First century CE historian Flavius Josephus wrote on the strength of Aristotle that “The Jews are derived from the Indian philosophers. They are named by the Indian Kalami.” There exists, therefore, an ancient belief of a connection between the Jews and the Indians [1]. In this post, we shall try to home in more precisely as to how this connection was most likely established.
Migration of Jews and Yadavas from North to South
We begin with the narrative of Jacob. His son Joseph was carried as a slave from Canaan in the north to Mitsrayim in the south [2]. Here, Josephus rose in the ranks and became the vizier of the king of Mitsrayim.
In due course of time, Joseph invited his father and his brothers to migrate from the North to the South and Joseph settled them in the land of Goshen [3]. The Hindu tradition also says that the Yadava among the Hindus had migrated from the north to the south. SR. Yadav of Shivaji University Kolhapur says that during ancient times, Yadavas were a powerful dynasty in the north. They later migrated to the southwest region as far as Dwarka.
In the South, the Bible says that a new King began to rule on Mitsrayim. He was not favorable to Jews. He asked the midwives to kill all the male sons of the Hebrews and let the girls survive [4].
The same story is found among the Yadavas. Kamsa came to power. He started to destroy the Yadavas. He sent several demons to kill the Yadava children(The most prominent was Demoness Putna.)
Moses and Krishna cross the river in a basket.
Then, in the Biblical narrative, one of the Hebrews in the line of the Levis gave birth to a child. His mother could not hide the child from the people. So, she put the baby boy in a basket and floated it in the water. The basket was picked up by the Pharoah’s daughter and the boy was brought up as Pharaoh’s son. Similarly, the king of Mathura had imprisoned Vasudeva, the father of Krishna, and his mother under the belief that their child would leave to his death. However, Vasudeva managed to come out of the jail. He carried Krishna across the river in a basket and Krishna was brought up by his foster parents Nanda and Yashoda of the cowherds at Gokula.
Once in a while, one Mitsrite was beating a Hebrew. Moses saw this and he killed the Mitsrite and fled to Midian. Here he joined the household of the Priest Jethro [5].
Similarly, Kamsa, the king of Mathura, had called Krishna to Mathura to kill him. However, Krishna managed to kill Kamsa instead. Then Krishna left to undertake studies under Sage Sandipani. And Moses goes to take education under Jethro.
After Moses came back to Mitsrayim, the princess of the Ethiopians Tharbis fell in love with Moses. Josephus says: “Tharbis, daughter of the king of the Ethiopians felt deeply in love with Moses and sent to him the most faithful of all servants to discourse with him upon their marriage.” [6] Then Moses sealed this contract, he defeated the Ethiopians and married Tharbis. The same story is found among the Hindus. Princess Rukmani sent a faithful Brahman who said to Krishna: “Shri Rukmani told me [to say to you], ‘O most beautiful man of the world, I thus have chosen your good self for my husband. Please come and take my hand.” After receiving this message, Krishna launched a war to kidnap Rukmani and marry her. [7]
Ten plagues in Mitsrayim
The Bible says that at this time there were ten plagues in Mitsrayim. [8]
The first plague was that of the ‘river becoming blood’.
However, rivers don’t become blood. The Hebrew word for blood is “dam” or “daman.”
These mean, among others, to stop, to rest, to be silent, to be still, etc. These meanings indicate that the water had become daman or still. The river had stopped flowing.
The Hindu texts say that Kamsa sent Akrura to fetch Krishna from Gokul to Mathura so that he could have him killed. During this journey, Krishna reached Kalindi which is another name for Yamuna.
Here Akrura drank of its sweet water from a pool of the Kalindi that was green as an emerald. Yamuna had become a pool. Now, the green-colored pool would be full of algae. Thus, both texts are saying that the river had stopped flowing.
This stoppage of flow makes sense in the Indian context. Yamuna, which used to flow to the West earlier began to flow to the east due to a tectonic uplift in the northern part of India. [9]
The western stream of the river became dry because the water started flowing to the East. This led to the drying of the river. [10] The dry bed of river Hakra is the name for the lower bed of the Yamuna, where one can see large stones in a dry river bed. The statement in the Bible that the river had become blood and the statement in the Bhagwat Purana that the river had become a pool of green color matches this dried-up Yamuna.
