Dasa
The Dasa are a tribe identified as the enemies of the Aryans in the Rig-Veda. The word Dasa later acquired derogatory connotations, meaning 'servant', implying that they were subordinated by the Aryans.The identity of the Dasa has caused much debate, closely tied to arguments over Aryan invasion theory, the claim that the Aryan authors of the Vedas entered India from outside, displacing its earier inhabitants. During the nineteenth century Western scholars identified the Dasa with dark-skinned Dravidian speaking peoples, but more recent scholars, notably A. Parpola, have claimed that they were fellow Indo-Europeans, who initially rejected Aryan religious practices but were later merged with them.
A similar term for enemy people, Dasyu, is also used in the Rig-Veda. It is unclear whether the Dasa and Dasyu are identical.