CHAPTER III.
Artana'' original settlement. Foreign evidence. Evidence of language. Objections answered. Zend Avesta and Persian tradition considered.
In dealing with the foreign evidence, bearing on the question of the primitiye settlement of the Arians, one great difScuUy consists in our own misfortune. We are unable to concur in the opinion, maintained by many eminent scholars, that the original Arian home was on the slopes of the Hindu Kush. We shall therefore first state the exact question at issue. ■ We seem to be all agreed that the ancestors oi the Brahmins came to India from beyond the Indus, that when they came they were themselves strangers to India, and India was a strange soil to thorn, that whether they came as conquerors, adventurers, or fugitives, the aboriginal inhabitants showed them no hospitality, nor allowed them to settle in the country without astruggle. Thus far we seem to be agreed. And as far as our own domestic interests are concerned, one main point is concurred in with the unanimous consent of scholars, and without any perceptible dissentient voice from. the representatives of Brahminism. The position thus gained by the friends of Progress is itself of vast importance. The great bulwark of Brahminism ia yielded without a struggle. For after this concession, those who have raised an enormous structure of Caste, on the aystem, introduced by the Arian immigrants, can no longer hold Ariavarta to be the original settlement of the A'ria (WJ?) race, nor the ancestors of Brahmins, either, to have been *' autochthones" of Indian soil. They must, for consistency's sake, abandon their superstructure. For, the maintenance of the Brahminical system would compel them to hold that Ariavarta was the primitive home of the Arians. Without such a historical finding, Brahminism cannot stand, except as a spectacle of contempt and derision, a huge fabric founded on an admittedly exploded myth. If the ancestors of the Brahmans were themselves emigrants from an outlandish soil, "the earthly gods"' of India must be proved to be descendants of a Mlecha reice. And then the boast of a Brahminical pedigree, co-eval with the creation of gods and the heavenly bodies, mountains and rivers, must vanish.^ Such pretensions cannot be consistent with the faot of the Arian emigration from the other side of the Indus.
But so strong is the evidence of Comparative philology, and so numerous are the admissions and alluflions in the Vedas themselves, that no one, laying any claims to the position of an educated man, can dare to deny the fact of the Arian immigration. Even vernacular manuals, composed by authors who are strict observers of the caste system, inculcate that fact as a lesson of undoubted history.
Our difficulties commence from this point. After tracking the migratory path of the Arians to the other side of the Indus, many are inclined to look toward the slopes of the Hindu Kush as the quarter whence they had come. But as that mountain range continues to the Caspian gates, it is difficult to say what, in their opinion, are the limits of the Hindu Kush. "We cannot derive from their theory any definite idea of the actual locality of the Arians' primitive home.
But, however appalling a position of antagonism to scholars of high reputation must confessedly be, we cannot at once abandon the chain of argument followed in the last chapter, and based, if we may venture to say so, on indisputable facts. ■ The testimony of the Rig Veda, confirmed by the Zend Avesta and the Cuneiform Inscriptions, has brought us within Assyrian territory in our course. We have found Indra and Brihaspati fighting against ** the lofty citadel of Bel," across the "great river" Euphrates. We have found Twastri fabricating weapons for Indra in his conflict with Vritra on the river Parusni (probably Purrati, or the same Euphrates, Grwce). We have seen that the followers or votaries of the Assyrian god, or deified hero, Anu, engaged in that conflict, with many other individuals and peoples, traceable to places, within the limits of the Assyrian influence, in Mesopotamia, and to the furthest meandering of the Euphrates.
These pre-emigration events naturally point to the westward of Asia in our inquiry after the priaiitive home of the Arians.
This, again, is confirmed by a legend, which Dr. Mair has cited from the Satapatha Brakmana, evidently indicating the migratory path of the Devas and Asaras, or the undivided Arians, to have been from " the "West to the East.'"
" The gods and Asuras, who were both sprung froni Prajdpati, strove together. Then the gods were, as it were, worsted, and the Asuras thought, * this world is now certainly ours.' 2. Then they spake, ' Come let us
divide this earth, and haying divided it, let us subsist thereon.' They accordingly went on dividing it with ox-hides from west to east. 3. The gods heard of it, ^and] said, ' The Asuras'are dividing this earth; come, we shall go to the spot where they are dividing it. Who shall we become (i. e. what shall become of us), if we do not share in it?* Placing at their head Viehau, the sacrifice, they proceeded [thither], 4. and said * put us in possession of this earth; let us also hare a share in it.' The Aauras, grudging as it were, answered, ' We give you as much as this Vishnu can lie upon.' 5. Now, Vishfiu was a dwarf. The gods did not reject that offer; [but said among themselves], •-They have given us much, [these Asuras], who have given us what is co-extensive with sacrifice.' Then having placed Vishfiu to the east, they surrounded him with metres; [saying], on the south side, ' I surround thee with the Gayatri metre;' on the west, * I surround thee with the Trishtubh metre;' on the north, ' I siurround thee with the Jagatf metre.' 7. Having thus surrounded him with metres, they placed Agni (fire) on the east, and thus they went on worshipping and toiling. By this they acquired the whole of this earth; and since by this they acquired (samavindanta) it all, therefore [the place of sacrifice] is called vedi (from the root vtd, ' to acquire).' Hence men say, * as great as is the altar, so great is the earth;' for by it (the altar) they acquired the whole of this [earth]. Thuii he who so understands this, conquers all this [earth] from rivals, expels from it rivals. 8. Then this Vishiju, being wearied, surrounded by metres, with
AgTii to the east, did not advance; but then hid himself among the roots of plants. 9. The gods then exclaimed,
* What has become of the sacrifice T They said,
* Surrounded by metres, with Agni to the east, he does not advance; search for him here.* So digging, as it were, they searched for, and found him at a depth of three fingers; therefore let the altar [have a trench] three fingers deep; therefore, also, PdHchi made an altar of this description for the soma sacrifice. 10. Bat let no one do so," etc. — (Sanskrit Texts, Vol. IV, p. 108.)
