Rigveda: Anukramani Database (anukramaNi dattanidhi)

Note: Most itrans notation used in this article and in the database is in kanTrans, or Baraha convention. 

Anukramani Database Download

Intro

The Rigveda or Rig Veda (Sanskrit: ऋग्वेद, IAST: ṛgveda; kanTrans: RugvEda) is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit sUktas. It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts - SRuti. The RugvEda saMhita is the core text and is a collection of 10 books (maMDalas) with 1,028 hymns (sUktas) in about 10,600 verses (Riks).

The Anukramaṇī (Sanskrit: अनुक्रमणी, IAST: Anukramaṇī or Anukramaṇikā, kanTrans: anukramANi) are the systematic indices of the vEda recording poetic meter, content, and traditions of authorship of each sUkta and in some cases each Rik.

The Beginnings 

I was doing some research on the RugvEda for my previous article "Daasharaajna: The First (Bhaaratiya) Itihaasa", and wanted to cast some of the data in my own way. I figured an Anukramani database would be the first thing available, and hunted around for it, but found nothing worthwhile. So, I figured, I'd make one myself. And hence, I set out on a journey of research, discovery, reading, programming, and, of course, humongous amounts of data entry and recasting the data for better representation in Excel. So here goes the story. 

Sources

The primary source for all of the Mandala/Sukta/Rik, Ashtaka/Adhyaya/Varga, the RuShi, the dEvata, and the chaMdas for each sUkta, and (where available) for each Rik was the venerable Rigveda Samhita of Asthana Mahavidvan H P Venkata Rao of the erstwhile Mysore State under the patronage of HH Chamarajendra Odeyar Bahaddur. This monumental work comes in 36 volumes running to several tens of thousands of pages. My base reference for building this database was the little table that Asthana Mahavidvan H P Venkata Rao provides at the beginning of each sUkta, that looks like this: 

Fortunately, this book in all of the 30 volumes is available at at least three different locations (archive.org, ndl.iitkgp.ac.in and vyasaonline.com) as independent scans (which helped immensely when one scan quality was bad - I simply switched to another source). I scrolled through the literally tens of thousands of pages and screen-grabbed each of these 1028 tables into a separate document, so I could have a ready source and did not have to scroll back and forth. 

Apart from this, I also referred to Shrikant Talageri's Rigveda: A Historical Analysis, and somewhat infrequently to the Ralph Griffith translation for insights. 

As to my primary reference, the text is in kannaDa, it is also an old print and certainly not conducive to OCR - should a reliable kannaDa OCR be available, which I am not aware of. Therefore, all data that I entered had to be visually read and entered by hand into a spreadsheet. What I realized as I went along was that my primary reference is a print from the 1950s, and has a fair few print mistakes (not a large number, given the extent of the work, but they certainly exist), which meant I had to flip those tens of thousands of pages multiple times, to either read the kannaDa translation of the sAyaNa BAShya, or in some cases, go directly to the sAyaNa BAshya to get the gist of the matter in question. 

Despite everything, I found only 10522 overall Riks, compared to Talageri's count of 10552 - I ran short on about 30 Riks in Mandala 1 (1976 vs 2006), and therefore 30 short overall (10552 vs 10522). I cross-checked with the Griffith version and the numbers tally with mine to 10522. So, not quite sure about the missing 30.

Process

Eventually, once I finished entering the raw data into a spreadsheet, my work was not yet done. There were several other steps. Each entry that encompassed multiple riks (for example riks 1-6 had the dEvata, iMdra) had to be expanded to separate individual entries (in the example case, 1 iMdra, 2 iMdra... 6 iMdra and so on). In order to stay consistent on this, I wrote up a Python program to take do this for each of the RuShi, dEvata and chaMdas entries. Then came the additional data for each Rik. 

Chronology: Talageri persuasively argues over the chronology of the RugvEda, dividing it into 4 (or actually 5) time-periods: the Early, Middle and Late periods, along with a Final Period and a 'General' period that may have mixed or unclear chronology. I have picked up his (Talageri's) assignment of the chronology directly. 

Families: Much of this is clear from the name (to get the appropriate RuShi name, in many cases, I had to delve into the sAyana BAShya), however, here, while much of the data agrees with Talageri's, I found a handful of assigned families not backed up in the anukramaNi BAShya. Now, I'm unaware of how Shrikant Talageri has assigned these families, but I only assigned them where the data from H P Venkata Rao's book was solid. In cases where it wasn't, I left the family column alone - blank/unknown. Thus this column will show some variance with Talageri's numbers. This variance, however, will be very small - < 2% overall, in my expectation. The rest of the data agrees with Talageri's.  

References to Composer: This is straight from Talageri's data. No changes and not entirely verified with the original. 

References to BArata/pUru/tRuShi rAja/Leader/RuShi: Directly from Talageri's data, with minor additions based on a basic grep from the Griffith text (easier to grep English text, however, the data is not 100% reliable. Should be close enough for statistical purposes, though)

References to Early/Middle/Late period personalities: Straight from Talageri's data

References to vamSa: Initial seed from Talageri's book, with additional basic scan of the Griffith text. Should be okay for statistical purposes

References to Locations and Rivers: Straight from Talageri's book

References to Flora and Fauna: Seeded from Talageri's book, with additional references from a basic scan of the Griffith text. 

Special sUktams: This was a collection of various sources, plus within my primary reference - wherever I could find them.

All of these extras were add-ons to the original database, and were added on one by one with the help of another Python script. Should there be further additions of a similar vein, these, too can easily be tacked on to the database. 

Now with all these completed, there are in some cases, references to RuShis, dEvatas or chaMdas on the same Rik. In order to clearly delineate this, I had to enter these multiple references with a " + " separator, split the columns based on this specific separator in Excel Power Query, Unpivot these split columns, then finally replace the duplicate names (with .1, .2 extensions) with the same name for homogenous data. 

In Conclusion

There are multiple sources of errors, despite multiple and laborious cross-checks - print errors from the H P Venkata Rao books, transcription errors from the original kannaDa text image to Excel, issues (if any) with Talageri's data that has been borrowed, and any that crept in during the scans of the Griffith text. 

With all this done, this database will be freely available to anyone (link). If you find issues in the database, do let me know through comments, hopefully with a reference I can quickly cross-check (include images of a book if you are looking at one, or a weblink), so I can fix the main database, and anyone else retrieving this data will have those corrections. On the whole, though, the number of errors should be relatively small (1-3% in my estimate, worst case, given multiple levels of cross-checks), so statistically they shouldn't affect much.

The MainDB tab is the expanded version of the original, with 10522 entries in the table. The UnPivDB is the un-pivoted database for RuShi/dEvata/chaMdas with a attribute/value pair. This is to aid the enumeration of the these quantities when named jointly - ex. when a Rik is dedicated to both iMdra and agni, it can be counted both with iMdra and with agni.

Why

Why did I do this? What can be done with this? Well, the anukramaNi database it its own thing, hopefully an easy reckoner for someone looking for this kind of information. I know I was.

Let's see a simple case: 

A quick count of the dEvatas to whom Riks are dedicated lays bare the general misconception/incorrect/misleading statement that there are more dedicated to agni than to iMdra.

(Top 15 entries in the dEvata column shown)

Furthermore, the claim is modified that the agni references are more in the earlier Mandalas as compared to the later ones. A quick Mandala-by-Mandala comparison shows this, too, is mostly untrue. Except for Mandala 9 (marginal) and Mandala 5, dedications 3:2 in iMdra's favor. If indeed agni is anywhere ahead, it is in the late period, in Mandala 5 and the late period sUktams of Mandala 1, but that is more than made up for in Mandala 8 (of the same time-period). Interestingly, Mandala 9 is dedicated almost completely to pAvamAna sOma, to the exclusion of every other dEvata, so iMdra does not feature at all in this late-period Mandala, and agni, only in 8 Riks out of ~1100. 

(Top 15 entries ordered by maNDala shown)

Even further, when divided by time-period, in the Early, Middle, Late and General periods, the ~3:2 dedication in favor of iMdra is consistent, laying bare the general misinformation peddled since it is nigh impossible for anyone to actually cross-check.

