Paradesha, Parádeisos, Chahar Bagh: Royal Walled Gardens of Kalapa

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"The mythical paradise of Shamballa, sometimes thought to be in a parallel world or dimension , is a land of a thousand names. The Hindus call it "Paradesha" (Paradesa: Sanskrit) (Paradise....Persian: پردیس,.....High Land).....or "Aryavarsha", the land from which the Vedas came from; the Buddhists "Shambala"; the Chinese know it as " Hsi Tien", the Western Paradise of Hsi Wang Mu, the Royal Mother of the West; the Russians knew it as "Belovodye" and "Janaidar", the Christians and the Jews the "Garden of Eden". In the esoteric literature it has become known as "Shangri-La", "Agarttha" or "the Land of the Living".It has the name of "Forbidden Land"; "the Land of White Waters"; the "Land of Radiant Spirits"; the "Land of Living Fire"; the "Land of the Living Gods" and the "Land of Wonders".....Vedic society... the ancient civilization was Arya-Varsha......Taoist mythology calls it Tebu...Beneath the land of Shambhalla lies a cavernous underworld.. Its summit aligns to the wheeling constellation of Ursa Major, the Seven Stars that circle the Pole. .... The Japanese also have a Shambhalla which they have named ‘Island of the Congealed Drop’. It is situated ‘on the top of the globe' but at the same time 'at the center of the earth'. Its first roof-pillar was the earth's axis, and over it was the pivot of the vault of heaven.......The Chinese actually describe their idea of Shambhalla as the Center of the Earth, directly under Shang-te's heavenly palace, declaring it to be in the polestar. They also call it, ‘The Palace of the Center’. "....IN SEARCH OF SHAMBHALA........Mary Sutherland 2003

A Brief History of the Kalachakra....by John R. Newman....https://collab.itc.virginia.edu

"The word "paradise" entered English from the French paradis, inherited from the Latin paradisus, from Greek parádeisos (παράδεισος), from an Old Iranian *paridayda- "walled enclosure". By the 6th/5th century BC, the Old Iranian word had been adopted as Assyrian pardesu "domain". It subsequently came to indicate walled estates, especially the carefully tended royal parks and menageries. The term eventually appeared in Greek as parádeisos "park for animals" in the Anabasis of the early 4th century BC Athenian Xenophon. Aramaic pardaysa similarly reflects "royal park"."

"Paradise....The word's etymology is ultimately derived from a PIE root *dheigʷ "to stick and set up". It is reflected in Avestan as pairi-daêza-. The literal meaning of this Eastern Old Iranian language word is "walled (enclosure)", from pairi- "around" and -diz "to make, form (a wall), build". The word is not attested in other Old Iranian languages (these may however be hypothetically reconstructed, for example as Old Persian *paridayda-)."

"Sanskrit: paradise: नन्दन nandana .....Paradesa (Sanskrit) [from para beyond, above + desa region, country] The region above or beyond; said to be the highlands to which the first Sanskrit-speaking people have supposedly been traced. More truly, the cradleland of the first thinking man. It is also the sacred land in Central Asia inhabited by the Dragons of Wisdom or initiates, and in this sense is synonymous with Sambhala. .....'paradise' is believed to have probably come from the Sanskrit word 'paradesa' परदेश meaning 'foreign' land."

"Vedic society of the ancient civilization was Arya-Varsha - a civilization (not just a national culture or people). Arya Varsha translates roughly to 'enlightened world' ......Arya Varsha referred to morally developed regions......Within Arya Varsha, was Bharatha Khanda (Basically South asia), and within that Jambu Dwipa (Indian region), and within that many kingdoms and states......Arya Varsha extended all the way to Ireland the legend goes. South India was definitely part of it......Archeology suggests that there was an advanced Indus valley civilization around the saraswathi river, and at some point there was a massive drought and most cities had to be abandoned, and the population got dispersed. Then when the climate improved, people from the western areas came and settled there. As they settled, they absorbed much of the beliefs and culture of the prior people, and that became the modern system."....https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-advanced-developed-Vedic-Society-in-India-like-Was-there-a-parallel-culture-in-south-India

"Arya (Sanskrit, also ārya; Pāli: ariya) is a term frequently used in Buddhism that can be translated as "noble", "not ordinary", "valuable", "precious",[a] "pure", etc. Arya in the sense of "noble" or "exalted" is frequently used in Buddhist texts to designate a spiritual warrior or hero.....In Chinese Buddhist texts, ārya is translated as 聖 (approximately, "holy, sacred", pinyin shèng, on'yomi sei)......

THEORIES OF PARADISE........"The west first heard of Shambhala in 1627 after Catholic missionaries travelled to Tibet and heard stories about it. Some Buddhists associate it with the mythical land of Olmulungring, an invisible kingdom dating back to the 17th century BC, when its king travelled to Tibet to bring enlightenment. Some scholars think Shambhala is simply a remembrance of earlier civilisations of Central Asia which were known to exist, and had contact with Tibet. Many other scholars and traditions place Shambhala in a variety of locations. Taoist mythology calls it Tebu, a secluded land between Tibet and Szechwan. Blavatsky thought it existed somewhere in the Gobi Desert. Whilst historian Geoffrey Ashe suggested it might be in the remote Altar mountains between Russia and Mongolia. However, other traditions give a more esoteric location, explaining the mythology concerning its disappearance."

"From the time of the Achaemenid Dynasty the idea of an earthly paradise spread through Persian literature and example to other cultures, both the Hellenistic gardens of the Seleucids and the Ptolemies in Alexandria. The Avestan word pairidaēza-, Old Persian *paridaida-, Median *paridaiza- (walled-around, i.e., a walled garden), was borrowed into Ancient Greek: παράδεισος parádeisos, then rendered into the Latin paradīsus, and from there entered into European languages, e.g., French paradis, German Paradies, and English paradise. The word entered Semitic languages as well: Akkadian pardesu, Hebrew pardes, and Arabic firdaws."....Fakour M., Achaemenid Gardens

Pairidaēza....."The central "royal garden" at Pasargadae was designed to reflect this new empire. Recent international collaborative archaeological fieldwork incorporating surface, geophysical, and aerial survey has modified earlier ideas about this formally laid out, irrigated area. Excavations in the 1960s uncovered a system of limestone channels, 25 cm wide and punctuated with a deep square basin every 13 or 14 m, thus dividing the area into two rectangles. The channels probably sat flush with the ground surface. At the edges of this garden were three structures: Palace P, and two smaller pavilions. The main portico of Palace P opened directly onto the garden; a stone throne was fixed at its center, giving the ruler an uninterrupted view over the area. Some scholars have assumed that the central placement of the throne implies a second axial division of the garden into four quadrants. Recent work now indicates that this space may have incorporated a much greater area, including both a pool-like construction crossed by a bridge as well as other monumental structures. In this scenario, the pool would have acted as a channel, whose embankments were also lined with stone, drawing water from the nearby Pulvar River. The classical historian Arrian, writing in the second century a.d., left a snapshot of the park in his description of Cyrus' tomb: located approximately 1 km from the palaces, it was set in a "royal park at Pasargadae, and around it a grove of all kinds of trees had been planted. It was also watered by a stream, and high grass grew in the meadow" (Anabasis, 6.29)."....http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/now-at-the-met/features/2013/pasargadae

"Charbagh or Chahar Bagh (Persian: چهارباغ, chahār bāgh, "Four Bāghs") is a Persian-style garden layout. The quadrilateral garden is divided by walkways or flowing water into four smaller parts. In Persian, "Chār" means 'four' and "bāgh" means 'garden'.....Was there a connection between the proposed four quadrants and the "four quarters" of Cyrus' empire, to which he referred in the Cylinder text quoted above, as has been suggested by some scholars? Is the royal garden with the fourfold design, or chahar bagh, the earliest example of a feature that became a dominant characteristic of Persian garden design in the ensuing centuries?.......Chahrbagh originated from the time of Achaemenid Persia. Greek historians, such as Herodotus and Xenophon, give extensive accounts of Cyrus the Great's palatial city of Pasargadae and his four-gardens..... The tradition of paradise garden originated among the Mughals, originally from Central Asia, which is found at Babur's tomb, Bagh-e Babur, in Kabul.....

