Indology was fostered in the chrysalis of the British Raj. In the train of the conquerors were also scholars and benefactors who laid down their lives for the study of India's past. Sir William Jones was an 18th century Jurist and Orientalist whose founding of the the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784 (with C. Wilkins) was a landmark in Oriental studies. Jones, chief justice of the Calcutta Supreme court, was a prolific linguist and studied the ancient Indian Law books in Sanskrit. His translation of Kalidasa's Shakuntala created a worldwide stir and highlighted the

literary heritage of ancient India. He also held that Sanskrit was related to classical Greek and Latin and that they were linked to Gothic, Celtic and Persian. He is famous for holding that Sandrocottos of the Greek writers was Chandragupta.

Early Vanga, Kalinga and Magadha were near Cape Maceta

       However, Jones was unaware that many Indian cities had earlier counterparts in Iran-Baluchistan and his idea that Palibothra was Patna was a huge blunder that has no archaeological basis. Rummaging among Jonesian claptrap R. Thapar wonders why there are no Asokan edicts at Patna, his so-called capital but the truth is that not a single relic of any Nanda or Maurya king, including Asoka, has been found here. Throwing caution to the wind, D. Chakrabarti and M. Carver try to prove Jones' idea by the Chinese reports written a thousand years later. M. Witzel also enacts a spirited defense of Jones.

     Bihar became Magadha after the 3rd century B. C. and its identifica-tion as early Magadha is a fatal error. The first reference to Magadha is in an edict of Asoka far from Bihar. The Indus cities and also Magan, near Cape Maceta, was early Magadha. The Susinaks and Kak-kings of Magan were the Sishunagas and Kakavarnas of Magadha. This is conclu-sively proved by the Magadi dialect and Magad people at Herat ("South Asian folklore: an encyclopedia: Afghanistan, etc.", p. 203). Vanga and Kalinga, which were adjacent to Magadha, were also in the same vicinity. In the ancient Egyptian documents Babylonia is called Sangara which corresponds to Sangala, the older name of Simhala.

        A. Wink writes about Indians at Jiroft in early 12th century (Al-Hind, vol. 1, p. 59). Like Ubulla, the Djiroft area was once 'India' where Alexander celebrated his victory over the Indians. The Palace of Palibothra which 'excelled those at Susa and Ecbatana' may have been at Deval near Karachi or Kohnouj near Djiroft. Patali (~4th mill,) near Kohnouj echoes Pataliputra. Djiroft appears to have been Dvaravati, capital of Kamboja. Vishvamitra may have been from Kohnouj.

        Just as the Magadha people came to Bihar, a southward trek of the Vanga-Magadhas is hinted by the Vengi kingdom and Magadi city near Bangalore founded by the Cholas (~ 11-12 AD). Magadi Kempe Gowda, founder of Bangalore, is said to have been a Mahagani which echoes Magan. The Dravidian language Brahvi was spoken in Seistan -Baluchistan. Like Magadha, there was also an early Vanga in Sindh-Baluchistan. Ancient Sindh may have extended up to Afghanistan.

     Jones' error made it impossible to read the Indus seals which are priceless documents of world history. All the scholars agree that the Harappan sign reads as 'Min'. Thus from the inscription in the proto-Shiva seal, Shiva's name can be read as Min-uksha. His name Mahakal or Mekal (see below) is also in the seals which shows that the Amorites were a people of India.

       The presence of the Amorites in India has a far-reaching impact on the problem of the Indo-Europeans. The Amorites, who are shown as tall and fair in Egyptian art, were half-Aryans. In fact labels having archaeological imprint such as Saka, Amorite, Dahae etc. are preferable to worn out blanket terms such as 'Semite' or 'Indo-European' which have a linguistic sense, not ethnic. Like the Vedic people, the Amorites were nomads who did not practice agriculture. The name Amaravati of Indra's capital links the Amorites with the Vedic people. The Amorites have been linked to the Halaf (or Ghassul) culture where the earliest evidence for chariots have been found. Sir Max Mallowan saw a link between Halaf and the Indus cites.

Was Ikshaku Rama's attire similar to that of Lamgi-Mari Issakkv (~1789 B.C.)?

       Rama, probably Ram-Sin or Rim-Sin of Larsa, was an 'Aryan' par excellence of the Ikshvaku line who may have been related to the 'Semite' (Amorite) king Lamgi-Mari Issakkv. The name of the Elamite king Sutrukna-hhunte echoes the name of Shatrughna. Ravana or Ravi-ana may be the Amorite king Hammu-ravi (or a close relative). Lanka of Ravana may have been near Dubai. S. B. Roy (Mohenjodaro and the Lanka of Ravana, New Delhi, 1982) links Ravana with Mohenjo-Daro. It is possible that after the death of Rama he became the Suzerain of the Indus cities. The seals may reveal other Amorite and Ikshvaku kings. Rishava of the Sanskrit texts matches the 'Semitic' god Resheph. The Sumerian Mar.tu echoes the Sanskrit Martah (world of mortals). The Mauryas may be linked to the Amorites (Hebrew ^emōrî). Due to the abyss created by Jones, the Amorite homeland has been placed in Arabia. The seals seem to mention great names such as Visvamitra and Vrishaparva.

      Hinduism is a disparate mix of diverse doctrines, cults and social traits, yet no history of ancient religion can be written without reference to it. Wendy Doniger derisively likens Hinduism to an armadillo but misses that its hinterland once included West Asia. No sensible history of the world can be written without the Indian Epics such as Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

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Colonial Indology and the Blunder of Jones

       Even after more than two millennia, the spectacle of Alexander's party streaming out of Europe and risking their lives across continents and seas to mingle with the exotic peoples of Africa and Asia appears stupefying. Alexander dreamed of a Brotherhood of Man in a world torn by conflicts. This may forever remain an unattainable goal yet he is the finest symbol of our vision of a United Nations. As he spent his last years in Indo-Iran, his history has to be based on the Indian, Persian as well as the Greco-Roman sources. He was aware of his unique role and had expert writers in his train yet there is little in his life that is certain. This is due to the inability to stamp out the lies spread by his generals who probably poisoned him, and the error of Palibothra. Deval near Karachi or Patali may have been Palibothra where Alexander came. Justin's data that Alexander had defeated the Prasii is not only true, it also calls for a drastic revision of history.

      Sir William Tarn wrote that Alexander gave a call for the Brother-hood of Man which was disputed by E. Badian whose arguments once carried the day. However, Badian is clearly proven wrong by the Indian evidence. Tarn had a far better understanding of the eastern cultures. The Harvard professor overlooked that Alexander sat on a throne that was possibly adorned by Gomata who was Gotama Buddha. Sadly he also glossed over the fact that the Opis banquet was held in the month of Mithra and probably on the day of the feast of Mithra where a call for Brotherhood is natural. The history of Diodotus/ Asoka also hints that he gave a call for the Brotherhood of Man.

       Hoodwinked by the Jonesian bag of lies, such great scholars as W. W. Tarn and M. Rostovtzeff concluded that Alexander is ignored in Indian literature. This is false. The prelude to the intrigues in the drama Mudrarakshasa (set in the locale of Palibothra) is Alexander's death. In some manuscripts, Chandragupta is absent but his role is taken over by Rantivarma which shows that Chandragupta was Ranti-varma or Orontobates without whom Alexander's history reduces to a sham, for together they rewrote history. The main stratagem of the play is the theft of a signet-ring, which reminds one of the mysterious way in which Perdikkas produced Alexander's signet-ring. Crashing gates, poisoning cups, poison-maidens and forged letters feature in the drama, and the same devices appear in Alexander's history. Sadly, the crucial fact that Chandanadasa of the play is a ghost of Alexander has been missed by all. The respect shown to him belies the contention of E. Badian and P. Green that Alexander was a bloodthirsty villain. 

      It is mind-boggling to realize that there was a princess between Alexander and Orontobates. ADA II, the daughter of Pixodarus whom Alexander wanted to marry in his youth, became Orontobates' wife. A Palibothra in the north-west reveals that Moeris, Orontobates, Sashi-gupta and Orontes were all names of Maurya Chandragupta who was once an ally but later became a foe. Tarn wrote that Orontes of Armenia was not under Alexander's control. Diodorus' data shows that Tiridates who handed over the Persepolis treasury was also none other than Orontobates. Sisines who accompanied Alexander may also be the same as Sashigupta or Chandragupta. 

