Ramanisblog

Tag: Zoroastrianism

  • Indra’s Father Dyaus Indra In World Religions

    Many of us know the barest details of Indra, the chief of the Devathas of Hinduism.

    That he was the father of Arjuna, husband of Indrani,wields Thundebolt, induced Rains in Govardhana Giri,has Vajrayudha ,rides the elephant Airavatha, his Post of Indra changes every Manvantrara and of his infamous episode involving Ahalya.

    That’s about all.

    Indra, atop the Airavatha Elephant,Angkorvat.image.
    Indra, atop the Airavatha Elephant,Angkorvat. Click to enlarge.

    Indra, atop the Airavatha Elephant,Angkorvat.

    But it may be of interest to know that Indra was one of the earliest Vedic Deities mentioned in th Rigveda.

    Hs father was Dayus and other Savasi.

    The name Dayus is being used by the western scholars to spread a canard to disseminate information under the guise of Research papers stating that there was  Proto-Indo-European or Graeco-Aryan language group and there was a tribe in the Caucasus called Aryans who entered India!

    I shall be calling off this bluff in another post.

    Indra (Indara) is also mentioned among the gods of the Mitanni, a Hurrian-speaking people who ruled northern Syria from ca.1500BC-1300BC.

    The attributes of Zeus of the Greeks and Indra are identical.

    Vedic Indra corresponds to Verethragna of the Zoroastrian Avesta as the noun verethragna- corresponds to Vedic vrtrahan-, which is predominantly an epithet of Indra.

    *According to Anthony, the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo-European immigrants in the contact zone between the Zeravshan River (present-day Uzbekistan) and (present-day) Iran*. It was “a syncretic mixture of old Central Asian and new Indo-European elements”, which borrowed “distinctive religious beliefs and practices” from the Bactria–Margiana Culture. At least 383 non-Indo-European words were borrowed from this culture, including the god Indra and the ritual drink Soma.According to Anthony,

    *I contest this claim and I shall be repudiating this point in another Post.

    He under whose supreme control are horses, all chariots, the villages, and cattle;
    He who gave being to the Sun and Morning, who leads the waters, He, O men, is Indra. ( Rig Veda 2.12.7, trans. Griffith)

    It further states,

    Indra, you lifted up the pariah who was oppressed, you glorified the blind and the lame. (Rg-Veda 2:13:12)

    Indra is, with Varuna and Mitra, one of the Ādityas, the chief gods of the Rigveda (besides Agni and others such as the Ashvins). He delights in drinking soma and the centralVedic myth is his heroic defeat of Vṛtrá, liberating the rivers, or alternatively, his smashing of the Vala cave, a stone enclosure where the Panis had imprisoned the cows that are habitually identified with Ushas, the dawn(s). He is the god of war, smashing the stone fortresses of the Dasyu, but he is also is invoked by combatants on both sides in the  Battle of the Ten Kings.

    ..The Rig-Veda frequently refers to him as Śakra: the mighty-one. In the Vedic period, the number of gods was assumed to be thirty-three and Indra was their lord. (Some early post Rigvedic texts such as the Khilas and the late Vedic Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad enumerates the gods as the eight Vasus, the eleven Rudras, the twelve Adityas, Indra, and Prajapati). As lord of the Vasus, Indra was also referred to as Vāsava.

    In Rigveda, Indra the solar god is sometimes described as golden-bodied with golden jaw, nails, hair, beard.

    One Atharva Vedic verse reads, “In Indra are set fast all forms of golden hue.”

    In the RV 1.65 reads, “SAKRA, who is the purifier (of his worshipers), and well-skilled in horses, who is wonderful and golden-bodied.”Rigveda also reads that Indra “is the dancing god who, clothed in perfumed garments, golden-cheeked rides his golden cart.” One passage calls him both brown and yellow. “Him with the fleece they purify, brown, golden-hued, beloved of all, Who with exhilarating juice goes forth to all the deities”:

    With him too is this rain of his that comes like herds: Indra throws drops of moisture on his golden beard. When the sweet juice is shed he seeks the pleasant place, and stirs the worshipper as wind disturbs the wood.

    —Rig Veda, Book 10, Hymn XXIII, P. 4

    At the swift draught the Soma-drinker waxed in might, the Iron One with yellow beard and yellow hair.

    The 14 Indras .

