A BIT ABOUT NAMES OF BIBLICAL TOWNS - AND INDIA!

In the Bible, the names of remote and ancient countries that appear,  include Sheba, Ramaah, Haran, Canneh, Eden, Chilmad etc. Though the names are largely of unknown etymology, some of the names have an unmistakably Sanskritic nuance. Though there are towns and places that even today bear the same names, it is unknown whether these present-day towns are identical with the towns of antiquity mentioned in the Bible.  Uncertainty also arises because the scriptures provide no clear pointers that can help unravel the mystery. In general, the assumption is that the origin of these names must lie in the languages of the civilizations that lie in the region of Canaan (Israel, Syria, Lebanon) and Mesopotamia. 

However, many researchers have differed and questioned this assumption - mainly because the languages and culture of this region have not been able to either decode the meaning of these names or provide any cultural context from which these names could have been derived.  Scholars are of the view that these names stem from names of characters and idols that belonged to a time more ancient, and to civilizations that were geographically more distant, from the location and setting of the Bible. The names must therefore be traced to a civilization which preceded the Biblical times and was large enough to have its impact and influence way beyond its geography. These names, because they are Sanskritic, point in the direction of India and the Indus Valley.

In the Journal of Asiatic Researches, Vol 8, the writer states un his article in 'Origin of Chinese Nation', "The oriental Sheba is understood to be Malabar, and is so laid down in some ancient maps of the geography of Scriptures. Raamah may with equal probability be the same with the coast of Coromandel extending from Ramancor near the island of Ceylon, so named from Rama, an idol of the Indians. It is off these coasts that they fish for pearls and obtain coral, which later in Hebrew is called Rammoth. Chilmad is explained as Karmana in the Greek texts and in the maps Carmania, situated on the north-east of the gulf of Ormus. The country called Eden must mean some part of India, celebrated as the garden of the world, situated amongst the finest rivers, and abounding with everything rich and luxuriant".

In his book 'History and Chronology of a Myth-making world', author J. F. Hewitt states about the Sabeans who were the people of Sheba, who had originated from India and settled in the Arabia before they migrated to the Euphrates valley, "These Sabeans were not in ancient times as they are now, merely artisans and traders of the Euphrates valley. They were formerly the rulers of southern Arabia called Seba......they are the people called in Genesis 10.7 the sons of Raamah or Raghma, the Indian god...."

The author in the Journal of Asiatic Researches links the name Canneh with an area on the Gandak river flowing from Nepal towards Patna; the river is known for 'saligram' or 'shaligram' stones which are known as Canneh in the Chaldee language. He states, "Canneh or Channeh seems to agree with the description of a country bordering on the river Gandica, which descends from the mountains on the north of Patna and discharges itself into the Ganges in that city which is famous for the remarkable stone flint, salagram; for Cannah signifies in Chaldee, vermiculi genus, a species ...of the snail kind generated in the rocks, and which are indented and marked with the figure of the insect......". Another possibility though is that Cannah may be a reference to the Hindu God Krishna, who is also commonly referred to as 'Kanaah' or 'Kanan'.

The etymology of the name 'Eden' is unknown. The name Eden is equated with 'delightful place', only because in the Genesis Eden is described as a 'delightful place somewhere in the east'.

Traditionally, the favored derivation of the name 'Eden' was from the Akkadian edinnu. Edinnu is itself derived from a Sumerian word meaning 'plain' or 'steppe'. In Sanskrit 'edhini' (एधिनि) simply means 'earth' - and probably best fits into the meaning of the verse. 

As far as Haran is concerned, Haran is another name of Lord Shiva. There is a Haran which was located near the Turkish- Syrian border in the middle of an arid plain and is said to be one of the oldest Mesopotamian settlements. But where did it get its name from? 

Two etymologies are generally presented. The earliest records of Harran come from the Ebla tablets, c. 2300 BC. Harran's name is said to be from Akkadian ḫarrānum (fem.), "road"; ḫarrānātum (pl.).[6]


The biblical placename is חָרָן‎ (with a ḥet) in Hebrew, pronounced [ħaːraːn] and can mean "parched," but is more likely to mean "road" or "crossroad," cognate to Old Babylonian ḫaranu (MSL 09, 124-137 r ii 54'). The personal name Haran is spelled הָרָן‎ (with a hei) in Hebrew and means "mountaineer".



