The Takht Bahi Monastery & Early Tantric Buddhism (520 AD)

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"The ruins of Takht-i-Bahi and neighbouring Sahr-i-Bahlol, in their setting, architectural form, design and construction techniques are most characteristic examples of the development of monastic and urban communities in the Gandharan region between the 1st to 7th century AD.....Due to the location of on the Buddhist Ruins of Takht-i-Bahi on high hills, it escaped successive invasions and is exceptionally well preserved."....http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/140

"The Buddhist Ruins of Takht-i-Bahi and Neighbouring City Remains at Sahr-i-Bahlol are one of the most imposing relics of Buddhism in the Gandhara region of Pakistan. The inscribed property is composed of two distinct components both dating from the same era.....The Buddhist Ruins of Takhi-i-Bahi (Throne of Origins) are a monastic complex, founded in the early 1st century A.D., is spectacularly positioned on various hilltops ranging from 36.6 metres to 152.4 metres in height, typical for Buddhist sites. The complexes cover an area of around 33ha.....The Buddhist monastery was in continual use until the 7th century AD. It is composed of an assemblage of buildings and is the most complete Buddhist monastery in Pakistan. The buildings were constructed of stone in Gandhara patterns (diaper style) using local dressed and semi-dressed stone blocks set in a lime and mud mortar.....Today the ruins comprise a main stupa court, votive stupas court, a group of three stupas, the monastic quadrangle with meditation cells, conference hall, covered stepped passageways and other secular buildings......The second component, the Neighbouring City Remains at Sahr-i-Bahlol, is located approximately 5 km away in a fertile plain. The Sahr-i-Bahlol ruins are the remnants of a small ancient fortified town of the Kushan period. The town is set on an elongated mound up to 9 metres high and surrounded by portions of the defensive walls in “diaper” style characteristic of the first two or three centuries A.D. The area covered is 9.7 hectares.".....http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/140

"Takht Bhai (or Takht Bahi)......is a Parthian archaeological site in Mardan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It was first a Zoroastrian complex which, after the later arrival of Buddhism, was then converted into a Buddhist monastic complex. It is dated to the 1st century BC..... The complex is regarded by archaeologists as being particularly representative of the architecture of Buddhist monastic centers from its era.... It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.....The ruins are located about 15 kilometers from Mardan in Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province.....A small fortified city, dating from the same era, sits nearby.".....UNESCO Advisory Body Evaluation of Takht Bhai

"There are four main areas of the Takht Bahi complex:
The Stupa Court, a cluster of stupas located in a central courtyard.
The monastic chambers, consisting of individual cells arranged around a courtyard, assembly halls, and a dining area.
A temple complex, consisting of stupas and similar to the Stupa Court, but of later construction.
The Tantric monastic complex, which consists of small, dark cells with low openings, which may have been used for certain forms of Tantric meditation."
UNESCO Advisory Body Evaluation of Takht Bhai

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"The monastic complex was likely founded in the early 1st Century BC.... Despite numerous invasions into the area, Takht Bhai's hilltop location seems to have protected it from destruction, unlike many comparable early Buddhist monastic complexes..... The complex was occupied continuously until the modern era, when charitable funding for the site ended.....Archaeologists have divided the history of the complex at Takht Bhai into four periods, beginning in the 1st Century BC..... This first era continued until the 2nd Century CE, and is associated with the Kushan king Kanishka, as well as early Parthian and later Kushana king..... The second construction period, which included the creation of the Stupa Court and assembly hall, took place during the 3rd and 4th Centuries CE. A third construction period, associated with the later Kushan dynasty and the Kidara Kushana rulers, occurred during the 4th and 5th centuries. The final construction period, which saw the creation of the so-called Tantric complex, took place in the 6th and 7th Centuries CE, and was overseen by invading Hun rulers."

"The first modern historical reference to these ruins was made in 1836 by General Court, the French officer of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1836. ....the Buddhist remains are in a village named Mazdoorabad..... Explorations and excavations on this site began in 1864..... A significant number of objects from the site can be found in the British Museum..... The site underwent a major restoration in the 1920s."....

"Trisong Detsen, Emperor of Tibet, ruled from 755 until 804 AD.......he invited Padmasambhava, Śāntarakṣita, Vimalamitra, and various other Indian teachers to come to Tibet to spread the latest understanding of the teaching. ... the Tantric complex at Takht Bahi was constructed as early as 520 AD. "

"The reign of one king calling himself Gondophares has been established at 20 AD by the rock inscription he set up at Takht-i Bahi (also known as Takht Bahi) in Mardan, western Pakistan, in 46 AD......and he has also been connected with the third-century Acts of Thomas. Recent research has however shown unambiguously that "Gondophares" was a title held by many kings.....

"The Vinaya text throws light on the architecture of the monastery. The village is built on the ruins of the ancient town, the foundation walls of which are still in a tolerably good formation......As a proof, that it was in the past occupied by the Buddhists and Hindu races, coins of those periods are still found at the site. the monks constructed it for their convenience. Spring water was supplied to them on hill tops; living quarters for ventilators for light and alcoves for oil lamps were made in the walls. From the description of Song Yun, a Chinese pilgrim, it appears that it was on one of the four great cities lying along the important commercial route to India. It was a well-fortified town with four gates outside the northern one, on the mound known as Chajaka Dehri which was a magnificent temple containing beautiful stone images covered in gold leaves. Not far from the rocky defile of Khaperdra did Ashoka build the eastern gate of the town outside of which existed a stupa and a sangharama. ".....http://www.travel.web.pk/destinations/archaeological_sites/takht_i_bahi.asp

"The group of buildings unearthed after archeological excavations at Takht-i-Bahi may include; the court of many Stupas, the monastery, the main stupa, the assembly hall, the low-level chambers, the courtyard, the court of three stupas, the wall of colossi and the secular building. ......In 1871, Sergeant Wilcher found innumerable sculptures at Takht-i-Bahi. Some depicted stories from the life of Buddha, while others more devotional in nature included the Buddha and Bodhisattava. The Court of Stupas is surrounded on three sides by open alcoves or chapels. The excavators were of the view that originally they contained single plaster statues of Buddha either sitting or standing, dedicated in memory of holy men or donated by rich pilgrims. The monastery on the north, was probably a double storied structure consisting of an open court, ringed with cells, kitchens and a refactory."........http://www.travel.web.pk/destinations/archaeological_sites/takht_i_bahi.asp

"The actual Road to Swat bifurcates from the great Grand Trunk Road near Nowshera. About a kilometre below the highest point on the Road to Swat, the commuters can see the view of Takht-i-Bahi Mountains in the middle distance standing from the road. The ruins of one of the grand monastery of the past are situated on the top of a 152-meter high hill, about 80 kilometres from Peshawar and 16 kilometres northwest of the city of Mardan......Takht-i-Bahi - a Buddhist monastery developed between 1st and 7th centuries AD.....village of Sahr-i-Bahlol, which occupies an extensive mound containing the remains of an ancient city, dating back to the same period. The site is located on the northern flanks of a rocky spur gradually rising above the idyllic plains and well tended fields......Of all the Buddhist monasteries built through the length and breadth of Gandhara, Takht-i-Bahi is renowned as the most splendid. This reputation is based partly on its state of preservation, its careful restoration, and partly on its location. The monastery of Takht-i-Bahi was first discovered in 1852 by European Lieutenants Lumsden and Stokes. The remains were earlier mentioned by General Court, the French officer of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1836. In 1871, Sergeant Wilcher found innumerable sculptures at Takht-i-Bahi - some depicted stories from the life of Buddha, while others more devotional in nature included the Buddha and Bodhisattava. The first scientific excavations on the site were carried out between 1907 and 1911 and than in 1913. Unfortunately the results were never properly coordinated and recorded and so no sequence has ever been established for the site of intrinsic value. The extensive remains of the Buddhist monastic establishment or Sangharama were placed on the World Heritage List in 1980. These remains are sometime known as the "throne of origins"......Gandhara, an ancient region of northern Pakistan containing Swat Valley, Peshawar area, and the north Indus Plain, was a heartland of early Buddhist development. According to the lore, the Buddha's came to this part of the world stopping at Taxila and Peshawar. While Buddhism has left this area, signs of Gandhara are still spread all around.....The Takht-i-Bahi Complex, a gigantic Buddhist establishment comprises several well-knit units: Court of Many Stupas, Monastery, Main Stupa, Assembly Hall, Low Level Chambers, Courtyard, Court of Three Stupas, Wall of Colossi and some secular buildings. All these structures are built in grey-coloured limestone, in mud mortar. The excavations at Takht-i-Bahi and Shar-i-Bahlol have yielded a large number of fine sculptures of Buddha, Boddisattavas and other deities, both in stone and stucco. Other valuable antiquities have also been found in the vicinity."......http://www.contactpakistan.com/ExplorePakistan/Takht-i-Bahi.html

