SANSKRIT ORIGINS OF THE NAMES MT. PARNASSUS & MT. TOMAROS OF GREECE

"In Mathura, we became convinced of the fact that the inhabitants of the Greek Olympus were born nearer to the Himalayas than to the country of Homer, that Parnassus must be sought near the Bamian, and that Apollo, Hercules, Bacchus and Orpheus are Avataras of Krishna, Baladeva, Vagisa and Arjuna, the friend of Krishna, one of the Pandavas." 

: (From 'Caves and Jungles of Hindustan' by Helena Petrova Blavatsky - (1831-1891).

The ancient name of Bamiyan (in present day Afghanistan) was 'Varnmaya' (वर्णमय), Sanskrit for 'that which consists of symbolic letters, colours and sound'.

Mount Parnassus is a mountain of limestone in central Greece that towers above the Delphi Oracle, north of the Gulf of Corinth, According to Greek mythology, this mountain was sacred to Apollo, the same Apollo that Blavatsky says was the Greek avatar of Sri Krishna. (See passage above).

Mount Parnassus, Greece
The name 'Parnassus' has Sanskrit origins.

Blavatsky traced the origins of the name 'Parnassus' in Greece, to the Old Persian (Avestan) name of Hindu Kush which was 'Paropanisus'. Blavatsky was of the opinion that Paropanisus was a distortion of Old Persian 'Paru' which means 'mountain'. But the old Persian 'paru' itself has Sanskrit origins, where 'paru' (परु) also means 'mountain'.

An even more ancient name of the Hindukush was 'Paariyatra' (पारियात्रा) and is first mentioned in the Kishkinda Kand, Chapter 42, of the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Valmiki Ramayana.

E. Pococke, in his 'India in Greece' put forth the view that the Hindukush, that is the 'Paariyatra' of the Ramayana, came to be known as 'Devanika' because of the many 'deva' (देव) or 'gods' that dwelt there. According to Pococke one of the peaks of the Devanika range was the 'Parnassus', which later came to be known as 'the hill of Bamiyan'. It was called Parnassus because of the many 'parnasi' (पर्णसि) that adorned its slopes. The 'paranasi' were the 'leaf and branch' huts, the dwelling places of the Hindu ascetics who inhabited the Parnassus. The root of the word 'parnasi' is 'parna' (पर्ण) which means 'leaf'.

Mainstream theorists do not venture in the direction of Sanskrit in their quest to trace the phonology of Parnassus. They limit themselves to Luwian (an ancient Indo-European language) and say that Parnassus gets its name from Luwian 'parna' meaning 'house'. But then in ancient times if huts were predominantly made of leaves and branches, it may just be that the 'Luwian 'parna' is the equivalent of both house and leaves. In ancient India, leaf huts were also called 'parna-kuti' (पर्णकुटी).

Adjacent to the Paranassus Peak in Greece is the Oracle of Delphi. The second largest Oracle in Greece is the Oracle of Dodoni, which gets its name from the Sanskrit 'Devi-deva'. The Oracle of Dodoni lies on the slope of Mt. Tomaros in the southwestern Ioannina region in the Pindus mountain range of Greece. Pococke traces the name 'Pindus' to the 'Pandava' clan of the other great Sanskrit epic of ancient India, the Mahabharata. For more about the India connection to the Oracle of Dodona, click here.

Mt Tomaros and the Oracle of Dodoni
The name Tomaros stems from the
Sanskrit 'Sumeru' and Dodona 
from Sanskrit 'Devi-Deva'

Referring to the Greek God Bacchus, Blavatsky wrote that the legend of the Greek Bacchus emerges from the Vedic God Vagisha* who it is said first appeared on mount Su-Meru. Blavatsky places Sumeru near Bamiyan in the Hindukush and traces the name Tomoras to Sumeru.

The historians of Alexander the Great, who had traversed to this part of the world, called the Su-Meru mountain 'Su-Meros', and insisted even in those days that it was the abode of Bacchus.

According to the mythology of the Greeks, Bacchus was born from the thigh of 'Jupiter'. In Greek the word for thigh is 'meros' - hence the confusion. Bacchus was not born from the 'meros' or thigh of Jupiter, his legend appeared from the Hindu legend of Vagisha and his abode at Mt. Sumeru. The 's' often changes to 't' in Greek, hence the Sanskrit 'Sumeru' that corrupted into 'Sumeros' ultimately changed to Tomaros'.

*Vagisha (वागीश) is one of the manifestations of both Shiva and Vishnu. 

The Matsaya Purana names two rivers by the names of 'Parnasa' and 'Tamasa'. And it is likely that ascetics who travelled to different regions of the Devanika Range of Greater India named their new habitation places, as they travelled westwards, from the names in the scriptures of India.

