Vedic Influence - World conclusion

All over the world we can see remnants of the ancient Vedic culture. I was surprised to know that my name “Swetha” is very common in Russia . Many girls are names “Sveta” or “Svet Nana” which in Sanskrit is "Svetha ananam" and means “Fair faced”. The ancient Russian scriptures mention about a hero Krishen. The scriptures narrate the many adventures of Krishen. They mention that he once killed a witch and a snake. The story of Krishen is identical to the life history of Lord Krishna. The witch and the snake are Putana and Kaliya. Recently an ancient Vishnu idol was discovered in Russia .

'Proof of Vedic Culture's Global Existence' Stephen Knapp shows the Vedic derivation of the names of various countries.

For example, Russia used to be called Rishiya which meant “the land of Rishis ”. Soviet derived from Svet which means region covered with white snow.

Deutschland derived from Daityasthan; “the land of Daityas ”. Rome derived from the name of Lord Rama. Paris from the name of goddess Parameshwari. Amsterdam from Antardham meaning below sea level. Scandinavia from the name of God Skanda. Israel from Ishwaralaya. Syria from Surya. Britain from Brihat-Sthan meaning great land.

As a child I used to play the game called “Chinese Whisper” with my friends. We used to sit in a circle. The person who begins the game has to whisper a word in the ear of the person sitting to his/her left. That person would whisper in to the ear of the person to his/her left and so on. The last person should get up and utter what he/she heard. We would all laugh hard because as the game proceeded, each person would have heard a different pronunciation till the word was completely mutilated!

I see such an effect in every country. The legends and phrases would lose their original pronunciation and meaning during transmission from one set of people to the other.

Even in India , there are three main schools with different interpretations to the Vedanta. We have the Advaita, Vishistadvaita and Dwaita each offering slightly different interpretations to the Vedic texts.

There are many additions to the legends as well. The sthala purana of Sri Rangam temple states that Vibhishana left the vimana of the lord at Sri Rangam as per the request made by the lord as well as a Chola king. There is a new version of the sthala purana which states that Lord Ganesha tricked Vibhishana and got the Vimana of the lord to stay at Sri Rangam. None of the Vaishnava or Saiva puranas agree with the new version and yet the new version is the more popular version.

Similarly there is also a new version added to the Narasimha purana which states that the anger of Lord Narasimha was controlled by a mythical creature called Sharaba. People have even started to worship this creature. In the actual version Lord Narasimha calms down when he sees his favorite devotee Prahlada. As the supreme being he can only be won over by our love for him. We cannot control him by force since he is the all powerful master. Hence the new version about Sharaba is laughable.

People seek variety even in religion. This quest for variety sprouts new legends and Gods which have no basis in theology. Such legends are the fancies of people.

If even in India , close to the root of the Vedic culture people continue to create new legends and religions it is not far fetched to think of such creations in other countries which resulted in the various cultures and civilizations.

Vedic Influence in far East

India has always had a huge influence on the culture of the Far East. It is impossible to ignore Indian influence especially of South India. Kamboja, Sri Vijayam and Kadaram were ancient Indian Empires in and near Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia. There are many Hindu temples in these countries. The temple of Angkor in Cambodia is famous and is built to represent the churning of the milky ocean. Bali is a Hindu country. The Indonesian airlines is named Garuda after the vehicle (eagle) of Lord Vishnu. The Indonesian temple Prambanan is famous and has shrines for the Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The walls of the temple are decorated with pictures representing scenes from the Hindu epic Ramayana.

We can witness Vedic influence as far as Japan. There are still many Hindus left in Japan. The mythology and the rituals of the Shinto religion resemble Vedic tradition. The Gods are called as Kami in Japan. The word Kami could be derived from the Sanskrit Swamy. In South India, Swamy is pronounced as Sami which might have been pronounced as Kami in Japan. According to the Japanese mytholgy, in the beginning there was nothing except one God. Two other Gods emerged after which creation proceeded. In the Vedic puranas, Vishnu creates Brahma and Brahma in turn created Shiva. It can be said that the Japanese derived the mythology of their trinity from the Vedic concept.

