Vermilion tika

A "vermilion tika", a custom of applying vermilion powder on the forehead or in the hairline, primarily by married women in South Aian cultures, particularly in Nepal and India, is a tradition which originates in Harappan civilisation...

These figurines, showing visible traces of red paint on the hair partition line, were found in Harappa culture site Nausharo, prove that "vermilion tika" is part of the unbroken local tradition spanning over 4000 years...

BTW, vermillion is made from the powdered mineral cinnabar, a form of mercury sulfide...

Cinnabar was the second oldest thing ever mined. 

The first documented use of vermilion pigment, made with ground cinnabar, dates to 8000–7000 BC, and was found at the neolithic village of Catalhoyuk, in modern-day Turkey. I talked about this in my post Ore...

The oldest thing ever mined being another red pigment, "red ochre" which owed it's colour to large amounts of hematite, or dehydrated iron oxide...

The earliest evidence of its use by "Modern Humans" in Africa dates to 307,000 years ago.

The earliest evidence of its use by Neanderthals in Europe dates to 250,000 years ago...

Again, I talked about this in my post Ore...

I already talked about cultural continuity in Indian Subcontinent in many of my posts discussing animal calendar markers found in Hindu mythology. They show that the mythology had to have been developed locally in India...

Could it be that this is not a depiction of a male warrior but of a female warrior, a Warrior Goddess actually, a Proto Durga, the killer of the buffalo Asura who scared the Devas shitless? From my post Proto-Durga with the analysis of this 3rd mill BC Harappan tablet...

Human-Bull hybrid, Deity or a Priest wearing a bull skin and horns. I think animal calendar markers can help us figure out who is depicted on this Indus Valley civilisation seal from Mohenjo-Daro, dated to 2600-1900BC...Full analysis can be found in my post Human-bull hybrid...

Indian elephants mate during Indian monsoon season...

Which is why Indra, the thunder and rain god, rides on a white (cloud) elephant...Articles about elephant calendar marker, India: Musth, Samantabhadra, Modesty, Ganesha...

Varuna, the old Monsoon god, rides on a Makara, a mythical beaing which is a combination of many different animals, all linked to the monsoon rain season, including three different types of crocodiles which all breed during the monsoon rain season in India...

I talk about this in several of my posts: Makara, Yakshi, Proto Durga, Maruts...

7th c. Maruts relief, Sambor Prei Kuk, Kampong Thom Province, Cambodia.

From my post Maruts, about another proof that Rig Vedas had to have been written in India proper, proof discovered through applying animal calendar markers theory to one of the more obscure parts of the Marut's legends...

Agni was born (among gods, in the sky) bright like the sun and was moving in the night sky along with smoke. After that Maruts were born with great commotion holding shining spears. Then the Maruts stood surrounding Agni with their lights.

Maruts then came (to earth) along with Agni from above. They are visible at a distance shining like stars. They come down in thousands to earth together. They are shaped like drops and are bright like fires. They gleam like serpents as they approach the earth.

From my post Rudra, in which I talk about the fact that Perseid meteor shower coincides with the rain and thunderstor storm season in India...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

King killing Bull

A very strange 5th c. AD Sassanian silver dish, with even stranger provenience story. 

The dish depicts a warrior with a spear sitting on a bull, about to stab another bull. His headdress indicates that he is the Persian ruler Yazdagird I (399–421)...

Does anyone have any idea if this is a depiction of some kind of mythological, religious scene? 

The dish was not discovered by archaeologists, but by ethnographer Arkady Baulo, who was in 2001 working with Ob-Ugric peoples in Khanty-Mansiysk, Western Siberia, Russia...

It was kept in the antechamber of the living room, a cult area on the right side of the room where women were not allowed to enter.

According to the owner, the dish was found by his great-grandmother, near the Sinja River...

She saw something shiny in the grass. Scraping the ground, she discovered several bronze pots, containing this dish but also silver and bronze figurines depicting various animals...

Apparently pile of Sassanian artefacts were discovered in similar settings, being used as cult objects by the local people, in Western Siberia...

Info from this article...

I wonder if this "tree" with three leaves is actually the sacred fig from Indian mythology.

