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