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!
