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

Monkey God 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

Maheshvara Sutra

The sound of the ancient most Sanskrit alphabet sequence. 

It belongs to the pre-Panini era. 

This Sanskrit alphabet sequence is also a 'healing mantra.' 

Starts at 00.40

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 civilisation 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, practised in India. There are many theories why the name Hindu emerged, but none of those is 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, which 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 organised 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 |

Interestingly, modern astrophysics has revealed a parallel cosmic rhythm. NASA has converted the periodic signals of pulsars—rapidly rotating neutron stars—into audible frequencies. These stellar vibrations, though astrophysical in origin, strikingly resemble the cadence of Śiva’s ḍamaru. Just as the Sanskrit varṇamālā is said to emanate from the damru’s beat, the pulsar’s rhythm can be envisioned as a celestial echo of this primordial sound, linking the alphabet’s sacred vibration with the universe’s own pulse.”

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 centre of each chakra, a distinct sound predominates, and other distinct sounds are centred around it. That is why, in kundalini yoga, each chakra is represented as having a particular letter at its centre, 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 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 centre.

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 are arranged in a sequence, designed to create vibrations which it is said have 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 the script could 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 telepathy, a script was considered redundant for it did not serve any function.

Suggested Links:

1. The Origin of Sanskrit

THE SUSQUEHANNA RIVER AND THE SANSKRIT ROOT WORD 'VAH'!

The Susquehanna River that flows through New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, was called the 'Ga-wa-no-wa-neh Gehunda' by the Onondaga Tribe of Native Americans. It has been translated as the 'Great Island River'. The Lenape called it the Siskewahane,  which in the Lenape language means 'Oyster River'.

In his book, 'The Composition of Indian Geographical Names, ' the author Hammond Trumbull states, "... many Indian (Native American) geographical names, after their adoption by Anglo-American colonists, became meaningless sounds. Their original character was lost by their transfer to a foreign tongue. Nearly all have suffered some mutilation or change of form. In many instances, hardly a trace of the true original can be detected in the modern name. Some have been separated from the localities to which they belonged and assigned to others to which they are etymologically inappropriate. A mountain receives the name of a river; a bay, that of a cape or a peninsula; a tract of land, that of a rock or a waterfall".

Of the Native American names, he says, "Every name described the locality to which it was affixed. The description was sometimes topographical; sometimes historical, preserving the memory of a battle, a feast, the dwelling-place of a great sachem, or the like; sometimes it indicated one of the natural products of the place, or the animals which resorted to it; occasionally, its position or direction from a place previously known, or from the territory of the nation by which the name was given,—as for example, 'the land on the other side of the river,' 'behind the mountain,' 'the east land,' 'the half-way place,' etc.".

Native American river names have very often one of the following three suffixes: -hanne, tuk or sepy. Examples include the original native names of the rivers Susquehanna, Connecticut and the Mississippi River. Their original names were Siskewahana, Quinni-tuk-ut and Missi Sipi. A blog post on the name Mississippi is coming up next. This post is about the Susquehanna and the suffix -hanne.

The name Susquehanna, or the Siskewahana as it was called by the Natives, translates as Oyster River. In its Native name, we see an example of the 'hanne' suffix as mentioned above. But what is the source of this Lenape word 'hanne'?

In the 'Lenape Talking Dictionary', at a site run by the 'Delaware Tribe of Indians', Susquehanna is written as Siskewahane and split as Siskew-a-hane with the meaning 'muddy river'. Click here for the Lenape Dictionary.

Photo by Nicholas A. Tonelli from Northeast Pennsylvania, USA - https://www.flickr.com/photos/nicholas_t/3594274494/, CC BY 2.0
 Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

However, if one were to split Siskewahane as Siske + Wahane, we have the suffix 'wahana' or the Sanskrit 'vahana' (वहन), which means 'to flow'. Hanne may be the Sanskrit 'vahana' with the first syllable dropped. The root word 'vah' has two meanings: 'to flow' and 'to go'.

