Africa and Egypt

More evidence of colonization of Egypt

We saw that people from India using Indus Valley area and coasting along Mekran, Oman, Yemen and Ethiopia migrated to land now known as Nubia and Egypt. They carried their culture and named this new country, rivers, and mountains in Sanskrit. We also saw that these people had developed shipbuilding and navigation since very remote period for ocean travel so that they can carry their culture to new lands. Here we have more evidence of this cultural colonization of Egypt by ancient India.

Author Paul William Roberts states in Empire of The Soul: Some Journeys in India: "Recent research and scholarship make it increasingly possible to believe that the Vedic era was the lost civilization whose legacy the Egyptians and the Indians inherited. There must have been one. There are too many similarities between hieroglyphic texts and Vedic ones, these in turn echoed in somewhat diluted form and a confused fashion by the authors of Babylonian texts and the Old Testament."

Max Muller had also observed that the mythology of Egyptians is wholly founded on Vedic traditions.
Eusebius, a Greek writer, has also recorded that the early Ethiopians emigrated from the Indus river and first settled in the vicinity of Egypt.

Louis Jacolliot (1837-1890), who worked in French India as a government official and was at one time President of the Court in Chandranagar, translated numerous Vedic hymns, the Manusmriti, and the Tamil work, Kural. This French savant and author of La Bible Dans L'Inde says: "With such congruence before us, no one, I imagine, will appear to contest the purely Hindu origin of Egypt....

Friedrich Wilhelm, Freiherr von Bissing (1873-1956), wrote in Prehistorische Topfen aus Indien and Aegypten: "The land of Punt in the Egyptian ethnological traditions has been identified by the scholars with the Malabar coast of Deccan. From this land ebony, and other rich woods, incense, balsam, precious metals, etc. used to be imported into Egypt."

As mentioned in Periplus of The Erythreans by W.H. Schoff, Colonel Speake says: "All our previous information, concerning the hydrography of these regions, originated with the ancient Hindus, who told it to the priests of the Nile; and all these busy Egyptian geographers, who disseminated their knowledge with a view to be famous for their long-sightedness, in solving the mystery which enshrouded the source of their holy river, were so many hypothetical humbugs. The Hindu traders had a firm basis to stand upon through their intercourse with the Abyssinians. Colonel Rigby now gave me a most interesting paper, with a map attached to it, about the Nile and the Mountains of the Moon. Lieutenant Wilford wrote it, from the "Purans" of the Ancient Hindus. As it exemplifies, to a certain extent, the supposition I formerly arrived at concerning the Mountains of the Moon being associated with the country of the Moon, I would fain draw the attention of the reader of my travels to the volume of the Asiatic Researches in which it was published. It is remarkable that the Hindus have christened the source of the Nile Amara, which is the name of a country at the north-east corner of the Victoria N'yanza. This, I think, shows clearly, that the ancient Hindus must have had some kind of communication with both the northern and southern ends of the Victoria N'yanza."

Let pioneer Indologist and Sanskritist Sir William Jones conclude in Asiatic Researches, Volume I: "Of the cursory observations on the Hindus, which it would require volumes to expand and illustrate, this is the result, that they had an immemorial affinity with the old Persians, Ethiopians and Egyptians, the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Tuscans, the Scythians, or Goths, and Celts, the Chinese, Japanese, and Peruvians." - Grandpa's blessings

Vedas and ancient Egypt

If we look at the Vedic tradition, we see that it was based upon an ancient priestly order that was extensive and sophisticated, comparable to the priestly orders of ancient Egypt or Babylonia. This priestly order was concerned not merely with rituals but also with spirituality, yoga, philosophy, medicine, astronomy and architecture that form the basis of the various Upavedas and Vedangas.

For an imaginative account of the relations between the ancient Vedic and Egyptian civilization, see Bhagwan Gidwani's monumental (900 pages) novel detailing Aryan movement out of India to other parts of the world and their eventual return to India in "Return of the Aryans" (New Delhi: Penguin India 1994). See particularly chapters "Kings of Egypt and the Language of the Gods" and "Egypt and the Kingdom of Ajitab."

