Race and Culture: Revisionary Frameworks of Reality Maria Theresa Chakkunny Asst. Professor, Dept. of English St.Teresa’s College, Ernakulam-11 ‘The winds of change’ and ‘the sands of time’ are poetic phrases which have persisted in the literature and language of all the populated continents, evoking a resonant sense of ‘rightness’ or déjà vu. Strangely enough both the Vedic Indian and South American civilizations talk of four eras, each of which ends in a catastrophe of global proportions, after which a new world and time is born. The former includes the Satya-yuga, Tretā-yuga, Dvāpara-yuga and Kali-yuga; while the latter mentions Matlactli Atl or the First Sun, an era destroyed by a flood or deluge (Apachiohualiztli), the Second Sun (Ehecoatl), which was destroyed by the Wind Serpent (Ehecoatl), the Third Sun or Tleyquiyahuillo, which was destroyed by fire and the Fourth Sun or Tzontlilic when men die of starvation after a deluge of blood and fire. The destruction of each era resulted in the creation of a new world; hence the phrases provide an intuitive glimpse of past and future times. As time passes we are slowly becoming aware of the interconnectedness of our knowledge systems, whose first cradles were the great repositories of myth. In a recent attempt to trace the origins of the Dravidian race, I was astonished to find that the trace led across continents from an antediluvian land termed variously Lemuria and Kumarikaṇṭam, by Western and Eastern scholarship, to the Indian subcontinent, and thereon to Sumeria and Egypt. A few centuries later there was a movement from Egypt to West Africa and thence to South America. South America served as an eye-opener, for here was a land which claimed magnificent, ancient buildings of monumental proportions; buildings which exhibited a high degree of technical skill, but whom no-one could decisively place in a particular time frame. Speculations were rife over the possible creators of these buildings. Different native groups possessed myths which spoke of strange gods who had descended on their lands in a remote time, bringing with them the knowledge of civilization; the ‘weights and measures’ of mankind; applied and expressed in the disciplines of Mathematics, Astronomy, Architecture and Agriculture, along with knowledge of plant and animal life, which led to the creation of herbal Medical systems, and ensured a plentiful supply of food. The names of Viracocha, Quetlzalcoatl and Thunupa are ascribed to these gods who appear in most of the early myths of native Indian tribes in South America, especially the mighty Incas. In the 15th and 16th centuries, when the conquistadores arrived, the Inca empire stretched along, “…the Pacific coast and Andean highlands of South America from the northern border of modern Ecuador, through the whole of Peru and as far south as the Maule River in central Chile” (Hancock 46). This vast region was connected by two parallel highways, stretching from north to south, one along the coastline and the other through the Andean highlands. Sophisticated engineering techniques were observed in the suspension bridges and rock cut tunnels which connected the 3600 kilometer stretch. Who were these strange gods? Similar descriptions in the diverse myths, speak of a pale skinned individual with blue eyes and a long beard, wearing a simple robe or cusma reaching to the knees, and at times accompanied by companions of two kinds, the ‘faithful soldiers’ or huaminca and the ‘shining ones’ or hayhuaypanti. These descriptions offer the idea of a single individual who had travelled extensively to various corners of the Inca Empire. His manner of descent was recorded in the names bestowed by an illiterate race. Viracocha in local parlance mean ‘Foam of the Sea’, probably referring to the arrival of this ‘deity’ by sea on some kind of mechanical craft. This event would appear miraculous to a race that depended on reed boats to navigate the waters. At Lake Titicaca, high up in the Andes, where he is referred to as Thunupa, legend claims that the deity emerged from the lake and walked on the waters to the shore. “Thunupa appeared on the Altiplano in ancient times, coming from the north with five disciples. A white man of august presence, blue-eyed and bearded, he was sober, puritanical and preached against drunken-ness, polygamy and war” (Hancock 70). The civilizing mission of this deity has been documented by early Spanish chroniclers who accompanied the conquistadores and recorded the myths explained by the various native Indian tribes. All the myths commonly describe a period of terrifying darkness and chaos in antiquity, when a great flood inundated most of their lands and the sun appeared to have vanished. It was during this time that Viracocha appeared, and using his power, “… changed the hills into valleys and from the valleys made great hills, causing streams to flow from living stone…” (Hancock 49). As he traversed the Andean highlands, he worked miracles, healing the sick by touch, restoring sight to the blind and speaking every native tongue. In Peru, Hancock tells us that Viracocha was remembered for bringing the skills of medicine, metallurgy, farming, animal husbandry, the art of writing and an understanding of the principles of engineering and architecture. In many mountainous regions he introduced the concept of terraced farming. We are therefore talking about a being of advanced intelligence, which travelled by air and water using mechanical devices a few