Tattva

(This is the second of a series of three articles. Please read the first article of the series here and the second here)

We also have Goddesses such as Hecate. She is practically a replicate of Durga or Kali. She has the same significance as Mother Kali or Durga as well. Hecate was known as Kurotrophos (Nurse of the

Children and Protectress of mankind)  This is Durga as Shashti, The Protector of Children. Also Note the word Kuro which is most likely related to the Sanskrt word Kuru. This may indeed be more evidence verifying that some of India’s Kurus did indeed migrate to Greece.  Like Durga’s Navratri Festival, which starts the day after the New Moon, Hecate was also worshipped on the New Moon. Like Kali Mata, Dogs are sacred to Goddess Hecate and they are both worshipped on new moon nights as well. The Serpents are also an obvious similarity between Hecate and Kali Mata. Chandi is Durga as a Moon Goddess and Hecate is also connected to the Moon as seen in the carving below. Even the items held in Hecate’s hands, Fire, Weapons, Elephant Goad, Water pot and Discus, replicate those held by the Vedic Durga.

In the images above we see that both Hecate and Durga are carrying the same instrument which appears to be an elephant goad. This is not just one random example. The fact is every single Greek God and Goddess has a verifiable Vedic counterpart.

Evidence reveals that around 4500 years ago a new people arrived in Anatolia, Modern Turkey. They brought with them new pottery techniques and in particular introduced a new two handled drinking cup called Depas Amphikypallon. “The 2 handed cup, introduced by the new arrivals clearly bears the Sanskrit names Deepas (cup), Amphik or Ambhik (water) and Pellon from the Sanskrit root pa (to drink) whose participles are pipan, papan. In particular the word Ambhas occurs in the Rig Veda.”11

Turning to the sciences, particularly the medical, mathematical and astronomical sciences, we see more amazing parallels. In fact the similarities are so striking that it was hypothesized that the Indians must have gotten all their astronomical and medical knowledge from the Greeks.

Regarding Astronomy some of the obvious similarities are:

A.    In both systems epicycles and eccentric circles are used to determine the planets’ placement.

B.    Mercury and Venus are taken as the mean sun and heliocentric real planets are represented by the apex  of quick motion.  Correction for the equation of the center is applied to the mean sun instead of the real planet to determine their real orbits.

C.    Instead of elliptical orbits, planetary orbits are supposed to be circular in both systems.

D.    For determining the geo-centric position of planets instead of the actual sun, the mean sun is taken for the apex of quick motion.

E.    There are certain words that are commonly used in both systems such as Kendra = Center.12

In the Greek language the word is κέντρο= kentro. Thus even the Sanskrit word Kendra is the same as in the Greek.

Another very interesting piece of evidence suggesting Vedic connections to the West can be found in the ancient synagogue of Beit Alpha in the NE part of Israel. Despite being a Jewish place of worship the Temple has a mosaic of Helios surrounded by the Zodiac and its symbols.

Intriguingly the images of the Four Seasons at the four corners of the circle, as seen on the left are not placed next to the beginning of the zodiac signs that are usually associated with the seasons, i.e. Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, but with the signs just before them. This is because it depicts the cycle of the seasons in the Sidereal or Vedic Zodiac. The Sidereal or Vedic Zodiac is tied into the actual constellations and do not change, whereas the zodiac that is commonly used in the West changes with the seasons. So here it appears that the ancient Hebrews had the same understanding of the astronomical science as the ancient Vedic people of India.