The two main God and Godess worshipped are Izanagi-no-kami and Isanami-no-kami. This couple might be identical to Shiva & Parvati. Shiva and Parvati are also known as Iswaran (Isan) and Iswari. The names Izanagi and Izanami sound similar to Iswaran and Iswari.

The Japanese also fold their palms together in prayer and touch their head to the ground just like the Hindus. They also clap their hands together which is also followed in some Vedic traditions.

Similar to the Vedic tradition, both birth and death are considered to be impure. A person whose close relative has died is not allowed to visit shrines for a year in Japan which is identical to the Vedic tradition.

Like the Vedic people, the Japanese pray during morning and evening. They wash their hands, mouth and feet before entering shrines. They offer prayer only after taking a bath. They offer simple offerings of fruits of the earth to their Gods.

Another striking similarity can be seen in the name of their underworld which is called as Yomi. According to the Vedic tradition, the dead go to the place of Lord Yama.

Vedic Influence in Meso America

We know from the ancient Sangam literature that there once was  a large landmass in the Bay of Bengal/Indian Ocean called Ilamuri Desam. There are three Sangam periods and this land mass existed during and prior to the first Sangam period. During the meltdown of the Polar ice caps, the land mass was sugmerged. Three subsequent deluges are described till the king moved the capital to present day Madurai. The people of ancient South India especially of Tamilnadu were proficient in naval warfare and had built huge and sohisticated ships. Their presence can be traced in the far east. The ancient Indians knew that the world was spherical. It is hence easier to suppose that they might have gone sailing past Japan till they reached the Americas. The South Indians belonged to the Vedic civilizations. There  was no split between the Dravidians and the Aryans. The word arya was used to describe nobility or noble character. It was not the name of any tribe. Similarly the word Dravidia does not exist. The theology of both North and South India agree. We can say that the South Indians brought their culture to Meso America. They might have even migrated to the Americas when their own land was submerged. Many of the Meso American deities resemble the village deities of South India.

The Mahabharata mentions that the palace of the Pandavas was built by Asura Maya. There are many refrences to a group of people called Mayas in the ancient texts. Many of the Meso American names for places sound similar to Vedic name. For example, Chetumal sounds like Ketumala, Belize can be pronounced as Bala Isa, in ancient times Gyana was called Aparagyuana; Apara is Sanskrit for West , Guh is to hide and Yana  refers to a place or jouney. Thus Aparagyuana could mean the Western hiding place.

Vedic influence in Meso America

Kali is depicted with a necklace of human skulls. The human skulls signify ego. She is shown to be victorious because she has controlled her ego and tore the veil of cosmic illusion. This has been wrongly interpreted by many as skulls from human sacrifice.

Goddess Kali is depicted with an outstretched tongue just like the ancient Meso-American Sun God. The powers of sin such as greed, lust, hate and anger always lurk in a man’s mind. These are fueled by egoistical attitude and by drinking the soma juice which is the “drink of knowledge”, the powers of sin are killed. Decapitation is a form of soma sacrifice. Decapitation actually refers to killing egoistical attitudes.  In the hands of persons lusting after meat and alcohol, the meaning has been mutilated giving rise to religious beliefs that approve human/animal sacrifices as well as the use of intoxicants. Just imagine the sort of interpretation Hannibal Lecter would come up with & if he decided to recruit followers to join his new cult, wouldn’t he lecture them on partaking human flesh?

Vedic influence in Meso America

The pyramids of the Aztecs resemble the fire altar of the Brahmanas. The Aztecs kept a perpetual fire burning in the top most storey of the temple. The burning fire could be seen from all corners of the city. The stairs ascending the temples were built such that a person was forced to circumbulate the temple at least four times before reaching the summit. The Vedic culture prohibits sacrifices of any living creature. Human beings by nature are blood thirsty and find ways to interpret new meaning of the text and use their interpretation to indulge in eating meat and alcohol. The Bhagawat Geetha mentions that every human being is born with a mixture of three gunas (nature). The satva guna is supreme of the three and promotes a desire to be peaceful and to progress along the spiritual path.The Rajo guna and the Tamo guna are lower gunas which fuel an individual to indulge in sensual pleasures and increase lethargy. If a person does not control the two lower gunas then that person will be spiritually lost. Eating meat and alcohol are considered to fuel the two lower gunas. The more a person indulges in these pleasures, the more the person sinks into the samsaric ocean.

