Claus Dettelbacher.india and Egypt.affinities and Memetics.for CPAK 2009

7/31/2019 Claus Dettelbacher.india and Egypt.affinities and Memetics.for CPAK 2009

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Te mpl e Ca v es o f t h e I n d i a n De c c a n&

t h e i r A f fi n i t i e s w i t h A n c i e n t Eg y pt

____

A ComparisoninIconographyand Memetics

for CPAK 2009

byClausDettelbacher

New Delhi , August 2009


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1. A Visit and Some Impressions

End of May 2009 I travelled to Pune with the purpose of

visiti ng some of the famous cave temples in M aharastra. I had

intended to do so for a long time, after having read the inspiring,

though not scientific by modern standards, book of H . P.

Blavatsky From the Caves and Jungles of Hi ndustan (Blavatsky,

1892) w hich left a slightly fictious i mpression - simi lar to an

IndianaJonesmovie.

During the following days I travelled to the caves of Bhaja and

Karla, which are near the small town Lonavala, half way

betw een Pune and M umbai, sli ghtly east of a mountain chain.

This chain runs north- south for hundreds of kilometers and

forms the Western boundaries of a huge plateau call ed Deccan,

w hich almost stretches out to the East coast. These mountains

serve as a w atershed, separating the coastal strip from the

higher mainland. As most, if not all, cave- temples inMaharashtra, those near Lonavala were carved from massive and

highly durable volcanic rock. After paying a visit to the smaller

but more archaic Pataleshvara Templ e, w hich has now been

encir cled by the centre of modern Pune, I set off to a 240 km

drive - which I thought would not take too long. Though the

roads were acceptable, once again distances in India deceived me

andintheendittook 6 hourstoreachthefamoussiteofEllora.After all the Mughal architecture and concrete- 'rejuvenated '

(born- again) temples that I had visited during the last months, I

expectedlittle.

When I reached Ell ora, stood in front of the mighty Kailash-

temple and after I made my way through the impressive Sita ki

Nahani cave, something had fundamentally altered my

understanding and low esteem of Indian architectur e. This was

different from what I had so far seen before. I had landed in an

archaic and otherworldly epoch. Though most of the caves were

decorated w ith statues and reli efs, I could stil l perceive and

almost smell the same prehistoric monolithic aura and simplicity

that constitute the essence of the henges of Britain, the temples of

Malta (Gganti ja and M najdra) or the large stone- fundaments at

Baalbek.

Subsequently, while roaming through the various half l i tchambers, trying still to keep an open mind , it struck me again

and I could now specify even more from w here the pr evious

impressions originated. I stood in front of statues of heros or

kings that strangely reminded me of Egypt, or even more

specif icall y A bu Simbel. They wore simil ar crowns, they w ere

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adorned and attributed by cobras and they had a similar

physiognomyofNubio- Egyptiannobility.I had come across of various depictions of pyramids at the caves

of Bhaja and Karla before and knew that of course the pyramidal

shape had always played an important role as a root - shape for

Hindu Temples as well as the Buddhist Stupas. But usually these

South- A sian pyramids come not in such a pu re and unaltered

form as t hey appear in Egypt. Here, on the cave temples of

Maharashtra, this was somehow differing from the typical

ornamental Indian style. Luxury was still visible at the statues -

especially on the usuall y more modern Buddhi st ones; but the

general degree of abstraction was higher than I had envisaged in

India before. This grade of abstraction was it that finally prepared

my mindset for the breakthrough of perceiving some huge

similaritiesbetw eenIndianandEgyptianiconography .

I remembered the fabulous book Voyage of t he Pyramid Buil dersby

Robert Schoch (Schoch and M cN all y, 2003) and subsequently

tried to build up some more evidence pointing into the samedirection - that the early Indian (Vedic) civilization actually had

been in close cultural exchange with ancient Egypt and that both

culturesarenourished fromthesamememicroots.

