And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst 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, which today conveys ancient messages to us from sacred texts, is currently just a liturgical language like Latin. The Indian Vedas were written in Sanskrit. Besides for liturgical purposes, this language is still spoken in some places today, particularly in some institutions where people feel the need to reinvigorate it. In the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, there are villages where the common 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 a different form than they originally did in the Vedas. At some historical moments, Surya was more important than Vishnu. Shiva also does not have the name of him (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 “rot” (German) probably comes from the primordial worship of the god of fire, probably a deity like Slavic Rod, Hindu Agni or Rudra. You will find many words with a similar sound both in European languages and in Sanskrit, for example, the Sanskrit word “rakta” – English “red” (“rudy” in Czech, “rouge” in French, “rojo” in Spanish, etc.) . The origin of the word “red” probably lies in fire, which has been worshiped and personified by all ancient and tribal cultures.
All religion, while surely partially based 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 the great darkness and endless chaos. Its waves swirled in the empty space and flowed around the golden egg, which was in the middle. Rod, the creator of everything, was in the egg. When Rod uttered the first word of him, his son Svarog was born.
Slavic creation legends vary slightly by region (Serbia, Slovenia, Russia, Poland, etc.). Swarog or Swarog is the Slavic god of the sun and fire. In the Slavic religion, Svarga is heaven. In Sanskrit, Svarga is also heaven.
Some Hindu gods bear a 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 may have remarkable elements of similarities as in the case of the Slavic god Veles (god of shepherds and a large snake), who resembles Vedic Vala. , a Hindu Naga (snake) and Asura (mostly sinful and power-seeking deities) mentioned in the Rig Veda more than twenty times.
The attributes of Lord Shiva are embodied in a Slavic female deity called Siwa, Ziva or Zivena, goddess of fertility and love. A similarity with Sanskrit appears in the fact that the word “ZIVA” means (in Sanskrit) “the one who is kind”. Unlike the goddesses of war or scorpions, the goddesses of love are kind most of the time.
There is yet 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 isn’t a huge 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, the Slavic Morena has its equivalent in the Sanskrit word maraNaanta (to come to death).
In terms of symbolism, the lingam is a Hindu symbol (of Shiva) for 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 less important goddesses – Slavic guardians of the dawn, but the connection with the sun is indisputable.
Summary of Slavic gods
Rod (Creator) > Svarog (sun god and helper creator) > and his three sons > Svarozic, Dazhdbog, Perun.
Triglav is a Slavic word for “three-headed” god, almost identical to the Hindu Trinity (Trimurti). The most ancient 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 left-pointing swastika symbol; it had been used in Poland. The swastika can also be found in Swarog symbolism.
Sanskrit and Russian – comparison
Slavic languages are similar, so the comparison below is made of words that sound the same and mean the same in Russian, Czech, and Slovak. If you want to learn more about Sanskrit words, please visit this website: http://spokensanskrit.de/
The first words on the left are in Russian, then Sanskrit words follow, and finally you can learn what they mean in English:
kogda kada when
nebo naaka sky
snowy snežnij sahima
mom maatR mom
brat bhraatR brother
vsegda sadaA always
putnik pathika pilgrim (or traveler)
zit jiivati live (“jiivati” is pronounced similarly in Russian)
We can also see the similarities in the grammar. Slovaks and Russians use vocative, which is a term that is hard to explain in English in one word, since English (and many other European languages) don’t use it (Sanskrit does). The vocative is hardly present in Slovak, but it still occurs. The Wordnet Thesaurus describes the term “vocative” as “the case (in some inflected languages) used when addressing the referent of the noun”. Also, English and possibly many other European languages, except Russian and other Slavic languages, do not have, for example, other cases like the locative case.
The Hebrew word for fire is Esh; the English word “ash” is derived from it.