Common Narratives of Adam and Swayambhu Manu We Suggest That This Prophet Lived at Pushkar on Two Grounds That Are Common to the Two Traditions
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Common Narratives of Adam and Swayambhu Manu We suggest that this Prophet lived at Pushkar on two grounds that are common to the two traditions. One, location of his abode was atop a mountain. Two, four rivers flowed out from here. Mount Moriah or Mount Meru The Biblical tradition tells of Adam living at Mount Moriah while the Hindu tradition tells of him living at Mount Meru. The Targum, a secondary Biblical text, says that after being banished from Eden, Adam “went and dwelt on Mount Moriah, to cultivate the ground from which God created him.”1 This means that Adam was created by God from the ground of Moriah and he lived here after God banished him from the Garden of Eden. The two ends of Adam’s life were located at Moriah. Therefore, we may assume that the Garden of Eden, where he lived between these two ends, too was located at or near the mountain of Moriah. The Hindu texts say that Brahma’s seat is located at Mount Meru.2 The common theme in the Biblical and Hindu descriptions is that creation took place atop a mountain as indicated in the adjective “Mount” added to both Moriah and Meru. Further, the two names carry the same consonants “M” and “r” suggesting that the same place is referred to in the two traditions. The elevation of Pushkar is at 530 meters above Mean Sea Level, while that of Ajmer, the city to its south, is at 475 meters. In other words, Pushkar is located barely 55 meters higher than Ajmer and scarcely qualifies as a “mountain.” However, the city is located in a valley surrounded by higher mountains. One accesses Pushkar from Ajmer through a pass as shown in Figure 1. Perhaps the texts refer to Pushkar as a “Mount” in reference to the mountains that surround it. Another possibility is that the texts have glorified Pushkar as a 2 Common Prophets “mountain” due to its spiritual height rather than its physical height. Evidence of habitation is available continuously from the last 200,000 years from the area around Budha Pushkar Lake. Bridget and Raymond Allchin, authors of The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan, say: Around the… Budha Pushkar there is concentration of sites with (small stone tool) industries… these are primarily living or camping sites… the importance of this unique place may extend back without a break to prehistoric times.3 Archaeologists have also found pottery related to the Bronze Age and a fishhook here.4 This establishes that people lived in the area from prehistoric times to the Bronze Age which began at c. 3500 BCE, and includes the time of Adam at c. 4000 BCE. Figure 1: Approach to Pushkar Mountain from Ajmer. Photo: Author, September 2016. Index 3 A legend says that “Ajay Meru,” the original name of the city of Ajmer, was derived from “a goat-herd of Pushkar, who was called Ajapal…”5 The connection of the name Ajay Meru with Meru is self-evident. Thus, this legend connects Meru with Pushkar as follows: Meru – Ajay Meru – Ajmer – Ajapal – goat-herd of Pushkar – Pushkar. The legend says that Ajapal lived before the time of Mahabharata dated to c. 1500 BCE. Hence the association of the name “Meru” with Pushkar is ancient.6 The Hindu living tradition says that Brahma undertook the task of creation at Pushkar. His main temple is located here. Now we assess the above informations on the four levels of evidences mentioned in the previous chapter. Levels of Evidence. The geographical evidence is that Pushkar is located on a hill as indicated in the adjective “Mount” added to the names Moriah and Meru. Archaeological evidence for habitation here is available from c. 4000 BCE. The evidence from similarity of names is that the name “Ajay Meru” of Ajmer carries the name “Meru,” which is mentioned as such in the Hindu texts, and which is similar to the name Moriah mentioned in the Biblical tradition. The location of the main temple of Brahma provides evidence from the living traditions. Thus we find that the location of Moriah and Meru at Pushkar is supported by all four levels of evidence. Rivers of Eden, Paradise and Meru The Bible, the Quran and the Hindu texts all tell of four rivers flowing at the seat of creation as they indeed do near Pushkar. The Bible says that four rivers named Pishon, Gihon, Perath and Hiddekel flowed out of the Garden of Eden.7 The Quran tells of four rivers of water, milk, wine and honey flowing in the Paradise.8 The Hindu narrative tells of three rivers named Alaknanda, Saraswati, Sita and an unnamed river flowing out from Mount Meru. It