And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire in the middle of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, and the bush was not consumed. Exodus, 3: 2
Sanskrit, the language used long ago by religious scribes and sages, today transmits ancient messages from sacred texts to us, it is currently only a liturgical language like Latin. The Indian Vedas were written in Sanskrit. In addition to liturgical purposes, this language is spoken in some places even today, particularly in some institutions where people feel the need to revitalize it. In the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, there are villages where ordinary people speak Sanskrit. Sanskrit is also used in Mattur, a village in the Indian state of Karnataka.
Sanskrit and other languages
Throughout their long but preserved history, the Hindu gods have taken on a different form than they originally had in the Vedas. In some historical moments, Surya was more important than Vishnu. Shiva also does not have his name (Shiva) in the Vedas. Scholars believe that he is instead represented by a much older name: Rudra, which sounds like the word used for the oldest Slavic god – Rod, who was the primordial god, creator of the universe.
The origin of the word “red” (English) or “putrefaction” (German) probably comes from the primordial worship of the fire god, most likely a deity like Slavic Rod, Hindu Agni or Rudra. You will find many words with a similar sound in both European and Sanskrit languages, for example, the Sanskrit word “rakta”, in English “red” (“rudy” in Czech, “rouge” in French, “red” in Spanish, etc. .). The origin of the word “red” probably resides in fire, which had been worshiped and personified by all ancient and tribal cultures.
All religion, while surely based in part on actual events, somehow warps or changes over time. The Slavs have a legend about the creation of the world:
In the beginning, there was only great darkness and endless chaos. Its waves spun in empty space and flowed around the golden egg, which was in the middle. Rod, the creator of everything, was in the egg. When Rod spoke his first word, his son Svarog was born.
Slavic creation legends vary slightly by region (Serbia, Slovenia, Russia, Poland, etc.). Swarog or Svarog is the Slavic god of the sun and fire. In Slavic religion, Svarga is heaven. In Sanskrit, Svarga is also paradise.
Some Hindu gods bear remarkable similarity to Slavic deities, both in pronunciation and in meaning. Sanskrit and Slavic words may not always be completely similar (in pronunciation and connotation), but they can have remarkable elements of similarity as in the case of the Slavic god Veles (god of the shepherds and a large serpent), who resembles the Vedic Vala. , a Hindu Naga (serpent) and Asura (mostly sinful and power-seeking deities) mentioned in the Rig Veda more than twenty times.
The attributes of Lord Shiva are materialized in a Slavic female deity called Siwa, Ziva or Zivena, goddess of fertility and love. A similarity to Sanskrit appears in the fact that the word “ZIVA” means (in Sanskrit) “one who is kind.” Unlike the goddesses of war or the scorpion, goddesses of love are kind most of the time.
There is another similarity between Shiva and Ziva: the goddess Kali and Morena, Ziva’s sister. Both Kali (Hindu goddess) and Morena (Slavic goddess) are goddesses of death. In Hinduism, Kali is closely associated with Shiva, as she is a form of Durga, Shiva’s consort. There is not a big difference between these two, as Shiva’s association with Kali is just as strong as Ziva’s connection with Morena. If we look at the similarity in pronunciation, Slavic Morena has its equivalent in the Sanskrit word maraNaanta (coming to death).
When it comes to symbolism, the lingam is a Hindu (Shiva) symbol of fertility, the same dimension that the ancient Slavs attributed to Ziva.
The Vedic god Surya has his Slavic equivalent in the goddess of beauty: Zora, Zarya or Zori. There is also the word Zorya, which identifies the less important goddesses – Slavic guardians of the dawn, but the connection with the sun is indisputable.
Slavic gods overview
Rod (Creator)> Svarog (sun god and creative helper)> and his three sons> Svarozic, Dazhdbog, Perun.
Triglav is a Slavic word for god “with three heads”, almost identical to the Hindu Trinity (Trimurti). The oldest meaning of the word Triglav characterized the following three deities: Svarog, Perun and Dazhdbog; however, Veles or Svantovit later replaced Dazhdbog. Triglav has its Hindu equivalent in Brahma (almost always represented with three heads), or Dattatreya – Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in one – an incarnation of the divine Trinity (Trimurti). Hindus believe that this form of God once appeared here on earth.
Slavic swastika
Hindus use the swastika as a symbol of good luck. Boreyko’s coat of arms is the swastika symbol pointing to the left; it had been used in Poland. Svastika can also be found in the symbolism of Svarog.
Sanskrit and Russian – comparison
Slavic languages are similar, so the comparison below is made up of words that sound the same and mean the same in Russian, Czech, and Slovak. For more information on Sanskrit words, visit this website: http://spokensanskrit.de/
The first words on the left are in Russian, then the Sanskrit words follow and you can finally learn what they mean in English:
kogda kada when
nebo naaka sky
snowy snežnij sahima
mom maatR mom
brother of brat bhraatR
vsegda sadaA always
putnik pathika pilgrim (or traveler)
zit jiivati live (“jiivati” is pronounced similarly in Russian)
We can also observe grammatical similarities. Slovaks and Russians use vocative, which is a term that is difficult to explain in English in a word, since English (and many other European languages) does not use it (Sanskrit does). The vocative is barely present in Slovak, but it still occurs. The Wordnet thesaurus describes the term “vocative” as “the case (in some languages with inflections) that is used when addressing the referent of the noun.” Furthermore, English and possibly many other European languages, except Russian and other Slavic languages, do not have, for example, other cases such as locative.
The Hebrew word for fire is Esh – the English word “ash” is derived from it.
