The Defiling of Christ by Unwary Historians

          'There are no reliable sources for Paul's life outside the New Testament', coolly states the Encyclopedia Britannica but this is a tacit admission of failure of mainstream history. J. D. Crossan captured headlines by stating that the title 'Son of God’ was used by Augustus before Jesus, and almost puts Jesus in the dock but it was Augustus who impersonated Amyntas and tried to wipe out Christianity. Echoing Gibbon Nietzsche likened Christianity to a 'vampire that sucked the blood out of the Roman Empire' but this is false. H. Galsterer writes in the Cambridge Ancient History that the period between Cicero and

'Jesus Stripped of His garments' by Albert Herbert. Courtesy www.clivejames.com

Tacitus is “one of the best known in ancient history”, but ironically this is the epoch (0–33 AD?) of Jesus whose life history is in shambles. R. Dawkins jumps on the fashionable bandwagon and brands Christ as mythical. Bertrand Russell also had a similar hasty and ill-considered view. The stage was set by A. Schweitzer's thoughtless remark; 'Jesus can never be known by means of historical research, but his words can inspire people in any age’. The fact that all the Apostles and Evangelists are also unhistorical clearly points to a faulty historical apparatus.

A Great Surprise in History.

       A judicious study, however, reveals that the haloed Amyntas of Galatia, whose palace was at Isauria, was the elusive historical Jesus. No archaeological relic of Jesus is known from Galilee which is a stern reminder that he was not a Galilean. Curiously, a Roman mon-ument, the St. Peter's Basilica, has a scent of history. It is surprisi-ng that St. Paul also appears to be a Roman. There can be no doubt that the historians have placed Jesus in the wrong land and era.

Temple of Zeus at Isauria which may have been visited by the Jesus of History

       Although mainstream writers routinely chant stale old formulae, F. Carotta, has brilliantly taken Christian history closer to Rome. This frees Jesus from the dank Galilean setting which is akin to Nepal which is said to be Gotama's birthplace, but where his relics have not been found. But the Gospels did not grow from the Julius Caesar myth as Carotta states. Christianity could never have evolved had its foun-der not been a real person. A. von Harnack termed Asia Minor ‘das Christliche Land’ as the early churches, early Christian movements and Christian-like inscriptions are all from this region. The main Gospels are in Greek which was spoken in Galatia.

      Jesus must have been linked to a holy shrine but this cannot be the Jerusalem temple. Another holy center was Ephesus but the holiest in the Roman world was the shrine of the Great Mother at Pes-sinus (Piscis = fish). Jesus was initially depicted as a fish. The gospels provide the crucial information that Jesus' name was Amen (Rev.iii. 14) and this finally leads to his true history. Amyntas, the unsung hero of Asia Minor of the 1st century B.C., closely matches the Jesus of the gospels. Son of the chief priestess of the holy Pessinus temple, Adobogiona, he was a legitimate 'son of god', but this may have led to his demise. But as Amyntas' 'death' (or crucifixion) took place in 26/25 B.C. this entails that the commonly accepted birth-date of Jesus, i.e. 0 AD, is false. Basing on the idea that Jesus was born on 20th March, Prof. H. J. Petermann and D. Cropek assign the period of Jesus to 58 B.C.- 25 B.C.

St. Peter and the Trail of Jesus From Rome To Pessinus

       Who really was Peter and why was he in Rome, of all places? In the gospels he is said to have been a fisherman but in reality he may have been a leading fish-trader. The Encyclopedia Britannica states;

"The problems surrounding the residence, martyrdom, and burial of Peter are among the most complicated of all those encountered in the study of the New Testament and the early church."

      In the new scenario St. Peter turns out to be Publius Petronius whose house in Rome is mentioned by Tacitus as a famous social hub. This may be the true background of the famous St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. The famous Roman Code of Law promulgated by Publi-us Petronius, the Lex Petronia, prevented a master from sending his slave to the beasts in the amphitheater without authorization. Though the Wikipedia dates it to 61 AD, this is certainly false. A better guess is late 1st century B.C. (Dict. of Greek and Roman Aniquities ed. W. Smith) and this makes Publius Petronius a contemporary of Amyntas. Was he the same as Publius Petronius Turpilianus, the moneyer of Agustus? Some sources refer to a Petronius who was a governor of Bithynia, the land of Amyntas.

      A famous mural of Sol Invictus at St. Peter's Basilica which is widely seen as a representation of Jesus Christ reveals the link of Jesus with Amyntas and Pessinus. This corresponds to a silver disk

A silver disk of Sol (3rd Cent. AD) from Pessinus and Jesus in the St. Peter's Basilica 

from Pessinus dating from third century AD which also depicts Sol Invictus with a similar two-horse chariot. Sol Invictus corresponds to the Greek Helios and the Indo-Iranian Mithra/Mitra, the god of light. The New Catholic Encyclopedia states;

Besides, the Sol Invictus had been adopted by the Christians in a Christian sense, as demonstrated in the Christ as Apollo-Helios in a mausoleum (c. 250) discovered beneath St. Peter's in the Vatican." Indeed "...from the beginning of the 3rd century "Sun of Justice" appears as a title of Christ.    

 A Saviour Behind the Earliest Christian Centers

        The oldest Christian centers, mentioned by St. Paul, were at Lystra, Derbe, Antioch in Pisidia etc. but it is uncanny that all these were centers of Amyntas which leaves no room for doubting that he was the founder of Christianity. He was pitted against the most brutal dictator of history, Augustus, who wanted the title 'son of god' for himself and ruthlessly eliminated not only Amyntas, but also Cleopatra's son Caesarion who was another legitimate 'son of god'.

A Coin of Jesus in India (Amyntas Nikator). Courtesy O. Bopearachchi

Amyntas is cited by all the ancient writers and his face on his coins from India and Galatia bears a striking similarity to the face of Jesus known from later pictures.

St. Paul Was the Great Asinius Pollio

       Writers such as R. Eisenman have erred in regard to geography and chronology of Christianity and have distorted the history of St. Paul, but as Albert Schweitzer noted, Paul is second only to Jesus. It can be seen that he was also a stalwart of world history. In the new scenario St. Paul turns out to be the great Asinius Pollio, described as the 'shinning glory' of the age by Ronald Syme. Christopher Pelling writes (“Cambridge Ancient History”, v.X ) with insight,

“At the beginning, there was a case for a quinquevirate, for Plancus and Pollio had played no less crucial a role than Lepidus in the maneuv(e)rings of mid -43. But Lepidus was included, Plancus and Pollio were not; and Lepidus ow-ed that less to his army than to his clan and connexions. In 43 these seemed to matter; a few years later they were irrelevant, and so was he. Mo-ney too was a new, incalculable factor. In 44-43 the promises made to troops reached new heights; and there was certainly money around – money of Caesar himself; money from the dead dictator’s friends, men like Balbus and Matius;

Asinus Pollio and Matius cannot but remind one of St. Mathew, who was a tax collector and a very rich man. J. D. Crossan and J. L. Reed have attempted in vain to discover the Paul of history within the framework of the birth-date of 0AD. The picture of Paul painted by writers such as N. T. Wright also lacks any semblance of realism. Crossan rightly paints Paul as a dedicated successor of Jesus who promoted Jesus' vision of a Kingdom of God on earth against the concept of world peace under Roman hegemony but fails to imagine that Jesus Amen could have been a king of India. Asinius Pollio was inspired by the Hellenistic and Buddhistic ideal of the Brotherhood of Man and the same is true of Paul who hated the priests as mediators between God and humans. Pollio the Pharisee mentioned by Josephus may have intruded into the gospels at the behest of Augustus.

St. Mark, Anther Shining Glory of the 1st Century B.C.

        F. Carotta's path-breaking suggestion that the gospel of Mark was first written in Latin has been pooh-poohed by unwary scholars but is indeed true. St. Mark appears to have been the great Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus whom Ronald Syme described as another 'shining glory' of his age. Messalla Corvinus was a Roman governor of Syria who was initially a great admirer of Augustus but turned against him about 25 B.C. which is the year of 'crucifixion' in the present sch-eme. He was a great literary figure who could have been the first writer of the Gospels.

       The end of Messalla Corvinus came is not known but it is possible that he was killed by Augustus. Another person who may have contri-buted to the gospel of Mark may be Marcus Lollius who became the governor of Amyntas' territory after its annexation by Augustus. He was also a trusted friend of Augustus who suddenly fell out of favour and was killed. Messalla Corvinus may have brought Asinius Pollio to the Christiani fold. This may be the crux of Paul's vision at Damascus.

Jesus Christ and St. Thomas in India

    The great Hermaeus Soter was clearly a Christian saint, but due to the incredulity of historians, he languishes in the gutter. R. C. Senior

Hermaeus' coins are similar to those of the Christian Gondophernes

has pushed back the date of Gondophares Soter to 20-10 B.C. This has a cascading effect on Christian history; for Gondophares was converted to Christianity by St. Thomas who is a famous literary figure but is unknown to archaeology. This is reminiscent of Diodotus-I Soter who has many coins but no inscriptions. It can be seen that he was the same as the great Asoka who has many inscriptions but no coins. Hermaeus Soter, who is a 'twin' of Amyntas Nikator in the

Deiotarus' monogram in Hermaeus' coin.    Courtesy O. Bopearachchi

coins, and who was related to Deiotarus was St. Thomas. Amyntas was linked to the Cult of Magna Mater which had a great impact in Rome but the Cult of Zeus-Mitra which inspired Amyntas and Hermaeus was also influential. Christianity and Buddhism both grew from the crucible of Mitraism.

