Devapriyaji - True History Analaysed

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சிவபெருமான் வழிபாடு- வரலாற்று காலத்திற்கு முன்பானவை

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சிவபெருமான் வழிபாடு, லிங்க ரூபமாக பல ஆயிரம் ஆண்டுகளாக தொடர்வது, நாம் அவற்றை தொல்லியல் தரவுகளோடு காண்போம்

சிந்து-சரஸ்வதி நதி நாகரீகத்தில் முதலில் கிடைத்தவை 3தலை, மாட்டுக் கொம்புகளோடு சுற்றிலும் மிருகங்கள் என உள்ள முத்திரை சிவ- ருத்ரரின் தொடக்க வடிவம் என பசுபதி முத்திரை எனப் பெயர் தரப்பட்டது.

from Harappa Galary - National Museum, Delhi.

சர்.ஜான் மார்ஷல் பசுபதி முத்திரை, மற்றும் பல நூறு மிகச் சிறிய லிங்கங்கள் என அறிவித்ததை தற்போது பெரும்பாலான அறிஞர்கள் ஏற்கவில்லை.

மேலே ஹரப்பா லிங்கம் ஒன்றும் பிறகு காளிபங்கனில் கிடைத்த 4.5 இன்ச் லிங்கம் மட்டுமே ஓரளவு இருக்கலாம் என சிலர் ஏற்பதே இன்றைய நிலை. சங்க இலக்கியம் கூறும் யாகசாலை அமைப்பு என்பதும் அறிஞர்கள் இடையே கருத்து ஒற்றுமை இல்லை.

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ருத்ர மூர்த்தி சிவபெருமான் திருவுருவம் மிகவும் அரிதான, வேறெங்கும் காணக் கிடைக்காத திருவுருவமாக, தேவ்ராணி- ஜெதானி கோயில் வளாகத்தில், தாலிகன் என்னும் கிராமத்தில் உள்ளது.

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3 தலைகளுடன் தலையில் கொம்புடன், சுற்றி பல மிருகங்கள் என உள்ள மேலே உள்ள‌சிந்துவெளி பசுபதி முத்திரையை சிவ வடிவத்தின் முந்தையது என்றால் தொல்லியல் அறிஞர் ஜான் மார்ஷல். இந்த பிரம்மாண்ட சிலை அதனை விவரிக்கும் ஒரு நாட்டார் வழி ருத்ர சிவா சிற்பம் எனப்பட்டாலும், இந்த சிலை எந்த சிற்ப சாஸ்திர நூலிலும் கூறப்படாதது என்கின்றனர்.

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ருத்ர சிவன் சிற்பத்தைப் புரிந்துகொள்வது

விலங்கு மற்றும் மனித முகங்களால் செய்யப்பட்ட உடல் உறுப்புகள் இதை ஒரு தனித்துவமான உருவமாக ஆக்குகின்றன. படத்தை கவனமாகப் பாருங்கள்,

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பீம்பேடுகா பாறை குகை வாழ்விடங்கள்

பிடா  சுடுமண் பஞ்சமுக லிங்கம் 
 
மத்திய பிரதேச மாநிலத்தில் பிடா எனும் இடத்தில் கிடைத்த சுடுமண் பஞ்சமுக லிங்கம் பொமு.100 வாக்கிலானது என சிந்துவெளி அகழ்வு செய்த R.D.பானர்ஜி கல்வெட்டு ஆதாரங்கள் கொண்டு குறித்தார்.
This is clearly a panchamukhalinga, depicting the five faces of Shiva, which are Isana, Tatpurusha, Aghora, Vamadeva, and Sadyojata. There is an inscription at the base and from a study of which based on the used characters, RD Banerji placed the linga to be of the 1st c. BCE. (This is now housed in the Lucknow museum).
சுங்க அரச வம்சம் கால கற்பலகை பொமு.100 வாக்கிலானது- மரத்தடியில் சிவலிங்கம் வழிபாடு.
பஞ்சாப் அருகே பொமு 2ம் நூற்றாண்டு கால காசில் கோவில் மற்றும் திரிசூலம் உள்ளது.
 
Ekamukha linga. Mathura. 1st cent. CE Excavated In Bhita Village Mathura Museum. 
2000 Years Old Shiva Linga Kushana Period
 
Uttar Pradesh, Mathura, 1st century CE , India. Sandstone , Philadelphia Museum of Art
குஷான வம்சத்தில் பொஆ 1ம் நூற்றாண்டு ஆரம்பம் முதலாக முகலிங்க அமைப்பு வளர்ந்தது. அதன் அழகான வடிவம் ஆந்திரா திருப்பதி அருகில் குடிமல்லம் சிவலிங்கம் ஆகும்
 
Chaturmukha linga with a decorative band, Kushana era. National Museum, Delhi.
 
தலா தேவ்ராணி- ஜெதானி கோயில், சட்டிஸ்கர் மாறுபாடான‌ ருத்ர சிவமூர்த்தி திருவுருவம்!!! 
 
பழைய உஜ்ஜயினி காசில் சிவபெருமான் கையில் கமண்டலம், பொமு 2ம் நூற்றாண்டு Ujjain city state c. 2nd century BC AE coin (15 mm, 2.17 g)
Obverse: Male deity Mahakal (Siva) standing right, holding Kamamdal; tree-in-railing to left Reverse: 4-orbed Ujjain symbol Ref: Pieper 281
https://www.vcoins.com/.../india.../1257900/Default.aspx
 
