A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s2.63.5

v1.c8.s2.63.5

In the Ṛgveda Dāsa or Dasyu—thus the non-Aryan aboriginal inhabitants also are called—is the usual name for the evil demons, besides also Rakṣas or Rākṣasas, by which, in the Ṛgveda, as well as in the whole of the later Indian literature, all kinds of mischievous, ghostly beings are designated. Also the Pitaras, the "fathers" or ancestral spirits, already in the Ṛgveda received divine worship. The king of these ancestral spirits, who rules in the kingdom of the deceased, high up in the highest heaven, is Yama, a god who belongs already to the Indo-Iranian prehistoric period; for he is identical with Yima who, in the Avesta, is the first human being, the primeval ancestor of the human race. As the first departed one—perhaps originally the daily setting sun or the monthly dying moon—he became the king in the realm of the dead. This kingdom of the dead is in the heavens, and the dying man is comforted by the belief that after death he will abide with King Yama in the highest heaven. Of the dismal belief in the transmigration of the soul and eternal rebirth—the belief which controls the whole philosophical thought of Indians in later centuries—there is, in the Ṛgveda, as yet no trace to be found. So we see here too, that in these hymns there breathes an entirely different spirit from that which pervades the whole of the later Indian literature.