ANCIENT INDIAN ROOTS OF PALESTINIANS AND THE PRE-GREEK CIVILIZATION OF GREECE

Summary: 

1. The pre-Greek inhabitants of Greece were known as Pelasgis who had migrated from Palakshakhanda (Bihar) of India.

2. The Pelasgis came to be known as Philistines by the time they poured into Canaan (Present day Israel) from Greece. 

3. The Pelasgis also came to be known as Pala over time, which corrupted to Pale later.

In his article 'The Land of Pales, an Overview of Ancient Palestine', in the World History Encyclopedia, Dr. Joshua Mark, Professor of Philosophy at Marist College, New York, states, "The name 'Palestine’ is thought to derive from either the word plesheth (meaning `root palash’, an edible concoction carried by migratory tribes which came to symbolize nomadic peoples) or as a Greek designation for the nomadic Philistines".

So where did this concoction of the root of 'palash' come from? And why would that name matter? For an answer to this question, one must turn to the pre-Greek civilization of the land that later came to be known as Greece. The name Pelasgians was used by classical Greek writers to refer to the predecessors of the Greeks, or sometimes to all the inhabitants of Greece before the emergence or arrival of the Greeks.

In his research on the Pelasgis, German historian Ludwig Heeran (1760-1842) stated, "We can distinctly trace an overland communication between India & Greece, at an age long before the historic period." Heeran quotes an earlier historian Baron Cuvier here and says, "The Pelasgi were originally from India, of which the Sanskrit root words that occur abundantly in their language, do not permit us to doubt."

Baron Cuvier traces the route that the early Pelasgians from Indians might have taken to Greece. He was of the opinion that, "... they by crossing the mountains of Persia penetrated as far back as the Caucasus and then from there instead of continuing by land, they embarked on the Euxine Sea and made a descent upon the coast of Greece." The Euxine Sea is more commonly known as Black Sea and the Caucasus region encompasses the land that lies between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea which holds Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and south-eastern Russia.

Another historian, Reverend Thomas Richard Brown, Vicar of Southwick, states in his work, 'Grammar of the Hebrew Hieroglyphs applied to the Sacred Scriptures, published in 1840, "It is generally allowed by historians, that the most ancient inhabitants of Greece were the Pelasgians. They were probably, originally settled somewhere in India, and from the fate of war, or an overflowing population, obliged to seek habitations elsewhere."

But why were they known as Pelasgians. The Pelasgians got the name from their leader Pelasgus. In turn he got his name from the land he originally hailed from. States Brown, "Here again we have, in true probability, the etymology from the Sanscrit". He adds, "पलाशं palasham is the ancient name of Behar (Bihar) in India and पलाशखंड Palshkhanda, is the district of Behar, so named from the Palasha tree growing there in great abundance."

That Palasha-khanda was the name of ancient Bihar, more specifically, the kingdom of Magadha, is attested in all Sanskrit dictionaries such as the most authentic of them 'The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary' by Vaman Shivarama Apte. In fact, author E. Pococke traces the name Macedonia to Magadha via Makadonia in his book "India in Greece' published in 1852. 

The above-mentioned names still exist on the map of India. There is the village of Palasi in Bihar, which was called Pallasey by the British and was the location of the battle of Palassey. There is a Palashkhanda in Orissa, there is another in West Bengal, ana one in Bangladesh. The name Meghadh never went away. It was the name of the empire of Emperor Ashoka whose reign is well documented.

Author E. Pococke wrote in his book India in Greece, in 1852, "Pelasa, the ancient name for the province of Bahara (Bihar) is so denominated from the Pelasa, or 'Butea Frondosa'. Pelasha is a derivative form of Pelasa, hence the Greek 'Pelasgos' ". 

'Butea Frondosa' is the botanical name for what is known in Sanskrit as the 'Palasha' (पलाश) tree, commonly called 'the Flame of the Forest' in English. Decoctions are made from all parts of this tree in India since ancient times and it has been used has for the treatment of many conditions because it has well known anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antidiabetic, diuretic, analgesic, antitumor and astringent properties.

It is this word 'Palasha' that distorted into the word 'plesheth', the syrup of which the Pelasgis carried as they made their way from Palshakhanda in India to Causcasus, and then to Greece. And it is this 'plesheth' that Dr. Joshua Mark is referring to as the source of the name Phillistines or Palestinians. 

There are many scholars who have arrived at the conclusion that the Palestinians had a Greek origin. It appears that the Indic Pelasgians kept moving and arrived at the land of Cannan. Linda Sue Grimes states in her Literary Works, "Some historians claim that Palestinian history traces back to the Philistines. But the Philistines were not Semites nor were they Arabs. They were likely Greek in origin and came in several waves from Greece to the Israel/Palestine area in the Middle East." It is is for this reason that the word 'pleseth' took on the meaning of 'migratory'.

Greek philosopher Herodotus (484-425 BCE) was the first one who called the Cannans as Phillistines. The term `Palestine’ does not appear in any written records until the 5th century BCE in the Histories of Herodotus. After Herodotus, the term `Palestine’ came to be used for the entire region which was formerly known as Canaan. The Biblical meaning of Philistia was "land of sojourners".

This view is further supported by the following fact. Author and researcher Linda Sue Grimes says, "The Philistines had no ethnic, linguistic, or historical connection to Arabia. The name applied by Arabs to the area "Falastin" was not, in fact, an Arabic name. This term is derived from Plesheth meaning migratory, as in having migrated to that area from Greece, and the term likely harkened back to the "Philistine" invasion along the coast."