If now we advert to the well known testimony of Herodotus on the subject, we only introduce evidence which remarkably harmonizes with the vestiges of Arian migration in Western Asia, contained in the Vedas themselves. Herodotus tells us that the Medes, were, from time immemorial, called Arians until the age of Medea of Colchis, who changed their name on her arrival in their country. Herodotus declares that they were of yore called Arians fpos toitob' Sy all parties, or universality.* It is remarkable that he gives us no insight into the reason of their being originally so called, and that he only assigns a mythical cause for the cessation of that name. But he has nevertheless noted a living memorial — a standing witness of the fact of Arians having once had their home in that quarter. Among the six tribes of the Medes he has named, one was called the Arizanti,* or descendants of
Arians. Another yestige of Arian connexion with the Medes, noticed by him, was in the equipment of the Arians in the army of Xerxes. They were all inhabitants of the Central Aaian Province of Aria, where they had doubtless settled on their migration or expulsion from Media. They were furnished with Median hows, but were, in other respects, like the Bactrians.^
We know that much reliance cannot be placed on unsupported statements of Herodotus. But we know also that his testimony supported by other evidence becomes most satisfactory. He has here recorded a tradition that in times of yore Media was peopled by " Arians," and, again, that they had already moved out before the age of mythology had given place to that of history. The tradition is not oqly corroborated by the evidence of the Vedas and the Assyrian Inscriptions, but by many other considerations which we shall state presently. Indeed the record of Herodotus supplies an explanation of what the Rig Veda says, without which the Vedic descriptions, to which we adverted in the last chapter, would have presented the appearance of a mirage in the desert, or the wild reveries of an insane mind.
Bochart proves by a learned dissertation that Media was called Ara or Aria from Hara, a place where the Assyrian Kings Pul and Tiglathpilnesar had banished the Roubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh. " Hara," he says, " stands in 1 Chron. v.
26 for Media in Ezra. Omitting the aspirate, Jerome reads it Ara. Indeed by the Greeks also, Media is called Alia, and the Medes, Arians." He then cites the passage in Herodotus to which we have already referred. He nest cites Pausanias in Corinthiacis de Med^a, where he says that J/«(f^a went to the region then called Aria^ and gave to the people thereof the name of Medes. Apollodorua is then quoted, who says, that Ariania was a country near Cadusta. Xenophon is referred to after this, whose testimony is as remarkable as it is ciiriously satisfactory. He says, " The Thamnerians of Media are near Cadusia." Now Thamneria ia derived from l^'^D " theman" South, and Aria, meaning the southern Artans. And bo Bochart concludes: " Porro Aria est Hara."^
Here we have a chain of evidence leading us to Media as the original home of the Ariana. We may safely say that in this investigation we have conjectured, or assumed nothing, we have put forth no pet theory of our own, we have followed our evidence, link after link, eax;h link being independent in itself, without any inter-dependence of one on another. And if in the chain any link adds strength to its.neighbour, it is after the fashion of a Company of troops wherein each combatant supports his comrade, and, only so fa^ as, in every chain of sound reasoning, logically established, the several arguments necessarily corroborate each other. The whole chain may be thus stated in a few words. (1) We find the Arian, a stranger, probably a fugitive in India. He speaks of his " old home," but cannot definitely give its geography. He only says he came from We$t to Eaat. He is a learned man, but is more fond of poetry than prose. He is certainly not a Xenophon. Unlike the author of the Anabasis, he kept no notes of his journeys and travels before he reached this country. He cannot give a coherent account of his marches, or halting stages in his journey. But he speaks of his gods and priests. He calls them Asuras, and yet he sometimes corses the Asuras, (some of whom he describes as the disciples of one "Sanda,") not in the language of a profane reprobate, but as a serious moralist, who knew how to- distinguish good from evil. He is indeed so impatient of evil, that he imprecates his chief Asura, (whom he calls eminently wise,^ and to whom he ascribes the creation of the Heavens and earth), to banish to a distant land, the baneful author of evil, named " Nir-ritl," or unrighteousness incarnate.
2. Then, again, he speaks of a " lofty citadel," of an Asura named " Vala," which could only be reached by crosaing a " great river." He speaks also of certain officers of Vala, who were brothers or cousins with the common surname of " Pania." The Panis, he says, had captured some cattle belonging to the spiritual preceptor of his chief, Indra, who recovered the animals after fighting and conquering the captors.
3. He speaks also of a conflict between his Indra, and an Asura called Vritra. The latter had attempted to cause a ford, in a certain river by restraining its waters, with a view to storm, by a night march, some town of which one of Indra's friend's (Sudas) was the ruler. Indra baffled the enemy's plots and stratagems, and saved his friend's territories. He then punished, by death or deprivation, many individuals and peoples who had leagued with the enemy, and gave away their territories and substance to others, who were friends and allies.
4. He names some of these peoples and individuals concerned in the above conflict. Some of these are Turvasa, Kavasha, Yamuna, Devata, Sambara, together with the followers of Ann, the people of Aja, the Sigrus, the Yatua, &c.