St. Matthew, St. Luke and St. Barnabas

        The ‘sinner’ St. Matthew was clearly Matius cited by Cicero. “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” says St Matthew ( 22:21). It is difficult not to see the similarity of ethos in Matius' letters. Like Matius St. Mathew was a tax-collector and a rich man. St. Luke may have been and the priest-king Lycomedes. Mithradates, Pharnaces, Pharnabazus etc were timeless names. Thus St. Barnabas may have been Darius, son of Pharnaces II who was also called Pharnaces or Pharna-bazus. He may have been the same as Barabbas the prisoner who was set free before Jesus' crucifixion.

Virgin Mary, the Great Mother of Pessinus and  Attis

        Much has has been said about Jesus' mother Mary in Palestine from a linear interpretation of the gospels, but this defies common sense. The radiant figure of Virgin Mary has no place in Judaism of Galilee but belongs to the cult of the goddess at Epheseus-Pessinus. The chief priestess of Pessinus Adobogiona was the daughter of the Celtic King Deiotarus and her eminence is proven by that she and her husband were honoured in antiquity by a group of people who can be seen as the first Christians. Pessinus was also the seat of Attis, who was born of a virgin like Jesus, and is also depicted as sitting on his mother's lap. This is the background of Jesus' miraculous birth which has counterparts in the Pali legends. Attis was fed by a goat and was brought up among shepherds.  

Chronology and Geography - the Two Eyes of History

     Geographical and chronological errors devastate history. Bithynia and Isauria can be seen as the echoes of Bethlehem and Isa. Part of the OT pertains to Galilee-Judea but as the great E.A. Speiser not-ed, the Book of Genesis does not. The NT is totally different in spirit but to know the true Jesus it is essential to replace Galilee by Galatia. A close associate of Jesus was Mary Magdalene but no one knows where Magadan (Mat 15:39) or Magdala was. Magadan echoes distant Magadha but the biblical Magadan may have been in the Pontus region near Galatia ruled by the Mithradatic kings who were from Magadha. The archaeologists have found almost nothing in Nazareth. The name is not mentioned in the OT or other rabbinic texts. The gospel of John first refers to it but he had strong links with Epheseus and his Nazareth could have been Nagara not far from Epheseus. The author of Revelations mentions Patmos which is near Epheseus. Another Nagara was Alexandria Kapisa, the capital of Amyntas Nikator.

      Epheseus was ruled by the Seleucids who were close to the Mau-ryas but came under the Romans after Attalus. It was often hostile to the Romans. In 88 B.C. the Ephesians welcomed Mithridates VI Eupator as savior and 80,000 Romans are said to have been killed. This shows the link of Jesus Amyntas, who was a client king of the Romans, but was related to Mithradates Chrestus, with Epheseus.

A New Chronology of Jesus

      Gospel Chronology is widely suspected; Guignebert pointed to an error of +15 years, but if one ventures a little farther back, Jesus, St. Paul, St. Mark, St. Thomas and many other associates magically appear as radiant historical figures. Iśa Amen, the Jesus of history, was from Asia Minor. The only way of shaking off the Jinx that has dogged Christianity for ages is to scrap the birth-date of 0AD.

   Fortunately, just one amendment, namely ‘15th year of Augustus’ 2nd Triumvirate, 43 B.C.) in place of ‘15th year of Tiberius’ in Luke 3.1 as the beginning of the ministry (~28 B.C.) of John the Baptist brings Jesus face to face with history. Tiberius is named only once in the gospels (Luke 3.1) which is an error for Augustus. Many other citatio-ns to Caesar are without any further qualification and are wishfully assigned to Tiberius. John was arrested shortly afterwards and Jesus' own ministry may have started about 26 B.C. when he was about 30 years old. Accepting the gospel data that Jesus lived for 33 years this takes his birth to about 59/58 B.C. and crucifixion to 26/25 B.C. and in one stroke solves the problems of his historicity.

Amen - A Long-Forgotten Saviour

       Jesus' ancestor David is usually placed in Judea but this is false. In the OT he is a descendant of Rama who was not a Galilean and Goliath's armor resembles Greek armor which was not used in Judea. After turning to Galatia and purging Jesus' history of layers of accreted myth, certain basic facts of his life emerge, namely, that,

  1) His true name was Amen (Rev. iii.14) or Amyntas,

  2) His name Isu Chrestos links him to Isauria-Galatia, not Galilee,

  3) He was crucified in 25/26 B.C.,

  4) He was related to Mithradates Chrestus and Asoka,

  5) He was a Jew who followed the Hellenistic deity Mên Askaênos.

  6) He was a great healer and teacher.

  7) He was born at Pessinus which was Beth Lakhmu(House of fish).

  8) He ruled India-Pakistan-Afghanistan after surviving crucifixion.

  9) Amyntas' title 'Nikator' (Lat. Invictus) links him to Sol Invictus.

Jesus the 'Lamb' of Strabo and Jesus the Fish

       The Jews usually had only one name, claims the Encyclopedia Britannica. But as Rev. iii.14 clearly indicates, Amen was a name of Jesus. Jesus was depicted by the symbol of the fish in the early era. 

This may be linked to the fact in the Sumerian, Indian and 'in many ancient cultures Min' was the word for 'fish'. As ‘A’ was often an honorific ‘Min’ may have become ‘Amen’ or Amyntas.

       Jesus is often called a lamb and Strabo writes that Amyntas was the owner of 300 flocks of sheep. This great shepherd was surely Jesus Amen as Strabo’s other data on Amyntas also largely agree with the Gospels. The Indian coins of Amyntas suggest that he had survived crucifixion and gone to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

Amyntas, a Personification of Attis

     1st century Christianity was very different from the 4th century creed, and had pagan features. The Montanists were Christians and some Attis worshipers, who justifiably saw Amyntas as an embodim-ent of Attis, were early Christians. Phrygia (Pessinus) was the home of both Attis and Amyntas. Christianity took hold in Rome long before Constantine. Thus Claudius, who adored Attis, can be seen as an

early Christian. The Christians he punished may have belonged to a rival sect. The Greeks disliked the Mithraic bull slaughter and also had a horror of the emasculated Attis. Amyntas, a Hellenized Jew, may have had a similar view. As his head-dress reveals, Attis was a solar deity who was identified with the moon god Mēn. Amyntas followed the deity Mēn Askaēnos which was linked to Attis. It may not be idle to presume that if he could meet the flesh-and-blood Jesus, Constantine would probably have killed him for being a ‘pagan’.
 

Virgil’s Messiah and an ‘Accident of Dates’

      The vacuity of the present chronology of Jesus can be seen from a careful study of the poets Virgil and Ovid. Forty years before the supposed year of birth, Virgil, probably influenced by the prophesy of the Magi, speaks of a child who will bring back the Golden Age, banish sin, and restore peace. Unaware of the chronological trap, scholars have inverted plain logic and have turned Virgil into a Prophet. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church calls this an 'accident of dates' which is totally unwarranted. Virgil brackets Amyntas together with Apollo which shows his great respect for him. That he did not publish the Aeneid may be due to the passages of praise for Augustus he was forced to include.

The Mysterious Banishment of Ovid

       A more definitive warning comes from the mysterious banishm-ent of Ovid. The Encyclopedia Britannica makes a dubious prophecy - 'The reasons for Ovid's exile will never be fully known', and states;

Of the many explanations that have been offered of this mysterious indiscretion, the most probable is that he had become an involuntary accomplice in the adultery of Augustus' granddaughter, the younger Julia, who also was banished at the same time. In 2 BC her mother, the elder Julia, had similarly been banished for immorality, and the Ars amatoria had appeared while this scandal was still fresh in the public mind. These coincidences, together with the tone of Ovid's reference to his offense, suggest that he behaved in some way that was damaging both to Augu-stus' program of moral reform and to the honour of the imperial family.

This is a lame dialectic. Tacitus wrote that Augustus was a crook and R. Syme wrote that he gave orders to vilify Julius Caesar which Ovid disobeyed. The 'sexual offences' may have been wicked ploys. His sexual liaisons with Maecenas' wife Terentia are well known, and Cali-gula accused him of intercourse with his daughter Julia. Why were the law courts and the Senate sidetracked in order to banish Ovid? Why was Silanus let off? That he also executed Julia's religiously inclined husband Paullus and his grandson Postumus at the same time points to a Palace revolt favouring Amyntas. F. Norwood writes that Julia's incarceration was not due to adultery but her role in the 'conspiracy' of Paullus against Augustus. Paullus was linked to the Arval Brother-hood which had a group of twelve priests reminiscent of Jesus' twelve brethren. Augustus revived their practices to enforce his own cult which was probably resented by Paullus and this may be the crux of his 'conspiracy'. Tacitus writes that Postumus was not guilty.

The First Christian Circle of History

     The first Christian circle seems to have been formed around Ovid. The 'unauthorized' religion which Pomponia Graecina, the wife of A. Plautius, was tried for practicing, during the reign of Claudius, is kno-wn to be Christianity. Ovid and Julia the younger may have engaged in a similar worship of a despised  'son of god'. It is more than likely that Pomponia's father P. Pomponius Graecinus had Christian leanings. That he was a friend of Ovid, shows that the poet was one of the earliest admirers of Jesus Amen. It is likely, though not certain, that Sextus Pompeius and Junius Gallio to whom also Ovid turned for help from Pontus, had similar Christian sympathies. Syme writes that Passi-enus Blandus who was a preceptor of Tiberius was the first Roman knight who became a teacher. Seneca groups Passienus with great orators such as Asinius Pollio and Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus. Next in his opinion came the set of four which included Junius Gallio. Seneca also had glowing praise for Asinius Gallus, who according to him was overshadowed only by Asinius Poliio, his father. This Junius Gallio may have been linked to St. Paul at Corinth. Everett Ferguson links Paul to another Junius Gallio of the Claudian era inscription (~51 AD) which seems to be a mistake.

