Monday 12 January 2015

ANCIENT LEBANON - THE LINK TO SRI RAMA, BALARAMA AND SRI KRISHNA

The area now known as Lebanon first appeared in recorded history around 4000 BC. Its earliest known inhabitants were the Cannanites whom the Greeks referred to as the 'Phoenicians'. It is erroneously believed that the Greeks called them Phoenicians because of the purple dye they sold. Porphyry is Greek for purple. However, a slightly more detailed investigation of the various names that the inhabitants of the ancient coastal cities of Lebanon carried will reveal a common thread to all these names with a more plausible explanation.

The Phoenicians were consummate traders and skillful seafarers. In India, there is a description of such a class of people in the Rig Veda. They were known as Pani'. The Pani was the trading class and were also known as 'Vanij', Pani; pani (पणि), vani' (वणि). The sound 'Cani' in the word Canna-nite is a variation of both 'pani' and 'vani'. The word Cani  appears as 'ki-na-ah-na' in the Amarna letters dated to 14th century BC. For more on this subject click here.

The most ancient name of Lebanon is recorded in ancient Egyptian annals as 'Rmnn' where the sound 'R' stands for thr Cannanite 'L'. Hence the ancient most name was pronounced as Laman or a cognate of Laman, perhaps Lavan. Lavan is Sanskrit word with the meaning of 'salt' and its of great significance in the context.

Like the Rig Vedic Pani, the Phoenicians were traders, and built their cities on the wealth generated from trade of a variety of items. Whether it was the purple dye from the mollusks, or the glass from the sand, maritime commerce, and of course fish from the sea, they all had a major role in the development and prosperity of the Phoenician cities. 

Some of the major Phoenician cities carry names that have the meaning of 'salt' in Sanskrit. One such city was Sidon. In Sanskrit 'siddha' or 'siddham' or 'Sinduja' all have the meaning of 'sea salt', And it is from this word that the city of Sidon most likely gets its name - the city of salt! Sea salt is also known as 'lavana' (लवण). Hence the name Lebanon.

On the coast of the ancient port town Anfeh, also called Amfeh and later Ampi, was located one the oldest salt production sites in the world. The ancient salt heritage that survives until this day. In Sanskrit Amlam-Lavan (अम्लम्-लवण) is the word for sea-salt. Lavan is salt. It is from here that the Egyptians recorded the name Rmnn, the Sanskrit L changing to 'R'. 

The ancient history of Lebanon provides enough clues that its ancient sites bear resemblance to the sacred sites of India. One such example is the temple of Balbek. Baalbek was known as Heliopolis or the city of the Sun during the period of Roman rule and is the site of what is today known as Temple of Jupiter. The Romans built upon the more ancient 'Temple of Baal'. Baal was regarded as a Cannanite God but has many links with the Vedic gods of India, gods that the Pani or Phoenicians were familiar with.

The Temple of Baal is a monumental temple - its base is a massive platform made of stones. The trilithon (a trilithon is a structure consisting of two large vertical stones (posts) supporting a third stone set horizontally across the top (lintel) - terms commonly used in the context of megalithic monuments) standing on the platform is made of three of the four largest stones ever hewn anywhere in the world - a feat that the Romans could not have accomplished. 

Says Indian spiritual guru and the founder of Isha foundation, "If you study in a school in Lebanon, you will read about how Indian workers, Indian sculptors, Indian yogis came and built a Phoenician temple 4300 years ago which is called as balbek which is a phenomenal temple. Some of the foundation stones are over 300 tons by weight. There is no granite in Lebanon. They transported the granite all the way from Egypt accross the canal and up the mountains and put it there with Indian elephants, Indian workers and sculptors."

He adds," There is enough proof of this. One proof is visual,  which is the lotus hanging in the ceiling. The Indian sculptor always puts alotus in his work. Where would a Lebanese work have seen a lotus." More importantly, there is no significance of the lotus in the Lebanese tradition. The Vedic literature place the lotus as the highest and most sacred creation of nature. Its the highest offering you can make to god.

The intricate carvings on the ceiling of the temple are of Hindu origin. So is the gate. But the carvings have been tampered with at a later time, likely by the Romans who gave it the name Temple of Jupiter.


The circle at the centre with the petals is
a representation of the lotus.


The same lotus motif appears elsewhere on the walls of the Balbek temple and is more clearly visible in the picture below.

 A six-pointed star at Balbek, Lebanon
is the 'shatakona' of the Vedas.
The 'shatakona' has a lotus at the centre.


The Shatkona , a Hindu symbol, represents the union of
 the male and feminine form. It represents
Purusha (the supreme being) or Shiva,
and Prakriti (causal matter) or Shakti.

The fine intricate design on the gate of the balbek too have Hindu origins. In many places this art has been tampered with but does not have the same intricacy of design.

The entrance to the Temple of Balbek.
This entrance is remarkably close to the Hindu Temple gates

An earlier picture of the entrance to Balbek Temple

Svastika and Simha (lion) carvings at the Balbek Temple

About Baal, in an article published on the Graham Hancock website author Bibhu Dev Mishra states, "The statements of the Greek writers, as well as a large number of the symbolic correlations, indicate that Hercules was Balarama, the elder brother of Krishna. As per the ancient sources, Hercules-Balarama, on his arrival in Egypt, had stopped a flood on the Nile, deposed of a tyrant king called Busiris, and established his own son Ramesses (also known as Aegyptus) on the throne of Egypt...At a subsequent period, the Phoenicians, who had emerged as a significant maritime culture in the Mediterranean around 1500 BC, worshipped a god called Melqart who was regarded as a powerful king, as the protector of the Phoenician colonies, and as a god of harvest. Melqart was also known as Belus, Baal Melqart, and the Tyrian Heracles which indicates that all of these epithets described the same person."  Quoted from bibhudeva.blogspot.in. For more on this click here.


 Figurine of the God Baal. The right arm is risen
upwards as if brandishing a weapon which
is lost. So is the left hand.

Godfrey Higgins wrote in his book 'Anacalypsis an Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil of the Saitic Isis' (Vol. I), "When all other circumstances are considered, it will not have surprised the reader to find the Hebrew God Baal the Bullheaded, among the Hindoo Gods. He is called Bala-Rama. He is the elder brother of Cristna (Krishna)..". Higgins further adds that Max Mueller was of the view that Baal is a modification of the god Sri Rama. Max Mueller stated that Baal was the connecting link between the persona of Sri
 Rama and Krishna - in other words when the lore of Sri Rama and Krishna went westwards there was a transformation in how people perceived these gods. In Baal, was a mix of the qualities of Rama and Krishna.


Stone sculpture, Lord Bala-Rama, Odisha, India.
He holds a club in his right hand
and a plough in his left.

Another sculpture of God Balarama.
India

Suggested Reading:
1. Anacalypsis: Godfrey Higgins


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