It appears that the Pelasgis, kept moving and entered into ancient Egypt too. The name Plesheth, which had its source in the Sanskrit 'palash', took on the meaning of 'migratory' along with the movement and spread of the Pelasgis, who were now known as Phillistine or Palestinians. Its earlier meaning of 'decoction' faded in usage.

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic records from the New Kingdom Kingdom (16th-11th century BCE) period list a group of the Sea Peoples called the Peleset or Pulasti, as invading Egypt in the mid-13th century BC. About a century later, pharaoh Ramesses III boasted of having defeated the Peleset, and allegedly relocated them to the southern abandoned coast of Canaan. The Pulsati are also generally identified as the Philistines.

Suggested Readings and sources:

1.The practical Sanskrit-English dictionary : Apte, Vaman Shivaram, : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Palash
2.The ‘Land of Pales’, an Overview of Ancient Palestine – Brewminate: A Bold Blend of News and Ideas
3. Palestine - World History Encyclopedia
4. Soak in the Goodness of Palash This Season- The New Indian Express
5. A grammar of the Hebrew hieroglyphs applied to the sacred Scriptures - Thomas Richard Brown - Google Books

6. Nineveh | History, Map, & Significance | Britannica

ANCIENT PURANIC PLACE NAMES OF KASHMIR, THE CHANGING OF THE COURSE OF RIVER JHELUM AND THE CREATION OF SOPORE

What's there in a name? Plenty. 

The much-criticised author E. Pococke presented in his book 'India in Greece' three postulates about the naming of a place in the context of the etymology of place names in Greece. He had stated, “ 1. Let it be granted that the names given to mountains, rivers, and towns have some meaning. 2. Let it be granted that the language of the Name-givers expressed that meaning. 3. Let it be granted that the language of the Name-givers will explain that meaning.” It therefore follows that all place names in antiquity, at the time of their naming, had a meaning in the language of their time. Pococke then goes on to pose a question. He states, “As a Greek, let me translate Stympha, - I cannot, Dodona - I cannot, Cambunnei Montes - I cannot, Hellopes - I cannot, Aithices - I cannot, Bodon - I cannot, Chonia - I cannot, Crossaea - I cannot, Corinthes, Ossa, Acaranania - I cannot. Arcadia, Achai, Boeotia, Ellis, Larissa - I cannot... What then can I do?"

This insight is not confined to Greece. Kashmir, too, has witnessed the dissolution of its ancient names. Hundreds of Sanskritic toponyms, once resonant with Vedic and Purāṇic meaning, have over centuries been distorted—first through Islamization in the 1200s, accelerated under Sikander Butshikast in the 14th century, and finally eroded in modern times with the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus. Just as Pococke argued that Greek names conceal older strata, Kashmir’s sacred geography reveals a palimpsest: beneath today’s corrupted forms lie echoes of rishi‑bestowed names, academic pīṭhas, and Shaiva sanctuaries.

The comparison underscores a universal principle: whether in Greece or Kashmir, the survival or loss of meaning in place‑names marks the survival or loss of cultural memory itself.

Hundreds of Sanskrit place names have, with time and the Islamization of Kashmir, taken distorted forms and lost their original meanings. Kashmir had, up to the medieval times, been a land of Vedic rishis. With its academic peethas and sacred sites, it was a thriving centre of Shaivism. The Vedic and Puranic rishis of Kashmir bestowed upon India a vast array of Sanskrit treatises, literature and manuscripts. A host of Vedic-Puranic-Sanskrit place names of those times have existed till recent times and are well recorded.

The process of dissolution of these ancient place names had commenced with the advent of Islam in Kashmir in the 1200s and had accelerated during the reign of Sikander Butshikast a century and a half later in the mid 13-14000s. This process rose and ebbed for many centuries. In the current times, terrorism and violence rose significantly in the 1990s, which resulted in the last exodus, in a chain of seven exoduses of Kashmiri Hindus from the valley, and with that, the custodians of Kashmir's Vedic-Sanskritic past are finally gone. What the future has in store for Kashmir is unknown, but the present remains bloody and violent.

Satisara: The Puranas say Kashmir was built by draining the waters from a lake called Satisara, which occupied the land of Kashmir. Geologists also confirm that the land that came to be known as Kashmir was totally submerged under a lake some 50000 years ago. However, their belief is that the water receded from the valley due to a tectonic shift. No matter what the claims are, the names recorded in the ancient texts tell us that there certainly was human involvement in the reclamation of the land of Kashmir.

The Nilmata Purana dates to a time when people still had a memory of the time when the water was drained out by the engineers of those times. There are some details of this operation in the Nilmata Purana, such as that the draining of Satisara was carried out by piercing a mountain with the help of a tool shaped like a ploughshare.

Legend has it that it was Lord Vishnu who took the form of a boar, Varaha in Sanskrit, to complete the task. As this marvel was being carried out, it is said that a host of gods took up their positions to witness the event from the vantage point on the peaks of the Naubandhana Tirtha, above lake Kramasaras, which is the present-day site of Kausarnaga.  Krama (क्रम), Sanskrit for foot or step, alludes to Vishnu's footsteps, and is a reference to Vishnu's presence here. The place where Vishnu pierced the mountain came to be known as Varahamoola (Baramulla). Varahamoola became the site of a tirtha known as Adi Varaha. The name Naubandhana, a name that occurs more than a few times in the Puranas, has a link to an engineering mission every time. For example, in the Matsya Purana, when Vishnu takes the avatar of a Matsya, or a fish, Vishnu saves mankind from the great deluge when the water, it is said, rose to the peaks of the Himalayas. Naubandana was the site where the boats were anchored, nau (boat), bandhana (tie). The same is true of the draining of Satisara, when the devas watched the draining from the peak of Naubhandana.