millennia before the modern chronological era! Quite often the deity Viracocha is associated with the serpent symbol. At times he is described as a feathered serpent and has the name Quetzalcoatl; the latter could of course be the native Indian depiction of a man descending like a bird from the sky. However the serpent motif has puzzled many scholars. It is at this juncture that we turn to my research which throws up a probable candidate for the deity Viracocha. The legend of sage Agasthya is interesting in more ways than one. Strangely enough Agasthya is a presence in the Ramayana and Mahabharata, two of the most important religious Hindu epics which lay claim to a historical presence. If we accept the date suggested by Dr. P. V. Varthak, for the start of the Mahabharata war as 5561 BC then the date of Agasthya’s birth is 10,097 BCE at a place in modern Gujarat, for his birth is said to have occurred 4573 years before the commencement of Kali Yuga, a time period which according to tradition begins with the death of Lord Krishna. 10,000 BCE is generally regarded as the period when the last Ice-Age began to thaw. Tradition ascribes to Sage Agasthya’s life span a period of approximately 4500 to 5000 years, which would account for his presence both in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Such a claim is absurd unless we accept that it incorporates a symbolic truth. It is strange but true that the Indus Valley civilization, the Egyptian civilization and the Inca civilizations in South America, all share a belief in the concept of exceptional kings who die and resurrect as stars. Sage Agasthya, who became a king, following his marriage with a princess of Malaya, was also known as the star Canopus. The God-king Osiris later becomes a star in the Orion constellation and his sister-consort Isis becomes the Sirius or Dog Star which was known as Rudra in Indian Astronomy. The myth of Agasthya mentions his period of instruction in the Vedas under Rudra (later known as the Dravidian deity Siva). The Vedas contained knowledge of philosophy, yoga, medicine, and astronomy, metallurgy, the arts of music, dance, architecture, metaphysics (or ‘black’ magic) and agriculture. If Rudra represented the Sirius star system, was the myth a symbolic depiction of contact between an intelligent extraterrestrial life form and sage Agasthya? Although the idea appears fantastic, it receives validation from the Dogon tribe of Mali who mention contact in ancient times with a civilizing alien group called the Nommo; making us rethink former assumptions. The Dogon tribe are a people who were particularly untouched by givens of civilization in 1946, when Griaule, a French ethnologist learned of their ancestral contact with the alien Nommo in a remote time, a few millennia before the present era. Supporting their claim were ancient cave drawings which mapped our solar system perfectly. Among the knowledge imparted to Griaule, was the Dogon belief that the brightest star in the sky, Sirius (sigi tolo or star of Sigui) had two companion stars, po tolo (the Digitaria star) known to astronomers as Sirius B, and ẹmmẹ ya tolo (the female Sorghum star or Sirius C).This knowledge was passed on to Griaule in 1946; however the presence of Sirius B was recorded by astronomers only by the seventies, when advanced telescopes were created. Sirius C was considered a mythic creation till 1995, when its presence was hinted at indirectly, and it was only in 2014 that astronomers gained direct proof of its existence. The Nommo claimed Sirius C as their homeland. Descriptions of the Nommo, talked of beings which had bodies and legs like humans but also possessed reptilian features and tails along with a fish-like scaly coats. On arriving from the sky in their craft of thunder and fire, they created a water body and took residence in it. These beings instructed the Dogon ancestors in the science of agriculture, the use of irrigation, metallurgy and architecture. Similar beings are recorded in Sumerian texts where they are known as the Annunaki. In fact figurines representing these beings were discovered at Tel al Ubaid close to the Euphrates River. The Annunaki too are credited with a civilizing mission. Interestingly Sun worship appears to have become important after the arrival of these beings in different continents. We may infer that this form of worship was practiced in memory of those who came from the stars, for the Sun after all, was a star. A corpus of Dravidian literature entitled the Sangam literature, mentions the presence of reptilian beings that existed on the antediluvian land of Kumarikaṇṭam, alongside humans. In the legend of Sage Agasthya, we read of his travels and subsequent sojourn on this land, which extended as far as the Antarctica in 10,000 BC, before it was submerged by a deluge of global proportions. We may infer that Agasthya too received knowledge in various sciences from these alien beings, which in myth is rendered as ‘instruction under the god Rudra ‘(Sirius star). Other sages too are supposed to have received such instruction with the stricture to spread this knowledge to the world. However knowledge of Astronomy gave Agasthya intimations of an impending catastrophe, which would submerge Kumarikaṇṭam, hence the sage is said to have made his way northward toward the Indian subcontinent. Following the deluge, he comes back and sets up centers of learning in South India after compiling the knowledge he received with the help of sages, into