And which has been used as a plant calendar marker with bulls as animal calendar markers in Indian Subcontinent since Indus Valley Civilisation...

I talk about this in my post "Harappan wheel seal", in which I analyse this seal from the mature Harappan period, the time when the civilisation was at its peak (2600 BC to 1900 BC), which was discovered in Rajasthan few years ago...

I also talk about sacred fig and bull as calendar markers in my post "Kharif and Rabi seasons" about the depiction of the Kharif (wet) season (May to November)  and the Rabi (dry) season (November to May) through animal and plant calendar markers on an Indus Valley civilisation vase...

And in my post "Sacred fig goddess" about these deified fig trees which we find in both Ancient Egypt and Ancient Indus Valley civilisations...

Anyway, I wonder what Sassanians turned all this into...If anyone knows, please post your comments here...

Now, I want to thank @iphone10fan for this info: "This appears to be Lord Shiva riding Nandi. The three leaf plant in the bottom left could be this. Often associated with Lord Shiva. The bull in the bottom right could be Mahishasura? I'm not sure..."

And you'll love this: "The Indian bael tree, also known as Aegle marmelos, flowers in Apr/May, at the start of the rainy season. The flowers are aromatic and greyish-white in colour".

Another plant calendar marker for monsoon season...

I talked about Shiva, bulls, and monsoon here:

Ardhanarishvara, the union of Shiva and Parvati, produces (the tree of) life and the river Ganges. 

This is a complex calendar marker for the peak of the monsoon season, Jul/Aug, where bull=summer=May/Jun/Jul  meets  lion=autumn=Aug/Sep/Oct... 

Which fills Ganga river with water...

I talk about this in my post "Ardhanarishvara"...

"Bael tree leaves and fruit play a main role in Shiva worship, because the leaf's trifoliate shape is seen to symbolise his trident. Another belief is that the trifoliate shape of Bael leaf is symbolic representation of three eyes of Lord Shiva"...

Now remember this?

What made Indian Devas (good guys, gods) turn into Iranian Daevas (bad guys, false gods)? The answer is (I think🙂): the opposite climate in India and Iran...

Jul/Aug, the wettest time of the year in India, the time of life, is the driest time of the year in Iran, the time of death...

Which causes that the religious symbols (deified calendar markers) have opposite meanings in these two places...

I talk about this in my post "Daevas vs Devas"...

So bull rider killing the bull...In Jul/Aug...When bael tree flowers...Jul/Aug...Which marks the end of summer which starts in Taurus, Apr/May...

I don't think that the bull being killed is Mahishasura. Mahishasura was buffalo, not bull, demon. I talked about him in my post "Mahishasuramardini", about Durga, goddess created by Devas, and armed with all their weapons, and who rides on a lion, avenging their defeat by evil Asura Mahisha (Buffalo). 

What's this all about? Climate in India. Oct/Nov is when wild buffalos start mating. This is also the start of the dry season, which eventually leads to drought...Drought which is killed (ends) in Jul/Aug, Leo, peak of the wet monsoon season...

The "eternal" (read annual) struggle between wet and dry seasons in India, probably mythologised even before  the Indus Valley Civilisation. I talk about this in my post "Proto Durga" about this Is this 3rd mill BC Harappan tablet which could be depicting Proto Durga, the Warrior Goddess, the killer of the buffalo Asura who scared the Devas shitless?

But because of the opposite climates in India and Mesopotamia/Iran, buffalo as a (deified) animal calendar marker has opposite meaning in these two places...

In Mesopotamia/Iran, bulls were linked to the annual flood, which peaks in Apr/May, Taurus...I talked about it my post "Dedicated to Inshushinak" about this 3200 years old Elamite silver pouring vessel dedicated to the Elamite equivalent of Enki/Ea, god of fresh water and flood...

Remember this? The meaning of the lion killing bull?

Lion (autumn, starts in Leo) killing Bull (summer, starts in Taurus) depicted on the wall of the Great Mosque of Diyarbakir the oldest mosque in Anatolia.

I talk about the meaning of this complex animal calendar marker in my posts "Mystery seal", "Angra Mainyu" "Bull leaping in Syria", "Lion killing bull under date palm", "Butt chewing" and many others....

