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General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Nagaraj on July 29, 2013, 07:04:20 PM

Title: Assorted articles on Vedic culture all over the world
Post by: Nagaraj on July 29, 2013, 07:04:20 PM

Follow here: http://www.salagram.net/VWH-World.html (http://www.salagram.net/VWH-World.html.)

Excerpts:

Ancient World was a Vedic World  "Hindu Dharma" is a book which contains English translation of certain invaluable and engrossing speeches of Sri Sri Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi MahaSwamiji (at various times during the years 1884 to 1994).
 
"The fact according to me, is that in the beginning the Vedic religion was prevalent all over the world. Later, over the centuries, it must have gone through a process of change and taken different forms. These forms came to be called the original religions of these various lands which in the subsequent period- during historical times- came under Buddhism, Christianity or Islam as the case may be."

In the dim past what we call Hinduism today was prevalent all over the world. Archaeological studies reveal the existence of relics of our Vedic religion in many countries. For instance, excavations have brought up the text of a treaty between Rameses II and the Hittites dating back to the 14th century B. C. In this, the Vedic gods Mitra and Varuna are mentioned as witnesses to the pact. There is a connection between the name of Ramesses and that of our Rama.

About 75 per cent of the names of places in Madagascar have a Sanskritic origin.

In the Western Hemisphere too there is evidence of Hinduism having once flourished there. In Mexico a festival is celebrated at the same time as our Navaratri; it is called "Rama-Sita". Wherever the earth is dug up images of Ganapati are discovered here. The Aztecs had inhabited Mexico before the Spaniards conquered that land. "Aztecs " must be a distorted form of "Astikas". In Peru, during the time of the holy equinox [vernal? ] worship was conducted in the sun temple. The people of this land were called Incas: "Ina" is one of the Sanskrit names of the sun god. Don't we call Rama Inakula-tilaka?

There is book containing photographs of the aborigines of Australia dancing in the nude (The Native Tribes of Central Australia, by Spencer Killan, pages 128 & 129). A close look at the pictures, captioned "Siva Dance", shows that the dancers have a third eye drawn on the forehead.

In a virgin forest in Borneo which, it is said, had not been penetrated by any human being until recently, explorers have found a sacrificial post with an inscription in a script akin to our Granthas characters. Historians know it as the inscription of Mulavarman of Kotei. Mention is made in it of a sacrifice, the king who performed it, the place where the yupas was installed. That the king gave away kalpavrksass as a gift to Brahmins is also stated in this inscription. All such details were discovered by Europeans, the very people who ridicule our religion.
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Vedic influence in Britain

In the book The Aryans by V Gordon Childe relates how after 2000 BC people who had background with Indus Valley Civilization conquered Britain, and that was the phase of rapid development in Britain.

Britain - Name Isle of Angelsey in Britain derives from name of Lord Vishnu as Angulesh, meaning lord of Anguli country.
- British Isles which is finger sized compared to whole of Europe which is sized as palm of hand was designated the name Angulisthan that later came to be pronounced as Anguliand and then England.
- The name Britain also comes from Sanskrit Brihat-sthan meaning great place or great islands.
- Many names of England cities also have Sanskrit affiliations. E.g. London - was a very ancient Vedic capital, its Sanskrit name was Nandanium meaning pleasing habitation, and during Roman times it was misspelled as Londonium and later London. In European language letter "L" is often replaces "N", like name Svetanana (fair faced) is pronounced in Russia as Svetland.
- Sanskrit suffix Puri found in Indian cities as Sudamapuri or Jagannatha Puri is changed to "bury" in England like Shrewsbury, Ainsbury, Waterbury.
- Salisbury's hilly topography is also proof that it is a corrupt from Sanskrit term Shail-eesh-pury, which means hilly area with a (Vedic) Temple.
- Canterbury is also based on Sankarpury meaning a township of Shankar, Shiva. If you pronounce "C" as an "S" and replace "T" with a "K" in the name Canter, which is not uncommon in changes between Sanskrit and English, then it indicate that prior to British Isles turning Christian in the Sixth Century A.D. Canterbury used to be a seat of Vedic spiritual leader, thus the Archbishop of Canterbury today used to be a Vedic Priest and teacher or a Sankaracharya from which comes the name Sankarpury.

