The Origin of Monotheism- Meluhha

by Javed Rashid
The thesis that is being attempted to be established is that monotheism, which is taken to
originate from the Jewish people, is a concept that was evolved within other societies and
then transmitted to the Jewish people.The most likely candidate is the Indus Valley
Civilization. This study attempts to investigate the linkage between the Indus Valley
Civilization and the development of the One God religion in Sumer .
Religion is said to have evolved over time according to one school of thought whilst
another school of thought believes that man when he attained consciousness also was
given the concept of the true religion i.e. monotheism .This may have been in shape of
the structure of the human brain which had prior knowledge of language and religion
.The Holy Koran verse 213 Al Baqar II states
“Mankind was one community , and Allah sent (unto them ) prophets as bearers
of good tidings and as warners , and revealed therewith the Scriptures with the
truth that it might judge between mankind concerning that wherein they
differed .And only those unto whom (the Scriptures) was given differed
concerning it, after clear proof has come unto them , through hatred one of
another .And Allah guideth whom He will unto a straight path” The Glorious
Koran by Marmacuke Pickthall .George Allen & Unmin , London, 1976 .
The above verse is explained by religious thinkers to mean that: “One group believes that
religion evolved from disbelieve of one God and only over time did man achieve accept
monotheism .The Koran says that man when he first gained consciousness also gained the
concept of the true and everlasting religion”, This inquiry it seems supports the Koran
and identifies the IVC as one of the earliest civilization to have the concept of
monotheism

There is evidence of considerable trade between Mohenjadaro/Harappa(IVC) and Sumer

(SC).The SC was the cradle of monotheism .The issue is what impact (if any) did the IVC
had upon the development of the religion of Prophet Ibrahim? Considerable trade
between IVC and SC suggests: Ethic Similarities; Ethnic linkage between IVC and SC.

The Sumerian myths can be classified in two major parts. Firstly are those which differ in
content depending upon the place the myth was found and also the time in which it was
composed, these include the Gilgamesh myth .The second category are those which do
not vary in content ,irrespective the place that the myth was found or the time of
composition of the myth, these include the creation myth ,the flood myth .The conclusion
drawn is that the myths that do not vary in content are the primal religious text that the
Sumerians brought from their place or origin, in the piedmont between modern Pakistani
Punjab and the Turkish East. The origin of the Sumerians and the Harrapans is likely to
be the same and therefore the primal religious text is perhaps a common heritage of the
two civilizations.
The IVC is characterized by : well planned cities and system that are almost identical in
all contemporary cities of the civilization : lack of any evidence of warfare between cities
; lack of evidence of belief in many gods ; rationality in burial practices ; evidence of a
central authority that is not maintained by a warrior monarch ; lack of evidence of warrior
kings ; lack of evidence of slavery ; urban setting ; advanced manufacturing and trading
practices . All of which suggests that IVC could only have existed if the central belief
system supported the structure of the society and the economy .The unity in practices and
ideas could only emanate from a concept that propagates such unity .It is therefore
hypothesized that monotheism is either a concept that the IVC obtained from the time of
common existence with the Sumerians or a concept that evolved within the IVC .
Without monotheism IVC could not have existed.
The Indus civilization excavations do bring out the following facts: -

- There does not seem to be a large number of gods, in fact very few figurines have
been found which could be gods or goddesses, although it should be said that
these figures, the priest – king, dancing girl, other god figures do not necessarily
indicate images of gods. The first two were not images whilst the later could be
god images but these perhaps relate to the last Indus periods, a period according
to this thesis, the Indus elite had already migrated to Sumer, and the whole
structure and ethos of the Indus society had changed .
- The burial practices in proto Harrapan /early Harrapan period changed in about
3000 BC. Burial were no longer elaborate and dead bodies did not include
valuables, in contrast to the practice which continued in Sumer and elsewhere
.The Indus burials were simple and indicate the fact that these people believed
that the dead had no use for the material goods which are of value to the living.
Incidentally in the late Harrapan period the burial practices changed again .The
dead were cremated, this would indicate a major change and would support the
theory that the Indus elite did migrate (to Sumer) around 2000 BC and although
the cities did continue to exist but the central organizing force was not there any
more.
- No evidence has been found to indicate inter city warfare amongst the Indus
cities. It would seem that these cities were not at war with each other and the
similarity in city layouts would indicate a strong central authority, which was
imposed not by force but by commerce, trade and religion.
- There is significant evidence of industrial activity, this would indicate a society
that was progressive, was not warlike and therefore had structures that assisted
innovation (although the fact that Indus artifacts remained exactly the same for a
large period of time would indicate that there was strong central regulation which
did not allow change and therefore inhabited innovation).
- There is also no evidence of slavery, There does seem to be an upper and lower
class but the structure does not seem to have been maintained by use of force .The
elite perhaps exercised control by means of: religion; and by management and
control of trade with Sumer and elsewhere.

The above would indicate that the Indus civilization was inclusive in nature and
therefore would not have multiple gods; there would be a single God which could
 have been an abstract concept of God. Prophet Abraham (pbum) perhaps did seem to
have obtained the concept of an abstract, mono, omnipresent God from Sumer. This
concept was not present in Sumerian society itself (see the reaction of Nimrod to the
complain of Prophet Abraham’s father and people, for this see both the Koranic and
Talmudic versions) .The concept was not present in the Jews (see reaction of Prophet
Abraham’s father and family). The only people sophisticated enough to have
developed this concept were the Indus people (Egypt, Crete and China do seem to
have multiple gods).

The Indus government was very complex and yet was efficient. These were efficient and
technologically advanced people. Their art indicated that these people had fine artistic
sensibilities .The efficiency is manifested in the ability of the Indus people to evolve and
establish a complex social structure, which integrated various ethnic and religious groups
and ensured peace and prosperity.

The primitive man also is said to believe in cyclic nature of things and life , the
modern mind believes in a linear forward looking approach .Burial practices where
the dead body was accompanied with large an mount of luxury goods and in cases
where the body is cremated do suggest that the society practicing such burial
procedures believes in the cyclic nature of life and the dead are deemed to return in
the same or in some other shape .The Harrapan burial practices , in sharp contrast to
contemporary civilizations, were simple burial with very few commodities buried
with the dead body , the few items that were found were very inexpensive ( there are
very few exceptions to this) . This would suggest that the Harrapan people were
forward looking people who had a pragmatic view of things and events.

The Sumerian myths seem to be of two kinds , one that differ from time to time ,these
were modified in each successive era , the other are that seem to have been kept in
tact for all times , these seem to be related to the sacred text that perhaps the Sumar
brought from the piedmont perch from where they migrated to the plains .The concept
that the human mind has a deep structure that allows it to learn language and to accept
the monotheistic concept of religion has been given by a number of philosophers
.This legacy, the monotheistic concept of religion, from the place of fall (Eden
according to the Bible) seem to be the factor that made civilizations dominant , and
this key factor passed from the dominant civilization to the succeeding one . The
Indus people were the first owners of this key concept and when for unknown reasons
their land became not receptive to this primal but everlasting truth they migrated and
passed on this message to Prophet Ibrahim .Who in the travels spread this to the
whole of middle eastern .the Jewish people became the owners or holders of this key
element and this subsequently passed on to other civilizations and this process goes
on to the present.

The IVC concept of religion was exported to Sumer, with whom the IVC had ethnic,
cultural and economic ties .This occurred when the Indus elite migrated, for reasons not
clearly established, to Sumer , around 2000 BC ( various traditions related to the Mai
Nanna etc. ,in modern Pakistani Baluchistan , do point to possibility of such migration by
land route from IVC to Sumer). The Sumerians had evolved very differently. They had
established a number of independent cities who were in constant strife with each other
and each city had a separate god, monotheism clearly did not evolve in SC. The only
source of this concept could be the IVC whose elite chose Prophet Ibrahim (pbuh) and
transferred the concept to the Hebrews .The concept was also clearly alien to the
Hebrews as is evident from the Biblical and Koranic accounts of the life of Prophet
Ibrahim in Ur, this concept did not evolve within the Hebrews and was clearly imported
from other people.
The IVC concept of religion , in the sub-continent, did not completely die out with the
Aryan victory over the Indus people .Hinduism is comprised of two diverse streams, one
related to the Aryan concept and another ,completely different in character and ethos to
the non-Aryan traditions, that is referred to as indigenous traditions ,These are reflected
in the Jain, Buddhist and Bhakthi or devotional response to the Brahamanic Hinduism
.The source of these anti-Aryan traditions must surely be the IVC .Some of these pre
Aryan tradition ,especially the devotional South Asian religion, do contain a concept of a
single God , and do not subscribe to the cult of sacrifice or of elitism in religious and
other affairs .The Indus people are surely the source of these traditions .
Monotheism can perhaps be traced to the IVC from where it was passed on to the
Hebrews .The fact that there are ancient primal sacred Sumerian myths suggest that
monotheism possibly was a legacy of the IVC from their place of origin .Perhaps the
attainment of consciousness , by the first human, Prophet Adam (pbuh) also included the
concept of a single God .Human consciousness encapsulates the concept of
monotheism , the full extend of the message unravels with technological and other
change in human existence and will probably be completely unraveled by the time life on
this earth ceases to exist .
 CHAPTER 1: Indus valley Civilization

The Indus valley Civilization, 3500 – 1800 BC is the earliest known civilization of south
Asia, corresponding to the Bronze Age cultures of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and
Crete. This civilization is as old as those which are called the cradles of human culture,
civilizations like those of Egypt and Babylon .This was a very highly developed
civilization. It was known as the Indus Valley Civilization or it is sometimes called the
Harappan Civilization, and it extended from what is now Western Pakistan, south to a
point which is near Bombay and eastward to a point which is in the neighborhood of what
is now Simla in the foothills of the Himalayas .The remains of the settlements belonging
to this culture have been found through out the Indus river Valley in Pakistan, eastwards
towards the Run of Katch and westwards to the Iranian border
Populated by, what are referred to as the “black – headed “people. These same “black
headed “people are also credited for the formation of the Sumeric civilization.
The Indus cities were laid out on a rectangular grid system, with wide main streets
running parallel to each other, cut at right angles by smaller streets .The streets were lined
with large blocks of houses, many of them two storied, all of them with flat roofs. They
were the first to use bitumen in walls, floor and roofs, to keep the damp out .The houses
were built of baked bricks. Access to the upstairs rooms was by a narrow stone staircase
at the back of the house .The staircase sometimes continued to the top of the roof .The
house had bathrooms and water closets, rubbish shoots and excellent drainage systems
.The drains were incorporated in the walls and led into covered sewers which ran down
the side of the streets.
Excavated settlements reveal blocks of mud-brick buildings separated by streets, and the
cities, such as Mohenjadaro and Harappa, are dominated by large public buildings.
Characteristic artifacts include a distintictive black on red pottery, ceramic toys and
figurines, etched carnelian beads, metal (bronze, silver, gold) ornaments and tools, and
stamp seals with an un deciphered script.
The Indus people had wooden storage chests with bronze or copper fasteners, beds, and
benches. Carved chair legs dating back to about 2000 BC have been found in the ruins.
Houses had their own wells. There were also public bathhouses, which were frequently
used.
Some houses were larger than others and this must indicate that there was a rich class
which was superior to ordinary people. They were great traders. Indus pottery, jewellery
and metal work has been found in many places in the Middle East and so perhaps it was
the merchants who owned the larger houses.
They used copper and bronze and made fish hooks, copper-headed arrows razors and
bronze mirrors (Indus seals and script that depict the fish and a man with an arrow could
be depicting the nature of commodity traded i.e. fish hooks or arrow heads respectively,
the papal leaf could be depicting cotton)
Clothing that the Indus women wore was very gay. They wore short, scanty petticoats
rather like mini-skirts. Their clothes were made of cotton, linen or wool. They wore
bright, sparkling jewellery made of gold, silver, or shell, inlaid with stones like jade and
lapis-lazuli .Men wore a sort of cloak which went over one shoulder and under the other.
They were great craftsmen and made fine pottery on the wheel. Potters usually engraved
or painted their pottery. Their favorite design was geometric, but they used also the
figures of animals as decoration .the designs were painted in black ink.
They kept songbirds and dogs as pets. They also raised cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry for
food, and used cattle for drawing vehicles. They are believed to have invented the ox cart.
The sculpture produced is also beautiful particularly when it depicts motion.
They build no temples or palaces and their rules do not seem to have splendid tombs
constructed. By about 1500 BC the civilization disintegrated.

Unfortunately, the nature of the social organization in this complex culture still evades
complete interpretation.
Sometimes after 2000 BC, complex ecological changes occurred in the Indus valley area,
forcing abandonment of many settlements and altering the basic characteristics of the
civilization. Late Indus Valley culture is known from excavated small farming villages.
Artifacts associated with these sites are stylistically similar to earlier types but show more
regional variations
The civilization did not appear abruptly, as was initially believed, but evolved
indigenously. Some experts believe that it borrowed from the Sumeric, a claim that is
perhaps not correct , the civilization was distinctive yet there are signs of constant contact
with Sumer and there are also reasons to believe that both the Harrapan and Sumerian
people did share a common ancestry, they were either the same people or most likely
were closely related cousins .In any case once developed the civilization was an
intensely individual one, with many characteristics not shared with any other civilization .
There was contact between the Indus and Sumerian people, this is evident from the large
number of seals and letters in Indian script that have been excavated in Mesopotamia
.Much fewer Sumer seals etc. have been discovered in Indus cities
The Indus civilization became mature by about 2500 BC, then over the next 1000 years it
stagnated,

There is overwhelming evidence of maritime trade with other areas. Some beads were
reported to have been exported to Egypt from this valley. Sumerians had acted as
intermediaries for this trade. The Indus civilization supported the cultivation of wheat
barley.
The significant increase in rainfall at the beginning of the third millennium BC, attested
by palaeoecological evidence, played an important part in the sudden expansion of the
Neolithic-Chalcolithic cultures in north-west India, ultimately leading to the prosperity of
the Indus culture.
The present evidence would suggest that the onset of aridity in the region around 1800
BC probably resulted in the weakening of the Harappan culture in the arid and semi arid
parts of northwest India.
The Indus people did not engrave inscriptions on stone or place papyrus scrolls in the
tombs of their dead: all we know of their writing is derived from simple inscriptions on
their seals.
These people farmed .The people of Indus prospered on the foundations of an agriculture
based system and irrigation and fertility, maintained by silt bearing floods. Wheat and
barley were grown, as were melon seeds, oil crops like sesame and mustard, and dates.
Field peas were also grown .The earliest trace of cotton known anywhere in the world
have been found in the Valley.
Animals domesticated include dogs, cats, zebu, short-horn and buffaloes, and possibly
pigs, horses, camels, and asses.
From every crop grown a large portion had to be paid into the granaries. This siphoning
of the surplus was not managed by force but was perhaps achieved by the prevalent
religious practices and beliefs.
Archeologists have turned up imports including gold from southern India, copper from
Afghanistan, jade like fushsite from southern India and turquoise from Iran. Trade with
Mesopotamia has been noted, as Indus pottery has been discovered in the ancient city of
Tell Asmar.
A number of typical Indus seals have been found in Sumer, seals dating back to between
2300 and 2000 BC .The finding of Indus seals in Mesopotamia suggests that people of
Indus may have resided in this territory, possibly merchants who were keeping up a
constant trade with the Mesopotamia people (cotton was a staple export of Indus, and
could have been the crop that brought these two civilizations into contact). These seals
are thought to have been a representation of personal names .With these seals turning up
in many locations ,it seems that in spite of the totalitarian casts associated with the Indus
State ,trade may have been in the hands of private merchants rather than regulated by a
form of governmental authority .The Indus people sailed in high prowled ,single mast
boats ,sound for carrying the exported goods .Nearing the end of The Indus Civilization,
the cities began to wither and the strong economy deteriorated.
In contrast to other civilizations The Indus people achieved great accuracy in measuring
physical units of length, mass, and time. They were perhaps also using the decimal
system .All of this signifies a highly advanced, technologically adept and efficient
civilization. They were among the first to develop a system of uniform weights and
measures. They also evolved new techniques in metallurgy and produced copper, bronze,
lead, tin.
Bronze, terracotta and stone sculptures in dancing poses also reveal much about the Indus
art of dancing .A harp like instruments and shell objects attest to the fact that stringed
instruments were used. Much of the Indus art is considered advanced for the time.
Social cohesion, which allowed various ethnic groups to co-exist, is depicted by animals
of several heads that represent a combination of different tribes or social groups. Further
Harrapan rulers were treated as common men after their death.
The contributions of the civilization include decimal divisions in measuring length and
mass, study of stars, construction if tidal docks, efficient sewerage system, metallurgical
techniques.