    Manvatara/Manu Indra
    Svayambhuva Yajna (Avatar of Vishnu)
    Swarochish Vipaschit
    Uttam Sushaanti
    Taamas Shibi
    Raivat Vibhu
    Chaakshush Manojav
    Shraaddhdev Purandar (the present Indra)
    Savarni Bali
    Daksha Saavarni Adbhut
    Brahma Saavarni Shanti
    Dharma Saavarni Vish
    Rudraputra Saavarni Ritudhaama
    Ruchi (Deva Saavarni) Devaspati
    Bhaum (Indra Saavarni) Suchi

    While the battle between Indra and Vritra is included in the Avesta, the Zoroastrian holy book, Zoroastrianism takes a much different interpretation of Indra’s character. Rather than venerating Indra as the supreme embodiment of good, Zoroastrianism instead claims Indra to be the leader of “false gods” (which refers to virtually all gods other than Ahura Mazda, the supreme deity in Zoroastrianism). These beings are equated with demons. In the Vendidad, the most recent of the texts within the Avesta, Indra is identified as one of the six chief demons that are seen to stand opposite the six Amesha Spentas, spirits which put in place the benevolent will of Ahura Mazda.Vendidad 10.9 explains that Indra is the direct enemy of Asha Vahishta, who personifies the aspect of asha/rta or Truth. Thus, Indra is the opponent of order, truth, and righteousness. Similarly, in the Denkard, a ninth-century Middle Persian text, Indra is the arch-demon that “is the spirit of apostasy and further deceives the worldly existence of mankind” (9.3). In the Bundahishn, a Zoroastrian account of creation, Indra “freezes the minds of the creatures from practicing righteousness just like much frozen snow. He instills this into the minds of men that they ought not to have the sacred shirt and thread girdle” (27.6). The shirt and girdle are garments that must be worn by all devout Zoroastrians, thus Indra stands in diametric opposition to one of the indispensable aspects of the Zoroastrian faith. Atfrashokereti, the eschatological regeneration of good within the universe, it is said that Indra will be defeated by Asha Vahishta (34.27).

    In the mythology and iconography of Indra that arose after the Vedas in the heterodox Indian schools of Buddhism and Jainism, Indra retained his role as chief of the gods. Although Jainism is non-theist, it is Indra who awards Jain founder Mahavira with a golden robe during his earthly life, and later welcomes him into heaven upon his death. Buddhists also acknowledge Indra as the original leader of the Devas, ruler of the heaven of the Thirty-three gods. All in all, Indra is rarely referred to in Buddhist texts, and when he is it is either as a minor deity (a lord of the yakṣas, for instance), or as the object of worship of the Brahmins.

    Sikhs believe that there is only one god without question. However, the Gurus still mention numerous Hindu deities in the Guru Granth Sahib, including Indra. Bhagat Kabir Ji, whose hymns are found in Guru Granth Sahib Ji, mentions Indra among other Hindu gods: “Beings like Hanumaan, Garura, Indra the king of the gods and the rulers of humans—none of them know Your Glories, Lord” (Ragg Dhanaasree, Panna 691.2). Passages such as this illustrate the Sikh belief that although Indra and other personalistic dieties have been meditated upon by the minds of humans for thousands of years, they merely as a function of maya and do not allow for full a complete understanding of the one supreme God. Although the Sikhs do not worship Indra specifically, his name also appears as a part of many Sikh compound names as the ending “inder.” This ending represents the strength and virility in battle that Indra embodies, and can be used by both males and females.

    Citation.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indra

    http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Indra

  • Upanayana, Navjote For Zoroastrians Zend Avesta Veda Connection

    Iran was  apart of Hindu Empire during the Vedic Period.

    This continued to be so till Vikramaditya’s period.

    The Faravahar, believed to be a depiction of a fravashi. image.png
    The Faravahar, believed to be a depiction of a fravashi

    The customs and cultural behaviour of the Zoroastrians  indicate the Vedic roots of Zoroastrianism.

    A treaty signed by the Hittites and Mitannis dating to the fourteenth century BC calls upon Indara/Indra, Mitras(il)/Mitra, Nasatianna/Nasatya and Uruvanass(il)/Varuna, all known to Rig-Veda and Avesta.

    Hittites and Mitannis were from North Syria.

    I had posted articles about the Vedic /Tamil origin of these people.

    Though there are similarities  the roles of the Devas seem to have been reversed.

    (haoma (soma), daha(dasa), hepta (sapta), hindu (sindhu), and Ahura (Asura) in Avesta)

    Indra and the devas  are demonic in Avesta,and Ahura/asura is considered the highest deity.

