When rivers meet

While reading a book on Zarathustra, I came across a very interesting piece from Avesta, the holy scripture of Zoroastrianism. This sounded very much like a verse from the Vedas.

‘Tem amavangtem zazatem surem damohu sevishtem mithrem zazai zaothrabyo’ : Avesta

Reading a bit more, led me to a verse, which was exactly the same text. This was from early parts of Rig Veda and was written around 1200 BC. Though the pronunciation of the words is a little different, but they both were in virtue of exactly the same God, Mithira or Mitra.  

‘Tam amavantam yajatam shuram dhamasu shavistham mitheram yajai hotrabhya’ : Rig Veda

‘With offerings I worship Mithira, that strong and mighty ‘Deva’, most bountiful to all creatures.’

A non-linguist also could see the similarity in the languages and deduce that either this was a product of an older common origin, which diverged later or there was a tremendous cultural exchange between the early period of two religions of the Indo Persian belt.

This didn’t come to me as a total surprise, but the similarity baffled me. I then decided to collect such instance of cross cultural pollination or simply borrowings.  I have come to a conclusion that there is very little monolithic history. All the cultures, religions, languages and ideas are shared and dependent on this confluence. 

The rise of nation state gave the leaders a desire to build an identity for their own areas. As ‘Hegel’ writes, ‘The State is the perfect social embodiment of the idea’.  The aspiration to find a unique identity has led people to look at the history as a singular past based on present context and circumstances. This Hegelian ‘Idea’  leads to purification of own culture from contamination of the perceived enemy. This creates patriot, enemy, heroes and villains, just to prove superiority over others.

The Christian right in the west, Islamic terrorism or the Hindu nationalism is just an extension of this wish to purge the other. All these forces are the ones which ride on national pride or religious prestige. This threatens liberal dialogue, free expression, the rights of  women and minorities and tries to erase the religious or philosophical alternatives from history. There is no bigger crime than changing history, it should always remain empirical and authentic.

There is no war of civilizations here, just a selfish and parochial way to look at the world.  

However, history reveals many intertwined cords which are more like chords, a group of notes in perfect harmony. Some of them come out as embarrassing narratives to these zealots. This confluence depends on the ability of people to move and it could rarely be stopped. You really can’t ignore the appeal of what you are surrounded by, the reasons could be survival or economical but yet that culture blends and adopts. I must add that this confluence is not always a peaceful process, wars, invasions have played an equal role in merging of two cultures.

This last decade was amazing in connecting the world together, though globalization has led to diminishing diversity both culturally and linguistically. However, the exchange of ideas has amplified and increasingly, we are becoming entwined with people of similar interests without the geographical boundaries. 

Cosmopolitism and Diversity are necessary conditions for cultural growth. No culture without confluence.

This new blog would be a collection of such ideas. A collection of interesting pieces of such cultural mergers in the history.  Some which will break our preconceived beliefs and will let us appreciate ‘the other’. Hope is that we all would stop looking at the world through a monochrome view of religion or region. Instead, as a single thread of humanity where we all are equal borrowers and contributors.