(Top 15 entries ordered by time-period and maNDala shown)

With the main database, we find, for example, a total of 2739 Riks are dedicated to iMdra exclusively. However, delving deeper, we find that there are 3144 dedications to iMdra altogether - exclusive and joint dedications combined - this can be gleaned from the unpivoted database. Likewise, the combined number is 2061 for agni, still holding to the same 3:2 ratio as before. 

(Top 15 entries - combined exclusive and joint dedications)

Not to mention, fancy charts like this can be created at a click - for those who prefer pictorial representation: 

(Top 15 entries - dEvata dedication by time-period)

Extensive statistical analyses of any kind may be conducted with the database. 

Daasharaajna: The First (Bhaaratiya) Itihaasa

Introduction

The moment we hear the term "epic", the itihaasas, Ramayana and the Mahabharata come to mind. There are also the usually forgotten twins, Yogavasishta and the Harivamshakavya. These four, together, are considered the itihaasa of Bharata. 

However, long before these, there was the Daasharaajna, alternately 'The War Among Ten Kings', which is almost certainly actual history of Bharata recorded in the Rigveda.

This story is memorialized in the 7th Mandala of the Rigveda, suktas 18, 33 and 83, with an additional reference in  the 3rd Mandala, suktam 53.

The Veda are darshana shastra - usually with deep philosophical and/or religious meaning. For this specific story to be encoded into the Veda (even through its reorganization into Mandalas) means that the story was significant and important at its time. In modern times, we have barely heard of these stories - either in the puranas or other scripture, therefore we can only guess about the antiquity of this occurrence. 

In later years, all stories were absorbed into the Mahabharata as a way to keep them alive. Perhaps prior to the Mahabharata itself, history was encoded into the Veda itself in order to preserve it? 

In the sections below, I have tried to keep the story on point - delving into detail only on the riks actually telling the story of the Daasharaajna.

The 7th Mandala

The 7th Mandala of the Rigveda, consists of a total of 104 suktas, containing a total of 841 riks (or verses). Per Shrikant Talageri in his work "Rigveda - A Historical Analysis",  this mandala was composed by what he calls are the "Vasishtas", predominantly Vasishta Maitravaruni: 

Suktas of the 7th Mandala	Composer
1-31, 33-100, 103-104	VasiSTha MaitrAvaruNI
102	VasiSTha MaitrAvaruNI Sakti VAsiSTha
101-102	VasiSTha MaitrAvaruNI, Kumara Agneya

The details below are taken from the seminal work of Asthana Mahavidwan H P Venkata Rao on the Rigveda Samhita, which itself is based on Sayana Bhashya on the Rigveda. 

The 18th Sukta

The 18th sukta is made up of 25 riks, 

Rishi

    Vasishta  

Devata

    1-21: Indra

    22-25: Sudaasa Paijavana Daanastuti

Chandas 

    Trishtup. 

Riks 1-4 are essentially odes to Indra, praising him and seeking his benevolence. There is also a reference to Vasistha, the composer, indicating he is the one seeking benevolence (ostensibly on behalf of the yajamana) 

Rik 5 begins the reference to the story of King Sudaasa and references the river Parushni (later called Iravati, modern name Ravi), thereby fixing the geography in the land of Saptasindhu (modern-day Punjab). The summary of this rik is that Sudaasa was able to cross this fast moving, deep river. 

Rik 6 goes deeper into the story, bringing in more characters: Turvasha, a king opposed to Sudaasa, and two clans/tribes/armies - ಭೃಗವಃ-ದ್ರುಹ್ಯುಶ್ಚ  - The Bhrigu and the Druhyu. The summary of this rik is that Turvasha attacks Sudaasa, the Bhrigu and the Druhyu peoples are the belligerents in this battle (at this point it is as yet unclear which groups are headed by which king, but a note by Talageri indicates that Bhrigu were the priests/preceptors of the Anu peoples), and eventually Sudaasa overcomes Turvasha. 

Rik 7 goes back to the glorification of Indra (the friend of Sudaasa), who helped the noble (Sudaasa) recover his cattle (from Turvasha)

The story continues in riks 8 and 9, introducing more characters: ಚಾಯಮಾನಃ ಕವಿಃ - Kavi, the son of Chayamana. The summary rik 8 is that Sudaasa's enemies attacked him after fording the river Parushni, however, (with the grace of Indra,) Sudaasa was victorious, and Kavi was slain (in battle) The summary of rik 9 is that a horse-mounted Sudaasa (again with the grace of Indra) was able to subjugate his enemies and their progeny. 

Rik 10 goes back to some more metaphors of Indra and the Maruts/Vayu.

Rik 11 returns to the story, and in summary states that Sudaasa established superiority over both banks of the Parushni river, killing 21 enemies along the way. 

Rik 12 introduces more characters, namely: Sruta, Kavasha, Vriddha and Druhyu (the last indicating the Druhyu people above were essentially Sudaasa's antagonists, leaving us to surmise that the Bhrigu were likely Sudaasa's people).  The summary of rik 12 is that all these 4 new characters, Sruta, Kavasha, Vriddha and Druhyu were drowned (in the Parushni river, with the help of Indra)

Rik 13 has more characters introduced. It also introduces the notion of forts/fortifications and a seven-layered fort (a'la Chitradurga?). Rik 13 summarizes as the seven-layered forts of Sruta, Kavasha, Vriddha and Druhyu were breached (again with Indra's help). Tritsu was given the home (palace?) of Bala, the son of Anu. (Deduction: Later, we find that Tritsu was also allied against Sudaasa, indicating perhaps that this offering - of the home of Bala to Tritsu - was some kind of deal struck among Sudaasa's antagonists. For certain, Anu was one of Sudaasa's antagonists)

Rik 14 provides context to the conflict, and Rik 15 continues the narrative. Rik 14 summarizes to the followers of Anu and Druhyu attempting to seize cattle belonging to Sudaasa. (We see this in the Mahabharata as well - during the Virata-yuddha, Duryodhana and allies seize the cattle of Virata, thereby initiating the conflict that brings the Paandavas out of aj~natavaasa). Sixty six thousand six hundred and sixty (enemy) warriors are supposed to have been killed in the conflict. 

Rik 15 summarizes as the deceitful soldiers of Tritsu fleeing the battlefield after abandoning the entierty of their possessions to Sudaasa. 

Riks 16 and 17 continue in the same vein, of Sudaasa's enemies fleeing the battlefield, and Sudaasa attaining their (war?) materiel. 

The next Rik, 18 introduces another character is introduced here - Bheda - who is stated as having been subjugated. This Bheda is supposed to have been a prosecutor of those praising/worshipping Indra, thus for the first time introducing a potentially extra-cultural character - perhaps someone outside of Bharatavarsha, or at least not subscribing to the prevalent (vaidika) culture. The rik seeks Indra's help to overcome Bheda. 

Immediately thereafter, in rik 19, Bheda is found to have been killed in battle (by Indra - by Sudaasa?). The Tritsus are now found to be glorifying Indra (perhaps signifying that the Tritsus are now protagonists on Sudaasa's side after their previous defeat). Yamuna (peoples from the shore of the Yamuna?) is also introduced here, thereby tying the whole of North India into this story/conflict. Horses are found to have been killed in this war. Yamunas, along with Aja, Shigru and Yaksha peoples are also found to be allied with Sudaasa at this juncture.  

The story continues in rik 20, introducing even more new characters - Devaka, son of Maanyamaana, and Shambara - both antagonists to Sudaasa.  The summary of rik 20 is that Indra is the provider of untold wealth. Indra (Sudaasa?) has slain a certain Devaka - son of Maanyamaana. He has also thrown Shambara down a high mountain (thereby slaying Shambara as well).

Rik 21 is not directly connected with the war, and introduces rishi Parashara - the destroyer of untold numbers of rakshasas, but not as a participant in the war - just as someone who propitiates Indra. Vasishta is also named as a propitiator of Indra, along with other unnamed rishis.  

Note: Yaskacharya's commentary states that this Parashara is (likely) the son of Shakti, who (Shakti) himself is the son of Vashshta. Thereby, Parashara is the the grandson of Vasishta. This is also retold in many puranas. 

