Sarasvati-Croat cultural interactions during the transition from Neolithic to Metals Age (ca. 6500 BCE to 1 st millennium BCE) Part 1d Behistun rock and inscription referring to Harauvatish 1 Behistun inscription, 6 th cent. BCE [Ancient Near East Behistun Inscription by Jon Bartlett] http://www.georgefox.edu/academics/grad/wes/bst550/jbartlett/BI.html [1.6] Says Darius the king: These are the countries which came to me; by the grace of Auramazda I became king of them; Persia, Susiana, Babylonia, Assyria, Arabia, Egypt, the (lands) which are on the sea, Sparda, Ionia, [Media], Armenia, Cappadocia, Parthia, Drangiana, Aria, Chorasmia, Bactria, Sogdiana, Ga(n)dara, Scythia, Sattagydia, Arachosia, Maka; in all (there are) 23 countries. [Column 1 Text Source: The Behistan Inscription of King Darius Translator: Herbert Cushing Tolman Publisher: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, 1908] Trilingual inscription on face of a gorge beneath panel of sculptures Text: Column 1 2 10 xshâyathiyâ : âha : adam navama : IX : duvitâparanam : vavam : xshâyathi 11 yâ : amahy : thâtiy : Dârayavaush : xshâyathiya : vashnâ : Auramazd 12 âha : adam : xshâyathiya : amiy : Auzamazdâ : xshaçam : manâ : frâbara : th 13 âtiy : Dârayavaush : xshâyathiya : imâ : dahyâva : tyâ : manâ : patiyâisha : vashn 14 â : Auramazdâha : adamshâm : xshâyathiya : âham : Pârsa : Ûvja : Bâbirush : A 15 thurâ : Arabâya : Mudrâya : tyaiy : drayahyâ : Sparda : Yauna : Mâda : Armina : Kat 16 patuka : Parthava : Zraka : Haraiva : Uvârazmîy : Bâxtrish : Suguda : Gadâra : Sa 17 ka : Thatagush : Harauvatish : Maka : fraharavam : dahyâva : XXIII : thâtiy : Dâra 18 yavaush : xshâyathiya : imâ : dahyâva : tyâ : manâ : patiyâita : vashnâ Column 3 76 nâ : abava : ima : tya : manâ : kartam : Harauvatiyâ : thâtiy : Dârayavaush : xshâ (3.75-6.) Darius the King says: After that the province became mine. This is what was done by me in Arachosia. Darius, Persepolis E. South retaining wall of palace 16 ka : Haraiva : Bâxtrish : Suguda : Uv 17 ârazmîy : Thatagush : Harauvatish : H 18 idush : Gadâra : Sakâ : Maka : thâtiy (16-18) Aria, Bactria, Sogdiana, Chorasmia, Sattagydia, Arachosia, Sind, Gandara, Seythians, Maka. http://asis.com/~stag/behistun.html http://anes235-1.ff.cuni.cz/cz/scripta/monog/bisutun/ASCII7/14.htm Sarasvati-Haurvatat: association with water "There are old Croatian customs and national poems that have been cited as evidencing lingering traces of the fire and sun worship of the Iranians. Fire, the essence of human origin, the sun, and the great boiling cauldron around which the warriors spring in the age old kolo or circle dance, all these are ingredients in the national lore of the Croatian nation. The Croat vilas or fairy witches resemble the peris of Iranian mythology. Then there is the legendary Sviato zov, the personification of strength, a being almost too huge for the earth to bear. He is strongly reminiscent of the "elephant-bodied" Rustum of Persian legend." (Guldescu 1964, pt.1.II) Haurvatat is the divinity of water in Zoroastrian faith. 3 Months are consecrated to divinities: “After the supreme divinity comes first Vohu Manah from the right hand, then Spenta Armaiti from the left, then (interrupted by a non- Angelic month) Asha Vahishta from the right, then the twin Angels Haurvatat and Ameretat from the left (though separated again by a stranger) and then at last Khshathra Vairya from the right.” http://www.avesta.org/op/op.htm#db1 "it would be just as plausible to assume that Saraswati was a Sanskrit term indigenous to India and was later imported by the speakers of Avestan into Iran." [17] A transfer of the name from India to Iran, would have taken place in pre-Proto-Iranian times, since the initial *s was regularly changed to h- in proto-Iranian. [18] ^ George Erdosy (1989): cited after Bryant 2001: 133 ^ e.g. Bryant (2001: 133) Suggestions for the identity of the early Rigvedic Sarasvati River include the Helmand River in Afghanistan, separated from the watershed of the Indus by the Sanglakh Range. The Helmand historically besides Avestan Haetumant bore the name Harahvaiti, which is the Avestan form corresponding to Sanskrit Sarasvati. The Old Persian form is Harachuwati, in Achaemenid times the name of the Arghandab River, the chief tributary of the Helmand. This name was in turn hellenized to Arachosia. “Arachosia, Persian HARAUVATISH or HARAHVATISH, in ancient times a province of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, and Parthian empires. It occupied southern Afghanistan and was bounded on the south by Gedrosia (Baluchistan). The capital city, Alexandria-of-the Arachosians, was founded by Alexander the Great and is usually identified with Qandah ār. Arachosia was famous for its ivory and elephants. ” NEB, I, p. 471. harauvatis = rich in waters [Old Iranian Calendars by S. H. Taqizadeh, Royal Asiatic Society, 1938 http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/behistun/haurvatat.html ] Rigveda-Avestan parallels One of the six aresha spenta (Holy immortals) is Haurvatat. Avestan concepts such as asha (truth, justice, order), khshatra (kingdom), aramaiti (humility, devotion), ameretat (immortality) and haurvatat (physical wholeness), are similar to ancient Indian views, r.ta, kshatra, aramati, amrta and sarvatat . Humbach suggests the date to 1080 BC for Zarathustra, primarily based on the classical Greek sources (which were earlier used to date Zarathustra to ca. 600 BC). (Humbach.H., et al., 1991, The Ga_tha_s of Zarathustra and the other Old Avestan texts. 