Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Why ban Gita when Russia has a Vedic past?



Have ever the Russians searched for their roots? This question came into my mind when I read the reports of the case in a Siberian court seeking a ban on Bhagawad Gita on the grounds that it is an extremist- literature. It is ironical that a country which has had a very long past in Vedic living until the 8th century AD should have completely forgotten its past and its roots and given room for controversies such as the one that is seen now. Compared to them we in India seem to fare better in retaining the memory of our past and retrieving whatever is possible.


I wish the day comes soon when Russians start digging their vast stretches in Siberia and find out that their past goes upto 40,000 years backwards and they were more Vedik  than anyone at that time! I may sound absurd, but that is the inference from numerous narrations in Hindu scriptures – now supported by genetic studies. 


Starting from the distant past, the entire Eurasian continent was divided into 3 regions according to Mahabharatha. 



The huge circle in the above diagram shows the extent of “Sudharshana Dweepa” where the rule of Sanatan Dharma was in place.
It had Bharath in the South (rectangle area in the bottom of this picture) with
Hemakuta or Himalayas in its northern limits,
an intermediary Ilavarsha to the north of Himalayas (noted in dark red square in the middle) and
a vast Airavatha varsha in extreme north of the Sudharshana dweepa.

Most of Russia is covered by Airavatha varsha.
Airavatha is the name of the elephant of Indra, the titular king of the Devas.
The Deva territory is close to the North pole where there was sunlight continuously for 6 months and darkness continuously for 6 months.  The elephant, Airavatha  in all probability was the Woolly mammoth which became extinct about 10,000 years ago. 



 Before the last glaciation, the territory near north pole was very much habitable. The location called  Uttar Kuru existed in Siberia. Uttar kuru means the land of Kuru (a clan) settled in the North. They were the early settlers much before Mahabharata times (which was about 5000 years ago.) The men and women of that territory were said to have led a free life and mingled with each other as they wished. The probable reason could have been procreation which was minimal owing to climatic conditions that existed there. 

The route to Uttarkuru and Deva territories is explained in Valmiki Ramayana through the narration of Sugreeva who detailed the places to be seen and searched to find out Seetha  in the north of Bharath. (Valmiki Ramayana -4-43) Once having crossed the vast Himalayas, he describes a pure-water  lake called Vaikhanas where sages used to do penance. This coincides with Lake Baikal.




He also describes the presence of a river in the north of this lake called Shailodha which had very cold waters. The sages used to cross this river at a place using the woods of a tree called Keechaka which makes sound like bamboo when wind blows. This coincides with river Angara. 

                              River Angara.

Today there is a place called Kichera in Baikal – resembling Keechaka -  which is crossed using the woods of a tree. 

According to Ramayana description, Uttar Kuru was in the North of Vaikhanas (Lake Baikal). Sages like Yajnavalkya spent their vanaprastha days near Vaikhanas.  This area was habitable before the last glaciation.

Not only Vaikhanas (Baikal) the entire region of Russia had the presence e of Rishis (sages). There is an opinion that the name Russia was derived from Rishi varsha.  There is a mention of Rishi varsha in scriptures which goes well with this region. The presence of Devas  in this part of the globe in a distant past had attracted  sages to this place. We have a number of references in Puranas of sages going to the Deva territory. Perhaps their overwhelming presence gave the name Rishi varsha which later became Russia.

There is yet another root to the name Russia as being derived from the olden name of Volga river. Volga was called as  rasa’ or ‘rosa’. People think that it is derived from the Persian word ‘rana’ or ‘ra’. But this word ‘rasa’ is a straight Sanskrit word meaning essence, juice, nectar, elixir, soup, love, the finest part of anything and so on. This name perfectly fits with the river of fine water quality From the river’s name Rasa, the name Russia was derived.  


Volga’s tributary is called  as ‘Oka’. People connect it with the Latin Aqua which means water, whereas the root word Apa ins again a straight Sanskrit word meaning the same. From Apa comes ‘aapa-saras’ the  waterway and from that ‘apsaras’ the beautiful girls who enjoy playing in the aapa-saras. This region of Russia was identified with Apsaras women. Menaka, Urvasi, Thiloththama etc were all apsara women who were known to have seduced men. 