I will mention about the cult of Goddess Kali in India tomorrow and the human sacrifices performed by the members of the cult. It can be seen that the religion of ancient Meso America is identical to such cults. The cult which was created is considered to be non-Vedic as the practices have been invented and the meaning of the Vedic texts misrepresented. Goddess Kali is against human sacrifices or the sacrifice of any living being.

To be continued.

Vedic influence in Meso America

There are many theories that relate the ancient Mose-American civilizations to South India and Sri Lanka . The Meso American history is stained with human sacrifices; the civilization appears to be non-Vedic.  Even today there are many non Vedic cults in South India which originated from the Vedic religion. The people of villages worship certain non Vedic deities as protectors of the village. To some of these deities they offer goats in sacrifice. The Kabalikas and Kalamukhs are an offshoot of the ancient Vedic religion. They worship the Vedic God Shiva and his consort Parvati but their practices are not Vedic. The cult originated from the myth about Shiva cutting of one of the head of Brahma. As punishment, the skull of Brahma was made to stick to Shiva’s hands and he had to roam around with it. The skull in his hand reminded everyone of the gruesome crime committed by him against the patriarch. Like all Vedic stories, this story has a hidden meaning involving creation. The cutting of the fifth head of Brahma by Shiva represents the blending of the five elements for the purpose of creation. In ancient times, anyone who murdered a Brahmin was made to wander around using the skull of the Brahmin as a bowl for food. The murderer was also cast out of the city by the King. Such murderers were allowed to live in cremation grounds so that they may repent. A group of such psychopaths banded together and formed their own cult. They terrified the common people and offered their enemies in sacrifice to Kali. The intention of the founders was to go against the Vedic preaching and terrify the people who had made them outcasts. The ancient Rakshasas were such outcasts and were known as cannibals. In the Ramayana, Sita addresses the rakshashas as “eaters of the dead” in a derogatory sense. There are legends that state that a group of such rakshashas were exiled to the patala region. Some theories state that the patala region mentioned in the Vedic texts is America . It is not surprising that the people of ancient America retained some of the Vedic symbols while following their original cruel non-Vedic practices.

to be continued

Vedic influence in Meso America

There is a theory that the patala world mentioned in the Vedic texts refer to ancient America . The Mayan low lands were called Nacaste which could be Naga-asta in Sanskrit meaning Western Naga land. In the Vedic texts the Nagas were snake like beings who could turn into a human being. They were described as Naag-Baal which in the Americas became Nagual. The Naguals were snake-demons of the Americas .  We can see traces of the Vedic civilizations in the civilizations of the Olmecs, Mayas, Aztecs and the Incas.

The Vedic texts considered the Mayas as Asuras. The Asuras are said to follow Sukracharya who is represented by the planet Venus. The Mayan calendar is based on the revolution of planet Venus. The Incas were civilized by Virococha. The name Virococha sounds similar to Virochana. Virochana was an asura king. It is conceivable that Virochana and Virococha are the same person. Virochana is the grandson of Prahlada and was a devotee of Vishnu. Vishnu is worshiped with flowers. Virococha taught the Incas to offer flowers to God in place of animal and human sacrifices. Virococha was known as Quetzalcoatl to the Aztecs and as Kukulcan to the Mayas. The plumed serpent symbol of the Mayans looks like a fusion of Garuda & Sesha; Garuda is an eagle and is the vehicle of Lord Vishnu, Sesha is a cobra and is the bed of Lord Vishnu. The ancient Americans worshiped sun god. It is also interesting to note that the Mayan calendar began with a date around 3112 B.C., very close to the Hindu traditional date for the start of Kali Yuga/Age viz., 3102 B.C

