Vedas and Egyptian Pyramid Texts

By Swaminathan

The Pyramid texts are unique. Those who read it will be reminded of Hindu Vedas. They are presented in the form of “utterances, declarations” either in the voice of kings or gods. In the case of Vedas it was Rishis or gods. The texts were older than the known kings. They have come from pre dynastic period. The texts are full of magic. Much of the texts are written in the form of dialogues like our Upanishads and Puranas. Scholars find it difficult to translate it just like our Vedas. They are literally untranslatable. The complexity of the language of the texts is multiplied by the Egyptian’s enthusiasm for punning. They not only pun verbally but also visually by using appropriate pictorial hieroglyphs. Vedic seers also say they delight in speaking in coded, secret language. It is not known when the Pyramid texts were collected in the form in which they appear in Unas’s (2375 BC) pyramid; certainly it must have been long before his time. Many of the texts are similar to Vedic hymns. The Book of Dead is also similar to Hindu scriptures.

Misra Desa

Egypt is known as Misra Desa in Sanskrit literature. Misra means mixed. People of different races were living and ruling Egypt for 3000 years. It has a long history. This gave birth to hundreds of Gods like Hinduism. Whoever studies must be careful enough to differentiate between different races and Gods of Egypt. There are three layers of Gods. The oldest layer is just fetishes (reverential objects connected with God), the second layer is full of Gods in human forms and the third layer is Gods with animal forms. This is exactly same with Hinduism. In Vedic times we did not have much other than symbols. Then comes the Avatars- gods in human form. Later came the gods with animal forms like Ganesh, Anjaneya, Hayagriva, Sarabeshvara, Nandikeswara, Purushamrga, Veda Murthys and so on.

Arabic name for Egypt is Masr=Misra in Sanskrit. Hebrew word for Egypt is Misrayim. In English Bible it was translated as Musri. All these corresponds with Sanskrit Misra.

Indian invasion

Sahadevan invaded Misra desam and defeated them, says Mahabharata. Subhanu’s inscription also confirmed it.

The sea people and Hyksos who invaded Egypt may be South Indians and Sri Lankans, from Lanka the land of Yakshas/Hyksos.

Board Games

The world’s oldest board game is in Tamil Nadu, North India, Indonesia, Mayan civilisation and several African countries including Egypt. It is called Pallangkuzi in Tamil Mancala in Africa. It has got hundreds of names around the world and dozens of versions of play. A lime stone board from Ancient Egypt had three rows of 14 holes. It is also cut on rocks in temples at Thebes, Luxor and Karnak.

The Egyptians were enthusiastic board game players. They developed variety of games with counters in the form of animals; some of these , the lions and the dogs for example, were like Indian games (Adu-Puli Attam in Tamil).

Teak and Linen

Now scholars have established that the teak and linen found in Egyptian mummies and palaces came from India. W.H.Schoff said that India and Egypt had commercial contacts in the 3rd millennium BC. Muslin and spices were exported from South India.

In the inscriptions of Harkhuf, an Assuran noble under the Egyptian king Mernere of the VI dynasty occurs the following:-“ I descended from country of Yam (Southern Nubia) with 300 asses laden with incense, ebony, grain, panthers, ivory, throw sticks and every good product.”

The ebony referred here is Indian ebony was confirmed in later writings. Theophrastus (4th century BC) ascribed this ebony to India. Virgil speaks of it (Georgics ii,116,7) as peculiar to India. We don’t see elephants in Egyptian paintings or monuments which confirms that the ivory was from India. Indian ivory is found in Greece and other countries in the ancient world. Iron was also exported from India in later days.

Vedas confirm commercial contacts

Unfortunately we don’t have anything in South India to confirm that happened in 2nd or 3rd millennium BC. But Vedas speak about long sea voyages in big ships. The Vedic mantras refer to men who went to far off lands for ‘interchange of merchandise’ (Atharva Veda ), ‘desiring wealth sent ships to sea’ (Rik Veda ); parties of men went on the ocean in ships with a hundred oars’ (AV ) to distant lands for sale and barter (RV).

