WHO WHAT WHEN AND WHERE OF HINDU MYTHOLOGY
Hinduism is a religion that existed in Ancient Times alongside the Egyptian religion and is still existing and thriving. Hindu mythology is therefore our key to understanding the level of scientific development, lifestyle and social behaviour of the Ancient humans. Luckily for us, Hindu mythology provides this information in great details. Hindu mythology is our window into the Ancient world as it existed, as well as their understanding of the world around them. While the stories of the Ancient times are still intact in Hindu Mythology, over the years we seem to have lost the perspective in which these stories were told. In this book, one by one we will untie the knots and understand this lost perspective in order to understand our own origins, our lost sciences and our lost perspective.
For anyone who has ever wondered why our mythology gives such detailed descriptions of vimanas/ aeroplanes and nuclear bombs when according to modern science aeroplanes were invented by the Wright Brothers, and humans were hunters and gatherers at the time when these technologies were supposed to have existed or anyone who has ever been curious about what and why do we practice the rituals that we do in Hinduism, this book is an attempt to bridge the gap between mythology and modern history.
There are aspects of our modern day recorded History which the Historians themselves are unable to explain. According to History as it stands today, humans were hunters and gatherers/ nomads for a very long time and then all of a sudden two great civilizations i.e Indus Valley Civilization and Egyptian civilization, came into existence whose origins are still a mystery to all historians, this evolution from hunters and gatherers to all of a sudden developing great civilizations with advanced technology and skills is the page that is missing from present day recorded history. This page lies hundreds of feet underwater across various places around the globe and was discovered in 2002.
In 2002 Indian oceanographers discovered two cities, the size of Manhattan, off the Gulf of Khambat, lying 100 ft under water (these cities are different from the much discussed discovery of city of Dwarka discussed by popular media) (For more information goto the website www.wikipedia.com and in the search window type the following word WITH THE INVERTED COMAS “Marine Archaeology in the Gulf Of Khambat” or click on the following linkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_archeology_in_the_Gulf_of_Khambhat ) .
The most interesting part of this discovery is that the only time this land; where the cities have been discovered; was above the sea was before the last Ice Age (For more information Goto the website www.youtube.com and in the search window type the following words WITH THE INVERTED COMAS “Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age: Graham Hancock” or else click on the following link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiI8947yhD4 please see this link Graham Hancock famous British researcher visits the underwater sites). Now if we go by the description of modern history as it stands today, then during the last ice age humans were merely hunters and gatherers and could not have built any cities, especially not two cities, the size of Manhattan as have been found in the case of the submerged cities of Dwarka.
The significance of this discovery is manifold for Hindu mythology, as well as for world history and mythology, because all across the world there are many of flood myths like Noah’s Arch and the myth of Manu, that describe how great floods had taken place on earth and thereafter, the survivors of the floods struggled to re-establish human civilization again on the planet. These flood myths are spread across the globe and across the cultures including Asia, West Asia, Africa etc. West Asia and Europe have the Sumerian Creation Myth, Gilgamesh Flood Myth, Genesis flood narrative of Noah’s Ark, Classic Antiquity has Ancient Greek Flood Myths, Irish Flood Myths, Finnish Flood Myths. Many African cultures have an oral tradition of a flood myth including the Kwaya, Mbuti, Maasai, Mandin and Yoruba peoples, many such similar flood myths have been passed down through generations across the globe.
If you goto www.wikipedia.com and search for the “List of Flood Myths” you will come across this elaborate list of the various civilizations around the world whose mythological stories give details about these great floods :-
Wikipedia “List of Flood Myths” :-
1. West Asia and Europe
2. Africa
3. Asia-Pacific
4. Oceania
However, when our present day History was being written about 100-200 years ago, we did not have the advanced technology; which we have today and hence the historians had no means to check the veracity of these flood myths. These flood myths were therefore dismissed and set aside and our present day history was written on the basis of what we could see around us above the sea surface.
This is how this deep divide between present day history and mythology came into being.
However, the discovery of these cities underwater is a proof of the fact that the stories narrated in our mythology are indeed true and that there was a civilization before the present day human civilization which had the advanced technologies described in the Hindu mythology and were adept at using these technologies, some of the technologies described in our mythology are even more advanced than the technologies we are using today. But as we are well aware of the situation here in India, the site was worked upon for hardly a couple of years and hardly any work has been done on the site since 2004.
Nonetheless, having received this precious piece of information, we have found the missing perspective in which our mythological stories have been told. These major cataclysmic events across the globe are also what is called the Yuga cycle in Hinduism, yugas are actually ice-ages/ages, according to Hindu mythology there are “4 yugas” i.e 4 times when the human civilization will develop, spread and again go down in floods or natural cataclysmic events and the surviving humans will have to start civilization all over again. According to Egyptian mythology there are “5 suns” i.e 5 times the sun will hide for the longest time after the cataclysmic natural events after the ice ages/ages and human race will again have to start all over again and build a new civilization from the scratch. There are also Ancient records to say that end of each yuga was not necessarily by floods and that each time one of the ‘five elements’ may have played a role in ending civilization.
Our Ancient Hindu texts are actually the invaluable knowledge of the sciences, life and religious beliefs of this Ancient Civilization passed down to us by the survivors of these great floods.
So, now to give the answer of Who, What, When and Where of Hindu Legends/Mythology :-
1. WHO were these people mentioned in the Hindu Legends :-
These were the people who existed on this planet before the end of the Last Ice Age.
2. WHEN did these people mentioned in the Hindu Legends exist:-
The existence of these Ancient people on the planet ENDED some 12,000 years ago around 10,000 B.C when the Polar Ice Caps melted after thousands of years of their existence and development of their civilization. These people, however, lived on this planet for a lot longer than 12,000 years ago.
3. WHERE did these people mentioned in the Hindu Legends exist :-
They existed in the areas around India highlighted in the map below in Red colour. Remember, over here we are only discussing the period from Dwarka onwards (Dwapar Yuga). The historians are yet, to make discoveries about the Ayodhya period (Treta Yuga) of human history.
4. WHAT are these miracles and Gods discussed in Hindu Legends :-
We shall now discuss the contents of these legends given in the Hindu Mythology.
There are two aspects of the Hindu legends that we do not understand today:-
We shall therefore, now discuss these Ancient Sciences in the next part.
