28 SANSKRIT AND INDO-EUBOPEAN
- svarddta- ‘ given by heaven Satuara : *Satvara- , a stem
bearing the same relation to Skt. satvan - 4 powerful, victorious : a warrior as does Skt. isvard - ' lord 1 to Av. isvan- ; Aria - manya : Rtamanya- 1 thinking on the law Biridasva : Vrdd- haiva - 1 possessing large horses Biryawdza : Fwyauo/a- 4 having the prize of valour Indarota : Indrotd- (RV) 4 helped by Indra Subandu : Subandhu The contemporary 7 Hittite kingdom had close relations both of peace and war with the Mitanni kingdom, and some of the documents from the Hittite capital provide important evidence for the presence of Aryans in the Mitanni country. The most interesting of these documents is a treaty concluded between the Hittite king Suppiluliuma and the Mitanni king Matiwaza (c. 1350 b.c.). Among the divinities sworn by in this document there occur four well known Vedic divine names. They are Indara, Mitra$(il) , Nasatia(nna) t Uruvana$s{il) , which stripped of their non-Aryan terminations are unmistakeably Ved. Indra-, Mitra Nasatya and Varuna-. It is clear that not only Aryan language, but also Aryan religion in a form closely resembling that known from the Rgveda, was current in this region of the Near East during this period. The introduction of the horse to the countries of the Near East which took place during the early part of the second miUenium b.c. seems to have been due mainly to these Aryans. The usefulness of this animal in war soon made it popular in the neighbouring kingdoms, among them the Hittites, Among the archives of the Hittite capital there exists a treatise on the care and training of horses. This is WTitten in the Hittite language, but the author, who had charge of the royal horses was a Mitannian called Kikkuli. Furthermore some of the technical terms used in the work are Aryan words. These are aika vartanna , ter a v° f panza v° t satta v° and navartanna (hapL for nava-v 0 )-— Skt. eka-vartana- 4 one turn (of the course) and likewise for the numbers 3, 5, 7 and 9. The existence of these loanwords in the Hittite text show's clearly the priority of the Aryans in this field. In addition to the above evidence there are a few Aryan traces among the documents of the Kassite dynasty of Babylon (c. 1750-1170 b.c.). The Kassites- themselves were invaders from the East, from the Iranian plateau, and their language, of which something is known, has no connection whatever with
