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.

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

In the Vedic mythology, Maruts, are a group of storm/rain deities which always accompany Indra...You can read about them in "THE MARUTS" by Uma Chakravarty...

Indra of course primarily the monsoon rain god, whose main duty is to annually defeat Vritra, the dragon of drought...You can read about this aspect of Indra in "Indra as God of Fertility" by E. Washburn Hopkins

BTW

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"...

Marut's main duty is to bring rain. 

In RV we can read that:

They are clothed with rain

Rain follows them

They bring water and impel rain

They cover the eye of the sun with rain

They create darkness with the cloud when they shed rain

You can read more about this in "Vedic Mythology" by Macdonell, Arthur Anthony

Their mother is said to be the ocean or the heavenly cow Pṛśni (rain cloud). And their father is said to be Agni (fire) or Vāyu (wind).

A terrestrial river is called, Marudvṛddhā, 'swelled by the Maruts'.

All of this describes the summer wet monsoon

Varāhapurāṇa chapter 82: A "river of the sky" starts at the "ocean of the sky" and, being agitated by the elephant of Indra, falls at the top of mount Meru, where at the bottom it forms four great rivers...I talked about this in my post "Elephants and the river in the sky"...

In other places in Rig Veda, Maruts are said to be the sons of Rudra, and are also often called Rudras. I will talk about Rudra and Rudras soon. This is a very interesting topic which deserves its own post.

On the Sambor Prei Kuk relief, maruts are depicted riding on Makaras. 

Makara is another complex animal calendar marker for monsoon season, which could have only been developed in Indian Subcontinent. I talked about it in my posts "Yakshi" and "Makara"...

And, Makara is already found, with many other, later deified, animal calendar markers, in Indus Valley Civilisation. I talked about this in my post "Proto Durga"...

On the Sambor Prei Kuk relief, the central Marut is depicted riding on an elephant. 

Already explained that elephant is an animal calendar marker for the summer monsoon season, cause elephant mating season peaks in Jul/Aug, peak of summer monsoon season in India...

The elephant rider is flanked by two horse riders. Horse is a universal solar symbol. And horse mating season (Apr/May-Sep/Oct) marks the summer monsoon season in India...You can read more about it in my article about solar horse in India, "Hayagriva"...

Anyway, after this shortish introduction, let me get to the interesting bit 🙂

"Maruts, whose steeds are the spotted deer..." Rig Veda 7.40.3

Rig Veda is full of references to Maruts riding on chariots pulled by spotted deer. And I haven't seen one explanation why would that be the case. 

I have seen attempts to replace spotted deer with spotted horses, probably to make the whole story more Steppe Indo-European. But there is a perfectly good Indian Subcontinent explanation for this "weird" choice of ride for Monsoon Rain Gods...

The chital or cheetal, also known as the spotted deer, is a deer species native to the Indian subcontinent...

Now I explained many times before, animal calendar markers mark significant events from the annual reproduction cycle of the depicted animal: mating, birthing...

Events well known to the local population. So for the spotted deer, people in India would say: "when spotted deer start mating, that would mean that monsoon rain is soon to arrive to"...Why? Cause of this:

You can read more about cheetal deer here and here...

How would locals have known when spotted deer started to mate? Chital stags bellow loudly during mating season. Not something you can miss...

Chital Stag Bellowing - Unseen and Often Unheard Chital Deer Call

Chital stags fight madly during mating season. Also not something you can miss...

So the locals could indeed say "mating of spotted deer is followed by monsoon rain". Or they could say "spotted deer brings rain"...Or they could say "Maruts arrive on chariots pulled by spotted deer"...More poetic...

And apparently this was incomprehensibly difficult to decode for all the people who looked at Rig Veda before me...Why is that? I mean this is obvious, right? Anyone with some knowledge of Indian climate, flora and fauna could have figured this out, right?

Well, yes, if you knew about the existence of animal calendar markers, then this would be obvious. But it seems that the idea of using animals and plants as calendar markers never occurred to anyone...Before me...

And honestly, I am not bragging. I just can't believe I am...