Picture 1: Major cave-templ es in M aharashtra. In the middle of thecoastline you

canseethecapitalofMaharashtra, Mumbai (Bombay). byGoogleEarth

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2. The Temple, A Cosmological Mirror

The temple in general is a celestial mirror . As Kelley and Milone

(Kelley and Milone, 2005pp. 283) put it: "The cosmic aspect of

[Indian] temples i s reflected in the frequently assigned names

Meru, the navel of the world, and Kailasa, the celesti al home of

Shiva". The impr essiv e py ramidicall y shaped physical Kailasa,

the 6000+ m high mountain in SW- Tibet is even more celestial

than those temples. It is standing on the rooftop of the world, on

the majestic Changthang Plateau which, at an altitude itself over

4000 m above sea level, stretches out for 1500 km from East to

West. Mount Kailash is not only holy to Indians, but to the Bn

Religion, Buddhi sts and the Taoists too, thus forming a true

centreoftheAsianworldandconnector totheheavens.

The cave- temples of Ajanta are picked as an example by Kelley

and Milone. Though the Ajanta caves were allegedly carved over

a time of eight centuries, Kelley and M ilone stil l suggest an"underl ying concepti on": "The relationships among cosmos,

calendar and deiti es is so inti mate that it seems reasonable to

suggest that there i s a correspondence betw een the 28 temples,

andthe 28 lunarmansions" (KelleyandMilone, 2005 pp. 290).

The cave templ es are usuall y di sti nguished as Buddhi st, Hindu

and Jain; this classification is only partly useful since the

cosmologies of all three 'religions' or cults w ere essentially thesame. This also applies to the symbologies used . A very simple

hint towards these simil ariti es l ies i n the fact that in Ellora as

w ell as at other sites templ e- caves of two or all three faiths are

situ ated close to each other and therefore rather function as

depictingaspectsofoneunderlyingmemicbackground.

A very special feature of A janta i s i ts circular arrangement of

caves w hich per se could point to the before mentioned lunar

circle. Kelly and M ilone also mention the fact that three very

similar caves (# 9, 19 and 26) have their central axis meeting in

one point. These three caves are the only ones, except cave

number 10, w hich have rounded back w alls and are of very

simil ar size. The crossing point of these l ines almost li es i n the

centre of the half- circle that is drawn by the 27 temple- fronts.

Maybe it is not the centre of a circle at all but the centre of a

Fibonacci spi ral, which has been showed by many authors, like

Schwaller (Schw all er de Lubicz, 1998), to be a major part ofEgyptian sacred geometry. Who knows. In the end the caves

have been carved into naturally formed rock and the artists have

just used this natur al sett ing as w ell as possible to portr ait their

cosmologicalideasandprojectedthemontothegivenstructure.

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AjantacaveswithalignmentsofcavesN o 9, 19 and 26. by

(Deshpande, 2006).

In The Temple of M an (Schw all er de Lubicz, 1998) on Plates 50and 51, the zodiacal sign of the Tw ins i s indicated as the starting

point of the Egyptian high- culture. Schw all er describes this

analogue to the fermentation process, where one whole thing

becomes irreversibly separated into two. Maybe the zodiacal sign

of the twins not only marks the beginning of Egypt's high

culture, the premium time, zep- tepi, but also bears the special

meaningoftheseparationfromits (cultural) twin - India.That Schwaller closely links India to Egypt is without doubt. H e

even dedicates a whole chapter to the "Hindu Temple", which is

not the case f or - on the surf ace of our understanding - much

closer cultur all y related neighbors, li ke Babylon or Persia. H e

cites from Kramrisch's w or k The Hindu Temple (Kramrisch,

1946), "published almost at the same tim e as The Temple of

M an, a coincidence that deli ghts me [Schwaller]"1. A fter citi ng

about tw o pages from Kramrisch's work, where the latter gives

detailed descripti ons on symbology, analogies and mathematics

involved in the construction of Hindu temples, Schwaller goes on

with statements like "w hat is said here could have been said

exactl y about the pharaonic templ e" or "We find here [in India]

the same care taken to use the human fathom as a measure, thus

creating, as in pharaonic Egypt, a link between Man and the

Univ erse through measure". Both, in Ind ia and in Egy pt,

according to Schwaller, the "dynastic architecture was basedon precessional ti mes, also controll ing the symbols of w orship

[liketheBull, theLion, Pisces, etc.]".

