Fwd: Cultural Between Mayan Civilisation and Hindu Civilisation

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, "sunil nair" <astro_tellerkerala wrote:Hinduism Today MagazineNovember 1995Mayan-Hindu ConnectionBy B.N. Narahari AcharIn his recent visit to South America, Sri Ganapati Sthapati found manysimilarities between theMayan temples and those of India [Hinduism Today, June, 1995]. Myresearchindicates there are alsosimilarities between the Mayan and Hindu systems of astronomy which aredemonstrated in significantparallels between the Hindu Puranas and Mayan texts.The Mayan culture flourished in Mesoamerica during the early Christianera,before being completelywiped out by the Spanish conquest. Astronomy played a significant rolein Mayanculture. Venus inparticular had a preeminent status. Testimony to this rich tradition isborneout by Mayan temple art andthe few available Codices, or sacred books, of the Mayans.Great strides have been made recently in deciphering the Mayan scriptand inunderstanding theconcepts of Mayan astronomy. Western scholars have attempted to relatethe Mayanconcepts to those of Greekastronomy.The sidereal Mayan astronomy is more akin to the Hindu system and doesnoteasily fit into the Greekmodel. Striking similarity is found between certain Mayan and Puranicstories,and their related astronomicalinterpretation. In the Puranas, Lord Vishnu is represented as resting ontheserpent Ananta orSesa, after having dissolved all creation. The serpent represents theeternityof time (Ananta), and the"remainder"(Sesa) in subtle form, of prakriti, the germ of all that hasbeen andwill be. Afterwaking up from the yoganidra, Vishnu rides on the eagle Garuda.Both Garuda and Sesa are shown in association with Vishnu in the templesofIndia. It is said thatGaruda represents the Vedas and the solar deities, and Sesa representsthewatery deities. The serpent is ofgreat significance in the Mayan culture also.A supreme example is the serpent of sunlight and shadow seen atChichén Itzá. Atthe time of the equinoxes, asthe Sun moves from east to west, a pattern of light and shadow appearson thewest balustrade of the northstairway of the Castillo at Chichén Itzá. This display resembles adescendingsnake whose head is themonumental serpent head carved out of stone at the foot of the stairs.Thefeathered serpentrepresents the Mayan God Kukulcan, who is associated with rain water andnewlife, among other things. Kukulcanappears to be Sesa and Garuda combined into one. The devas and theasuraschurned the Milky Oceanin search of amrita. Vishnu assumed the form of a tortoise and dived tothebottom of the cosmicocean.On his back, the devas and asuras placed the mount Mandara as the churnand usedthe serpent Vasukias the rope. From the churned Milky Ocean emerged all planets, poisonousHalahala, many treasures, andfinally, amrita. The devas wanted the nectar only for themselves.However, aserpent asura named Rahu,disguised as a deva, was able to get a share of amrita. The Sun and theMoondiscovered him.Rahu's head was instantly cut off. However, as he had already ingestedamrita,he could not be killed. To thisday, the head of Rahu attempts to swallow the Sun and the Moon. Rahurepresentsthe ascending node of themoon's orbit, and swallowing of the Sun and the Moon representsymbolically theoccurrence of theeclipses.There is a picture from the Maya Codex Tro-Cortesianus. It shows atortoise, acentralchurning rod and a serpent being used as a rope by figures of dark andlightshade. The westernscholars have found it difficult to interpret this picture, but thesimilarityof the picture to the churning ofthe Milky Ocean of the Puranas is remarkable. In the Dresden Codex thereareglyphs representingeclipses, depicting the Sun or the Moon as being devoured by a serpent.Thesimilarity to the Hindurepresentation in which Rahu tries to devour the luminary object isunmistakable.Finally, according to tradition, Lord Surya himself taught the scienceofastronomy, Surya Siddhanta,to Mayasura (perhaps the same famed architect of the Pandavas in theMahabharata). Could it be thatthe Mayans are the descendants of Maya and this story could explain theimportance of Venus in theMayan astronomy? Maybe this is stretching it too far, for "Maya" meansthe"chosen people" in the Mayanlanguage.(Dr. B. N. Narahari Achar is a professor of physics at the University ofMemphis. He has recently becomeinterested in the ancient astronomies of India and Mesoamerica.)--- End forwarded message ---