"On a recent trip to Kalapa Valley, Eva Wong, our esteemed feng shui master, felt that this valley held the secret command of the Shambhala vision and that it would affect the energy and spirit of all of our centers. Even though many of us have not seen the land, by receiving it now, Kalapa Valley will have a positive effect on all of our activities. It will have a unique role in our community since it will not be built up into a major practice center. Rather, it will have a pavilion for the practice of the sacred Werma sadhana and sacred gardens for practitioners to visit."....http://kalapavalley.shambhala.org/about/

"HAŠT BEHEŠT ....The description of a palace in the Hašt behešt of Amir Ḵosrow, with four pavilions on the cardinal points around an octagonal basin in a luxuriant garden, represents the clearest literary reconstruction of this model in Persian literature....This cosmological concept is closely connected to Islamic eschatology, in which paradise is conceived as having eight gates and eight spaces, each one decorated with a special precious stone or material. The description of paradise was further elaborated by the philosophers and Sufis who considered the eighth paradise to be the highest garden, that is, the Garden of Eden"....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hast-behest-2

"Genesis describes the Garden of Eden as being "in the east, in Eden" (Gen 2:8). In the Assyrian inscriptions idinu (Accadian: edin) means "plain" and it is from this that the Biblical word is probably derived. The Garden is described as having "all kinds" of trees growing in it....As with many passages in Genesis, there is debate among Christians whether or not the story of the Garden of Eden should be taken literally or metaphorically......The traditions of its location somewhere in central Asia are numerous and persistent, and naturalists have in the past pretty generally fixed upon the portion of Central Asia stretching east from the Himalayas - often referred to as the roof of the world and from which flow four great rivers: the Indus, the Tarim, the Sur Daria (Jaxartes), and the Ainu Daria (Oxus) - as the original cradle of mankind."....http://www.conservapedia.com/Garden_of_Eden

"Professor S.H. Buchanan, a Biblical scholar during the late 19th century, was one of those believers, who put down in his work The World and the Book:......“Thus everything invites us to place the Eden of the Semites (Aryans) in the mountains of Belurtag, at the point where this chain unites with the Himalaya, toward the Plateau of Pamir... We are conducted to the same point, according to Brunoff, by the most ancient and authentic texts of the Zend-Avesta. The Hindu traditions also contained in the Mahabbarata and the Puranas, converge to the same region. There is the true Meru (Ararat) (of the Hindus), the true Albordj (of the Persians), the true river Arvanda, from which all rivers take their source, according to Persian tradition. There, according to the opinions of almost all the populations of Asia, is the central point of the world, the umbilici, the gate of the universe. There is the Uttarakura; ‘the country of happiness,’ of which Magesthanes writes. There is, finally the point of common attachment of the primitive geography, both of the Semitic and the Indo-European races.” ......The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus also hinted that the Garden of Eden had a central Asian location"......http://www.conservapedia.com/Garden_of_Eden

"Uttarakuru (Sanskrit: उत्तर कुरु) is the name of a dvipa ("continent") in ancient Hindu and Buddhist mythology......Uttarakuru country and its people are sometimes described as belonging to the real world, whereas at other times they are mythical or otherworldly spiritual beings.....Aitareya Brahmana makes first reference to Uttarakuru and Uttaramadra as real-life Janapadas. According to Aitareya Brahmana, these two nations lay beyond the Himalayan ranges (Hindukush). The Aitareya Brahmana adduces these two people as examples of republican (vairajiya) nations, where whole Janapada took the consecration of rulership.......Aitareya Brahmana again notes that Uttarakuru was a deva-kshetra or divine land......Uttarakuru also finds numerous references in Buddhist literature, sometimes as a real land and other times as a mythical region.....Ramayana testifies that the original home of the Kurus was in Bahli country. Ila, son of Parajapati Karddama was a king of Bahli, where Bahli represents Sanskrit Bahlika (Bactria)....Bahlika or Bactria may have constituted the Uttarakuru. Mahabharata and Sumangalavilasini also note that the people of Kuru had originally migrated from Uttarakutru. Bactria is evidently beyond the Hindukush.....".....Geographical Data in Early Puranas, 1972, Dr M. R. Singh

"The Aitareya Brahmana (Sanskrit: ऐतरेय ब्राह्मण) is the Brahmana of the Shakala shakha of the Rigveda, an ancient Indian collection of sacred hymns.....The Aitareya Brahmana is dated variously from 1000 BC to 500 BC."

"The Persian Garden......exemplify the diversity of Persian garden designs that evolved and adapted to different climate conditions while retaining principles that have their roots in the times of Cyrus the Great, 6th century BC. Always divided into four sectors, with water playing an important role for both irrigation and ornamentation, the Persian garden was conceived to symbolize Eden and the four Zoroastrian elements of sky, earth, water and plants. These gardens, dating back to different periods since the 6th century BC, also feature buildings, pavilions and walls, as well as sophisticated irrigation systems. They have influenced the art of garden design as far as India and Spain....They reflect the flexibility of the Chahar Bagh (Four Gardens), or originating principle, of the Persian Garden, which has persisted unchanged over more than two millennia since its first mature expression was found in the garden of Cyrus the Great's Palatial complex, in Pasargadae...The word Paradise entered European languages from the Persian root word "Pardis", which was the name of a beautiful garden enclosed behind walls. .".....UNESCO » Culture » World Heritage Centre » The List » World Heritage List......http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1372

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

January 2016

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The Pashto Language & Pashtun Origins

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"French Buddhist Alexandra David-Néel associated Shambhala with Balkh, also offering the Persian Sham-i-Bala, "elevated candle" as an etymology of its name. In a similar vein, the Gurdjieffian J. G. Bennett published speculation that Shambalha was Shams-i-Balkh, a Bactrian sun temple.".....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkh

"Pashto first appeared in writing during the 16th century in the form of an account of Shekh Mali's (King Sardar Sheikh Milli ) Conquest of Swat. It is written with a version of the Arabic script. There are two standard written forms: one based on the dialect of Kandahar, the other on the dialect of Peshawar.......The name Pashto is thought to derive from the reconstructed proto-Iranian form, parsawā 'Persian language. In northen Afghanistan speakers of Pashto are called Pakhtūn; in sourthen Afghanistan they are known as Pashtūn, and as Pathān or Afghan in Pakistan. "......http://www.omniglot.com/writing/pashto.htm

"The Pashtun, or Pushtun, are a race of warriors who live primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They consist of about sixty tribes, each with its own territory. Although their origin is unclear, their legends say that they are the descendants of Afghana, grandson of King Saul. However, most believe they probably arose from ancient Aryans intermingling with subsequent invaders.".... http://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/14256/AF

"The peaks of the Safed Koh, between Jalabad and Kabu, bear the names of Sita, Ram, etc....."

