When I try to find relations between Biblical words and Sanskrit words, I don’t mean to say that the Jews were “Brahmins” or Hindus, or that Christians “copied everything” from India – because neither do I mean any such thing, nor is there any reason to think so.
We are interested in seeing how cultures, concepts, symbols, myths, and words are RELATED.
We are looking at the similarities and correspondences, and trying to find the relationships between various cultures and civilizations.
200 years of comparative studies have proven that there are many symbols, images, legends, and names, which are common, or astonishingly similar, across the world, all the way from the American continent, through Ireland, all the way to South East Asia.
The formal establishment is reluctant to admit any direct influence in most cases {except “Greek” & “Persian” influence on India, which is tomtomed brazenly, without a shred of proof}, which has provoked many Revisionists to come up with all sorts of theories.
It goes without saying that all ancient cultures and civilizations are related.
A common origin of all of them seems to be highly probable, but it’s impossible to decide which is the true origin of world culture.
The Out-of-Africa theory is a very good theory, but it doesn’t seem as if civilization itself sprouted first in Africa.
I am not convinced that world civilization came from Inner Africa via Egypt.
This is not a “racial” issue – as in, it has nothing to do with skin-colour.
The original creators of world civilization might well have been dark-skinned or even black-skinned people, but the civilization itself didn’t arise in Africa.
The civilization of Egypt is a largely a local development of that area {i.e. along the River Nile}, but there’s no convincing proof that the Egyptians were “originally” from Inner Africa.
They give no importance to the elephant, or the camel, or the horse.
This is itself an indication that they must’ve dwelt for centuries in their own peculiar environment, of which their distinctive culture was a natural outgrowth, because neither the elephant nor the camel nor the horse, figure in their important myth & symbol.
{Indians, on the other hand, always gave importance to the horse, beginning with the Ṛg Veda, down to the symbol of Hayagriva, Keśin, or the Vāḍavā-mukha.
Indeed, the importance of the horse seemed to have reduced in later times in India though they’re found amply depcited in the Manḍapas of all South Indian Temples.}
And yet, there are not only striking similarities between Egyptian & Indian cultures {take the lotus-lily symbolism, for instance}, but ancient authors mention constant influence of Egypt on surrounding areas, and vice versa.
The idea which many Indians are pursuing is that all world cultures were birthed in India.
This is a possibility, amongst others, and can’t be rejected prima facie.
Nobody should be discouraged from examining this possibility.
But we must exert due caution, and not make bombastic, unprovable statements which lead nowhere.
I am more inclined to think that world civilization was birthed in South East Asia, the Tropical Paradise par excellence – i.e. present Indonesia-Sumatra – then moved to India {some branches simultaneously moving towards China}, then moved to Persia-Elam, then to Mesopotamia, and thence to the West.
Eden is in the East.
This is a very simplified version of something which would’ve been a very complex process, taking place over several centuries, and over hundreds of excursions & migrations.
This would, of course, reverse much of what the establishment has been telling us, especially the ridiculous “Greek” empire of Alexander of Macedonia.
That entire thing is one farcical cock-and-bull story.
The Hindutva intellectuals would do well to concentrate on debunking the myth of “Greek” influence on – anything.
The exact opposite is the truth: Greek culture was the PENULTIMATE of the great, ancient cultures – the last being the Roman, of course.
Greeks certainly did not get the peacock from the Congo Basin – they got it from India, and got it via the Middle East.
Egyptians may have known peacocks, but like the camel, elephant & horse, this magnificent bird wasn’t important to them.
It was, however, very important to both the Indians & the Greeks.
The same applies to the tiger, which is not found in Egypt, but is continually associated with the Greek Dionysus.
The same applies to the horse, which, despite being so crucial in the life of a civilization, is so curiously unimportant to the Egyptians {on the contrary, think of the Greek Centaurs & Indian Gandharvas – though probably the word “Centaur” doesn’t have the same origins as the word “Gandharva” }.
The same applies to the rooster or chicken, which was also taken to the West from/via India.
All this indicates that Greek culture was inspired primarily by India, not by Egypt, though a very strong Egyptian influence is indubitable, and attested by many ancient sources.
A very sticky point in this whole scenario is the constant confusion between Egypt-Ethiopia and India.
How could the Ancients keep confusing the two disparate geographical regions, when they’re so distant?
How could you possibly confuse the Nile with the Ganges?
There seems to be some big cover-up going on out here.
This has not been done so much by the Ancients, as by the Medievals.
And the Ancient Greeks – both vain & not-so-bright – have contributed their own share of fabrications to the issue, to aggrandize themselves.
It doesn’t help that, despite so many differences, there are uncanny similarities between India and Egypt.
For one, I still can’t believe that nobody has bothered to connect the name of Horus, i.e. Har or Heru, with the Sanskrit names Hari {mostly for Viṣṇu} & Hara {mostly for Shiva}.
These, in turn, are cognate with Hera and Rhea, though there may be a link with the word Hrī.
In India, Hari is also used for the Sun, and for Indra.
Hari and Hara are the two most important gods in India.
Har or Heru is the single most important god in Egypt.
And yet, nobody has bothered to connect the three!
Horus is the Greek rendition of Har/Heru, and is symbolized by the Falcon.
As it turns out, in India Hari is also used to denote Suparṇa, i.e. the mighty bird of the Vedas, who is also Garuḍa – and, if Monier-Williams is correct, is also used for Garuḍa’s son.
Suparṇa itself maybe the Sun or the Moon.
{The fluidity between “u” & “i” doesn’t seem to be a problem to me.
Many of these vowel-transitions take place.
In Eastern India, for instance, “u” tends to replace “i”.
Krishna becomes Krushna {
Rishi becomes Rushi.
Arvind becomes Aurobindo.
Srishti becomes Srusthi.
Hari becomes Hori.
Shiv becomes Sibo.
The English “bottle” becomes “
The English “Doctor” becomes “dākt
That “Hari” or “Hara” becomes
What about Osiris?