The word varaha (वराह)  is commonly translated as boar. Yaksa, the Sanskrit grammarian and etymologist from the 3rd Century BC, stated that 'varaha' has its root in the word 'vhr' meaning to uproot or 'tear up'. Boars are known for tearing and rooting, hence they are known as varaha. In the Varaha avatar Vishnu is known to have undertaken many feats to protect the earth, which required either digging deep, such as to excavate a linga which had appeared underground and required digging deep to exhume it, or when he started the new eon after mother-earth was taken to rasātalam (in the Ocean) and was saved by Vishnu when he pulled the earth about the surface of the water with his teeth. 

The draining of the Satisara lake falls in the list of such projects undertaken in antiquity. The channel that carries the water from Baramulla out of the Kashmir valley was appropriately named Vitasta (वितष्ट), Sanskrit for 'carved' or 'hewn', a river that was carved out from its source at Verinag. The Nilmata Purana states, "Sankara himself named her as Vitasta. Because Hara (Vishnu) had excavated with the spear or a carving or hewing device a ditch measuring one Vitasti, through which the good river – gone to the Nether World – had sprung out, so she was given the name Vitasta by Svayambhu. Then, O king, the people in all the countries heard that the goddess Sati, after assuming the form of a river, had appeared in Kas’mira." (Nilmata Purana 260-262).

Vitasti (वितस्ति) is an ancient unit of measure, and according to the Vayu Purana, one vitasti was equal to 12 angulas (fingers), and 64000 Vitastis make up for a single Yojana. If we consider a single Yojana to be 8 miles (~12.87km), one Vitasti would correspond to roughly 7.95 inches (~20.12cm). This corresponds to the present-day unit called 'span'.

We refer to the Vitasta River today by a relatively meaningless name, Jhelum, incapable of adding any detail to its history. Folklore in neighbouring areas of Jhelumabad says that Jhelum is a corruption of Jala (जल) water, and 'hima' (हिम) or snow, referring to its path through the Himalayas, but the authenticity of such claims is questionable since this is not mentioned in any of the old texts.

As the water drained and the valley emerged, it left in its wake the remnants of Satisara in the form of thousands of smaller lakes, scattered throughout its territory. When Kashmir became habitable, the indigenous Naga (नाग)  race became its first dwellers. Naga (नाग) is Sanskrit for 'serpent'. The Nagas were described as a highly intelligent ancient race with serpentine features. Nila was the king of the Nagas of Kashmir. The Nilmata Purana itself gets its name from Nila, the name of this Naga king. The ancient name of Verinag, the source of the Vitasta, was Nilanag, the spring of King Nila. Verinag is a later name which dates to the 1600s when new names were added by Muhammadan rulers.  

A few points of note may be made here. First, serpent-like intelligent races are known to have existed around the world and are no longer dismissed as myths by open-minded alternate historians. The Mexican Indians call their shamans ‘nagals’, several Central American deities and culture-bearers are depicted as feathered serpents, there are Snake tribes among the North American Indians, and a gigantic Serpent Mound, 420 metres long, was constructed by the mound-building peoples of ancient Ohio. Obviously, this reverence for the snake comes from the memory of a race with serpentine features, and to dismiss them as myths is a slight on the intelligence of the ancients.

Second, the word 'naga' has more than one meaning in Sanskrit. In the Sanskrit language, there are 2000 root words, called dhatus or building blocks. One such dhatu is 'na', which means water. When it joins with 'ga', which means 'flow' or 'go', it forms naga, 'that which moves in water', hence naga means both a 'serpent' or a 'water spring'. The Kashmiri word 'nag', meaning 'spring', stems from Sanskrit. Not surprisingly, the word 'naga' appears in the names of water bodies around the world. For more such names, click here.

Vitasata:  The Vitasta River is known to have at least three sources. The first, of course, is Verinag. Verinag is also known as Panzeth Springs. This name is derived from the more ancient name Panchahasta, which is sometimes translated as five-hundred springs, but more likely has the meaning of 'shaped like five hands.' 

The second point where the Vitasta emerged was at Narsimhashrama. This name is related to Panchahasta mentioned above. Narasimha, as an avatara of Vishnu, has to do with fine arts or the shilpashastra.  Shilpashastrawhich includes the five principal hand (hasta) gestures of natyashastras- including siṃhamukha-hasta, tripataka-hasta, nrtta-hastas, vardhamāna hasta, and the anjali-hasta. 

shilpashastra.

The third spot is called Vitastara. This name is related to the name Vitasata and carries the same meaning.

Mahapadma Lake: Of the thousands of lakes that sprang up after the draining of the Satisara, one of the most important was the Mahapadma (महापद्मा) or the 'giant lotus' lake! It goes by the name Wular today. The Wular, which once extended to what is now known as the Mansabal lake, are both known even today for the abundance of lotuses. Hence the name Mahapadma, though the Nilmata states that a naga took on the name of Mahapadma and the lake is named after him, it just may be the other way round.

