The Celtic peoples are defined for the purpose of this article as
referring to those people who in the past spoke a language of the Celtic
branch of the Indo-European language family and also lived according to
the ancient culture considered to be that of the speakers of Celtic as
based upon Celtic traditions and stories and on archeology. Archeological
and linguistic evidence traces them to the Danube river valley in Europe
back to around 6000 BCE, and further back to the region of the Aral Sea of
Central Eurasia. In Western China in particular, there is much evidence
for a culture of people who physically looked like the Celts of Europe
until the Turkic Uighur people and others moved into the region about the
eighth century. Mummies with European features have been found in that
region going back to 1500 BCE.The occasional red hair or green eyes found
in that and neighboring regions is taken as evidence that these people
related to the Celts were absorbed into various people still living in the
areas in question, including Xinjiang, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan,
Tibet and Nepal. Interestingly, I know a person of Irish ancestry who
converted to the Sikh religion, and in his turban, he is sometimes
mistaken for a northern Indian by Indians. It is also said that Genghis
Khan had red hair and gray eyes; I have even read reports of tribes of
red-haired people in the steppes and deserts in or near these regions,
from the eighteen hundreds.
In traditional histories of India like the Puranas and Brahmanas, it is
pointed out that in addition to the kingdoms in northern India, there were
kingdoms north of the Himalayas with the same culture as in India, which
would be in the regions that we are considering for the Celtic peoples.
Most important is the famous land of the Uttara Kurus, described as a
spiritual paradise north of the Himalayas. Comparison of European Celtic
culture with Hindu culture shows a large number of similarities between
them. Some of these were shown in a two part article that appeared in the
May and June issues of the magazine Hinduism Today. Therefore, we have
cultural evidence to back up the traditions and the archaeology.
Religiously, these red-haired northern Vedic people are known to have some
point taken up Buddhism. Certain traditional sources indicate that they
learned Buddhism from the Buddha previous to Siddhartha Gautama, who was
named Kashyapa. A Kashyapa rishi also appears as one of the oldest Vedic
rishis and as associated with northern regions like Kashmir, that was
originally called Kashyapa Mira or Kashyapa’s lake. Tibetan literature, I
have been told, indicates that they learned their Buddhism, not from
India, but from "Shamballa" which is placed exactly where these people
lived.
However, the European Celts clearly practiced, and a few still do, more
orthodox Vedic type religions, with similar traditions of chanting,
rituals, deity worship, mantra and meditation, with direct parallels to
most of the ancient and modern orthodox Hindu sects found in India. As
such, it is theorized by some scholars that the two branches split because
the Celts maintained the older dharma, whereas the people who stayed in
the regions north of the Himalayas accepted Buddhism, perhaps from
Kashyapa Buddha.
One of the hallmarks of Celtic culture is the use of the sacred Ogham
(pronounced Oh-wum) alphabet by the Druuids, who are Celtic Brahmins. Many
scholars believe that Ogham was only used by the Irish, and not by other
Celts. However, this is clearly disproved by many Ogham inscriptions
appearing in different places, including France, Iberia (Spain and
Portugal), the Danube valley, and the Tocharian regioins. Furthermore,
inscriptions of Ogham have been found in ancient sites in Japan, some of
them megalithic. One Japanese scholar who studies these inscriptions and
the sites they are found in believes that the inscriptions indicate that
some of the Buddhist monks who brought Buddhism to Japan were Tocharians,
or had maintained the use of the sacred writing system of the Tocharians.
There is also extensive evidence of many sorts that Celts crossed the
Atlantic from Europe to North American millennia ago, long before the
Viking excursions into North America, who perhaps followed Celtic routes.
The evidence is archeological, epigraphical, linguistic, folkloric, among
other forms. American Indians with more European type features were
reported by early European colonists into the region.
Vedic Origins of the Europeans: The Danavas, Children of Danu
Many ancient European peoples, particularly the Celts and Germans,
regarded themselves as children of Danu, with Danu meaning the Mother
Goddess, who was also, like Sarasvati in the Rig Veda, a river Goddess.