     Alexander is widely seen as the greatest military commander of all times but not all his victories were won in the battlefield. Mazaeus, the Cilician Satrap, become a collaborator. No wonder he was allowed to mint coins in his own name even when Alexander was alive. When Mazaeus offered to liberate Darius' mother Sisygambis, she is said to have refused which also hints that he was seen as a traitor. Chandra-gupta is said to have briefed Alexander about the feasibility of unsea-ting the Nanda king. Arrian wrote that Mazaeus' son Antibelus and Bagistanes, made a similar submission. As 'M' and 'B' are interchang-able, Bagistanes was Megasthenes who became Seleucus' envoy in Chandragupta's court. This hints that Seleucus' relations with Chandra-gupta had covert dimensions. While rejoicing the victory over the Indians at the Palace at Kohnouj, near Djiroft Alexander may or may not have been aware of the hoary antiquity of the place.
    As Chandragupta's rise coincides with Alexander's fall, it is natural to see a link. This is hinted not only by the Mudrarakshasa but also the presence of Diodotus of Erythrae in Alexander's diary. In an edict Asoka gives the clue that his ancestors were also Devanampiyas, which reveals that they were also known as Devadatta or Diodotus. Thus Diodotus of Erythrae was Chandragupta who may have joined hands with Perdikkas and Seleucus to poison Alexander.

      Alexander's visit to the oracle of Amon of Siwa marks a high point in his career. Before this he was a king who was little more than a top general but after he was hailed as the 'son of Amon' by the priests, he came to be seen in a messianic light. Amon may have been a Mitraic deity for Shiva, who was similar to Min, was a Mitra-like god. As Zaehner writes, Mithra was almost a counterpart of Indra who in turn shares many characteristics with Shiva. Buddhism appears to have evolved from Shaivism and Mitraism.

The Delhi-Topra Asokan Pillar was an Altar of Alexander

          Alexander lives in India. At least one of the Pillars of Asoka was a re-inscribed altar of Alexander (Scholia, vol.15, p.78-101). Like King Chandra of the magnificent Mehrauli Iron Pillar, he had also subju-gated the ancient Vanga people. Badian had no idea that Gomata was Gotama but due to the Nepalese forgeries even such a great scholar as Tarn missed the crucial hint hidden in the name Alexandria Prophth-asia. Prophthasia was linked to Prophets such as Gotama Buddha, Zoroaster and Abraham. This was Kapilavastu. The name of Babylon, which became the holiest city, echoes Kapil or Babil. This adds a new dimension to his call for amity which is the central plank of Buddhism. The Sun-god of the Colossus of Rhodes is said to have been modelled after Alexander. If this is true then Alexander lives in the Statue of Liberty in the USA.

      The Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has highlighted the exploitive role of both Christianity and Islam in Africa but notwithstanding the bloodletting, Alexander's voyage had a different effect. His legacy should be sought not only in the Seleucid Empire or the culture of Alexandria but also in the clear Greek imprint on Buddhist religion and art. The rise of Asoka/Diodotus and the resurgence in Indian culture in the 4th century B.C. were largely due to Alexander's tryst with India.

     Alexander is the finest symbol of our vision of a United Nations. As the last Titan of the Heroic Age, he strove to further righteousness with the sword, but at the end of his career he mellowed and realized the futility of violence. He was a pupil of the great Aristotle but his wisdom was also tempered by the famous Indian philosopher and playwright Asvaghosha (Sphines). Arrian wrote about his irresistible yarning (Pothos) for the unseen and unknown. Despite occasional bouts of drinking and cruelty he was on the whole magnanimous and probably saw himself as a wise pilgrim in India and Iran. Like many Indian gods, he was not always above sin, but his greatness lies in that even Sisygambis, mother of Darius-III courted death by refusing food after hearing of his death, and that the Prasiians treated his altars with great respect.

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Alexander's Dream of a United Nations

Discovery of Alexander's Missing Altar

Sashigupta and the Poisoning of Alexander

Alexander the Great in a Sanskrit Drama

Alexander's Mission and World Peace
Alexander's Speech at the Opis Banquet

Asoka Devanampiya Was Devadatta or Diodotus-I of Deval

       Due to Jones' blunder, the great Chandragupta Maurya became almost a mythical figure with no known relics. In many respects even Asoka, whose voice reverberates throughout the length and breadth of India, remains a mysterious figure. R. Thapar, a leading writer on Asoka, wonders why no edicts are found at his 'capital' Patna. Like D. Chakra-barti of Cambridge, she prefers to remain silent on the crucial fact that not a single relic of Asoka or any other Maurya or Nanda king is known from Patna. Most striking is the absence of coins of Asoka. Learned historians such as R. S. Tripathi expressed surprise over the fact that while even petty Indo-Greek kings had excellent coins, those of Asoka are not known. The punch-marked silver bars could hardly be said to suffice as coins of a ruler as great as Asoka. H. P. Ray's satisfaction with the so-called punch-marked bars of Asoka is bizarre.

       Noted archaeologists and historians such as Stuart Piggott and A. Toynbee were aware of the lacunae and Piggott almost playfully ventured beyond the Jonesian realm,

Perhaps it would be too much to say that Chandragupta Maurya and his dynasty were the ghosts of the Harappâ Empire sitting crowned on the ruins thereof, or to claim, in Toynbee's phrase, that the Harappâ kingdom was 'apparented' to that of the Mauryas.

     Piggott was unaware that the Mauryas were, in fact, the heirs of the Amorites (Hebrew ^emōrî) who were in the Harappa Empire. According to the historians, Sindh was ruled in this period by Hindu Kings, the last of whom was Raja Sahasi, whose dynasty ruled for over two thousand years. Raja Sahasi can clearly be seen to be the same Raja Sashigupta who was Chandragupta himself.

        As Seleucus’ daughter came to the Mauryan household, all the experts agree that Asoka may have been an Indo-Greek. Unfortunately Sir Mortimer Wheeler, one of the finest minds on early India, could not pinpoint Jones' error yet he gave priceless clues,

 'It is just possible that Ashoka had Seleukid blood in his veins; at least his reputed vice-royalty of Taxila in the Punjab during the reign of his father could have introduced him to the living memory of Alexander the Great, and, as king, he himself tells us of proselytizing relations with the Western powers'.

      Wheeler noted the clear Achaemenian imprint on his architecture and wrote that he could have been a half-Greek. Yet it occurred to no one that this half-Greek was the Indo-Greek king Diodotus-I, famous

for his superb coins. The gold, silver and bronze coins of Asoka, who was the same as Diodotus-I, are not only the most abundant, they are also the finest in history.

        From that the Greco-Roman writers do not refer to Piyadassi or Asoka, R. Thapar readily declares that Asoka was unknown in the West. This is clearly absurd, they must have used a different name. The most frequent name of Asoka in the Edicts is Devanampiya. As 'Nam' and 'Dat' both mean 'law', Devanam (piya) is the same as Devadat or Diodotus, a famous name in the Greco-Roman reports. After becoming a Buddhist, Asoka had to change his name Devadatta, the name of Gotama's enemy. The names of his biographies Asokavadana and Divyavadana also hint that Deva (datta) was his name. In the 8th Rock Edict he refers to his ancestors as Devanampiyas which shows that it was his patronymic, not title. The name `Devanampiya' is fondly translated as `beloved of the gods' but this is only partly true and was used by Asoka to befriend his subjects in the Indian peninsula. `Deva' was his name proper.

Deval which was linked to the Silk-Route was the Mauryan hub for maritime trade

     H. P. Ray has written on maritime trade of the Mauryas after placing them at the absurd location of Patna, but has missed that Deval the famous sea-port near Karachi was the Mauryan hub for maritime trade.

        While Asoka has numerous inscriptions but no coins, Diodotus, who was a neighbour, has numerous coins but no inscriptions. This clearly shows that they were the same. Diodotus' multi-faceted pers-onality baffled all. Holt is amazed by the figure of the thundering Zeus on his coins but wonders why he at times calls himself Soter (saviour). Later kings such as Agathocles and Antimachus issued coins which terms Diodotus a Soter. Tarn dismisses it as mere ‘royal rhodomontade’ and A. K. Narain states that the title shows that he saw himself as the saviour of the Bactrian Greeks. Turning a blind eye to the likelihood that the fierce Diodotus may have transcended into a missionary, Narain writes that his name Theodotus (Theos = God) given by Justin was a scribal error. The story of civilization is replete with instances of fierce men and women later responding to higher callings, but writers such as Holt have missed that the figure of Diodotus wielding the thunderbolt is not irreconcilable with the Bodhisatva-like Soter spreading the message of Brotherhood of Man. The history of Asoka matches that of Diodotus-I line by line because they were the same.