Kassites (from Kasi Desa of Gangetic plain?) in Western Iran worshiped Maruts and Surya in 1800 BC. Indians went to different parts of the world and established Vedic culture is proved beyond doubt.

Falcon/Garuda

Vedic altars were constructed in different shapes. The popular one was eagle or Garuda. Eagle or Garuda was praised in the Vedas in the epics and in the Puranas. Brahmins used to read Garuda Purana in the bereaved houses for the good of the departed soul in the other world. In Egypt falcon or Nakhbet as a vulture is associated with dead people. We see a beautiful golden collar on the chest of the Tutankhamen’s mummy. Nakhbet is in the form of eagle. Nakh+ bet may be a corrupted Sanskrit word Naga +Vatha=one who kills snakes). Hindus also associate Garuda Purana with the departed souls. ( I have already written about the most famous Tamil king Kaarikal Cholza constructing a Yaga Kunda in he shape of a falcon. It is in Purananuru)

Imhotep

The most famous priest /minister was Imhotep (Mahadev). He was considered the first universal genius known to history. His parents were creator deity ‘Ptah ‘(Brahma Pitha). He was an architect and revered as a demi god of wisdom, magic and medicine. Imhotep lived 5000 years ago during the rule of Djoser and he was hailed as the greatest of magicians. One who looks at his statue will be reminded of a Hindu Rishi/seer or a Jain Thirthankara.

Ka

One Rik Vedic poet punned on this letter ‘KA’ and Max Muller was baffled by it. Actually ‘Ka’ means God or Brahma in Sanskrit and Egyptian Hieroglyphs. The symbol of ‘ka’ is the raised arms of a human being. This is the first letter of Brahmi consonants. It looks exactly same. Tamil ka came from Brahmi ka which means Kadavul/god.

Egyptian Ka (god) and Brahmi Ka (Brahma)

Devas and Asuras are Prajapati’s children. It is crystal clear in our scriptures. Dasyu’s are Vishvamitra’s exiled children. It is said in our own books. But foreign “scholars” deliberately misled Indians and wrote the Aryan Dravidian invasion theory to destabilise India and Hinduism. No Indian scholar came forward to argue against it with relevant quotes from the epics and mythologies at that time, because British were ruling.

Another name for Prajapati is Ka (who).

The interrogative pronoun ‘Who’ has been raised to the position of a deity. In the Brahmana literature Ka is Prajapati. Some of the hymns in which ‘Ka’ occurred were called Kadvat (kadavul in Tamil). During the time of Panini, it became Kaya. Manu called Prajapathi marriage Kaya. Later day epics and Puranas identified Ka with Daksha and Kasyapa.

Ntr = Indra

The Egyptian hieroglyph ‘ntr’ meant god. The vowels are never written. We have to fill the words with vowels. So ‘ntr’ may be indra. Scholars think that the sign was derived from a staff bound with cloth, a fetish of very early date. I think it was Indra’s vajrayudha/thunderbolt that gave this hieroglyph.

Narayana in Egypt

In the cenotaph at Abydos of king Seti, the sarcophagus was placed on an island. The hieroglyph for this was a double stair, which was the hieroglyph for the primeval hill (Meru?) or island on which all creation began. The island is made with perpetual water supply from subterranean waters. These were the “waters of Nun” from which the supreme creator god has first risen.

In Hindu mythology, Narayanan means water god. Neer /water is an indo European word, which is in Nereids in Greek meaning water nymphs. In both Sumerian and Egyptian mythology water was profoundly important. Atum or Nun in Egypt and Enki (Gangai) in Sumer are water gods

Cow and calf

Similes in Vedas often compare cow with everything good. Vatsalyam=affection is the love of a cow towards its calf. The symbol for happiness in Egyptian tombs is a cow turning around to succour its calf.

Red and White

In south India the temple walls are painted always in red and white stripes. This is what the Egyptians also did. The taxmen of Southern kingdom worked from White house and the tax men from the Northern kingdom worked from Red house. When both the kingdoms united the house walls were painted red and white like Hindu temples.

Comments

Popular Posts