THE FOUR RIVERS OF 'GENESIS' - THE SANSKRIT CONNECT

The Book of Genesis offers a fascinating glimpse into the geography of paradise, describing a single river that split into four distinct headwaters to sustain the world:

"A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. 14The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates".

When we view these ancient names through the lens of Sanskrit, remarkable linguistic connections begin to emerge. Take the first river, the Pishon. Biblical scholars often interpret Pishon to mean "the great effusion," viewing the river as a beautiful reminder of God’s abounding grace.

In Sanskrit, we find two striking cognates that mirror this exact essence: 

Poshin (पोषिन्): Meaning "nurturing" or "nourishing"—the perfect linguistic equivalent to the concept of God's sustaining grace.

Ishan (इषन्): Meaning "streaming out" or "pouring out," which directly parallels the biblical definition of a "great effusion."

What makes these connections truly remarkable is that these specific root meanings do not exist in Aramaic or Hebrew. While biblical traditions record the definitions of these names, the literal vocabulary to build those meanings is missing from the Semitic languages. Instead, the exact vocabulary and roots only exist within the Sanskrit language.

The Pishon is said to flow through the land of Havilah (alternatively spelt Evilas or Evilath). An etymological analysis of “Havilah” through Sanskrit suggests a connection to the word “havana” (हवन), meaning “invocation.” In the Indian context, this would translate to “land of invocation, chants, sacrifice, and obeisance.” This term is not unfamiliar in Judaism, where “Havineinu” or “Habinenu” are associated with blessings from the Amidah, a central prayer in Jewish liturgy recited thrice daily. The term “Havineinu” means “cause us to understand” and appears in both the Tanakh and the Talmud. A deeper exploration of these recitations might uncover further insights into the meaning of “Havilah.”

The second river is the Gihon. Biblical dictionaries interpret 'Gihon' as 'valley' and that has led some scholars to equate the river with the Nile River. The Sanskrit, gahan (गहन) means dense, deep, dark and impenetrable. That indeed could be a description of the Nile, but since the Bible refers to the Nile by that name, Gihon is a likely reference to some other major river. The Sanskrit,  gahan (गहन), means dense, deep, dark and impenetrable, and could be the source of the name. Gahan certainly, is a cognate of the name Gihon. 

The other two rivers are the Euphrates and Tigris. The Tigris has always been described as the 'swift river' as compared to the 'slow moving' Euphrates. Its name may well have been derived from the Sanskrit 'tivra' (तीव्र), which means 'swift, fast or intense'. The second syllable is 'agr' (अग्र) and means first, foremost, or ahead'. The more common interpretation of the name Tigris is 'tiger' which itself is derived from the Sanskrit 'vyagr' (व्याग्र).

However, the Sumerian name of Tigris was 'idigna': Idigna or Idigina is believed to derive from *id (i)gina with the meaning "running water", which can be interpreted as "the swift river", contrasted to its neighbor, the slow-moving Euphrates. The Sumerian Idigna or Id(g)nina too has Sanskrit links for 'ida' (इडा) means 'flow' and 'ina' is wild or powerful. Idi may be a truncated form of Sanskrit 'nadi' meaning river.

There seem to be more links to Sanskrit. For example, the Sanskrit word 'ninad' relates to 'humming noise' or 'sound made by gushing water'. Nini is 'pouring out'.

Sometimes the name 'Tigris' is associated with Old Persian or Avestan 'Tigr' meaning 'the fast one' but that again is derived from Sanskrit 'tivra' (तीव्र) meaning 'fast'. 

Fausset's Bible dictionary states that in the word Euphrates, the first syllable Eu, is derived from the Sanskrit Su (सु), which denotes 'good'; the second syllable denotes 'abundant'. The Sanskrit word for abundant is 'Purna' (पूर्ण). Hence Euphrates may be derived from the Sanskrit 'Su-Purna' (सुपूर्ण) meaning 'Good-Abundance'. 

The Babylonians and Assyrians called Euphrates 'Su-Purattu'. It was known as 'Purattu' in Akkadian and 'Puranti' in Hurrian, 'Puranti' may be linked to Sanskrit 'Purandhi' (पुरन्धि) which means 'bountiful' or 'abundant'.

Notice names such as 'Nagar' (नगर) meaning 'town;
and 'Haran' probably from Sanskrit (हरणि) meaning
'water channel' in the vicinity of the Euphrates.  'Haran'
 may also have got its name from the Vedic 'Haran'
which is another name of Lord Shiva.

Pococke, who had a different view, states in his book 'India in Greece' that the name Euphrates is a distortion of 'Su-Bharata' which changed into 'Su-Purattu', hence the Babylonian and Assyrian name. The word 'su' (सु), as mentioned above, means 'good' in Sanskrit; 'Bharat' (भरत्) is the name of an ancient Indian king after whom India was named 'Bharata' (भारत). Bharat is known to have extended his empire into Central Asia right up to the Mediterranean.