Another tributary of Volga is known by a name which is very familiar to any Hindu. It is river ‘Moksha’ which means salvation in Sanskrit.  There is another tributary nearer to this Moksha called as “Mokswa”. Moscow got its name from Mokswa because of its location on the banks of this river!


Moksha is also the name of an old language spoken in this area. Today not many speak this language. But the customs of the people who spoke Moksha language are Vedic – in that they had worshiped Indra  and Vayu!! 

A strong connection to Vedism was recently unearthed in Siberia near Kazaksthan.  Nearly  20 sites have been found out to have housed circular habitations resembling Vedic life. 

An important site is the one in Arkaim which is located in the confluence of two rivers called Karakanga and Utya-kanga. These names sound like Ganga!

It was a practice in ancient times to name the major river of a region as Ganga and the major mountain peak as Meru. We find Meru and Ganga in many land forms (varshas) in the narration of Sanjaya in Bheeshma parva. The interesting g information is that the local people think these rivers are sacred and have healing properties. This perhaps led to the naming of these rivers as Ganga.  One must know that people of Bharath and the sages were globetrotting from times immemorial. The location of Uttar kuru as well as the location of important cities in the four directions of earth were mentioned in Surya Siddhantha and later repeated by Bhaskaracharya in Siddhantha Shiromani. 

Arkaim has all the trappings of a Vedic system. The name itself sounds like Arka, the name of the Sun. Arka, the sun has healing properties. There is a tree called Arka which is used in Ayurvedic medicine .
The Arkaim site contains swastika signs and other symbols of Vedic rites. Swastika is derived from the word swasth which means getting healed. This site is dated at 4500 BP


Details of this site can be read here.

This site falls in the route described in Mahabharata. 

In the following picture, Lahore was the kingdom of Lava, son of Rama.
Peshawar was the kingdom of Pushkalavathy ruled by Pushkala, son of Bharatha.
These two cities were established during the reign of Rama, the son of Dasaratha. These cities are in the route to Kekaya, today’s Kazaksthan which was the maternal land of Kaikeyi, mother of Bhratha. One has to cross river Chakshus to reach Kekaya.  This river is now known as Oxus . It is shown in blue colour in this picture. 



After crossing Oxus, there are 2 routes. The right side route takes to Arkaim (Chelyabinsk Oblast).
Further east from Arkaim takes one to Uttar Kuru.

Arjuna took the route to Uttar Kuru from Samara in this picture. 

The left side route after crossing Oxus takes one to Samara which was known as Sthree Rajya in Hindu texts and as Straya Maina today!

From Sthree Rajya (samara) Moscow can be reached.

Sthree Rajya is a frequent name seen in our scriptures.
It was dominated by women – due to which it got the name Sthree Rajya – the land of women or dominated by women.  They were supposed to seduce men and lead a free life. 

Varaha mihira has mentioned this place as one of the countries surrounding Bharatha varsha. 

Vatsyanana also has mentioned about Sthree Rajya in the context of “Grama naari vishayam” where he has said that the women of Sthree Rajya  were free to have sex with a any man they liked. 

Bhattasmin , the commentator for Artha sastra also has talked about SthreRajya as a country abounding in luxurious artilces and happiness.  

In Mahabharatha also, the name of this place is mentioned. The king of this country called ‘Srungi’ attended a Swayamvar (self choice of groom) in Kalinga.  


Much later in history, the Kashmiri king, Lalithaadhitya Mukthapeeda of Karkoda lineage  (AD 724 to AD 760) conquered Sthree Rajya and established there a temple for Narahari (Vishnu). This information can be found in Raja Tarangini of Kalhana.  After winning Sthree Rajya he went to Uttar Kuru. This king did not yield to the  lure of the beauty of the women of SthreeRajya and hence earned a name “Indriyakraaman”. 

His grand son, Jayapeeda also had gone to Sthree Rajya and established his rule.

What is of interest to us is the discovery of a statue of Vishnu in Staraya Maina (in Samara)



Pic courtesy from the following link uploaded by a Russian woman.