பொயுமு187- இல் மௌர்ய பேரரசின் வலிமையற்ற வேந்தனான ப்ரஹத்ரதனைக் கொன்று விட்டு தளபதியாக இருந்த புஷ்யமித்ரன் அரசனான். இவனில் துவங்கிய சுங்க வம்சம் அந்தப் பேரரசை நூற்றுப்பத்து ஆண்டுகள் நடாத்தியது. மௌர்யர்கள் பரப்பியிருந்த பௌத்தத்தை நீக்கிய செயல் இவர்களுடையதே. புஷ்யமித்ரனின் மகனான அக்னிமித்ரனே காளிதாஸனால் தனது மாளவிகாக்னிமித்ரத்தில் கொண்டாடப்பெற்றவன். இவர்கள் காலத்தில் பலவிதமான வழிபாடு தொடர்பான கற்பலகைகள் கிடைக்கின்றன. மதுராவில் கிடைத்த இந்த இரண்டு கற்பலகைகளும் மிக இன்றியமையாதவை. ஒரு பலகையில் லிங்க வழிபாடு தெற்றென விளக்கப்பெற்றிருக்கிறது. கின்னரர்கள் இருபுறமும் மாலையேந்தி நிற்க நடுவே மரத்தடியில் சிவலிங்கமானது வீற்றிருக்கிறது. மற்றொரு கற்பலகையில் ஏகமுக லிங்கமானது வீற்றிருக்கிறது. இதுவும் மரத்தடித் திண்ணையில் வீற்றிருக்கும் வண்ணம் அமைந்திருக்கிறது. இவையிரண்டும் பொதுயுகத்திற்கு முன்பு லிங்க வழிபாடு எப்படியிருந்திருக்கும் என்பதற்கு அடையாளமாக அமைந்துள்ளன.

அரப்பாவிற் கிடைத்துள்ள ஆண்சிலையொன்று இடது காலைத்துக்கி வலது காலையூன்றி நின்று நடம்புரியும் நிலையிற் காணப்படுகின்றது. இதனைச் சிவபெருமானுக் குரிய திருவுருவங்களில் ஒன்றான நடராசர் திருவுருவின் முதலுருவமாகக் கருதுவர் ஆராய்ச்சியாளர்.
சிவன் தலையாய யோகிமட்டும் அல்லர்; விலங்குகட்கெல்லாம் தலைவர் (பசுபதி); சிவனுக்குரிய இவ்வியல்பினையே சிவனைச் சுற்றி யானை புலி காண்டாமிருகம், எருது என்னும் நான்கு விலங்குகள் நிற்கும் தோற்றம் காட்டுகின்றது. சிந்துவெளிக் கடவுளின் தலையில் அமைந்துள்ள கொம்புகள் பிற்காலத்திற் சிவனது சிறப்புத் திருவுருவம் ஒன்றைக் குறிக்கும் நிலையில் மூவிலைச் சூலமாக மாறியது. இவற்றையெல்லாம் நோக்கும்போது பிற்காலத்திலே சிவனுக்கு அமைந்த பல அமைப்புக்களின் தோற்றநிலைகளே சிந்து வெளி முத்திரைகளிற் காணப்படுகின்றன என நாம் கருதலாம்”.
 
யௌதேயர்கள் சிற்றரசர்களானாலும் தம்மை அசைத்துப் பார்த்த குஷாணர்களையே கலகலக்கச் செய்தவர்கள். அவர்தம் காசுகளில் கார்த்திகேயன் வீற்றிருந்த எழிலைப் பார்த்தோம். இந்தக் காசு கார்த்திகேயனின் ஆலயத்தைத் தனக்குள்ளே கொண்டுள்ளது. முன்னர் மானை வைத்து ஆலயம் எழுப்பியிருக்கிறார்கள். மானைக் கார்த்திகேயனுக்கு வாஹனமாகிய நிறுத்திய காரணம் தெரியவில்லை. ஆனால் பழைய காசுகளில் கார்த்திகேயனுக்கும் திருமகளுக்கும் அருகே மானை வைக்கும் வழக்கம் இருந்திருக்கிறது. இதன் காலம் பொயு ஒன்று முதல் இரண்டாகத் தீர்மானிக்கப்பெற்றுள்ளது.
 
சிந்துவெளி மக்கள் கடவுள் வழிபாட்டிற் பயன்படுத்திய திருவுருவம் சிவலிங்கங்களே. அரப்பாவில் மட்டும் சிறியனவும் பெரியனவுமாக ஏறக்குறைய ஆயிரம் சிவலிங்கங்கள் கண்டெடுக்கப்பெற்றுள்ளன. சிறிய சிவலிங்கங்களை அக்கால மக்கள் இக்காலத்து வீர சைவர்களைப்போன்று தங்கள் கழுத்திலும் கையிலும் கட்டிக்கொண்டிருத்தல் கூடும். இதனால் சைவ சமயத்திற்கேயுரிய சிவலிங்க வழிபாடு ஐயாயிரம் ஆண்டுகட்குமுன் சிந்து வெளியிற் சிறந்து விளங்கியதெனபது நன்கு துணியப்படுதல் காணலாம்.
 
மேலே கண்ட தரவுகளை அந்தந்த துறையில் உச்சத்தில் போற்றப்படும் அறிஞர்கள் இவற்றை கூறினாலும் இன்றைய அறிஞர்கள் சிலபலர் இவை நிச்சயமாக கூற இயலாத கருத்துக்கள் எனக் கூறுகின்றனர் 
 
ஆந்திர மாநிலத்தில் கர்னூலை அடுத்த வீரபுரத்தில் கிடைத்த இந்த விநாயகரே மிகவும் பழமையான விநாயகர். சுடுமண்ணால் ஆன இந்த வடிவம் ஐராவதம் மஹாதேவன் அவர்களால் கண்டெடுக்கப்பெற்றது. சாதவாஹனர்களின் காலத்தைச் சேர்ந்ததாகக் கருதப்பெறும் இதன் காலம் பொயுமு இரண்டாகலாம் என்று கருதப்பெறுகிறது. பொயுமு இரண்டிலேயே ஆந்திரத்தில் வழிபாடு இருப்பதால் தமிழகத்திலும் இருந்திருக்கலாமென்பதே பலரின் கருத்து..