Our study shows that the site of Chanu Daro located on the West Bank of the Hakra River may be the original Mitsrayim. This site was inhabited at 2500 BCE and became deserted at 1500 BCE—the latter being the approximate time of the Exodus.
The conflict between the Hebrews and the Pharoah was regarding collecting straw for making bricks. [11]
It is unlikely that a conflict would take place on collecting 1% straw required for making mud bricks for the workmen’s quarters. [12]
In contrast, the construction at Chanu Daro was entirely of baked bricks. The Pharaoh may have asked the Hebrews to collect straw for burning the bricks of which straw constitutes about 50% of the cost. In Egypt, the construction material is mainly stone. Indeed, the Hindu text does not talk about any conflict regarding straw or bricks but the tyranny of the Hindu Kings was very much established when Kamsa started destroying the Hebrews.
The Bible also talks about nine more plagues.
Among these, the second was of frogs which live in swamps.
The third was if lice arise then there is a shortage of fresh water for washing.
The fourth was flies which grow in garbage when they cannot be removed.
The sixth was of boils which arise when the fungus on the skin cannot be washed.
These five pages talk about the shortage of water and match the stoppage of the flow of the Hakra.
The tenth plague was of death. Then the Pharaoh allowed the Hebrews to leave and they left Mitsrayim for Israel.
The Hindu narrative is that another king named Jarasandha had attacked Mathura.
Then Krishna fled Mathura for Dwarka. Here he came to know that Dwarka would get submerged in the sea. He asked the Yadavas to leave Dwarka for Prabhasa. After these things, Krishna came to Dwarka.
Historians tell us that there was a departure of the Yadavas across the Indian subcontinent. Cholas and Wodeyar’s–, East–Burmans and Sens, and to the Northeast—the Yadavas in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Thus, in this sequence, they may also have migrated West to Israel.
The Hebrews were camped at Mount Sinai. Here Moses went up to the mountain to worship God. When he was gone, his brother Aaron made a golden calf. The people started dancing around it. Moses did not like this when he returned. He took the golden calf, ground it into powder, mixed it in water, and made the Hebrews drink the water.
Then he said to them: “Let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his brother, kill his companion, and every man his neighbour (Exodus 32:27). [13]
A similar story is found in the Bhagwata Purana. Krishna had a foreknowledge that the island of Dwarka would get submerged soon. At this same time, a particular metal pestle was cursed by the sages. The Yadavas ground the pestle and dispersed it in the sea. Krishna asked the Yadavas to leave and they had camped at Prabhasa. Here they got inebriated and “Son killed father, brother killed brother, nephew killed uncle, grandson killed grandfather, friend killed friend…” When their arrows were exhausted and weapons were broken, they started pulling out reeds from the seacoast. This grass grew out of the powder of the pestle (Bhagwata Purana 11:30:13, 19-21).
The Bible tells of the Hebrews having crossed a water body called Yam Suf before they killed each other. They had wanted to cross the water with the Pharaoh pursuing them from behind. At that point, the Lord caused the water to separate, the Hebrews crossed the water body on foot, and the water came back after they had crossed and drowned the Pharoah. One possibility is that a mud volcano had erupted upstream of the point of crossing. That led to the stoppage of water. The Hebrews crossed and the mud eroded, the water came back and drowned the Pharoah. The area of the Indus River has several mud volcanos that have erupted in the past.
After the killings at Mount Sinai, the Hebrews went further west. Their next stop was at a place called Paran. There is indeed an ancient place named Paran near the city of Isfahan in Iran. There is an ancient Jewish community here as well.
After crossing the Indus River and the Volcano, the Hebrews reached the Enclosure of Kanha
After this, they went to a place called Kangawar. The name Kangawar is derived from “Kanha Vara” in Avesta where “Vara” means “Enclosure.” Thus, Kanha Vara means enclosure of Kanha. Now, Kanha is a Hindu name for Krishna. Here we have some indication that Moses, under the name Kanha, had traveled from the Indus Valley to Kangawar and this place is known as the “enclosure of Kanha” or “enclosure of Krishna.”
Then they crossed another water body called Yam Suf which would be the Shatt al-Arab waterway formed after the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and they reached Israel.
We do not have these detailed descriptions of the travels after leaving Prabhasa in the Hindu texts. Yet, we have a statement in the Mahabharata that Krishna came to Dwarka and spoke to Vasudeva after the Yadavas had killed each other at Prabasa.
