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पञ्चजनाः (paJcajanAH)

 
Vedic Reference
English
Pañca-janāḥ, the ‘five peoples, ’ are mentioned under various
names in Vedic literature.^1 Who are meant by the five is very
uncertain. The Aitareya Brāhmaṇa^2 explains the five to be
gods, men, Gandharvas and Apsarases, snakes, and the Fathers.
Aupamanyava^3 held that the four castes (Varṇa) and the
Niṣādas made up the five, and Sāyaṇa^4 is of the same opinion.
Yāska^5 thinks that the five are the Gandharvas, fathers, gods,
Asuras, and Rakṣases. No one of these explanations can be
regarded as probable. Roth^6 and Geldner^7 think that all the
peoples of the earth are méant: just as there are four quarters
(Diś), there are peoples at the four quarters (N. E. S. W.), with
the Āryan folk in the middle. Zimmer^8 opposes this view on
the ground that the inclusion of all peoples in one expression is
not in harmony with the distinction so often made between
Āryan and Dāsa
that neither janāsaḥ, ‘men, ’^9 nor mānuṣāḥ,
‘people, ’^10 could be used of non-Āryans
that the Soma is
referred to as being among the five tribes
^11 that the five tribes
are mentioned as on the Sarasvatī, ^12 and that Indra is pāñca-
janya, ^13 ‘belonging to the five peoples.’ He concludes that
Āryans alone are meant, and in particular the five tribes of the
Anus, Druhyus, Yadus, Turvaśas, and Pūrus, who are all
mentioned together in one or perhaps two hymns of the
Rigveda, ^14 and four of whom occur in another hymn.^15 But he
admits that the expression might easily be used more generally
later. Hopkins^16 has combated Zimmer's view, but his own
opinion rests mainly on his theory that there was no people
named Turvaśa, but only a king of the Yadus called Turvaśa,
and that theory is not very probable.
In the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa^17 and the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa^18
the five peoples are opposed to the Bharatas, and in the former
work^19 seven peoples are alluded to.
1) Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, iii. 31
iv. 27
Taittirīya Saṃhitā, i. 6, 1, 2
Kāṭhaka
Saṃhitā, v. 6
xxxii. 6
Bṛhadāraṇyaka
Upaniṣad, iv. 2, 9 (pañca-janāḥ as a
compound). See also pañca mānuṣāḥ,
Rv. viii. 9, 2
mānavāḥ, Av. iii. 21, 5
24, 3
xii. 1, 15
janāḥ, Rv. iii. 37, 9
59, 8
vi. 14, 4
viii. 32, 22
ix. 65,
23
92, 3
x. 45, 6
kṛṣṭayaḥ, ii. 2, 10
iii. 53, 16
iv. 38, 10
x. 60, 4
119, 6
Av. iii. 24, 3
kṣitayaḥ, Rv. i. 7, 9
176, 3
v. 35, 2
vi. 46, 7
vii. 75, 4
79, 1
carṣaṇyaḥ, Rv. v. 86, 2
vii. 15, 2
ix. 101, 9. See Ludwig, Translation of
the Rigveda, 3, 204. Every book of
the Rigveda has a mention of the five
peoples: one such in ii. and iv.
two
in i., v., vi., vii., viii.
three in iii. and
ix.
four in x.
2) iii. 31.
3) In Yāska, Nirukta, iii. 8.
4) On Rv. i. 7, 9, etc.
5) Nirukta, loc. cit.
6) St. Petersburg Dictionary, s.v. kṛṣṭi,
Nirukta, Erläuterungen, 28. For his
view, Av. iii. 24, 3, can be cited: pañca
pradiśo mānavīḥ pañca kṛṣṭayaḥ, ‘the
five directions, the five races of
men.’
7) Siebenzig Lieder, 18. See, however,
Ṛgveda, Glossar, 103, where he recog-
nizes the use of the phrase to denote
five tribes, as well as all mankind.
8) Altindisches Leben, 119-123. His
view is accepted by Macdonell, Sanskrit
Literature, 153
Muir, Sanskrit Texts,
1^2, 179, is doubtful.
9) Cf. its use in Rv. ii. 12, sa janāsa
Indraḥ, where the address must be to
Āryan men.
10) Cf. Rv. viii. 9, 2, and i. 52, 9,
with viii. 70, 11
x. 28, 8.
11) Rv. ix. 65, 23.
12) Rv. vi. 61, 12 (pañca jātā). Cf.
x. 53, 4.
13) v. 32, 11. Agni is ‘of the five
tribes, ’ Rv. ix. 66, 20. Atri also is so
described, Rv. i. 117, 3.
14) Rv. i. 108, 8. In vii. 18, cited by
Zimmer, 122, the five tribes do not
occur eo nomine, for Yakṣu replaces
Yadu. But it is probable that Yadu is
meant by Yakṣu.
15) Rv. viii. 10, 5.
16) Journal of the American Oriental
Society, 15, 260.
17) xiii. 5, 4, 14.
18) viii. 23.
19) It is a conjecture of Weber's,
Indische Studien, 1, 202, that the five
peoples are identical with the Pañcālas,
and the seven mentioned in Satapatha
Brāhmaṇa, xiii. 5, 4, 23, with the
Kuru-Pañcālas.