Asuras and usurers

[svadchi at agf.fr]

Dear members of Indology,

it is the first time I join your company. I am working on early Roman
material, compared with material coming from the mythologies of other
Indo-european peoples - mainly Indian and Scandinavian mythologies. But not
being a sanskritist, I need your help to get some piece of information I do
not find in Dumezil and Renou's works.

While reading the description of Azvamedha in ZB (13, 4, 3,11), I fell on a
very quier association between usurers and Asuras, association I should
like to understand, since usurers play an important part in the Roman
annals, of which a good part has been elaborated from mythical material.

The Paariplava AAkhyaana or revolving legend is recited by the hotR every
noon during one year in order to 'raise the king above the beings'.  Each
of the ten peoples inhabiting the real and mythical worlds participates by
turn in the ceremony through representants. In this context, the people of
the Asuras is represented by a group of usurers (or money-lenders), felt as
the most Asura-like people on earth. The translator of my version, Julius
Eggeling, writes that 'the association of the black art with the usurer or
money-lender (kusiidin) is rather curious'.

I give here the quotation of ZB :

"And on the seventh day, after those (three) offerings have been performed
in the same way, there is the same course of procedure. 'Adhvaryu !' he
(the hotR) says. - 'Havai hotar !' replies the Adhvaryu. -'King Asita
Dhaanva,' he says; 'his people are the Asura; and they are staying here;' -
usurers have come thither : it is these he instructs; - 'Magic is the Veda
: this it is;' thus saying, let him perform some magic trick. The Adhvaryu
calls in the same way (on the masters of lute-players) but does not perform
the Prakrama oblations."

Could you help me answering the following questions ?

Is there any other quotation similar to this one ?

How could the association between usurers and Asuras be explained ?

Could it be because of a similar behaviour toward their victims ? Is there
in Vedic times something like Roman nexus (debt-imprisonment) for debtors
who cannot pay their debt back  ? Have Asuras a propensity to bind their
victims as VaruNa does ? Or could richess generate interest through maayaa,
one of the powers of asuras, debased here into magic ?

Going a little further, is there any link between some class of asuras and
riches ?

Why is the aasura form of marriage called after the Asuras ?

In the aasura form of marriage, the bridegroom receives a maiden after
having given as much wealth as he can afford to the kinsmen and to the
bride herself (Manu smRti and others). Dumezil associates that form of
marriage with the third function, that of vaizyas.

I hope you can help me, and I thank you for your assistance.


                      Jean-Claude Svadchii


PS : I give you an overview on the ten peoples, summing up for each people
its name / its king/ the group representing it in the ceremony / its Veda :

1) Men / Manu Vaivasvata / householders, unlearned in the scriptures / the
Rk (verses)

2) the Fathers / Yama Vaivasvata / old men / the Yajus-formulas

3) the Gandharvas / Varuna AAditya / handsome youths /the Atharvans

4) the Apsaras /  Soma VaiSNava / handsome maidens / the AGgiras (or the Ghora)

5) the Snakes / Arbuda Kaadraveya / both snakes and snake-charmers (or men
knowing about snakes) / the Sarpavidyaa (science of snakes) (or ViSavidyaa
: science of venoms)

6) the RakSas / Kubera VaiSravaNa / evil-doers, robbers /the Devajanavidyaa
(demonology)

7) the Asuras / Asita Dhaanva / usurers  / magic (also Asuravidyaa : conjuring)

8) the Water-dwellers / Matsya Saammada  / both fish and fishermen / the
Itihaasa

9) the Birds / TaarkSya Vaipazyata / both birds and bird-catchers (also men
acquainted with the science of birds) / the (Vaayu) PuraaNa

10) the Gods / Dharma Indra / learned zrotriyas (theologians), accepting no
gifts / the Saaman (chant-texts)