The Celts called themselves "Tuatha De Danaan", while the Germans had a
similar name. Ancient European river names like the Danube and various
rivers called Don in Russia, Scotland, England and France reflect this, as
do place names like Den-mark (Danava-Marga), to mention but a few. The
Danube which flows to the Black Sea is their most important river and
could reflect their eastern origins.
In fact, the term Danu or Danava (the plural of Danu) appears to form the
substratum of Indo-European identity at the base of the Hellenic,
Illyro-Venetic, Italo-Celtic, Germanic and Balto-Slavic elements. The
northern Greeks were also called Danuni. Therefore, the European Aryans
could probably all be called Danavas.
According to Roman sources, Tacitus in his Annals and Histories, the
Germans claimed to be descendants of the Mannus, the son of Tuisto. Tuisto
relates to Vedic Tvasthar, the Vedic father-creator Sky God, who is also a
name for the father of Manu (RV X.17.1-2). This makes the Rig Vedic people
also descendants of Manu, the son of Tvashtar.
In the Rig Veda, Tvashtar appears as the father of Indra, who fashions his
thunderbolt (vajra) for him (RV X.48.3). Yet Indra is sometimes at odds
with Tvashtar because is compelled to surpass him (RV III.48.3-4).
Elsewhere Tvashtar’s son is Vishvarupa or Vritra, whom Indra kills,
cutting off his three heads (RV X.8.8-9), (TS II.4.12, II.5.1). Indra
slays the dragon, Vritra, who lays at the foot of the mountain withholding
the waters, and releases the seven rivers to flow into the sea. In several
instances, Vritra is called Danava, the son of the Goddess Danu who is
connected to the sea (RV I.32.9; II.11.10; III.30.8; V.30.4; V.32).
In the Brahmanas Vishvarupa/Vritra is the son of Danu and Danayu, the
names of his mother and father (SB I.6.3.1, 8, 9). Clearly Vritra is
Vishvarupa, the son of the God Tvashtar and the Goddess Danu. Danava also
means a serpent or a dragon (RV V.32.1-2), which is not only a symbol of
wisdom but of power and both Vedic and ancient European lore have their
good and bad dragons or serpents.
In this curious story both Indra and Vritra appear ultimately as brothers
because both are sons of Tvashtar. We must also note that Tvashtar
fashions the thunderbolt for Indra to slay Vritra (RV I.88.5). Indra and
Vritra represent the forces of expansion and contraction or the dualities
inherent in each one of us. They are both inherent in Tvashtar and
represent the two sides of the Creator or of creation as knowledge and
ignorance. As Vritra is also the son of Tvashtar and Danu, Indra must
ultimately be a son of Danu as well. Both the Vedic Aryans and the
Proto-European Aryans are sons of Tvashtar, who was sometimes not the
supreme God but a demiurge that they must go beyond.
The Danavas in the Puranas (VaP II.7) are the sons of the Rishi Kashyapa,
who there assumes the role of Tvashtar as the main father creator.
Kashyapa is a great rishi connected to the Himalayas. He is the eighth or
central Aditya (Sun God) that does not leave Mount Meru (Taittiriya
Aranyaka I.7.20), the fabled world mountain. Kashyapa is associated with
Kashmir (Kashyapa Mira or Kashyapa’s lake) and other Himalayan regions
(the Vedic lands of Sharyanavat and Arjika, RV IX.113.1-2), which connects
the Danavas to the northwest. The Caspian Sea may be named after him as
well. The Proto-Europeans, therefore, are the sons of Tvashtar or Kashyapa
and Danu, through their son Manu. They are both Manavas and Danavas, as
also Aryas.
In the Rig Veda, Danu like Dasyu refers to inimical people and is
generally a term of denigration (RV I.32.9; III.30.8; V.30.4; V.32.1, 4,
7; X.120.6). The Danavas or descendants of Danu are generally enemies of
the Vedic people and their Gods. Therefore, just as the Deva-Asura or
Arya-Dasyu split is reflected in the split between the Vedic Hindus and
the Persians, one can propose that the Deva-Danava split reflects another
division in the Vedic people, including that between the Proto-Indian
Aryans and the Proto-European Aryans. In this process the term Danu was
adopted by the Proto-Europeans and became denigrated by later Vedic
people.