Such being the statements of the Arian stranger, we make inquiries about the individuals and peoples named by him, and we find them verified in Central Aria and the Assyrian empire, by the testimony of the Cuneiform Inscriptions and other equally undoubted evidence, almost exactly as he has described them. And now Herodotus and some other Greek historians recognize him as an old resident of Media, missing for a long time, supposed to have been roving like a truant, or perhaps expelled from his original home by the incursion of some ruffian bands.
We ask whether this is not a chain of evidence which would satisfy even a judicial tribunal?
We fail to see anything like evidence in the conjectures of great men who have assigned the slopes of the Hindu Cush as the original home of the ancestors of Hindus, Persians, Greeks, and Teutons, — as, indeed.
at the same time, the great nursery and rendezvous of the whole Arian family, that is to say, of the progenitors of all the most civilized races in the world.
Let us hear the most emioeot scholar of the day as a supporter of the same side of the question: —
" At the first dawn of traditional bistory we see theae Aryan tribes migrating across the enow of the Himalaya southward toward the " Seven Rivers" (the Indns, the five rivets of the Fanjab and the Sarasvati), and ever since India has been called their home. That before that time they had been living in more northern regions, within the same precincts with the ancestors of the Greeks, the Italians, Slavonians, Qermans, and Oelta, is a fact as firmly established as that the Normaua of William the Oonqueror were the Northmen of Scandinavia. The evidence oflangoage is irrefragable, and it is the only evidence worth listening to with regard to antehietorical periods. Max. MUUer^i Siat. of And. Sanscrit Literature, p. 12.
Bnt while moat of the members of the Aryan family followed this glorious path, the southern tribes were slowly migrating towards the mountains which gird the north of India. After crossing the narrow passes of the Hiuduknsh or the Himalaya, they conquered or drove before them, as it aeems without much effort, the aboriginal inhabitants of the Trans -Himalayan countries. They took for their guides the principal rivers of Northern India, and were led by them to new homes in their beautiful and fertile valleys. It seems as if the great mountains in the north had afterwards closed for centuries their Oyclopian gates against new immigrations, while, at the same time, the waves of the Indian Ocean kept watch over the southern borders of the peninsula. None of the great conquerors of antiquity — Seaostris, Semiramis, Nebuchadnezzar, or Cyrus, who waged a kind of half-nomadic warfare over Asia, A&ica, and Enrope, and whose names, traced in characters of blood, are still legible on the threshold of history, disturbed the peaceful seats of these Aryan settlers. Left to themselves in a world of their own, without a past, and without a future before them, they had nothing but themselves to ponder on. Ihid, p. 15,
We yield to no one in our admiration of the great feat achieved by the learned editor of the Rig Veda Sanhita. It is therefore with extreme diffidence that ■we are obliged to give expression to our wonder that with the proofs of bis Rig Veda in hand, the editor bimself could have said that the Arian settlers, when they arrived in India, were " without a past, and without a future before them." What were "the ancient exploits" of ludra, if they were " without a past?" What meant the fights of Brihaspati and Angiras before the " lofty citadel" of Vala on the Euphrates, whether historical or mythical, if they* were " without a past," in fact and in fancy? What meant their dealings with the names we have already mentioned, and perhaps scores more that we can yet mention, if the Arians were " without a past" on the plains of India? How could they have known the names of the great Assyrian gods, Anu and Stinda, if they were never in Assyria, nor had any dealings with that people, and — if they were really '* without a past?"
We dare not say more. We can only regret that we are unable to accede to such confident assurances from one to whom multitudes justly look up for instruction and intellectual enlightenment. Sacred interests compel us, or we could not have presumed to give expression to our dissent from an authority so high — from a scholar so ripe, and from a philosopher at whose feet we would willingly receive lessons.
But the language of the Rig Veda Sanhita is plain. The voice of the Rishis, whose compositions he has himself brought within our reach, gives no uncertain sound. There is nothing in it to manifest a jour* ney to or over the Himlklaya or the Hindu Kush. The Rishis point to many traces of a journey through Assyria and Central Asia, but none through the passes of the Hindu Kush and the Himalaya.
We believe that the story of the slopes of the Hindu Kush, having been the original settlement of the Arian family, vas a conjecture entertained before the evidence of the Rig Veda was examined or noticed — certainly before it was compared -with the notes of the Cuneiform Inscriptions. Critical scholars had generally a distrust of Herodotus, and they did not think that his assertion about a Median Aria was at all better than many other stories which he had recorded, only to be repudiated, in the republic of letters, as glaring untruths. They did not therefore think it worth their while to notice or examine evidence about it. ' Their motto seems to have been — farthest from Herodotut, nearest to the truth.
We do not however know what fate has over? taken that unfortunate historian's statement about the Germans having at one time been a Persian tribe — whether iJtai has been assented to or not. If this has been credited, it will itself lead to a moral presumption that the Arian family in its integrity lived in Central and Western Asia, rather than the neighbourhood of the Hindu Ku^. The Germans of whom Herodotus makes mention (i. 125) were probably the Cannanians, and, as such, Asiatic remnants trfthe great nation which now occupies such proud eminence era the contioent of Europe — before whose arms France has been prostrated, and whose intellectual energy and vigour the whole world acknowledges with admiration.
It may he said we have proved too much. We have carried Arian relations even beyond Mesopotamia — into Syria, and almost on the borders of Palestine. All this, Apolles the Jew may credit — not men of understanding and intellect.
