19,000 Years of World History

Lost Civilizations (@lostcivilizations)

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lostworlds

 · 1 year ago

World History is riddled with a large number of fascinating phenomena. Some of the enthralling phenomena can be listed as follows:

• Our ancestors had superior technology compared to what we have today
• There once used to exist a paradise that was destroyed or lost because it got submerged into oceans
• Earth has been frequently plagued with mighty catastrophes like worldwide floods and massive volcanic eruptions
• There occured Droughts that displaced whole civilizations
• There existed tribes that migrated to all parts of the globe, even to places that could only be travelled by air

And many others.

A 19,000 year fascinating real tale of History, Religion, and Culture, compiled after Two Decades of Research.

As if the writer were giving a lecture to 6 billion people about their origins... Author has incorporated massive amounts of knowledge and research here - Foreword Clarion Reviews

There is a wonderful, thorough look at the various religions in the world and how they got started.

Lost History : Timeline of Ancient Civilizations for 19,000 Years

Ancient Civilizations of World History supposedly developed only in the last five to six thousand years, which is what is taught in schools. However, there is humungous amount of evidence that man's story is much older than this date. While mainstream historians are caught up in Archaeology and Linguistics alone, much of the story of man lies embedded in religious sources and cultural practices.

This book constitutes the first ever in-depth study into these sources, providing an alternate timeline for various civilizations across the world for the last nineteen thousand years, pushing back the timeline of man by three times. The timeline of various ancient civilizations is given below.

The methodology adopted to get at these timelines is given beneath the table in the form of notes.

Notes (Chain of reasoning for arriving at the above dates. The chain of reasoning given below is just one way of arriving at it - we can arrive at the same result through several ways including archaeology and linguistics - when the destination is one, all roads lead to the same destination. Unlike other analyses, this book takes all branches of historical study into account - Foreword Clarion Reviews has said about the book - In this encyclopedic volume, Prithviraj R. has made a far-reaching study of numerous topics, including world religions and their beginnings, linguistics, biology, genetics, anthropology, archeology and geology.):

1. The date of Buddhism is given as 500 BC by historians. This calculation is based on the lifetime of a certain Buddhist emperor Ashoka mentioned in certain rock edicts and in some Buddhist scriptures. However Ashoka of rock edicts is different from Ashoka of Buddhist scriptures - both lived more than a thousand years apart. Historians have made a colossal mistake of clubbing both the Ashokas into one. I have written an article regarding this, which appeared in a newspaper and several prominent online magazines. History books are yet to be corrected of this mistake. Realizing this mistake would mean that the date of Buddhism must be pushed back by more than a thousand years. Buddhism must now be dated to 1800 BC as claimed by traditional Indian sources.
2. Buddhism grew in ascendancy when Hindus converted to Buddhism i.e. Buddhism grew on the decline of Hinduism. Such an event as this must leave a footprint of itself on the cultural sources of Hinduism, right? Surprisingly, no historian (neither Indian nor Western) ever found it necessary to enquire into this aspect. Yet, the cultural evidence available regarding this is huge. Hinduism has two religious subsystems - Vaishnavism, and Saivism. A study of the religious sources reveals that the religion of Vaishnavism of India died a sudden death because of the effects of three century drought of 1900-2200 BC. The evidence available regarding this is huge - if X is the evidence required to show this, 25X evidence is available to show that Vaishnavism died a sudden death because of the effects of the drought. People's prayers and beseechments to God to provide them relief against the fury of the drought fell on deaf ears of God, and millions died of hunger or migrated to foreign shores. This led to a loss of faith in God turning people toward atheistic cults. Buddhism grew on the declines of Vaishnavism at the fag end of the drought at around 1800 BC. After this decline, it took nearly three millennia for Vaishnavism to come back on its own - it regained its former glory only after 1000 AD.
3. The great Indian Mahabharat war of India, the subject of Vaishnavite epic Mahabharat, is claimed by Indians to have taken place around 3000 BC or 5000 years ago. Mainstream historians dismiss the traditional claims and place Mahabharat war to 1000 BC. The epic Mahabharat primarily belongs to Vaishnavism. If Vaishnavism faded out around 2200 BC, there is no way in which the Mahabharat war could have taken place around 1000 BC after the decline of Vaishnavism. Indian claims have a ring of truth in them - Mahabharat war did take place around 3000 BC; it needs to be dated to 3000 BC.
4. This raises the question of when the religion of Vaishnavism could have been born in India? It is noticed that Mahabharat epic came in relatively late into the Vaishnavite theological development - Vaishnavism was already a very well developed religious system by the time this epic was composed, giving us an indication that Vaishnavism must have been born thousands of years before the Mahabharat date of 3000 BC. The Vaishnavite literature gives us further indication. A large portion of the Vaishnavite literature talks about worldwide catastrophes and cataclysms that once shook the earth's surface. Unless we want to think that the seers of Vaishnavism were overly imaginative, it is reasonably clear that Vaishnavism was born in the aftermath of a worldwide catastrophe. When did such a catastrophe occur in the earth's recent history? There are two such recorded instances - once around 8000 years ago, and another around 11500 years ago. On both these occasions, massive tsunamis and massive volcanic eruptions were observed; a great deal of mammal life became extinct on both these occasions. Our first choice would obviously be the 8000 BP (8000 years before present) catastrophe. However, the kind of destructon that Vaishnavite scriptures talk about could only have occured during the 11500 BP catastrophe as the worldwide destruction at that time was much higher. Vaishnavite scriptures even talk about lost and submerged civilizations - such level of massive destruction did not take place during the 8000 BP catastrophe. Moreover, the impact of 8000 BP destruction was more in the Mediterranean and North American regions and less on the Indian subcontinent. There are several other reasons for going with the 11500 BP destruction - a deeper look into the Hindu religious scriptures reveals that several very important religious developments took place on the Indian subcontinent in the aftermath of 8000 BP catastrophe. Especially, the religion of Saivism of India took complete shape only around this time. So we rule this occasion out and go with the 11500 BP catastrophe. Vaishnavism was born in the aftermath of 11500 BP catastrophe - it was born around 11000 years ago. There are a very large number of cultural and religious developments that took place with respect to Hinduism, between the birth period of Vaishnavism 11000 BP and the decline period of Vaishnavism of 4200 BP (2200 BC) - enough to show that Vaishnavism was a six thousand year old religion by the time of its decline.
5. Are we reading too much into catastrophic literature? Do we have any other evidence to show that Vaishnavism was born in the aftermath of a worldwide catastrophe? Yes, we do have. Vaishnavism is not one single religion - when we study the formation of this religion, we realize this. Vaishnavism was formed by the unification of hundreds of different religions, which were brought under one hood. In the aftermath of a catastrophe when there was a large-scale displacement and migration of tribes, the Saptha Sindhu region faced huge amount of immigration when hundreds of different tribes came and converged at one place. The Indian four-class system was expressly formed in order to deal with this migration. These hundreds of different tribes resolved to forget their differences and formed one common religion of Vaishnavism by unifying all of these scores of different religions - Indian scriptures of Vedas were used as a means for this unification. The formation of the religion of Vaishnavism is one of the most spectacular events that ever took place in world history, never recorded by historians who are always preoccupied with archaeology and linguistics. The whole religion of Vaishnavism was nothing but an immigration control system that was used to control the excessive migration that was taking place onto the Indian subcontinent after a mighty catastrophe.
6. Indian resources have been used here only because they provided sufficient resources to research upon. However, once the dates of Indian civilization are pushed back, the dates of other civilizations are automatically pushed back. Once we get the date of the birth of Vaishnavism, we now use that as a pivot point to date other civilizations. For example, comparative religious study of Zoroastrianism and Hinduism reveals that Zoroastrianism existed at a time when India did not have the religions of Vaishnavism and Saivism. Same is the case with Mesopotamia. So Persian civilization, of which Zoroastrianism is a part of, and Mesopotamian civilization, must now be dated prior to the birth period of Vaishnavism. These civilizations must have definitely existed before 11000 BP. So we now get one pivot point - the date of Vaishnavism. One pivot point, however, is not sufficient. If possible, we now try to get a second one.
7. The second pivot point is given by the phenomenon of ice age. About 20,000 years ago, the climate of the world was extremely cold. The mighty river systems of the world that we see today were not in existence. Even if rivers existed, they were frozen most of the time. So there were no river valley civilizations at that point of time. Where were our forefathers living at that point of time? Religious sources suggest that our forefathers were living in the Arctic region at that point of time. Rig Vedic verses and Zoroastrian scriptures give us indications that they were composed in the Arctic region where Sun shined once a year - Avesta even mentions that the former homeland, termed as the Aryan Paradise, was destroyed by the invasion of snow and ice. Around 19000 years ago, ice age peak ended - climate started getting hotter and rivers started their flow in various parts of the world. Thats when the various river valley civilizations started appearing all over the world. So we get the second pivot point - 19000 BP. We need to construct the dates based on these two pivot points of 11500 BP and 19000 BP.
8. Nostratic language grouping suggests that Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, and India - all these people lived together in some distant past. Out of these, cultural evidence suggest that it is Egyptian culture that first broke away from the rest - which is why Egypt has been dated as the earliest of these. Mesopotamia and Persia broke away from Indo-European group only after Egypt broke away first - so they have been dated to a later point of time.
9. There has been one very well defined contact point between India and Indonesia 11000 years ago, in the aftermath of 11500 catastrophe. Indonesian civilization has been dated based on this contact point.
10. Chinese civilization has been based on assumption that Sino-Tibetan languages formed only after breaking away from Austronesian and Indo-European languages. The data regarding this is scarce, and if the assumption is held invalid, the date of Chinese civilization might have to be pushed back to 16000-17000 BP.
11. A couple of general observations here. Archaeological evidence is mounting up to show that world history must be much more ancient than we ever thought of. Recently, Indian archaeologists have found a submerged site off the coast of Gulf of Cambay on the west coast of India. Here, they have found highly evolved experimental pottery dated to 13,000 BP! Similarly, water erosion of the Sphinx of Gaza suggests that the Sphinx is atleast 10,000 years old. How old should the Egyptian civilization be if they could reach the stage of being able to erect the Sphinx of Gaza 10,000 years ago? So we do have several archaeological evidences to show that Human civilization is much more ancient than the five or six thousand year period that mainstream historians quote. Secondly, we need to note that the dating of archeological sites is based on calibration - they take one date as the basis and construct others dates relative to that. So if the most ancient site is dated to 3000 BC, all other sites must necessarily be dated to a period prior to 3000 BC. What if there is a mistake in this first date of 3000 BC? - the result would be that all other dates would go wrong. So if there were a mistake of 3000 years in this first date of 3000 BC, all other dates would go wrong by a proportional period of time. This is why we cannot depend on Archaeology alone. We have to compulsorily take the help of geological phenomena in arriving at dates - for example, the drought of 2200 BC gives us one extremely important pivot point against which we can construct world history.

