Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s21.63

v1.c3.s21.63

Aupamanyava³ held that the four castes (Varṇa) and the Niṣādas made up the five, and Sāyaṇa⁴ is of the same opinion. Yāska⁵ thinks that the five are the Gandharvas, fathers, gods, Asuras, and Rakṣases. No one of these explanations can be regarded as probable. Roth⁶ and Geldner⁷ think that all the peoples of the earth are meant: just as there are four quarters (Diś), there are peoples at the four quarters (N. E. S. W.), with the Āryan folk in the middle. Zimmer⁸ opposes this view on the ground that the inclusion of all peoples in one expression is not in harmony with the distinction so often made between Āryan and Dāsa; that neither janaśaḥ, ‘men,’⁹ nor mānuṣāḥ, ‘people,’¹⁰ could be used of non-Āryans; that the Soma is referred to as being among the five tribes;¹¹ that the five tribes are mentioned as on the Sarasvatī,¹² and that Indra is pāñcajanya,¹³ ‘belonging to the five peoples.’ He concludes that Āryans alone are meant, and in particular the five tribes of the Anus, Druhyus, Yadus, Turvaśas, and Pūrus, who are all mentioned together in one or perhaps two hymns of the Rigveda,¹⁴ and four of whom occur in another hymn.¹⁵ But he admits that the expression might easily be used more generally later. Hopkins¹⁶ has combated Zimmer’s view, but his own opinion rests mainly on his theory that there was no people named Turvaśa, but only a king of the Yadus called Turvaśa, and that theory is not very probable.