"The vast majority of Pashtuns are found in the traditional Pashtun homeland, located in an area south of the Amu Darya in Afghanistan and west of the Indus River in Pakistan, which includes Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and part of Balochistan. Additional Pashtun communities are located in western and northern Afghanistan, the Gilgit–Baltistan and Kashmir regions and northwestern Punjab province of Pakistan. Throughout the Indian subcontinent, they are often referred to as Pathans."

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"Pashto (پښتو)........ a member of the southeastern Iranian branch of Indo-Iranian languages spoken in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. There are three main varieties of Pashto: Northern Pashto, spoken mainly in Pakistan; Southern Pashto, spoken mainly in Afghanistan; and Central Pashto, spoken mainly in Pakistan. "

"The three last-named clans are branches of the Yusufzais) Sheikh Mali, who acted as assistant and Counselor of Malik Ahmed, was a wise and learned man. The Yusufzais having completed their plan of settlement in a land of their choice, elected Malik Ahmed their sovereign chief and Sheikh Mali his Vazir. It was an organization within the tribe. Sheikh Mali, who was a revenue expert, wrote a book in Pashto on distribution of land, known as ‘Wesh’ among Pathans. The book not only set forth in detail the rules and regulations of ‘Wesh’ system and was used as a guide by the Yusufzais, but is also a valuable manuscript of Pashto literature in the fifteenth century. The great thinker and poet of Pashto, Khushal Khan Khattak, mentions Sheikh Mali with respect in his ‘Swat Nama’. Though the system of land distribution as introduced by Sheikh Mali was not very useful on the whole, it rather hampered the productivity of land and permanent settlement, it was nevertheless a system perfectly suitable to the political vicissitudes of the times and one upon which all the Yusufzais agreed. In Swat the system was in force as late as the twentieth century. After Malik Ahmed, Khan Kajju and Ali Asghar were two other brave and famous chiefs of the Yusufzais Zahir-ud-Din Babur usurped the throne of Kabul after the death of Ulugh Beg. Being ambitious, he soon out to conquer India as well. Partly owing to the instigation of the Dilazaks and partly believing Yusufzais to be naturally opposed to the Mughals, he thought it expedient to crush them before going any further. He, therefore, assumed the aggressive against them. Thousands of innocent men and women were ruthlessly slain, miles of cultivated fields were trampled and scores of villages were burnt to ashes. By now a monster of rage and vengeance, Babur struck camp at ‘Qatlang’ near Mardan and planned ways and means of totally eradicating the Yusufzai tribe. In the meantime a jirga of the chiefs of Yusufzais waited on him and pleaded for mercy. Babur himself appreciated the advantages of establishing amicable terms with them. He reached an agreement with the Yusufzai chiefs, ‘whom he rewarded with robes and presents. A nominal tribute of rupees one thousand was levied on them. To assure them of his good intentions he married the daughter of Shah Mansur, an important chief of the Yusufzais. He had to fight against the Sultan of India, Ibrahim Lodhi, and the successful attempt at winning the friendship of a powerful Pathan tribe was a clever move which greatly strengthened his hands.".......https://www.reddit.com/r/Swatvalley/comments/2atzgt/history_of_swat/

"Paṧtō is an Iranic language spoken in south and southeastern Afghanistan, by recent settlers in northern Afghanistan, in Pakistan (North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan), and on the eastern border of Iran..... Indo-Aryan Paṭhān must have been adopted from Paṧtō *Paṧtan-.......Paҳt’o denotes not only the Paštūn language, but also the national code of honor: Paҳtūn haγa na daγ či Paҳto wāyi, lekin haγa či Paҳto ləri “a Paṧtūn is not he who (only) speaks Paṧtō, but he who has Paṧtō. ” This expression symbolizes the strong feeling of Paṧtun national unity—unique among Iranic ethnic groups—in spite of the numerous tribes, subtribes, clans, and continuous inter-tribal fighting......http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/afghanistan-vi-pasto

"There are two major dialects of Pashto: Western Pashto spoken in Afghanistan and in the capital, Kabul, and Eastern Pashto spoken in northeastern Pakistan. Most speakers of Pashto speak these two dialects. Two other dialects are also distinguished: Southern Pashto, spoken in Baluchistan (western Pakistan and eastern Iran) and in Kandahar, Afghanistan......Pushto has been written in a variant of the Persian script (which in turn is a variant of Arabic script) since the late sixteenth century......The first written records of Pushto are believed to date from the sixteenth century and consist of an account of Shekh Mali's conquest of Swat......Traces of the history of Pushto are present in its vocabulary. While the majority of words can be traced to Pushto's roots as member of the Eastern Iranian language branch, it has also borrowed words from adjacent languages for over two thousand years. The oldest borrowed words are from Greek, and date from the Greek occupation of Bactria in third century BC. There are also a few traces of contact with Zoroastrians and Buddhists. Starting in the Islamic period, Pushto borrowed many words from Arabic and Persian. Due to its close geographic proximity to languages of the Indian sub-continent, Pushto has borrowed words from Indian languages for centuries.".....http://www.afghan-network.net/Ethnic-Groups/pashtu-history.html

"Not only the Pathans, but also the Afghan Royal Family has a very well known tradition placing its origin in ancient Israel, they came from the Tribe of Benjamin.......This tradition was first published in 1635 in a book called Mahsan-I-Afghani and has often been mentioned in the research literature. According to this tradition, King Saul had a son called Jeremiah who had a son called Afghana. Jeremiah died at about the time of King Saul's death and Afghana was raised by King David and remained in the royal court during King Solomon's reign.......About 400 years later in the time of disorder of Israel, the Afghana family fled to a land called Gur which is in central Afghanistan. They settled and traded with the people of the area and in the year 662, with the arrival of Islam, the sons of Israel in Gur converted to the prophet with 7 representatives of the Afghan. The leader of the sons of Israel was Kish like the name of Saul's father. "......http://www.moshiach.com/tribes/afghanistan.html

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

September 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Gilgit Manuscript (5th C. AD)

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"The Gilgit Manuscript contains the texts on Vinay Vastu, the treatise on monastic discipline. There are texts on Ayurvedic medicines like Anna Panna Vidhi and Bhaisajya Guru Sutra. There are references to iconometry, folk tales, philosophy and culinary skills. It also has a chronological list of the various Buddhist Shahi kings of Gilgit."........http://www.the-south-asian.com/Aug2004/Gilgit_manuscript.htm

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"Opinions vary about the date of this manuscript. One branch of scholars says it was written in the second century AD., while another puts the date at somewhere between the sixth and seventh centuries. .....the Gilgit Manuscript has references of the three Buddhist Synods [meeting of religious heads]. This suggests a date sometime around or after the time of Emperor Kanishka. According to the Sanskrit texts, the third Synod was held during Kanishka's reign".............http://www.the-south-asian.com/Aug2004/Gilgit_manuscript.htm

"Gilgit manuscripts.....This corpus of manuscripts was discovered in 1931 in Gilgit, containing many Buddhist texts such as four sutras from the Buddhist canon, including the famous Lotus Sutra. The manuscripts were written on birch bark in the Buddhist form of Sanskrit in the Sharada script. They cover a wide range of themes such as iconometry, folk tales, philosophy, medicine and several related areas of life and general knowledge.....The Gilgit manuscripts are among the oldest manuscripts in the world, and the oldest manuscript collection surviving in Pakistan, having major significance in the areas of Buddhist studies and the evolution of Asian and Sanskrit literature. The manuscripts are believed to have been written in the 5th to 6th centuries AD, though some more manuscripts were discovered in the succeeding centuries, which were also classified as Gilgit manuscripts."......https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilgit#Gilgit_manuscripts