We should also remember that in the Puranas (VaP II.7), as in the Vedas
the term Danavas refer to a broad group of peoples, many inimical, but
others friendly, as well as various mythical demons. In the Rig Veda, the
Danavas are called amanusha or unhuman (RV II.11.10) as opposed to human,
Manusha. The Europeans had similar negative beings like the Greek Titans
or Celtic Formorii who correspond more to the mythical side of the Danavas
as powers of darkness, the underworld or the undersea region like the
Vedic Asuras and Rakshasas. Such mythical Danavas can hardly be reduced to
the Proto-European Aryans or to any single group of people.
The Celtic scholar Peter Ellis notes, "Irish epic contains many episodes
of the struggle between the Children of Domnu, representing darkness and
evil, and the Children of Danu, representing light and good. Moreover, the
Children of Domnu are never completely overcome or eradicated from the
world. Symbolically, they are the world. The conflict is between the
‘waters of heaven’ and the ‘world.’" The same thing could be said of the
Vedic wars of Devas and Danavas or the Puranic/Brahmana wars of Devas and
Asuras.
The Good Danavas (Sudanavas)
The Maruts in the Puranas (VaP II.6.90-135) are called the sons of Diti, a
wife of Kashyapa, who is sometimes equated with Danu. Her children are
called the Daityas which term we have found also connected to the
Persians, as the name of the river in their original homeland (Vendidad
Fargard I.3). While meant to be enemies of Indra, the Maruts came to be
his companions and were great Gods in their own right, often referring to
the Vedic rishis and yogis. As wind Gods they had control of Prana and
other siddhis (occult powers). They are also the sons of Rudra-Shiva
called Rudras, much like the Shaivite Yogis of later times. They were
great sages (RV VI.49.11), men (manava) with tongues of fire and eyes of
the Sun (RV I.89.7). They were free to travel all over the world and were
not obstructed by mountains, rivers or seas (RV V.54.9; V.55.9).
The Rig Veda contains many instances where Danu has a positive meaning
indicating abundance or even standing for divine in general. Danucitra,
meaning the richness of light, occurs a few times (RV I.174.7; V.59.8).
The Maruts are called Jira-danu or plural Jira-danava or quick to give or
perhaps fast Danus or fast Gods (RV V.54.9). This term Jiradanu occurs
elsewhere as the gift of the Maruts in the last line of most of the hymns
of Agastya (RV I.165-169, 171-178, 180-186, 189, 190). Mitra and Varuna
are said to be Sripra-danu or easy to give and their many gifts, danuni,
are praised (RV VIII.25.5-6). The Ashvins are called lords of Danuna,
Danunaspati (RV VIII.8.16). Soma is also called Danuda and Danupinva,
giving Danu or overflowing with Danu (RV IX.97.23), connecting Danu with
water or with rivers.
The Maruts are typically called Sudanavas, good to give or good (Su) Danus
(RV I.85.10; I.172.1-3; II.34.8; V.41.16; V.52.5; V.53.6; VI.66.5;
VIII.20.18, 23). Similarly, the Vishvedevas or universal gods are called
Sudanavas (RV VIII.83.6, 8, 9), as are the Adityas (RV VIII.67.16), the
Ashvins (RV I.117.10, 24) and Vishnu (RV VIII.24.12). The term also occurs
in a hymn to Sarasavati (RV VII.96.4), where Sarasvati is called the
friend or companion of the Maruts (Marutsakha; RV 96.2). Most importantly,
there is a Goddess called Sudanu Devi (RV V.41.18), which is probably
another name for the mother of the Maruts. The Maruts in particular or the
Gods in general would therefore be the sons of Sudanu or Sudanavas. This
suggests that perhaps Danu, like Asura, was earlier a positive word and
meant divine. There was not only a bad Danu but a good or Sudanu. In the
Rig Veda the references to the Sudanavas are much more than those to
Danava as an inimical term.
The Maruts are called Sumaya (RV I.88.1), having a good (Su) or divine
power of Maya, which stands for magical power, or Mayina (RV V.58.2),
possessed of Maya power. Danu is probably, in some respects, a synonym of
Maya, a power of abundance but also of illusion. Like the root Ma, the
root Da means "to divide" or "to measure". Maya is the power of the
Danavas (RV II.11.10). The Danavas, particularly Ahi-Vritra, are portrayed
as serpents (RV V.32.8), particularly the serpent who dwells at the foot
of the mountain holding back the heavenly waters, whom Indra must slay in
order to release the waters. Maya itself is the serpent power.