Riks 22 and 23 seem to indicate the aftermath of the war involving Sudaasa. Sudaasa's lineage is also enumerated here - Sudaasa, son of Pijavana, grandson of Devavata. The composer (?) is gifted 200 cows, 4 horses as well as two wives by Sudaasa. 

Rik 24 continues in the same vein, praising Sudaasa for his philanthropy, and introduces yet another character - an antagonist named Yudhyaamadhi, who was slain by a fast-flowing river (drowned?)

 

Rik 25 calls on the Marutas to be benevolent on Sudaasa. Another name is introduced here: Divodaasa father of Sudaasa. Sudaasa is also called son of Pijavana at the same time. It must be assumed that Divodaasa is another name for Pijavana or Pijavana is some type of patronymic, and Divodaasa is the real name of Sudaasa's father. 

Note: Riks 22-25 celebrate the philanthropy of Sudaasa Paijavana as ಸುದಾಸಃ ಪೈಜವನಸ್ಯ ಚಿತಸ್ರೋನ್ತ್ಯಾ ದಾನಸ್ತುತಿಃ (Sudaasa Paijavanasya chitasrontyaa daanastuti). 

   

The 33rd Sukta

The 33rd sukta is called Shvityncha is made of 14 riks. 

Rishi

    1-9: Vasishta 

    10-14: Vasishta-Putras (Sons/progeny of Vasishta) 

Devata

    1-9: Vasishta-Putras

    10-14: Vasishta 

Chandas

    Trishtup. 

Note: "Vasishtas" indicates Vasishta himself and his sons/progeny from here on

In riks 1-9, Vasishta compliments his sons/progeny, while Vasishta putras (sons/progeny of Vasishta) eulogize their father in riks 9-14.

Rik 1 is simply in praise of Vasishta-putras by Vasishta - the scribe of these riks - as being adept at yajna. 

Rik 2 talks of a yajna being conducted by Sudaasa (It must be surmised that this yagna is being officiated by Vasishta and his sons). It also introduces another character - Paashadyumna, son of Vayata whose yajna Indra leaves to come to Sudaasa's yajna. Paashadyumna is not specifically mentioned as a combatant

Rik 3 of this sukta is more descriptive: It gives us to understand that the yajna (by Sudaasa) is ostensibly being conducted in the middle of (at the beginning?) the war. Sudaasa crosses the Sindhu river with (the help of) the Vasishthas (Vasishta and his sons, the officiators of the yajna), thus tying the whole of northern India from the Yamuna to the Sindhu rivers in this conflict. Bheda (who we saw in Rigveda 7.18.19 and 7.18.20) is mentioned again as being slain. The name Daasharaajna (ಏವೇನ್ನು ಕಂ ದಾಶರಾಜ್ಞೇ ಸುದಾಸಂ ಪ್ರಾವದಿಂದ್ರೋ ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಣಾ ವೋ ವಸಿಷ್ಠಾಃ) is brought up for the first time here. 

Note 1: This reference to Sindhu appears to be a specific reference to the Sindhu river, rather than the usage of Sindhu as a generic name for a river (which Talageri argues convincingly about). 

Note 2: This also demonstrates the east-to-west movement (Ganga to Sindhu) of the peoples of the time, which, also, Talageri provides convincing arguments of. 

Rik 4, is in encouragement of Vasishta-putras by Vasishta to chant mantras to Indra in the Shakvari chandas (metre) 

Rik 5 lends more credence to the king named/people of Tritsu now being allied on the side of Sudaasa. The Tritsu peoples are now supporting the Vasishtas in the praise of Indra. Indra bestows a vast kingdom on Tritsu. 

Rik 6 expounds on the Tritsu peoples. The Tritsu are now also called Bhaaratas. The rik indicates that at one point the Tritsu were humbled by their foes, but later prospered after Vasishta became their preceptor. A metaphor comparing the defeated Tritsu to a cattle staff shorn of leaves and shaved smooth is worth noting.

Rik 7 is in praise of Agni, Vayu and Aditya (simplistically the devatas of Fire, Winds and the Sun), but ends with the indication that the Vasishtas are in the know of the greatness of these three devatas. 

In rik 8, the glory of the Vasishtas is compared to the splendor of the sun (Surya), the depth of the oceans (Samudra) and the speed of the winds (Vayu). 

The praise of the Vasishtas ends in rik 9 extolling them as being aware of the secrets of the universe, and having been born from Apsaras. 

Riks 9-13 begin with the praise of Vasishta himself, and continue to expound the birth story of Vasishta, who is said to have been born alongside Agastya from mind (imagination?) of the apsara Urvashi, and the seed of Mitra-Varuna, with the knowledge - (ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಜ್ಞಾನ, brahmajnana) of the universe and the blessings of the Vishvedevas. In his work Rigveda Samhita, Asthana Mahavidwan H P Venkata Rao goes into a detailed story of the origin of Vasishta sourced internally from the Rigveda as well as externally from the Brihaddevatagrantha, in all accounts, the story having minor variations, but Agastya and Vasishta having been born of Mitra-Varuna and Urvashi. The twelve sons of Aditi (Dwaadaashaadityas) are named as well, Mitra-Varuna being twins among the twelve. (Bhaga, Aaryama, Amsha, Mitra, Varuna, Dhaatri, Vidhaatri, Vivasvaan, Tvashtri, Poosha, Indra and Vishnu)

Rik 14 calls on the Tritsu peoples to welcome and serve Vasishta with piety. Vasishta is called the guide/counsellor to the yajna.

The 83rd Sukta

The 83rd sukta is called "yuvam naraa", and consists of 10 riks.  

Rishi

    Vasishta 

Devata

    Indra-Varuna

Chandas

    Jagati.

Rik 1 requests Indra-Varuna to protect the axe-weilders heading in the eastern direction in order to cut darbha grass, and defend Sudaasa. 

Riks 2 and 3 are more generic, calling upon Indra-Varuna to encourage warriors when the situation is unfavorable, and seeking their help in defense. (It must be noted that this rik talks of flag-waving warriors, putting the notion/usage of a flag (dhvaja) back into the far past)

Rik 4 references the Daasharaajna, specifically the defeat of Bheda, extolling Indra-Varuna as having supported Sudaasa and the Tritsus at that time of war

Rik 5 seeks more protection for the chanter against the weapons of enemies.

Rik 6 makes more reference to the subject epic, calling on Indra-Varuna as the protectors of Sudaasa and the Tritsus from the attack of the 'ten kings'. 

Riks 7 and 8 continue to reference the subject epic. 10 kings banded together, and yet were unable to defeat Sudaasa. This was possible because of the yajnas in praise of Indra-Varuna (by Sudaasa's people) 

Rik 9 and 10 seek benevolence of Indra-Varuna

[Deduction: Asthana Mahavidwan HP Venkata Rao names the following kings as antagonists to Sudaasa: Shimyu, Turvasha, Druhyu, Kavasha, Pooru, Anu, Bheda, Shambara and two kings named Vrikarna. 

Meanwhile, I was able to gather the following 11 names from the 7th Mandala alone: Turvasha, Kavi, Shruta, Kavasha, Vriddha, Druhyu, Anu, Bheda, Devaka, Shambara, Yudhyaamadhi. It is unclear which of these 10 (if at all) are the Daasharaajnas - Yudhyaamadhi is most likely the odd man.

The common names among the two lists are in bold. My references are in the table at the bottom. I was unable to find the non-bold names from HP Venkata Rao's list in the named suktas]

The Third Mandala

Meanwhile, the third mandala consists of 62 suktas, and a total of 617 riks, authored largely by the Vishwamitra family. Details from Shrikant Talageri's "Rigveda - A Historical Analysis" on the composers, below: 

Suktas of the 3th Mandala	Composer
1-12, 23-35, 37, 39-53, 57-61	ViSvAmitra GAthina
13-14	RSabha VaiSvAmitra
15-16	UtkIla KAtya
17-18	Kata VaiSvAmitra
19-22	GAthin KauSika
36	VaiSvAmitra GAthina, Ghora ANgiras
38	VaiSvAmitra GAthina, Prajapati VaiSvAmitra/VAcya
54-56	PrajApati VaiSvAmitra /VAcya
62	VaiSvAmitra GAthina, Jamadagni BhArgava

The 53rd Sukta

This suktam is called Indraparvata, and consists of 24 riks. 