This statue was dated at 8th century AD, the same period when Lalithadhitya Mukthapeeda established a Vishnu temple in Sthree Rajya.  From this it can be known that today’s Straya Maina was the Sthree Rajya of olden days.

The following picture shows the different places through which the  people of ancient Bharat traveled to Russia and Uttar Kuru.


With all these Vedic connections, it is sad to note that Russians have not yet woken up to their past.
The names of Russians also  bear resemblance to Vedik names mentioned so far.
 Kurushev is a common name in that country, reminding Uttra Kuru connection. 

The name of the Russian  President Medvedev has two names resembling Vedic connection Dev and Ved!
 
Paramacharya of Kanchi brought to our notice that Russians indeed followed Vedic ways. In Vedic way of expressing one’s place, the method is to express the biggest unit and the go in steps to the smaller units. That is, if one were to express one’s location, one has to mention the country, then state, then the city and so on. This method is still followed in Russia. This is the method followed in Sankalpa mantras in all Vedik rituals – but forgotten in material life by us.

Before ending this post let me tell about Lopamudra, the wife of sage Agasthya was said to have belonged to Uttar Kuru. She had penned a few verses in Rig Veda which are of the nature of pangs of separation of a love-struck lady. The name Lopamudra sounds like a familiar name of Russia of today – Ludmila which means ‘lover of people’. It is no wonder that Agasthya was suspicious of Lopamudra’s fidelity which is narrated in the commentary to Tholkappiyam in Tamil by Nacchinaarkiniyar. 

With so much of Vedik connection to Russia, it is laughable that they are scared of Bhagawad Gita!




25 comments:

Murali - Chennai said...

Madam, the article is very informative and amazing. If Amaravathi was in Siberia, does that mean devas are a type of humans who lived on earth? If so, what happened to them? are the Russians descendants of devas?

pl clarify

Jayasree Saranathan said...

Dear Mr Murali,

Hindu scriptures speak of Devas in 3 levels, - as divinities, as cosmological / geological symbolisms and as physically manifest beings who occupied the regions near North Pole when conditions were conducive for living. If you can read Tamil, go to this link (my Tamil Blog) and read articles numbered 19,20 and 21 where I have described these 3 manifestations of Indra.

http://thamizhan-thiravidana.blogspot.com


Until the onset of Ice Age in the North that peaked around 17,000 years BP, Devas had reigned supreme. By 10,000 years BP, they almost vanished. Perhaps they were the Denisovans who have become extinct now.
Read my old post :-
http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2010/12/discovery-of-30000-year-human-imprint.html

At the time of extreme climatic conditions there, the people have moved through the land link to North America and went along the west course and settled as Incas, Pueblos etc. The resemblance to those people was brought out in my old post

http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2011/11/indus-girl-and-indra-loka-have-remnants.html

According to genetic studies, it is also known that they (in deva territory) migrated southwards and mingled with Central Europeans . By and large there was huge reduction in their population during that period. With that the glory of Devas came to an end. What remained after that was a life of pleasure and gratification of desires. That was manifest in Uttar kuru. The mention of Uttar kuru starts from this period only.

But when Uttarkuru culture took shape, Vaivasvatha Manu has entered Saraswathy from the south carrying strict Hindu dharmic rules. (read and take note of the maps in this post to understand what I say - http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2011/12/yet-another-genetic-study-that.html).

By then the Ghandarvas and apsaras – remnant beings ofUttarkuru had come down from the North upto the Himalayas. When Vaivasvatha Manu entered Bharath, they were there inhabiting Himayalas. Manu’s daughter Aila and his eldest son had mingled with them. Aila further moved northwards and became a link between Uttarkuru and people of Bharath (Dakshin Kuru). Even today there are people having surname as Aila or Ila both in Central Europe and North India. I even came across a rock inscription of Chiththanna vassal dated at 2nd Century AD mentioning some “Ilayar” clan. In Sivaganga also there exists a people by name ‘Ilaya’. This is prehistoric clan with maternal lineage – part of Indian people but fanned out throughout Europe very long ago.


