Avestan Directions

Avestan Dictionary: http://www.avesta.org/avdict/avdict.htm

I think it gives a clue:

 

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=yemen&searchmode=none

 

Yemen

southwestern region of Arabia, from Arabic Yemen, lit. "the country of the south," from yaman "right side" (i.e., south side, if one is facing east).

 

 

 

Yes, there are two hypothesis about direction of Proto-Indian migration into India. First-from Beludjistan (and from Iranian plateau) and second from Karakorum and Central Asia. First one is much more acceptable. Aryan king of the gods Indra was also a supreme deity in Mitanni - anciant state situated in modern Northern Iraq and South-East Turkey. Portrait of Indra in Rig Veda is very interesting:

 "At the swift draught the Soma-drinker waxed in might, the Iron One with yellow beard and yellow hair." The Rig Veda/Mandala 10/Hymn 96

 

"Fair cheeks hath Indra, Maghavan, the Victor, Lord of a great host, Stormer, strong in action. What once thou didst in might when mortals vexed thee, where now, O Bull, are those thy hero exploits?" (RigVeda, Book 3, Hymn XXX: Griffith)

 

Indra is a sky God and holder of the thunderbolts, similar to another Indo-Europeans supreme Gods like Thor (Germanic), Perun (Slavic), Zeus/Jupiter (Greek/Roman), Perkele (Baltic)... Indra lives in Svarga (Heaven) in the clouds around Mount Meru. Svarga is also name for Heaven to ancient Slavs. Indra is a God of warriors and military power. It corresponds with mighty military society of the Aryans. Polish author Zenon Kosidowski consider that Indra was an image of the Aryan invaders-fair skin and hair, heavy built body, both arrogance and bravery and frailty to good meal, vine, alcohol and traditional Proto Indo-European narcotic drink-Soma. Names of Indra (the God), river Indus and India (the country) have equal root. According Avesta, evil demon Verethragna have similar status with Indra. May be Verethragna is a memory from ancient supreme deity of Proto Iranians. Avesta is a Zoroastrian holy book and reformer Zarathushtra have a goal to put away ancient religion. Christians also used this kind of method against pagan deity-to accuse bad ait.

Archaeological Excavations at Surkotada Gujarat & Lothal has Exposed Horse bones and Teeth(of Equus Caballus Lynn) and these dated back to 2800-2900BC.This indicates that the inhabitants of both Lothal & Surkotada were familiar with modern horses which according to many scholars were brought to India by invading hordes of Aryans in 1500BC.

Archaeological proofs doesnot support any large scale migration towards India/Indus-Saraswati valley from3000BC to 100AD.This also is against the Indo-Aryan migration hypothesis.This doesnt support the claim that Indo Aryan groups from Mitanni & other areas came and settled in India during 1500BC.

Also it provides proof for the presence of Aryan Fire worship and also usage of Horses in Indus-Saraswati.Surkotada and Lothal are considered as part of Indus valley & Kalibangan is a Pre-Harappan site on the banks of the Saraswati.

Recent excavations have unearthed several Harappan/Saraswati and similar archaeological sites from  Baluchistan till Krishna -Godavari basins of South India.There are several pre-historic sites similar to harappan & Saraswati in Haryana,Rajastan,Gujarat,Maharashtra ,Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh States of India.

And at the peak of the civilization they might have had atleast15-20 million people on the banks of all these rivers.

It is really illogical to believe that some invading/migrating hordes of newcomers that also numbering only thousands came and taught Sanskrit to the whole population(20 million) and also taught them to follow fire rituals and eventually made them write Rigveda and other three vedas,Brahmanams,samhita,Aranyakas,Niruktas,Upanishads,Puranas,Gruhyasutras,Srouta sutras & pratisakhyas of the vedas(A total of more than 17500+ Sanskrit textbooks,and apart from this the Brighu Samhita,Parashara Hora Sutra and thousands of other text books).

