Page 160 - Swatantrata to Atmanirbharta : Lokmanya Tilak’s legacy

constellation which was around 2500 BC. It is remarkable that
the Lokmanya was able to deduce and prove this through his
knowledge of astronomy. If the Vedas were composed in 4500
BC it follows that our civilisation must pre-date them. Today, as
historians have confirmed, the earliest known Harappan sites
date back to around 3500 BC.
Lokmanya Tilak was one of the scholars to comment on the
strong links between ancient Indian and Persian civilisations.
He demonstrated that the “Avestan Texts” (the holy books
of the Zoroastrians), were composed in a language bearing
resemblance to Sanskrit. In fact, ancient Iranians in their holy
books referred to an original homeland called Hapta Hindu
(Sapta Sindhu). Thus, we see that the word ‘Hindu’ itself
has less of a religious connotation and more of a geographic
reference. It refers to people who lived around the Indus River.
Tilak further suggested that the Greek names of constellations
may have Vedic roots. For instance, Orion may be derived
from “Agrayana”, another name for the “Mriga Nakshatra”
(constellation).
There is increasing evidence to suggest that the there was a
link between ancient deities across geographies. For instance,
the Vedic god Mitra is the patron deity of friendship in the
Rigveda. In the Avesta, Mithra is the patron god of interpersonal
relationships including friendship and in Roman Mythology
the god Mithras is a mediator. The Mitanni who are thought
to have originated in the Indian subcontinent, ruled parts of
Iraq alongside other kingdoms in Mesopotamia such as the
Assyrians, Akkadians, and Hittites. Their patron deity was the
Rigvedic God Mitra! Amazingly, a treaty between the Mitanni
and the Hittites was solemnised in the names of Mitra, Varuna
and Nasatya (Ashwins). Could all of this be mere coincidence?
Lokmanya Tilak’s research more than a hundred years ago
pointed to the Vedic origin of several Iranian, and Greek deities.
Lokmanya Tilak’s research proved that India was a
civilisational entity long before it became a political one. That
is why the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the epics of Ramayana
and Mahabharata are revered across the length and breadth of

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