Sanskrit Dāsa- as an ethnic name thus has an exact counterpart in Avestan Dåŋha-, which stands for *Dāha-. The corresponding Old Persian ethnic name … - Asko Parpola

In Old Iranian, Proto-Aryan s has become h. In old Persian an ethnic name Daha- is attested, also as a proper noun in the administrative tablets found at Persepolis; the masculine plural is used as the name of a province of the Persian empire, placed before the similarly used name of the Sakas in a Persepolis inscription of Xerxes (h 26). In the Greek sources Herodotus (1,125) is the first to mention the people called Daoi, as a nomadic tribe of the Persians. More accurate information on them , however, is delivered by Alexander's historians. According to Q. Curtius Rufus (8,3) and Ptolemy's Geography (6 ,10,2) , the Dahas lived on the lower course of the river Margos (modern Murghab) or.. in the northern steppe area of Margiana. Pomponius Mela (3,42), based on Eratosthenes, tells that the great bend of the river Oxus towards the northwest begins near the Dahas (juxta Dahas), Tacitus (Ann. 11,10) places the Dahae on the northern border of Areia, mentioning the river Sindes (modern Tejend) as the border. These placements agree neatly with that of Namazga V culture of Margiana and Bactria [in greater Iran].

The hymns specify by name individual Aryan kings and their Dasa or Dasyu foes , with genealogies. Thus Indra helped Divodasa Atithigva, the king of the Trtsus, in , vanquishing Dasa Sambara, who is mentioned about twenty times in the Rgveda. Divodasa's descendant was king Sudas, most famous for the battle of ten kings (RS 7,18 & 33 & 83). Sudas fought against Dasas as well as Aryans: RS 7,83,1 " ... Slay both the Dasa enemies and the Aryan: protect Sudas with your aid, a Indra and Varuna." Similarly Indra aided Rjisvan, son of Vidathin, to conquer Dasa Pipru, whose name occurs eleven times . .Dabhiti pressed Soma for Indra and was aided by the god, who sent to sleep 30,000 Dasas (RS 4,30,2) and bound a thousand Dasyus with cords (~S 2,13,9), so that the Dasas Cumuri and Dhuni were overcome and their castles destroyed (~S 6,18,8). Other probably historical enemies of the Aryans who are called Dasa and mentioned by name are Varcin, whose 100,000 warriors were slain by Indra; Drbhika and Rudhikra (E-S 2,14,3 & 5); Anarsani and Srbinda (~S 8,32,3); Arsasana (~S 1,130,8; 2,20,6); and Ilibisa (E-S 1,33,12). What an important role the struggles with their enemies played in the lives of the Aryans at this period is illustrated also by the names of some of their own kings: the son of Purukutsa was called Trasadasyu "one who makes the Dasyus tremble"

At this time Assyria was trading with Cappadocia and importing tin from the east. The source of this tin may have been in central and northern Afghanistan (Kandahar and Badakshan), whence the Harappans and the Bactrians appear also to have obtained their supplies… On the other hand, from the 18th century B.C. onwards, north Syrian seals show such a typically Central Asian motif as the two-humped Bactrian camel, which is depicted in the BMAC seals several times…These cultural contacts between the Syro-Hittite world and the BMAC do not prove that the hypothetical Aryan authors of the BMAC came from the west, as suggested by Sarianidi (1993b, 1994), but rather foreshadow the takeover of power in Syria by the Mitanni Aryans and support their Central Asian origin.”