TALKING of a long tussle between Harappans and Aryans Prof Malti writes: `After their arrival in India, for a long time they did not succeed in entering the Harappan region. Instead one defeat followed another until the Asura granted them an area they could live in. Here too they were constantly harassed by the Asura and the Rakshas. Gradually they evolved a strategy with the help of Vishnu who, under cover of disguise, wandered in all directions in the Indo-Gangetic plain to find the weak points of Asuras.

Rigveda describes how the five peoples/tribes of Harappa i.e. the Asuras, the Gandharavas, the Rakshas, the Yakshas, and the Pishacas, fought with Aryans. These five people had reached a high state of civilisation. Their destruction was brought about by the Aryans through dissension and bribery of important personnel, by securing the strategic positions. The chief means of destruction was the control of the sluice gates of the dam on the five rivers. The water was released leading to untimely floods which paralysed the settlements located on the lower Indus,` writes Prof Malti.

Rigveda tells us that Asura officials in key positions like Purohitaand Ushanas were won over making a big dent in the Asura establishment which enabled them to know the inner secrets and weak points of the Asuras. Quislings played an important role in the evisceration of Harappans. Apart from internal discontent and water, fire was also used as a weapon of war. Untimely floodings as a result of breach of the dam caused a huge material damage demoralising the people. It also triggered a process that ended up as the collapse of civil and military authority of Asuras. `In addition to this, the houses were set on fire at night. The people had not suspected and also were unprepared to meet the situation. They fled the city. In the next round, the fires were used mainly to evict the people from their houses.

The political and military authority on the other hand was paralysed by a large-scale treachery of officials who had joined the enemy and there was nothing else left for Varuna, the king of Asuras but to receive Indra as the victorious leader of the Aryans. One of the hymns of Rigveda describes this meeting and in another Indra invites Varuna to be the co-ruler of the Aryans.

It is important to understand why Indra made the offer to the Asura king for co-ruling? What compelled him to do so after his victory over Asuras? Why couldn`t he rule alone?The reason lies in the higher state of civilisation the Asuras had achieved and the sophisticated state they had created. The developed state born of agricultural surplus and trade, internal and external, spread over large swathes of land had institutions which were complex and beyond the Aryan comprehension. Let`s not forget the Aryans/devas at that point in time were nomads and pastoralists.

Their social and political organisation was quite simple and they were unacquainted with the urban way of life which was the high point of Harappan life. So it`s understandable that Indra, being unaware of the workings of the system he was to lord over, sensed the complexity of work at hand and made the offer to Asura king to co-rule the Aryans and Harappans.

Another consideration might have been that Indra in order to keep his rivals in check within the Aryan fold wanted to consolidate his power by joining his forces with those of his erstwhile royal opponent. Their combined forces could work as a bulwark against any threat from within or without.

Another point worth noting is that language has been a contentious issue since the times conflict arose between Harappans and Aryans. Language politics is not something new in our region. Remember Vishnu in his thirdstep deprived the Asuras of their speech (Vac-This word is still in use in Punjabi for speech, utterance etc)? Satapatha Brahmana tells in a mythopoeic fashion the story of how devas (Aryans) deprived the Asura of their speech. Asuras and devas both were offspring of Prajapati, the creator. As to his inheritance the devas inherited the mind i.e. the sacrifice, and the Asuras the speech. The sacrifice was personified as a man and speech, a woman. At the insistence of devas the sacrifice tricked the speech into coming close to him. Then devas took hold of her and enveloped her in fire and presented her as an offering to the gods. Deprived of their speech when the Asuras cried `he laval, he lavah` the devas said that he who would speak thus would be a `mleccha`. The word `mleccha` was originally used for someone with unintelligible speech.

Prof Malti comments: `The three elements in the episode are as follows: the struggle between the Asuras and the devas, the Asuras being deprived by a trick, and the use of fire in the destruction of Vac.` She elaborates further: `The burning of the language in the sacrificial fire may have different implications. It may indicate the destruction of the speakers of the language in fire, which was done before or it might indicate the burning of the written material andsubsequent ban on rewriting the compositions. In case the written material had been burnt by the devas, the lack of writings in the Indus valley may be automatically explained, for which there may, of course, be other reasons too.

About the dispersal of Harappans, she wrote that a large chunk of the Asuras went to Balochistan and Iran.

The Pishachas found refuge in the hills of the north-west. The Dasas were pushed to the eastern region.

Some Rakshas settled in Balochistan and others went to southern India, even to Sri Lanka. The Gandharvas and Yakshas were accepted into Aryan structures. `For a long time, the Asuras did not disappear altogether from the Indian scene. Even in Mahabharata the wars between the Asuras and others are depicted.

The events described in Rigveda seem to have actually taken place, she said.

`The Civilized Demons` is a mine of trailblazing information and insightful analyses. It vividly shows us how the Harappan and post-Harappan society shaped the subcontinental civilisation in a complex interplay of historical forces, indigenous and foreign. Sadly, on this side of the border our ideological noise has made us deaf enough not to hear the mythopoetic whispers our history speaks in.

(Concluded) soofi01@hotmail.com