Augustus - the Wicked 'Son of God'

     St. Mark and St. Luke were contemporaries who could not err on chronology. The finger of suspicion points to the Roman dictator Augustus who madly desired to be remembered as a god and ruined Amyntas who had a divine aspect. Tacitus wrote,

'No honour was left for the gods, when Augustus chose to be himself worshipped with temples and statues, like those of the deities, and with flamens and priests.'

He also referred to widespread tampering of history by Roman rulers, the worst being Augustus. His cajoling the historians and producing false wills had a devastating effect. As R. Syme noted, the Res Gest-ae was aimed at suppressing true history. The bilingual inscription at Ancyra has been hailed as the 'Queen of inscriptions' by Mommsen who overlooked that these were at the centers of Amyntas to stifle Christian history. Augustus asked Roman writers to vilify Julius Caesar, his 'father'. This propaganda duped Shakespeare who disparaged Julius Caesar, a forerunner of Christ. Augustus grabbed Amyntas' land, dest-royed his temple at Antioch and installed his own cult. This  imperso-nation by a false ‘son of god’ derailed history. Horace warned of the dangers to the life of Asinius Pollio (St. Paul) who gave shelter to the historian Timagenes who was hounded by Augustus. He may even have encouraged fake gospel writers. The Wikipedia states blindly,

“He also wanted to relate to and connect with the concerns of the plebs and lay people. He achieved this through various means of generosity and a cutting back of lavish excess. In the year 29 BC, Augustus paid 400 sesterces each to 250,000 citizens, 1,000 sesterces each to 120,000 veterans in the colonies, and spent 700 million sesterces in purchasing land for his soldiers to settle upon. He also restored 82 different temples to display his care for the Roman pantheon of deities. In 28 BC, he melted down 80 silver statues erected in his likeness and in honor of him, an attempt of his to appear frugal and modest.”

There are signs of Hellenistic influence on Augustus in his early years and he allowed Asinius Pollio to restore the old edifice of Atrium Liberatatis and turn it into a library. But after 28 B.C. when Amyntas probably assumed a religious role he turned agai-nst him. G. Stanton of Cambridge writes that in the early post-Easter period, the Gospels were heard against the backdrop of a rival set of ‘gospels’ concerning the imperial cult of Augustus. He also notes the earliest criticisms of Jesus and claims concerning his resurrection. He places Paul in Antioch in Pisidia yet fails to realize that this was a great centre of Jesus Amen whose temple of Mēn Askaēnos was destroyed by Augustus who installed his own cult there.

The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ and Pontus Polemo

        The crucifixion of Jesus presents a myriad of problems. There is no corroboration of the episode from history. The Koran (Surah 4:157-158) reflects the uncertainties surrounding the episode;

That they said (in boast), 'We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah'—but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not—nay, Allah raised him up unto Himself.

"We" may refer to the Jews. Crucifixion was usually reserved for the laity but nothing was beyond Augustus who had banished Ovid and decimated his own family in the blind pursuit of self-glorification. His annexation of Amyntas' territory and hasty destruction of his temple in the Pisidian Antioch turns him into a likely conspirator. J. D. Crossan brands the gospel's imputation of the blame for Jesus' 'death' on the Jews as the 'longest lie' but this epithet should be reserved for the date of 0AD of Jesus' birth. Also if the Jews are exonerated, the Rom-ans remain as the only candidates for Jesus' killers but Crossan does not have the equipment to pursue them. He denies the historicity of the gospels and calls them 'prophecy historicized', i.e. written by later authors who looked back at the Old Testament and other early data  and then projected those prophesies on whatever historical episodes they could find. This is not wholly untrue but it is absurd to dismiss the gospels as nothing but useless fabrications.

       The sister of Barnabas, a relative of Christ was Queen Dynamis who was close to Augustus and may have trapped Amyntas to bring about his fall in 26/25 B.C. This treachery may have been unknown even to Asinius Pollio for some time. Augustus fell seriously ill after 25 B.C. and started stressing his title 'son of god' which may be a react-ion. Messalla Corvinus turned against him after 25 B.C. It is possible that C. Gallus' curious death was linked to Amyntas' fall. The only indication comes from Strabo who gives two versions of Amyntas' fall. The later version which mentions the treachery of a woman seems to be true. Augustus mentions in the Res Gestae that the gates of the god Janus Geminus were kept closed in 25 B.C. but keeps mum on his annexation of Asia-Minor. Dynamis' husband was Polemo of Pontus who may be the Pontius Pilate of the gospels. Cilicia and the Olba area was first awrded to Polemo-I but after he was shifted to Pontus by Antony, Amyntas became the ruler. It is not impossible that under Augustus Polemo of Pontus got the upper hand and turned the table on Amyntas.

Christ and Chrestus

       Jesus Amen was a descendant of Mithradates Chrestus who in turn was distantly related to the Seleucids and the Mauryas. Mithrad-ates VI was associated with the Magi and comets and stars. To understand how Amyntas could be the king of both India and Galatia it has to be noted that Chandragupta Maurya was a king of both India and the Pontus area. Mithradates II (ό κτιστής), king of Pontus was Chandragupta Maurya. Strabo(12.3.40) mentioned Sandaracurgium, and Gangra, the royal residence of Morzeüs (Strab. 12.3.41) but missed that Mithradates-II was the great Indian king Chandragupta Maurya. Gangra echoes Ganga. Chandragupta’s Suganga Palace on the Ganga, (actually on the Indus, the earlier Ganga) was famous.

St. Thomas' Conversion of Kujula

       The fact that the Kushan king Kujula Kadphises (34 - 20 B.C.) put Hermaeus' bust on his coins has baffled all the experts. Bachhof-er saw it as plain economic expediency which is shallow. This in fact proves that Kuzula was converted to Christianity or Yavugasa Dhar-ma by Hermaeus who was St. Thomas. This explains why Christianity came to Armenia before Rome. Kujula may have failed to get Augustus' support for his Christian sympathies. Augustus wanted to wipe out the legacy of Jesus Amen. Was Tigranes III the same as Vima Taktu and did he meet Augustus who mentions the Indians in the Res Gestae?

                                                                        more....

The Nomadic Jews, Rama, David and an India of the West

       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. Even after more than two millennia, the spectacle of his men streaming out of Europe and risking their lives across continents and seas to mingle with the exotic peoples of Africa and Asia appears stupefying. Like the Vedic sage, Alexander could have proclaimed, 'Putroham Prithivyah', 'I am a son of the earth', but unfortunately the post-world-war scholarship on him has been dominated more by empty rhetoric on demystification of history than any genuine concern for historical truth. Almost no effort has been made to strike a balance between the wealth of information from the Greco-Roman sources and the priceless Indian data. As Alexander spent his last years in Indo-Iran, his life history has to be based on the Indian, Persian as well as the Greco-Roman sources. All the extant Greco-Roman documents were written long after his death and at locations far-away from the main theatre of operations. As a result, even writers such as Arrian, Plutarch or Diodorus were not always familiar with the social mores of the people in question, and many episodes in India and Iran were interpreted unsatisfactorily. 

The Palace at Palibothra

     Alexander was aware of his unique role in history and had expert writers in his train yet there is little that is certain. This is due to the inability to stamp out the lies spread by his generals who probably poisoned him, and also the careless interpretation of geography. E. Badian of Harvard University had no idea of the importance of geogra-phy in history and wrote much about Alexander that cannot be related to ground data. He had no time to look carefully at the question of location of Palibothra and blindly accepted the so-called discovery of Palibothra at the absurd location of Patna by Sir William Jones.

Deval near Karachi (or Patali near Kohnouj) 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. 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.

The Evidence From a Sanskrit Drama and Orontobates

       Hoodwinked by the Jonesian bag of lies, great scholars such as W. W. Tarn and M. Rostovtzeff concluded that Alexander is ignored in Indian literature. This is totally false. The prelude to the intrigues in the drama Mudrarakshasa, set around Palibothra, is Alexander's death. In some manuscripts, Chandragupta is absent but his role is taken up by Rantivarma which shows that Chandragupta was Rantivarma or Orontobates. Without Orontobates 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 mysterio-us 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.

Chandanadasa of the Mudrarakshasa was a Ghost of Alexander

       Without recognizing the true face of Orontobates it is impossible to understand Alexander. But the keys to the secrets of Orontobates are available only from the Indian texts. The famous Sanskrit drama Mudrarakshasa of Vishakhadatta, which is still very popular in India, has long been foraged for historical clues but due to geographical delusions this has been in vain. Clearly, the interpretation of the play is in its infancy.

 A curious vagueness besets our knowledge of Vishakhadatta or Vishakhadeva, son of the Maharaja Bhaskaradatta or minister Prithu, grandson of the feudatory Vatesvaradatta. None of these persons are elsewhere known, and for his date we are reduced to conjectures.

For Keith, as also for E. Badian, the locale of the play is Patna or Pataliputra, where Sir William Jones had 'discovered' the capital of Chandragupta. This incidentally is not supported by a single archaeol-ogical relic, and must therefore be seen as a figment of imagination. 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.

Alexander's Clarion Call for Brotherhood of Man

        The question whether Alexander did in fact speak about the Brotherhood of Man at the Opis banquet has been endlessly debated. Sir William Tarn wrote that Alexander gave a call for a Brotherhood of Man which was disputed by E. Badian whose arguments once carried the day. However, Badian confuses 'truth' with the Greco-Roman accounts and totally ignores the Sanskrit and Pali accounts which clearly prove him wrong. Tarn had a far better understanding of the eastern cultures. The Harvard professor missed that Alexander sat on a throne that was possibly adorned by Gomata who was Gotama Buddha. Incidentally, 'Brotherhood' or 'Maitri' is a central plank of Buddhism.