A Bronze Seal of first Century CE was unearthed in 1914-15 by Marshall on the Sirkap site of Ancient Taxila in Punjab of Pakistan which contained the figure of Shiva with two arms with a bilingual legend in Brahmi and Karoshti scripts as "SHIVARAK****ASA". This seal shows a Club being held in right hand in a knotted pattern as seen for Heracles. Maues ( 60-50 BCE ) is the earliest of Pre Kushana rulers who had adapted this in his Square Copper coins where Shiva holding the Trident and Club are shown. It is said that in a variant Coin by Maues we can also see a Dwarf trampled under the feet of Shiva. Unfortunately I could not source images of these coins as they are very rare but documented, in British Museum, not on public display. In the same pattern Shiva with a Trishula is being shown in the coins of Gondophares ( 30-15 BCE ) with a Palm tree being held in an extended right hand. Posture seen in Sirkap Seal is different from that seen in Gondophares and Vima Khadphises coins; the left leg is placed similarly in all, whereas the right leg with bent knee is stretched forward in the Seal. The Indo Greek coins showing Heracles with a club are of the same pattern of the Club element. The Indian loin cloth and Turban on the head are starkly in contrast with the Shiva figure shown in a Hellenistic Style. Bronze seal No.12 unearthed at Sirkap, Taxila, was described by Marshall in ASI Archaeological Review 1914-15 ( Page 15, Pl. XXIV, 50 ) as Heracles trampling a bull shaped Dragon. The Kharoshti legend was read by him as Tidusa Vibhumitrasa while Konow read it as Badusa Vispamitrasa translated as "Of the Young Brahman Visvamitra". This probably depicts Shiva as Vishwamitra, the name of the person in this Seal being after the name of the God depicted. The Bull below the left leg of the main figure is significant. These names are frequently also seen as various forms of Shiva ( on some silver coins of Audumbara Chief Dharaghosha ) and one of his aspects is well known to us as Vatuka Bhairava. Maues Square coins in British Museum are documented in detail by Gardner, who explains it as a Male figure with Chlamys flying behind, holds a club and Trident. A similar one is also seen in Punjab Museum in a Maues coin with the Male deity striding to left with flowing draperies, holding a club in right hand and long spear or Sceptre in left. The Script Shivarak****asa means "One Protected by Shiva" and the Coin with this script shows almost exactly the same form of Shiva from other coins, with his Trident held on left hand resting on his left shoulder and a knotted Club in right hand. From these we can infer that in Coinage the first to depict Shiva were indeed the foreign rulers of Ancient India and also evidently earlier to Gondophares. Similarly Cunningahm's "Coins of Indo-Scythians and Kushans" ( Page 30, Pl.II,Fig13) it is explained that a male figure facing front is seen with an elephant goad over the left shoulder. The Ankusa being Shiva's attribute is also seen in Kanishka and Huvishka coins and so it should be Shiva only. Maues coins show only a Trishula in Shiva's hand and sometimes a dwarfish figure being trampled is frequently interpreted as Poseidon. This is also seen in the coins of Antimachus Theos. Obviously in an Indian perspective we cannot help being reminded of the Apasmara Purusha under Shiva's feet.

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இந்த பாறை வசிப்பிடங்களை கண்டுபிடித்து, உள்ள ஓவியங்களை எல்லாம் ஆவணப் ப‌டுத்திய தொல்லியல் அறிஞர் வி.எஸ்.வாலங்கர். பன்னாட்டு அளவில் பாறை ஓவியங்கள் வளர்ச்சி நிலை, மேம்பாடு ஆய்வில் புகழ் பெற்ற அறிஞர் எர்வின் நியூமேயர்; அவர் நூல் -" Erwin Neumayer - Lines on stone _ the prehistoric rock art of India"(1993) எனப் பல்வேறு குகை ஓவியங்கள் பற்றிய ஆய்வு நூலில் இந்த ஓவியங்களில் பெரும்பாலானவை இடைக் கற்காலம் (mesolithic மெசோலிதிக்) அதாவது பொமு 8000 - 3000 இடைப்பட்டவை,

இந்த ஓவியங்களில் அன்றாட மேய்ச்சல் வாழ்க்கை, போர், விலங்குகள்< விளையாட்டு என்பதோடு பண்டிகை கொண்டாட்டம் என வேறுபடுத்தி அமைத்ததில், ஒரு சிற்பம் தெளிவாக "நடராஜர்" என இருவரும் ஏற்றனர்; மேலும் பல பன்னாட்டு அறிஞர்கள் ஏற்று உள்ளனர். இந்த் ஆதி நடராஜர் எனும் ஓவியம் தற்போது பெருமளவில் சிதைந்து உள்ள படம் விக்கிபீடியாவில் உள்ளது. நம் தேடலில் ஆரம்பகாலப் படம், மற்றும் அதன் கோட்டு ஓவியம் கிடைத்தது கீழே.

paintings.

Pre-historic art[edit]

Scholars have interpreted early prehistoric paintings at the Bhimbetka rock shelters, considered to be from pre-10,000 BCE period,^[61] as Shiva dancing, Shiva's trident, and his mount Nandi.^[62] Rock paintings from Bhimbetka, depicting a figure with a trident or trishul, have been described as Nataraja by Erwin Neumayer, who dates them to the mesolithic.^[63]

Klostermaier 2007, pp. 24–25: "... prehistoric cave paintings at Bhimbetka (from ca. 100,000 to ca. 10,000 BCE) which were discovered only in 1967..."

Klostermaier, Klaus K. (2007). A Survey of Hinduism, 3rd Edition. State University of University Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-7082-4

^ Javid 2008, pp. 20–21; Mathpal 1984, p. 220; Rajarajan 1996.

Javid, Ali (January 2008). World Heritage Monuments and Related Edifices in India. Algora Publishing. ISBN 978-0-87586-484-6.

Mathpal, Yashodhar (1984). Prehistoric Rock Paintings of Bhimbetka, Central India. Abhinav Publications. ISBN 978-81-7017-193-5.
Rajarajan, R.K.K. (1996). "Vṛṣabhavāhanamūrti in Literature and Art". Annali del Istituto Orientale, Naples. 56 (3): 305–10.

