For the last few days I have been spending a lot of time researching stuff about Indian mythology. The trigger for this sequence began when I accidentally found out that there was a temple for Pandavas (and Draupadi) in the heart of Bengaluru! This then led me to continue tunneling through the millions of pages sitting unexplored over the web and fishing out choice pieces that gave me a new/alternative/contradictory view of the traditional 'it must be true because elders/scriptures say so' rendition of the epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana. The idea behind this exercise wasn't so much to try and say 'here, this is *the* correct version of such and such a story'. It was more an attempt really to investigate some rationale, some practical purpose, some realistic (preferably non-mythical) explanation for the events that we are always treated to with a spicy dash of magic and fantasy.
So, what have I found out thus far? Well not a lot but a few things that I hadn't known before. I have started bookmarking my findings under the 'Favorites' tab of my Twitter handle. Those who are interested in looking them up can do so by visiting the URL below:
http://twitter.com/#!/shakwrites/favorites
Now, with that little intro and shameless marketing bit done, let me zero in on the theme of this blog. And also, before I begin, I have marked the sources for this blog as numbers from 1 to 5. You can find the actual links for these web pages at the end of this blog.
I stumbled upon a paper titled - 'The astronomical link between India and the Mayans' [1]. The piece – possibly a student paper for some project – discusses the possibility that there was a link between the Indus Valley civilization and the Mayans. The author provides some interesting (albeit debatable purely from a time line/historic point of view) instances of Vedic warriors (possibly Arjuna) making a trip to the Mayan lands. It goes on to suggest that a friendly alliance between Arjuna and Mayasura (Ravana's father-in-law and Mandodari's father. The great mythical engineer, architect, magician from Vedic times) had been forged. Now, we know that Mayasura was indeed a master builder since he is the one mentioned in the Mahabharata during the burning of the Khandava forest incident where he helps the Pandavas by building the fabulous mayasabha. He is also prime in the puranas during the creation of the mythical city of Tripura later destroyed by Shiva. [2]
So what about Mayasura then? Well this. I stepped upon this one blog [3] where the author mentions that Ravana and Mayasura had a falling out. Now, I am not sure if this is connected to Surpanaka's husband Asura Dushtabuddhi or not. I am still checking my sources on this. But nevertheless it is mentioned that on being exiled by Ravana after a huge spat, Mayasura used the netherworld route (pataala loka - which has been mentioned thousands of times in various contexts in the texts) and headed to the core of the earth. We know that Ravana's brother Ahiravana (or Mahiravana depending on the text you read) was the lord of the underworld. If we were to assume that Mayasura continued his journey onwards from Ahiravana's empire, and since the globe is round, the only place he could 'exit' back on earth was Central America. Presuming we are talking about a time line 4000 – 5000 years old here, that area might have been just jungles since as far as we know the human existence in the Mayan civilization dates back to only about 2000 BC. But then again the concept of time was different back then so there is obviously a very good chance there is room for critical errors here.
Now, be that as it may, this possibility triggered a thought in me. Geographically speaking, the direct route that connects the Indian peninsula and Central America does make sense in the current context. As the author suggests, take a globe and pierce a hole where India is. The needle will reappear where Mexico/Central America is. But was this what the world looked like 5000 years ago? Were the continents separated at more or less the same distance back then too? Or did Mayasura end up, if at all he did use that route, somewhere else? If so, then where? Worse yet, did he even take that route at all?
This is where a fellow tweep @Zenia_Dstranger's comment caught my attention. On reading the piece posted in [1], she said that Mayans had not been discovered by the rest of the world until the Spanish invasion began taking place in early 16th century. If we consider that is true, then there should be absolutely no major similarities between the Indus Valley culture (or the Hindu culture, for all intents and purposes) and the Mayans since not only are we speaking of huge geographical differences, but also culturally there should be no reason to believe they had anything in common. But that is where I ran into more questions and began researching the similarities between Mayans and the Indus Valley people. During this, I ran into two well articulated pieces - 'Mayan periods and Vedic architecture' by Marcus Shcmieke from the European Academy of Vedic Sciences [4] and a blog piece by a blogger named Mahesh who uses sources from several published works and journals to list a lot of similarities between the two customs [5].