The Opis Banquet and the Feast of Mithra/Mitra

      None of the Greco-Roman authors seem to have had any direct knowledge of the Eastern religions. Plutarch was a very learned scholar who was a priest at Delphi yet his knowledge on the Indian religions is scanty. He borrowed much from the writings of the great Asinius Pollio whose work is now lost. Only Justin seems to have had some idea about the Asiatic cultures. Zoroastrianism and Mithraism were catch-words but Greek knowledge about both the religions was less than satisfactory. It is possible that Buddhism was mixed up with Judaism. Sadly Badian 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-I/Asoka also hints that Alexander had given a call for the Brotherhood of Man.

A Princess Between Alexander and Orontobates

       It is mind-boggling to find a princess between the two men. 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, Sashigupta and Orontes were all names of Maurya Chandragupta who was once an ally but later turned 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.

Megasthenes Was Bagistanes

       Alexander is widely seen as the greatest military commander of history but all his victories were not won in battle. The Cilician Satrap Mazaeus was a collaborator. No wonder he was allowed to mint coins in his name even when Alexander was alive. When he offered to liberate Darius' mother Sisygambis, she is said to have refused which hints that he was seen as a traitor. Chandragupta is said to have briefed Alexander about the feasibility of unseating the Nanda king. Arrian wrote that Mazaeus' son Antibelus and Bagistanes, made a similar submission. As 'M' often became 'B',  Bagistanes was Megasth-enes, Seleucus' envoy to Chandragupta.

Mithradates II (ό κτιστής) Was Chandragupta

       Much has been written on Mithradates VI, the 'Poison King' but his links with Chandragupta Maurya who took small doses of poison everyday in order to have immunity against poisoning has been overlooked. It is important to note that Mithradates II (ό κτιστής), king of Pontus, was actually Chandragupta Maurya. Strabo mentions Sandaracurgium (Strab. 12.3.40), and Gangra, the royal residence of Morzeüs (Strab. 12.3.41) but had no idea that Mithrada-tes-II was Maurya Chandragupta who also ruled India. Gangra is an echo of Ganga. Chandragupta’s Suganga Palace on the Ganga, (in fact on the Indus which was the earlier Ganga) was famous. Diodorus assigns him a reign of thirty-five years, but it appears certain that he did not hold uninterrupted possession of the sovereignty during that period. The Indian texts, on the other hand, indicate a reign of about 22 years. After the death of Alexander he sided with Antigonus the one-eyed but when the latter had a dream foretelling the future greatness of Mithridates, he decided to put him to death. Mithridates, however fled to Paphlagonia, where he occupied the strong fortress of Cimiata, and gradually extended his dominion over the neighbouring countries. Chandragupta was clearly an ancestor of Mithradates VI Eupator, the famous poison-king. His relationship with the poison king makes it almost certain that Alexander was poisoned.

A Macbeth-Like Conspiracy?

      As the rise of Chandragupta 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 all Devanampiyas, which reveals that they were Devadatta or Diodotus. Thus Diodotus of Erythrae was Chandragupta who may have joined hands with the generals to poison Alexander. 

     Did Seleucus join hands with Chandragupta to poison Alexander or was it Roxane who joined hands with Perdikkas as the Mudraraksha-sa hints? This would be almost a Macbeth-like conspiracy. The name Macbeth is a variant of Magdabeth. Aristotle's name has been ment-ioned in connection with his poisoning but this appears to be false as Orontes who was Sashigupta was famous for his links with poison.

       On the fateful night Alexander wanted to leave a drinking party and retire to his room but then he met Medeios, who is said to be a very close companion, and he lured him to another party which he promised would be more enjoyable. Who was this Medeios? Was he the satrap of Media? Can he be Sashigupta who is linked to Magadha in the Indian texts? If this is true then did Ada II play any part in proceedings?

An Altar of Alexander Now Standing Near Delhi

      Alexander lives in India. At least one of the Asokan Pillars 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 Delhi-Topra Asokan Pillar was an Altar of Alexander

      Alexander's 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 and Hephaestion

        Alexander has been presented as a brutal and blood-thirsty dic-tator by unwary scholars such as E. Badian and P. Green but this has little historical basis. Sadly although there is much in his relationship with Hephaestion that is noble and worth emulating, this has been underplayed by modern writers who abet the unlimited thirst and tolerance for sensational falsehood in today's media-dominated world. His frenzy after Hephaestion's death has been given a sexual slant but this is unjustified. He suspected that Hephaestion was poisoned and executed the physician. Bosworth refers to the prevailing 'heavy atmosphere of distrust and suspicion around the king', and it is likely that his frenzy was due to his fear that the noose was tightening on his own neck. Moreover, it was Hephaestion who alone shared his fascination for new religious ideas which had alienated old allies like Cleitus, Callisthenes and perhaps even Parmenio.

The  Brazen Giant of Greek Fame, with conquering Limbs

        The statue of Liberty at New York, USA, represents Libertas, the goddess of freedom, who holds a torch and bears a tablet evoking Law. A plaque at the pedestal's entrance is inscribed with a sonnet,

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. .......

Yet despite all the outward expressions of disavowal, the Greek genius looms large over the statue. It was modeled after the Colossus of Rhodes: a bronze statue of the Greek Sun-god Helios. This was one of the wonders of the ancient world which is reported to have been over 100 feet tall, and like the New York statue stood at a harbour entrance and carried a beacon for the guidance of ships.

Although Alexander is at times thought of only as a 'mighty conqueror', this is short-sighted, he was also a great liberator who did not enslave the people he conquered. 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. He stood for amity and the Golden Age of Buddhism in India started after his voyage. The Sun-god of the Colossus of Rhodes is said to have been modeled after Alexander. If this is true then Alexander's spirit lives in the Statue of Liberty.

Alexander and Amon of Siwa

      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 being hailed as the 'son of Amon' by the priests, he was 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 a close counterpart of Indra who in turn shares many characteristics with Shiva. Buddhism appears to have evolved from Shaivism and Mitraism.

Alexander's Tomb

        Alexander was not deified but after his death his body came to be regarded as a holy relic. His soldiers remembered him as a super-human hero. According to the quasi-historical Alexander-Romance his body was placed in a lead sarcophagus and was first transported to Memphis and then to Alexandria. Other sources, however, reported a golden sarcophagus which was later replaced by one made of glass (or alabaster) by Ptolemy X Alexander (107-88). For almost 600 years, his tomb was a pilgrimage place for people coming from all over the world. However at the beginning of the 4th century AD, the tomb vanished and textual references to it also stopped.

In the 19th century, the Egyptian astronomer Mahmud el-Falaki tried to locate the tomb. Basing himself mainly on the Arabic sources, he surmised that the tomb was under the mosque of prophet Daniel, but he had no permission to dig there. Searches made during the 20th century also failed to locate the tomb. It is generally thought that it lies in the Latin Cemeteries, between the ancient Via Canopica (rediscovered by el-Falaki) and Via R1, in modern Alexandria.

Alexander, Julius Caesar and Augustus

     While in Spain Julius Caesar is reported to have come across a statue of Alexander and lamented over the fact that at his age (33) Alexander had conquered the whole world, while he had achieved relatively little. After his victory over Pompey at Pharsalos Julius Caesar went to Egypt to visit Alexander's tomb at Alexandria.

        Cassius Dio (155-235 AD) who was consul of Africa in the reign of Septimus Severus, wrote that Augustus came to see Alexander's body. According to him he touched the nose of Alexander and dama-ged it. Suetonius (69-122 AD) reported that when asked if he wanted to visit the tombs of the Ptolemies, Augustus retorted, "I came to see a king and not dead men". Augustus adopted Alexander as the symbol of his reign and had fixed his image on his signet-ring.

Alexander and Mithradates VI Eupator

      Mithradates VI Eupator, who was also a man of many worlds and also greatly respected Alexander. A. Mayor writes that he traced his father's bloodline to the Persian kings and his mother's family to Alexander the Great. The Persian Princess Barsině whom Alexander knew from his boyhood resided at Pergamon and was related to Mithradates II (ό κτιστής). She had a son with Alexander who was killed. Mithradates VI Eupator cherished a cloak believed to have belonged to Alexander. He probably received it from Cleopatra III wife of Ptolemy VIII of Egypt. Mithradates VI was the worst enemy of Rome but Pliny eulogized him as the 'greatest king of his era' but Cicero's epithet for Mithradates was 'the greatest king since Alexander'. After his victory over the Bithynian-Roman alliance led by king Nocomedes, Mithradates set free all the captors just as Alexander had done after his victory over Porus. Even Pompey who took away Alexander's purple robe after defeating Mithradates himself donned  Alexander's prized robe during his victory procession.

The Hellenistic Miracle

       Alexander was not a Greek of the Athenian mould but was a half-barbarian, a man of many worlds. He was an universalist who stood far above Roman and Athenian provincialism. Only Asinius Pollio, who was a Roman, spoke against 'patavinitas' or narrow nationalism. The chief motto of the Hellenistic revolution that followed Alexander's voyage was 'Brotherhood of Man' which was dear to Alexander's heart. Paul Johnson has hazy ideas regarding the background of Christianity yet notes;

But Greece could not, or at any rate did not, produce the ideas themselves. These came from the east, from Babylon, Persia, Egypt, mostly tribal or national cults in origin, later liberated from time and place by transformation into cults attached to individual deities. These gods and goddesses lost their localities, changed their names, amalgamated themselves with other, once-national or tribal gods, and then, in turn, moved westwards and were syncretized with the gods of Greece and Rome: thus the Baal of Dolichenus was identified with Zeus and Jupiter, Isis with Ishtar and Aphrodite. By the time of Christ there were hundreds of such cults, perhaps thousands of sub-cults. There were cults for all races, classes and tastes, cults for every trade and situation in life. A new form of religious community appeared for the first time in history: not a nation celebrating its patriotic cult, but a voluntary group, in which social, racial and national distinctions were transcended: men and women coming together just as individuals, before their god.