^ Neumayer 2013, p. 104.

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தொல்லியல் தரவுகளோடு காண்போம்

சிந்து-சரஸ்வதி நதி நாகரீகத்தில் முதலில் கிடைத்தவை 3தலை, மாட்டுக் கொம்புகளோடு சுற்றிலும் மிருகங்கள் என உள்ள முத்திரை சிவ- ருத்ரரின் தொடக்க வடிவம் என பசுபதி முத்திரை எனப் பெயர் தரப்பட்டது.

from Harappa Galary - National Museum, Delhi.

சர்.ஜான் மார்ஷல் பசுபதி முத்திரை, மற்றும் பல நூறு மிகச் சிறிய லிங்கங்கள் என அறிவித்ததை தற்போது பெரும்பாலான அறிஞர்கள் ஏற்கவில்லை.

மேலே ஹரப்பா லிங்கம் ஒன்றும் பிறகு காளிபங்கனில் கிடைத்த 4.5 இன்ச் லிங்கம் மட்டுமே ஓரளவு இருக்கலாம் என சிலர் ஏற்பதே இன்றைய நிலை. சங்க இலக்கியம் கூறும் யாகசாலை அமைப்பு என்பதும் தொல்லியல் அற்ஞர்கள் பலர் கருத்து.

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Heliodorus_pillar_(cropped).jpg

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298992598_5251756354945761_8396868237076 299022448_5251756304945766_1790601023711

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Late Bronze Age Apocalypse

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"Religious Developments in Ancient India"...or, "Mythology of Harappa"...a Bronze Age Narrative:

(Pictured: The Pashupati seal, showing a seated and possibly ithyphallic figure, surrounded by animals; National Museum of India)
[https://www.facebook.com/.../a.440513.../471099756410432/...]

{Mythology of Harappa:

The Harappan civilization thrived between 2500 BCE and 1900 BCE, lasting six centuries, existing 4,000 years ago. In these cities, we find seals with images that give a tantalising glimpse of a mythology that may thrived in those cities before the arrival of Indo-European myths 500 years later, around 1500 BCE.

We really do not know what the myths of the Harappans [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.44051.../1089309297922805/...] were; but we can speculate, based on the seals and also using certain peculiar measurements and orientations of architecture found in the cities. For eg, most cities are aligned in the East-West direction, while burials took place in north south direction, revealing directions had meaning.

During the height of the Harappan civilisation [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.44051.../1097553743765027/...], just before the sun rose on the spring equinox, the constellation Pleiades [https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1701950126658716&id=439331399587268&fs=0&focus_composer=0] (in the House of Taurus [https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3339681479588357&id=100006396123054&set=a.1439128152977042]) could be seen in the east. Today, in the same location, we see the House of Pisces giving way to the House of Aquarius. Now the Pleiades constellation or the Kritika constellation has six or seven stars. A seal showing seven women has been found in Harappa. Even today, across India, we find the worship of seven maidens known as Sapt Matrika. In Puranic myths, they are considered mothers of the warlord-god Skanda, terrifying goddesses, causing childhood disease and miscarriage, for those who do not respect them.

Other seals show images of a woman emerging from a tree, and a woman fighting two tigers, while standing on an elephant. Was this an early form of goddess worship? There are seals of buffaloes being tamed and impaled, of mighty bulls, suggesting the myth of Durga killing Mahisha and her consort Shiva [https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3350528935170278&id=100006396123054&set=a.1439128152977042], who rides the bull Nandi. Women wore sindoor and bangles, which are symbols of marriage even today.

The most popular seal is of the horned-god, seated in, what in yoga is known as, the throne position, surrounded by animals, leading to speculations that this is the proto-Shiva in the form of Pashupati. The images of people leaping over bulls and buffalos again indicates the cult of virility, complementing the fertility cult of the goddess. These seals could refer to Rishabha, the Jain teacher, associated with asceticism and whose symbol is the bull. Rishabha is the foundation of civilisation in Jainism and that Harappa seems more associated with trading than with warfare, does make us wonder if this civilisation could have practiced an early form of Jainism.

We know that the peepal plant was valued in this culture. It later came to be associated with the Buddha as well as Jain sages and Hindu yogis, including Shiva. We know that water was very important in Harappan culture, indicated by tanks and the understanding of the sewage and plumbing systems. Relative standardisation of cities reveals some form of central control, and respect for authority and alignment. The burial rites reveal that there was clearly social structure and hierarchy in these cities, and it was not an egalitarian culture as once assumed.

That the Harappans practiced burials, along with pots and pets, and jewellery, reveals that rebirth was not the foundational myth of these cities. They believed in afterlife. The idea of rebirth, the foundation of Buddhist, Jain and Hindu mythology became dominant only later in the Upanishadic era which was roughly 2,500 years ago. In rebirth, the body is cremated and the bones cast in the river in the hope of rebirth or liberation. There is no concept of afterlife.

This article is also listed under Jain, Society....}
[https://devdutt.com/articles/mythology-of-harappa/...]

"Religious Developments in Ancient India":

For well over 1,000 years, sacred stories and heroic epics have made up the mythology of Hinduism. Nothing in these complex yet colourful legends is fixed and firm. Pulsing with creation, destruction, love, and war, it shifts and changes. Most myths occur in several different versions, and many characters have multiple roles, identities, and histories. This seeming confusion reflects the richness of a mythology that has expanded and taken on new meanings over the centuries.

Hinduism stood for a wide variety of related religious traditions native to India. Historically, it involved the evolution since the pre-Christian epoch. In turn, it looked back to age-old belief of the Indus Valley Civilization followed by the Vedic religion [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.440513.../858169951036742/...] ;.[https://www.facebook.com/.../a.440513.../981799498673786/...] ; [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.44051.../1091178887735846/...] ; [https://www.facebook.com/bronzeag.../posts/1155063904680677/]

Indus Valley Civilization [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.44051.../1296316920555374/...]