Nrsimhadeva mistaken as Archont (Barbara Maria Stafford: Symbol and Myth, 1979)
formerly at: http://home.uchicago.edu/%7Ebms6/%20Symbol_Web/leeuw.htm

Vedic Egypt by Vrin Parker Vedic Egypt

Ancient Egypt's Vaishnava Culture by Vrin Parker Ancient Egypt's Vaishnava Culture

Akhenaton by Subhash Kak http://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/akhena.pdf

Akhnaton's Hymn to the Sun God, Aton

"Thou risest beautifully on the horizon of heaven, O great god Aton, initiator of life! When thou dost form thy circle on the horizon, thou fillest the earth with thy beauties. Thou are delightful and sublime, shining high above the earth. Thy rays envelop for all time the lands and all thou hast created.

Since thou art Ra, Creator, thou win what they give and thou bindest it with the bonds of thy love again. Thou art far, but thy rays are on earth. The earth is in darkness when thou rests, as if dead while away from thee, thou hast slipped behind the horizon west. Men sleep in their rooms, their heads wrapped and not an eye sees another man. All their goods, put beneath them, could be stolen without their feeling it.
And then every lion comes out of his cave; every snake bites. It is dark as in an oven. The earth is silent; for he who created it all is at rest in his horizon. But the dawn comes, thou risest, thou shinest as Aton of the Day; when thou sendest forth thy shafts, the darkness is banished away. The Two Lands of Egypt make merry.

Men awake, and leap to their feet: it is thou who makest them rise up. They wash their limbs and eat, and they take up their clothing. Their hands worship thy rising; the Whole Land sets to work in the glory that thy rays bring. All the beasts are content at pasture. The trees and plants grow. Birds fly in the brake, with wings uplifted in the worship of thy Ka. All the wild beasts leap; all things that flutter and fly live again in the rays thou place upon the earth when thou risest for them. The boats so up and down the river; when thou risest, all roads open for thee. The fish in the river leap toward thee; thy rays go down into the depths of the sea.

Thou risest up children in women, and createst the seed in men; thou feedest the child in its mother's belly, soothe and feed him, and thou send the breath of life into all creatures and man, and satisfy his needs. Thou bringest the chick from his shell and give thy strength to every seed. How numerous are thy works, all that thou has created, O thou, unequaled one! By they heart thou hast created the earth, all that exists, by thy will is done, on earth, in all foreign countries. Thou settest each man in his place, createst all needs, words, and property, his forms and his variations of face. Thou makest the Nile in the Lower World, and bringest it where thou wilt to feed men.

Thou art loved of all, the Lord of this land, thy Disk of Day hast cared for them. Thou hast set all in place of the forms of earth. How excellent are they great designs. When thou risest, all grows for thee. For every area, thy rays, milk finds. Thou makest the seasons of the year. Thou hast created the distant sky. Thou comest in thy form of living Aton, rising radiant, goest away, by and by, thou returnest. Thou drawest all forms. Every eye beholds thee above. Thy son alone understands thee; thou art in my heart . . . issued from thy flesh, Ikhanaton."

Serapis (Asclepius) - Jesus connection

(Hadrian in a letter to his brother-in-law Servianus, preserved by the historian Vopiscus in his "Life of the Tyrant Saturninus" {www.nazirene.org/unfaithful.htm}):

"Those who worship Serapis are likewise Christians; even those who style themselves the bishops of Christ are devoted to Serapis. The very Patriarch himself [the Patriarch of Tiberias, head of the Jewish religion after the destruction of Jerusalem], when he comes to Egypt, is forced by some to adore Serapis, by others to worship Christ. There is but one God for them all: Him do the Christians, Him do the Jews, Him do the Gentiles...worship."

Severus Alexander, too, who daily paid his devotions to Christ and Abraham, did none the less expend large sums in decorating the temples of Serapis and Isis "with statues, couches, and all things pertaining to their Mysteries," whilst he left the other gods of Rome to take care of themselves.