Vedic influence in West Asia (Sacrifice of child Jantu)

Similarly there is another story in which there is a king called Somaka with 100 wives. After many years he begets one son named Jantu. All the 100 wives dote on Jantu. One day, Jantu is bitten by an ant and seeing his agony, the wives cry. Hearing his wives sobbing, the king makes inquiries and realizes that Jantu was only bitten by an ant. The king suddenly feels sad that he has only one son and if he loses him he will be childless. The king asks the priests if there are any sacrifices through which he can get many children. The priests tell that if the king sacrifices his son Jantu and make his wives to smell Jantu’s burning flesh, each of his wives will become pregnant and Jantu himself will be reborn among them with a golden sign. 

The king gives them his consent and a great tug of war ensues between the king’s wives and the priests each trying to pull Jantu to their side. The king’s wives refuse to sacrifice him but in the end, Jantu is sacrificed. As told by the priests the king gets 100 sons and Jantu is born among them with a golden sign. 

In due time the priests die before the king and are sent to hell for performing such a sacrifice. The king after he dies pleads with Lord yama and shares in their punishment.

The actual meaning of this story is as follows. Somaka means moon which again represents man. Jantu represents physical old age. By dispelling selfish desires the king is ready to taste the spiritual fruit. The 100 mothers represent good qualities of the knower with faith as the chief.  The king makes the self-sacrifice which is represented as sacrificing Jantu. The 100 sons represent the many forms of Brahman. Jantu reborn among the 100 sons with a golden sign indicates the king reaching God and obtaining immortality. That is he conquers recurring death.
To prevent people from performing actual sacrifices, the story mentions the priests and the king suffering in hell.

Vedic influence in West Asia (Sunassepa's human sacrifice)

There is a story in which king Harischandra has no progeny. He prays to Varuna and with Varuna’s blessing obtains a son. Varuna imposes a condition according to which the king has to sacrifice his son to Varuna. The king keeps postponing the fulfillment of his promise. In due time the king’s son Rohita grows in to a youth. The king finally informs Rohita about the sacrifice and asks for Rohita’s consent. Rohita refuses and runs away to the forest. As a result of this and Varuna’s curse, the king gets a bloated belly. When Rohita hears about the king’s condition he starts out to fulfill his promise but every time he is dissuaded by Indra. The sixth time, Rohita meets a Brahman Rishi Ajagarta. Rohita buys the rishi’s middle son Sunassepa to be sacrificed to Varuna in his place. The rishi & his wife refuse to sell him their eldest and their youngest who are called as Sunapunkha and Suna-Langhula. The sacrifice is started and Vishwamitra is the hotra, the officiating priest. Sunassepa’s father himself agrees to tie him to the sacrificial post in three places. During the rites, Sunassepa successfully invokes the dawn Goddess Usha and gets liberated from the sacrificial post. As soon as he is liberated, he invents the method of pressing the soma juice from the soma creeper which is offered to Varuna instead of Sunassepa himself.

This story is definitely a riddle and does not indicate human sacrifice. The solution to this riddle will give us knowledge of Brahman. King Harischandra represents the moon which in turn is an esoteric representation of man. The king’s son Rohita represents self which is created to be sacrificed  to the Supreme Self. The self runs away and the man as a result of samsaric attachments gets the big belly from his selfish desires. The self then takes pity and buys the soma creeper which is Sunassepa. The meaning of the word Sunasseppa is dog’s tail (dog represents moon). He represents knowledge. His parents represent Brahma and his wife Vak.  Their other sons are also named as dog’s tail Sunapunkha and Suna-Langhula indicating that they have enough knowledge for each other as well as enough to spare. Sunasseppa tied to the post in three places could represent tapa-traya. Tapa-traya are,  the pain cause by one's own mind , the pain caused by fate or gods, and the pain caused by animals, other people, etc. The dawn goddess Usha successfully liberating Sunassepa from the sacrificial post represent that, by knowing Brahman (God) through Brahmic knowledge, Brahman relieves us from the tApa-trayas. Sunassepa pressing the soma juice from the soma creeper and offering it in to the sacrificial fire represents Sunassepa’s self-sacrifice to Brahman, i.e Sunassepa realizes that he is the atma and he belongs to Brahman. We have seen that Sunassepa’s name means dog’s tail and that the dog represents the moon;  the moon as seen earlier is used to depict man hence, the dog’s tail is the atma inside the man’s body. The atma rightfully belongs to Brahman and therefore must be sacrificed to Brahman. Sacrificing atma to Brahman means realizing God. The dog’s tail means the soma creeper which is Sunassepa. By this self-sacrifice, Sunassepa is saved from this ocean of samsara.