1. (Schwaller deLubicz, 1998 p. 498 ff .)

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3. Concepts & Matching Criteria

Picture 2: by Google Maps. Maharashtra lies on the west-coast of the Indian

sub-continent,justin themiddlelatitude-wise.

The following is a loose accumulation of features which appear

to me to derive from the same cultural mindset or meme - andmaybe even the same 'physical' ancestors. This iconographic and

memetic evidence are soft facts. In comparison to more accepted

'hard er evi dence' l ike C14 dating or deciphered w ri tten texts,

they of course can be more easil y di scussed aw ay. But if valid

and rightfully applied these comparisons by imageries of ancient

Egypt and India might leave a deeper impression on a more

emotional level and vi sualize much better the close relationship

that both of these earl y civi li zations must have had w ith each

other.

We can argue about each of the presented evi dence, like thatpyramids also exist elsewhere. However, keep in mind that it is

the accumulated evi dence of sim il ari ti es that point to a closer bond

between old Egypt and old India. It was clearly not just

occasional trade relations. Both of those ancient civ il izations were

quite stubbornly and successfully protecting their cultural

heri tage and memes against outer inf luences over thousands of

years. They did not as easily accept new gods, rituals or forms of

worship as was the case wi th other peoples. This unusual

preserv ati onal strength and conti nui ty should be considered and

weightedtoo.

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I leave it open whether the Egyptian civili zation may have

derived from the Indian (the land called "Punt"?) or vice versaor if they even both derived from a third more ancient tradition.

One such candidate could for instance be Krishna's now

submerged kingdom of Dwarka that might have been situated on

the - now submerged - continental shelf at the Gulf of Kutch,

justinfrontoftoday'sGujarat.2

Despite many efforts of clarifying these questions, I think, w e are

still in the process of accumulating more details to make

absolutely clear to every one how much globally interlinked some

regions already have been in earl y history and prehistory. The

'great separation' of the Middle Ages does not prove theopposite. Thus we definitely have to move away from the

paradigm of a linear evolution of history to more refined models

where cyclical patterns as well as sudden jumps are also

included.

In the following I try to provide evidence mainly for the

simi lariti es betw een Indian culture/features and the Egyptian

2. Dwarka/Dvaraka, according to legend, is one of the oldest towns in India

and had already been swallowed by the sea 6 times. Today's little town w ith the

samename

is

said

to

be

the

7th

consequent

city

,built

in

the

same

area

.

civilization or closely linked (geographically ) neighboring

regions, like Libya, Ethiopia on the one hand, and S- Asia as awhole under the i nfluence on Indian tradition. Though many

features can also be compared with astonishing results to ancient

Chinese, M eso- A meri can or Sumeri an/Persian art ifacts - the

affinitiesbetw eenEgyptandIndiaarecloserandmore.

The paradigm of a direct link between ancient India and ancient

Egypt is crucial to overcome several centuri es of pre- justices.

Hi storians w ill usually admit a slow and diffused transfer of

knowl edge and memes v ia the M idd le East (Arabia and Persia),

but so far are greatly reluctant to acknowl edge the idea of

continuous immediate exchange. The proof of a close interfacebetw een India and Egypt could serve as a bridge and tipping

point to further expand the new paradigm of seafari ng ancients

to include China, the Pacific region and ultimately the Americas

- as Hancock (H ancock, 2002), Schoch (Schoch and M cN all y,

2003), and H eyerdahl (Heyerdahl, 1950; Heyerdahl, 1979)

alreadyenvisionedit.