Guess who else killed bull every year in Leo? 

I talk about the true nature of Mithras in my post "Mithras", in which I also ask: Was Mithraism so popular among soldiers in the Imperial Roman army because Mithras was the personification of "Inevitable Victory"? After all, Lion (Autumn) inevitably kills (ends) Bull (Summer)...

In this article I also talk about the "triformed Mithras", which appears on a relief panel from Dieburg, showing a tree with three branches, each ending in a head wearing a Phrygian cap...

Jul/Aug. When Shiva tree blooms and bull gets killed...

And guess what: In Iran and Central Asia, the 3rd-century Kushan coinage featured a syncretic god with attributes of both Shiva and Mithra...You can read about this here...

Could this mean that the King riding a bull and killing a bull could be king as Mithra/Shiva killing a bull?

Mad...

Wow...This turned out to be some ride...I honestly had no idea where this (originally an X thread) will end up when I started writing it...Big, HUGE, thanks again to @iphone10fan for his nudge in the right direction.

If you are interested in reading more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, which are at the root of all our mythologies, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Proto Durga

A clay tablet from Harappa Wiki page with a "narrative scene"...We know (kind of) what is depicted on the tablet. But we have no idea what the meaning of the depicted scene is...Maybe animal calendar markers can help us understand what the narrator wanted to say...

Tablet description:

"A person, possibly a man, with hair tied in a bun on the back of the head, impales a water buffalo with a barbed spear...In Later Hindu rituals, the water buffalo sacrifice is associated with the worship of the goddess Durga..."

"...On this tablet, the sacrifice takes place in the presence of a priest or deity seated in yogic position. The seated figure wears bangles and a horned and plumed headdress..."

"...Above the head of the hunter is a gharial, a small species of crocodile with a narrow snout that was once common in the Ravi and Indus rivers, but is now almost extinct."

The tablet pic and description are from harappa.com...

That's it...So, what can animal calendar markers add to this? To understand the meaning of this scene we need to look at the climate in India and the lifecycle of the depicted animals: 

water buffaloes

gharial crocodiles

If we look at the climate in India, we can see that the year is divided into two parts: wet part (Jun-September) and dry part (October-May).

So how do the depicted animals fit into this climatic chart? So let start with water buffalo. Remember my post about Mahishasuramardini, The killer of the monstrous Mahisha demon? 

Here's the important bit:

"In the perpetual conflict between Devas and Asuras, in the battle between the gods and the demons, the Devas led by Indra (riding on an elephant) were defeated by Mahisha, the Buffalo demon..."

"...Dejected by their defeat, the Devas assemble in the mountains where their combined divine energies coalesce into goddess Durga..."

"...The newborn Durga, riding on a lion, led a battle against Mahisha, buffalo demon, and killed him. Thereafter she is named Mahishasuramardini, the killer of Mahishasura."

Sooooo... What does all this mean?

To understand this story we need to look at the animal symbolism found in it. Namely 

Water buffalo (bad) 

Asiatic Elephant and Asiatic Lion (good) 🙂

...And the local climate (did that already. phew 🙂)...

Indian elephants mate during Indian monsoon season...

Which is why Indra, the thunder and rain god, rides on a white (cloud) elephant...

Articles about elephant calendar marker, India: "Musth", "Samantabhadra", "Modesty", "Ganesha"

As for lions, Asiatic lions main mating season starts in Jul/Aug, which is why this time of the year is marked with Lion, Leo...This is also the peak of the monsoon season in India...

I talked about this first in this post "Musth".  I also talked about it in my post about "Ardhanarishvara", the union of Shiva and Parvati, which produces (the tree of) life and the river Ganges. 

This is actually a complex calendar marker for the peak of the monsoon season, Jul/Aug, where bull=summer=May/Jun/Jul meets lion=autumn=Aug/Sep/Oct...

And because it is the monsoon season that supports life in India, both Elephant and Lion are positive symbols in Indian mythology, and are ridden by good Gods/Godesses...Unlike the evil buffalo...

