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Navigating the Myths, Legends and Deliberate Misinformation

If you were to ask a random selection of Indian people about the history of India, you would get as many different stories as the number of people who you asked the question. This is because as the history of the world and human origins remain a mystery, India it seems is the epitome of all mysteries.

When we look back and think if we evolved from the apes, some of the evidence says maybe but some of it says not. We may have spread out of Africa or Australia, this remains unclear. When we look at the global landscape and the anomalies in the historical record without going into what is referred to as "forbidden archaeology", it is very hard to know what to think.

The problem is that there has been very little record-keeping and given that India has suffered from invasion, occupation and loss of territories over the past 1200 years. The first waves of Muslim invaders burned the libraries and it is said that the library at Nalanda now in modern day Pakistan and served tens of thousands of students took many days to burn. Some researchers consider that it was a larger library than the Alexandria library burned by the Romans.

There is archaeological evidence of human habitation in India from two million years back. This evidence is verified by the world's archaeological and scientific community but left from our history books in favour of the Out of Africa theory which puts people in India approximately 50,000 to 60,000 years ago but left from our history books because much of our 'science' is shaped for political convenience.

The Australian archaeologist David Adams describes trade through the Wakaan corridor (North India) about thirty-five thousand BC and interestingly the Neanderthals who were supposedly confined to the Mediterranean region must have travelled this way as there is more Neanderthal DNA in today's East Asian population than in the European. Add to this the Narasimha idol found in Germany dated to 32000 BC proving that far greater communication links existed at the time.

So it's not especially clear whether or not these people were hunter gatherers or simple agriculturalists and it does not take into account the Neanderthal DNA in the modern Asian population or the Denisovian influence that is present in modern day Tibetan, South East Asian and aboriginal Australian populations. We also cannot rule out other possibilities in human evolution.

Then there is a blank until around 15,000 BC when it is said that the first yogi revealed the science of being human. This knowledge was shared with a small group of men who became known as the Saptarishies or great sages. After these gentlemen graduated as accomplished (enlightened) yogi's with a sound appreciation of the nature of existence, they separated and travelled to the corners of the earth.

The words 'India' and 'Hindu'
There has been much discussion as to their origins but "the word Indu in the authoritative Monier-Williams Sanskrit dictionary represents not only the Soma drop but also the Soma Itself. In the Brahmanas Indu is used for moon. In the famous River hymns of Rig Veda (Nadistuti Sukta) the river Indus is named as "Good Soma" (Su-Soma). So we have the droplets of Soma" "Indu and the flowing Soma Sindhu. Both Indu and Sindhu refer to the central Vedic religious ritual" "Soma." ~ swarajyamag

One of the Saptarishies went to Africa, another to South America, another to central Asia, another to the Middle East, another to East Asia, one to the Indian subcontinent and one remained in the Himalayas whether teachings were first given.

Thus the science and technology was transmitted to those who would listen and over the generations, many men and women have followed what is referred to as the path of yoga. They understood the nature of existence and the relationships between all life forms in this planetary system that we all call home.

At this time from about 14,000 BC it is thought that India had a substantial human population which is evidenced from the submerged cities that have been found on today's continental shelf. Because life in the Himalayas is a very arduous place to live during the winter, a great many yogis and yoginis travelled down through the subcontinent where life was a little easier, but they would return to the Himalayas for the summer.

As they travelled, these enlightened men and women were given hospitality by the people and in return for that kindness, these enlightened beings came up with solutions to help improve the lives of the population. This included irrigation schemes, how to improve crop yields, how to improve health and how to get the best experience out of life.

Those enlightened beings recognised that the creative principal of life permeates all existence and therefore all existence is inherently sacred. As in every culture, folk heroes became deities and took on godly status, but this was something that believers in Islam and Christianity could not comprehend.

The intellectual, scientific and cultural development of India was far ahead of anything in Europe. Many people around the world find it difficult to accept that so many ordinary things like language and numbers, astronomy and the sciences all had their roots in India. For those who know how to see, there is evidence of Indian technology in every corner of the world.

Archaeologists have discovered India's oldest stone-age tools, up to 1.5 million years old, at a prehistoric site near Chennai. The discovery may change existing ideas about the earliest arrival of human ancestors from Africa into India." ~ Scott Net.

Civilization existed in India 75,000 years ago and archaeological sites like Jwalapuram, new DNZ anaylisis and migration theory proves that India was the home of modern man and civilisation.