Vedic influence in West Asia

Human sacrifice was practiced by ancient societies throughout West Asia, Europe and South America . The Phoenicians sacrificed their children in fire to Moloch. The Phoenicians were the Vedic Panis. If we say that these ancient civilizations originated from the Vedic civilizations then, did the Vedic people practice human sacrifices as well? The Vedic texts mention the sacrifice of Purusha in the Purusha Medha sacrifice. The sacrifice of a child name Jantu is mentioned in the texts and there is an account where a boy named Sunasseppa is purchased as sacrificial victim. These sacrifices mentioned in the Vedic texts are not actual sacrifices but have hidden esoteric meaning. The ancient Vedic Brahmanas had the key to decode the texts but people who migrated away from the Vedic home land would have lost this key and hence assumed that the texts speak about actual sacrifices. The emigrants could understand only the literal meaning. My mother tongue is Tamil. The 4000 Divya Prabadhams of the Alwaar Saints are in Tamil. As languages are dynamic and change with time, I am unable to understand the Tamil verses which are in an ancient form of Tamil. Even if I learnt the ancient Tamil, I would be unable to decipher the actual meaning conveyed by the poetic verses unless I refer to the many commentaries written on the Divya Prabadhams. If someone like me who is constantly in touch with the Vedic culture as well as the language is unable to decipher ancient verses, how can people who emigrated away from the Vedic language be expected to fully comprehend the Vedic teachings? The generation of emigrants would slowly lose the ability to recall the Vedic teachings. I will examine the various human sacrifices mentioned in the Vedic texts and reveal their esoteric meaning. In general Naramedha sacrifice is not human sacrifice but it is the rite performed while cremating a dead body. My next post will explain the esoteric meaning of Sunassepa’s sacrifice. We have to explore the esoteric meaning of the Vedic texts as then we can see easily that the other ancient civilizations that practiced such gruesome rites were in their infancy. The civilizations of West Asia, Europe and Meso America were infants compared to the very old Vedic civilization.

To make it easy for the reader I have copied the information on the meaning of the Purusha Medha sacrifice from my previous blog entry. Please see below for the meaning.
 The Purusha Medha Sacrifice:
The Purusha Medha is a form of sacrifice mentioned in the Vedas. The term “Purusha” came to be interpreted as “man” and people mistakenly believed that the Vedas have historical reference to human sacrifices. Just like in English there are many homonyms in Sanskrit. Unlike English the spelling for the homonyms in Sanskrit does not change. The word “Purusha” actually refers to “self”. By “self” it refers to the “paramatma” who is the soul of “jeevatama”. That is the “super soul” is the soul of all souls. Paramatma or God is our soul. The mythical being “Purusha” who is sacrificed during the “Purusha-Medha” sacrifice mentioned in the Vedas, refers to God. By sacrificing himself, God enters into the heart of every living creature. By entering into the heart of all living beings he loves them all as Himself. He sees all and loves all equally unlike the selfish man/woman who does not see oneself beyond his body. This is God’s self sacrifice. He offered the seed-state of all beings in to the fire of sacrifice along with himself. Through this action he came to reside completely in all creatures at the same time residing outside as the Universal God.  Like him we are advised to perform self-sacrifice too; by self-sacrifice it does not mean that we should jump into the fire or kill someone and offer them to God. Self-sacrifice here means that we should bring our senses under control, subdue passion and be righteous. By this way we can realize Paramatma residing in our heart. We should understand our relationship we share with him. We should understand that we belong to him and him only. We should offer our self to him wholeheartedly. This is the meaning of the “Purusha-Medha” sacrifice. The Purusha referred in the Purusha-Medha is God who is the first cause of everything