a number of manuscripts in the four languages of the period, ancient Sanskrit, Hebrew, Chinese and ancient Tamil. Agasthya is supposed to have travelled extensively to spread this knowledge; to Malaya, China, Egypt, Mesopotamia, West Africa and South America. We must recall that Agasthya was a sage; thus he had a long beard and wore a simple tunic, carrying a staff in one hand and a kamandalu or copper pot in the other. Strangely enough, this figure approximates the description of Viracocha. The object which Viracocha carries, which scholars have been unable to identify, but sense was metallic, is the kamandalu. The kamandalu is not an ordinary vessel, for its composition ensures that in the presence of sunlight, after a period of nine days the water gets energized and drinking this water increases the longevity of a person’s lifespan. The legends of Agasthya mention his travels to South America, at times accompanied by a few of his disciples. Knowledge of this land and many others must have come from an advanced intelligence which had mapped the Earth in an earlier time, before Agasthya’s time frame of 10,000 BC. The Piri Reis World Map of 1513 attested to this, for it focused on the western coast of Africa, the eastern coast of South America and the northern coast of Antarctica with geographical features of rivers, and plains; the latter was puzzling for the Antarctica was discovered only by 1818 AD and by then it was totally covered by a layer of ice, a mile thick. The last time it had been frost free had been between 13,000 and 4000 BC. An interesting observation made by Hancock, was a reference to the presence of images of Toxodons in a frieze carved onto the Gateway of the Sun at Tiahuanaco. Toxodons were three –toed amphibious mammals, which resembled a cross between a rhino and a hippo, but more importantly, they were extinct, having died out by the end of the Pleistocene, about 12000 years ago. How did these images come to be carved with a striking likeness on the Gateway? It meant humans or ‘beings’ with great artistic skill had existed at a very remote period in these regions when Toxodons roamed the land. These images are not solitary expressions for we observe them again in the drawings of the Nazca plains. The giant figures drawn on the Nazca plains have left scholars puzzled as to their utility. No one appears to know for what purpose they were created. Perhaps due to a predilection for zoology, the truth seemed to stare out at me. The Nazca lines were in fact a pictorial map of South America during the concluding century of the Pleistocene. The regional fauna still existed in places where they had been mapped 15,000 to 12,000 years ago. This explained the presence of the Toxodon on the map. The spider monkeys of Peru and Bolivia were present, as was the swallow tailed humming bird of Argentina. The figures of the giant armadillo of Colombia, Paraguay and Guyana were as well as the Chilean Flamingo found in Chile, Argentina and to the east in Brazil could be seen. Alpacas were observed in the north western part of the map indicating the areas of Bolivia, Ecuador and southern Peru. Argentavis magnificens, one of the largest birds ever known, existing during the Pleistocene, is depicted on the map at an area which probably represents northern Argentina and upper regions. Clinching evidence came from the Sun Temple of Peru at Teotihuacan, with its layered pyramid, which found representation on the Nazca map. Why would an advanced race draw a pictorial map of the flora and fauna of a land? Many South American myths talk of how a few humans managed to escape the deluge with the help of Viracocha, accompanied by specimens of every animal. Could this be the myth behind the story of Noah? Had the Nazca map served an alien race as a ready reckoner in order to collect specimens from the continent? Specimens which could be used to repopulate the land once the cataclysmic destruction subsided. The complex at Teotihuacan strengthens the idea of Agasthya’s presence in South America. It consists of a central Street of the Dead, along which is aligned the Pyramid of the Sun, the pyramid of the Moon and the pyramid Temple of Quetzalcoatl. They possess the same orientation as the three great pyramids of Giza in Egypt, which are considered to be an Earth-based graphic depiction of the three stars which constitute the belt of the Orion constellation. Personally, I believe that they depict a representation of Orion, Sirius and Canopus. If Canopus represented Agasthya and Rudra represented Sirius (Isis in Egyptian mythology), the next star would logically be Orion or Osiris in his stellar avatar. The temple of Quetzalcoatl would stand for Agasthya or Canopus, the Sun Temple would represent the brightest star in the Southern horizon, i.e. Sirius, and the Pyramid of the Moon would represent Orion. The Street of the Dead according to Alfred E.Schlemmer, must have been a row of inter linked pools filled with water which descended through a series of locks from the Pyramid of the Moon. It would have served the purpose of ‘a long-range seismic monitor’, a device which would have been valuable in a land subject to earthquakes. The raising of Pyramids and the establishment of a continuous flow of water is probably indicated in the myths which speak of Viracocha using his power, to change, “… the hills into valleys and from the valleys made great hills, causing streams to flow from living stone…” (Hancock 49). The terraced agriculture