1981, Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia...Šarlo Akrobata - O, o, o, o, o...

Prvi i Jedini 🙂 The First and The Only one

Finally, the fact that the spotted deer is an animal calendar marker for the beginning of summer monsoon in India, means that the hymns about Maruts and their spotted deer steeds had to have been composed in India proper, where all this spotted deer nonsense actually makes sense.

For those interested, I talked about deer as animal calendar marker in many different posts, like "White stag", "Deer kills snake", "Winter deer", "Lachish animal calendar", "Dancing with deer and birds", "Mythical beast from Xian"... Different deer, different mating season, different climate, different animal calendar marker, for different time of the year with different meaning.

That's it. 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...

Samantabhadra

Let me introduce you to Samantabhadra, a bodhisattva associated with practice and meditation...Apparently a very important dude in Buddhism, whom I only met today for the first time... 

Let's have a look at the symbols associated with Samantabhadra...

He is holding a lotus flower (symbol of infinite wisdom) and Lotus sutra (all you need to know about infinite wisdom), while siting on a white elephant (symbol of Buddhist practice, as well as purity), which is in turn standing on lotus flowers (lots more infinite wisdom)...

Together with Gautama Buddha and the bodhisattva Manjushri, bodhisattva Samantabhadra forms the Shakyamuni Triad in Mahayana Buddhism...

As I said, a very important dude...

Did you see the white fluffy stuff behind the Buddha gang? That's clouds...Here is another depiction where our three Mahayana amigos are actually standing on clouds...

I don't know what white fluffy clouds symbolise in 10 worlds of Buddhism, but in real world they mean rain...This is kind of important...Cause all the symbols associated with Samantabhadra's best mate, Manjushri, are calendar markers for monsoon season. I talked about this in my post "Manjushri"...

So what about Samantabhadra's symbols? He rides on a white elephant...Guess who else rides on a white elephant? Indra, the thunder and rain god...Why? Cause Indian elephants mate during Indian monsoon season...I talked about this in my post "Musth"...

Which is why in India, elephant is an animal calendar marker for monsoon season...Which eventually became deified as Ganesha...I talked about this in my post "Ganesha"...

As I already explained in my post about Manjushri, lotus blooms during peak monsoon season...

So both Samantabhadra's main symbols point to Jul/Aug, Indian monsoon season...Just like the Manjushri's symbols...

Cool right? It gets cooler...

Question: If both of Buddha's companions are symbols for the hottest and wettest part of the year in India, Monsoon season, what (or who) is Buddha symbol for?

In Tibetan Buddhism, Samantabhadra is also a name that refers to the Primordial Buddha (Adi-Buddha) also known as Vajradhara...

Vajradhāra, which means the giver of lightning, is also, the name of Indra, the thunder and rain god...Buddhists will of course tell you that  Primordial Buddha is blue cause "wisdom"...But maybe, he's blue cause "rain water"???

One other thing...Samantabhadra, the Primordial Buddha, is most often depicted having sex with his consort, Samantabhadri the Primordial Mother Buddha...This is called Yab-Yum, (Tibetan: "father-mother")...

How have a look at this: This is Ardhanarishvara, a composite form, a union, of the Hindu deities Shiva and Parvati. I talked about this in my post "Ardhanarishvara"... 

Ardhanarishvara, the union of Shia and Parvati, is depicted standing in front of a green tree, between Shiva's vehicle (bull) and Parvati's vehicle (lion, well it's supposed to be a lion anyway)...

Did I mention that bull is the animal calendar marker for summer (May,Jun,Jul) which starts in Taurus (Apr/May), the animal calendar marker for the beginning of the calving season of wild Eurasian cattle?

Also, did I mention that lion is the animal calendar marker for autumn (Aug,Sep,Oct) which starts in Leo (Jul/Aug), the animal calendar marker for the beginning of the mating season of Eurasian lions?

And did I mention that at the point between bull (summer) and lion (autumn), in Jul/Aug, is the peak monsoon season in India? Which supports the "Tree of life"...