"Discovered in a wooden box in a circular chamber inside a Buddhist stupa by cattle grazers in 1931, the Gilgit manuscripts may be the earliest surviving Buddhist documents. They were named after the city of Gilgit......including the famous Lotus Sutra, the manuscripts survived because they were written on the bark of the bhoj (birch) tree which does not decay, and were kept in the freezing sub-zero temperatures of the Gilgit region. They were were written the Buddhist form of Sanskrit in the Śāradā or Sharada script.....In August 1938, seven years after the discovery of the texts, the archaeologist Madhusudan Kaul Shastri led a systematic excavation of the Naupur site and discovered another larger chamber at the base of the structure. The chamber contained another set of the Gilgit Manuscripts.....inscriptions on these bronzes “reveal that they were produced and dedicated due to the generosity and the religious zeal of a Patola Shahi”. The Patola Shahis, also known as Palola Shahis, were the rulers of Gilgit and Baltistan from the late sixth to the early eighth centuries AD......These are the oldest surviving collection of religious texts in the subcontinent. Based on the paleographical evidence, scholars agree that local Buddhist devotees compiled these texts between the fifth and sixth century AD. With the exception of only a few scripts, all the manuscripts were written on birch bark in Buddhist hybrid Sanskrit language in the Gupta Brahmi and post-Gupta Brahmi script.....The Gilgit Manuscripts deciphered thus far cover a wide range of subjects such as religion, religious rituals, philosophy, iconometry, monastic discipline, folk tales, medicine and culinary art....."....http://www.historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?id=4678

"The Gilgit Manuscript...an important historical link......The almost seventeen centuries old Gilgit Manuscript has been giving historians a hard time, as no one has yet been able to fully decipher it. The lamination of the manuscript by the National Archives of India sometime ago has once again put the limelight back on this all-important literature concerning India, Tibet, China, Japan and other neighbouring countries....... in 1897 - 34 years before it was discovered - the Buddhist Text Society of Calcutta had published references to the Gilgit Manuscript saying that if it were ever to be found it would unravel the ancient history of several communities as it is considered to be the oldest Buddhist manuscript......The story began some sixty years ago when a group of cattle grazers unearthed a box in the region of Gilgit [now part of Pakistan occupied Kashmir] in the then undivided Jammu & Kashmir state. Little did they realize that the box contained one of the world's oldest manuscripts which could hold the key to the exact evolution of Sanskrit, Buddhist, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Tibetan literatures. Gilgit was then the major trade centre on the Silk Route.....Leading Buddhist scholars from all parts of the world also rushed to Gilgit to unravel the mysteries locked up in the box."....... http://www.the-south-asian.com/aug2004/Gilgit_manuscript.htm

"Originally written in Pali text, the Gilgit Manuscript contains four sutras, with each leaf between ten and twelve feet in length and five feet in width. The main scripture is the Lotus Sutra which even today is an important scripture in Japan and deeply influences the cultural and political life of the country. Several researchers and scholars have attempted to transcribe the text but till date the manuscript has not been deciphered in its entirety. ...... Regarding the dialectical peculiarities of the text, Dutt says that though the language of the prose portion is Sanskrit it bristles with Buddhist religious and philosophical terms and uses Prakrit language quite liberally......Prof. Dutt also suggests that the text's versified portion is extremely confusing as it disregards the elementary canons of grammar, meter, and even vocabulary. A sweet melody seems to be its chief aim and for this it sacrifices every essential condition of a language. It doesn't use convenient forms of verbs or singulars or plurals or masculine or feminine genders - all of which makes Prof. Dutt suspect that the author of the original text was a versatile linguist and could play around with languages and blend them together."..... ..... http://www.the-south-asian.com/aug2004/Gilgit_manuscript.htm

"Kanishka I (Sanskrit: कनिष्क; Bactrian: Κανηϸκι, Kaneshki; Middle Chinese: 迦腻色伽 (Ka-ni-sak-ka > New Chinese: Jianisejia)), or Kanishka the Great, was the emperor of the Kushan dynasty in 127–151 famous for his military, political, and spiritual achievements. A descendant of Kushan empire founder Kujula Kadphises, Kanishka came to rule an empire in Bactria extending from Turfan in the Tarim Basin to Pataliputra on the Gangetic plain during the Golden Age of the Kushanas. The main capital of his empire was located at Puruṣapura in Gandhara (Peshawar in present Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan), with two other major capitals at ancient Kapisa (present Bagram, Afghanistan) and Mathura, India. His conquests and patronage of Buddhism played an important role in the development of the Silk Road, and the transmission of Mahayana Buddhism from Gandhara across the Karakoram range to China."

"Kanishka was a Kushan of probable Yuezhi ethnicity. He used an Eastern Iranian, Indo-European language known as Bactrian (called "αρια," i. e. "Aryan" in the Rabatak inscription), which appears in Greek script in his inscriptions, though it is not certain what language the Kushans originally spoke; possibly some form of Tocharian – a "centum" Indo-European language. The "Aryan" language of the inscription was a "satem" language of the Middle Iranian period, possibly the one spoken in "Arya" or "Ariana" (the region around modern Afghanistan) and was, therefore, quite possibly unrelated to the original language of the Kushans (or the Yuezhi), but adopted by them to facilitate communication with local people."

Territories of the Kushans under Kaniska according to the Rabatak inscription.

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

September 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Bactrian Bagolago, Devakula & Kushan Divine Kingship

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"Bagolago is a Bactrian term.....the Bagolago at Mat (Mathura)......equivalent Prakit term 'devakula' appears in the inscriptions....the Mat site is one of three certain complexes (others are Surkh Khotal and Rabat) which are part of the same sort of ritual activity....There may be many more similar sites....as many as eight sites.......There is no way for certain what a Bagolago was....The sites have several features in common. They are not public spaces...have an association with water...had erections of both Kings and Gods....unclear if the kings attended the gods or vice-versa......there served some dynastic purpose but terms such as 'dynastic shrine' or 'dynastic cult' may be too strong....the presence of the Bagolago at Mat emphasizes the importance of Mathura....Mathura was the capital of Surasena which the Kushans ruled....http://www.academia.edu/2078818/The_Mint_Cities_of_the_Kushan_Empire

" The meager remains of Bactrian so far described are usefully supplemented by some identifiable Bactrian loanwords in other, better-known languages. As well as words already attested in Bactrian (e.g., Pers, xidēv < Bactr. xoadēo “lord,” Kroraina Prakrit personal name Vaǵamareǵa < bago “god” plus marēgo “servant”) these include some new vocabulary".....bagolaggo [-ŋg] “temple”),..... most of the “Bactrian” legends are virtually identical in vocabulary and phraseology to their Pahlavi equivalents. A legend such as bago pirōzo oazarko košano šauo “Lord Pērōz, great Kušānšāh” may be compared with the Pahl.....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bactrian-language

"..... 'devakula' in Mathura we will return to this type of site later. ..... the only Jain Stupa known from the period; and most important, the Bagolago at Mat."

