Question

In the Rigveda, the term Dasas and Dasyus refers to ______
(A) robbe
(B) tribals
(C) non-Aryans
(D) menials

Answer 1

Hint: The word ‘Veda’ is a Sanskrit word that means knowledge. There are four Vedas: Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda, Atharva Veda. The period between 1500 BC and 600 BC is referred to as the Vedic age because during the Vedic age the holiest scriptures of Hindu religion, Vedas were composed.

Complete answer:
The Vedic people are referred to as Aryans. The head of each tribe was known as Rajan. Amongst the members of the tribe, Rajan was selected to lead the tribe.
Rig Veda is the oldest Veda which is divided into 10 Mandals and contains 1028 hymns. The hymns in Rig Veda are composed in Sanskrit. The hymns in it were composed in praise of gods of nature: Indra and Varuna. This is the reason behind Vedic people were mainly concerned with agriculture and cattle rearing and for the Vedic people, the forces of nature such as rain, wind, and sun were important. Hence, these came to be treated as Gods and were worshipped.
In Rig Veda, the popular Indological Approach was to treat ‘dasas’ and ‘dasyus’ as ‘non-Aryans’ natives of India in opposition to ‘Aryans’.
Dasa: 54 hymns and 63 verses and Dasyus: 65 hymns, 80 verses.
The accounts of conflict between the Aryans and the Dasas and Dasyus are acknowledged in Rig Veda. It describes that Dasas and Dasyus were people who do not perform sacrifices or obey the commandments of God. Their speech is described as ‘Mishra’. Dasas and Dasyus were early Indo-Aryan immigrants who arrived before the Vedic Aryans into the subcontinent.

So the correct option is (C) non-Aryans. In the Rigveda, the term Dasas and Dasyus refers to non-Aryans.

Note: While most of the people interpreted the meaning of dasa and Dasyus as slaves, some authors believed that the meaning of these words mentioned in the Rig Veda should be interpreted in spiritual terms, and therefore, these were referred to as Demons and not humans. Different scholars interpreted different meanings while some considered them as slaves of God others considered them as opposites to Aryan who were impure.