2 vols., Heidelberg, Carl Winter Universitatsverlag, pp. 24-27). Humbach's conclusions are: (p. 23): "It must be emphasised that th process of polarisation of relations between the Ahuras and the Dae_vas is already complete in the Ga_tha_s, whereas, in the Rigveda, the reverse process of polarisation between the Devas and the Asuras, which does not begin before the later parts of the Rigveda, develops as it were before our very eyes, and is not completed until the later Vedic period. Thus, it is not all likely that the origins of the polarisation are to be sought in the prehistorical, the Proto-Aryan period. More likely, 4 Zarathushtra's reform was the result of independent developments, when Irano-Indian contacts still persisted at the dawn of history. With their Ahura-Dae_va ideology, the Mazdayasnians, guided by their prophet, deliberately dissociated themselves from the Deva-Asura concept which was being developed, or had been developed, in India, and probably also in the adjacent Iranian-speaking countries...All this suggests a synchrony between the later Vedic period and Zarathushtra's reform in Iran." The corpus of the Rigveda is emphatic proof of the settlement of Proto-Aryan Deva and Asura in the region around Kuruks.etra and upto Parus.n.i_ river. The evolution of the Avestan Ahura is apparently relatable to this locus of Northwest India, between the Rivers Sarasvati_ and Parus.n.i_. It is, therefore, reasonable to surmise that as the Avestan tradition moved into the hinterland of Iran, the memories of life together were retained and a tributary of Helmand was called Haraqvaiti, in memory of the River Sarasvati_ of Northwest India. The Kavi who were left in India continued the Vedic tradition into the Bra_hman.a; the Kavi who moved into Iran continued the 'smithy' tradition and became chieftains. Zarathushtra's followers who were opposed to the 'kavi' remembered the Vedic Soma as Haoma and embellished it as a process of purification of a plant. The Rasa_ (evoking Soma rasa or potable gold-silver, electrum) became a mythical border river which separated the two peoples of Iran and India. kaveh (Persian); kovac (Croatian) That clave unto Kavi Kavata, and unto Kavi Aipivohu, and unto Kavi Usadha, and unto Kavi Arshan, and unto Kavi Pisina, and unto Kavi Byarshan, and unto Kavi Syavarshan (Zamya_d Yasht 19.71). He carries the chariot of the lords; he carries the chariots of the lordly ones, the chariots of the sovereigns. He carried the chariot of Kavi Usa; upon his wings runs the male horse, runs the burden-bearing camel, runs the water of the river. (Warharan (or Bahra_m) Yasht 14.39) 'Offer up a sacrifice, O Spitama Zarathushtra! unto this spring of mine, Ardvi Sura Anahita.... 'To her did the great, most wise Kavi Usa offer up a sacrifice from Mount Erezifya, with a hundred male horses, a thousand oxen, ten thousand lambs. [A_ba_n (or Aban, Hymn to the Waters) Yasht 5.45] We worship the Fravashi of the holy Spiti, the son of Uspasnu; We worship the Fravashi of the holy Erezraspa, the son of Uspasnu. We worship the Fravashi of the holy Usadhan, the son of Mazdayasna. We worship the Fravashi of the holy Fradat-vanghu, the son of Stivant. We worship the Fravashi of the holy Raochas-chaeshman; We worship the Fravashi of the holy Hvare-chaeshman We worship the Fravashi of the holy Frasrutara; 5 We worship the Fravashi of the holy Visrutara. [Frawardin (or Farvardi_n Yasht ("Hymn to the Guardian Angels") 13.121] These Avestan texts refer to Kavi Usan (or Us'ana_), Kavi Kava_ta (later identified with Kaikoba_d) and Kavi Usadhan (later identified with Kaikaus). In the tradition of Zarathushtra, the Kavis are condemned perhaps as a group who had joined the enemies. Perhaps, there is an intimation of the increasing animosity between the kavis who are smiths (who later become chieftains) and kavis who are priests. Zarathushtra refers to the Us'ij (Aus'ija) identifying them with Karapan (Y 44.20), a term used for enemy priests. He also refers to grahma as the persistent enemies (Y 32.12-14). It is unclear if this is concordant with gra_ma in RV 3.33.11 (which refers to the troops of Bharata). The Anu Error! Bookmark not defined. king who is (Anu are identified with the Parus.n.i_ river) called Kavi Error! Bookmark not defined. Ca_yama_na (RV 7.18.8) fights against Suda_s (RV 7.18.12). Another Ca_yama_na is referred to as Abhya_vartin Ca_yama_na, a descendant of Pr.thu (RV 6.27.8): kaveh = smith (Persian); kovae (Slovenian); kovac (Croatian); kovacsol (Hungarian) = smith.