But we have not carried Arian relations an inch beyond where the. stream of accredited evidence has impelled us. After traces of relationship have been discovered between " the swarthy natives of India and their conquerors, whether Alexander or Clive," nothing can in itself be incredible with reference to human movements on the face of our common globe. And all we have proved is that there were conflicts in Mesopotamia between the Arians and certain Assyrian chiefs who were joined by people from all parts of the Assyrian empire — from the south of the Caspian, to the land of the Hittites on the other side of the Euphrates.
But the Assyrian Inscriptions prove a great deal more than we have yet had occasion to show. They speak of towns on the Euphrates, and in Mesopotamia, which were evidently relics of Arian relations in those parts — indeed, of Indo-Arian relations, that is to say, those of the future ancestors of the Hindus: such as Hardispi (Haridaswa, the yellow-horsed, Indra, or perhaps the sun under an Indian title) Hindanu, Hindan, Hindaru, &c.^ What is still more surprising, the In-
Bcriptions note the existence of a tribe called " Hayap&da," in the neighbourhood of Samaria.'" This is a pure unmixed Sanscrit word, meaning horse-footed, i. e. swift of foot, and the tribe so named must have remained at least till the reign of Sargon, (in whose tablet the record is found) as a living monument of Arian adventures in that quarter. It was as great a proof of Arian connection in Western Asia, as would a tribe called " Podas-okus" have been of Grecian relations in India, if such a tribe had really been found near the Punjab.
The derivation of the word "Arian," as the Cuneiform Inscriptions indicate it, is also a proof of our primitive ancestors' sojourn in Western Asia. The meaning of the term appears in the Inscriptions from its ose with the negative particle " la," i. e. " la-Ari" which means barren. Thus, " edis ippareu asM: la-ari; "awaif tkeff Jled (to) BAB&ES places." Again, " Tudat iQ-ari... rabis etettiqa," morasses baeeen greatly I passed over. "Arian" accordingly meant productive or cultivated, and is given there as derived from " Heb, rn» to gather fruit" and it is compared with the Ethiopian " arara" to reap.^^ It may also be compared with the Greek ^p«" and the Latin " aro" fo plough, for without sowing, there could not be reaping — and surely " Arian" did not mean a plunder who reaped what another sowed.
The above derivation of Arian accords with the Zend idea. Referring to the creation of Airyana Vaejo, Mr. Bunsen says, " The meaning of the verse is this; In the earliest time Airyana Vaejo was the only cultivated country; all the rest was a desert.'"* And the meaning attached to the word in Sanscrit was probably based on the sqme idea. A tiller of the ground is, in the Rig Vedas, (i. e. KriskUot Charahani), held synonymous with man," and the Arian was considered excellent or noble, because he was exemplary as a tiller of the ground.
The Greek idea of Arian S^«k is doubtless derived from V?s Areg Mars, and Ares again comes probably from the Heb. ^^ An a lion. This word, if aspirated, turns into the Sanscrit hari, which, among various other meanings, stands also for "lion."
The name " Arian" appears thus to be of Semitic origin, but adopted and naturalized in Sanscrit. We have seen that the Arians left behind them, in the very heart of Semitic regions, a living monument of their wanderings in Western Asia, The tribe Hayaplida, if the testimony of language be allowed any authority as evidence of their Arian origin, bore, in their persons,
<r<**nf'(K^F« <n: T* f^^W I The " Showerer (Indra) rulea over men {atltivatort) by his strength like a bnll over hia herd. Indra alone mlea over the men (cM/iiVofor*) and their wealth of the five regions. E. T. i. 7. 9. TIWT g^afmfe w^;*W " Thou ar the king of human creatures {eiUUvaiors) E. T. i. 59, 5,
an unmistakeable sign of Japhet dtoelUng m the tents of Shem, And Arian records themselves exhibit, linguistically, manifest traces of familiar intercourae on the part of their authors with the children of Shem. This they could not have done if their original home had been so far away from Semitic regions as the slopes of the Hindu Kuslji.
The Rig Veda Sanhita contains a good number of words which belonged clearly to the Semitic stock, but which have failed to take root in Sanscrit. This fact would show that while the Arians at one time had sufficient intercourse with the Semitics to accept or interchange certain vocables of theirrespectivelanguages, that intercourse did not continue long enough to allow all the grafts, so accepted, to take root, and become incorporated in their respective languages. Two remarkable instances of this kind we shall mention here, as regards Sanscrit. These are the two forms of the ineffable Hebrew name for the Supreme Being, that is to say, niB Jaku (if we may dispense with the prevailing but very questionable fashion of representing the semivowel of i hy y, and use the natural/ after the example of the " Worterbuch,") and ^^t Jahvah. The former occurs seven times in combination with the word ^^9t «aAa8aA,andha3(aooordingto.SAyanai(WS^)the sense of the " son of power." And once it is used in the senseof*' great" or "supreme" (so Sayana renders it) and applied to Indra. As " son of power," it is applied six times to Agni, and once to Angiras. It is an unusual word in Sanscrit either in the sense of " great" or of a "son." And its use seems to have snbeided after the eight passages just referred to.'*
-As a word for a " son" it has some resemblance to the Qreek i*m, but it is evidently a form of the sacred Hebrew name already mentioned. The word did not take root in Sanscrit and has gone out of that language entirely The exact import of the word appears in the following paragraph from Mr. Talbot's " Contributions," where he has dealt with it as an Assyrian word derived from the Hebrew.