- The English term "shire" is also a corrupt Sanskrit word shwar. This is in reference to Indian towns known for ancient Shiva Center, such as Tryambakeshwar, Lankeshwar, Ghrishneshwar and many others. In England we find names such as Lancashire, Hampshire, Wiltshire etc.
- Like wise walled or fortified Townships are called "Cote" which is the same as kot as in Siddhakot, Agrakot, Lohakot etc. In England too walled townships and castle still bear the Sanskrit names "Cote" like Charlcote, Northcote, Healthcote etc.
- The famous horse races in Ascot is not a chance sport, the name Ascot comes from Sanskrit name Aswacot meaning City of Horses

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CANDINAVIA
Meaning Scanda (or Skanda) is a warrior of Lord Shiva and Commander-in-Chief of the divine Army. Sanskrit word naviya signifies a naval expedition in the name if Scanda.
In the book India in Greece Edward Pococke observes that European, Scandinavian, and Indian Kshatriya warrior castes are identical.
The word Viking (king) comes from Simha meaning Lion, Simha is pronounced, as Singa then changing "S" to "K" it becomes King. Thus Vikings were considered Lion like Warriors, like the Singh's from Punjab in India.

GERMANY
- Is a corrupt of sharman applicable to Sanskrit scholars in Vedic terminology. Such names exist in India in surname form like Sharma, which is in reference to this.
- The name Deutschland is a corruption of Daityasthan, referring to land of Daitya clan or those born of Mother Diti and Kashyap Muni.
- The city Heidelburg, "burg" signifies Fort. Sanskrit of which is Haya-dal-durg meaning Fort garrisoned by contingent of Horses.
- German word for thanks is Danke is corrupt Sanskrit for Dhanya.
- Place called Ramstein Sanskrit for Ram-sthan, is the site where first American Pershing missile was located in November 1983, "Stein" is similar to Sthan meaning spot or place.
- Furthermore, Col. James Tod recoedds on pg.63 of Volume I of Annals and Antiquities if Rajasthan "The first habit of Germans upon rising is ablution, which must have been of Eastern origin and not of the cold climate of Germany, as also the loose flowing robes, the long and braided hair tied in a knot at the top of the head, so emblematic of the Brahmins."
- Nazis used swastika forking towards left, normally Gods (Devas) used swastika forked towards right, and the Daityas (Danavas) used swastika forked towards left. Mr. Oak says in "World Vedic Heritage" that is apparent from the left-forked Swastika rooted in German (Deutschland) tradition since hoary antiquity."

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Title: Re: Assorted articles on Vedic culture all over the world
Post by: Nagaraj on August 01, 2013, 04:45:46 PM

Dead men usually tell no tales; but a 4000 year old skeleton from Balathal, Rajasthan (40 km north east of Udaipur) has revealed some fascinating tales.

This skeleton, of a man who probably was 35+/-10 years and 5’10″, was found in a settlement which flourished from 3700 – 1820 BCE; the people there had pottery and copper and cultivated barley as well as wheat. He was buried between 2500 – 2000 BCE — much before the decline of the Harappan civilization — and was a leper. In fact, this skeleton is the oldest example of leprosy in the world.

But he was not Harappan: he belonged to the Ahar-Banas culture. In the Mewar region of Rajasthan, hunter-gatherers developed farming communities in the middle of the fifth millennium BCE, independent of the Harappan culture. By around 2500 BCE, they became prosperous and had fortified settlements, roads, and lanes. Also, the earliest burned brick (4000 BCE) was found in Gilund at this site.

