Transcription
[Music] [Music] Samskrum has been at the heart of Bharati civilization for ages, shaping our languages, tradition, and culture. But then let's ask this question ourselves: can we find traces of Samskrum beyond Bharat? That's exactly what we are going to explore in this documentary. We dive into the real historical evidence, uncovering something truly fascinating. There is an incredible piece of history hidden in these ancient creations, one that challenges what we think we know. So get ready for a journey through time where history isn't just written, but is carved into clay tablets. Let's go back to some 5,000 years, the Bronze Age.
It was a period when humans started using bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, to make tools, weapons, and artifacts. It marked a major step forward in technology, trade, and civilization. And this era saw a rise of early cities, writing systems, and complex societies like Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus Valley civilization, and China. Our interest in this documentary is this part of the world, which is the midpoint of Turkey, Syria, and Iraq, and the time period some 1500 BC—that is 3,500 years ago. Our interest is in this part of the world: the Mitani Kingdom.
Located in the southern part of Turkey, northern Syria, and Iraq, it is fascinating for its deep-rooted Vedic culture. The aristocracy of the Mitani Kingdom spoke Sanskrit, used it in royal correspondences, and invoked Vedic traditions in governance and rituals. This wasn't just influence; it was an integral part of their identity. Now many immediately associate Vedic culture and Sanskrit with the Aryan invasion theory, which is fundamentally flawed and disproven. That's a different thing, but they say that the Aryan invasion theory, the Vedic culture, and Sanskrit—everything came from outside of Bharat. Now that's absolutely incorrect, and in this video, I'll address this misconception as well and show why it is crucial not to judge too quickly. The Mitani kingdom, dating back to the Bronze Age, was already a thriving civilization with Sanskrit at its core long before such theories of Aryan invasion were proposed. Let us explore what undisputable hard evidence we have that establishes Mitani was a Vedic culture and Sanskrit-speaking kingdom of the Bronze Age that existed some 3,500 years ago in the current geographical regions of Syria, Iraq, and Turkey.
Now, if you take a look into the geography of the times of Mitani—that is 3,500 years ago—this is how the geography looked like. Now there is the Mitani kingdom, and they had quite hostile neighbors on all sides: Hittites, Assyrians, and Egyptians. This is very important for us to know, as it unfolds into certain important aspects that we're going to see in the later part of this video. They had pretty hostile neighbors on all sides, but nonetheless, from a geography standpoint, that's how the Mitani Kingdom looked like. Now in that part of the world that we just saw, one of the earliest forms of writing in human history was done on clay tablets—just a wet blob of clay, and then a wedge kind of thing is used to punch such kind of markings. What you're seeing on the screen, it's called cuneiform. It's a script on its own, and I'm sure most of you know that, but just for the benefit of everyone, it is a kind of a script in that part of the world.
To keep things very simple, I'm not going to go into any of the technicalities because I want to make this video understandable for all kinds of audiences. So what you're seeing on the screen is a cache of Assyrian cuneiform clay tablets that were recently unearthed, like some 2-3 years ago. So, to simply put, a cuneiform clay tablet is a blob of wet clay onto which a sharpened kind of thing is used to punch marks to write it using a specific script called cuneiform. So think of this blob of clay as a paper and the sharp wedge kind of thing as a pen, and the script what you're seeing is like an alphabet from A to Z. This form of writing was very prevalent, or rather, that's how the human history—the documented human history of writing—originated in that part of the world that we just saw: the Mitani region, the Assyrians, the Hittites, Egyptians—pretty much in that part of the world. And lastly, this cuneiform is very well understood, and we can read this with the current developments of archaeology.
Now these cuneiform tablets—who used them? The Sumerians were the first ones who were known to introduce this form of writing, some 3000 BC around thereabout. And then Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites, Mitanni, Elamites, Persians—all these civilizations/kingdoms have been using cuneiform tablets well over 3,000 years in the history of West Asia. And for what purpose? They use these cuneiform clay tablets for record-keeping of trade, taxes, and grain storage; for legal documents to document contracts, laws, and treaties; religious and literature to document hymns, prayers, and myths; science and mathematics to document astronomy, medicine, and other related information. And in the context of our current documentary, we are interested in the cuneiform clay tablets of Hittites and Mitani that were written some around 1600 BC to 1300 BCE. Such tablets, which were used for record-keeping for trade, taxes, etc., and legal documents for contracts and other treaties—these two are of our interest in this video.