The book constructs lost history of the world from the scriptures and cultural practices of Hinduism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Christianity and other cultures.

1900-2200 BC, The Drought that changed Human Civilization forever

The period of 2200 BC to 1800 BC was quite eventful, the significance of which has not yet been fully recognized by us. A lot of events were taking place across civilizations, events that would shape the destiny of mankind for millennia to come, especially so on the religious front.

Jewish tribes, led by Abraham, were continuously displaced from their homeland, which then led them to go on a prolonged and arduous search for the promised land, a land supposedly promised by God. Even though Bible says that God commanded Abraham to move out to promised land, there must be some other non-mythological reason on why those tribes got displaced in the first place. Abraham is normally dated to 2200 to 1800 BC by historians.

We by now know very well that the crucified savior phenomenon did not start with Jesus, but existed much before him. Large number of crucified saviors across the world have been identified by researchers, saviors who supposedly lived much before Jesus. When did this phenomenon start at all? Well, the earliest crucified saviors have been dated to this period of 2200-1800 BC! – Adonis to 2000 BC, Thulis to 1700 BC, Horus to 1550 BC and so on (Even though Crucified Savior researchers are fond of Horus, Horus is generally not known to have been crucified, the general depiction being that he was stung by scorpian).

Even though Buddha is dated to 500 BC by present day historians, Indian tradition claims that he lived around 1800 BC; and Indian claims have a ring of truth in them as the findings of my article “Buddha has to be dated to 1800 BC,” which appeared on a news paper and several prominent websites, shows (the article is also present on this blog). What led people living at that point of time to suddenly abandon theism and the thoughts of God in favor of the atheistic thoughts of Buddhism?

The five states of India – Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra, and Tamilnadu – are called Pancha Dravidas, or five Dravidian states. Even though the languages of the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra are not classified as Dravidian languages, they, nevertheless, are classified as part of Pancha Dravidas. What is the reason for this? The explanation given is that some external invaders called Aryans invaded India around 1800 BC and later formed the Vedic religion in India. The Dravidians, supposedly the adherents of the religion of Saivism, who were living in Gujarat at that time, got pushed by this invasion towards south of India. They traveled through these five states towards Tamilnadu, which is the reason why these five states are called Pancha Dravidas. Both the Aryan invasion as well as Dravidian migration are dated to 1800 BC!

What is it so special about this period of 2200 to 1800 BC? What was taking place around the world at that time?

Geologists now aver that there was a mighty drought of three centuries around the time of 2200 BC, which severely affected civilizations across India, West Asia, and North Africa. The following is a Wikipedia extract about this event:

“A phase of intense aridity in ≈4.2 ka BP (4200 years Before Present) is well recorded across North Africa, the Middle East, the Red Sea, the Arabian peninsula, the Indian subcontinent, and even mid-continental North America. Glaciers throughout the mountain ranges of western Canada advanced at about this time.”

Michael Staubwasser of Hannover University and Harvey Weiss of Yale University, who made a study of the correlation between the climatic changes and the cultural evolution of West Asia, have the following to add :

“the event begins at 4200 cal yr BP (4200 years Before Present) and lasts about 300 yr. In records from the eastern Mediterranean region and West Asia, a severe drought is observed almost everywhere. A cultural response to the 4.2 ka climate event may also be seen within the Harappan civilization centered around the Indus valley into the Makran (West Pakistan) and Northwest India. A transition from an urbanized (mature or urban Harappan) to a rural (post-urban) society is well documented beginning at approximately 3950 cal yr BP (Possehl, 1997a). At the end of the third millennium and the beginning of the second millennium BC, the Great Bath and Granary at Mohenjo-Daro were abandoned, settlement in Sindh, the Indus-Sarasvati valley and the Baluchi highlands collapsed and shifted east to the headwaters of the Sarasvati and south to the Saurashtra Peninsula”

When most of our history was written, historians were not aware of this drought. World history was written when historians were not aware of the occurrence of this drought. Now that the drought has been discovered, world history needs to be rewritten.

There was a massive amount of migration all across the world at that point of time. People migrated hundreds or even thousands of miles to wherever they thought they could find water. Apart from the mythological reason of being commanded by God, the non-mythological reason why Abraham and his people went out in search of the promised land was because of the drought – they were displaced from their homeland. The reason why the Christ savior figures started appearing all over the world from that period was because the original set of Christ worshippers migrated away from their homeland at this time. The crucified legends of this group went along with these migrators to distant corners of the globe, in different forms, shapes, and variations, leading to a large number of crucifed savior figures all over the world.

The reason why people converted in large numbers to the atheistic cult of Buddhism at that point of time was because their prayers to the almighty to provide them relief and succor against the drought went unanswered for years, decades, and centuries. Even the staunchest of the faithful found it difficult to believe in any God who could answer their prayers. There was a revolt against theism, which led to the birth of atheistic cults.

The reason why Dravidians migrated toward south India at that time was not because of any external invasion, but because of drought. No aryans ever migrated to or invaded India. Vedic religion and Vaishnavism are indigenous to India. Migration did take place to India by these people; but the migration took place thousands of years before the drought time of 2200 BC. The reason why Buddha is strongly considered as an incarnation of Vishnu even today by Indians is because many Indians at that time were Vaishnavites, the worshippers of Vishnu. When they converted to Buddhism, most of them did so by simply considering Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu.

A lot of our valuable and precious history has been lost in the dungeons of time. That history can be ferreted out not by looking at archaeological remains and fossils, but by peaking into our religious scriptures. All of our history, for the last 19000 years, has been well preserved by our religious scriptures and practices – we only need to give them the due respect for the information they contain.

Which one is the Atlantis Flood?

The famous Greek philosopher Plato, around 300–400 BC, wrote that he is aware of the knowledge of a civilization that he named Atlantis, which was technologically very advanced, and which submerged into the ocean after a series of engulfing tidal waves, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

Ever since then, the legend of Atlantis has exercised the imagination of all of us. When did this flood or catastrophe of Atlantis occur? Apart from Atlantis, there are other legends of Lemuria, Mayans, and others, which tend to haunt our imagination? There are a large number of cultures across the world, which talk about legends in their distant past when world was inundated with water and about widespread worldwide destruction occurring at that point of time. The question that occurs to our mind is about when the alluded catastrophe of Atlantis could have occurred.

As we know, most mainstream historians are unformitarians, who think that nothing drastic has ever taken place in the history of man; and any talk about sudden universal floods is not taken kindly by them. It is only a small section of the historians who tend to research about the phenomenon of lost history and lost civilizations. It is only a handful of them that realize that five or six thousand years is too short a time for the history of man. However, even this section of broad-minded historians tend to become narrow-minded with respect to their research about floods and catastrophes.

