Monday 1 August 2011

CROATIA -THE SANSKRIT CONNECT TO ITS NAME AND ITS RIVERS

The most popular source of information and  the first stop for reference today is the Wikipedia. About the source of the name Croatia, Wikipedia states that it "derives from Medieval Latin Croātia, itself a derivation of the native ethnonym, earlier Xъrvatъ and modern-day Croatian 'Hrvat' or 'Hrvatska'.

Quoting from various sources Wikipedia states, "The exact origin and meaning of the ethnonym Hrvat is poorly known and currently subject to scientific disagreement.....Common theories from the 20th century derive it from an Iranian origin, the root word being a third-century Scytho-Sarmatian form attested in the Tanais Tablets as Khoroáthos....".

Much of the confusion about the source of the name Hrvatska and its many forms such as Khoroathos is contrived and also exists only because of a reluctance to refer to Sanskrit scriptures such as Rig Veda and acknowledge its influence on ancient Central Asian and European ethos and  the ancient names of its rivers and mountains.

The word 'Hravatska' is nothing but distorted Sarasvati, the Rig Vedic river that up until its scientific discovery was dismissed as a mythological river, done so to fit in the flawed theories and biases of the 19th-20th century scholars. In Avestan and old Persian, the Sanskrit 's' distort into 'h' - hence 'Soma' becomes 'Hoama' and so on.

Quoting Radoslav Katicic, a Croatian linguist, classical philologist, Indo-Europeanist, Slavist and Indologist, Wikipedia states, "The form Khorathos was used to substantiate the derivation of Proto-Slavic *xъrvatъ from the Old Persian xaraxwat-, attested by the Old Iranian toponym Harahvait-, the native name of Arachosia.......In Indo-Iranian it actually means "one that pours into ponds", which derives from the name of the mythological Sarasvati River. However, although the somewhat suggestive similarity, the connection to the name of Arachosia is etymologically incorrect."

But how is it incorrect? Sarasvati changes to Xaraxwat in Old Persian, then to Harahvit in Old Iranian and then to Khorasan in Iranian. 
Also, the Sanskrit meaning of the compound word Sarasvati is: sara 'a water body' and 'vati', 'that which is endowed with'. In other words Sarasvati means 'that which has water aplenty'. 

The Indo-Iranian or Avestan equivalent for Hrvatska should be the same rather than the generally accepted 'that which flows into many ponds'.

It is not only Sarasvati that exists in the Croatian culture, the river names are all Sanskritic with appropriate and relevant meanings. There is the Sava, the Drava, the Kupa, the Danube, the Sutla and Una. Sava is Sanskrit 'Srava' (स्राव) or that which oozes, Drava is Sanskrit drava (द्रव) meaning 'liquid', and Kupa is Sanskrit 'kupa' (कूप) or 'water-well'.

About Sava and Sutla it is said that the names are related though it is unknown how. It is also said that these names may have an Indo-European root but it is incorrectly thought to be 'su' or 'swine' or the Sanskrit 'sukara'. 
It is the Sanskrit Srota (स्रोत) river or stream that best explains Sutla. 



The name 'Danube' is said to derive from Proto-Indo-European, a language reconstructed from European & Indic languages. In Sanskrit, the word 'Danu" (दानु) has many meanings. It means 'dew, dew drops, fluid, valiant and courageous'.

Blog Archive