The Gihon was also known as the Karun, 'karun'
(करुण) means 'compassionate' in Sanskrit.

The Sumerian cities of Sippar and Nippur are also located on the path of the ancient Eu-pharates. The 'par 'and 'pur' are probable corruptions of the Sanskrit 'pura' meaning 'town' or 'city'. The first syllable in both names are short and may have meanings in many languages, however as a combination Nippur would mean the 'low lying city', nIpa (नीप) in Sanskrit meaning that which is situated on the 'lower side', and 'nipa' (निप) 'that which absorbs' or 'soaks'.  A corruption of any number of words, 'sipa' could be a distortion of 'ksipa' (क्षिप्) which means 'to pour'. That would make 'Sippar', the 'city that poured' (the waters of Euphrates) and 'Nippur' at the lower end of the flow making it 'the city that receives' (the waters of the Euphrates). Some historians trace the roots of the name Nippur to the word 'Nabha'. 'Nabhapur' - hence the city of the 'Nabhas'. Others have linked the name Sippar to Shiva-pura.

Suggested Links:

1. The Significance of Biblical Names
2. Genesis

MORE ABOUT ANCIENT SYRIA AND ISRAEL - THE SANSKRIT, SRI RAMA & SRI KRISHNA CONNECTION

Known in Hebrew as Aram, Syria was also variously referred to with names such as Mesopotamia, Aram-Naharain, and Padan-Aram in ancient times.

Mesopotamia: It is generally accepted that Mesopotamia gets its name from Ancient Greek and means 'in the middle of rivers', where 'meso' means 'middle', and 'potamos' means 'river', literally 'rushing water', traced to PIE 'pet' meaning to 'rush' and 'to fly' - ignoring the Sanskrit pat (पत्) which means 'descend', 'flow', 'to rush down', to 'fall rapidly'. The Greek 'meso' itself is derived from Sanskrit 'madhya' (मध्य) via Proto-Germanic 'medjaz'. 

The two major rivers of Mesopotamia referred to here are the 'Euphrates' and the 'Tigris'. E. Pococke, the 17th century historian, traces the name 'Euphrates' to 'Su- Bharata' meaning 'Good Bharata', derived from the name of the ancient king 'Bharat' (भरत्) via the Assyrian name for Euphrates 'Su Paruttu'. The 'Tigris' has been equated with the word 'Tiger', which is said to be derived from the Sanskrit 'vyagr' (व्याग्र) meaning 'tiger'.

Aram-Naharain: 'Naharain' which means 'canal' in Hebrew' may be traced to the Sanskrit 'nira' (नीर) meaning 'water' and 'nihara' (निहार) meaning 'mist'. 

Padan-Aram: Padan-Aram may be traced to the Sanskrit 'padam' (पदम्) meaning 'to tread' and 'padan' (पदन) which means 'to move'. It is said that the name 'Aram' comes from Hebrew 'rum' meaning 'high places'. However, the Old Testament was originally written in Aramiac.  

Pococke has traced the name 'Aram' to the Vedic God Sri Rama, the name brought into Mesopotamia by the descendants of the tribes of the sons of Sri Rama - Luv and Cush.

Ancient Mesopotamia.
Notice the names Ramadi, Kish and Nippur.
Euphrates was decoded as 'Su-Parata' from Su-Bharata' 
by Edward Pococke. Tigris gets its name from Sanskrit 'Vyagr'.

There are examples of words in Aramaic and Hebrew which are very close cognates of Sanskrit words. For example, there is a possibility that words such as 'hara' (हर) which means 'God' or 'eminent' in Sanskrit, were passed on to Hebrew, and the meaning transformed from 'God' and 'eminent' as in Sanskrit to 'mountain' or 'elevated' in Hebrew. In the Bible too, mountains are often associated with places of worship (pagan: Deuteronomy 12:9, Isaiah 65:7; YHWH: Exodus 17:9, 1 Kings 18:42), and it's been proposed that people prefer to pray on mountains because it gives to them a feeling of solitude, peace and closeness to the divine realm.

'Hara' appears in the names of mountain peaks in India such as the 'Harmukh' and 'Hardeol' which are 'elevated' because they are mountain peaks, and 'eminent' because they are named after 'Hara' meaning 'god'. 