Much of the research on history has been done by western historians, with many of them following the Bible. And the Bible talks about only one flood. So, while mainstream historians talk about the flood and catastrophe as allegory and myth, even the most skeptical historians who are convinced about the occurrence of catastrophes go about in search of a single flood, which they simply term as the Genesis flood as described in the Bible. And even such broad-minded historians try to divide history into two neat compartments—one history before the flood and another history after the flood. Even historians who firmly believe in lost civilizations almost always look for a single universal catastrophic flood, place it in some distant period in the past, and then try to trace the history of lost civilizations with the date so constructed as the basis. Often the explanations go: there was a civilization that existed such and such a long time ago, it got submerged into ocean, people emerged from there and spread into different parts of the globe, and that’s how we have all arrived.

However, a look at recent history of the earth talks about not just one catastrophe, but about several catastrophes! About 11500 years ago, there was a mighty catastrophe on earth’s surface, which was large enough to wipe out two-thirds of the mammals from the earth’s surface! Carcasses and fossil records strewn across India, Brazil, and North America attest to this mighty catastrophe. But, it is not just this – there have been several catastrophic phenomena observed in the earth’s recent past. Meltwater pulses, when sea water levels rose several foot very quickly have been observed several times in the last 20000 years. There were several mighty and colossal volcanic eruptions across the globe around 8000 years ago. At around this time, there was a collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, a massive sheet of ice that covered most of Canada and a large portion of United States, leading to a huge inflow of ice cold water into the oceans. The most spectacular event at around this time was the catastrophic flooding of the Black sea from the Mediterranean! A great deal of mammal life also became extinct around this time.

Which one of these catastrophes was the Atlantis Catastrophe? Keeping aside the Atlantis question, how did these catastrophes affect the life of humans, as it existed at that point of time? Let us not just about one flood or catastrophe here – let us talk about how nature kept afflicting the story of man several times and how humans kept coping with them – do we have any reasonable track record of events in this respect in the history of man?

Why are there flood myths in the cultures across the world?

There are flood myths around the world in most cultures. Thee myths talk about how the world and its men were destroyed by God because of the wickedness of man, and about how one single individual was saved from the catastrophe because of his or her virtuousness. These myths are present in mainstream religions as well as in tribes in remotest parts of the globe – tribes that do not know what being civilized means.

This myth as it is related in Hebrew bible is as follows:

God, seeing the wickedness of man, is grieved by his creation and resolves to send a great flood. He sees that Noah is a man "righteous in his generation," and gives him detailed instructions for the Ark. When the animals are safe on board, God sends the Flood, which rises until all the mountains are covered and all life is destroyed. At the height of the flood, the Ark rests on the mountains, the waters abate, and dry land reappears. Noah, his family, and the animals leave the Ark, and God vows to never again send a flood to destroy the Earth [wikipedia].

The above reproduced is common to all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Islam, and Christianity – albeit with minor variations. And almost identical is this legend in Hinduism as well, where a man named Manu (incidentally English word Man has been derived from this Manu!) takes the place of Noah while it is Hindu God Vishnu who commands Manu to go on a similar errand. And similar such myths are present in an extra-ordinarily large number of cultures around the world.

The reasons for the flood vary slightly. In Abrahamic religions, God sent flood to detroy man because of his wickedness. In Hinduism, it is not man’s wickedness – rather, it is the periodic cycle of destruction termed as Kalpa. In Zoroatrianism, God Ahur Mazda desstroyed the world as a cure to overpopulation.

The number of days of the flood varies between cultures. In Greek legends, it is nine day and nights. In Babylonian legends it is a seven day flood. In Transylvanian legends, it rained over a whole year. In New Mexican legends, and in the legends of Tepecano, it rained and floodded for forty days and nights. There are other variations in this figure.

And the manner in which the world is repopulated also varies slightly. In Roman legend, the survivors Deucalion and Pyrrha, at the advice of an oracle, repopulated the world by throwing "your mother's bones" (stones) behind them; each stone became a person. In Lithunanian legends, the survivors jumped over the bones of the earth nine times which resulted in birth of nine couples – and from these nine couples, nine Lithunanian tribes decended. In Greek legends, the survivors threw stones over their heads, which became men and women.

Apart from these minor variations in the reasons for flood, the number of days of flood, and the manner of repopulating, these floods across the world have an alarming similarity with each other. For more on this phenomenon, one can refer to the seminal work of Mark Isaak – “Flood Stories Form Around the World.”

As per the mainstream history, nothing drastic such as a worldwide flood ever occurred in human history. Yet, catastrophic flood is an integral part of the imagination of each and every culture across the world. Can mainstream historians explain why all these cultures from across the world are besotted with floods in their cultural imagination?

Where did Ancients get those technologies from?

The rust-free iron alloy used to make the Ashoka Pillar in New Delhi, capital city of India, has baffled chemists for centuries. Yet the pillar was built more than 3,000 years ago! Renowned British metallurgist Robert Hadfield writes: “In spite of all the scientific advances that have been made, the Delhi Pillar is, as far as I am able to judge, of a BETTER QUALITY than anything metallurgists are able to produce today.” After centuries of study, scientists finally resolved the composition of the ‘miracle’ alloy. It was BLACK MAGNETITE! The prehistoric Pillar carried a magnetic charge! Experts have concluded that its creators were super-skilled metallurgists and machinists to have formed a non-rusting hunk of METAL that large. More importantly, its manufacturers had to have mastered 'electricity' to account for its high Electro-Magnetic properties.

Scientists are working on a new technology called Tesla-based grid system, whereby grid points are located in different parts of the globe3 and flying craft and other instruments receive their energy from this grid. This technology is yet to be fully developed and implemented today; the studies are in the experimental stage. And the most astonishing discovery is that scientists have discovered a Tesla type grid that could have existed thousands of years ago at thirteen locations at the remotest parts of the planet across the globe, destinations that could probably have been traveled to by air only! At one of the grid locations in Australia, near a place called Alice Springs, archaeologists have found “fused rock” and glasslike particles, which could only have been produced by intense heat of an atomic devastation! There are numerous Aussie drawings and rock carvings that seem to depict people wearing antennas, helmets, gloves, and boots—are these drawings depicting the survivors of an atomic warfare? These findings are in line with the thinking of some scholars who now believe that nuclear bombs were probably used during the Mahabharat war in India thousands of years ago.

Here is a passage that is widely quoted from Indian epic Mahabharat to show that nuclear weaponry was probably used in that war:

“a single projectile (rocket) charged with the power
of the Universe (nuclear device). An incandescent column of
smoke and flame, as bright as ten thousand suns, rose with
all its splendor.

It was an unknown weapon, an iron thunderbolt, a gigantic
messenger of death, which reduced to ashes the entire race
of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas.

The corpses were so burned as to be unrecognizable.
Hair and nails fell out; Pottery broke without apparent cause,
and the birds turned white.

. . . After a few hours all foodstuffs were infected . . .
. . . to escape from this fire the soldiers threw
themselves in streams to wash themselves and their
equipment.”

Philip Coppens, an investigative journalist into ancient mysteries, who has written several books on the subject, has the following to add:

“a layer of radioactive ash was indeed found in Rajasthan, India. It covered a three-square mile area, ten miles west of Jodhpur. The research occurred after a very high rate of birth defects and cancer was discovered in the area. The levels of radiation registered so high on investigators’ gauges that the Indian government cordoned off the region. Scientists then apparently unearthed an ancient city where they found evidence of an atomic blast dating back thousands of years: from 8,000 to 12,000 years. The blast was said to have destroyed most of the buildings and probably a half-million people. So far, this story seems to have all the necessary credentials.”

Ancient technology appeared in Egyptian lighthouses at Alexandria long ago. Medieval Arab geographer Al Bakri wrote that these lighthouses used mirrors made of remarkable and extra-ordinary substances – these mirrors were used to spot enemy ship movement several days away over the sea, helping them prepare themselves for the defense.

What I have covered here is just the tip of the ice berg. There are several other scholarly works dedicated solely to deciphering the technology of the ancients, and there have been a large number of other findings all over the world.

Can mainstream history explain this technology of the ancients?

What is so common between the cultures of Mesopotamia, Persia, and India?

Mesopotamian culture tells the masses that they were once servants of gods. Mesopotamians considered themselves to have once been servants of gods, against whom they revolted. Babylonian legends tell us that man was created to build sanctuaries for gods, feed them, and to make sacrifices to them. Akkadian Gilgamesh legends tell us about how they were denied the nectar of immortality by gods, because of their being mere servants. If they were servants of gods, when were they freed of their servitude? Sumerian legends, the most ancient of them all, give us the answer. Sumerian legends tell us that they revolted against the gods and gods found them difficult to handle, which forced gods to expel or let the Mesopotamians go to a far off existence. That is how the Mesopotamians came into existence. Wikipedia says about the Sumerian legends - "the gods originally created humans as servants for themselves but freed them when they became too much to handle."