Subsequently, Krishna’s cousin Arjun came to Dwarka. Vasudev said to him at this time, “Your friend Krishna spoke to me as follows: ‘I will live in some pure place and following the rules will wait for my end.’ Krishna has left for an unknown direction after leaving me with the children” ((Mahabharata, Mausala Parva 6:17, 24-25). Here we have a clear indication that Krishna had left–perhaps to Israel.
Genographic memories of Yadavas and Hebrews in Indus Valley?
The second piece of evidence is from genetics. According to Stephen Oppenheimer, [14] modern humans migrated around 160 thousand years ago from Africa. Around 60 thousand years ago humans travelled along the Indian Ocean to South Asia. They traveled to Europe from here 40 to 15 thousand years ago. Anatole Kylosov says that there was another migration around 3500 years ago or 1500 BCE from North India to the West. This is approximately the time of the Exodus. This provides some Geno graphic evidence that the Jews may have migrated from the Indus Valley to Israel in 1500 BCE.
The geographic project of the National Geographical Society has found that about one percent of the Ashkenazi Jews have the R-M124 haplogroups. However, the R-M124 haplogroup is not found in Europe. So, they wanted to know from where this gene entered the Ashkenazi gene pool. Another study by Sahu says that Karmalis of West Bengal have 100% R-M124 gene, Kshatryias of Jaunpur have 87%, and Yadavas of Bihar have 50% of this Gene. Yadava genes are hugely prevalent in the northeast of India as well as found among 1% of Ashkenazi Jews although the numbers are less. The common strand could be that the Yadavas of the Indus Valley migrated northeast to Bihar and another stream migrated to Israel. That is how the R-M124 gene came to the Ashkenazi Jews of Israel.
Similarity of Indus Valley script and Hebrew symbols!
The language of the Indus Valley has not been deciphered. Hence, it is not possible to determine whether the old Hebrew language is cognate with the Indus language. Still, we can see that there are a large number of parallels in their signs.
Marine Archaeologist S. R. Rao has given this chart very shows that the signs at several signs between the Indus and Northwest Semitic Scripts are identical. Hebrew is considered to be a member of this family of languages. It is not clear whether the North West Semitic signs extracted by Rao are from Hebrew or from non-Hebrew members of that family. Be that as it may, a connection of the Indus and Hebrew languages could be indicated by these common signs.
On the opposite side, Benjamin Noonan Associate Professor of the Old Testament at Columbia International University has studied the loan words taken from Egyptian into the Hebrew language. [15] He has found that in the entire Hebrew Bible, 0.64% of loan words are from Egyptian which is higher than loan words from any other language. The Egyptian loan words in the first five books of the Bible—the Torah–are 0.91% which is greater than the entire Bible.
This led Noonan to suggest that the Hebrew language has Egyptian roots. However, another possibility is that these borrowings may have taken place between 1400 and 1300 BCE when the Hebrews had arrived in Israel which was under Egyptian control. Therefore, in our view, the 0.64% Egyptian loan words in Hebrew do not establish that these were taken from Egypt before the Exodus in 1500 BCE.
There is a further problem. Noonan found that there were 0.64% Egyptian loan words and 0.62% Iranian loan words. Thus, the time of interaction between these languages may assumed to be similar. However, the contact between the Hebrews and Egypt was about 400 years, that of Iranian was about 100 years and that of Israel was also 100 years. Therefore, the approximately 0.62-0.64% loan words indicate a time of contact of about 100 years that matches with Israel, not Egypt.
Parallel genealogy of Krishna and Moses
Biblical Adam had three sons—Abel, Cain, and Seth. The line continued with the third son Seth, followed by Noah, Nahor, Abraham, and Moses. Biblical Adam is parallel to Hindu Swayambhu Manu. He had three sons Vivaswan, Vrita, and Indra. The line continued with the third son Vivaswan. The descendants of Vivaswan were Vaivaswat Manu—who is the same as Noah at whose time the Flood took place—followed by Nahush whose name is similar to Nahor.
Here onwards there is a distinction.
Abraham and Moses were born in the line of Nahor in the Biblical tradition.
In the Hindu tradition, Nahush had a descendant named Yayati.
Yayati had two sons–Yadu and Nabhag.
Nabhag’s descendant was Ram, who is parallel to Abraham. Yadu’s descendant was Moses.
