Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bucher, Christina " <bucherca AT etown.edu>]

Hello, all.  I asked my colleague in South Indian studies who is a Sanskrit 
scholar the question "were the Assyrians  referred to by the ancient hindu 
literature as 'ASGRAS' / 'DAITYAS' and is that a Sanskrit word for 'DEUTSCH' 
?"  posted by Chris.  Here is his response:
 
"there are scholars who claim that the term
"Asura" refers to the Assyrians.  But it is a contentious claim,
because whenever they appear in Hindu literature, the Asuras are
demonic beings with paranormal powers who are perpetually at war with
the gods ("Devas").  There is a school of thought, though, that reads
many of the mythological battles of Hindu literature as elaborated
historical events, and that tries to locate these events and their
protagonists in recorded history.  
 
"Daitya" as "Deutsch" is even more of a stretch, but is, again, a
possibility, especially if the theory of east to west rather than west
to east migration is true.  If the Germanic tribes came from Central
Asia, and if the way of reading Hindu texts mentioned in the preceding
paragraph is correct (two pretty big "ifs" with our current evidence),
then it is entirely possible that they are etymologically related. 
It's significant that when "Daitya" is actually pronounced it comes out
sounding like "Daitcha," from which one could imagine "Deutsch" being
fairly easily derived.
 
I hope this is helpful,
 
Christina Bucher