Druhyus

Druhyus (Sanskrit: द्रुह्यु) were a tribe of Vedic Aryans in Ancient India. They are mentioned in the Rigveda,[1] often together with the Anu tribe. Some early scholars have placed them in the northwestern region.[2]

The Indian epics and Puranas locate Druhyus in the North western part of the Indian subcontinent. Puranic lore contain accounts of a large scale migration of Drhyus from Punjab into central Asia. Druhyu king Angara is said to have been driven out of Punjab by King Mandhatri of the Ikshvaku dynasty.[3] F. E. Pargiter theorises that the next Druhyu king Gandhara named the north-western state Gandhāra after himself. Puranas do not refer to Druhyus after the King Pracetas whose 100 sons settled in the region north of Afghanistan (udīcya) and became Mlecchas.[4](Bhagavata 9.23.15–16; Visnu 4.17.5; Vayu 99.11–12; Brahmanda 3.74.11–12 and Matsya 48.9.). Vishnu Purana also lists Aratta and Setu as areas where Druhyus settled.(Vishnu Purana IV.17)

Popular culture

Some populist writers have attempted, with little success among scholars, to link the word Druhyu etymologically to European language terms, such as the Germanic *druhti ("war band") and/or druid (a Celtic religious leader/intellectual).

Footnotes

  1. ↑ e.g. RV 1.108.8; 7.18; 8.10.5; 6.46.8
  2. ↑ Macdonell-Keith, Vedic Index 1912, vol. I p. 395
  3. ↑ Pillai, S. Devadas (997), Indian Sociology Through Ghurye: A Dictionary, Popular Prakashan, p. 163, ISBN 978-81-7154-807-1
  4. ↑ Bryant, Edwin (2001), The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture:The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate, Oxford University Press, p. 138, ISBN 978-0-19-513777-4

References


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