" Iahu-khazi. Ahaz, king of Judah. The name lahu-khazi signifies *' lahu is my possession (or my treasure)," from Hebrew "rnN " a possession." The final vowel i should not be overlooked, since it is the pronoun " my." lahu = iau>of the Greeks," which is the same as Jab or Jehovah. In 2R67, 61, this Iahukhazi (who is there called the King of Judah), is named as one of those who paid tribute to Tiglath Pileser II. But we know from 2 Chronicles sxviii.
" ^e tight passages in which Jahu occara aro the following:
" See DiodoniB, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Hesyohius. The name lew is veiy common on the Qnostic goms and amulets.
20, that Ahaz was the king who paid tribute to Tiglath Fileser: therefore lahu-khazi was Ahaz, No doubt the name Jeho-ahaz (who was a different king) corresponds more nearly to the Assyrian name. Indeed it agrees with it exactly. But I am disposed to conjecture that Ahaz was originally named Jeho-ahaz, and that the Assyrians knew him by that -nam© only; but that when Ahaz lapsed into idolatry, and no longer worshipped Jehovah, he dropped that holy name, being reluctant to bear it, " while making molten images for Baalim, burning incense in the valley of Hinnom, and while he sacrificed and burnt incense on the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree."
"We can hardly conceive the possibility of the Arians finding such a word at all, if they had been, from tho beginning, isolated on the slopes of the Hindu Kush. And we think that it fell into desuetude very much for the same reason as its abandonment by Ahaz.
The other form of the sacred word, as used in the Rig Veda, was in the garb of an adjective, "Vf: " Jahvah." This was a nearer approach to the word Jehovah— wanting only thevowel o between h and v. In this form it has been used pretty largely in the. Rig Veda. It was even forced into the Unadi sutras to accept an etymology concocted for it. It was held to have been derived from vi (Ja) to go^^ The affix, which the etymologist assigned to it, in common with some other words, would not, however, account for the vocable under consideration, and therefore a second arbitrary affix, unusual, if not unprecedented, in itself, was impressed on it. But even that affix could not answer for the meaning attached to it by S&yana, namely ^reat, oraupreme. Professor Wilson takes it, in his Dictionary, in the sense oi' sacrifice. The word could not, however, for that etymology, take any deeper root iu Sanscrit than the twin vocable ^3B, Jaku, and both have alike disappeared from post-Vedic Sanscrit.
In the Rig Veda the word " Jahvah" is found in various senses. As an adjective, it is used 14 times to express the dignity of Agni, 1 \ times that of the " seven Rivers," and other streams, and waters, as offspring of the sky, 7 times that of heaven and earth, as "mothers of sacrifice," twice that of Indra, and once, that of each of the following nouns, vis. luminous herbs, soma, hymns, horses, and wealth. Twice it stands as a substantive for o_ffspring or strength, and twice, again, for the importance of day and night.
The following are examples of its use in the Rig Veda. It is found in every Mandala, and continues in Vedic literature as a memorial of Arian residence in Western Asia.
" We Bupplicate the Great (jahvam) Agni vrith hymns for tlia benefit of you," &o.
" This expert invocator has addressed many various greai (jahrih) hymns to the excellent moving Fire," &c.
"Oyeexcellent Day and Night, ^rwriOsl^'O^othetsof Sacrifice, Ac."
" The ^«a^ (jahvih) watera pase by its own streamB."
" The leadera exalt the supreme (jahTEun) Fire, the cherisher of the creation, &c."
" The gode sanctified the three forma of the circumambient great (jahvasya) Agni," &c.
"O great (jahvasya) Agni, the sage priests do not grndge thee thy allotted butter in the Sacrificea."
"0 Aswins, the places you make from heaven among the great (jahvishu) herbs and eacrificers, &c.
That qfgprmg (jahvam) of Budra is manifested in the old habitations, &c.
" Him, ^eat (jahvam) Indra, lauded by many, we supplicate with the old gratifying hymns."
" The seven great (jahyiL) horses carry that aun, &c."
" 0 ye ^eat (jahvih) day and night, &c."
" 0 ladra, thou npholdeet Heaven and Earth, parents of the goda, and the great (jahvfh) mothera of aacrifices."
" May the heavens and eaitb, the great ((jahvi) mothera of Sacrifice confer happiness, &c."
" The delightful waters in which the noariahing great (jahvali) Soma thrives, &c."
" 0 Soma, the seven great (jahvi) rivets purity thee."
But we must now take notice of possible objections to our theory, or rather of the only ground to which the propounders of " the Hindu Kush" theory have referred, as evidence on their side. Leaving, out of the question, the compliments which one theorist has passed on another, by citing him as authority, that ground may be considered under two heads: ( I) the antecedent presumption against distant migrations, and against the idea of introducing remote nations as progenitors of others, thousands of miles away, and (3) the Persian tradition, as recorded in the Zend Avesta.
The first point is of course entitled to every consideration. The antecedent presumption, just mentioned, must be rebutted by adequate evidence before our theory can be admitted. We have all along been ourselves under the same impression. It is from the conviction that the burden of proof is on us that we have been expatiating so long on the question. And now we contend we have rebutted the antecedent preBumption, quite sufficiently for our purpose, by the mass of evidence given against it. We may further remark that the objection is nullified by its inherent inconsistency. The fact that the original home of the Indo-Arians was also the nursery of the ancestors of the Greeks, Romans, Grermans, &c. is fatal to it. If the objection be of any worth, as against our theory, in regard to the Indo-Arians, it must, by a parity of reasoning, be suicidal, exactly to the same extent, in regard to the Greeks, Romans and Germans. That which is nearer to India, in this respect, must be so much the farther from Greece, Italy, and Germany.