We now look at these names in greater detail:

Ancient names around the Mahapadma (Wular) lake

Wular: Neither the word Wular nor its Kashmiri version Volur has any meaning. Wular or Volur is a distortion of one of the earlier names of the lake. The Wular was once also known as Ullola (उल्लोल), Sanskrit for 'with beautiful waves'. How poor and insipid is the name 'Wular' in comparison! The Wular, the largest freshwater lake in Asia until recently, was given to choppy waves during afternoons.

The present district of Wular corresponds to the ancient Holada. Its etymology stems from holaka (होलाक)  'vapour-bath', referring to the mist over the lake. A corresponding word is 'holadhi', 'treasure of vapour' and falls in the same category. The Nilmata Purana also mentions two towns, Chandarpura and Visvagasvapura, near the Mahapadma lake. These correspond to present-day Chandar Gir (in Sonavari) and Viji Pora (also in Sonawari). The nearby town of Khuyasrama, too, is an ancient Puranic site and now goes by the name Khurhama.

What is today known as Bandipura Nala, which flows into the Wular, was once known as the Madhumati River. This name still survives, and in spite of resistance, the Bandipura Nala is also sometimes referred to as Madhumati Nala. But how unfortunate that a river once known as Madhumati (मधुमती) or 'like honey', is referred to as a 'nala' or a 'drain'.

Baramulla: In the vicinity of the Mahapadma Lake was the city of Varahamula, its name derived from, as mentioned above, the Sanskrit Varāhamūla (वराहमूल), a combination of varaha (boar) and mūla (root or deep). According to the Nilmata Purana, it was here that Sri Vishnu assumed the form of a boar and struck a mountain to make way for the water of the Satisara to flow out.  This makes complete sense because whoever drained the water from Satisara would have to drain it out at Varahamula or Baramulla. It is here that the Vitatsa moves out of the Kashmir valley. There is no other outlet. 

Varahamula is a very ancient place, and the temple of Varaha here is repeatedly mentioned by  Kalhana in his Rajatarangini. Its sacred image was destroyed by Sikander Butshikast, who ruled Kashmir between 1389 and 1413. Butshikast has to his credit the tag of having destroyed innumerable temples, including the ones at Parihaspura (City of Laughter), King Lalitaditya's capital. The town today is known as Paraspora, a corruption of its original name.

The modern Baramulla, or Varmul as it is called in Kashmiri, or Varahamula-ksetra or Varaha-ksetra, in the ancient days, was a suburb of Huviskapura, modern Ushkur, also called Ushkara. Huviskapura dwindled to a mere village with time. It is a village that Hiuen Tisang, the Chinese writer and explorer, had spent some nights at. Ushkara is the point till the Vitasta is navigable, after which it enters its mountainous course and becomes unnavigable. The name Huvishka stems from the Sanskrit root word 'vishka' (विष्क), Sanskrit for 'bolt of a door'. Vitasta could not be navigated beyond this point. Hence the name.  meaningless. 

Sopore: Sopore lies close to where the Vitasta (Jhelum) exits the Kashmir Valley near the Mahapadma (Wular) lake and flows towards Baramulla, Khadniyar and the ancient sacred town of Gingal. The ancient name of Sopore was Suyyapur. Historical accounts in Kalhana’s epic Rajatarangini, composed in 1150 AD, mention a landslide in the second half of the ninth century that blocked the flow of the Jhelum downstream from Varahamoola. Rising waters restrained by this natural dam eventually flooded the Kashmir Valley, not only in the Wular area but all the way up to Vijeshwara (present name Bij Behara), near Anantnag. 

The flood waters were abated by breaching the landslide dam by King Avantivarman’s engineer, Suyya. Suyya, who is attributed with the design and completion of numerous drainage and irrigation schemes in Medieval Kashmir, some of which can still be identified, undertook the mammoth task of draining out the water. The details of this whole operation are given in Kalhana's Rajatarangini are given at the end of the post.*

It is said that the city of Sopor (Suyyapur) was named after Suyya. But this appears to be a slight twist of the truth. Suyyapur was built on the land reclaimed after the floodwater of the Vitasta was released by rebuilding the dam and regulating the water. Suya (सूय) is a Sanskrit root word meaning 'extract', 'restrict', 'bind', or 'regulate'. These words relate to the actions taken to restrain the Vitasta. Hence, the town came to be known as Suyapur or Suyyapur (सूयपुर). The engineer came to be referred to as Suyya after his engineering feat. 

So, where was this engineering feat undertaken by Suyya? M.A. Stein traces the spot. Stein states, "Close to the western end of Baramulla, a rocky ridge with a precipitous slope runs down into the river bed....At this point, there stood till last year (1897) an old ruined gateway known to the people as Drang or 'watch-station'....Through the structure I had seen....there can be little doubt that it marked the ancient 'gate' of Varahamula.....About two and a half miles below 'Drang', the hill sides recede slightly, leaving room for a small village called 'Naran Thal'. Near it stands a little temple with a spring close by, which is visited by pilgrims and is probably identical with the Narayanasthana of Nilmata (Purana)." This spot is where the river takes a two-way diversion, forming an island. This is where the Eco Park has come up today, obliterating any memory of Narayansthana or the water springs there and replacing them with cafes and tourist huts.

