Techniques of the Bible – The Rivers of Eden

The Riddle:

“A river watering the yard flowed from Eden from there it was separated into 4 headwaters. The identify of the very first is Pishon it winds via the entire land of Havilah the place there is gold. (The gold of that land is great aromatic resin and onyx are also there). The name of the next river is Gihon it winds by means of the overall land of Cush. The identify of the third river is Tigris it operates alongside the east side of Asshur…And the fourth river is the Euphrates.”

(Genesis, 2 / 10-14)

The area of the Eden as delineated by the book of Genesis constantly places the reader in doubt. In particular a researcher generally keeps imagining, how to admit that Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates rivers are the branches of a single big river flowing on the similar land. The scientists and students of the outdated testaments have strained every single nerve to get the respond to but it is still insoluble while 3400 decades have passed. The riddle could not be answered except we get to its roots and discover out the standard supply, so it is needed to know about the fundamental source of the strategy of the river of Heavens which was introduced by the Vedic faith.

The Vedic Strategy:

We locate the historical most and primary notion of the rivers of heavens in Vedic religion in accordance to which a person huge river is divided into 7 branches. According to Maha-Purana, the spiritual e-book of Hindus, Ganga (the central h2o-class of heavens) reached the earth (from the Paradise i.e. Himalaya) and divided into 7 h2o heads. The pursuing names of the 7 streams have been pointed out in Rig-Veda:

a. The Shatudri (Present River Sutlej).
b. The Vipas (Existing River Bias).
c. The Ervati (Present River Ravi).
d. The Chandrabhaga (Present River Chenab).
e. The Vatishta (Present River Jhelum).
f. The Sarsvati (Probably it was River Hakra of previous days).
g. The Sindhus (Current Terrific River Indus).

All of these rivers have been flowing in historic land of India i.e. Pakistan and thanks to which the land has been named as Sapat Sindus (land of seven rivers) by Vedas. There is a different stream called Ganga (the stream of Heavens) in the present day India, but according to chronicles, the true Ganga was Sindhus (river Indus). Pandit Kalhan wrote a well known reserve Raj Tarangini about nine hundred decades ago, in which he considers River Indus as Ganga, the stream of Heavens. Since historic moments, river Indus experienced been viewed as to be the main river of India and rest of the rivers had been identified to be its tributaries, thanks to which, it is termed Abasain, this means the father of rivers. Surely, the followers of Vedic religion deemed river Indus to be the principal stream of Heavens and the relaxation of the six rivers to be its tributaries. River Indus is identified as Olympus in Indian mythology. According to the Vedic legends, the heaven of God Shiva was someplace close to this river. The ancient people today of Indus civilization assumed that the supply of this river is in Kilasha in western Tibet. Astonishingly, the term Kilasha usually means heavens in Vedic Sanskrit and Hindi languages.

The Solution To The Riddle:

The writer of the guide of Genesis changed the notion of Vedic religion. He not only transformed the quantity of heaven’s streams from seven to four but also improved their names. Why he did so? Definitely he experienced some targets in his thoughts and he wanted to hide the area of heavens. That is why he evades providing specifics about the land of heavens in the e book of Genesis. He also starts off the tale of Adam and Eve from the Backyard of Eden as an alternative of Heavens. However by a stroke of great luck, he not only mentions the appropriate geographical area of the actual streams of heavens i.e. Kashmir, but also the mineral properties of its land which enabled me to get some clues to establish the Bible’s rivers of Eden with the pursuing evidences:

a. The First River Pishon (Linguistic Proof)

The Bible created it distinct that there was one particular major river which was divided into four streams. The name of that river is not outlined, but most probably it was Pishon. Permit us take a look at the linguistic supply of this term. Pishon is no question the Vedic Sanskrit word Paiswan, which also usually means river or stream. This linguistic reference is a very clear evidence that the writer of the ebook of Genesis borrowed the principle of the streams of Heavens from the historic Indo-Aryan tribes. He deliberately struck off the identify of Indus and talked about it as Pishon. The Vedic religion suggests that the origin of river Ganga (Indus) is heaven. The physical starting up position of the river Indus is named as Kailasha, indicating Heavens. On the other hand, the author of the guide of Genesis claims, “A river watering the garden flowed from Eden.” Right here he deliberately improved the identify of the starting off stage of the river i.e. Kailasha, Ganga or Heaven to Eden in order to set the geographical spots in question.