This is difficult, because of the infinite number of possibilities, and the utter primevality & obscurity of the word.
I can only passingly mention some ideas that have come to mind, and not necessarily mine.
The Egyptian name is Asar, and nobody has been able to figure out the origin or precise meaning of the word.
It’s highly probable that this is the same as Asura, which became Ahura with the Persians.
Ashur is also an important Bablyonian deity, and it would make perfect sense that such an important term was used everywhere, with minor variations over time & age.
It is from this Ashur that we get the word Assyria.
This in turn may be related to the word “Syria” which is probably the same as the Sanskrit “Sura” {the opposite of “Asura”} – or maybe even the Sanskrit “Sūrya”.
{Formally, all words may have distinct roots, or similar – at this distance of time,it’s impossible to say.
We’re told that “Asura” is derived from “Sura” – i.e. Asuras are Not-Suras, or Anti-Suras, i.e. enemies of the Gods – but “Asura” is independently derived from the root “asu”.
So the actual origin of the word “asura” is actually lost in the mists of time.}
There is also a possible connection with words like śūra & sūri.
The similarity/origin of Asar with/in Asura, Ahura,
Ashur – written often as Assur – is also a son of Shem, and a grandson of Noah.
Unsurprisingly, the Biblical Ashur is said to be the founder of the Assyrians.
Osiris is simply Ashur, Assur, Ahura, and Asura.
It should be remembered that “Asura” is not necessarily a negative term in India.
In the Ṛg Veda, almost all the important Devas are called Asura at some point or the other.
This Asura-Ahura-Ashur-Asar
Ashera is the wife of Jehovah i.e. Adonai, and we see that
Asher’s wife is Adon – in other words, he’s the same as Adonis = Adonai.
{The probable connection of Adon-Adonai-Adonis, with Aten-Athan-Athena-Athens
Those who want to keep up the fiction of “Indo-European”, “Semitic”, “Egyptian”, “Dravidian” distinct, will always dismiss these connections.}
But what if Asar is derived from the consonantal-cluster SR – which goes into words like Sarai, Śrī, Śiras etc. {
What if Osiris is derived from the Sanskrit usra or usrā or usri
This is just one of a million points that may be brought forth, to show that Egypt and India appear to be, if anything, two halves of one whole.
The same ambiguity and obscurity which surrounds Osiris also surrounds Isis.
Rather, the word is even more ambiguous & mysterious.
What is the original of the word “Isis”?
She seems to be originally called “Ast” – the “t” being the feminine terminal.
So she should be “As”.
May this be linked to the Sanskrit “as” which means “to cast, to throw” – in other words, to place, to put down, to set down, including the sense of to sit down, or to settle down?
Could “Ast” be actually related to the Sanskrit word “asta” – or more likely, “sad”?
The connotation in all these words is to set, to sit, to settle – hence, her connection with the throne or seat or “cathedra”.
The throne or seat is the locus of sitting, of setting down, of settlng.
This is merely a prod in a certain direction.
It is also possible that “As” is common between “As-ar” and “As-t”.
We’re also told that Isis was also known as “Wusa”.
Similarly, Osiris was also known as something like “Wasar” {there seem to be many permutations}.
Would this connect them to
« the Vedic Uṣā or Uṣas,
« the Greek Eos, and
« the Hebrew Esh
– a connection with Fire, and the Dawn?
Yes, if our theory of the Asiatic origins of human civilization is correct, not only would the Egyptian be a much later civilization, but the intermediary civilizations would have a deeper influence on the Greek & Hebrew.
But we’re not talking about a mechanical, clockwork-like progression of cultures.
People migrating out of Indonesia or India might have fanned out in various directions, settled down in various places in all three continents over millennia, but the Egyptian civilization might well have preceded, say, the Persian.
The migration of peoples may not be concomitant with the development of culture.
But the influence of the Far East remained – there was always a common thread underlying all cultures, running all the way from the Far East {rather, South-East Asia} all the way to the Far West.
Yet, it’s not as if individual societies didn’t adapt & integrate their new, unique environments into their emerging cultures, or develop their own distinctive identity, or should be charged with “copying” childishly.
Coming back to the confusion between India & Egypt, it does have some bearing on the emergencr of Judaism.
Judaism is firmly traceable to the figure of Moses, who drew out the Israelites from “Egypt”.
But is this “Egypt” the same as the Nile-Delta civilization – or is Egypt actually India?
Without speculating wildly about this muddled, obscure & sensitive topic, let me just say that I’ve often suspected that there’s a deep-rooted connection between India & Israel, which has been covered up by the later editors of the Old Testament.
The 3 possible locations in the Bible which can be assigned either to India and/or to South East Asia are:-
1. The Garden of Eden.
2. Shinar, or the place where the Tower of Babel was built.
3. Egypt, where Joseph went, and out of which Moses brought the Israelites.
All three places are associated with a catastrophe after a certain period of prosperity, and a migration of the Israelites.
Of these, the Garden of Eden is, in my opinion, UNDOUBTEDLY in the Indonesian region.
It fits the descriptions of a tropical paradise full of Oriental animals {yes, even African} fully – and this has been recognized by many of the great painters of Europe, who weren’t necessarily reliable in their depictions {think of Adam & Eve being the most splendid specimen of the Caucasian race}.
It is where human civilization originated, way, WAY before the cliched date of 3,200 BCE in Sumeria or Egypt.
If the Bible is to be taken literally, and Eden is in Indonesia, then the place where the Tower of Babel stood, would likely be India.
Alternatively, if Babel is in the Middle East, the builders of the Tower came from India, or at any rate, from somewhere in present-day Pakistan-Afghanistan, or at best Persia {Genesis 11.1-4}:
“Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.
And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly.”
... Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.””
It’s not very clear to me precisely who migrated from the East.
We are told previously in the Book of Genesis, that Cain went and settled in the East of Eden.
Does anybody really know where is this land of “Nod”?
At any rate, the Cainites must have originated in the East of Eden.
So civilization was begun by Cain – in the East.
