Dear Shri Govinda,
I thank you very much for the above historic information. Since my knowledge of European or Greek history is close to zero, I accept what you have written as researched facts. But is there any problem in believing that our vedic people living in Punjab and up to the Doab (Ganga-Yamuna) thought of longish poetry about heroic deeds only after they came into contact with the invading Greeks who came with Alexander in the third century B.C.? You say that ancient Greece started about 500 B.C., some 200 years earlier to this.
Kindly enlighten.
Thanks for the likes. Vedic people lived around Indian north borders, which resulted in exploration to the west. Also, there were some of these tribes kept at
bay, being considered as less-vedic (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meluhha). All these western histories(artifacts) are around 6000BC. Indians/Sumerians had greater trade relations/colonised the Iran/Turkey.
Greek invasion is a reverse invasion to western exploration of Indo-Aryans. These greek notes, writings are based on short expeditions/battles/earsays/deficient in linguistics. Similar to the British, their understanding of the world is limited to their wells! The british explorers/colonies could not date us beyond 2000BC, becos that that would conflict their Religion and God's creation of 6000 years old earth. The writings of Huen-suang can be more reliable than these western ku-drushtis. Herodotus' writings (1000BC) are his own myths about India. India digged gold from the pits, rivers etc. using magic, we must have had gold-mines (known metallurgy) by then. These guys were late in the fray, where India had pretty much all knowledge, writing, exploration done.
Our vedas are composed of chandhas/metres. There are no stories or fabrications, but simply messages (lineages, philosophy, astronomy etc.).
The Vedas themselves have also the details of these early kings [Anu, divodasa etc], but their complete details/lineages are separated out as puraanas by Parasara/Vyasa (3000BC). Puranas give the lineage of 25 generations from mid-century (AD), dwaraka carbon-dated to 5000BC. Rama was some 100 generations before Krishna [Rama was said to have lived 10000 years and Ravana for 100,000 years]. Puranas are a complete history book. Western historians are breaking their heads with the cuneiform writings of middle civilizations, they should infact relate to our puranaic lineages of kings esp. ChandraVamshis, they would get more clues.
Greeks had so much fascination for India and its Glory. You might have read the Silk Route hisotry. Al-Beruni(Arabic), chinese travellers, greeks , sultanates just longed to visit India, for its wisdom, spices, skill and sewing, medicine/science.
Greek Heliodorus (113 BCE) from Taxila (Alexander period) writes on the stone pillar the time it was erected and the fact that he had converted to Vaishnavism, or the worship of Lord Vishnu. The inscription on the column, as published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, says:
"This Garuda column of Vasudeva (Vishnu), the god of gods, was erected here by Heliodorus, a worshiper of Vishnu, the son of Dion, and an inhabitant of Taxila, who came as Greek ambassador from the Great King Antialkidas to King Kasiputra Bhagabhadra, the Savior, then reigning prosperously in the fourteenth year of his kingship. Three important precepts when practiced lead to heaven: self-restraint, charity, conscientiousness."
Acc. to our Puranas, the priestly sages have never seemed to have praised any kings, but the kings listened to them fearing their wisdom/powers. Dasaratha had to oblige the sages, and Rama brothers were mentored by the sages. Krishna accepted the curse of Vyasa and other sages to his disrespectful sons. So, Ramayana, Mahabhrata are the own realizations of the sages/rishis, and has got nothing to do with any hero worship. The Haihaya kings (West Indus, Yadu Vamshi) just ravaged the central india creating five kingdoms, and they retrieved all the possessions of all the locals. Then, Parashuram had to intervene, marry these Brahmans with the local kings, and formed a stronger ally to fight them.
The hero worship may have started with the later gupta/chera/chola kings, the kshatriyas overpowered the Advisors. There are many instances of south indian poets/logicians who refused to praise the tamil kings, and got punished or exiled. Hero worship may been independently present with any non-sAttvika people, possessing power, be it greek or persian or indian (JArasandha, sishupala, kamsa, ample numbers already existed during Krishna period). This marked the turn of spiritual India.