Indian legends tell us about a tribe called devas. These people once churned the ocean out of which came nectar. These devas then consumed the nectar on account of which they became gods and hence immortal forever. They conquered the whole world and ruled it ever since, albeit with the permission of the Supreme God.

Zoroastrian legends tell us about a tribe called Devas or gods, whom they held in high esteem. These beings fell into wicked ways, became the followers of evil spirit Ahriman, fell from the grace of the Supreme God, and hence became demons, to be shunned and avoided at all costs.

Who were these gods of Mesopotamia, India, and Persia? What do these ancient cultures have in common? Were the people of these three civilizations ever living together at one place some time back in history? These are profound questions; and given that these are some of the oldest civilizations in the world, the answers to these questions can have a significant impact on the way we look at World History.

Why does Vaishnavism excessively talk about worldwide cataclysms and catastrophes?

Mainstream historians anyway do not give much thought to lost civilizations and worldwide catastrophes. Those others who research these phenomena tend to look into the legends and myths of tribes in the remotest corners of the globe searching for hints to the whereabouts of lost history of man. Surprisingly, they have left out Vaishnavism of India out of their studies. Why go and search for this information in the remotest corners of the globe when one of the mainstream religions of the world - Vaishnavism of India with hundreds of millions of followers in its fold – offers a treasure trove of information regarding the catastrophic phenomena faced by our ancestors in some distant past?

Legends of Vaishnavism are replete with information regarding the once horrific incidents that plagued our planet in the most unimaginable ways. Firstly, the worldwide flood described to be that of Noah in biblical literature is described in Vaishnavite literature as that of Manu, where Manu replaces Noah. And then there are a large number of other legends. Legends talk about how everything on land was uprooted and thrown into the oceans as the following extract shows:

“Just as Indra watches, his wealth, his elephant, his palaces, and all his other belongings, get uprooted and are forcibly taken away by a strong wind; and, in a matter of minutes, he loses everything that he possesses; everything is washed away into the ocean. In just a moment, he and the Devas turn from wealthy beings into beggars and paupers.”

The following legend talks about huge commotions in waters:

“The demon Hayagriva is finally located. There ensues a fierce fight between the demon and the divine fish, and the huge commotion in the water of the ocean reflects the fierceness of the fight. Finally, after a fierce fight, the demon is killed and the Vedas are retrieved.”

What I have covered above is just about the tip of the iceberg. Legends talk about how huge rocks were flying in all directions; legends talk about how mountains jutting out of oceans lost their balance and were tilting here and there and in all sorts of different directions; legends talk about how gigantic tsunamis swept everything visible in sight; legends talk about how huge land mass submerged into the oceans; and many many more. A large part of the Vaishnavite literature is dedicated to worldwide cataclysms and catastrophes.

Vaishnavism is supposed to be the religion that took birth around 1500 BC or so as per mainstream historians. What prompted Vaishnavite seers at that point of time to be imaginative to the extent that they explained every divine phenomenon they could explain in terms of worldwide cataclysms and catastrophes – an imagination that seems to be absent with the seers of other religions?

Were Vaishnavite seers overly and hallucinatingly imaginative to the extent that we have to almost consider them to be abnormal?

Introduction to Hinduism

Brahman - The absolute God of Hinduism

The Supreme God of Hinduism - also termed Sanatana Dharma, Hindu Dharma, or Hindu Religion - is called Para-Brahman, or simply Brahman. He is eternal, formless, timeless, neither male nor female, and is manifest in every nook and corner of this creation. Many a times, the word “it” is used to refer to Brahman—it is formless, shapeless, and timeless primordial matter.

As per Hindu thought, the absolute God Brahman is too profound to be visible to naked eye or to be comprehended by human senses. So, Brahman is normally not directly worshipped - it is normally the manifestations of Brahman that are worshipped. Therefore, both formless and idol worship are allowed in Hinduism. Those who can, can directly concentrate and invoke the formless Brahman, the ultimate reality. This is called nirgunic form of worship. Nir means without, Gun means attributes, so nirgun means without attributes. However, most people find it quite difficult to concentrate on formless God, so they worship God in visual form, in the form of idols or lingas. This is called sagunic form of worship. Sa means with, so sagunic means with attributes. Both sagunic and nirgunic forms of worship are allowed, and neither is considered a sin.

Purusha and Prakriti - Manifestations of Brahman

Brahman is manifest in this creation in primarily two forms—Purusha, the male form, and Prakriti, the female form. For example, take the human body—the soul in the human body is the Purusha component, and the human body itself, made up of mundane elements, is the Prakriti component. Similarly, the universal soul of this entire universe is the Supreme Purusha, the Cosmic Man; and the matter that we see, including earth, planets, sun, stars, galaxies, universes, is the Supreme Prakriti, the Cosmic Woman. It is through the interaction between Purusha and Prakriti that this entire creation is manifest. Brahman itself is not directly attainable by souls seeking salvation; Brahman, or the supreme reality, has to be attained either through Purusha or through Prakriti. Therefore, Hindus worship God in two forms—in both male and female forms. General Hindus consider Purusha to be the active form and the Prakriti to be the inactive form: whenever Purusha wants, he interacts with Prakriti; and, whenever he desires, he stays aloof from Prakriti. Prakriti per se does not have any say in this interaction. Therefore, worshipping Purusha is the primary means or path of salvation for most Hindus—worship is normally offered to the male form of God. However, a section of Hindus focus on Mother Goddess worship: they consider Prakriti to be the active form and Purusha to be the inactive form; they therefore consider that salvation can be only granted by the female form of God; this section of people concentrate on worshipping Mother Goddess—God in female form.

Hindu Pantheon - Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva

As per the beliefs of Hinduism, this universe continues in perennial creation and destruction. This universe is first created; it is then maintained for millions or billions of years; it is then destroyed. After a while, it is again created, maintained, and destroyed, and this cycle keeps continuing until eternity. Therefore, God is visualized in terms of these three actions—God as creator, God as preserver, and God as destroyer. Hindus therefore worship God in trinity form—Brahma as creator (Brahma is different from Brahman), Vishnu as preserver, and Siva as destroyer. Brahma created this universe, and that’s it—his job is done. He no longer has any role to play. He therefore is not worshiped; Brahma has only one temple to himself in India. Vishnu and Siva, however, are worshiped. Therefore, Hindus are primarily made up of two sects—Vaishnavism, consisting of Vaishnavites who worship Vishnu, and Saivism, consisting of Saivites who worship Siva.

Vaishnavites consider Vishnu to be the Supreme Purusha and Laxmi to be the Supreme Prakriti. As per them, at the beginning of time, there was only Mahavishnu He first created Mother Goddess Laxmi out of himself. He then created Brahma and Siva and assigned them the tasks of creation and destruction, respectively. Having done so, Mahavishnu then manifested as Vishnu, who is then carrying out the task of preservation. Even though Vishnu is currently doing only preservation, he can transform himself into Mahavishnu whenever he wants. In that sense, Vishnu is not just the preserver but the Supreme Purusha himself; Brahma, Siva, and everything else, function at his beck and call and command. Brahma then created this entire universe, all living beings, and everything else. Brahma created fire god Agni and assigned him the task of regulating the fire across the universe. He created wind god Vayu and assigned him the task of regulating the wind across the universe. He created water god Varuna and assigned him the task of regulating water across the universe, and so on. These latter beings—Agni, Vayu, Varuna, etc.—are called Devas, and their king is Indra, the god of thunderbolts. Vaishnavites worship mostly on the male side—even though they worship Laxmi, they consider her as inactive; salvation can only be granted by Vishnu. So the male side of worship is mainly stressed upon. So, independent shrines to Laxmi are less common; she is normally worshiped in conjunction with Vishnu. Vishnu is variously called Narayan/Hari/Vasudeva; and Laxmi is also popularly called Sri.