 Inscribed Portrait of Asoka from Kanganhalli (Courtesy ASI)

    What was Asoka's religion before he adopted Buddhism? The great visionary Ananda Coomaraswamy does not mince words,

Chandragupta Maurya, of whose origins little is known, displaced the last king of the Nanda Dynasty about 320 B. C. and made himself the master of Pataliputra, the capital of Magadha. His famous grandson Asoka (272-232) B. C., whose early faith may have been Brãhmanical, Jaina or possibly Magian, early in life became an ardent Buddhist;..

This was suggested by Dr. Spooner but he was shouted down by the Jonesian lobby. The legacy of the Macedonians and Greeks in India is yet to be truthfully acknowledged. The pillars of Asoka are the first examples of Indian Buddhist art but at least one of them was an altar of Alexander (Scholia, vol. 15, p. 78-101). This reveals the timeless heritage of Alexander in India. Buddhism is an universal religion in which people of many nations took part. Diodotus' 13th Edict, written after the Kalinga War is a priceless document of world history. The havoc created by the war filled the king's heart with remorse and totally transformed his character. He adopted Buddhism and became a Soter. This was a great moment in world history and led to a blending of Greek and the Indo-Iranian cultures which Alexander dreamed of. Just as Alexander's history cannot be grasped without Diodotus/Asoka, the reverse is also true. In a sense Alexander created the platform from which Diodotus operated. The Encyclopedia Britannica states,

The empire of Alexander and his successors created a great world commun-ity which, whether in Macedonian, Greco-Roman, or its later Christian form, established a cultural unity that was destined to be broken only 1,000 years later with the advent of Muslim imperialism (beginning in 7th century AD). This empire was so vast as truly to stagger the imagination. Extending from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Indus River, from the forests of Germany and the steppes of Russia to the Sahara Desert and the Indian Ocean, it took in an area of some 1.5 million square miles (3.9 million square kilometres; most of Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Africa, Persia, and the borderlands of India) and had a total population of more than 54 million.

Much has been written about Hellenistic culture by writers such as F. Holt and P. Green who overlook that Diodotus/Asoka was one of the founders of the Hellenistic world community.
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 A Coin-Portrait of Asoka Who Was Diodotus-I

Discovery of Alexander's Missing Altar

Gotama Buddha and the Nepalese Bluff in World History

       Buddhism literally throbs with the history and geography of India. The relics from Sanchi, Ajanta, Bharhut, Amaravati, Gandhara (now in Pakistan and Afghanistan) and Mathura link India with early Buddhism. The Indian tradition of tolerance and moderation goes beyond the 6th century B.C. and traces of primitive Buddhism are found in the Harappan era. Buddhist history is a queer mix of facts and fiction that

Gandhara Image of Buddha and Heracles

baffles the discerning reader. There were many Buddhas before Gotama which implies that Buddhism was as old as Zoroastrianism. A detailed study reveals close links of early Buddhism with Hinduism, Judaism and Zoroastrianism which rose in the Bamiyan-Baluchistan-Gandhara area. Much has been about the Silk Road and Buddhism but no one realized that it passed through the Buddhist heartland.

        Nepal is a beautiful country but a Gotama of Nepal is a sickening fraud. Nothing in the art, archaeology, history or literature of early Nepal has the faintest hint of Buddhism. R. Thapar boldly affirms that Gotama was from the Nepal area but this has no archaeological basis. C. Humphreys laments over the stark archaeological scenario,

The Lumbini gardens, where Gotama was born, lie in the difficult Nepal Terai, and Kusinara, where the Buddha passed away, has little to show'.

The renowned Belgian scholar E. Conze also flatly dismisses the fanciful text-based accounts,

To the modern historian, Buddhism is a phenomenon which must exasperate him at every point and we can only say in extenuation that this religion was not founded for the benefit of the historians. Not only is there an almost complete absence of hard facts about its history in India; not only is the date, authorship and geographical provenance of the overwhelming majority of the documents almost entirely unknown, ....

      The way out of the chaos is shown by the British scholar T. Phelps who has exposed the dreadful forgeries of Führer who moved pillars and faked inscriptions and relics to falsely locate Lumbini. Gotama was a prince but after he was abandoned in the wilderness of the Terai by the rogue Führer, his history went to pieces.

       In sharp contrast to the nothingness of Nepal, the antecedents of Buddhism abound in Seistan-Afghanistan-Gandhara. It is notewo-rthy that the earliest Buddhist artifacts have been found from this region. The claim of R. Gombrich and H. Bechert that Gotama belongs to a later century is disproved by the date of Gomata who was the same as Gotama. The claim of T. Insoll that 'there is no contemporary evidence of the individual known as the Buddha.' ('Archaeology and world Religion') is empty and ignores the history of Gaumata and a also data from the Persepolis Fortification Tablets.

   To locate Gotama's homeland it has to be noted that early India was wider than British India. Vincent Smith agreed with Pliny that Gedrosia and Karmania were once in India. This is also borne out by Alexander's victory over the Indians at Kohnouj in Karmania. A Wink is unaware that Ubulla was Uruvela of the Pali texts (Al-Hind, vol.1, p.53)

In fact, the sources regard not the Indus but Makran and the head of the Persian Gulf, including a town like Al-Ubulla and even the island of Socotra, as the farj al-Hind or 'frontier of India'. Or they call it the ard al-Hind , the 'realm of India', which meant of course the 'realm of the India trade'.

     It is in this 'India', at Kuh-e Khwaja in Seistan, (~150 km from the Baluchistan border), that Sir Aurel Stein found an ancient Buddhist

 Kapilavastu or Prophthasia (Kuh-e Khwaja) links Abraham, Gotama and Zoroaster

monastery. R. Ghirshman wrote that the Kuh-e Khwaja murals are the precursors of Gandhara art which reveals its true antiquity. Nearby Zabol echoes Kapil (vastu). The name Dahan-e Gholaman of another adjacent 6th century B.C. site echoes Gotama's name. Thus Kuh-e Khwaja was Gotama's birthplace Kapilavastu. Kapil (vastu), or Babil was the holiest religious centre of the world. The statement of the Lalitavistara that all the Buddhas are born at Kapilavastu is echoed by the name Prophthasia. Later Babylon (Babil) gained ascendancy. The fantastic recent find of more than than 10,000 of ancient Buddhist fragments at Bamiyan, part of which is now in the Schoyen collection,

Bamiyan was near Kapilavastu, birth-place of the Buddha

shows that Buddhism was born here. The names of Tiŝŝa, Siddharta and Suddho-dana, in the Persepolis tablets prove conclusively that Gotama was from Baluchistan-Seistan.

      According to the Buddhist texts Vaishali had more than seven thousand pleasure gardens and an equal number of lotus ponds. This is an exaggeration yet there is truth in it. This cannot be Vaishali in Basarh in Bihar, as it has no 6th century B.C. relics. Arrian (Indica,39) writes about the gardens of Mesambria which were akin to the Parad-eisos. The Barrington Atlas puts Mesambria near Bushehr. Veysabad, near Bushehr may have been Vaishali of Buddha and Amrapali.  

Biharas at Chehelkhaneh and Heydari are linked to Buddhism/Mitraism

      The legacy of Gotama Buddha can be clearly seen in Persian literature. The resounding humanism of poets such as Hafeez, Attar, Jalaluddin Rumi, Omar Khayyam and Amir Khosrow cannot be grasped without the call of Brotherhood given by Gotama and echoed by Alexander and Asoka/Diodotus. Sufism has been said to be a universal form of wisdom which has very ancient roots. That Fanâ of the Sufis is almost identical to the Buddhist Nirvāņa is due to their common origin in Seistan-Baluchistan. A very large number of Sufi Saints were from Khorasan and Karman-Baluchistan where Buddhism once flourished. The story of Ibrahim ibn Adham of Balkh, one of the earliest Sufis, echoes the history of Gotama and has been immortalized in the legend of Baarlam and Josaphat. In many languages this was the first literary document.

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Antecedents of Hinduism-Buddhism in Indus-Saraswati-Seistan

Gotama and Zoroaster in a Non-Jonesian Frame

Sanchi & Ajanta -Windows to the Garden of Eden

Jalaluddin Rumi and The Lost Paradise

The Isigili Sutta

Shiva Min(uksha), Mahakala and the Amorites in the Seals

     Ideally data from the Indus-Saraswati seals should have been the starting point of Indian history but this has been denied by Jones'  'discovery'. From no civilization of antiquity there is such a deafening silence. Also, the claim of scholars such as R. Thapar and S. Ratnagar that Harappan religion was unrelated to later Hinduism has greatly hindered the study of seals. In sophistication and intellectual makeup, the seals have no peer in any contemporary writing. Fortunately, some of the seals can be read after discarding Jones.

