Evidence that the Sanatana Dharma had spread throughout th world raises two questions.
Silurian Period: Earth during the early Silurian Period Distribution of landmasses, mountainous regions, shallow seas, and deep ocean basins during the early Silurian Period. Included in the paleogeographic reconstruction are cold and warm ocean currents. The present-day coastlines and tectonic boundaries of the configured continents are shown in the inset at the lower right.
1.Why did it spread?
2.And how?
For the first the answer is that there are various factors.
a)Sanatana Dharma was individual specific.
It addresses Human problems and tried to answer them from the experience of the Realized souls.
b) It did not believe in numbers.
c) It did not attempt to proselytize.
d) It did not suggest ways that are contrary to Nature nor did it try to impose its rules.
e) It did not curs people who refuse to follow it.For Hinduism, Sanatana Dharma all Paths lead to God, just as water from different sources reach the Ocean, be it a sewage or a River.
f) It devised methods to suit individual temperament.
‘ In Whatever For You worship Me, I grant you your wish in that form” Sri Krishna in The Bagavad Gita.
g) Though the Karma Theory suggests Determinism, it grants and accepts free will.In the closing chapter of the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says to Arjuna,
” I have explained you the secret of secrets and you are free to choose what you think is suitable for you”
h)Santana Dharma treated everything in the Universe as its own, including the Inanimate,
The Shanthi Mantra states,
May The Two legged Be Happy,
May The four-legged Be Happy,
May there Be sufficient rains”
i ) Its motto is Let All Be happy’
Sarve Janas Sukino Bhavanthu.
j) It advocated social order with out laws, but by Social Mores.
k) It allowed people to practice what they believed in, including Atheism, denial of God.
No doubt it had takers every where.
Answering the second question ‘How di it spread throughout the world’ is difficult.
Despite evidence that the Sanatana Dharma was present in all the countries, there seems to be no evidence to suggest the people of these countries were won over by military might and subjugated.
The worst thing the early Hindus in India was to fight among themselves in India and in some cases against the Kings in Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, that too only when these Kings interfered in the local Indian affairs.
Tamils invasion of these areas speak of this.
With the evidence available now I am forced to admit that the people of these areas embraced the Sanatana Dharma voluntarily, being coming to know of it from the emissaries sent by the Indian Kings starting From Rama.
This also raises an important question.
How come these people have traveled such great distances, while record speak of only Bullock carts and horses as means of transportation.
Simply brushing aside the evidence that The Sanatana Dharma did not exist in the areas like,
Baikal, Russia, Krishna’ son Pradhyumna’s city,
Lahore ,Pakistan was founde by Lava, Son of Lord Rama,
A South Korean princess was from Ayodhya,
Archaim , Russia,
Russia as Sthree Varsha, Women Kingdom,
River Danube was names after Dhanu, the Mother of Devas,
It is not surprising to find evidence that the Ithihasa and Puranas are right.
I have been posting articles validating the information provided by the Ithihasas and Puranas with the help of Astronomy,Archeology,Lingusitics and Geology.
One more addition to the Geological evidence about the Mahabharata.
We have a place in Madhya Pradesh, Bhimbetka, ‘Bhima’s Seat’
It is a Rock shelter, presumed to be the oldest in the world.
It is declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
The Bhimbetka rock shelters are an archaeological site of the Paleolithic, exhibiting the earliest traces of human life on the Indian subcontinent, and thus the beginning of the South Asian Stone Age. It is located in the Raisen District in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, near Abdullaganj town and inside the Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary. At least some of the shelters were inhabited by Homo erectus more than 100,000 years ago.[1][2] Some of the Stone Age rock paintings found among the Bhimbetka rock shelters are approximately 30,000 years old.[3] The caves also deliver early evidence of dance. They were declared a World Heritage Site in 2003.
The name Bhimbetka (भीमबैठका) is associated with Bhima, a hero-deity of the epic Mahabharata.[4] The word Bhimbetka is said to derive from Bhimbaithka, meaning “sitting place of Bhima”
Man Riding a Horse Bhibedka.