    “At the time of composition of the Vedas, Varuna was losing his importance to Indra. In Avesta, Ahura Mazda  is the main divinity and some people think that he is thesame as Varuna. Varuna sat with his spies who flew all around the world and bought back reports on the conduct of mortals. He abhorred sin and loathed evil deeds prompted by anger, drink and gambling.”

    Probably a sect left on this issue and had a role in this difference.

    Rig Veda is dated around 5000 BC while Avesta is dated around 1000 BC.

    The Chief God worshiped in the Vedas is Agni,Fire.

    Zoroastrians are Fire worshipers.

    Another important connection is Upanayana ceremony which is the primary duty of a Hindu.

    Zoroastrians have a similar Ceremony  ‘Navjote’

    ‘The Navjote[pronunciation?] (Persian: سدره‌پوشی, Sedreh pushi‎) ceremony is the ritual through which an individual is inducted into theZoroastrian religion and begins to wear the Sedreh and Kushti. The term navjote is used primarily by the Zoroastrians of India (theParsis), while sedreh pushi is used primarily by the Zoroastrians of Iran. Zoroastrians from Pakistan consisting of both Parsis andIranis use both terms…

    Although there is no upper limit to the age of the individual for which the ceremony takes place, in common practice it occurs before a girl or boy reaches maturity. Under no circumstances is it permitted to be done for a child less than seven years of age since the child at that age range cannot comprehend the significance of the event.

    In Vendidad 18.54, individuals above the age of 15 (once considered the age at which one attained adulthood) who are not yet been invested are said to be likely to fall into evil ways. In the 9th-12th century texts of Zoroastrian tradition, the same group are said to bekushad davarashni, literally “running about improperly clothed”. So for instance Menog-i Khrad 2.35 and the Book of Arda Viraf(25.6.10). The latter considers such a thing to be a service to demons (the daevas). Other texts of tradition that define adulthood as the boundary include the Sad-dar 10.1 and Shayast na-Shayast 10.13. ,.

    The ceremony is traditionally the first time a Zoroastrian wears the sedreh undershirt and kushti belt, which they then continue to wear for the rest of their life. The sacred clothing signifies parental responsibility as well as responsibility for the one who is undergoing this ceremony. When the child wears the sacred clothes, it means the parents are now obligated to morally and religiously educate the child. If the child commits a wrongful act, it is their responsibility, as they may also take some pride in themselves when their child commits a righteous act. The sacred thread and shirt also teach the child responsibility, as they are to be untied before certain practices, such as prayer, bathing, and before meals, and re-tied shortly after the task is completed.

    The shirt has a construction extremely specific to this culture.

    Upanayana of Hinduism.

    Upanayana is an important Samskara, duty of a Hindu.

    The three Varnas, Brahmana, Kshatriya and Vaisya must have this performed.

    Read my posts on Samskaras.

    The wearing of the sacred thread opens the inner eye.

    One becomes a Dwija, born for the second time.

    The Upaveeda must remain clean.

    It has to be changed periodically.

    It is also changed for special occasions like Marriages,Homas,Poojas,Apara Kriyas.(https://ramanisblog.in/2014/10/17/yagnopaveeda-dharana-mantra-poonal/)

    Zoroastrianism.

    Zoroastrianism was founded by the Prophet Zoroaster (or Zarathustra) in ancient Iran. The precise date of the founding of Zoroastrianism is uncertain. An approximate date of 1500–1200 BCE has been established through archaeological evidence and linguistic comparisons with the Hindu text Rig Veda. However there is no way of knowing exactly when Zoroaster lived, as he lived in what, to his people, were prehistoric times. Depending on different approaches, it is thought that he lived some time between 1700 BCE to 500 BCE .Zoroaster was born in either Northeast Iran or Southwest Afghanistan. He was born into a Bronze Age culture with a polytheistic religion, which included animal sacrifice and the ritual use of intoxicants. This religion was quite similar to the early forms of Hinduism in India. The name Zoroaster is a Greek rendering of the nameZarathustra. He is known as Zartosht and Zardosht in Persian and Zaratosht in Gujarati. Zoroaster’s birth and early life are little documented. What is known is recorded in theGathas—the core of the Avesta, which contains hymns thought to be composed by Zoroaster himself. Born into the Spitama clan, he worked as a priest. He had a wife, three sons, and three daughters. Zoroaster rejected the religion of the Bronze Age Iranians, with their many gods and oppressive class structure, in which the Karvis and Karapans(princes and priests) controlled the ordinary people. He also opposed animal sacrifices and the use of the hallucinogenic Haoma plant (possibly a species of ephedra) in rituals, but held the rooster as a “symbol of light”and associated the cock with “good against evil” because of his heraldic actions..