      It is crucial to note that early Magadha was Magan. Magadha (Mah-Gud) is synonymous with Melukhkha (Maha-Uksha) and this etymology hints at a Sanskrit substratum in the seals. Both Rama and Manu (Mannu) were linked to Magan. Manu also ruled Dravida(Dilmun?) and is cited in texts from Bahrain (a part of Dilmun). Dilmun, Magan and Melukhkha were always cited together and was akin to a confed-eration that can be seen as early India. Witzel's idea that the seal language is Para Munda is as absurd as his claim that the seals are non-linguistic. Closer to the truth is M. Shendge's suggestion that the seal language was a form of Akkadian, but the links with Brahvi, Amorite, Sumerian and Hebrew also have to be considered. The mature phase of the RigVeda may be about 1500 B.C. but the seals show clear Vedic traits. In the absence of bilingual texts, decipher-ment is a daunting task but a modest start can be made by making some simple and straightforward assumptions.

    1. The seal language is a mix of early Sanskrit and Dravidian (Brahvi).

   2. The symbol of Mitra   in the seals shows a link with Vedic culture.

   3. The seals have to be seen vis-à-vis Indus-Saraswati-Elam (Magadha).

   4. The seals are logo-syllabic and run from right to left like Hebrew.

   5. Early Brahmi read from right to left and was an offshoot of Indus writing.

   6. As Langdon suggested, the Indus symbols are linked to Sumerian. 

         As S. N. Kramer and G. F. Dales noted, the Indus-Saraswati civilization was linked to other Bronze Age cultures. Thus data about the seals can be gleaned from Sumer and Djiroft (Dvaravati). Sir Max Mallowan wrote that signs for god, heaven, star , for water , for earth , for heaven and the deep , had long been painted on the pottery of Mesopotamia and Iran and were invested with magical prophylactic meaning. Similar signs appear in the seals and had very similar meanings. I. Mahadevan writes that the sign has the highest frequency. From the great importance of the bull in this culture, it is natural to expect that it is linked to the bull. In Sumerian the sign stood for the bull. Sir Max Mallowan saw a link between Tell Halaf and Baluchistan:

On the fringes of India there are certain wares which bear at all events a superficial resemblance to the Tell Halaf ware. In particular the polychrome sherds of Sur Jangal and related wares in feel, colour and minuteness of design bear an apparent kinship to Tel Halaf.

R. F. S. Starr also saw Halaf influence on Harappan painted pottery and although his work has been severely criticized by Dales and others, this seems unjustified. Significantly, a similar sign was used at Tell Halaf in 3000 B.C. for the bull (The Dawn of Civilization, p. 89).

Thus the sign can be read as Uksha which echoes the English Ox. It later became the Brahmi 'Sa' and perhaps also the Latin U.  Uksha later became the genitive case-ending 'Sa'.

        Śiva, the mysterious Hindu god, was a world deity worshipped in West Asia, Central Asia and Egypt. King-names such as Kak-siwe Tempti, Kaksivant,  Siwe-Palar-Khuppak, Queen of Sheba and place-names such as Seistan, Sippar, Borsippa etc. show the prevalence of the Śiva cult in the world. The eminent Indologist Sukumari Bhatta-charji writes about Śiva and the ithyphallic Egyptian god Min,

Min corresponds to Shiva very closely. He is ithyphallic, has the bull for his animal, is lunar by nature, and is associated with plants.

      Significantly, the name Min (uksha) can be read in the famous Proto-Śiva seal. All the scholars agree that the fish-sign reads as 'Min'. Thus the last two signs in the proto-Shiva seal becomes

in the head-dress of Proto-Shiva or Minuksha , a Mitra-like god

Min-uksha. Min's shrine was crowned with a pair of bull horns and the name of the city Akhmin where he was worshipped also echoes Uksha-Min. While Minuksha represents the procreative aspect of Śiva, many inscriptions from Mohenjo-Daro also mention Mahakal who stood for his destructive aspect. Mohenjo-Daro (Makkâŝ?) may have been a great religious centre of the ancient world.

      The important text appears in many seals and copper tablets from Mohenjo-daro and was of great ritual significance. It can be read as the votive formula Maha Kala Dvara Uksha which echoes Darius and shows the great role of Shiva. Mahakal seems to be the same as the Canaanite deity Mekal (late 3rd millennium) linked to the Amorites. His other name Resheph is a clear echo of the Sanskrit Rishava and shows the uselessness of the label 'Semite'. The capital of Indra, the archetypal 'non-Semite' had the Amoritic name Amaravati.

     The term 'Amorites' occurs about 60 times in the Old Testament. They are said to be western 'Semites', but their presence in India hints at a closer link of the early Jews with Indo-Iran. They were called Mar-tu by the Sumerians which is identical to the Sanskrit 'Martah' (world of mortals) and this reveals the link with India. Kudur-Mabuk, the father of Ram-Sin of Larsa, who appears to be the Rama of Valmiki, calls himself the 'lord of Amurru' and a Shaik (Saka?). His enemy Ravana may have been Hammuravi, who was an Amorite. They are said to be nomads like like the Vedic Aryans. The Amorites are said to have brought down the 3rd dynasty of Ur. Were they the Maruts?

      The strong Amorite influence on the seals can be seen from the famous Amorite name Shanir, said to be Mount Hermon. The sign clearly stands for a tree (or shade), the Dravidian word for which is 'Niral' (DED 3679). Thus becomes (Uk)shanira. The text can then be read as Ukshanira Shiva Ketu. Ukshanira may be the same as Ushinara of the RigVeda (Ushinarani), Shinar of the Old Testament and Sineru of the Buddhists. Ushinara may be Seistan.
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A Princess Between Chandragupta and Alexander  

         After Alexander the Great, the most illustrious figure of the 4th century B.C. was Chandragupta. S. Piggott playfully envisioned him as crowned on the Harappan ruins but a thorough study reveals that this is in fact true. The Mauryas were the traditional rulers of Sindh, Punjab and wer related to the Amorites (Hebrew ^emōrî) who belonged to the Indus-Saraswati culture.

        That the two had met is reported by Plutarch, whose knowledge about Chandragupta was vague (Life of Alexander 62.9.). The Sanskrit drama Mudrarakshasa shows that Chandragupta was the same as Orontobates. The two were far more intimate than what Plutarch or Justin knew and it was together with Orontobates that Alexander created history. Sahsigupta who was the same as Tiridates played a silent role in Alexander's world conquest. The name Tiridates may correspond to Ŝrī-candra of Taranatha.

      Jones' idea that Chandragupta's capital was at Patna has no archaeological basis. R. Thapar is surprised by the fact that there are no edicts of Asoka at Patna but does not admit that barring Asoka, no relic of any Nanda or Maurya king is known. Dilip Chakrabarti cites many 2nd century BC texts from Mathura but prefers to remain silent on the absence of those of Chandragupta. F. R. Allchin also uncerem-oniously omits him in his book on South Asia. H. C. Seth wrote that as 'Chandra' and 'Sashi' are synonymous, Sisicottus must have been Chandragupta, but this was denied on flimsy grounds. That Moeris, another Satrap, was Maurya also went unnoticed. The noted Buddhist scholar B. M. Barua wrote that Chandragupta belongs to the North-West. Kulke and Rothermund miss that early Magadha was Magan, but reject Chandragupta's link with Bihar. That Maurya kings such as Virasena and Purnavarman have no place in history is due to Jones.

         After clearing the Jonesian mud and including West Asia in the scenario, Chandragupta's many aliases come to light - Andragoras, whose beautiful gold coins have remained a mystery, now becomes Androcottus. Plutarch and Appian wrote that Androcottus, king of the Indians, dwelt near the Indus. This dwelling place must be Deval near Karachi. H. C. Raychaudhuri had no idea that Chandragupta was a world figure like Alexander and wondered in vain why the Macedonian king wanted to kill him. Where did they first meet? To answer this it has to be noted that Sisines was the same as Sisicottus. This places the Maurya in Philip's court. The jigsaw puzzle can be solved by noting that he was the same as Orontobates. In some manuscripts of the Mudrarakshasa, Chandragupta is absent but his place is taken by Rantivarma which must be another name of Chandragupta. As Varma, like Bates, is a  title, Rantivarma was none other than Orontobates.

   Crucial cinematic aspects of their lives have been missed by the filmmaker Oliver Stone. The Satrap Pixodarus offered the hand of his daughter to Arrhidaeus but through his friends Alexander offered himself as a suitor but this was denied by Philip. Writers such as Badian and Green have overlooked that the princess became Orontobates' wife.

An Asiatic Princess (artist's impression)

        Olmstead wrote that Orontes corresponds to the name Arunadas. 'Aruna' in Sanskrit means the 'charioteer of the Sun'. Thus the name Aruna or Orontobates of Chandragupta can be read from Andragoras' coin with the Sun's quadriga.