Saivites consider Siva to be the Supreme Purusha and Parvati to be the Supreme Prakriti. At the beginning of time, there was only Parasiva (Great Siva), who created Vishnu, Brahma, and everything else; he assigned the task of preservation to Vishnu, creation to Brahma, and then manifested himself as Siva for the task of destruction—this concept is entirely similar to that of Mahavishnu/Vishnu. Why should a destroyer be worshiped? Before doing one work, the previous work has to be destroyed. You have just watched a movie; now you want to concentrate on office work; but, before you can do so, your mental association with the movie should be destroyed first. So, destruction should not be seen as a negative thing, but it is an extremely essential and central aspect of existence. While Vishnu is worshiped mainly in the form of idols, Siva is mainly worshiped in the form of semi-circular, black-colored stone called Siva Linga. Unlike Vaishnavites, however, Saivites give a lot of importance to Parvati. Many Saivites consider Siva to be the supreme active Purusha, who is the only one capable of giving salvation. However, there are a large number of other Saivites as well who consider Parvati as supreme active Prakriti, the giver of salvation; and these people consider Siva to be the inactive Purusha. So, a large number of independent Mother Goddess shrines are seen all over India for Mother Goddess Parvati. Siva is variously called Sankara/Rudra/Maheswar; and Parvati is variously called Amba, Ambika, Uma. In independent Mother Goddess shrines, Parvati is worshipped in two manifestations—in the form a golden colored goddess called Durga and in the form of a dark colored goddess called Kali. Siva has two sons—Ganesh and Skanda. Ganesh/Ganapati is considered as lord of obstacles—he removes obstacles when propitiated, so Hindus worship Ganesh before starting on any new errand, before buying a car, for example. Siva’s second son Skanda, variously called as Kumara/Muruga/Subramanya, is mainly worshiped in south of India, especially in Tamilnadu.

Mother Goddess Worship - Maya and Shakti

A note here about Mother Goddess worship. Apart from this Purusha/Prakriti theology that we had just discussed, there are two other theologies related to Mother Goddess worship—Shakti and Maya.

The God that is visible to us is normally in male form—either as Vishnu or Siva. However, these gods are able to function properly only because of a certain energy that is present in them. This energy is nothing but that of the Mother Goddess. The Supreme Mother Goddess is invisibly manifest in them as their energy, or theologically called Shakti, enabling them to function properly. Laxmi is Vishnu’s Shakti, Parvati is Siva’s Shakti—without the help of Shakti, the gods cannot function. So Mother Goddess worship is often called Shaktism; and Mother Goddess worshippers are often called Shaktites. Mother Goddess is addressed as Shakti, Adi Shakti (first Shakti), or Para Shakti (great Shakti) by Mother Goddess worshippers.

Maya means illusion; it is an important concept in Vedic religion. As per this theology, all of us are under a certain illusion; world cannot exist without this illusion. All of us eat the same dish, but each person perceives a different taste; how is this possible? The reason this is possible is because all of us are bound by God’s Maya, which makes us think that whatever we perceive to be the truth irrespective of the actual reality. Just imagine a world where each and every person perceives every single phenomenon in exactly the same way—all of us would behave in exactly the same manner. Can such a world function? It is the Maya of God that binds us in a certain illusion and makes the world function. Mother Goddess worshippers, sometimes, visualize Mother Goddess as the personification of Maya. For example, Laxmi is visualized as a personification of Vishnu’s Maya. Mother Goddess is addressed as Mahamaya (great Maya) in this theology.

Coming back to the pantheon, the feminine energy of Brahma is Saraswati. Together, Vishnu/Laxmi, Brahma/Saraswati, Siva/Parvati, these form the pantheon of Hinduism. Even though the pantheon seems to be having a large number of figures, the two primary figures are Vishnu and Siva. Staunch Vaishnavites worship Vishnu alone while staunch Saivites worship Siva alone. This exclusive worship is, however, done by only a part of the population. Most Hindus give equal importance to Vishnu and Siva—they consider Vishnu and Siva to be just two different manifestations of the Supreme Purusha; differentiation between them is not done.

Hindus therefore view heaven in terms of four denominations. Vishnu’s abode is Vaikunt, Brahma’s abode is Brahmalok, Siva’s abode is Kailas, and the abode of Devas is Swarg. The term heaven, in general parlance, is used to refer to Swarg, the abode of Devas. Going to heaven is not considered the same as salvation. Since Brahma is not worshiped much, Brahmalok is not of much consequence. So, going to Vaikunt or Kailas is considered as salvation. Hindus believe in a cycle of continuous birth and death. A human or animal soul takes a body in this life, lives in this body, and on death, leaves this body and takes on another body through another birth; and this process keeps repeating forever. If a person does meritorious deeds in his lifetime, he goes to heaven or the abode of Devas, enjoys heavenly comforts there for a while, and, when his/her merit is exhausted, takes another birth and comes back to earth. If he sins, he goes to hell, pays for his sins there, takes another birth and comes back to earth. If the person has to come out of this cycle of birth/death, he has to seek salvation by realizing the supreme Purusha in either Vishnu or Siva. Continuous attachment to the name, deed, and word of God throughout one’s lifetime, apart from meritorious deeds, is prescribed for attaining salvation.

Hindu Scriptures - Vedas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanishads, Tantras, and Puranas

Four Vedas—Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, Atharva Veda—considered to be the most sacred scriptures of Hindus, are the basis for these religious beliefs. These Vedas are considered as given to humanity; they were not composed by men. These Vedas are nothing but compendiums of hymns. Three hymns—Purusha Sukta, Narayan Sukta, Sri Sukta—form the basis for Vaishnavite beliefs; and three hymns—Purusha Sukta, Sri Rudram, Durga Sukta—form the basis for Saivite beliefs. Purusha Sukta is common for both sects and is the most important and fundamental hymn for all of Hinduism. While a few other hymns are also present with respect to these sects, most part of the Vedas are composed of hymns addressed to the Devas, including Agni, Indra, Varuna, Vayu, Aswins, and others. These hymns are mostly used for sacrificial purposes by sages. Performing yagnas or sacrifices was one of the fundamental activities of yore, and these other hymns held a lot of importance then. Nowadays, very few yagnas are done, so fundamental Hinduism is mostly based on the hymns listed above.

Other scriptures of Hindus are Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanishads, Puranas, and Tantras. Brahmanas and Aranyakas are commentaries on Vedas—they contain detailed instructions on the use of the Vedic hymns in various sacrificial rituals. Upanishads are the place where the real theology of Hindus is present; they contain detailed and intricate treatises on God and his relation to human soul. They are more than hundred in number and are a vast body of knowledge base dealing with virtually every aspect of spiritualism. Puranas constitute the popular Hinduism—they are eighteen large books in number with six dedicated to Vishnu, six dedicated to Siva, six dedicated to either of them apart from talking about other gods like Brahma and Devas. The authorship of the Vedas/Brahmanas/Upanishads is not known; especially, the Vedas are considered to have been handed down to humanity. However, Puranas have an author—they are considered to have been written by a great sage called Vyasa, who is considered to be an incarnation of Vishnu. These Puranas deal with Hindu mythology, constituting a vast body of legends. The normal context of these Puranas is about evil beings called Asurs, who normally work toward the destruction of the world and victimization of mankind. They are perennially at war with Devas. In most instances, Devas find it beyond them to fight with these evil forces—that’s when either Vishnu or Siva or others enter the scene, destroy these evil forces, and restore righteousness in this world. Puranas also contain detailed accounts of various great sages and devotees of the past, and they also contain accounts of important and ancient religious shrines. Tantras are a vast body of work that contain rituals and practices that are to be observed in the Vaishnavite and Saivite temples. Tantras also contain detailed accounts of various short-cut methods to attain God—for example, concentrating on the central portion of a rectangle or a square shape—these shapes are normally called yantras. So Tantrik worshippers use yantras for worship instead of idols or lingas. While some Tantras are highly regarded, other Tantras are frowned upon for their negative content and are termed as a leftist body of work. For example, human sacrifices used to be done in the past by some extremists, based on some methods prescribed in a few of the Tantras.

Apart from these scriptures, Hinduism has two epics, two very large scriptures, called Ramayan and Mahabharat. The subject of these epics is about incarnations of Vishnu. Vishnu, in his role as preserver of the universe, is considered to be taking various incarnations from time to time in order to destroy evil forces and restore righteousness. He is considered to have incarnated nine times until now. A future tenth incarnation is expected when God is to descend to earth and destroy evil. The first five incarnations of Vishnu were in heaven. The last four were on earth. In order to punish wicked kings on earth, Vishnu is believed to have taken birth as Parasuram, his sixth incarnation, and is considered to have roamed the earth and killed wicked kings all over. A wicked king called Ravan is considered to have taken birth in the current day Sri Lanka region to the south of India. He was so mighty that all worlds, including Devas in heaven, trembled at his name. He became so wicked that it became necessary for God Vishnu to come down to earth as Ram, his seventh incarnation, in order to kill him. The story of Ram was compiled in the epic Ramayan by a sage called Valmiki. The story of Ram got so popular that each and every language of India has its own versions, with several modifications done to the original, based on the personal preferences of the author. This way, a large number of versions of Ramayan have come about all over India and its surrounding regions. Some legends of Ram are found only in some versions, while they are not found in other versions. Similarly, there was a wicked king killed called Kans. He got so wicked that God Vishnu had to descend to earth as Krishna, his eighth incarnation, in order to kill him. Krishna was later involved in the great Indian war of Mahabharat. His exploits and those of the war were captured in the epic of Mahabharat, a huge book. Some Indians consider Buddha of Buddhism to be the ninth incarnation of Vishnu while others consider Krishna’s brother Balram to be the ninth incarnation. The tenth incarnation of Vishnu, named Kalki, is expected to come in the future. A brief description of the legends of Ramayan and Mahabharat are given below.