"Gandhara art and architecture displays considerable Greek influence which may have been due to its interactions with Bactria in the 4th century BC.....Colonial historians have gone so far as to suggest that it was the Greek influence in Gandhara that may have led to the widespread use of idols in India, and even to say that Indian epics bear in them traces of Greek and early Christian culture. It is undeniable that Gandharan Buddha images bear traces of the Greek influence, especially in the so-called ‘wet drapery’ style of the graven images of the Buddha. But it is difficult to believe that this influence could have been only in one direction: indeed, as the transfer of the decimal system from India to Europe via the early Arabian civilization has shown, the most probable conclusion is that the Greek invasion, and subsequent rule of the Gandharan region by the Kushan kings, led to a far greater mixing of cultures than normal geography would allow, and was a change from the later insularity of India under the Gupta Empire.....Much of the Gandharan heritage has been lost: the early Islamic settlers in this region were assiduous in wiping out images that they felt represented human beings, and in modern times the giant statues of the Buddha at Bamiyan in Afghanistan were destroyed too. However, this region is a vital link to India’s past and its interaction – and influence of – the Western world via the Bactrian Greeks and the Kushan Empire.".... Gandhara: Greek Influence and Buddhist Monasteries.....by Ashish Nangia

"The Buddhist Monastery Takht-i-Bhai (Throne of Origins) is an archaeological wonder, considered to be significant because of its unique design. "The site is extremely important for its integrity and unique state of conservation; important also for its antiquity, being built certainly during the 1st century CE, as proven by the important inscriptions bearing the name of Gondophares (20-46 CE)," says the Director of the Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan, Dr Luca Maria Olivieri......He says Gondophares was a Parthian King of the Suren House, from Sakastan, or Sistan...."Soon after Gondophares, Takht-i-Bahi was under the control of Kujula Kadphises, the first Kushan King. The site remained in use certainly until Late Antiquity (7th CE).....the site is a symbol of architectural complexity of a Buddhist monastic complex, and it should be considered a wonderful introduction to Gandharan Buddhist architecture, a must stop for tourist heading towards Swat.".....http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2015/06/14/spe-her-01.asp

"Takht Bhai (or Takht Bahi)......was first a Zoroastrian complex which, after the later arrival of Buddhism, was then converted into a Buddhist monastic complex."

"The Hephthalite Huns captured Gandhara around 451, and did not adopt Buddhism.....Mihirakula became a "terrible persecutor" of the religion. During their rule, Hinduism revived itself and the Buddhist Gandharan civilization declined. The Sassanids, aided by Turks from Central Asia, destroyed the Huns' power base in Central Asia, and Gandhara once again came under Persian suzerainty in 568.....The travel records of many Chinese Buddhists pilgrims record that Gandhara was going through a transformation during these centuries. Buddhism was declining and Hinduism was rising. Fa-Xian travelled around 400, when Prakrit was the language of the people and Buddhism was flourishing. 100 years later, when Song-Yun visited in 520 AD, a different picture was described: the area had been destroyed by the White Huns and was ruled by Lae-Lih, who did not practice the laws of the Buddha. Xuan-Zang visited India around 644 and found Buddhism on the wane in Gandhara and Hinduism in the ascendant. Gandhara was ruled by a king from Kabul, who respected Buddha's law, but Taxila was in ruins and Buddhist monasteries were deserted. Instead, Hindu temples were numerous and Hinduism was popular."

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

October 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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King Gondophares & the St Thomas Legend (52 AD)

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King Gondophares ....."The Acts of Thomas (Ch. 17) describes Saint Thomas' visit to King Gondophares .....When Acts was being composed, there was no reason to suppose that a king named "Gondophares" had ever really existed. However, the discovery of his coins in the region of Kabul and the Punjab, and the finding of a votive inscription of his 26th regal year that was unknown until 1872, provided evidence that his reign commenced in 21 C.E. until c. 47 C.E.".....http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org

"Saint Thomas the Apostle (also known as Judas Thomas or Didymus, meaning "Twin") ......Thomas was said to have taken Christianity eastwards as far as India. The churches of Malankara in India trace their roots back to St. Thomas who, according to local tradition, arrived along the Malabar Coast in the year 52 AD....."

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"The reign of one king calling himself Gondophares has been established at 20 AD by the rock inscription he set up at Takht-i Bahi (also known as Takht Bahi) in Mardan, western Pakistan, in 46 AD., and he has also been connected with the third-century Acts of Thomas. Recent research has however shown unambiguously that "Gondophares" was a title held by many kings.....Takht Bhai (or Takht Bahi) is a Parthian archaeological site in Mardan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It was first a Zoroastrian complex which, after the later arrival of Buddhism, was then converted into a Buddhist monastic complex. It is dated to the 1st century BC."

"Takht Bhai is a Parthian archaeological site in Mardan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It was first a Zoroastrian complex which, after the later arrival of Buddhism, was then converted into a Buddhist monastic complex. It is dated to the 1st century BC.....The Takht Bahi complex includes The Tantric monastic complex, which consists of small, dark cells with low openings, which may have been used for certain forms of Tantric meditation, which took place in the 6th and 7th Centuries AD, and was overseen by invading Hun rulers......Nearby are the ruins of Sahr-i-Bahlol, a small fortified city dating from the same period.....Sahr-i-Bahlol, is located approximately 5 km away in a fertile plain. The Sahr-i-Bahlol ruins are the remnants of a small ancient fortified town of the Kushan period. ....The Buddhist monastery was in continual use until the 7th century AD.....Due to the location of on the Buddhist Ruins of Takht-i-Bahi on high hills, it escaped successive invasions and is exceptionally well preserved.....

In this Greek-Kharoshthi tetrodrachm coin Gondophares honors Shiva.....Indo Parthian Kings Gondophares AE Tetradrachm. Date: 30-50 AD. Obverse: King on horseback right. Reverse: Siva facing holding trident.

In another Greek-Kharoshthi tetradrachm, Gondophares honors Zeus...."Indo Parthian, Gondophares: AD 30-55, AE Tetradrachm, 24mm. King on horseback right / Zeus walking right."

"King Gondophares I took over the Kabul valley and the Punjab and Sindh region area from the Scythian King Azes.....Gondophares declared independence from the Arsacids (aka: Parthian Empire) to become the first Indo-Parthian king ....His empire was vast, but was only a loose framework, which fragmented soon after his death. His capital was the Gandharan city of Taxila, to the west of the present Islamabad. Ernst Herzfeld claims his name is perpetuated in the name of the Afghan city Kandahar, which he founded under the name Gundopharron....Ancient Taxila was situated at the pivotal junction of South Asia and Central Asia. Some of the earliest ruins in this area date to the time of the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th c. BC."......Ernst Herzfeld, Archaeological History of Iran, London, Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 1935, p.63.