also says that four rivers of mango juice, 4 Common Prophets jamun juice, honey and milk flow in four directions.9 Thus, all the three texts tell of four rivers flowing at the seat of creation. The Quran and Hindu texts additionally describe the four rivers in terms of different liquids. Four rivers indeed flow out of Pushkar as shown in Figure 2. The river emerging to the south of Pushkar is the Sagarmati. We suggest she is the Pishon of the Bible and Alaknanda of the Hindu texts. She flows near the town of Pisangan. The name Pishon and first part “Pisan” of the name Pisangan both carry the same consonants “p,” “s” and “n” and suggest a common origin of the two names. The river emerging to the west of Pushkar is the Saraswati. We suggest she is the Gihon of the Bible and the ancient Saraswati of the Hindu texts. The river emerging to the northeast is the Nahar. We suggest she is the Perath River of the Bible and the unnamed north-flowing river of the Hindu texts. The river emerging to the southeast is the Dai. We suggest she is the Hiddekel of the Bible and Sita of the Hindu texts. Index 5 Figure 2: Rivers of Pushkar. Shaded areas indicate mountains. The Biblical and Hindu narratives both indicate a connection of the rivers emerging to the south and west of the Garden of Eden or Mount Meru. The Targum says that the Gihon carried the waters of the Pishon;10 while the Hindu texts say that both the Alaknanda and Saraswati Rivers flowed near the Gandhamadan Mountains. This is exactly the situation of the Sagarmati and Saraswati rivers. The Saraswati carries the waters of the Sagarmati after Govindgarh where the two rivers join as shown in Figure 2; and the combined river flows near the Aravalli Mountains as shown in the larger picture in Figure 3. The Hindu texts may be equating the Aravalli Mountains with the Gandhamadan Mountains. Thus they say that the Alaknanda-as- Luni and Saraswati-as-Luni both flow near the Gandhamadan Mountains. It is remarkable that both the Biblical and Hindu texts tell of a special connection between rivers emerging from the south and west of the seat of creation. 6 Common Prophets Figure 3: Luni River and Aravalli Mountains. Levels of Evidence. The geographical evidence is that four rivers flowed out of here and two of these rivers joined together. Archaeological evidence for habitation here has been mentioned above in the context of the location of Mount Moriah and Meru here. The evidence from similarity of names is that the Biblical name Pishon could have a connection with the name Pisangan. The name Saraswati of the west-flowing river here provides evidence from both similarity of names and living traditions. Thus we find that the location of Moriah, Garden of Eden, Paradise or Meru at Pushkar is further supported by all the four levels of evidences from the rivers. Now we proceed to discuss the common events at the time of the Prophet. The Beginning of Marriage The Bible and the Hindu texts tell of the beginning of the institution of marriage at the time of Adam or Swayambhu Manu. Translations of the Bible say that God took part of the man’s ribs and made a woman from it: Index 7 The Lord God… took one (of Adam’s) ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made He a woman and brought her unto man.11 A Hadith says the same in the statement that “a woman is created from a rib.”12 We substitute alternative meanings of the Hebrew words given in italics in the above verse and render it differently below. The steps for deriving the alternative meanings used here are given at the endnote.13 The Lord God… took one [woman] aside, and quarantined her from humankind.14 And the [woman taken] aside, whom the Lord God had taken away from [all the] mankind, made He a wife and brought her unto one man.15 The sources of the alternative meanings of the Hebrew words accepted by us here are given in the respective endnotes. Thus rendered, the verse tells of God establishing a relationship between one man and one woman, which is the institution of marriage. Wenham and Nahum M Sarna, author of the JPS Torah Commentary, both support the association of these verses with the beginnings of marriage.16 We find a similar narrative in the Hindu texts: (Brahma was once thinking that) it is indeed surprising that creation is not taking place despite my continuous effort. (Then) His body suddenly divided in two parts. A pair of male-female emerged from these parts. The male was Manu and the female was his queen Shatarupa.17 From the statement that the woman was the “queen” of Manu, without the mention of their relations with other men or women, we can infer that the woman was wedded to one man at this time.