It very well may come to pass in the near future
that those concerned with truth will wrestle
primarily with history rather than science.
The obvious reason for this is that, in
the words of Dr. Wilfred Cantwell Smith,
author of Theology and the World's
Religious History, "Humanity is more
important than things. The truth about
humanity is of a higher order than the
truth about things."1
History tells an intriguing tale, one that ultimately
may provide the greatest support for a
spiritual worldview. But history has also
been distorted. An example of this is
the "common knowledge" that
Columbus discovered America. Some say
he didn't, nor were any other Europeans
the first to touch America's shores. There
is good reason to reexamine the history
of the world and the Americas in particular.
An unbiased look into the development
of our planet's civilizations may help
to bring about a change in values, a shift
from material values to spiritual ones.
What if Europe was really in darkness in comparison
to the Far East and India that Columbus
set sail to find? What if the popular
idea that the Tibetans and the American
Indians have much in common in terms of
their spiritual culture is largely a result
of another historical scenario? What if
Hindus and Hopis, Advaitins and Aztecs,
Tibetan monks and Mayans were part of
one world culture -- a spiritual one?
Perhaps the development of Western civilization
and the Protestant ethic, which many of
the West are now coming to abhor, have
gotten in the way of the spiritual development
of humanity. Perhaps many technological
developments, while making physical contact
with other cultures more possible, have
distanced us from one another in a deeper
sense. Another historical scenario: The
spiritually sophisticated Asians were
the first to set foot on Western shores,
and Asia, not Europe, was the seat of
culture. The central focus of that culture
was genuine spiritual development, not
the mere shadow of the same in the form
of the politically-motivated Pauline Christianity
and later the Protestant ethic, which
licensed humankind's exploitation of nature.
This theory is found in the Vedic literature
of India. The ancient Puranas (literally,
histories) and the Mahabharata make mention of the Americas as lands rich with
gold and silver. Argentina, which means
'related to silver,' is thought to have
been named after Arjuna (of silver hue),
one of the heroes of that great epic.
India's Puranic histories are, however,
questionable to the rationalist. In the
minds of the empiricists, they are more
akin to myths. Yet myths have meaning,
as the late Joseph Campbell has reminded
us. The Puranas downplay in particular
the mere recording of mundane events.
The Puranic view is that even if its histories
are only myths (which is not necessarily
the case), the lessons to be learned from
them are infinitely more valuable than
what can be learned from recording the
coming and going of humanity. In their
view, only those human events that serve
to promote transcendental knowledge are
worth recording. Although empiricists
are justified in dismissing them from
their viewpoint, the so-called myths and
their followers are also justified in
dismissing the empiricist's insistence
that empirical evidence is final.
Granted, India has shown some lacking in her
ability to record her story. But that
is due to her preoccupation with the transcendent,
the suprahistorical, and not to any ineptitude
on her part. According to Kana Mitra in
her article "Theologizing Through
History?" "We [Hindus]
tend to forget about history, and
the de-emphasis of nama-rupa -- name and form [due to transcendent preoccupation]
-- is one of the reasons for not putting
down a name or date in many of our writings.
Consequently present-day historians have
a difficult time in determining the date
and authorship of various works."2
Fortunately, for dealing with the "I'll
only believe it if I can see it"
mentality of the empiricist, there is
considerable hard evidence and academic
support for the Vedic theory that most
people are unaware of. Unbiased consideration
of this remarkable evidence may move modern-day
rationalists to give serious thought to
the more realistic spiritual outlook of
"Only if you believe it can you see
it." After all, reality is a living
thing and it may reserve the right not
to show itself but to those to whom it
so chooses. Otherwise, why are we in illusion,
or in search of reality? If it
is something we can attain by our
own prowess, how did we get here (in doubt)
in the first place?
|
The meeting (1519) of Hernan Cortes and the Aztec emperor Montezuma II is depicted in this 17th century Spanish painting. (British Embassy, Mexico City). Unfortunately, the American Indians did not survive their cultural exchange with Europe. The Europeans, through book burning and bayonet, successfully "converted" them leaving very little trace of their noble civilization.