Vedic influence in West Asia

The Assyrians worshiped their supreme God Assur. I have mentioned in my previous posts on Persia that the word “Assur” in Sanskrit means “the most powerful being”. It does not originally refer to malevolent beings but referred to the Supreme Personality. The God Assur of the Assyrians was depicted as an archer located inside the solar disk. We can immediately see a parallel between Lord Rama who is always depicted as an archer. Lord Rama belonged to the solar dynasty and is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The solar disk is also worshiped as the eye of God in the Vedic tradition. Thus the worship of the Assyrian god Assur has Vedic roots.

There is also a myth involving a God who is half human and half lion called Nadush-Namir. We can see that the root of this myth is in the Vedic Narasimha avatar.

Finally the translation of the Sumerian cylinders shows that there is a resemblance between the Vedic Agni and the God Enki. Enki is said to reside in Aapu. Aapu means water is the Sumerian language and water is called aap in Sanskrit. There are many Vedic hymns which mention that Agni resides inside water.  Enki can be proved to be a fiery deity rather than a watery deity from the fact that the Western Asian Gira (fire) and Nusku (lamp) are said to originate from Enki. The messenger between the Gods and humans was also Enki just like the Vedic messenger Agni.

The Sumerians trace their origin to the land of Dilmun in the East. They state that Dilmun is a treasure trove of natural resources especially ivory. The location and the description match with India.

References:

The Arian Witness by Rev. K.M. Banerjea

The origin of Pagan idolatry by George Stanley Faber

Vedic influence in West Asia

The ancient Babylonians cremated their dead. According to history textbooks, king Nebuchadnezzar threatened to throw three Jews  into a fiery furnace which was kept burning at all times to cremate the dead.

There are some cylinder seals from Babylonia that depict a half man half bird being brought before Minos for judgment. Minos is the Babylonian pronunciation for Manu.

Soul is compared to a bird in the Vedic texts. In the case of an enlightened being, the bird represents flying away to higher region. A  bird is also called patanka in Sanskrit which is derived from the root “to fall” and represents the fall of humans in to samsara.

The Babylonians considered that all souls possess a semi bird like character after death. This might have been derived from the Vedic concept that all souls possess knowledge about self and paramatma but when inside a body, the inherent knowledge is dimmed. The karma accumulated while residing in a body would pull the soul down into samsara and prevent it from flying away. This might be why the Babylonians depicted souls as half human and half bird like. The bird half of the soul depicts the soul’s inherent knowledge while the human half of the soul represents the accumulated karma. 

 

References:

The Arian Witness by Rev. K.M. Banerjea

The origin of Pagan idolatry by George Stanley Faber

Vedic influence in West Asia

We have many parallels between the religion of Sumer, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Phoenicia and the Vedic tradition. The Western Asians believed that all the other deities were the manifestation of one supreme deity Anu. The word Anu in Sanskrit is used to refer to the soul or in this case to super soul paramatma. The story of the deluge is derived from the Vedic Matsya Purana. The people worshiped Ea-Oannes who was depicted as half human and half fish. The Chaldean myth states that Xisuthrus was visited by God Cronus in his dream. Xisuthrus was asked to prepare an arc. The arc came to rest on top of a mountain. According to the Vedic Matsya Purana, Manu’s arc came to rest on top of a Himalayan mountain peak which came to be called as Navbhandhana (a place where the boat was anchored). Ea-Oannes was also worshiped as the God of healing; in the Vedic tradition the God of healing Dhanvantri is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The Goddess Dav-Kina was worshiped as the consort of Ea-Oannes. Her name Dav-Kina means “from the great deep” and refers to her origin from the deep waters just like in the Vedic tradition where Goddess Sridevi appeared from the depths of the milky ocean.