Both of them discuss some amazing architectural, cultural, linguistic and lifestyle based similarities between the two civilizations which are not only surprising but also thought provoking. There is no denying that a lot of this does make sense in a general context but there is plenty still left for debate. For instance, the time line issue. The discrepancy of almost 1500 years between the historic findings in Mayan regions and the connections made to Mayasura. There is also the issue of origins. If indeed Mayasura was the creator of the Mayan regions then where did those people come from? Were they already there when he went there? And then he made his own 'world' using resources from his routes in the Indian peninsula to exchange science, language and technology? Or were they 'created' through some divine intervention as part of Maya's large scheme of things? If neither of this actually happened then why is there so much similarity between the two huge civilizations in some of the factors underlined in those articles? Having lived in South America for 7 years and traveled extensively in that region (including Guatemala) the observation I made was how similar the Latinos and Indians look. Could this also be a clue to indicate that link from thousands of years ago? Or is this all just a giant piece of disconnected items that just do not mesh?
Unable to keep these questions to myself, I have presented to you my infancy stage findings thus far in this quest. There is good chance I am reading the right stuff. There is also the chance that this search ends here and will take me no further. Whichever route I take, I did want to unburden myself with this data before it left me.
Now, reader, I ask of you just this. If you have read, seen or written something which is similar to the contents of this blog, please feel free to leave a comment below with your thoughts. Who knows, maybe together we can put this riddle into place or maybe we conclude this wasn't a riddle at all to begin with. Either way, this scratching the surface attempt would have been worth it.
Cheers,
Sources
[1] http://tinyurl.com/6cwpcuz
[2] http://tinyurl.com/6395ehh / Also read this 'Math and Myth' piece on Tripura: http://t.co/hSPz1Tm
[3] http://tinyurl.com/64psqex
[4] http://www.veda-academy.com/articles/vasati/mayas_pyramids.htm
[5] http://indiamahesh.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/pre-columbian-american-indian-connection/
So, what have I found out thus far? Well not a lot but a few things that I hadn't known before. I have started bookmarking my findings under the 'Favorites' tab of my Twitter handle. Those who are interested in looking them up can do so by visiting the URL below:
http://twitter.com/#!/shakwrites/favorites
Now, with that little intro and shameless marketing bit done, let me zero in on the theme of this blog. And also, before I begin, I have marked the sources for this blog as numbers from 1 to 5. You can find the actual links for these web pages at the end of this blog.
I stumbled upon a paper titled - 'The astronomical link between India and the Mayans' [1]. The piece – possibly a student paper for some project – discusses the possibility that there was a link between the Indus Valley civilization and the Mayans. The author provides some interesting (albeit debatable purely from a time line/historic point of view) instances of Vedic warriors (possibly Arjuna) making a trip to the Mayan lands. It goes on to suggest that a friendly alliance between Arjuna and Mayasura (Ravana's father-in-law and Mandodari's father. The great mythical engineer, architect, magician from Vedic times) had been forged. Now, we know that Mayasura was indeed a master builder since he is the one mentioned in the Mahabharata during the burning of the Khandava forest incident where he helps the Pandavas by building the fabulous mayasabha. He is also prime in the puranas during the creation of the mythical city of Tripura later destroyed by Shiva. [2]
So what about Mayasura then? Well this. I stepped upon this one blog [3] where the author mentions that Ravana and Mayasura had a falling out. Now, I am not sure if this is connected to Surpanaka's husband Asura Dushtabuddhi or not. I am still checking my sources on this. But nevertheless it is mentioned that on being exiled by Ravana after a huge spat, Mayasura used the netherworld route (pataala loka - which has been mentioned thousands of times in various contexts in the texts) and headed to the core of the earth. We know that Ravana's brother Ahiravana (or Mahiravana depending on the text you read) was the lord of the underworld. If we were to assume that Mayasura continued his journey onwards from Ahiravana's empire, and since the globe is round, the only place he could 'exit' back on earth was Central America. Presuming we are talking about a time line 4000 – 5000 years old here, that area might have been just jungles since as far as we know the human existence in the Mayan civilization dates back to only about 2000 BC. But then again the concept of time was different back then so there is obviously a very good chance there is room for critical errors here.