We find in Hebrew that though the word 'hara' does not mean 'god',  it carries the meaning of an 'elevated place' or a 'mountain' - for example - Har Karmel - or Mt. Carmel (1724 m), that has been considered sacred since the times of the Canaanites. The ancient 'Canaanites' of Israel who chronologically preceded the Jews regarded all high places and mountain peaks as sacred just as did the Vedic Hindus. It is therefore logical that the word 'hara' might have been transported by the emigrating tribes of India and acquired a slightly different meaning by the time the word emerged in Aramiac in Mesopotamia and Canan (Israel). In any case the Sanskrit  'hari' (हरि) also means 'of a mountain' and is therefore common with Hebrew.

Here is a verse from the Old Testament:

"The man of God came up and told the king of Israel, "This is what the LORD says: 

"Because the Arameans think the LORD is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys, I will deliver this vast army into your hands, and you will know that I am the LORD." Kings 20:28. 

 According to Pococke' the author of 'India in Greece', the word Canan is derived from Sri Krishna's name 'Kanha'.

Mt. Carmel Range in Israel
or Har Karmel

One may argue that the name Rama occurs in the Old Testament and refers to a Biblical town that existed before the birth of Jesus and is mentioned in the 'Book of Genesis':

"A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more." Matthew 2:18

In the Vedic scriptures, 'Hari' or Shiva is known to reside in the hills. The peak of Kailash and Kedarnath are the abode of Shiva, so is Harmouk and the cave of Amarnath. Many mountain peaks and highlands bear the name 'Rama' in Syria, Israel and Jordon - which include the Aramaen Mountains - and these too were considered sacred.

Ramah, also called Ramot is named after the biblical city of Rama, where the Prophet Samuel lived and was brought for burial:

Now Samuel had died, and all Israel lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, and (each one lamented him) in his own city. (Samuel I, 28:3).

Related Link:

Ancient Map-of Israel - Sri Rama, Sri Krishna & Kashmir Connection

ANCIENT MAP OF ISRAEL - THE SRI KRISHNA, SRI RAMA AND KASHMIR CONNECTION

Much has been written about the possibility of Jesus Christ having spent some of the missing years of his life in India, and the similarities between his life story and that of Sri Krishna, but there is much more that has been left untouched. That includes the India connection to the names of the ancient rivers and mountains and places in Israel.

First, the name 'Canaan'. Canaan was an ancient land corresponding to modern-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel and was also known as Phoenicia. The Ancient History Encyclopedia says, "The origin of the name 'Canaan’ comes from various ancient texts (among them the Hebrew Bible), and there is no scholarly consensus on precisely where the name originated nor what it was intended to convey about the land. According to the Bible, the land was named after a man called Canaan, the grandson of Noah (Genesis 10). Other theories cite `Canaan’ to have been derived from the Hurrian language, where 'caanan' stands for `purple’. The Greeks knew the Canaanites as `Phoenicians’; Phoenician is Greek for 'purple'. The Phoenicians worked in purple dye and so were called by the Greeks `purple people’. "This explanation is the most probable but, by no means, provable",- says the Ancient History Encyclopedia. 

But there are other more plausible explanations supported by cultural collateral as evidence. Canaan is historically attested throughout the 4th millennium BC. The later Amarna Letters use the name 'Kinahhu', while other sources of the Egyptian New Kingdom mention numerous military campaigns conducted in a place called 'Ka-na-na'. Now all these ancient names are cognates of the name 'Kanha' (कान्हा) - the name of Sri Krishna, who was also known as 'Kanan' (कानन) and 'Kishen' (किशन). 

One of the largest rivers in Israel, known as the Kishon (also called Kishen), drains into the Jezreel (also called Yizreel) valley. The name Kishon is a cognate of 'Kishen', the name of the Hindu God, Sri Krishna. This is pronounced as Kishen in many parts of India, including Kashmir. The name of Krishna's mother was 'Yashodha' (यशोधा), also called 'Jashoda' (जशोधा), close cognate of the names Yizreel and Jezreel. 

The Kishon flows in the region known as Phoenicia. In the same province are located the towns of 'Ramah' and 'Kanah'. Near the town of Ramah is 'Kadesh' also called 'Kudesh' (कुदेश), meaning 'inhospitable land' in Sanskrit, which could be a reference to the wilderness of Kadesh. It is quite logical to speculate that 'Ramah' and 'Kanah' get their name from Rama and Krishna.

To the East of Phoenicia lies the province of Galilee, named after the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee was also known as Kinneret (as it is called in the Old Testament) or Lake Gennesaret (as it is called in the Gospel of Luke). All Bible writers use the term 'sea' for 'Sea of Galilee' except the Gospel of Luke, where it is called a 'lake'.

Here is a look at the name 'Gennesaret' through the Sanskrit lens. First, a look at 'saret', the second part of the word. In Sanskrit, 'sara' (सर) means 'lake', 'sarat' (सरत्) means 'flowing', and 'sarita' (सरित्) means 'river'. The word 'ghanasara' (घनसार) means 'water' - the 'ghana' here indicating a 'deep' or 'immense' amount of water. That establishes the Sanskrit connection.

