The Vedic Influence Found in the world (Middle-East)

by Stephen Knapp

As we investigate the region and countries of the Middle East, we find much evidence that shows the early influence of Vedic culture. Much of this influence still remains today. This justifies the fact that such influence would not be there if this region had not been at one time a part of the global Vedic Aryan culture and had been administered by Vedic rulers

The Hittites were known to have worshipped a god called Inar. Most undoubtedly the Vedic Indira, which the Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology (p.85) mentions as a god who had come from India with the Indo-European Hittites. There is also a book that has been found in Anatolia on horse training that contains technical terms in perfect Sanskrit. Thus, the Hittites were certainly part of Vedic culture and a migratory wave out of the Indian region. This could have been due to lack of water in the area as the desert expanded.e out of the Vedic Aryan civilization. We can also recognize how the Vedic influence extended over a vast area and travel west into Europe and other regions and affected these countries in greater or lesser degrees.

Ancient India no doubt covered a much larger area of land than it does today and spread much farther to the north and west. At least there are historical indications showing that the Aryan influence was felt over long distances. The Vedic gods, for example, were known over a wide area. V.Gordon Childe, in his book The Aryans, states that evidence makes it clear that the Aryans had been established in centers on the upper Euphrates in 1400 BCE. These centers were similar to the cities of the Indus Valley and Later in Media and Persia. In fact, Hugo Winckler, in 1907, identified the names of four Vedic gods (Indra, Varuna, Mitra and the Nasatya twins) along with ten Babylonian and four Mitannian gods that were invoked as witnesses to a treaty signed in 1360 BCE between the kings of Mitanni and the Hittites. There are also tablets at Tell-el-Amarna that mention Aryan prices in Syria and Palestines. But these Aryans were not necessarily permanent residents of the area but dynasts who ruled over the non-Aryan subjects of that region. This would explain why some scholars such as Jacobi, Pargiter, and Konow accept the deities of the Mittani in the Upper Euphrates in Syria and Palestine as being Indian, introduced to the area through a Sanskrit speaking people who came from the Punjab. Furthermore, L.A.Waddell claims that the first Aryan kings can be traced back to at least 3380 BCE. They had a capital north of the Euphrates near the Black Sea in Cappadocia in 3378 BCE, and these Hittite kings of Cappadocia bore Aryan names. This means that the Aryans had to have been very well settled in the area during this time.

The Hittites

In speaking of the Hittites, they are said to have invaded the area of Cappadocia near 1950 BCE,. However, as the above evidence shows, they may have been there much earlier. The Hittites are mentioned in Egyptian and other records of the area, as well as in the Old Testament. Documents from Boghaz-Koi, Turkey, translated in 1917, showed they did speak ancient, but unknown, Indo-European language. This no doubt had to have been related or derived from Sanskrit. The dialect they spoke include Luwian, Palaic, Lycian, and others. The Hittites people were called the Khatti in the oldest documents. This could possibly be derived from the Sanskrit words Kshatriya or the Pali Khattiyo, as pointed out by D.D.Kosambi in The Culture and Civilization of Ancient India, (p.77).

The Hittites were known to have worshipped a god called Inar. Most undoubtedly the Vedic Indira, which the Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology (p.85) mentions as a god who had come from India with the Indo-European Hittites. There is also a book that has been found in Anatolia on horse training that contains technical terms in perfect Sanskrit. Thus, the Hittites were certainly part of Vedic culture and a migratory wave out of the Indian region. This could have been due to lack of water in the area as the desert expanded.