Now let's go through certain ancient documents of the times of the Mitani Kingdom, starting with the first one: the Kikuli horse training manual. Now the Kikuli horse training manual, written by the person called Kikuli, it is indeed an ancient text from the Mitani Kingdom dating to the 14th century BC—that's 3,500 years ago. It provides detailed instructions on horse training, primarily for chariot racing and warfare. Here is where it's very important—listen carefully—it is written in Hurrian language, okay, Hurrian language, which was a language of the Mitani people, but Sanskrit was quite prevalent in the aristocratic level. So it is not that the entire Mitani kingdom—the common people and everyone—was speaking Sanskrit; it was the Hurrian language that was in the Mitani kingdom and is the same language in which this manual was also written. But the aristocracy or the administrative level—Sanskrit was quite prevalent. Let's come back to this manual. This manual has various aspects about how to train horses: the training phases, step-by-step progression for young horses, and then the daily routines; how do you have the detailed schedules for consistent training, training techniques, exercise to build stamina and strength for the horses, chariot racing preparations focusing on the agility and responsiveness of the horses, and then care and maintenance of the health and recovery of the horses, so on and so forth. It is the oldest surviving horse training manual in the world, and this document is of our interest. And what you're seeing on the right is the original of the Kikuli horse training manual.
In this document, Kikuli used certain words which are straight out of Sanskrit language. Even though he explained the entire horse training manual in Hurrian, he used words like *aka*, which is one; *tera* is three; *panza* is *pancha* in Sanskrit; *sata* is *shat* is seven; *van*, that's how in the cuneiform it's pronounced as, which is *bhana*, circular motion; *ta* means quick or agile. In fact, *tura* is also a Sanskrit name for horse. And then he also used Sanskrit terms for explaining the color of the horses, like *ba*, *b*—that's how it's pronounced in the cuneiform—which is *bru* in Sanskrit, which means brown. So basically, while explaining the horse training processes—like how many rounds you need to make the horse run, or what kind of, or what's the color of the horses, or what is the motion in which the horse needs to run—that is circular—so as part of explaining this entire aspect about the horse training, he used a lot of Sanskrit words. This is one of the widely known facts about Mitani's usage of Sanskrit terms back in the Bronze Age.
And before I proceed any further, all these—what I'm showing you the details in terms of how Sanskrit is used in the Mitani Kingdom—everything is sourced from different kinds of research papers on the Mitani Kingdom. So I'm sure if you spend a couple of minutes reading about the Sanskrit usage in the Mitani Kingdom, you'll pretty well get a complete hang of it. All I'm doing here is to present it in a simpler format, which is completely sourced from different kinds of research papers, in an easy form for everyone to understand. That's it. So if you want to know what is the proof that they use Sanskrit, well, just read—go to sources like ResearchGate and then read the research papers on Kikuli's horse training manual. You will find hundreds of papers on Kikuli's horse training manual and the usage of Sanskrit in the Mitani kingdom. But let's take this a bit more critically, okay? Why can't these words be just loan words, and the aristocracy of Mitani was not Sanskrit speaking? Why can't it be that way? Well, that's a good observation or an argument, so let us take that in the later part of this video.
Now let us move to the second proof or the evidence that we have: those are the Mitani-Hittite treaties, or rather the Mitani treaties with their adversaries. These are the clay tablets which documented the war-peace treaties between Mitani and their hostile neighbors like Hittites, Assyrians, or Egyptians. Basically, these are the peace agreements that were signed by both parties—Mitanis and their adversaries—to end the war. And as a process of that, they made certain promises: that I will not invade your kingdom, or I will not harm your people, so on and so forth—typical peace agreement content. That's what the Mitani peace treaties comprise of. So what happened was, like if Mitani and Assyrian kingdoms were at war with each other and they reach a peace agreement, while documenting that they bear certain witnesses, or rather swear on their gods, saying that I will not resort to aggression or violence, and I promise it on my god. That's how typically these treaties were articulated. As part of that, Mitani kingdoms or the kings back then, they promised on the Vedic deities Indra, Varuna, Mitra, and Ashwinis. And there is a very specific reason why only these four gods were chosen, and this you will not be able to understand if you just look at it from a Western lens or a non-Bharati lens; you'll not be able to understand this. Let me tell you why.