The repeated finds of Helios within Jewish places of worship suggest that rather than merely a Greek Sun God, Helios was recognized by the worshipers of Jehovah as much more. The research of David Sherman highlights that Helios, as seen in this ancient image (left) driving a chariot with 4 horses, is none other than Hari or Krishna known as Partha Sarathi, the driver of Arjuna’s chariot. Helios’ golden chariot is a ‘Quadriga’ yoked to a team of four horses abreast. This same Helios or Hari was known as Eli to the Jews. Thus it is no surprise that Helios images have been found in many ancient synagogues discovered up to this date. To date seven synagogues in Israel alone have been found with images of Helios. This shows that Helios was widely accepted amongst the ancient Hebrews. Helios has a long history in Judaism. His figure is found in both text and magical amulets from that time period. This combined with the early Christians’ recognition of Helios as Christ suggest that the distinction between the ‘Pagan’ religions and Judaism and Christianity is artificial. They did not recognize Helios in an attempt to harmonize with their ‘Pagan’ neighbors. They worshipped Helios because He was their God. In later years the Jews and Christians divorced themselves from their own roots. Because their ways of worship were different, they gradually lost the understanding that their object of worship was one and the same as those of the ‘Pagans’. As the centuries rolled by, various doctrines arose. Political pressures developed that reinforced a sense of otherness and thus many schisms arose.

The evidence seems to back up this view. Above we see the floor of a synagogue in Ein Gedi, Israel built during the Roman occupation of Judea. It is decorated with a swastika. The floor was of simple white mosaic with a swastika pattern in black tesserae in the center. Also in Maoz-Haim, Israel another ancient synagogue was found to contain a Swastika mosaic. Again we see a strong link between ancient Judaism and Vedic culture.

Other surprising finds were discovered in two ancient Egyptian synagogues. Here statue bases with inscriptions were found. The statues themselves are long gone but the fact that a Jewish temple contained sacred images is obvious and startling.  It appears that the ancient Jews did indeed worship deities in their temples. “Finally there is evidence that several Egyptian synagogues, one in Alexandria and the other in Naucratis had statues. Statue bases were discovered in each, one with the explicit inscription “to the synagogue” the second mentioning a Sambathic association.” Sambathic connotes the Sabbath thus confirming that the Statues were indeed religious in nature. “…we may well have evidence of communities whose Jewish practice condoned such images, not unlike those who built and attended the 3rd century Nehardea (Babylonia) synagogue that also had a statue.”13 “It is reported in the Bavli that a synagogue in Nehardia had a statue inside and that, despite this, a number of sages continued to pray there.”14 “There was a synagogue at Shaf ve yateb in Nehardia that had a statue, and Rav, Samuel, Samuel’s father and Levi would enter and pray there and were not afraid of arousing suspicion of idolatry.”15 Also a lamp from the 1st century BC was discovered in an ancient synagogue on the Greek Island of Delos. On this lamp (right) is an image of Helios with His sacred Eagle.

Theories have been given suggesting that these are proofs of the immense popularity of Hellenistic culture during the post Alexander era. However the Jews, amongst all the ancient peoples of the world, were known to stubbornly refuse to bow to the political might of any earthly power. Thus the theory that the ancient Jewish people adopted Greek Gods and Goddesses as a kind of fashion statement, having been allegedly swept up into loving everything Greek, does not seem tenable. Rather, I propose that the ancient Jews recognized the Greek deities as alternate forms of the very same God that they worshipped.

Some may be confused by these revelations and cite Moses’ commandment against idolatry. Besides the obvious Vedic understanding that Deities or Murtis are not just mere graven images created by the fancies of our imaginations, it is clear that only authorized forms are to be worshipped.

So what is an Idol? The English word Idol is related to the word Id or Ego. This Id is responsible for our basic drives such as food, sex, and aggressive impulses. When seen in this way, idolatry is recognized as a form of self aggrandizement that is solely focused on the impulses of the false ego. Another instance where we find the ancient Jews use of a sacred carven image can be found in the Old Testament.

“And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.”16

Moses made a copper snake and put it on a pole to demonstrate to the people that they could be saved from the plague of snakes if they raised their eyes to heaven. 17

Jesus Christ says: “Just as Moses lifted up the copper snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”18

Here we see direct Judeo-Christian accounts confirming that a graven image of a serpent was a symbol of deliverance!

