Does not the memory of the rivers of the Mahabharata evoke the names of the rivers and lakes of the Russian North – Alaka, Anga, Jalya, Ida, Ila, Kai, Manasa, Pavana, Palava, Suda, Sura, Sharya, Shona, Khaimovatitsa. And hundreds and thousands of names of rivers, lakes, mountains and villages of the North, which are simply impossible to explain with the help of languages other than Vedic Sanskrit. These are Indega, Idoga, Indomanka, Baidara, Varaka, Varida, Vazha, Varza, Virama, Deviaka, Ira, Karaka, Karna, Kaura, Kapya, Kundola, Kusha, Lala, Mandara, Mera, Maura, Sara, Sagara, Sindosh, Siti, Sarga, Swar, Swaga, Sumerka, Sukhana, Taka, Tara, Tarna, Udora, Una, Ura, Ustra, Harina, Haruta, Kharya, Shambovka, Shidra, Shura and many others.
The descendants of Kura and Nalya, residents of the Russian North, carried through the millennia to the present day the ancient names of their rivers and lands, and this testifies to what their ancestors, the first settlers, spoke in Sanskrit, which was freed from the glacier, the White Sea coast. Is it so? – You ask. Think so. For you, this is information for consideration. You can agree, but maybe offer your ideas and finds.
The author wanted to tell you about the Russian North, its secrets, which are gradually beginning to be revealed. And also about the peoples that turned out to be hidden by a dense veil of time.
On the possible location of the Holy Hara and Meru mountains in Indo-Iranian (Aryan) mythology
The location of the legendary Hara and Meru, the holy northern mountains of the Indo-Iranian (Aryan) epos and myths is one of the many riddles in Eurasian ancient history that has been troubling researchers for over a century and prompting ever more, sometimes totally contradictory, hypotheses. As a rule, they are believed to be the Scythian Ripei or Hyperborei mountains mentioned by the authors of antiquity. Over 80 years ago The Arctic Home in the Vedas,1 by the outstanding Indian political figure, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, launched a series of publications related to this subject in one way or another and continued to this day. The answer has never been found, as obvious from the two most recent publications – a book by G. Bongard-Levin and E.Grantovsky From Scythia to India (1983),2 The Ethnogeography of Scythia by I. Kuklina (1985).3 The two so-called Ripei Mountains locations, which the books propose, are mutually exclusive, though the authors proceed from the same ancient myths, historical sources and data.
Bongard-Levin and Grantovsky, analyzed the Avesta, Rigveda, Mahabharata, the works of Herodotus, Pomponius Mela, Plinius, Ptolemaeos, and the information provided by medieval Arabian travelers, ibn-Faldan, ibn-Batuta, and concluded that the geographical characteristics, repeated without exception in every source, are factual a/id indicate that the Ripei Mountains, Hara and Meru were the Urals, since only they possess nearly all the specific features attributed to the holy northern mountains: high altitude, natural resources, proximity to northern seas, etc.
I. Kuklina, the author of The Ethnogeography of Scythia, disagrees entirely, and argues that “it is apparently necessary to first distinguish the concept of the mythical northern mountains from that of mountains north of Scythia where many rivers began. Both of them were named Ripei. However there is no doubt that only the latter mountains can be localized, whereas the former, connected with the far north and Hyperborei, should be sought for in the myths of Indo-lranian peoples”. 5 Kuklina backs up her conclusions with a large number of comments by ancient authors – Pseudo Hippocrates, Dionisius, Eustaphius, Vergilius, Plinius, Herodotus, etc.6 – about the northern mountains called Ripei. She then cites, from Bongard-Levin and Grantovsky, examples of amazing similarities between Scythian polar concepts and ancient Indian and ancient Iranian “Arctic” tradition.
Kuklina draws the following conclusion: the northern mountains and the entire"Arctic” cycle are merely a myth, a retelling of what was learned from native Siberians. She feels the Ripei Mountains were actually the Tien Shan Mountains, as they are the only latitudinal watershed range in this part of Eurasia, are very high, and are north of India and Iran.