Adds Stein, "About a mile below this point and close to the village of Khadniyar, the river turns sharply round a steep and narrow spur projecting into the valley from the northwest...The road crosses the spur by a deep and narrow cut, known as Dyargul. Kalhana's Chronicle knows this curious cutting as Yakshadhara, 'the demon's cleft'. According to the tradition, there recorded that the operation by Suyya, Avantiramana's engineer, lowered the level of the Vitasta, extended to this point of the riverbed."

 It was at the spot that was named Yakshadhara (demon's cleft)
That Suyya, King Avantiraman's engineer, performed his engineering feat.
Suyya (सूय) is Sanskrit for extract, bind, direct or regulate.
Hence, the engineer came to be known by the name 'Suyya'.

Yakshadar later came to be known as Dyaregul, and the stream flowing at Yakshadara is now called Sheen Nallah. That 'sheen' is Kashmiri for 'snow' is well known- it's less common knowledge that 'sheen' (शीन) is Sanskrit for 'ice'.  The name Khadniyar too is a corruption of the Sanskrit Khadda (खद्दा), which means a 'gorge'. Two miles below this area is the town of Zehenpur or Zehempur, which was in ancient times a sacred site. So was Gingal, and the ruins of ancient temples still existed during the time of Stein. Further ahead on this route is the town of Boliasa, the Baliasaka of Rajatarangini. The corrupted forms of the above names have no meaning.

In his exploration, Stein had always hoped to discover the western entrance to the Kashmir valley from Muzzafarabad, known as Udhabanda in antiquity. He says that in antiquity, the path from Udhabanda lay along the right bank of the Vitasta, and the crossing of the river could be completely avoided when travelling to the valley.  Uda (उद) is water, 'bandh' (बन्ध ) is to 'tie' or 'control'.

The higher ground of the Kashmir Valley consists of peculiar plateaus. Though they are now known as 'karewas', a word which stems from Persian, they were until recently known by their Kashmiri term udar, which originates from Sanskrit uddara, the root word of which is the 'uddhR' (उद्धृ) meaning raised up, and for example, one may note, appears in the name of a village, Damodar Udar.

There are scores of other place names that now bear distortions of their earlier names, some of which are listed below. Each one of these, too, has a story to tell and will be the subject of later posts:

1. Kishtwar - Kashtavata (काष्ठवाट)-city of wood

2. Badravah- Bhadravasaka (भद्रवासक)- splendid abode

3. Chamba  - Campa (कम्प) - Vibrate a reference to a flowing river

4. Ballavar- Vallapura 

5. Agror- Urasa

6. Karnau- Karnaha

7. Drava tract- Duranda

8.  Sardi- Sharada

9. Darad- Daraddesa/Daratpuri

10 Leh - Lohh

11. Kamraz-Kramarajya and Maraj - Madhav Rajya. 

Note: Since ancient times, the Kashmir valley has been divided into 2 parts. The part north of Srinagar was called Madhvrajya, and the part south of it was Kramarajya.

13 Pandrethan-   Puranadhi-sthana

14. Banihal           - Banasala

15. Bichlari River  - Visalata River

16. Bahramgala    - Bhairavgala

17.  Kritshom        - Kriti-asrama         

18. Drang              - Karkota Dranga

19. Konsarnag      - Krama-sara

20. Rahjauri          - Raja Puri

21. Pusiana           - Pusia-nanda

22. Bahram Gala    - Bhairav Gala

23. Kakodhar        - Karkota dhara

24. Chambar         - Sabambara

25. Uskur              - Huska Pura

26. Naran That     - Narayan Pura

27. Khadniyar       -Yakshadhara

28. Dvarbidi          - Dvaravati

29. Uskur              -Huskapura

30. Pir Panjal Range - Panchala Dharmath

31. Jhelum River- Vitasta

32. Chenab River- Chandrabhaga

33. Poonch - Parnotsa

Most of these names are mentioned in the chronicles of Kalhana with an explanation of how the places got these names. Unsurprisingly, Kalhana, who wrote the Rajatarangini (The Chronology of the Kings) himself, gets his name from the work he did. The name Kalhana has two parts - Kala (काल), time or chronology, and ahaana (आहणा), composition. He composed a book on the chronology of the kings. Kalhana simply means 'historian'. This is a name he earned for himself. Just like Suyya. 

____________________________________________________

Footnotes:

*The following is a description of Suyya's Vitasta operation as chronicled in Kalhana's Rajatarangini in the words of Prof M.A. Stein:

Quoting from this treatise, M.A. Stein states, "The operations commenced in Kramarajya at the locality called Yakshadhara, where large rocks which had rolled down from the mountains lining both river banks, obstructed the Vitasta. By removing the obstructing rocks, the level of the river was lowered. Then a stone dam was constructed across the bed of the river, and the latter was thus blocked up completely for seven days. During this time, the riverbed was cleared at the bottom, and stone walls were constructed to protect it against rocks that might roll down. The dam was then removed, and the river flowed forth with increased rapidity through the cleared passage. What follows in Kalhana’s account is so matter-of-fact and so accurate in topographical points that a presumption is raised as to the previous statements also resting, partially at least, on historical facts."

He further states, "Wherever inundation breaches were known to occur in times of flood, new beds were constructed for the river. One of these changes in the riverbed affected the confluence of the Vitasta and Sindhu, and this is specially explained to us in verses 97-100. The topographical indications here given by Kalhana are so detailed and exact that they enabled me to trace with great probability what I believe to have been the main course of the Vitasta before Suyya’s regulation.