Rishi: 

1-24: Vishvamitra

Devata:

1: Indraparvata

2-14, 21-24: Indra

15-16: Vaak

17-20: Rathangani

Chandas: 

1-9, 11, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24: Trishtup

10, 16: Jagati

12, 20, 22: Anushtup

13: Gayatri

18: Brihati

Rik 1 invokes Indra and Parvata to accept offerings (of yajna)

Rik 2 to 6 eulogize Indra, offering him the Soma and mantras of praise. 

Rik 7, according to H P Venkata Rao - who quotes Sayana, references Sudaasa as ಭೋಜಾಃ (Bhojaah). The rik summarizes as Sudaasa is the yajamaana of the yajna, whose preceptors are Angirasas. Sudaasa bestows gifts on the scribe of the rik, namely Vishwamitra as a part of his Ashwamedha Yajna. 

Rik 8 reverts to eulogizing Indra as bearing multiple forms and as someone who participates in multiple yajnas (in different locations) at the same time. 

In Rik 9, there is a continuation of the Ashwamedha by Sudaasa, where the conductor of the yajna, Vishwamitra, stops the flow of two rivers, Vipat (Vipasa) and Shutudru, mapped to modern day Beas and Sutlej rivers, again fixing the location in modern day Punjab. 

Note: H P Venkata Rao goes to a side note expanding on this story. Sudaasa conducts an Ashwamedha Yajna with the help of Vishwamitra. At the yajna, Sudaasa gives gifts to Vishwamitra. As Vishwamitra is returning to his ashrama, he is followed by thieves until he reaches the confluence of Vipasa and Shutudru rivers. The waters being deep and flowing fast, a crossing is not easy. Vishwamitra prays to the rivers to reduce the waters and let him pass so as to escape the thieves. This story is memorialized in this rik. This story is also in greater detail in Rigveda 3.33.1-13

Rik 10 is a call to the Kaushikas (Vishwamitra's brethern/progeny) to sing praises of the devatas and consume soma of the yajna. 

Rik 11 continues with the Ashwamedha, calling upon the Kaushikas to let loose the Ashwamedha horse without fear, so Sudaasa can earn fame and fortune, for Indra has slain (the yajna-subverting) Vritra making all directions (technically East, West and North - praak, apaak and udak) safe. 

In riks 12-13, Vishwamitra calls upon Indra to protect the race of Bharata.

Rik 14 introduces the Keekata peoples - Anaryas - ignoble people (likely tribals), who do not offer yajna to the devatas. It calls upon Indra to deliver cows of these peoples (to the scribe's people) so their milk can be put to good use (in yajna). 

Note: Talageri argues that Keekata is in present day Bihar. It also names a king/leader of these peoples: Pramagandha (a name that is sometimes associated with the place name, Magadha)

Rik 15-16 extol Vagdevate, daugher of Surya, and who is accompanied by rishi Jamadagni.

Note: H P Venkata Rao goes to a side note expanding on this story. During the Ashwamedha of Sudaasa officiated by Vishwamitra, Shakti, son of Vasishta, somehow arrests Vishwamitra's power of speech, causing Vishwamitra to lose his brahmatejas (lusture/radiance). Then, an aged rishi named Jamadagni brings forth Surya's daughter, Vaak (the power of speech) to Vishwamitra causing Vishwamitra to regain his radiance/knowledge, and leading his progeny to the light of knowledge.

Rik 17 deviates from the subject-line to pray for the integrity of the ratha - the vehicle (in which either the king, Sudaasa,  or the scribe, Vishwamitra, is to travel (?)).

Rik 18 seeks Indra's benevolence.

Riks 19-20 reverts to pray for the safety of the ratha.

Riks 21-22 seek general benevolence from Indra. 

Rik 23 is a bit off-topic, indicating Vishwamitra (or his ability) being underestimated

Rik 24 is also off-topic, indicating some type of rivalry between the Vasishtas and the Vishwamitras. 

Required Reading on the Ashwamedha Yajna

Other sources related to Daasharaajna

Around 3.53.7, HP Venkata Rao goes on a side note detailing the story of Sudaasa from various sources (Note: I have not had a chance to check on each of these sources. I quote HP Venkata Rao directly). 

Vishnupurana indicates that there existed a king named Sudaasa in the Suryavamsha, and another (by the same name) in the Chandravamsha, son of a certain Divodasa. (It appears this Chandravamsha Sudaasa is the protagonist of the Daasharaajna)

Sayanabhashya around Rigveda 1.112.x9 indicates that Sudaasa, son of Pijavana had a guru/purohita named Vishwamitra. Desirous of conducting an Ashwamedha yajna, Sudaasa prayed to the Ashwini Devatas for wealth, and the Ashwini twins obliged, providing him their ratha (charriot) full of wealth. 

This is also repeated in Rigveda 1.47.6 and in the Nirukta 2.24

Rigveda 7.18.5 (as we saw earlier) and Rigveda 7.20.2 both indicate Sudaasa winning over a war against 10 kings (Daasharajna).

Rigveda 3.53.9 (as we saw earlier) indicates that Sudaasa conducted his Ashwamedha yajna in the Vipat/Shutru (Beas, Sutlej) river basin.

Rigveda 7.19.3 says that Trasadasyu, son of Purukutsu and Sudaasa himself are both eligible for Indra's protection 

Aiteraya Brahmana 35.8, indicates Vasishta is the guru/purohita for Sudaasa (as we saw from the 7th mandala text earlier). 

[Deduction: It appears that originally Vasishta was the preceptor for Sudaasa, but by the time he conducts the Ashwamedha - which ostensibly comes after the Daasharaajna war, Vishwamitra becomes the preceptor while there appears to be rivalry between Vasishta and Vishwamitra.

It also appears that the Tritsu peoples were originally allied against Sudaasa, but after being defeated by Sudaasa, seem to have eventually become his allies, joining the Vasishtas in yajna, and attaining a vast kingdom

Meanwhile, I created a table of the actors of the Daasharaajna. Unfortunately, there are some questions. Despite the references, the details are a bit unclear.]

Other references to Sudaasa in the Rigveda

Most of the other references to Sudaasa within the text of the Rigveda (apart from the suktams named above) are in passing:

1.47.6 makes reference to how the Ashvini twins brought chariots full of treasure for Sudaasa

1.112.19 is in similar vein, although the reference is a bit more generic

1.63.7 makes reference to Indra helping Sudaasa defeat Amhas (ಸುದಾಸೇ ವೃಥಾ ವರ್ಕ್ ಅಂಹೋಃ) 

5.53.2 the reference here seems to be tangential, and not necessarily directly related to our Sudaasa. 

7.19.3, 7.19.6, 7.20.2 and 7.25.3, 7.32.10 make reference to Indra being benevolent to Sudaasa.

7.53.3 seeks the benevolence of Dyavaprithivi on Sudaasa.

7.60.8, 7.60.9 and 7.64.3 make reference to Mitra-Varuna's benevolence to Sudaasa

Other references to Daasharaajna in the Rigveda

3.33: Has a more detailed story of Vishwamitra stopping/slowing the rivers Vipasa and Shutudri at their confluence 3.53.9. The whole of 3.33 (13 riks) are dedicated to this story in a conversation-fashion where Vishwamitra converses with the rivers, and they respond back. Vishwamitra is thought to be crossing from the south-east to the northwest in this instance, indicating the expansion of Sudaasa's territory to the North and West as the Daasharajna war progresses. 

The (Abridged) Story of Daasharaajna

Overall salient points that can be deduced from the references above. Bold indicates conjecture/deduction/surmise/opinion:

1. Sudaasa, son of Divodasa, grandson of Devavata in the Pijavana clan fought and won a war against 10 other Raajas (Or perhaps, the 10 raajas of Dasharaajna included Sudaasa as well - unclear).  

