending in atti, that is, *atthi, which corresponds to Vedic atithi-, “guest.” Five names formed with atithi as the last part, “having X as his guest,” usually with a god’s name as the first part, occur in the hymns of the Kāṇva poets of the Rigveda: Medhyātithi, Medhātithi, Nīpātithi, Mitrātithi, and Devātithi. “Aššuratti, Ašuratti = *Asurātthi Biriyatti, Biryatti = *Priyātthi Intaratti = Indrātthi Maryatti = *Maryātthi Mitaratti = Vedic Mitrātithi, as a proper name in the Rigveda Šauššatti Šuwatti, Šuwatiti = *Suvatthi Šuryatti = Sūryātthi Paratti = *Prātthi “Other Proto-Indo-Aryan proper names are Ar-ta-am-na = *Ṛta-mna-, “having the mind of Law” (cf. Vedic ṛtásya . . . mánas and the Persian name Artamenēs in Greek sources) Aššuzzana = *Aśva-canas- (cf. Aspa-canah- as a personal name in Old Persian) Bi-ri-ya-aš-šu-va = Indo-Aryan *Priyāśva- Biridašva = *Prītāśva- Bi-ir-ya-ma-aš-da = Proto-Indo-Aryan *Priya-mazdha- > Vedic Priyá-medha-, as a personal name in the Rigveda “Indaruta (In-tar-ú-da, En-dar-ú-ta) = Vedic Indrotá- (= Indra-ūtá-) Šattavaza = *Sāta-vāja- (cf. Sāti-vāja as the name of a Mitanni king) Šu-ba-an-du = Vedic Sanskrit Subandhu-, as a personal name in the Rigveda Zantarmiyašta = Proto-Indo-Aryan *-miyazdha- > Vedic -miyédha-, “sacrificial meal” Zitra = Vedic Citrá-, ‘brilliant, radiant’, occurring as a personal name in the Rigveda.” --- # Non-Aryans “Indra and his protégés, particularly kings Divodāsa and Purukutsa, are said to have vanquished “black-skinned” enemies called Dāsa, Dasyu, and Paṇi, who neither worshipped Indra nor sacrificed soma but had their own observances (vrata) and were rich in cattle. Indra and Agni helped the Aryans to destroy the numerous enemy strongholds, in particular those of Dāsa Śambara situated among mountains. Though “human foes are undoubtedly meant, many of these enemies are presented as demons. In the Rigveda, dāsá- normally appears to mean “member of an enemy tribe” or “enemy demon.” These meanings are implicated in the corresponding adjective or derived noun dā´sa-, which in classical Sanskrit (as dāsa-) means “slave”; this meaning occurs four times in the Rigveda. We may note many historical parallels in which the name of a people captured in war comes to mean “slave,” for instance, Finnish orja, “slave,” derived from ārya-, “Aryan,” and also English slave, which derives via French esclave and late Latin sclavus from Byzantine Greek esklabēnós, “Slav taken as war-captive, slave". Excerpt From: Asko Parpola. “The Roots of Hinduism: The Early Aryans and the Indus Civilization.” Apple Books. ## Their fortresses “Wilhelm Rau (1976) pointed out in his examination of the Rigvedic descriptions, the Dāsa forts are described as having many concentric and circular walls—which do not match the layout of the Indus cities. In 1988, I spotted an archaeological counterpart to this description of the Dāsa forts in the so-called “temple-fort” of the BMAC in Dashly-3, excavated in the 1970s in northern Afghanistan (Sarianidi 1977): it has three concentric circular walls (Fig. 20.3a). This suggested to me that the major fights between the Aryans and the Dāsas probably took place not in the Indus Valley but in the Indo-Iranian borderlands, en route to the Indus Valley. “According to RV 6,21,11, gods “made Mánu superior/successor to Dása.” This is the only occurrence of the word dása- in Sanskrit; it may denote the ancestor of the Dāsas, while Mánu is the mythical ancestor of the Vedic Aryans.” --- # Sakas “The royal inscriptions of Darius contain...