The name 'Kinneret' is the more ancient name and precedes the name 'Gannesaret'. It comes from the Hebrew word 'kinnor' meaning 'harp', which is regarded as the 'instrument of music in heaven'. The lake is supposed to be shaped like a 'harp'. In Sanskrit too,  'kinnar' (किन्नर) means 'heavenly music'. 

Also, in the Indian context, the 'kinnars' were a 'heavenly race of men' and are mentioned throughout the Ramayana. The female counterpart of the 'kinnars' were the 'apsaras'. In the Ramayana, the 'kinnars' are always mentioned along with the 'apsaras'. 

So if there was a 'Kinneret', was there a lake dedicated to the 'apsaras' too? The Bible does mention a lake by the name 'Asphar' in Israel. The Dead Sea itself was known as 'Ashphalites' - though the name is today connected to 'asphalt', there is no known reason for connecting the lake name to asphalt. 

Then there is the Susita River, also now called by its Greek name Hippos. 'Susit' (सुसिता) means 'white' in Sanskrit.

We digress here and touch a bit upon what might be of interest to many readers, and that is the question whether Jesus Christ ever travelled to India, especially to Kashmir. There are several places geographically located in Israel and in areas around Srinagar in India whose names are cognates of one another, and which are related to the life of Christ as well. These names indicate that the belief that Jesus lived a part of his life in India is indeed a fact. 

In a way, the map of Israel, especially the area adjoining the Ganeesaret Lake, is the map of Srinagar around the Dal Lake.

If one were to take Gane-Saret as the equivalent of Dal Lake whose ancient name was Maha-Sarit (महा-सरित), we find that both these names mean the same - 'a huge water body'. 

We proceed from there and find the mountain peak of Harmukh, the highest peak in the vicinity of Srinagar - and the abode of Shiva. And on the map of Israel one sees a river by the name Yarmouk - a cognate of the Harmukh. 'Yarmouk' is a tributary of the River Jordon and flows through the GanneSaret Lake.

Then there is Mt. Hermon, which again is a pretty close cognate of 'Harmukh'.  Equating the two names might seem like a bit of a stretch, but then we find that located at the bottom of Mt. Hermon is a lake by the name 'Ram'. There is a town called 'Ramah' in Phoenicia. Then there is the town of 'Ramathiam' in the province of Judea - and yet another town by the name of 'Ramah' in Judea, which is different from the one located in Phoenicia. 

In Assyria, Mt. Hermon was known as 'Sinieru' which is the Pali (a Sanskrit-derived language) name for Meru. Hence, another link is established. In any case, the Biblical name of Syria was 'Aram' and the language of the Bible was 'Aramaic '.

Another river that flows into the Gannesarat is the Bethasaida. Many words that begin with the sound 'V' in Sanskrit distort into 'B' in Sanskrit-derived languages. If the same principle is applied in the case of 'Bethsaida', it has then definitely originated from the name 'Vetasta' (वितस्ता) - the ancient name of the river Jhelum in Srinagar that flows along the Dal Lake or MahaSarit as it was once called.

The River Jordon that feeds the Genesserat is one of the major rivers of Israel and Jordan, and its name means 'descend' in Hebrew. But in all likelihood the name stems from the Sanskrit 'jhara' (झर)  which means 'descending water' or 'waterfall'. The Sanskrit connection to the name 'Jordon' has been discussed in detail here and here.

Ther is a bit more. On the northwestern shore of Lake Genesseret lay the city of 'Genesar'. In the Douay-Rheims Bible (Gospel of Matthew) it is stated that it was in the city of Genesar where Jesus visited and performed healing:

[34] And having passed the water, they came into the country of Genesar.

[35] And when the men of that place had knowledge of him, they sent into all that country, and brought to him all that were diseased.

[36] And they besought him that they might touch but the hem of his garment. And as many as touched, were made whole. (Matthew 14:34-36).

Ganesar? Well, that name is just a distortion of the 'ghanasara' (घनसार) mentioned above. Ganesar and Ganessarat must have been derived from the same word.

Other occurrence of the name 'Canan', and therefore 'Kanha' (कान्हा) happens in the river by the name 'Cana' that flows in the Plains of Sharon just south of the Narabata River. Again 'Narabata' is probably a distortion of the Narmada (नर्मदा) - a river of India.

....continued ..

ANCIENT MAP OF ISRAEL - THE SRI KRISHNA, SRI RAMA AND KASHMIR CONNECTION

Much has been written about the possibility of Jesus Christ having spent some of the missing years of his life in India, and the similarities between his life story and that of Sri Krishna, but there is much more that has been left untouched. That includes the India connection to the names of the ancient rivers and mountains and places in Israel.