We must now deal with the second ground of the objection, namely, the Persian tradition as recorded in the Zend Avesta. We fail to find the point of the objection. Persian tradition and the Zend Avesta have been vaguely mentioned as favouring the Hindu Kitsh theory. This does not certainly follow from the statement with which the Yendidad commences, that the first creation of Ahura Mazda was the delightful Airyana Va^'o. For, its locality is not mentioned, its geography is not given. " Airyana Vaejo" means the Arian residence. There is nothing in it conflicting with our theory. We also say, what indeed may be called a truism, that there was an Arian residence, since there was undoubtedly an Arian family of the human race. The question is about its geography. On this point, not only does the Vendidad throw no light, but those that adduce it as evidence against our theory, themselves admit that Airyana VaeJo became a " fabulous region."" We cannot understand how a geographical site can he developed into a " fabulous region," nor again how an MSgeographical '* fabulous region" can be placed in opposition to a defined geographical site. The Parsees themselves look upon it as " an abode, typical of faith or belief."'* The ingenuity of European scholarship may have fixed a place as the local habitation of the Zend ideal. But that is not Persian tradition.
According to the Vendidad, as interpreted by its own doctors, " Airyana Vaejo" or *' Iran vaeja" was the
" This country muat be placed in the farthest east of the Iranian highlands, at the Bourcea of the Oxas and Jaxartee {cf. Laeeen Ind. Alterthk. I., p. 527). In later times Airyana-vaSja becomes a purely fabulous region. Thus the Minokhired says (p. 332 S.): " The Dev of winter is most vehement in Eran-vej, It is stated in the law that in the Eran-vej the winter lasts ten months and summer two months, and these two summer months are cold as to water, cold as to the earth, cold as to the trees; and they have, as opposition, the winter and many snakes. They have few other oppositions. And it is manifest that Ahura-Mazda created Erin-vej good beyond other places and localities; and the good is this that men live 3000 years and cows and cattle 150 years, and that they have little pain or sickness, and that they do not lie, and have no falling off of nails or hair, and the Bev of lust hae less power over them, and ten men eat of one loaf and become full therewith, and every forty years a child is bom of one man and one woman, and their law is the law of the PaSiryo Tka^sha, and when they die they are sanctified. Their chief (rat) is Q-opatiehah (e^. my Parsi Grammar, pp. 142, 172), their king and ruler is fSrosh." Bleeck. 6. See also Kote, p. 14, gtipra.
'* See Wilson on the Eeligion of the Parsees, p. 155.
Elysium of the Zendaresta, and, practically, it can lead to no other inference than that, in the conception of the authors of that work, primeval man enjoyed a state of sanctified happiness which the Greeks have described under the figure of the " golden age," and the Brahmins of the " Satya-Yuga." " Airyana- Vaejo" was the ideal residence of the Arians. It ia impossible to turn it into a veritable geographical locality — and the attempt to define it on the authority of the Vendidad, would be like an attempt to fix the locality of Elysium, either on or under the surface of the earth, on the authority of classical poets.
But it may be said that although " Airyana Vaejo" is a fabulous region, yet historical places are mentioned in the Vendidad as the next successive creations of Ahura Mazda, such aa Gau Sugdha, Mouru, Balkdhi, Nisa, Haroyu, &o. It is therefore supposed to be only reasonable that the original residence of the Arians should be in the vicinity of these places. This is not an unfair argument in itself; and it certainly admits of discussion. But the places created after Airyana Vaejo are not declared to be successive residences of Arians. On the contrary, it would seem that they were made to prevent the sanctity of Airyana Vaejo from being violated and profaned by a press of crowds. " I created," said Ahura Mazda, " O holy Zarathustra, a Creation of delight (but) nowhere was created a possibility (of approach). For had I not, O holy Zarathustra, created a place, a creation of delight, where nowhere was created a possibility, the whole corporeal would have gone after Airyana Vaejo." It would not follow from tbis that the next creations were intended as Arian seats, and therefore there was no necessity for their being in the immediate vicinity of the first creation. The probability would indeed be on the opposite side, considering the jealousy with which the first creation was made inaccessible and unapproachable. It was obviously intended for an isolated residence of a select few, to the exclusion of the non-Arian nations, against whose approach it was carefully guarded. And it would ill harmonize with this intention to allow the select few themselves to sally out into regions designed for the nou-Arians.
At any rate we have no right to assume that the Vendidad itself, not only meant the creations after Airyana-Vaejo to be all of them Arian settlements, but, also, that they represented Arian movements in the same order of succession as their creation. And even on the supposition of such an intention on the part of the writers of the Vendidad, we have no right to force historical evidence into servility to its dicta. As far as mere tradition is concerned, why must Western Asian tradition, as recorded by Herodotus and the other historians, cited by Bochart,'^ so curiously eoncurrent and explicit, be necessarily subservient to the Persian tradition, the basis of which is admitted by the Parsee dasturs themselves to have been idealistic,
parabolical, and mythical. " What is written in the Vendidad," says Dosabhai, " about Hormuzd and Ahriman, and light and darkness, is a parable of
104 arianb' oeioinal settlement, [chap. hi.