Brief Story of Ramayan

An extremely wicked king, Ravan, ruled the city of Lanka (current day Sri Lanka to the south of India). By virtue of severe austerities done in propitiation of Lord Brahma, he and his clan attain several boons from Brahma, by virtue of which he becomes invincible. Devas in heaven tremble at his name, and he subjugates Devas and humans alike by the virtue of his might. He and his clan appropriate married and unmarried woman alike from all over the world. His atrocities grow unbearable, and it is considered necessary to kill him. By virtue of boons received from Brahma, Ravan can be killed by humans alone, not Devas. So it becomes necessary for Lord Vishnu to be born on earth as a human being.

There existed a city called Ayodhya in northern India (this city exists in northern India even today), ruled by King Dasarath. He has three wives—Kausalya, Sumitra, and Kaikeyi. Lord Vishnu takes birth as Ram, the eldest son of Dasarath, as the son of Mother Kausalya. He is born along with three brothers—Laxman, Bharath, and Satrughn. Bharat is born to Kaikeyi, while the other two are born to Sumitra. Right from his birth, Ram is of exemplary character. Even though he was the crown prince and the would-be king, even his servants never ever had a cross word from him. People were so enamored by him that men and women alike fell in love with him, every person in the kingdom considered Ram to be his or her son or brother.

When Ram was a kid of sixteen years, a great and mighty sage called Viswamitra comes and takes Ram and Laxman along with him to the forests. He was performing a sacrifice, and he required Ram and Laxman to protect his sacrifices as they were being disrupted by demons. While in forests, Viswamitra teaches Ram and Laxman about advanced weapons and powers that would be useful to Ram and Laxman for their future exploits. After the sacrifices are completed, Viswamitra takes Ram to King Janaka’s court. King Janaka has a huge bow, purportedly used by God Siva in the past. He pledges that he would give his extremely beautiful daughter Sita (Laxmi was born as Sita as per beliefs) only to someone who can lift and use the bow. He does so because, when his daughter Sita was a kid, he saw her lift the bow and place it aside in order to fetch a ball that was on the other side of the bow. He was astonished by it because the bow is so huge that it requires a large number people to lift it or move it. A large number of kings and princes try their hand at from all over the world, but all of them fail to even move it by an inch. Ram goes there, and, on orders from his guru Viswamitra, lifts the bow and breaks it. As promised, Sita and her sisters are given in marriage to Ram and his brothers.

The time for coronation of Ram as king comes. People are waiting expectantly in rejoice at the prospect of their beloved Ram becoming the king when things take an unexpected turn. In the past, on one occasion, King Dasarath is pleased with a certain help from his third wife, Kaikeyi; she acts courageously and rescues him from certain dire circumstances in a war. In return for saving his life, he promises her that he would fulfill two wishes of hers whenever she desires, whatever those wishes might be, without fail. Kaikeyi takes this occasion and demands that her son Bharat become the king while Ram is sent out to forests to reside there for fourteen years. Dasarath is extremely pained at this but cannot go back on his word. He, however, refuses to send his beloved son to the jungles. Ram, however, comes to know about the happenings and starts for the jungles without a word of protest. Despite Ram’s not wanting it, his wife Sita and brother Laxman go along with him.

The residents of Ayodhya are extremely pained at the developments. They refuse to let him go and decide to go along with him to the forests. Ram has to trick them and leave for the forests when they are asleep. King Dasarath cannot bear parting with his son, and while he wallows in grief, he dies. Kaikeyi’s son Bharat is out of city when all of this happens. He comes back, knows about the happenings and castigates his mother for being wicked. He refuses to ascend the throne. He, along with people of Ayodhya, sets out to seek Ram in the forests. He catches up with Ram and requests Ram to come back. Ram is pained on hearing about his father’s death but refuses to go back. Finally, after Ram’s advice and persuasion, Bharat takes the footwear of Ram along with him back to Ayodhya. Bharat places the footwear on the throne and rules Ayodhya as a representative of his brother, willing to take the mantle only for fourteen years until his brother’s return.

Ram, along with his wife, Sita, and brother, Laxman, travels toward the south of India, meeting several great sages on his way while also killing a large number of demons that troubled those sages. Ravan hears about the beauty of Sita and decides to appropriate her. While Ram and Laxman are away from their hut, he comes and captures Sita and takes her away to Lanka. He pleads with her to marry him but she does not budge. Meanwhile, Ram finds his wife absent on his return to their hut and sets about searching for her in a despondent state of mind. On his way, he meets up with a dethroned ape king, Sugriva, and his followers. Sugriva was dethroned by his brother Vali, and even his wife was appropriated. In return for help to put Sugriva back on throne, Sugriva promises to help Ram in his search for his wife. Accordingly, when Sugriva and Vali are in a fight with each other, Ram shoots an arrow, kills Vali, and enthrones Sugriva. In return, Sugriva and his mighty ape army set about in search of Sita. They come to know that she is in Lanka. A bridge is built across the ocean and Ram crosses the ocean along with his brother, Sugriva, and the mighty ape army. A fierce battle ensues between the mighty forces of Ravan and the ape armies of Ram. Sugriva’s attendant, Hanuman, is a major player of the events at this time (as per beliefs, God Siva was born as Hanuman in order to help Ram). After a titanic fight, Ravan and all his forces are decimated. Ravan’s brother Vibhishan, a pious man, is made the king of Lanka; Ram comes back to Ayodhya along with Sita and Laxman.

Ram rules Ayodhya in a righteous manner. His rule is still very fondly remembered as Ramrajya, which were the days of heaven on earth. Since then, virtually every other rule in India, including the current day democratic rules, is compared to Ramrajya. It is believed that when the end came, Ram took all the people of Ayodhya and immersed himself in the river Sarayu. All those who went along with him are believed to have reached his heavenly abode of Vaikunt.

Brief Story of Mahabharat War

A wicked person called Kans gets greedy, dethrones his father Ugrasen, and ascends the throne of Mathura (in northern India). He is warned by a divine voice that the eighth child of his sister Devaki, a son, would be his nemesis. He gets angry about this and imprisons his sister and her husband, Vasudeva. He kills their first six children. The seventh child is saved by divine intervention and whisked away to Gokul, some distance away from Mathura. Time comes for the birth of the eighth child and Kans gets anxious and tells the prison attendants to be alert and inform him as soon as the eighth child is born.

The time comes for the birth of Vishnu as the eighth child of Devaki, as Krishna. A divine shadow appears on the wall of the prison and informs the would-be parents, to their immense delight, that the Supreme God himself is about to be born as their son. Vasudeva is then instructed on what needs to be done. As soon as the child is born, all the prison guards become unconscious, the doors of the prison open by themselves and Devaki parts with her child with a heavy heart. Vasudeva departs with his child to Gokul. Amidst heavy rains, the river Yamuna parts her way in respect to the divine child. Vasudeva walks across the river and reaches Gokul to the house of his friend Nanda, the chief of Gokul. By divine intervention, the entire household is asleep and is unaware of the entry of Vasudeva. Vasudeva enters the house, to the room of Yashoda, who is fast asleep besides her just born daughter. Vasudeva places the divine child besides Yashoda and takes the girl child away back with him to the prison. The prison doors are automatically locked, and the guards regain their consciousness. The news of the birth of the eighth child is taken to Kans, who then rushes to the prison with a sword. He snatches the child away and throws it into the air with an intention to cut in into pieces with his sword. However, to his dismay, the girl child transforms herself into the Supreme Mother Goddess Durga. Durga laughs at him, tells him that his nemesis is safely away, and is being brought up at a far off place, and vanishes.

Krishna and Balram, the eighth and seventh kids of Devaki, are brought up at Gokul as the children of Nanda and Yashoda. Kans keeps sending wicked people to far corners of kingdom, instructing them to kill newborn children. However, even while being a child, Krishna does wonders. A wicked woman, Potana, on instructions from Kans, goes about killing newborn children by applying poison to her breasts and breastfeeding them. She reaches the abode of Nanda and beholds Krishna. When attention is diverted, she quickly takes Krishna, then a months-old baby, to a corner and breastfeeds him. However, instead of Krishna being affected, Potana herself dies a violent death. One by one, all agents of Kans get killed by Krishna as he grows, brought up as a shepherd. He kills an extraordinarily big serpent, lifts a mountain with his left index finger in order to save his folks from a mighty storm, and shows every sign of being God himself who walked on earth. As he grew into a young man, all the ladies, married and unmarried alike, flock to him and fall into his trance, sometimes being oblivious to their surroundings.

