Unlike the other religious literature, Hinduism report events as they were, it does not whitewash history,be it the killing of Vaali by Lord Rama,the tactics adopted by Krishna in Mahabharata battle,matricide even by sages.
These texts portray people and society as it were, with real people with normal human foibles.
They explain that there were people, when spirituality was in the ascendency, there were people, kings ,driven by greed went to war with each other.
If Indian history and Puranas were to have been concocted all the characters could have been shown as pure as fresh snow.
Not so.
In the earliest literature of humanity,rig veda there is a reference to a Battle of Ten Kings, around 5000 BC-this could have been earlier.
This was fought on the banks of river Ravi.
This place is now known as Harappa, which, along with is one of the earliest sites which reveals the high levels of culture in the Vedic period.
The Dasarajnya War.
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The Battle of the Ten Kings (dāśarājñá) is a battle alluded to in the Rigveda (Book 7, hymns 18, 33 and 83.4-8), the ancient Indian sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns. It was a battle between tribal kingdoms of Vedic Aryans: an “internecine war”, as the 1911 Britannica puts it, as opposed to the more frequent accounts of Aryans fighting Dasyus. K. F. Geldner in his 1951 translation of the Rigveda considers the hymns as “obviously based on an historical event”, even though all details save for what is preserved in the hymns have been lost. Further details have been provided in an incisive discussion of this hymn by H.P. Schmidt.[2]
| Battle of the Ten Kings | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Trtsu-Bharata (Indo-Aryans) | Alinas Anu Bhrigus (Indo-Aryans) Bhalanas Dasa (Dahae?) Druhyus (Gandharis) Matsya (Indo-Aryans) Parsu (Persians?) Purus (Indo-Aryans) Panis (Parni?) |
||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| King Sudas Vashishta |
The Ten Kings Vishvamitra |
||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| Unknown but less | More than 6,666 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Unknown but less | 6,666 (Mandala 7) | ||||||||
The battle took place during the middle or main Rigvedic period,[3] near the Ravi River in Punjab. Some of the powerful Purutribes like the Bharatas, allied with other tribes of the north west India and guided by the royal sage Vishvamitra, were defeated by the Trtsu (Puru) king Sudas in battle, celebrated in a hymn by Sudas’ poet and priest Vasistha (RV 7.18). There are diffferent account as to when this battle actually took place due to different hypothesis from different scholars. Some date it back to near 3000-4000 BC whie other consider it to be dated around the 14th century BC…
The Trtsu are the tribe led by king Sudas. Sudas himself is included in the “ten kings”, as the Trtsus are said to be surrounded by ten kings in 7.33.5. But it is not made explicit how this number is supposed to be broken down: if of the tribes mentioned in 7.18, the Turvasas, Yaksuss (pun for Yadu),[2] Matsyas, Bhrgus, Druhyus, Pakthas, Bhalanas, Alinas, Shivas and Visanins are counted, the full number is reached, leaving the Anavas (7.18.14), the Ajas and Sigrus (7.18.19) and the “21 men of both Vaikarna tribes” (7.18.11) without a king, and implying that Bheda (7.18.19, also mentioned 7.33.3 and 7.83.4, the main leader slain by Sudas), Shimyu (7.18.5), and Kavasa (7.18.12) are the names of individual kings. The Bharatas are named among the enemies in 7.33 but not in 7.18.
- Alinas: One of the tribes defeated by Sudas at the Dasarajna,[4] and it was suggested that they lived to the north-east of Nuristan, because the land was mentioned by the Chinese pilgrim Hiouen Thsang.[5]
- Anu: Some place them in the Paruṣṇī (Ravi) area.[6]
- Bhrigus: Probably the priestly family descended from the ancient Kavi Bhrigu. Later, they are related to the composition of parts of the Atharva Veda (Bhṛgv-Āṅgirasa) .
- Bhalanas: Fought against Sudas in the Dasarajna battle. Some scholars have argued that the Bhalanas lived in the Bolan Pass area. [7]
- Druhyus: Some align them with the Gandhari (RV I 1.126.7).
- Matsya are only mentioned in the RV (7.18.6), but later in connection with the Śālva.[8]
- Parsu: The Parśu have been connected by some with the ancient Persians.[9]
- Purus: one of the major tribal confederations in the Rigveda.
- Panis: also the name of a class of demons; later associated with the Scythians.
The battle itself took place on the banks of the Parusni (Ravi). The warriors of Sudas are described as white-robed (shvityanca), wearing hair-knots on the right side of their heads (daksinataskaparda), having flying banners (krtádhvaj) (RV 7.83.2), while the ten kings do not sacrifice (áyajyavaḥ). It appears (7.18.5) that Sudas managed to cross the Parusni safely, while his foes, trying to pursue, were scattered by a flood and either drowned or were slaughtered by Sudas’ men:
- 7.18.9 As to their goal they sped to their destruction: they sought Parusni; e’en the swift returned not.
- Indra abandoned, to Sudas the manly, the swiftly flying foes, unmanly babblers.
- 7.18.9 They went like kine unherded from the pasture, each clinging to a friend as chance directed.
- They who drive spotted steeds, sent down by Prsni, gave ear, the Warriors and the harnessed horses. (trans. Griffith)
Kavaṣa and the Druhyu were “overwhelmed by Indra” while still in the water (7.18.10). The slain warriors of the Anu and Druhyus are numbered 6,666 (7.18.14).
In the aftermath of the battle, the Bharatas under Sudas (7.33.6), received tribute from the Ajas, the Sigrus and the Yaksus (= Yadu, 7.18.20), and Indra destroyed the seven fortifications of the enemies, and gave the treasures of Anu to Sudas (7.18.13). 7.18.17 stresses that this was a victory against all odds, compared to a lamb defeating a lion.
Citation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Ten_Kings
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