Serapis crocodile

Serapis serpent

THE NEW SPHINX, OR THE COLOSSUS ON THE COAST OF HOLLAND

Barbara Maria Stafford: Symbol and Myth (1979)

Death by water was closely associated in Humbert's mind with the political and temporal fate of Holland.
Everything indicates that the ocean once held sway over the earth and that, of its own accord, it will reclaim its inevitable rights. Alas, the hand of the Dutch that repulsed the tyranny of the ocean will not forever be able to restrain this raging despot. Oh, disastrous day when the dikes are broken, when that magnificent, vigilant, diligent, wise, and thrifty Republic disappears from the face of the globe, when the waves obliterate the most beautiful monument to courage and industry. Postpone this moment, divine Providence! And if the eternal laws that you have established cannot be avoided without consequence, at least suspend and defer that ravening eruption.[107]

We have already observed how Humbert created herms symbolizing great legislators for the political edifice; this was sculpture functioning as an associative art. As absolute art its task was to fashion a symbolic lion off Katwijk at the mouth of the Rhine. [108] The idea for this giant of the coast must have reached final formulation, like the political edifice, at the moment of the Revolution of 1830. Consistent with Humbert's theories on art the image was inspired by a natural monument, the Lion Mountain on the Cape of Good Hope.[109]

This modern sphinx, towering above Holland like some colossus extruded by natural forces, was not only the symbol of strength and the traditional emblem of the Dutch nation, the lion of Zeeland, but was associated with the element of water. According to the Egyptians, when the sun entered the sign of Leo, the Nile rose. Thus sacred fountains and water spouts often took the shape of lions.110] Humbert's fascination with the Egyptian lion, maneless and grandiose, caused him to model his creation after one of the basalt Capitoline lions.[111] In this he followed an eighteenth century tradition: Piranesi admired the Egyptian lions on the Aquafelice Fountain in Rome and preferred them to more naturalistic versions:
What majesty in the Egyptian ones, what gravity and wisdom! What union and modification of part! [112]
The problem (strictly a theoretical one since the colossus was never erected) of finding a boulder large enough for the statue's vast dimensions, particularly in Holland, was resolved by Humbert, who considered constructing it in layers of basalt or black stone in lieu of making it monolithic. He imagined that the greatness of the lion's dimensions and the distance requisite for viewing it similar to the effect produced by the Memnon would obscure the courses, as is also the case with the Great Sphinx. But where, Humbert asks, did the Egyptians, surrounded as they are by desert, get the idea for their lions anciently associated with water placed along the avenues of pyramids and temples? He concludes that nothing adequately answers this question concerning the identity of the Sphinx. Perhaps the heart of Africa will one day offer a solution. Maybe it is contained in the Indian legend of a god both man and lion (the fourth avatar of Krishna?) who was the savior and regenerator of a world destroyed and renewed.113] Humbert probably refers here to the Mithraic Kronos, the leontocephalous god Zervan, or Aeon, who symbolizes boundless time.[114] In addition, the Egyptian celestial lion, Shu, is often represented as a lionheaded man holding up the sky. He is son of the sungod, an emanation from the source of the gods, the abyss that preceded the sun.[115] One wonders if the denouement to Humbert's enigma might not be an allusion hidden in all these fables to the healing rays of the sun drying up the waters of the deep after the last great revolution that struck the earth. Thus the Sphinx, now gazing upon an ocean of sand, was once surrounded by a great sea.[116]

The relation between Holland and Humbert's beloved Egypt was not based merely on borrowed imagery. Volney, that keen observer of the East, found that the two countries physically resembled one another. The flatness of Holland reminded him of the Delta: There is no country with a more monotonous view, always a barren plain for as far as you can see, always a flat and unwavering horizon...[117]

The Lion was designed to be a prospective memorial, to be viewed by a future generation of men as an emblem attesting to Holland's past greatness after that nation was destroyed through a Lucretian atomic dissolution. In similar fashion the Sphinx survived the pharaohs and the herms of Easter Island outlived the race that created them. Humbert ends his article with a short excerpt from Seneca: The universe is dissolved God alone remains; God rests in himself and ponders his thoughts.[118] A similar passage, also from Seneca, demonstrates a widely held eighteenth-century belief in a universal cataclysm and regeneration. That Humbert chose to conclude his reflections with the Stoic's musings indicates that he is speaking of more than simply the possibility of political destruction. Holland, like all other nations of the past and present world, is subject to cosmic revolutions.