May we speculate whether the “Sons of God” who mated with the “Daughters of Men”, and the Nephilim, originated in this Eastern region too?
But the migration we’re referring to, right now, pertains to the Post-Flood era.
The whole “Tower of Babel” story seems to be a curious insertion in the description of the genealogies of the descendants of Noah.
At any rate, we’re told, the builders came from the East.
We’re also told that the mastermind behind the construction of the tower was Nimrod.
Nimrod, being the grandson of Ham, would be dark-skinned, or black-skinned.
To the extent this has any historical value, it simply reinforces the Far Eastern connection.
The obvious conclusion is that Ham and/or his immediate descendants went to the East of “Ararat” – otherwise how could they come to Shinar from “the East”?
The phraseology of the Bible is so cryptic that it has led to interminable confusion.
To me it seems that Nimrod mirrors Cain, just like Noah mirrors Adam.
Cain is said to settle down in the East of Eden.
Ham also must’ve settled down in the east of the place where Noah’s Ark set.
Nimrod, being his grandson, came from this eastern region, and became the ringleader of the rebels at Babylon.
There’s a pattern here of a to-and-fro movement here: the Cainites & Nimrodites both came from the East, but their ancestors {Cain & Ham-Cush} came from the Middle-East {“Eden” or “Armenia”}.
Of course, the authors tweaked the information, making it look like Cain went Eastwards from a comparatively western region – and, apparently, so did the Hamite-Cushite family.
The more likely scenario is that they all simply originated in the East.
These myths have multiple layers of meaning & can be interpreted in various ways, but if one were to try to decode any of these myths as containing a modicum of history, Noah’s “Ark” settled somewhere in the Himalayas {as in Nepal or Tibet}, and his descendants migrated westwards, say into the Kashmir-Punjab region.
The Bible actually doesn’t specify who came from the East: we assume that some of Nimrod’s ancestors {he’s not very distant from Noah} – FIRST went to the “East” and then retreated westward to Shinar.
But it’s possible that the whole family of Noah came from the East.
Out of all these west-migrating descendants, the rebels congregated at Shinar.
Shinar may be the same as Sineru, i.e. Sumeru i.e. the Mount Meru.
Hence, Shinar may be the same as “Sumeria”, which is nothing but the Indian-Sanskrit Sumeru.
Of all identifiable geographical regions, this should be placed to the North or North-West of India {Meru being to the north of the Himalayas}, around the Pamir region – probably a little south, around the Hindu Kush.
Who knows if the term “Kush” in “Hindu Kush”, is actually related to the Biblical “Cush”, the father of Nimrod!
What if the Hindu Kush is the seat of the “Cushites”?
{For that matter, where was Cush born?
Certainly not in Ethiopia... and yet, why is Cush called an Ethiopian?
Nimrod is also called an “Aethiopian”... but his whole life was in the Middle East, in Babylonia.
So why is he called Ethiopian?
There were no “Aethiopians” in Cush or Nimrod’s time.
If we say that African Ethiopians are the descendants of Cush, why would the ancestors be known by one section of the descendants?
The proper answer is that Cush & Nimrod are called “Aethiopians” not because their descendants were in Ethiopia, but because THEY were in “Ethiopia”, which was originally in Asia.
The later descendants were called Ethiopians because their land of origin was called Ethiopia, which was in Asia ... they were called Cushites because the land of Cush was also in Asia.}
The Fall of the Tower of Babel is synonymous with the collapse of Mount Su-Meru – though this can’t be taken literally – the Tower being a replica & representative of the mountain.
Is it possible that a real mountain did fall?
Who knows!
At any rate, there was some kind of great cataclysm, and “Tower” & “Mountain” can be interpreted in many ways.
{Meru & Sumeru can be identical or distinct – but mostly they’re identical.
Sumeru is the great golden mountain & the abode of the gods in both Hinduism & Buddhism.
We have seen that in Egyptian, the word “meru” means “pyramid”.}
I find it very difficult to attempt to interpret ANY of these legends historically.
One can see a perfect allegory out here.
I simply do not believe in Noah’s Ark.
{Blavatsky was right in identifying Noah’s Ark with the Moon.
The Ark lands in Armenia which has been rightly understood at one time as Ar-Minni, or Har-Muna, or Ar-Men or the Mountain of the Moon – Mana or Manas being the Moon-Mind in the Vedas.
The mountain Ararat is also known as Masis – which also fits because the Sanskrit word for the Moon is Mās or Māsa.
If the word “Armenia” is read as Ar-Manya, this is cognate with the Vedic Manyu, which is nothing but the Manas.
The people from that area were known as Minyans – who found their way to Greece, and came into conflict with Herakles.
“Ararat” could be read as “Ar-Arat” – and “ārata” in Sanskrit means “stopped, ceased, quiet” – i.e. from the stopping & cessation & subsiding of the Flood.}
And yet, if at least some historical mysteries have been written into ancient myths & legends, we can try to extract at least some sense, tentatively, cautiously.
I also find it difficult to believe how people cannot see the relation between SHINAR and SINERU, which is another word for SUMERU i.e. MERU.
As it turns out, Nimrod & Abraham knew each other.
They were contemporaries, if not of the same generation or age.
In other words, Abraham’s migration from “Ur” may have something to do with the dispersal of people after the collapse of the Tower of Babel.
This “Ur” would be more or less the same as “Shinar” i.e. Sineru i.e. S
Sumeria must have been named after the Mount Meru.
All this would lend credence to a famous alleged claim of Aristotle that Jews came from India.
It would also lend credence to the reason why Josephus said that the River Pishon is the River Ganges.
Why on Earth would Josephus say such a thing?
He was a learned, erudite man from an elite, noble family – why make such a claim at all?
That Pishon has been identified with the Nile means nothing: the “Nile” is the Ganges, or a mirror-image of it.
On the other hand,
« Pishon {flowing around the land of Havilah} has also been identified with the Indus, and
« Gehon {around the land of Cush} with the Nile.
{This also shows that there was a “Cush” at the time of Adam, long before Noah & Ham.
