Egyptian Ma'at and Vedic Rita

 



See also post: Egyptian Ma'at Akin to Hebrew Hokmah (Wisdom):
http://easterncivilisationamaic.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/egyptian-maat-akin-to-hebrew-hokmah.html
 

Taken from: http://www.hinduwisdom.info/India_and_Egypt.htm#Cultural

Contacts with Egypt

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Links to Ancient Egypt

Difficult as it is to pin point exactly when communication between Egypt and India commenced, it is nevertheless intriguing to note the remarkable parallels which go as far back as the second millennium BC, if not earlier, between the concept of the Egyptian maat and the Vedic rita - the divine order of nature or creation, as opposed to the chaos of falsehood. According to both the Egyptian and Indian traditions, it was the principal duty of the king to establish order in place of disorder or chaos. Other interesting points of similarity between the two ancient cultures were the deification of the forces of nature, faith in magical chants, deep-rooted mysticism, and an emphasis on symbolic expression. There is a close proximity between Hindu mythology and Egyptian mythology and rituals. "The Book of Dead" and Garuda Purana are similar. Both are recited at the time of death. Their gods and goddesses are also similar. The brightest evidence of India's direct relations with Egypt is, however, preserved in the Mauryan Emperor Ashok's thirteenth rock edict, inscribed in the early decades of the third century B. C. In it, Emperor Ashoka refers to his contacts with Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt (285-246 BC), in connection with the expansion of his policy of the propagation of the Law of Righteousness (dharma). In the Ashokan records of Ptolemy II is referred to as Turamaya. There can be little doubts that official embassies were exchanged between the Mauryan court and that of Ptolemy II. Pliny names the Egyptian ambassador of Ptolemy II to India as Dionysius. (source: Intercourse between India and the Western World - By H. G. Rawlinson p. 92).

Forms of the Djed column - Egypt Pharaonic Age

Ashokan pillar with lion capital. India. Lotus pillar surmounted with lion heads Egypt. Pharanoic Age.

(image source: India and Egypt - edited by Saryu Doshi p. 66).

Watch Scientific verification of Vedic knowledge

*** Ashoka, in his second rock edict, refers to the philanthropic activities undertaken by himself. He records that he had made arrangements for the medical treatment of men and animals in the territories of his own empire as well as in the region ruled by Antiochus Theos II of Syria (260-246 BC) and its neighboring kingdoms, which also included Egypt. With the growth of India's links with the West, there was brisk communication in the area of trade with the Hellenistic world including Egypt, and it is believed that Indian traders reached the land of the Pharaohs. A Hellenistic writer, Agatharchides, the learned tutor of Ptolemy Soter II informs one about a colony of Indians on the island close to the mouth of the Red Sea, named Socotra, which in Sanskrit would be Sukhottara-dvipa (island of great joy). Socotra, must have functioned as one of many intermediary ports between Egypt and India. Interestingly, it is stated that the Egyptian ruler Ptolemy IV, Philopator, lined a part of his yacht with Indian stones. The presence of Indians in Egypt in the third century BC has been attested by Athenaeus who observes that the processions of Ptolemy II Philadelphus also included women, cows, and hunting dogs from India. (source: India and Egypt: Influences and Interactions - edited by Saryu Doshi). Historians have long known that Egypt and India traded by land and sea during the Roman era, in part because of texts detailing the commercial exchange of luxury goods, including fabrics, spices and wine. Among their finds at the site near Egypt's border with Sudan: more than 16 pounds (7 kilograms) of black peppercorns, the largest stash of the prized Indian spice ever recovered from a Roman archaeological site. Ships would sail between Berenike and India during the summer, when monsoon winds were strongest, Wendrich said. From Berenike, camel caravans probably carried the goods 240 miles (386 kilometers) west to the Nile, where they were shipped by boat to the Mediterranean port of Alexandria, she said. From there, they could have moved by ship through the rest of the Roman world. Mediterranean goods, including wine from the Greek island of Kos and fine tableware, moved in the opposite direction. This Indian cotton textile was excavated from a Roman trash dump in the ancient Egyptian town of Berenike. Local Ababda nomads dig in one of the streets in Berenike, which holds an array of artifacts that scientists say reveals an "impressive" sea trade between the Roman Empire and India.

 

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