First, the name 'Canaan'. Canaan was an ancient land corresponding to modern-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel and was also known as Phoenicia.

The Ancient History Encyclopedia states, "The origin of the name 'Canaan’ comes from various ancient texts (among them the Hebrew Bible), and there is no scholarly consensus on precisely where the name originated nor what it was intended to convey about the land. According to the Bible, the land was named after a man called Canaan, the grandson of Noah." (Genesis 10).

Other theories cite sources which view `Canaan’ to have been derived from the Hurrian language, where 'caanan' stands for the colour `purple’. The Greeks knew the Canaanites as `Phoenicians’. The word 'phoenician' is Greek for 'purple'. The Phoenicians worked in purple dye and so were called by the Greeks `purple people’. "This explanation is the most probable but, by no means, provable", says the Ancient History Encyclopedia.

But there are other more plausible explanations supported by cultural collateral as evidence. Canaan is historically attested throughout the 4th millennium BC. The later Amarna Letters use the name 'Kinahhu', while other sources of the Egyptian New Kingdom mention numerous military campaigns conducted in a place called 'Ka-na-na'. Now all these ancient names are cognates of the name 'Kanha' (कान्हा) - the name of Sri Krishna, who was also known as 'Kanan' (कानन) and 'Kishen' (किशन). 

One of the largest rivers in Israel, known as the Kishon (also called Kishen), drains into the Jezreel (also called Yizreel) valley. The name Kishon is a cognate of 'Kishen', the name of the Hindu God, Sri Krishna, which is pronounced as Kishen in many parts of India, including Kashmir. The name of Krishna's mother was 'Yashodha' (यशोधा), also called 'Jashoda' (जशोधा), a close cognates of the names Yizreel and Jezreel.

The Kishon flows in the region known as Phoenicia. In the same province are located the towns of 'Ramah' and 'Kanah'. Near the town of Ramah is 'Kadesh ', also called 'Kudesh' (कुदेश), meaning 'inhospitable land' in Sanskrit, which could be a reference to the wilderness of Kadesh. However, Kadesh, with its generally accepted meaning of pure and holy, probably derives from the Sanskrit 'Shuddha'(शुद्ध), which means pure, true, absolute or unpolluted. In fact, the Canaanite root Q-D-S of Kadesh is nothing but the Sanskrit 'Shuddha'. It is also quite logical to speculate that 'Ramah' and 'Kanah' get their name from Rama and Krishna.

To the East of Phoenicia lies the province of Galilee, named after the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee was also known as Kinneret (as it is called in the Old Testament) or Lake Gennesaret (as it is called in the Gospel of Luke). All Bible writers use the term 'sea' for 'Sea of Galilee' except the Gospel of Luke, where it is called a 'lake'.

Here is a look at the name 'Gennesaret' through the Sanskrit lens. First, a look at 'saret', the second part of the word. In Sanskrit, 'sara' (सर) means 'lake', 'sarat' (सरत्) means 'flowing', and 'sarita' (सरित्) means 'river'. The word 'ghanasara' (घनसार) means 'water' - the 'ghana' here indicating a 'deep' or 'immense' amount of water. That establishes the Sanskrit connection.

The name 'Kinneret' is the more ancient name and precedes the name 'Gannesaret'. It comes from the Hebrew word 'kinnor' meaning 'harp' - which is regarded as the 'instrument of music in heaven'. The lake is supposed to be shaped like a 'harp'. In Sanskrit too 'kinnar' (किन्नर) means 'heavenly music'.

Also, in the Indian context the 'kinnars' were a 'heavenly race of men' and are mentioned throughout the Ramayana. The female counterpart of the 'kinnars' were the 'apsaras'. In the Ramayana the 'kinnars' are always mentioned along with the 'apsaras'. 

So if there was a 'Kinneret', was there a lake dedicated to the 'apsaras' too? The Bible does mention a lake by the name 'Asphar' in Israel. The Dead Sea itself was known as 'Ashphalites' - though the  name is today connected to 'asphalt' there is no known reason for connecting the lakes name to asphalt.

Then there is the Susita River, also now called by its Greek name Hippos. 'Susit' (सुसिता) means 'white' in Sanskrit.We digress here and touch a bit upon what might be of interest to many readers and that is the question whether Jesus Christ ever travelled to India, especially to Kashmir. There are several places geographically located in Israel and in areas around Srinagar in India whose names are cognates of one another, and which are related to the life of Christ as well. These names indicate that the belief that Jesus lived a part of his life in India is indeed a fact. 