    * Cock is associted with Sunbrahmanya.

    According to Zoroastrian belief, when Zoroaster was 30 years old, he went into the Daiti river to draw water for a Haoma ceremony; when he emerged, he received a vision ofVohu Manah. After this, Vohu Manah took him to the other six Amesha Spentas, where he received the completion of his vision.[51] This vision radically transformed his view of the world, and he tried to teach this view to others. Zoroaster believed in one creator God, teaching that only one God was worthy of worship. Furthermore, some of the deities of the old religion, the Daevas (Devas in Sanskrit), appeared to delight in war and strife. Zoroaster said that these were evil spirits and were workers of Angra Mainyu, God’s adversary.

    Zoroaster’s ideas did not take off quickly, and, at first, he only had one convert: his cousin Maidhyoimanha.The local religious authorities opposed his ideas. They felt their own faiths, power, and particularly their rituals, were threatened because Zoroaster taught against over-ritualising religious ceremonies. Many ordinary people did not like Zoroaster’s downgrading of the Daevas to evil spirits. After 12 years, Zoroaster left his home to find somewhere more open to new ideas. He found such a place in the country of King Vishtaspa (in Bactria). The King and his queen, Hutosa, heard Zoroaster debating with the religious leaders of his land, and decided to accept Zoroaster’s ideas and make them the official religion of their kingdom. Zoroaster died in his late 70s. Very little is known of the time between Zoroaster and the Achaemenian period, except that, during this period, Zoroastrianism spread to Western Iran. By the time of the founding of the Achaemenid Empire, Zoroastrianism was already a well-established religion.

    Humata, Hukhta, Huvarshta (Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds) are the basic tenets of the religion.

    Faravahar (or Ferohar), one of the primary symbols of Zoroastrianism, believed to be the depiction of aFravashi (guardian spirit)

    In Zoroastrianism, Ahura Mazda is the beginning and the end, the creator of everything that can and cannot be seen, the Eternal, the Pure and the only Truth. In the Gathas, the most sacred texts of Zoroastrianism thought to have been composed by Zoroaster himself, the prophet acknowledged devotion to no other divinity besides Ahura Mazda.

    Daena (din in modern Persian) is the eternal Law, whose order was revealed to humanity through the Mathra-Spenta (“Holy Words”).Daena has been used to mean religion, faith, law, and even as a translation for the Hindu and Buddhist term Dharma. The latter is often interpreted as “duty” but can also mean social order, right conduct, or virtue. The metaphor of the “path” of Daena is represented in Zoroastrianism by the muslin undershirt Sudra, the “Good/Holy Path”, and the 72-thread Kushti girdle, the “Pathfinder”.

    Daena should not be confused with the fundamental principle asha (Vedic rta), the equitable law of the universe, which governed the life of the ancient Indo-Iranians. For these, asha was the course of everything observable—the motion of the planets and astral bodies; the progression of the seasons; and the pattern of daily nomadic herdsman life, governed by regular metronomic events such as sunrise and sunset. All physical creation (geti) was thus determined to run according to a master plan—inherent to Ahura Mazda—and violations of the order (druj) were violations against creation, and thus violations against Ahura Mazda. This concept of asha versus the druj should not be confused with the good-versus-evil battle evident in western religions, for although both forms of opposition express moral conflict, the asha versus druj concept is more systemic and less personal, representing, for instance, chaos (that opposes order); or “uncreation”, evident as natural decay (that opposes creation); or more simply “the lie” (that opposes truth and righteousness). Moreover, in his role as the one uncreated creator of all, Ahura Mazda is not the creator of druj, which is “nothing”, anti-creation, and thus (likewise) uncreated. Thus, in Zoroaster’s revelation, Ahura Mazda was perceived to be the creator of only the good (Yasna 31.4), the “supreme benevolent providence” (Yasna 43.11), that will ultimately triumph (Yasna 48.1).

