Friday 23 June 2017

PENSACOLA, APALACHICOLA AND WAKULLA- SANSKRIT NAMES OF FLORIDA TOWNS

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".

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' () 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..". 


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

Wednesday 21 June 2017

THE UNEXPLAINED MYSTERY OF THE OREGON SRI YANTRA CROP CIRCLE

On August 10, 1990, Bill Miller, a pilot in the Idaho Air National Guard, noticed a huge etching on a dried-up lake-bed while flying over it, in Oregon in the United States. The massive formation was a quarter of a mile in width and was etched 3 inches deep into the surface.

In his earlier round, about 30 minutes before Bill Miller first noticed the glyph, there had been no trace of this formation. Neither had any of the other pilots of the Idaho National Guard who regularly train over this corridor, observed any unusual activity. The etching simply appeared one morning.




This etching appeared on a dry
lake bed in Oregon in 1990
Photo Courtesy: ICCRA

Miller immediately reported the details to the authorities at the National Guard. It was a 13.3 mile glyph of lines, about a quarter of a mile in width and length, on the hard, sun-baked dry bed of a lake in Mickey Basin located southeast of Steens Mountains in the Alvord Desert in Oregon.

The formation detected on the morning of August 10, 1990 was oriented precisely in the North-South direction. The glyph had a machine like precision in its shape and clarity of lines. After Bill Miller reported the observation, the news was concealed from the public by the authorities for thirty days.


Photo Courtesy: ICCRA

The news hit the media in the United States on 12th September, 1990 when Boise TV station first aired the story. As soon as the story was aired, the glyph was quickly identified as the ancient Hindu meditation device- the Sri Yantra - identical in shape and proportion, and in its geometrical properties. No one had a theory why a pictograph of a complex Hindu meditation yantra should appear in the wilderness of Oregon.

The etching of the Sri Yantra that appeared
on a river bed in Oregon in August, 1990.

Photo: Bill Witherspoon

By September 14th, the story was picked up by the Associated Press, Bend Bulletin and the Oregonian. The Oregonian reported that some architects that had been contacted by the newspaper, had said that the cost of conducting a land survey alone, before such a project could be initiated, would range from $75,000 to $100,000. 


The Sri Yantra design has a degree of complexity and a level of symmetry that makes it difficult to recreate its design even on paper. Furrowing an enormous replication of it on a dry lake-bed is next to impossible. There was therefore a good deal of speculation that the glyph was not man-made. 

For one, the shape produced by the lines in this massive Sri Yantra could not be deciphered while standing on the ground. The shape only made sense when viewed from a height of a few thousand feet above.

In Vedic texts, the Sri Yantra is defined as a device formed by nine interlocking triangles. Four triangles point upward (representing Shiva) overlapping with five downward-pointing triangles (representing Shakti). The triangles are placed in a circle surrounded by the two levels of lotus-petals, which in turn are surrounded by an outer circle and enclosed in a tantra design, serving as a protective cover. As the devotee enters into the Mandala, represented by the Sri Yantra, he leaves behind the worldly distractions and conflicts; and is transported into a world of symbols and visualizations.

The triangles surround and radiate out from a bindu point. The bindu represents the junction point between the physical universe and its un-manifest source. The nine triangles are interlaced in such a way so as to create forty three smaller triangles symbolic of the entire cosmos.

The Sri Yantra is variedly described as a visual representation of the sound ‘Om’ and an expression of the philosophy of ‘Advaita (one-ness or non-duality). The Sri Yantra is popularly used today in India as a meditation device.

Two UFO Researchers, Don Newman and Alan Decker, visited the site on 15th September and reported that no trace of tire track markings or foot prints were visible anywhere close to the site even though their own station wagon had now left quarter inch deep marks into the hard crust of the surface. 


UFO researcher Don Newman with his
wife. 
Newman was a B-17 pilot
and instructor in the U.S. Army Air Corps 

Dr. James Deardorff, a Research Professor Emeritus at the Atmospheric Science Department of Oregon State University and a colleague of Don Newman and Alan Decker, compiled the details of their investigations and forwarded the story to UFO magazine, a British magazine devoted to the subject of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and extraterrestrial life. The magazine agreed to publish the story which appeared in Volume 6, # 3 in 1991 under the heading, ‘A Symbol on the Oregon Desert’.

Dr. James Deardorff, a Research Professor Emeritus
at the Atmospheric Science Department
of Oregon State University.

Dr. Deardorff wrote in his investigative story that the government had not been able to give a reasonable explanation to the undetected appearance of  a massive glyph at a site which was constantly patrolled by the National Air Guard. 

Not surprisingly, about 40 days later a group of four people, headed by a Bill Witherspoon, claimed that they had etched out the pictograph, over a period of 10 days, by pulling a garden cultivator like a plow over the lake-bed. They said they had used ropes to ensure the lines were straight and the angles perfect. 

Dr. Deardorff countered by saying that the story was concocted, and that it was sponsored by the government which not want to fuel the belief that the glyph had an unexplained origin.

Bill Witherspoon was interviewed by newspapers to judge the authenticity of his story. Very quickly it became evident that his explanations lacked credibility. The most unconvincing part of his story was his claim that a garden plow, a rope and a blueprint of the formation were enough equipment to furrow out the glyph. His interview revealed other incongruities. For one, he had stated in the newspapers that he and his team had carried their tools for three quarters of a mile to the formation site everyday for 10 days, however in his video interview he said that he and his team had camped out two miles away from the site.

Bill Witherspoon’s team only managed to gouge out an untidy half-inch deep line with great exertion when they were asked to demonstrate how they had gouged out 13.3 miles of lines, 3 inches deep and 10 inches wide. No one believed anymore that the original glyph could have been created by using crude tools. 

Coutesy:: ICCRA
Dr. Deardorff also questioned how the National Air Guard could have missed detecting the glyph in the 10 days that Witherspoon claimed they had worked upon the etching. 

No answers could ever be arrived at, either by the government or by scientists. Only the UFO Researchers have since then ventured to explain the mystery!


Update: In September 2016 another Vedic symbol, the svastika. appeared in a crop field in Wiltshire, England.



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