G’BYE GOA: INDO-ARYANS By Valmiki Faleiro The arrival of Indo-Aryans in Goa was a total disaster for Goa’s tribals. From masters, tribals were reduced, overnight as it were, to serfs. The new migrants were an entirely different race, originally from lower Eastern Europe, thieves by trade, who bore an alien skin colour, alien language and customs, and weaponry! Let us check the story of how Indo-Aryans – comprising of Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya/Vani, the three ‘upper’ castes that regard themselves ‘dvijas’ (twice born) – got to Goa, as briefly as we can, over the next few Sundays. (It must be remembered that in Goa there was transmigration in the three Indo-Aryan castes. Kshatriya Sardesais, for instance, were formally integrated into the Brahmin caste. A well-known industrious family of Vanis was said to have been admitted without formality, meaning, surreptitiously. A section of Asuras/Gawdas who got into trading were admitted as Vanis.) Indo-Aryans or ‘Indo-European Aryans’ as they were formerly known, originated in the Steppes, north of the Caspian Sea, in southern Russia. They were a larger group called ‘Indo-Iranian Aryans’, but, as we shall see in this interesting story, they split into two, the smaller staying back in the region of Iran, the larger – Indo-Aryans – eventually settling in North India. Indo-Iranian Aryans were semi-nomadic, mostly on the move, in search of new victims. They lived largely by plundering settled tribes. From lower Eastern Europe, they moved southwards. Weaker tribes encountered along the way were looted. They unwittingly arrived at the doorstep of the world’s ancient civilization, Mesopotamia, most of it now in northern Iraq, a smaller part in southeastern Turkey. At the northern frontier of Mesopotamia was Assyria, the gates of which the Indo-Iranian Aryans knocked. The otherwise daring Aryans were no match for the Semitic Assyrians, whose supreme national god, Assur, was the god of war. The Assyrians promptly seized and enslaved the Indo-Iranian Aryans. In bondage, they yearned for their freedom to wander, but the only occasional freedom their captors granted were visits to the city’s markets and port. They were dazzled with they saw. The city’s emporia were magnificent. They learnt that most goods were brought by ‘Panis’ in large ships, from a nation called ‘Suryarashtra’ or ‘Surastra,’ the land of the sun. They vowed to one day break free from the Assyrians and go to this land of promise. Indra was their Moses. In a test run, Indra smuggled himself and two Indo-Aryan clans, the Turvasas and Yadus, into Pani ships sailing home. They landed in Kathiawar, the ancient ‘Surastra’ (Saurashtra.) Glad with what they saw, Indra took consent of its Dravidian rulers and settled his compatriots in the land. Returning on another ship, Indra masterminded a spectacular escape of his people from Assyria. He had keenly studied the city’s system of river dykes, which so helped bring prosperity to the land. But, he had the mighty Vrthra, the Assyrian ruler, to contend with. When his people were ready, Indra challenged and killed Vrthra. As his people fled, he broke the dykes, flooding the city, preventing Assyrian soldiers from pursuing them. Such a multitude could only trudge overland. The long eastward march was replete with upheavals. They encountered settlements en route, which they either plundered or fought back, and moved on. In one such battle in Turkestan, Indra was killed. Bulk of his grateful tribe decided to deify Indra. A section refused to accept a mortal like them as ‘god’ and stayed back in Iran: the Iranian component of ‘Indo-Iranian Aryans.’ (Indra, incidentally, belonged to the group that ages later became the Kshatriya caste.) The rest continued with their onward march under a new leader, Divodassa, across the Hindu Kush Mountains in Afghanistan, the Bolan Pass, finally arriving at an impressive civilization, on the banks of the river Indus. It was the Dravidian Indus Valley Civilization, whose decline by this time had already begun. When exactly this happened, in that pre-historic period (which extends to the 2nd Millennium BC), is obviously not precise. Scholars estimate it as between the late 3rd and mid-2nd Millennia BC (say between 3000-2500 BC.) Archaeological evidence, including Indo-Aryan cemeteries at Sibri and Mehrgarh, near the Bolan Pass, suggests they would positively be by the Indus River by 2000 BC. (To continue.) (ENDS.) The Valmiki Faleiro weekly column at: http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=330 ====================================================================== The above article appeared in the June 7, 2009 edition of the Herald, Goa