They worshiped God Sammus and originally Sammus and Tammus were considered to be the same person. This is similar to the concept of Siva-Rudra. The name for the moon God was Sin and might have originally been pronounced as Som. The Assyrian kings traced their lineage from the Sin. Ishtar the consort of Tammuz was worshiped as the Goddess of both love and war. She was represented along with lions just like Goddess Durga who is always depicted with a lion. The people believed that the Gods resided atop a snow-clad mountain in the East called Rowandiz. They believed that Rowandiz supported the celestial vault. We can immediately see that Rowandiz is Mount Meru which is said to support the heavens as well and is also the residence of the Gods.

References:

The Arian Witness by Rev. K.M. Banerjea

The origin of Pagan idolatry by George Stanley Faber

Vedic influence in West Asia

It is impossible to ignore the presence of Vedic influence in West Asia. We have already looked at ancient Persia. We will continue our quest with Sumer, Babylon, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia etc.  The religions of these countries are identical.

There are some cuneiform inscriptions that refer to an Assyrian prince by the name of Assure Belaya. The inscriptions could refer to Asura Bali who is the son of Prahlada.

The Caspian region itself derives its name from sage Kashiapa. The book of Ezra (Hebrew Bible) refers to a place called Cassiphia. The worship of the god Tammuz is identified with Bacchus worship. Tammuz is Dionysus of Greece, Bacchus of Rome and Osiris of Egypt. In my previous posts I have proved that the worship of Osiris, Bacchus, and Dionysus is derived from the Vedic Siva-Rudra worship. The words Tammuz and Bacchus like Rudra mean to weep, wail or cry. The ancient Sumero-Babylonian legend also states that Tammuz was killed by a wild boar and that his wife rescued him from the underworld. His death was taken to represent the onset of winter. This legend is nothing but the Orion sacrifice. The myth has been modified slightly. In the Vedic version, the Orion is killed by Rudra. The sun (represented as Indra) hunts the mythical boar that steals the sacrifice (the belt stars) and at conjunction kills the boar. This version represents victory of summer over winter whereas in the Sumero-Babylonian myth we have Tammuz (Mrigashira start associated with Rudra) killed by the boar bringing about winter. The story of Gilgamesh is an amalgam of many Vedic stories. The name “Gilgamesh” sounds like Sanskrit; in Sanskrit two words are often combined to produce a third word. For example the word Akilesh can be split into two words Akilam and Esh which when combined would give Akilesh. Akilam means all and Esh means lord or master. Therefore Akilesh means master of all. Similarly we have Kamesh, Ramesh, Ganesh, Suresh and so on. The name Gilgamesh appears to fall into this category; the meaning of the word would then mean Lord of Gilgal or Master of Gilgal. Gilgal is a place near Jordan. The adventure of Gilgamesh is a mixture of the story of Rishiyashringa and of the Matsya (fish) avatar of Lord Vishnu. It refers to seven sages who came to civilize ancient West Asia after the great flood. Sumer has a Sanskrit root; it is actually pronounced as Soma Arya in Sanskrit. The word for water in Sumerian is ab and the word for water in Sanskrit is ap.

The name of the city Ur can be traced to Sanskrit as well. The word Uru in Sanskrit means, large or excellent. The word Uruja in Sanskrit means powerful. The city Ur might have been named Uru or Uruja and over time the pronunciation could have deteriorated to just Ur . The word Babylon in Sanskrit is Bahubhal (very strong). The word for strength in Babylon, Assyria & Phoenicia is Bel or Baal which is similar to Sanskrit bal. The people in this region worshipped the god Baal. One of their creation myths states that Baal ordered another God who had many heads to sacrifice one of his heads for the sake of creating human and animal species. We have a Vedic parallel in which Rudra cuts-off one of the five heads of Brahma. The fifth head which was cut-off represents the five elements required for creation. Esoterically they also represent the five senses and cutting the fifth head symbolizes subduing one’s senses.