NO. I THE DARKER SIDE OF DAWN COOM ARASWAM V I3 



the Aryan Pandavas, just as does Vibhisana in the Ramdyaua, and Usanas 

 Kavya, who is the priest of the Asuras but is won over to the side of the Devas. 

 in Pancavimsa Brahmana, VII, 5, 20 Bandh. Sr. S., XVIII, 46, and Jaiminlya 

 Brahviana, I, 125-126; cf. Visvarupa, Vrtra's brother, called "priest of the 

 Devas " in Taittirlya Samhita, II, 5, i and Indra's guru in Bhagavata Purana, 

 VI, 7-13. It is because of the intimate relationships of the Devas and Asuras 

 that Arjuna, in Bhagairad Gita, I, 28 ff., shrinks from the slaughter of "kinsmen 

 and teachers " ; cf. Satapatha Brahmana, IV, i, 4, 8, where Mitra (= " Arjuna ") 

 dislikes to take part in the slaying of Soma, while in the same way Taittiriya 

 Brahmana, I, 7, i, 7-8, where Namuci reproaches Indra as the " betrayer of a 

 friend" (mitra-dhrnk) , and Pancavimsa Brahmana, XII, 6, where Namuci 

 reviles him as "guilty hero-slayer of the guiltless" {znrahann adruho druha), 

 provide a literal prototype for Bhagavad Gtta, I, 38, where Arjuna shrinks from 

 the "sin of the betrayal of a friend" (dosam mitra-droheh). Arjuna, in fact, 

 shrinks from taking upon himself what in RV. are Indra's typical kilbisani. 

 It is also very significant, though the implications are ton many to be followed 

 up here, that of the two original brothers of the lunar stock, Dhrtarastra is 

 blind, while Pandu means the " son of a eunuch ", the former corresponding to 

 the form of deity ab intra, the latter to his generated aspect ab extra, as son 

 of him that had been impotent ab intra; "blindness" and "impotence" being 

 typical of the interior operation (giihya zrata) in RV. passim, as may be seen 

 by an analysis of those verses in which are found the words andha, and vadhri 

 or stari (it may be noted in this connection also that srona, "halt", generally 

 coupled with andha, " blind " in the texts alluded to, corresponds to apad, 

 "footless", as cited in the present article). Can we not indeed identify Pandu 

 with the " golden-handed son " (the Sun) whom the Asvins gave to her 

 "whose consort was unmanned" (I, 117, 24)? The victory of the Pandavas 

 corresponds to RV., X, 124, 4, where Agni. Varuna, and Soma decline (cya- 

 z'antc) and the "kingdom is reversed" (pary avart rasfram). The Epic 

 naturally concludes with the final return of the Pandavas to Heaven, their 

 disappearance ab intra, accompanied by Draupadi, whose alter nomcn " Krsna " 

 confesses her Asura origin, and who as the wife of the five Pandava brothers 

 may be compared to Usas or Surya, successively the wife of Soma, Gandharva, 

 .A.gni, and a "mortal" (sc. Vivasvan, Pururavas, Yama), X, 85, 40, and 

 elsewhere also referred to as the consort of the Asvins ; or may be compared 

 with Vac, as participated in by the Five Kindreds (pafica ja)ia). The corre- 

 spondences outlined above could be followed up in great detail. 



7. For some of these equivalents see Bloomfield in Jonrn. Amer. Oriental Soc, 

 XV, 172, iT. It should be added that the whole concept of the two wives and two 

 mothers survives in the nativities of Buddha, Mahavira, and Krsna. Apart from 

 the more obvious parallels, it will be remarked that Mayadevi, the Buddha's 

 mother who does not survive, derives by her name itself from the Asura side, 

 while the co-wife Pajapati, called in the Buddhacarita, II, 19, her samaprabhava, 

 tantamount to savarna, lives ; and that Devaki, the mother of Krsna, is the sister 

 of the Asura Kaiiisa, in whose realm both parents are imprisoned, while the 

 child is taken over water (the Yamuna, although in flood, becoming fordable 

 for him, like the Sarasvati in RV. passim) to the human-angelic world where 

 he is fostered by another mother. In the case of Mahavira, the circumstances 

 of whose nativity are so exactly paralleled in RV., I, 113, 2 and I, 124, 8 

 cited above, the choice of the Ksatriya womb (and similarly in Buddhism, the 