Now, be that as it may, this possibility triggered a thought in me. Geographically speaking, the direct route that connects the Indian peninsula and Central America does make sense in the current context. As the author suggests, take a globe and pierce a hole where India is. The needle will reappear where Mexico/Central America is. But was this what the world looked like 5000 years ago? Were the continents separated at more or less the same distance back then too? Or did Mayasura end up, if at all he did use that route, somewhere else? If so, then where? Worse yet, did he even take that route at all?
This is where a fellow tweep @Zenia_Dstranger's comment caught my attention. On reading the piece posted in [1], she said that Mayans had not been discovered by the rest of the world until the Spanish invasion began taking place in early 16th century. If we consider that is true, then there should be absolutely no major similarities between the Indus Valley culture (or the Hindu culture, for all intents and purposes) and the Mayans since not only are we speaking of huge geographical differences, but also culturally there should be no reason to believe they had anything in common. But that is where I ran into more questions and began researching the similarities between Mayans and the Indus Valley people. During this, I ran into two well articulated pieces - 'Mayan periods and Vedic architecture' by Marcus Shcmieke from the European Academy of Vedic Sciences [4] and a blog piece by a blogger named Mahesh who uses sources from several published works and journals to list a lot of similarities between the two customs [5].
Both of them discuss some amazing architectural, cultural, linguistic and lifestyle based similarities between the two civilizations which are not only surprising but also thought provoking. There is no denying that a lot of this does make sense in a general context but there is plenty still left for debate. For instance, the time line issue. The discrepancy of almost 1500 years between the historic findings in Mayan regions and the connections made to Mayasura. There is also the issue of origins. If indeed Mayasura was the creator of the Mayan regions then where did those people come from? Were they already there when he went there? And then he made his own 'world' using resources from his routes in the Indian peninsula to exchange science, language and technology? Or were they 'created' through some divine intervention as part of Maya's large scheme of things? If neither of this actually happened then why is there so much similarity between the two huge civilizations in some of the factors underlined in those articles? Having lived in South America for 7 years and traveled extensively in that region (including Guatemala) the observation I made was how similar the Latinos and Indians look. Could this also be a clue to indicate that link from thousands of years ago? Or is this all just a giant piece of disconnected items that just do not mesh?
Unable to keep these questions to myself, I have presented to you my infancy stage findings thus far in this quest. There is good chance I am reading the right stuff. There is also the chance that this search ends here and will take me no further. Whichever route I take, I did want to unburden myself with this data before it left me.
Now, reader, I ask of you just this. If you have read, seen or written something which is similar to the contents of this blog, please feel free to leave a comment below with your thoughts. Who knows, maybe together we can put this riddle into place or maybe we conclude this wasn't a riddle at all to begin with. Either way, this scratching the surface attempt would have been worth it.
Cheers,
Sources
[1] http://tinyurl.com/6cwpcuz
[2] http://tinyurl.com/6395ehh / Also read this 'Math and Myth' piece on Tripura: http://t.co/hSPz1Tm
[3] http://tinyurl.com/64psqex
[4] http://www.veda-academy.com/articles/vasati/mayas_pyramids.htm
[5] http://indiamahesh.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/pre-columbian-american-indian-connection/
9 reflections:
I just added this weblog to my rss reader, great stuff. Cannot get enough!
@Anonymous - Thank you. Will be adding a part 2 to this research in a few days.Compiling it now.
SK
Super Intriguing post.
Where is this pandava temple in Blore. how old is it?