Why evil buffalo? Water buffalos, both wild and domesticated, are seasonal breeders in most of their range, and typically mate in Oct/Nov...Which is right at the beginning of the hot/dry part of the year in India...

This is the season of drought and death. 

Hence buffalo demon as a mount of Yama, the god of death...

I talked about it in my post "The bitch of the gods"...

So the above story about Durga, translated from myth to nature using animal calendar markers goes like this: 

Water buffalo mating season starts when elephant mating season ends...Mahisha, buffalo, dry season "defeats" (succeeds) Indra, elephant, wet monsoon season...

Spring and early summer droughts start...People (and Devas, Gods) start to despair. Gods assemble on the mountain (Himalayas start to heat up in Apr/May). And the updraft this creates starts sucking the moist Indian ocean air across India towards the mountains...

The Devas, assembled in the mountains create Durga, the Invincible one, the killer of Mahisha (The monsoon starts)...Durga fights Mahisha for a long time, until finally, she kills him while "riding on a lion" (in Jul/Aug, Leo, peak of the monsoon season)...

And this happens every year which is why this is a "perpetual conflict"...

Amazing...So is this what is depicted on the Harappan tablet? 

"A person, possibly a man (!!!), with hair tied in a bun on the back of the head, impales a water buffalo with a barbed spear..."

I think that the person killing the buffalo on the Harrapan tablet is actually a woman...Durga...Why do I think this? Have you ever seen this figurine from Mohenjo-daro? 

It is known as "The dancing girl of Mohenjo-daro"...More about her here:

Few interesting things about this girl: She is very young, very slim and has a bun on the back of the head (!!!). Just like the person empaling the buffalo on the Harappan tablet...

So, I think that the person killing buffalo on the Harappan tablet is a girl, most likely Durga...And that the dancing girl of Mohenjo-daro is not actually a dancing girl at all, but could be a depiction of a warrior girl, possibly even Durga...

So far so amazing...What about the crocodile? Gharial is one of three types of crocodiles that live(d) in India: gharials, muggers and salt water crocodiles...

Gharals being the only Indian crocodile species that exclusively eats fish...here is a tablet from Mohenjo-daro depicting a gharial with a fish in its jaws

Now remember my post "Makara", about the mount of Varuna, "a mythical being" which was sometimes (like on this 17th century illustration) depicted as a crocodile...

During the Vedic period, Varuna was "The Man", the Sky God who controlled "The Waters": sea, rivers, rain...As one would expect from a Sky god in India, where rivers are filled with the rain that arrives with the monsoon winds from the sea...

In Vedas, Varuna was also twinned with Indra, the Storm god, and together they are referred to as Indra-Varuna. In Rg Veda 4.42, Varuna explicitly states the connection between himself and Indra:

"I, Varuna, am king...I, Varuna, am Indra [too]"

Eventually, through some political machinations, Indra became the overall ruler of the skies and rain...And Varuna was officially relieved of his "water duties"...

But, the Vedic Varuna, is being revered even now as the God of Rain...

Check Makara post for more info...

So that would indicate that maybe crocodile has something to do rain too? Well of course...In my post about Makara, I explained that crocodile egg hatching occurs during June and July in gharials and muggers and July and August in salt water crocodiles.

Considering that the crocodile eggs incubation period is between 55 and 85 days, that means that the eggs are laid from around the beginning of summer, Apr/May...And the beginning of the monsoon season...

And as the crocodile mothers stay around their nests, and guard them ferociously, the sudden appearance of all these irritable crocodile mums on river banks is the sign that "Varuna the Rain God" is on his way...

Interestingly, on the Harappan tablet, the buffalo and the crocodile are facing the opposite directions...Buffalo (dry season) is departing (being killed) and crocodile (rain season) is arriving...

Ok...What about the horned dude? I think, based on his horns, which are narrow, like bull horns, and not wide like buffalo horns, that this is Shiva, the bull man I talked about in my post "Human-Bull hybrid" about this dude depicted on this Indus Valley civilisation seal from Mohenjo-Daro, dated to 2600-1900BC, now in National Museum of Karachi (inv NMP 50,214)

So that's it...What do you think? Please share it with others if you like it. It would mean a lot to me...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...