Tuesday 20 December 2016

VANARA IN THE RAMYANA, AND AT THE DENDERA TEMPLE IN EGYPT !

Vanara (वानर) refers to a group of people living in forests in the Hindu epic the Ramayana.The Ramayan says that the 'monkey-like' Vanara race was procreated by numerous gods or celestials who endowed them with a mighty physique and super-human power so that they could come to the help of Sri Rama in the inevitable war with Ravana which was to occur in the future.

The vanaras were produced from the genetic material taken from many 'celestial species' as well as animals such as the 'bear' and 'monkeys'. Today the word 'vanara' is translated as 'monkey' but nowhere does the Ramayana say that the 'vanaras' were 'monkeys' . Infact no genetic material was taken from the 'human' species for the creation of the 'vanaras'.

In the Bala- Kanda, Section 17, Verses 3-6, it is stated that Bramha himself addressed the 'celestials' and said that monkey-shaped progeny equaling Vishnu's valour be procreated from the bodies of prominent apsaras and gandharvas, from the girls of yakshas and pannagas, and also from the bodies of kinnaraas, (celestial musicians), 'she-vidyaadharaas' (विद्याधर) meaning 'fairy', and from 'she-rikshas' (ऋक्ष) meaning 'bear' and 'she-monkeys'.

The Ramayana says that the ensuing species would be the wizards of miracles: "In travel they shall have the speed of air, bestowed with intellect they shall be the knowers of all 'ideas', and with their divine physique they shall be in-eliminable, they shall be endowed with all the assault- power of missiles, and they shall be as untiring in their efforts as the celestials who lived on 'amrita', and 'ambrosia'."

This pedigree that was being genetically engineered in Bala-kanda was not given the label of monkeys! They were look-alike of monkeys but not monkeys. They were vaana ruupiNam or 'resembling monkeys'. The Ramayana says about vanaras - 'vane charati iti vanara' i.e, because they range far and wide over forests hence they are called vanaras'', 'vana' (वन) = 'forest', 'chara' = 'roam'. (Inputs from 'www.valmikiramayan.net).

G. Ramdas, in his book “Aboriginal Names in the Ramayana, published in 1925 states that the tail of the vanaras was actually an appendage in the dress worn by them just as is common, for example, in the dhoti that the men of Savara or Soura tribe wear. The Soura Tribe is also known as Lanjia Souras due to their dress pattern of wearing a loin cloth hanging from behind and which could be mistakenly identified as a tail by a stranger, 'lanj' (लञ्ज) is Sanskrit for 'tail'.

The last verse of Section 17 of Bala -Kanda of Ramayana says that the 'gods' procreate many thousands of such valorous and guise changing entities who with their immeasurable strength and bravery are manifest for the elimination of the demon Ravana. It is obvious that the vanara-commandos are genetically engineered, strong enough for the task of assisting in the war against Ravana. Click here for a bit more. In fact before the war, the vanaras are recruited by Sri Rama and the vanara-chief Sugreeva from all around the world.

So are there any traces of the vanaras anywhere in the artifacts found from around the world? The inscriptions on the ancient Dendera Temple in Egypt seems to indicate to the existence of a 'vanara'-like tribe or race.

Vanara-like people hewn on the
walls of the ancient Hathor-Dendera Temple Complex in Egypt.
Temples have been built on this site since 2250 BC.


A vanara-like person in attendance.
An inscription on the Dendera-Hathor Temple in Egypt.
This is a depiction of the rising of the kundalini 
and the seven chakras

.
A person in a Halasana Yogic Posture
Dendera-Hathor temple, Egypt.
This Dendera relief was included in the Smithsonian exhibit "Yoga: The Art of Transformation" that borrowed from 25 museums.


The Lanijia-Soura tribesmen of India
sport a dhoti with a tail like extension.


Sunday 4 December 2016

A BIT ABOUT THE PRE-GREEK CIVILIZATION OF THE PELASGIS WHO ORIGINATED FROM INDIA

Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren (1760- 1842) was a German historian. Heeren's primary talent lay in historical research. His books Politics, Trade, and Commerce in the Ancient World (1796); History of Ancient Civilizations (1799) and History of European States and their Colonies (1809) all met with overwhelming reception when they were first published.

In his researches on the pre-Greek civilization of Greece which was then inhabited by a race called the Pelasgi, Heeran states, "We can distinctly trace an overland communication between India & Greece, at an age long before the historic period." Heeran quotes Baron Cuvier here, "The Pelasgi were originally from India, of which the Sanskrit roots that occur abundantly in their language do not permit us to doubt." Baron Cuvier traces the route that the early Indians might have taken to Greece. He was of the opinion that, ".. they by crossing the mountains of Persia penetrated as far back as the Caucasus and then from there instead of continuing by land, they embarked on the Euxine Sea and made a descent upon the coast of Greece." *

In 'A Classical Dictionary: Containing a Copious Account of All the Proper Names', author John Lemprière states, "...the name Pelasgi was never assumed by them, but was given to them by the Greeks. They called themselves Raseni, or rather Tyrseni. The name Palesgi was applied to them in familiar language by the Greeks.... Before they fixed themselves permanently in Greece they would appear and disappear from the land at stated and regular intervals...".

All the Pelasgic colonies which established themselves among the early Greeks, brought with them the elements of civilization and the arts and also the use of letters. The Pelasgi are acknowledged , moreover to have been the founders of theology of the Greeks. "They established an oracle at Dedona, they instituted the mysteries of the Cabiri...in a word, everything connected with them tends strongly to confirm the belief that they were a sacerdotal race, a caste of priests." [For more about the India connect to the Oracle of Dodona click here.