"The Saint Thomas Christians refer to themselves in this way because their tradition holds that their ancestors, who all came from the high castes of Hindu society, were converted by the Apostle Saint Thomas, who landed in India in the year 52 AD. At present there is no way to scientifically prove or disprove this tradition. One thing is certain: ever since the discovery of the monsoon winds in 45 AD by Hippalos, an Alexandrian ship-captain, the land and sea routes were open from the Mediterranean via the Persian Gulf to India, and there were indeed intense contacts between these areas. One after the other, Roman coins of the first century AD are being unearthed in southern India.".....Project for Preserving the Manuscripts of the Syrian Christians in India

"Azes I (57 BC – c. 35 BC)...... an Indo-Scythian ruler who completed the domination of the Scythians in Gandhara.....Indo-Scythians is a term used to refer to Scythians (Sakas), who migrated into parts of central and northern South Asia (Sogdiana, Bactria, Arachosia, Gandhara, Sindh, Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, UP and Bihar.), from the middle of the 2nd century BC to the 4th century AD..... It is believed that the Greek era may have begun in 173 BC, exactly 300 years before the first year of the Era of Kanishka. If that is the case then the Azes era would begin in about 45 BC."....Bracey, R. (2005) 'The Azes Era'

"The Buddhist monastery Takht-i-Bhai (Throne of Origins) is an archaeological wonder, considered to be significant because of its unique design. "The site is extremely important for its integrity and unique state of conservation; important also for its antiquity, being built certainly during the 1st century CE, as proven by the important inscriptions bearing the name of Gondophares (20-46 CE)," says the Director of the Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan, Dr Luca Maria Olivieri......He says Gondophares was a Parthian King of the Suren House, from Sakastan, or Sistan...."Soon after Gondophares, Takht-i-Bahi was under the control of Kujula Kadphises, the first Kushan King. The site remained in use certainly until Late Antiquity (7th CE).....the site is a symbol of architectural complexity of a Buddhist monastic complex, and it should be considered a wonderful introduction to Gandharan Buddhist architecture, a must stop for tourist heading towards Swat.".....http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2015/06/14/spe-her-01.asp

"The early 3rd-century text called Acts of Thomas is one of the New Testament apocrypha......Acts of Thomas is a series of episodic Acts (Latin passio) that occurred during the evangelistic mission of Judas Thomas ("Judas the Twin") to India......Though Gregory of Tours made a version, mainstream Christian tradition rejects the Acts of Thomas as pseudepigraphical and apocryphal, and for its part, the Roman Catholic Church finally confirmed the Acts as heretical at the Council of Trent. ....The Acts of Thomas connects Thomas, the apostle's Indian ministry with two kings, one in the north and the other in the south. According to one of the legends in the Acts, Thomas was forced to accompany an Indian merchant, Abbanes, to his native place in northwest India, where he found himself in the service of the Indo-Parthian king Gondophares."

" Song Yun, a Chinese pilgrim.....was a Chinese Buddhist monk who was sent by the devout Buddhist Empress Hu (胡, ?-528 CE) of the Northern Wei Dynasty with some companions including the monk Hui Zheng, Fa Li and Zheng (or Wang) Fouze, to northwestern India to search for Buddhist texts.....They left the Wei capital Luoyang, on foot in 518 and returned in the winter of 522 with 170 Mahayana Buddhist texts....Song Yun and his companions then travelled through Chitral and met the kings of the Swat Valley or Udyana..... Song Yun: Takht-i-Bhai & Sahr-i-Bahlol ... From the description of Song Yun, a Chinese pilgrim, it appears that it was on one of the four great cities lying along the important commercial route to India."

"The Hephthalite Huns captured Gandhara around 451, and did not adopt Buddhism, but in fact "perpetrated frightful massacres". Mihirakula became a "terrible persecutor" of the religion.....During their rule, Hinduism revived itself and the Buddhist Gandharan civilization declined. The Sassanids, aided by Turks from Central Asia, destroyed the Huns' power base in Central Asia, and Gandhara once again came under Persian suzerainty in 568......The travel records of many Chinese Buddhists pilgrims record that Gandhara was going through a transformation during these centuries. Buddhism was declining and Hinduism was rising. Fa-Xian travelled around 400, when Prakrit was the language of the people and Buddhism was flourishing. 100 years later, when Song-Yun visited in 520, a different picture was described: the area had been destroyed by the White Huns and was ruled by Lae-Lih, who did not practice the laws of the Buddha. After the fall of the Sassanid Empire to the Arabs in 644, today's Afghanistan region and Gandhara came under pressure from Muslims. But they failed to extend their empire to Gandhara. Gandhara was first ruled from Kabul and then from Udabhandapura (Hind).....Gandhara was ruled from Kabul by Kabulshahi for next 200 years. Sometime in the 9th century the Kabulshahi replaced the shahi. Based on various Muslim records the estimated date for this is 870. According to Al-Biruni (973–1048), Kallar, a Brahmin minister of the Kabulshahi, founded the Shahi dynasty in 843. The dynasty ruled from Kabul, later moved their capital to Udabhandapura. They built great temples all over their kingdoms."

"The tomb of St. Thomas the Apostle in Mylapore, India.....According to tradition, St. Thomas was killed at Mylapore, near Chennai, in 72 and his body was interred there....A few relics are still kept at San Thome Basilica in Mylapore, India. Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller and author of Description of the World, popularly known as Il Milione, is reputed to have visited Southern India in 1288 and 1292. "

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

October 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Sīta, Sītā, Śīta, Shita, Sita: Daughter of the Earth Goddess Bhūmi

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Sita:.......Sanskrit......सित ....sita .....(adj.) 1. white....... 2. depending on; attached. (nt.), a smile. || sīta (adj.), cool; cold. (nt.) coolness; cold. sītā (f.) a furrow...... Sīta, Sītā, Śīta, Shita, Sita. .... Source: BuddhaSasana: Concise Pali-English Dictionary

"White Tārā is also known as Sita Tārā - the Sanskrit sita simply means white or pure, and is also a name for the planet Venus."

Sita (Nepali:सीता, also spelled Sîta, Seeta or Seetha.....is the central female character of the Hindu epic Ramayana.....She is the consort of the Hindu god Rama (avatar of Vishnu) and is an avatar of Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and wife of Vishnu. She is esteemed as a paragon of spousal and feminine virtues for all Hindu women. Sita is known for her dedication, self-sacrifice, courage and purity......Sita is described as the daughter of the earth goddess Bhūmi and the adopted daughter of King Janaka of Mithila and Queen Sunayna. In her youth, she marries Rama, the prince of Ayodhya."

"Chitral is drained by the Kunar River which flows southward, through Afghanistan, to meet the East flowing Kabul River, which in times past, was known as the Sita, or White River.".....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/library/essays/uddiyana.htm

"The Sita of the Ramayana may have been named after a more ancient Vedic goddess Sita, who is mentioned once in the Rigveda as an earth goddess who blesses the land with good crops. In the Vedic era, she was one of the goddesses associated with fertility. A Vedic hymn (Rig Veda 4:57) recites:
“Auspicious Sita, come thou near;
We venerate and worship thee
That thou mayst bless and prosper us
And bring us fruits abundantly."
Rig-Veda Samhita (c. 1200 BC) is the oldest of the four vedas and consists of 1028 hymns praising the ancient gods.

"In the Harivansha Purana, Sita has been invoked as one of the names of goddess Arya:
“ O goddess, you are the altar's center in the sacrifice,
The priest's fee
Sita to those who hold the plough
And Earth to all living being.

"The Ramayana tells the story of Prince Rama who was sent into exile in the forest with his wife, Sita, and his brother, Lakshamana......Sita was abducted by the evil demon Ravana but ultimately rescued by Prince Rama with the help of the Monkey God, Hanuman......The story is written in 24,000 couplets, a Sanskrit epic poem ascribed to the Sanskrit poet Valmiki.....It is regarded as one of the two great works of Indian literature, along with the Mahabharata.....The story's original version in Sanskrit is known as Valmiki Ramayana, dating to approximately the 5th to 4th century BC....The names of the characters (Rama, Sita, Daśaratha, Janaka, Vashista, Vishwamitra) are all known in late Vedic literature. "

SitaRamJPG

Mount Sikaram (aka: Sita Ram) is a mountain in the Spin Ghar range on the Afghanistan–Pakistan border south of the Kabul River and Khyber Pass. At 4,755 m (15,600 ft),it is the highest peak of the Spin Ghar......Mount Sikaram ... Safed Koh Range, Hindu Kush Mountains (aka: Caucasus Indicus).........Nearby towns: Khost, Gardez, Baraki Barak.........Coordinates: 34°2'18"N 69°54'8"E......