The language of the Indus people was sufficiently different from Sumerian (or Elamites)
to require a translator from Meluhha whose name was iu-iliSu .the products of Meluhha
include: abba wood, a thorn tree (kikar?); mesu wood (of the plains); ships of Meluhha
type (boat). Indus words in Sumerian include: Sindh wood sinda; date palm; the “red dog
of Meluhha” zaza cattle (zebu?); elephants; sesame oil

In contrast to other civilizations, burials found from these cities are not magnificent; they
are more simplistic and contain few material things. Remains of palaces or temples in the
cities have not been found, no hard evidence exists indicating military activity .The cities
did contain fortification and the people used copper and bronze knives, spears, and
arrowheads.
The Harrapan civilization was mainly urban and mercantile. Inhabitants of the Indus
valley traded with Mesopotamia, Southern India, Afghanistan and Persia for gold, silver,
copper and turquoise .The Mesopotamian model of irrigated agriculture was used to take
advantage of the fertile land along the Indus River. Earth links were built to control the
river’s annual flooding. Crops grown included wheat, barley, peas, melons and sesame
.The civilization was the first to grow cotton for the production of cloth
The theory that the Dravidians are the Indus people and that the Dravidian language
contains Indus language words and form does not appear to be right .The Dravidians,
living in South of India, do not exhibit any feature of the Indus valley civilization and no
trace of Indus cities have been found in south India (although South India does presents a
superior urban layout and management than does North India) .South India has not
revealed any evidence of connection to the Indus civilization, no seals or pottery or other
artifacts unique to Harrapan civilization have been located in south India . There ,
however, is evidence that the Dravadians did coexist with the Harrapans for some time
before the advent of the Aryans .Dravadian religious responses to Brahamin controlled
Hinduism possibly borrow form the Indus legacy that the Dravadians carried with them
from the period that they had co-existed with the Harrapans .
Seals were passed around as part of a project to create literacy in the rapidly developing
and urbanizing society of the Indus Valley and neighboring regions. This was done by
first creating a script (which was constantly changing anyway) and then to making
pictures of everyday animals and personalities. These pictures would be accompanied by
a word or two on a seal so that people would recognize the picture and then learn to
spell .We do the same thing today .we show a child a picture of an apple and under the
picture we write “APPLE” to teach the child how to read and spell.
Then there are secondary uses for the seals that have been found. These are economical
and come in the form of receipts and labels .The receipts were given as evidence that a
tax has been paid .The labels were used to identify persons and also indicate ownership of
animals and other things.
ARON - from the internet.

The Indus elite maintained power by managing and controlling the trade based upon the
agricultural surplus from the Indus area and of processed stones and other products
.These were manufactured in secret factories.
The Indus elite were able to manage the trade due to ethnic and other similarities with the
Sumer and Bahraini elites.
The Sumer elite lost control by around 2000 BC and this perhaps were the cause of
decline of the Indus Elite .Without the Sumer elite in power and in absence of
sympathetic groups in control of the trade routes the Indus Elite could not maintain their
hold upon the Indus Area.
The Indus elite migrated to Sumer around 2000 BC.

Extract from “A Glimpse of The social Stratification and Political Set-up of the Indus
Civilization “by B.B. Lal published in “Harrapan Studies” edited by G.L Possehl and M
Tosi published by Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd.

“The available evidence indicates that there were at least three classes in the Harrapan
society: a priestly class occupying perhaps the highest position ;an agricultural-cum-
merchant class forming the main core; and a labor class at the lowest rung of the ladder
.Indus cities seem to have residence for the upper classes in the fortified areas and for the
labor class outside the fortified area as in Kalibangan .The citadel is seen to be the seat of
the priests .The town had : a priestly class inhabiting the Citadel : an agricultural-cum-
merchant class occupying the Lower Town ;and a worker class living outside the two
fortified areas .Mohenjadaro and Harrapa also had a Citadel and a lower Town ..Indus
population seem to have been divided into three sections : an elite associated with the
Citadel or Acropolis ,a well to do middle class occupying the Lower Town ,a relatively
weaker section working for the former two categories .Whether these divisions were
based purely economic factors or had socio-religious impress as well cannot be
categorically stated .It seems that religion did play an important part .The Elite occupying
the Citadel at Kalibangan seem to have derived their authority from religion and
commanded perhaps the highest position in the hierarchy .”
The most striking feature of the Harrapan civilization was its homogeneity in all aspects
of life ,such as ,pottery ,buildings and religious beliefs .The Harrapan beliefs were
different than Sumerian (and Egyptian) ones .The Harrapan believed in one female
goddess in contrast to the many gods that the Sumerians believed in .The Harrapan
believed in a female goddess whose depiction bears close resemblance to the goddess
Inanna .Who it is stated got bored with her duties and went back to Sumer ,where she
was got drunk by Enki and tricked in giving away certain divine objects referred to as
“ME’s” ,these were supposed to give great power to Inanna .All of this gave great power
to Ur and she became its major deity .This myth could be interpreted as to describe the
migration of the Indus Elite from the IVC to Summer and the transmittal of the Indus
philosophy or religion to the Sumerians .
The Mesopotamian civilization is characterized by a multiplicity of city-states ,an
efficient writing system ,a changing art style ,international contacts ,organized warfare
,and an extensive irrigation system. All of these characteristics are not discernible in the
Indus Civilization. It is unlikely that any contact with the Sumeric civilization germinated
the Indus Civilization. The evidence does suggest that IVC was an indigenous
development.
The advantages of natural soil and water in the Indus plain could ensure higher crop yield
to create large surpluses which in turn supported greater population and encouraged craft
specialization leading to mass production and standardization of products.
IVC offers striking similarity to Sumeric and Iranian civilizations. The well developed
and organized city life, use of the potter’s wheel, use of precious and semi precious
stones and metals, a script are features that were common
Long distance trade must have necessitated the keeping of records and proper packaging
of goods marking them with identifiable seals. The administration of the cities must have
involved keeping of records and issuance of orders. All of this must have required the
kind of seals and script that has been found in the Indus cities. Of the 400 signs known
over half are identical with porto-Elamite and proto-Sumeric examples, the rest are of
indigenous origin. It would therefore seem that the Indus people drew upon the existing
signs of their proto-urban predecessors, on whose base they erected their civilization.
About 78 signs are similar to the pre-Indus signs. The script therefore seems to have been
developed from already existing signs of their forbearers. The Semitic people who had
contact with the Harrapan borrowed, by 1600 BC, 17 Indus cursive signs for their
consonant value.

Burials found from these cities are not magnificent; they are more simplistic and contain
a few material goods. This evidence suggests that this civilization did not have social
classes. Remain of palaces or temples have not been found .No hard evidence indicating
military activity exists.
The seals suggest a symbolic or religious intent. Stone sculptures carved in steatite,
limestone, or alabaster depicts a male figure who may have represented a god.
The civilization experienced its height around 2500 BC and began to decline about 2000
BC. One cause of the dispersal could have been a result of agricultural problems. Topsoil
erosion, depletion of nutrients from the soil, or a change on the course of the Indus River
may have forced the inhabitants to leave their towns
The Indus government was very complex and yet was efficient. These were efficient and
technologically advanced people. Their art indicated that these people had fine artistic
sensibilities .The efficiency is manifested in the ability of the Indus people to evolve and
establish a complex social structure, which integrated various ethnic and religious groups
and ensured peace and prosperity.
The quality of municipal town planning is an outstanding feature of this civilization .The
uniform planning of towns and cities suggest the presence of efficient municipal
governments which placed high priority upon personal hygiene .The streets were laid in
an efficient grid pattern which ensured that the houses were protected from noise, odors
and thieves. Baked bricks which were rare at that time in the near east were used. The
uniformity of town planning suggests the presence of a strong centralized government
that must have enforced this strict planning regime.
Town administrators enlisted the cooperation of the people in order to efficiently execute
public works programs .The administration also standardized industrial products such as
metal tools and weapons and even the units that were used to measure length.the smooth
flowing of trade channels was a result of strict vigilance by state and city authorities .An
efficient system of distribution of agricultural and industrial products, and raw materials,
indigenous as well as imported is evident .The high degree of homogeneity in products
,the uniform town planning ,the rigorous enforcement of trade and municipal
regulations ,and the efficient distribution system all confirm that there was a highly
efficient and effective administration in the Indus valley .

The elite perhaps managed two important functions:

. Firstly to provide the exchange mechanisms and arrangements

by which the surplus was taken over from the farmers .

. Secondly to arrange, manage the trade with Sumer and elsewhere

and to exchange the surplus for other items .

The decline of the IVC could well be the failure of the elite to perform any of the above
two functions.
Trade could have been disrupted by means of reasons including disruptions caused due to
: changes in the middle man arrangements ; and disruptions of the trade route due to
hostile people having taken over these routes.

The seals with inscriptions perhaps have economic significance. The seals, therefore,
must have:

. Quantity depictions

. Item depictions
If these were used for internal exchange perhaps these must pertain to items that were
surplus . Seals found in Sumer sites perhaps were related to commodities or products that
were traded. Perhaps herein lays the answer to the IVC script.

The Indus people did not engrave inscriptions on stones or place papyrus scrolls in the
tombs of their dead.
The genius behind the advanced architecture of the Indus civilization carried over into a
thriving agricultural and trade based economy .The Indus people used the plentiful rivers
surrounding them much to their advantage .The people of Indus prospered on the
foundations of an agricultural based system of irrigation and fertility, maintained by silt
bearing floods .Wheat and six-row barley were grown , as were melon seeds, oil crops
like sesame and mustard ,and dates .Peas are the only vegetables that have so far been
associated with the civilization .The earliest traces of cotton found anywhere in the world
have been found in the Indus Valley .Dogs, cats ,zebu , cattle ,pigs, camels, horses and
asses were domesticated .Elephants may also have been domesticated as many seals have
elephant representations and ivory was used for crafts .For every crop that was grown a
portion was deposited with the central public granaries .Hunting and fishing was also
practiced and meat did form a part of the diet of the Indus people .
In addition to agriculture and hunting trade and commerce formed an important part of
the economic life of the Indus people .Trade with various lands has been recorded and
links with Mesopotamia has been noted, as Indus pottery has been discovered in the
ancient city of Tell Asmar .A number of Indus seals have also been found in Sumer, these
date back to 2300 and 2000 BC .This in turn suggest that the Indus people may have
resided in Mesopotamia .The trade seems to have been in the hands of businessmen
rather than with the political/religious elite .
 CHAPTER 2: Sumeric Civilization
The land between the two river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates have provided of the
oldest settlements, the extreme south was the richest as from centuries of drainage and
flooding a rich top soil was built up .It was easier to grow crops here than in most other
places, provided safe and regular water supply could be ensured for rain was slight and
irregular and the river bed was above the plain .all of thus provided the opportunity of
producing more than was needed for consumption. Fish additionally was available from
the river and sea.
The land was populated by a dark-skinned race from north – west India settled. They
called themselves the “black – headed people“or the people of Sumer .The Sumeriaans
were not the only people inhabiting the land.
The Sumerians probably began to move into the Mesopotamian plain before 5000 BC
these people understood the working of metal and could make many useful tools. They
were already skilled farmers, and in the rich soil of Mesopotamia they found the
opportunity to develop their agricultural skills to a high degree .It was not long before
they were growing far more than they needed for themselves, and so they began to trade
with their less skilful neighbors. The Sumerians were builders as well as farmers. There
were no natural stones for building in Mesopotamia, nor was there much timber .So they
made bricks by molding the thick clay of the river banks into blocks and leaving them in
the scorching sun to bake. Soon they discovered that settlements farther away had natural
stones, and they traded their surplus farm goods for the stone.
Meanwhile they developed the potter’s wheel and with it were able to fashion a great
variety of useful vessels, such as bowls, plates, cups, vases and storage jars. They
decorated their pottery with beautiful designs and shapes. They also knew how to make
sculpture and how to work copper, bronze, and gold and precious stones.
Mesopotamia was a region that did not have many natural resources. Therefore the
people who lived there needed top trade with adjoining areas in order to acquire the
resources they needed. Grains, oils and textiles were taken from Babylonia to other areas
and exchanged for: timber; wine; precious metals and stones

They build small boats of plaited reeds which they covered with animal skin and pitch.
This gave mobility and allowed them to communicate between early settlements, which
in time led to the development of the great cities. Sumer the main city was formed in
3500 BC and it lasted for around 1500 years.
UR another city was encircled by means of a high brick wall and a wide canal which was
used for defense and for transport .On the rivers edge was a harbor which brought goods
to and from the other settlements along the Euphrates .In about the middle of the city was
a large temple in the shape of a tower called a ziggurat .
The family was the most important unit of society, and the father was the head .To keep
the family together he usually had land, which could be handed on to his wife or son.
There were three classes of people in Sumer .The highest contained the priests, the
government officials and the army officers .The middle class included the traders,
farmers and craftsmen, and last were slaves. The most important people were the priests,
for they were the servants of the gods.
Sumerians believed that gods were responsible for people’s safety, good health and
prosperity. The gods had to be kept happy .It fell to the priests to supervise the many jobs
that this entailed. They tended the temple land outside the city: they managed the
storehouses: and they conducted trade, exchanged surplus food for stone, timber, and
precious metal with which they adorned the temples and chapels.
The priests were also looked upon as the wise men of the city. They held lessons in the
temple enclosure, prescribing medicine for the sick, sat in judgment over disputes
between one person and another and managed the calendar.
The Sumerian year was calculated on the behavior of the moon and had twelve months
divided into hours and days. The months, however, were only thirty days long which
equaled a year of 360 days. Therefore, in order to make the seasons coincide properly
with the calendar, every so often the priests announced that another month would be
added to the current year.