BTW, that is the river Ganges pouring out of their union...Well, technically Ganges is pouring our of Shiva's forehead...

This is Ganga river water flow chart

And this is the local climate chart

The Ganga water flow starts rising in Jun, at the beginning of the wet season, in mid summer, the middle of the bull season, the middle of the season of Shiva, Shiva's forehead...The Ganga water levels peak during the peak monsoon...

Oh yeah, guess who is the son of Shiva (bull) and Parvat (lion)? Well, Ganesha (elephant) of course...

Sooo, I will leave you here to ponder the true essence of the Primordial Buddha...Have fun...I have to go and make dinner...

More about animal calendar markers found in ancient cultures, start here then check the rest of the blog posts I still didn't add to this page...Too lazy to do it, sorry...

PS: while we are talking about animal calendar markers for Jul/Aug in India, you definitely need to see this post about "The bitch of the gods"...

All of Vedas

The syllable Om is first mentioned in the Upanishads, a part of the Vedas, ancient Sanskrit texts that contain some of the central philosophical concepts and ideas of Hinduism.

The concepts of Brahman (ultimate reality) and Ātman (soul, self) are central ideas of the Upanishads, and "know that you are the Ātman" is their thematic focus.

The Upanishads are commonly referred to as Vedānta. Vedanta has been interpreted as the "last chapters, parts of the Veda" and alternatively as "object, the highest purpose of the Veda".

The syllable Om has variously been associated with concepts of "cosmic sound" or "mystical syllable" or "affirmation to something divine", or as symbolism for abstract spiritual concepts in the Upanishads.

In the Aranyaka and the Brahmana layers of Vedic texts, the syllable is so widespread and linked to knowledge, that it stands for the "whole of Veda" (all there is to know).

The Brahmana layer of Vedic texts offers various shades of meaning to Om, such as it being that which is "mysterious and inexhaustible", or "the infinite language, the infinite knowledge", or "essence of breath, life, everything that exists", or that "with which one is liberated".

Vedic scholars state that Upanishads recommend Om syllable as a "tool for meditation". They say that the Om syllable may appear in the mind of the meditator as "highest concepts such as the cause of the Universe, essence of life, Brahman, Atman, and Self-knowledge".

Now this is very interesting.

In my article "Vowels" I talk about natural meaning associated with pure vowels "A, O, U, E, I" in Serbian language.

Here is the relevant bit:

I will finish with OM - the sacred sound of Vedas.

In Serbian "Budi" means "Be, Exist". "Budan" means awake.  Buda was the awaken one, he was Budan (awake).

Buda claimed that "being awake" was "all knowledge"...

The holy sound of Vedas which is said to represent "the whole of Vedas", is OM, pronounced as "AUM"

I actually believe that this sound was originally AOUM but that O was lost first only for AU to be later replaced with O.

AOUM consists of these vowels: 

A - outside
O - surface of the body
U - inside of the body
M - core. 

M is one of the only two sounds that can be made with your mouth closed. And the only sound that produces the vibration of the whole central cavity, our core. This is why M is the core sound of words that mean me, my, myself (me, mene in Serbian), the words whose meaning is directed inwards. 

So the above mantra brings our focus from outside into our core, (m)ind by using emotional discharge through descending vowels. 

The word for mind in Serbian is UM. This word derives its meaning from U + M = inside + me = mind. This is probably the old "AOUM" shortened down to the absolute minimum number of sounds necessary to convey the intended meaning of internal me, real me....mind, UM.

This is kind of incredible, right?

AOUM, through its inner natural meaning encoded in its sound, conveys all the above Vedic teachings. 

It is "All of Vedas". 
It is "The meditation tool".
It leads us to "Brahman (The Creator, God, The ultimate reality), Atman (Soul which is part of the Ultimate Reality), and Self-knowledge (Realisation that I am Brahman, God)...

Interestingly the root "UM" meaning mind is found in Sumerian language as the root for words related to knowledge, intelligence, ability, respect...

To use the words from one of my favourite songs by Amy Winehouse, "Me and Mr. Jones": "What kind of fuckery is this?"