The Vedic Influence Found in the world (Middle-East) 2

by Stephen Knapp

The Mittani

The Mittani were also eastern people forced to move farther west away from their Indian homeland. They appeared as ruling tribes of Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine near 1400 BCE. This is another example of people in far North India who had to leave the region due to a lack of water and resources due to the growing desert. Though they took up the local language and culture of the region, they still left clay tablets at El Amarna in the 15th century BCE that recorded the names of the Mitanni kings of Syria, namely Artatama, Artamanya, Saussatar, Sutarna, Subandu, Dusratta, Suwardata, and Yasdata. Later on, the treaties between the Hittite king Shubbiluliuma and the Mitanni king Mattiuza are shown to invoke the Mittani gods Mitra (Vedic Mitra), Indaru (Indra), Uruwna (Varuna), and Nashattiya (the Nasatyas). Herein we can see that the Mittani gods had names similar to the Vedic gods. The Mitanni people were also called the Maryanni. Childe, in his The Aryans (p.19), compares this name to the Sanskrit word marya, meaning young men or heroes. This word used in the Rig Veda (3.54.13 & 5.59.6). Thus, it is likely that the Mitanni could hardly be anything but part of the Vedic culture and from India. However, as they moved from their native land, they shed their culture. The Mitanni people were a group from the Vedic Purus.