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"Safēd Kōh (Persian: سفید کوه‎‎, Urdu: سفید کوہ‎, "White Mountains"; also known as Spin Ghar (Pashto: سپين غر‎, "white mountain", the Indian Caucasus as late as the 19th century, the Safīd Mountain Range and as the Morga Range), is a mountain range in eastern Afghanistan and expanding well to North-Western Pakistan.......Its highest peak, straight and rigid Mount Sita Ram (aka: Sikaram), towers above all surrounding hills to 4,761 m (15,620 ft) above mean sea level. The Kabul River cuts a narrow trough through the Safēd Kōh mountains to flow eastward into the Indus River; otherwise, the range connects directly with the Shandur Top offshoot of the Hindu Kush mountain system.....The Khyber Pass crosses a spur of the Safēd Kōh range. The closest city near the Safed Koh is Parachinar of Pakistan.....Forests of pine and deodar cedar thrived on the main range."..........http://www.eosnap.com/tag/mount-sikaram/

"The basin of the Kabul river is enclosed at the head by the Paghman range, an offshoot of Hindu Kush, which divides the Kabul valleys from the Helmand. Up the head-waters of the stream that passes Kabul, leads the chief road to Turkestan, crossing for a brief space into the Helmand basin by the easy pass of Unai (11,320 feet), and then over the Koh-I-Baba, or western extension of Hindu Kush, by the Hajjigak passes (12,190 and 12,480 feet), to Bamian.......The most conspicuous southern limit of the Kabul basin is the Safed Koh, Spin-gar of the Afghans (White Mountain," not to be confounded with the western Safed Koh already named), an alpine chain, reaching, in its highest summit, Sita Ram, to a height of 15,622 feet, and the eastern ramifications of which extend to the Indus at and below Attok. Among the spurs of this range are those formidable passes between Kabul and Jalalabad in which the disasters of 1841-42 culminated, as well as the famous Khybar passes between Jalalabad and Peshawar. This southern watershed formed by the Safed Koh is so much nearer the Kabul river than that on the north, that the tributaries from this side, though numerous, are individually insignificant."

There are 49 cosmic hymns in the Rig and the Yajur Vedas whose meanings have not been explained. But one particular hymn from Vedanga Jyotish informs us that the longest day of the year, or summer solstice, comprised 18 periods of daylight and 12 of night. Day and night are of equal length on the Equator; in the higher latitudes, summer days are longer than nights.......The latitude at which the proportion of daylight and darkness is 3:2 is 34 degrees North. It is worth noting that the cities to be found around this latitude today are Herat and Kabul in Afghanistan. In other words, the place and time of the composition of the Vedanga Jyotish is the same as that of Vedic Afghanistan and Iran. This second piece of evidence offered by Rajesh Kochhar further strengthens the perception of the location and time of the Rig Veda......In search of the rivers.......Kochhar has deconstructed the Rig Veda in search of the Saraswati and the Sarayu, the two rivers also mentioned in the Ramayana. Here too our current history has come in the way.....Kochhar believes it is the 650-km river known as the Hari-Rud in Afghanistan, whose source is in the Hindu Kush mountains. It flows past the city of Herat and then for 100 km along the Iran-Afghanistan border before disappearing in the Karakom desert of Central Asia.....http://scroll.in/article/723351/was-the-ramayana-actually-set-in-and-around-todays-afghanistan

"In other Zoroastrian Pahlavi texts the White Xyōn are named among the enemies of Wištāsp who are doomed to final destruction because of their wickedness...... they may have been the people referred to as the White Huns......for parallels from Indian litera­ture: śveta-hūṇa or sita-hūṇa = White Huns, hala-hūṇa = dark, or Red, Huns).".....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/chionites-lat

Sita or Seetha Rivers:
In Western Ghats of India in Karnataka state, near Hebri......
The Tarim River (Mandarin Tǎlǐmù Hé, 塔里木河; Uyghur: تارىم دەرياسى), known in Sanskrit as the Śītā is the principal river of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China.......
Kabul River, or Kabal River (Persian: دریای کابل), is a river that rises in the Sanglakh Range in Afghanistan...."The marauder Obaidallah crossed the Sita River and made a raid on Kabul in 698 AD........"
"Tibetan texts mention that the Kingdom of Shambhala is located north of the river Sita…"

Shweta (hindi : श्वेता) is a Hindu/Sanskrit Indian feminine given name, which means "fair", "fair one", "lovely" and "white"......

"Sita Ram is that form of the Shila where Lord Ram is present with Sita Mata. ....Ram and Sita represent an ideal pair with immense love, affection, feeling of sacrifice for each other and respect for each other existence."

"Goddess Sita Maa is the consort of Lord Rama, the seventh avatar (incarnation) of Lord Vishnu. Sita is the one of the most popular goddesses of Hindu religion. Devi Sita is regarded as the incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi.....There are two places named identically as Sitamarhi. One is in Bihar where Sita, the wife of Lord Rama sprang to life out of an earthern pot, when Raja Janak was ploughing the field somewhere near Sitamarhi to impress upon Lord Indra for rain. It is said that Raja Janak excavated a tank at the place where Sita emerged and after her marriage set up the stone figures of Rama, Sita and Lakshman to mark the site. This place is in Bihar near Nepal Border.......The other place is one where Sita Maa goes underground after spending the life in forest in Valmiki Ashram after the Ramayana war in Uttar Pradesh ."......http://www.ghumakkar.com/sitamarhi-sita-samahit-sthal/

Hindu Kush Mountains....."Kusha or Kush (Sanskrit: कुश)......and his twin brother Lava, were the children of Lord Rama and his wife Sita, whose story is recounted in the Hindu epic Ramayana. He was the elder of the two and is said to have wheatish complexion like their mother, while Lava had black complexion like their father....Ramayana by Valmiki says Sita gave birth to both Lava and Kusha at the same time. The line of kings which ruled Kashi and the Mauryan dynasty, an empire that ruled the Indian sub-continent from 320 BC to185 BC claimed descent from Kusha. Kusha belongs to Ikshvaku clan or Suryavansh Dynasty of Kshatriyas in Vedic civilization"....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kusha_%28Ramayana%29#cite_ref-1

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

October 2015

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Shukla Yajurveda & the Vedic Age (c. 1500–500 BC)

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"The Vedic period (or Vedic age) (c. 1500–500 BC) was the period during which the Vedas, were composed....The people who were responsible for the evolution of this civilization called themselves Aryas or Aryarns......Arya’ literally means the man of ‘noble character’, and the “free-born”.........The Aryans appeared a little earlier than 1500 B.C. The earliest Aryans settled down in eastern Afghanistan, Punjab, and fringes of Uttar Pradesh......Many of the rivers of Pakistan and Afghanistan are mentioned in the Rig Veda. The Sanskrit word later changed to Kābul......The Kubha is the modern Kabul River (aka Sita River).'

"There are four Vedas:
Rigveda...(Sanskrit: ऋग्वेद ṛgveda, from ṛc "praise, shine" and veda "knowledge") is an ancient collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns.....1700 BC (the Rigvedic period)....
Yajurveda..... (Sanskrit: यजुर्वेद, yajurveda, from yajus meaning "prose mantra" and veda meaning "knowledge") is the Veda of prose mantras.....
"Samaveda.....(Sanskrit: सामवेद, sāmaveda, from sāman "melody" and veda "knowledge"), is the Veda of melodies and chants......
"Atharvaveda.....The Atharvaveda (Sanskrit: अथर्ववेद, Atharvaveda from atharvāṇas and veda meaning "knowledge") is the "knowledge storehouse of atharvāṇas, the procedures for everyday life"....

"Yajurveda........ (Sanskrit: यजुर्वेद, yajurveda, from yajus meaning "prose mantra" and veda meaning "knowledge") is the Veda of prose mantras.....An ancient Vedic Sanskrit text, it is a compilation of ritual offering formulas that were said by a priest while an individual performed ritual actions such as those before the yajna fire......The exact century of Yajurveda's composition is unknown, and estimated by scholars to be around 1200 to 1000 BCE, contemporaneous with Samaveda and Atharvaveda.

.... "The Yajurveda is broadly grouped into two – the "black" (Krishna) Yajurveda and the "white" (Shukla) Yajurveda. The term "black" implies "the un-arranged, unclear, motley collection" of verses in Yajurveda, in contrast to the "white" (shukla) which implies the "well arranged, clear" .....

"White" (Shukla) Yajurveda.....Shukla (Sanskrit: शुक्ल) is a word of Sanskrit origin that means "white". .....Shukla paksha refers to the bright lunar fortnight or waxing moon in the Hindu calendar. .......Bala Kanda (Sanskrit bālakāṇḍa, the book of the childhood) is the first book of the Valmiki Ramayana, which is one of the two great epics of India(the other being the Mahabharata).... Bāla-kāṇḍa or Ādi-kāṇḍa

"Samhita (Sanskrit: संहिता, saṁhitā) literally means "put together, joined, union" and "a methodically, rule-based combination of text or verses".....Samhita also refer to the most ancient layer of text in the Vedas, consisting of mantras, hymns, prayers, litanies and benedictions......"

"A treatise on Mithra, forming part of a study on the Shambala Kingdom and Bala Khanda. This is from the Zoroastrian point of view that also touches on Mitra to the Romans and beyond."