          Apart from the coins, the Laghman Aramaic inscriptions are also priceless relics of Chandragupta. As they mention Priyadarshi, A. Dupont-Sommer, H. Humbach and others have ascribed them to Asoka but this is hasty. H. C. Raychaudhuri warned that Priyadarŝi was also a title of Chandragupta. D. C. Sircar also rejected the ascription to Asoka. The injunction against killing of creatures in the inscriptions have been linked to Asoka but it has to be borne in mind that Chandragupta also later became a Jaina. The clinching evidence is that Vakshu in the inscriptions is Oxyartes (Tarn, GBI, p.101) who was a contemporary of Chandragupta. Vakshu may be Rakshasa of the Mudrarakshasa.

     A crucial role was played in Alexander's life by Diodotus of Erythrae, the mysterious editor of Alexander's diary. He is usually taken to be a Greek without any warrant. Lane Fox states that nothing is known about him but rightly guesses that he could be a Carian associate. In an Edict Asoka gives the clue that all his ancestors were also Devanampiyas which shows that it was a title. Thus Chandragupta was also a Devanampiya/Diodotus. Thus the shady Diodotus of Erythrae of Alexander's diary was Moeris/ Chandragupta. Another alias of Sashigupta may have been Sisines.

  Curtius wrote that Sisines was sent on an embassy to Philip by the Persian Satrap of Egypt and remained in Macedonian service. He accompanied Alexander on his expedition and in Cilicia received a letter from Nabarzanes assuring him of rewards if he could kill Alexander. The letter, however, had fallen into the kings hands, who saw his treachery and ordered him to be put to death. Sisines is usually said to be a Persian agent but R. Lane Fox sees him as an ally of Alexander. He may the same as Sisicottus who fled to Egypt and then to Macedonia to escape from Ochus/Bagoas. 

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Sashigupta and the Poisoning of Alexander

Rama, Rostam, Shutrukna-hhunte and the BMAC

          Persian history in which such a great hero as Rostam remains a mythical figure is nothing but woolly mishmash. He is placed in the Arsacid era by Frye and others but this is a travesty. Learned scholars such as Sir Charles Eliot, Arnold Toynbee and Sukumar Sen warned that India and Persia are deceptive labels, but this has been lost on modern writers. As South-east Iran was 'India' and part of India was under the Achaemenids, it is natural to expect an overlap between the histories of India and Iran. The Heritage of Persia cannot be grasped without reckoning the Heritage of 'India'. Herodotus' gives a list of tribes under Kurash, some of which are the tribes of the Indian Epic Mahabharata. Kurash, therefore, can be seen to be related to the Indian Kurus and Panchalas. This was noted by Toynbee who wrote that the Achaemenian state was a universal one.

       Commonsense dictates that Naqsh-i Rostam (carvings of Rostam) must be a memory of Rostam. Moreover as this was the Achaemenid burial place it is natural to suspect that Rostam was their ancestor. Although the Persian annals do not mention Rostam there is evidence for a mysterious ancestor Arya-Ram-ana (7th cent. B.C.) whose gold tablets are the earliest inscriptions in Old Persian. The Sasanid ancestor Ram-Behist also alludes to Rama who is none other than the great Rama of Indian history who is posted as a tribal king by Jonesian writers. Rama's link with Indo-Iran is proved by that the name of his half-brother Shatrughna echoes Shutrukna-hhunte, a great hero of

Kurangun relief of Rostam, or Ramah. Picture courtesy Prof. Mark Garrison

Elam. The 'Sons of Ramah' of the Book of Ezra include Darius-I and Gotama Buddha. It is a sad miscarriage of history that while the greatness of Hammu-ravi is acclaimed, Ram-Sin of Larsa, who is called an Elamite , is lost to oblivion. The great Indian Epic Ramayana, on the other hand clearly indicates that Ram-Sin was Rama who ruled Sumer, Elam and Indus-Saraswati.

      The fact that the relief at Naqsh-i Rostam was copied from an earlier relief at Kurangun (~18th cent. B.C.) hints that the name Naqsh-i Rostam may be due to this relief. Thus it is very likely that the horned king depicts Rostam. Kurangun is near the ancient site of Sih-talu which reveals a link with the Indian texts. This must have been Sutala, capital of Vali, an important figure of the Ramayana. In Sumerian history also Valih is a great figure. The king and his wife in the Kurangun relief can thus be Rama and his wife Sita. Rama was an Ikshaku king which corresponds to the term Uksha-man (Bull-man) or Achaemenian. Shutruk-Na-hhunte is an younger namesake of Shatrughna, Rama's half-brother. Shimut Wartash may be Warad-Sin or Bharata, another brother. Tan Rukurater (~2004 B.C.) echoes Raghu, Rama's ancestor, and Dasa Ratha. Lukh-Ishshan (~2350 B.C.) may have been an ancestor of Lakshmana, Rama's brother.

       Rostam's name in other texts is Rathastam. This corrresponds to Rama's name Dasarathi  which is echoed in the Mitanni name Tusratta. 'Ratha' stands for the chariot in

Rama was a kind of a Saka from the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex

Sanskrit. The eminent linguist Sukumar Sen suggests that Rama's title was Margaveya, which may imply that he was from Margiana near the homeland of Babur, not Ayodhya. Rama's life story, the Ramayana, is akin to a scripture for many Indians. J. L. Brockington writes that it was the greatest Epic of the world which influenced a large part of humanity from Indo-Iran to Japan. Indian archaeology has failed to unearth Rama's relics from UP which indicates that Rama's India was a wider world that extended up to Elam and Central Asia.

        Ravana or Ravi-ana may have been Hammu-ravi, or a close relative. In the Sumerian texts Ram-Sin and his enemy were both supported by ten kings. In the Ramayana he has ten heads. The clashes of Rama, the Indo-Aryan from BMAC with Hammu-Ravi takes one back to the crossroads of history when the Indo-Iranians arrived in Indo-Iran and Sumer.

      Was Qeshm island near Bandar-e Lengeh the Lanka of Ravana? The Kish islands west of Lengeh could have been Kishkindha. Qeshm is known to be an important outpost of the Elamites. There may be a scope for new archaeological discoveries to be made here.       

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Ram-Sin of Larsa was the Historical Rama

A King-Name at Last in the Seals - Vrishaparva the Wise 

       The presence of the Amorites in Indus-Saraswati throws new light on early Indian history. They were neither 'Aryan' nor 'Semitic' but a blend of both. In fact labels such as 'Aryan' and 'Dravidian', Semitic, etc. are ambiguous and need to be used with caution. Though the evolution of Sanskrit is unclear the eminent linguist K. V. Zvelebil has suggested a a southward trek of proto-Dravidian speakers from the Northwest of India. Curiously the origin of this has been traced by scholars to Central Asia from where proto-Sanskrit speakers are also said to have originated. The Brahui speakers in Seistan and Pakistan hint that there were Dravidians in the Indus-Saraswati Valley but little can be said about movements before this era.

       The absence of bilingual keys has made it difficult to study the seals, yet progress can be made by using controlled imagination. In line with the view of leading scholars such as  I. Mahadevan and G. R. Hunter, Brahmi is seen as an offshoot of the Harappan script. Scholarly misuse of the term 'Semite' is at the root of the prevailing chaos in the study of the seals. It is crucial note that part of West Asia was once within greater India. The Indus Saraswati culture was a blend of many ethnic elements which lived together harmoniously. There is also a distinct possibility of 'elite dominance' which entails that the language of the rulers need not have been the same as that of the laity. R. N. Frye notes the importance of multilingualism in early Iran.

        The name Minuksha of the Proto-Shiva has links with goddess Minakshi of South India who is revered as a consort of Shiva. More importantly, the ancestors of the Pallavas of South India seem to be of Harappan origin. Unlike writers such as R. Thapar who deny any link of the Indus-Saraswati culture with Hinduism, D. P. Mishra takes a saner view and writes about the Asuras,

Our view that the Asuras were the authors of the Harappan civilization has at present little support from the world of scholars, particularly archaeologists. .... John Marshall tentatively put forth the claims of the Dravidians and by now it has become a fashion not to disagree with his view. However, some have tried to modify it by associating the Mundas as junior partners of the Dravidians... 

The Asuras are generally seen as adversaries of the Devas but it is clear that they were not altogether different from the latter. Even the Mauryas are labelled as Asuras which shows that they may have been some kind of Amorites. Mishra boldly surmises (Studies in the Proto-History of India, p. 119) that the Asura king Vrishaparva may have been a Mohenjo-Daro king. This appears to be borne out by the seals.