Many historians have scrutinized historical
evidence to find more insight into the
marvelous cultures that populated the
American continent before Christopher
Columbus was born. Their thirst for research
was based on the assumption that the great
Mayan, Aztec, and Incan civilizations
could not have appeared all of a sudden
in the Western world. Rather, they must
have received strong influence from ancient
Eastern cultures, mainly from India.
Alexander von Humbolt (1769-1859), an eminent
European scholar and anthropologist, was
one of the first to postulate the Asiatic
origin of the Indian civilizations of
the Americas. His and other scholars'
views formed the basis for the "diffusionist"
argument, which was opposed by the "isolationist"
viewpoint. Diffusionists believe that
the world's civilizations are a result
of social contact (civilized man meets
uncivilized man). Isolationists believe
that civilizations cropped up all over
the earth without physical contact with
one another.
The Aztec Calendar is known as the Aztec Chakra to Hindu Astronomers. (National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico.)"The doctrine of the world's ages (Hindu Yugas) was imported into Pre-Columbian America... The Mexican sequence is identical with the Hindus... The essential fact remains that they were derived from a common source... It would be ridiculous to assert that such a strange doctrine was of spontaneous origin in different parts of old and new worlds." — Mackenzie, Myths of Pre-Columbian America.
It is readily accepted that some twenty thousand
years ago primitive Asians crossed the
Bering Strait into North America and gradually
moved south all the way to Tierra del
Fuego, Argentina. Diffusionists maintained
that after this occurred civilized Asiatic
people distributed themselves via the
Pacific, thereby bringing civilization
to the Americas. Isolationists insisted
that after the nomadic tribes crossed
the Bering Strait, a homogeneous race
of "Indians of the Americas"
was formed, and the American tribespeople
then went about reinventing all culture,
duplicating in two thousand years what
originally took about six millenniums
in the Old World.
Henry Charlton Bastian, author of The Evolution
of Life (1907), presented
the concept of physicochemical evolution,
which gave strength to the isolationists.
His theory advocated that the development
of civilized man was a result of "a
psychic unity of mankind," rather
than social contact. Bastian's theory
of elementargedanke influenced
many anthropologists, and today, although
the theory is not accepted, it is tacitly
acknowledged as far as the conformities
between America and Old World civilizations
are concerned.3
This pseudo-evolutionist
theory leaves much to be desired, and
its unspoken acceptance casts doubt on
the credibility of the anthropologists.
After all, doesn't it tax our credulity
when we are asked to believe that a whole
series of complicated techniques like
casting by the lost wax method, the alloying
of copper and tin, the coloring of gold
by chemical processes, weaving, and tie-dyeing
and batik were by some miracle invented
twice, once in the Old World and again
from scratch in the Americas? What mysterious
psychological law would have caused Asians
and Americans to both use the umbrella
as a sign of royalty, to invent the same
games, imagine similar cosmologies, and
attribute the same colors to the different
directions?
No archeologist today would attribute to prehistoric
Europeans the independent invention of
bronze casting, iron work, the wheel,
weaving, pottery, writing, and so many
other cultural elements that were derived
from the Middle East. Similarly, the industrial
developments in Britain were introduced
from elsewhere within the European continent,
not developed independently. What then
would cause one to insist that what was
not possible for the Europeans (duplicating
culture independently) was possible for
the American Indians? Especially when
at the same time we are taught that the
Europeans were of superior stock!
It was in 1949 that these opposing views met
head-on at the Congress of the Americanists
held in New York, which was sponsored
by the American Museum of Natural History.
At that time, the diffusionists presented
an overwhelming mass of Asiatic-Pacific-American
parallels. Nonetheless, much of the diffusionists'
evidence continues to be ignored, and
the isolationist view is more widely accepted.
The reason for this may be more than empirical
evidence or lack of the same. Indeed,
it may be the faulty nature of the empirical
approach, which depends on one's imperfect
senses and causes one to dismiss facts
that do not conform with the prevailing
worldview.
