[world-vedic] Cross-Cultural Traces of Vedic Civilization

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CROSS-CULTURAL TRACES OF VEDIC CIVILIZATION

By Dr Richard Thompson

©The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust

Used by permission.

 

The ancient Greek writer Aratos tells the following story about the

constellation Virgo, or the virgin. Virgo, he says, may have belonged to the

star race, the forefathers of the ancient stars. In primeval times, in the

golden age, she lived among mankind as Justice personified and would exhort

people to adhere to the truth. At this time people lived peacefully, without

hypocrisy or quarrel. Later, in the age of silver, she hid herself in the

mountains, but occasionally she came down to berate people for their evil ways.

Finally the age of bronze came. People invented the sword, and "they tasted the

meat of cows, the first who did it." At this point Virgo "flew away to the

sphere"; that is, she departed for the celestial realm.[1]

 

The Vedic literature of India gives an elaborate description of the universe as

a cosmos -- a harmonious, ordered system created according to an intelligent

plan as a habitation for living beings. The modern view of the universe is so

different from the Vedic view that the latter is presently difficult to

comprehend. In ancient times, however, cosmogonies similar to the Vedic system

were widespread among people all over the world. Educated people of today tend

to immediately dismiss these systems of thought as mythology, pointing to their

diversity and their strange ideas as proof that they are all simply products of

the imagination.

 

If we do this, however, we may be overlooking important information that could

shed light on the vast forgotten period that precedes the brief span of recorded

human history. There is certainly much evidence of independent storytelling in

the traditions of various cultures, but there are also many common themes. Some

of these themes are found in highly developed form in the Vedic literature.

Their presence in cultures throughout the world is consistent with the idea that

in the distant past, Vedic culture exerted worldwide influence.

 

In this article we will give some examples of Vedic ideas concerning time and

human longevity that appear repeatedly in different traditions. First we will

examine some of these ideas, and then we will discuss some questions about what

they imply and how they should be interpreted.

 

In the Vedic literature time is regarded as a manifestation of Krsna, the

Supreme Being. As such, time is a controlling force that regulates the lives of

living beings in accordance with a cosmic plan. This plan involves repeating

cycles of creation and destruction of varying durations. The smallest and most

important of these repeating cycles consists of four yugas, or ages, called

Satya, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali. In these successive ages mankind gradually

descends from a high spiritual platform to a degenerated state. Then, with the

beginning of a new Satya-yuga, the original state of purity is restored, and the

cycle begins again.

 

The story of Virgo illustrates that in the ancient Mediterranean world there was

widespread belief in a similar succession of four ages, known there as the ages

of gold, silver, bronze, and iron. In this system humanity also starts out in

the first age in an advanced state of consciousness and gradually becomes

degraded. Here also, the progressive developments in human society are not

simply evolving by physical processes, but are superintended by a higher

controlling intelligence.

 

It is noteworthy that Aratos' story specifies the eating of cows as a sinful act

that cut mankind off from direct contact with celestial beings. This detail fits

in nicely with the ancient Indian traditions of cow protection, but it is

unexpected in the context of Greek or European culture.

 

One explanation for similarities between ideas found in different cultures is

that people everywhere have essentially the same psychological makeup, and so

they tend to come up independently with similar notions. However, details such

as the point about cow-killing suggest that we are dealing here with common

traditions rather than independent inventions.

 

Another example of similarities between cultures can be found among the natives

of North America. The Sioux Indians say that their ancestors were visited by a

celestial woman who gave them their system of religion. She pointed out to them

that there are four ages, and that there is a sacred buffalo that loses one leg

during each age. At present we are in the last age, an age of degradation, and

the buffalo has one leg.[2]

 

This story is a close parallel to the account in the Srimad Bhagavatam of the

encounter between Maharaja Pariksit and the bull of Dharma. There, Dharma is

said to lose one leg with each successive yuga, leaving it with one leg in the

present Age of Kali.