Kula-Deva (Sanskrit) ......Domestic god

कुल ...kula: chief ...family ...inhabited country ...residence of a family ...seat of a community ...lineage [ family ] ...clan ...high station ...caste ...race ...noble or eminent family or race ...tribe

"Kanishka...........SHAR had many meanings in the ancient cultures of the Near East, it meant both celestial bodies and master. UONONKCHE, which can be also read as VONONTE, was the name of a number of historical personalities - for example the Parphian king Vonones, its successor Vonones, the second name or more exactly - the title of the conqueror of Bactria - the Kushan ruler Kanishka, called Uanando Bagolago. All names stem from the epithet Vanand ('victorious, presented with the grace of the Gods'), which is of very ancient origin with roots in the Sumero-Accadian and from there in the Sanskrit culture. Since the eastern Iranian languages replaced "o" with "a" (which is also characteristic to the modern Mundjan and Tadjik languages), in Old Parphian this epithet was pronounced as VONONES, while for the Kushans - as UANAND.. ".....http://ashrafonline.net/vb/showthread.php?p=316003

Канишки (Канишка) звучало Uanando Bagolago

نصف الأبجدية الهركليفية 14/28 اكتشفت من طرف العلماء العرب في ... ......The best example is a stamp of Tervel, where next to the face of the ruler are ... the conqueror of Bactria - the Kushan Ruler Kanishka, called Uanando Bagolago....http://ar.cyclopaedia.net/wiki/Kushan_Ruler

"Kanishka I (Sanskrit: कनिष्क; Bactrian: Κανηϸκι, Kaneshki; Middle Chinese: 迦腻色伽 (Ka-ni-sak-ka > New Chinese: Jianisejia), or Kanishka the Great, was the emperor of the Kushan dynasty in 127–151 AD.....famous for his military, political, and spiritual achievements. A descendant of Kushan empire founder Kujula Kadphises, Kanishka came to rule an empire in Bactria extending from Turfan in the Tarim Basin to Pataliputra on the Gangetic plain during the Golden Age of the Kushanas. The main capital of his empire was located at Puruṣapura in Gandhara (Peshawar in present Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan), with two other major capitals at ancient Kapisa (present Bagram, Afghanistan) and Mathura, India. His conequests and patronage of Buddhism played an important role in the development of the Silk Road, and the transmission of Mahayana Buddhism from Gandhara across the Karakoram range to China."

Iranian/Indic phase.....Following the transition to the Bactrian language on coins, Iranian and Indic divinities replace the Greek ones: ΜΑΝΑΟΒΑΓΟ (manaobago, Vohu Manah ).......Vohu Manah is the Avestan language term for a Zoroastrian concept, generally translated as "Good Purpose" or "Good Mind" (cognate with Sanskrit vasu manas), referring to the good moral state of mind that enables an individual to accomplish his duties.

Surkh Kotal...... 36.03N, 68.55E......."That Surkh Kotal was a major site of direct importance to the Kushan dynasty is beyond doubt. It is the site of a bagolago, a dynastic shrine associated with the period from Wima Kadphises to Huvishka........http://www.kushan.org/sources/coin/sites.htm......Ball, 1982: no.1123 ....Ball, W (1982) Archaeological Gazetteer of Afghanistan, Catalogue des Sites Archaeologiques D'Afghanistan. 2 Volumes.

"The Rabatak inscription is an inscription written on a rock in the Bactrian language and the Greek script, which was found in 1993 at the site of Rabatak, near Surkh Kotal in Afghanistan. The inscription relates to the rule of the Kushan emperor Kanishka, and gives remarkable clues on the genealogy of the Kushan dynasty."

"Jamal Garhai is ancient Gandharan site located 13 kilometers from Mardan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northern Pakistan. Jamal Garhi was a Buddhist monastery from the first until the fifth century AD at a time when Buddhism flourished.....The most remarkable find in Jamal Garhi is the circular stupa situated on high ground to the west of the main clump of edifices. The stupa is surrounded by a ring of cubicles that may have either served as shrines housing images of Buddha or prayer chambers for the devout. The superior stonework and symmetry of the stupa are notable..... The Central Asiatic Kushans, originally fire worshippers, had embraced Buddhism and followed their new faith with the customary zeal of recent converts. In fact, Huvishka’s predecessor, the great Kanishka, is commemorated to this day for his ardent pursuit of ordering some of the most monumental stupas ever to be raised...........http://odysseuslahori.blogspot.com/2014/10/Jamal-Garhi.html

"The Kushan empire emerged as one of the most powerful empire empire during first century A.D. in central Asia.....Kushanas had very unique system of administrative system. King was highest level of administration. King and kingship was linked with divine rule.The Kushana kings generally used exalted titles like maharajadhiraja (king of kings), daivaputra (son of heaven), soter (Saviour) and kaisara (Caesar). The Kushans had appointed ksatrapas and mahaksatrapas for different units of the empire. There were other officials performing both civil and military functions, called dandanayaka and mahadandanayaka.......The Kushans seem to have followed the earlier existing pattern of the Indo-Greeks and Parthians by appointing ksatrapas and mahaksatrapas for different units of the empire. There were other officials performing both civil and military functions, called dandanayaka and mahadandanayaka. At village level, gramika and padrapala– both signifying ‘village headman’, who collected the king’s dues and took cognizance of crimes in his area."......

"It seems that the Kushans, upon becoming masters of Bactria, at first continued the traditional use of Greek as a medium of written communication. As a spoken language they had adopted Bactrian, the native idiom of the country, which they afterwards elevated to the status of a written language and employed for official purposes, perhaps as a result of increasing national or dynastic pride. The earliest known inscriptions in Bactrian (the “unfinished inscription” from Surkh Kotal, cf. A. D. H. Bivar, BSOAS 26, 1963, pp. 498-502, and the Dašt-e Nāvūr trilingual) belong to the reign of Vima Kadphises. A few decades later, early in the reign of Kanishka I, Bactrian replaced Greek on the Kushan coins. After this period Greek ceased to be used as an official language in Bactria (although later instances of its use by Greek settlers are known, cf. P. M. Fraser, Afghan Studies 3-4, 1982, pp. 77f.)."....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bactrian-language

Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the First International Congress.....Page 138 ...By John R. Hinnells

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

July 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Moksha, Liberation, Mukti, Nirvana

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"Moksha, also spelled mokṣa, also called mukti, in Indian philosophy and religion, liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth (samsara). Derived from the Sanskrit word muc (“to free”), the term moksha literally means freedom from samsara. This concept of liberation or release is shared by a wide spectrum of religious traditions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism......Alternate titles: apavarga; mukti."....http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/387852/moksha

".....the concept of moksa appears much later in ancient Indian literature than the concept of dharma. The proto-concept which appears all along most of the Upanishads, specially the later ones, is “mucyate” which means liberate, free; so the word itself “moksa” is rarely seen. On the other hand, in Hinduism, as Gavin Flood appoints, dharma and moksa, being the most important asramas or stages of Hindu life, remain in tension most of the time, specially all along the vedic literature."......from: 'Moksa – The soma of knowledge in the Upanishads' -by Ana Pinilla (April 2015).

"Fanaa : Sufism).......Fanaa (Arabic: فناء‎ fanāʾ ) is the Sufi term for "passing away" or "annihilation" (of the self) or extinction..... It means to annihilate the self, while remaining physically alive. Persons having entered this state are said to have no existence outside of, and be in complete unity with, Allah. Fanaa is equivalent to the concept of nirvana in Buddhism, Sikhism and Hinduism or moksha in Hinduism which also aim for annihilation of the self or mukhti in Sikhism......The nature of fanaa consists of the elimination of evil deeds and lowly attributes of the flesh. In other words, fanaa is abstention from sin and the expulsion from the heart of all love other than the Divine Love; expulsion of greed, lust, desire, vanity, show, etc. In the state of fanaa the reality of the true and only relationship asserts itself in the mind.".....Fana represents a breaking down of the individual ego and a recognition of the fundamental unity of God, creation, and the individual self.."The state of Fana is represented by Rumi in Book Six of the Masnavi ."

