Wednesday 16 September 2015

THE DEVETASHKA CAVE OF BULGARIA- THE SANSKRIT CONNECT TO ITS NAME

Krushuna is a quiet, unspoiled village about 35 km from the town of Lovetch in Bulgaria. On the south end of Krushuna, on the way to Devataki village, is located a magnificent cave by the name Devetashka. It is believed to have been a dwelling place for humans since the late Paleolithic era, and continuously for tens of thousands of years since then. The Devetashka Cave is also the location of svastikas found on ceramic pottery artifact dated to 6,000 B.C.


Devetaksha Cave, Bulgaria

The main entrance to the Devetaksha Cave, Bulgaria


The names Krushuna, Devataki and Devetashka are interesting - they appear remarkably close to the Sanskrit 'Krishna' and 'Deveta'. Though it is believed that the Devetashka caves were a dwelling place for people in antiquity, the names indicate that the caves were probably a centre for religious austerity, perhaps inhabited by seers and monks - just as the caves in India were dwelling places for monks, sages and seers.

Georgi Stoikov Rakovski (1821 – 1867), known also as Georgi Sava Rakovski was a 19th cenntury Bulgarian revolutionary and writer and an important figure of the Bulgarian National Revival and resistance against Ottoman rule. He firmly believed that the source of all the civilizations of the world is India.

Rakovski researched the original home of Bulgarians and the roots of Bulgarian culture and language. He found that both in respect of syntax and vocabulary the Bulgarian language was close to Sanskrit. For example, he pointed out that in Bulgarian (Slovenian) language there exists the root word 'veda' which means 'know' and 'vedar' which means 'to have knowledge or news' - which is the same as the Sanskrit root word 'vid' (विद् ) which means 'knowledge'.

Rakovski pointed out chants in the Bulgarian-Slovenian language which are close to Sanskrit. For example, the chant 'da ti podari bog oum' is translated as 'May God bestow oum on you'. The words translate from Slovenian 
as follows:

da = to
ti = you

podari =donate or bestow
bog = god
oum = oum

There is no translation of the word 'oum' in Bulgarian or Slovenian. Rakovski analyzed the terms 'oum' and another term 'razoum oumenie' that appear in Bulgarian ancient chants. He found that their meaning was the equivalent of the Vedic Sanskrit 'aum'.

In his research work Rakovski pointed out two Bulgarian-Slovenian folk songs of which the meanings are only partially known. The two songs are 'Sourva, sourva godina' (translated as 'Sourva, Sourva, Happy New Year) and 'Siva, Siva Visilitza' (translated as 'Siva, Siva, bliss). There is no known translation for 'Sourva' and 'Siva'. Rakovski has put forth the view that the words exists from an ancient forgotten past. His opinion was that the Bulgarians and Slovenians had come to their present hearth from the region of the Himalayas. --

       (Quoted from the book 'Georgi Stoikov Rakovski, a Great Son of Bulgaria and a Great Friend of India' by G. Mukherjee').


He believed that Sourva ans Siva are distortions of the name 'Shiva'.

Tuesday 1 September 2015

OF POLISH GODS AND GODDESSES AND A BIT ABOUT BALKAN RIVERS - THE SANSKRIT-VEDIC CONNECT

Popular information about the Black Madonna of Czestochowa housed at the Jasna Gora Monastery in Czestochowa in Poland says that the image is an icon of the Virgin Mary. The fact though is that the Roman Catholic Church in general has not warmly embraced such depictions of the Holy Mother or Virgin Mary because they fear that such representations are actually paying tribute to ancient Pagan goddesses. It is accepted that the Church at Jasna Gora is built on the site of a Pagan Temple.

In his book 'The Vedic Core of Human History: And Truth', author M. K. Agarwal says that the Jasna Gora or Asna Gora monastery stands  on the site of an ancient Vedic temple dedicated to the Black Virgin or Kali. So, is there any evidence to support his claim?

The origins of the icon (a four-feet painting of Mother Mary) and the date of its composition are still hotly contested among scholars. The difficulty in dating the icon stems from the fact that the original image was painted over, after being badly damaged. Medieval restorers were unfamiliar of restoration methods and their solution was to erase the original image and to repaint it. There is so much mystery to the origins of this painting, and has so many legends attached to it that it is difficult to derive the truth from them.


But the name 'Jasna Gora' sheds some light. It translates from Polish as 'Bright Mount'. The Polish word 'Jasna' meaning 'bright' probably stems from the Sanskrit 'Jyotsana' (ज्योत्सना) also meaning 'bright'. At least, the two words seem to have the same source. 'Gaura' is Polish for 'mountain' but in Sanskrit like 'jyotsna' , 'gaura' too means 'bright' or 'fair' . However, M.K. Agarwal is of the view that Asna Goura is a distortion of Isan Gouri, another name for Goddess Gauri, an avatar of the young unmarried 'Parvati'. He also states that three other Pagan gods revered in this part of the world, Bhag, Ogon and Parun are none other than the Vedic 'Bhagwan', 'Agni' and 'Varun'. 





M.K. Aggarwal sites other interesting points to support his view that Vedic Gods and Goddesses were not unknown in this part of Europe. He quotes Prof P.N.Oak who links the names Czech, Czechsloivakia and Czestochowa to the word to the Shaka clan of India, who he says were the forefathers of the Saxons of Europe and the Anglo-Saxons of England. Also, he says, that in the town of Scope in former Yugoslavia (Bosnia-Herzegovina)  there are 50,000 families that carry the name Ramas - derived from Sri Ram. Indeed, there is also a river by the name Rama in present day Bosnia and Herzegovina. 


Lake Rama on the River Rama
in Boznia and Herzegovina.

The lake is surrounded by the 
Krusnica and Radusa Mountains

At the confluence of River Rama and another river by the name Neretva lies the municipality of Prozar-Rama. An artificial lake and a dam are also named after the Rama river. The name 'Neretva' may itself be derived from the Sanskrit 'neer' (नीर) meaning 'water' though it is said that the name has an Illyrian (Balkan Peninsula) origin, from Indo-European base *ner-, *nor- to dive, dip, immerse. But Indo-European is just another way of citing Sanskrit. It is after all the oldest of the Indo-European group of languages.

A tributary of the 'Neretva' is the 'Krupa' (कृपा), Sanskrit for 'grace' or 'favour'. It is hard to believe that these name are mere coincidences especially because the list is endless.


The Neretva River- the largest river in Bosnia and Harzegovina.
'Neer' is Sanskrit for 'water',

The Una River is a small tributary of the Neretva.
Una (ऊन)  or
 'small'  in Sanskrit.
There is the Krika river, Krika (कृक) is 'navel'; there is the Sava, 'sava' (सव) is 'that which pours out'. Sava may also be a distortion of the name 'Shiva'. Then there is the 'Krusnica' river and a mountain by the name 'Krusnica'. There is even a 'Radusa' mountain.

Suggested readings:
The Vedic Core of Human History by M.K.Aggarwal

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