Also note that Noah’s son Ham has a son, Cush, who has a son named Havilah.
At the same time, Noah’s other son Shem also has a descendant named Havilah.
At the same time, we must admit that if Pishon is the Ganges, or the Indus, and Gehon is the Nile, as Josephus says in his Antiquities of the Jews {1.3}, then the Garden of Eden includes the entire region stretching all the way from the area of the Indus Valley or the Gangetic Plain {depending on how you define Pishon} to the Nile.
This would be interesting in itself, and I’m not sure why nobody has pursued this line of thought.
The “Garden” of Eden wasn’t literally a garden, but a kind of Empire, with modern-day Egypt & India at its 2 ends – or, what’s more likely, the two Ethiopias at its 2 ends.
Whether Pishon is the Ganges or the Indus, “Havilah” seems to indicate the Indian subcontinent, or a region immediately contiguous to it.}
As people migrated from India, they took many words & concepts & myths, especially the names, with them, but over centuries, these underwent change.
I sometimes wonder if Gehon isn’t somehow related to Jahnu – and hence, Jāhnvī, which is a name of the Ganges.
Nile, as I wrote in an earlier blog-post, seems to be derived from a cluster of Sanskrit words nīra, nara, nāra, possibly nīla, etc.
The most likely connection is with Sk. nīra, which simply means “water”.
The androgynous god of the Nile was called Hep or Hāp or Hāpi.
He shares this name with one of the 4 sons of Horus, i.e. the Baboon-headed Hapi.
This name seems cognate with the Egyptian word for the monkey or ape – kaf or kafi – which in turn is IDENTICAL with the Indian-Sanskrit word for monkey, kapi.
Kapi does not just mean “monkey”, but is an important name or epithet in India.
It is used for Viṣṇu-Kṛṣṇa, and often in the compound-word Vṛṣā-Kapi.
A related important word is Kapila.
It may be noted that Hep/ Hāp/Hāpi is not merely the Nile-God, but apparently, a much more complex deity with multifarious conceptions written into his figure.
But he is nevertheless somehow tied to the element of water.
Infact “Hep/Hap” is not specifically “Egyptian”.
It should be understood that there is a rather baffling, mysterious correlation between the word for “ape” {Sk. kapi, Eg. kaf} and the word for “water”.
How and why isn’t very clear to me.
But I think the name of the Nile-God is related to these words.
In Sanskrit,
« “ka” means “water”, and
« “pi” means “to swell, overflow, be exuberant, abound, increase, grow”.
Thus, “kapi” can mean one who makes the waters swell, or flow, or flood over.
This would perfectly fit the God of the Nile, which gave a fresh lease of life to Egypt every year by its annual innundation..
The great giver of moisture, of rain, of water, would be “Kapi”.
Similarly, “pa” meaning “lord, protector” etc., “kapa” would mean “the Lord of the Waters”.
If I understand correctly, Varuṇa is known as Kapa.
Gerald Massey, who wants to prove that everything came from Inner Africa through Egypt – does help those who want to prove that everything came from SE Asia through India:
“Max Muller has shown how the fleets of Solomon must have been to India to obtain the monkeys, on account of the name, which is Qoph, because in Sanskrit the ape is Kapi.
“Qoph,” he says, is foreign in Hebrew, and the land in which that word is
indigenous must be the Ophir of the Bible ; therefore it was India.
“Kafi” is the original word, and it is Egyptian;
{Massey provides absolutely no proof – nor can he – nor can anybody – that the original has to be Egyptian.}
Kepi in Persian ;
Kapi in Sanskrit;
Kepos in Greek;
Ape in English.
The Kafi, a monkey of a peculiar kind, appears in the tombs of the Fourth
Dynasty as early as the time of Kufu, with the name of Kafi written over it, about 3733 B.C.
It is the dog-headed ape, or Cynocephalus, made so much of in Egypt that it was a co-personification with Taht, of the Word (Logos) itself.
It represented the moon & periodicity in its feminine phase, and was therefore a feminine Logos.
Jamblichus tells us this Cynocephalus was honoured in the temples on account of certain changes it underwent in common with the moon, by which time could be reckoned!
The truth is, the Kaf is a menstruating monkey, and suffered eclipse (Khab) periodically like the moon, and was adopted in the Mysteries, where it took the place of the Q’deshoth, the human demonstrators of primary facts in nature.
This Kaf belongs solely to Africa, which is Kafrica, the Ka, inner land, of the Kaf, or Af (born of) the first (Ap)land, and therefore Ophir was in Africa.”
For once, the Anti-Indian Muller makes much more sense than Massey.
All the different articles of information have to be taken together, to make an intelligent guess where did the ships come from.
“For the king had the ships of Tarshish at sea with Hiram’s fleet, and once every three years the ships of Tarshish would arrive bearing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.” – Kings 10.22
The fact that the trade took place in ships – that it took place once in 3 years – that ivory, peacocks, monkeys, gold, silver and sandalwood all were obtained in said trade – all put together points emphatically to India or South East Asia.
India is the more likely candidate, because why would ships go all the way to SE Asia, and not get all these objects from India which is closer?
Taprobane, which might be the same as Sri Lanka, may also be Ophir.
The “kapi” in India is nothing but the “vānara”, which is so important in one of its definitive epics, the Rāmāyaṇa, and particularly the figure of Hanumān.
All the gods incarnate in the monkey-race, which elevates many of them to the figure of demi-gods, and many of them are described in glowing terms, like great heroes.
Sugrīva is the son of the Sun-god, and his brother Vālī is the son of Indra.
{The moral equation is reversed in the Mahābhārata, where the two adversaries, Arjuna and Karṇa, are the sons of Indra and Sūrya respectivel
Since the Son replicates or represents the Father, basically
« the monkey Vālī is Indra,
« the monkey Sugrīva is Sūrya,
« the monkey Hanumān is Vāyu {the Wind-God},
« the monkey Nala is Viśvakarmā {the carpenter/architect of the universe},
« the monkey Tāra is Bṛhaspati, etc.