The Sumerian god Ningizzida was the patron of medicine. In the image on the right he is accompanied by two gryphons. It is the oldest known image of snakes coiling around an axial rod, dating from before 2000 BCE. This means that once again we are seeing evidence of the ancient world’s amazing homogenous cultural development. How else can we explain a four thousand year old Sumerian emblem having the same exact significance as the Jewish ‘Rod of Asclepius.’ Asclepius himself was the Greek God of Healing and Medicine. Here we have three allegedly different cultures using the same emblem to signify the same thing.  To this day we find this potent image of healing as an everyday part of our lives as we visit any modern hospital or Doctor’s office.

Since, according to Herodotus, Greek religion was identical to Egyptian religion, we can deduce that we have four distinct and diverse ancient cultures that shared a common spiritual and mystical tradition.

The bronze serpent of Moses was called Nehushtan from the Hebrew word for Serpent Nachash. Again we see a strong linguistic similarity in the Hebrew word for Serpent Nachash and the Sanskrit word Naga. Even the English word Serpent is almost pure Sanskrit, Serpent=Sarpa.  These many linguistic evidences represent an immense field which can accurately be called linguistic archeology.  It would take many researchers years to completely catalog the immense quantities of linguistic evidence. Such an investigation will be of great value and go a long way in confirming ancient Humanity’s cultural connectivity.

According to Herodotus (440 BC) the rituals of the Greek Gods apart from Poseidon were exactly the same as those of the Egyptian gods. “Indeed, well nigh all the names of the gods came to Hellas from Egypt. For I am assured by inquiry that they have come from foreign parts, and I believe that they came chiefly from Egypt.”19 So here Herodotus clearly states that the Greek religion was indeed developed in foreign parts. His belief was that Egypt was the source. Yet it turns out that even Egypt’s culture was Vedic in nature. However that is another subject which I can only briefly highlight in this study.

Interestingly, Beef eating and cow slaughter were prohibited in Ancient Egypt. In his famous book Euterpe, Herodotus reveals that the Oracle of Ammon enforced an abstention from beef upon all peoples in the Nile area. …”being of opinion themselves that they were Libyans and not Egyptians, and also being burdened by the rules of religious service, because they desired not to be debarred from the use of cows’ flesh, sent to Ammon saying that they had nought in common with the Egyptians, for they dwelt outside the Delta and agreed with them in nothing; and they said they desired that it might be lawful for them to eat everything without distinction. The God however did not permit them to do so….”20 Herodotus also says in regards to animal sacrifice, “the cows however they may not sacrifice, but these are sacred to Isis; “..and all the Egyptians without distinction reverence cows far more than any other kind of cattle.”  Herodotus continues, “In the same manner as they bury the oxen they bury also their cows when they die; for about them also they have the same law laid down, and these also they abstain from killing.”21

As we know beef eating and cow killing is prohibited in the Vedic tradition as well. Egyptians identified Ammon with their supreme god Amun; they called Him ‘God of the oracle’ ‘Amun of Siwa, Lord of good counsel’. It can not be mere coincidence that the religion of the highest and most revered God of Ancient Egypt, Amun, also known as Yamanu to the Egyptians, strictly enforced a prohibition against beef eating. The quote above reveals that this injunction was strictly kept and enforced. Therefore this is indeed a strong indication of the Vedic basis of ancient Egyptian civilization. We also find a hint of probable Shiva Linga worship when Herodotus refers to the Egyptians as carrying images with movable phalluses in their processions for Dionysus, rather than just phalluses as the Greeks do.”22

Another common aspect of both Greek and Indian cultures has come to light by a revealing study on the grammatical and metrical content of both Rig-Vedic Sanskrit and ancient Greek. It turns out that the grammatical and metrical content of both languages is the same.