The Kurus of Uttarkuru were old Kurus who migrated from the South long ago. This is made out from Yudhistir

Jayasree Saranathan said...

a’s justification of Draupadi marrying 5 brothers. Yudhistira belongs to Kuru clan. His ancestors who already settled in Siberia were called as Uttar kurus. They had no restriction on taking spouses. He quotes these ancestors of Uttarkuru and their habit of a woman having many spouses to justify Draupadi’s marriage. In my opinion the biological fathers of the Pandavas were the beings of Uttarkuru which was a degraded version of Deva land.


By the time of Mahabharatha, Uttarkuru attained the status of ‘Bhoga Bhumi’ –( land of pleasures). There were 6 such lands of pleasures mentioned in Tamil texts too. In Deep South also, there existed one Ghandarva land and a Bhoga Bhumi. The word Ghandarva itself denotes free life.


As civilisation progressed, this kind of free life was frowned upon. It happened in the Indian sub continent. Manu’s strict rules for women might perhaps be the result of the already –in – existent culture of Apsaras/ Ghandarvas and Uttar kurus near the Himalayas.

The glorification of Rama and Sita was perhaps due to the fact they chose to keep away from the then existing practice on many spouses. In Valmiki Ramayana, when Rama and Sita met sage Agasthya for the first time, Agasthya’s first talk was on Sita’s loyalty to her husband. He says that among women who change husbands when they lose wealth and kingdom, Sita stood out and did not desert Rama even after he lost kingdom and was sent to the forest.


This is the same issue that Ravana kept repeating when he wanted to persuade her to marry him. This is the same issue for which Agasthya reprimanded his wife Lopamudra suspecting her fidelity.


The free life was considered as a natural way of life, but was not recommended for spiritual growth for which one has to have control of senses. That is where Hindu Dharmic rules come into place. It may also be recalled that Devas had a feeble control over their senses. Indra – the lord of Devas- was also mentioned at several places erring on that account. The name Indra itself means Indriyas – the sensory perceptions. The Devas had all the other lofty tendencies, but had a weakness in controlling their senses.

Are there descendants of Devas today (in Russia)?

This is like probing – are there descendants of Rama?

Perhaps and perhaps not.
Some distant link in genes may still exist, but the culture and core group had completely vanished. In Hinduism we say that any trace of a particular influence (lets call it gene ) can have its presence in some form only for 14 generations and before and 14 generations after. What existed before 14 generations and going to come after 14 generations would have no connection to the one we had as a reference point.
Read my post on 14 generations after Rama.

http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2010/10/kings-of-ayodhya-before-and-after-rama.html

Maheshwaran Ganapati said...

Dear Mrs Jayasree,
This is wonderful article. Thanks for the same. Infact as you refered to Mahaperiyavaa on Russian vedic legacy(lopamudrova etc, this is found in one of the hindu article. Another related new from TOI is also found in this blog - http://vedicrussia.wordpress.com/2010/05/29/lopamudrova/
you might have seen both the news but wanted to share the link for others' benefit
Thanks
Mahesh

Jayasree Saranathan said...

Thanks Mr Ganesh. It is one of my sources for this post. In Tamil blog, I have written extensively.

The Sunsaints said...

Thank you for this very informative post. It helped me to understand a bit better the spread of peoples in prehistoric times. Also you speak of 14 generations being of significance: the genealogical list at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew has 14 generations from Abraham to Jesse the father of King David, 14 generations from David to another great king of Judah named Josiah, 14 generations from Josiah's son Jechoniah to Jesus Christ.

Jayasree Saranathan said...

@ Sunsaints
Thanks for the info on 14 generation connection.

जीत भार्गव said...

Well researched, Beautifully written article. Thanks a lot for lot of information.

Murali - Chennai said...

Dear Mrs. Jayasree.

Thank you for responding to my query. The amount of information available in your blog is mind boggling. Thanks a lot for your untiring efforts.

I went thro your /tamil blog on 3 manfestations of Devas. Devine level of devas must be personifactions of tatvas. 2nd level must be personification of physical forces like air, fire, water, directions etc. They must be what we call devtas or angels as per other religions.