The Rock Shelters of Bhimbetaka (or Bhim Baithaka) lie in the Raisen District of Madhya Pradesh, 45 kilometers south of Bhopal at the southern edge of the Vindhya hills. South of these rock shelters are successive ranges of the Satpura hills.
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Coordinates:
22.9214 N 77.5850 E
No:
77 (list of all attractions)
Categories:
Petroglyphs and rock art, Caves, Ancient settlements, Ancient burials,Buddhist shrines
Values:
Art, History, Archaeology, Geology
Rank:
2
Address:
Asia, India, Madhya Pradesh, Raisen district, low hills north from Narmada River, west from Berkhera and south from Obaidullaganj
Writing in Devanagari:
भीमबेटका पाषाण आश्रय
Age:
At least 290,000 years old petroglyphs, paintings up to 15,000 years old, newest drawings – 11th – 14th c. AD.
UNESCO World Heritage status:
Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka, 2003, No.925
hese caves contain the oldest known petroglyphs in the world, some of the most impressive galleries of ancient paintings and even the remnants of Buddhist temples and paintings from 11th – 14th century AD.
There are hundreds of caves with paintings and some 12 – 15 are open for visitors. In spite of the unique values of Bhimbetka this site is not that popular among tourists yet.
The largest Indian gallery of prehistoric art is spread over wide, circa 40 km² large area. Thus far here have been found some 760 caves on seven hills and more than 500 of these caves contain paintings and other artwork. The largest number of caves is on Bhimbetka Hill – 243 caves and Lakha Juar – 178 caves.
In a wider area around Bhimbetka there are known more than 1,700 rock shelters. 2 kilometres south-east from Bhimbetka, 1 km east from Bhianpur there is another group of caves with ancient paintings – Chhoti Jamun Jhiri.
Some caves are very small but others can be large enough to take hundreds of people.
…
Most ancient petroglyphs in the world
There is little doubt – exploration of these caves will provide exciting discoveries for many years to come. One such unexpected discovery was made in a large cave calledAuditorium Cave.
Auditorium Cave is large, some 25 m long horizontal cave. At the far end of entrance gallery it widens into larger room with three passageways diverting from it. In the centre of this hall there stands enormous boulder – “Chiefs Rock”, 2.5 m high and 3.4 m wide, its volume is approx. 9 m3.
Cave was well known but it hid an unexpected surprise. In 1990 here, on Chief’s Rock, were discovered 9 cupules – simple, round hemispheric cavities with traces of red pigment. They looked very old but it seemed nearly impossible to find their true age.
It is a known fact in Human migration that wherever there is a natural calamity in the form of a Tsunami, people of Asia migrated towarda the west;one heading through the Middle east and another through the Caucasus.
A group led by Shiva with Ganesha left through the Middle east route and Satyavrata Manu’s Group went to Ayodhya to found Ikshvaku Dynasty, ord Rama’s Dynasty.
That is the reason we find more of Shiva and Ganesha relics in the Mesopotamian area of Iraq,Kuwait,South America and Africa and more of Krishna relics in Iran, Russia.
Shiva seems to find a place everywhere.
One of the reasons is that Shiva must have returned to Sarasvati Valley from the Arctic after the compilation of Rig Veda.
Though there are indications that the people of England, Celts did have a Sanatana Dharma connection, I have not been able to find a good research work till now on this subject.
Now,
There is enough evidence that the priestly class of the ancestors,Druids, of the Celts were…. Brahmins.
And they performed the Vedic rituals.
The Celtic Empire 700 -100 BC.
“The Druids of the ancient Celtic world have a startling kinship with the brahmins of the Hindu religion and were, indeed, a parallel development from their common Indo-European cultural root which began to branch out probably five thousand years ago. It has been only in recent decades that Celtic scholars have begun to reveal the full extent of the parallels and cognates between ancient Celtic society and Vedic culture.
The Celts were the first civilization north of the European Alps to emerge into recorded history. At the time of their greatest expansion, in the 3rd century bce, the Celts stretched from Ireland in the west, through to the central plain of Turkey in the east; north from Belgium, down to Cadiz in southern Spain and across the Alps into the Po Valley of Italy. They even impinged on areas of Poland and the Ukraine and, if the amazing recent discoveries of mummies in China’s province of Xinjiang are linked with the Tocharian texts, they even moved as far east as the area north of Tibet.