and method of irrigation, through a series of sluices, utilizing the slope of the land to increase water flow, was known to the Dravidians of the Sangam age. It has been noticed in the Indus Valley Civilization and appears to have been introduced in the Andean highlands. The star Canopus was visible mostly in the Southern Hemisphere and over the Pacific. How did it make its presence felt at Mexico? The legend of Agasthya offers us a clue. It speaks of the deity Rudra or Siva, who resided at Mount Kailas, which before the deluge existed at Manchuria, a region along the East coast of China. Following the deluge, Mount Kailas is said to have been shifted to the Himalayas. Studies of early human migration to the Americas talk of its population by a race which came in through the Bering Strait about 40,000 years ago. A more probable location of origin would be Manchuria which was located at latitude congruent with Mexico. Using the mariner’s natural compass of Canopus aligned vertically with Sirius, it would have been a simple matter to travel across the Pacific to Mexico. Another puzzle in the South American conundrum is the veneration of Dwarves. In 1937-1938 an archaeological expedition headed by Chi Pu Tei discovered a series of interlinking caves which had been artificially carved at Bayan Kara Ula on the Tibet-China border. Stranger still, inside the caves were several ancient, neatly arranged burial sites which contained the skeletons of a strange people, which were less than four feet in height, possessing spindly bodies and a disproportionately large skull with large eye sockets. On the walls were drawings of beings wearing rounded helmets, along with maps of the heavens, the sun, the Earth, the moon and the stars connected with little dots. In each grave were discs about nine inches in diameter and ¾ of an inch thick which were later referred to as Dropa stones. In the center was a hole ¾ inch in diameter while etched on the surface was a fine groove which turned out to be a continuous line of etched unknown writing in fine print. They were dated to between 12,000 and10, 000 BC. 716 plates were discovered which lay un-deciphered till 20 years later when Dr.Tsum Um Nui cracked the code. The writing spoke of a space probe by inhabitants of another planet which had crashed in the Bayan Kara Ula Mountains. The peaceful intentions of this race were misunderstood and they were hunted by the Ham tribe of neighboring caves. Chinese legends speak of small yellow men who came down from the skies in an ancient time. Russian archaeologists who examined the stone discs noted that they contained a high percent of the metal cobalt in pure form, and seemed to emit a hum synonymous with an electric charge. In 1995 China released a small item of news which mentioned the presence of 120 people, previously ethnologically unclassified, the tallest of which was no more than 3ft 10 inches, concluding that this could be hard evidence of the Dropa people. In fact, today in an isolated region between China and Tibet, there exist two tribes of people who call themselves the Dropa and the Han. Their physical attributes of short stature (less than 4 feet) and large skulls are similar to the skeletal remains discovered in the caves back in 1938. In addition they possess pale blue eyes. Since sage Agasthya is said to have travelled to Tibet and China, it is probable that he came in contact with this strange race. He might have given them the benefit of his knowledge of aerial travel, received from the Nommo. Later it is plausible that the Dropa might have accompanied Agasthya on his journey to South America. If so, this would explain the veneration of Dwarves in this continent, and the presence of images depicting beings with helmets. We might even suggest that the high degree of craftsmanship required for creating the Nazca lines might have been the legacy of the Dropa people, a race skilled in the art of engraving, as we have observed from the fine writing etched on the Dropa stone discs. The few observations which have been set down are the outcome of a comparative study of the mythology of different races, in particular, the Dravidian, Egyptian and Sumerian. They have yielded a rich harvest, but hint at the loss of advanced knowledges in an ancient time. It is hoped that this article will open the floodgates of knowledge systems which have served man well in the past, made him a dynamic producer rather than a passive consumer. A concrete example of the application of ancient knowledge systems may be observed in India. Recent implementation of ancient irrigation techniques have succeeded in making certain villages in desert and drought hit regions in Rajasthan and Maharashtra, water efficient, while restoring the water table. The world awaits solutions to various problems and the answers probably lie in the great repositories of mythology, held by different races. References Hancock, Graham. Fingerprints of the Gods: The Quest Continues. London: Century Books, 2001. Print. Iyengar, T.R.Shesha. Dravidian India. New Delhi: AES, 2004. Print. Ramaswamy, Sumathi. Fabulous Geographies, Catastrophic Histories: The Lost Land of Lemuria. Delhi: Permanent Black, 2005. Print. Teresi, Dick. Lost Discoveries:The Ancient Roots of Modern Science - from the Babylonians to the Maya. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003. Print. Viyogi, Dr.Naval. The Founders of Indus Valley Civilisation and Their Later History. Delhi: Originals, 1995. Print.