Text: Shukla Yajurveda (Vajasneya Samhita) with One Commentary.
Language: Sanskrit
Commentator: Mahidhara
Researched by: Dr. Albert Weber (in 1852)
Republished by: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, Varanasi.
Year of Republishing: 1972.

"Mahīdhara ("earth-bearing") was a 16th-century commentator of the Vedas. His treatises include the Mantramahodadhi (mantra-uda-dhí, "great ocean of mantras") of ca. 1588, and the Vedadipa (veda-dīpa, "light of the Vedas"). The latter concerns the Vajasaneyi-samhita of the White Yajurveda......Mahīdhara's namesake is a legendary mountain described in the Mahabharata, which is also an epithet of Vishnu....He is assumed to have composed his commentary, the Vedadipa on the Mādhyandina Samhitā of the Śukla Yajurveda around A. D. 1587. Mahidhara was a resident of Kāśī.....In his commentary, he has been influenced by Uvaṭācārya (11th century A. D.) an earlier commentator on the same work to a great extent. However, his explanations are more detailed. He quotes profusely from the śrautasutras. He was also the author of the work entitled Mantramahodadhi, which discusses the tantras....It is very difficult to understand the Vedas not only because of their archaic language but also because they are closely associated with a system of rituals with which we are not at all familiar. "....http://www.hindupedia.org

"The Yajur veda Samhita has two well known recensions or versions namely Krishna and Shukla. ...This book is the first part of one recension of shukla Yajur veda known as vajaseneya madhyanadina....The focus here is on the inner yajna which takes place in our subtle body. Of course there is close correspondence between the inner yajna involving the offering to the fire in the altar of ghee, fuel, soma juice along with the recitation of the rik and saman mantra.....Sanskrit is a rich language in which several completely different meaning are possible for the same verse.....Many of the translator of Yjaur veda have forced their own meanings on the verses implying animal sacrifice and other unseemly features. ....we do not claim the meaning we have assigned to each verse is only the true one.....The entire VS book has been rendered into English by R.T.H. Griffith in 1899.... all the principal gods and goddesses such as Agni Indra, Surya are invoked one by one to manifest in the body of the aspirant and thus render the being whole of complete......One usually assumes that Veda-s are ritualistic and hence it is assumed that no question are posed. It is said that the habit of posing question appears only in the Upanishad.......This book contains the text and translation of all the 949 verses in the chapter 19t hrough 40 of the shukla Yajur veda Vajasaneya samhita".....Yajur Veda: Vajasaneyi Samhita....by R.L. Kashyap (2012) ...http://www.exoticindiaart.com

"The Yajurveda is two-fold......
1. The White (or Pure) Yajurveda
2. The Black (or Dark) Yajurveda
Yajyavalkya prayed to the Sun, who came to him in the form of a horse i.e. Vaji ) and gave him back the Yajush. Hence this Yajurveda was named Shukla or Vajasaneyi."......http://ignca.nic.in/vedic_heritage_intro_yajurveda.htm

"The Vedic period (or Vedic age) (c. 1500–500 BC) was the period during which the Vedas, were composed....The people who were responsible for the evolution of this civilization called themselves Aryas or Aryarns......Arya’ literally means the man of ‘noble character’, and the “free-born”.........The Aryans appeared a little earlier than 1500 B.C. The earliest Aryans settled down in eastern Afghanistan, Punjab, and fringes of Uttar Pradesh. The Rig-Veda mentioned the names of some rivers of Afghanistan such as the river Kubha, and the river Indus and its five branches....The word Kubhā (कुभा ) which is the ancient name of the river is both a Sanskrit and Avestan word. Many of the rivers of Pakistan and Afghanistan are mentioned in the Rig Veda. The Sanskrit word later changed to Kābul......The Kubha is the modern Kabul river which flows into the Indus a little above Attock and receives at Prang the joint flow of its tributaries the Swat (Swastu) and Gauri "...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigvedic_rivers

"Grammatically there is little difference between the languages of the Avesta and the Vedas.....Words such as devá have the meaning of god in the Vedas have the meaning of devil in the Avesta. Likewise some names for Vedic gods show up in the Avesta as evil spirits. This is likely due to the ancestors of the migrants to North India being a competing tribe of the tribe responsible for the creation of the Avesta."....http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/sanskritavestan.htm

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

October 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Judaism & Ancient Bactria/Balkh (586 BC)

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"BALKH, town in northern Afghanistan (within medieval Khurasan). Balkh was formerly the stronghold of Jewish settlements in Afghanistan. According to Persian and Muslim traditions, it was founded after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (586 B.C.E.), who is said to have settled the exiled Jews there. It was to Balkh, according to Muslim tradition, that the prophet Jeremiah fled, and where the prophet Ezekiel was buried. According to the Muslim historian al-Ṭabarī, another Jewish prophet with the unidentifiable name of SMY conducted religious disputations with Zoroaster in Balkh...... Reference by Arab geographers to a Bāb al-Yahūd (Gate of Jews) in Balkh, and to "al-Yahūdiyya" ("Jewish territory" or "Jewish town") provide additional evidence that a large Jewish settlement existed there. The name al-Yahūdiyya or al-Yahūdān-al Kubrā (the Great Jewry) was, however, later euphemistically changed to al-Maymana (the 'auspicious' town) since the term "al-Yahūdiyya" was rejected by the Muslims. It was at Balkh that the sectarian *Hiwi al-Balkhī was born in the ninth century....... The Jews of Balkh were forced to maintain a public garden. Maḥhmūd of Ghazna (1034) imposed special taxes on the Jews of the town, stipulating, however, that not more than 500 dirham should be accepted from them. The Jewish community continued well into the 13th century, when a Jewish merchant from Balkh named Khawāja Rashīd al-Dīn al-Ḥakīm went from Khurasan to India. However, the community was evidently destroyed during the Mongol invasions by Genghis Khan in 1220 AD."....http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org

"The Jews in Bokhara are 10,000 in number. The chief rabbi assured Dr Wolff that Bokara is the Habor and Balkh the Halah of 2 Kings xvii 6....but that it was in the reign of Chengis Khan they lost all of their written accounts. At Balkh the Mohammedan mullahs assured him that it was built by a son of Adam, that its first name had been Hanakh, and afterwards Halah, though later writers called it Balakh or Balkh. The Jews both of Balkh and Samarkand asserted that Turkestan is the land of Nod, and Balkh, where Nod once stood."...Page 434........Cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia...by Edward Balfour - 1871 - ‎India.....https://books.google.com...Narrative of a mission to Bokhura...4th edition page 11

'In 1220 AD Genghis Khan sacked Balkh, butchered its inhabitants and leveled all the buildings capable of defense..."

Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara.....by Joseph Wolff.....Originally published: 1845......Narrative of a mission to Bokhura...4th edition page 11....Narrative of a mission to Bokhara : in the years 1843-1845, to ascertain the fate of Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly......by Wolff, Joseph, 1795-1862.......CHAPTER 1. Mysterious state of the Pagan World. Life of Dr. Wolff....in 1831 Arrives at Meshed ; goes to Sarakhs, Mowr, Karakol, and Bokhara, where he is well treated by the Ameer. Crosses the Oxus to Balkh ; thence to Peshawr.....

2 Kings 18 .....New International Version......."In King Hezekiah’s fourth year, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and laid siege to it. At the end of three years the Assyrians took it. So Samaria was captured in Hezekiah’s sixth year, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel. The king of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in towns of the Medes. This happened because they had not obeyed the Lord their God, but had violated his covenant—all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. They neither listened to the commands nor carried them out."

"The Land of Nod (Hebrew: eretz-Nod‎, ארץ נוד) is a place mentioned in the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible, located "on the east of Eden" (qidmat-‘Eden), where Cain was exiled by God after Cain had murdered his brother Abel. According to Genesis 4:16: 'And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.'.....Genesis 4:17 relates that after arriving in the Land of Nod, Cain's wife bore him a son, Enoch, in whose name he built the first city."

"Balkh is named Amu-I-Balad.....the mother of cities. It is said to have been built by Kaismurz of Persia. It was conquered by Alexander....Shams are said to worship the Sun (Shams) Pers...or Amu Balad.....The River Oxus is known and the Amu Darya........Rivers: Amu (A Mu) or River Oxus, Sir or Jaxartes, Kohik or Zar-Afshatn, and the river of Kurshi and Balkh...."......Page 992.....Cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia...by Edward Balfour - 1871 - ‎India.....https://books.google.com

Click on the map to enlarge.