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A ccording to Deshpande (Deshpande, 2006) there are 1200

temple- caves in today 's India of which about 1000 are locatedin M aharashtra. This might partly be the case due to the ideal

geology on the Deccan- plateau, which consists mostly of volcanic

basalt.3

So far I have visited the caves at Bhaja, Kharla, Ajanta,

Aurangabad , Pitalkhora and Ell ora, as w ell as the Pataleshw ar

Rock- Temple in Pune. The di scussed caves have been roughl y

dated betw een 200 BC and 1000 A D, though this datingseems

to have been done mainly after stylistic features and criteria and

very few inscripti ons. This somehow fixes the minimum- age.

Since many caves are very simple, lacking ornaments andstatues, itremainsunclearwhentheearliestcarvingsweredone.

To me these temple- caves r esemble other simil ar ini ti ati on sites

of the mystery- schools around the w orld, especially those in

Egypt and Meso- America. These are some of the memes which I

exemplarily identifiedsofar:

Water-Underworld: M any Caves have another

3. At Kharla, Bhaja and Ell ora I addi tionally noticed di stinct copper pieces

intermingledwith

the

geological

layers

.

lower layer filled with water. These lower (filled) caves are

usuall y call ed reservoirs or pools by archeaologists and arew idely beli eved to have been used for dri nking w ater. I don t

really agree w ith this and believe, that they have been rather

used for initi ation rites in some caves - and remind me very

much of the vast underground carst- and tunnel- system at the

Giza plateau. Since the w hole compl exes are strongly related to

cosmology, at least a partial purpose of the water- filled

underground rooms must have served as w ater-underworld .

The same water- underw orlds are also found in M eso- America

andverypossiblyservedthesamepurpose.

Pi l l ar s & Col u mn s

: Tw o 17 m hi gh p il l ars(mansthumb) flank the mi ghtiest temple, the central (in every

meaning) Kailas Temple at Ellora. A certain similarity wi th the

arrangement of obelisks originally flanking the entrance of Luxor

is obvious. And the story does not end there. The flanking

guardian Pillars seem to be a deeply rooted motive, which was

later carr ied into many mosque's or cathedral 's designs - and

have m eanwhi le become so common that today w e w ould not

really think of questioning the source of two flanking turrets in

thedesignofaChristiancathedral.

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Upright Stone / Cube: Most Hi ndu caves are

devoted to Shiva and the stupas in the so called Buddhist cavesare not really much different from the Shiva lingam in the Hindu

caves. The styl e is thus somehow simi lar and the main idea has

remained the same: The pillar, menhir, lingam, upri ght stone

representing the centre of the w orld and/or the universe, the

abstract male god, the axis mundi and/or the w orld- tree or

simply the condensed centre of worship - the philosopher 's stone

or "black stone", the Kaaba, etc. Its foundation is the quadrangle

and in a second step the cube. Schwaller (Schw all er de Lubicz,

1998) and Kramrisch (Kramrisch, 1946) have elaborated

extensivelyaboutthiscentreofthePhyraonicandHindutemple.

Animals - Postures and Locati ons: Shivas bull

(Nandi) is present on several occasions. At Elloras Rameshwar

Cave it is placed outside and opposite the cave, facing it. In the

same way animals face temples in Egypt, amongst other

meanings depicting the un- developed ini ti ate before enteri ng the

caveandthereforethe ,processofradicalevolution .

Guardian Lions: One remarkable f eatur e of the Sita

Ki N ahani or Dhumar cave are its guardian lions at all of the

three entrances. They are holdi ng a (world- ) ball under their

front- paws and even look a bit frog- li ke as the common ancient

Chinese guardi an li ons. Deshpande (Deshpande, 2006) on morethan one occasion notes about the Ellora lions that a foreign

impact is visible on the shape of these lions. Indeed it is - and

also on the shape of almost everything else. Or maybe an Indian

impact is visible on the shapes of Egyptian and Meso- American

temple- art?