The Sumerian gods governed natural forces such as the earth (Enlil), the sky (Anu, water
(Ea) the sun (Shamash) and the moon (Nanner). Each city had its special god but also
worshipped other gods .The chief god for Ur was Nanner and for the city of Eridu it was
Ea.
The temple was enclosed by a high wall. Inside this enclosure there was a palace for the
reigning king .His house was like the others in the city except that it was larger, for it had
to accommodate his advisers and servants as well as his family .The priests of the gods
also lived in the enclosure.
Nanner was also worshipped in many smaller temples throughout the city, and there were
small temples for his wife, Ningal.
In the earlier days of Sumer there was no king, and the city was ruled by chief priests.
But as the cities grew and the business of government proved to much for one chief
priest, a worthy man was picked from among the rank of the priesthood to handle some
of the city’s affairs, and from this stemmed the principle of kingship .The king managed
the business of state that was not connected with the temple .He ensured that law and
order was enforced among the people .He maintained the canals and kept the streets in
good repair .If there was war with the neighboring city or tribe, he led the army into
battle .
The king was helped and advised by priests and other official. Some of them assisted him
in dispensing justice for, as the population of the cities expanded. Business in the law
courts became a heavy burden for the king alone. Traders and farmers kept the city well
stocked with food and other necessities and with many luxuries as well. They increased
the prosperity of the whole community by successfully trading with other cities and with
less civilized races further away .The craftsmen turned their skills to making the city
beautiful. Sculptors carved exquisite statues, carpenters fashioned splendid gates, doors,
and furniture. And smiths made jeweler out of silver, gold and precious stones.
Armourers wrought copper for weapons of all kinds; for the Sumerians were warlike
people and needed arms on may occasions Among the most skilled craftsmen in Sumer
were seal-cutters .the kings .the court official’s .the high priests and the merchants all
needed seals for their letters, orders, legal documents and accounts .The seals were made
of clay or stone, alabaster or ivory, and were carved with images of gods, animals or
human beings.
The slaves were the servants of the rich in the households or on the land. They often were
enemy solders that had been defeated and captured in the field of battle. Slaves also
cleared the streets, emptied the rubbish and carried water to people’s houses. Some were
able to buy their freedom and purchase their own land.
Sumerians developed the cuneiform writing .As far as 3500 BC they drew pictograms, or
outline of objects incised on clay tablets with reed pens. The pictograms were used to
communicate basic information about crops and taxes. These tablets were than baked and
became almost indestructible .The pictograms developed into a mixture of pictures and
symbols, which represented pronunciations of word syllables. Eventually they had a
script, which include some 600 symbols. Over time the need for writing changed and the
signs developed into a script called cuneiform
From about 2700 70 about 2280 BC, UR was the leading city .In about 2370 BC Sumer
was conquered by the Semitic chief Sargon 1

In between 3000 and 2000 BC Sumer was subjected to invasions by several races, these
were successfully defended .in about 1950 BC Semitic Amorties from the western
Arabian desert and emetic Elamites from the east began to move into the richer plains of
Mesopotamia. They over ran the Sumerian cities .The Amorties had been overrunning
northern Sumer, Babylon a village in northern Sumer eventually became the now famous
city and its king Hamurabi managed in dominating the whole of Mesopotamia .His rule
was extended over the period 1790 to1750 BC .By then the Babylonian had developed
their own language and Sumerian language was relegated to be the language of the
priests. Hamurabi gave the famous code, which it is believed became the source of Moses
Ten commandments. Some of the laws mentioned in the Old Testament are derived from
Hamurabi’s Laws. Hamurabi did not invent these laws; he assembled existing laws,
revised them and added new ones of his own in order to bring the whole system up to
date.
The Babylonians were great readers of poetry, one of their famous epic was the story of a
mythical Sumerian hero-king Gilgamesh, the legend was absorbed in Babylonian
folklore.

From the beginning as a collection of farming villages around 5000 BC to its final
collapse in about 2000 BC, the Sumerians developed a relation and a society that
influenced both their neighbors and conquerors .The Babylonians took the Sumerian
language and the religion .In fact, traces and parallels of Sumerian myths can be found in
Genesis.
Sumer was a collection of city states around the lower Tigris River and Euphrates
River .Each state had its own ruler although by about 3500 BC the ruler of the dominant
state could be called the king of the region. Sumerian history can be divided into five
periods: Uruk period: Jemdat Nasr period he early dynastic period: the agate period: and
the Ur II period.
The Uruk period stretched from 3800 BC to 3200 BC, the period is referred to as the
reigns of Dumuzi the Shepard who was worshipped as the god of the spring grain. This
period saw very rapid urbanization .The Eanna of Uruk, a collection of temples dedicated
to Inanna, was constructed at this time. These building served religious as well as civic
functions. Which was fitting as the en, or high priest, served as both the spiritual and
temporal leader .The temples were places where craftsmen would practice their trade and
here surplus food would be stored and distributed?
The Jemdat Nasr period lasted from 3200 BC to 2900 BC, the period was not particularly
remarkable .It was this period that the great flood is supposed to have taken place .The
Sumerian account of the great flood may have been influenced upon the flooding by
Tigris and Euphrates onto their already marshy land.
The Early Dynastic period saw kingship move to Kish .A king of Kish named Etana was
believed by the Babylonians top have rode to heaven on the back of a giant eagle so that
he could receive the “plant of birth “ from Ishtar (their version of Inanna) and thereby
produce an heir.

Meanwhile in the South the dynasty of Erech was founded by Meskiaggasher, who along
with his successors, was termed the “son of Utu “, the sun god. Followed three other
kings, including another Dumuzi, the famous Gilamesh took the throne of Erech around
2600 BC and became involved in a power struggle for the region with the Kish dynasty
and with Mesanneoadda, the founder of the dynasty of Ur. While Gilamesh became a
demi-god, remembered in epic tales, it was Mesannepadda who was eventually victorious
in this three way power struggle, taking the by then traditional title of “King of Kish ":
Kish and Erech gave way to Ur, which also failed to maintain control .the region was
weakened by power struggles .The ruler of Lagash declared themselves “King of Kish”
around 2450 BC, but failed to obtain control of the region facing challenge by the nearby
Umma. Lugalzagesi, ensi or priest-king of Umma from around 2360-2335 BC, razed
Lagash, and conquered Sumer, declaring himself “King of Erech and the Land” .All this
strife weakened Sumer which was conquered by Sargon of Agade, an outsider.
Sargon united both Sumer and the northern Akkad, his realm is said to extend from the
Mediterranean sea to the Indus river .He build the city of agate .his empire fell apart just
40 years after his death and Guti, a mountain people, razed agate and deposed the then
king.
The Guti were driven out by Utuhegal of Uruk/Erech. Ur-Nammu usurped his authority
and became king. And established the Third Ur dynasty around 2112 BC .He gained
control and developed the earliest known law-codes and had constructed the great
ziggurat of Ur, a kind of step pyramid which stood 60 x 200 ft. This was a very
prosperous period, which ended by 2000 BC, when the civilization collapsed under the
Amorite invasion; Sumer henceforth was absorbed in Babylonia.
Professor Samuel Kramer observed that:
“With the help of their gods especially Enlil ,the “King of Heaven and earth”, the
Sumerians transformed a flat ,arid windswept land into a blooming ,fertile kingdom”
The whole of Sumerian life evolved around the gods, whom they regarded as flesh and
blood immortals .They invented their deities as an imaginative psychological response to
a hostile, incomprehensible environment .The picture that emerges is that of
anthropomorphic gods with human like motions, intimately mixed up in human affairs
.Every Sumerian city was associated with one, sometimes, two gods.
The Sumerians believed that the gods had created man as a worker
George Smith of the British Museum published his translations of the sacred Babylonian
text in 1876..This was the Emma Elish epic and it presented the creation epic in much
more detail than the Bible.
Eridu the ancient city of the Sumerians literally means E.RI.Du or “home in the Faraway
Built”.

Extracts form “Mesopotamian Myths” by Henrietta McCall, British Museum Publication

The temples in which the gods were worshipped were run by a priestly class .A priest
called a satammu probably headed the administrative side and sons often followed fathers
into the same profession.
Religion played an important part in the everyday life of the people. On a personal level
they attach themselves to a particular god or goddess and offered prayers and sacrifices in
return for intercession with the other gods and protection from evil spirits.
There is no promise of an afterlife and death was accepted in a resigned and matter of
fact way.

The inhabitants of cities could be divided into two parts, those few who benefited from
court and temple connections which gave them the use of their own means of production,
and those who were wholly dependent upon the palace and temple organizations. Most of
the means of production were under the control of the vast temple complexes and the
royal places, although individual owned land as well. Both temple and palace derived
their income from mainly agriculture, either directly or through the payment of taxes.
Central administration received most income and redistributed it .Both organizations
supported a large number of people who were paid with food and clothes etc. . . .

Chapter 3 Mesopotamian Myths

Traditionally, authorship of the oldest works was attributed to sages sent out before the
Flood by the god Ea to bring civilization to mankind. In Mesopotamian eyes, true
authenticity must derive from divine inspiration and/or great antiquity.
Gilgamesh as great in knowledge and wisdom, as one who bought information from
before the days of the Flood (this possibly refers to the primal religious text that was
common to both the Sumerian and Harrapan people).
Gilgamesh decides to see Ut-napishtim, who with his wife is supposed to have survived
the Flood and to know the secret of eternal life .Ut-napishtim’s gift to Gilamesh is a
closely guarded matter, a “secret of the gods” – a plant of rejuvenation.
The Epic of creation, unlike that of Gilamesh, appears to have been almost unknown
outside Mesopotamia. Tablets have been found at Sultantepe, Nineveh, Kish and
Babylon, but (unlike the Gilamesh Epic) they show little variation. It is more in the
nature of a sacred book and was recited during the celebrations of the New Year’s
festival at Babylon.
Myths can be interpreted in a variety of ways: they can portray cosmic forces
personified ,as for example when chaos is subdued by order ;they can reflect historical
events such as military campaigns ,the building of city walls and the return of the cult
statues ;they can serve a purely cultic purpose ,for example recitations at the New Year’s
festival ;and events in them can mirror the cycle of nature ,thus reassuring their audience
that the national gods are in command.
Gods played a far greater part in the life of the ancient world than can easily be
comprehended today.

The Myth of Dumuzi and Inanna

Dumuzi or Tammuz and Inanna or Ishtar myth .The former is a vegetation god who dies
and rises again with the rebirth of vegetation in the spring. Inanna decides to go to the
nether (the land of no return) world, ruled over by her sister Ereshkigal .To guard against
any disasters she instructs her vizer, Ninshubur, that if she does not return in three days
he is to perform mourning rites for her and to request the gods Enlil of Nippur, Nanna the
moon-god of Ur, and Enki, the god of wisdom, in Eridu to intervene and spare her life
.She puts on her queenly attire and presents herself at the gate of the nether world, where
she is challenged by Neti ,the gate keeper of the seven gates .She ,as she passes though
each gate loses a piece of her apparel and is brought before Ereshkigal and the
Anunnaki ,the seven judges of the nether world .She is turned into a corpse .Her vizer
does as instructed and Enki performs certain magic operations by which she is restored to
life .

This was the earliest myth, which perhaps the Sumerians brought with them when they
came to the delta.

The Myth of Creation

The original myths have no description of the act of creation. These myths can be
classified under three heads: -
The Origin of the Universe: The goddess Nammu (sea) is described as the “the mother
who gave birth to heaven and earth”. Heaven and earth was a mountain, whose base was
earth ant the top heaven. Heaven is personified as an, and earth Ki, and from their union
the air god Enlil was born, it was he who separated heaven and earth and brought the
universe into being.
The Organization of the Universe: The moon-god Nanna or Sin was born out of rape of
goddess Ninlil by Enlil, he was banished to the underworld but Ninlil was with child and
she insisted to follow Enlil. Enlil is believed as the source of vegetation, cattle,
agricultural implements and the art of civilization, all this he delegates to lesser gods.
Another myth describes the journeys of Enki to different worlds in order to bring order
into the universe .He visits Ur, then Meluhha and then Dilman
The Creation of Man: Man was created for the service of gods (essential to justify the
production of surplus and its submission to the gods to keep them happy), to till the
ground and free the gods from having to do work for their living. Gods complain that
they cannot get their food. Enki is asleep but Nammu arouses him from sleep, on his
instructions Nammu and Ninmah mix clay and bring man to existence.
The Myth of the Flood: A god appears to be declaring his intention of saving mankind
from the destruction which the gods have decided to bring upon them. Enki is credited as
that god.

The Enuma Elish or the creation myth describes Enki who blesses Nippur, Ur, Meluhha
and Dilman with abundant crops, flocks, precious mortals and success in war. He
crossed to the Kur Meluhha
Enki, the king of the Abzy, decrees its fate:

Black Kur, your trees will be large trees.

They will be me-groves of the Kur:
Their thrones will be set in royal palaces.
Your reeds will be large reeds; they will be reeds of the Kur:
Heroes work them as weapons in the battlefields.
Your bulls will be large bulls
They be the bulls of the Kur.
Their roar will be the roar of the bulls of the Kur.
The great me of the gods will be perfected for you.
All the dar—birds of the Kur (wear) carnelian beards;
Your birds will be haia-birds;
Their cries will fill the royal palaces
Your silver will be gold
Your copper will be bronze-tin.
Kur, everything you have will (increase),
Your people will (multiply),
Your males will go after his fellow male like a bull.

Chapter 3: Sumerian Myths and the Holy Books

The Sumerian myths have a great influence upon the Old and new testaments. The
biblical accounts in some cases mirror the contents of the myths.
Jewish history begins at the bottom of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This was a logical
place for civilization to begin in terns of development of agriculture and culture, and it’s
also a logical place for Prophet Abraham to appear, because he is going to affect the
world, he has to be at the crossroads of the ancient migration pathways. Prophet Abraham
was born in Mesopotamia, in a city called Ur
The religions of ancient east were predominantly polytheistic. Most tribes and societies in
the Mesopotamian region believed in some kind of pantheon of recognized deities.
Natural elements or phenomena were often associated with deities .The existence of gods
like Enlil (air), Anou (sky) and Enki (water) in Sumer are evidence of this .It was quiet
common to worship a multitude of gods and goddesses. Although families and clans
,often ,had a personal “patriarch/matriarch deity”. Worship often involved the offering of
gifts to appease the deities, a few common ones being honey, wine, date, date cakes and
human sacrifice.
Abraham came from Ur and from a place in the Mesopotamian delta called Aram
Naharayim (Aram of the two rivers), a location not in the city proper.
Excavations show that the architectural knowledge of the people that inhabited this area
was extraordinary. Some of the earliest brick dwellings were found in this area. The
society relied heavily on farming and trade within the local area as well as on merchants
who facilitated the movement of goods between the cities .The city states often warred
with each other and there was no political unity.
It appears that in Abraham’s (pbuh) times there was a general migration from urbanized
areas to farming villages and rural existence .He was given marching orders by a divine
source known as Yahweh.
Z Sitchin in his book “The 12 th Planet” and Alan Alford’s book “Gods of the New
Millennium” has indicated that Abraham was summoned in a covert manner? If true this
would only make sense if Yahweh was not well liked in Ur and that is why the deity had
to use covert operations to steal a pure seed like Abraham from Sumer.
The bible suggests to us that Arram lived his childhood with Ur in Chaldee .His father
was Terach, who had three sons: Haran (dead in Ur), Nachor and Abram .Ur was
destroyed in 2004 BC and a great famine preceded its destruction. Abrahms was a man of
truth and sensitivity, full of ideals, devoted to justice and peace. Then God, in “human –
form”, in the company of two angels also in human form, visited Abraham.
The Bible says that Ishmael and all the males of the House of Abraham were circumcised
as a sign of the Alliance that God made with Abraham and his descendents.
Within the numerous human societies, the notion of there being many gods or spirits
preceded the concept of a single God .The precise time at which monotheism, the
worship of one god, appeared is not known. That it arose somewhere in the Middle East,
probably in Mesopotamia, is certain (although this thesis attempts to prove that the
concept was borrowed or acquired from the decaying Indus valley Civilization) .Judaism,
Christianity and Islam, all trace their roots back to one individual: Abraham, who
probably lived sometimes after 2000 BC. According to the Hebrew Bible (the Old
Testament), Abraham emigrated from Ur, an ancient city of Sumer on the Euphrates
River northwest of the Persian Gulf – to Canaan (roughly the area now called Israel).
Extracts from
Bruce Feiler
Abraham –A Journey to the heart of Three Faiths
HarperCollins Publishers Inc. 2002 .
Page 25
“Mass migrations, from Mesopotamia to Canaan were noted around 1800 B.C.E.”

“Jewish and Christian scholars associate this place with UR, the capital of ancient
Sumer”.

Page 48-49

“Later generations conclude the Abraham understood that the voice belonged to God,
specifically the one and only God .All three religions are clear on this point .But the
Bible, in fact is not .If anything, it suggests otherwise .The voice that calls Abraham
belongs to Yahweh, often translated as “the Lord”, Later .Abraham performs
circumcision at the request of El Shaddi or “Almighty God”. He plants a tamarisk at the
behest of El Olam, or “Everlasting God”. Even Yahweh confirms that polymorphy,
telling Moses that He appeared to Abraham as El Shaddai .
The suggestion in such passages is that Abraham, far from the complete monotheist of
Moses, still retains echoes of the polytheism of his ancestors .He is a transitional figure,
with a foot in both worlds.”

