THE VEDIC CONNECTION - MAYAN HANUMAN?

"Across five oceans the vanaras journeyed, their memory etched in stone and mask. From Udaya Giri to Copan’s ruins, the Andes rise as sunrise mountains, guarded by yakshas, whispered by rivers, testimonies of epic memory carried across the world."

Artefacts unearthed from the ancient Mayan ruins suggest that even distant Latin America bore traces of Indian Vedic influence. In Honduras lies Copán, a once-majestic temple site now in ruins. Yet, within its weathered stones and hidden carvings remain subtle clues—echoes that resonate with verses of the Ramayana, offering a striking testimony to cultural currents that spanned continents.  

In the Valmiki Ramayana, a remarkable description unfolds: a route beginning from India’s eastern coast, crossing five vast oceans, and culminating at Udaya Adri. There, the epic situates a settlement of vanara-s. This distant city is known to Sugreeva, commander of the vanara hosts, who assures Rama that in their worldwide search for the abducted Sita, he would enlist vanaras dwelling in that far-off land, scouring the mountains of Udaya Giri for her trace.

The Mayan Howler Monkey God
Copan, Honduras, South America. His stance and the mace in his hand are remarkably close to the Hindu Monkey God Hanuman.

Whether Copan is the site where the vanaras resided in Ramayanic times is, of course, unknown. That they did reside somewhere close to the Andes is known from the Ramayana. The name Copan is a cognate of the Sanskrit 'kapi' (कपि), which means vanara or 'monkey', and perhaps derives its name from the Sanskrit 'kapi'. However, the name Copan has been in use in current times only since 1576. Perhaps the name is much more ancient and has been present in the native folklore, and was brought back into prominence in the 1570s.

There is also another site in Honduras that fits the description of the existence of a city of vanaras. It now goes by the name 'La Ciudad Blanca' and is located in eastern Honduras in the La Moskitia or La Mosquitia area. Its exact location has been kept a secret, though it is known that it is near the Twas and Sikre rivers. The site is known to the Honduran Army and also to a team of National Geographic explorers.  As for Indians who have read the Valmiki Ramayana, no information about any of these Mayan sites comes as a surprise. More about this site in a later post.

Another interesting fact that adds to the vanara lore is the existence of the 'Kaiapo' - a powerful and well-known Brazilian tribe - who live in villages along the Xingu River across the Central Brazilian Plateau. The Kaiapo call themselves Mebengokre, meaning 'the men from the water place'. The name Kaiapo was given to them by the neighbouring native tribes, and means 'resembling apes' and was given to them because their men used to dance with monkey masks on festivals and special occasions in honour of their gods and ancestors. It is interesting that 'kaipo' is a cognate of the Sanskrit kapi (कपि), which means 'monkey' - in fact, the etymological source of the English 'ape' is unknown and is sometimes attributed to the Sanskrit kapi.  This is another clue that supports the information contained in Ramayana about settlements of vanaras stationed around Udaya Adri, which is an obvious reference to the Andes.

Kaiapo Tribesmen from the Brazilian Plateau

Hanuman - The Vedic Monkey God.
India

Another name by which this site was known is Oxwitik, where the meaning of the word 'witik' is unknown. 'Ox' is said to mean three. However, since there is another Mayan site by the name Yaxachilan, it may be assumed that perhaps the word that has been decoded as Oxwitik should read Yakshhavitik (यक्षवित्त).  That makes Copan a site, not only of vanaras but also of Yakhshas. Yakshas are guardians of property and do not make use of the property themselves. Various Sanskrit texts mention the kinship between the vanaras and the yakshas, the rakshasas and the kinnaras. Perhaps the Mayan sites were the residence of these exotic tribes of the ancient Hindu texts. Kubera was the lord of the Yaskshas, and in the Ramayanic times, Kubera is said to have brought many yakshas and rakshas to Meso-America.

Ramayana Anchor	Geographic/Archaeological Site	Name/Etymology Link	Interpretive Resonance
Sugreeva’s assurance to Rama: vanaras dwell near Udaya Adri after crossing five oceans	Copan (Oxwitik), Honduras	Copan ~ Sanskrit kapi (monkey); Oxwitik possibly Yakshhavitik (यक्षवित्त)	Vanara settlement; Yaksha guardianship under Kubera
Udaya Giri (mountains of sunrise, Andes)	La Ciudad Blanca, La Mosquitia, Honduras	Hidden “White City” near the Twas & Sikre rivers	Concealed vanara city, echoing Ramayanic lore of distant tribes
Vanaras as global allies in Rama’s search for Sita	Kaiapo Tribe, Brazil (Xingu River)	Kaiapo ~ kapi; tribe dances with monkey masks	Ritual memory of vanara kinship: “men from the water place”
Kinship of vanaras, yakshas, rakshasas, kinnaras	Mayan sites across Honduras & Guatemala	Oxwitik reframed as a Yaksha settlement	Kubera’s dispatch of yakshas and rakshasas to Meso-America
Five oceans crossed from India’s eastern coast	Transoceanic journey to Latin America	Epic metaphor for global reach	Ramayana as a mytho-geographic map spanning continents

THE SANSKRIT ALPHABET SEQUENCE - MAHESHWARA SUTRAS

Encyclopedia Britannica states that the Sanskrit language, (from Sanskrit saṃskṛta, 'adorned, cultivated, purified') is an Old Indo-Aryan language in which the most ancient texts are the Vedas - more prominently, the Rig Veda, and the Upanishads, which came into existence on the banks of the Sapta Sindu rivers. It also states that scholars generally ascribe the Vedas to 1500 BCE. There is much room for debate about the Aryan invasion and the dating of the Vedas but that is not the subject of the post here.