The Aryan civilization of India is a logical
choice for the beginning of the diffusion
of our planet's civilization. American
historian Will Durant, in his book Our
Oriental Heritage, described India
as the most ancient civilization on earth,
and he offered many examples of Indian
culture throughout the world. He demonstrated
that as early as the ninth century b.c.e.
Indians were exploring the sea routes,
reaching out and extending their cultural
influence to Mesapotamia, Arabia, and
Egypt.
"Europe, after Guttenburg's invention of the printing press, wasted no time in announcing the discovery of the New World. It was at this time that European historians began to present to the rest of the world that their land was the center of culture and civilization."
Although modern-day historians and anthropologists
might prefer to accept Egypt or Babylon
as the most ancient civilization, due
to various archeological findings, their
theories are by no means conclusive. The
popular theory in the academic community
that the Aryans were an Indo-European
stock, who spoke an unknown pre-Sanskrit
language and only later invaded India
subsequently occupying her, is also considerably
lacking in supportive evidence. Indeed,
there is very little evidence whatsoever
for the postulated Aryan invasion of India.
But perhaps it is easier for modern people
to accept ancient Egypt and Babylon, whose
ancient civilizations have no living representation
and thereby do not pose any challenge
to the status quo.
But India is alive and kicking. Prominent traces
of ancient Vedic civilization can still
be found today not only in India but outside
her borders as well. The life science
of ayurveda, yoga and meditation, and
Sanskrit texts translated into modern
languages are all prominent examples.
If we recognize ancient India as a civilized
spiritual giant, we will have to reckon
with her modern-day representations. It
is altogether possible that the Vedic
theory, if thoroughly researched, poses
a threat to many of the concepts of modern
civilization and the current worldview,
as can be seen by the fact that the Vedic
literature and spiritual ideology loomed
as the greatest threat to the British
in their imperialistic conquest of India.
The Aryans' footprints are found throughout
neighboring Southeast Asia. They were
skilled navigators and pioneers of many
cultural developments. According to several
sources, these Aryans ruled in Java, Bali,
Sumatra, Borneo, Philippines, Cambodia,
Vietnam, Annan, Burma, and Thailand until
the fourteenth century. Even today, the
kings of Thailand bear the title Rama after the Indian
Ramraja (the perfect kingdom said
to have been governed by the incarnation
of Godhead Ramachandra). And the story
of Ramayana is depicted on the
palace walls in Bangkok.
Cambodia, the ancient Kamboja, boasts the largest
temple complex in the world, named Ankor,
from the Sanskrit language meaning "the
capital city." It was built in the
ninth century c.e. in honor of the Hindu
god Vishnu. The complex extends over an
area more than twice the size of Manhattan
and took thirty-seven years to complete.
Its physical and spiritual grandeur is
found elsewhere only in ancient Greece,
Egypt, and among the Mayan and Aztec civilizations.
Cambodia's principle river is today called
Me Kong, which some scholars say is derived
from India's Ma Ganga (Mother Ganges).
Vietnam, once called Champa, figures prominently
as a stepping-stone in the story of India's
cultural expansion to the Americas. Furthermore,
the Hindu state of Java was founded by
the king of Kalinga (Orissa) in the first
century c.e. Java is said to be the ancient
Yava-Dveepa mentioned in the Ramayana
and other Sanskrit texts. The Indonesian
national flag flies the symbol of Garuda,
the bird carrier of Vishnu. Garuda is
also the national symbol of that country.
In 1949, two scholars, Gordon Ekholm and Chaman
Lal, systematically compared the Mayan,
Aztec, Incan, and North American Indian
civilizations with the Hindu-oriented
countries of Southeast Asia and with India
herself. According to them, the emigrant
cultures of India took with them India's
system of time measurement, local gods,
and customs. Ekholm and Lal found signs
of Aryan civilization throughout the Americas
in art (lotus flowers with knotted stems
and half-dragon/half-fish motifs found
commonly in paintings and carvings), architecture,
calendars, astronomy, religious symbols,
and even games such as our Parcheesi and
Mexican patolli, which have their
origins in India's pachisi.