"These have shown that while the new confluence which Kalhana knew in his own time is identical with the present junction opposite Shadipur, the old one lay about two miles to the south-east of it, between the village of Trigani and the Paraspur plateau. The latter is the site of the great ruins of Parihasapura... Trigam marks the position of the ancient Trigrami, and a short distance south of it stands the temple ruin, which I identify with the shrine of Visnu Vainiyavamin. 

'Kalhana mentions this temple as the point near which “the two rivers, the Sindhu and Vitasta, formerly met, flowing to the left and right of Trigrami, respectively. Standing on the raised ground before the ruin and turning towards Shadipur, we have on our left a narrow swamp about a quarter of a mile broad, which runs north-east in the direction of Trigam. In this swamp and a shallow Nala continuing it towards Shadipur, we can yet recognise the old bed of the Sindhu. On the right, we have the Badrihal Nala, which divides the alluvial plateau of Trigam and Paraspor. This Nala is clearly marked as an old river-bed by the formation of its banks and is still known as such to the villagers of the neighbourhood.....

"By forcing the Vitasta to pass north of Trigam instead of south of it, the reclamation of the marshes south of the Volur lake must have been greatly facilitated."

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INDIC STONE WORSHIP IN ARABIA AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF EL ACARA TOWER, AND OTHER ARTIFACTS

Pillar Worship in Arabia:

French scholar, Bernard De Mountfaucon (1655-1741) regarded as the father of Archaeology, in his 'L'Antiquite Expliquee gives us testimony to what he calls 'tower worship' in Arabia. He states in the English version of his book, called Antiquity Explained, Vol II, "The ancients assure us that all the Arabians worshipped a tower which they called El Acara or Alquetila, which was built by their patriarch Ishmael." The name Acara or Akara is very significant and still exists in the Arab world, in its sacred and historical sites, in many versions of the name.

The Arabian historian, El Masoudi, also speaks of this old tower worship of the Arabians. He states in his writings that these towers were about eight cubits in height, placed in an angle of a temple which had no roof on. And in another place, he asserts that most of these temples were round."

A stone pillar, or Al Acara as the pagan Arabs 
called it, still stands at the ruins of the Qaryat al-Faw site in Saudi Arabia.

About the Arab practice of idol or stone worship, Greek Philosopher Maximus Tyre wrote in the 2nd Century AD that the Arabians honoured as a god 'a great cut stone'.

Euthymius Zygabenus, a Byzantine Theologist from 12th century AD) further tells us that, "they (the Arabs) have certain stone statues erected in the centre of their houses, round which they danced until they fell from giddiness, but when the Saracens (the Christian name for pre-Islamic Arabs) were converted to Christianity, they were obliged to anathematize this stone, which they formally worshipped."

In the 1976 Hollywood movie "The Message' produced and  directed by the Syrian-American producer Moustapha Al Akkad i consultation with Muslim clerics. The movie is considered as an accurate in historical representation. In that movie the existence of a Shivalinga in Mecca in Saudi Arabia is clearly depicted. 

Al-Acara Sites:

The name Al Akara, today, is not unknown. It survives first in the name of a hill called Akara (latitude 24.5833300, longitude 39.2666700, height 773m)  situated near the holy city of Medina or Medinah, according to the Gazette of the Arabian Peninsula of the Office of Geography of the United States, Year 1961 recorded under the names Jabal Al Akara, also spelt as Akariya and Aqariyah. 

In Saudi Arabia, however, this name is best known for what is today a UNESCO heritage and tourist site called Al Qara, also known as Alqourhah. Al Qara is a mountain with amazing rocky pillars and numerous caves and caverns. The name Qara is a truncated form of its older name Al-Mushaqqar, recorded by historians and travellers, such as Hamad al-Jasser who in his book Geographical Dictionary of Saudi Arabia-Eastern Province' mentions the name and describes the site, though he debates the location. Other writers such as Abdul-Khaleh Al-Janbi confirms that Al-Qara is the same as Al-Mushaqqar. As is evident the name Acara too appears in the older name Mushaqqar. Today, Al Qara is an interesting and  beautifully conserved tourist archaeological site.

From the Indic perspective, Al Qara is a site of Shiva. In particular, there is this wonderous hill with three heads, shaped like the 'akara' or form of the Holy Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. Two heads face north and south, the one in between is shaped like the face of a lion. This part of the mountain is known as Ra'as Al-Qarah.

The al-Qara mountain with natural formations
may have been known as Al-Akara once.
Akara is Sanskrit for 'form' and is also a name of Lord Shiva.

There is another site by the name Al-Akara near the coast in Muscat recorded on page 29 in the 1968 republication of the book 'Travel to the city of Caliphs, along the shores of the Persian Gulf' by J.R. Wellsted (1805-1842). Wellsted was a surveyor in the East India Company. He was a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and Royal Astronomical Society.

Al Acara and Shiva:

The Arabs do not seem to have a memory for the meaning of the pillar of El Acara, though the existence of tower or pillar worship is acknowledged. This is an indicator of the extent the history is forgotten. In fact some scholars regard the land of Arabia as one of the centre's of Vedic civilization. That the influence is considerable is borne out by the fact that one of the seven grand mountains  of  Makkah was known as Jabal Hindi, now called Jabal Quiaqian.

'Akara' (अकार) is an obvious Sanskrit word which has the literal meaning of 'form'. It is the name of Shiva himself. As a material representation of the primordial sound 'Om', Lord Shiva is known as Om+Akara or Omkara.