2. The war is kicked off when Turvasha attacks Sudaasa, and captures his cattle. Sudaasa crosses the river Parushni to fight his attacker. The war is fought between the Druhyu and the Bhrigu peoples - Druhyus being the army of Druhyu who was aligned with Turvasha and the Bhrigus that of Sudaasa. 

3. The war continues, and this time, Sudaasa's enemies ford the river Parushni and counterattack after their previous defeat. Sudaasa is mounted on a horse as he gives battle, and a certain Kavi (son of Chaayamaana - one of Sudaasa's enemy-leaders) is slain. 

4. Overall, Sudaasa slays 21 of his enemies (not specifically named) and establishes supremacy across both banks of the Parushni. (Sudaasa previosuly only had control over one bank of the Parushni, with the other bank being manned by his enemies)

5. More of Sudaasa's enemies, namely Sruta, Kavasha, Vriddha, and Druhyu were drowned in the Parushni as the battle continues. 

6. Forts, or at least fortifications of some description were in existence at this point in time, and  these fell to Sudaasa. A certain Tritsu (enemy king/leader) was given the palace of another of the enemies - Bala, indicating some kind of treaty among the enemies of Sudaasa. 

7. Anu, [the followers of] Druhyu, [and the Tritsu peoples] attack Sudaasa [once again] and seize his cattle [by some form of deceit]. Sudaasa is able defeat all the antagonists, putting the Tritsu people to flight while they abandon their possessions/materiel in the battlefield [which becomes Sudaasa's property]

8. The war rages on, with another [anarya/ignoble king] Bheda fighting on the side of the antagonists. Sudaasa slays this Bheda in battle. [Bheda is called a prosecutor of the worshippers of Indra, thereby signifying that potentially this Bheda was likely an extra-cultural character to the Bharatiya civilization. The first outside invader, perhaps?; Bheda also appears to be the principal antagonist to Sudaasa. His defeat finds mention in at least three different locations within the 7th Mandala - in each of the three relevant suktas, 18, 33 and 83. ]

9. The Tritsu peoples, [after their previous defeat at the hands of Sudaasa are now found to be allied with him] are participating in yajnas for Indra. As also are people of the Yamuna [from the shore of the river Yamuna], as well as the people of Aja, Shiguru and Yaksha.

10. Meanwhile on the battle-front, Devaka and Shambara, among Sudaasa's enemies, are slain in battle (Shambara being thrown off a mountain). Another foe, Yudhyaamadhi is [drowned] in a fast-flowing river [Parushni]. Overall, the 10 kings involved are (likely) : Turvasha, Kavi, Shruta, Kavasha, Vriddha, Druhyu, Anu, Bheda, Devaka, and Shambara (based on internal evidence. Note that H P Venkata Rao names a few different names, some of which aren't found in these relevant suktas, but there is a 60% match between the two lists)

11. Sudaasa conducts a yajna [during] the war, the yajna being officiated by Vasishta and his sons/grandsons, supported by the Tritsu peoples [who are now allied with Sudaasa, and are being called Bhaaratas - people of Bhaaratavarsha]. It is indicated that Tritsu have prospered after Vasishta became their guru/preceptor. [Some text from Sayanabhashya, and by H P Venkata Rao suggests that Vasishta was the preceptor of the Tritsu peoples, and after the Tritsu-Sudaasa alignment came to officiate the yajna for Sudaasa. There appears to be some credence to this given the later Ashwamedha yajna is officiated by Vishwamitra, however this isn't explicitly called out]

12. Sudaasa crosses the Sindhu river as the war rages on, [thereby tying the entire landmass of northern India from the plains of the Yamuna to the Sinhu river (modern name Indus) into the conflict, making it at least 40% as big as the Mahabharata in terms of geographical area]

13. After the war, Sudaasa embarks on an Ashwamedha yajna, however, this time, his guru is Vishwamitra [the reason the two sets of suktas are separated by several mandalas is because one set is composed by the Vasishta clan and the other by the Vishwamitra clan; there is no specific chronology to the mandalas; lastly there is some type of rivalry between the Vishwamitra and Vasishta clans - which is also borne out by other stories of Vishwamitra and Vasishta not being the best of friends]

Image Ref: Tracing the lost, dried River Saraswati (recreated)

Conclusion

The name Daasharaajna itself is internal to the Rigveda, signifying the importance of the event. 

That the Daasharaajna is a seminal event in the history of the land is apparent by the extent and breadth of where the stories of the central character, Sudaasa is sprinkled not just in the Rigveda, but also other sources named - the Vishnupurana, Aiteraya Brahmana, and others.

The extent of this conflict is also apparent - enveloping all of North India - from the Yamuna to beyond the Sindhu, including the territories of Shutudri, Vipat (Vipasa), and Parushni. Several specific numbers are also mentioned such as 10 raajas, 21 enemy [leaders] slain by Sudaasa during a specific battle, multitude of animals - specifically horses - being killed, and 66,660 [enemy] warriors being killed in battle. 

Sure, the numbers given aren't as many as the Mahabharata does (18 akshauhinis in the Mahabharata), but given the antiquity of this event, decidedly much before the Mahabharata - before the Ramayana as well (since the Ramayana itself finds mention in the Mahabharata, but Daasharaajna doesn't), the numbers are significant for the time period. Clearly this was a war of enormous proportions for the time, involving [most] of the kings of the time. 

The philosophical, moral and the personal/even entertainment angles of this historical event have been completely lost. Only an echo of the event that perhaps led to the formation of a pan (north) Indian kingdom has been retained. 

The addition of the Ashwamedha yajna at the end of this war adds more color and context to the event. Indeed, an Ashwamedha yajna would have been conducted at the end of a victorious mega-campaign - as it was by Rama in the Uttara Ramayana and as it was by Yudhisthira after the Mahabharata war. So it all makes sense....

Daasharaajna is, indeed, the original itihaasa of Bhaarata. One that has been lost in the mists of time, unfortunately, with only echoes of it still remaining encoded in the Rigveda.

Partisan Mahabharata?

Is history written by the victor, and hence really partial? 

Perhaps! Actually, no! For certain! 

All history is pretty-much written by the victors - either by commission (ex. Akbarnama) or indirectly (ex. Ashoka of the Mauryas through edicts attributed to him), so you essentially get the victor's standpoint and viewpoint and the vanquished party's achievements and/or legacy is completely lost or worse, eradicated. 

That brings us to one of the greatest epics and what Bharatiyas consider itihasa (history) - The Mahabharata. Is the Mahabharata partial to the victors? Does it extoll the Pandavas while pushing Kauravas to the depths of adharma? Perhaps we have missed out the legacy of the Kauravas because the author was partial to the Pandavas?

To examine this in detail, it is important to understand the family tree of the Kuru dynasty - post Shantanu (with whom the Mahabharata really begins) very clearly, and understand the biological bloodlines, the legal family bonds not withstanding. It will be clear why in a moment. 

For all practical purposes the Kauravas and Pandavas were cousins - sons of brothers Dhritarashtra and Pandu respectively - who shared the same father but had different mothers. What, though, of their biological bloodlines? Did they actually have paternal familial blood of the Kuru dynasty in them? What of the author of the Mahabharata itself? How, if at all, was he related to the main actors of the epic? When you start plotting these biological and legal bloodlines, a very complex picture arises:

First up, of course, is Bhishma, born from Shantanu and Ganga. Bhishma is both biologically and legally in the Kuru line.

Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa, (or Vedavyasa) arises from a pre-marital association of Satyavati and the sage Parashara.

Meanwhile, Bhishma makes a vow of celibacy, and Shantanu marries Satyavati. Chitrangada and Vichitravirya arise from this union. Both Chitrangada and Vichitravirya are legally and biologically in the Kuru line. 

When Chitrangada dies early in life, Bhishma wins the princesses of Kashi - Amba, Ambika and Ambalika for Vichitravirya. Amba refuses to marry Vichitravirya, but Ambika and Ambalika do. Vichitravirya, however, has no heirs with Ambika and Ambalika and he too dies prematurely of disease. 

