Page:The Indo-Aryan Races, a study of the origin of Indo-Aryan people and institutions.djvu/18

THE INDO-ARYAN RACES.CHAPTER I. The Aryas and the Anaryas of Vedic India. The dawn of history is heralded in India by the hymns sung by the Rsis and enshrined in the Rgveda Samhita. These hymns reveal two hos- tile peoples in the Land of the Seven Rivers now called the Punjab — the deva- worshipping Arya and the deva-less and rite-less Dasyu or Dasa. The first problem that demands the attention of students of the anthropological history of India is, — who were these Dasyus or non- Aryas of Vedic India ? It is commonly assumed that in the four-fold division of castes (varm=colour) the aborigines, who submitted to, or were subdued by, the Aryan invaders, were represented by the Sudras. " It is reasonable to reckon the Sudra of the later texts as belonging to the aborigines who had been reduced to subjection by the Aryans. " * But this view does not accord well with the data in hand. * Macdonell and Keith's Vedic Index of Names and Sub- jects, London, 1912, Vol. II, p. 388.