Page 86
“In Genesis …………After circumcision ,the Lord appeared to Abraham in the form of
three men .Abraham immediately throws open his tent flaps ,slaughters a calf , and asks
Sarah to prepare a meal .As a reward ,the men promise that Sarah shall soon have a son.
But she laughs,” I am withered, am I to have enjoyment with my husband so old?” God is
clearly miffed.”Is anything too wondrous for the Lord?” In response, Sarah actually lies
to God. “I did not laugh”. But God has none of it.” You did laugh”. Finally the men
depart.

The Sumerians claimed that their culture was a gift from the gods .The Sumerian and
Mesopotamian text do credit flesh and blood gods with the creation of man. These texts
closely parallel the Biblical account of Genesis, although the later tends to present the
monotheistic interpretation.
The beliefs of ancient people were founded on perceptions that had proper substance in
their historical context.
Karen Armstrong writes:
“The idea of the covenant (with Moses) tells us that the Israelites were not yet
monotheists ,since it only made sense in a polytheistic setting .The Israelites did not
believe that Yahweh ,the God of Sinai ,was the only God ,but promised in their
covenant ,that they would ignore all other deities and worship Him alone ….The Prophet
would urge the Israelites to remain true to the covenant but the majority would continue
to worship Baal ,Asherah and Anat in the traditional way “.
There is an amazing similarity between Genesis and the Enuma Elish ( a Babylonian
epic text) .One Mesopotamian text describes the instructions given by the god in charge
of creation :

“Mix to a core the clay

From the Basement of Earth,
Just above the Abzu
And shape it into the from of a core
I shall provide good, knowing young gods
Who shall bring that clay to the right condition”

The Bible makes a similar claim that man was created “from the dust of the ground”
Why mankind was created .The Bible states only that “there was no man to work the
ground” prior to the “creation” but the Atra-Hasis gives additional details:

“When the god, as men

Bore the work and suffered the toil
The toil of the gods was great,
The work was heavy
The distress was much”

Another aspect of the Exodus is the Ark of the Covenant .The Lord tells Moses
;
“There above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the testimony,
I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelis”

The Lord explains that he cannot accompany the Israelis to the Promised Land in person;
indeed he will use the Ark to communicate his commands.

Prophet Abraham pbum came form Ur and he might have been a native, and could be
from the noblest priestly family.
Adam’s fall from grace,according to the bible, was a result of consuming a drug or fruit
that was forbidden, the consumption of which led to sexual knowledge.
All of Mesopotamian texts indicate that man was originally created as a slave race to
relive the “toil” of the gods.
Sumerian depictions of the event suggest that the serpent-god was Enki himself, and that
he was temporarily arrested for this act.
According to the Bible man was created to “work the ground” .The Sumerian version
claims that “the gods of Sumer rebelled at such drudgery and invented man to dig and
tend”.
Genesis 11 does discuss the Sumer civilization, the Bible says:

“At first, the people of the whole world had only one language and used the same words.
As they wandered about in the East, they came to a plain in Babylonia and settled there.
They said to one another,” Come on! Let’s make bricks and bake them hard”….”

Extract from Encarta® 98 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1997

“Nimrod, character in the biblical Book of Genesis, described as “the first potentate on
earth” and “mighty hunter in the eyes of Yahweh (God) (Gen. 10:8-9). In Genesis he is
identified as the son of Ham and grandson of Noah, and an empire-builder whose lands
included large areas of southern Mesopotamia. Nimrod’s identity is much debated. He
has been associated with the Mesopotamian god Ninurta, with the legendary
Mesopotamian hero Gilamesh, and with King Shamshi-Abad 1,the founder of the
Assaryian Empire.
The epitaph “mighty hunter” applied to Nimrod in genesis has traditionally been
interpreted as indicating that “his prey was man”. In the 17 th.- centaury epic poem
Paradise lost(Book X11, 11.24-63),by English writer John Milton ,Nimrod appears as the
lawless and impious tyrant whose ambition led to the disastrous episode of building of
the Tower of Babel, Nimrod instructed his people to construct a tower to reach heaven
.God punished Nimrod’s arrogance and halted constriction by condemning the human
race to speak separate and mutually unintelligible languages and scattering it all over the
world .Legend locates the tomb of Nimrod in Damascus, Syria .In English literary
tradition ,the name Nimrod is often applied to a skillful or daring hunter .”

Extract from Encarta® 98 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1997

Gilgamesh Epic
An important poem is named for its hero, Gilamesh, a tyrannical Babylonian king who
ruled the city of Uruk, known in the Bible as Erech (now Al Warka, Iraq), according to
the myth, the gods respond to the prayers of the oppressed citizenry of Uruk and send a
wild, brutish man, Enkidu, to challenge Gilgamesh to a wrestling match. When the
contest ends with neither as victor, Gilamesh and Enkidu become close friends. They
journey together and share many adventures. Accounts of their heroism and bravery in
slaying dangerous beats spread to many lands.
When the two travelers return to Uruk, Istar (guardian deity of the city) proclaims her
love for the heroic Gilamesh. When he rejects her, she sends the Bull of heaven to
destroy the city. Gilamesh and Enkidu kill the bull, and, as punishment for his
participation, the gods doom Enkidu to die. After Enkidu’s death, Gilamesh seeks out the
wise man Utnapishtim to learn the secrets of immortality .The sage recounts to Gilamesh
a story of a great flood (the details of which are so remarkably similar to later biblical
accounts that scholars have taken great interest in this story). After much hesitation,
Untnapishtim reveals to Gilgamesh that a plant bestowing eternal youth is in the sea.
Gilamesh dives into to the water and finds the plant but later loses it to a serpent and,
disconsolate, returns to Uruk to end his days.
This saga was widely studied and translated in ancient times. Biblical writers appear to
have modeled their account of the friendship of David and Jonathan on the relationship
between Gilamesh and Ebkidu.”

The Prophet Ibrahim and Nimrod incident finds no mention in the Bible.The incident
with Nimrod and The prophets opposition by his Father and people are also not
mentioned at all in the Bible .The bible treats the whole affair as a migration by the
prophet to other lands to seek better economic opportunities .The Koran does present the
incident as follows :-
Al Ambia 51…

Even before that We had accorded realization to Ibrahim and We knew him well
.Remember the incident when he ,Ibrahim ,said to his father and people “ these idols
which you worship ,what is their use “ ,they replied that “ we found our ancestors and
forefathers worshipping these idols “ .Ibrahim said “ you are misguided and so were your
forefathers “ they said “are you serious or are you joking with us “ Ibrahim replied “ No ,
the true God is the same Who is the Creator of the earth and heavens .I affirm my faith in
front of you and in your absence I will deal with your idols “ .The prophet than did in
fact broke the idols into pieces but left the biggest idol unharmed .When his family came
back they saw the fate of their idols and said “ who has done this to our gods some
amongst them replied that “ we heard , a young man named Ibrahim , who was
mentioning this –the destruction of the idols to us “ .Ibrahim was summoned and asked as
to why he had destroyed their idols .Ibrahim said that the idols were damaged by the big
idol ,he suggested that they question the big idol .This argument did register with the
people but then they chose to ignore the rational and logical answer provided by Ibrahim
and complained to Nimrod .

XX! – The Prophets verse 51 – 71

And we verily gave Abraham of old his proper course, and we were Aware of him. When
he said unto his father and his folk. What are these images unto which ye pay devotion?
They said: We found our fathers worshippers of them .He said: Verily ye and your fathers
were in plain error. They said: Bringest thou unto us the truth, or art thou some jester? He
said: Nay, but your Lord of the heavens and the earth .Who created them; and I am of
those who testify unto that. And, by Allah, I shall circumvent your idols after ye have
gone away and turned your backs. Then he reduced them to fragments, all save the chief
of them, that haply they might have recourse to it. They said: Who hath done this to our
gods? Surely it must be some evildoer. They said: we heard a youth make mention of
them, who is called Abraham. They said: Is it thou who hast done this to our gods, o
Abraham? He said: But this, their chief hath done .So Question them, if they can speak.
They gathered they apart and said: Lo! Ye yourselves are the wrong doer. And they were
utterly confounded. And they said: Well thou knowest that these speak not .He said:
Worship ye then instead of Allah that which cannot profit you at all .not harm you? Fie
on you and all that ye worship instead of Allah! Have ye then no sense?
They cried: Burn him and stand by your gods, if ye will be doing, we said: O fire .be
coolness and peace for Abraham. And they wished to set a snare for him, but we made
them great losers. And we rescued him and Lot (and brought them) to the land, which we
have blessed for (all) peoples.
Translation from Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall

The Koran and Talmud do discuss this .The Koranic description suggests:-

. The monotheistic religion did not form the part of the collective
Consciousness of his (prophet Ibrahim’s) people and family .His
father and people were clearly idol worshippers( Although there are
references, to a lost tradition and belief of worship of one God).

. Nimrod and the establishment also were not happy at this action and
claim of Ibrahim pbuh .This would suggest that the
Sumeric/Babylonian people were also not the adherents of the
monotheistic religion.

.Interestingly Nimrod’s unhappiness, in fact, resulted from the

complain of The Prophets father and not from the deeds of Ibrahim
pre se. The assertions of the Prophet Ibrahim were not per se
offensive to the ruler .Nimrod.s displeasure resulted from the
debasing of the Hebrew deities at the hand of Ibrahim .
One could infer that the monotheistic religion as a concept was introduced by people
other than the Prophets family and the prevailing population and royalty of UR .Royalty
of Ur also did not subscribe to the monotheistic religion .Who were the outsiders,
sophisticated enough, to have introduced the concept of the monotheistic religion? Could
these have been the parts of the elite from Indus civilization, which around this time
started to .Did the Indus elite migrate to Ur and did the elite carry the embryonic concept
of ONE GOD RELEGION with them to Sumer.

The character and ethos of the Indus civilization was inclusiveness .There is no evidence
of any intercine warfare or struggle .This trait was definitely not transferred to the people
who subsequent to the decline of IVC inhabited these areas .The succeeding people were
tribal and pastoral people, with considerable evidence of intercine warfare and struggle,
as depicted in the Mahabatra .The IVC did not transfer its main trait to the people who
succeeded them.
Perhaps the elite migrated to UR (and not to the Jummna-Ganges valley or Kutch area)
and therefore the essence of the IVC was not transferred to the subsequent societies that
followed the IVC in the sub-continent. What was transferred was the handicrafts and
other craft skills .This would suggest that Indus people other than the Indus elite did stay
on .The Indus civilization was characterized by the lack of defined priest structures .Also
absence were elaborate burial practices .There is evidence of inequality but there is no
evidence of human sacrifice or slave workers (general health of non elite has been
deemed to be good, they had been well fed).
The religion of the Sumerians left its mark on the entire Middle East .Its temples and
ziggurats are scattered all over the region .Its literature, cosmogony and rituals influenced
its neighbors to an extant that Judeo-Christian-Islamic traditions echo Sumerian ones.
Each city housed a temple that was a seat of a god, as the gods controlled the powerful
forces which often dictated human life .The city leaders had a duty to please the towns
patron deity, not only for the good will of that deity but also for the good will of other
powerful deities (this could also be the method used to skim off the surplus form the
farmers, who were made to believe that gods needed pleasing else the prosperity of the
farmer would be threatened, the farmer gave away most of the surplus to the god to
ensure continued good will of the deity with reference to weather ,water etc . )
The priests initially held this role which also continued when secular kings got to power.
Many kings also claimed divine right.
The circular central shrine of the temple, known as a “cella”, had a brick alter or offering
table in front of a statue of the temple’s deity, the cella was lined on its long ends by
many rooms for priests and priestesses. These mud–brick buildings were decorated with
cone geometrical mosaics, and the occasional fresco with human and animal figures.
These temples eventually evolved into towering ziggurats.
The temples were staffed by priests, priestesses, musicians, singers, castrates and
hierodules. Various public rituals, food sacrifices and libations took place on a daily
basis. There were monthly feasts and annual, New Year celebrations. During the later, the
king would be married to Inanna as the resurrected fertility god Dumuzi.
When it came to more private matters, a Sumerian remained devout .In times of
misfortunes a Sumerian could do little, the best he could do was would be to “plead,
lament and wail, tearfully confessing his sins and failings.” their family god or city god
might intervene on their behalf, which did not happen always. After all a man was
created as a broken, labor saving, tool for the use of the gods and at the end of everyone’s
life, laid the underworld, a generally dreary place.
The Sumerian concept of creation (anki) was that the primeval sea (abzu) existed before
anything else and within that, the heaven (an) and the earth (ki) were formed .The
boundary between heaven and earth was a solid (perhaps tin vault, and the earth was a
flat disc. Within the vault lay the gas-like “lil” or atmosphere, the brighter portions
therein formed the stars, planets, sun and the moon. Each of the major Sumerian deity is
associated with one of these regions .An the god of heavens may have been the main god
prior to 2500 BC, although his importance gradually waned .the original name of the
earth goddess, whose name more often appears as Ninhursag (queen of the mountains),
Ninmah (the exalted lady), or Nintu (the lady who gave birth). It seems likely that these
two were the progenitors of most of the gods.
Nammu is the goddess of the watery abyss, the primeval sea .She may be the earliest of
deities within Sumerian cosmology as she gave birth to heaven and earth .She is
elsewhere described both as mother of all gods and wife of An .She is Enki’s mother .she
prompts him to create servants for the gods and is then directed by him on how, with the
help of Nimmah/Ninhursag to create man.
An, the god is heaven was a main god since 2500 BC although his importance gradually
waned .in the early days he carried off heaven, while Enlil carried away the earth .He and
Ki/Ninhursag were the progenitors of most of the gods, although in one place Nammu is
listed to be his wife .His primary temple was at Erech .He and Enlil gave various gods,
goddesses, and kings their earthly regions of influence and their laws.
Ninhursag (Ki ,Ninmah ,Nintu) Ki is perhaps the original name of the goddess of earth
whose name often appears as Ninhursag (queen of mountains) ,Ninmah (exalted lady), or
Nintu (the lady who gave birth). Most often she is considered as Enlil’s sister, but in
some traditions she is his spouse instead .She was born, possibly as a unified cosmic
mountain with An, from Nammu and shortly thereafter, their union produced Enlil .In the
early days, as Ki she was separated from Heaven (An) and carried off by Enlil .It seems
likely that she and an were the progenitors of most of the gods .she later unites with Enlil
and with the assistance of Enki they produce the world’s plant and animal life.
Enki and Ninhursag in Dilmun ,she as (Ninyu) bears the goddess Ninsar from Enki .who
in turn bears the goddess Ninkur ,who in turn bears Uttu ,goddess of plants .Uttu bore
eight new trees from Enki .when he ate Uttu’s children ,Ninhursag cursed him eight
wounds and disappears .After being persuaded by Enlil to undo her curse ,she bore Enki
eight new children which undid the wounds of the first ones .
Enki seats her (as Nintu) on the big side of the table in Nippur at the feast celebrating his
new house in Eridu .
Enki and Ninmah, she is the mother goddess and, as Ninmah assists in the creation of
man. Enki, having been prompted by Nammu to create servants for the gods, describes
how Nammu and Ninmah will help fashion man from clay. Prior to getting to work, she
and Enki drink overmuch at a feast She then shapes six flawed versions of man from the
heart of clay over the Abzu, with Enki declaring their fates. Enki, in turn also creates a
flawed man which is unable to eat. Ninmah appears to curse him for his failed effort.
Extract form Ibn e Khuldun:
The Khane Kaaba was said to have been first built by the Prophet Adam, this was
destroyed in the great flood and its traces were lost. However there is no evidence of this
from the hadiath records.
The Koranic verse that says, “Hazarat Abrahim pbum and Hazarat Ishmael pbum were to
construct their walls on ancient foundations”
It is possible that this is a reference to this story.
It is also possible that ancient foundations here mean the religion and not figuratively the
building also it could mean the great assembly hall in Harrapa (and Mohenjadaro). There
was a claim that this great assembly hall was similar in style and architecture to Kaaba.