There are other examples. The English word “swing” translates into Mohawk (Kanien’kéha) as ahserí:yo when referring to a playground swing, and as ionkwahón:tsi when used in the sense of “to swing/move back and forth. Here too, we see the appendage -hanne in the form wahon. Linguists translate the root verb ahón:tsi as meaning “to move back and forth, to rock, to swing.”

Says Trumbull," It would be surprising if some of the translations which have been hazarded in this paper do not prove to be wide off their mark. Even English etymology is not reckoned among the exact sciences yet, and in Algonkin, there is the additional disadvantage of having no Sanskrit verbs 'to go', to fall back on as a last resort." That may not be entirely true! For in this very instance, we discern the Sanskrit root vah-, “to carry, to flow,” operating as a structural analogue to the Algonquian forms, suggesting that the supposed absence of such verbs is less a deficiency than a missed recognition of deeper Indo‑Algonquian resonances.

Suggested Links:

1. The Old New York Frontier by Francis Whiting Halsey

2. Indian Geographical Names by Hammond Trumbull

3. Native American Place Names of the United States

4. American Indian Languages

5. The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Composition of Indian Geographical Names, by J. Hammond Trumbull

THE SANSKRIT CONNECTION - RIVER MINNESOTA

The unexpected linguistic parallels between the Dakota and Lakota languages and Sanskrit are both fascinating and thought-provoking. Despite the geographical distance separating India and North America, these connections invite us to explore shared cultural heritage and ancient migrations. Rather than allowing scepticism to prevail, a thorough investigation reveals hidden threads that bind languages across continents. As we delve deeper, we uncover echoes of Sanskrit in Native American names, river designations, and everyday expressions. These linguistic bridges remind us that language transcends borders, connecting humanity through time and space.

The state of Minnesota is named after the Minnesota River. In the Dakota language, spoken by the Native Americans of the Sioux tribe, 'mni' is the word for 'water'. Minnesota translates as 'clouded Water'. It is said that the Native Americans demonstrated the meaning of Minnesota to the European Immigrants by adding milk to water. One may therefore equate the word 'sota' with 'cloudiness'. The Dakota online dictionary translates 'sota' as 'smoke'. We may now turn towards Sanskrit to discover any likenesses.

A cognate of 'mni' in the Sanskrit language is 'mih' (मिह्), which has the meaning of 'downpour of water, fog or mist'. One of the words for 'smoke' in Sanskrit is 'stari' (स्तरी), which is cognate of 'sota'. Hence, we find that Minnesota may be explained by Sanskrit 'mih' and 'stari', and we arrive at the meaning 'foggy downpour of water', or 'cloudy mist' or 'misty water', which is pretty much the meaning of this Native American name in Dakota. There are other examples, such as the Dakota 'magazu' for 'rain'. which is similar to 'megha', Sanskrit for 'cloud'. The Dakota word for cloud is 'mahpiya', which has the Sanskrit 'mih' or rain in its prefix.

The connectedness of Native American names to Sanskrit is affirmed by certain other observations. For example, one of the Dakota words for river is 'wakpa'. This word appears to be a distortion of the Sanskrit 'vahana', meaning 'flowing'. We see an example of that in the Dakota name for River Poplar of Minnesota, which is Wahcinca, where 'vahana' appears in its truncated form as the prefix 'wah'.

At this point, one may justifiably dismiss all of this as a coincidence. However, a variation of the Sanskrit 'vahana' appears in many river names attributed to other Native American Languages. For example, the Lenape name of the River Schuylkill of Pennsylvania is Ganshowahane, which means 'falling or roaring waters' in Lenape. Schuylkill is also known as Tulpehane (Turtle River), in Lenape. In both of these names, the suffixes 'wahane' and 'ehane' are probable variations of 'vahane', i.e, the Sanskrit 'vahana'.

If one may, for a minute, make an assumption that Native American languages have a source in Sanskrit, some interesting observations come up. It is believed that the Native Americans crossed over into America from Asia via the Bering Strait. One of the languages spoken in the Asian end of the Bering Strait is Russian. One would logically arrive at the conclusion that if a Sanskritic people migrated from Asia via Russia and the Bering Strait into the Americas, they would carry with them traces of all these languages.