The Omkara is represented by a conical stone, or the 'linga' in the Vedic tradition. Shiva also embodies himself in the sound of the sacred syllables, the sounds Na, Ma, Sh, Va and Ya, which take the akara or form 'nakaray', 'makaray', 'shikaray', 'vakaray' and 'yakaray' when their energy becomes a part of the Shivalinga. In the Vedic tradition, sounds in the form of 'akshara' (alphabets), and their material forms, are both believed to have protective energies, hence the chanting as well as idol worship.

Rudaw of the Arabian pantheon and Vedic Rudra:

Apart from El Acara, the etymology and the meaning of names such as the god Rudaw, who's pilgrimage site Ruda was destroyed in 7th century AD and Hubal, whose idol is encased in the cubic structure at Mecca is forgotten too. Efforts have been made to unravel the meaning of these significant terms but the conclusions are often ignored for they are often uncomfortable and unacceptable.

Ibn Is Haq, a renowned writer from the 7th century AD, in his writings about Prophet Mohammad, commented on the destruction of a pagan site by the name Ruda and stated, "I launched a mighty attack on Ruda and left it in ruins, charred black."

In his paper, 'On the Origins of the God Rudaw', author Ahmad Al-Jallad states,"Rudaw is in fact one of the most commonly invoked deities in several Ancient North Arabian corpora."

Rudaw is often regarded as the father of Goddess Al-lat of Arabia, who's name is by many scholars regarded as the source of the name 'Allah'. Indic scholars equate the name of Al-Lat with Goddess Durga. This claim is not without any base.

In the Vedic tradition Rudra is the fierce form of Shiva, though Shiva too displays a destructive form. In the Vedas Rudra is known as a divine archer who shoots arrows of death and disease who is to be implored not to slay or injure. This lore also survives in the story of Hubal and the seven divination arrows used to determine the sanctity and legitimacy of the birth of a child.

Mahishasura and Durga and the land of Ashura:

An artifact excavated from al-Hamra in Tayma, in north-western Saudi Arabia, the oldest settlement in Arabia, seems to depict  Goddess Durga with a bull demon-god namely Mahishasura, Mahisha=bull, Asura=demon.

The Al-Hamra Cube, discoverd at the Al-Hamra Temple
in Tayma, Saudi Arabia

The Al-Hamra Cube most likely depicts the slaying of the
 Bull Demon Mahishasura by Goddess Durga

This Indic interpretation could have been ignored but the same scene of a bull and a goddess appears once again in an an even older engraving on a mountain rock in the Taif area, east of Mecca re-enforcing this interpretation.

The Asuras were not unknown in Arabia. The name appears on the ancient map of Arabia as Asshur. In the Indic pantheon, the Suras were gods, and Asuras were demons. In the Arabic and Syrian lore, it was the other way round.

The Taif area rock engraving.
Near Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Goddess Durga had
killed Mahishasura riding on a lion.

Hubal:

As far as Hubal, the god enclosed in the Mecca cube (Kaaba =Cube) , is concerned, it is often associated with the Phoenician or Cannanite God Bal, which Hindu scholars associate with Balaram, Sri Krishna's brother. Hubal perhaps is a distortion of Subal, in Arabic the 's' sound often changes to 'h', eg, Hindu instead of Sindhu. Subal (सुबल) is Sanskrit for 'god'. Its literal meaning is 'good power', su =good, bal =power, hence 'god'. In Mecca Hubal is the highest of the 360 gods of Arabia, who perhaps represented the days of a year. However, the most important point, in the Indic tradition, Subal is the name of Shiva himself. Hence, we find that the names Omkara and Subal point to the same god.

Shiva, Rama, Krishna, Kedar and Kush on the ancient and current map of Arabia:

On the ancient maps of Arabia too, one sees many Indic-Sanskritic names as one can see from the following maos:

On an ancient Hebrew map of Arabia one see the names

Shebah (Shiva), Raamah (Rama), and

Kedar (another name of Shiva).

The following map speaks for itself.

On another map of ancient Arabia, once again, are the Indic names Sheba (Shiva), and Ramaah (Rama). Israel was known as Canaan, another name of Sri Krishna. West of Arabia was the Kingdom of Cush, (Kush), who's father was Ham (Rama).

On the current map of Saudi Arabia and Yemen, one sees the names Shibam at ( 15.840125, 48.687857 ). Ramaah has changed to Rahbah and appears at ( 15.221968, 48.953240 ) and as Ar-Ramadiyat at 24.258385, 43.875037. We see a Kaninah at 14.475427, 48.423151. Kaninah, a cognate of Kanana is another name of Krishna, which appears once again as Qishn at 15.425022, 51.693264. Incidentally, the same names appear on the current map of Israel too.

Then there is today the province of Najran, called Nagaran in antiquity, in southwestern Saudi Arabia next to the border with Yemen. 

Najran appears as Nagran in the ancient maps above. The Arabic term Najran has two meanings- one, the wooden frame on which a door sits, and the other is 'thirsty'. But why would the ancients call it so. It is Sanskrit that sheds light on the ancient name Nagaran of which Najran is a distortion. First, Naga means 'serpent'. Southern Arabia in antiquity was home to mysterious snake cults. Especially the Sabeans in south Arabia actively practiced snake worship. To them the serpent was the representation of god. Many artifacts depicting the cult of snake worship have been have been found in this region. Here is one such encryption excavated from a stone wall in Najran.

Another such artifact is tablet 188 at the Aden Museum in Yemen, which shows serpent circles with god's name engraved on it.