The Indus Valley Civilization [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.44051.../1296246303895769/...] ensued during the Bronze Age (3300–1300 BCE; mature period 2600–1900 BCE). It mostly spread along the Indus and the Punjab region, extending into the Ghaggar-Hakra river valley and the Ganga-Yamuna Doab, surrounding most of what is now Pakistan [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.440513.../975991355921267/...], the western states of modern-day India, as well as extending into south-eastern Afghanistan [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.440513.../790704754449929/...], and the easternmost part of Baluchistan [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.44051.../1088289474691454/...], Iran.

The geography of the Indus Valley put the civilizations https://www.facebook.com/.../a.440513.../976604825859920/...][ that arose there in a similar situation to those in Egypt and Peru, with rich agricultural lands being surrounded by highlands, desert, and ocean. Of late, Indus sites had been discovered in Pakistan's north-western Frontier Province as well. Other smaller isolated colonies were found as far away as Turkmenistan. Coastal settlements extended from Sutkagan Dor in Western Baluchistan to Lothal in Gujarat. An Indus Valley site was located on the Oxus River at Shortughai in northern Afghanistan,

By 2600 BCE, early communities turned into large urban centres. Such inner-city centres included Harappa, Ganeriwala, Mohenjo-Daro [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.440513.../546918298828577/...] in Pakistan, and Dholavira, Kalibangan, Rakhigarhi, Rupar, and Lothal in India. In total, over 1,052 cities and settlements have been found, mainly in the region of the Indus [http://www.mysteryofindia.com/.../the-indus-the-masters...] and the tributaries.

Steatite seals had images of animals, people (perhaps gods), and other types of inscriptions, including the yet un-deciphered writing system of the Indus Valley Civilization. A number of gold, terra-cotta and stone figurines [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.44051.../1296762703844129/...] of girls in dancing poses [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.44051.../1168020700051664/...] showed the presence of some dance form. Also, these terra-cotta figurines included cows, bears, monkeys, and dogs. Sir John Marshall reacted with surprise when he saw the famous Indus bronze statuette of a slender-limbed dancing girl in Mohenjo-Daro [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.440513.../642417552611984/...].

"When I first saw I found it difficult to believe that they were prehistoric; they seemed to completely upset all established ideas about early art, and culture. Modelling such as this was unknown in the ancient world up to the Hellenistic age of Greece, and I thought, therefore, that some mistake must surely have been made; that these figures had found their way into levels some 3000 years older than those to which they properly belonged."

Now, in these statuettes, it was just this anatomical truth which was so startling; that made us wonder whether, in this all-important matter, Greek artistry could possibly have been anticipated by the sculptors of a far-off age on the banks of the Indus.

It was widely suggested that the Harappan people worshipped a Mother goddess symbolizing fertility. A few Indus valley seals displayed swastika sign which were there in many religions, especially in Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. The earliest evidence for elements of Hinduism is before and during the early Harappan period. Phallic symbols close to the Hindu Shiva lingam was located in the Harappan ruins.

Shiva [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.440513.../471180883068986/...]

One famous seal displayed a figure seated in a posture reminiscent of the lotus position, surrounded by animals. It came to be labelled after Pashupati (lord of beasts) https://www.facebook.com/.../a.440513.../471099756410432/...][, an epithet of Shiva. The discoverer of the Shiva seal (M420), Sir John Marshall and others have claimed that this figure is a prototype of Shiva, and have described it as having three faces, seated on a throne in a version of the cross-legged lotus posture of Hatha Yoga. Yogi's penis is erect, with both testicles prominently visible. The precise placement of both heels under the scrotum is an advanced Tantric Yoga technique known as Bandha, meaning knot or lock. It is normally used to sublimate and redirect sexual energy and can endow the practitioner with spiritual powers.

A large tiger [https://touch.facebook.com/bronzeagecollapse/photos/a.440513622802379/783601478493590/?type=3&refid=52&__tn__=*s-R] rears upwards by the yogi's right side, facing him. This is the largest animal on the seal, shown as if warmly connected to the yogi; the stripes on the tiger's body, also in groups of five, highlight the connection. Three other smaller animals are depicted on the Shiva seal. It is most likely that all the animals on this seal are totemic or heraldic symbols, indicating tribes, people or geographic areas. On the Shiva seal, the tiger, being the largest, represents the yogi's people, and most likely symbolizes the Himalayan region. The elephant probably represents central and eastern India, the bull or buffalo south India and the rhinoceros the regions west of the Indus river. Heinrich Zimmer agrees that the Pashupati figure shows a figure in a yoga posture.

-- Edited by admin on Friday 12th of August 2022 09:08:38 AM

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Pashupati [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.440513.../471099756410432/...]

The people of the Indus Valley also appear to have worshipped a male god. The most important depiction of an imagined Hinduism god is seal number 420. Many other seals have been found depicting the same figure, but not in the same detail as number 420. The deity is wearing a headdress that has horns, the shape being reminiscent of the crescent moon that modern image of Siva shows on his forehead.

What are thought to be linga stones have been dug up. Linga stones in modern Hinduism are used to represent the erect male phallus or the male reproductive power of the god Siva. But again, these stones could be something entirely different from objects of religious worship. Even today, Siva is worshipped in both human form and that of the phallus. The deity sitting in a yoga-like position suggests that yoga may have been a legacy of the very first great culture that occupied India.

Religious sign of swastika [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.440513.../476152582571816/...]

The earliest sure use of swastika [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.440513.../475978682589206/...] motifs in the archaeological record goes to the Neolithic epoch. The symbol appears in the "Vinca script" of Neolithic Europe (Balkans, 6th to 5th millennium BCE. Another early attestation is on a pottery bowl found at Samarra [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.440513.../566704903516583/...], dated to as early as 4000 BCE. Joseph Campbell in an essay on The Neolithic-Palaeolithic Contrast cites an ornament on a Late Palaeolithic (10,000 BCE) mammoth ivory bird figurine found near Kiev as the only known occurrence of such a symbol predating the Neolithic. The swastika appears only very rarely in the archaeology of ancient Mesopotamia.