    A Parsi Wedding, 1905

    In this schema of asha versus druj, mortal beings (both humans and animals) play a critical role, for they too are created. Here, in their lives, they are active participants in the conflict, and it is their duty to defend order, which would decay without counteraction. Throughout the Gathas, Zoroaster emphasizes deeds and actions, and accordingly asceticism is frowned upon in Zoroastrianism. In later Zoroastrianism, this was explained as fleeing from the experiences of life, which was the very purpose that the urvan (most commonly translated as the “soul”) was sent into the mortal world to collect. The avoidance of any aspect of life, which includes the avoidance of the pleasures of life, is a shirking of the responsibility and duty to oneself, one’s urvan, and one’s family and social obligations.

    Central to Zoroastrianism is the emphasis on moral choice, to choose the responsibility and duty for which one is in the mortal world, or to give up this duty and so facilitate the work of druj. Similarly, predestination is rejected in Zoroastrian teaching. Humans bear responsibility for all situations they are in, and in the way they act toward one another. Reward, punishment, happiness, and grief all depend on how individuals live their lives.

    Reference.

    References: Early India by Romila Thapar, The Wonder That Was India by A. L. Basham. See Also: Avestan and Vedic

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navjote

    Zoroastrianism Wiki.

  • Shri Ganeshaye Namah Inscription Baku Ateshgah Azerbaijan

    Hinduism was in existence in the Caucasus Region, Iran and Urals.

    The Ancient Kingdom was known as UttaraKuru.

    Before Zoroastrianism came to hold its sway in Persia Hinduism was practiced.

    I shall be posting on Zend-Avesta, the Scripture of Zoroastrians and The Vedas.

    The Temple at Baku Ateshgah Azerbaijan contains inscription stating with Shri Ganeshaya Namah, the traditional Hindu way of praying.

    An inscription from the Baku Atashgah. The first line begins: I salute Lord Ganesha (श्री गणेसाय नम), the second venerates the holy fire (जवालाजी, Jwala Ji).Image.jpg
    An inscription from the Baku Atashgah. The first line begins: I salute Lord Ganesha (श्री गणेसाय नम), the second venerates the holy fire (जवालाजी, Jwala Ji) and dates the inscription to Samvat 1802 (संवत १८०२, or 1745-46 CE). The Persian quatrain below is the sole Persian inscription on the temple[7] and, though ungrammatical,[7] also refers to the fire (آتش) and dates it to 1158 (١١٥٨) Hijri, which is also 1745 CE. “Atashgah-inscription-jackson1911” by A. V. Williams Jackson (1862 – 1937) – From A. V. Williams Jackson’s book “From Constantinople to the Home of Omar Khayyam”. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Atashgah-inscription-jackson1911.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Atashgah-inscription-jackson1911.jpg
    ”

     

    Sanskrit (above) and Persian (below) inscriptions from the Ateshgah (fire temple) of Baku, Azerbaijan. The Sanskrit inscription is a religious Hindu invocation in old Devanagari script while the Persian inscription is a couplet. The Sanskrit invocation begins with: I salute Lord Ganesh (श्री गणेशाय नमः), a standard beginning of most Hindu prayers. The second line venerates the holy fire Jwala Ji (जवालाजी). The inscription is dated to Vikram Samvat 1802 (संवत १८०२, i.e. 1745 CE). Unlike the several Sanskrit (written in Devanagari) and Punjabi (written in Gurmukhi) inscriptions in the temple, the Persian quatrain below is the sole Persian one and, though ungrammatical, also refers to the fire (آتش) and dates it to Hijri 1158 (١١٥٨, i.e. again 1745 CE). (From the source, “a quatrain in not very good Persian, the mistakes of which might have been made by a Hindu imperfectly acquainted with the language …”.)

    The Baku Ateshgah (from Persian: آتشگاه Atashgāh, Azerbaijani: Atəşgah or “Fire Temple” is an ancient Hindu castle-like religious temple dedicated to Jwala Ji in Surakhani,[2] a suburb of greater Baku, Azerbaijan, which was initially recognized as a Zoroastrian fire worship place. “Atash” (آتش) is the Persian word for fire. The pentagonal complex, which has a courtyard surrounded by cells for monks and a tetrapillar-altar in the middle, was built during the 17th and 18th centuries. It was abandoned after 1883[citation needed] when oil and gas plants were established in the vicinity, ending the flow of natural gas to the temple and extinguishing the holy fire.

    The Baku Ateshgah was a pilgrimage and philosophical centers of fire worshipers from Multan (now in Pakistan), who were involved in trade with the Caspian area via the famous “Grand Trunk Road”. The four holy elements of their belief were: ateshi (fire), badi (air), abi (water), and heki (earth). The temple ceased to be worshiped after 1883 with the installation of petroleum plants (industry) at Surakhany. The complex was turned into a museum in 1975. The annual number of visitors to the museum is 15,000.