The once great Celtic civilization is today represented only by the modern Irish, Manx and Scots, and the Welsh, Cornish and Bretons. Today on the northwest fringes of Europe cling the survivors of centuries of attempted conquest and “ethnic cleansing” by Rome and its imperial descendants. But of the sixteen million people who make up those populations, only 2.5 million now speak a Celtic language as their mother tongue.
The Druids were not simply priesthood. They were the intellectual caste of ancient Celtic society, incorporating all the professions: judges, lawyers, medical doctors, ambassadors, historians and so forth, just as does the brahmin caste. In fact, other names designate the specific role of the “priests.” Only Roman and later Christian propaganda turned them into “shamans,” “wizards” and “magicians.” The scholars of the Greek Alexandrian school clearly described them as a parallel caste to the brahmins of Vedic society.
The very name Druid is composed of two Celtic word roots which have parallels in Sanskrit. Indeed, the root vid for knowledge, which also emerges in the Sanskrit word Veda, demonstrates the similarity. The Celtic root dru which means “immersion” also appears in Sanskrit. So a Druid was one “immersed in knowledge.”
Because Ireland was one of the few areas of the Celtic world that was not conquered by Rome and therefore not influenced by Latin culture until the time of its Christianization in the 5th century ce, its ancient Irish culture has retained the most clear and startling parallels to Hindu society.
Professor Calvert Watkins of Harvard, one of the leading linguistic experts in his field, has pointed out that of all the Celtic linguistic remains, Old Irish represents an extraordinarily archaic and conservative tradition within the Indo-European family. Its
nominal and verbal systems are a far truer reflection of the hypothesized parent tongue, from which all Indo-European languages developed, than are Classical Greek or Latin. The structure of Old Irish, says Professor Watkins, can be compared only with that of
Vedic Sanskrit or Hittite of the Old Kingdom.
The vocabulary is amazingly similar. The following are just a few examples:
Old Irish – arya (freeman),Sanskrit – aire (noble)
Old Irish – naib (good), Sanskrit – noeib (holy)
Old Irish – badhira (deaf), Sanskrit – bodhar (deaf)
Old Irish – names (respect), Sanskrit – nemed (respect)
Old Irish – righ (king), Sanskrit – raja (king)
This applies not only in the field of linguistics but in law and social custom, in mythology, in folk custom and in traditional musical form. The ancient Irish law system, the Laws of the Fénechus, is closely parallel to the Laws of Manu. Many surviving Irish myths, and some Welsh ones, show remarkable resemblances to the themes, stories and even names in the sagas of the Indian Vedas.
Comparisons are almost endless. Among the ancient Celts, Danu was regarded as the “Mother Goddess.” The Irish Gods and Goddesses were the Tuatha De Danaan (“Children of Danu”). Danu was the “divine waters” falling from heaven and nurturing Bíle, the sacred oak from whose acorns their children sprang. Moreover, the waters of Danu went on to create the great Celtic sacred river–Danuvius, today called the Danube. Many European rivers bear the name of Danu–the Rhône (ro- Dhanu, “Great Danu”) and several rivers called Don. Rivers were sacred in the Celtic world, and places where votive offerings were deposited and burials often conducted. The Thames, which flows through London, still bears its Celtic name, from Tamesis, the dark river, which is the same name as Tamesa, a tributary of the Ganges.
Not only is the story of Danu and the Danube a parallel to that of Ganga and the Ganges but a Hindu Danu appears in the Vedic story “The Churning of the Oceans,” a story with parallels in Irish and Welsh mytholgy. Danu in Sanskrit also means “divine waters” and “moisture.”
In ancient Ireland, as in ancient Hindu society, there was a class of poets who acted as charioteers to the warriors They were also their intimates and friends. In Irish sagas these charioteers extolled the prowess of the warriors. The Sanskrit Satapatha Brahmana says that on the evening of the first day of the horse sacrifice (and horse sacrifice was known in ancient Irish kingship rituals, recorded as late as the 12th century) the poets had to chant a praise poem in honor of the king or his warriors, usually extolling their genealogy
and deeds.