@ Anonymous - Here is the link for the Pandava temple in Bluru - http://satyaphoto.wordpress.com/2009/05/09/dharmaraya-temple-in-bangalore/
Cheers,
SK
@sShaK, please refer to this link:
http://vedicphilosophy.tripod.com/Lord%20Rama%20myth%20or%20truth.htm
This article also confirms that America is referred to as 'Paataal Desh' or 'Paataal Lok' in ancient Indian texts. The referred section from the link is produced below:
"15) RAMAYANA IN NORTH AMERICAN AND SOUTH AMERICAN CONTINENTS:
Before Columbus discovered North American continent European people were not knowing about it. However A DE QNATREFAGES in his book, THE HUMAN SPECIES, categorically says that Chinese people were aware about the American continent and the use to have trade relations with them America was referred as Fad-Sang. Similarly in Japanese people it was known as Fad-See. Similarly, if we refer to various historical reference in Mahabharata, Valmiki Ramayana etc we will find that American continent has been reffered as Patal Desh(Patal means below foot). If we geographically see then we will find that American continent is just below the Indian Subcontinent. We will throw greater light on this issue in our topic, BLUNDERS OF INDIAN HISTORY/WORLD HISTORY.
But for your reference we are providing you some prevalent legends.
a) beautiful girl in Mexican tribal area till today are called as Ulopy. If we see in Mahabharata we find reference of Arjuna marrying girl named Ulopy who was daughter of King of Patal Desh.
b) W H Prescott in his book , ‘ History of conquest of Mexico’, provides various reference which prove that earlier civilization of American subcontinent have major similarities with that of Indian (Aryan) civilization.
However here we are providing you one reference which clearly state that Ramayana is not mythological epic but it bears historical testimony. According to writer of the book there is popular legend in Aztec community which state that a beautiful person named Quevtsal Katal came there from east and taught them various aspects of advanced civilization as a result his period was treated as golden era. He then went back to his original homeland because of persecution by some divine creature. This legends surprisingly does not throw light on the reasons why he returned.
Another interesting fact that has been stated by Prescott is that this legend is available in documented form. Now, none except Indian tradition can claim that they bear root to this legend. The same story has been narrated in Valmiki Ramayana, in uttarkand where it is mentioned that Salkantak Rakshas who dwelled in Lanka were persecuted by Vishnu. Due to this persecution they left Lanka and went to Patal Desh. The leader of this group was Sumali. According to Ramayana they lived in Patal Desh for long time. When they found condition congenial they returned to their homeland.
It is for readers to decide when such conclusive proof are there to
establish that epic of Ramayana is not mythological legend but it is
historical evidence which bears testimony to various legends
prevalent around the world. Till today play named Ramasitotav is
played in various communities of Mexico."
Hope it will help in your research.
- Arjun
@sShak, may be this may serve ur interest hinduwisdom.info/Pacific.htm.
am very glad to see that someone really searching similar interest of mine. I am currently working on this topic. am looking for someone to work with. may be we can unleash the truth.
Nice post. Appreciate your curiosity and interest in this. From my research, what I found was, from ancient south india (called as tamilagam), probably this mayasura was kicked out (or left on his own will to explore). He went down south and took some more people from current srilanka and moved towards egypt. From egypt they left to south america. And this is their path of journey. Mind you, this happens over hundreds of years or maybe more. back then, only the people of india were educated enough and skilled enough in astronomy, astrology and everything else. this explains how the mayans are also skilled and also all the similarities in god, architecture, etc. we need to discuss this more. Find me in twitter @rvivekshanmugam
Thanks for a deep study , but i will request all readers pls have a look on a book written by ACHARYA CHATURSEN , name of the book is " Vayam Rakshamah " , might be it will open more secret, All the best , Pramod Malik
yes, its have conection ... u r right, also peru also can be called Meru ... mery mountains is decsribed in Vedas and Bhagavata ... they found a kurma deitie in Machu Pichu, kurma is a tirtle form of Vishnu, who took a mountain in shoulders in order to churn the ocean to produce nectar to demigods, if u want some others references u can write me
Baladeva Das Brahmachari- nabadvip@gmail.com
Post a Comment