Alexander, Porus and Human Dignity

        Evelin Lindner has recently stressed the role of dignity in creating an atmosphere conducive to world peace. The treatment of Porus by Alexander the Great is a telling evidence of his realization that even a vanquished king has claims to dignity and that humilia-tion ultimately negates peace. This was a continuation of the policy of Nebuchadrezzar who shared his table with the defeated Jewish king.

     Alexander was the first to conceive the idea 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 saw the futility of violence. He was a pupil of the great Aristotle but his wisd-om was also tempered by the famous Indian philosopher and playwrig-ht Asvaghosha (Sphines). After his victory over Porus Alexander restored him to his former kingdom. This is a telling evidence of his realization that humiliation negates peace.

Alexander the non-citizen (Anagarika)

        Alexander has been criticized for choosing Babylon as his world-capital but writers such as E. Badian, B. Bosworth or P. Green have not appreciated the background of his his strong fascination for Nebuchadrezzar who also sought to further the Brotherhood of Man. He was certainly aware of the Greek concept of polis and Aristotle's view of the ideal state, yet coming under the influence of the Buddhist sage Asvaghosa, he embodied not only the Western scientific spirit but also Eastern religiosity. He went far beyond the confines of the polis and had become a world-citizen or Anagarika in the true sense of the word.

Alexander and Jesus

      Jesus and Alexander both died at the tender age of thirty-three, but there is much more to these two great figures of antiquity than just this coincidence. Alexander gave a call for Brotherhood of Man which was followed up by Asoka/Diodotus-I. It is this ideal of amity or Homonoia that greatly inspired Jesus Christ. Following Sir William Tarn, A. R. Anderson wrote that Alexander unwittingly "prepared the grou-nd in which Christianity was to grow," and with great vision described him as a forerunner of Jesus. Indeed many early representations of Jesus portrayed him in the likeness of Alexander. Significantly Amyntas of Galatia also emulated Alexander. Having no clues, Ory Amitay writes,

But Alexander not only kept Herakles' effigy as his companion. On occasion he even dressed up like him! This intriguing piece of evidence for the strong impression of Heracles on the mind of Alexander comes from a contemporary witness, Ephippos of Olynthos, who testified that Alexander used on occasion to dress up as various divinities.

That Alexander would emulate Ammon or Heracles (wearing the lion skin and holding the famous club) is not surprising, but Ory Amitay is totally at a loss to understand why he emulated Hermes and Artemis. It cannot be an accident that the coins of Amyntas of Galatia depict Heracles' lion as well as Hermes and Artemis.

     Anderson has been ignorantly criticized by E. Badian who saw nothing beyond the Greco-Roman tradition and who failed to recognize the Alexander of flesh-and-blood. Not surprisingly, Ory Amitay  who follows Badian is also skeptical of Anderson's thesis. He shows little understanding or even interest in the historical Jesus. He lays greater stress on the Alexander of myth than the historical Alexander and his elaboration of the links between the Jesus, Alexander and Heracles lacks true insight.

    There can be little doubt about the Hellenistic inspiration of Jesus Christ. Jesus was a Jew but Ory Amitay seems to be unaware that he was very different from the Jerusalem Jews who hated him. The very name of Amon (of Siwa) has a message that has been lost on writers such as Badian and Bosworth. Ory Amitay fails to note that Amon in many languages has the sense of peace.

The Legacy of Alexander the Great

     Kalo hi ayam niravadhir, vipula cha prithvi', 'time is without bounds and the world is vast', wrote poet Bhavabhuti. But even in this infinite expanse, Alexander remains as a shining light. Arrian wrote about his irresistible yarning (Pothos) for the unknown which is undoubtedly true. 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 Darius-III's mother Sisygambis courted death by refusing food after hearing of his death, and that the Prasiia-ns treated his altars with great respect. The Roman emperor Caracalla , who was called "the common enemy of mankind" by E. Gibbon, was a great admirer of Alexander. Although he has been demonized by the leading historians of his day, F. P. Kolb writes that this is largely due to an Augustan bias.

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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

         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 confederation that can be seen as early India. The Wikipedia attaches great importance to Witzel's idea that the seals are non-linguistic which is as worthless as his other claim that the seal language is Para Munda. Much more sensible 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, decipherment 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 was 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. Nearly all the scholars, excepting I. Mahadevan, who has now reversed his earlier stand, 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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    The chaos in the history of Jesus naturally spilled into the accounts of his mother Mary, who is an exalted figure in Christianity. Historians enthralled by the Augustus' lies forgot to note the absurdity of the figure of Virgin Mary in Galilee-Judea. So great has been the resulting disenchantment that outside the seminaries the question 'Did Mary Exist' has almost become a part of harmless frolic. Stacy Schiff, however, writes in relation to Cleopatra,

Ptolemaic culture evaporated as well. A great deal that Cleopatra knew would be forgotten for fifteen hundred years. A very different kind of woman, the Virgin Mary, would subsume Isis as entirely as Elizabeth Taylor has subsumed Cleopatra.

Although Schiff's Jesus is only a Galilean, her juxtaposition of Virgin Mary and Cleopatra is very significant. Cleopatra - Ephesus  In 88-89 B.C. the people of Epheseus welcomed the Mithridates VI Eupathor, king of Pontus, as savior. 80,000 Romans were killed.     
 

   The gospel stories have to be judged in respect to criteria very different from those applicable to modern biographical literature. Mary is said to have been a Virgin, a characteriz-ation that has to be judged in respect to the mythology of Attis who has many features of Jesus and who was from Pessinus. One cannot lose sight of that the histories of other great religious figures such as Gotama Buddha are also full of embellishments. In fact Gotama is also claimed to have had an immaculate birth  some versions of the life story of the Buddha say that he was conceived without sexual activity.

Birth of Gotama Buddha, Gandhara, 2nd-3rd cent. AD

In the 19th century, a house near Ephesus in Turkey was found which has since been visited as the House of the Virgin Mary by pilgrims who consider it the place where Mary lived until her assumption. The Gospel of John states that Mary went to live with the Disciple whom Jesus loved, identified as John the Evangelist. Irenaeus and Eusebius of Caesarea wrote in their histories that John later went to Ephesus, which may provide the basis for the early belief that Mary also lived in Ephesus with John. Galilee or Jerusalem has no room for a great mother Epheseus Pessinus The gospels state that after the crucifixion of Jesus, Mary went to live with the Disciple whom Jesus loved, i.e the Evangelist John. Now John is also said to have lived in Epheseus. This is where the the so-called House of Mary is situated. Why Epheseus again? Epheseus was ruled by the Seleucids who had close ties with the Mauryas but came under the Romans after Attalus III. But it had a tradition of resistance to the Romans. In about 88 B.C. the Ephesians welcomed the Pontus king Mithridates VI Eupathor, as savior and 80,000 Romans are said to have been killed. This shows the link of Jesus Amyntas, who was a client king of the Romans, but had Mithradatic ancestry, with Epheseus. Adobogiona was related to the Mithradates family.

      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. Rummag-ing 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 of Harvard also enacts a spirited defense of Jones' 'discovery' which has literally wrecked world history. After rejecting Jones, history of the world becomes dramatically changed.

                   1) Early Magadha was Magan

     Bihar became Magadha only after the 3rd century B. C. The identification of Bihar as early Magadha is a fatal error. The Wikipedia has no idea about the complex history of ancient Magadha. 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.

                  2) The Matchless Palace of Palibothra

         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. 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. 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.

         3) The Crucial Messages of the Harappan Seals

     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. he 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.

           4) Adam, the Jews, and the Amorites in 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. The Amorites were closely related to the Jews who are the descendants of the Indian Yadus. As "A" in many languages was an honorific Adam can be seen to be the same as the god Dharma. 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.

  5) Rama, Shutruk-Nahhunte and Lanka in Indo-Iran

       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 the island of Queshm near Bandar-e Lengeh opposite Dubai in the Persian Gulf. S. B. Roy (Mohenjo-daro and the Lanka of Ravana, New Delhi, 1982) links Ravana with Mohenjo

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

-Daro. It is possible that after the death of Rama he became the ruler of the Indus cities.

      Hinduism is a disparate mix of diverse doctrines, cults and social traits, yet no sensible history can be written without the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Wendy Donigher likens Hinduism to an armadillo but misses that the Mahabharata speaks of a 2nd millennium B.C. Jewish holocaust (Yahdu = Yadu). A non-Jonesian perspective opens the gates for a sober history of early Christianity.

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Colonial Indology and the Blunder of Jones

         After Alexander the Great, the most illustrious figure of the 4th century B.C. was Chandragupta but his history has been reduced to a mockery by gullible historians. The Wikipedia, in particular, turns him into a joker. On the other hand, S. Piggott envisioned him as crowned on the Harappan ruins. A thorough study reveals that this is in fact true. 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 be seen to be Raja Sashigupta. The Mauryas were related to the Amorites (Hebrew ^emōrî) who belonged to the Indus-Saraswati culture.

        That Chandragupta had met Alexander 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. 

       In her admirable book on Mithradates VI Eupator, A. Mayor mentions his strong Eastern links. A deeper study reveals that Mithridates–II (ό κτιστής, 'creator') who, according to Diodorus, rose to the throne of Pontus in 337 B.C. (Diod. xvi. 90.) was in fact Chandragupta. Diodorus assigns him a reign of thirty-five years(337-302 B.C.), but it appears certain that he did not hold uninterrupted possession of the sovereignty during that period. The circumstances that led to his absence from Pontus are not known; indeed no farther notice of him is available from the date of his accession in 337 B.C. until some time after the death of Alexander (~322 B.C.), when he is found attending the court and camp of Antigonus. The date 337 B.C. is important as it is the date of accession of Chandragupta.
 