"The Jews in Bokhara are 10,000 in number. The chief rabbi assured me that Bokhara is the Habor, and Balkh the Halah, of the 2nd Kings, xvii. 6 ; but that in the reign of Ghengis Khan they lost all their written accounts. At Balkh the Mussulman mullahs assured me that it was built by a son of Adam (Shem), that its first name had been Hanakh, and afterwards Halah, though later writers called it Balakh, or Balkh. The Jews, both of Balkh and Samarcand, assert that Turkistaun is the land of Nod, and Balkh where Nod " once stood." In this land of Cain the Jews bear a mark, by order of the King of Bokhara, in order that no Mussulman may give them Salaam Peace. To Rabbi Joseph Mooghrubee, an African, the Jews of Bokhara owe the restoration of their ancient customs ; they had nearly lost all trace of them, in their sojourn among Muhammedans."....Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara.....by Joseph Wolff.....Originally published: 1845

"Bactria (Bactriana, Bākhtar in Persian, also Bhalika in Arabic and Indian languages, and Ta-Hsia in Chinese) was the ancient Greek name of the country between the range of the Hindu Kush and the Amu Darya (Oxus); its capital, Bactra or Balhika or Bokhdi (now Balkh), was located in what is now Afghanistan. It is a mountainous region with a moderate climate. Water is abundant and the land is very fertile......Bactria (Bâkhtriš): country in northern Afghanistan, in Antiquity famous for its fierce warriors and its ancient religion, which was founded by the prophet Zarathustra.....Bactria was bounded on the south by the ancient region of Gandhara. The Bactrian language is an Iranian language of the Indo-Iranian sub-family of the Indo-European family.....During the first centuries of the Christian era, Bactrian could legitimately have been ranked amongst the world's most important languages. As the language of the Kushan kings, Bactrian must have been widely known throughout a great empire, in Afghanistan, Northern India and part of Central Asia. Even after the collapse of the Kushan empire, Bactrian continued in use for at least six centuries, as is shown by the ninth-century inscriptions from the Tochi valley in Pakistan." ....http://lukferi.webs.com/

"Most Jewish communities throughout the area which is part of modern day Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the surrounding area speak of their beginning by referring to the Assyrian Exile (720 BC) and the Bablyonian Exile (560 BC). It is difficult to refute, or supply evidence for this. There are no archaelogical remains that allow one to argue so. However, there is a mention in the Bible of the exile of a large community to the river Gozan.....The main Jewish communities in the early Middle Ages were in the following cities: Merv, Balkh, Ghazni, Herat, Kabul and Nishapur. There were smaller pockets of Jewish settlement in Khush-Khak and Ferozkoh-Jam..".....written by: Guy Matalon PhD The article was first published in Mardom Nama-e Bakhter (August 1997), an Afghan scientific journal edited by Latif Tabibi, and Daud Saba.

"I obtained a passport from the King after this most interesting so- journ, and then crossed the Oxus, and arrived after a few days at Balkh ; and from that city, where I also communed with the dispersed of Israel, I proceeded to Muzaur, the spot where Ali's camel disap- peared miraculously at his tomb. Hither came pilgrims from Aff- ghanistaun, Cashmeer, Khokand, Shahr-Sebz, Hindustaun, Khiva, and Bokhara. Hence I proceeded to Cabool, in AfFghanistaun. Some Affghauns claim a descent from Israel. According to them, Affghaun was the nephew of Asaph, the son of Berachia, who built the Temple pf Solomon. The descendants of this Affghaun, being Jews, were carried into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, from whence they were removed to the mountain of Ghoree, in Affghanistaun, but in the time of Muhammed turned Muhammedans. They exhibit a book, Majmooa Alansab, or Collection of Genealogies, written in Persian, My readers will find these examined in my former work*, but here I shall only allude to it. There is a great air of vraisemblance about it, and their pedigree is sometimes traced, like our Lord's, through the female branch, which proves how futile is the Jewish objection on that head to our Lord's descent." .....Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara.....by Joseph Wolff.....Originally published: 1845

"Friday, the 23rd of February. Arrived, after twenty-four miles ride, at Damghan, considered, after Balkh and Nishapoor, the most ancient city in the world ; and the numerous ruins testify the truth of its antiquity.".....pilgrimages to Mecca or to Masaur, near Balkh, where Ali's camel ascended to heaven."..... Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara.....by Joseph Wolff.....Originally published: 1845

"Usbekistaun is filled with beautifully- watered and cultivated valleys. Here we find the Great Bokhara, in contradis- tinction to Little Bokhara ; from 34 to 42 north latitude, and from 80 to 92 east longitude, it extends in different directions. It bor- ders towards the south-west from the desert Khawar towards Iraun ; from the river Amoo to the territory of Balkh, towards the southern Affghanistaun, through the high galleries of mountains to the Hindoo Kush, it borders on the southern provinces of China.".....Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara.....by Joseph Wolff.....Originally published: 1845

"NARRATIVE OF THE MISSION ......the whole of Turkistaun, as far as Iraun. The celebrated Murad or Beggi Jan raised the nation of the Usbecks. Incessant wars with Persia and Cabal have sometimes extended the empire as far as Merve, Heraut, and Balkh ; and sometimes it has been reduced to its former limits. The Usbecks are Mussulmans, rough and uncul- tivated ; but the Tatshick, the original inhabitants, are more civilized. The Usbecks live mostly on cattle, whilst the Tatshick are merchants. The Tatshick are the Armenians of Turkistaun ; they are merchants and brokers ; their language is the Persian. The Tatshick are ex- ceedingly deceitful. The people of Khokand are proud and effemi- nate, but friends of Europeans ; the women chaste, but men given to vice ; fond of music and of hunting, and of cheerful temper. The inhabitants of Marghilaan are a quiet, inoffensive, and agreeable peo- ple. The Kaffer Seeah-Poosh are pagans. They are believed, as I have said, by some to be the descendants of the army of Alexander the Great ; their women are beautiful, and celebrated in Asia ; their dialect seems to be derived from the Sanscrit....They worship their ancestors. Their idols are of wood and stone, to whom sacrifices are offered by the hereditary priesthood. They also have magicians. They consider fish as unclean. Polygamy is practised among them. They are deadly foes to the Muhammedans. They are sociable, cheerful, and passionate. Dancing, with musical instruments and drums, forms part of their amusements.".....Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara.....by Joseph Wolff.....Originally published: 1845

"The name Afghanistan came into vogue during the rule of Ahmed Shah Durrani (1747-1773 AD). Prior to that Afghanistan was referred to as Aryana, Bactria, Aryanam Viju, Pakhtiya, Khurasan and Pashtoonkhwah.......The Bactrian religious leader Zarathrushta (Zardasht) in his work Zendavesta calls this region Aeseen Vijo or Aryanum Vijo meaning the land of the Aryans......The Rig Veda and the Zendavesta are believed to be the oldest texts in the world. Many European scholars believe that both the texts were composed in Afghanistan......Zarathrushta, the composer of Avesta was born in north Afghanistan near Balkh, where he preached the Zorastrian religion which was the national religion of Iran for almost one thousand years. Not only is the language of the Vedas and that of the Avesta similar, but also the names of their gods like Mitra, Indra, Varun are the same. The description of battles between the gods and the demons are found in both the texts......There are so many references made to Afghanistan in the Chhandogya Upanishad, Markandey Puran and other Vedic and Buddhist literature......According to most historians, the Rigveda was composed in the ancient homeland of the Aryans, Afghanistan. The language of the ancient Afghans was Brahmui which is very similar to the language of the Vedas. References of the Pashtoon people and the Afghan rivers are found in the Rigveda. The rivers which are today known as Aamu, Kabul, Kurram, Ranga, Gomal and Harirudh were known to the ancient Indians as Vakshu, Kubha, Krum, Rasaa, Gomati, Haryu respectively. The places which are now called Kabul, Kandhar, Balkh, Wakhan, Bagram, Pameer, Badkhasha, Peshawar, Swat and Charsadda are referred to in Sanskrit and Pali literature as Kuhka, Gandhar, Bahlik, Vokkan, Kapisha, Meru, Kamboj, Purushpur, Suvastu and Pushkalavati respectively. Gandhari, the devoted wife of King Dhritrashtra of Hastinapur (now Delhi), Panini, the great Sanskrit grammarian and Guru Gorakhnath were all Pathans. Takshshila, which is believed to be the first university in the world was established in 600 BC.".....http://lukferi.webs.com/