Extract form: Tafseer Ibn e Kasir, Allama Ammad uldin ibn e kasir: Hadiqa Academy,
Urdu Bazar, and Lahore –

When Hazarat Abrahim pbuh reached the Kaaba a piece of cloud was over him and a
voice commanded that O Ibrahim construct the House of God along the shadow of the
cloud.
Hazart Sadi states “The stone was brought by the angel Gabriel from HIND, and then it
was white ….
Also it was stated in the same narration that the foundations of the Kaaba were laid upon
already existing foundations.
In Abdul Razzak it is stated that Hazarat Adam came from Indian sub continent.

Interestingly in 2120 BC Ur-Nammu the governor of Ur was crowned: King of Sumer,

UR and Akkad” his reign lasted until 2095 BC he standardized weights and measures in
the mines .He, formulated a system of law which tried to establish justice for the
underprivileged, notably the widows and orphans who were desperately poor .He also
made rules for punishing the rich who abused their power by beating and violating their
slaves. There were also laws in this new code to punish those who bore false witness, and
laws to financially compensate people who were victims of robbery and injury, and
particularly indemnities for wives treated badly by their husbands. Were these laws
developed under influence from IVC? The Indus elite possibly migrated to Sumer around
2000 BC.

Extract from “A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM IN THE LIGHT OF EXTRA-
CANONICAL JEWISH WRITINGS -A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Graduate Studies in
Religious Instruction Brigham Young University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy by Rabbi Nissim Wernick August, 1968

The Book of Abraham reiterates that Abraham was privileged to witness the council of
the Gods as they were preparing to create the heavens and the earth. Dr. Andrus and Dr.
Hunter state that this should be considered the "blueprint of creation." Throughout the
verses found in the creation section of the Book of Abraham, the concept of "plan" arises
continuously:
And the Gods said: Let us prepare the waters to bring forth abundantly the moving
creatures that have life;... And the Gods said: We will bless them, and cause them to be
fruitful and multiply.41

Also:

And the Gods said: We will do everything that we have said and organize them; and
behold they shall be very obedient.42

And:

And thus were their decisions at the time that they counseled among themselves to form
the heavens and the earth.43

The Book of Abraham, therefore, propounds the idea of the Gods making a "plan" or a
blueprint" of creation before an actual creation. As was mentioned before, this, too, can
be paralleled in some Jewish literature and Jewish thought.

The act of creation to the religious mind presupposes the bringing of the world into
existence by the act of God. Many Jewish philosophers find in the word, "beriah," the
concept of creatio ex nihilo. However, a closer study of the Hebrew word refutes this
notion. The etymological meaning of the verb, "beriah" (creation) denotes, "to cut and put
into shape," and therefore presupposes the idea that some material has to be employed.
This was easily recognized by Nachmonides and Maimonides in their respective
commentaries on the Bible.44 It is further taught that "God looked into the Torah, and
through it He created."45 Also, the book, Wisdom of Solomon, posits a formless
archmatter which the Creator simply brought into order.46 It is evident that Man had to
be taught the manner of creation. It can, therefore, be inferred that Adam needed
instruction in the manner of creation, not only with regards to Eve, but also with regards
to all creation.

Extract from

Who Was Melchizedek?

In the Book of Genesis, Melchizedek came to greet Abraham after his victory over the
five kings and ascribed the victory entirely to God. Melchizedek brought out wine and
bread, blessed Abraham and received tithes from him.141 In Psalms. reference is made to
him where the victorious ruler is declared to be a priest forever after the order of
Melchizedek.142 This is neither an invention nor the product of an error but rests upon an
ancient Jewish tradition.143 A feature ascribed to him in the Midrash is his supernatural
origin in that he is described as being "without father and without mother, without
descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the son of God
abiding forever."144 Rabbinical literature identified Melchizedek with Shem, the
ancestor of Abraham.145
If Melchizedek indeed possessed the characteristics as described in Ruth Rabbah, then a
valid answer to commentators who reject the idea that Melchizedek was Shem, is
achieved. For Shem lived two generations prior to Abraham.146

The incident with Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of "God Most High," is most
puzzling. It interrupts the continuity of the narrative.147 If Salem be identical with
Jerusalem, as is suggested by its use elsewhere parallel with Zion,148 then Melchizedek
was a Canaanite king. Yet he blesses Abraham in the name of God using the very epithets
that the patriarch himself employs in his dialogue with the king of Sodom. Moreover,
Abraham acknowledges Melchizedek's blessing by paying him a tithe.

There is some evidence to suggest that the incident here recorded was once part of a
fuller tradition about Melchizedek since lost. This shadowy figure appears once again in
biblical literature referring to a king of Israel as being divinely endowed with sacral
attributes, "after the order of Melchizedek."149 This would make sense if the symbolism
were easily understood, but it is not. Does LDS theology fill in the gap that is missing in
the Bible?

In view of this, Abraham's oath to the king of Sodom150 is particularly important. Unlike
the case of Melchizedek, the text has here prefixed the tetragrammation YHWH, as
though to leave no doubt as to the correct reference. But this is not the whole story, for by
giving a tithe to the priest, Abraham actually acknowledges that the deity of Melchizedek
is indeed his own. The insertion of YHWH, therefore, can only be meant to emphasize
the identity, not the difference, between the God of Melchizedek and the God of
Abraham, known to the people of Israel as YHWH. This accords well with the biblical
idea of individual non-Hebrews who acknowledge YHWH. Thus Melchizedek belongs to
this category.151

Why did the narrative introduce the Melchizedek incident here at all? This question
cannot be answered with any degree of certainty, though some plausible suggestions may
be put forth. True, it is not known. The Bible does not as much as hint as to the Parson
for his inclusion. However, if the accounts of the Talmud and Jewish literature be correct,
than the plausible answer is that the Bible saw fit to include Melchizedek because he was
a high priest who had already received authority from God. Melchizedek thereby
becomes the agent of God in transmitting the high priesthood to Abraham. This is sound
Mormon and Jewish thinking. What happened to the original text and why is it not given
in the Bible? Perhaps, it is assumed by some scholars, that it eroded away as many other
ancient documents.
 Chapter 5: Signs of Rationality

The Harrapan civilization was unique in many ways .It was technologically a very
advanced society, the arts of Mohenjadoro seem to belong to a much later era .The social
structure and the belief system also seems to be much advanced as compared to
contemporary civilizations .The IVC exhibits some signs of rationality that need to be
explored further.
The seal (Plano convex molded tablet from Harrapa – Cat. No. 27) shows a man slaying a
buffalo and a seated figure, in yogic posture.
This could be interpreted as the demise of the old religion (portrayed in the slaying if the
buffalo); the deity could be the symbol of the new religion.
The slaying could represent departure from Sumer like religion to an abstract one.
Slaying of the buffalo is intriguing as the buffalo was a worship animal.
The “deity” in yogic posture, is elsewhere shown as wearing spreading horns of a water
buffalo, does this also represent a departure from older traditions.

The bull was a worship animal

Lord who walks nobly on heaven and earth, self-reliant,
Father Enki, engendered by a bull,
Begotten by a wild bull,
Prized by Enlil, the Great Kur,
Loved by holy An,……

Once he had turned his eye away from that spot,

Once father Enki had raised it over the Euphrates,
He stood up full of lust like an attacking bull,
Lifted his penis, ejaculates –
He filled the Tigris with flowing water.

A wild cow mooing for its young in the pastures,

The scorpion-infested stall,
The Tigris clung to its side as to an attacking bull.

He lifted his penis, brought the bridal gifts –

Like a big wild bull he thrilled the heart of the Tigris,
Stood by as it gave birth.

Source: Myths of Enki, The Crafty God by Samuel Noah and Meier, John

Is the yogic posture deity a Gilgamesh like figure?

Animal motifs appearing on seals found primarily at the largest cities include dangerous
wild animal including the buffalo. These animals were revered as totemic animals,
closely associated with important myths and legends. Zebu bull seals is found on many
seals and these bulls may represent the most important or powerful clan of the cities.

The so called granary of Harrapa is found on Mount F .It has a brick structure that was
built on a massive brick foundation over 45 meters north south and 45 meters east –
east .Two rows of six rooms that appear to be foundations are arranged along a central
passageway that is about 7 meters wide and partly covered with baked bricks. Each room
measures 15.2 by 6.1 meters and has three sleeper walls with air space between them. A
wooden superstructure supported in some places by large columns would have been built
on top of the brick foundations, with stairs leading up from the central passage area.
Small triangular openings may have served as air ducts to allow the flow of fresh air
beneath the hollow floors.
Most scholars agree that theses structures are large public buildings. Rulers and state
officials probably did meet in such large buildings and many of them may have been used
for specific religious functions, their specific function remains a mystery.

Are these structures a model for the Kaaba?

Extract from Ibn e Khuldun:
The Khane Kaaba was said to have been first built by the Prophet Adam, this was
destroyed in the great flood and its traces were lost. However there is no evidence of this
from the hadiath records.(separate traditions suggest that Prophet Adam resided in what
is now known as the IVC)
The Koranic verse that says, “Hazarat Abrahim pbum and Hazarat Ishmael pbum were to
construct their walls on ancient foundations”
It is possible that this is a reference to this story.
It is also possible that “ancient foundations” here means the religion and not figuratively
the building. Also it could mean the great assembly hall in Harrapa (and Mohenjadaro).
There was a claim that this great assembly hall was similar in style and architecture to
Kaaba.

Extract from: Tafseer Ibn e Kasir, Allama Ammad uldin ibn e kasir: Hadiqa Academy,
Urdu Bazar, and Lahore –

When Hazarat Abrahim pbuh reached the Kaaba a piece of cloud was over him and a
voice commanded that O Ibrahim construct the House of God along the shadow of the
cloud.
Hazart Sadi states “The stone was brought by the angel Gabriel from HIND, and then it
was white ….
Also it was stated in the same narration that the foundations of the Kaaba were laid upon
already existing foundations.
In Abdul Razzak it is stated that Hazarat Adam came from Indian sub continent.

The similarities in plan and construction of Harrapa and Mohenjodaro and their sizes
suggest that they served as capitals of their provinces .Both cities were constructed of the
same type and size of bricks.
In contrast to other civilizations, burials found from these cities are not magnificent.
Burials are more simplistic and contain few material things, for the most part things that
are found are not luxury goods .remains of palaces or temples have not been found .The
civilization was mainly urban .The inhabitants traded with Mesopotamia, Southern India,
Afghanistan and Persia for gold, silver and turquoise.
The government was very efficient and complex .The complexity of the social structure is
evident from the fact that various racial and ethnic groups peacefully coexisted within
this civilization for a long period of time .The quality of municipal town planning is an
outstanding feature of the civilization and depicts the emphasis accorded to hygiene. The
streets were laid out in an efficient grid pattern, which ensured that houses were
safeguarded from odor, noise and thieves .Houses were also safeguarded from floods.
Baked bricks which were rarely used in the Near East were used for construction. The
uniformity (there are some exceptions) in town planning suggest the presence of a strong
centralized government, which enforced the standardized construction and planning of
cities.
The construction and maintenance of the cites was accomplished by participation of the
city population as no slave labor seem to have been detected or inferred .The government
even standardized industrial products such as metal tools and weapons and even units of
length that were used to measure distance. The administration managed an intricate
system of distribution of agricultural and industrial products, and also raw materials, both
indigenous and imported. They managed to grow enough surplus agricultural produce to
feed the various specialized workers .The high degree of homogeneity in products ,the
uniform planning of towns ,the rigorous enforcement of trade and municipal regulations
and the efficient distribution system all point to an efficient sophisticated administration ,
much out of place , in that point in time .
There is evidence of scientific and technological excellence as well; this is depicted by
the great accuracy that they achieved in measuring units of length, mass and time. Their
smallest division, which is marked on an ivory scale of Lothal , was approximately 1.704
mm . Their engineers followed the decimal division of measurement and hence the great
symmetry and homogeneity in their structures. The sewage system was very sophisticated
and they were the first people to develop a system of uniform weights and measures.
They evolved techniques in metallurgy and produced tin, copper, bronze, and lead.
The Indus people were very proficient in fine arts .Sir John Marshall once reacted with
surprise when he saw the famous Harrapan bronze statuette of the slender-limbed
“dancing” girl in Mohenjodaro :

“When I first saw them I found it difficult to believe that they are pre-historic; they
seemed so completely to upset all established ideas about early art .Modeling such as this
was unknown in the ancient world up to the Hellenistic age of Greece, and I thought,
therefore, that some mistake must surely have been made; these figures had found their
way into levels some 3000 years older than to which they properly belonged …. Now, in
these statuettes, it is just this anatomical truth which is so startling; that makes us wonder
whether, in this all-important matter, Greek artistry could possibly have been anticipated
by the sculptors of a far-off age on the banks of the Indus.”

The Harrapan art is considered as much advanced for that period.

The inclusive mature of the civilization is perhaps its greatest achievement; various
religious, racial and social groups lived in harmony. Some seals do show some strife
between social classes but more numerous others show integration of ideologically or
socially different groups , which is symbolically shown by animals with several heads
that represent a combination of different tribes or social groups .
This integration was managed by means of free trade , of goods and commodities
,between various regions within the civilization resulting in mutual prosperity .The
central authority did manage to put up a system that ensured equitable returns to different
groups by means of establishment of market towns .Another approach of the Harrappans
peoples to the problem of religious differences was to form confederacies in order to
convert other people to the Harrappan ideology and way of life by offering the benefits of
superior material culture and ensuring as more peaceful life . In addition inter racial
marriages were encouraged and were very common as is revealed by the examination of
joint burials of Lothal .

Extracts from Prof. Dani’s interview, from the internet.

“…. Have been working in the assumption that the language of the Indus people was
Dravadian , that the people who built the Indus Civilization are Dravadians ,. But
unfortunately I, as well as my friend Prof. B.B. Lal in India, have not been able to agree
with this “ . “ ….then something of that civilization they should carry into the South
except just the language .”
” We have not stringed instruments in Indus Valley Civilization. We have got the flute,
we have cymbals, we have got the dholak , So , I would like to correct myself : to say that
there is nothing surviving in South India ( is wrong) ; this is the only instrument which is
surviving there according to me from The Indus Civilization “
“….So if we insist on an agglutinative language being used in the Indus period, why not
connect it with Altaic , rather than just with Dravadian ? Why not connect it with
Sumerian , which is also an agglutinative language ?”
“…. The prototype of Shiva, and about the yoga and so on. But today we know that there
is a great difference between the two “
“So if writing in the Indus Civilization is derived from Western Asia, it is not necessary
that the symbols come from that place. We can use our own symbols. But the basic
principle came from there.”

Extracts from Dr. Tariq Rehman : ”Peoples and Languages in Pre-Islamic Indus Valley:

“…Thus Pakistani languages have a Dravadian substratum .The evidence for this
presence of this substratum is the presence of retroflex consonants which does not exist in
Iranian or European members of the Indo-European family of languages .Another clue
may be the existence of consonantal clusters in the beginning and end of words in Iranian
, European , Dardic languages and even Sanskrit .Thus Sanskrit has “prem” which means
love , but Hindi-Urdu has “perim”. They insert the vowel “i” between the two word-
initial consonants “p” and “r” because their own rules of pronunciation do not allow
word-initial consonantal clusters”.
“…speakers of , Urdu , Punjabi and Sindhi separate consonants in words such as
“school”, “ stool” , and “small” .It may be that this splitting of consonantal clusters
comes into some of the languages of South Asia from languages older than Sanskrit .”

