The various names given to the Phoenicians, like Poeni by the Romans and Phoinike by the Greeks, resemble the Vedic terms such as Pani (पणि) meaning bargainer or trader, Paani (पाणि) meaning shop, Vani (वणी) and Vanik (वणिज्) both meaning bargainer and trader. Many scholars have identified the Vedic Panis with the Phoenicians because of the many similarities between them. Most have argued that the Paanis of the Rig Veda were none other than the Phoenicians.
In the 'Social History of Kamarupa' (1922), historian Nagendranath Vasu states," It is these Panis of the Vedic age who have passed as Phoenicians in the western civilized world. The ancient Greeks and Germans called them Fonic or Fenec and even Punic". E. Pococcke states in his India in Greece, "The Phoenicians originally dwelled in Afghanistan."
The Panis were Vedic Hindu traders who were wealthy but were regarded as irreverent and uncouth. The Panis did not recognize the priest-class as superior, nor did they pass on alms from their earnings to the priest-class as was the tradition. As a result they were regarded as miserly, lowly, rude of language, cow thieves and were referred to as 'mleccha-s' (म्लेच्छ) - the ignoble, as against the arya (आर्य) or the noble.
The Panis naturally therefore are not spoken of very highly in the Vedas though their skills are recognized. They were ultimately driven away from the Sapta-Sindhu region after a battle, and their defeat was at the hands of none other than Indra himself, who was recognized as the highest of the earliest Vedic gods. With time the word Pani distorted to Kani and became the endonym that the Phoenicians gave themselves. By the time the Panis appeared on the Mediterranean coast, they called themselves Kani, or Kanana, who were referred to as the Canann-ites. The name Cannan appears in the Bible. It was the name for the area of ancient Palestine west of river Jordon, the promised land of the Israelites. In western sources the name Cannan is traced to Hebrew Kenaan and means a 'pack'.
In this post we trace just a couple of the cities that the Vedic Panis built in the Mediterranean. Amrit and Tartous. Amrit is an ancient Phoenician site located on the Mediterranean coast of Syria. After the Phoenicians had settled the island of Arwad, a short distance offshore, the Phoenicians subsequently established a number of settlements on the mainland.
Arwad was mentioned as Irtu in the Annals of Thutmose III, at the Karnak Temple in Egypt. Thutmose III was the 6th King of Egypt's 18th Dynasty and reigned around 1430 BCE. Irtu eventually came to be known as Arvad, Arpad, and Arphad and then as Arwad. Irta (ईर्ते) is Sanskrit for 'elevate' and perhaps it was named so since an island is an 'elevation in the sea'.
Tartous and Amrit were two of the settlements located closest to the island of Arwad. Amrit, known to the Greeks as Marathos, is thought to have been used as a suburb or religious center. There are many theories regarding the etymology of Tartous, the most commonly accepted is that Tartous, ancient name Tortosa, got its name from the Greek Anti-Arados or Antarados or Anti-Aradus, meaning 'the town facing Arwad'. However, Arwad was known as Irtu in antiquity and Arwad is only a much later Arabic distortion of the original name Irtu. So that derivation of the name does not count.
Tartous is a port city and its ancient most known Phoenician name is Tartosa, the one given by the Vedic pani-s. Taratos may have to do with water or tara (तर), Sanskrit for 'tide' or 'swim across', tosha (तोष) trickle, and toja (तोज) water. To this day there is an ancient town known as Baniyas on the coast of Syria- the source of its name unknown but certainly linked to the Pani-s and the variations of their names including kani, vanik or banik . In the Rig Vedic tradition amrita is equated with a 'celestial drink of immortality' or the 'nectar of the gods'.
Arwad and Tartous remain occupied today, but Amrit was destroyed in the third century B.C. and only a few physical remains survive. Its ancient most name is said to be Marat (Phoenician: 𐤌𐤓𐤕, mrt), but since in the earliest form of Phoenician writing the vowels were not written, the word 𐤌𐤓𐤕 or mrt , may just as well have been a truncated form of Amrit rather than Marat- the interpretation given by mainstream researchers.
In their paper 'The spatial organization of the Phoenician city of Amrith (Syria)', authors Michel Al Maqdissi and Christophe Benech state, "The site is crossed by two rivers, a fact possibly linked to the religious tradition of Amrith in which the water has an important role. There is the Nahr el Amrith, which runs past the main temple (Ma’abed), and the Nahr el Kuble, not far from the place where the Syrian archaeological mission has discovered a second temple."