Harran is mentioned in early cuneiform records of the Sumerians and Hittites as 𒌷𒊮𒆜 (URU.ŠÀ.KASKAL), sometimes shortened to 𒆜 (KASKAL),[9] transliterated as Ḫarrānu(m).[10][11] Ḫarrānu literally means "journey", "caravan" or "crossroad".[4] It is often interpreted as "caravan path"[11] or "intersection of routes and travel".[8] Harran is rendered as ܚܳܪܳܢ (hrn) in Aramaic,[12] חָרָן (Ḥaran) in Hebrew, حَرَّان (Ḥarrân) in Arabic,[13] حران (Harrān) in Ottoman Turkish,[14] and Harran in modern Turkish.[15]

The ancient Assyrians called the city Huzirina.[16] Ḫarrānu was Hellenised to Kárrhai (Kάρραι)[17] in the Hellenistic period.[18] The Romans later Latinised the Greek name into Carrhae.[18][19] Due to the prominence of both Harran and Carrhae in historical literary sources, some scholars use the compound name "Carrhae-Harran" for the ancient city.[20] Under the Byzantine Empire, the city continued to be called Carrhae (Kάρραι) but was also sometimes referred to as Hellenopolis (Eλληνóπoλις),[17] "city of the pagan Greeks", in reference to the strong pagan traditions there.[4][10]
History

Excavations in Haran have revealed a large mudbrick building which dates to the end of the 3rd millennium BC. It is thought this might be the predecessor to the temple of the Sumerian and Mesopotamian Moon-God Sin.

The insignia of the Moon God Sin bears a remarkable likeness to that of the Vedic God Shiva. In fact, Shiva is also known as Som-nath (सोमनाथ) which means 'Lord of the Moon'. Shiva's insignia includes the crescent moon and the bull called 'Vrishabha' or 'Nandi' who was the vehicle of Lord Shiva.

The earliest known form of the name 'Sin' is 'Suen' which may well be a distortion of the Sanskrit 'Shivam' - the name of the Vedic Moon God. In any case 'Haran' (हरन), is another name for Lord Shiva.

As we have already seen there is much debate on the origins of the name Canan, its etymology is unknown, but in the Indic view and to those who are familiar with the Rig Veda and Mahabharata,  it is obvious that the name Canan is a distortion of the name Pani to Phani and Kani. From Phani came the term Phoenicians and from Kani came the term Canaan. Un time the name Canaan came to be associated with the life of Krishna also called Kanha in the common language. We have the proof in two names First, the Gannesaret lake was also called Kunnerat.a reminder both of Canaan and Kanga. The river 'Kishon' is a reminder of Krishna. There is also the 'Narbata' that flows in Israel. Towns by the names Ramah and Ramathiam and Canan and Gitta still exist in Israel, and the memory of Baal refuses to fade away. In the Canaanite pantheon. Prof. P. N. Oak has argued that Baal is none other than Baleshwara or Sri Krishna. 

No matter where these Biblical cities were situated, their names reveal that by some quirk is twist they were heavily influenced by Sanskrit and the culture of India. For more on the Indian influence on Haran and Eden click here and here.

Ancient Haran, located north of Euphrates River.
Haran is another name of Vedic God Shiva.
Sanskritic names on the map include a town
by the name 'Nagar' - Sanskrit for 'town'

Insignia of the Moon God 'Sin'
of Haran. Notice the crossed-legged posture akin to
yogic semi-Padmasana of Shiva, the crescent moon
and the bulls which were the vehicles of the moon-god 'Sin'. 

Suggested readings:
1.The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany,
Volume VIII
2. History and Chronology of the Myth-Making Age by J.F. Hewitt

3. Black pepper: Piper Nigrum edited by P.N. Ravindran

Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan: A Historical Analysis of Two Contrasting Faiths - William Foxwell Albright - Google Books

BIBLICAL RIVER PISHON - THE INDIA CONNECT

In his book, the Antiquities of the Jews, Roman-Jewish scholar Flavius Josephus (37 - 100 AD), in his description of the four rivers of the Bible, the Pishon, Gihon, the Tigris and the Euphrates, stated that the unidentified river Pishon was either the Indus River or the Ganges, while the Gihon was the Nile. 

Though it is often assumed that the Garden and Eden are the same place, many rabbis hold the view that the verse which states,".. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden. From there it divided and became four major rivers" suggests that the garden and Eden are two different places.