"The Amu Darya (Persian: آمودریا‎‎, Āmūdaryā; Turkmen: Amyderýa; Turkish: Ceyhun; Uzbek: Amudaryo; Tajik: Амударё; Pashto: د آمو سيند‎, da Āmú Sínd; Ancient Greek: Ὦξος, Oxos; Latin: "Oxus"; Sanskrit: वक्षु, Vakṣu), also called Amu River, is a major river in Central Asia....In classical antiquity, the river was known as the Ōxus in Latin and Ὦξος Oxos in Greek—a clear derivative of Vakhsh — the name of the largest tributary of the river.[citation needed] In Vedic Sanskrit, the river is also referred to as Vakṣu (वक्षु). The Avestan texts too refer to the River as Yakhsha/Vakhsha (and Yakhsha Arta ("upper Yakhsha") referring to the Jaxartes/Syr Darya twin river to Amu Darya).......In Middle Persian sources of the Sassanid period the river is known as Wehrōd (lit. "good river").......The name Amu is said to have come from the medieval city of Āmul, (later, Chahar Joy/Charjunow, and now known as Türkmenabat), in modern Turkmenistan, with Darya being the Persian word for "river"........Medieval Arabic and Muslim sources call the river Jayhoun (جيحون) which is derived from Gihon, the biblical name for one of the four rivers of the Garden of Eden.".....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amu_Darya

"Jews were banished from other towns after the assassination of King Nādir Shāh in 1933. Though not forced to live in separate quarters, Jews did so and in Balkh they even closed the ghetto gates at night. A campaign against Jews began in 1933. They were forbidden to leave a town without a permit.....Approximately 5,000 Jews were living in Afghanistan in 1948..... They were concentrated in Kabul, Balkh, and mainly Herat......Government service and government schools were closed to Jews, and certain livelihoods forbidden to them. Consequently, most Jews only received a ḥeder education [religious school to the age of 13]....There were only a few wealthy families, the rest being poverty-stricken and mostly employed as tailors and shoemakers. Until 1950 Afghan Jews were forbidden to leave the country. However, between June 1948 and June 1950, 459 Afghan Jews went to Israel. Most of them had fled the country in 1944, and lived in Iran or India until the establishment of the State of Israel. Jews were only allowed to emigrate from Afghanistan from the end of 1951. ".....Encyclopaedia Judaica.....Jews in Afghanistan

"Shem (Hebrew: שֵׁם, Modern Shem, Tiberian Šēm; Greek: Σημ Sēm; Ge'ez: ሴም, Sēm; "renown; prosperity; name"; Arabic: سام Sām) was one of the sons of Noah in the Hebrew Bible as well as in Islamic literature..... Semitic is still a commonly used term for the Semitic languages"

THE WILTSHIRE ARCHEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE By HENRY BULL, SAINT JOHN STREET

"Abraham (who was first called Ab­ram) was born in the year 1813 BC......Abraham was the tenth generation removed from Noah, being a direct descendant of Shem, (Noah's son), the father of all the "Semitic" peoples......Abraham's birthplace is called Ever-haNahor ("Beyond the River")......his family were pastoral nomads, wandering from place to place for varying periods of time......According to the Quran, Abraham reached the conclusion that anything subject to disappearance could not be worthy of worship, and thus became a monotheist (Quran 6:76-83.) ....Bactria (a region of ancient Afghanistan) was the locality of a prototypical Jewish nation called Juhuda or Jaguda, also called Ur-Jaguda. Ur meant "place or town." ....In some Islamic narratives, Balkh was founded by Noah after the great flood ended...."...wiki

"Abraham is given a high position of respect in three major world faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In Judaism he is the founding father of the Covenant, the special relationship between the Jewish people and God – a belief which gives the Jews a unique position as the Chosen People of God. In Christianity, the Apostle Paul taught that Abraham's faith in God - preceding the Mosaic law - made him the prototype of all believers, circumcised and uncircumcised. The Islamic prophet Muhammad claimed Abraham, whose submission to God constituted islam, as a "believer before the fact" and undercut Jewish claims to an exclusive relationship with God and the Covenant.".....Peters, Francis Edwards (2010). The Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, Islam. Princeton University Press.

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

October 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Anionic and Anthropomorphic Greco-Bactrian Buddhist Art (250 BC)

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"No representations of the Buddha were made for about four or five centuries. It is sometimes said that prior to this time it was 'forbidden' to make statues or pictures of the Buddha, but this is unlikely and there is no evidence of such a prohibition. A more likely explanation is that until then symbols of the Buddha (stupas, footprints, an empty throne etc.) and written descriptions of him were deemed sufficient. Whatever the reasons, the first Buddha statues were produced in about the 1st or 2nd century AD in Bactria (Afghanistan and northern Pakistan) perhaps as a result of Greek influence....".....http://www.buddhanet.net

The Kingdom of Ghandara lasted from the early 1st millennium BC to the 11th c. AD.... In 327 BC Alexander the Great conquered Gandhara....Click on the map to enlarge.

"One of the distinguishing features of the Gandharan school of art .... is that it has been clearly influenced by the naturalism of the Classical Greek style. Thus, while these images still convey the inner peace that results from putting the Buddha's doctrine into practice, they also give us an impression of people who walked and talked, etc. and slept much as we do. I feel this is very important. These figures are inspiring because they do not only depict the goal, but also the sense that people like us can achieve it if we try" (The Dalai Lama, foreword to Echoes of Alexander the Great, 2000).

"Anionic....not employing or permitting images, idols, etc...... When enforced by the physical destruction of images, aniconism becomes iconoclasm. The word itself derives from Greek εικων 'image' with the negative prefix an-....Buddhist art used to be aniconic: the Buddha was only represented through his symbols (an empty throne, the Bodhi tree, the Buddha's footprints, the prayer wheel). This reluctance towards anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha, and the sophisticated development of aniconic symbols to avoid it (even in narrative scenes where other human figures would appear), seem to be connected to one of the Buddha's sayings, reported in the Digha Nikaya, that discouraged representations of himself after the extinction of his body......Although there is still debate, the first anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha himself are often considered a result of the Greco-Buddhist interaction."

Click on the map to enlarge

"Foucher's most famous work was L'Art Gréco-Bouddhique du Gandhara in which he described how Buddhist art prior to Pan-Hellenism was principally aniconic .representing the Buddha by depicting elements of the Buddha's life instead of depicting the Buddha himself. Foucher argued that the first sculpted images of the Buddha were heavily influenced by Greek artists. He coined the term "Greco-Buddhist art".......Foucher especially considered Hellenistic free-standing Buddhas as "the most beautiful, and probably the most ancient of the Buddhas", assigning them to the 1st century BC, and making them the starting point of the anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha ....archeological discoveries in Central Asia however (such as the Hellenistic city of Ai-Khanoum and the excavation of Sirkap in modern Pakistan), have been pointing to rich Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek civilizations in these areas, reviving the Hellenistic thesis."....the Greco-Buddhist bas-reliefs.......The Beginnings Of Buddhist Art.....by A.Foucher......

"Kushana coins present some of the earliest images of the Buddha......Gold coin of Kanishka I with a representation of the Buddha (c.120 AD).......Kanishka standing..Kushan-language legend in Greek script ϷΑΟΝΑΝΟϷΑΟ ΚΑΝΗϷΚΙ ΚΟϷΑΝΟ ("Shaonanoshao Kanishki Koshano"): "King of Kings, Kanishka the Kushan"......Reverse: Standing Buddha in Hellenistic style, forming the gesture of "no fear" (abhaya mudra) with his right hand, and holding a pleat of his robe in his left hand. Legend in Greek script: ΒΟΔΔΟ "Boddo", for the Buddha. Kanishka monogram (tamgha) to the right."