As for the name Nagara, this is another name of the Vedic Sri Krishna, who was also the slayer of the demon-snake Kalinga. Yemen, itself, some say get the name from Yamuna, on the banks of which Kalinga was slayed by Krishna. On the Yemenese shore, on the Arabian Sea, at  roughly 15.425022, 51.693264 lies the city of Qishn. Qishn is a cognate of the name Krishen, or of Kishan, as he is often called, which lends support to this theory. Other place names from the Hindu epic  Mahabharata, of which Sri Krishna was a protagonist, is the region of Panchala, to which Draupadi, the heroine of Mahabharata belonged. Panchala is said to have been located in the upper Gangetic plain of India. However, this name also appears in the ancient map of Saudi Arabia.

The name Panchala to appears on the map of Saudi Arabia.
In the Hindu lore Panchala was the city to which Draupadi belonged.

None of the above names individually would have pointed to an Indic connection, however, the fact that so many of them exist in close vicinity of each other indicates that there definitely was a connection to the pantheon of Indic gods. It is for this reason that one needs to take a closer look at these names and and give these clues the attention they deserve.

The lore of Kedar:

Once the name Kedar was almost synonymous with Arabia. By 8th century large parts of it were ruled by a tribe with the same name. Now as mentioned above, Kedara in the Indic tradition was the name of Shiva. One interesting observation here about an Puranic lore and its seeming connection with Arabia follows:

According to Vamanapurana of India, Lord Shiva was observing a penance called Mahavrata. In this vow Shiva places a vita, or a short wooden rod which is thick in the middle and tapering on both ends, in his mouth. Gradually the rod shifts and  breaks the palate of Shiva, goes through his matted locks and falls, ripping the rocks of the mountain in the Himalayas, where he is seated. The rock is split, or 'dArita' (दारित) as it is called in Sanskrit. Hence, the area came to be named (Ke)dara. Shiva also creates a pool at this location, where the Ganges enters the region.

In Arabia the oasis city of Tyama where the Al-Hamra Temple cube artifact was found, was first mentioned as Tiamat in Assyrian inscriptions in 8th century.  By 7th century Tiama, which was located in the region which came to be known as Qedar was ruled by a dynasty of the same name. Now whether the dynasty got its name from the region or the other way round is not known. But the oasis of Tyama is the site of a split rock which connects this site to the Shivite lore of the split rock of Kedara, or Kedarnath as it is called in India. Coincidence or with an unknown deeper connection, this remains an interesting observation. 

Split rock of Tayma, Kedara.
(Ke)dara is Sanskrit for 'split' or 'torn'

Al Acara again:

But now returning to Al Acara, what the Arabs chanted or sang when they danced around El Acara will perhaps never be known. In India the Hymn of the Akara is known as the Shiva Panchaakshra Strotram (Five Letters Hymn) written by Adi Shankaracharya, a sixth century poet. It is well known in India in its original form.

And it survives in its Bollywood versions too.

However, one of the most important of all artifacts from the ancient times is the Crescent of Kaaba. According to Geoffrey Higgins, as he states in his treatise Anacalypsis, "It was one of the principal objects of worship, in the original Caaba, at Mecca, which, the Persians say, was built by Mahahbad, the first man of the present age, and denominated Abad. On account of the remarkable image of the moon which it contained, the place was called Mahgah, or the Residence of the Moon, and she was also enshrined at Medina, to which she has given her name, — Mahdeenah, or the Moon of Religion. But the other object of worship was a black pillar, which, perhaps, supported the crescent, and which the Hindoos call the Linga of Mahadeva* They say, that when Mohammed rebuilt the Caaba, it was placed in the wall out of contempt ; but the pilgrims would not give up an adoration which had so long been practised: and to this day, it is kissed by all who visit the Caaba. Al Shahrestani says that the temple at Mecca was dedicated to Zohal, or Kyevun, who is the same with Saturn; and the author of the Dabistan declares that the black stone was the image of Kyevun\the Irish Kievin, in Scripture called Chyun, and Remphan, which is interpreted, the God of Time, and consequently the same as Mahadeva and Saturn."

Geoffrey Higgins, as he states in his treatise Anacalypsis, the moon was the presiding. The ancient name of Medina was some form of Yathrib, as mentioned in an inscription found in Harran, in present day Turkey. The Jews interpret the city name from Hebrew as 'yat' meaning to be, and 'rib', to fight - hence 'He will fight'. However, that is not an appropriate name. So, we explore the name further. 

The Neo-Babylonian cuneiform transcription of the term Yathrib is 'ia-at-ri-bu'. If we treat 'ia' as the prefix, bu as the suffix, the mid part of the root 'at-ri' is the same as the Sanskrit Atri. In the Purāṇas, the Sage Atri is said to have produced the moon from his eye, while he was practising austere penance, the moon being in consequence called Atrija (अत्रिज), or 'born of Atri'. This could indicate a link with 'moon worship' at Medina. As mentioned above the moon god of Medina was known as Hubal. Yathrib is therefore probably a distortion of Yarikh, that emerged as the name of Hebrew moon god.

 

Readings:

1.Theodore Bent and The Round Towers of Zimbabwe | MalagaBay (wordpress.com)

2. Pre-Islamic Arabia was rich and glorious center of Vedic civilization | Vedic Tribe

2. Book of the Dead Becoming God in Ancient Egypt | Ancient Egyptian Religion | Egyptology (scribd.com)