Apart from this it is well known to Historians that the vedic sanskrit came to an end by 600Bc and gave way to classical sanskrit.And during 400BC Panini gave a proper grammatical form for the Classical sanskrit.So these  vedic & Upanishadic textbooks were composed much before 600BC.Atharva Veda is the only Veda that speaks  about iron and it is dated by historians back to 1200BC the early iron age.Rig is still older depicting bronze age ie before 2300BC,Not sure when it was written down first.

Latest Archaeological Excavations in the banks of the Rigvedic Saraswati River(Gaggar Hakkra River) of west Rajastan which dried out during 1900 BC has exposed Fire Altars made by cooked bricks dating back to 2700BC(Archaeological site of Kalibangan of West Rajasthan & Lothal of Sabarmati Delta Gujarat).Construction of Sacrificial fire Altar and Fire worship is purely a Rigvedic Practice.These proofs are positively indicating the presence of Rigvedic Aryans in the banks of Saraswati and Sabarmati Delta during 2700BC which is far older than the peak time of the Mitanni empire ie 1600-1500BC.Where as many scholars argue that the fire worship was introduced in India/Indus Valley only after the Aryan Hordes came to the Indus valley duriing 1500BC.

I'm enjoying this discussion. Keep it up guys. As long as it's kept in the spirit of friendly debate, it's good. That's how we all learn and progress, isn't it?. Anyway, I'm neutral on this. Interested but neutral.

 

My own native language is Malay. It's part-descended from Sanskrit, as are nearly all of the other modern South East Asian languages, like Burmese, Thai and Khmer (Cambodian), the region having been a part of the Hindic cultural sphere for a very long period in ancient times. I would say our current lexicon is easily 60% of ultimately Sanskrit origin, maybe more, the remaining major contributors having been Persian, Arabic, Pali, Tamil and maybe a little Chinese. Besides our own indigenous sources.

 

As a matter of interest, we have a word 'purba' in Malay, which I believe could have come from either the Avestan 'paurva' or the Sanskrit 'purva', but we use it to mean 'ancient' in our language. While our word 'bawah', meaning 'below', suggests a link with the Avestan 'ava'.

 

@Kanas:

So, heaven was 'svarga' in Slavic? That's really unbelievable.

 

We also still use 'syurga' (pronounced 'shurga') for heaven/paradise, which probably came from the Sanskrit 'svarga', either directly from it, or perhaps via the Tamil 'chorgo'. I never thought Malay would share a word of common ancestry with Slavic. Today I know better. Wow! I think that's really fantastic.

 

Now, if I recall correctly, in one Hindic language (Sanskrit?), the word 'la' could also mean 'kingdom' or 'country' or 'land', as in Vanga La (Vanga Kingdom/Country/Land), Singha La (Lion Kingdom/Country/Land). Which could mean that one could have used 'Svarga La' to mean 'Kingdom of Heaven'.

 

Now, I'm just idly speculating, could the mythical Nordic heaven 'Valhalla' also have evolved from 'Svarga La', i.e. 'Kingdom of Heaven'?

 

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Something else that has fascinated me for some time is the strikingly close proximity between the English word 'Earth' and its Arabic counterpart 'Ardh'. To me, this is an obvious case of common ancient ancestry. Anyone knows more about this?

 

There is also the Persian 'Arta'/'Artu'/'Arda' and the Sanskrit 'Varta', but I believe they carry different meanings from the English 'Earth' or the Arabic 'Ardh'.

 

 

I hope you are aware of the latest archaeological findings of a chalcolithic civilization which was the precursor of Harappa in Mehrgarh Pakistan  on the banks of a tributary to indus dating back to 7000BC.

Apart from that many new sites on the banks of Ganges are uncovered now like Jhusi,Loharadewa,Bhairagi Bhita which are also dayting back to 7000BC and at Jhusi they got rice samples(Oriza satiwa) which on carbon dating gave a date of 6500-7000Bc and also grape samples dating back to 4000BC.

Still you want to say that Indian civilization is set up by immigrants from other areas..?

and linguistic is not a recognised scientific tool to find out the antiquity of languages.

Around 20% of the words of Uralic languages and Tamil Language of India are believed to be cognates.what does that prove Uralic languages evolved from Tamil..? or vice versa..?