Seal no. 1101 01 in Mahadevan's concordance reads VrishaPallava Kala Kala

The Sanskrit word for a young leaf is 'Pallava' which makes it very likely that the symbol of the leaf-man stands for the word Pallava which was the name of an important dynasty of South India. The word may also have been read as Palla which again is the name of another important royal line. 'Pālah' in Sanskrit means 'king' which corresponds to the Persian word Bala, which stood for city and King.

The sign has some similarities with the sign which also occurs in a large number (42) of seals and seems to have ritual significance. If this is identified with 'Soma' which was linked to sacrifice, may be given the value Vrisha or the sacrificial bull. The symbol may in fact depict a strapped sacrificial bull. The symbol depicts a city criss-crossed with roads and stood for a plot of land in Sumer. It may be given the value 'Kala' which corresponds to 'Kella' in Bengali and 'Kila' in Hindi and agrees with the Persian 'Bala'. The pair can then be read as Kala-Kala or Kaldu. Thus the seal may be read as Vrsa Pallava Kala Kala which may me provisionally rendered as 'Vrishaparva the ordainer of Time'.  B. M. Barua (A History of Pre-Buddhistic Indian Philosophy, p. 204) wrote that in ancient India, god was described as Kāla-Kāla, the knower of time at whose behest the Brahma-wheel turns. That this title was also assumed by priests and priest-kings is hinted by the name Ayatollah Khal-Khali. The word Chaldaean or Kaldu (Kala2) may also be linked to Kāla-Kāla. Vŗşaparvâ is variously described as both an Asura and a Danava.

       Two kings named Vrishaparva are famous in the Indian tradition. The older one, according to the Mahabharata, was a son of Prajapati Kasyapa and Danu. Stories involving his daughter Sharmistha and her friend Devayani have been immortalized in the Indian tradition. Both Sharmistha and Devayani (daughter of Shukracharya) were married to the great Yayāti who is said to be the first Samrât or universal ruler. His sons were the famous Puru and also king Yadu who may be the progenitor of the Jews. His other sons were Turvasu and Druhyu. This story hints at a reconciliation between the Devas and Danavas.

      In the Vana Parva, the Mahabharata describes a royal hermit Vrishaparva who may belong to the line of the older patriarch and who is eulogized in glowing terms. The holy hermitage of Vrishaparva was surrounded by blossoming trees that grew by whirling waters. He is said to be 'law-wise', 'celebrated over the worlds', 'wise and pious' and more significantly, 'knower of the past and future' which is in striking agreement with the seal epithet 'Kala Kala'. King Vrishaparva helped the Pandavas when they were banished to the 'forest'. This episode may in fact indicate that the Pandavas were related to the Yadus. Vrishaparva may have been an early Pallava king.

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Saraswati, Ganga, and Ushas in the Seals

    The Harappan civilization was based not on one but two large rivers - Indus and Saraswati. The fact that more than 1000 Harappan sites have been unearthed in the Saraswati basin in Haryana and Sindh shows that this should be called the Indus-Saraswati civilization. Remote sensing data show that in the 4th-3rd millennium B.C. the Saraswati was a mighty river which fell into the sea, but between about 2000 - 1700 B.C. geomorphologic changes caused its two main sources to change course. The Sutlej moved westward and became a tributary of the Indus whereas the Yamuna moved eastward and joined the Ganga. Due to the huge loss of water, Saraswati became defunct.

A tenth century image of Saraswati from Khajuraho (Photo courtesy ASI)

Did the Helmand, which was called Harahuvaiti or Saraswati, also at an earlier stage fall into the sea?

      Saraswati is an elegant Hindu goddess who stands for wisdom, learning and speech (Vac). In her usual representations she holds a lotus (a symbol of true knowledge) in one hand and sacred scriptures in another. With her other two hands she holds the musical instrument veena. But although there is sound archaeological basis for the name Sarasvati, it is apparently not cited in early epigraphic records.

       Fortunately the name Saraswati can be read in the seals though this may refer to a river or a river-group. Due to the inability to read the seals, the cults of the Mother-goddess and the Bull remain vague. The Harappans buried the dead with funerary items instead of cremating, yet there is an unmistakable continuity with Hinduism and Buddhism. No temple has been found, yet the many terracotta figurines of the Bull and the Goddess imply a link with later religion. The apparent absence of temples in any site reminds one of Herodotus’ report about Persian temples and agrees with Vedic religion.

     Although R. Thapar and S. Ratnagar affirm that there is no trace of Hinduism in Indus-Saraswati religion, this is baseless. Harappan religion can be termed proto-Hinduism. The great respect for Saraswati in the RigVeda links it with ancient Hinduism. The Encyclopedia Britannica stresses the link of Harappan religion with Hinduism:

... has produced much evidence of the cult of the goddess and the bull. Figurines of both occur, with the goddess being more common than the bull. The bull, however, appears more frequently on the many steatite seals. A horned deity, possibly with three faces, occurs on a few seals, and on one seal he is surrounded by animals. A few male figurines in hieratic (sacerdotal) poses and one apparently in a dancing posture may represent deities. No building has been discovered at any Harappan site that can be positively identified as a temple, but the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro was almost certainly used for ritual purposes, as were the ghats (bathing steps on riverbanks) attached to later Hindu temples.

 The bull-cult in the seals agrees with Vedic religion. The horned deity who is the lord of animals is Shiva Pasupati. The seals show that his names were Minuksha and Mahakala. Many figurines of goddesses speak of a cult of a goddess who may be Ushas whose symbol is indicated in a seal. The Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro indicates a water-cult the presiding deity of which may have been Ushas who seems to be related to the river Goddess Saraswati. In the RigVeda Saraswati is lauded for the fertilizing and purifying powers of her waters and as the giver of fertility and wealth. Some seals depict rituals which are difficult to interpret but there is clear proof of adoration of the spirits of sacred trees, snakes and streams which are the principal elements of traditional Hinduism. The Indus symbol of the ornate leaf seems to be linked to the Soma cult. More importantly, the wheel sign which is an Asokan icon and an integral element of Indian ethos, appears in many Indus seals illustrating the continuity in Indian religion.

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Jesus Christ, St. Thomas and Prophthasia

       Before the 17th century Jesus Christ was perceived solely through the mirror of faith, but gradually this gave way to a more rational outlook that is skeptical and cold. Christ has been portrayed as a mythical being by scholars such as Bruno Bauer but this seems to be disproved by data from India, Iran and Ceylon. It may be recalled that early writers on Buddhism also did not consider Gotama Buddha as a historical figure.

         After purging Jesus' history of layers of accreted myth, it seems reasonable to agree upon certain basic facts of his life, namely, that

    1) He was a person of flesh-and-blood,

    2) He was a Jew who spent many years in Galilee,

    3) He was regarded as a great teacher and healer,

    4) He spent many years (12th-30th) in Indo-Iran,

    5) He was baptized by John the Baptist,

    6) He was crucified in Jerusalem by Pontius Pilate.

4th-century mosaic of Jesus as a Teacher

    A close associate of Jesus was St Thomas who is linked to Seistan in the legends. St. Matthew reported that "Three Magi" or "Wise Men" followed a star which they thought was a sign that the King of the Jews had been born and brought gifts (gold, frankincense and myrrh) for the infant Jesus. Ernest Herzfeld, the great expert on early Iran, wrote that the Magi went from the Palace at Kuh-i-Khwaja in Seistan. Jesus also may have come to Seistan which was the land of Abraham, Gotama and Zoroaster.

Babil or Kabil (Kuh-e Khwaja) harks back to St. Thomas and the Magi   

        The links of Christianity with Buddhism are inseparable as both the religions grew from the crucible of Mithraism. On the basis of some late and unreliable data it has been suggested that Jesus may have escaped crucifixion and came to modern Kashmir but this is very unlikely. Jesus may instead have come to the great religious centre of Babil in Seistan which was the abode of not only Abraham and Zoroaster but also St. Thomas and Gotama Buddha.