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Sashigupta and the Poisoning of Alexander

Christ, St. Paul and St. Thomas in the Limelight of History

      Was Jesus Christ just a holy figure or also a historical personage? Surprisingly, the answer to this million-Dollar question seems to be that he was both. After Bruno Bauer, it has become fashionable to label Christ as a mythical being and although this has been buttressed by an evil Nepalese forgery in Buddhism, this is totally false. A careful study of history reveals that Christianity did not evolve out of 'fabrications' centered around Jesus and other seers. However, to see Jesus and Thomas in the light of history one has to first turn to the home of all ancient regions such as Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and Judaism - the north-west of India and Seistan-Baluchistan-Afghanistan.

The Date of Kanishka

The date of 127 AD as the first year of Kanishka given by Harry Falk and others is absurd. Falk places Asoka at Patna and writes much about him that is plainly illogical. Like other Jonesian writers his thinking is linear and takes no account of that the names of the Armenian kings such as Orontes and Artavasdes echo Rantivarma (Mudrarakshasa) and Vasudeva which has a bearing on Kushan history. Kujula may have been the same as Artaxes II (34-20 B. C.) who sought Augustus' help but was refused. This may resolve the problem of Indian dates. The name Artaxes is Arta-Uksha which is the same as Kadphises or Gud-Vrsa. B. N. Mukherjee supports the date AD 78 as the first year of Kanishka which is far more sensible.

India of the West - Pontus and Armenia

     Pontus, which was ruled by Chandragupta Maurya, was some kind of an India of the West. The significance of the crucial data provided by Yasht, X, 104.;

The long arms of Mithra seize upon those who deceive Mithra:

even when in India of the East he catches him,
even when in India of the West he smites him down:.....
 

has been lost on all barring A. Toynbee and Sir Charles Eliot. As noted by J. Kennedy (J.R.A.S. 1904), a similar link existed between India and Armenia. Just as Chandragupta was king of both Pontus and India, the Kushans also ruled Armenia. Artavasdes of Armenia is related to Vasudeva, king of India. The fact that Kujula put Augustus' bust on his coins has greatly surprised historians. Kujula seems to be the same as Artaxes II (34-20 B.C.) who sought Augustus' help but was refused. This may resolve the problem of Indian dates. The name Artaxes is Arta-Uksha which is the same as Kadphises or Gud-Vrsa.

     The joint coin issue of the great 1st century B.C. Indo-Greek king Hermaeus and Kujula Kadphises (34-20 B.C.) remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of ancient history. Tarn was awed by Hermaeus' legacy yet failed to recognize his true face. A. K. Narain also shared the same admiration. The opinion of modern scholars such as O. Bopearachchi is no better, although interestingly, some scholars

Photo Courtesy CoinIndia   http://coinindia.com/

have suggested that Hermaeus could have been one of the Magi. Surprisingly no one ventured beyond the linguistic inanities and analyzed the meaning and content of the name Hermaeus. It is linked to Hermes who, like the Egyptian Thoth, was also associated with law and the concept of Dharma. Gotama Buddha's name Tathagata links him with Hermes and Thoth. More importantly, due to the closeness of the sounds, the name Hermaeus was surely transformed into a Dharma-type name by his subjects. Dharma or Dhamma is the essence of the names Adam and Thomas.

          To understand the legend “Kujula Kasasa Kushana Yavugasa Dharmathidasa” one has to recognize the face of the Jew in Amyntas’ coin and also remember that Yahweh corresponds to Yava of the RigVeda. Christianity was a Judaic heresy which was called Yavugasa Dharma. Yava may be linked to Yeho (יהו) which is thought to be the root of the name Jesus. This Christianity or Yavugasa Dharma seems to have been close to Mahayana.

      Some of Amyntas’ coins depicted Tyche who was a capricious dispenser of good and ill fortune. Many Greeks believed that when no cause can be found to such events as droughts, floods, etc. then it must be due to the wrath of Tyche. So the favour of Tyche was sought to avert disasters. This may be linked to the suggestion of many scholars that Jesus had a premonition of doom. The largest silver coin of antiquity (85 gms) is credited to Amyntas.

Another coin of Amyntas Nikator. Picture courtesy O. Bopearachchi

The syncretic symbol of Zeus-Mithra in both the coins show why they were seen as twins. Zeus, as Tran warned, was not always the Hellenic deity of the Iliad, but very often the elephant god of Kapisa. Moreover the Vitarka mudra of the seated god is very similar to Abhaya Mudra. The symbolary of the coins suggests something like Christianity which was influenced by both Buddhism and Mitraism. Both Amyntas and Hermaeus are dated to about 50-60 B.C. by Tarn but S. Konow proposed a much later date. Hermaeus has been described as having a nomadic background which agrees with that he and Amyntas were active in Galatia-Isauria. Amyntas' religion was Hellenistic and differed from the practices of the Jerusalem Temple which was the most important Jewish shrine of the period.

In the New Testament Nazareth is associated with Jesus as his boyhood home, and in its synagogue he preached the sermon that led to his rejection by his fellow townsmen. The city is now a centre of Christian pilgrimage. Nazareth is not mentioned in the Old Testament or rabbinic literature and the etymology of the name is uncertain. It is first mention is in the NT (John 1). The contempt in which this then insignificant village was held is expressed in the same chapter (“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”). From there, Jesus went to perform his first miracle, that of the changing of water to wine at Cana (John 2). Nazareth had a Jewish population in Jesus' time; its Christian holy places are first mentioned after Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire (AD 313). The only site in Nazareth that can be definitely identified as dating back to New Testament times is the town well, now called St. Mary's

      Not surprisingly a Galatian King named Amyntas (37-25 B.C.) is known whose coin depicting Heracles has some resemblance with the second coin of Amyntas Nikator. The symbol of lion in his coin reminds one of Diodotus-I Soter or Asoka who used it on his pillars. This Amyntas also issued many coins with the face of Hermes which may link him to Hermaeus.

Coin of Amyntas of Galatia  Courtesy http://www.galloturca.com

       The Hermaeus-Thomas equation explains the joint coin issue of Kujula Kadphises and Hermaeus. In the coins Heramaeus calls himself Soter or Saviour and the raised hand of Zeus in his coins shows him as receiving benediction from Zeus. The cross-like specter in his coins suggests a link with Christianity.

      The archaeological proof for the presence of Thomas in India naturally raises the expectation that Jesus' relics may also be found in India. This is exactly the case. The coins of Hermaeus bear a very striking similarity with those of Amyntas which prove that they were very intimately related. To recognize Jesus one has to note that he was originally depicted by the fish symbol which was read as 'Min’ in many cultures. Thus Jesus' name can be seen to be Amyn or Amen. The face of Amyntas has a strong Jewish disposition which seems to confirm the holy accounts. The totally unadorned face can only point to a strong religious fervour. Tarn noted the close similarity and wrote that Hermaeus was the son of Amyntas which is rejected by others but it can be seen that they were co-religionists. Amyntas was the mentor of the great Hermaeus as the holy texts suggest.

        The fact that Kujula Kadphises depicted the bust of Augustus in some of his coins is very significant. Bachhofer explained the bust of Augustus as a demonstration of Kujula's commercial instinct which is shallow. This may be linked to the attempt of Kujula (Artaxes II) to get Agustus' support. In the Res Gestae, Augustus mentions an emba-ssy from Indian kings visiting Rome which may have been from Vima Takto, probably Tigranes III who was favoured by Augustus or a close relative. Although Augustus has been praised for his benevolence, he aspired to be a 'son of god' by displacing Jesus Christ.

       An amazing, if not bewildering, body of literature exits on Gondophares and St. Thomas (Hermaeus Soter). R. C. Senior has recently placed him in the period 20-10 B.C. Senior is unaware that this is exactly the timeframe of Amyntas-Jesus.

Bronze coin of Gondophares (Alchemic symbol for mercury in the obverse?)

The image of Zeus with raised hand and other symbols in the reverse reveal a close relationship with the coins of Amyntas and Hermaeus.

Silver coin of Amyntas

Gotama, Zoroaster and Sariputta in the Persepolis Tablets 

       The inscribed Persepolis Fortification Tablets are one of the most authentic set of documents in world history. Due to the efforts of R. T. Hallock, W. Hinz and others, the tablets, which date from 509 to 494 B.C., have provided rich historical data. Sadly though Sanskrit was considered in the study, the vast Pali literature was left out which has badly hampered the interpretation. The tablets deal with transactions relating to distribution of grain and other foodstuffs, management of flocks, and provisioning of workers and travellers in Persis and eastern Elam, and probably at some northwestern southeastern locations. These were drawn up at various sites and were sent to the Persepolis central office. Some were from far-away Susa. A careful study not only indicates the presence of Buddhism in Iran but also sheds light on Zoroaster who is classed as an elusive figure by the Wikipedia which is an epitome of confusion.

The thug Führer duped everyone into believing that Pali, which is similar to Avestan, belongs to Nepal, not Indo-Iran. Unaware that Zoroastrianism cannot be studied without its sister religion, Buddhism, Boyce missed great Buddhist names such as Tiŝŝa (PF781 and PF 1124). Tamma corresponds to Dhamma and Tiŝŝantamma of PF48 may or may not be the same as Tiŝŝa, but this Mardam of Mariyapikna who recieved 30 marriŝ of wine was probably an important Buddhist priest.

     It is stunning to realize that Batiŝŝa or Upatiŝŝa (PF 1129, PF1570 and PF1942) was none other than the great Šariputta, author of the famous commentary Niddesa and one of the closest associates of Gotama Buddha. It is just possible that he is the same as Umaya.   