Here it is necessary to single out the following groups of information about the Ripei Mountains, Hara and Meru, identical in the writings of medieval Arab travellers, authors of antiquity, in Scythian and ancient Iranian mythological tradition. This information is also noted by the authors of From Scythia to India and the author of The Ethnogeograpky of Scythia.
1. The Ripei Mountains, Hara and Meru extended from the west to the east, separating north from south;
2. In the north, beyond the Ripei Mountains, Hara and Meru, is the Arctic or Kronian, or Dead or Milk Ocean, or the huge Vourukasha Sea that receives the rivers flowing from these mountains to the north;
3. The Ripei Mountains, Hara and Meru are a divide, as they separate rivers flowing to the south and flowing to the north;
4. From the summits of the Hara, Meru and Ripei Mountains, spring a) the heavenly Gang, b) holy Ratha, c) Rusiya River, d) all of Scythians big rivers except the Ister-Danube;
5. In these northern lands one can always see high in the sky the North Star and the Big Dipper;
6. The day there lasts half a year and the night half a year, and in the winter a cold northeast wind blows, causing much snow;
7. Rivers originating in these mountains have golden beds, and the mountains themselves contain countless riches;
8. The mountains are covered with forests, they abound with animals and birds and are very high and impassable;
9. A land of happiness lies beyond the Ripei Mountains, Hara and Meru.
Kuklina does not believe that the northern mountains were the Urals, and has reason to note essentially insurmountable contradictions: ancient writers indicate unequivocally that the Ripei Mountains extended latitudinally, which is not true of the Ural Mountains; the Ural Mountains are located to the east or northeast of Scythia which was in the Black Sea area, certainly not to the north; the Ural Mountains are not the divide from which Scythian rivers emerged.
It is hard to disagree with this. But while Kuklina finds contradictions in the hypothesis of the authors of From Scythia to India, she also faces practically irreconcilable contradictions. First, although the Tien Shan Mountains extend latitudinally, they are definuely not the divide of rivers flowing into northern and southern seas. True, the source of the great Syrdarya is in these mountains, but it flows into the Aral Sea which can hardly be called Lhe Arctic or Dead Ocean. As for the other rivers in Central Asia (those flowing to the north), none of them takes its waters to the sea, which does not in any way correspond to Indo-Iranian poetic mythical or Scythian tradition. Although the divide of Central Asian and Kashgarian rivers is in the Tien-Shan Mountains, those flowing south do not reach the sea, but are all tributaries of the lone Tarym River that disappears in the Takle-Makan desert, an unlikely place for rivers with golden beds, a six-month day and six-month night. The North Star and Big Dipper are not high in the sky, and many more things are lacking that apply specifically to the northern mountains. Thus, we are confronted with the paradox: the Urals are not the Ripei Mountains of the Scythians or the holy Hara and Meru of the Indo-Aryans, but neither does the Tien-Shan Range tally with the traditional descriptions. The author of The Etknogeography of Scythia believes that the Northern mountains were only a myth: "…there is no doubt about it that the Indo-Iranians did not live in areas near the Polar Circle but obtained realistic information about polar phenomena mixed with legends about the northern mountains and the gods from their northern neighbours.” However, it is highly improbable that different peoples originated a myth with quite concrete geographical characteristics – length, latitudinal orientation, wind direction, long winter, northern lights, etc. – that were not based on reality. This is all the more strange in view of the following circumstances: according to Mahabharata and Rigveda the country of Harivarsha was in the north and was the abode of Rudra-Hara. “The stylite with blond braids”, the “holy sovereign Hari-Narayana, boundless Purusha, radiant eternal Vishnu, the brown bearded Ancestor of all creatures.”
The north was the home of the god of wealth, Kubera, of the “seven Rishi” who were the sons of the creator Brahma. These brothers were revered