Says Lampriere, "It has (been) established, from an examination of the scattered fragments of early history , the intimate connection which once subsisted between the east and the west. The earliest monuments which the geography, the antiquities, the mythology, the architecture, and the religious systems of the most remote times afford, clearly indicate that in a very remote period colonies of priests from northern India, with the worship of Buddha, spread themselves over the countries along the Phasis, on the Euxine, in Thrace, along the Danube, over many parts of western Europe, and even through the whole of Greece. The Pelasgi evidently were a colony or race of this kind." *

Lampriere was spot on with his analysis. Raseni is the same as Tyrseni with the first syllable dropped. The prefix Tyr in the name Tyrseni derives from the Buddhist 'Thervada', one of the two major sects of Buddhism. In antiquity, and during the times of Ashoka the Great, the Thervada Buddhist monks travelled from India in all directions, taking with them and spreading not only the elements of the Sanskrit language, but also the arts, architecture, medicines and the culture of India.

According to Edicts of Ashoka (304-272 BC), Greek populations, generally described in ancient times throughout the Classical world as Yona, Yojanas, Yavanas, or 'Ionians' were under his rule in northwestern India:

Here in the king's domain among the Greeks, the Kambojas, the Nabhakas, the Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the Andhras and the Palidas, everywhere people are following Beloved-of-the-Gods' instructions in Dhamma.
                                   — S. Dhammika, Edicts of Ashoka, Rock Edict No. 13


Far from just being on the receiving end of conversion to Buddhism, the treatise Mahavamsa indicates that Greeks took an active role in spreading the Buddhist faith as emissaries of Ashoka. These Greek missionaries appear in the list of the 'elders', or Sanskrit 'sthavira', distorted in Pali to 'thera', sent far and wide by Emperor Ashoka.

John Lemprière does find reason enough to believe that the prefix Tyr in Tyrseni is somehow connected to sacred priests and to Buddhism, but he was unable to zero-in on the Thervada Buddhist monks. He quotes the works of Ritter and makes this observation: "As regards the first part of the name Tyrseni, namely the syllable Tyr, it is curious to compare with it the remark of Ritter, who after a long examination of the subject arrives at the conclusion...that the syllable Thyr ...was a religious appellative. Such for example are the names of the Idanthrsi, Thyrsagetos, Thyssagetae, Thyrsi etc." All the above names contain the syllable 'Thyr', either as a suffix or prefix, and are all the names of ancient tribes that dwelt in Greece.

Lemprierie quotes the authors of the Etymology Magazine and says that those authors clearly state that when the Greeks referred to the Tyrseni people as Pelasgi they were referring to the 'fine linen robes' that the Tyrsent wore. The Greeks were referring to the robes that the Pelasgi wore, who in reality were none other than the Buddhist Thervada monks. With time they came to be known as the Idanthrisi, Thyrsagetos, Thyssagetae, Thyrsi etc. As mentioned above, in the times of Ashoka Thervada monks travelled in all directions spreading the word of the Buddha. There also was an exodus of Buddhist monks from India in later times when Buddhism declined in India.

In fact Zacharias P. Thundy, Professor Emiretus of the Northern Michigan University made the observation that the word 'Therapeutae' itself arises from the Sanskrit/Pali word 'Thervada' which means 'Elder'. He says, "Therapeuta is the Hellenization of the Sanskrit/Pali word 'Thervada'; they were probably the successors of the missionaries whom Emperor Ashoka sent to Egypt, to the kingdom of Ptolemy in the 3rd century as Thervada medical missionaries. Greek, which does not have have corresponding sounds for the labio-dental 'v' and the apico-dental 'd', changed the Indian v & d to p & t ....." Hence, 'thervada' changed to 'therapeuta'.

Heeran had made the observation that the Indo-European languages extended from India to Europe and was spoken in countries lying between the Paroparmisan chain and the Euphrates river that is Ariana, Persia, Media, Armenia and Asia Minor. It is more than likely that the root words of Sanskrit that appear in some form or the other in all these languages do so for a reason and the artificial Proto-Indo-European is just the reverse engineering of Sanskrit.

Herodotus had clearly stated all intermediate languages spoken in this region including the Zend and Persian, Armenian and Ossete, all have the same structure and etymology. He also observed that when the Medes ruled Asia Minor, they were referred to as Arii, which was a distorted for of the Sanskrit 'arya' which translates as 'noble' and was a title of honour.

* - [As quoted in 'The Athenaeum, Issues 271-322'edited by James Silk Buckingham, John Sterling, Frederick Denison Maurice, Henry Stebbing, Charles Wentworth Dilke, Thomas Kibble Hervey, William Hepworth Dixon, Norman Maccoll, Vernon Horace Rendall, John Middleton Murry].



Suggested Readings:

1. The Athenaeum- Journal of Literature, Science and Fine Arts, Issues 271-322, (1833) edited by James Silk Buckingham, John Sterling, Frederick Denison Maurice, Henry Stebbing, Charles Wentworth Dilke, Thomas Kibble Hervey, William Hepworth Dixon, Norman Maccoll, Vernon Horace Rendall, John Middleton Murry

2. A Classical Dictionary: Containing a Co[pious Amount of all the Proper Names mentioned in ancient authors" by J. Lampriere

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