All these are the most ancient Vedic deities.
Vāyu being Prāṇa, the importance of Hanumān cannot be underestimated.
Who said the monkey – i.e. the “kapi” – is not important in India!
The interrelation between the monkey {“kapi”} and water is obscure.
But it exists.
It may be totally irrelevant that the English word “ape” is astonishingly close to the Sanskrit word for water “ap” or “āpa”.
As it turns out, the English “ape” is traceable to the Indo-European “hep” which means “water, body of water” – and which is identical to the Egyptian words for the Nile, i.e. “hep/hāp/hāpi”, which, like nīra, also simply means “water”.
The Egyptian variants are:-
« agab: the Nile, water-flood
« agb: the celestial waters, flood, stream, any large mass of water
« agep: rainstorm, tempest, f
« Heba: Inundation god
« heb-t: stream, flood
« hebb-t: deep water, flood,
« Hebb-t: a title of the Nile god
« qebhu: cool water, libation, the watery mass of heaven, the celestial abyss
« qebhu: the lands flooded by the Nile, the great deep of heaven
« qebh: pond or lake with waterfowl
« gep: to rain, to flood
« gep: flood, storm, inundati
« gef: ape, monkey
« Geb: God the Celestian Ocean
« geb: the celestial ocean or the Nile
« gafi: long-tailed monkey, the pratas monkey, ape (cercopithecus)
« Gaf: the Ape-god—a form of Rā
As written in a previous blog, in Egyptian, water, or a body of water is also known as “Mer” – and this is found in Indo-European languages too.
In India, the Sanskrit “mīra” means “ocean”.
All these connect to the names Meri, Merti, Marta, Mary
The “bitterness” indicated by the word “Miriyam” derives from the bitterness of the salt water of the ocean.
But how did the Ancients connect the concept of Ape/Monkey to that of Water?
In India, Viṣṇu in his Boar-incarnation is known as Kapi because he lifted up the Earth from within the Ocean, i.e. the Waters {ka} {Shankara Bhāshya on Viṣṇu Sahasranāma No. 101}.
The Sun is known as Kapi because It drinks up {pi} all moisture & all water {ka}, through its heat, or its rays {Shankara Bhāshya on Viṣṇu Sahasranāma No. 898}.
So there is always a relation of the consonantal cluster kp/hp with Water {“ka”}, but how it links up with the Monkey is something of a mystery.
Massey sure does connect the animal to Air/Breath {Hanumān being the offspring of Vāyu i.e. Prāṇa}.
The Sanskrit “kapi” means elephant
{Interestingly, the Cyno-cephalus in Egypt was the baboon, i.e. an ape with a dog-like head, but which was probably just a baboon earlier, though myths of dog-headed races prevailed in the Ancient world.
Sk. kapi meaning both dog & monkey – it’s interesting to see this mythical figure of the dog-headed ape.
It should also be pointed out that hab, hap, heb, hep, are Egyptian words for the ibis and the ibis-god, whom I take to be Thoth.
The word “ibis” itself comes from this “heb, hep” etc.
It’s curious then, that Thoth is also associated with the dog-headed baboon, or the baboon, and with the Greek Hermes, who is also associated with the dog.
One of the meanings of the Sanskrit word kapila is dog.
The inhabitants of the Egyptian city called Hermopolis {the city of Hermes} by the Greeks, are said to have worshipped the Cynocephalus, by which is meant Thoth-Hermes.
Strabo also says that in the city of Babylon {? near Memphis} – by which Babout {?} is meant – the “cephus” is worshipped, “which has the countenance of a satyr, and in other respects is between a dog & a bear; it is bred in Ethiopia” – Book 17, Geography.}
Did “kapi”mean horse at one point?
Be that as it may, there has always been a connection between Water and the Horse – and I suspect the words “Hippos”, “Hippa”, “
Hence we get words like “hippo-potamus” & “hippo-crene”.
This is a mere suspicion, and I mention it for what it’s worth.
Having accepted the limitations of data, thus, the name of the Nile-God Hep/Hāp/Hāpi ties in at one end to
· the monkey-ape-baboon {Sk. kapi; Hebrew qoph; Eg. kaf, gef, gaf etc.},
and at the other end, to
· the Greek words “Hippos”, “Hippa”, “
I doubt if the concept of the “horse” was derived from the concept of “monkey” – but both may be denoted by the same word {for e.g. Sanskrit “hari”} – and both may be connected to the element of water.
The horse is definitely associated with “water”.
The point is the interconnectedness between the Indian and Egyptian cultures, which is mostly not recognized.
Massey associates the Egyptian Kaf-Hapi with the Greek Kepheus, but it’s not possible to get into all the linguistic connections & probabilities.
That this Kepheus is the King of Ethiopia is significant: but what is more significant is that he is said to be the son of Belus or Agenor or Phoenix
This is one indication that the Ethiopians came into Africa from the Middle East.
His brothers are “Aegyptus” and “Danaos”.
The first obviously refers to Egypt.
The second, Danaos, the king of Libya, is without doubt connected to the Dānavas of India, and the “Danaan” of Ireland.
The idea is that Egyptian, Libyan and Ethiopian people came from the Phoenician – not the other way round.
Cepheus’s son-in-law is the famous “Greek” hero Perseus.
Perseus is no Greek: he is just a later variant of Indra & Marduk.
Perseus is the ancestor of the Persians.
His own mother is Danae, a word suspiciously cognate with “Danaos”, the Libyan brother of the Egyptian Aegyptus & the Ethiopian Cepheus.
She appears to be similar to Danu, the mother of the Dānavas in India, and the putative Goddess of the Tuatha de Danann.
In other words, the myth indicates that the Persians originated from the Dānavas of India, which is reinforced by the peculiar inversions which took place in Zoroastrianism vis-a-vis Hindu-Vedic culture {Asura becomes Ahura, the god of the Persians – and Deva becomes the evil being, Daeva}.