The difference is that beyond Nahor or Nahush, in the Hindu tradition, there are two lines, one for Rama and one for Krishna.
Same time as Krishna and Moses?
The main debate in the Biblical tradition is regarding the date of the Exodus being 1446 BCE or 1280 BCE. The Bible says that the Exodus took place 480 years after the beginning of the construction of the Temple by Solomon which is dated to 966 BCE. Therefore, the Exodus would have taken place in 1446 BCE, However, there a very little archaeological evidence for Exodus in Egypt in 1446 BCE. [16]
On the other hand, there is archaeological evidence for two cities Pi-Ramesses and Pithom about 1280 BCE in Egypt. The Bible says that the king of Mitsrayim had put the Hebrews to hard labor to construct these two towns. Hence it is thought by scholars that these two towns were constructed around 1280 BCE by the Hebrews and the Exodus took place sometime after 1280 BCE.
On the Hindu side, the debate is more on the date of the Mahabharata War in which Krishna had participated by looking at the conjunction of the various planets. However, there is no consensus among the astrologers. Nilesh Oak suggests 5561 BCE, Saroj Bala 3139 BCE, Narhari Aacharya 3067 BCE, and R N Iyengar 1478 BCE. I can’t resolve this matter. It can be said though that most scholars tend to accept the date of 3100 BCE. There is a bigger problem. If we place Mahabharata at 3100 BCE the first question arises where is the archaeological evidence for the people from Swayambhu Manu to Vaivasvata Manu and Ram because the archaeological evidence from Indus Valley is mostly available from 3500 BCE only. [17] The second question arises that if Krishna lived at 3100 BCE and the Indus Valley civilization arose from about 3500 BCE to 1500 BCE then where is the literary evidence of these grand cities? Therefore, we have a disconnect if Krishna lived in 3100 BCE. On the other hand, if we place Krishna at 1500 BCE then the archaeological evidence from 3500 to 1500 BCE matches, and the literary evidence from is also available in the Epics and the Puranas.
Similarities between Hindu and Biblical names
We find that the Biblical name “Mitsrayim” has the same consonants as Hindu “Mathura”: M, T, and R. Furthermore, the Egyptians called themselves K M T or Kemet before 1500 BCE. However, the name Mitsrayim is mentioned in the narrative of Abraham at about 1900 BCE. Therefore at 1900 BCE, Mitsrayim would not be located in Egypt.
The second name is Jordan which is similar to Yamuna with JN converted to YN.
The third name is Ramesses which is the same as Rameshwar.
We have already mentioned the name Kanha being that of Krishna.
The fifth name is Goshen which is the same as Gokul.
The parallel person names are Adam as Manu, Eber as Sagar, Reu as Raghav, Serug as Shighrag, Nahor as Nahush, Terah as Dashrath, Abrahan as Ram, and Judah as Yadav. More importantly, these names are found in the same genealogical sequence.
Moses’ father was named Amram, which means “holy people.” The name of Krishna’s father, Vasudev, means “excellent or beneficial,” which is similar to “holy people.”
Moses’s mother’s name was Jochebed, which means “Yahova’s glory.” Krishna’s mother Devki’s name means “divine” or “celestial.”
Moses himself ‘s name does not have a phonetic parallel to the Hindus but he must have been a dark person. At Mount Sinai, God asked him to put his hand in the cloak. It was white when he took it out. This means it was not white or dark earlier. Krishna’s name also means dark.
Moses’ brother’s name Aron is parallel to Krishna’s brother’s name Balarama.
Equality of religion concept
It is thought that the Jews are monotheistic whereas the Hindus are monist. We will take one example to show that this difference may be more a play of words. The Hebrew words in the First Commandment are “I lord God who out land Egypt house slavery.” Now, these words can be understood in two ways.
From a monotheistic perspective, we can consider these words as: “I the Lord am your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt from the house of slavery.” The same words can be understood as: “I am the lord God by connecting whom you came out from the land of Egypt from the house of slavery.” The Hebrew words can be interpreted either monotheistically or monistically.
The second Commandment is “Make no idols.” But in the Bhagwat Purana 10.84.30 Krishna says “he who looks upon images of clay, stone, wood as his object of worship is indeed of donkey among cows.” So, idol worship is not a Desired method of worship even though it may have been tolerated.