       The title ŝaramana of some officials in the tablets points to a link with Buddhist history as the Buddhist were later called Shramanas. The ubiquitous Ŝudda-Yauda-ŝaramana (or Ŝudda-Yauda-Damana) now turns out to be Ŝuddhodana, father of Gotama Buddha. Ŝedda-ŝaramana of tablets is Ŝedda-Arta or Siddhartha Gotama himself who was the same as Gaumata. Incidentally Gotama's father and all his uncles had Dana-names and Al-beruni gave his name as Buddho-dana. This reveals his kinship with Daniel the Jew. Other names in the tablets such as Yaŝudda, Karaŝna etc. rubbishes the Nepalese 

PFS 79 may have been the Seal of Gotama (Courtesy Oriental Institute).

origin theory of Führer. In fact the Elamite scribes who wrote the tablets can be seen as half-Indians; Rama (Rim-Sin) was called an Elamite in the Sumerian texts.

           The tablets provide priceless data about the socio-religious aspects of Iraq, Iran and also India, yet much remains unknown. M. Boyce (History of Zoroastrianism, p.132) laments,

Excavations in the 1930's of the Persepolis treasury, and one area of the fortifications, brought to light a remarkable quantity of inscribed material, in Elamite and Aramaic. These discoveries raised great hopes of clear light being shed on the religion of the early Achaemenians, but such hopes were to be disappointed.
 

       For most writers Zoroastrianism was a purely Persian and Central Asian phenomenon while Buddhism pertained to the Indians. The confusion in the history of Zoroaster can be seen from that while Boyce places him around 1700-1500 B.C., E. Herzfeld, T. C. Young Jr. and J. Duchesne-Guillemin put his date in the 6th century B.C. Incidentally this coincides with the rise of Buddhism and as both the religions were similar heresies against old Vedic type religions, there is the possibility of a link. At Merv and other sites Zoroastrian and Buddhist artifacts are found side by side. M. Boyce writes,

Another name attested on the Elamite tablets, and elsewhere in Aramaic script, is Dāmidāta. There is no dispute that this means 'Created (or given) by the Creator', but it is uncertain to which divinity it refers. It seems probable that in ancient times it meant Varuna, and so this may well be yet another traditional name in honour of 'the Baga' - the god who in Iran was never named. In later times, however, the adjective was understood to refer to Ahuramazda.
 

As 'dat' means 'law', Dāmidāta may not have meant 'Created by the Creator'. The absence of Zoroaster's name in the tablets does not construe that Zoroaster the person is absent, as he probably had other names. According to Herzfeld, his adversary Graehma was Gaumata who can be seen to be the same as Gotama. In the Indian texts Gotama's adversary is Devadatta which finally leads one to Damidadda of the

Damidadda who used PFS1243 may have been Zoroaster (Courtesy Oriental Institute).

tablets. Damidadda who was the same as Bagadada, was Zoroaster The Pali texts indicate that Devadatta founded a parallel religious sect.

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Rama, Rostam, Shutrukna-hhunte and the BMAC

          The 'Sons of Ramah' of the Book of Ezra include Darius-I, Gotama Buddha and David. 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. t 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

Adam-Eve, Yama-Yami and the Jews and Amorites in India

      Jewish identity has shaped the social behaviour of the Jews over the ages but much of it is based on false history. As Arthur Koestler realized, Jewish exclusiveness is based on dubious premises. About ancient Judaism Rev. M. Black writes with rare insight in the Peake’s Commentary,

What we know as Judaism, as distinct from the ancient religion of Israel, is a post-exilic phenomenon.

Indeed, very little is known about the true background of the religion of ancient Israel. E. A. Speiser wrote that the Patriarchal stories contain traditions and social data that do not fit in with the later times and locale in which they were written down. Speiser also wrote that many Sumerian city-names echo older city-names in Elam. It is, therefore, more than likely that the religion of Abraham had much in common with that of his forefathers. A careful analysis reveals that Adam and Abraham were Indo-Iranians. This is evident from the close links between the RigVeda and the Old Testament.

         Most commentators on the RigVeda have been bewildered by the Yama-Yami episode which closely parallels the Adam-Eve anecdote in the Old Testament, yet no one realized that Adam corresponds to the Indian god Dharma and Turma of the 6th cent. B.C. Persepolis tablets. In many ancient languages the prefix 'A' was an honorific. Dharma was closely allied to Shiva and Yama, the name Yami of whose wife is a cognate of Eve.

     It has already been indicated that Buddhism and Zoroastrianism originated in Indus-Afghanistan-South-east Iran. The Adam-Dharma correspondence and the presence of the Amorites in India integrates Judaism with Buddhism and Zoroastrianism and vindicates Max Müller's idea of a Ur-religion.  

 Ivory diptych of Adam in the Garden of Eden resembles Shiva Pasupati

       The stunning discoveries of Sir Leonard Woolley at Ur in Sumer sharply contrasts with his false identification of the city with Ur Kashdim. This was doubted by W. F. Albright but Woolley's idea prevailed due to greater media glitter. Prophet Abraham can instead be seen to be from Alexandria Prophthasia near Shahr-i Shokhta in Seistan which was larger than Ur in Sumer. Urva of the Vendidad and Uruvela of the Buddhist texts correspond to Ur Kashdim. Distracted by Woolley, Herzfeld overlooked the message hidden in the name Sar-i Ibrahim of Alexandria Prophthasia (Kuh-e Khwaja).

Kuh-e Khwaja was called Sar-i Ibrahim or the abode of Abraham

     The Encyclopedia of Islam names Usha as the mother of Abraham which makes sense only in Indo-Iran. Moreover, literary data also rules out Sumer as Abraham's homeland. Cutha, near Babylon, was known as Tell Ibrahim and may have been linked to Abraham. But there were other Cuthas (Sumerian Gudua); Josephus ("Ant." ix. 14, § 1, 3) places Cutha in Persia. Thus like Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Judaism also rose in Seistan-Baluchistan which was known as Dharma-sthana (Darmashan) or the 'abode of religions' to Islamic geographers.
       Sadly, the literature on the Jewish Diaspora is appallingly cliché-ridden. Koestler proposed a new definition of Jewishness which has few takers. Scholars such as R. J. Zwi Werblowsky, E. S. Gruen and S. Shaked overlook that Abraham's original home was in Indo-Iran. This is why El, Yahweh, Resheph and Nimrod resemble Ila, Yahvah, Rishava and Rudra of the RigVeda. Many Judaic traits were, in fact, inherited from ancestors such as Terah who seems to be Yudhisthira (Yadus-Tera) of the Epic Mahabharata. Monotheism is a hallmark of Judaism but N. Sutton writes on monotheism of the Epic. About Jewish origins Ezekiel says;

Thy birth and nativity is of the land of Canaan: thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite.

It is important to note that the Canaanites came from the East and that the Harappan seals indicate the presence of Amorites in India.

      The name Šudda-yauda-Šaramana of Gotama's father links him with the Jews. Shinar of the Old Testament was Sineru of the Pali texts and Usinara of the RigVeda which was in the north-west. Rabbinic Judaism and Zoroastrianism abhor monasticism or asceticism but the Jewish Kabbala reveals link with Hinduism and Buddhism. The religion of the Jewish Essenes (2nd cent. B. C.-1st cent. AD) favoured asceticism and differed from Temple Judaism. According to both Plato and Aristotle, all gods are good and should be adored. About the exclusiveness of Judaism Bertrand Russell writes,

... Yahweh would withdraw his favour if other gods were also honoured. Jeremiah and Ezekiel, especially, seem to have invented the idea that all religions except one are false, and that the Lord punishes idolatry.

Russell clearly recognizes that before Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Judaism was less absolutist. On the other hand, the essential unity of world-religions can be seen from that the Persepolis tablets give Ŝudda-Yauda-ŝaramana as the name of Gotama Buddha's father Suddhodana. The appellation 'Yauda' shows that Buddhism evolved from the Yadus or pre-exilic Yahdus. This is also confirmed by Gotama's name Buddho-Dana which shows a link with Jews such as Daniel. Xerexes' attack on the Daivas echoes the report in the Pali texts of a raid on Kapilavastu.

      The Greek word  Ἰουδαῖος is said to be a loan from the Aramaic Y'hūdāi but surprisingly it occurred to none that the Yadus of 'India' can be the early Yahdus. This

A scene from the Book of Esther depicted at Dura Europos

is in fact suggested by the Book of Esther. R. de Vaux linked the strifes in this book to Achaemenid history which brings in Gomata who was the same as Gotama. His name Ŝaman corresponds to Haman.

     The Bene Israel of India trace their roots to Galilee and maintain that they are descended from survivors of a shipwreck but this is not certain. The Encyclopedia Britannica states;

Their presence in India is and may remain a mystery, and Bene Israel tradition itself varies. Some claim descent from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, who disappeared from history after the northern Kingdom of Israel was overrun by the Assyrians in 721 BC. Others believe that their ancestors fled by sea the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, a theory that explains the absence of a Hanukkah tradition in Bene Israel practice. Whatever the case, the survivors—by tradition seven men and seven women—settled in Konkan villages, adopted Hindu names (with surnames usually ending in -kar), and took up the profession of oil production. They were known in Marathi as shaniwar teli (“Saturday oil pressers”), because they abstained from work on the Jewish Sabbath. They also practiced circumcision, recited the Shema on ceremonial occasions, celebrated several major festivals, and observed Jewish dietary laws.

The truth is far simpler, the Bene Israel are indigenous Indians and are in fact the descendants of the Yadus of Indus-Saraswati culture. Although the dispersal of Jews into the 'four corners of the earth' starts from the Babylonian Exile, (or the destruction of the second Temple) in Judaic history, this is a travesty.

