THE SHUDRAS : WHO WERE THE SHUDRAS ? 129
father Divodasa is spoken of as belonging to the Bharatas. The next question, is: who were these Bharatas and whether they are the people after whom India got the name Bharata Bhumi or the land of the Bharatas. This question is important because most people are not aware of the true facts. When Hindus talk of the Bharatas they have in mind the Daushyanti Bharatas, Bharatas descended from Dushyanta and Shakuntala and who fought the war which is described in the Mahabharata. Not only are they not aware of any other Bharatas but they believe that the name Bharata Bhumi which was given to India was given after the Daushyanti Bharatas.
There are two Bharatas quite distinct from each other. One tribe of the Bharatas are the Bharatas of the Rig Veda, who were descended from Manu and to whom Sudas belonged. The other tribe of Bharatas are the Daushyanti Bharatas. What is more important is that if India has been named Bharata Bhumi it is after the Bharatas of the Rig Veda and not after the Daushyanti Bharatas. This is made clear by the following stanzas from the Bhagavata Purana: [1]
प्रियंवदो नाम सुतो मनो: स्वायंभुवस्य ह ।
तस्याग्नीघ्रस्ततो नाभिऋर्षभ श्च सुतस्तत: ।।
अवतीर्ण पुत्रशतं तस्यासीद्रहड्ढपारगम् ।
तेषां वै भरतो ज्येष्ठो नारायणपरायण: ।
विख्यातं वर्षमेतद्यन्नाम्ना भारतमुत्तप्रम् ।।
“Manu, the son of Syavambhu, had a son named Priyamvada; his son was Agnidhra; his son was Nabhi; he had a son Rishabha. He had a hundred sons born to him, all learned in the Veda; of them, Bharata was the eldest, devoted to Narayana, by whose name this excellent land is known as Bharata.”
This shows to what illustratious line of kings this Shudra Sudas belonged.
The next thing to find out is whether Sudas was an Aryan. The Bharatas were of course Aryans and therefore Sudas must have been an Aryan. If reference is had to Rig Veda, vii. 18.7, this connection with the Tritsus to the Aryans seems to throw some doubt on his Aryan origin. This stanza says that Indra rescued the cows of the Aryas from the Tritsus and killed the Tritsus, thereby suggesting that the Tritsus were the enemies of the Aryas. Griffiths is very much perturbed by the Tritsus being shown as non-Aryans which is the result of a literal translation of the stanza, and to avoid it he
1 Quoted by Vaidya in Mahabharatacha Upasamhara, p. 200.