Of the 1028 hymns in the Rig Veda, one quarter are dedicated to Indra. He is praised as the god of war, driving a Golden Ratha chariot drawn by a swift horse, conquering the indigenous dark-skinned Dasa (Dasuyu) and sharing its wealth with the Aryans, and as the god of thunder who kill the snake demon by his vajra, and releasing the trapped river waters.
Horse-drawn chariots, as well as their cult and associated rituals, were spread by the Indo-Iranians, and horses and horse-drawn chariots were introduced in India by the Indo-Aryans.
In Rigveda, Indra is described as strong willed, armed with a thunderbolt, riding a chariot:“May the strong Heaven make thee the Strong wax stronger: Strong, for thou art borne by thy two strong Bay Horses. So, fair of cheek, with mighty chariot, mighty, uphold us, strong-willed, thunder armed, in battle”. — RigVeda, Book 5, Hymn XXXVI: Griffith
From Wikipedia
To confirm ‘how important the Ratha chariot (and its wheel) was in the Rig Veda (or in the life of the Indo-Aryan people)’, the verses are listed below.
Rig Veda 1.56.1.
eṣa pra pūrvīr ava tasya camriṣo ‘tyo na yoṣām ud ayaṃsta bhurvaṇiḥ | dakṣam mahe pāyayate hiraṇyayaṃ ratham āvṛtyā hariyogam ṛbhvasam ||
Sacred Text
FOR this man’s full libations held in ladles, he hath roused him, eager, as a horse to meet the mare. He stays his golden car, yoked with Bay Horses, swift, and drinks the Soma juice which strengthens for great deeds.
Rig Veda 1.63.3. Indra
tvaṃ satya indra dhṛṣṇuretān tvaṃ ṛbhukṣā naryastvaṃṣāṭ |
Sacred Text
tvaṃ śuṣṇaṃ vṛjane pṛkṣa āṇau yūne kutsāyadyumate sacāhan ||
Faithful art thou, these thou defiest, Indra; thou art the Ṛbhus’ Lord, heroic, victor. Thou, by his side, for young and glorious Kutsa, with steed and car in battle slewest Śuṣṇa,
Rig Veda 1.84.3. Indra
ā tiṣṭha vṛtrahan rathaṃ yuktā te brahmaṇā harī | arvācīnaṃ su te mano grāvā kṛṇotu vagnunā ||
Wisdom Library
“Slayer of Vṛtra, ascend your chariot, for your horses have been yoked by prayer; may the stone (that bruises the Soma) attract, by its sound, your mind towards us.”
Rig Veda 1.100.10 Indra
sa grāmebhiḥ sanitā sa rathebhir vide viśvābhiḥ kṛṣṭibhir nv adya | sa pauṃsyebhir abhibhūr aśastīr marutvān no bhavatv indra ūtī ||
He, along with his attendants, is a benefactor; he is quickly recognized by all men today, through his chariots; by his manly energies he is victor over unruly (adversaries); may Indra, associated with the Maruts, be our protection.
Wisdom Library
The Rig Veda was established around 1500-1300 BC, which coincides exactly with the Indo-Aryan invasion of the Indus Valley. Perhaps Indra as a military deity riding a Ratha chariot is a projection of the invading Aryans’ self-praise.
Could the snake-killing and opening up of closed water also be related to the process by which nomadic Aryans, who had never known large-scale agriculture, destroyed indigenous settlements that had inherited the superior irrigation farming techniques of the Indus civilisation and cleared and settled in the rich forests that were their water sources?
In addition to this, it became clear from reading through the Rig Veda that a great many of the deities in it were depicted and praised as riding on a Ratha chariot, as same as Surya and Indra.
Chariots figure prominently in Indo-Iranian mythology. Chariots are also an important part of both Hindu and Persian mythology, with most of the gods in their pantheon portrayed as riding them. The Sanskrit word for a chariot is rátha– (m.), which is cognate with Avestan raθa- (also m.), and in origin a substantiation of the adjective Proto-Indo-European *rot-h₂-ó- meaning “having wheels”, with the characteristic accent shift found in Indo-Iranian substantivisations.
Wikipedia
The following quotes its verses from the actual Rig Veda.