For instance, when we talk about *gnan* or knowledge, that epithet is primarily associated with Ganesha. And we're talking about strength and valor—that is with Madhava. And we're talking about yoga or enlightenment—that is primarily associated with Shiva. Like this, there are a lot of epithets, and the relevance of the deity in your life is primarily driven by the epithet or the context that we are in. For instance, if I'm going for an exam, I might pray to Ganesha. So that's a very cultural thing; I don't need to explain further about it. The same logic applies here as well. Here we're talking about a war-peace treaty, right? So Indra has been revered as the god of war in the Vedic pantheon and in Bharat even today. Same way, Varuna is the deity for cosmic order called *Rita*, which is to maintain law and order. In today's parallels, if I have to put it that way. And then Mitra—we use this word very commonly, right? Friendship means Mitra. Where is it coming from? The Vedic deity Mitra is often revered as the witness for relationships. And Ashwini Devatas—the gods for healing—healing all your soldiers who are wounded in the war. So for this reason, only these four Vedic deities are quoted in the Mitani war treaties. But then does it mean that other Vedic deities were not part of the Mitani pantheon? Let me explain that with a slightly different example.
Contextually, let's take current-day India, for instance. The highest award in the field of defense—the Param Vir Chakra—is given in the honor of the Vedic deity Indra. That's a very well-known fact. And on the other side, the insignia of the Indian Navy quotes a Vedic hymn *Sho Varunaha*, quoting Varuna because Varuna is the deity associated with the waters and the law and order. So contextually, only these two deities were absorbed into the defense aspect of today's India. Now does it mean that other Vedic deities were not present anywhere in current-day India's culture? I'm not talking about the religious aspect, but more about the cultural side of things. It is very much present. For instance, the Aditya L1—the Vedic deity Aditya—is absorbed into, or rather honored by naming the solar probe from ISRO in the name of Aditya L1. So like that, it depends on the context. In the war and defense context, Indra and Varuna are reflected in today's India, but then there are other fields where other deities from the Vedic pantheon were honored and revered depending on the context and need, and so on and so forth. Same way, the Mitani war treaties only quoted Indra, Varuna, Mitra, and Ashwini Devatas because they are relevant for the context, like I just explained a couple of minutes ago. So we don't know—there was no surviving evidence of other Vedic deities in the Mitani kingdom except these four. Now that's one part. Let's go back. While we're talking about the Kikuli horse training manual, the Sanskrit words which were present in there—were they just loan words? That is, the words temporarily borrowed from another language just for the purpose of articulation? Is it that way, or really the Mitani aristocracy spoke Sanskrit? This was the question that we had, right? Let us assume for a moment that they were all loan words and Mitani was not Sanskrit speaking. It's possible—I'm just taking, giving it as a benefit of doubt—but then when it comes to these treaties, until and unless the Indra, Varuna, Mitra, and Nasatya or Ashwini Devatas are central to the culture of Mitani, they will not swear on these gods in their treaties. Do you understand? You will not have a lone deity or a lone god from another culture that you would swear on until and unless it is very central and core to your culture, civilization, and identity. You will not promise on Indra saying that I will not cross my line and come into your territory and show my aggression. You see the point. So for this reason, the Vedic culture is at the heart of Mitani civilization. There is no doubt about it, as the war treaties were signed and sworn on these gods.
So now flipping back to the Kikuli's manual, so they were not just loan words. People just say that there could be loan words, but if you dig into the actual research papers, you'll get to know that Mitani is 100% Vedic civilization, worshipping the gods like Indra, Varuna, Mitra, and the aristocracy was speaking Sanskrit, and the civilization was also Hurrian speaking. Now let's move to the third set of evidence or the artifacts that we have: the Amarna letters and the Bogazköy archives. These were the letters that were exchanged between the Mitani kingdom and their neighbors. Think of it like diplomatic correspondences, or to simply put, somebody from the Mitani kingdom wrote a letter to an Egyptian king, and the king responded back. These kinds of exchanges were—these letters were well preserved even today. And as we know, typically for any letter there will be a from, a to, and the content of the message. So like that, from these letters we get to know the names of the Mitani kings, and the names of the Mitani kings are of our main interest. And from these letters, which are carved in the cuneiform clay tablets, we get to know the names of different Mitani kings like Paratata, Shuttarna, Tushratta, Shattiwaza, Artadata. We'll get to the meaning of the names of kings in a while, but we also get to know the names of the queens—how women were named back then: Gilukhepa, Tadukhepa, Kia. So we get to know the names of a lot of Mitani kings and queens from these correspondences. In fact, there are a couple of things to unpack here. Let's go one by one. I will come to explain the names of the kings in a while, but before that, I have something else very important to explain in the same context. So let's switch to that first.
