Founding of the Asura Religion

We have already seen that Bharata Varsha in the Vedic age extended from Taiwan on the east to the Red Sea and the Mediterranean on the west.
And vertically from the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent to the Himalayas.
From the Himalayas up to the Pamir mountains in Central Asia was the land of devayonis like Yakshas and Gandharvas.
Above that, up to the North Sea, mostly the Siberia was the Devaloka.
Then due to heavy icefall, the land above the Himalayas changed.
The Devaloka became uninhabitable.
Bear in mind that this Devaloka on earth is just a reflection of the original Devaloka which is Swarga.
Originally Aryans were present all over Bharata Varsha from the South China Sea to the Red Sea.
But then Bharata Varsha got divided.
East of Sindhu and west of Sindhu.
East of Sindhu became Hindustan.
And west of Sindhu became Parastan.
Also east of Sindhu became Aryavarta.
And west of Sindhu became Aryayana.
Aryayana is the Oriens as historians refer to it.
Who named this area as Aryayana?
The Non-Aryans.
The land of the Aryans.
Among the Aryans who lived in Aryayana, there was a rishi called Rijrashwa (ऋज्राश्वः).
His daughter's son was Zarathustra.
Not the Zarathustra of the Parsi religion.
This is much much before.
Vedic age we are talking about.
Zarathustra became a rebel.
He discarded the Brahmi script and took up Kharoshti which writes from right to left like how Arabic is written.
Indra is the acknowledged and accepted king of Devas.
But along with Indra, two more Devatas Varuna and Soma are also addressed as raja or king in the Vedas.
नमस्ते राजन् वरुणास्तु मन्यवे
सोमो राजा मृगशीर्षेण आगन्
So there are three kings of Devas in the Vedas: Indra, Varuna, and Soma.
Veda also addresses Varuna as the Asura among the Devas.
अयं देवानामसुरः- the meaning of Asura here is not at all negative.
This term Asura is derived from the root- असु क्षेपणे.
क्षेप्ता पापिनां निग्रहीता- punisher of sinners.
Among the Devas, the role of punishing the evil is given to Varuna.
Zarathustra who became a rebel stopped accepting Indra as the king of Devas and instead wanted to establish Varuna as the most supreme Deva.
So this became a new religion itself.
The Asura dharma with no negative sense associated with the term.
Followers of Varuna, not Indra.
Those who converted to Zarathustra's religion became known as Magas, they were Aryans but started following Asura dharma.
There is a place called Balkh in Afganistan.
That time near Balkh was शाकद्वीपः.
The rulers of Shakadveepa were powerful Shakas (शकाः).
They were not Aryans, they were Scythians.
You can see the connection between Scythian and Shaka.
Zarathustra for his new religion got the patronage of the Shakas, the Scythians, and all the lands which the Shakas conquered, the new Asura dharma spread.
Varuna became the king of the new religion and Indra continued to be the king to the east of Sindhu, Hindustan.
When Vishwamitra the king of Kanyakubja tried to forcibly take away Nandini from sage Vasishta's ashrama, she didn't want to go.
She expressed her displeasure by digging on the ground with her hoof.
The hoof is called खुरः in Sanskrit.
Vasishta asked for Varuna's help.
Vasishta's relation with Varuna is clear in the seventh mandala of Rigveda.
Vasishta addresses Varuna:
आ मा मित्रावरुणेह रक्षतम्
उद्वां चक्षुर्वरुण सुप्रतीकं देवयोरेति सूर्यस्ततन्वान्
Please save me.
Varuna sent five teams of army to protect Nandini.
These soldiers, they prostrated at the feet of Nandini, kept her hoof on their heads and defeated Viswamitra.
They became known as खुरधाः, those who bore the hoofs on their head.
Later it became Kurds and their place Kurdistan- खुर्दस्थान्.
Which later became खुरासान्.
Khorasan is in northeast Iran.
Later Muslim conquest of Khorasan is well documented in history.
हिङ्गुपीठं समासाद्य मक्केशान्तं सुरेश्वरि।
खुरासानभिधि देशो म्लेच्छाधर्मपरायणाः॥
From Hingupeetha to Makkesha was Khurasan or Kurdistan.
All these that we are talking about are before the founding of the Abrahamic religions, the Vedic age.

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