Crowns and Hairdress: The Egypti an crow ns w ere unique and

usually quite diff erent from royal hair- dresses otherwhere in

the world. One explanation for their mostly elongated form

could be to mi mic the 'cone heads' of the god- pharaohs and to

even stronger emphasize these strange skul l- deformations,which are especially visible at e.g. Echnaton's head. One of the

most disti nguished hair- dresses is the so called "Nemes-

headdress" with its two side- flaps that are prominently visible

at the Sphinx of Giza too and somehow resemble the hood of

the cobra. The Nemes- flaps are usually located behind the ears

and f al l dow n i n front of the shoulders. Simil ar royal

headdr esses have been found in Ind ia - in ancient statues as

well as in the very recent crown of the King of Ladakh. Some

of these Indi an (double- ) crow ns also resemble forms of the

(blue) Khepresh- crown, which has side- flaps too, but less

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accentuated. Also, some main features of the Egyptian crowns

have undeniably made their w ays i nto orthodox and catholictiarasandthusintomoremoderntraditionsoftheWest.

Pyramid s of course: Pyrami ds have histori call y alw ays been

connected w ith Egypt fi rst. There are Pyramids too in many

other countri es. In India the central room of every Hindu

temple is crowned with a steep pyramid structure ejecting the

square and cube to new di mensions. Pyramids are also found

on many reliefs, usually in the shape of simple step- pyramids.

A nother development can be found in the Buddhist stupa-

design. In fact the early stupas at the famous Nalanda-

university 's site come in the shape of a steep step- pyramid orziggurat - very similar in angle and design as the remains from

the Great Ziggurat of Ur with its upwards- leading ramps, the

step- pyramid of Djoser or the steep pyramid (- core?) at

Meidum.

Snakes & Cobras: In both ancient cultures, Indian andEgyptian, snakes w ere placed at very prominent places of

worship. M ore specifi cally it w as t he Cobra that played the

king- role among the creepy reptil e- cults. The upright cobra

(Uraeus) w as even depicted at the front- side of the king's

crown in Egypt and is frequently found curled up on the left

(heart- ) arm of Indian kings, demigods and heroes. One coul deven argue that its hood inspired the side- flaps of the Nemes-

headdress.

Lotus: The Lotus pl ays a very signifi cant role i n Egyptian and

Indian mythologies and their respective iconographies. In

Egypt, the blue lotus (N ymp haea caerulea) was of high

importance, as in the symbol of Neferte and also the sun- gods

Raa and A tum. The 'real ' (white) Lotus entered Egypt only

later. Did it come from India? Nefertem wears the lotus on his

head, representing the rise of the sun. He is called as "perfect in

being and non- being" - since he represents the transiti onbetw een night and day as w ell as betw een the phy sical body

and the spiri tual world . It is of litt le surpri se that in ancient

Indian Yoga literature the highest spiritual centre in the human

body is also d epicted as a thousand- leafed lotus growi ng out

of the fontanell e of a human's head. In later times Buddha i s

often showed as sitting on a Lotus, which basically means that

his consciousness hovers at the top of his (physical) head. In

Buddhist art - like at the very early stupa at Sanchi - the Lotus

is also used as sun- emblem, thus again referring to the

Egyptian sun- aspect N efertem and its shape i s refl ected in so

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called Lotiform columns - which also resemble some columns

foundinIndiancavetemples.

Seth- scepter / w A s- Scepter: The wAs- scepter is one of the

magical scepters of Egypt . It is also the sign of the province

Theben, w hich bears the name Waset. Its top has the shape of a

animal head, which is often referred to as "Seth- animal". It has

long ears and a strange downwardly curved nose like a mixture

of Ibis and a dog (or could it be Alf?). The bottom of this rod

usually comes in two endings like it is used for snake-

capturing. I was astonished to find a very similar wooden

scepter or "magical sti ck" in Pune, Maharashtra, w hich had

been obtained from a local tr ibe. In Egypt this type of scepterwas also made of wood and until the Middle Kingdom it was

frequently foundlyingnearmummies.

