ABSTRACT
The cult and culture of the Dasyus, as the non-Aryan population in the age of the Mantras was called, were different from those of the Aryas. There were differences dividing them into hostile camps, differences more profound perhaps than the clash of political interests and the fighting of agrarian feuds. It was a struggle of the refined palate accustomed to delicious cooked dishes against the vulgar and aboriginal habit of eating raw venison. It was a struggle of a refined and well-enunciated language against one of uncouth exclamations and awful yells. It was a struggle of monogamy, chastity and continence against sensuality, promiscuity and barbarism. It was a struggle between the age-long military system with the chaturangasena, the mailed armour, the helmet and the shield, against primitive methods of warfare with brute force, crude weapons and swift sweeping dashes in battle. It was a struggle of a developed system of religion and advanced conceptions of metaphysics against impiety, superstition, fetishism, animism and shamanism. It looked as if Aryan and Dasyu cultures ran along divergent lines which, running straight and parallel, were destined never to meet.
