The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c11.s1.14

v1.c11.s1.14

The similarity of the concept of moral order, Ṛta or Aša, has been also noted: the names of the Mitanni kings afford to us curiously enough the proof that the term Arta was known in the fourteenth century B.C. at the latest. The form Arta is of special interest as it does not show the sound change of the Avesta, if indeed that be real and not a mere mistranscription; it may of course have belonged to the Iranian of pre-Avestan date, or it may have been an Aryan dialectical form, but at any rate the vitality and age of the idea are thus early established. Moreover, the idea of Ṛta is one which, like the moral elevation of Varuṇa, has no future history in India, pointing irresistibly to the view that it was not an Indian creation, but an inheritance which did not long survive its new milieu.