Native American hunter-gatherers first arrived in the Appalachian region over 12,000 years ago in multiple migrations across the Bering Strait from Asia. There has always been an endeavor to track the antecedents of the Native Americans -especially to find out if they had any Asian roots. In 1789 Thomas Jefferson wrote, "I endeavor to collect all the vocabularies I can, of American Indians, as of those of Asia, persuaded, that if they ever had a common parentage, it will appear in their languages."
In their research, 'Linguistic Origins of Native Americans', Joseph H. Greenberg and Merritt Ruhlen state, "The evidence of comparative linguistics indicates that the Americas were originally settled by three major migrations from Asia ...... the recent discoveries at least in part fulfill Jefferson's hope that one day the languages of native Americans would illuminate their relations to one another and will reveal the Asian origins of the first Americans."
There is very little left of the Native American culture, yet there are traces of some commonalities with ancient cultures of the East - some words that indicate that their languages might have been once close to that of Asia - even India.
The 'Apalachee' were a tribe of present-day Florida who lived in a village by the same name near Talahassee. It is sometimes believed that the Native American word 'apache', a collective term for several Native American tribes, has its source in the Yavapai word 'epache' meaning 'people'. It is also sometimes traced to a Zuni word meaning 'enemy'.
Some hold the view that this word got its name from the Apalachee word 'abalahci' which meant 'the other side of the river'. Others say the word originated from the Muskogean 'apalwahči' which meant 'dwelling on one side.'
In some languages of India that are derived from Sanskrit 'apara' means on the other side, 'vasi' means 'dweller'. 'Paravasi' or 'aparavasi', will therefore have the meaning of the 'dwellers on the other side of the river'- same as its Native American meaning.
Gene Matlock holds the view that the Apalachee derive their name from Palaza, a name of ancient Maghada, a powerful Yadava kingdom of India in what is today’s state of Bihar who migrated extensively establishing homes in various parts of the world. He states, "When the Palazis came to America, they came with the intention of staying".
He adds, "Therefore, they became the Apalizis (ex-Palazis). Without a doubt, these 'Apalazis' were the founders of the mound-building cultures, for in other parts of the world they built the Egyptian pyramids, became the founding fathers of Greek civilization, and the like." His view is identical with that of the 17th century scholar, Edward Pococke, who wrote in his book India in Greece: “Pelasa, the ancient name for the province of Bihar….Pelaska is a derivative form of Pelasa, whence the Greek ‘Pelasgos’…"
About the Pelasgis Edward Pococke further states, “So vast were their settlements, and so firmly rooted were the very names of the kingdoms, the nomenclature of the tribes – nay, the religious systems of the oldest forms of society – that I do not scruple to assert that the successive map of Spain, Italy, Greece, Asia Minor, Persia, and India may be read like the chart of an emigrant.”
The coast of Florida has many interesting names. What has caught the attention of people who have knowledge of Sanskrit are the coastal place names in Florida that end with the suffix 'cola' or 'kUla' (कूल) - which just happens to be Sanskrit for 'coast' or 'river' or 'water-body'. Names include Apalacheecola, Pensacola, Wakulla and so on.
According to Florida Stae Department, "Apalacheecola" comes from the Apalachicola tribe and is a combination of the Hitchiti words apalahchi, meaning "on the other side", and okli, meaning "people". In original reference to the settlement and the subgroup within the Seminole tribe, it probably meant "people on the other side of the river".
About Pensacola Gene Matlock says, "Now for Pensacola. Pensacola is a great port. It has a gigantic, safe harbor. Therefore, it doesn't take much guesswork to intuit that its original name was Panisha-Cola, or the coast of the Panis or Phoenicians. Again, as I say, the name goes with the game. No guesswork required. The Apalazis were builders. They built the type of edifices that could survive in the Florida swamps. The Panis were seamen and traders. Their natural place to settle first would have been in Pensacola."
It is said that 'Wakulla' is a Timucuan (Native American) word, and it is unlikely that its meaning will ever be known. Wikipedia says, 'Wakulla' may contain the word 'kala' which signified a 'spring of water' in some Native American Indian dialects'.
Lets look at the word through the Sanskrit lens. In Sanskrit 'v' (व) means water. 'Kulya' (कूल्या) means a 'stream', a 'canal' or a 'water body'. Kulini (कूलिनी) means a 'river'. That explains Wakulla.
Though Andrés Pérez de Ribas (1576-1655), a Spanish Jesuit missionary, and historian of north-western Mexico records in his book 'My Life Among the Savage Nations of New Spain' Viriseva as a goddess and Vairubi a god, the names seem to be linked to God Shiva and Goddess Bhairavi of the Hindu tradition. He states, "The Sinaloas, from Culiacan north to the Yaqui River, have dances in honor of a certain Viriseva, the mother of the first man. This first man, who was her son, and called Vairubi, they hold in like esteem." These names seem to be derived from Virshaiva, (वीरशैव) which is a particular sect of Shiva in India, and from Bhairavi (भैरवी), which is the same as Parvati, the consort of Shiva. The meaning and the identity of these names have been lost in the Native American lore.