In Hinduism, the Swastika [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.440513.../900450706808666/...] in two drawings symbolizes two forms of the creator god Brahma. Facing right it signifies the evolution of the universe; facing left it typifies the involution of the universe. The swastika [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.440513.../884609005059503/...] is one of the 108 symbols of the Hindu deity Vishnu and represents the Sun's rays, upon which life depends. It is also seen as pointing in all four directions (north, east, south and west) and thus implies stability. Its use as a Sun symbol can first be seen in its image of the god Surya. The swastika is used in all Hindu yantras and religious designs.

Buddhism originated in the fifth century BCE and spread throughout the Indian subcontinent in the third century BCE. The swastika symbol (right-hand) was believed to have been stamped on Gautama Buddha's chest by his initiates after his death. It is known as The Heart's Seal. With the spread of Buddhism, the Buddhist swastika reached Tibet and China. The symbol was also introduced to Balinese Hinduism by Hindu kings.

Well over 400 distinct Indus symbols, some say 600, have been found on seals, small tablets, or ceramic pots and over a dozen other materials, including a signboard that apparently once hung over the gate of an inner citadel.

A large number of eminent scholars argue that the Indus system did not encode language, but was instead similar to a variety of non-linguistic sign systems used extensively in the Near East and other societies. Others have claimed on occasion that the symbols were exclusively used for economic transactions, but this claim leaves unexplained the appearance of Indus symbols on many ritual objects, many of which were mass-produced in moulds. No parallels to these mass-produced inscriptions are known in any other early ancient civilizations.

Mohenjo-Daro [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.440513.../643871615799911/...]

Mohenjo-Daro or “heap of the dead” was the largest city excavated of the Indus Valley, or Harappa Civilization. Mohenjo-Daro was a Sindhi word in the locality meaning ‘mound of the dead’.

The scholars Parpola and Asfaq identified another seal (M 430) found at Mohenjo-Daro as the one relating to a unique ritual of equinox. It was an stellar ceremony marking the equinox at the star constellation of Krittika - Alcyon. The legend on the seal cited: the epoch (Kali Yuga – the present epoch we live in) set off at the beginning of the sign of the goat on Wednesday at sunrise at Lanka.

To cut short a fascinating tale of astral importance with religious nuance, it was the city of Lanka which had the place of honour as the prime meridian passed through it in 3102 BCE.

One more narration in this regard was in the travel record of Hwen Tsang in 630-635 CE. He saw a palisade (stupa) of Mauryan times. It was one hundred feet high. Cunningham said of this pillar:

The principality of Middle Sind, which is generally known as Vichalo or ‘Midland’ is described by Hwen Tsang as only 2,500 li or 417 miles in circuit. The chief city, named ‘O-fan-cha’ was at 700 li or 117 miles from the capital of the upper Sind, and 50 miles from Pitasala, the capital of lower Sind. As the former was Alor, and the latter was almost certainly the Pattale of the Greeks or Haiderabad, the recorded distances fix the position of O-fan-cha in the immediate neighbourhood vicinity of the ruins of an ancient city called Bambhra-ka-Thul or simply Bambhar. This, according to tradition, was the site of the once famous city of Brahmanwas or Brahmanabad […].

The city can be located because the circumstances are narrated in detail. The king of the city had previously submitted, but the citizens withheld their allegiance, and shut their gates. By a stratagem, they were induced to come out, and a conflict ensued, in which Ptolemy was seriously wounded in the shoulder by a poisoned sword. The mention of Ptolemy’s wound enables us to identify this city with that of Hermetalia, which Diodorus describes as the ‘last town of the Brahmins [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.44051.../1005983706255365/...]
on the river.

Hermes in Greek is the muted term for Brahma. The Chinese syllable fan is the well-known phrasing of Brahma. Hence, both O-fan-cha and Hermetalia is a direct wording of Bambhra-ka-thul or Brahma-sthal. From all these discussions, it seemed certain that what Hwen Tsang visited was the city of Mohenjo-Daro and its real name was Brahma-sthal or Brahmanabad. The meaning of the name Mohenjo-Daro is ‘Heap of the Dead’. Such a name seems peculiar for a prosperous city like this.

The Hindi word was mohan jodad.o. This word jodad.o had cognates in many mleccha, meluhha languages. The Sindhi word d.a_r.o meant ‘feast given to relatives in honour of the dead’. A number of scholars made out that meluhha was the Sumerian name for mleccha, meaning non-Vedic, barbarian. It was used by the Aryans much as the ancient Greeks used barbaros, indicating garbled speech of foreigners or native people of the country.

The city flourished between 2600 BCE and 1900 BCE, although the first signs of settlement in the area had been dated to the period of 3500 BCE. Excavation at this level was impossible due to the high water table that made even simple excavations of Mohenjo-Daro difficult. The city covered around 200 hectares of land and at its height might have had a population of 85, 000 people. The site was located in the modern Larkana district of Sind province in Pakistan. Mohenjo-Daro was the largest city in the southern portion of the Indus Valley Civilization and important for trade and governance of this area.

The Great Mound, or Citadel, stood out the west end of Mohenjo-Daro. The mound rose 40 feet about the plain at present time; it would have been higher at the time Mohenjo-Daro was inhabited. There was a gap between the mound and the lower city. Because of the large size and separation from the rest of the city, it was thought the mound might have been used for a religious or administrative purpose. This hypothesis was supported by the architecture found on the top of the mound. The mound at Mohenjo-Daro had two distinct features: the Great Bath and the Granary or Meeting hall. The Great Bath was a sunken tank on the top of the mound; the tank was 12 meters long, 7 meters wide and was sunk 2.4 meters below the depth of the mud bricks that enclosed it. The Great Bath was one of the first aspects of Indus Valley life that could be related to modern Hinduism. The Great Bath might also be linked to the concept of river worship, much like the worship of the River Ganga today.