Perseus’s name seems to come from the Sanskrit word “parśu” or “paraśu”, as we use in the name Parśu-rāma.
The whole story of Perseus & Andromeda – like all the fabrications of the Greeks – has nothing to do with “Greece”, and everything to do with Asians & Africans.
Point is, Ceph-eus may be related to Kapi/Kaf/Kef/Hap/Hapi.
But there can be many other derivations too.
I would link Cepheus with Cephas or Ke
· the Sanskrit “kapāla” {“the skull, cranium, skull-bone”} and
· the Greek “kephalos” {“head”},
· the Latin “caput” {“head”},
rather than the dog-monkey, or water-related, kapi/kaf/hapi.
It is possible that the dog-monkey kapi/hapi
The Semitic kefa might also be linked to the Latin cippus.
Of all that, later.
Oh, and talking about St. Peter, I can’t imagine how smugly modern experts reject the connection between “peter” and the Pali “patthara” – which ultimately comes from the Sanskrit “prastara”– all meaning “rock” or “stone” – “And I also say to you that you are Petros, and on this rock {petra} I will build My church” {Matthew 16.18}.
These are merely instances to show that there are peculiar relations between Hebrew/Biblical words/names/concepts and the Indian-Sanskrit, and part of this seems to have been covered up, and RE-INTERPRETED as influence from “Egypt”.
“And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.” – Revelation 11.8 {italics mine}
OBVIOUSLY, Jesus was not crucified in Egypt – so why does the Book of Revelation say so?
Because the word is used symbolically, not literally.
The Bible even specifies it is not literal.
The same has been done with Greece, though the relations between Greece & India have been partially recognized, but distorted beyond recognition.
We’re constantly told that the Hebrews got this from Egypt, the Greeks got that from Egypt.
Undoubtedly, there was Egyptian influence – because Egypt came before both the Hebrews & the Hellenes, and was much closer to Palestine & Greece – but a lot of bits & pieces of information make me suspect that quite often, if not in every case, “Egypt” means “India”.
I do not hesitate to quote Gerald Massey, who is, strictly-speaking, a dogged adversary of Indian or Far Eastern origins of world civilization, and a champion of the Out-of-Africa theory, because he gives the rarest information in his mania to prove that everything Indian came from Africa, whereas the same bulk of information can be used to prove the exact opposite:
“When Eustathius states that the Ethiopians came from India he means the African India.
{I’m not aware of the context, but Massey is wrong.}
“When Claudius Claudianus, the last of the Latin classic poets, at the end of the fourth century, speaks of the “India, which is painted on Jewish veils,” the India meant is...Ethiopic and not Asiatic.
{Why? What for?
There is ZERO reason for a Latin poet in the 4th century to confuse Ethiopia & India: both lands, both civilizations, were well-known to the Europeans for over a 1,000 years, and there would be absolutely no cause for confusion.}
“Tacitus says many considered the Jews to be the progeny of the... Ethiopians, but they would mean the Indians of Africa.
{Rubbish!
Add the statement of Tacitus, to that of Eustathius, and that of Aristotle – and Josephus’s claim that the Pishon is the Ganges – and you’ll see that ALL POINT AT the origins in India.}
“India in other classical writers is a name of ...-Ethiopia or the land of Kush.
Virgil describes the Nile as coming from the land of the coloured lndians, and Diodorus calls the black Osiris an Indian by extraction.
{The Ancient World is constantly hinting at Indian origins, but Massey, and the entire intellectual elite resolutely refuses to see it!}”.
The passage of Tacitus is worth quoting {Histories 5.2-5}:
“The Jews are said to have been refugees from the island of Crete who settled in the remotest corner of Libya in the days when, according to the story, Saturn was driven from his throne by the aggression of Jupiter.
This is a deduction from the name Judaei by which they became known: the word is to be regarded as a barbarous lengthening of Idaei, the name of the people dwelling around the famous Mount Ida in Crete.
A few authorities hold that in the reign of Isis the surplus population of Egypt was evacuated to neighboring lands under the leadership of Hierosolymus and Judas.
Many assure us that the Jews are descended from those Ethiopians who were driven by fear and hatred to emigrate from their home country when Cepheus was king.
There are some who say that a motley collection of landless Assyrians occupied a part of Egypt, and then built cities of their own, inhabiting the lands of the Hebrews and the nearer parts of Syria.”
It is possible that all the accounts are correct, and are saying the same thing in different ways – or giving out different parts of one story, in bits & pieces.
Let me indicate the most obvious scenario.
Apparently, the Hebrews were in Libya, Egypt as well as Ethiopia, which is curious since these are precisely the 3 realms indicated by the mythical brothers related to the Perseus legend: Danaos, Ae
Their father is Belus, who is the King of Egypt – which indicates that the Middle Eastern “Cult” of Bel/Baal – his worshippers, at any rate – found its/their way to Egypt in Pre-historic times.
There was no King Belus in Egypt, as far as I know.
The term is quintessentially Middle-Eastern, Mesopotamian – and is both abstract & a veil laid over real history.
This is a later mythical interpretation of very ancient events, but some core ideas may be extracted.
All these characters & their lives pertain {at a thickly veiled historical level} to various nations or people who migrated, fought, intermarried & settled & flourished at different places at different times.
{The mother of Cepheus, Aegyptus & Danaos
In other words, the Asiatic migrants coming in from Phoenicia, divided into 3 distinct groups in Egypt: one part staying in Egypt, the other two expanding to Libya & Ethiopia.}
This Bel or Baal is nothing but Saturn.
This Saturn is Kronos.
It should be remembered that Kronos also warred against his father, Uranus, – just like Zeus warred against him.
At times, Bel is Zeus or Jupiter
He represents both the deity worshipped by these people, as well as their leaders, and the communities themselves.
Bal-Belus-Kronos-Saturn is the mythical founder of Babylon.
Thus, Nimrod refers to Bel.
This Bel becomes the King of Egypt, marries the daughter of Nilus, and becomes of Danaos, Aegyptus and Cepheus – in other words, Libyans, Egyptians, & Ethiopians.
