One of Earliest excommunications from vedic religion

[DEVARAKONDA VENKATA NARAYANA SARMA]

I am extremely sorry if I have offended any of the list members
by quoting the vishNu purANa passage. I tender an unconditional apology.
My intention in quoting the passage is simply out of curiosity and
purely academic. No political overtones are involved. The passage
actually occurs at the end of a chapter and could be an interpolation.
Earlier only haihayAs and tAlajaGghAs are mentioned as the enemies of
King Sagara and sakAs, yavanAs etc., are not listed among them. This
strengthens the suspicion that it could be an interpolation. But if it
iS NOT an interpolation, I was wondering whether vedic religion with
its caste system ever existed among the people mentioned at any time.

The purANic passage considers sakAs, yavanAs etc., to belong to the
vedic fold but later excommunicated (can be for political reasons).
I was wondering whether there was reference here to mithraic religion
of Middle east.

regards,

sarma.

At 11:02 AM 6/27/98 +0400, Yaroslav Vassilkov wrote:
>n June 26 D.V.Sarma wrote:
>
>< a prose passage from Vishnu Purana (4.3.40-48)
>< describes how Vasishta excommunicated Sakas, Yavanas, Paradas,
><Pahlavas and others from the vedic religion. Unless you are in the
><the fold you cannnot be excommunicated. That means the Vedic religion
><was practiced by all these groups initially.
> ...............
><Did such a pan-vedic religion exist? What can this contribute to our
><discussion of Aryan homeland.
>

>    Do you really think ethnocentric and racist fables of this kind can
>"contribute to our discussion of Aryan homeland"? Or may be you do think
>that they can contribute to better mutual understanding between people
>of different nations?
>        Regards
>                                Yaroslav Vassilkov
>
>