In the India that existed before Alexander, and before the Islamic invasions, India was a dysphoria of kingdoms and tribal groups. When travelling back then, in the course of 50 miles, the language, colours and flavours of land and people would be remarkably different. Yet while they spoke different languages, there was a spiritual understanding that gave everyone on the continent a sense of unity, a sense that they were all part of a great unfolding drama.

"About 2500 B,cvu great wave of desiccation seems to have passed over Asia, which converted steppes into deserts and drove the great pastoral tribes of the steps of the north as well as the Semites of the Arabian grass-land in search of pastures new. This great displacement of tribes included the "Canaanite" invasion of Syria, referred to in the Genesis and the Semite migration into Mesopotamia, leading to the establishment of a powerful Babylonian monarchy." Life in ancient India By Srinivas Iyengar 1912, p 105

This connection with life came to be called Hinduism as if it was a religion because it confounded the minds particularly of the British who occupied India for more than 250 years. But it's estimated that they robbed India that in monetary terms alone was in excess of $300 billion.

The work of the travelling yogis engendered a respect and a celebration of life, and Sanatana Dharma is a term that is more respectful than Hinduism. Sanatana Dharma did not guarantee an entirely peaceful life, because neighbours will often squabble and the epic Hindu book "the Mahabharata" describes some of these squabbles.

"Hinduism..... gave itself no name, because it set itself no sectarian limits; it claimed no universal adhesion, asserted no sole infallible dogma, set up no single narrow path or gate of salvation; it was less a creed or cult than a continuously enlarging tradition of the God ward endeavour of the human spirit. An immense many-sided and many staged provision for a spiritual self-building and self-finding, it had some right to speak of itself by the only name it knew, the eternal religion, "Santana Dharma" said Sri Aurobindo.

But the teachings of yoga were memorised and philosophised, and when writing evolved across the subcontinent, all the books that had been passed on through an oral tradition were written down and are known collectively as Vedanta.

The philosophy of Vedanta and Sanatana Dharma was well circulated around the world by 5000 BC and this was a governing influence in all societies. So there are a great many cultural, genetic and intellectual threads connecting India to every part of the world.

Sankara's Advaita philosophy believed in the singularity of existence while the Buddhist believed in the ultimate absence of existence. An excellent read on Indian history.

The population of India had a reason for being, they felt connected to life and they had an especially strong influence across the broader Asian region. There is evidence of Indian construction technology in Lebanon, Indian elephants were used during construction periods in Greece and Rome, the actual country of India which may have been better known as Bharat included Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh Myanmar (Burma) and Malaya.

Sanatana Dharma also had a strong influence in Indonesia and then Buddhism arrived. The evidence suggests that the man who became the Buddha was born around 630 BC (based on the analysis of the excavation at Lumbini from December 2011 to February 2012). 100 years after the birth of Buddha in the 6th Century BC, Buddhism spread quite rapidly across the entirety of North India and into Southeast Asia where it remains strong today. It's worthy to note that the Temple city of Angkor Wat in Cambodia was built as a Hindu temple and it was a replacement for a Hindu temple complex that preceded it. But apparently while Angkor Wat was being completed, Buddhism became more dominant.

Buddhism is actually a yoga practice because it teaches that all life is a form of suffering and the Buddha laid out the pathway to end suffering by achieving enlightenment or self realisation. Yet because Buddhism is a path to enlightenment, it is also a path of yoga and the enlightenment achieved through one of the branches of yoga or one of the branches of Buddhism (because like yoga there are many) Buddhism and yoga have the same end, it's just that the words to describe the path and some of the technical aspects of meditation are slightly different.

Many of the characters in Hindu legends have been proved as real, they offer inspiration and encouragement to live a joyful life in harmony with nature and fellow man.

This video takes us to the holy places of Lord Rama in India, where events from the Ramayana have taken place. We visit Ayodhya, Chitrakut, Nasik, Hampi, and Ramesvaram, and see the major holy sights and temples in those places. It is a travel meditation on Lord Rama.

As we close in on year zero, there was the invasion of the young man known as Alexander the great. I'm not sure where the idea of great comes from, he was simply taking revenge on the Persians who'd been a thorn in the side of Greece for many years, then after his victory over the Persians he kept on going until he got kicked out of India.

After another period of relative peace, the Muslims arrived. They slaughtered their way across the north of India and down across Southeast Asia. The word Islam simply means submit and when Islam comes knocking, people have a few choices, convert to Islam, become a slave or die. To be fair, you may also become a Dhimmi, a little better off than a slave whereby you have to turn over about 50% of everything you earn or produce to the Moslems.