His wife is Rhea, who is the same as Cybele, and the mysterious “Semiramis”.
{All this ties in loosely, because Semiramis supposed to be associated with fervent building activity in Babylon.
Strictly speaking, she was the consort of Ninus, the founder of Nineveh – which, according to the Bible, was either built by Assur/Ashur, or Nimrod {Nimrod himself being “assur/ashur”}.
Ninus is said to be the son of Bel, but these are minor variations which are omnipresent in the inextricable tangle of Middle-Eastern myths.
It doesn’t make any substantial difference, except that Bel founded Babylon and his son Ninus founded Nineveh.
By “Son” is that meant an offshoot of the cult of Bel from Babylon, founded the Assyrian city.
At any rate, Ninus has striking similarities with Nimrod {= Bel/Belus/Kronos/Saturn }}
All this means amounts to the notion that these people, or cults, or groups of people, spread out from Mesopotamian region {Babylonia, at the very least} down to Ethiopia, and to Libya.
These are the people from which the Hebrews & the Hellenes came, for which a lot other proof can be adduced.
Saturn = Kronos = Bel/Baal/Bol
He is also the same as
« the Asura called Bala/Vala
and related to
« Bala-Rāma of the Kṛṣṇa mythos.
Other links are to
« the monkey-king Vāli, the son of Indra & half-brother of Sugrīva, and
« the Asura King Bali,
but I think Bala of the Ṛg Veda and Bala, the brother of Kṛṣṇa, are the real counterparts in India.
The so-called “expulsion” of Saturn and his subsequent “migration” is akin to the myths of the loss of the Garden of Eden, the Flood of Noah, the Fall of the Tower of Babel, etc.
These three events in the Bible – in particular – are all mirror-images, or reflections, or cyclical-repetitions, of each other.
The Hebrews, or rather, their ancestors {Gibborim?} – coming from the direction of Assyria {Asura} & Babylonia – might have moved to all these areas in Africa at a very ancient date – and had one of their centres in Crete.
They obviously didn’t originate in the island Crete.
The Phrygian Crete was the older center.
This cult came to Crete from Phrygia, i.e. in modern-day Turkey.
If the earliest Hebrews were associated with Mount Ida in Crete, it reinforces their connection with Kronos-Saturn-Bel because Mount Ida was the center of the worship of Rhea {the consort of Kronos} in the island – and Cybele in the Phrygian Crete.
This shows the presence of carnal, orgiastic Mother-Goddess worship amongst them, which persisted throughout the ages of the Prophets, and were so very difficult to be expugned.
When I say they moved into Africa, I don’t mean everybody altogether left the Levant: some groups branched out, and different clusters of people settled down in Anatolia, Egypt, Libya, and further south – while forming a sort of belt that went all the way from Ethiopia & Libya to Phoenicia, Canaan, Palestine, etc.
There seems to be constant communication & commerce between these various groups, but each broad group may be said to have eventually formed a distinct culture & mythos of its own.
They’re all deeply related, but independent in themselves.
At a later date, a splinter faction moved out of Africa, to become the later Israelites.
This whole movement, from Asia to Africa, and then out of Africa into Asia, may be indicated by the tales of Joseph {who settled down in Egypt} and Moses {who brought them out of Egypt into the Canaanite area}.
Well, sticking to the fundamental mainstream ideas, this is at least one plausible interpretation.
Some of these people went to Greece, and, amalgamating with the mysterious Pelasgians, formed what we know as “Greek” culture.
It is not as if all the people in Egypt or Greece came en masse from the East.
But the great civilizers did.
The Hebrews are actually not very distinct from the Greeks, as the modern intellectual elite would like to prove.
At their root, they’re all the same folks, split into various groups, over centuries, over various regions.
One indication of this is the character of Inachus, who seems pretty much at the top of the family tree in these “Greek” legends.
Inachus may be the same as the Hebrew Enoch, the son of Cain.
And as far as I’m concerned, he came from the Middle East via Egypt.
This also explains – at least partially – the rampant confusion between Phoenicia, Egypt, Syria, Assyria, Babylonia, Phrygia, Thracia, Libya, Ethiopia, Anatolia etc. and various gods, demigods and heroes being simultaneously everywhere & originating from everywhere.
They myths & legends refer to the same group of people shifting from one place to the other – from the East to the West – and branching out & splintering into various groups.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE PEOPLE WERE NOT “WHITE-SKINNED”.
THERE MIGHT HAVE BEEN SOME FAIR OR WHITE-SKINNED PEOPLE AMONGST THEM, BUT MY GUESS IS THAT THEY WERE PRIMARILY DARK-SKINNED.
I see no absolute reason to think that the Greeks were all white-skinned folk.
The various mosaics, murals & frescoes which have been found in Europe point to a more complex reality: the “Greeks” are often the exact same dark-brown complexion as the Egyptians.
Apparently there were fair-skinned people amongst them, though this is somewhat an enigma in itself.
The women are invariably fair, the men dark.
It has been said that they painted the men dark to distinguish the sexes.
This is agonizingly unconvincing.
Would a white-skinned man paint himself or the make heroes & gods of his race dark-brown?
Has any White Man ever done it?
Would any fair-skinned man ever paint himself the colour of cinnamon or coffee?
Again, the exact opposite seems to be the truth: the Greeks & Romans were dark-skinned people who painted their women fair.
And yet, one wonders if there’s some mystery behind this dark-brown-male and fair-skinned female phenomenon.
A huge chunk of this lot, if not the entire lot – or probably their leadership – was depicted as being of immense stature & enormous appetite – passing off into the proverbial Giants & Titans of Ancient Mythology.
Subsequently, their culture underwent change, which is symbolized in myths across the world as the overthrowing of Giants & Titans, the Centaurs, the Nephilim, the Anakim, the “Sons of God”, the Dānavas, Daityas & Asuras.
Cannibalism & ritualistic human sacrifice seem to be the major issues with this lot.
