What God in each major ancient civilization is closest to the one supreme God?

[Rakovsky]

 

[Rakovsky]

There is some major overlap though between finds at Indus sites and in Hinduism, like the Lingam, certain pictures of Gods that they think could be Shiva or Rudra, bull images, a mother goddess image (like Shakti), ritual washing, swastikas, images of the Pipal tree that is sacred in Hinduism.

I also think that the fish hieroglyphic in Indus writing is the letter M and could be a reference to the concept of a star or deity.

 

[Aupmanyav]

One thing about Mohanjodaro - the correcft name in the local language, Sindhi, is "Moyan jo dero" (Moyan=dead, jo=of, dero=camp). This refers to some 40 skeletons found in the top layers of the city, no evidence of a war, which most probably were due to a pestilence - plague, cholera due to floods? I think the local people knew about that even before the excavation began.

 

[Rakovsky]

Compare the Celtic Cerunnos or horned one, known in Celtic art from at least 400 BC:

to this figure who image is found many times in the Indus Valley and is supposed by archeologists to have been an important figure, maybe Rudra or Shiva, on the left:

This could suggest to me an ancient proto-Indo-European connection crossing the cultures of the Celts and the Indus.

 

[Rakovsky]

One thing about Mohanjodaro - the correcft name in the local language, Sindhi, is "Moyan jo dero" (Moyan=dead, jo=of, dero=place). This refers to some 40 skeletons found in the top layers of the city, no evidence of a war, which most probably were due to a pestilence - plague, cholera due to floods? I think the local people knew about that even before the excavation began.

It would have been helpful if they had tested the DNA, but back then they probably didn't know how to do this. I think probably in the next 20 years they will though.
My guess is that they had a mix of Indo-European and non-Aryan DNA like they do today, one reason being what you mentioned about the Brahmans coming from the Saraswati. But I know that this is not the majority opinion.

Anyway, once we establish that the people were mixed, we have to next see whether the language for writing was IndoEuropean or something else.
One possibility is that the language was purely pictoral, like Chinese. But my guess is that it was at least mixed pictoral-phonetic like I think Sumerian was. I think it will be harder to decipher, but probably not impossible.

 

[Rakovsky]

We know of the Hittites and the Mittani who interacted with the Sumerian and Egyptian people. The Indo-Aryan people interacted with indigenous Indians. Thanks.

Along these lines, a discussion of the Mitanni worshiping Indra, Mithra, Nasatia, Varun:

Emergence of the Mitanni Kingdom

In northern Mesopotamia, a great power arose: the Mitanni kingdom. Whatever we could gather about it is from indirect sources. Those people were called Kharri. Some philologists believed that this term was the same as Arya. According to the Vedic Index of Names and Subjects, compiled by Macdonald and Keith, this was the normal designation in Vedic literature from the Rig-Veda onwards of an Aryan of the three upper classes. The Mitannian invasion of northern Mesopotamia and the Aryan influx into India represented two streams of wandering migrations from a common cultural axis.

In 1906-07 at Boghaz Keui (about eighty miles to the south east of Ankara, modern capital of Turkey) Hugo Winkler discovered the great state archive of the Chatti Empire containing more than 10,000 cuneiform tablets written in Akkadian cuneiform. One tablet recorded a peace treaty concluded in about 1400 BC between the Hittite Monarch Suppiluliumas and Mattiuaza, King of the Mitanni. Four gods were called upon as witness to this treaty in the records: In-da-ra, Uru-w-na, Mi-it-ra and Na-sa-at-ti-ia. These names were nearly identical with the Vedic gods Indra, Varuna, Mitra and Nasatya. According to the eminent Indologist Paul Thieme, during the time of the Boghaz Keui treaty, these gods were brought into Iranian mythology.

http://www.ancient.eu/article/230/

 

[Aupmanyav]

My guess is that they had a mix of Indo-European and non-Aryan DNA like they do today, one reason being what you mentioned about the Brahmans coming from the Saraswati. But I know that this is not the majority opinion.

About people in Saraswati region, they were Aryans who had settled there. Of course, it would not be a purely Aryan country. It was always a mix of Aryans from Central Asia and Iran with indigenous people. There were mixed marriages also and adoption of indigenous people in the four fold social division of Aryans as I have mentioned earlier. Brahmins did not originate there, they were the part of the Aryan migrants. But they were the vocal and the learned of the society and therefore, their importance.

Mittani were clearly Aryans, but the people of Balkans, Greece, and later Italy, France, Germany, etc. also received Aryan migrants and were influenced by that mythology. The Indo-European influence bifurcated. One branch in India, Iran, and the other went west.

'Nasatya': "The Ashvins or Ashwini Kumaras, in Hindu mythology, are two important Vedic gods (56 hymns dedicated to Ashwins, highest after Indra, Agni and Soma), divine twin horsemen in the Rigveda, sons of Saranyu, a goddess of the clouds and wife of Surya in his form as Vivasvanta. They symbolise the shining of sunrise and sunset, appearing in the sky before the dawn in a golden chariot, bringing treasures to men and averting misfortune and sickness. They are the doctors of gods and are devas of Ayurvedic medicine.

They are also called Nasatya (dual nāsatyau "kind, helpful") in the Rigveda; later, Nasatya is the name of one twin, while the other is called Dasra ("enlightened giving"). The Ashvins can be compared with the Dioscouri (the twins Castor and Pollux) of Greek and Roman mythology, and especially to the divine twins Ašvieniai (Aup: clear evidence here of common origin) of the ancient Baltic religion." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashvins

Balkans even termed their Supreme God as Vishnye, with the same meaning as Vishnu, one who covers everything. We find the same similarity in the names of Ouranos (Varuna) and Zeus (Dyavuh Pitar). The standard Spartan oath was to swear "by the two gods".

