DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

4.3J PURUS, BHRGUS, TRTSUS 95
in RV. 7.18. The opponents crushed in battle are named as Simyu, Turvasa,
Yaksu, Matsya, Bhrgu, Druhyu, Paktha, Bhalana, Alina, Visanin. Of
these, matsya = fish, alina —= bee, are totemic; visanin — ‘ horned’,
reminds us of the horned deities of Indus seals, as of the horned crowns
of Meso-potamian deities ; and the helmets of the Shardina at Mediriet
Habu in Egypt they seem to be non-Aryan though called holy (sivdsas).
The seer claims that ‘ (Indra) the table-guest of the Aryans’ came to
aid the Trtsus; in RV. 7.83.1, Indra is called on to help king Sudas
against Dast and Aryan enemies. The Paktha tribe above has been
conjecturally identified by Lassen and others with the Pakthyes known
to Greeks of Alexander’s time in the same region, and with the modern
Pakhtoons (Pathans). In RV. 7.18.13, the Trtsus pray for victory against
the Purus of evil speech (mrdihravdc). The Puru tribe seems to have
been as Aryan as any. It survived in the Mahabharata story, and to
Alexander’s time (perhaps in the modern Punjabi surname Purl) ;
both king P5ros defeated by the Macedonian and his nephew of the
same name show that the tribal chief was then still called by the tribal
name outside his group. A king Poros (Strabo 15.1.73 ; Pandion,
15.1.4) sent an embassy to Augustus Caesar. The strangest of the ten
names is that of Bhrgu, which may be philologically equivalent to ‘
Phrygian’, but survives in India only as the name of a brahmin clan
* which became important long after the Rgvedic pediod. In the RV.
their chariot is specially praised ; the name could also mean ‘ potter’,
as it did for a time in Pall. The sense ‘potter’ is clear in Mbh. 1.182.1,
and fat. 408. For a brahmin making a chariot (with wheel-rim bound
A
* The Sigrus of RV. 7.18.19, also enemies of Sudas also left a gotra among brahmins,
though not to be found in any of the standard lists ; namely, the saigrava gotra (Liiders
no. 82) at Mathura. The sigru is identified as the Moringa pterygosperma, “ a kind of
horse-radish, sobhanjana; the root and leaves and flowers are eaten”. But if the identification
be not in error, the Latin name indicates the drum-stick tree whose pods make
a good kitchen vegetable. Ms. 6.14 forbids it as food for the vanaprastha forest-hermit,
along with ground-mushrooms, but reasons are not given ; it could not have been
poisonous, as the mushrooms might have been. The commentator says that sigrukam
is a famous vegetable of Balkh (Himalayan regions). There is no doubt about the foodtotemic
nature of the name, which might explain the tabu.