“Mohenjodaro was abandoned and a cultural fragmentation in the Greater Indus Valley
took place .When that happened the Harrappan language remained as a substratum in the
language of the Aryan civilization of the Indus valley civilization of the Indus Valley of
about 1200 to 1000 B.C when the Rigveda was largely composed in the plains of
Punjab,”
 Chapter 6: Philosophy of Religion
Whiteheads definition of advanced religion:
“A system of general truths, which have the effect of transforming character when they
are sincerely held and vividly apprehended.”
Almost in all religions some sort of cosmogony exists

Herbert Spencer from “The Story of Philosophy” by Will Durant

Society is an organism, having organs of nutrition, circulation, coordination and
reproduction .In a society each of the part retains its own consciousness and its own will,
but the centralization of government and authority tends to reduce the scope of this
distinction .A social organism grows but with growth it becomes more complex and
while becoming more complex its part acquire increased interdependence.
The development of society mimics evolution, the growing size of the political unit, from
family to state and league, the growing size of the economic unit, from petty domestic
industry to monopolies and cartels, the growing size of the population unit, from village
to town and cities, surely these show a sign on integration, while the division of labor, the
multiplication of professions and trades, and the growing interdependence of the city with
country, and of nation with nation, amply illustrate the development of coherence and
differentiation .
The same principles of integration of the heterogeneous apply to every field of social
phenomena, from religion and government to science and art.
Religion is at first the worship of a multitude of gods and spirits, more or less like in
every nation, and the development of religion comes through the notion of a central and
omnipotent deity subordinating the others, and coordinating them into their hierarchy of
special roles.
The first gods were probably suggested by dreams and ghosts .The primitive mind
believed that in death or sleep, or trance, the ghost or spirit left the body. Echo’s and
reflections were sounds and sights of one’s ghost or double .God was at first only a
permanently existing ghost. Persons who had been powerful during their earthly lives
were believed to keep their power in their ghostly appearance. Such dangerous ghosts had
to be appeased. Funeral rites grew into worship, and all the modes of currying favor with
the earthly chief were applied to the ceremonial of prayer and the appeasement of the
gods. Ecclesiastical revenues originated in gifts to the gods, just as state revenue began as
presents to the chief. Obeisance to kings became prostration and prayer at the altar of the
god .In ancestor worship all religion has its origin.
Religion is probably the central feature in the life of primitive man. Existence is so
precarious and humble among them that the person lives rather in the hope of things to
come than in the reality of things seen.
Supernatural religion is a concomitant of militant societies, as war give way to industry,
thought turns from death to life, and life runs out of the groove of reverent authority into
the open road of initiative and freedom.
The military states are always centralized in government and almost always monarchical,
the cooperation it inculcates is regimental and compulsory, it encourages authoritarian
religion, worshiping a warrior god .It develops rigid class distinctions and class codes .It
props up the natural domestic absolutism of the male. Because the death rate in warlike
societies is high, they tend to polygamy and to a low status of women. Most states have
been militant because war strengthens the central power and makes for the subordination
of all interests to those of the state.
Industry makes for democracy and peace as life ceases to be dominated by war a
thousand centers of economic development arise and power is beneficially spread over a
large portion of the members of the group. Since production can prosper only where
initiative is free, an industrial society breaks down those traditions of authority, hierarchy
and caste which flourish in military states and under which military states flourish .The
occupation of a solider ceases to be held in high repute and patriotism becomes a love of
one’s country rather than a hatred of every other. Superstitious religion is superseded by
liberal creeds whose focus is upon enrichment of human life .The contrast between the
militant and the industrial type of society is indicated by the statement that “inversion of
the belief that individuals exist for the benefit of the State into the belief that the State
exists for the benefit of the individuals.
A military society exalts certain virtues and condones what other people might call
crimes. Aggression and robbery and treachery are not so equivocally denounced among
peoples accustomed to them by war, as among people who have learned the value of
honesty and non-aggression through industry and peace. Generosity and humanity
flourish better where war is infrequent and long periods of productive tranquility
inculcates the advantages of mutual aid .The patriotic members of a militant society will
look upon bravery and strength as the highest virtues of a man, upon obedience as the
highest virtues of the citizen, and upon silent submission to multiple motherhood as the
highest virtues of a woman.
The North American Indian regarded the use of the bow and arrow, the war club and
spear, as the noblest employments of man; they looked upon agricultural and mechanical
labor as degrading.
During immaturity benefits received must be inversely proportionate to capacities
possessed. Within the family group most must be given where least is deserved.

Evaluation of The Indus valley civilization evaluated at above criteria would be as

follows: -

The Indus civilization excavations do bring out the following facts: -

- There does not seem to be a large number of gods, in fact very few figurines have
been found which could be gods or goddesses, although it should be said that
these figures, the priest – king, dancing girl, other god figures do not necessarily
indicate images of gods. The first two were not images whilst the later could be
god images but these perhaps relate to the last Indus periods, a period according
to this thesis, the Indus elite had already migrated to Sumer, and the whole
structure and ethos of the Indus society had changed .
- The burial practices in proto Harrapan /early Harrapan period changed in about
3000 BC. Burial were no longer elaborate and dead bodies did not include
valuables, in contrast to the practice which continued in Sumer and elsewhere
.The Indus burials were simple and indicate the fact that these people believed
that the dead had no use for the material goods which are of value to the living.
Incidentally in the late Harrapan period the burial practices changed again .The
dead were cremated, this would indicate a major change and would support the
theory that the Indus elite did migrate (to Sumer) around 2000 BC and although
the cities did continue to exist but the central organizing force was not there any
more.
- The Indus cities do not indicate any inter city warfare evidence .It would seem
that these cities were not at war with each other and the similarity in city layouts
would indicate a strong central authority, which was imposed not by force but by
commerce, trade and religion.
- There is significant evidence of industrial activity, this would indicate a society
that was progressive, was not warlike and therefore had structures that assisted
innovation (although the fact that Indus artifacts remained exactly the same for a
large period of time would indicate that there was strong central regulation which
did not allow change and therefore inhabited innovation).
- There is also no evidence of slavery, There does seem to be an upper and lower
class but the structure does not seem to have been maintained by use of force .The
elite perhaps exercised control by means of: religion; and by management and
control of trade with Sumer and elsewhere.
The above would indicate that the Indus civilization was inclusive in nature and
therefore would not have multiple gods; there would be a single God which could
have been an abstract concept of God. Prophet Abraham does seem to have obtained
the concept of an abstract, mono, omnipresent God from Sumer. This concept was not
present in Sumerian society itself (see the reaction of Nimrod to the complain of
Prophet Abraham’s father and people, for this see both the Koranic and talmudic
versions) .The concept was not present in the Jews (see reaction of Prophet
Abraham’s father and family). The only people sophisticated enough to have
developed this concept were the Indus people (Egypt, Crete and China do seem to
have multiple gods).

The primitive man also is said to believe in cyclic nature of things and life , the
modern mind believes in a linear forward looking approach .Burial practices where
the dead body was accompanied with large an mount of luxury goods and in cases
where the body is cremated do suggest that the society practicing such burial
procedures believes in the cyclic nature of life and the dead are deemed to return in
the same or in some other shape .The Harrapan burial practices , in sharp contrast to
contemporary civilizations, were simple burial with very few commodities buried
with the dead body , the few items that were found were very inexpensive ( there are
very few exceptions to this) . This would suggest that the Harrapan people were
forward looking people who had a pragmatic view of things and events.

The above discussion supposes that religion was and is a result of evolution. Society
as it grew and matured required the concept of an abstract, omnipresent God and this
evolution occurred in the Indus cities and was transmitted, by means of the migrating
Indus elite, to Prophet Abraham and his people in Sumer .The problem with this
concept is that it is not supported by subsequent, to IVC, history, progress does not
necessarily relate to improved in religious concepts .In IVC itself the late Harrapan
period could be termed as an regression .An answer to that could be that the evolution
in religious thought and practice becomes a part of the total human consciousnesses
and the progress is passed to the next dominant civilization ,the civilization making
the development could go in decline .Further complications rise as there is
considerable evidenced to support that the central idea of the monotheistic religion
can be traced to the first man who achieved conciseness , prophet Adam . Early
Sumerian myths (the creation myth for example) do seem to relate to sacred text
belonging to the era and land from where the Sumar migrated to their city states .
Rigvedic texts also contain text that seems to belong to an era when the Aryans had
not separated from the Iranians.

The Omniscience of Varuna

A guardian, the Lord of worlds

Sees all things as if near at hand.
In secret what ‘tis thought to do
That to the gods is all displayed.
 Whoever moves or stands, who glides in secret,
Who seeks a hiding-place, or hastens from it,
What things two men may plan in secret council ,
A third King Varuna , perceives it also .

And all this earth, King Varuna possesses,

His the remotest ends of you broad heaven;
And born the seas in Varuna lie hidden,
But yet the smallest water drop contains him

Although I climbed the furthest heaven, fleeing

I should not there escape the monarch’s power;
From the heaven his spies descending hasten hither,
With all their thousand eyes the world surveying

Whate’er exists between the earth and heaven,

Or both beyond, to Varuna lies open
The winking of each mortal eye he,
He wields the universe, as dice a player

Page 50, “The Oxford History of India” by Vincent A. Smith, (2001, OUP).

The Sumerian myths seem to be of two kinds , one that differ from time to time ,these
were modified in each successive era , the other are those that seem to have been kept
in tact for all times . These seem to be related to the sacred text that perhaps the
Sumar brought from the piedmont perch from where they migrated to the plains .The
concept that the human mind has a deep structure that allows it to learn language and
to accept the monotheistic concept of religion has been given by a number of
philosophers .This legacy, the monotheistic concept of religion, from the place of fall
(Eden according to the Bible) seem to be the factor that made civilizations dominant ,
and this key factor passed from the dominant civilization to the succeeding one . The
Indus people were the first owners of this key concept and when for unknown reasons
their land became not receptive to this primal but everlasting truth they migrated and
passed on this message to Prophet Ibrahim .Who in the travels spread this to the
whole of middle eastern .the Jewish people became the owners or holders of this key
element and this subsequently passed on to other civilizations and this process goes
on to the present.

History is the record of progress of the human race over time. This progress is not a
straight linear path, but there are regressions also, but looking at a long-term picture
there is a clear trend towards steady progress in human religious thought and practice.
This would of course depend as to how we define progress.
Fundamental changes in conception go together with fundamental changes in values.
Historical consciousness has not been forced upon man by the relentless
accumulation of knowledge and experience .He does not embrace modern view of
time and history reluctantly, as something to which he is condemned by fate. Rather it
is a matter of preference with him .He has come to regard non-repetitive change, the
continual occurrence of novelties, as a law of life because he wants it to be a law of
life .The idea that history repeats itself has been rejected by Kant on the ground that
this will violate human dignity by denying man’s exceptional status.
The ancients had generally seen the world as eternal, without beginning or end, and as
a harmonious whole and balanced system, a kosmos that partook in the nature of the
divine and was a worthy object of admiration .The new religion saw the world as
temporally finite, the creation of a transcendent personal; Deity who continually
sustains it during its limited period of existence, it was God alone who was now
eternal.
In ancient mythology, religion or philosophy the world had also been occasionally
described as the creation of God or the gods, but “creation” had then meant a
rebuilding or restructuring of pre-existing materials, according to principles of
timeless validity.
The new concept of religion gave the concept of God’s absolute power and self-
sufficiency .God was also said to process absolute goodness and love. The attitude of
looking forward in hope acquired the status of a virtue and religious demand which it
had not processed before .The classical stance had been to associate hope with
illusion, it might make life more bearable, but the wise and strong neither hoped nor
feared.
Relevance to the present issue is to discuss the differences in: structure of society; and
attitudes, between the prehistoric man and the new emerging man who believed in a
single God.
Turgot believes that the first age has been one in which men like children indulge in
anthromorphic beliefs; this was followed by a period when these phenomena were
accounted for metaphysically, in terms of abstract entities (finally there has been a
breakthrough to scientific rationality). Turgot also referred to mankind’s gradual
unification: beginning with numerous isolated tribes, larger and larger, and fewer and
fewer, units have been formed throughout history and in the future there will be only
one unit.
Condorcet believes that the subject of progress was the human mind, the shaping of
the mind by means of enlightment and education seemed to be suggested as the
proper way of promoting progress .He divided history into: hunting and fishing
(family, language); pastoralism (livestock, primitive technology, slavery, inequality);
agriculture (further technology, alphabet) and so on.
Marx saw that what makes man human is the fact that he produces for need and the
way he does it, and on the other hand has ability to produce beyond need .Man
became man through labor i.e. by creating conditions which are necessary to his
bodily needs. Labor thus expresses man’s dependency and lack of freedom; it would
have to be abolished if man were to be made completely free
Kant believes that God has implanted reason in man and this development of reason
is what history is all about .If so the question is did God reveal the Oneness of the
God to the Indus people if so why. This must be a logical reason for this. What were
the differences between Sumer and IVC, Sumerian civilization was not inclusive in
nature, city states were frequently at war with each other, each had its own deity, IVC
was different as it was inclusive, there is no evidence of multiple gods nor is there
evidence of warfare between cities, Why? Was this so.
Audelung claims that the initial primal apex language was created when Prophet
Adam was born and further that Prophet Adam was born in Kashmir and Prophet
Adam’s heaven (Eden) was also in Kashmir.
Gorres in 1810 claimed that Aryans were the middle eastern Sumer and that Prophet
Ibraham came from Kashmir which was the first place where human civilization
developed .Creuzer in his book “Symbolik and Mythologie” claimed that the Jews
based their religion upon the religion of the Brahmins, he further claimed that Prophet
ibrahim was in fact the god Brahma and Sarah was in fact the Sarasvati of the sub
continent, both Ibrahim and Sarah were Brahmins.
What is significant in these statements is the fact that it depicts the intellectual legacy
which the sub continent passed on to Abraham . These comments suggest that that the
monotheist concept could only have come from the Harrappan people and perhaps the
the Harrapan people perhaps did transmit the one God concept to Abraham rather
than the Aryans.
Michelet in his book “History of Rome” claims that “---the departure place was
Hindusitan , which was the birth place of all races and religions ..”.Renan in his book
“ Life of Jesus” claims that “The Sumer were a tribe of the Jewish people “ .Jacolliot
in his publication claims that “Hinduistan ,which is the birth place of all human
races , is like the full breast of a mother “.
The book “Historical Development of Music “, claims that” from Mohenjadaro and
Harrappa seven stringed musical have been discovered”. Similar claims were made
by Rai Bahadur K.N.Dixit (pre historic civilization of the Indus Valley, Madras 1939,
page 30).
The above is a view of religion that accepts that evolution created religion .Although
there are a number of aspects of this assumption that can be debated , we for the
purposes of our inquiry accept this thesis and evaluate the Harrapan civilization on
this account .The above and other similar hypothesis are based on evolution of man ,
human society , economic structures and religious concepts .This view if applied to
the Harrapn civilization would perhaps result in rejection of this thesis , since the
Harrapan civilization was inclusive , rational , and pragmatic , all what it should not
have been according to the evolutionary theory .
 Chapter 6: Non-Aryan Elements of Hinduism

The IVC legacy did not completely die out with the demise of the cities .IVC religion
continued to play a part in the subsequent years .Hinduism exhibits two distinct, very
different, streams .One of which is the Aryan concept system and the other is the non
–Aryan belief system , which is argued to be related to the IVC legacy .
The Devotional religion of South India, Jianism and Buddhism were all reactions to
the Aryan-Brahmin control of all religious thought and practices .All these non Aryan
reactions can be shown to be influenced by the IVC legacy.
Extract from “History of Philosophy-Eastern and Western”
“The Upanisads have a distinct mystic and religious strain” pg. 20 .
“In the development of philosophical thought in India there have been two main
currents, the Vedic and the non-Vedic …. The gods of Vedas are associated with
chariots and horses but non-Vedic gods have association with hunting ….The Vedic
religion is one of ritualism. The offering of soma at the sacrifices formed the most
important feature of the religious life of the people among the Vedic Aryans .In the
Upanisads we find a combination of the element of the worship of the Divine in the
forest with Vedic sacrifices .The Vedic concept is mainly the worship of the male
deity there are a few goddesses in the Vedas and these are of minor importance.
Page 36 “The earliest religious literature in Tamil consists of devotional songs of the
saints called Alvars” page 37”There is no evidence of the existence of anything
corresponding to Vedic ritualism in the Indus Valley Civilization. We, however, find
many of the features of the non-Vedic civilization that contributed to the growth of
later Hinduism “.”Another prominent feature of the Indus Valley Civilization was the
worship of the Mother Goddess. Thus the Predominance of the female aspect of the
Divine in this civilization is another non-Vedic element which influenced the Indian
civilization of later time “page 38 “The idea of man being his own architect fits better
with the non-Vedic relegopn than with the Vedic religion of ritualism where man
performs the sacrifice to propitiate gods who bestow benefits on man.