“In the lists of twenty-seven and twenty-nine countries, after Gandhara and Indus follow the Sakas now divided into two varieties, Sakā haumavargā, “Sakas with hauma cult,” and Sakā tigraxaudā, “Sakas wearing pointed caps.” --- “exposure burial, which is associated with the Zoroastrian religion. Burials are not permitted for the Zoroastrians, because they would defile earth, which is one of Ahura Mazdā’s creations. --- “The Rigvedic hymns are addressed to gods, whom they praise, whom they invite to a sacrificial meal and to whom they pray for long life, sons, cattle, victory in battle, or fame.” --- “Indra, the god of war and thunder, is described as a robust and bearded warrior, who wields the lightning bolt as his mace (vajra), is victorious in battle, and has an insatiable thirst for his soma drink. Indra is the chief divinity of the Rigvedic people, to whom more than one-quarter of the collection of 1028 hymns is addressed. Indra’s most important feat is the release of the waters by killing the dragon Vṛtra, whose name means “enclosure, obstruction.” Maruts, the storm winds, assist Indra. Indra also helps in finding the cattle “captured by the enemy, especially the demon Vala, who keeps the cows in a cave; in this Indra is helped by Bṛhaspati with magic spells. Indra helps Aryan kings to destroy the fortifications of the Dāsas. He is also a demiurge who creates the sun, the heaven, and the dawns.” --- “Second in popularity is Agni, the god of fire (agni-, related to Latin ignis, “fire,” and Russian ogon’, “fire”). As the ritual fire into which libations of ghee and soma are poured and other offerings placed, Agni is the mouth of the gods, and the divine priest and messenger. He assists Indra in burning the enemy forts.” --- “Third most popular (as measured by the number of hymns devoted to him) is Soma, the god praised in Book 9. “Soma is the invigorating divine juice that enhances a warrior’s performance and keeps a poet inspired and vigilant. It is pressed, using stones, from the stalks of the soma plant, after they have been soaked in hot water. Soma is both sacrificed to gods, especially Indra, and imbibed by the priests and poets. Vedic soma corresponds to Avestan haoma, both from older *sauma, derived from the verb *sau-, “to press out.” The botanical identity of the plant has been much debated. Rhubarb, hops, fly-agaric mushroom, and harmel or wild rue are some of the alternative candidates proposed, but nowadays the identification of the soma plant as belonging to the genus Ephedra is widely accepted. Ephedra is the source of ephedrine, a ” “banned drug among modern sportsmen, thus fit to enhance Indra’s martial feats. Moreover, Ephedra has been used for many centuries for haoma by Zoroastrians in both central Iran and India. In Nepal Ephedrais called soma-latā, “soma creeper,” which suggests its use for soma in North India. In South India, where Ephedra does not grow, Sarcostemma brevistigma, a leafless climber similar to Ephedra, has been used as a substitute (Flattery & Schwartz 1989; Falk 1989; Nyberg 1995).” --- “mportant deities, to whom relatively few hymns are addressed in the Rigveda, are Mitra (“contract”), the divine guardian of pacts, and Varuṇa (perhaps “true speech”), the upholder of the cosmic and social “order, who punishes sinners; these two usually appear as a dual divinity, Mitra-Varuṇa; they are the foremost in the group of divinities called Ādityas, to be discussed below. Also important are the horse-owning twins, Aśvins or Nāsatyas, whose sister and bride is the most important goddess of the Rigveda, the beautiful goddess of Dawn, Uṣas (whose name is related to Greek Ēōs and Latin Aurora). Other nature gods are the sun god, Sūrya; the wind god, Vāyu or Vāta; the rain god, Parjanya; Dyaus, “Heaven, Sky”; and Pṛthivī, “Earth.” The latter two are the father and mother of the gods and the world; they were inherited from the Proto-Indo-European pantheon, although Dyaus is less important than Greek Zeus and Roman Jupiter. Minor “divinities are many, including Pūṣan, a pastoral deity who helps in finding paths, the creator god Tvaṣṭar (“carpenter, fashioner”) and Savitar (“impeller, commander”). Viṣṇu and Śiva, who dominate the later Hindu pantheon, are to some extent already present in the Rigveda, the latter under the name Rudra (see chapter 12), but as rather marginal divinities. Viṣṇu is a friend and helper of Indra. His Rigvedic feat of measuring the universe in three steps is often referred to in later Vedic literature and forms the basis of his dwarf (Vāmana) incarnation in classical Hinduism.” --- LEFT OFF AT "“Vedic scholars have long noted a marked contrast between the somewhat barbaric main hero god”