b. The Land of Havilah (Geographical Proof)

In accordance to the ebook of Genesis, Pishon surrounds the land of Havilah. This Havilah is no doubt Himalaya (Himala). In all probability, he intentionally modified the word Himalaya to Havilah in order to distort specifics and conceal the identification of the land of heavens. On the other hand, if the Havilah of the ebook of Genesis is Himalaya, then we have to ponder as to which river surrounds the land of Havilah (Himalaya)? It is of program river Indus, which lies at the rear of the lofty Himalayan mountain selection and travels 160 miles in the direction of north-west and taking river Ghar alongside with it, enters Kashmir Valley. It travels toward Ladakh from Kashmir and from Ladakh it enters a move behind the attractive valley of Skardu. Quite a few tiny rivers and streams preserve merging into it, till it reaches Gilgit. A few great mountain ranges of the world, i.e. Himalaya, Hindukush and Karakoram merge into just about every other at Gilgit in Pakistan. So there is no question that the river Indus of Pakistan (historic India) is the only river that pretty much winds by way of the overall land of Himalaya.

c. The River of Gold (Proof from Chronicles)

The guide of Genesis phone calls the land of Himalaya as the land of Havilah and tells us that gold of matchless high quality is uncovered in this land. After looking at this statement, our supposition turns into conviction that Pishon is truly the river Indus, as the authors, historians, geographers and travelers of ancient occasions often identified as river Indus the river of gold. In this regard, the father of background, Herodotus has created a story that he read from the nearby men and women. Though discussing a northern branch of ancient Indians, probably the current Pakhtuns or Paktuikes (Pathans), he states that they have been much more war-like as as opposed to the rest of the Indians. He writes: these are the folks who carry sacks of gold dust from the sandy deserts of this district (northern India). Wonderful ants are uncovered on the sandy shorelines of river Indus. These ants are very harmful and physically scaled-down than a puppy, but bigger than fox. They dig gold dust out of the sandy deserts, although making holes to stay. Indians travel on their camels to obtain the gold dust and fill their sacks. They gather this gold dust on afternoon as it is very hot at that time and the ants retire to their furrows to relaxation. So these Indians quickly fill-up their sacks with the gold dust and operate away from there as fast as they can (as the ants might occur out of their holes and consume them up). Herodotus was also explained to by the regional persons that some of individuals ants have been captured and they have been becoming held captive by the Persian king. The goal of spreading this tale is obvious. The ancient Indians intended to make the foreigners afraid of the risky ants so that they may well not arrive to the beaches of river Indus to accumulate the gold dust and thus keep on to use the companies of the locals in this regard. When explaining the specifics of tribute paid out by international locations conquered by the Persian King Darius-I,(520-BC to 486-BC), Herodotus also says, The Indians who are a lot more various than all the other we have viewed compensated additional than any other persons, particularly 360 talents of gold dust (equal to 4680 standard talents).

It is stated that the gold dust utilised to appear to the valleys and banks of river Indus together with the melted glaciers and icebergs in summer time. Thus the principal supply of gold dust was the great Himalaya. This is the reason why, in Hindi, the phrase Him indicates Gold as nicely as Himalaya Mountain. River Indus was referred to as The River of Gold for the reason that the excellent Himalaya gifted it with the gold dust by means of its melting glaciers and icebergs.

d. Historic Evidence

European scholar, Professor Karl Jetmar (Heidelberg College of Western Germany) is of the impression that the river of gold is the river Indus and folks sifting gold from sand can nonetheless be viewed at their operate. (Translated from the book, Karakoram Hindukush, Urdu model, referred by Manzoom Ali, Revealed by Barq Sons Ltd. Islamabad) In the similar book, Pakistani scholar and archaeologist, Professor A.H. Dani writes, the characteristic of this location (the higher valley of Indus) had been sifting gold from sand and the persons of Sonewal tribe continue to choose desire in this perform. There is an additional exciting reference in the same e book, by Professor Dr. Maximilian Culumborg of division of Arts, College of California, Los Angeles (United states of america): “the historical inhabitants of the upper valley of Sindh ended up goldsmiths or traders of Gold. The present Durd tribes have descended from the similar race. These tribes are inhabited in the large location of Northern Pakistan. Well-known Greek geographers Ptolemy, Strabo and Paleni were nicely educated about the Durds. They have named these individuals as Durdae, Durda or Durday and according to Paleni they experienced broad sources of gold.”