But if 3rd level of Devas are like humans lived on earth, what is referred as 33 crores devas, must be those people, who according to you lived on north part of the globe before the onset of Ice age. But to think such a high number of people would have vanished, without leaving much of their traces, is difficult to digest. if you can elaborate this possibility, it would be more enlightening.

Jayasree Saranathan said...

Dear Mr Murali.

I have never said anywhere that the 33 crore devas etal were born in Deva land.

To understand who these 33 crore Devas are, the answer is given by sage Yajnavalkya in Brihadaranyaka upanishad.

Please read my old post "The 3,003, 303 and 33 gods of Hinduism!" at

http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2008/03/3003-303-and-33-gods-of-hinduism.html

There is a series of posts on pitru tarpan and entities related to oblations along with the post in the above link.

Since you seem to be interested in such issues, I suggest you read

(1) Brihadaranyaka upanishad, Changogya Upanishad and Aithareya upanishad among Upanishads to understand creation of worlds and athman,

(2) Brahma sutras for understanding what the soul carries at the time of death and about how the birth of a human soul takes place
and

(3)Bhagavad Gita to know how to fine tune our actions and reactions in the least retributive way when faced with a dilemma and how to remain unperturbed in a given situation.

Sri Rama said...

Srimad Bhagavad Gita As It Is by Srila Prabhupada is finding a lot of following with Russians who are becoming devotees of Lord Sri Krishna and some are getting back to the Vedic way of life. Russian devotees are also well known for their austerities and bhakti of Sri Krishna. Orthodox Church seems to be not liking Vedic way of life and re-trace of Russia back to its roots.

Jai Shree Ram.

Sarang said...

Great Work.. Keep Going.

Anonymous said...

While your tracing of geography seems to be genuine when it comes to Uttarakuru, I am not convinced about the devas connection to humans. Devas are a different species who have different levels of manifestations and whose presence exists even now . If you think deeper none of the descriptions of dwipas make any sense excepting jambudwipa. Jambudwipa therefore is most likely the entire physical earth surrounded by salt ocean. Meru is most certainly penetrating the north pole. Beyond that there is nothing much we can say. I would like to imagine the universe as a multi-dimensional space that extends beyond three dimensions? Astadikpalakas? So whatever we view in life is a projection in 3 dimensions alone. The other regions exist in the unseen dimensions. So devas are beings who live past these dimensions. There region overlaps at North Pole but they live beyond in the spatial regions that extend outside physical earth as we see it. But such are the way they manifest that they actually are simultaneously present in the nature as well. More-like a conscious connection. For example if I can consciously feel and experience that I exist in two points simultaneously then there is no option but to admit that I am present in both places. Such attributes and other attributes make it impossible to accept that devas were some kind of human species. There were a different class of living beings having descended from the same person as us humans.

Realist said...

Interesting article regarding Russia's really ancient past! I hope Russia's academics and authorities work to understand and uncover it more! :D

DrSudhanshu said...

It is really a wonderful post Jayashree Madam. I also believe that Devas were human beings who used to live in the area of UttarKuru or ARKAIM. Though, they were just human beings but in various Hindu text, they have been having some tremendous powers. Will u please tell anything about this? (I suppose Indra used to be a master of Meteorology or he used to have some prism sort of something to produce rain; but, whta about others?)

Jayasree Saranathan said...

Dear Dr Sudhanshu,

I consider that Devas of Uttarkuru are extinct now. Had they been alive and continuing, they would have been mentioned in post Mahabharat period. Perhaps the Denisovan people were Devas! At many places in this blogsopt I have written on this. Perhaps this article and the comments under could give some more insights.

http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.in/2012/11/date-of-indian-civilization-pushed-upto.html

Unknown said...

The name Airavata / Airavatha is derived from Iravati - now in Mayanmar. Indra's airavata was white in colour. One finds white elephant only in Mayanmar. It is possible that at some stage, all elephants were also called Airavata too.

Regarding Mongolia etc., please refer the description in Ramayana. It is said that human can go up to this extent. Beyond that only vanara and Deva can go up to some region. To go further, one has to be Deva.

Shri kalyanika said...

A highly informative article with the geographically prevalent history of Sanatan Dharma and its vast spread in the ancient world.