What lends support to a Sanskritic link is the existence of two other names in the Meso-American tradition. In his book, 'The native races of the Pacific states of North America', author Hubert Howe Bancroft states, "The Pericues, also of Lower California, call the creator Niparaja, and say that the heavens are his dwelling-place.....The nations of Los Angeles County, California, believe that their one god, Quaoar, came down from heaven; and, after reducing chaos to order, put the world on the back of seven giants. He then created the lower animals, and lastly a man and a woman. These were made separately out of earth and called, the man Tobohar, and the woman Pabavit...". (page20). Niparaja is most likely a distortion of Nataraja - yet another name of Shiva, and Pabavit is most likely the equivalent of Parvati.
Click here for an interesting observation about the Sanskrit and Vedic connection to the Seven Peaks of the Appalachian Mountains, one of which is named Maneka, and the nearby Mononghaela River .
Click here on a bit about the Sanskrit connect to the name Saratoga.
Suggested Links:
1. Sanskrit Roots of some Pre-Columbian Native American Words
2. Sanskrit found in Native American Tribal Names
3. Hindu Origins of the Amerindians by Gene Douglas
In their research, 'Linguistic Origins of Native Americans', Joseph H. Greenberg and Merritt Ruhlen state, "The evidence of comparative linguistics indicates that the Americas were originally settled by three major migrations from Asia ...... the recent discoveries at least in part fulfill Jefferson's hope that one day the languages of native Americans would illuminate their relations to one another and will reveal the Asian origins of the first Americans."
There is very little left of the Native American culture, yet there are traces of some commonalities with ancient cultures of the East - some words that indicate that their languages might have been once close to that of Asia - even India.
The 'Apalachee' were a tribe of present-day Florida who lived in a village by the same name near Talahassee. It is sometimes believed that the Native American word 'apache', a collective term for several Native American tribes, has its source in the Yavapai word 'epache' meaning 'people'. It is also sometimes traced to a Zuni word meaning 'enemy'.
Some hold the view that this word got its name from the Apalachee word 'abalahci' which meant 'the other side of the river'. Others say the word originated from the Muskogean 'apalwahči' which meant 'dwelling on one side.'
In some languages of India that are derived from Sanskrit 'apara' means on the other side, 'vasi' means 'dweller'. 'Paravasi' or 'aparavasi', will therefore have the meaning of the 'dwellers on the other side of the river'- same as its Native American meaning.
Gene Matlock holds the view that the Apalachee derive their name from Palaza, a name of ancient Maghada, a powerful Yadava kingdom of India in what is today’s state of Bihar who migrated extensively establishing homes in various parts of the world. He states, "When the Palazis came to America, they came with the intention of staying".
He adds, "Therefore, they became the Apalizis (ex-Palazis). Without a doubt, these 'Apalazis' were the founders of the mound-building cultures, for in other parts of the world they built the Egyptian pyramids, became the founding fathers of Greek civilization, and the like." His view is identical with that of the 17th century scholar, Edward Pococke, who wrote in his book India in Greece: “Pelasa, the ancient name for the province of Bihar….Pelaska is a derivative form of Pelasa, whence the Greek ‘Pelasgos’…"
About the Pelasgis Edward Pococke further states, “So vast were their settlements, and so firmly rooted were the very names of the kingdoms, the nomenclature of the tribes – nay, the religious systems of the oldest forms of society – that I do not scruple to assert that the successive map of Spain, Italy, Greece, Asia Minor, Persia, and India may be read like the chart of an emigrant.”
Native American 'apalahchicola', means 'on the other side of the river'. Same as the Sanskrit "Apara'-'kula'. |
Says Gene Matlock, "'Cola' in Sanskrit, means 'coast'. Therefore, Apalachee-Cola means the coast of the ex-Palazas. The Palazas were the builders of the ancient world. They built Egypt, the foundations of Greek culture, and every other culture on earth....In that swampy area, they built huge mounds to build their first cities. Being master builders, the Apalachee probably built the first mound cultures in Apalachee-cola, the first place they began to inhabit after their arrival from India."
About Pensacola Gene Matlock says, "Now for Pensacola. Pensacola is a great port. It has a gigantic, safe harbor. Therefore, it doesn't take much guesswork to intuit that its original name was Panisha-Cola, or the coast of the Panis or Phoenicians. Again, as I say, the name goes with the game. No guesswork required. The Apalazis were builders. They built the type of edifices that could survive in the Florida swamps. The Panis were seamen and traders. Their natural place to settle first would have been in Pensacola."
It is said that 'Wakulla' is a Timucuan (Native American) word, and it is unlikely that its meaning will ever be known. Wikipedia says, 'Wakulla' may contain the word 'kala' which signified a 'spring of water' in some Native American Indian dialects'.