    The Temple of Fire “Ateshgah” was nominated for List of World Heritage Sites, UNESCO in 1998 by Gulnara Mehmandarova — president of Azerbaijan Committee of ICOMOS—International Council on Monuments and Sites . It was also featured on an episode of Globe Trekker.’

     

    Azar’, meaning ‘fire’ in Old Persian, is derived from Avestan ‘atar’ which means ‘fire’.

    Avestan is  closely linked to Sanskrit. In Sanskrit, ‘agira’ (अगिर), ‘ashira’ (अशिर ), ‘agni’ ( अग्नि ), and ‘ushij’ (उशिज् ) all mean fire.

    The Avestan ‘atar’ derives from Sanskrit ‘agira’, just as the Latin ‘igneus’ derives from Sanskrit ‘agni’.

    The Avestan ‘Payegan’ which means ‘Protector’ derives from Sanskrit ‘palaka’ (पालक) which also means ‘protector’.

    The suffix ‘gana’ (गण) in Sanskrit means ‘a group’ or ‘troop’. ‘Palak-gaan’ in Sanskrit would therefore mean ‘protectors’ or ‘guardians’.

    In Rigveda ‘groups of gods’ were referred to as ‘devagana’ ( देवगण)

    The first syllable of ‘Zarath-ustra’ may well be a distortion of ‘harit’ meaning ‘golden’. In Persian ‘zarat’ also  means ‘golden’ and is derived from Sanskrit ‘harit’ via Avestan.

    The Sanskrit ‘ash’ (अष्) means ‘to shine’. ‘Zarathustra’ then means ‘one who shines like gold’.

     

    Citation.

    Baku Atashgah

  • Alexander, the Great, Not So Great’Iran Has Guts,Do WE?

    Persepolis all nations stair case. Notice the ...
    Persepolis all nations stair case. Notice the people carrying Norouz gifts for the king (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

    It is customary for the West‘s so called Historians to distort  History to suit their masters.

    You would think that the Persian Kings were barbarians, uncouth and sexually deprived if you go by the Film ‘300’(Is the name correct?
    All those who defeat them or the places they want to colonise are barbarians and the places as highly degenerate.

    Remember Catherine Mayo’s Book on India, which Mahatma Gandhi called as ‘Sanitary Inspectors Report?

    Not merely Alexander but all the Kings and the culture of India is portrayed as decaying, antediluvian, practices are animistic ,Religion is absolute non sense.

    These thoughts are passed on in a subtle way.

    For instance look at the way the Indians are made to look in the ‘Apocalypto‘.

    They look savages.

    At the end there is a subtle hint that Christianity  will deliver them.

    All Christian Missionaries embark on their Noble profession to emancipate the ‘heathen’

    The injustice meted out to Indian History and Culture is incalculable.

    Indian History has been distorted so much with the effect we doubt our sources(Indian)

    Iran Has guts to hit back,.

    Do we?

    (P.N.Oak used to publish a series of Articles on Indian History in  Babu Rao Patel’s Mother India. Can some body tell me whether it is available?)

    “But seen through Persian eyes, Alexander is far from “Great“.

    He razed Persepolis to the ground following a night of drunken excess at the goading of a Greek courtesan, ostensibly in revenge for the burning of the Acropolis by the Persian ruler Xerxes.

    Persians also condemn him for the widespread destruction he is thought to have encouraged to cultural and religious sites throughout the empire.

    The emblems of Zoroastrianism – the ancient religion of the Iranians – were attacked and destroyed. For the Zoroastrian priesthood in particular – the Magi – the destruction of their temples was nothing short of a calamity.

    The influence of Greek language and culture has helped establish a narrative in the West that Alexander’s invasion was the first of many Western crusades to bring civilisation and culture to the barbaric East.

    But in fact the Persian Empire was worth conquering not because it was in need of civilising but because it was the greatest empire the world had yet seen, extending from Central Asia to Libya.

    Persia was an enormously rich prize.

    Look closely and you will find ample evidence that the Greeks admired the Persian Empire and the emperors who ruled it.

    Much like the barbarians who conquered Rome, Alexander came to admire what he found, so much so that he was keen to take on the Persian mantle of the King of Kings.

    And Greek admiration for the Persians goes back much earlier than this.”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18803290

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