When the annihilation of the human race has been completed, and the wild beasts into whose way of life men will have already lapsed have likewise been destroyed, the earth will absorb the waters again into itself, and will compel the seas to stand fast . . . and the former order of the world will be restored. Every species of animal will be created afresh, and the earth will once more be inhabited by men, men born under happier auspices, knowing naught of evil. But their innocence will endure only so long as they are new. Wickedness creeps in swiftly.[119]

When all is lost, all shall be restored. A great legislator will again civilize man and the cycle of history will repeat itself.

formerly at: http://home.uchicago.edu/%7Ebms6/%20Symbol_Web/leeuw.htm

For more information about this statue: The Lion on the coast of Holland
Symbol and Myth by Barbara Maria Stafford (1979) p. 132

NOTES

107 Humbert de Superville, P.K.L., Class VI, "Hollanders as Historical Figures,"fol. 6. Quoted from Mercier, Mon Bonnet de nuit, 1: 6.

108. Humbert de Superville, Appendice du troisième livre, la statuaire comme art absolu: le géant de la côte, symbolisant la Hollande, in Essai, pp. iii-vi.

109. Humbert de Superville, P.K.L., MS 35, "Geographische aanteekeningen" ( Geographical Notes), fol. 262a. For an illustration of the Cape of Good Hope and its prominent geographical features, including the "leeuwenberg," see Pierre Kolbe, Description du Cap de Bonne-Ésperance (Amsterdam: Chez Jean Catuffe, 1741), 2: 5.

110. Horapollo Hieroglyphics 1. 19, 21. Humbert knew this work; see P.K.L., MS 6, "Catalogue de ma petite bibliothèque," fol. 53f.
111. Letter, J.-E. Humbert to L. E. Luzac, April 2, 1830, Museum of Antiquities, Leiden, Archives. Jean-Émile wrote in 1830: "Milles choses au cher David. Je lui ecrirai au long. Dans peu il aura le lion du Capitole."
112. Piranesi, Cammini, p. 14.
113. Humbert de Superville, Le Géant de la côte, pp. iii-iv.
114. Franz Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra, trans. Thomas J. McCormack ( Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company, 1903), p. 105. Origen is of particular interest here when he confutes Celsus's Ophite version of Christianity. Celsus discusses the seven archontic demons in the Gnostic universe. Itdabaoth or the lion-headed is Saturn. ". . . and they say that the star Saturn is in sympathy with the lion-like Archon." See Origen Contra Celsus 6. 31. This passage is reminiscent of Porphyry, who seems to describe initiates into Mithraism as wearing animal masks, one of which corresponded with the lion. See Porphyry On the Abstinence from Animal Food 4. 16.
115. Max Müller, Egyptian Mythology (Boston: Marshall Jones Co., 1923), p. 44.
116. Benoît de Maillet, Telliamed, ou entretiens d'un philosophe indien avec un missionnaire franois sur la diminution de la mer, la formation de la terre, I'origine de l'homme ( Amsterdam: Chez l'Honore & fils, Libraires, 1758), 1: 131.
117. Volney, Égypte et Syrie, p. 147.
118. Humbert de Superville, Le Géant de la côte, p. iv. The quotation comes from Seneca Epistle 9.
119. Seneca, Quaestiones naturales 3. 30, 7-8.
formerly at: http://home.uchicago.edu/~bms6/%20Symbol_Web/noleeuw.htm#note%20113

http://www.veda.harekrsna.cz/connections/Africa-and-Egypt.php

Friday, December 9, 2011

Vedic Connections : Ancient Vedic World - Africa and Egypt

Africa and Egypt

THE NEW SPHINX, OR THE COLOSSUS ON THE COAST OF HOLLAND

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