With Bhishma's vow of celibacy intractable, Satyavati convinces her other son - Vyasa - for a niyoga union with Ambika and Ambalika in order to produce legal heirs in the Kuru family. 

Of Gotra and Marriages among cousins in South India

Let's start with the concept of Gotra.

While some opine that Gotra is simply the 'abode of cows' or 'house of cows' indicating a typical paternal familial line, others opine that Gotra is made up of two parts: go meaning the indriyas or senses and tra meaning to protect. Either case, Gotra is a patrilineal familial association, with a Rishi as the originator. In other words, a Gotra is a group of people who all share a single forefather. The Gotra is often synonymous with the Rishi. Even more simply, your Gotra is the same as your father's, his (your father's) is the same as his father's and so on until they reach a root rishi from whom the Gotra originated.

The Gotra is usually used during various rituals to identify the yajamana, or the person conducting the rituals, as well as during marriages to check the familial associations of the bride and groom. 

Per Sanatana custom, two related philosophies are prevalent in Bharata: mitaakshara and daayabhaaga

The daayabhaaga vidhi is prevalent in Bengal and portions further East. The rest of India follows the mitaakshara vidhi from Punjab all the way down to Kanyakumari. The primary difference between these two is in terms of succession, and therefore is not relevant to our discussion.

In the mitaakshara vidhi, two lineages of people are identified for every individual: gotraja and bhinna-gotraja. 

Typically a gotraja (of any person) is someone who shares a patrilineal line (up to 5 generations, per Hindu Law), and a bhinna gotraja, someone who shares a matrilineal line (up to 3 generations, again per Hindu Law).  

In other words, all people tracing their parental lineage to your father's paternal grand father's, paternal grand father are your gotrajas. Similarly, all people tracing their parental lineage to your mother's maternal grandmother are your bhinna gotrajas. Per Hindu common law, marriage to your gotrajas and bhinna gotrajas are forbidden and indeed considered null and void in an Indian Court of Law.

The reasons for this appear to be rooted in ensuring sufficient genetic diversity among the populations and preventing the ills stemming from genetic homogeneity. There appear some instances from ancient past where sa-gotra marriages were normal, even encouraged - perhaps to 'keep wealth within the household', but with the resulting birth defects that occur with such marriages, the practice was not only abandoned, but also outlawed among ancient Indic societies. 

There seem to have been 4 gotras originally - kAshyapa, AMgirasa, vasiShTa, and bhrigu (jamadagni). This seems to have increased to 8 in the first stage of additions (adding atri, vishwamitra, and agastya plus kEvala bhrigu) - representing the Saptarishis, eventually ending up with a total of 108 gotras. A statistical count appears to show an equal distribution of gotras across all varnas of people.

Among South Indian states, marriage among cousins is fairly common, and is much misunderstood, especially by other sections of society where this is not permitted, assuming all cousin weddings are allowed. 

Before the generic "eww... cousin marriage" reaction, let us understand the underpinnings of why marriages among blood-relatives are disallowed: The very simple reason for this is the need to preserve genetic diversity. A standard boiler-plate note on genetic diversity would read as: 

A lack of genetic diversity can make it harder for a species to adapt to environmental changes and survive. Genetic diversity is the raw material for evolution, and species need it, along with reproductive excess and a selective force, to evolve. When there is low genetic diversity, there are fewer differences between individuals, and therefore fewer opportunities to adapt to environmental changes. This can make populations more vulnerable to extinction

More simplistically, among humans, a lack of genetic diversity leads to physical and mental birth defects in children, and eventually to a high infant mortality rate within a few generations. Given that birth defects in the South and North are more or less identical despite marriages among cousins (in fact infant mortality is lowest in the Southern states), there must be something the South does to ensure the requisite genetic diversity. 

Obviously, the law is applied differently in the South. Not all ‘cousin marriages’ are permitted. Think of it as gotraja and bhinna gotraja being redefined 

Typically a gotraja (of any person in the South Indian context) is someone who shares a patrilineal line, and a bhinna gotraja, someone who shares a matrilineal line respectively. 

 

Patrilineal lineage is a male and his male progeny (your father, his brothers and their sons, your paternal grandfather, his brothers and all their sons and grandsons, and so on). 

 

Matrilineal line is a female and her female progeny (your mother, her sisters and their daughters, your maternal grandmother, her sisters and all their daughters and grand daughters, and so on). 

While the patrilineal line is readily detectable (same gotra), the matrilineal line takes some digging. 

First up, marriages in the same gotra are disallowed regardless of the number of generations - that automatically removes the father’s male siblings’ children. (In some extreme cases, people do come up with 7 generations and other justifications, but in general sagotra marriages are frowned upon, even leading to exile of the couple, and anyone who associates with them - including parents of the couple - in the villages, and in specific cases that I have known personally). Also disallowed are marriages with your mother's female siblings' children. This also extends to second, third or higher order cousins in the patrilineal line, and second, third or higher cousins in the matrilineal line.

Both these categories (father’s brothers’ children, and mother’s sisters’ children) are often called “cousin-brother” and “cousin-sister” - a term generally not meaningful to those who do not know/understand - or in ignorance, misuse the term for all cousins. In comparison, the other cousins - father's sisters' children and mother's brothers' children are just cousins, distinguishing between the two types of cousins. Think of it as chachera bhai/chacheri behen and mausera bhai/mauseri behen verseus bua ka beta/ki beti and mama ka ladka/ki ladki. bua/mama ke bachche are not called bhai/behen for this reason. 

Among first cousins, this leaves only father’s sisters’ children (who are obviously not of the same gotra) and mother’s brothers’ children (also, equally obviously not of the same gotra) as potential permissible spouses.

Generally, though, in modern times, marriages even among permissible cousins - first, second, or third - has decreased significantly, particularly in urban/semi-urban areas. 

I tried to make a graphic starting from a male entity to indicate permissible cousin-marriages. This can be extended to a female entity easily by switching the genders of each unit in the graphic. 

In the image below, the dotted lines indicate lineage rather than draw out the whole tree. The yellow depictions are contingent on a different gotra from the person in question in the blue circle at the center (unlike the green depictions who are by default of a different gotra, the ones in yellow could be from the same gotra, and hence unallowed). The Reds, of course, are unallowed. I haven’t shown more details since that would take up too much space and make the chart unreadable:

2/8 types of first cousins are permissible

14/32 types of second cousins potentially permissible and so on.

Note that this also works across generations - for example, women marrying their maternal uncles, pretty-much following the same template: not in the same gotra, and not in the female-matrilineal line. Once again, the genetic diversity is thought to be sufficient with such marriages. 

The genetic degeneration of from marital relations within the gotra was found out a long time ago, and thus marriages marriage within the same gotra were banned. Apparently, the gotra filter (combined with the forbidden matrilineal [patrilineal automatically comes under the gotra filter] marriages) provides sufficient genetic diversity to stem this degeneration else, one can imagine a high rate of birth defects within the populations. A person's father's sister's (or mother's brother's) children would have their own father's (or mother's) genes and this diversity appears to be sufficient to sustain populations.

Hoping to demystify cousin-marriages in the South for folks who do not understand the concept and think cousin marriages are indiscriminate. One doesn't need to 'eww' at ideas they don't follow without really understanding the science and limitations beneath the superficial. 

More astronomical phenomena in the Veda and in Pauranic Stories

As I have been saying in these pages previously, astronomical phenomena and observations were encoded to complexly woven stories and attached to other major works (such as the various Puranas, the Mahabharata or the Ramayana or the Harivamsha Kavya, or Yogavasishta) for dual purposes - saving them for perpetuity, as well as making them easier to remember.

And the method worked! Although, only to a certain extent. While the stories have been preserved, we forgot to decode them and treated them as 'myths', not realizing they were clues to something bigger, not only in terms of the phenomenon itself in question, but also towards pinning them to a point in time. 

Only with recent advancements and refinements in the understanding of celestial dynamics and planetary software have two completely diverse fields of study come together to produce some gems that we are finally able to decode. The results are mind-boggling in content and mind-blowing in reach. 

Here's one such, rooted in the Rigveda and expounded in the Puranas. 