 

According to the Vedic system, the lengths of the Satya, Treta, Dvapara, and

Kali yugas are 4, 3, 2, and 1 times an interval of 432,000 years. Within these

immense periods of time the human life span decreases from 100,000 years in the

Satya-yuga to 10,000 years in the Treta-yuga, 1,000 years in the Dvapara-yuga,

and finally 100 years in the Kali-yuga.

 

Of course, this idea is strongly at odds with the modern evolutionary view of

the past. In the ancient Mediterranean world, however, it was widely believed

that human history had extended over extremely long periods of time. For

example, according to old historical records, Porphyry (c. 300 A.D.) said that

Callisthenes, a companion of Alexander in the Persian war, dispatched to

Aristotle Babylonian records of eclipses and that these records covered 31,000

years. Likewise, Iamblicus (fourth century) said on the authority of the ancient

Greek astronomer Hipparchus that the Assyrians had made observations for 270,000

years and had kept records of the return of all seven planets to the same

position.[3] Finally, the Babylonian historian Berosus assigned 432,000 years to

the total span of the reigns of the Babylonian kings before the Flood.[4]

 

We do not wish to suggest that these statements are true (or that they are

false). The point here is that people in the old Mediterranean civilization

evidently had a much different view of the past than the dominant view today.

And this view was broadly consistent with Vedic chronology.

 

Although the Bible is well known for advocating a very short time-span for human

history, it is interesting to note that it contains information indicating that

people at one time lived for about 1,000 years. In the Old Testament the

following ages are listed for people living before the Biblical Flood: Adam,

930; Seth, 912; Enos, 905; Kenan, 910; Mahaleel, 895; Jared, 962; Enoch, 365;

Methusaleh,969; Lamech, 777; and Noah, 950. If we exclude Enoch (who was said to

have been taken up to heaven in his own body), these persons lived an average of

912 years.[5]

 

After the Flood, however, the following ages were recorded: Shem, 600;

Arphachshad, 438; Selah, 433; Eber, 464; Peleg, 239; Reu, 239; Serug, 230;

Nahor, 148; Terah, 205; Abraham, 175; Issac, 180; Job, 210; Jacob, 147; Levi,

137; Kohath, 133; Amaram, 137; Moses, 120; and Joshua, 110. These ages show a

gradual decline to about 100 years, similar to what must have happened after the

beginning of Kali-yuga, according to the Vedic system.

 

Here we should mention in passing that the Biblical Flood is traditionally said

to have taken place in the second or third millenium B.C., and the traditional

date in India for the beginning of Kali-yuga is February 18, 3102 B.C. This very

date is cited as the time of the Flood in various Persian, Islamic, and European

writings from the sixth to the fourteenth centuries A.D.[6] How did the

middle-eastern Flood come to be associated with the start of Kali-yuga? The only

comment we can make is that this story shows how little we really know about the

past.

 

In support of the Biblical story of very long human life-spans in ancient times,

the Roman historian Flavius Josephus cited many historical works that were

available in his time:

 

Now when Noah had lived 350 years after the Flood, and all that time happily, he

died, having the number of 950 years, but let no one, upon comparing the lives

of the ancients with our lives...make the shortness of our lives at present an

argument that neither did they attain so long a duration of life....

Now I have for witnesses to what I have said all those that have written

Antiquities, both among the Greeks and barbarians, for even Manetho, who wrote

the Egyptian history, and Berosus, who collected the Chaldean monuments, and

Mochus, and Hestiaeus, and beside these, Hiernonymous the Egyptian, and those

who composed the Phoenician history, agree with what I here say: Hesiod also,

and Hecataeus, Hellanicaus, and Acuzilaus, and besides Ephorus and Nicolaus

relate that the ancients lived a thousand years: but as to these matters, let

everyone look upon them as he sees fit.[7]

 

Unfortunately, practically none of the works referred to by Josephus are still

existing, and this again shows how little we know of the past. But in existing

Norse sagas it is said that people in ancient times lived for many centuries. In

addition, the Norse sagas describe a progression of ages, including an age of

peace, an age when different social orders were introduced, an age of increasing

violence, and a degraded "knife-age and axe-age with cloven shields."[8] The

latter is followed by a period of annihilation, called Ragnarok, after which the

world is restored to goodness.