Dr.Srikumar Mukherjee said...

We know that the fight between Dava and Asura has been described in Indoaryan (Vedic) scriptures. This fight was also called between Sur and Asur. The place of Sur (Deva or reformed & disciplined Aryans)was Sirya and home of Asur (who were complex oriented man or passion craving group)was Assiria.

To know more about INDOARYANISM visit www.indoaryan.org

Dr.Srikumar Mukherjee said...

Dear Jayashree,

Your all the articles are very interesting connects us to our pasts. However here could you please let me know (to my mail id: SEEENCE@GMAIL.COM) details about the Early homeland of Aryans was Arctic Polar Region, as you mentioned. What was the first wave of Aryans came to India?
Kindly reply (give your view to my mail id: seeence@gmail.com) on these two points.
Regards
Srikumar Mukherjee
Ranchi

Dr.Srikumar Mukherjee said...

Respected Jayashree Mam,

I suddenly found your this article, while I was searching information of Aryan migration to India and Indo-Aryan global culture. Your article impressed me so much that I forced to contact you to gather more information from you.

So may I now request you to provide me the chronological events of Aryan civilization since the migration of Aryans from the arctic home land and reaching to Aryavartya (India), including Ramayana and Mahabharata.

Regards and looking forward of your reply -

Srikumar Mukherjee
Ranchi

Cell# +91-9470932544
Email: seeence@gmail.com

SN said...

Wow...this definitely is d missing part of d puzzle...

Arundhati Hoskeri said...

Very well written, Convincing and insightful Ms Jayashree God Bless You

Renganayaki said...

Hi Madam.
I recently saw this post. Thank you for the wonderful article.
Please pardon if I am asking a silly question.
You mentioned that Indra is from Russia which is the Indraloka/ Iravatha and other devas through which kunti gave birth to pandavas are also of the same region.

You also mentioned here or in some other article that After govardhan event , Krishna did not need Indra's help and that enraged Indra. Is this Indra the same the one in Russia?

one more question out of curiosity... If Russia is Indraloka then what could be Brahmaloka? I am asking this as I am from Srirangam and would like to know from where srirangam deity came? It is believed that Ishvaku got lord ranganatha from Brahmaloka with the vimana and then it was handed over later to vibishana by Rama.

Jayasree Saranathan said...

@Ranganayaki,

Indra appears in 3 different ways in our texts - as a divinity, as a force in Nature and as person(s) who lived on this earth. Etymologically Indra means one who conquers. In all these three ways Indra conquers us. I have written about these in comment section of different blogs in reply to reader's queries. Since you seem to know Tamil, let me produce here links to my Tamil articles on these.

இந்திரன் என்பவன் இறைவன்!http://thamizhan-thiravidana.blogspot.com/2010/12/19.html

இந்திரன் என்பவன் இயற்கையில் உள்ள ஒரு சக்தி!http://thamizhan-thiravidana.blogspot.com/2010/12/20.html
(In this context, Indra is rainfall which Krishna didn't quite welcome in Gokulam because rains hampered the life of the cattle and there was enough food for the cattle inspite of absence of rainfall. You will come across similar description for Indra in Valmiki Ramayana in the description of rainy season by Rama. Most Indra verses in Rik veda are about rainfall only.)

இந்திரனும், இந்திரியங்களும்.
http://thamizhan-thiravidana.blogspot.com/2010/12/21.html

Beyond all these kings were known as Indra - owing to their capacity to conquer. (Narendra etc) Their location on the earth came to be identified as Indra loka / Deva loka. You may read the references to this effect here
தமிழ் நூல்களில் தேவலோகம்.http://thamizhan-thiravidana.blogspot.com/2011/02/36.html

Th higher latitudes of the northern hemisphere are said to be the location of Deva loka. There was also an Indra Dweepa - another name for Thailand and surrounding regions where Iravatam (while elephants are sighted, where Iravati river flows). This was recognised 12,000 years ago during Skanda's period.

Brahma loka is a realm beyond the physical earth. Srirangam deity was actually made on earth but adding divinity to it, it is being said that it was made / procured from Brahma loka.