In a way the map of Israel, especially the area adjoining the Gennesaret Lake, is the map of Srinagar around the Dal Lake. If one were to take Gennesaret as the equivalent of the Dal Lake, we will notice that their names have the same meaning in Sanskrit. Dal Lake was known as Mahasarit (महासरित)- 'a hugewater body', Gannesarat- (घन  'ghana' here indicating 'deep'.

We proceed from there and find the mountain peak of Harmukh, the highest peak in the vicinity of Srinagar - and the abode of Shiva. And on the map of Israel one sees a river by the name Yarmouk - a cognate of the Harmukh. 'Yarmouk' is a tributary of River Jordon and flows through the GanneSaret Lake.

Then there is Mt. Hermon, which again is a pretty close cognate of 'Harmukh'.  Equating the two names might seem like a bit of a stretch, but then we find that located at the bottom of Mt. Hermon is a lake by the name 'Ram'. There is a town called 'Ramah' in Phoenicia. Then there is the town of 'Ramathiam' in the province of Judea - and yet another town by the name of 'Ramah' in Judea, which is different from the one located in Phoenicia.  In Assyria, Mt. Hermon was known as 'Sinieru' which is a derivation of the Sanskrit Meru. Hence, another link is established. In any case, the Biblical name of Syria was 'Aram' and the language of the Bible was 'Aramaic'.

Another river that flows into the Gannesarat is the Bethsaida. Many words that begin with the sound v' in Sanskrit distort into 'b' in Sanskrit-derived languages. If the same principle is applied in the case of 'Bethsaida', it has then definitely originated from the name 'Vetasta' (वितस्ता) - the ancient name of the river Jhelum in Srinagar that flows along the Dal Lake or MahaSarit as it was once called.

The river Jordon that feeds the Genesserat is one of the major rivers of Israel and Jordon; its name is said to mean 'descend' in Hebrew. But in all likeliness the name stems from the Sanskrit 'jhara' (झर) which means 'descending water' or 'waterfall'. The Sanskrit connection to the name 'Jordon' has been discussed in detail here and here.

There is a bit more. On the northwestern shore of lake Genesseret lay the city of 'Genesar'. In Douay-Rheims Bible (Gospel of Matthew) it is stated that it was in the city of Genesar where Jesus visited and performed healing:

[34] And having passed the water, they came into the country of Genesar.
[35] And when the men of that place had knowledge of him, they sent into all that country, and brought to him all that were diseased.
[36] And they besought him that they might touch but the hem of his garment. And as many as touched, were made whole. (Matthew 14:34-36).

Ganesar? Well, that is just a distortion of the 'ghanasara' (घनसार) mentioned above. Ganesar and Ganessarat must have been derived from the same word.

Other occurrences of the name 'Canan', and therefore 'Kanha' (कान्हा), happen in the river by the name 'Cana' that flows in the Plains of Sharon just south of the Narabata River. Again, 'Narabata' is probably a distortion of the Narmada (नर्मदा) - a river of India.

....continued ..

'JESUS', HIS NAME - THE SANSKRIT CONNECTION

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The Vedic Shadow on the Silent Years: Etymological and Historical Links Between Jesus and Ancient India

1. The Enigma of the Missing Years

The unknown years of Jesus—often referred to as his silent, lost, or missing years—generally span the crucial period between his childhood and the commencement of his public ministry. Left entirely unrecorded by the New Testament gospels, this eighteen-year vacuum has long intrigued historians. Over the decades, a fascinating body of literature has explored a profound hypothesis: that Jesus spent these formative, missing years traveling the Silk Road, absorbing the spiritual and mystical traditions of ancient India.

The concept of profound Indian influences on early Christianity was famously detailed by the nineteenth-century French magistrate and orientalist Louis Jacolliot in his seminal work, La Bible dans l'Inde, Vie de Iezeus Christna (1869), translated as The Bible in India, or the Life of Jezeus Christna. Jacolliot argued that the striking, minute parallelisms between the life narratives of Sri Krishna and Jesus Christ could not be dismissed as mere coincidence. He concluded that the framework of the Gospels drew heavily upon the older spiritual allegories of ancient India. Central to Jacolliot's thesis was that Jesus’s close disciples bestowed upon him the title "Jezeus"—a term he linked to a Sanskrit concept of "pure essence"—while the title "Christ" echoed the phonetic and spiritual resonance of "Krishna" (कृष्ण).

This cross-cultural overlap was similarly noted by the occultist H.P. Blavatsky in her monumental work, Isis Unveiled (1877). She observed:

"Why not accept truth in all sincerity, and reversing matters, admit that St. Thomas, faithful to that policy of proselytism which marked the earliest Christians, when he found in Malabar the origin of the mythical Christ in Christna, tried to blend the two; and, adopting in his gospel... the most important details of the story of the Hindu Avatar."