So, let us take the example of the Russian word for 'water spring'. Its Russian translation will be 'vodny istocnik'. In Dakota, 'water spring' translates as 'mni ohdoka'. Let's examine these words, their meanings at the time of their origin, and the shift of meaning from one language to the other, in this example from Russian to Dakota. In the word 'vodny istocnik', 'vodny' is Russian for water. In Dakota, the word changes from 'vodny' to 'ohdoka', and from 'water' takes on the meaning of 'source of water' or 'water hole', hence 'mnk ohdoka'.

At the root of all of these names, however, is Sanskrit, the mother of all languages. 'Odaka' (ओदक) means 'watery' and takes a different form in Russian. Another Sanskrit words that come into play here is 'srota' (स्रोत), which means 'source'. In Russian, 'srota' becomes 'stocknik', in Dakota it becomes 'sota'.

With this in mind, one may revisit the name Minnesota at this point. The second syllable in the name Minnesota 'Sota' could be a distortion of Srota (स्रोत), which means 'ocean' or 'stream'. 'Srota' also refers to the 'source of a water body'. Another cognate of ' Sota' in the context of water is Sarit (सरित्). Sarit or Sarita is a versatile word which means,' stream, ocean or river'. The root word 'mi' (मी) means 'flowing' or 'moving'. The Sanskrit root 'mIm' (मीम्) also has the meaning of move and expands into the 'mimati' (मीमति), which means 'moving. We see the name Sarita as the name of a river in British Columbia.

River Sarita, Vancouver Island, British Columbia

We see other glaring similarities in words such as 'jyoyanpa', the Dakota word for light, similar to Sanskrit 'jyoti' (ज्योत्). The word for 'union' is 'yuwitaya', which is the same as the Sanskrit 'yukta' (युक्त). The word for box is 'koka'. The source of 'koka' seems to be Sanskrit 'kosha' (कोष), which distorts in Hindi to 'khoka', similar to the Dalota 'koka'.

In the Lakota language, 'wowicake' is honesty, truthfulness, sincerity, etc. This is exactly the same as 'viveka' (विवेक ) in Sanskrit. In Lakota, 'cante' is 'heart'; in Sanskrit, kanta (कान्त) means 'beloved' or 'beautiful'. Yet the source of the Lakota word 'cante' seems to lie in the Sanskrit hridya with the same meaning. Lakota 'cante ' is pronounced as 'chahn-day' and seems to be a cognate of hriday. 

These similarities are not easily explainable. In ancient times, people embarked on migrations and emigrations across the globe in search of better lives—much as they do today. These movements formed waves that flowed not only in one direction but in all directions. Theories that assume a unidirectional flow of people from one land to another often lead to erroneous conclusions. Instead, recognising the multidirectional nature of historical migrations provides a more accurate understanding of our shared human journey.

THE SANSKRIT & TAMIL CONNECTION - THE TEMPLE OF PETRA, JORDAN

Jordan gets its name from the River Jordan. The origin of the name 'Jordan' is generally traced to the ancient Semitic word 'Arda'. 'Arda' in turn comes from the Hebrew 'Yorad', which is derived from the Aramaic 'Yarden' or 'Jarden' meaning 'down-flowing' or 'that which descends'. 

Let's go a step further and check out the Sanskrit connection. In Sanskrit, the verb in the context of 'flowing down' is 'jharat' (झरत्), and the root word is 'jhara' (झर), which means 'sprinkling' or 'waterfall' and is used to describe water bodies or rivers etc. There are rivers all over the world which have names close to the 'jhara' sound, such as the 'Jari' which is the northern tributary of the River Amazon; River Jara in Melbourne; the Jara River - a tributary of the Susita River in Romania; or Lake Jara in New Mexico - not to mention many more in India and Nepal.

Now let's look at the Temple of Petra in Jordan. Petra in Ma’an, is the home of Jordan's most ancient race - the Nabateans. Petra is a complete city carved in a mountain - its rocks are mostly red or pink in hue. Many have put forth the view that the Temple of Petra is a Temple of Shiva owing to the carved Shiva Linga in the mountain. 