Asvieniai on the top of a Lithuanian house for protection (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asvieniai)

 

[Rakovsky]

Video games about ancient India/Indus

Unrest

http://pyrodactyl.com/unrest/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unrest_(video_game)

Made in India

Tomb Raider Underworld

Asura's Wrath

The god Deus in the game
Based on Streetfighter Engine. It also has Mithra in the game. It got complaints from Hindus.

Far Cry 4

I think it's more TIbetan/Nepalese and Buddhist than Hindu, focuses on Shang-Ri La

Pantheon
http://www.nevosoft.com/review/game-Pantheon/platform-pc

British game about archeology
http://www.ancientindia.co.uk/indus/challenge/cha_set.html

There is a game about medieval India called Forgotten Empires for Age of Empires II.

Let me know if you are aware of others.

 

[Aupmanyav]

. No, I have never played any game (except perhaps pool, available with Windows) for some time. I normally delete the games folder as soon as I load Windows (Have not checked in my new Windows 10). Disappointing, is it not? I am an old-timer.

Pantheon temple is very much like three of our Shiva temples, Kedar Nath (3553 m), Madhyamaheshwar (3,497 m) and Tunganath (3680 m). All three require some trekking.

Back of the Kedarnath Temple. It was saved from destruction by this huge stone in the deluge two years ago, Front; Madhyamaheshwar (between two of our famous shrines, Gangotri and Badrinath, that is why Madhya - the middle one), Tunganath.

 

[Rakovsky]

Good story.

 

[Rakovsky]

I found another game for Hinduism called Third Eye, which has the gods Indra and Shakti:

It is a fighting game.

Shakti is on the left.

Indra

http://www.thirdeyethegame.com/

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=526876297

 

[Milton Platt]

The four major oldest civilizations

Topic Questions for each civilization

What was their civilization like in a brief summary?

Did they have technology that would be considered advanced by our current standards?

Did they or a major portion of them have a version of monotheism?

Which was their God who was most like the supreme Abrahamic one, and what was that God like?

What is the meaning or etymology for NTR, DINGIR, Brahman, Di/Tien, or their other main concept of God?

If they had more than one such God, which was the earliest?

What were their rituals for worshiping this deity?

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Next I will write a bit about the poll:

What is the "one supreme god" (which admits up front that there are multiple gods) and what is the generally accepted criteria for establishing this??????????

 

[Rakovsky]

What is the "one supreme god" (which admits up front that there are multiple gods) and what is the generally accepted criteria for establishing this??????????

This is up for you as a reader and poll taker to decide how you best interpret and answer the question.
In case you think it's an impossible question with no answer, that's fine too.

 

[Milton Platt]

This is up for you as a reader and poll taker to decide how you best interpret and answer the question.
In case you think it's an impossible question with no answer, that's fine too.

Acrually, it is up to the one posing the question to define his terms.........

 

[Rakovsky]

Acrually, it is up to the one posing the question to define his terms.........

In this case I left things somewhat open ended for you to decide what kind of approach and criteria to use. You can give a creative answer and have fun with it.

 

[Rakovsky]

Some other ancient civilizations

Marian/Eblaite, c. 2500 BC-East Semitic language in northern Syria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eblaite_language

Subarian, c. 2400 BC - Upper Tigris, maybe Assyria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subartu

Hattian, c. 2300 BC - Pre-Hittite Anatolian
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hattians

 

[Rakovsky]

Video games about ancient India/Indus

Unrest

http://pyrodactyl.com/unrest/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unrest_(video_game)

Made in India


British game about archeology
http://www.ancientindia.co.uk/indus/challenge/cha_set.html

I played the British archaeology game.

Next I will go with the Indus one - the demo is for free on STEAM, here:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/292400/

Aupmanyav!
It's quite an interesting question for me whether the Aryans were part of the Indus civilization. DNA tests have not been successful in showing any results. Scholars for a long time have relied on what seems to me to be more subjective, like measuring skulls and skeletons and saying that they have an Australoid or Dravidian "type" rather than an Indo-European one. They also look at the sculptures and say that the figurines look non-Indo-European. Or they propose that at this stage in history, Indo-Europeans were not yet urbanized into major civilizations and that there is a cultural break between the Harappan and post-Harappan periods. I the Vedas, the Aryabs fight the Dasyus, who may have become the lower classes of India, but going on that story alone, I think we don't know when exactly this fighting occurred - toward the end of the civilization or before its climax?

I understand that you are saying that the Saraswati is described as drying up, and this happened at the end of the Harappan society. Plus, Brahmi script has been found from 1500 BC, I think. So we can think that the Aryans were there already near the ending period of that civilization, c. 1800-1500 BC. But that doesn't mean that they were there during the climax or formative period, 3500-2500 BC.

 

[Rakovsky]

More games:

Professor Indus, http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/indus_valley/discovery/

"Indus Game" by MIT, https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/22970570/

Mohendjo Daro cell phone app game, http://www.apkmonk.com/app/com.PoddarApps.MohenjoDaro/

Indus Valley Mod for Civ 5 Brave New World, https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=180072972

Characters of Ancient India campaign for AOE, http://aoe.heavengames.com/dl-php/showfile.php?fileid=1695

Harappan Puzzles game cellphone app, like a jigsaw puzzle, https://apkpure.com/puzzles-harappa/com.wPuzzlesHarappa

Mario Bros style "harappa" game, probably not worth your time, http://www.sploder.com/games/members/moonlover/play/harappa-game/

Indus Valley, - Kind of like where's Waldo, http://games.allmyfaves.com/indusvalley/