"About the middle of the 1st millennium BC, new religious movements spreading along the Ganges River valley in India promoted the view that human life is a state of bondage to a recurring process of rebirth..... These movements spurred the eventual development of the major religions of Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism. These and many other religious traditions offered differing conceptions of bondage and diverging paths to moksha. Some, such as Jainism, posited an abiding self that became liberated, while others, such as Buddhism, denied the existence of a permanent self......Some Indian traditions also place greater emphasis within their respective paths to liberation on concrete, ethical action within the world. Devotional religions such as Vaishnavism, for example, present love and service to God as the one sure way to moksha. Others stress the attainment of mystical awareness. Some forms of Buddhism and the monistic theologies of Hinduism—e.g., Advaita (non-dualistic) Vedanta—consider both the mundane world and human entrapment within it to be a web of illusion whose penetration requires both mental training through meditative techniques and the attainment of liberating insight. In this case, the passage from bondage to liberation is not a real transition but an epistemological transformation that permits one to see the truly real behind the fog of ignorance.....Some traditions present the plurality of Indian religions as different paths to moksha. More frequently, however, one tradition will understand its rivals as lower and less effective paths that ultimately must be complemented with its own.".......Patrick Olivelle.........http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/387852/moksha

"Indian spirituality is other-worldly, the goal being the attainment of a state of eternal existence beyond the cosmos - nirvana or moksha (liberation). The Indian ideal is the renunciate sage - the sadhu or sanyasin - who gives up the world for a life as a homeless yogi and holy-man, dependent on the offerings of others for sustenance. Hence Indian Tanta is orientated to attaining a transcendent state of Liberation......Taoist & Chinese culture and spirituality is generally this-worldly. The ideal sage is the Confucian"gentleman"or"superior man", who knows the best way to respond to family, social, or political situations. And although there is a quietest element to the Chinese soul (just as there is an extroversive one to the Indian) one finds that even Chinese meditation is this-worldly: the cultivation of the vital-force for health and longevity for example (Tai-Chi-Chuan), the search for alchemical immortality, or attuning oneself to the currents or flow of the cosmos."......www.kheper.auz.com/#sthash.UH9YiBe0.dpuf

"How are Dzodgchen, Mahamudra, and Moksha of Hinduism different?......'Moksha, as I understand it – is the highest Hindu expression of enlightenment. The difference between this and the Buddhist versions such as those approaches named above, is basically, the cultivation of bodhicitta. In practical terms, moksha represents an initial liberation from the drama of the ego-illusion, a radical awakening to non-dual truth, very similar to what is realized by sravakas who mature into arhats. According to the Nyingmas, this realization would be classified within the first two yanas. The short version of the Mahayana critique of the lower vehicles is that the wisdom element is emphasized at the expense of compassion.....From the perspective of Dzogchen, Mahamudra is a sublime preliminary, associated with the seventh and eighth yanas.......Dzogchen is a transmission which goes beyond the teachings of buddhism but is so resonant with Buddhadharma that it is considered the highest among the nine yanas .".....http://www.hologramthoughts.com/dharma/are-dzodgchen-mahamudra-and-moksha-essentially-the-same/

".....early Vedic Hinduism was primarily focused on maintaining the order (dharma ) in this world through sacrificial offerings to the gods with a sophisticated ritualism officiated exclusively by the brahmins. The Upanishads are a quantum leap from this conception since they turn the focus towards the goal of attaining personal liberation (moksa)."..........from: 'Moksa – The soma of knowledge in the Upanishads' -by Ana Pinilla (April 2015).

"Moksa for Islam means going to Jenna or Heaven after death....."

"A key concept in Jain beliefs is that the world or reality is made of two distinct dimensions:
- the visible world – made up of souls in their various forms, matter, space, the principles of motion and rest, time – it is eternal and formless, continually in the process of change but is indestructible
- the invisible world – a realm behind the visible world, unperceived by the senses – an indestructible and eternal realm of limitless knowledge and infinite power, a pure state of “release” or moksha....the primary goal of Jainism is the perfection of the soul – for it to be perfected from the all its layers of karma, from its current place in the visible world to the invisible world. Thus, moksha is the ultimate goal.."...http://www.world-religions-professor.com/karmabody.html.

How Plato and Pythagoras Can Save Your Life: The Ancient Greek Prescription for Health and Happiness........by Nicholas Kardaras.....2011

"The teachings of Yajñvalkya (c. 700 BC), in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad are the oldest teachings of moksa in Hinduism.....The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is one of the Upanishads which elaborates in more detail not only the theory of transmigration but the concept of liberation: “ Thus does the man who desires transmigrates. But as to the man who does not desire—who is without desire, who is freed from desire, whose desire is satisfied, whose only object of desire is the Self—his organs do not depart.....Rishi Yajnavalkya, give also an advance of the necessity of yogic discipline in one of the earliest Upanishads, the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, where he speaks of the need of purifying the heart to attain liberation and of the method of such purification: "The purification of the heart is the duty of all aspirants, especially of world-renouncing sannyasins; for this is the means of cultivating knowledge which leads to the freedom of the soul. As a mirror stained with impurities cannot reflect an image, so the impure heart cannot reflect Self-Knowledge”.......from: 'Moksa – The soma of knowledge in the Upanishads' -by Ana Pinilla (April 2015).

"Nirvāṇa (Sanskrit: निर्वाण; Pali: निब्बान nibbāna ; Prakrit: णिव्वाण) literally means "blown out", as in a candle. It is most commonly associated with Buddhism.....In the Buddhist context nirvana refers to the imperturbable stillness of mind after the fires of desire, aversion, and delusion have been finally extinguished. In Hindu philosophy, it is the union with Brahman, the divine ground of existence, and the experience of blissful egolessness. In Indian religions, the attainment of nirvana is moksha, liberation from samsara, the repeating cycle of birth, life and death......

Bardo Thodol (Tibetan: བར་དོ་ཐོས་གྲོལ, Wylie: bar do thos grol), Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State....BAR-DO THOS-GROL (properly Bar-do Thos- grol chen-mo .....The Tibetan word bardo (བར་དོ་ Wylie: bar do) means literally "intermediate state"—also translated as "transitional state" or "in-between state" or "liminal state". In Sanskrit the concept has the name antarabhāva. It is a concept which arose soon after the Buddha's passing, with a number of earlier Buddhist groups accepting the existence of such an intermediate state, while other schools rejected it......ཐོས་གྲོལ་.....liberation through hearing {thos pas grol ba} liberation by hearing; that which liberates when heard......thos: hear; listen; hearing.....grol: (གྲོལ་ )released; loosened; freed, mukta; mukti; vimukti; vimokSa.