Rigveda 10.17.1 and 10.17.2 say: 

त्वष्टा दुहित्रे वह्तुं कृणॊतीतीदं विश्वं भुवनं समॆति

यमस्य माता पर्युह्यमाना महॊ जाया विवस्वतो ननाश ||1||

अपागूहन्नमृतां मर्त्येभ्यः कृत्वी सवर्णामददुर्विवस्वते

उताश्चिनावभरद्यत्तदासीदजहादु द्वा मिथुना सरण्यूः  ||2||

The simple translation of works out as: 

Tvashtri celebrates the wedding of his daughter (Saranyu) and the entire world assembles for the wedding, but she (Saranyu, Yama's mother, spouse of Vivasvan i.e Surya), vanished.

 

The Devas hid this fact from the mortals and in her (Saranyu's) stead created another (person) in her likeness and presented her to Vivasvan. Saranyu brought to him two sets of twins: the Ashvin brothers, as well as Yama and Yami. 

While these are a terse couple of shlokas, Asthana Mahavidvan H P Venkata Rao in his seminal work on the Rigveda (in Kannada) relates a longer story on this based in the niruktavachana: Tvashtri's daugher Saranyu (some times also called Sanjana/Sanjna) bore the twins Yama (deity of Dharma) and Yami (also identifed as Yamuna) with Surya, the Sun. Then, nominating a likeness of her in her place, she abandoned Surya, took the form of a mare and retired to the forests. The likeness of Saranyu was (later) called Chaya (shadow), and she gave birth to Shani, who was later elevated to the Navagrahas, although he is the farthest from Surya, because when Surya found out about the deception (with Chaya) he was livid and went in search of Saranyu. Finding her in the forests in the form of a mare, he too took the form of a horse and the two lived happily for a while. The Ashvin twins (celestial healer deities) were born during this time (hence the horse-form/some times horse heads for the Ashvins)

Some of the Puranas add more color to this story: The reason why Saranyu abandoned Surya was because he became too bright, too brilliant, too hot. So Saranyu goes off to cooler regions to ostensibly cool off from the unbearable heat of her husband. Later Tvastri (or Vishwakarma) reduces the brightness of the Surya restoring both Saranyu and Surya to their appropriate homes. 

Meanwhile, there is another shloka in the Rigveda that adds to this story, although this time in a different Mandala - Mandala 3. 

Rigveda 3.58.1 says: 

धॆनुः प्रत्नस्य काम्यं दुहानांतः पुत्रश्चरति दक्षिणायाः

आ द्यॊतनिं वहति शुभ्रयामॊषसः स्तॊमॊ अश्विनावजीगः

The simple translation of this works out as 

Ushas (the deity of dawn), provides the desired milk (strength) to Agni (the deity of fire). As Surya traverses the sky, Ushas awakens the Ashvins for their share of the (fruit of) Yajna. 

 

On the face of it, this sounds like a good story, but essentially in the larger scheme of things a pointless story, until we decrypt the code and get to the facts. Remember, the story is an allegory to real/observed phenomena - especially as it relates to known celestial objects.

The key here is the coming together of the two stories of the Ashvins from the third and tenth mandalas. One awakens a baby, or a child, on the basis of that, the birth of the Ashvin-twins and this awakening can be tied together (if they were unconnected, it might, for instance, have been said that 'Ushas invites the Ashvins to share the fruit of yajna'; that isn't the case however - the Veda are Darshana Shastras, hence it is critical to make these connections). Esteemed freedom fighter Balgangadhar Tilak was the first one in modern times to identify this phenomenon. 

While the descriptions by Ralph Griffith, HP Venkata Rao and the Sayana bhashya all differ in the explanations of 3.58.1, the bottom line appears to be that Ashvins appear at dawn. This is the only piece relevant to our discussion. The Ashvins (a.k.a Ashvini Nakshatra) are conventionally mapped to the stars β and γ Arietis in western astronomy. 

Meanwhile, Surya went to cooler regions in search of Sanjana (who had previously gone over to 'cooler regions' in the first place), therefore it must be Winter (in earth's Northern Hemisphere, since the geographical basis is, of course, Bharat (India)) - specifically Winter Solstice - with a quick reminder of spatial cardinal points here (the two solstices and the two equinoxes)

So, cranking back time to a point where β and γ Arietis appear in the sky at dawn around Winter Solstice in the Northern hemisphere, the calendar goes back to..... 7200 BCE. 

Okay - we're not (just) discussing the antiquity of the Veda, astronomical observations and dating methods here. What about Surya being too bright, Sanjana migrating to cooler regions and the rest? Can we find some other corroborations to this celestial observation date?

Two papers in the journal Nature in recent years provide an independent corroboration of sorts: These papers indicated a massive Solar flare activity ~9000 years BP (~7176 BCE). If a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) event were to occur, resulting in a concentration of charged solar particles in the inner solar system, and if these hit the earth, they get pushed to the poles because of earth's magnetic field, and end up interacting with earth atmosphere resulting in the Auroras Borealis and Australis - a.k.a Northern lights. At such times, specific isotopes/particles rain down on the earth and eventually get buried in the ice becoming a part of the ice caps, which is how the authors of the paper hypothesized a large CME event. 

If the CME event is severe and earth sees a heavy concentration of these charged solar particles (such as in the Carrington event of 1859), the Auroras - Borealis and Australis - can reach to much lower altitudes - such as those in Northern India, and the sky is lit up with these particles and their interactions even at night. The 7176 BCE CME event is estimated an order of magnitude larger than the Carrington event as evidenced by ice core samples from Greenland and Antarctica. 

Now things start to come together. Surya became too brilliant/bright for a while - the 7176 CME event leading to Auroras at very low latitudes, Sanjana migrated to "cooler regions" and was followed by Surya, i.e this happened around the Winter Solstice. The Ashvin twins were born during this time - the Indian astronomers/sages put a further identification around this with the Ashvini nakshatra at dawn, yielding a date of 7200BCE to modern researchers. 

Whew! Mind blown!

Initial trigger for kickstarting this article: Raj Vedam's podcast on BeerBiceps 

Reference: 

Cosmogenic radionuclides reveal an extreme solarparticle storm near a solar minimum 9125 years BP Chiara I. Paleari  Florian Mekhaldi, Florian Adolphi, Marcus Christl, Christof Vockenhuber, Philip Gautschi, Jürg Beer, Nicolas Brehm, Tobias Erhardt, Hans-Arno Synal, Lukas Wacker, Frank Wilhelms & Raimund Muscheler

Dating Methods and Antiquity of the Panchangam

Let me start with a short(ened) story - one that you may already be aware of: 

The Moon/Chandra/Soma has 27 wives. The 27 wives (who are the daughters of Prajapati Daksha) are listed starting with Kritika (Pleiades) but his (Chandra's) favorite wife was Rohini (Aldebaran). This favoritism causes a lot of unhappiness amongst his other 26 wives and they complain to Prajapati Daksha, who gives shaapa (loosely translated as 'curse') to Chandra that his body will progressively waste away. Eventually, after much pleading by Chandra, and the intervention of Shiva (to whom Chandra also prays to intercede on his behalf) Daksha Prajapati relents and while the shaapa cannot be taken back, he says that this wasting will be periodic and Chandra will recover his full body. 

The actual story is much longer and more intricate. I have shortened it to the principal parts that matter. What is hidden in this story? Per Indic tradition, the sky ecliptic is divided into 27 segments (since with respect to distant stars, Moon completes one rotation in 27 days), and a principal bright(est) star in each segment is named. Each segment is called a nakshatra, with the said bright star sharing the nakshatra name. These are the 27 wives of the Chandra, the moon, Rohini and Krittika among them. In the Moon's transit across the skies, it goes to each of these 27 segments (or wives' houses) while in observance is closer to Rohini/Aldebaran than any of the other principal stars in the 27 nakshatras/segments of the sky, hence the 'favoritism' part. The wasting/recovery relates to the phases of Chandra or the Moon.