The Norse Ragnarok involves the destruction of the earth and the abodes of the

Norse demigods (called Asgard), and thus it corresponds in Vedic chronology to

the annihilation of the three worlds that follows 1,000 yuga cycles, or one day

of Brahma. It is said that during Ragnarok the world is destroyed with flames by

a being called Surt, who lives beneath the lower world (appropriately called

Hel) and was involved in the world's creation. By comparison, the Srimad

Bhagavatam (3.11.30) states that at the end of Brahma's day, "the devastation

takes place due to the fire emanating from the mouth of Sankarsana." Sankarsana

is a plenary expansion of Krsna who is "seated at the bottom of the universe"

(Srimad Bhagavatam 3.8.3), beneath the lower planetary systems.

 

There are many similarities between the Norse and Vedic cosmologies, but there

are also great differences. One key difference is that in the Srimad Bhagavatam,

all beings and phenomena within the universe are clearly understood as part of

the divine plan of Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In contrast, in

the Norse mythology God is conspicuously absent, and the origin and purpose of

the major players in the cosmic drama are very obscure. Surt, in particular, is

a "fire giant" whose origins and motives are unclear even to experts in the

Norse literature.[9]

 

One might ask, If Vedic themes appear in many different societies, how can one

conclude that they derive from an ancient Vedic civilization? Perhaps they were

created in many places independently, or perhaps they descend from an unknown

culture that is also ancestral to what we call Vedic culture. Thus parallels

between the accounts of Surt and Sankarsana may be coincidental, or perhaps the

Vedic account derives from a story similar to that of Surt.

 

Our answer to this question is that available empirical evidence will not be

sufficient to prove the hypothesis of descent from an ancient Vedic culture, for

all empirical evidence is imperfect and subject to various interpretations. But

we can decide whether or not the evidence is consistent this hypothesis.

 

If there was an ancient Vedic world civilization, we would expect to find traces

of it in many cultures around the world. We do seem to find such traces, and

many agree with Vedic accounts in specific details (such as the location of

Surt's abode or the sacred buffalo's loss of one leg per world age). Since this

civilization began to lose its influence thousands of years ago, at the

beginning of Kali-yuga, we would expect many of these traces to be fragmentary

and overlain by many later additions, and this we also see. Thus the available

evidence seems to be consistent with the hypothesis of a Vedic origin.

 

REFERENCES

 

[1] E. C. Sachau, trans., Alberuni's India

(Delhi: S. Chand & Co., 1964), pp. 383-4.

[2] J. E. Brown, ed., The Sacred Pipe

(Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1971), p. 9.

[3] D. Neugebauer, History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy

(Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1975), pp. 608-9.

[4] J. D. North, "Chronology & the Age of the World," in Cosmology,

History & Theology, eds. Wolfgang Yourgrau and A. D. Breck

(N. Y.: Plenum Press, 1977), p. 315.

[5] D. W. Patten and P. A. Patten, "A Comprehensive Theory on Aging,

Gigantism & Longevity," Catastrophism & Ancient History,

Vol. 2, Part 1 (Aug. 1979), p. 24.

[6] J. D. North, Ibid., p. 316-7.

[7] D. W. Patten, Ibid., p. 29.

[8] V. Rydberg, Teutonic Mythology, R. B. Anderson, trans.

(London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1889), pp. 88,94.

[9] Ibid., pp. 448-9.

Sadaputa Dasa (Richard L. Thompson) earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from Cornell

University. He is the author of several books, of which the most recent is Vedic

Cosmography and Astronomy.

 

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