In the Indic tradition, it is said that Sanskrit was introduced to human civilization by the sages of Sanatana Dharma. Sanatana Dharma, entails a universal code of conduct, a description of the duties applicable to all humanity. Santana Dharma, later came to be known as Hinduism which is its exonym, it is what the outsiders called Sanatana Dharma which was the philosophy, the way of life, the code of conduct and path to god, practiced in India. There are many theories why the name Hindu emerged, but none of those are relevant to the origin of Sanatana Dharma. India, like Hindustan, is an exonym, the endonym is Bharatavarsha or Jambhudwipa. 

A famous verse in Sage Panini’s Ashtadhyayi says that Panini's grammar that is in current use, in its original form, was graced by Lord Shiva himself. 

Rig Vedic literature states that it is Shiva himself who created language and passed on its 'sounds' to humankind. Hence, the first known organized sounds of Sanskrit are known and presented as the Maheshvara Sutra - Maheshvara being another name of Lord Shiva. Here is the verse from Panini's Ashta-Dhyayi which states the same:

"At the end of His Cosmic Dance,
Shiva, the Lord of Dance,
with a view to bless the sages Sanaka and so on,
played on His Damaru fourteen times,
from which emerged the following fourteen Sutras,

popularly known as Shiva Sutras or Maheshvara Sutras"

The fourteen sounds of the Maheshwara Sutra, also known as the 'akshara-samamnaya', or the 'recitation of phonemes', is also the most ancient known Sanskrit alphabet sequence. Interestingly, this sutra is at the same time a powerful Mantra, the vibrations of its sound are known to have healing powers and hence this sutra has also been used by sages for healing. It was used in Kashmir Tantric practices for curing diseases, waking up the unconscious and is known to have sometimes revived the dead. Here is the sequence of the 14-sounds:

1. अ इ उ ण् |
2. ऋ ऌ क् |
3. ए ओ ङ् |
4. ऐ औ च् |
5. ह य व र ट् |
6. ल ण् |
7. ञ म ङ ण न म् |
8. झ भ ञ् |
9. घ ढ ध ष् |
10. ज ब ग ड द श् |
11. ख फ छ ठ थ च ट त व् |
12. क प य् |
13.श ष स र् |
14. ह ल् |

The fourteen sutras contain all the letters of the Sanskrit varnamala- the svaras (vowels) and all the vyanjanas (consonants). The sounds of the alphabet originated from Lord Shiva's 'damru', which in this context appears to be a sophisticated sound device.

The Sanskrit alphabet sequence is known as the 'Varna-mala'. The word 'varna' (वर्ण) means a 'syllable' and all the energies related to that syllable - colour, presiding force, the mouth part used to pronounce each syllable, the related body part etc. 

Sanskrit is known as the language of the gods. Its fundamentals are scientific and most of its theory is way beyond the cognition of an average learner. In his paper 'Mantra & Initiation', Pandit Rajmani Tignuit states, "....on a more subtle level, the Sanskrit phonemes relate to the energy currents which lie deep within the interior of the human body. Each of the 72,000 currents has a distinct sound, although they are too diffuse and vague to be enunciated distinctly. Moreover, the yogis have identified places in the body where two or more energy currents cross. In mantra shastra, the point where two energy currents intersect is called a sandhi, the point where three energy currents cross is called marma shthana, and the point where more than three energy currents converge is called a chakra. Here at the chakras, the vibratory patterns of energy are strong and vibrant. At the center of each chakra a distinct sound predominates, and other distinct sounds are centered around it. That is why, in kundalini yoga, each chakra is represented as having a particular letter at its center, as well as a letter on each petal........ ".

It is for this reason alone that Sanskrit cannot be regarded as a derived language. Its source is cosmic, like that of mathematics. Each alphabet is generated in the form of a sound energy conjunct with its meaning. If the sound shifts, the meaning dissolves. In other words, any distortion renders both the meaning of the word and the vibration generated out of sync and therefore erroneous.

In kundalini yoga, each chakra is represented
as having a particular letter at its center.

In a mantra, a different part of the body is invoked and healed by reciting a different alphabet of the 'varnamala'. The power lies in the vibration caused by the mantra. Hence, the sound has to be perfect for it is also in tandem with its meaning.  If the vibration changes it is no longer effective. The Maheshwara Sutra is a healing mantra too as mentioned above, its sounds arranged in a sequence, designed to create vibrations which it is said, had the power to revive the sick or dying. 

No script is known to have ever been formulated for the Vedic mantras or alphabets in the earliest times. The requirement for a script, in the context of Sanatana Dharma was considered irrelevant. The scriptures were passed on through smriti (memory), and shruti (hearing). The emphasis was on 'uccharana' or correct pronunciation. The belief was that script can emerge or dissolve at any time. 

In the context of Hindu philosophy therefore, where the emphasis was on the study of the power of sound, on the primordial sound of the omnipresent Om, on meditation, on the unity of supreme consciousness, on sutras, on mantras and on the telepathy, a script was considered redundant for it did not serve any function.

Suggested Links:

1. The Origin of Sanskrit