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

May 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Robert Göbl & Bactrian/Kushan Coinage (171 BC - 232 AD)

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GÖBL, ROBERT, Austrian numismatist (b. Vienna, 1919-1997)...... University of Vienna, Professor of Ancient Numismatics and the Pre-Islamic History of Central Asia

Gold coin of Kanishka I, with a depiction of the Buddha, with the legend "Boddo" in Greek script

Göbl’s acquaintance with Franz Altheim made him interested in the coinage of the Sasanians......at the University of Vienna. He also took over from Pink the Numismatischer Lehrapparat, which had been founded by Wilhelm Kubitschek at the Department of Ancient History, Epigraphics and Classical Archeology....His mentor in studying numismatics was Karl Pink.... In 1973, Göbl published his Sasanidischer Siegelkanon, which has become a tool for the analytical classification of Sasanian seal stones. This contribution was closely connected to the recording of a large hoard of clay sealings from Taḵt-e Solaymān, which were assigned to Göbl for classification by the Deutches Archäologisches Institut....Some of his lectures have been published in his Antike Numismatik, which is an analytical handbook on ancient numismatics."........http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gbl-

Gold dinar, c. 195 AD.....Crowned, diademed king standing facing, nimbate, holding trident and sacrificing at altar at left,......Bactrian legend around: þAONANOþAO BA ... ZOΔηO KOþANO......(King of Kings Bazodeo Kushan) .....Reverse: Two-armed Shiva standing facing, holding trident and diadem, Bull Nandi left behind,Bactrian legend left: OηþO, tamgha at right........Göbl 504

Bactria: Eucratides I, Silver tetradrachm, c. 171-145 BC......Helmeted and diademed bust of king facing right, bead and reel border around, the helmet plumed and decorated with the ear and horn of a bull / Dioscuri riding horses prancing right, carrying spears and palms.......Greek legend: BAΣIΛEΩΣ MEΓAΛOY EYKPATIΔOY (of Great King Eucratides)

"Kushan coinage......In the coinage of the North Indian and Central Asian Kushan Empire (approximately 30-375 CE) the main coins issued were gold, weighing 7.9g., and base metal issues of various weights between 12g and 1.5g. Little silver coinage was issued, but in later periods the gold used was debased with silver.......The coin designs usually broadly follow the styles of the preceding Greco-Bactrian rulers in using Hellenistic styles of image, with a deity on one side and the king on the other. Kings may be shown as a profile head, a standing figure, typically officiating at a fire altar in Zoroastrian style, or mounted on a horse. The artistry of the dies is generally lower than the exceptionally high standards of the best coins of Greco-Bactrian rulers. Continuing influence from Roman coins can be seen in designs of the late 1st and 2nd century CE, and also in mint practices evidenced on the coins, as well as a gradual reduction in the value of the metal in base metal coins, so that they become virtual tokens. Iranian influence, especially in the royal figures and the pantheon of deities used, is even stronger. Under Kanishka the royal title of "King of kings" changed from the Greek "ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΝ" to the Persian form "ϷAONANOϷAO" (Shah of Shahs).......Much of what little information we have of Kushan political history derives from coins. The language of inscriptions is typically the Bactrian language, written in a script derived from Greek. Many coins show the tamga symbols as a kind of monogram for the ruler. There were several regional mints, and the evidence from coins suggests that much of the empire was semi-independent.".......MacDowell, David W., "Mithra": "Mithra's Planetary Setting in the Coinage of the Great Kushans", in Études Mithriaques: 1975

Coin of Kaniska Kushan, Late or Early 2nd c. A.D.......The view that the halo is the Hvareno of the Persians et Zoroastre and by Dhalla, the great authority on Zoroastrianism, who records the fact that "the Magi had established themselves during the Parthian period (248 B.C.-A.D. 222) in large numbers in eastern Asia Minor, Galatia, Phrygia, Lydia and even in Egypt and that the kings of Cappadocia, Pontus and Bactria honoured the 'Glory’.” ....http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Zarathushtrian/halo_its_origin.htm

"Kushan Dynastic Ring.....Gold finger ring from Ancient India. Kushan period, early 3rd century AD. Solid gold ring, of typical Roman shape, fabricated rather than cast......portraits of Septimius Severus (laureate head left) and Julia Domna (draped bust right with elaborate coiffure), beneath which is a Gupta Brahmi inscription in a characteristic square-serif style: Damputrasya Dhanguptasya ([Seal of] Dhangupta son of Dama). ....The use of gold, the method of fabrication, and the fine quality of the engraving all suggest than the owner was a person of significant wealth and position....There was a tradition in north West India for Greek rulers to adopt Indian names. King Menander was called Milinda, .....Demetrios is called Dattamitri, Appollodotus is Apaladatas, Azes is Aya, Azilezes is Ayilisha, and Gondophares is Devarata Gudupphara. Therefore, it is not unlikely that the Damaputrasya on this ring meant the son of Dama or, more appropriately, the son of Domna -- Julia Domna herself whose picture is in situ..... The important person, the owner of the ring, thus associates himself with the Roman imperial family.".....http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=115376

"The patronage of Buddhism by the Kushan rulers is attested by the appearance of Buddha among the divinities portrayed upon the coinage of Kanishka. This image may celebrate the Third Buddhist Conference, which, according to Buddhist tradition, was convened during this reign. One should not, however, suppose that the Kushans themselves professed Buddhism, and the predominance of coin types reflecting a variety of Iranian religion suggests that they practiced an eclectic form of Zoroastrianism. Specific to that faith were renderings of three of the six Amahraspands (see AMƎŠA SPƎNTA), Šaoreoro (Šahrewar), Ashaeixsho, and Manaobago, if the last two are correctly identified with Ardwahišt and Wahman. At the same time, representations of “pagan Iranian” or possibly Mithraic deities, such as Mithra, Nana, Vərəƒraγna (Orlagno, Wahrām “Mars”), and Tīr “Mercury” (not Tistriya “Sirius,” as later conceived) are prominent. The figuring of Vēš “Vayu” in the form of the Brahmanical Śiva was already mentioned. Several classical deities appear, including Serapis (Göbl, p. 69; photo no. 185) and Heracles. Again, there are several enigmatic figures such as Mozdooano (probably not identical with Ahura Mazdā) with his two-headed horse. Ahura Mazdā, the supreme deity of Zoroastrianism, is in fact a rare type, if reported specimens are genuine at all (Göbl, p. 65)."...........http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kushan-dynasty-i-history

"One of the most famous ancient coins, the massive gold 20-stater of Eucratides, now in the collection of the National Library in Paris, was surely also the largest gold coin minted in antiquity. It may well have been a victory medal to celebrate Eucratides's conquest of "India," presumably some land south of the Hindu Kush, perhaps Gandhara....Eucratides was the last Greek king to rule at Ai-Khanoum, which was overrun most probably by the Yuezhi, the tribes that later coalesced into the Kushans. "...http://coinindia.com/galleries-eucratides1.html

"Göbl’s interest in ancient oriental numismatics extended beyond the geographical limits of the Sasanian state. Prompted by Franz Altheim, he published in 1957 an article about Kushano-Sasanian coinage that eventually became the groundwork for his Dokumente zur Geschichte der iranischen Hunnen in Baktrien und Indien (4 vols, Wiesbaden, 1967), a major contribution that revived a fascinating chapter in Asian history and that will undoubtedly remain as one of the milestones in the study of Oriental numismatics. Roman Ghirshman (q.v.) arranged for Göbl’s participation at the second Kanishka conference, which was held in London in 1960. This conference induced Göbl to make the coinage of the Kushans the central part of all his future research. In 1984, he published his monograph on the system and chronology of Kushan coinage, in which he gave an in-depth commentary on its controversial chronology. He published another study of the subject, DONUM BURNS: Die Kušānmünzen im Münzkabinett Bern und die Chronologie (Vienna, 1993), which he considered his “Kushan testament.” At the request of the present writer, however, he made further studies of the chronology problem following the publication of the Rabatak inscription in 1996."......http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gbl-

"In 1962, Ghirshman brought Göbl to Afghanistan as a UNESCO field expert in order to arrange the coin collection at the Museum of Kabul. During the course of his stay Göbl also traveled to Pakistan and discovered that some of the inscriptions of the Tochi-Agency kept in the Museum of Peshawar were not written in Mongolian, as had previously been presumed, but in Bactrian. Helmut Humbach read the bilingual texts, and the double datings included in them from then on formed a central point in Göbl’s argument for considering year 1 of Kanishka’s rule to be 232 AD"..........http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gbl-

"The Kushan religious pantheon is extremely varied, as revealed by their coins and their seals, on which more than 30 different gods appear, belonging to the Hellenistic, the Iranian, and to a lesser extent the Indian world. Greek deities, with Greek names are represented on early coins. During Kanishka's reign, the language of the coinage changes to Bactrian (though it remained in Greek script for all kings). After Huvishka, only two divinities appear on the coins: Ardoxsho and Oesho.".....wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushan_coinage

"A tamga or tamgha "stamp, seal" (Mongolian: tamga, Turkish: damga) is an abstract seal or stamp used by Eurasian nomadic peoples and by cultures influenced by them. The tamga was normally the emblem of a particular tribe, clan or family. They were common among the Eurasian nomads throughout Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages (including Alans, Mongols, Sarmatians, Scythians and Turkic peoples).....Similar "tamga-like" symbols were sometimes adopted by sedentary peoples adjacent to the Pontic-Caspian steppe both in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Archaeologists prize tamgas as a first-rate source for the study of present and extinct cultures."......Yatsenko, S. A., "Tamga-signs of Iranic-speaking peoples of antiquity and the early medieval period"....Moscow (2001).