Equality of fasting
The Fourth Commandment is to observe the Sabbath. Presently the Sabbath is a weekly day of rest and feasting. However, a paper by Moris Jastrow says that the original belief system of the Jews had two elements the New Moon was Holy and the Sabbath was a civil law when the landlord would give a day of rest to his slaves and animals [18].
Thus, as far as theology is concerned, the holiness of the New Moon was important. That is exactly the practice of the Hindus. Another apparent difference is that the Sabbath is a day of feasting. However, Isaiah Chapter 58 says that fasting is a holy practice. This is parallel to the Hindu system.
Rafi Metz describes other theological parallels. The concept of God in both religions is beyond time space, eternal, one God, beyond form, absolute, indescribable, inexhaustible, omnipresent, omniscient, original, and source of consciousness. [19] A difference is that the Jews have a lunar calendar while the Hindus have a Luni-solar calendar. Second, the Jews follow circumcision while the Hindus do not. These differences pale into insignificance when seen in the light of the numerous parallels.
Jews’ alleged special relationship with God
A major theological difference that is relevant today is that of the concept of chosen people. God made a covenant with Abraham. Genesis 15.18 says: “Unto they seed, I give this land of Israel.”
The word for Seed here is Hebrew Zera scholar told me
It has two meanings:
(1) Seed, sowing, and semen. These are the biological meanings.
(2) Of moral quality or righteousness.
So, the covenant could be regarding the biological or moral descendants. Further, in Genesis 17.5, God changes the name of Abraham from Abram to Abraham. Scholar tells me that H signifies multitude, enlarged, massiveness, etc. Thus, even if it is considered that God initially gave the land to the biological descendants of Abraham, that would include all human beings after H was inserted.
There is a need to reconsider whether there is indeed much difference between the theological beliefs of the Jews and the Hindus.
Conclusion
I would like to conclude by saying that if it is accepted that the Jews are the Yadavas from India, that should not give us a reason to either support or deprecate the beliefs of the Jews today.
The Yadavas had both the Kauravas and the Pandavas as descendants. One section was righteous while another section was unrighteous. Whether the Jews’s present beliefs follow the Kauravas or Pandavas is a matter of separate study. It is clear though that the Hindus do not have exclusivity.
Therefore, the Jewish religions should adopt the universality of the covenant made by God and give up the special relation with God. That will help build friendship among the Jews and all other people of this world.
References:
[1] Against Apion, Book I:22.
[2] Rajendra Yadav, Yaduvanshi Kshatriya Rajvansh, Yaduvanshi Maitri Mahasangh, New Delhi, No Date. Prakkathan.
[3] Genesis 47:1.
[4] Exodus 1:16
[5] Exodus 2:21
[6] Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 2:10
[7] Bhagwat Puran 10:52
[8] Exodus 7:14
[9] Valdiya, K S, “River Piracy: Sarasvati that Disappeared,” in S Kalyanraman, Editor, Vedic Sarasvati River and Hindu Civilization, Aryan Books International, New Delhi, 2008, Figure 8.
[10] Bhagwat 0:39:40
[11] Exodus 5:7
[12] Half a pound of straw is to be added to one cubic foot of mud to make mud bricks. (Biblical Archaeology Society Staff, How to Make a Mudbrick, http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/daily-life-and-practice/how-to-make-a-mudbrick/, May 1, 2014, Retrieved March 6, 2017.) The weight of one cubic foot of mud is 34 kilograms. Half-pound straw weighs 227 grams. The straw added works out to 0.6% by weight.
[13] Exodus 32:25-29
[14] Oppeneheimer, S. (2012). ‘Out-of-Africa, the peopling of continents and island: tracing uniparental gene trees across the map,’ Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, [Online]. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ PMC3267120/ (Accessed 23 January 2021).
[15] [21] Benjamin J. Noonan, Egyptian Loanwords as Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus and Wilderness Traditions, https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781575064307-005/html?lang=en.
[16] Janzen, Mark D., The Exodus: Historicity, Chronology and Theological Implications, Zondervan Academic 2011, Page 15.
[17] Rao, S R, Dwarka: The Submerged City of Krishna, xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/3167322/546050894/…/1-Dr+S+R+Rao.pdf, Retrieved July 25, 2013.
[18] Jastrow, Morris Jr, The Original Character of Hebrew Sabbayj, The American Journal of Theology,
[19] http://torahveda.org/.
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