Peru's Ancient Vedic Culture

VEDIC PERU

In the Western Hemisphere too there is evidence of Hinduism having once flourished there. In Mexico a festival isImage celebrated at the same time as our Navaratri; it is called “Rama-Sita”. Wherever the earth is dug up images of Ganapati are discovered here. The Aztecs had inhabited Mexico before the Spaniards conquered that land. “Aztecs “ must be a distorted form of “Astikas”. In Peru, during the time of the holy equinox [vernal?] worship was conducted in the sun temple. The people of this land were called Incas: “Ina” is one of the Sanskrit names of the sun god. Don’t we call Rama “Inakula Tilaka ?”, (Ornament of the solar dynasty.)

Copyright Shri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham

The Hindus were mighty navigators and pioneers of culture centuries before Columbus was born. They established their cultural empires in Java, Bali, Sumatra, Borneo, Philippines, Cambodia, Champa, Annam, and Siam and ruled there until after the 14th century.

By Chaman Lal

The fact that the Hindus were capable of sailing to far-off countries like Mexico and Peru is proved by the official historian of Mexico, who in his book published by the Mexican Foreign Office.

“Those who first arrived on the continent later to be known as America were groups of men driven by that mighty current that set out from India towards the east.”

The U. S. Ambassador Miles Poindexter states in his book The Ayar-Incas that primitive Aryan words and people came to America especially from Indo-Arya by the island chains of Polynesia. The very name of the boat in Mexico is a South Indian (Tamil) word: Catamaran.

Most of you in India are familiar with the Charak Puja ceremonial observed in Bengal and several States in South India. This Hindu Ceremonial also observed in Mexico Historians call it the Mexican and peru. The Spanish Valador ritual. A relief of Bayon central temple of Angkor Thom in Cambodia represents a rite similar to the Mexico Valador. The use of parasol (Chhatra) is an age-old sign of royalty and rank in India, Burma, China, and Japan. The Maya Astec and the Incas also used it as a sign of royalty. Frescoes of Chak Multum in Yucatan show two types of parasols both of which correspond to types still in use in South-East Asia.

In reading descriptions of the palace and court of the Astec emperors of Mexico, anyone familiar with South-East Asia cannot fail to be reminded of the courts of Burma, Siam, and Cambodia. The same applied to the form of government. Thus the institution of four chief officials in Mexico and Peru corresponds to the four ministers of state and Governors of the four quarters of the Kingdom in Hindu Buddist empires of South-East Asia. In both cases, this institution is based on cosmological principles. This indicates a similar pictorial story of the Hindu Buddist origins in the field of art, religious architecture, government, kingship, cosmology, and mythology proves close cultural contacts between ancient India and countries of South-East Asia with the countries of Central and South America. Dr. Robert Gelern and Dr. Ekholm have come to the following conclusion:

“A large number of highly specific correspondences in so many fields precludes any responsibility of mere accidental coincidence nor would it help us to take refuge in any kind of explanation based on some alleged psychological laws. There is no psychological law that could have caused the peoples on both sides of the Pacific to stylize the lotus plant in the same manner and to make it surge from the mouth of a jawless demon’s head, to invent the parasol and use it as a sign of rank and to invent the same complicated game (Pachisi). There is no explanation other than the assumption of cultural relationship. We must bow to the evidence of facts even tough this may mean a completely new start in our appraisal of the origin and development of the American Indian higher civilizations.”

The Ayar Rulers

The use of the throne, the liter, and of fans mounted standard like on long poles as insignia of rank and royalty in the countries of Central and South America bears the strong imprint of India. It may be observed here that the last Ayar ruler of Peru was carried in his palanquin on the day the Spaniards invaded Peru. His turban with the plume and his Mudra of the hand are unmistakable proofs of his Hindu origin. His four Ranis performed Sati after he was murdered by the Spaniards. A hundred Ayar rulers ruled Peru.

The Mexican national throne preserved in the National Museum of Mexico bears the typical Hindu Buddist disc of the Sun. The Mexicans also had the Hindu Simhasan (Lion throne). A scene of Buddha-Sangh as preserved in a relief temple in Java has its parallel in the famous pyramid temple in Piedras Negras, Guatemala. This is the finest piece of Maya sculpture in America. Is has no real incidence in Maya Arts history but it does have a remarkable similarity to a number of “”Life of Buddha reliefs”” of the Boro Budur in Java. There is no way of knowing what the subject matter of the American relief might be but the composition with the placing of the figures on several levels is very similar to the one in Java.

Images of Gods

India has the reputation to be the land of gods but Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia, and Honduras had more gods and richer temples than we had in India at any time. Shiva, Ganesha, Indra, the Sun, Hanuman, Vishnu, and his tortoise incarnation (Kurma Avatar) were some of the Hindu gods worshipped in central and South America. I present to you the galaxy of our Gods preserved in the museums of America. Here you can see Shiva, Ganesha, and even his rat from the Inca mythology in Peru, Ganesha from the temple of Diego Riviera in Mexico City, various images of Hanuman and Shiva from Guatemala Museum, Shiva Linga from Vera Cruz in Mexico City. The Mexican Vishnu in spite of his Mexican features can be easily recognized from the mace (Gada) and Chakra that he holds in his two hands. The image of Vishnu’s tortoise incarnation preserved by the United Fruit Line in the museum at Quiragua, Guatemala, is the greatest puzzle for anthropologists. They have named this image as the Turtle Stone although anyone familiar with Hindu mythology can see that it is Vishnu’s Kurma Avatar (Tortoise incarnation). Indra has preserved in the Mexican National Museum as well as Vaman Avatar called the Diving God. There are two images of this Hindu God, one from Bali and the other from Mexico.

Hindu Rituals

The largest temple in Mexico City was the temple of Lord Shiva, the War God of the Mexican whom the Spanish invaders found entwined by golden snakes. This temple was built in the 15th century and had 3000 Deva-Dasis to perform religious ceremonials. The Mexican temple had the Gopuram style. Here you see a reconstruction of the same after it was destroyed by the Spaniards. The temples at Tikal in Mexico also bore the imprint of our famous temple at Madura. No wonder E. G. Squire in his American archaeological researches in 1851 wrote:

“It is believed a proper examination of these monuments would disclose the fact that in their interior structure as well as in their exterior form and obvious purposes these buildings correspond with great exactness to those of Hindustan and the Indian Archipelago.

“Sir Stamford Raflles wrote, ” The great temple of Borobudur might readily be mistaken for a Central American Temple.

“From child-birth to cremation and Sati the Aztecs observed almost all Hindu rituals including the Gurukula system of education followed in India. The Incas of Peru with Ayar Brahman ancestry observed the sacred thread ceremony, the ear-piercing ceremony all other Hindu rituals and rigidly observed the caste systems of India. It is not without reason that the Spanish author Lopez says in his book Le Races Aryans de Peru: “” Every page of Peruvian poetry bears the imprint of Ramayana and Mahabharata.”

Sanskrit was the sacred language of the rulers and Quichua the language of Peruvians. The Aryo-Quichua vocabulary prepared by Lopez proves it.