Emergence of the Mitanni Kingdom [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.44051.../1122067437980324/...]

In northern Mesopotamia, a great power arose: the Mitanni [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.44051.../1203892833131117/...]
kingdom. Whatever we could gather about it is from indirect sources. Those people were called Kharri. Some philologists believed that this term was the same as Arya. According to the Vedic Index of Names and Subjects, compiled by Macdonald and Keith, this was the normal designation in Vedic literature from the Rig-Veda onwards of an Aryan of the three upper classes. The Mitannian invasion of northern Mesopotamia and the Aryan influx into India represented two streams of wandering migrations from a common cultural axis.

In 1906-07 CE at Boghaz Keui (about eighty miles to the south east of Ankara, modern capital of Turkey) Hugo Winkler discovered the great state archive of the Chatti Empire containing more than 10,000 cuneiform tablets written in Akkadian cuneiform. One tablet recorded a peace treaty concluded in about 1400 BCE between the Hittite Monarch Suppiluliumas and Mattiuaza, King of the Mitanni. Four gods were called upon as witness to this treaty in the records: In-da-ra, Uru-w-na, Mi-it-ra and Na-sa-at-ti-ia. These names were nearly identical with the Vedic gods Indra, Varuna, Mitra and Nasatya. According to the eminent Indologist Paul Thieme, during the time of the Boghaz Keui treaty, these gods were brought into Iranian mythology. The Avestan scholars affirmed that many Vedic gods were revived, though they were below the supreme god Ahura Mazda. The Mitannians of the upper Euphrates River worshipped them around this epoch.

When Vedic texts were the oldest surviving evidence of early Indo-European-speaking peoples, it was assumed that these texts preserved aspects of Proto-Indo-European culture with careful accuracy. Many ethnologists hoped to unify Indo-Iranian, Celtic, Norse, Greek and Roman into a Proto-Indo-European religion. Max Muller believed that Indo-Iranian religion began as sun worship. G. Dumézil stressed the tripartite social system of Indo-European religion and society. Later scholarship had moved away from considering all these religions near-identical. Instead, since early in the 20th century CE, following Meillet, Thieme and Kuiper, the social function of the Indo-Iranian Asura/Āditya deities was stressed; they were an innovative group not found in Indo-European religion.

Several scholars held that Indo-Aryans reached Assyria in the west and the Punjab in the east before 1500 BCE. The Hurrite speaking Mitanni [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.440513.../777118785808526/...] rulers, influenced by Indo-Aryan, turned up from 1500 BCE in northern Mesopotamia, and the Gandhara grave culture emerged from 1600 BCE. Shaffer & Lichtenstein (in Erdosy 1995:139) stated that:

This shift by Harappan [https://www.facebook.com/.../a.440513.../560102044176869/...] and, perhaps, other Indus Valley cultural mosaic groups, is the only archaeologically documented west-to-east movement of human populations in South Asia before the first half of the first millennium BC.

This could have been caused by ecological factors, such as the drying-up of the Ghaggar-Hakra River and increased aridity in Rajasthan and other places. The Indus River also began to flow east and flooding occurred.