oar prophet Zariasht...The explanation of the matter is this. The description is of the [^goodj qualities and evil qualities which are in a man, and which in Arabic are called faeilat and rasilat, and in English virtue and vice. Hormazd and Light are good works; and Ahriman and Darkness are evil works; as what is good is Hormazd, and what is bad is Ahriman. Liberty is light, and Stinginess darkness; the restraining of Anger is Hormazd, and indulging it is Ahriman; Humility is Hormazd, and Pride is Ahriman. So, in like manner, may the other good and evil qualities be spoken of. The explanation of what is written in the Yandid^d about Ahriman running forth with the other Devas is, that to each side of a good quality there is an evil quality attached. For example, to Humility there are two evil qualities attached } for if it exceeds its proper bounds, it becomes Lovniess and Meanness; and if it fall short of its bounds, it is not Liberality but Extravagance and Immorality, as it is called in English; and if Liberality falls short of its bounds, it becomes Pride. In like manner, if Liberality is, in excess it is Stinginess. In this way, every good quality which is in man has its opposing bad quality. Connected with this the Vandidad has given a parable; and learned Pdrsis and Musalm&ns have consequently written in their books that the prophet Zartusht is a speaker of parables.'""
It, again, notwithstanding the protests of Parsee Dasturs, the successive creations after Airyana-Vaejo
*• Wileon on the Eeligion of the Parsees, p. 150.
The meaning forced on the Vendidad by the advocates of the Hindu Kush theory, without any authority from the Vendidad itself, and despite the protests of the Parsee dasturs, its authorized interpreters, would imply that the Arians having, from a " fabulous region," called Airyana Vaejo, arrived in the dwelling-place of Sugdha, proceeded by a circuitous route to Ragha^' (well known to bo a principal town in Media), and then again, by some route which, we cannot satisfactorily verify, they came to " Hapta Hendu," or India. But even here they get no rest. They are still in a state of motion, and that motion is like that of the sun after a solstice. They are carried back " to the east of Ranha." The verse which gives the 16th creation " to the east of Ra^ha" is thus rendered by Bunsen. " As the sixteenth best of regions and countries, I, Ahura Mazda,
"* Bleeck refers to a Behietan lusciipUon wliicli mentions Raghai He also cites laidore of Charax who calls Baghu "the greatest of all Median citieB, near Mount Caspiua from which the Caspian gates have their name." Strabo says: iiat Si avii Ka<nriiav irvAuv Ik ftai Vayas moZia TTOTaKotnoi Sk ^rprw AiroAAuSuifDas.
created those ■who dwell withont ramparts on the sea-coasts." The learned archteologist adds a footnote to this: " As the Caspian was the sea nearest to the old Iranians, we must here understand the shores of that sea. The Indian Ocean is out of the question, in consequence of the mention of cold.'"*
Here then we have the movements of the Allans, like the apparent motion of the sun, India and Bagha (south of the Caspian) being the two solstitial points. And we are seriously asked to gulp all this on the credit of the Persian tradition, against the dictum of history, the dictum of the Vedas, and the dictum of Assyrian Inscriptions, and despite the protests of the Parsees themselves! It might have been more intelligible to us, and less disrespectful to the Zend Avesta, if the Arian movements, thus described, were given out as allegorical of the solar revolution.*' But to do justice to the Zend Avesta, we must say that, by the creation of Airyana Vaejo, it means nothing, more than the quondam existence of some blissfiil and innocent state of primeval man, (agreeably to the relics of some significant tradition which seems to have reached almost all nations) whom, as an exemplary tiller ofthegroundy it called "Arian." Zoroaster had admitted-
" It ia a curiooa coincidence that the Zend Aveeta i^ regard the Median Aiia, becauae of its Western poBition, as the closiDg: point of the sail's diurnal motion. " The Taera, says the Ta9Qa xli, of the Hara-berezoiti, praise we." " Taera" says Mr. Bleeok " is the moimtiun opposite Alboij, on which the ean fioishes his course." Bleeck'e Avesta ii, 100, ly been in Assyrian regions, and was aware of the derivation of " Aria," which we have already quoted from Mr. Norris's Assyrian Dictionary. The Vendidad then mentioned certain places, famous for traditions or events grateful to Arian or Iranian recollection, but it never intended that the successive creations of Ahura Mazda were to be taken for successive stages of Arian movement, exactly in the order of the crea^ tions. To ojie broad fact, however, it bore testimony. Media and India were the two extreme points of Arian migrations, longitudinally and, in a great measure, latitudinally too. So that the so-called Persian tradition, instead of being in conflict with our theory, or an objection to it, is rather confirmatory of it.
Ranha, which is fixed by Bunsen on the coast of the Caspian sea, is in the Huzverash translation identified with Rlim Dill* This would carry the western limits of Ariana into Mesopotamia, for there is contained " Arumu,"** which, without the Semitic redundant initial, is Euma or Rum. The Rig Veda confirms thia extension of Arian range, by mentioning the names of two sovereigns, Ruma and Rusama," as worshippers of Indra, who were doubtless either themselves called after the names of their territories,
"Although, 0 Indra, thou deiighteat in Bama, Buaama, Siavaka, Eripa, yet the sons of Kanwa, carrying thy praiaes, offer to thee hymns. Do thoa, 0 Indra, come."
or their territories called after their names. Rum may atso be connected with Armenia, the capital of which, " Erz-rum," is the land of Bum. The Rig Veda joins Buma and Rusama with two others, Siabaka, and Kripa. Siabak reminds one of the Ethiopian Sabacou in Herodotus, but we cannot say that bis time and site will allow him to be identified with the Siabak of the Veda.