Both the Hindus and the Americans used similar
items in their worship rituals. They both
maintained the concept of four yuga cycles, or cosmological
seasons, extending over thousands of years,
and conceived of twelve constellations
with reference to the Sun as indicated
by the Incan sun calendar. Royal insignias,
systems of government, and practice of
religious dance and temple worship all
showed remarkable similarities, pointing
strongly to the idea that the Americas
were strongly influenced by the Aryans.
The temples of India (pict. 1-2) are built according to the ancient Vedic architectural science. There are striking similarities between Mayan temples and those in India. Pict. 3-4: Two Mayan temples from Palenque, Mexico and Central America.
Another scholar, Ramon Mena, author of Mexican
Archeology, called the Nahuatl,
Zapoteca, and Mayan languages "of
Hindu origin." He went on to say,
"A deep mystery enfolds the tribes
that inhabited the state of Chiapas in
the district named Palenque. . . . Their
writing, and the anthropological type,
as well as their personal adornments .
. . their system and style of construction
clearly indicate the remotest antiquity.
. . . [they] all speak of India and the
Orient."4
Still another scholar, Ambassador Poindexter,
in his two-volume 1930s treatise The
Arya-Incas, called the Mayan civilization
"unquestionably Hindu."
The Aztec culture in particular shows a striking
resemblance to that of India. Aztecs divided
their society into four divisions of both
labor and spiritual status, as did the
Hindus. In India, this system of government
was known as varnashrama, or the
division of society based on body types
and mental dispositions resulting from
past karma. As in Indian civilization,
the Aztecs maintained a God-centered government
in which people were employed in accordance
with their natural karmic tendencies.
The results of the labor of all the priests,
administrators, mercantilists, and laborers
were for the glorification of Godhead,
who in turn was thought to provide for
humankind.
Aztec boys were sent to school at the age of
five, at which time they were put under
the care of a priest and trained in various
duties of temple life. The Aztec system
of education bears a striking resemblance
to the Indian system of gurukula, in
which boys were sent to the care of a
guru for spiritual and practical education.
The Mayans and Incas had a similar approach
to education, which was mainly a training
for priestly service. Fanny Bandelier's
translation of Sahagun's History of
Ancient Mexico describes that the intellectually inclined
boys were trained as "ministers to
the idols."
Girls were educated in the domestic arts at
home and did not mingle with young boys.
Even as late as the 1930s, there was no
courtship between Mexican Indian girls
and boys, as is still the case in village
life in India today. From conception to
education, marriage, death, cremation,
and even the observance of the sati
rite, there are overwhelming parallels
between Indian society and the Americas.
Further evidence of cultural ties between
the East and West is found in the statues
of American gods who show a striking resemblance
to the Hindu deities of Hanuman, Shiva,
Indra, Vishnu and others. Such statues
have been found throughout the Americas,
and many of them can be seen today in
museums in Central America.
The Mexican Indians and the Incas of Peru were
primarily vegetarians. They were of high
moral character and hospitable and generous
as a habit. They practiced astrology,
and mental telepathy was common among
them. It was perhaps their peace-loving
disposition that, like the Hindus, allowed
them to be ruled by Europeans. Unfortunately,
the American Indians did not survive their
cultural exchange with Europe. The Europeans,
through book burning and bayonet, successfully
"converted" them, leaving very
little trace of their noble civilization.
