Did Aryans know about same-sex behaviour?

The Aryans were the IndoEuropeans who travelled eastwards and discovered the Ephedracontaining Soma plants in the Pamir mountains which they consumed in complex rituals while stationed in the Oxus River basin From here one group migrated towards India and the other migrated towards Iran a name derived from AryanThe group that migrated towards India married local women and their children composed the Rigveda In the Rigveda the chief deity is Indra Most of the hymns found in the Rigveda are in praise of this deity Soma is offered to him and in exchange he grants fortune to those who adore himIn the invocation ldquoformulardquo to Indra in Yajurveda the ldquoSubrahmanyrdquo ldquothe best formulardquo and in Rigveda 15113 he is called the wife mena of a seed bearing virile bullstallion vrishanashva This phrase is rather tantalising but lacks clarity What it obviously suggests is a kind of sexual domination or submission of Indra towards a hypermasculine creature This complements his ability also described in Subrahmanya to draw a chaste wife Ahalya away from her husband Gautama He who attracts women with his virility is also attracted to someone even more virile than him He is also the ram male sheep sacrificed by Medhatithi in order to restore the virility of the womanlike man Asanga much to the delight of his unhappy wife SaswatiIn a story from Brahmanas when the world was split into three men went on top with the sky women stayed below with earth in between was the third sex neither this nor that Indra once becomes third being ldquomen to men and women to womenrdquo until a castrated ram is sacrificed and he is liberated from the spell These need not be read literally But their use as metaphors indicates the Aryans were familiar with samesex activityThis is not farfetched as they were cattle herders They had goats sheep cows and buffaloes All these animals are known to display samesex behaviour under certain circumstances Among females samesex behaviour enables a hierarchy to be established The same happens amongst males especially if they are kept away from reproductive females in confinement No sexual behaviour is observed in castrated bulls ie oxenSo perhaps the story of Indra sexual activities with both women obviously and men surprisingly indicates knowledge of some form of samesex behaviour to establish social hierarchymdashthe kind seen in animal hierarchiesAnother argument is that animals with samesex tendencies who form permanent samesex bonds work for their community more than their own gene pool Nearly 510 per cent of animal species display samesex behaviour So nature clearly enables it Value is being placed on nonproductive sexual activity While heterosexual parents favour nepotism homosexual animals would be less prejudiced This gives samesex behaviour an evolutionary purposeIndra is both male and womanlike thinks for men and women not just about his own family children or kin but the entire community including other clans This perhaps is what makes him worthy of being a leader This is speculation of course but something that deserves considerationThe author writes and lectures on the relevance of mythology in modern times Reach him at devduttpattanaikmiddaycom