e. The Land of Cherished Stones & Jewels

The writer of the e book of Genesis also mentions the huge means of fragrant resin and onyx in the land of Havilah. The picturesque valleys of Middle-Asia such as Baltistan, Gilgit, Kohistan, Yarqand, Skardu, Hunza, Haramosh Nagar, Diamar and Chitral etcetera have normally been popular for important stones since times not known. Important stones like Topaz, Ruby, Emerald, Turquoise, Crimson Ruby and Sapphires are however uncovered in these valleys. Particularly, the Neelam valley of Kashmir was called Dar-Awah (Drawah) by the historic people today. This phrase belongs to the Persian language (Indo-Iranian) which implies the door of treasures. In the historical period, India was also identified as the golden sparrow by the invaders.

So in the gentle of these evidences there remains no doubt that the Pishon of the Bible is essentially the river Indus of present day Pakistan.

The 2nd River Gihon:

The book of Genesis names the 2nd river of Eden as Gihon. Gihon is the identical river that flows from the existing day Turkistan to Afghanistan. Right here the writer at the time again deliberately generates question about the area of heavens but there is not any type of Cush tribe dwelling besides the river Gihon as he claimed. So in get to unveil the truth, I will go over the Bible’s land of Cush initial.

The Land of Cush:

The legend of Kashmir valley relates that, in the beginning, the valley was included with the waters of a mighty lake on which the goddess Parvati sailed in a pleasure-boat from Haramukh mountain in the north, to the Konsanag lake in the south. In her honor, the lake was known as the Satisar or “The lake of the virtuous lady”. The countryside was harassed by a demon known by the name of Jaldeo. Rishi Cusheepa arrived to rescue and with the enable of God, struck the mountains at Baramula. The waters of the lake rushed out. The Rishi or Muni Cusheepa started a kingdom on the website of lake.

The tribe that descended from Rishi Cusheepa was known as the Cush tribe. The phrase Kashmir has been derived from the title of the ancestor of the Cush tribe, Cusheepa. The phrase Kashmir is most likely the distorted kind of word Cusheep-Pura (the city of Cusheepa). The famed Greek geographer Ptolemy named it as Casperia which is an noticeable Greek pronunciation of the term Cusheep-Pura. A Chinese traveler of 631 A.D wrote its name as Kia-She-Me-Lo, and it appears to be the Chinese pronunciation of Cusheep-Pura. Pandit Kalhan who wrote the Sanskrit e-book Raj-Tarangini in 1148 A.D, also names Kashmir as the land of Cusheep. Consequently this claim of the author of the book of Genesis is mistaken that Gihon of Turkistan winds by way of the entire land of Cush. Now the dilemma that by natural means comes into mind is that which river flows as a result of the complete land of Cush, the Kashmir? No doubt it is the identical river which is named as Vitasta by the Indian Vedas and which was graecized into Hydaspes by Alexander’s historians, but much more appropriately as Bidaspes by Ptolemy, when in modern day Kashmir it is regarded as Veth. Nevertheless, in Punjab it is named as river Jhelum. The river Jhelum physically winds through the overall land of Cush tribe and it is the exact river that is specified the title of Gihon by the author of the e-book of Genesis to cover some historical points which will be unveiled in the future posts.

The Third River Tigris:

The e-book of Genesis names the 3rd river of Eden as Tigris and tells that this river flowed in the way to the east of Asshur. This Tigris is the very same river that flows in the land of Iraq. In the course of the era when the guide of Genesis was composed, a terrific kingdom of Asshur was located on the northern shore of the Tigris River. But it is also a actuality that a nation by the title of Asshur resided in India in historic times. A holy e book of Indians, Sat Pat Brahman narrates it as follows:

“Devta and Asshura came out of Parjapati (creator of universe) and lived with each other. But Asshura imagined in his pleasure that why should really we present the supplying to anyone. For that reason, they begun preserving the featuring in their mouth.”

The Fourth River Euphrates:

The author of the ebook of Genesis also involved the name of river Euphrates in the streams of Heavens. The stage to ponder is, the writer has spelled out the locale of Eden’s 1st 3 rivers, but has not instructed us the site of river Euphrates. It really is clear that he himself and his tribe ended up inhabited beside this river and ended up ingesting its drinking water. So his personal tribe, for whom he was producing the e-book of Genesis, did not require to know the area of Euphrates River. His principal goal was to convey to his nation that they were being also benefiting from a stream of Heavens.