Such praise poems are found in the Rig Veda and are called narasamsi. The earliest surviving poems in old Irish are also praise poems, called fursundud, which trace back the genealogy of the kings of Ireland to Golamh or Mile Easpain, whose sons landed in Ireland at the end of the second millennium bce. When Amairgen, Golamh’s son, who later traditions hail as the “first Druid,” set foot in Ireland, he cried out an extraordinary incantation that could have come from the Bhagavad Gita, subsuming all things into his being [see sidebar right].
Celtic cosmology is a parallel to Vedic cosmology. Ancient Celtic astrologers used a similar system based on twenty-seven lunar mansions, called nakshatras in Vedic Sanskrit. Like the Hindu Soma, King Ailill of Connacht, Ireland, had a circular palace constructed with twenty-seven windows through which he could gaze on his twenty-seven “star wives.”
There survives the famous first century bce Celtic calendar (the Coligny Calendar) which, as soon as it was first discovered in 1897, was seen to have parallels to Vedic calendrical computations. In the most recent study of it, Dr. Garret Olmsted, an astronomer as well as Celtic scholar, points out the startling fact that while the surviving calendar was manufactured in the first century bce, astronomical calculus shows that it must have been computed in 1100 bce.
One fascinating parallel is that the ancient Irish and Hindus used the name Budh for the planet Mercury. The stem budh appears in all the Celtic languages, as it does in Sanskrit, as meaning “all victorious,” “gift of teaching,” “accomplished,” “enlightened,” “exalted” and so on. The names of the famous Celtic queen Boudicca, of ancient Britain (1st century ce), and of Jim Bowie (1796-1836), of the Texas Alamo fame, contain the same root. Buddha is the past participle of the same Sanskrit word–“one who is enlightened.”
For Celtic scholars, the world of the Druids of reality is far more revealing and exciting, and showing of the amazingly close bond with its sister Vedic culture, than the inventions of those who have now taken on the mantle of modern “Druids,” even when done so with great sincerity.’
I have been trying to find the traces of Sanatna Dharma in world civilisations.
I have posted articles on the Vedic links to
Iran,
Iraq,S
Sumeria,
Mayan,
Egyptian,
Polynesian,
Roman,
Christian, and
European civilisations.
I am looking into the links between Sanatana Dharma and Minoan Civilisation.
I have some information Linking the pre roman, pre christian to Vedic civilization.
Etruscan civilisation existed around 8 century 2 BC in Italy and is believed to have ruled the whole of Italy.
But very little information is available about them.
One of the reasons, like what christianity has done to African Religion, is the systematic obliteration of the Etruscan civilisation and its history by the Romans.
“Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy. Its homeland was in the area of central Italy, just north of Rome, which is today called Tuscany.
In ancient times there was a strong tradition that the Etruscans had emigrated from Lydia, on the eastern coast of present-day Turkey. Modern historians have largely discounted this idea, and believe that the Etruscans were an indigenous population – a belief largely confirmed by modern DNA studies. The sudden flowering of Etrsucan civilization at a date earlier than other indigenous peoples of central and northern Italy probably points to the blossoming of strong trading relations between the peoples of the area – identified by modern scholars as belonging to the Iron-age Villanovan culture – and merchants (and possibly some colonists) from the eastern Mediterranean. Mining of metals, especially copper and iron, would have led to early enrichment for the Etruscans, and to a higher material culture than other Italic peoples.
The Etruscan civilization lasted from the 8th century BC to the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. In the 6th century the Etruscans expanded their influence over a wide area of Italy. They founded city-states in northern Italy, and to the south, their influence expanded down into Latium and beyond. Early Rome was deeply influenced by Etruscan culture (the word “Rome” is Etruscan). The Etruscans also gained control of Corsica.
Between the late 6th and early 4th centuries BC, Etruscan power declined. To the south, the rising power of the Greek city-states of Sicily and southern Italy weakened Etruscan political and military influence, and cities which they had either dominated or founded, such as Rome, threw out their overlords and became independent city-states. In the north, Gallic tribes moved into northern Italy and destroyed the Etruscan cities there. However, in their homeland the Etruscan cities remained powerful, and were formidable opponents of the rising power of Rome. It was only over a long period, in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, that they surrendered their independence to the Romans.