Kans eventually comes to know of this divine young man and sends emissaries to Nanda household, inviting Krishna and Balram for some ceremonies at his palace. Krishna and Balram accept the invitation and set about to Mathura. In Mathura, when these young people were in his court, Kans sets his mighty wrestlers on them. The brothers take on the wrestlers and kill them. Krishna then jumps onto the throne of Kans and kills him on the spot. He then brings his grandfather, Ugrasen, from the prison and enthrones him.

Meanwhile, the mighty kingdom at Hastinapur (current day Delhi, capital of India), ruled by Krishna’s cousins, is split up into two factions—one faction led by the Pandava brothers, five in number, and another faction led by Kauravas, a hundred in number. They rule most parts of present-day India, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and the surrounding regions. Kauravas, led by their elder brother Duryodhan, gets jealous of the wealth and might of Pandavas. They call the Pandavas for a visit, cheat them over a game of dice, and usurp their kingdom. Elders frown at this, and a pact is reached by which the Pandavas need to spend twelve years in the forests and one year undercover, incognito. If the Pandavas are located and recognized during that one year, they would have to spend another twelve years in the forests and one year under cover.

Accordingly, the Pandavas go to the forests and spend twelve years there. The undercover year approaches. The Pandavas go to a king’s palace and hide there as his servants. One year almost gets completed when the Pandavas are located and recognized. There ensues a disagreement between the two groups. As per the Pandavas, one year is already over when they were recognized. As per the Kauravas, a few more hours were left and one year was not yet completed, so the Pandavas need to go back to the jungles again. Krishna tries to bring a truce between them and fails. Duryodhan does not budge at any proposals as he considers his side to be much superior with the likes of the great warriors Bhishm, Dron, and Karn on his side.

Then ensues a battle between the two factions. A large number of kings of the Indian civilization enlist their support on either of the two sides and personally come about, along with their armies, to fight in the war. They being cousins, Krishna and Balram do not want to fight. Krishna, however, sends his armies to fight on the side of the Kauravas, while he goes alone on the side of the Pandavas. He pledges not to take any weapon and goes merely as the driver of Arjun’s chariot (the third Pandava).

As the war is about to ensue, Arjun develops cold feet and tells Krishna about this. Krishna then takes Arjun away to a lonely place. There, he tells Arjun that he should not back away, but needs to fight, as it was his duty. Krishna then tells Arjun that he (Krishna) was the Supreme God who came to earth for the destruction of the wicked. The war was already won; Krishna already killed all the opponents; all that Arjun needed to do was to perform mechanical motions. Krishna then gives divine vision to Arjun and shows his true cosmic form in its true magnificence. Arjun then sees in Krishna the entire universe, including himself. He then sees in Krishna the way in which each of the warriors of the opposite camp would be killed. Krishna then tells Arjun, “I am the Supreme God, I am Vishnu, I am Brahma, I am Siva, and am everything else in this world; forget all other forms of worship and surrender to me. I shall deliver you. Just keep faith in me and you have nothing to lose.” (These holy teachings of Krishna to Arjun are encapsulated in Gita, the holy scripture of Krishna, extremely sacred to all Indians, even today).

The Great Indian War of Mahabharat then ensues for eighteen days and the Pandavas emerge victorious. Even though the other side was much stronger, the Pandavas are considered to have won the war only because of the presence of Krishna on their side. Krishna did not touch any weapon, yet he won the war for them.

After living for 125 years, Krishna decides it is time for his ascent to heaven. He is playing flute near a tree, his foot visible from behind a tree trunk. A hunter mistakes it for some deer or something and shoots an arrow, which pierces the leg of Krishna. When the hunter realizes his mistake, he pleads for mercy. Krishna tells him that it is not his fault and that it happened only because of Krishna’s will. He blesses him and forgives him and then ascends to heaven.

Indians believe that Mahabharat took place about 3000 BC, while academic historians place it at around 1000 to 800 BC.

Introduction to Abrahamic Religions

Judaism, Christianity, Islam—these three together are called the Abrahamic religions. They share the concept of original sin and the covenant of Abraham with God. They have a common God called Yahweh by Jews and Christians, and Allah by Muslims. However, the means of salvation differs between the three religions.

While Abraham’s covenant with God is considered as sufficient for the salvation of Jews, Christians consider implicit faith in Jesus, the Son of God, as the necessary prerequisite for salvation. Likewise, Islam considers faith in Mohammed as God’s prophet, as the necessary prerequisite for salvation.

As per the theology of Abrahamic religions, the history of man started with Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, respectively. They were created by God and were living in paradise, along with God. They were naked and were not ashamed of it. God tells them not to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. However, the serpent entices Eve into eating the fruit of the tree forbidden by God. Not just that, Eve also gives the fruit to Adam, who eats it as well. When God sees them the next time, they are clothed, and he realizes that they had eaten the fruit of the forbidden tree. He curses the serpent to wallow in dirt and puts enmity between man and serpent. He curses the woman with hard labor and pain in childbirth and banishes them from paradise. Adam and Eve come down to earth and live here as mortals.

The primary duty of every human being is to get rid of this original sin and win salvation back. After several generations of this descent onto earth, the theology of Abrahamic religions starts primarily with Abraham, a pious man, considered to be the founding father of several nations. He is generally placed around 1800 BC. He was living in Mesopotamia when God accosted him and told him to leave for the land of Canaan. Accordingly, Abraham leaves for the land of Canaan along with his kith and kin and followers. God then makes a covenant with Abraham—in recognition of Yahweh as the soul and Supreme God, he would spiritually bless Abraham and his descendants. Ever since then, this covenant passes onto all of Abraham’s descendants.

The search for the promised land continues for several generations after Abraham. Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, is bestowed with the title of Israel by God, and his twelve sons become the progenitors of the twelve tribes of Israel. These tribes are held in captivation of the pharaoh of Egypt, who enslaves them. Moses somehow escapes from the enslavement. However, after a while, God commands Moses to bring his brethren out of slavery. Accordingly, Moses goes to the pharaoh, shows him the powers acquired by him from God, convinces the pharaoh to leave his people, and gets his brethren out of slavery. This famous event is called Exodus. Moses dies without reaching the land of Canaan. However, some time after Moses, the tribes finally succeed in locating the land of Canaan and settle there. Land is captured and distributed among the tribes by Joshua. For a while after reaching Canaan, the Jews are present without any head or kingdom. A few great people, called judges, rose from time to time and led them to the correct path, while protecting them from invaders. Eventually, all the tribes were consolidated under a single king called Saul. Saul was followed by David and Solomon. Under Solomon’s reign, the first temple of Jews at Jerusalem was constructed.

After Solomon, however, there was disintegration in the ranks and the Jewish kingdom split up into two—Israel in the north, consisting of ten tribes, and Judah in the south, consisting of two tribes. Israel was conquered by Assyrian rulers around the eighth century BC and the ten tribes were banished from the kingdom. There is no definite record of these ten tribes, and lot of communities from around the world claim to be the lost tribes of Israel. The kingdom of Judah was itself captured by the Babylonian army in sixth century BC, and the Jews there were exiled. Later on, Persians defeated Babylonians, and under their rule, Jews were allowed to return to Israel. Jews at this time were guided by religious leaders called prophets. A second temple was constructed to God under the leadership of the last of these prophets.

Persians were later conquered by Alexander the Great and Greek rule was established. Later on, the rule passed on to the Roman Empire. During later ages, Jews of Israel and surrounding regions were under the control of several other rulers, including Arabs. And many times, the adherents of the faith were persecuted, but they bore all of that with admirable resolve.

The Jewish Bible, Tanakh, consists of twenty-seven books. The first five books were considered written by Moses; they form the most sacred part of the Bible, containing accounts of Adam and Eve, Abraham, Exodus, God’s commandments, among others. These books are considered to have been handed over to Moses by God himself. The rest of the books of the Bible contain the teachings and accounts of Judges, Kings, and Prophets.

Despite being under the rule of others, their spiritual development did not stop, and they continued to evolve spiritually. After the prophets, the spiritual leadership passed on to five successive generations of Zugots, or pairs of leaders. Spiritual leadership passed on from Zugots to successive generations of rabbis, as Jewish priests are called, to the current day.

Talmud is the Jewish scripture that contains rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs etc. It contains of two parts—Mishnah and Gemara. Each of the rabbi eras is responsible for a certain kind of development. The Tannaim were responsible for the development of Jewish law expressed in Mishnah. The Amoraim were responsible for codification of views expressed by Tannaim, in Gemara. The current structure of Talmud was largely given by Savoraim. Other eras or rabbis, likewise, contributed to other scriptural developments of Judaism.

Judaism places complete ban on idol worship—i.e., they believe only in nirgunic form of worship, sadgunic form of worship is considered as sin. They address God by a few names, the most important being Yahweh, represented by YHWH.