As I already explained in the start of this video that the Mitani kingdom had boundaries with Egyptians, Hittites, and Assyrians. So predominantly to resist the attack from Assyrians, they sought support from the Egyptians. And as part of that, there were marriage alliances also made between the Mitani kingdom and the Egyptian kingdom. The Mitani princess Gilukhepa was given in a marriage alliance as wife to the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III. And the same person, Amenhotep III, also married another princess from the same Mitani civilization, and her name is Tadukhepa. The correspondences of Bogazköy archives and the Amarna letters give these details about the wedding between the Mitani civilization, which is the Vedic civilization, and the Egyptian civilization. In fact, this is the oldest recorded wedding between a Vedic civilization and an Egyptian civilization. And as a result of this marriage alliance, Egyptians provided protection to the Mitani civilization from Assyrians and Hittites. And there are also marriage alliances between the Mitani Kingdom and a couple of other of its adversaries as well. That's a long history, but to put things in a very short and crisp manner, this is one of the oldest marriage alliances between Vedic civilization and the very ancient Egyptian civilization.
Now let's get back to the names of the Mitani kings where we started with. Now to understand the names of the Mitani kings, we need to understand how the names evolved, or how do I put it—the linguistic transition from one geography to another geography, the meaning, the intent, how it spreads across. We need to have an understanding of that to really understand the meaning of the Mitani king names. I know that it sounds a bit complex. Let me break it down in a very simple format. I guess some of us, or at least most of us who have seen the movie *300*, still remember this character Xerxes, right? So for those of you who did not watch the movie, this is the name of a Persian king, Xerxes, depicted in the movie *300*. That's a historical film—that's a different thing—but the name of the king is Xerxes. Once Persia is now Iran, we all know that. And if we try to check any authentic sources of information from Iran, the people of Iran called this king as *Kshayarsha*, not Xerxes. Xerxes is more an Anglicized version of the name. The original name in Persian is *Kshayarsha*. Just giving you a snippet of one of the history and cultural bodies of Iran. Here on the screen, as you can read the name *Kshayarsha*. Let's try to understand the meaning of the name *Kshayarsha*. In Old Persian, it is called as *Kshayarsha*, and the Greeks called it as Xerxes. And naturally, the entire Western civilization is rooted in the Greek civilization. They adopted the name Xerxes, which is a Greek take of this name. And then in Middle Persian, over years, the same *Kshayarsha* became *Shahanshah*, and in Hindi today we use the word *Shahenshah*, right? What's the meaning of that name? We'll get to that, but for the moment, understand that *Shahenshah* is a derivative of *Kshayarsha*, and it's the same as the Greek Xerxes.
Now if we take the two most ancient languages in this part of the world—Samskrum and Avestan—Samskrum is, as you know, it is the base for the entire Bharati civilization. Avestan is the base for the Persian civilization. And as some of you might know, Bharat and Iran or Persia back then, they share a lot of history, culture, and even religious aspects—Zoroastrianism and Hinduism—even though they are 180° opposite to each other, the foundational base and the linguistic base is quite close for these two civilizations. And the word for king in Samskrum is *kshatriya*, we all know that, and in Avestan it is *xšāθriya*—pretty close. But these are the words in Sanskrit and Avestan respectively for the word king. So quite simply and naturally, when you talk about a king, it is *kshatriya*; when you talk about king of kings, it is *kshatriya-kshatriya* or *Kshayarsha* or *Shahenshah*. Now you see how things are falling in place. So Xerxes, as we saw in the movie or in the history recorded by the Greek sources and by extension the Western sources, is Xerxes; in Persian it is *Kshayarsha*; and in Avestan, are more leaning towards Samskrum, it is *kshatriya-kshatriya*. But then let's ask another critical question: why is the word *kshatriya* used for a king in the first place? Now if you check the *nirukta* of, or the etymology of the word *kshatriya*, *kshatriya*, which means the one who protects a dominion, is *kshatriya*. Now this is the rooted explanation of a word or a name like this. The name should be explainable, and it is possible only when you get to the source of it. Now the name Xerxes, you'll not be able to understand it from a Western standpoint. See, with all due respect, I'm not undermining or downplaying the Western aspect or the Western understanding of the Indian or Persian history. It is just I'm saying that we need to get to the base to get things in its right sense. That's my only point. And the reason I'm going so deep on this one specific aspect is people simply spit out fake narratives that Aryan invasion—with Aryan invasion theory—Samskrum came from outside. Well, you should be able to explain why it is so. Just cannot hit and run. The name *kshatriya* is rooted in Samskrum and has a shared culture in a Western, and that's how it traveled to Persia and became *xšāθriya*, and came back with the Islamic invasion with the title of *Shahenshah*, king of kings. *Kshatriya-kshatriya* became *Shahenshah*, and in Hindi it came back all the way, traveling for 1,500 years. *Kshatriya-kshatriya* became *Shahenshah*. But if you get to the root, the explanation can be provided only when you hit to the rock bottom of the etymology in Samskrum, like what you're seeing on the screen.