The Etruscans spoke a unique language, unrelated to those of their neighbours. Their culture was influenced by Greek traders, and by the Greek colonists of southern Italy. The Etruscan alphabet is Greek in its origins. They in turn passed on their alphabet to the Romans.
Legend states that at the beginning of the Etruscan Age, the city of Rome was founded by the twin sons of the war God Mars. Their names were Romulus and Remus. The boys had been abandoned by their divine father and Etruscan mother and were reared in the forest by a she-wolf. This is a slightly different version of the story of the Hindu epic Ramayana where the divine king Sri Rama abandons Sita and his twin sons, Luva and Kusha. The two boy were reared by their mother and Rishi Valmiki in his forestashram.
In the Etruscan legend, the twins are raised by a she-wolf in the forest, but that probably emerges from a confusion between the Sanskrit terms ‘rishi’ (ऋषि) which means a ‘sage’ and the Sanskrit ‘vriki’ (वृकी) which means a ‘she-wolf’ – considering that the fame of Sri Rama had traversed west from India by the time of the Etruscans. And a treasure trove of Etrsucan paintings bears out this argument…
Etruscan Painting.Reminds one Rama, Sita and lakshmana in exile.Etruscon God Typhon resembles Hanuman with Sanjivi parvatha.Etruscan Artefact, Vali, Tara, and Sugriva?Etruscan painting, Indian Sari?Etruscan painting has indian Dance pose and Sari attire.
What is seen or perceive in the Universe is with in the us.
The Universe and we are not different.
Angkor Vat Temple.
The principles in the making of the universe are within us and the Hindu temples keep this point in constructing them.
The Hindu Temples are built according to Vedic Principles of Cosmology and the physical structural guidelines are from the Vaasu Sasta and Agamas.
One would temples, including cave temple of Gavi Gangadhara temple in Bangalore, have the Sun’s Rays falling on the God’s idol on specific days.
Vishnu’s Mathsya temple also has these feature.
There are temples where the shadow of the idol falls at a specific pre marked space.
There are quite a few temples and please check my posts under Hinduism.
We have the Sun temple at Konark where one can find Astronomy being used in the construction of temple.
We have the city of Jaipur built based on Vedic principles,
I shall be posting on this.
What is interesting is that the principles of the Vedas are fully used in a Temple, which is in Cambodia.
It is the Angkor vat Temple.
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The number 108 represents the distance from the earth to the sun and the moon in sun and moon diameters, respectively.
The diameter of the Sun is 18 times the diameter of the earth.
The distance between the human body and its inner Sun is also 108.
Number 360,taken to represent an year is the number of bones in the Human body at the time of birth and they get fused into 206 when the Body grows (Satapatha Brahmana)
The primary Vedic number is three, representing the tripartite division of the physical world into the earth, the atmosphere, and the
sky and that of the person into the physical body, the pranas, and the inner sky.
Hindu Temples represent the Meru Mountain and Bruhat Samhita lists 56 principles on this.
The AngkorVat.
The most impressive aspect of the temple representation is that it occurs both at the level
of the part as well as the whole in a recursive fashion, mirroring the Vedic idea of the
microcosmsymbolizes the macrocosm at variouslevels of expressions.
This is done not only in the domain of numbers and directions, but also
using anppropriate mythological themes and historical incidents.
Speaking just of numbers, the various lengths and circumferences of units
representing the motion of the moon may equal 27, 28, 29
(nakshatras or days of the month), 354
(days of the lunar year), or 360
(tithis of the lunar year). Other lengths represent the solar
year (360, 365, or 366) or larger
time cycles. For example, the west-east axis represents
the periods of the yugas. The width of the moat is 439.78 cubit;
the distance from the first step of the western entrance gateway to balustrade wall
at the end of causeway is 867.03 cubit; the d istance fromthe first step
of the western entrance gateway to the first step of
the central tower is 1,296.07 cubit; and the distance from
the first step of bridge to the geographic center of the temple
is 1,734.41 cubit. These correspond to the periods of
432,000; 864,000; 1,296,000; 1,728,000 years
for the Kali, Dvapara, Treta, and Kritayuga, respectively.
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