 Iron Age Vedic religion
The religion of the Vedic period (also known as Vedism or Vedic Brahmanism or, in a context of Indian antiquity, simply Brahmanism was a historical predecessor of Hinduism. Many scholars insisted that to call this period Vedic Hinduism was a contradiction in terms since Vedic religion was very different from what we generally called Hindu religion - at least as much as Old Hebrew religion was from medieval and modern Christian religion. However, Vedic religion was treatable as a predecessor of Hinduism.
According to traditional views, the hymns of the Rig-Veda and other Vedic hymns were divinely revealed to the rishis, who were considered to be seers or "hearers" (shruti meant "what was heard") of the Veda, rather than "authors". In addition, the Vedas were said to be "apaurashaya", a Sanskrit word meaning uncreated by man and which further revealed their eternal non-changing status.
Elements of Vedic religion reached back to a Proto-Indo-Iranian religion and an earlier Proto-Indo-European religion. The Vedic period was held to have ended around 500 BCE, Vedic religion with time evolving into the various schools of Hinduism. Vedic religion also influenced Buddhism and Jainism.
Proto-Indo-Iranian religion meant the religion of the Indo-Iranian peoples prior to the earliest Vedic (Indo-Aryan) and Zoroastrian (Iranic) scriptures. These shared a common inheritance of concepts including the universal force *rta (Vedic rta, Avestan asha), the sacred plant and drink *sauma (Vedic Soma, Avestan Haoma) and gods of social order such as *mitra (Vedic Mitra, Avestan and Old Persian Mithra, Miϑra), *bhaga (Vedic Bhaga, Avestan and Old Persian Baga). Proto-Indo-Iranian religion was an archaic offshoot of Indo-European religion.
The documented history of Indian religions began with historical Vedic religion, the religious practices of the early Indo-Aryans, which were collected and later redacted into the Samhitas, four canonical collections of hymns or mantras composed in archaic Sanskrit. These texts were the central shruti (revealed) texts of Hinduism. The period of the composition, redaction and commentary of these texts was known as the Vedic period, which lasted from roughly 1500 to 500 BCE.
The late Vedic period (9th to 6th centuries BCE) marked the beginning of the Upanisadic or Vedantic period. This period heralded the beginning of much of what became classical Hinduism, with the composition of the Upanishads, later the Sanskrit epics, still later followed by the Puranas.
The Sanskrit word véda "knowledge, wisdom" was derived from the root vid- "to know". This was reconstructed as being derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *u̯eid-, meaning "see" or "know".
The Rig-Veda was counted among the four canonical sacred texts (śruti) of Hinduism known as the Vedas. Some of its verses are still recited as Hindu prayers, at religious functions and other occasions, putting these among the world's oldest religious texts in continued use. The Rig-Veda was full of several mythological and poetical accounts of the origin of the world, hymns praising the gods, and ancient prayers for life, prosperity, etc.
It is one of the oldest extant texts in any Indo-European language. Philological and linguistic evidence implies that the Rig-Veda was composed in the north-western region of India, roughly between 1700–1100 BCE (the early Vedic period). There were strong linguistic and cultural similarities with the early Iranian Avesta, deriving from the Proto-Indo-Iranian times.
The text is organized in 10 books, known as Mandalas, of varying age and length. The "family books": mandalas 2-7, were the oldest part of the Rig-Veda and the shortest books; they were arranged by length. Tradition linked a rishi (the composer) with each hymn of the Rig-Veda. In all, 10 families of rishis accounted for more than 95% of the hymns. The compilation by each family went on over a long period of time. Thus, the Rig-Veda was not one book compiled and put together by the sages: each mandala stood out on its own.
The Rig-Vedic hymns were dedicated to various deities, chief of whom being Indra, a heroic god praised for having slain his enemy Vrtra; Agni, the sacrificial fire; and Soma, the sacred potion or the plant it was made from. Equally prominent gods were the Adityas or Asura gods Mitra–Varuna and Ushas (the dawn). Also invoked were Savitr, Vishnu, Rudra, Pushan, Brihaspati or Brahmanaspati, as well as deified natural phenomena such as Dyaus Pita (the shining sky, Father Heaven ), Prithivi (the earth, Mother Earth), Surya (the sun god), Vayu or Vata (the wind), Apas (the waters), Parjanya (the thunder and rain), Vac (the word), many rivers (notably the Sapta Sindhu – the seven rivers starting with the Indus, and the Sarasvati River). The Adityas, Vasus, Rudras, Sadhyas, Ashvins, Maruts, Rbhus, and the Vishvadevas ("all-gods") as well as the "thirty-three gods" were the groups of deities mentioned.
The priests performed the solemn rituals for the noblemen (Kshsatriya) and some wealthy merchants (Vaishyas). They prayed for abundance of children, rain, cattle (wealth), long life and an afterlife in the heavenly world of the ancestors. This mode of worship had been preserved even now in Hinduism, which needed recitations from the Vedas by a purohita (priest).
The religious practices rested on a priest administering rites that often involved sacrifices. Homa (also known as homam or havan) was a Sanskrit word which referred to any ritual in which making offerings into a consecrated fire was the primary action. At present, the words homa/homam and havan were interchangeable with the word Yagna. Although a consecrated fire was the central element of every homa ritual, the procedure and items offered to the fire varied by what was the occasion of the ceremony, or by the benefit expected from the ritual. Procedures invariably involved
the kindling and consecration of the sacrificial fire;
the invocation of one or more divinities; and,
making of offerings (whether real or visualized) to them with the fire as via media, amid the recitation of prescribed prayers(mantras).
The sacred fire formed the focus of devotion; it was often held on certain types of dung, wood, dried coconut and so on. The fire-altar (vedi or homa/havan kunda) was generally made of brick or stone or a copper vessel, and was almost always built especially for the occasion, being taken apart immediately afterwards. This fire-altar was always built in square shape. While very large vedis were seldom built for major public homas, the usual altar would be as small as 1 x 1 foot square and rarely exceeded 3 x 3 feet square.
In all events, the arrangement was in the middle of a space, which could be either outdoors or indoors. The principal people performing the ceremony and the priests who instructed them through the rituals seated themselves around the altar, while family, friends and other devotees formed a larger ring around that centre.
The Vedas
Rig-Veda
Sama-Veda
Yajur-Veda
Atharva-Veda
Of these, the first three were the principal original division, also called "trayī vidyā", implying "the triple sacred science" of reciting hymns (RV), chanting (SV) and performing sacrifices (YV).
The Sama-Veda Samhita (from sāman, the term for a melody applied to metrical hymn or song of praise) consisted of 1549 stanzas, taken almost entirely (except for 78 stanzas) from the Rig-Veda.
The Yajur-Veda Samhita had archaic prose mantras and also in part of verses borrowed and adapted from the Rig-Veda. Its purpose was practical, in that each mantra must accompany an action in sacrifice but, unlike the Sama-Veda, it was compiled to apply to all sacrificial rites,
In the Vedic literature, the Veda was one – the Rig-Veda. It was not the Vedas as the foreign scholars cited quite often. From the narration about the composition of the Sama-Veda, it was the chanting of the hymns, taken almost entirely from the Rig-Veda. The Yajur-Veda contained the details of the platform to be made, dedicated to the deity in whose homage the homa was going to be recited. For every deity there were separate chanting and separate platform for the ritual of yagna. The prose hymns here were again taken from the Rig-Veda.
The Atharva-Veda embodied an independent parallel tradition to that of the Rig-Veda and Yajur-Veda. It added in much of early traditions of healing and magic that had parallel in other Indo-European literature.
The Atharva-Veda was less common than other Vedas as it was little used in solemn ritual. Its first part composed chiefly of spells and incantations, concerned with protection against demons and disaster, spells for the healing of diseases, for long life and for various desires or aims in life. The largely silent Brahman priest looked at the procedures of the ritual and mended it with two mantras and pouring of ghee when a mistake occurred. An early text, its status had been ambiguous due to its magical character.
[https://www.ancient.eu/.../religious-developments-in.../]
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பிடா சுடுமண் பஞ்சமுக லிங்கம்

மத்திய பிரதேச மாநிலத்தில் பிடா எனும் இடத்தில் கிடைத்த சுடுமண் பஞ்சமுக லிங்கம் பொமு.100 வாக்கிலானது என சிந்துவெளி அகழ்வு செய்த R.D.பானர்ஜி கல்வெட்டு ஆதாரங்கள் கொண்டு குறித்தார்.
This is clearly a panchamukhalinga, depicting the five faces of Shiva, which are Isana, Tatpurusha, Aghora, Vamadeva, and Sadyojata. There is an inscription at the base and from a study of which based on the used characters, RD Banerji placed the linga to be of the 1st c. BCE. (This is now housed in the Lucknow museum).