Page:Growth of Asamiya Language.pdf/37

TRACES OY EARLY ARYAN INVASIONs or ASAM 27 Thus it is that Vitia, the Asura Chief, is styled a Snake in the Sata- petha Brilmand whild in the Mahabharata he found as a prince, (Pre-historie Ancient and Hindu India, pp. 18-19). As Ahura (Asura) Mazda was the God of the Early Iranians so also they might be called Asuras. These Asuras or Vrtras (who are sometimes wrongly confused with the Medes or Assyrians, an aboriginal tribe of Chota-Nagpur, also called Asuras) are called Vratyas so that the traditional literature describes the countries of Eastern India as aurpedesa Vrátya land. They are since identified with the Alpines who had prosperous kingdoms in the east such as Magadha, Vadeha, Koala and Pragjyotisa. These Asus were great bullders and their building operations were regarded with awe and reverenced by the Aryans. At any rate, these Alpines were certainly far more civilized than the Indo-Aryans who, somehow con- quered them in the long run. It is suggested that the Asuras even formed a belt around some Vedie Aryan colonies. Also, Asura (cf. Ahura Mazda) was the designation of the Early Iranians who might have belonged to the same stock of round-headed Alpines originally and who shared the same strong disapproval of the Aryan gods. It must also be the robust Alpine thinkers who were res- ponsible for the towering pillars of the metaphysical theosophy of the Upanigads superseding the ritualism of the Vedas and Brahmans, Unfortunate as it is that the late anthropometric research in India was not carried into Asam, J. H. Hutton thinks that the Kalitas, a pro- minent high caste of Arms of Orissa, belonged probably to this stock of Alpines and therefore they may have descended from the kings of the Naraka line through Bhaskar Varmi and others. Yulin Chwang's mention of Bhiskar Varm as a Brühman is, curlously enough, supported by the strong tradition of the Kalites which is pointedly observed by Montogomery Martin (The History, Antiquities, Topography and Statio tice of Eastern India, Vol. III, Rungpoor, 1883): "As soon as the Koch became noted in tradition or history, we find that they had adopted a priesthond called Kolita or Kulta. They no doubt had some science and continued long to be the spiritual guides of the Koch, and indeed in some places they still retain by far the chiel authority over the people.... It is not therefore wonderful that in the Account of Assam published in the second volume of the Asiatic Re- searches, the people of that country are said to be the Assamians (Ahoms) or Koltanians (Kalitas), the former the temporal lords, the latter the spiritual guides, and then perhaps still more powerful than even now