Uncanny resemblance between India and the World Culture

History intrigued me for many reasons, primarily it drills the fact- Nothing lasts forever. The mightiest of the empires, the strongest of the kings all fall prey to time. I always believed, India was not one isolated civilization, it was well connected with the rest of the world. With this thought in my mind, I started my research, totally unaware that I would be landing with a treasure of information. The more the research progressed an amazing picture started emerging, which highlighted a few interesting facts. Probably our legendary ancestors were better interconnected, without getting into the frequent tussle of proving their cultural superiority over others. I will share certain myths which India shares with the rest of the world, though the circumstances, characters may differ, no one can refute their existence.

UNCANNY RESEMBLANCE

a) The myth around the city of Atlantis-  No one is sure of the existence of The fabled city of Atlantis. A number of archeologists, marine archeologists tried finding out the remnants of this city, but things are still debatable. This prosperous city was supposed to be somewhere near the Rock of Gibraltar, in Spain. It is widely believed this city witnessed gods and humans walking alongside each other. The city amassed immense wealth, there were no beggars. But according to folklore, it is believed this city vanished overnight.

India –  In an interesting similarity, Atlantis had a twin city in India named Dwarka. The mention of this city is in Mahabharata, which was built by Lord Krishna. Similarly, gods and humans co-existed, this fabled city was rich and prosperous but disappeared without a trace.

Point to Ponder: Both Atlantis and Dwarka were drowned in the mighty sea and dissipated within a night. How can it be possible, two cities that were not connected geographically shared the same fate? Can there be a link between the two? I believe millions of years ago, a grand city definitely came to an end. Though the exact location and the name are debatable. The food for thought is that even if the city came to an end, there must be some survivors or natives, who were not present in the city on that doomed night. Their descendants should have existed.

b) Nature worship- Most of the western world is unable to understand our fixation with nature worship. But all the ancient civilizations like Harappa, Egypt, Mayan, Incas worshipped nature. Many of the Mayan ruins narrated a story of a civilization, which was highly sophisticated in maths and astronomy. In a similar manner Egyptians had animal faced gods, they worshipped sun, moon, and stars. This makes a point that nature worship was not a one-off thing, followed by one single civilization, but most of the ancient civilizations followed that.

India – In the morning, when most of the Hindus offer water to the sun or are worshipping banana trees, they are however following the timeless ancient rituals. Presently, we know the scientific logic behind this, by offering water we are getting the much-needed dose of Vitamin D. Still we are unable to comprehend the deeper reasons behind it.

Point to Ponder: The ancient relics, sculptors, etc, used to talk in iconic symbols, this makes them difficult to comprehend. Every so often a sole thing might infer multiple meanings and all will be correct. I firmly believe the wider implication of many of these ancient rituals is not that simple to decipher. But there is no denying of the fact, most of the civilizations followed similar practices. According to me, this indicates an intermingling between different civilizations or the exchange of information. We can see a few of the civilizations were highly advanced. To date, research is being conducted around the construction of the Pyramid. Hence without proper scientific backing, nature worship could not be so widely popular.

c) Explicit depiction of the great flood- All the cultures and religious books accurately depict a great flood, which engulfed the earth at a certain point in time. They are present in Greek Mythology, Indian, South African, Ireland, China, and the rest of the civilized world. Most of us have undoubtedly heard or read about Noah’s Ark, Gun-Yu in Chinese mythology, Pyrrha in Greek mythology all depicts the massive flood which finished the earth.

India – Closer home we all know about the Pralay described in the Vishnu Purana, Manu the first human was instructed by gods to take one pair of each animal, which would resurrect the world later.

Point to Ponder: Can it be possible millions of years ago our ancestors across the globe, might have witnessed a series of devastation? It might be devastation through comet, flood, the return of ice age but something happened which ensured a place in all the religious books or mythology across the globe.

d) Gene pool theory- Have you ever thought why royalties across the globe invariably prefer marrying in royalty? And this phenomenon is prevalent across the world. One of the practical reasons we can reasonably foresee, a person from a royal background is already groomed in the code and conducts of the monarchies. But, more than that it is to preserve blueblood or not defiling the gene pool.  Proactively protecting the gene pool is the sole aim of many races and communities across the world.

India – The Kundli system or chart system followed in Indian marriages is based on the identical principle. The first question sought by the respective families looking for a marriage alliance is “What is the gotra?” Gotra is a compelling word, which tells the whole genetic history of the person. And, people from the same gotra cannot get married as they are considered siblings. This is additionally a fascinating way to protect the gene pool. In the priestly class which is widely known as Brahmins, many people who fall in specific gotras, are direct descendants of great sages, whose names are frequently mentioned in ancient scriptures like Rishi Gautam, Rishi Parashar, Rishi Markandeya, Rishi Bharadwaj, etc. They faithfully follow a rigid system and only the descendants of great sages can marry each other.

Point to Ponder:  Today we widely refute this theory as backward, custom driven and baseless. But this theory is not hogwash, it enjoys scientific backing, anyone who understands genetics can clearly comprehend and respect it. This cannot be an incredible coincidence across the globe, holy or great people protect their gene pool religiously. This is one theory that has left me bewildered. On one hand, I cannot deny the scientific logic but then, it will make the society rigid and progress will be haltered.

It is interesting to say we can see the reflections of history in our present-day too. But few of those sacred mysteries are still warmly cocooned in the womb of time, and no one can amply prove the truth behind them. Still, no denying of the fact, this exploration trip opened my eyes and widened my horizon.

Disclaimer: I am not promoting any superstition through the article. I am stating facts and sharing my point of view.