The Shiva-Linga of Petra Temple, Jordan.

Lord Shiva is a Vedic God

It is said that the name Petra derives from the Greek word 'pietra' which means 'stone' a reference to the rocky landscape of the area. But it is highly likely that the Greek 'pietra' is a distorted form of the Sanskrit 'prastar' (प्रस्तर) which means 'rock'. In her blog Jayshree Saranathan states that there is a Tamil link too - 'paarai' is the Tamil word for stone, and that might itself be linked in some way to the Sanskrit 'prastar'.

The Bible, the Egyptian campaign accounts and the Amarna Tablets refer to Petra with names such as 'Sela', 'Seir' and 'Pel'.

Shila' (शिला), a close cognate of 'Sela' too means 'rock', 'mountain' or 'rocky-mountain' in Sanskrit. Even the word 'pal' (पल) is linked to 'stone' and occurs in Sanskrit as 'upala' (उपल) or as 'shonapal' (शोणोपल), which means 'red-stone' - thus explaining the name 'Pel' from the ancient texts.

The Biblical Manuscript or the 'Dead Sea Scrolls' say that the original name of Petra was 'Rekim' or 'Rekem'. The Semitic name 'Rekem', translated as colourful',  was inscribed on the Petra temple passage wall - the passage was called the Siq or Sic. This inscription 'Rekem' was visible until a couple of decades ago, when a bridge was built over the passage wall such that, sadly, the inscription is no longer visible.

In any case, it is interesting to note that a close Sanskrit cognate of 'Rekim', the Sanskrit 'Recin', pronounced Rechin (रेचिन्), means red powder and describes the hue and colour of the temple.

It is known that the original Aramaic texts say that the oldest known name of Petra is Rekem-Geya which is very interesting. It translates as 'Red-Gaya' from Sanskrit. Gaya is an ancient Vedic-Hindu pilgrimage site in Bihar in India. Ancient Indian tribes that migrated West from Bihar (then called Magadh) right up to Greece are known to have built temples en-route and given them Vedic names. To read more about the link of Gaya to Greece click here.

Temple of  Petra
Also called Rekem-Geya
or Rekem-Gaya

The Petra Temple area was full of water springs. Several springs still exist in the Petra area today. The Siq or Sic* is a complex geological feature that has many places where water could enter the Petra Temple. In Sanskrit 'Sic' (सिच्) means to soak or irrigate.

It is Moses who is credited with extracting water from below the red rocky arid area that is called Petra today. Until then, say the Aramaic texts, the site of Rekem-Geya was known as 'kadesh'. 'Kadesh' or 'Ku-desh' (कुदेश) in Sanskrit means 'Bad-Land' or 'Inhospitable Land', though from Hebrew it translates as 'sacred land'. It is possible that only when Moses provided water did 'kudesh' acquire the meaning of 'sacred land'.

In some texts the region is also known as Barnia-Kudesh. 'Bhurni' (भूर्णि) in Sanskrit means 'desert' or 'distant'. 'Kudesh' as mentioned above means 'inhospitable'.

Now let's look at the most ancient known settlers of Petra. The name of the tribe was 'Nabha' and they are referred to as the Nabateans. In Sanskrit, the word 'Nabha' (नभ) means the 'Sky'. A cognate of 'Petra' is 'patra' (पतर) - [the 't' here is pronounced as in 'path'] and means 'flying'. Finally, there is another cognate of 'Petra' which is the Sanskrit 'PaTra' (पटर) - [the 't' pronounced as in the English 'pet'], which means 'ray of light'. The 'sky', 'ray' and 'flying' connection to the word 'Nabha' and 'Petra' may be of interest to those who have explained ancient world history by linking it to the 'gods who visited the world from the sky'.

It is also interesting that the Hindu scripture Ramayana mentions a multi-storied temple, built by celestial architect Vishwakarma, far away from India, in the western direction. It is difficult to pinpoint where this multi-storied building might be located, but the fact that one of the highest mountain peaks in Jordon, which is a few kilometres away from Petra, is known as 'Jabal Ram' does make one wonder.