Following this historic integration of Vedic knowledge and localized memory, St. Thomas, one of the twelve original apostles of Jesus Christ, is traditionally recorded to have arrived on the shores of Kerala, establishing the Syrian Christian Church in Malabar in 52 AD.

2. Linguistic Echoes: From Apāsta to Apostle

Fascinatingly, the etymological underpinnings of early Christian hierarchy mirror Vedic roots in unexpected ways. Consider the word apostle. While standard etymology derives it from the Greek apostolos ("one sent forth"), it shares a striking phonetic and semantic cognate with the Sanskrit term apāsta (अपास्त), meaning “sent off, cast away, or set aside.”

Rooted in the prefix apa- (“away, off”) and the verbal root as (“to throw”), the term apāsta appears as early as the Rigveda to denote that which is “driven away” or “repelled” (often describing light casting away darkness or enemies being repelled). It resurfaces in the Atharvaveda within prayers meant to expel malevolent influences or diseases, and in the Mahābhārata to describe warriors who have been set aside. The parallel between a spiritual messenger "sent off" into the world and the Sanskrit concept of being "cast forth" presents a remarkable linguistic intersection.

+------------------+-----------------------+---------------------------------------+

| Ancient Term     | Linguistic Origin     | Core Meaning                          |
+------------------+-----------------------+---------------------------------------+

| Apostle (Greek)  | Apostolos / Apastellein| One sent forth / set apart            |
| Apāsta (Sanskrit)| Prefix Apa- + Root As | Sent off / cast away / driven forth   |
+------------------+-----------------------+---------------------------------------+

Deconstructing the Philological Shift

When the famous German orientalist Max Müller attempted to debunk Jacolliot’s findings, he focused heavily on philology. Writing in the Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute (Volume 21, 1888), Müller argued that "Jezeus" was not an authentic Sanskrit term, going so far as to imply that Jacolliot had simply invented it to suit his thesis.

Yet, the linguistic transition from Sanskrit to later vernaculars tells a more nuanced story. "Pure essence" can be traced through the concepts of yagyasara or yagyarasa. The prefix is rooted in yagya (यज्ञ), meaning sacrifice, prayer, or devotion—giving rise to derivatives like yajin (याजिन्, worshipper) and yagyiy (यज्ञिय, divine, pious, or sacred).

In Indo-Aryan and derived regional dialects, the initial Sanskrit phonetic sound "Y" (य्) frequently softens into a "J" (ज्). For instance:

• Yadu—the historical clan of Sri Krishna—is widely spoken of in vernacular dialects as Jadu.
• Yadav—the derivative lineage—frequently distorts to Jadhav.
• Yajamana—the Sanskrit term for a sacrificial patron who employs priests for a ritual—mutated into the localized Jajmani system, a socio-economic structure well-documented by Western encyclopaedias.

Applying this exact phonetic shift, the name Jezeus emerges as a natural vernacular distortion of the Sanskrit title Yagyin—signifying "one who abounds in sacrifice" or "the sacred one." This aligns seamlessly with how Jesus is widely referred to across India and parts of the Middle East today: Yeshu, Yesu, or Isu.

This phonetic fluidity extends across cultural borders. In Arabic, where the definitive origins of the honorific Haji (one who completes the pilgrimage) remain a subject of discussion, the term may well align with the Sanskrit yaji (यजि, worshipping) or yajin. Alternatively, if one pursues Jacolliot’s literal definition of "essence," the Sanskrit yūs (यूष)—meaning an extract, broth, or juice—offers another curious linguistic pathway toward the concept of a vital distillation.

4. The Syncretic Horizon

Beyond pure linguistics, alternative structural interpretations offer deeper metaphysical ties. In Shiva: A Rediscovery of the Holy Spirit, researcher G. Ananda connects the name Yeshua to the Hebrew Yeshiva (a sitting or gathering for sacred study). He further posits that a Hebrew phonetic variant of Jesus, Yah-Shva, maps directly onto the title Lord Shiva—the ultimate ascetic.

Such Vedic-Christian correlations have long been championed by alternative historians. In his classic, sweeping treatise Anacalypsis (1836), the English antiquarian Godfrey Higgins asserted that historical Christianity integrated the remnants of much older, global mythologies. Higgins argued that early Gospel records were compiled from the writings of the Essenes—an ascetic, monastic Jewish sect residing in Egypt. These Essene libraries, he maintained, were deeply influenced by India's Gymnosophists (the "naked philosophers"), who traveled the ancient world bound by solemn oaths to protect sacred texts that Higgins argued were none other than the Hindu Vedas.

Ultimately, whether through the physical travels of Jesus during his silent years or the ancient trade routes that carried ideas across empires, the deep linguistic and philosophical parallels point to an undeniable truth: the foundations of Western faith remain deeply intertwined with the ancient, enduring wisdom of the Vedic world.