     Skepticism and questioning are essential ingredients of science but doubt is antithetical to faith. Skeptics have been seen in sinister light by the custodians of faith. Sukumari Bhattacharji holds that rudiments of doubt are present in the 'sacred' text RigVeda. The empiricist Roger Bacon was jailed for 'doctrinal digressions'. The anger of the Church is evident from that the Italian monk G. Bruno was burned alive for supporting Copernicus' Heliocentric theory and even the great Galileo incurred the wrath of the Church for trying to interpret biblical passages in a scientific way. The spirit of enquiry also led the poet John Milton to envision Jesus as a human being. The yearning to rediscover the true sayings of Jesus hidden beneath the reverent periphrases of the holy texts motivated the hapless Protestant theologians of Tűbingen who were ostracized by the society for their lack of faith.
       The literature on early Christianity is vast and formidable but widely divergent in outlook. The earliest Christian texts are the letters of St. Paul, which date from about 50 AD but Paul is an unreliable source as he never met Jesus and received his theology, not from Jesus or his disciples, whom he hated, but through a mystical communion with a Risen Christ. The great influence of Mithraism on Christianity can be gauged from the fact that Paul or Shaul was from Tarsus which was a great centre of Mithraism. The generally accepted sources for the life and message of Jesus are the New Testament Gospels, the earliest being Mark (AD 60–80), followed by Matthew, Luke, and John (AD 75–90). The Gospel of Thomas, at times called the fifth Gospel, was found in 1945 at Nag Hammadi in Egypt and is a document of a very different vein. Its date is uncertain, scholars like E. Pagels have favoured an early date (50-100 AD) but others have ascribed it to the 2nd century, yet it is believed that this Gospel may, in fact, contain some actual sayings of Jesus.

        Christianity rose as a Judaic heresy and its history is inextricably linked with that of the Jews. However, as the ancestors of Abraham were from the east, the history of the early Yahdus cannot be limited only to the milieu of Jerusalem or Galilee but must also include the Yadus of India and Iran.
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Visvamitra and the Mithraic Bull-Serpent Motif in the Seals

    The symbol of Mitra in the seals firmly links the Indus-Saraswati era with early Vedic culture. This is also confirmed by the Buddhist attire and trefoils (which have an astral significance) of the Mohenjo-Daro priest-king which links him with Mitra. Who was this Mitra-king?

       The obvious answer is the sage Visvamitra, author of the famous Gayatri mantra, who is one of the great mysteries of Indian tradition. He was a Kshatriya but later became a Brahmin. Precisely why he fell out with his king is unknown. He is expressly declared as a ruler of the Earth but the significance of this was lost in the Jonesian chaos. Viśvāmitra is associated with Kanauj which must be Kohnouj near Jiroft. After his disgrace following the Ten-Kings war he went to the forest. Where was this territory? In the Epic Ramayana, Rama also went to the forest or Vana and he (Ram-Sin of Larsa) was in Sumer,

The Buddhist attire and trefoils link the priest-king with Mitra

Elam, and Indus-Saraswati. Therefore Visvamitra may also have gone to Sumer. Moreover he was the son of Gadhi, whose father was the legendary Kusha-nabha whose name echoes Cush and the god Nabo.

    Interestingly, in Sumerian history also there is a Mitra-like king who was an easterner. The Buddha-like dress of Gudea or Budea and his title Patesi (Priyadarshi) hints at a link with India. His clasped hands

Gudea was Viśvāmitra, son of Gādhi

are also symbolic of friendship which indicates a link with Mitra. But Gudea belongs to the late 3rd millennium B.C. which was the mature phase of the Indus-Saraswati civilization and a Mitra-king of this antiquity can only be Viśvāmitra who is placed in the middle of the second millennium B.C. by most scholars. As 'Gud' and 'Vrs' both stood for the bull Gudea can be seen to be a namesake of Visvamitra. He was was a son of Gādhi which agrees with Gudea's name.

       Visvamitra also appears to be mentioned in the seals. The sign-triad   must denote a very famous name as it has the highest frequency (37) of triplets in the seal corpus. The ending shows that it is a Mitra-name and it is very likely that it stands for Visvamitra.

The signs   link Mitra with Bull and Serpent

To proceed further it is expedient to turn to the leaf sign which does not have counterparts in any other ancient script.

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Bindusara Amitrodates or Mithradates

      Being the father of the great Diodotus-I, Bindusara is of significant historical importance. Although scholars such as R. Thapar relegate him to the gutter of history, there are saner alternatives. If one rejects the notion of a Mauryan capital at Patna and turns instead to Punjab, Baluchistan and beyond, the real Bindusara can be identified in a Non-Jonesian setting. According to Strabo (II.1.9), Sandrocottus' son was 'Amitrochates' which is echoed by 'Amitrachates' of Athenaeus (XIV. 67). This is usually rendered as 'destroyer of enemies' but B. M. Barua saw it as an error for 'Amritachades' or 'Eater of Ambrosia'. However, a much better alternative is Mithradates (Amitradates), a name adopted by a line of Parthian kings. Mithridates II named by Diodorus was Chandragupta whose links with Patna were denied by Barua. Apart from Goura in the Laghman area of Afghanistan there was another Gaur near modern Firuzabad in Fars which was a famous city. Historians usually

The symbol of Mithra in Bagadates' coin proves that he was Mithradates

date the history of Gaur from the 3^rd century AD but it may be an older city. Nearby Istakhr can be Ptolemy’s Astagaura.

         Chandragupta was a very powerful ruler and his dominion was larger than that of Seleucus with whom he clashed, but was he an absolute monarch? His identity with Andragoras seems to suggest that, at least in the early years, he acknowledged nominal Seleucid suzerainty. This was also true of his son Bindusara.

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Parnaka was Purnavarman alias Amitro-dana, Uncle of Gotama and Darius-I

      Śankarâchârya, the famous Indian philosopher, is known worldwide for his erudition, yet his remark,

 'There have been no world emperors (sārvabhauma) after Purnavarman'

seems unfathomable. That almost nothing is known about the Maurya king Purnavarman, cited by Hsuan Tsang, is a legacy of Jonesian Indology. The epithet 'world emperor' appears absurd in the context of eastern India where the Mauryas are dumped by R. Thapar and others.

Mithradates-I (171-138 B.C.), a late Parthian King of Chandragupta's line

Curiously the Âchârya excluded great names such as Asoka and Chandragupta although he must have known about them. Did he consult a lost history written by the  historian Kshemendra of Kashmir(similar to the Rajatarangini) which is mentioned by Taranatha?

      For more information about Purnavarman one has to turn away from eastern India to Indo-Iran which has a very ancient history. In the inscriptions found at the fortification area of Persepolis, the most important treasury official during Darius' regnal years 16 to 25 appears to be Parnaka, who was called Pharnaces by the Greek writers. His Persianness is stressed by all the writers yet equally convincing arguments show him to be an 'Indian'. India was also called Bharata and Baratkama who succeeded Parnaka, (Darius 32 to Xerxes 6) may have been another 'Indian'.

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Hanuman, Bazrangids and the Indianization of S. E. Asia

       Hanuman, the close associate of Rama was a figure of great historical importance. That he was known as a monkey-chief should not distract us because there are many indications in the Ramayana itself that he was a normal human being. It is very likely that he was associated with a tribe with a

Phoenician galley (Courtesy Institute of Texan Cultures)

monkey totem. Bāndar, the word for monkey is very significant. Hanuman can be identified with Iliman, an associate of the Elamite king Ram-Sin who ruled Sumer and probably also Elam and India. Iliman’s name can also be read as Anuman as the cuneiform symbol for ‘An’ and ‘Ili’ was the same.

      Hanuman is also widely known by the name Bajarangbali which appears to be very significant. The Bazrangis were a well-known family of Fars. They were the traditional priests of the Anahita temple at Istakhr in Fars. According to Tabari, Ram-Behist the wife of Sasan, the earliest ancestor of the Sasanids was a Bazrangi. The Bazrangis were a maritime people who controlled the costal areas of southeast Iran which was once ‘India’. There is a hint of this in the name Maruti of Hanuman which is associated with mobility. The way in which he brought a mountain of medicinal herbs from a far-away place to cure Lakshmana who was critically wounded, can be readily explained by his maritime links.

        The word ‘Bāndar’ for ‘port’ may be a memory of the Bāndars (Monkey-people). The seventeenth century historian Taranatha refers to a Persian king named Bandero.

        The Bazrangis were the colonizers of Oman and East Africa and their influence reached as far as the Philippines. They appear to have played a major role in the Indianisation or Sanskritisation of South-East Asia.

Nebuchadrezzar, Alexander, Babil and The Bible

       The question as to which religion or civilization has inherited the legacy of Nebuchadrezzar's Babylon, is difficult to answer. Zoroastrianism and Judaism display a physical link, as is evident from the accounts of Daniel in the Old Testament, but for a fuller picture one has to also include religions such as Buddhism and Jainism. Babylon is harshly censured in the Book of Revelation, but the Old Testament takes the opposite view. H. W. F. Saggs writes in the Encyclopedia Britannica,

Despite the fateful part he played in Judah's history, Nebuchadrezzar is seen in Jewish tradition in a predominantly favourable light. It was claimed that he gave orders for the protection of Jeremiah, who regarded him as God's appointed instrument whom it was impiety to disobey, and the prophet Ezekiel expressed a similar view at the attack on Tyre. A corresponding attitude to Nebuchadrezzar, as God's instrument against wrongdoers, occurs in the Apocrypha in 1 Esdras and, as protector to be prayed for, in Baruch. In Daniel (Old Testament) and in Bel and the Dragon (Apocrypha), Nebuchadrezzar appears as a man, initially deceived by bad advisers, who welcomes the situation in which truth is triumphant and God is vindicated.