Jabal Ram Peak at the centre,
the second highest point in Jordan
The area around is called Wadi-Rum. Rum is also
pronounced as Ram

Suggested Links:
1. "Is Petra an Ancient Shiva Temple"?: Click Here
2. 'Paadal Petra Shiva Sthalams' of India: Click Here
3. From Bharata to India: Chrysee the Golden by M.K. Aggarwal

THE SANSKRIT CONNECTION- THE RIVERS OF BABYLON

One of the rivers of Babylon is the 'Karun'. 'Karun' (करुन) is Sanskrit for 'compassionate' or 'plaintive'. Some believe that Karun might  have been the Biblical 'Pishon'. It is possible that Pishon is a distortion of 'poshin' (पोषिन्), Sanskrit for 'nurturing' or 'ishan' (इषन्) meaning 'pouring out'.

Another ancient name of the Karun is 'Pasi-tigris'. 'Pas' (पष्) in Sanskrit means to 'touch', and 'pash' (पाश) means to be 'bound to'. This could refer to the fact that the Pasi-Tigris or Karun flows close to the Tigris. 

Poshin, Pasi-Tigris and Karun are the names of the same river. At one point in history it was also known as 'Kuhrang'. Whether this has anything to do with the Sanskrit 'kurangi' (कुरङ्गी) which means 'deer or antelope like' is not known. The present day name 'Karun' is derived from 'Kuhrang'.

Just before the Karun merges with the Euphrates, it splits into two rivers to form a delta called Arvand. From the delta one vein called the Bhamshir flows directly into the sea. The name Bhamhasir may be derived from the Sanskrit 'Bhama' (भामा) which means 'passion' or 'lustre'. 'Sir' (सिरा) means 'nerve' or 'vein'.

The other vein, the Haffar, probably Saffar, from Sanskrit 'sabar' (सबर्) meaning 'nectre' or 'milk', merges directly with the Euphrates.

The other major river of Babylon is the Tigris. The Tigris has always been described as the 'swift river' as compared to the 'slow moving' Euphrates. The ancient Sumerians called the river Idigna, and in the Akkadian language that was spoken in Babylonia and Assyria, its name was Idiqlat. The prefix Idi in both these names is a truncated form of the Sanskrit 'nadi' (नदी).  In fact the Sumerian name Idigna appears to be the reverse of the Sanskrit nadi. The later name Tigris, meaning fast flowing or arrow like is also Indo-European and can be easily explained by Sanskrit. Its name may well be an extension of the Sanskrit 'Tivra' (तीव्र) means 'swift, fast or intense'. The more common interpretation of the name Tigris is 'tiger' which itself is derived from the Sanskrit 'vyagr' (व्याग्र).

The Persian name for Tigris was Arvand-Rud. 'Arvan' (अर्वन्) in Sanskrit also means 'fast' or 'swift'. Today, Arvand is the name of the Delta that the Tigris flows into.

The Rivers of Babylon
Map Courtesy: BibleStudy.org

The Euphrates and Karun flow into the Arvand Delta. In the Vedic context, Arvan (अर्वन्) is another name for Lord Indra. Apart from 'swift' or 'fast' Arva or Arvan also means 'Horse' or 'One who runs like Lord Indra'. In fact, the word 'Arab' is derived from Arva.

Notice the Sanskrit  names
'Sumer' (सुमेर), 'Umma' (उमा) meaning 'dawn' , 
'Ur' (उर) meaning 'nerve' or 'canal' 
and 'Uru' (उरु) meaning 'excellent'. 

ASTRONAUT SPEAK

It is more or less a forgone conclusion now that extra-terrestrials exist and have been visiting the Earth. Various astronauts of the United States space missions, in spite of having been sworn to secrecy, have, over the years, revealed what they saw during their numerous space missions. The statements made by them are a shock to those who are not updated on this subject. The truth has been out there for some time now. The astronauts have spoken up. Many books have been written to reveal the truth. 