The point here is that the story is an allegory; actual, observed astronomical phenomena were encoded into complexly woven stories for two reasons: one to make it easier to remember the phenomenon, and two, to ensure that the phenomenon itself isn't forgotten - as humans (especially those without the benefit of having writing being preserved for millennia, and Indic tradition was indeed shruti or aural-based rather than written), a good story is a better way to remember rather than dry facts. 

Now on to what I really intended to convey in this monograph: 

Pretext: Brahmanas (the scripture variety, not the person variety) are essentially manuals for prayoga attached to Veda Samhitas, which explain and instruct on the performance of Vedic rituals. The Aitareya Brahmana itself is the Brahmana of the Shakala Shakha of the Rigveda, traditionally is ascribed to a certain Mahidasa Aitareya.

There is a passage in the Aitareya Brahmana (dvitiya adhyaaya) that says thus: 

यज्ञो वै देवेभ्य उदक्रामत्‌ ते देवा न किंचना शक्‌नुवन्‌ 
कर्तु न प्राजानंस्ते ब्रुवन्नदितिं त्वयेमं यज्ञं प्रजानामेति सा तथेत्यब्रवीत्सा वै वो वरं वृणा इति; 
वृणीष्वेति सैतमेव वरमवृणीत मन्प्रायणा यज्ञाः संतु मदुदयना इति तथेति; 
तस्मादादित्यश्वरुः प्रायणीयोभवत्यादित्य उदयनीयो वरवृतो हास्याः 

Transcoding and translating this (from The Aitareya Brahmana Of Rgveda, Dr. Sudhakar Malaviya, Hindi translation, re-translated to English)

Yajna went away from the Devas. They were unable to do anything, nor know why and where Yajna had gone. They went and prayed to Aditi (the mother of all the Devas): Only with your help we will be able to find Yajna again (i.e please help us). Aditi says "I will help you but you will have to grant me a vara"(loosely translated, boon). The Devas requested Aditi to seek her vara, and she said "Let the Yajna start from me and end at me". This is why offerings are offered to Aditi both at the prAyaNIya iShTi (i,e the beginning of the Yajna) and at the udAyanIya iShTi (i.e the end of the Yajna)

* * * * *

The passage before this section (this is the beginning of the second adhyaya) speaks of prAyaNIya

स्वर्गे वा एतेन लोकमुपप्रयंति यत्प्रयणीयस्तव्यायणीयस्य प्रायणीयत्वं 

The yajamana (one who performs) of the prAyaNIya prayoga (loosely translated as rite or ritual) experiences a nearness or proximity to Svarga (the abode of the Devas). Hence this ritual is called the prAyaNIya. 

This is followed by: 

[Segue: There are 5 types of vital forces - pancha pranas - in the body, per Indic scriptures: 

prANa: upward/inward moving energy

apAna: downward/outward moving energy

vyAna: circulation of energy

udAna: balancing of energy

samAna: assimilation of energy

All these are loose translations - these are not only untranslatable words, but also interpreted variously, especially with respect to new-age Yoga. 

End Segue]

प्राणॊ वै प्रायणीय उदान उदयनीयः समानो होत भवति; 

समानौ हि प्राणोदानौ प्राणानां क्लृप्त्यै प्राणानां प्रतिप्रज्ञात्यै

 

prAyaNIya is praNa and udAyanIya is udAna. The hotr (the priest conducting the prayoga) is samAna. Because prANa and udAna are samAna, prANa is karma (action) and udAna is jnAna (knowledge). 

There are some interpretational aspects to this, but the underlying meaning on this appears to be that prAyaNIya is the beginning and udAyanIya is the end of the yajna. The deeper meaning is not very important to the current context. 

* * * * *

And the passage after the primary one in question (the one at the top) is followed by: 

अथो एतं वरमवृणीत मयैव प्रचींदिशां प्रजानाथाग्निन दक्षिणां सोमेन प्रतीचीं सवित्रोदीचीमिति

She (Aditi) asked for one more vara 'through me you shall know the direction of East, through Agni South, through Soma the West and through savitr the North' 

The following passages in this (second) adhyaya enumerate the cardinal directions and goes on to summarize that the yajna is dedicated to the five devatas namely Pathya, Agni, Soma, Savita, and Aditi herself, and go on to list the more detailed procedures that must be followed during the yajna. 

* * * * *

The only part of this entire section that has a conversation is the conversation of the Devas speaking with Aditi, in the midst of detailing how the yajna must be conducted. 

- Why would this conversation be entered here, in the middle of a practical manual? 
- What could be the objective? 
- Why be so cryptic that Yajna (himself?) is missing (or has gone away)? 
- What does it mean that they did not know where he'd gone to?
- How does it procedurally connect to the yajna itself? (remember this is a manual for prayoga/procedure)

Here in lies the secret. The eminent scholar, freedom fighter Balgangadhar Tilak recognized it for what it exactly was for: 

This is an astronomical phenomenon or occurrence that is encoded as a story/conversation. In Indic tradition, the celebration of all yajnas, festivals and other rites was attached to the celestial calendar - the celestial clock in the sky, based on star positions. If the celestial clock went out of sync, then the time of celebration of these rites also went awry. 

This appears to be the time/event when, apart from the basic (24 hour) rotation of earth, the 365.24 day revolution around the sun, the 29.5 day lunar synodic month and a 27.3 day lunar sidereal month, they also recognized the precession of the earth's axis. 

The precession of the earth's axis relates to the slow 26000 year wobble of the earth's axis because of the gravitational impact of the Sun, the moon and to a lesser extent of Jupiter. One of the consequences of this axial precession is the changing of the polestar [the star around which our skies rotate] - now Polaris/Dhruva, it can be Vega/Abhijit at the other extreme in approximately 25,772 ÷ 2 = 12886 years

In the Indic tradition, Sidereal astronomy was used to mark time.  Time was marked based on the nakshatra at cardinal spatial points (the cardinal spatial points are the two solstices and the two equinoxes). 

So for example, conventionally, in India, the beginning of a year has always been at Vernal equinox. There is a large volume of scripture indicating Krittika (Pleiades) as the nakshatra at Vernal Equinox. However, this no longer true - today the nakshatra at Vernal equinox is Uttara Bhadrapada. The closest time in the recent past that Krittika was the nakshatra at Vernal equinox was in - wait for it - 2400 BCE - and can be confirmed by Planetarium software. 

The upshot of this is that the sky-calendar shifts over time and in order to provide a firm basis of when to perform a yajna before saying how to perform it, the conversation with aditi has been added to the Aitareya Brahmana. When Aditi says all yajna will begin and end with me, it actually means that Vernal equinox will begin and end at Aditi. 

Among the 27 nakshatras is Punarvasu, which itself is made up of two stars: Diti and Aditi (Castor and Pollux). When we track back time to when Punarvasu was at Vernal Equinox point, time needs to be pushed back a staggering 6000 BCE. In other words, 8000 years ago, our ancestors were already noticing that their calendars were messed up because of axial precession and had to figure out a correction to the calendar, in turn implying that the calendar had already been in existence at least 1000 years prior (26000 years or axial precession vs 27 nakshatras of the ecliptic). 

That puts a fully observed and cataloged sky and a fully formed panchangam or calendar based on star positions to at least 9000 years ago to 7000BCE. Not to mention, around 6000BCE, finding the calendar out of whack, they not only reset the calendar to Aditi/Punarvasu, but also set up a self-correcting calendar which put the start of the cycle for Vernal Equinox at Aditi/Punarvasu, having recognized that the changing of the sidereal year was cyclic and not unidirectional. This is the actual phenomenon documented by the story of Aditi and Yajna.

Whew! When I heard Raj Vedam detail this on a podcast recently, I had rush of goosebumps! 

This is our tradition. 

This is our tradition. 

The other aspect of this is how historical and astronomical phenomena were recorded in story form. To a garden variety reader - someone unaware of context, tradition and prayoga, that is, for someone who is not a practicing Sanatani, for one who has not undergone years of traditional studies, it would be near impossible to understand it for what it is. They would peg this as (an irrelevant) a conversation/story/myth and move on (as have numerous Western scholars on the Aitareya Brahmana). Again, this goes to show the information loss that occurs when we read a colloquial (laukika) translation of Samskritam scripture rather than its yaugika intent