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May 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Yagnobi Sogdian, Ancient Tagzig and the Yaghnob Valley

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"The country of Olmo Lungring where Tonpa Shenrab descended from the celestial spheres and took up incarnation among human beings as an Iranian prince. The mysterious land of Olmo Lungring (`ol-mo lung-rings) or Olmoling (`ol-mo`i gling) is said to be part of a larger geographical region to the northwest of Tibet called Tazig (stag-gzig, var. rtag-gzigs), which scholars identify with Iran or, more properly, Central Asia where in ancient times Iranian languages such as Avestan and later Sogdian were spoken. According to the “gZer-mig” the traditional etymology of the name Olmo Lungring is as follows: “`ol” means “unborn”, “mo” “undermined”, “lung” “the prophetic words of Shenrab”, and “rings” “everlasting compassion”. According to the “gZi-brjid”, Olmo Lungring was also known as Shambhala in Sanskrit and it continues to be known by this name among Tibetan Buddhists even today. Moreover, it is said that in ancient times it encompassed fully one-third of the known world a statement which could apply to the historical Persian empire."..... OLMO LUNG-RING: THE IMPERISHABLE SACRED LAND.....by Vajranatha......http://www.surajamrita.com/bon/Shambala.html

"The Sogdian language was an Eastern Iranian language spoken in the Central Asian region of Sogdiana, located in modern-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan (capital: Samarkand; other chief cities: Panjakent, Fergana, Khujand and Bukhara). Sogdian is one of the most important Middle Iranian languages, along with Bactrian, Khotanese Saka, Middle Persian and Parthian. It possesses a large literary corpus. The language is usually assigned to a Northeastern group of the Iranian languages, although this is an areal rather than genetic group. No direct evidence of an earlier version of the language ("Old Sogdian") has been found, although mention of the area in the Old Persian inscriptions means that a separate and recognisable Sogdiana existed at least since the Achaemenid era (559-323 BC)......Like Khotanese, Sogdian possesses a more conservative grammar and morphology than Middle Persian. The modern Eastern Iranian language Yaghnobi is the descendant of a dialect of Sogdian spoken around the 8th century in Ustrashana, a region to the south of Sogdiana."

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"The economic and political importance of Sogdian guaranteed its survival in the first few centuries after the Islamic conquest of Sogdiana in the early eighth century AD. A dialect of Sogdian spoken around the 8th century in Ustrashana (capital: Bunjikat, near present-day Istaravshan, Tajikistan), a region to the south of Sogdiana, developed into Yaghnobi language and has survived into the 21st century. It is spoken by the Yaghnobi people."

"The Yaghnobi, who have inhabited the high mountain valley of Yaghnob in west-central Tajikistan for centuries, have been identified as descendants of the ancient Sogdians. The kingdom of Sogdiana existed from before the sixth century BC until the Arab conquests of the eighth century AD..... The region to the south of Sogdiana, Ustashana (also called Sorushna) was also populated by Sogdian speaking people (Negmatov, 1999). Its capital, Bunjikat, was near present day Istravshan in northwest Tajikistan (Bosworth, 2005). The dialect of Sogdian spoken in Ustrashana in the eighth century has been identified through lexical and phonological similarities as the language from which modern Yaghnobi has descended.....https://yaghnobi.wordpress.com/2007/10/15/history-of-the-yaghnobi-people/#more-106

"After the Sogdians were defeated by Arab invaders at the battle of Mount Mugh in 722 AD, many of them fled Arab domination to live in the high mountain valleys (Whitfeld, 2005). According to Belyakov (2003) the village of Pskon in the Yaghnob valley became a de facto capital for the Sogdian refugees. It appears that the Sogdian refugees remained fairly isolated from outside authority and influence, although significant numbers were subject to forced conversion to Islam. Eventually all of the Yaghnobi adopted Islam, but they also retained Zoroastrian beliefs which continue to be a part of their religious practice (Gunya, 2002)....During 1970 and 1971 the Soviet authorities forcibly deported the entire population of the Yaghnob valley to the cotton plantations in the area of Zafarbod."........https://yaghnobi.wordpress.com/2007/10/15/history-of-the-yaghnobi-people/#more-106

"MUGH, MOUNT (Kuh-e moḡ ‘Magus Mount’), site of the 7th-8th-century refuge of the rulers of Penjikent in Sogdiana, where an important archive of documents written in Sogdian was discovered in 1930s. The castle was built on a mound overlooking the confluence of the Zerafshan (Zarafšān) and the Qom rivers, at a height of 1500 m above the sea level and 150 m above the running waters. Its location is some 120 km east of Samarkand and 60 km east of Penjikent. It consisted of a walled structure rectangular in shape and surrounding a courtyard, and a two-story building upon a platform in its northeastern corner...The famous archives consisting of seventy-four documents in Sogdian, one in Arabic, one Turkish runic script, and several in Chinese are now preserved in the St. Petersburg branch of the Oriental Institute of the Russian academy.".....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/mugh-mount

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"Some of the Sogdian traders who plied their trade along the Silk Roads between China and Asia Minor and even resided in China, came from the Yagnobi region of Sugd. The Yagnobi Sogdians have special links to Zoroastrianism. They left behind a legacy including Avestan texts written in Yagnobi Sogdian..... Even today, names like Rustam, a legendary Aryan / Iranian name, are common among the Yagnobi. The Yagnobi language spoken today is a dialect of the ancient Sogdian language which died out some time after the 10th century AD. ".....http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/tajikistan/page2.htm

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"Sugd / Sogdiana - Tajikistan Region.....The land of ancient Sughdha (Sugd) and its Zerafshan River valley, straddles the border of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Sughdha is the second nation mentioned in the Avestan Vendidad.......In Tajikistan, the ancient land of Sughdha form present day Sugd (Sughd) province. Sugd province includes the Yagnobi river valley as well as the Fergana / Syr Darya valley in the north. "......http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/tajikistan/page2.htm

The Sogdian site of Bunjikath near Shakhristan, was the 8th-century capital of the kingdom of Ushrushana.....Bunjikath....(Ancient Penjikent)......Built in the 5th century on the banks of the Zerevshan River, it was abandoned in the 8th. The city was built by the Sogdians and was the capital of Panch and its rulers. Most of the antiquities are now in The Hermitage in St Petersburg......The Principality of Ushrusana (also spelled Usrushana and Osrushana) was a local Iranian dynasty of Sogdian origin, which ruled the Ushrusana region from an unknown date to 892 AD......

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

April 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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