Light bul p of Dendera: In the early 1980- s Daeniken and

other authors brought up strange reliefs at the Hathor - temple

of Dendera that, according to their interpr etation, resembledthe blueprint of a "light- bulp". Whatever thi s strange objects

depicts, I found out that a very similar one had been found in

Maharashtra, India. Additionally, both sites - w here the Indi an

and Egyptian reliefs were found - are dated within almost the

same period between roughly 300 BC (beginning of Ptolemaic

rule) and 70 BC (falloftheSungaDynasty).

Bowing, Yoga postures & unnatural Egyptian body-

positions: The love for symmetry and perfection in profile-

depictions of the human body w as essential for Egyptian art.

Many of the body- positions on reliefs or drawings are almost

unnatural in their perfectness of angles and stretched out limbs.

A very simil ar 'perfection ' and unusual stretching of the body

can be found in the old Indian tradition of Hatha Yoga postures

until today4. Al so the 'prolific' emphasis is visible in many

standing Hatha Yoga positions like trikunasana or ardha-

budhshangasana. Another matching criteria is given in thestrange bowing (greeting) positions, that are both very much

similar in Egypt and India. In both versions, the person bows

down much deeper than is common in other cultures and

stretches out one hand (the right one) or both towards the feet

of the other - mostly higher ranking or elder - person. This

procedure had been descri bed by (Herodotus, 1890, Euterpe

80) Herodotus in the 5 th century BC alr eady and can be seen

4. One of these Yoga posture has been unearthed from a Harrapa-culture site.It isonasealanddatedearlierthan 5000 BC.

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promontory, that bridge of all the nations, and found a new

fatherland on the banks of the Nile.

An inscription on a Hammamat rock says that Sankara, the last

Pharaoh of the eleventh dynasty, sent a nobleman to Punt: I was

sent on a ship to Punt, to bring back some aromatic gum, gathered

by the princes of the Red Land.

Commenting on this inscription, Brugsch-Bey explains that

under the name of Punt the ancient inhabitants of Chemimeant a distant land surrounded by a great ocean, full of

mountains and valleys, and rich in ebony and other expensive

woods, in perfumes, precious stones and metals, in wild beasts,

giraffes, leopards and big monkeys. The name of a monkey in

Egypt was Kaff, or Kafi, in Hebrew Koff, in Sanskrit Kapi.

In the eyes of the ancient Egyptians, this Punt was a sacred land,

because Punt or Pa-nuter was the original land of the gods, wholeft it under the leadership of A-Mon [Manu-Vena of Kalluka-

Bhatta?] Hor and Hator, and duly arrived in Chemi.

Hanuman has a decided family likeness to the Egyptian

Cynocephalus, and the emblem of Osiris and Shiva is the same.

Qui vivra verra!

I could have used this lengthy citation to exploit its sources and

dive deeper into the ancient roots of comparing Egypt to India.

However, I chose to include Blavatsky 's text over full length to

make it very clear how banal and crystal- clear the idea of linking

Egypt's and India's early history had already been in the 19 th

century - at least to 'certain' people. It would be worth diving

into Kalluka- Bhatta (Kulluk Bhatt), his sources and time of

living. But this is not the issue here. I am confident that the

iconographical and memetic affinities speak on their own. It is a

diff erent language that counts here and a diff erent sensual

experience. Some people always knew , and some w ill alw aysrefuse to see an inconvenient truth. Therefore this is meant as a

differentapproachfor thoseinbetw een.