And what about Europe? When merchants sailing
from India brought delicious spices, aromatic
perfumes, incense, fine silk, precious
stones set in delicate and rare jewelry,
complex craftsmanship of ivory, and many
other goods never seen before by Europeans,
the riches and mystique of that land captivated
them. The stories told by many navigators
about that land of wonder, where the palaces
were built of varieties of marble rather
than rush stone, decorated with beautiful
sculptures and wooden inlay, made the
Queen of Spain so covetous that she provided
Christopher Columbus with all necessities
for his famous journey. Columbus had heard
of India's riches through the writings
of Marco Polo. Polo had written that India
"was the richest and noblest country
of the world."5
Europe, after Guttenburg's invention of the
printing press, wasted no time in announcing
the discovery of the New World. It was
at this time that European historians
began to present to the rest of the world
that their land was the center of culture
and civilization. In comparison to Indian
society, however, the Europeans were rather
crude. The ominous age of the Inquisition,
with its persecution and fanaticism, the
use of mechanical devices to insure the
"chastity" of its women, the
exploitation of the serfs, and self-destructive
habits, such as indiscriminate eating
and alcoholism within the higher classes,
are all evidence of this. The original
Palace of Versailles in Paris, although
certainly a unique architectural creation
requiring genius, was built without a
single bathroom. Louis XIV and his court
are said to have evacuated behind curtains,
cleaning themselves with the same. The
king was in the habit of substituting
soap with Indian perfume and waited until
his thirty-fifth birthday before he took
his first complete bath.
When Europe was still uncivilized, Indian culture,
as well as American culture, was highly
advanced. When Europeans were still cave
dwellers and nomads wandering from place
to place subsisting through hunting, some
American peoples were plowing fields and
baking bread and dressing in cotton, the
seeds for which came from India. The subtlety
of Indian society, both eastern and western,
marks its superiority to Europe. It was
a subtlety of spiritual outlook that Europeans
failed to appreciate.
The
Dresden Codex, one of the few Mayan hieroglyphic
manuscripts that survived the book-burnings
by Spanish invaders, documents astronomical
calculations of the planed Venus. Large
numbers of codices were compiled by the
Mayan priests to record religious rites
and astronomical facts. (Sachsische Landesbibliothek,
Dresden, East Germany.)
The industrial revolution of Europe was prompted
by India's cotton, which competed with
European wool. Later when the popularity
of cotton products imported from India
increased, the Europeans began to manufacture
cotton in mills. Thus it was even an Indian
resource that prompted Europe's claim
to fame -- the beginning of modern technology.
It is altogether possible that the Vedic theory, if thoroughly researched, poses a threat to many of the concepts of modern civilization and the current worldview.
Several ancient cultures of the Americas were
more spiritually attuned than the Europeans.
They also lived with great regard for
nature. Many people today are searching
out the spirituality of the Americas,
a spirituality that was lacking in Europe
and is now lacking throughout the world.
The Christ's teachings were most certainly
tainted with misunderstanding of that
great savior's message of love. And he
too is said to have been influenced by
India's spirituality. His appearance in
the world for that matter is mentioned
in India's Bavishya Purana long
before the virgin birth took place.
The theory that India, Mother India, is the
earthly source of spirituality can be
to some extent supported by the fact that
India is still today the most religious
country in the world, with a theology
that dates back to antiquity. The idea
that she is the source of civilization
as well, although supporting evidence
is available, will ultimately require
that modern man reevaluate what constitutes
civilization before it gains wider acceptance.
Notes
1. Wilfred Cantwell Smith,"Theology of
the World's Religious History," Toward
a Universal Theology of Religion, Orbis Books, Maryknoll,
N.Y. (1987) p.69.
2. Kana Mitra, "Theologizing Through History?"
Toward a Universal Theology of Religion,
Orbis Books, Maryknoll, N.Y. (1987),
p.82.
3. Dr. Robert Heine Geldern, "Challenge
to Isolationists," Hindu America,
Chaman Lal, Zodiac Press, New Delhi,
(1940) Introduction p.vii.
4. Ibid., p. 14.
5. Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo
(The Venitian), revised from Marsden's
translation and edited with introduction
by Manuel Komroff, Livright Pub, (1956)
p.201.
Further
References
William Mccgillivray, The Travells and Research
of Alexander von Humbolt,
Harper Bros. N.Y. (1872).
Henry Charles Bastian, The Evolution of Life. E.P. Dutton &
Co. N.Y. (1907).
Gordon Ekholm, Excavations At Sinaloa, American Museum
of Natural History, N.Y. (1942).
Gordon Ekholm, Excavations at Lampico and
Panuco in the Hausteca,
American Museum of Natural History N.Y.
(1944).
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