The Maruts as wind gods are powers of lightning, which in Vedic as in most
ancient thought was considered to be a serpent or a dragon. The Maruts are
the good serpents, shining bright like serpents (RV I.171.2). The Maruts
help Indra in slaying Vritra and are his main friends and companions.
Indra is called Marutvan, or possessed of the Maruts. Their leader is
Vishnu (RV V.87), who is called Evaya-Marut. With Rudra (Shiva) as their
father and Prishni (Shakti) as their mother, they reflect all the Gods of
later Hinduism. As Shiva’s sons they are connected with Skanda, Ganesha
and Hanuman.
Perhaps these Sudanavas or good Danus are the Maruts, who in their travels
guided and led many peoples including the Celts and other European
followers of Danu. As the sons of Rudra, we note various Rudra like
figures such as Cernunos among the Celts, who like Rudra is the lord of
the animals and is portrayed in a yoga posture, as on the Gundestrop
Cauldron. If the Maruts were responsible for spreading Vedic culture, as I
have proposed, they could have called their children, the children of
Danu, in a positive sense. We could also argue that the Sudanavas were the
Maruts, Druids and other Rishi classes, while the peoples they ruled over,
particularly the unruly Kshatriyas or warrior classes could become Danavas
in the negative sense when they refused to accept spiritual guidance.
We know from both Celtic and Vedic texts that the early Aryans, like other
ancient people, were always fighting with each other in various local
conflicts, particularly for supremacy in their particular region. This led
to various divisions and migrations through the centuries, which we cannot
always take in a major way, just as the warring princes of India or
Ireland remained part of the same culture and continued to intermarry with
one another. Therefore, whatever early conflict might have existed between
the Proto-European Aryans and those in the interior of India, was just
part of various clashes between the different princely families that
occurred within these same groups as well. It was forgotten over time.
The European Aryans had Gods like Zeus, Thor and Jupiter that serve as the
counterparts of Indra as the God of heaven, the God of the rains, the
thunderbolt and the lightning. Therefore, we cannot read the divide
between the Rig Vedic Aryans and the Danavas as a rejection of the God
Indra by the Proto-Europeans. In addition, the Proto-European Aryans
continue to use the term Deva as divine as in Latin Deus and Greek Theos,
unlike the Persians who make Asura mean divine and Deva mean demon. They
also know Manu, which the Persians seem to have forgotten and only mention
Yima (Yama). Unlike the Persians, who developed an aniconic (anti-image)
and almost monotheistic tradition, the Proto-European Aryans maintained a
pluralistic tradition, using images, and worshipping many Gods and
Goddesses, like the Vedic. This suggests that their division from the Rig
Vedic people occurred long before that of the Persians or Iranians, and
that they took a larger and older form of the Vedic religion with them.
Migrations Out of India or Central Asia
We have noted Danu or Danava as a term for an inimical people or even an
anti-god, like Deva and Asura, probably reflects some split in the Aryan
peoples. This could be the conflict the Purus, the main Rig Vedic people
located on the Sarasvati river near Delhi, and the Druhyus, who were
located in the northwest by Afganistan, who fought quite early in the Rig
Vedic period.
Certainly we can only equate the Proto-Europeans with the northwest of
India or greater India that extends into Afghanistan and Central Asia. If
they can be connected to any group among the five Vedic peoples it must be
the Druhyus.
However, we do find Druhyu kingdoms continuing for some time in India and
giving names to regions like Gandhara (Afghanistan) and Aratta (Panjab)
connected more with Iranian or Scythian people. Yet, we do note a
connection between the Scythians and the Celts, whose Druid priests
connect themselves with the Scythians at an early period. The Scythians
also maintained a trade from India to Europe that continued for many
centuries. In this regard the Proto-Europeans could have been a derivation
of Aryan India by migration, cultural diffusion, or what is more likely, a
combination of both.