The following information is collated from various sources:

Major Gordon Cooper (one of the Mercury Mission astronauts and the last American to fly in space alone) testified before the United Nations regarding his sighting on May 15, 1963, “For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists in astronautics. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us. And there are thousands of witness reports and a quantity of documents to prove this, but nobody wants to make them public. I believe that these extra-terrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets... I did have occasion in 1951 to have two days of observation of many flights of them, of different sizes, flying in fighter formation, generally from east to west over Europe." 

Neil Armstrong, the Commander of the Apollo 11 Mission and the first man on the Moon, and Edwin Aldrin Jr., Lunar Module Pilot, saw two UFOs shortly after their historic landing on the Moon on July 21, 1969. The astronauts referred to a "light" in a crater during the television transmission of the moon landing. Followed by a request from Mission Control for details of the sighting, the astronauts gave a further report. Radio hams, with their own VHF receiving facilities that bypassed NASA's broadcasting outlets, picked up the following exchange:

NASA: What’s there? Mission Control calling Apollo 11...

Armstrong: These "Babies" are huge, Sir! Enormous! Oh, My God! You wouldn't believe it! I'm telling you there are other spacecraft out there. Lined up on the far side of the crater edge! They're on the Moon watching us!

During a NASA Symposium regarding NASA’s Moon Space Station Project, a professor was engaged in a discussion with

Neil Armstrong. Here are the details:

Professor: What really happened out there with Apollo 11?

Armstrong: It was incredible, of course, we had always known there was a possibility, the fact is, we were warned off! (By the Aliens). There was never any question then of a (NASA) space station or a moon city (Project).

Professor: How do you mean "warned off"?

Armstrong: I can't go into details, except to say that their ships were far superior to ours both in size and technology. Boy, were they big! And menacing! No, there is no question of a space station.

Professor: But NASA had other missions after Apollo 11?

Armstrong: Naturally, NASA was committed at that time, and couldn't risk panic on Earth. But it really was a quick scoop and back again.

The former chief of NASA Communications Systems, Maurice Chatelain, would confirm that Armstrong indeed had made the aforementioned communication. Chatelain stated, "The encounter was common knowledge in NASA, but nobody has talked about it until now."

Donald Slayton, a Mercury astronaut, has also revealed in an interview that he had seen UFOs in 1951: "I was testing a P-51 fighter in Minneapolis when I spotted this object. I was at about 10,000 feet on a nice, bright, sunny afternoon. I thought the object was a kite, then I realised that no kite is gonna fly that high. As I got closer, it looked like a weather balloon, grey and about three feet in diameter. But as soon as I got behind the darn thing, it didn't look like a balloon anymore. It looked like a saucer, a disk. About the same time, I realised it was suddenly going away from me, and there I was, running at about 300 miles per hour. I tracked it for a little way, and then all of a sudden, the damn thing just took off. It pulled a 45-degree climbing turn, and accelerated, and just flat disappeared.”

On July 17, 1962, Major Robert White reported a UFO during his fifty-eight-mile-high flight of an X-15. Major White reported: “I have no idea what it could be. It is greyish in colour and about thirty to forty feet away.” Then, according to a Time Magazine article, Major White exclaimed over the radio: "There ARE things out there! There absolutely is!"

On May 11, 1962, NASA Pilot Joseph Walker said that one of his tasks was to detect UFOs during his X-15 flights. He had filmed five or six UFOs during his record-breaking fifty-mile-high flight in April 1962. It was the second time he had filmed UFOs in flight. During a lecture at the Second National Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Space Research in Seattle, Washington, he said: “I don't feel like speculating about them. All I know is what appeared in the film, which was developed after the flight.” To date none of those films has been released to the public for viewing.

Eugene Cernan was the commander of Apollo 17. In a Los Angeles Times article in 1973, he said: “I've been asked (about UFOs), and I've said publicly I thought they (UFOs) were somebody else, some other civilisation”.

James Lovell, on board the Apollo 8 Command Module, during his lunar orbit, came out from behind the dark side of the moon on December 25, 1968, and said for everybody to hear: “Please be informed that there is a Santa Claus.” It would later become common knowledge that the term 'Santa Claus' was a NASA code word for a UFO. James Lovell was also the Commander of Apollo 17.