“Since the Rig-Veda reflects *klewos, when accompanied by *ṇ- and *dhgwhi-, in a metrical position which indicates archaism, it is important that the same collocation is frozen within the meters of Greek as well. The cognate of Rig-Vedic s/ra/va(s) a/kSitam, κλέος ἄφθιτον, occurs in the epic hexameter of Iliad I 413 and in the dactylic pentameter of Sappho 44.4LP…..“Furthermore, while a/kSiti- is formed by genuine Indic grammatical rules, its lack of a solidly-precedented grammatical constituency suggests that it is an ad hoc poetic creation. (There is an interesting parallel in Greek. Just as the adjective a/kSiti- is built from an abstract substantive kSiti-, so also the Greek adjective ἀθάνατος ‘immortal’ seems to be built from the substantive θάνατος ‘death’ rather than from the adjective θνητός ‘mortal’. The analogue to a/kSita- would have been *ἄθνητος, a hypothetical form which Kuryłowicz argues to be more archaic than the actual ἀθάνατος.”23

In other words the ancient Vedic language of the Rig Veda and the ancient Greek language are intimately inter-connected. Even the very meter and grammatical structure of the two languages are exact parallels of each other.

In closing let us take a brief look at the modern calendar. In the word Calendar we once again see an example of almost pure Sanskrit. Calendar (Kalandar) and Clock (Kalak) both come from the word Kala the Sanskrit word for Time. In our modern calendar we have 12 months. According to our modern calendar January to August represent the 1st to the 8th months. Next we find ourselves in September the 9th month, October the 10th month etc. Yet when we translate the actual words September, October, November and December we find that we are dealing with numbers.

Sapta is Seven as in Sapta-Sindhu=7 rivers, Octa is Eight as in Octagon, Nava is Nine as in Nava Ratna=Nine Gems and Dasha is Ten as in Decimal. Thus while September is the 9th month for us its very name reveals that it was actually the 7th month of the year. The same holds true for October, November and December.

September= the 7th month
October= the 8th month
November= the 9th month
December=the 10th month

Despite the fact that our modern calendar no longer reflects the original meanings of the months, the very names of these months inform us of their original placement. We can thus identify the calendar as it was thousands of years ago. Encoded within the names of these months is a forgotten legacy that can be revealed through the Sanskrit language. In the same way, all the answers to the mysteries of our past can be discovered. Again and again key elements that make up the very basis and fabric of ancient civilization remind us of our common global heritage. It behooves us to begin extensive, intensive onsite investigations into this important field of research. The entire world will be benefited by the cataloging, deciphering and preservation of these many astounding and incredible reminders of the World’s Ancient Vedic Heritage.

Sources

1.    Alexander and Alexandria in Indian Literature published in French in the Memoires del’Institut Francois vol lxvii-Melange Maspero vol II by Sylvain Levi
2.    Gates of India, pg 91 by Holdich
3.    Central Asiatic Provinces of the Maurya Empire, pg 89 Indian Historical Quarterly 1938 by H.C. Seth
4.    Anabasis of Alexander by Lucius Flavius Arrianus ‘Xenophon’ Arrian
5.    TimeSigns: Now What? National Geographic Magazine 9/04 by Virginia Morell
6.    Helios, Encyclopedia Mythica by Micha F. Lindemans
7.    The Historical Library of Diodorus Siculus, pg 336 Book V, ch.III
8.    Historical Identity = Theological Identity by David Sherman
9.    Homer’s Gods, Plato’s Gods by Dr. Jan Garrett.
10.    The Hobbit, There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkein
11.    Indo-Aryan Colonization of Greece pg 54 by Vishnu Kant Varma
12.    Is Indian Astronomy Influenced by the Greeks? By Prof M. L Sharma Sanskrit University, Varanasi, India
13.    The Ancient Synagogue: The First Thousand Years pgs 88-89 by Lee I. Levine
14.    The Ancient Synagogue: The First Thousand Years pgs 364-365 by Lee I. Levine
15.    Talmud Bavli B Rosh Hashana 24b
16.    The Old Testament (Numbers 21.8-9)
17.    Talmud (Rosh Ha-Shanah 29a)
18.    The New Testament (John 3:14-15)
19.    Euterpe Herodotus’ Histories Book II 50
20.    Euterpe Herodotus’ Histories Book II 18
21.    Euterpe Herodotus’ Histories Book II 41
22.    Euterpe Herodotus’ Histories Book II 48
23.    Comparative Studies in Greek and Indic Meter  Harvard University Press by Gregory Nagy

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