Though the Druhyus and Proto-Europeans may be connected, it is difficult
to confirm particularly as the Europeans were a very different ethnic type
(Nordic and Alpine) than most of the Indians and Iranians, who were of the
Mediterranean branch of the Caucasian race. T
However, it is possible that European ethnic types were living in ancient
Afghanistan or Central Asia, even Kashmir, where we do find some of these
types even today. The evidence of the Tokharians suggests this. The
Tokharians (Tusharas) were a people speaking an Indo-European language
closer to the European (a kentum-based language), and also demonstrate
Nordic or Alpine, blond and red-haired ethnic traits. They lived in the
Tarim Basin of western China that dominated the region to the Muslim
invasion up to the eighth century AD, by which time they had become
Buddhists. They may be related to the European featured mummies found in
that area dating back to 1500 BCE7. They were also present in Western
China around Langchou in the early centuries BCE. The Tokharian language
is possibly related to the Celtic and Italic branches, just as their
physical features resemble northern Europeans. The Tarim Basin region was
later regarded as the land of the Uttara Kurus and as a land of the gods.
So such groups were not always censured as barbarians at the borders but
were sometimes honored as highly advanced and spiritual.
The evidence does not show an Aryan invasion/migration into India in
ancient times, certainly not after the Harappan era (c. 3000 BCE) and
probably not before. No genetic or skeletal or other hard evidence has
been found to prove this. Similarly, we do not find evidence of migration
of interior Indic peoples West, the dark-skinned people that were
prominent on the subcontinent to the northwest. But if the same ethnic
types as the Europeans were present in Western China, Afghanistan or in
northwest Iran, like the Fergana Valley (Sogdia), such a migration west
would be possible, particularly given their familiarity with horses. In
this case the commonality of Indo-European languages would not rest upon a
common ethnicity with the interior Indo-Aryans but on a common ethnicity
with peripheral Aryans on the northwest of India.
It is also possible that the European people derived their Aryan culture
from the influence of Vedic peoples, probably mainly Druhyus but also
Scythians (who might themselves be Druhyus), who migrated to Central Asia
and brought their culture to larger groups of Europeans already living in
Europe and Central Asia. The Europeans could have picked up an Aryan
influence indirectly from the contact with various rishis, princes or
merchants, without any significant genetic or familial linkage with Indic
peoples. Or some combination may have existed. Such peoples with more
Vedic cultures like the Celts could derive mainly from migration, while
those others like the Germans might derive mainly from cultural diffusion.
In any case, various means of Aryanization existed that can explain the
spread of Vedic culture from the Himalayas to Europe, of which actual
migration of people from the interior of India need not be the only or
even primary factor.
We do note the names of rivers like the Don, Dneiper, Dneister, Donets and
Danube to the north of the Black are largely cognate with Danu. This could
reflect such a movement of peoples from West or Central Asia, including
migrants originally from regions of greater India and Iran. At the end of
the Ice Age, as Europe became warmer, it became a suitable land for
agriculture. This would have made it a desirable place of migration for
people from the east and the south which were drying up.?
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The Celtic peoples are defined for the purpose of this article as
referring to those people who in the past spoke a language of the Celtic
branch of the Indo-European language family and also lived according to
the ancient culture considered to be that of the speakers of Celtic as
based upon Celtic traditions and stories and on archeology. Archeological
and linguistic evidence traces them to the Danube river valley in Europe
back to around 6000 BCE, and further back to the region of the Aral Sea of
Central Eurasia. In Western China in particular, there is much evidence
for a culture of people who physically looked like the Celts of Europe
until the Turkic Uighur people and others moved into the region about the
eighth century. Mummies with European features have been found in that
region going back to 1500 BCE.The occasional red hair or green eyes found
in that and neighboring regions is taken as evidence that these people
related to the Celts were absorbed into various people still living in the
areas in question, including Xinjiang, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan,
Tibet and Nepal. Interestingly, I know a person of Irish ancestry who
converted to the Sikh religion, and in his turban, he is sometimes
mistaken for a northern Indian by Indians. It is also said that Genghis
Khan had red hair and gray eyes; I have even read reports of tribes of
red-haired people in the steppes and deserts in or near these regions,
from the eighteen hundreds.