The development of devotional religion and the subsequent Bkakti movement in

South India also needs attention as this was an anti-Aryan movement .The movement
is described as follows:
Bkakti Movement Extract from “Indology”by Rashid Malik, Fiction House, 2002

“….But the religious movement which developed in that period of time was called
Bhakti , and this movement had no links to Vedic literature or to other religious
books, there were also no links to the philosophical though of the times in the sub
continent .The movement preached that there are no go-between in the contact
between man and Creator .The movement rejected religion and philosophy and
reverted to the sufic concept of love --- The collection of poems called Dewarama has
the status of a holy book in Tamil South India . The poems portray a new direct
relationship between the Creator and man, this relationship is based on love, in which
the beloved is the Creator and the lover is man “(this extract is from Professor Mujib
as quoted in the above referred book).
The professor’s view can be summarized as:
- The rejection of Vedic and other religious literature by the movement.
- The rejection of sacrifice and related traditions.
- The rejection of Vedic deities.
- Change in manner and style of religious expression.
- Opposition to the Brahmins.
- Salvation trough a teacher.
- Rejection of Sanskrit as a holy language and expression of religious thought in
local dialects.”

The influences on the Bhakti movement are hotly debated , one line of thought places
these on the influence of Islam , other points of view seek seeds of the movement in
the Vedic literature and in the deity Vishnu .The significant fact here is that the initial
Bakhti literature was found akin to a Indo-Aryan language literature in Mahastara ,
this literature was produced before the advent of the Muslims .This would suggest
that the movement could be the manifestation of dormant religious thought related to
pre Aryan era , possibly the Harrappan civilization .

Extract from “a History of India” Volume 1, Romila Thapar, Penguin Books, 2000

1.“The participation of women in a wider area of social activity than laid out down by
brahamanic sources was encouraged by all the socio-religious reform movements in
India, such as the Tamil devotional cult , the Bhakti movement , and the nineteenth-
centaury Brahmo-samraj and Arya-samaraj .”page 67
2.”..The Buddha intended his teachings to reach the lower strata of society, hence his
use of the popular language Magaghi in preference to Sanskrit. Buddhist following
was drawn mainly from the mercantile community, the artisans, and the cultivators
…. The pattern of association of these two heterodox sects- Buddhism and Jainism –
with urban centers and largely with the lower castes was repeated in later centuries
with the various phases of what came to be called the Bhakti movement …” page 68
3.”In the sphere of religion, other groups either anti-Vedic or non-Vedic in feeling
were also present .Apart from Jainism and Buddhism, there arrived the Bhagavata and
Pashupata cults, the cults of devotion to Vishnu and Shiva respectively –theism with
an emphasis on personal worship rather than sacrificial rituals – and these were to
strike at the roots in the populace whilst the royalty was busily concerning itself with
Vedic rituals. Eventually the devotional cult was to prove stronger than any other
religious force in the South, and this was recognized even by the royal patrons.
Jainism and Buddhism has gradually to give way to a new form of religious
worship ,the devotional cults of the Tamil saints , which were among the early
expressions of what came to be called the Bhakti movement .The devotional aspect
was formulated in a relationship between God and man based on love ,a formulation
which had not been so strongly stressed in earlier Hindu thought .The worshippers ,
recognized a feeling of inadequacy , would declare his love for God who , it was
believed , permitted a reciprocal relationship ., described poignantly in one of the
Tamil hymns .

When you see his face praise him with joy,

Worship him with joined palms bow before him
So that his feet touch your head,
Holy and mighty will be his form
Raising to the heaven, but his sterner face
Will be hidden, and he will show you
The form of a young man, fragrant and beautiful
And his words will be loving and gracious –
Don’t be afraid – I know you are coming.

Tamil devotionalism achieved a great wave of popularity in the sixth and seventh
centuries A.D. and was continued in the hymns and sermons of the Nayanars(the
Shaivite saints) and the Alvars (the Vaishnavite saints) ……The Vedic gods were
either denied or ignored ,the emphasis being not on worship but on the relationship
involved in the worship , the relationship between man and God.
… although never so recognized by the Brahmins , the Tamil devotional cult was in
part a resistance to the Aryanization of the region.---- Religious hymns and music was
popularized by the Tamil saints , and the singing of these hymns became a regular
feature of temple ritual . The vina was probably the most frequently used instrument,
its origin being the bow-harp familiar to both the Indian sub continent and the ancient
Middle East …..Dancing was also included in the rituals at the temple .Originating
with folk dancing, the choreography of temple dancing became the highly
sophisticated and complex renderings of religious themes as apparent in its final
form, Bharatanatyam.’
Pages 184-190

The devotional cults were developed in the Southern Tamil lands, this surely must be
significant, the Dravadiams are said to have coexisted with the Harrappans in the last
Harrappan period and they seem to have either borrowed from the Harrappan
language or contributed to modern day, existing languages in lands that were included
in the Harrapan civilization .The sufic concept, much later, also became the popular
religion in the western and north-western sub continent. The music and dancing
aspects of the devotional religion could have links to the Harrappans , where dancing
and music seem to be a part of their cultural and religious life .The monotheistic
religion concept could be a legacy from the long forgotten Harrapan civilization that
kept surfacing in the Tamil lands and indeed elsewhere in the shape of Buddhism ,
Jainism , Bhakti movement , Kabir and Nanak , all of these were essentially anti
Vedic and anti Aryan in varying degrees .All these concepts could be echoes from the
long forgotten Indus valley civilization .

Extracts from “The Oxford History of India” by Vincent A. Smith, (2001, OUP).

”Prehistoric forms of worship and many quite un-Aryan social practices survive,
especially in the peninsula among the peoples speaking Dravadian languages” (page
8) .

“ The Dravadian religion and social customs differed widely from those of Northern
India .Caste was unknown , as it is now in Burma ,and the religion was centered on
the ecstatic and often orgiastic worship of original divinities have since been adopted
by the Brahamins , given new names and identified with orthodox Hindu gods and
goddesses “. (Page 42).
“The laws of marriage and inheritance also differed completely from those of the
Brahmins .Even now, when Hinduism, with its strict caste rules and its recognized
system of law, has gained the mastery, the old and quite different Dravidian ideas
 may be traced in a thousand directions. The ancient Dravidian alphabet called
Vatteluttu , of Semitic origin , is very different from any of the northern alphabets .
Tradition as recorded in the ancient Tamil literature indicated that from the very early
times wealthy cities existed in the South and many of the refinements and luxuries of
life were in common use ……..Commerce supplied the wealth required for life on
civilized lines, and the Dravidians were not afraid to cross the seas”. (Page 43).
“Those two faiths, it need hardly be said, did not come into being independently of
previous conditions .The teachings of Mahavira the Jain and of Gautama Buddha ,
was based on the doctrine of early prophets .Mahavira started his religious life as a
reformer of an ancient ascetic order said to have been founded by Paravanatha two
centuries and a half earlier . Gautama’s preaching was related to the cult of “former
Buddhas”, whose prophet was Devadatta , Gautama’s cousin .” page 76 .
Tamil poem (page 161)

Love
Loveless natures, cold and hard,
Live for self alone.
Hearts where love abides regard
Self as scarce their own…

Where the body hath soul,

Live hath gone before
Where no love infils the whole
Dust it is – no more

Origin of Jainism needs to be explored as there may be evidence of influence of pre

Aryan thought upon the development of Jain thought .Jainism is an independent and most
ancient religion of India. Jainism is revealed in every cyclic period of the universe, and
this constitutes the pre-historic time of Jainism. And there is a recorded history of Jainism
since about 3000-3500 BC.

Extract from “History of Philosophy-Eastern and Western”

Page 139 “It is now accepted that Jianism is older than Budhism and that Mahavira
who lived from 599 B.C. to 527 B.C. , was not the finder of Jainism and that his
predecessor Parsva who lived 250 years earlier was also an historical person .The
ahimsa doctrine preached by Rsabha is possibly prior in time to the advent of the
Aryans in India and the prevalent culture of the period”.
The discovery of the Indus Civilization seems to have thrown a new light on the antiquity
of Jainism. The evidence suggests that Jainism was known among the people of the Indus
Valley around 3000-3500 B.C. Some nude figures, considered to be of Lord Rishabha, on
the seals have been discovered at Mohenjodaro and Harrappa. There is an article that
suggests the representation of the seventh Tirthankar SuParsvanath. The people of the
Indus Valley not only practiced Yoga but worshipped the images of Yogis. There are
figures in Kayotsarga posture of standing are peculiarly Jain.

In addition, the sacred signs of swastika are found engraved on a number of seals.
Furthermore, there are some motifs on the seals found in Mohen-jo-Daro and it is
suggested that these motifs are identical with those found in the ancient Jain art of
Mathura.

This presence of Jain tradition in the earliest period of Indian history is supported by
many scholars. It strongly suggests that Jainism existed in pre-Aryan time.

The origin of Buddhism also needs to be explored as this will reveal the influence of pre
Aryan thought on the religion put forward by Lord Buddha .In Indian religion there have
been two independent influences which were originally quite distinct and had separate
origins and which for a considerable length of time were separate but which at a certain
point of time merged and flowed on united right to the present day. The oldest known
civilization was the Indus valley Civilization, located roughly in modern day Pakistan..
Not only was this civilization stable for a thousand years, it was also a very highly
developed civilization both materially and spiritually. Materially the civilization was an
agrarian one. They were skilled in irrigation and the planning of towns. In addition, they
had a very highly developed spiritual culture. This is clear from the archaeological
evidence that has been discovered at Mohenjodaro and Harappa. There is also evidence
of the fact that they were literate. They had developed a script which unfortunately we are
not able to decipher.

Extract from “History of Philosophy-Eastern and Western”

Page 152 “A re-orientation of the faith was necessitated by the impact of Sumero-
Dravadian culture of the Indus Valley and the need of cultural expression beyond the
early frontiers of Aryan domination towards the East and the South where tribes of the
hill and the forest lived and imitated Aryan ways and thought .It has been conjured that
yogic mediation , ascetic habit and belief in transmigration may have come from non-
Aryan sources as well as the development of the Siva and , later , of the Sakti cult
“”Criticism of Vedic practices had started earlier , in fact , for even the Upanisads
belittled the efficacy of sacrificial rites and laid emphasis on knowledge of Reality as the
best path of attaining a blessed hereafter”. page 153” In fact the dissenters were many and
of diverse sorts …..Apart from the six main heretical teachers from the Buddhist point of
view, of whom Purana-Kassapa, Makkhali-Gosala ,Ajita-kesa-kambalin , Pakudha-
Kaccayana , Nigantha-Nataputta and Sanjaya-Beltthaputta “

Sakta and Saiva schools of Indian thought have also been linked to pre-Aryan sources.
The Aryan invasion and its impact can be described as follow:

The peaceful life of this civilization was unfortunately interrupted in about the year 1800
or 1500 B.C. by an invasion that came from the North West. The invading people were
known as the Aryans and this is a term that designated a people of Eastern Europe. The
origin of the Aryans was in the grassy region extending from Poland to Western Russia.
The Aryans were very different from the people of the Indus Valley Civilization because
they were generally nomadic and pastoral. They did not have a highly developed urban
civilization. They were a warlike expanding pioneer civilization that lived in large part
from the spoils and plunder that they gathered from the peoples they conquered in the
course of their migration. When the Aryans arrived in India, they very quickly destroyed
the Indus Valley Civilization. The Indus Valley Civilization succumbed very quickly to
the military might of the Aryans. What existed in India after the invasion was an Aryan
dominated civilization.

The Indus Valley Civilization had a script which has not been deciphered. The
information regarding the nature of this civilization is from two sources, first from the
archaeological discoveries at the sites of Mohenjodaro and Harappa and second from the
records of the Aryans who described the religious behavior and beliefs of the people they
conquered. From the archaeological evidence we find a number of symbols that are of
religious significance, that are special to Buddhism: the symbols of the Bodhi tree and
animals such as the elephant and deer. Perhaps most importantly there have been
discovered several images of figures sitting in cross-legged postures with their hands
resting on their knees, with their eyes narrowed, half-closed quite evidently in postures of
meditation. These archaeological findings have been studied by eminent scholars and the
conclusion is that we can quite definitely trace the origin and practice of meditation to the
Indus Valley Civilization. When we look at the descriptions of the religion of the Indus
Valley Civilization from the writings of the Aryans - the Vedas - we find the figure of a
wandering ascetic frequently mentioned. We find that they practiced meditation, that they
were celibate, that they observed an austere life, that they were sometimes naked or
clothed in most simple garments, that they wandered about homeless and that they taught
in the way beyond birth and death. If we put together the evidence of the archaeological
findings and the evidence of Aryan literature, we find that there emerges a picture of the
religion of the people of the Indus Valley Civilization in which there are several
important elements. First of all, meditation or mental concentration; secondly
renunciation, abandoning the household life, living the life of a wandering ascetic; thirdly
that we have a conception of rebirth over a long series of lives; fourthly we have a
conception of moral responsibility beyond this life, the notion of karma; and lastly we
have a goal of religious life, a goal of liberation. These are the salient features of the
religion of the very earliest Indian Civilization.

The Aryan religion in contrast was very different, and it would be hard to find two
religious views that are more different. Here we find it much easier to construct a picture
because we have a complete literature with regard to their religion. When the Aryans
came to India, they had a religion which was totally secular. They were an expanding
pioneering society. There are many close parallels between the Aryan religion and the
religion of the Greeks. If you have come across the description of the Greek pantheon
you will find striking similarities between their pantheon and the Aryan pantheon. You
will find in the Aryan faith a number of gods who are personifications of natural
phenomena. We have Indra for instance who was the God of Lightning and the
Thunderstorm personifying power, we have Agni the God of Fire, and Varuna the God of
Water. We have a religious set-up in which the priest is the most important figure, while
in the Indus Valley Civilization the ascetic was the most important figure. In the Indus
Valley Civilization renunciation was the ideal of religious life, while in the Aryan
religion the ideal state is the householder state. In the Indus Valley Civilization we have a
rejection of sons and offspring, while in the Aryan religion sons are the highest good.
While in the Indus Valley Civilization we have the practice of meditation, in the Aryan
religion we have the practice of sacrifice - sacrifice was an important means of
communication with the gods, of achieving victories in battles, of gaining offspring, of
going to heaven. While in the Indus Valley Civilization we have belief in the Law of
Karma, and rebirth, in the Aryan Civilization we have no conception of rebirth. Just as in
the Indus Valley Civilization we have the notion of moral responsibility extending over a
series of lives, in the Aryan Civilization we have no such notion. In fact the highest ideal
was loyalty, those values that contributed to the power of the community. Finally while in
the Indus Valley Civilization we have liberation as the goal of religious life, in the Aryan
Civilization we have heaven as the goal of religious life. The idea that they had of heaven
was a heaven modeled upon a perfected version of this life. So if we want to sum up the
differences between the religions of these two civilizations, we can say that on the one
hand the Indus Valley Civilization stresses renunciation, meditation, rebirth, karma, the
goal of liberation; on the other hand the Aryan religion stresses this life, material well-
being, wealth, power, fame and sacrifices as means of achieving these goals. It would be
hard to find a set of more diametrically opposed religious attitudes. In addition, there are
two more important elements of Aryan religion that we ought to recall caste: the division
of society into social strata; and belief in the authority of the revealed scriptures, the
Vedas. These two elements were not present in the Indus Valley Civilization.