The subcontinent was treated to generations of barbaric abuse and the slaughter of millions of Hindus (here the word Hindu is the geographical name for the region meaning the land of the seven rivers). It took a few hundred years, but the Moslems were on the verge of being completely expelled from the Indian subcontinent when the British and other colonialists arrived and a new chapter of unparalleled catastrophes followed.

Today India is all mixed up, the British did all they could to rewrite Indian history and transform the Hindu landscape. The built railways to extract the produce and bureaucracy to administer the country as they wanted. This means that some intellectual circles within India are promoting personal survival at any cost which includes denying and even destroying the rich history and attempting to conform to British and Christian ideologies.

"DNA study of the skeletal remains found at the Harappan site of Rakhigarhi, Haryana, shows no Central Asian trace, indicating the Aryan invasion theory was flawed and Vedic evolution was through indigenous people." ~ The Economic Times

It could take a lifetime to unravel the truth and yet the land and the life still resonates with the energy of Sanatana Dharma, the search for enlightenment or liberation from suffering. The modern day India also suffers under the weight of capitalism, communism and the growing hand of Islam.

As CK Raju (video) describes the spread of mice and common rats, cotton is one of India's most ancient exports revealing antiquity and reach. The first evidence of cotton use was found in India and Pakistan, and dates from about 6,000 B.C. Researchers believe that cotton was first cultivated in the Indus delta.

The species are identified as Gossypium herbaceum and Gossypium arboretum which originated in India or Africa - there's some uncertainty about this although cotton was not used in Africa until later indicating Hindus may have bought it from Africa or perhaps exported it there? By 1500 CE, cotton was known generally throughout the world except Europe until about 800 A.D. when Arab merchants brought cotton cloth to Europe. When Columbus discovered America in 1492, he found cotton growing in the Bahama Islands. So how did cotton get to the Bahamas if not via sailors from India or Africa?

Anyone travelling to India need not necessarily know the history, they can simply imbibe the flavour and colour of the land and people. Anyone spending a few months or more may well find their life is transformed and they will appreciate the journey with less concern for the destination.

From the editors of Hinduism Today magazine in collaboration with Dr. Shiva Bajpai, Professor Emeritus of History, California State University Northridge.

This video is a very good start for non Indian people. Today with modern science and archaeology, the influence of India can be seen across the world. But this history runs much deeper and further back to the traces of Indian civilization at 75000 BC, the ancient submerged cities on the continental shelf circa 15,000BC, the origin and spread of yoga from 14000BC , the influence of India in the world while Europe consisted of hunter gatherer societies, trade with Rome and China, the construction of Ankor Wat in Cambodia and the influence of Sanatana dharma over South East Asia, central Asia, Mesopotamian and Egyptian societies, the Tamil circumnavigation of the world by 5000BC and so much more.

This great civilization that today is struggling with its identity came close to destruction under Islam, but the British did a better job as today most Indians, Hindu's, the peoples of Bharat (the original Sanskrit name for the Indian subcontinent including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka) are confused about their identity.

There was no Aryan invasion, Hinduism being without beliefs is not a religion and the Vedas are pure Indian origin dating back some 30,000 years and Shiva appeared some 14,00 years ago. Dates for the Indus valley civilisation have been confirmed as existing about 9000BC. Recent discoveries say India was the cradle of civilisation, not Africa. 

Country map - A More Detailed Hindu History

Links:

Buddha's birth re Archaeology at Lumbini
Interesting facts about Hinduism 5 Biotechnology breakthroughs that were already invented by Hindu gods
Surviving Toba Eruption
Phys.org - disputing human arrival in India
A possible chronology
Tracing language a long discussion on links between Tamil, Sanskrit and Australian languages, DNA and possible migrations.
Homo sapien sapiens originated in Australia
India as the cradle of civilisation video on page disputing DNA evidence
75000 yo civilisation and a 1.5 million year history
Vedantic Russia - commonworldinheritage and Prasadam
Vedic Indian Migration to Sumer: DNA evidence







Index
Navigating Indian History
The Rationale for Dharma
The First Universities
Saffronisation
Saving India
Hindu Rashtra
Hindu Nationalism
Kashmir
Trees in Hindu Culture
The Sati Myth
A Chronology of Hindu History

The Amazing
History of India


Amazing India


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