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.