Lets look at the word through the Sanskrit lens. In Sanskrit 'v' (व) means water. 'Kulya' (कूल्या) means a 'stream', a 'canal' or a 'water body'. Kulini (कूलिनी) means a 'river'. That explains Wakulla.
Talllahassee has a similar meaning. In Sanskrit, 'tala' (तल) again means a water body or pond and 'talak' means 'spring'. 'Ulhas' (उल्लस्) means joyful, cause movement, jump, shine forth or come forth. Tallahassee therefore mean a place the 'Water Springs Emerge'. Wakulla Springs in Tallahassee are said to be the largest freshwater springs anywhere in the world.
A bit more about the Vedic-Indic connect to Native Anerican myths and beliefs:
In the Native American scripts, myths and mythologies, survive names of their deities, gods and goddesses that stand out in their likeness to Indic-Sanskritic names. Included in these names are Viriseva and Vairubi.
Though Andrés Pérez de Ribas (1576-1655), a Spanish Jesuit missionary, and historian of north-western Mexico records in his book 'My Life Among the Savage Nations of New Spain' Viriseva as a goddess and Vairubi a god, the names seem to be linked to God Shiva and Goddess Bhairavi of the Hindu tradition. He states, "The Sinaloas, from Culiacan north to the Yaqui River, have dances in honor of a certain Viriseva, the mother of the first man. This first man, who was her son, and called Vairubi, they hold in like esteem." These names seem to be derived from Virshaiva, (वीरशैव) which is a particular sect of Shiva in India, and from Bhairavi (भैरवी), which is the same as Parvati, the consort of Shiva. The meaning and the identity of these names have been lost in the Native American lore.
What lends support to a Sanskritic link is the existence of two other names in the Meso-American tradition. In his book, 'The native races of the Pacific states of North America', author Hubert Howe Bancroft states, "The Pericues, also of Lower California, call the creator Niparaja, and say that the heavens are his dwelling-place.....The nations of Los Angeles County, California, believe that their one god, Quaoar, came down from heaven; and, after reducing chaos to order, put the world on the back of seven giants. He then created the lower animals, and lastly a man and a woman. These were made separately out of earth and called, the man Tobohar, and the woman Pabavit...". (page20). Niparaja is most likely a distortion of Nataraja - yet another name of Shiva, and Pabavit is most likely the equivalent of Parvati.
In his book, 'The native races of the Pacific States of North America', Hubert Howe Bancroft et al state that the eminent Alexander Von Humboldt (1769-1859), German Naturalist and Explorer, was of the view that the Native American myth of the snake cut into pieces was a reflection of the famous serpent Kaliya or Kalinaga conquered by Vishnu when he took the form of Krishna. The Mexican Tonatiuh, the Meso-American sun-deity of the daytime sky, according to Humboldt was the reflection of "the Hindu Krishna, sung of in the Bhagvat-Purana". (page 40-41).
Bancroft then quotes Count Stolberg who belonged to the House of Stolberg which was a large German dynasty of the former Roman Empire's higher aristocracy of the time. He states, "The two great religious sects of India, the worshippers of Vishnu and those of Shiva, have spread over America, and that the Peruvian cult is that of Vishnu when he appears in the form of Krishna, or the sun, while the sanguinary religion of the Mexican is analogous to that of Siva, in the character of the Stygian Jupiter. The wife of Siva, the black Goddess Kali or Bhavani, symbol of death and destruction, wears, according to Hindu statues and pictures, a necklace of human skulls. The Vedas ordain human sacrifices in her honour. The ancient cult of Kali, presents, without doubt, a marked resemblance to that of Mictlancihuatl, the Mexican goddess of hell..".
Bancroft then quotes Count Stolberg who belonged to the House of Stolberg which was a large German dynasty of the former Roman Empire's higher aristocracy of the time. He states, "The two great religious sects of India, the worshippers of Vishnu and those of Shiva, have spread over America, and that the Peruvian cult is that of Vishnu when he appears in the form of Krishna, or the sun, while the sanguinary religion of the Mexican is analogous to that of Siva, in the character of the Stygian Jupiter. The wife of Siva, the black Goddess Kali or Bhavani, symbol of death and destruction, wears, according to Hindu statues and pictures, a necklace of human skulls. The Vedas ordain human sacrifices in her honour. The ancient cult of Kali, presents, without doubt, a marked resemblance to that of Mictlancihuatl, the Mexican goddess of hell..".
Click here for an interesting observation about the Sanskrit and Vedic connection to the Seven Peaks of the Appalachian Mountains, one of which is named Maneka, and the nearby Mononghaela River .
Click here on a bit about the Sanskrit connect to the name Saratoga.
Suggested Links:
1. Sanskrit Roots of some Pre-Columbian Native American Words
2. Sanskrit found in Native American Tribal Names
3. Hindu Origins of the Amerindians by Gene Douglas