      Although a full-fledged meditative tradition is absent in Rabbinic Judaism, a different picture emerges from the Jewish mystical tradition and Kabbala, the central plank of which is the startling doctrine of the deity. It uses mandalas, such as the ten sefirot, to help explain reality. It has even been conjectured that the star of David originated as a Kabbalistic mandala. Rather like a Buddhist teacher, Maimonides counsels on seeking internal peace and personal enlightenment in the Mishneh Torah. Echoes of tenets of love of Krishna can be heard from the compassionate teachings of the Kabbalah. The Bene Israel adored Krishna and it is possible that in later periods they played a part in the formulation and transmission of the Kabbalistic tradition. The Yadus displayed traits of republicanism and Gnosticism which characterized later Jewish politics and philosophy.

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A Portrait of Jesus and St. Thomas From Seistan

       It has escaped the notice of all that a famous mural of Kuh-i Khwaja in Seistan, a place described by Herzfeld as doubly-holy, depicts Jesus Christ and St. Thomas.

1st century Mural of Kuh-e Khwaja depicting Jesus, Thomas and Gondophares.

      As the usual accounts have not yielded any archaeological data it is expedient to consult other contemporary documents and focus on the missing 18 years of his life. As he was a religious teacher he certainly would have been interested in the holiest religious centre of those days. This was Seistan the land of Abraham, Gotama and Zoroaster. It is in Alexandria Prophthasia in Seistan, the abode of Prophets that evidence for Jesus should be sought. Moreover legends link St. Thomas (often called his twin) with Gondopher of Seistan. The great importance of Seistan can be seen from that,

  1) It is the locale of all ancient Persian lore.

  2) Seistan-Zabulistan was Darmashan, abode of religions,of the Islamic writers

  3) Alexandria Prophthasia or the Alexandria of Prophets was in Seistan.

  4) Sir Aurel Stein discovered a Buddhist shrine at Kuh-i Khwaja

  5) Sir William Tarn located Prophthasia at Kuh-i Khwaja in Sestan.

  6) I. M. Diakonoff and G. Gnoli associate Seistan with the Prophet Zoroaster.

  7) Kuh-i Khwaja was Kapilavastu, the birth-place of Gotama Buddha.

  8) Kuh-i Khwaja was also the abode of Abraham. (See Mithras Reader III)

  9) The name Seistan may have been Shivasthan, abode of the god Shiva.

10) Ancient Shahr-i Shokta near Kuh-i Khwaja was larger than contemporary Ur.

11) The name of the nearby ancient site of Dahan-e Ghulaman echoes Gotama.

12) E. Herzfeld wrote that the Three Magi went from the Palace in Kuh-i Khwaja.

        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. It cannot be ruled out that Jesus also came to Seistan

Kuh-e Khwaja in Seistan is linked to Jesus, St. Thomas and the Magi 

      Splendid murals have been found at Kuh-i Khwaja in Seistan the artistic pedigree of which has puzzled the greatest of experts. Although the Acts of Thomas does not mention it, Jesus may also have come to Seistan which was 'India'. The stories linking him and Gondophares 'King of Indians' who ruled Seistan, Punjab and adjacent areas contain grains of truth. The kingdom of Majdai is clearly Maga-dha which in those days designated the Indus area as well as Bihar. King Misdeus is clearly Mitradeva, most likely a later Maurya king. It is not unlikely that Jesus, who was a carpenter (Mark 6:3) and was very close St. Thomas, also accompanied him to Seistan. In fact this seems to be indicated by a mural of Kuh-i Khwaja which depict Jesus, St. Thomas and Gondophares (Indra, winged headdress). This may be the earliest depiction of Jesus and St. Thomas.

      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.

       Unaware of the holy background of Kuh-i Khwaja, E. Yarshater writes in a casual manner in the Cambridge History of Iran,

The gods represented on the walls of Kuh-i Khwaja are in Greek costume, except for one wearing winged headgear, suggesting an incarnation of Verethraghna. It will be remembered that in Commagene this god was represented in his Greek form, as Heracles.

       R. Ghirshman notes with insight that the Kuh-i Khwaja murals are the precursors of Gandhara. Verethraghna is similar to Indra and the incarnation of Indra should be the reigning king - Gondophares, but who are the other two? One can be Thomas but the third figure?

      Sir Charles Eliot and Sir Aurel Stein had a deep understanding of the close interplay between the Indian and the Persian worlds. Stein almost single-handedly established the material basis of Buddhism and was keenly aware of the close kinship between Gaeco-Iranian and Graeco-Buddhist artistic traditions. In 1916 he discovered a Buddhist shrine at Kuh-i Khwaja which was overlooked by later scholars due to the Nepalese frauds. Herzfeld did not know that Diodotus-I was Asoka yet he wrote about a Graeco-Bactrian school of mixed art, or rather of an Iranian art coloured with Hellenistic ornaments and motives; parallel to 'Parthian' art but based primarily on painting. Sir William Tarn pointed out that in the Parthian period, there was a common artistic tradition that prevailed from the Euphrates to the Indus.

       Mary Boyce wrote much but her journalistic ruminations turned Zoroastrianism into a wasteland of Graeco-Persian fantasy and obsc-ured that it was a sister religion of Buddhism which later bifurcated. This is mirrored by the quarrel between Gotama and Devadatta in the Buddhist texts. The 6th century monk Cosmas Indicopleustes wrote that Churches in Kerala and Ceylon were headed by 'Persian' priests which shows the primacy of Seistan-Sindh area in early Christian history. Mary Boyce collates much data and even brings in Jesus Christ yet due to her ignorance of the Indian tradition and the Anglo-German forgery of Lumbini, scales do not fall from her eyes.

The fame of the Kuh-i Khwaja itself caused it, it seems to figure, as the Mons Victorialis, in the birth legends of Christ; and still in early Islamic times, a Zoroastrian text records, the Zoroastrians who lived round about sent their virgin daughters each year, at the holy days of No Ruz and Mithragan, to bat-he in the lake there, in the hope that the time had come for the Saosyant to be conceived. Evidence from the Sasanian period for a contribution from Seis-tan to the establishment then of the Avestan canon, and to the study of the holy texts, testifies to the strength of the Zoroastrian tradition in this region.

The star in question in the Mons Victorialis legend, is said to have been cited by Balaam who has been identified with Gotama Buddha. Boyce had no idea that Balaam was from Kuh-i Khwaja. As always, Stein was right, not Boyce.

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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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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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 appo-inted 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 Dan-iel (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 over-whelmed by the sanctity of Babylon that he was reluctant to excav-ate it as this means destruction of ancient heritage. To understand the true dimension of this sacredness it is crucial to study Nebuchad-rezzar'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 Tatte-nai 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

Hammu-ravi and Rama at the Crossroads of History

     Numerous inscriptions, letters and archaeological relics confirm the Amorite Hammurabi as a colossus of the ancient world. However, as C. J. Gadd writes, he was one among several able contemporaries such as Ram-Sin of Larsa, Siwe-Palar-Khuppak and Shamshi Adad. His law-code existed before him. He is portrayed as a just king by Van De Mieroop but this is partly true. His treatment of his closest ally Zimri-Lim does not reveal a regard for propriety or Law. He was not deified like Ram-Sin and some of his love letters reveal a full-blooded personality.

8-pointed disk of the Sun (Ravi) reveals that Hammu-Ravi was Ravi-ana

       The description of Hammurabi as an Amorite is more apposite than by the blanket label 'Semite'. The Indo-Iranian features of Amorite language are known, and the Sun-disk in his Stele can be read in Sanskrit as Ravi and seems to be the crux of his name Hammu-ravi. This agrees with Ravana (Ravi-ana) of Valmiki.

    As Hammurabi addresses Siwe Palar Khuppak as a father, he may have revered not only Shamash but also a proto-Shiva like god. This brings him closer to Indo-Iran. Significantly the Bible names him as Amraphael which may correspond to hazy references to Mamre (Maha-Amra). Rim-Sin's capital was Senkereh (Larsa) which is also a name of Shiva. Borsippa may also be a Shiva-related name. Simparra of the Persepolis tablets echoes Sippar.

Hammuravi's nemesis Rim-Sin led an army from BMAC to Jamutbal

   Gadd pointed out many problems in Hammurabi's history. His palace has not been found at Babylon although it is generally supposed to be in the inundated levels.

      Historians have greatly misjudged Hammurabi's contemporary Ram-Sin (or Rim-Sin). Ram-Sin, who ruled for sixty years (longest in Sumer) was the great Rama. With rare insight Gadd terms his reign as the golden age of Sumer. As Rim-Sin appears to be Rama, Hammu-ravi may correspond to Ravana of the great Indian Epic Ramayana which is of great importance in world history.                                                           more...

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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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.

* "Rarely does one come across a book like yours that challenges current orthodoxy. I admire your courage."

       Prof. A. K. Narain, doyen of Indian history, archaeology, numismatics and a world-famous authority on the Indo-Greeks.    

* "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."

* "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 found your papers on the poisoning of Alexander and his time in India fascinating.

     Dr. Adrienne Mayor, Stanford University, author of  "The Poison King, The Life and Legend of Mithradates".

* "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

* "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.

* "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.

* 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).

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

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

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  * Webster's Online Dict.
 *Humiliation & Dignity  *Indo-Greeks *Chandragupta 
* History-Hunters *American Buddhist Journal 

  *Orontobates *Green's Alexander *History of Anatolia *Utrecht Univ. *John Bartram on Greco-India *Kalyan 97 *Historyfiles  *L'Encyclopedie de L'Agora  *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  

Copyright Ó 2011 by Dr. Ranajit Pal