[world-vedic] Vedic culture and the Americas (part 1)

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India on Pacific Waves? (part 1)

 

 

Introduction:

 

Articles:

Maya Civilization of Mexico.

Master Builder Uncovers Striking similarities in Indian and Incan/Mayan

Sacred Structures.

 

Introduction:

 

The first Maya Empire had been founded in Guatemala at about the

beginning of the Christian era. Before the

fall of Rome the Mayas were charting accurately the synodical

revolutions of Venus, and whilst Europe was

still lingering in the Dark Ages the Maya civilization had reached a

peak of greatness.

 

It is significant that

the zenith of Maya

civilization was

reached at a time when India

had also attained an

unparalleled cultural

peak during the Gupta

period, and Indian

cultural intercouse

with Southeast Asia,

the Gupta period had

begun more than a

century before the

Mayan classical age in

320 and Buddhism and

Hinduism had been

well known in

neighbouring countries for

centuries. If there

was contact between

Mayan america and

Indianized Southeast

Asia, the simultaneous

cultural advance

would not appear surprising. In marked contrast, this was the darkest

period in Europe's history between the

sack of Rome and the rise of Charlemagne.

 

The most important development of the ancient

American or Asiomerican culture

took place in the south of the United States, in

Mexico, in central America, and in

Peru. The early history of Asiomericans is shrouded

in mystery and controversy due

to the absence of definitive documentary evidence,

which was destroyed by the

European conquerors in their misguided religious

zeal.

 

However, it appears that after the discovery of introduction of maize

into Mexico, Asiomericans no longer had

to wander about in search of food. Men in America, as in other parts of

the world, settled down to cultivate

food and culture, a by-product of agricultural life, inevitably

followed.

 

Of the Asiomerican civilizations, the best known

are the Maya, the Toltec, the

Aztec, and the Inca. The Mayas were possibly the

earliest people to found a

civilization there; they moved form the Mexican

plateau into Gauatemala. They were

later pushed out, presumably by the Toltecs, who,

in turn were dislodged by the

Aztecs.

 

Similarities:

Astrology

 

Baron Alexander Von Humboldt, whilst visiting

Mexico, found similarities

between Asian and Mexican astrology. He found that

the systematic study of ancient

American cultures and was convinced of the Asian origin of the

American-Indian high civilization. He said,:

 

"if languages supply but feeble evidence of ancient communication

between the two worlds, their

communication is fully poved by the cosmogonies, the monuments, the

hieroglyphical characters and the

institutions of the people of America and Asia."

 

In 1866, the French architect, Viollet-le-Duc, also noted striking

resemblances between ancient Mexican

structures and those of South India.

 

Hindu-Mexican Trinity:

 

Scholars were also greatly impressed by the

similarity between the Hindu

Trinity - Brahma-Visnu-Shiva and the Mexican

Trinity -

Ho-Huizilopochtli-Tlaloc-as well as the

likeness between Indian temples and

American pyramids. The paralles between the

Hindu Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva

Trinity and the Mexican Ho-Huitzilopochtli-Tlal

oc Trinity, and the

resemblances between the attributes of certain

Hindu deities and those of the

Mayan pantheon are impressive. Discussing the

diffusion of Indian religions to

Mexico, a recent scholar, Paul Kirchhoff, has

even suggested that it is not

simply a question of miscellaneous influences

wandering from one country to

the other, but that China, India, Java, and

Mexico actually share a common

system."

 

Kirchhoff has sought "to demonstrate that a

calendaric classification of 28

Hindu gods and their animals into twelve

groups, subdivided into four blocks,

within each of which we find a sequence of gods

and animals representing

Creation, Destruction and Renovation, and which can be shown to have

existed both in India and Java, must

have been carried from the Old World to the New, since in Mexico we

find calendaric lists of gods and

animals that follow each other without interruption in the same order

and with attributes and functions or

meanings strikingly similar to those of the 12 Indian and Javanese

groups of gods, showing the same four

subdivisions."

 

 

E.B.Taylor also found the counterparts of the

tortoise myth of India in ancient

America.

Donald A. Mackenzie and other scholars, however,

are of definite opinion that

the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians wer familar

with Indian mythology and cite in

support close parallels in details. For instance,

the history of the Mayan elephant

symbol cannot be traced in the local tradition,

whereas it was a prominent religious

symbol in India. The African elephant has larger

ears. It is the profile of the Indian

elephant, its tusk and lower lip, the form of its

ear, as well as its turbaned rider

with his ankus, which is found in Meso-American

models. Whilst the African

elephant was of little religious significance, it

had been tamed in India and

associated with religious practices since the

early days.

 

The Mexican doctrine of the World's Ages - the

universe was destroyed four

consecutive times - is reminiscent of the Indian

Yugas. Even the reputed colors

of these mythical four ages, white, yellow, red

and black are identical with

and in the same order as one of the two versions of the Indian Yugas.

In both myths the duration of

the First Age is exactly the same, 4,800 divine years. The Mexican

Trinity is associated with this

doctrine as in the Hindu Trinity with the Yugas in India.

 

Later, two English scholars Channing Arnold and Fredrick J.Tabor Frost,

in their The American Egypt,

made a detaled examination of the transpacific contacts, reinforcing

the view of Buddhist influences on Central

America. The most recent and by far the most systematic well-reasoned,

and effective case has been

advanced by the eminent archaeologist, R.Heine-Geldern and Gordon

Ekholm, who favor Indian and

Southeast Asian cultural influences on ancient America through

migration across the Pacific.

 

According to the Mayan calendar, which is extant, the

time record of the mayas began

on 6 August 613 B.C. It is an exact date based upon

intricated astronomical

calculations, and prolonged observations. To work out

this kind of elaborate calendar

must have taken well over two thousand years of

studying stars, and the Asiomericans

must have been remarkably shrewd observers.

 

Use of Zero

 

The Mayas of Yucatan were the first people besides the

Indians to use a zero sign and

represent number values by the position of basic

symbols. The similarity between the

Indian zero and the Mayan zero is indeed striking. So far as the

logical principle is concerned, the two are

identical, but the expressions of the principle are dissimilar. Again,

whilst the Indian system of notation was

decimal, as was the European, the Mayan was vigesimal. Consequently,

their 100 stood for 400, 1000 stood

for 8000, 1234 for 8864. While the place of zero in the respective

systems of the Indians and Mayans is

different, the underlying principle and method are the same, and the

common origin of the Mayan and Indian

zeros appears to be undoubted. Disputes continue amongst scholars in

the absence of conclusive evidence.

As chronological evidence stands today, the Mayan zero appears to be

anterior by several centuries to its

Hindu counterpart. (To be contd.)