One of the most important excavations at Amrit was a Phoenician temple, commonly referred to the "ma'abed," . It is said that the temple was dedicated to the god Melqart of Tyre and Eshmun. One must first remember here that the ancient most name of the Phoenician city of Tyre was 'Sur'. The Pani-s, it must also be remembered, were considered both as 'mleccha-s' and perhaps liked to designate themselves as 'sura-s' rather than be equated with the 'asura-s as they were when they lived in the Sapta Sindhu during the Rig Vedic era. The Rig Veda states that the then highest god of the Sura-s Indra had himself driven the Pani-s out in a massive battle. The Pani-s perhaps equated themselves to the Sura-s.
The name Sur has survived in many forms since the Phoenician build the city of Sur, the Old Tyre. In the book A Description of the East and Some Other Countries', authors Robert Pococke, Hubert Francois Gravelot, and Charles Gringion state, "New Tyre is now called Sur, which is the ancient name of Tyre, and this having been the chief city of the whole country, possibly Syria might receive its name from Sur". It may therefore be inferred that Assyria, the older name of Syria, derives its name from asura.
The colonnaded temple, excavated between 1955 and 1957 at Amrit, consists of a large court cut out of rock surrounded by a covered portico. In the center of the court is a well-preserved cube-shaped covered area. What is of note is that the open-air courtyard around the cube-shaped structure was filled with the waters of a local, traditionally sacred spring. This unique feature of this site is true of all ancient Shiva temples of India.
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The cube shaped structure was surrounded by the waters of a scared spring The Phoenician temple of Amrit, Syria near the Nahr el Amrit river |
In their book 'The Archaeology of Syria: From Complex Hunter-Gatherers to Early Urban Societies, authors Peter Mattheus, Maria Gerardus Akkermans, Peter M. M. G. Akkermans, and Glenn M. Schwartz state," Preeminent among the sites within the Arwad vicinity is Amrit noted for its impressive open-air temple ["Maabed"] the best preserved monumental structure from the Phoenician homeland."
Describing the water-temple site of Amrit, they further state," ...the extraordinary rock- cut structure consisted of a colonnaded portico enclosing a large rectangular basin.. A large ritual pit contained limestone votive statues.....depicting a young man wearing a lionskin and brandishing a club." Though the idol here is equated with the Phoenician god Malqaart, the attire is much like the Indic Shiva who wears lionskin and holds a trident, as of course is the layout of the Phoenician temple which corresponds to Indic Shiva temples where water plays an important part.
Describing the water-temple site of Amrit, they further state," ...the extraordinary rock- cut structure consisted of a colonnaded portico enclosing a large rectangular basin.. A large ritual pit contained limestone votive statues.....depicting a young man wearing a lionskin and brandishing a club." Though the idol here is equated with the Phoenician god Malqaart, the attire is much like the Indic Shiva who wears lionskin and holds a trident, as of course is the layout of the Phoenician temple which corresponds to Indic Shiva temples where water plays an important part.
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A reconstruction of the Water-spring Temple, at Amrit, Syria. The cubic structure in the centre housed a deity dressed in a lionskin and was surrounded by water |
Other examples of Phoenician Temples at Arwad, such as the one a few miles away from the main Phoenician Temple of Amrit, has led historians such as N.M. Billimoria and Nagendranath Vasu, to the conclusion that what we see in ancient Phoenician architecture are the images of gods from ancient India, including Rig Vedic deities and Shiva.
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The Phoenicians were the Vedic Pani-s. They built many cities on the Mediterranian Sea. Here is a structure, perhaps a 'shivalinga', from the Temple at Amrit in Syria |
About the city of Tyre, who's ancient most name is Sur, and of which all names such as Syria and Assyria are variations, N. M. Billimoria states in the 'Panis of Rigveda', "It has not been ascertained when the Panis left India by sea and established the colony of Phoenicia along the coasts of Syria. From the account left by Herodotus, however, it is found that the very ancient capital of Phoenicia, the city of Tyre, was founded 2,300 years before him, i.e., 2,756 B.C. In these circumstances it may fairly be concluded that the Panis must have deserted the shores of India long before that date. From a consideration of the legend telling how Sargon I (about 3,800 B.C.) crossed the eastern sea, it will also appear that the Panis colonised themselves in Syria so long back as 5,717 years from now. And subsequently they gradually extended their sway as traders and rulers over Egypt and Asia Minor."
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