Christianity

Christianity is based of the teachings of Jesus, considered to be the Son of God Yahweh. The name of Jesus is not Christ; the word Christ has been derived from Chrestos of Greek, meaning savior. Christianity is based on the precept that salvation is possible only though Jesus, the savior. Jesus is considered to be the Messiah foretold in the Jewish Bible. Abraham’s covenant with God provides salvation only through Abraham’s descendants, meaning Jews. Since Jesus is a Jew and hence a descendant of Abraham, salvation brought through Jesus falls under the purview of Abraham’s covenant with God; and, most importantly, salvation from the original sin is now available to all people, not just Jews.

Jesus is considered to have been born around the fourth or sixth year BC at the time of Herod the King, in Bethlehem of Judea, to Virgin Mary, by a miracle of the Holy Spirit. His birth is announced by angels, wise men come seeking him, and shepherds flock to see him. King Herod comes to know about his birth and tries to kill him by massacring all children below the age of two in his kingdom. The family flees to Egypt until the death of the king, whereupon, they return to Nazareth. At about the age of thirty, Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist, and he sets about teaching the gospel of God to people.

He cures the diseased, brings dead people alive, cures lepers, multiplies food several times so that all his hundreds or thousands of disciples can eat until their stomachs are full; and, while doing all of this, he teaches the gospel of God to people. He tells of himself to be the son of God, sent by God to teach the good news of salvation to people. Slowly, the news of Jesus’ claim of being the son of God reaches the ears of Jewish priests and Roman authorities. As per existing laws, it was a gross crime for any person to claim Godhood. Jesus is arrested, tried, and sentenced to death on a cross. He, along with two others, are impaled on crosses. Even while being impaled on a cross, Jesus cries to God to show mercy to those who are impaling him, because they know not what they are doing—such was his compassion for humanity. Jesus dies on the cross and is buried. He rises from the dead on the third day and becomes visible to his disciples. He instructs his disciples to go about and preach and spread the word of God. He then finally ascends to heaven after accomplishing his earthly mission.

Christians believe that Jesus atoned for the original sin by paying with his blood. The original sin is now atoned for, and those who believe in Jesus are eligible for this atonement, while other nonbelievers are still tagged with the original sin. God Yahweh, out of his infinite compassion for humanity, sent his only begotten son Jesus to this world for the atonement of the original sin. Christians believe in the trinity of the God Yahweh, the father, Jesus, the son of God, and the Holy Spirit—the spirit of God. Christians believe that Holy Spirit is with them at all times; it leads people to faith in Jesus and gives them the ability to lead a Christian life. Even though it might look like polytheism, it is not. It is a concept of three persons in one Godhead, called the Triune God.

The Christian Bible is made up of two testaments—the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is the same as the Jewish Bible. The New Testament contains the accounts and teachings of Jesus and his disciples. As per Christians, God has made a new covenant with Jesus in place of the old one with Abraham. As per this new covenant, whoever believes in Jesus gets absolved of the original sin and becomes eligible for entry into heaven. The Jewish Bible represents the old covenant, so it is called the Old Testament; the accounts of Jesus contain the new covenant, so it is called the New Testament.

Islam

Jews believe that Abrahamic covenant and legacy passed onto them through Issac, the son of Abraham through his legal wife Sarai. However, Islam believes that the Abrahamic covenant and legacy passed on, not to Jews born through Issac, but to Arabs born through Ishmael, Abraham’s other son through his other wife Hagar. Prophet Mohammed is a descendant of Ishmael; therefore, salvation from original sin is possible only through Prophet Mohammed, who was born in Mecca and lived there around the seventh century AD.
As per Islamic beliefs, it is wrong to divide God into three personalities as Christianity does. As per them, God cannot have a son; he is the only one and the supreme. Jesus is just a prophet of God, not son. Jesus failed in his mission on account of his being impaled on the cross; so, God sent the prophet Mohammed to this world to teach the word of God to people. Like Jews, Islam places a complete ban on any form of idol worship; only nirgunic form of worship is allowed, sadgunic worship is considered as sin. Their scripture is the holy Koran.

Introduction to Buddhism

Buddha means “The Awakened One.” Siddharth Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, was born in the city of Lumbini and brought up in Kapilavastu (current day Nepal, north of India). His birth is placed at around 500 BC. His mother died in childbirth. Upon his birth, a wise man visited his father, King Suddhodana, and told him that the boy would either become a great emperor or a great sage. The king did not want his son to become a sage, so he took extreme precautions in ensuring that his son never saw anything that would disturb his mind. As a result, the boy was brought in a fairy-tale world where he did not know the sufferings of the common man. He was married to Yashodara and had a child named Rahula.

One day, despite his father’s precautions, Gautama managed to go out of his palace without the usual precautions. There, he beheld the first sight of the sufferings of humans. He came across an old man, a diseased man, a corpse, and an ascetic. He was mightily disturbed, as he was not aware of these things; he, for the first time, came to know that a person can die. It led to a spiritual awakening in him. He decided to abandon his royal life, left his palace, and set out in search of enlightenment.

On his way, he met up with a few ascetics, who taught him many forms of meditations and self-denials including severe under eating. One day, after almost starving to death, Buddha accepted some milk and rice from a little girl. He then realized that neither extremes of self-denial and self-indulgence are desirable and realized that the middle path or the path of moderation was the ideal solution. After discovering the middle way, he one day sat under a fig tree, known as Bodhi tree, in the town of Bodhgaya, India. He vowed not to get up until he found enlightenment. At the age of thirty-five, after many days of meditation, he attained enlightenment, or nirvana. He then attracted a large number of followers, far and wide, instituted a monastic order and spent his time traveling and teaching what he found, for the upliftment of humanity. He is also credited with several miracles, which were done to improve the faith of people in him rather than impress people.

Like Hindus, Buddhists also believe in the perennial cycle of birth and death. And Buddhists need to place implicit faith in what are called the three jewels in order to come out of this cycle: Buddha, Dharma (Buddha’s teachings), and Sangha (communion of Buddhist saints or monks).

As per Buddha, there are four noble truths of life:

1. Life means suffering.
2. Suffering arises out of attachment, desires, craving.
3. It is possible to conquer suffering.
4. The path to conquer suffering and attain nirvana, or ever lasting bliss, is the eight-fold noble path taught by Buddha, which consists of realization of the reality and a gradual attainment of Samadhi. And the guiding principle for this eight-fold path is the middle way realized by Buddha.

Living a life of monastic discipline is almost a must for attainment of enlightenment. So, householders cannot easily attain enlightenment. Giving up all temporal attachments and desires, and living a life of celibacy where no sexual interaction is entertained, are the cornerstones of Buddhism.

There are two major kinds of schools in Buddhism—Hinayana (or lesser vehicle) and Mahayana (greater vehicle).

Hinayana schools of thought were the original schools of Buddhism that emerged after the death of Buddha. In Hinayana schools of Buddhism, personal salvation of monks is of the highest priority. Each monk tries for his individual salvation in the company of other similar-minded monks. These are relatively atheistic schools of thought, as they do not see any role for an all-seeing or all-conquering God.

Mahayana schools of thought differ in this respect; these schools developed later on as theistic tendencies started developing. For them, Buddha is the Supreme God himself, who appeared on earth for the upliftment of humanity. Mahayana schools of thought believe in certain quasi-divine saviors of mankind, called Boddhisattvas. These Bodhisattvas are enlightened sages, ready for Buddhahood. However, they defer their attainment of Buddhahood for the spiritual upliftment of humanity. A Bodhisattva would take enlightenment only when each and every soul on this planet has attained Buddhahood. As we can see, they are more compassionate faiths that take the salvation goals of the general humanity into account.

Jainism is also dated to have developed at around the same time as Buddhism. Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, is also dated to 500–600 BC. Both religious systems have very similar theologies, with their extensive stress on ahimsa or nonviolence. The stress of Jainism in this regard is much more than that of Buddhism, to the extent that they do not even eat vegetables like potatoes because these vegetables grow inside the earth and contain germs that might be killed when they are cooked. Both religious systems preach the doctrine of karma and the cycle of life and death, and both talk about liberation through self-realization, and through nonattachment to temporal possessions. Most importantly, neither religion talks much about God; in that sense they are atheistic.

About the Author

Born into a deeply devout family, Prithviraj Rathod was born and brought up in theology. He traveled widely in India and observed huge differences between the religious cultures of different regions, which led to a realization in him that India is probably a melting pot of a large number of races, and not a mixture of two races as told by present-day historians. He felt that India as well as other cultures faced several to and fro migrations throughout their histories. This book is a product of two and a half decades of research in religious studies, in which he traces IndoEuropean as well as World history to an ancient culture that originated in the Arctic region 19,000 Years ago.