Greek Buddha Face

"Greco-Buddhist art is the artistic manifestation of Greco-Buddhism, a cultural syncretism between the Classical Greek culture and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 1000 years in Central Asia, between the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC, and the Islamic conquests of the 7th century AD. Greco-Buddhist art is characterized by the strong idealistic realism and sensuous description of Hellenistic art and the first representations of the Buddha in human form, which have helped define the artistic (and particularly, sculptural) canon for Buddhist art throughout the Asian continent up to the present. It is also a strong example of cultural syncretism between eastern and western traditions......The origins of Greco-Buddhist art are to be found in the Hellenistic Greco-Bactrian kingdom (250 BC- 130 BC), located in today’s Afghanistan, from which Hellenistic culture radiated into the Indian subcontinent with the establishment of the Indo-Greek kingdom (180 BC-10 BC). Under the Indo-Greeks and then the Kushans, the interaction of Greek and Buddhist culture flourished in the area of Gandhara, in today’s northern Pakistan, before spreading further into India, influencing the art of Mathura, and then the Hindu art of the Gupta empire, which was to extend to the rest of South-East Asia. The influence of Greco-Buddhist art also spread northward towards Central Asia, strongly affecting the art of the Tarim Basin, and ultimately the arts of China, Korea, and Japan."....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhist_art

"Some of the oldest Buddha statues were recorded in the city of Gandhara.....in the northern Pakistan and northeastern Afghanistan, Gandhara was the center of Hindu culture and Greco-Buddhist culture..... Gandhara culture took a height of a peak during the reign of the Great Kushan King Kanishka (128-151).....A remarkable example of Greco-Buddhist Statuary which was built in Gandhara is The Standing Buddha Statues which reside in the Tokyo National Museum. The statue is dated around 1st or 2nd Century CE......“the most beautiful, and probably the most ancient of the Buddhas”.....These statues can be said as the starting point of the anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha."

The Seated Buddha from Gandhara is one of the early Buddha statue built which was discovered at the site of Jamal Garhi in ancient Gandhara.

"The exact date of the Buddha's birth is disputed, with Nepalese authorities favoring 623 B.C., and other traditions favoring more recent dates, around 400 B.C.......Regardless, by 249 B.C. Lumbini had became one of the four sacred centers of Buddhism, marked by sanctifying inscriptions and a pillar left there in 249 B.C. by the Indian emperor Ashoka, who helped spread Buddhism across Asia."....

"Buddhist Shrine (550 B.C.)......the earliest ever Buddhist shrine. This 6th century timber structure was found underneath of Maya Devi Temple in Lumbini......The center of the shrine was unroofed, the team found, and contained mineralized tree roots, surrounded by clay floors worn smooth by visitors. It was likely an ancient bodhigara, or tree shrine......The tree roots appear to have been fertilized, and although bodhigara are found in older Indian traditions, the shrine lacked the signs of sacrifices or offerings found at such sites......It was very clean, in fact, which points to the Buddhist tradition of nonviolence and nonofferings....excavations at the site point to its cultivation starting around 1000 B.C., followed by the development of a Buddhist monastery-like community by the sixth century B.C......The new evidence from this project shows that this ritual activity was taking place centuries prior to the Asokan levels, and this is really significant and interesting,"....Oldest Buddhist Shrine Uncovered In Nepal May Push Back the Buddha's Birth Date ...By Dan Vergano, National Geographic.......2013

"Gāndhāra, a district traditionally placed in the extreme northwest of the Indian subcontinent. It was located along both banks of the Indus, around the famous cities of Takshaśilā (Taxila) and Pushkalāvatī (modern Charsada, northeast of Peshawar).....Gandhari in the Rigveda, along with the Balhikas (Bactrians) ...The name Gandhārī first occurs in the Rigveda (I, 126,7; late 2nd millennium B.C.E.) in the phrase Gandhārīnām avikā (ewe of the Gandharans), and also in the somewhat later Atharva Veda. The name is used, around 400 B.C., by Pānini, who himself probably hailed from Gāndhāra."...http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gandhara-

"As soon as the Greeks invaded India to form the Indo-Greek kingdom, a fusion of Hellenistic and Buddhist elements started to appear, encouraged by the benevolence of the Greek kings towards Buddhism. This artistic trend then developed for several centuries and seemed to flourish further during the Kushan Empire from the 1st century AD.....Greco-Buddhist art depicts the life of the Buddha in a visual manner, probably by incorporating the real-life models and concepts which were available to the artists of the period......The Bodhisattvas are depicted as bare-chested and jewelled Indian princes, and the Buddhas as Greek kings wearing the light toga-like himation. The buildings in which they are depicted incorporate Greek style, with the ubiquitous Indo-Corinthian capitals and Greek decorative scrolls. Surrounding deities form a pantheon of Greek (Atlas, Herakles) and Indian gods (Indra).".....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhist_art

"GANDHĀRAN ART: The region attained its peak of prosperity in the Kushan period (1st to 3rd centuries AD), when it became one of the strongholds of Buddhism, and developed an advanced urban life where the Gandhāra art flourished.... In the 1st century AD, Parthian and Roman merchants brought in the art and culture of their respective lands and local Hellenistic art tradition, and Buddhist missionaries the elements of Buddhist art. This last factor was developed into a synthesis combining eastern Hellenistic and Bactrian styles with the Indian art of anthropomorphic representations of the Buddhist personages.".....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gandharan-art

"Buddha (Śākyamuni/Gotama/Shaka) (buddha/bodhisattva; Indian; Male).....Also known as: Śākyamuni; Shakyamuni; Buddha; Sakamano Boudo (Bactrian spelling); Boddo; Dharmacakra; Gautama; Gaudama; Siddhartha (Prince); Shaka (Japanese); Gotama (Pali).....The historical Buddha, whose clan name is Śākya and whose personal name Siddhartha. Son of Queen Maya (q.v.) and King Suddhodana."

" Of the numerous divinities depicted on the coins of Kanishka I and Huvishka, most are given Iranian names, e.g., ardoxšo (Av. ašiš vaŋuhi), aθšo “fire,” farro (Av. xᵛarənah-), lrooaspo (masc.; cf. Av. drvāspā-), mao “moon,” miiro (in many spellings; Av. miθra-), nana (Sogd. nny), oado “wind,” oaxšo “Oxus,” oēšo (Av. vayuš, conflated with the Indian Śiva, ōoromozdo (Av. ahurō mazdǡ), orlagno (Av. vərəθraγna-), and teiro (Mid. Pers. tīr)........ The coinage of Kanishka includes issues portraying boddo “Buddha,” sakamano boudo “Śākyamuni,” and mētrago boudo “Maitreya”......while that of Huvishka attests foreign gods and demigods such as ērakilo “Heracles,” sarapo “Sarapis,” maasēno “Mahāsena,” and skando komaro “Skanda Kumāra.” After Huvishka the repertoire of reverse types contracts sharply, the only deities named on the coins of the last Kushans being ardoxšo and oēšo."......http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bactrian-language

".... The difficulty of assigning a single origin to the Gandharan art...... three different interpretations have arisen:
1.) .....the Greeks had exerted a primary impact on the making of the Gandhāran art, and connected it with the rise of the Greco-Bactrian state and, following its fall, the influx of Greek population into northwest India.
2.).....influences from the west, namely, Roman, Palmyran and Parthian.
3.).....the roots of Gandhāran art exclusively in India.
In recent decades, excavations at Ai-Khanum and the Oxus temple (c. 280 BC ) considerably strengthened the position of those scholars who advocate the theory of Greek influence coming from Bactria and of Bactrian contribution. At the same time, the Oxus temple provided archaeological evidence for the presence of considerable Roman influence. All these trends integrated with Indian artistic foundation within the frames of Buddhist ideology. A rapid standardization of Buddhist iconography took place. It started, as demonstrated by materials from Taxila and Butkara I, as early as the 1st century BC. Local architects, sculptors and artists familiar with the Hellenising tradition combined these elements of different origin to create their own artistic repertoire, canons and models, and this development represent the Gandhāran style.".....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gandharan-art

"Krishna said in the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 12, Verse 5, ...'it is much more difficult to focus on God as the unmanifested than God with form, due to human beings having the need to perceive via the senses.'.....'For those whose minds are attached to the un-manifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied.'.....http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-12-04.html

"Bharhut (Hindi: भरहुत) is a village located in the Satna district of Madhya Pradesh, central India. It is known for its famous relics from a Buddhist stupa. The Bharhut sculptures represent some of the earliest examples of Indian and Buddhist art......The Bharhut stupa may have been first built by the Maurya king Ashoka in the 3rd century BC, but many works of art were apparently added during the Shunga period, with many friezes from the 2nd century BC.....In conformity with the early aniconic phase of Buddhist art, the Buddha is only represented through symbols, such as the Dharma wheel, the Bodhi tree, an empty seat, footprints, or the triratana symbol......"

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

October 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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