. In all this we see nothing conflicting with our theory of the Arians' original home. On the contrary, we find a great deal in the Zend Avesta that confirms our theory. The sixth best creation in the Vendidad is called Haroya, the Hareva and Arera of the Inscriptions, both Behistan and Assyrian proper. It is the Aria of Central Asia, the site of the modern Herat. " Har" for a mountain is not a Zend, but Hebrew or Semitic, expression. How could the Zend Avesta light on such a word, if it was not already familiar with the name as the original home of the Arians?
But we are not left merely to the testimony of Inference. We have more direct eridence. The original Hara, or Hara-berezaiti, is identified with the Alborj of later writers, or " Elburz," placed south of the Caspian, in Murray's Encyclopaedia of Geography, at the foot of which is the modern city of Teheran. It is the Median Hara, distinct from Hareva. It is
thus described in the Khordah-Avesta: " Mithra... who as the first heavenly Yazata, rises over Hara before the sun, the immortal, with swift steeds, who first, with golden form, seizes the fair summits, thea
surrounds the whole Arian place, the most profitable, where rulers, excellent, order round about the lands, where mountains, great with much fodder, abounding in water, afford wells for the cattle, where are canals deep fill! of water, where flowing waters, broad with water, hurry to Iskata, and Pourata, to Mouru aind Haraeva, to Gau, Sugdha, and Quarizao."*
Here we have the Median Hara described as distinct from Hareva, and spoken of as the chief or first Arian dwelling, superior and senior to the second and other successive creations of Ahura Mazada.
We have it described again in terms which would correspond only to the picture which Parsee espositors have given of the Airyana Vaejo of the Vendidad.
*' Mithra...for whom Abura Mazda has created a dwelling on Hara-Berezaiti, the far reaching, lofty, where is neither night nor darkness, neither cold wind nor hot, nor sickness with much death, nor dirt created by the Devas, no mist ascends the high mountain, — which (dwelling) the Amesha-spentaa have made, which all have the same will with the Sun, towards the believing mind out of memory (?), who, on the high mountain, comprehends [in his survey] the whole corporeal world."*'
The same description occurs again. " Since thou, 0 pure Rashnu, art at the great Hara, the very aspiring, lofty, where [arej neither night nor darkness, neither cold wind nor hot, neither dissolution which
draws to itself many deaths, nor filth created by the Devas, nor do clouds ascend the high mountain — we invoke and praise &c."^
Accordingly in the deliberate judgment o£ the authors of the Zend Aresta, Kara or Hara-Berezaiti, alias Alborj, or Elburz of Murray's Encyclopjedia, was the first and most delightful settlement of the Arian family — the Airyana Vaejo of the Vendidad, as far as it may have indicated anything like an actual earthly place. It is needless to repeat how it directly confirms the tradition recorded by Herodotus, and explains the numerous allusions in the Big Veda to Western Asian characters and events. Persian tradition, far from being opposed to our theory, is thus strongly corroborative of it.
How and why the Arians left their Median home we cannot confidently say. A Turanian invasion of Media, as was suggested by Professor Oppert at the International Congress of Orientalists in London, was probably the cause of the introduction of the name Media, and the consequent expulsion of the Arians from their primitive Ariana. The adoption of the word "tur" in Assyrian and Sanscrit very much, in the same concurrent sense of youth, quickness, and vigour, establishes a presumption in favour of that idea. In the Assyrian, it is often used instead of " pal" for a youthful son, and the Sanscrit " tura" stands for quickness and vigour. The Assyrian " pal" or " bal" corresponds also to the Sanscrit " bala" for young.
We accordiDgly conclude that the original home of the Arian family was in Media, the chief city having been Hara. On their expulaion by a Turanian invasion they dispersed on all sides. Some went west- ■ward to Europe, others eastward. It is difficult to define their routes, but that as they came eastward, they had, probably on their way, the conflicts adverted to in the Vedas and the Zend Avesta. The Indo- Arian tradition of their coming with Vishnu (personified as Sacrifice) surrounded by metres on the West, North, and South, with Agni, in their firont,'® probably meant that their marches were like religious processions, regularly performing their devotional ceremonies, the rear and flank guards chanting hymns in the Yedic seven metres,'" and the vanguard carrying the sacred Fire in front. The temporary disappearance of Vishnu betokened the reverses they experienced in the way. There may have been many defections, portions of them may have remained behind, such as the Arizanti, and some may have left the main body, and stopped to settle in the east of the Caspian, and other sites by the side of their route. The main body did not probably settle down before they reached Haroyu (Herat) in the province which, thenceforward, was called Aria after them. They may have either sent
*■ Bee p. 82 (wpi-a. Agni weis placed in front, or the East, The original words ate '•tftr ^^WI^ ywisi*!- " Parastat" means in jront as well ati t'n the East. Here both senses are eqnall; applicable. - The march iLaving been eattward, whatever was in front was necessarily Ml the eatt. " E. Y. i. 22, 16, colonies to Sugdhai and Balkdhi, or some may have branched off in those directions. Or, possibly, the main body itself may have first stopped in those places, and then moved down to the province of Aria. The Indo-Arians may have afterwards found their way to the banks of the Indus, and crossed over to India. Such a view of primitive movements accords at the same time with the allusions in the Vedas and Zend Avesta, with Herodotus and other Greek writers, and with the cuneiform Inscriptions themselves.