       Every archaeological site is a precious relic from the past but Robert Koldewey, the meticulous excavator of Babylon was so overwhelmed by the sanctity of Babylon that he was reluctant to excavate it as this means destruction of ancient heritage. To understand the true dimension of this sacredness it is crucial to study Nebuchadrezzar's legacy which is larger than the millions of bricks inscribed with his name. An important clue is provided by Alexander the Great who died at Nebuchadrezzar's palace and who made Babylon his world capital. This was not for the city's splendour but its heritage of humanism which has not been properly explored in the literature.

  The Ishtar-Gate in 1932

         One has to start by asking many intriguing questions which are evaded by nearly all the scholars:

  1) For what offence did Nebuchadrezzar deport the Palestine Jews?

   2) Why was captive Jehoiachin allowed to eat at the king's table? 

   3) Why did Jeremiah support Nebuchadrezzar?

   4) Who was Tattenai who opposed the Palestaine Jews?

   5) Who was Sethar-Boznai who is named with Tattenai?

It is very likely that Nebuchadrezzar was irked by the religious stance of the the Jews of Palestine. The clash with Sethar-Boznai and Tattenai may also have the same background. Bertrand Russell holds that Jewish religion was less exclusive before the era of Ezekiel. It is crucial to recognize that Buddhism evolved from the religion of the Yadus who were the early Jews. The fact that Abraham's abode Babil was the same as that of Gotama Buddha and Zoroaster leads to sea-changes in the history of religions.

     But there is more to the history of Babil, or Babylon of the Greeks, than Nebuchadrezzar who rebuild the city after it was destroyed by Sennacherib. The Akkadian bāb-ilû means Gateway of the gods, but as I. J. Gelb points out, this is not the primary meaning; Babil is an echo of an earlier city name. This city was clearly in the East. Herzfeld wrote about Bawer in Iran, which is said to have been founded by Jamshid. Babil clearly echoes Bawer. Babil is also cognate with Kabil or Kapil which shows the link with Kapilavastu (Kuh-e Khwaja) or Prophthasia. Kabil is mentioned in the Koran. An ancient Babil in the east founded by Jamshid implies that Ur must also have been in the same area. Significantly the Persian texts mention Urva which must correspond to Ur of the Book of Genesis. After his enlightenment Gotama Buddha preached at Uruvela which must have been near Shahr-i Shokhta. Islamic historians wrote about the Indian city Ubbula near Basra which is clearly an echo of Uruvela or Ur.

        Babylon is said to have become prominent during Sargon's era but some scholars hold that this was Sargon II. It is likely that after the decline of Prophthasia which was Babil, its sacred religious tradition was continued in Babylon. Bagapa, the viceroy of 'eber nari' was Gotama Buddha whose title was Bhagava. He was probably the chief priest of E-Sangila and was also linked to the older Babil. His name Buddho-Dana links him with Daniel and Babylon.

         A rather strange Genesis story names Amraphael of Shinar, Arioch of Ellasar, Chedor-Laomer of Elam, and Tidal of Goiim as kings who confronted Israel. Amraphael is generally identified with Hammu-rabi which makes it likely that Chedor-Laomer or Kudur-Laghumar was Rim-Sin or Rama whose name was Raghupati. That Hammurabi was not deified may be due to his distaste for the idea of divine kingship.

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Dawn of Religions in the Land of Prophets

Comments from leading scholars

"Your personal knowledge of the terrain makes your views especially valuable and I agree that Patna is too far east." (to be a Palibothra)

Prof. N. G. L. Hammond, editor of The Cambridge Ancient History and discoverer of Vergina.

* "Dr. Pal departs largely from the trodden path (i.e. the Jonesian Indology) yet presents a cogent, well-documented thesis."

Prof. Sukumari Bhattacharji, noted Indologist and author of  "The Indian Theogony."

* "There is no question of disagreeing with you in any matter"

Mr. I. Mahadevan, noted writer on the Indus script.   

* "I am both amazed and impressed by your paper 'An Altar of Alexander Now Standing near Delhi'. It is very convincing (though I would like to see counter arguments) and has changed my view of Alexander in India, of Ashoka, and the Euthydemid dynasty".

Prof. Thomas McEvilley, Rice University, author of

 "The Shape of Ancient Thought".                   

* "It is good to know that scholars are making use of them. Too often one feels as if one is working in a vacuum. Good luck on your research".

Prof.  Mark Garrison, Trinity University, an eminent authority on the Persepolis Tablets.

  * I am absolutely fascinated by your theory regarding Alexander, Buddha and Asoka. Its a revolutionary discovery and I just wanted to say how I enjoyed reading about it on the web. I have ordered a copy of the book. I live in Karachi and am currently Minister of Education, Government of Sindh. Otherwise I am a historian of the British Colonial period specializing in Sindh studies.

    Dr. Hamida Khuhro, author of many books including

                   'Sind Through the Centuries'.

* The attempt to decipher the pictograms on seals discovered at Indus Valley sites is laudable. Unfortunately, I do not have the competence to comment on your work. But, I wish you all the best.

      Dr. Sayed Nurul Hasan, Dr. Phil., (Oxon.), a

            renowned expert on Medieval India and author of

           'Religion, State, and Society in Medieval India'.

* "Various renovations occurred at different times (at Kuh-e Khwaja) so the dating is complex with parts ranging from (pre-Sasanian) Buddhist to Sasanian to Islamic. It's very interesting to know that someone thinks the Buddha was born there."

     Dr. Trudy Kawami, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation,

              a commentator on the art of Kuh-e Khwaja.

*  "He has performed an incomparable service in rectifying the western bias that has always been preponderant in studies of Alexander. No one now should look at Alexander without also going to Pal and delving further into the Sanskrit sources and their allusions to Alexander.".

    Dr. Jan-Mathieu Carbon, Corpus Christi College,

          Oxford, in Scholia Reviews 14(2005)

* "I read your article with great interest.  That is the rich nature of Alexander as a scholarly topic; there is always more to consider!"

        Dr. Janet Grossman, The J. Paul Getty Museum

* "I, personally, have been waiting impatiently to see what you have to say concerning Jesus Christ and Alexander."

Prof. John Scarborough, University of Wisconsin.

* "Your theses about Jonesian Indology certainly look stimulating and challenging".

Prof. Ian Mabbett, Monash University.

* "Your piece in the Sunday Statesman on Ram is most interesting."

Prof. T. C. Young Jr. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, a noted expert on the history and archaeology of Iran

* Remember, barking dogs often wake people up and alert them to things they otherwise would have missed. I think that some of your theses serve that very important function among scholars.  I suspect that Monique Cordell's review of your book in Bryn Mawr Classical Review will attract more readers and create reasoned debate of your ideas among a range of scholars.

    Prof. T. Banchich, Canisius College, New York

* "Although I do not agree with your interpretations, I found them interesting reading. One of the few areas in which India is supposed to have made important contributions is religion, and now you are taking that glory away as well".

                Dr. Pratapaditya Pal, noted Art commentator.

* "Thank you for your letter and the enclosure which I have read. I regret to say that I cannot give you an opinion on its contents as I am neither a specialist in linguistics nor in the ancient history of west Asia. I am sorry therefore that I cannot be of help to you".

        Prof. Romila Thapar, Jawaharlal Nehru University,

        co-recipient of the $1mn Kluge Prize (2008).

* "I sincerely thank you for the copies of your paper on Ancient Indian History which I received a few days back. Dr. Pal I regret to inform you that given my job of the Director of the Italian Embassy Cultural Centre I have quit Archaeology for good."

  Prof. Maurizio Tosi, discoverer of Shahr-i Shokhta.

A New Perspective In World History

Available from Amazon.com

Gotama Buddha in West Asia

Translated by T. Sato

Related Sites

*Bryn Mawr Classical Review * Scholia Reviews

* Nepalese Frauds  *Babylon * Historyfiles
 *Alexander-the-Great  *Asoka * Chandragupta
* History-Hunters *American Buddhist Journal 

  *Orontobates *Amazon Reviews *Utrecht Univ.

* L'Encyclopedie de L'Agora * Kalyan 97

 *Cais-Soas  *Newsfinder *atgtop10 *Trirat's blog

                   It ain't what you don't know

                   that gets you into trouble.

                   It's what you know for sure

                   that just ain't so.
                                        - Mark Twain

Dr. Ranajit Pal