Rig Veda 1.35.2. Savitri
ā kṛṣṇena rajasā vartamāno niveśayann amṛtam martyaṃ ca | hiraṇyayena savitā rathenā devo yāti bhuvanāni paśyan ||
Revolving through the darkened firmament, arousing mortal and immortal, the divine Savitā travels in his golden chariot, beholding the (several) worlds.
Wisdom Library
Rig Veda 1.48.3 Uṣas
uvāsoṣā ucchāc ca nu devī jīrā rathānām | ye asyā ācaraṇeṣu dadhrire samudre na śravasyavaḥ ||
The divine Uṣas has dwelt (in heaven of old); may she dawn today, the excitress of chariots which are harnessed at her coming, as those who are desirous of wealth (send ships) to sea.
Wisdom Library
Rig Veda 1.118. Aśvins
ā vāṃ ratho aśvinā śyenapatvā sumṛḻīkaḥ svavām̐ yātv arvāṅ | yo martyasya manaso javīyān trivandhuro vṛṣaṇā vātaraṃhāḥ ||
- May your elegant and rich car, swift as a hawk, come, Aśvins, to our presence, fo rit as quick as the mind of man, surmounted, showerers (of benefits) by three columns, and rapid as the wind.
trivandhureṇa trivṛtā rathena tricakreṇa suvṛtā yātam arvāk | pinvataṃ gā jinvatam arvato no vardhayatam aśvinā vīram asme ||
2. Come to us with your tri-columnar, triangular, three-wheeled, and well-constructed car; replenish our cows (with milk), give spirit to our horses, and augment, Aśvins, our posterity.
Wisdom Library
Rig Veda 1.134.3 Vayu
vāyur yuṅkte rohitā vāyur aruṇā vāyū rathe ajirā dhuri voḻhave vahiṣṭhā dhuri voḻhave | pra bodhayā puraṃdhiṃ jāra ā sasatīm iva | pra cakṣaya rodasī vāsayoṣasaḥ śravase vāsayoṣasaḥ ||
Vāyu yokes to his car his two red horses; Vāyu (yokes) his purple steeds; Vāyu (yokes) his two unwearied (coursers) to his car to bear their burden; for most able are they to bear the burden. Arouse Vāyu the intelligent (sacrificer), as a gallant (awakens) his sleeping mistress; summon heaven and earth; light up the dawn; light up the dawn (to receive) your sacrificial food.
Wisdom Library
Rig Veda 3.3.9. Agni
vibhāvā devaḥ suraṇaḥ pari kṣitīr agnir babhūva śavasā sumadrathaḥ | tasya vratāni bhūripoṣiṇo vayam upa bhūṣema dama ā suvṛktibhiḥ ||
The resplendent and adorable Agni, riding in an auspicious chariot, has comprehended the whole earth by his vigour; let us glorify with fit praises the acts of that cherisher of multitudes in his own abode.
Wisdom Library
Rig Veda 5.57.1 Rudra, Indra
ā rudrāsa indravantaḥ sajoṣaso hiraṇyarathāḥ suvitāya gantana | iyaṃ vo asmat prati haryate matis tṛṣṇaje na diva utsā udanyave ||
Rudras, servants of Indra, mutually kind, riding in golden cars, come to the accessible (sacrifice); this our praise is addressed to you; (come to us as you came) from heaven, (bringing) oozing water to the thirsty (Gotama) longing for moisture.
Wisdom Library
Rig Veda 5.83.7. Parjanya
abhi kranda stanaya garbham ā dhā udanvatā pari dīyā rathena | dṛtiṃ su karṣa viṣitaṃ nyañcaṃ samā bhavantūdvato nipādāḥ ||
Cry aloud over (the earth); thunder; impregnate the plural nts; traverse (the sky) with your water-laden chariot, draw open the tight-fastened, downward-turned water bag, and may the high and low plural ces be made level.
Wisdom Library
Rig Veda 1.22.2. Aśvins and Others
yā surathā rathītamobhā devā divispṛśā |
Sacred Text
aśvinā tā havāmahe ||
We call the Aśvins Twain, the Gods borne in a noble car, the best
Of charioteers, who reach the heavens.