The Genesis further states in Verse 2:11, "…The name of the first is Pishon, the one that winds through the whole land of Havilah, where the gold is. And the gold of that land is good. There is bdellium and the onyx stone. The name of the second river is Gihon, the one that winds through the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hiddekel, the one that flows east of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Perat."

Josephus' interpretation is quoted here, " Now the garden was watered by one river, which ran round about the whole earth, and was parted into four parts. And Phison, which denotes a multitude, running into India, makes its exit into the sea, and is by the Greeks called Ganges.... And Geon runs through Egypt, and denotes what arises from the east, which the Greeks call Nile".

In his book Atlantis the Final Solution: A Scientific History of Humanity, author Zia Abbas states, " ... the most important point about the above verse is that it tells that in Havilah, onyx stone was found, onyx is a marble like stone which is only found in present day Pakistan ... Also the Indian subcontinent ...has been known for thousands of years, as a place where good quality gold is found. Many invaders and conquerors had only attacked India for the gold...". 

On the Indus, close to Haripur in present-day Pakistan, stands a town by the name Havelian, which some say may be the Havilah that the Genesis refers to. The bdellium mentioned in the verse is the guggul tree, which grows commonly in the Indian subcontinent.

Steven J. Gold states in his book 'Yoga and Judaism', "...There's an opinion that the one (river) called Pishon was the Ganges. These are not far-out New Age interpretations; this is coming from traditional Jewish commentators. The Pishon/Ganges surrounded the land of Havilah, believed to be a reference to India. Another fascinating description in the same section referring to the Pishon/Ganges and Havilah/India refers to Havilah as land of good gold, 'bedolach' and 'shoham' stone. Jumping ahead to Exodus .....  There is a lot of detail about the vestments of the High Priests. Part of the vestments was a breastplate.... There were many items on the breastplate, including stones representing each of the twelve tribes, and a stone for every letter in the Hebrew alphabet. The same shoham stones mentioned as coming from the land of Havilah/India in Genesis were included on the breastplate and the two shoulder straps attached to it...".

The priest's breastplate was not only ornamental,  but it was functional. It served as an oracle and would spell out the answers that the priest could gauge by studying the manner in which the Indian shoham stones on the breastplate would light up.

Steven Gold links the word 'shoham' to the Sanskrit 'soham' and links it to the soham mantra, which means, "That I am, I am that." He says, "Shoham certainly sounds like soham.  In fact, in Biblical Hebrew, the same consonants would be used for the two words, with the only difference being the placement of a dot above the first letter... ".

The Abarim Publications site, which has published thousands of articles on Bible study from all kinds of angles but mostly from a scientific point of view states, "Many enthusiasts have wondered where the Garden of Eden might have been located, and since the Bible mentions that two of its rivers were the mighty Tigris of Assyria and Euphrates of Babylon (Genesis 2:14), it was at some point concluded that Paradise must have been in Mesopotamia. But this assumption is obviously based on an error, because one of the other two Paradisal rivers (even the first or oldest two) flows through Africa, namely the Gihon, which flows around the whole land of Cush, which is Nubia (Genesis 2:13). The fourth (or rather the first or oldest) is the Pishon, which flows around Havilah. Where Havilah might have been is unclear, but the Pishon may very well have been the Indus River".

There is no known etymology of Pishon, though in Hebrew the name Pishon could be derived from פוש (push), meaning to spring about or to be scattered. In Sanskrit, the closest cognates are Ishan (इषन्), meaning 'pouring out'. The name Pishon is interpreted as "the great effusion"; the river is described as a "reminder of God's abounding grace". In Sanskrit, a cognate of Pishon is 'poshin' (पोषिन्), which means 'nurturing ', which is the equivalent of 'God's abounding grace'.

About the location of Havilah, Tse Tsan-tai (1872-1938) one of the earliest Chinese revolutionaries of the late Qing Dynasty wrote in his book named 'The Creation, the Garden of Eden and the Origin of the Chinese', published in 1914 that based on the geographical description in the Bible it is evident that the Garden of Eden was located in China and that Havilah was India. Here is a map from his book.

According to Chinese scholar Tse Tsan-tai, the land of Havilah is India.

And there is much truth in what Tse Tsan-tai claimed.                                                                                          ...... continued here.

Suggested Readings:

1. Judaism and Yoga by Steven J. Gold
2. Abarim Publications