Rigvedic tribes

"She, the holy follower of Universal Order, [Sarasvatī,] has spread us all [the five tribes of the Vedic people (stanza 12)] beyond enmities, beyond the other [seven] sister-rivers, as the sun spreads out the days."

"The next Druhyu king Gandhāra retired to the northwest and gave his name to the Gandhāra country."

"Indian tradition distinctly asserts that there was an Aila outflow of the Druhyus through the northwest into the countries beyond, where they founded various kingdoms."

"Five Purāṇas add that Pracetas‘ descendants spread out into the mleccha countries to the north beyond India and founded kingdoms there."

"After a time, being overpopulated, the Druhyus crossed the borders of India and founded many principalities in the Mleccha territories in the north, and probably carried the Aryan culture beyond the frontiers of India."

"One branch, headed by Uśīnara, established several kingdoms on the eastern border of the Punjab […] his famous son Śivi originated the Śivis [footnote: called Śivas in Rigveda VII.18.7] in Śivapura, and extending his conquests westwards […] occupying the whole of the Punjab except the northwestern corner."

"Sri Aurobindo" says: " It is either an uncritical or a disingenuous method to take isolated passages and give them a particular sense which will do well enough there only while ignoring the numerous other passages in which that sense is patently inapplicable. We must take as a whole all the references in the Veda to the Panis, their wealth , their characteristics, the victory of the Gods, the seers and the Aryans over them and adopt uniformly that conclusion which arises from all the passages thus taken together. When we follow this method we find that in. many of these passages the idea of the Panis as human beings is absolutely impossible and that they are powers either of physical or of spiritual darkness; in others that they cannot at all be powers of physical darkness, but may well be either human enemies of the god-seekers and sacrificers or else enemies of the spiritual Light; in yet others that they cannot be either human enemies or enemies of the physical Light, but are certainly the enemies of the spiritual Light, the Truth and the Thought. From these data there can be only one conclusion, that they are always and only enemies of the spiritual Light.""

"The Panis, says Sri Aurobindo", are constantly spoken of as Dasyus and Dasas, and he ·adds: "We may take as the master-clue to the general character of these Dasyus the Rik V.14.4. 'Agni born shone out slaying the Dasyus, the darkness by the Light: he found the Cows, the Waters, Swar', agnir jato arocata, ghnan dasyiin jyotisa tamab avindad gaapah. svah. There are two great divisions of the Dasyus, the Panis who intercept both the cows and the waters but are especially associated with the refusal of the cows , the Vritras who intercept the waters and the light, but are especially associated with the withholding of the waters; all Dasyus without exception stand in the way of the ascent to Swar, and oppose the acquisition of the wealth by the Aryan seers. The refusal of the light is their opposition to the vision of Swar, svardrs , and the vision of the sun, to the supreme vision of knowledge , upama ketuh (V. 34.9); the refusal of the waters is their opposition to the abundant movement of Swar, svarvatir apah, the movement or strearnings of the Truth, rtasya presa, rtasya dharah; the opposition to the wealth-acquisition is their refusal of the abundant substance of Swar, vasu, dhana, vaja, hiranya, that great wealth which is found in the sun and in the waters , apsu siirye mahad dhanam (VIII.68.9). Still since the whole struggle is between the Light and the Darkness, the Truth and the Falsehood, the divine Maya and the undivine, all the Dasyus alike are here identified with the Darkness; and it is by the birth and shining .of Agni that the Light is created with which he slays the Dasyus and the Darkness. The historical interpretation will not do at all here, though the naturalistic may pass if we isolate the passage and suppose the lighting of the sacrificial fire to be the cause of the daily sunrise; but we have to judge from a comparative study of the Veda and not on the strength of isolated passages.""

"Another eye-opener in this context is Sri Aurobindo's statement:" "It is not with physical weapons but with words that Indra fights the Panis (VI. 39.2), panin vacobhir abhi yodhad indrah", Also in connection with another enemy of the Aryans, Vala who is the "coverer" as Vritra is the "obstructor", Indra uses no weapon. His martial achievement is related to the term brahman in the neuter gender, which, according to Macdonell," signifies in the Rigveda nothing more than "prayer" or "devotion". Sri Aurobindo" explains the term more elaborately along the same lines: "Brahman in the Veda signifies ordinarily the Vedic Word or Mantra in its profoundest aspect as the expression of the intuition arising out of the depth of the soul or being." Thus the Rigveda 11.24.3 in its closing portion tells us of divine action: " ...the firm places were cast down, the fortified places were made weak; up Brihaspati drove the cows (rays), by the hymn (brahmands he broke Vala, he concealed the . . darkness, he made Swar visible.'?' Here the story is linked . with Indra no less than Brihaspati, for the Rishi addresses them jointly. And we may observe that "fortified places" which are the puras that Indra is elsewhere said to destroy are on the scene here. Even when Indra's thunderbolt (vajra) comes in (1.33.10) and his "bow" is mentioned in the same hymn, we soon learn both the nature of the power his weapons really deploy and the way in which he works through his devotees: "0 Indra, by the speakers of the word ' (brahmabhib) thou didst cast down the Dasyu, attacking those who can think not (the Truth) by those who think iamanyamanan abhi manyamanalhs"," As I say towards the end of my book: "To ascribe to the Rigvedic Indra and to his fellow-deities or even to his thinker-proteges physical means of slaughter at any place is to strain the text impermissibly. Whatever weapons are named are symbolic and whatever material-looking objects they demolish are equally symbolisations."

"We learn from the Vedic Index: "In some passages the Panis definitely appear as mythological figures , demons who withhold the cows or waters of heaven ... It is difficult to be certain who a Pani was. It is, however, hardly necessary to do more than regard the Panis generally as non-worshippers of the gods favoured by the singers; the term is wide enough to cover either the aborigines or hostile Aryan tribes as well as demons. ""

""The word pani means dealer, trafficker, from pan (also pan, d. Tamil pan , Greek ponos, labour) .... " A footnote to pan reads: "Sayana takes pan in Veda - to praise, but in one place he admits the sense of vyavahara, dealing. Action seems to me to be its sense in most passages. From pan in the sense of action we have the earlier names of the organs of action, pani, hand, foot or hoof, Lat. penis, d. also piiyu." As a trafficker the Pani is found by Sri Aurobindo to have treasures and yet to be aradhas "because his wealth gives no prosperity or felicity to man or himself, - the Pani is the miser of existence" ."

""The words Panik or Vanik, Panya and Vipani, found in Sanskrit, suggest that the Panis were merchants par excellence of the Rigvedic age", even though "greedy like the wolf, niggardly, of cruel speech"."

"THE son of Druhyu was Babhru; his son was Setu; his son was Áradwat; his son was Gándhára; his son was Dharma; his son was Dhrita; his son was Duryáman; his son was Prachetas, who had a hundred sons, and they were the princes of the lawless Mlechchhas or barbarians of the north."