Chapter 7: Semites and the Indus valley Civilization

Extracts from Karachi University, Bereau of Composition, Compliation and Translation-

Research Journal,22 nd. Issue –of “Jareeda” titled “Ancient Language and Scripts, special
number”

The Indus Valley Civilization comprised of a number of cities, these are stated to be
seven in number .These cities were prosperous due to trade and agriculture. The
population was prosperous and was prominent due to lack of evidence of islands of
poverty and need.
The Arabs have a number of pronouncements related to Sindh and Hind .Wahab ibn
Munbah has called Hind and Sindh to be sons of Ham .Ibn-e Jarar has from Ibn Abbas
stated that “Arab and Faras and Naith and Sindh and Hind were sons of Ham son of Noah
.Various Arabic traditions deem Hindi and Sindhi people to be of the same ethnic stock
as the Arabs. An Arabian poet claims that
“Hind was ours, Sindh was ours and Arusn was also ours, Eastern people were also our
people so to were the Western people”
The author claims that the script of IVC was the earlier form of Arabic .Marshall has
proved that the language of the IVC could not have been Sanskrit or any other Aryan
language .He expressed the possibility that the IVC language could be related to the
Dravidian group of languages. IVC seals have been found in Sumerian cities , which
indicates close ties between these two civilizations .The exact nature of this relationship
is not exactly known .It is generally considered that this relationship was related to
commerce and trade , but perhaps the relationship was in fact encompassing other faucets
of life , including religion and social structures .The seals found in Iraq show that the
trade routes between the two civilizations were very active between 2750 B.C. to 2080
B.C., it further points out to the fact that the Sumerian ( and the Harrappans) understood
each others language , Sumerian symbols are found with Indus script in the IVC cities
which would suggest that the IVC people did not understand the Sumerian symbols , on
the other hand IVC scripts with IVC symbols are found in Sumerian cities which would
indicate that the IVC symbols and script was understood by the Sumerians . These seals
performed some function which was common to both civilizations.
Head skeletons found in the IVC cities are similar to those found in The Palestine Valley,
Iraq and Tel Aviv, this would indicate the ethnic and racial similarities between the Arabs
and the Sindhis.
The IVC script has links to Arabic languages and the IVC had therefore some impact
upon the people of other Prophets and upon the world of Islam.
The language of IVC is neither Sanskrit (nor any other Aryan language) or Dravidian, it
is in fact akin to the language of ancient (4000 to 5000 years old) Arabic. Most ancient
languages, except for Chinese, have relationship with the IVC language. The Indus seals
are of three kinds i) pictures of things ii) modified pictures of things which makes these
as Idea-graphs iii)
This establishes the fact that the IVC was populated by Arabic people, who migrated to
the Middle East .Arabic speaking Iraqis were called, in the Koran; the people of
Abraham, the Semite tribes had their earliest homes in or around ancient Indus valley. In
other words the Arabs went to their present abodes from Sindh .
The IVC language must have its influences upon Arabic, Persian, Punjabi, Sindhi, Seriaki
and Urdu .Seals found in IVC that are related to commercial activity were, with minor
differences, also used in Sumerian cities.
The Indus cities were laid out and constructed in a very organized manner: Broad streets
paved with baked bricks; distinctive architecture of the houses; and separate places
earmarked for collective activities characterized these cities.
Islamic literature’s initial references to Hind are related to the traditions about Prophet
Adam (pbuh) , who is said to be exiled to present Sir Lanka from heaven .Prophet Adam ,
in Islamic thought and belief system , is definitely the first human of the present human
race .What is disputed is that was he the first human .The Koran does not conclusively
establish this fact . There is reference to Adam’s and Eve’s disobedience and the
consequent exile , but it is not clear if they were the original couple to whom the Koran
also refers to .The original human , gave birth of the female and this initiated the human
race , this original human is perhaps some other than the prophet Adam(pbuh) . Prophet
Adam (pbuh) was perhaps the first human to achieve consciousness some 10000 years
ago after the end of the last ice age .The place where Adam and Eve were exiled to is said
to be the present Indian subcontinent .It is also claimed that Adam’s “heaven” was
located on a hill ,from where he was exiled to the plains .The Torah calls this “heaven” as
Eden , a place where four rivers originate ,which places the “heaven” somewhere in
modern Eastern turkey and Armenia .The place to which Adam (pbuh) was exiled is
modern Indian subcontinent .
Interestingly the Aryan ancient records have no references to the names Hind and Sindh
whereas the Arabic ,ancient and relatively modern, references have extensive usage of
both these names .it would seem that the names of Sindh and Hind was given to these
areas by the Semites .
Few Iraqi seals are found in the IVC whereas a large number of IVC seals were found in
the Sumerian cities, which would suggest an unequal traffic, of both goods and ideas,
from IVC to Sumer . Another fact needs that attention is that Sumerian scripts have not
been found in IVC cities whereas IVC seals and script have been extensively located in
various Sumerian cities. All of this would suggest that in some point in pre history the
Indus elite did migrate to Sumer .The seals found in IVC are not statements, which have
not been found so far, perhaps the Indus elite took their manuscripts with them when they
migrated to Sumer .
Ancient Aryan records, do suggest that at the time of Mahabharata, Arabic was
understood in the subcontinent.
The symbols of prophet Suleiman (pbuh) are found on Indus seals.
Traveling in Arabia, one comes across camels belonging to different tribes which are
distinguished by means of distinctive marks these marks bear uncanny similarity to those
found on Indus seals.
29 Koranic Surah begin with a few letters, which are considered to be undecipherable,
this cannot be correct as if this were to be true and these words are definitely a part of the
Koran, their meaning would have been sought by the sahaba from Prophet Muhammad
(pbuh), this did not happen . We can perhaps infer that the meaning of these letters was
commonly understood by the Arabs.
The Koran, in Surah Shorah 8.5, states that:
No man has the status that he can talk to God , but only through i) revelation(Wahi) ii)
across a veil iii) or through a messenger
 Chapter 8: Social structures

Extract from Ibn e Khuldun :

Human societies are dependent upon a collective structure, the need of which was felt
very early in human development. This was so because it was not possible for any
individual to fulfill all human needs without help of others.
The concept was perhaps copied from societal structures exhibited by animals, some
animals lived in groups and these groups had a structure and system of collective
behavior.
Human beings when evolved into tribal structures needed to have individuals specialized
in different tasks. This specialization evolved later into professions. Since man has inbuilt
capacity for sin and anti social behavior there was a need of an authority figure or
structure to maintain law and order and to protect individuals and groups from the ill
intentions of others.
End of extract

Human societies need laws which ensure justice to all citizens .In ancient societies there
was “national political law “, this was not a systematic law making process as kings and
rulers proclaimed laws. These understandably were mainly to protect the interests of the
elite.
There is no or little evidence of warfare between cities or groups within the Harrapan
people, yet these cities were very similar to each other. This would imply a strong central
regulation, but this regulatory framework was not based upon use of force but was rather
enforced by means of religion. This would therefore be the driving force. This would
provide the need to develop a law giving process based not upon human or political
systems but rather on an abstract divine being. These laws would therefore be not subject
to revision by kings or rulers or even priests. The upkeep of standards is reflected in the
fact that IVC art displayed a confirmation to standards to the very end of the IVC (apart
for the last periods).
This would therefore be the rationale for development of a monotheistic religion in the
IVC and not in Sumer .In Sumer each city was semi autonomous and each city tried to
subjugate the other, there was considerable warfare between cities and from outside, there
was therefore no compulsion to develop a monotheistic religion. .
It needs to be mentioned that Sumer and Harrapan people were ethnically the same and
both perhaps belonged to the tribes that originated somewhere between north west
Pakistan to eastern Turkey. The religion of Sumer was different from other tribal
religions in so far as the Sumer religion was more a “code of homage “(that one might
pay to a king or lord) rather than a mystical worship of gods in fact this relationship with
gods was the very driving force for the rise of Sumerian society .The very reason for the
existence of Sumer and her people seemed to lie with these strange and mortal deities and
the very reason for existence for every Sumerian person was to worship the appropriate
deity .
This in Sumer was managed on a city basis with struggles with other cities. The reason
for this could be that Sumer was located in a open plain with very little natural protection
from invaders. Thus warfare was inevitable and it also resulted into city warfare, this was
so as a militarized society has different norms than a producing society .The military
society glamorizes the war heroes and is generally expletive and tyrannical.
IVC on the other hand was protected form invaders by mountains and semi deserts; this
led to the evolution of the same SUMER code of paying homage to gods to one where the
divine being was abstract. This abstract divine being was necessary for IVC to maintain
and retain control over the vast Indus valley civilization.

Extract from Ibn e Khuldun

Before civilization trade was managed by barter, then coins were used, these were made
in an oven of gold, silver, the molten metal was poured into moulds .the finished product
had pictures and words
Apart from the evidence of the Quran, there is one reference which is controversial
among the commentators. There is a tradition reported from the Holy Prophet (sa) which
speaks of an Indian prophet by name. In his words:

There was a prophet of God in India who was dark in color and his name was
Kahan.

Enoch was a prophet who supposedly lived from 3284-3017 B. C. Prophet Enoch was
also Thoth, Hermes, Metatron, among others who supposedly wrote 'Books about the
Sacred Knowledge of Creation'. These creational stories are based on patterns of
geometry that repeat in cycles through the concept of TIME.

In the Qur'an, Enoch is called Idris. In the bible he is sometimes called Akhnookh. He
was a man of truth and a prophet. We raised him to a high station. Surah 19: 56-57

According to the biblical narrative (Genesis 5:21-24), Enoch lived 365 years, far less than
the other patriarchs in the period before the Flood. Enoch supposedly walked with God
who turned him into the archangel Metatron.

He called the people back to his forefathers' religion, but only a few listened to him,
while the majority turned away. According to the Talmud Selections (pp. 18-21) when
the people went astray, Enoch who lived a pious life in seclusion was given prophet
hood. He came among the people and by his sermons and speeches made the people give
up the idolatry and obey the Command of God. Enoch ruled them and during his reign
there was peace and justice.

Prophet Enoch and his followers left Babylon for Egypt. There he carried on his mission,
calling people to what is just and fair, teaching them certain prayers and instructing them
to fast on certain days and to give a portion of their wealth to the poor. Enoch was the
first to invent books and writing, much like Thoth the scribe.

Enoch taught the sons of men the art of building cities, and enacted some admirable laws.
He discovered the knowledge of the Zodiac, and the course of the Planets; and he pointed
out to the sons of men, that they should worship God, that they should fast, that they
should pray, that they should give alms, votive offerings, and tenths. He reprobated
abominable foods and drunkenness, and appointed festivals for sacrifices to the Sun, at
each of the Zodiacal Signs.

Enoch's name signified in the Hebrew, Initiate or Initiator. The legend of the columns, of
granite and brass or bronze, erected by him, is probably symbolical. That of bronze,
which survived the flood, is supposed to symbolize the mysteries, of which Masonry is
the legitimate successor from the earliest times the custodian and depository of the great
philosophical and religious truths, unknown to the world at large, and handed down from
age to age by an unbroken current of tradition, embodied in symbols, emblems, and
allegories.

There was a substantial Zoroastrian Influence on Judaism when Jewish exiles were
exposed to the Persian religion during the Babylonian captivity. Some Jews adopted
Enochian tradition in Babylon during the Exile and brought it back to Canaan when
Cyrus gave them leave to Return. The Enochian Jews were detested by the priesthood in
Jerusalem, and they were forced to flee into the desert before 300 BCE. Naturally, they
supported the Maccabees during the uprising of 165 BCE. The Enochians at Qumran
'updated' the text to include Judah the Hammer in the big story.

The last of the Essene stragglers buried the secret book in Cave IV at Qumran c.70 CE.
The urban Christians and Jews of the Near East rejected it. The authors of the Apocalypse
rewrote and retitled it, but they didn't understand the heptadic structure of the original
lines, the arrangement of sevens. Only the students of the Merkabah in Babylonia
possessed the key to the Enochian mystery.

The Book of Enoch is a pseudo-epigraphal work that claims to be written by a biblical

character. It was not included in either the Hebrew or most Christian biblical canons, but
could have been considered a sacred text by the sectarians. The original Aramaic version
was lost until several Dead Sea Scroll fragments were discovered in Qumran Cave 4 -
providing parts of the Aramaic original.

This fragment reads;

Humankind is called on to observe how

unchanging nature follows God's will.

The Book of Enoch was first discovered in Abyssinia in the year 1773 by a Scottish
explorer named James Bruce. In 1821 The Book of Enoch was translated by Richard
Laurence and published in a number of successive editions, culminating in the 1883
edition.

Enoch acts as a scribe, writing up a petition on behalf of the fallen angels, or fallen ones,
to be given to a higher power for ultimate judgment. Christianity adopted some ideas
from Enoch, including the Final Judgment, the concept of demons, the origins of evil and
the fallen angels, and the coming of a Messiah and ultimately, a Messianic kingdom. The
Book of Enoch was removed from the Bible and banned by the early church. Copies of it
were found to have survived in Ethiopia, and fragments in Greece and Italy.

Enoch is the supposed author of 366 books, collectively termed Enochian literature. The
most famous writings bearing his name are the First, Second, and Third Books of Enoch,
ranked among the large body of literature termed apocryphal and pseudepigraphical,
meaning that they are noncanonical (not accepted into the body of recognized books of
the Bible) and are-in the case of the pseudepigrapha-attributed to some person of note and
written in the style of genuine biblical books. Most interesting of all the legends is the
one in which Enoch was transported to heaven and there transformed into the angel
Metatron. Once there, he was, with the divine flourish, made into Metatron, the angel of
the face, high priest of the heavenly temple, and one of the supreme angels in all of the
celestial hierarchy-not to mention the tallest of angels, with 36 wings and 265,000 eyes.

The three so-called pseudepigraphical works were supposedly written by or under the
influence of the antediluvian patriarch Enoch, who was taken up to heaven by the Lord,
an event described in the Book of Genesis (5:24); pseudepigraphical writings are those
that are noncanonical (meaning not accepted into the body of biblical books) and were
composed in a style intending to resemble or appear as authentic biblical literature, often
assuming the title of some personage known to the audience. In the case of the Books of
Enoch, the actual writers or compilers chose a figure who was the source of many
legends and tales, the most notable being his transformation by God into the truly
powerful angel Metatron. While decidedly uncanonical, the three books remain
fascinating and colorful reading, as well as treasures of detail and fanciful images
concerning angels.

1 ENOCH-Known is also as the Ethiopic Book of Enoch from the fact that the only
surviving complete manuscript of it is in Ethiopic. This is the oldest of the three Enoch
books, dating to the mid-second century B.C., although it actually comprises various
sections, each dated differently: "The Book of Noah"; "Similitudes"; "The Dream
Visions"; "Apocalypse of the Weeks"; and "The Book of the Heavenly Luminaries."
Aside from material on Gehenna and heaven and the nature of evil, the text is full of
stories and accounts of angels. The writer covers the fall of angels, the names of the
archangels, and the fire of the luminaries of heaven. The reader thus encounters such
angelic personages as Raguel, Uriel, Gabriel, Raphael, Michael, and Saraqael.

2 ENOCH-Known also as the Slavonic Book of Enoch because the only extant version is
a Slavonic translation of the Greek original text, this specific edition dates to the seventh
century A. D., although it is based on a much older Jewish text of the first century. A.D.
While similar in some ways to the first book of Enoch and perhaps using it as a source,
the Slavonic Enoch details Enoch's journey through the seven heavens, the life of Enoch's
successors, especially Methuselah, and then gives a forecast of the Great Flood that
encompassed the world in later generations. There are descriptions of angels residing in
the heavens.

3 ENOCH-Also called the Hebrew Apocalypse of Enoch, this is a Jewish writing dating
probably to the second century A.D. It was supposedly written by the noted Rabbi
Ishmael, a brilliant scholar of Palestine during the early second century A.D. He reputes
to recount his journey to heaven, where he beheld the very throne of God, along with the
hosts of angels. His information was granted to him by the archangel Metatron, the
onetime patriarch Enoch. This work remains perhaps the single greatest compendium of
angelic lore, including a comprehensive assemblage of angels, archangels, and holy
creatures, such as the watchers and holy ones.