Considering the various contexts for this ancient chariot, it was pretty sure that the galloping Ratha chariots pulled by these nimble horses were the driving force behind the Aryan invasion of the Indian subcontinent.
The indigenous Indians, descendants of the Indus civilisation and agriculturalists, in some ways boasted a much higher cultural level than the nomadic Aryans. In terms of military power, however, the relationship between the two was reversed. The Aryans were genius of warfare by utilizing Ratha chariots.
In the great Indian epic, the Battle of Mahabharata,
‘Krishna the Supreme controls the horses of the Ratha chariot, and Arjuna shoots the enemy with his bow from the chariot,’
is the basic strategy of the battle. This battle has been compared to the Rig Veda’s Ten Kings War, and the origins of this strategy can obviously be traced back to before the Aryan invasion of India.
On the other hand, looking at the indigenous Indians, since the time of the Indus civilisation they have had slow ox-drawn carts but no domesticated horses, and as a matter of course they had no knowledge of the existence of chariots pulled by nimble horses and galloping at high speeds.
What would have happened when they were suddenly exposed to a novel, never-before-seen attack, in which highly manoeuvrable Ratha chariots galloping at high speed, where countless arrows were rapid-fired endlessly from it? They would probably have been conquered by the Aryans with little or less resistance.
I guess that with this as a starting point, these tribesmen eventually would have come to be positioned at the lowest level of the Caste Varna system as the Shudra of the ruled class.
This process may be easier to understand if it is superimposed on the process of world conquest by Western Europeans since the early modern period.
The Age of Discovery was symbolically opened up by Columbus’ ‘discovery’ of the New World in 1492. The Spanish, who subsequently invaded South America, destroyed the Inca Empire with only a handful of men and looted its vast treasures. According to one theory, the Incas, who had never seen a horse before, thought the fair-skinned Spaniards who rode them were gods and surrendered at their mercy.
Then in North America, the Pilgrim Fathers and their successors, on the back of overwhelming military superiority, defeated the indigenous ‘Indians’ and took their land, eventually expanded own territory to the Great West.
The White men despised indigenous or ‘people being found’ other than themselves as ‘Coloured’, and black Africans were enslaved as the lowest class darkest in the colour and sold to the Americas.
The fact that those invasions, destruction and plunder were carried out in the name of the Christian God should also not be forgotten. It bears a frightening resemblance to the Aryans who invaded the Indian subcontinent and praised their slaughter, destruction and plunder in the name of the Vedic god Indra.
In Latin American countries, many people of indigenous descent still suffer poverty and discrimination.
It is also a well-known fact that whites, who are superior in terms of material civilisation and military power, have overrun and dominated relatively inferior people of “coloured” through aggression and have created discriminatory social systems, such as civil rights laws that discriminated against blacks in North America, apartheid in South Africa and White Australia Policy in Australia.
The system of dominating indigenous people based on varna (skin colour) by the invading Aryans was, so to say in other words, ‘apartheid’ established more than 3,000 years ago from the modern era.
While the overwhelming dominance of the Westerners was in firearms such as cannons and guns, and huge warships, in the case of the Aryans it was the set of Ratha chariot and rapid-fired arrows. The fact that many of the gods of the Rig Veda were depicted riding on galloping Ratha chariots is testimony to this. For them, this Ratha chariot was the driving force that enabled them to conquer the indigenous peoples, steal their wealth and enrich themselves, and symbol of divine power.
Subsequent research has shown that it was the most advanced high-speed chariot of its time, with revolutionary high-performance spoked wheels.
Looking at the Indian wheel symbols we have seen so far, it can be confirmed that Buddha’s Dharma Chakra, Vishnu Krishna’s Sudarshan Chakra, the wheel of Konark Surya temple and the wheel of Ratha chariot used in Mahabharata are all in the beautiful spoke system.
It was precisely Ratha chariots with these spoked wheels that the Aryans marched eastwards to the Indian subcontinent. Not only chariots but also carriages and oxcarts with these high-performance wheels must have supported their eastward march.
Where on earth did they come from? My search for the origins of these Aryans using spoked wheels went further back in history deeply.
INDIA~The Land of Holy Chakra 