Now let's get back to where we started—understanding the names of the kings. Now let's handpick a few of them, and again I'm just quoting it from the couple of research papers that I got it while studying the names of the kings. So just for Xerxes, you see how long it took, so I'll just briefly show a few names that reflect the essence from Samskrum in the names of the Mitani kings. So starting with a few names, the first one is Tushratta. It is in the Mitani, the name of the king Tushratta, and the Samskrum parallel could be *tushāra-ratha*, which means one with a very powerful chariot. Now these are not my derivatives—to be very clear, take these names and do your own reading, and you will find people who are well-qualified in this field putting out their research and understanding, and from there I picked up these names. So you are free to do your own research from these names. Second one is Artadata. The Samskrum parallel could be *ṛta-dhāma*, one who is in the abode of *ṛta*—means cosmic order or dharma. One who is in the abode of dharma is *dhāma*, and in Mitani it was possibly called as Artadata. That was the name of the king, of course. Artadata is the name of the king. The meaning in Sanskrit could be *ṛta-dhāma*, and as I said, the one who is abode of *ṛta* or dharma. Last one is interesting. This is not the name of a Mitani king or queen. Washukanni is the name of the capital city of the Mitani kingdom. Now this is not a direct Samskrum parallel, but *wasu* in the Mitani language means riches. Now we call Earth in Samskrum as *vasundharā*—it's two words—*dhara*, the one who bears riches—that is Mother Earth. So *wasu* means riches. So it's very well possible that the name of the Mitani capital Washukanni means the place of riches. So like this, there are ample amounts of Samskrum parallels in the names of the Mitani kings, queens, and their places, so on and so forth. So you get the idea, right? That's all what I want to say.
Now if we summarize all the artifacts that we saw the last couple of minutes: first is the Kikuli horse training manual, which has Sanskrit terms for horses, colors, numbers, etc.; and then the Mitani war treaties invoking Vedic gods like Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Ashwini Devatas, etc.; and then the Mitani diplomatic letters quoting the names of kings, queens like Tushratta, Artadata, Washukanni, etc. So all these put together unequivocally established that the Vedic culture is at the heart of the Mitani civilization, and Samskrum was used at the aristocratic level. So that's in brief about the presence of Samskrum in the regions of Syria, Iraq, and Turkey some 3,500 years ago. And this great Mitani civilization—and a lot is yet to be discovered about this Mitani Empire or Mitani civilization. Just 1-2 years back, because of drought in Iraq, the Mitani civilization or this area which is pertaining to this civilization was unearthed, and a lot of excavations are ongoing as we speak. So there is a lot of information that is yet to be discovered about this ancient civilization. We have limited information—like, for instance, there are new clay tablets—what you're seeing on the screen—that was found just 2 years ago, and we don't even know what's the content of these clay tablets of the Mitani Empire back then. And some seals—what you're seeing on the right side of the screen—these were the seals of the Mitani Empire, very similar to the Indus Valley civilization. By no means am I saying that these two are connected; of course they are contemporary in terms of the historical timeline, but the format of the seals is very reminiscent. And there's a lot still to be discovered about the Mitani civilization.
So that's in brief about the Mitani civilization—Bronze Age, Vedic culture and kingdom that thrived some 1500 BC—that is 3,500 years ago—in the regions of Syria, Iraq, and Turkey—a few thousand kilometers away from Bharat. And of course, the Assyrian Empire, which is Persia back then, acted as a bridge between Mitani and Bharat. So the flow of culture, language, religion, ethnicity—everything is well connected with Bharat and the Mitani via Persia. They worshipped Vedic gods like Indra, Mitra, Varuna, and it also gives a very interesting insight about the marital alliances or the marriage between the Vedic culture and the Egyptian culture. And with recent excavations, which is just in 2022 and 23, there's a lot to be still discovered about the Mitani civilization. So let us see what more is awaiting to be discovered about this enigmatic ancient civilization, the Mitani. I will leave you at that, and as always, thanks for watching. Heat heat heat heat heat heat [Music]