I don’t think a new RACE took over the old one: the SAME race underwent significant change – and probably the newer cults split off, fighting against the older one, which maintained itself in increasingly smaller pockets.
Hence, taking the example of India, the Asuras are called the older brothers of the Devas, and both are the progeny of Prajāpati.
It is almost impossible to separate the metaphysical/cosmological conceptions from the historical in all this, but it appears to me that the Devas, earlier, were the Asuras: the Asuras themselves split up into those who followed the old customs & traditions {Asura-Daitya-Dānav
Reality is always way more complicated, but this is a broad outline, and I think it’s correct.
So {in India} the Gandharvas & Yakṣas fall somewhere in between the Asuras-Rākṣasas-Daityas etc. & Devas, and we see them both as enemies & friends of our legendary heroes.
The older brother is invariably surpassed by the younger brother – in the historical sense, it means that the older cult was increasingly replaced by the later.
Hence, the peculiar intermixture, and the repetition of names, features, and epithets.
It should also be understood that civilization originated with the Asuras-Dānavas etc. not because they were a distinct, superior race – but simply because they came first.
They were the original builders, navigators & engineers of the world.
The Olympians or “Devas” were a later development, and – it seems to be – an increasingly disenchanted breakaway faction from the same group or the same family, who were not distinguished by their knowledge of the sciences & arts & crafts, but by their spiritual knowledge.
Let us not get confused, though the data is inextricably jumbled & excruciatingly bewildering.
Our fundamental premise is that world civilization came from the Far East, or rather, South-East Asia via India.
There are reasons why I do not see the Indian subcontinent as the absolute point of origin.
I’ll come to those later.
From this sub-continent, various groups of people fanned out & branched out in various directions, though we’re interested in their westward movement.
It must’ve taken several centuries for these world-civilizers to reach Egypt, Libya, Ethiopia, Etruria, Iberia, Ireland etc.
It must’ve taken several more centuries for the cultures of these specific places to develop into the unique, individual entities that they were – but which nevertheless developed on the Far Eastern foundation.
98% of the myths, legends, art, architecture, and literature of those ages have vanished – and most of what survives is probably a later re-casting of older beliefs, customs & traditions.
As we have them, these redactions place a lot of importance on Egyptian-Ethiopian influence.
On the one hand, we’re inclined to believe that Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya etc. was developed by people of Indian origin.
On the other hand, we suspect that the “Egypt”, “Ethiopia” etc. of these myths are all substitutes for India and/or various Oriental locations.
Mind you, these are 2 distinct ideas.
{For example:
To say that Israelites were originally Indians, and were brought out from Egypt which was also peopled by races of Indian origin, is one thing.
To say that Moses actually brought the Israelites from India, not the Egypt we know, is another.}
There is also a possibility of multiple persons or places being given the same name, and often two images of one: there are two cities called Memphis, two called Thebes, two Havilahs, two Ethiopias etc.
Well, even if “Egypt” & “Ethiopia” are what they are – and not substitutes or mirror-cultures – the people whence the Hebrews came, originated in the Far East.
Hailing from India, they shifted to present-day Afghanistan & Iran, thence they went to Mesopotamia, thence to the Levant, Turkey, and Egypt.
This lost tradition peeps out, almost involuntarily & unwittingly, in scattered references, in various texts, by different authors in the Late-Ancient World.
So for instance we read, in the Book of Genesis {1.8-14}:
“Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.
The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.
In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters.
1. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.
(The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin & onyx are also there.)
2. The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.
3. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur.
4. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.”
This is strikingly similar to the idea of the River Ganges in Indian Purāṇas {Viṣṇu Purāṇa 2.2}:
“On the summit of Meru is the vast city of Brahmā, extending 14,000 leagues, and renowned in heaven; and around it, in the cardinal points & the intermediate quarters, are situated the stately cities of Indra and the other regents of the spheres.
The capital of Brahmā is enclosed by the river Ganges, which, issuing from the foot of Viṣṇu, and washing the lunar orb, falls here from the skies, and, after encircling the city, divides into four mighty rivers, flowing in opposite directions.
These rivers are
1. the Śītā,
2. the Alakanandā,
3. the Chakshu, and
4. the Bhadrā.
The first, falling upon the tops of the inferior mountains, on the east side of Meru, flows over their crests, and passes through the country of Bhadrāśva to the ocean:
the Alakanandā flows south, to the country of Bhārata, and, dividing into 7 rivers on the way, falls into the sea:
the Chakshu falls into the sea, after traversing all the western mountains, and passing through the country of Ketumāla: and
the Bhadrā washes the country of the Uttara kurus, and empties itself into the northern ocean.”
How can the two accounts NOT be related?
There might be similar accounts in other cultures & mythologies, but the one unnamed river of Eden dividing into 4 rivers, is IDENTICAL to the Gaṅgā dividing into 4 after circling the summit of Meru.
Also, we see that Eden = Meru
This does contribute to the essential similarity of
« Eden {= Meru},
« Shinar {= Sineru = Sumeru}, and
« Egypt {= anciently called Merå}.
Is, for instance, “Eu-phrates” or “Perat” somehow related to the Sanskrit “bharata”?
Is “Tigris” a mere variation of the Sanskrit “tīvra” {“tumultous, ferocious, powerful, mighty, torrentious”} or perhaps the Sanskrit “śīghra” {“quick, speedy, swift, rapid”}?
{The Biblical name is Hiddekel, which I won’t pretend to connect to any Sanskrit terms.}
Such associations should not be dismissed prima facie.
I do not mean that the authors of the Bible have “copied” from the Indians, or that the Hebrews were Hindus, or anything of the sort.
{Same with the Greeks – who’re culturally closer to the Indians than the Ancient Israelites.}
Such overly simplistic statements & emotions should be eschewed “religiously”.
But there’s an unrecognized connection – a deep-rooted relationship – and a common thread – which needs to be acknowledged & studied.
And such is my humble opinion, that if it is, it’ll turn out that the Hebrews originated in the Far East, and that the mainspring of their culture is in the East.