By 2500 BCE, Ahars had trade relations with the Harappans to the north. They also had trade relations with their contemporaries in South and Central India and the skeleton confirms it. This skeleton was buried with vitrified ash from cow dung. So far the Southern Neolithic ash mounds found in South Deccan and North Dharwar were believed to be cattle settlements or the result of  cow dung disposal. Now we can speculate that they were the result of funeral activities of a shared tradition.

Besides this domestic connection, these people had international contacts as well. There are two strains of leprosy: an Asian one and an East African one. It is possible that the African one was transmitted to Asia around 40,000 BCE or vice versa at a much later date. The second one seems to have happened since lerosy depends on human contact and it must been transmitted over the trading network involving the Ahars, Harappans,people of Magan, Mesopotamians and Egyptians.

This skeleton fits well with  the Atharva Veda (Hymn 23, 24) making it the earliest historical reference to leprosy. The Ebers papyrus, dated to 1550 BCE has been interpreted to contain evidence of leprosy, but the earliest affected skeleton found in Egypt has been dated only to 400 – 250 BCE.

Another point is regarding the burial; after 2000 BCE, burial was uncommon except for some special cases like infants and spiritual people. Harappan skeletons were both cremated — there is evidence at Sanauli at least — and buried, but true burials are very few compared to expected numbers. Many archaeologists believe that cremation must have been widely practised by Harappans. Also, at Dholavira and other sites, dozens of graves turned out to be without any bones which implies symbolic burials.

It is believed that the burial at Balathal followed the Vedic tradition: lepers were buried alive in some parts of India. Also there is evidence that diseased bodies were sometimes not cremated.

Two other skeletons were also obtained from Balathal, but of a later date[3]. They were found in the padmasana or samadhi posture — a striking evidence of yoga practice and burial of people perhaps regards as spiritually advanced. Even now in India, spiritually advanced people are not cremated, but buried.

(http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301/tiptronicus/balathal1.png)

The excavations reveal a large number of bull figurines indicating the Ahar people worshipped the bull [6]. At Marmi, a site near Chittorgarh, these figures have been found in abundance indicating it could be a regional shrine of the bull cult of this rural population. Discovery of cow-like figurines in Ojiyana, the first site found on the slope of a hill, has baffled archaeologists. Cow-worship was not a known Ahar practice. “There are no humps and we can see small teats,” B.R.Meena, superintendent, ASI Jaipur circle, who undertook the excavation, says, “These are certainly cows.” Other archaeologists suspect them to be bull calves but insist if further studies prove these to be cows, one could infer that the cow was a revered animal and the Hindu practice of treating the cow as a holy animal can thus be of pre-Aryan antiquity. [Were they cow worshippers?] Vedic burial, skeletons in samadhi posture, cow worship in a civilization contemporary with Harappa —- does this imply that the Ahar-Banas were Vedic people or Ahar culture was adopted by later Vedic culture or Ahars adopted it from an earlier Vedic culture? The large number of bull figurines found at Ahar and Gilund could indicate a bull cult[6]. There is a debate over if the figurines represent bulls or cows, but these figurines were part of the second phase of the Ahar culture (2100 – 1800 BCE) or as late as 1600 BCE [7] and are the only clue to the religious beliefs of the Ahars.

Another clue is the time frame of these skeletons. While the leper was dated to 2000 BCE, the skeletons in samadhi were from700 BCE[9]. So while the leper burial was unusual, there is nothing unusual about burying a man in samadhi posture by the Early Historical Period.

While the bull figurines and the skeletons in samadhi were known earlier, this leper skeleton has added new information about this less known culture. Hopefully as more papers come out, we will get a clear picture on their religious beliefs, such as if this Vedic burial was an exception or a common practice.

- See more at:

http://www.india-today.com/itoday/20010312/archaelogy.shtml
http://varnam.nationalinterest.in/2009/09/a-4000-year-old-lepers-tale/#sthash.oRkJK4fc.dpuf

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