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5. Punt and the Foundation Stone

In Egypt, a long traditi on tells stories about their source of

civilization coming from the "gold- land" land in the south- east

called "Punt". Many scholars i dentify Punt wi th the H orn of

Africa or Arabia. The latter seems to be the f urthest im aginable

geographical point for them. Earl y Egypti ans fr equentl y travell ed

to Punt and therefore i t seems evident to main- stream

EgyptologiststhatPuntcannothavebeenfaroff .

However, direction- wi se Punt would also fit well into South-

India, exactly the region of M aharashtra and below, which

exactly provides the most striking matches wi th Egyptian

iconography and is culturally quite di fferent from the northern

part of the Indian sub- continent, from the Ganges- and Indus-

plains.

The trade- relationship wi th Punt goes back at least into the

fourth dynasty (2500 BC), the "Golden A ge" of Egypt. The

capital then was in Memphis, just a little upstream from today 's

Kairo. It ruled over Egypt for the vast period from about 3100

BC (according to H erodotus and the Palette of N armer) until

2200 BC. Memphis is theEgyptian capital, representi ng all the

ideas, deitiesandcosmologiesoftheOldKingdom.

Except being a capital, M emphis w as the source of the A pis- cult

- the cult of the holy bull. Apis originally was black and featured

a w hite half- moon over his right side - and in later depictions a

sun- disk between his horns. Apis is also linked strongly with the

beginnings of Egyptian history. One remarkable characteristics is

that - unless very late depictions - he is alw ays shown as a whole

animal; this w as abnormal in Egypt since all other gods w ere

hybrids with human body and animal 's heads - or total

humanoid.

Picture 3: Nandi & Shiva wi th half-moon [ by freeweb.com]; Nandi on Cube at

Ellora [ byauthor]

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A v ery si mi l ar p osi ti on i s assi gned to the N and i- bull

accompanying Lord Shiva: He also functions as a gate- keeper tothe highest ruler (Shiva/Pharao), as in Egypt. Nandi opposite to

Egypt i s white - as the strange hunch- backed cattle that is still in

use for ploughing in M aharashtra. In Indian iconography The

half- moon is not on the right side of Nandi - but there is a

simi lar w hite half- moon over the right eyeon Lord Shiva's face.

Since Shiv a and his accompanyi ng N andi are in- separable, this

moontooseemstohavethesamemeaninginEgyptandIndia.

Beyond that, the huge funeral- site for the Apis bulls, stemming

from the Old Kingdom is one of the rather strange places in

Egypt. The so called Serapeum contained massive granite

sarcophagi , up to 70 tons (!) each with cover- plates of 25 tons,

which where filled with mummified bulls. Not only was the

mummi fyi ng of bulls extraordinary expensive, but also the fact

that the granite f or the m assiv e sarcophagi had to be brought

fromtoday'sAssuan, whichis 1000 km away, toSakkara.

Not much is visible any more from the once mighty Apis cult in

Egypt. In todays India how ever w e are frequently confronted

with the Indian version of bull- worship in a form where it too is

connected with/to a huge block of stone. This cube- shaped block

of stone which either carries the bull or houses it or another deity

inside, is not just a simple fundament or housing. It is muchmore. In Egypt the Pharao's throne used to be of perfect cubical

shape. It stood for 'centre' and 'elevated power ' - since the rest of

Egyptw assittingonthefloor.

I call it 'cube', but it comes in many shapes, usually marking a

centre of w orship. It is equivalent w ith the Kaaba of M ekka -

w hich also means "Cube" - , w ith the philosophers stone and

w ith the corner- stones and cube- shaped lodges of modern Free-

Masonry. These stone- cubes are one of the most archaic

attractors that exist on earth and the chthonic heaviness and mass

of the bull goes perfectly hand in hand with the gravity of those

blackstones.

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Picture 4: Chapel of the Apis (the Bull) of Amenothes III. drawn by Faucher-

GudinafterasketchfromMariette. Picture 5: Kaaba, Mekka; byMuhammadMahdiKarim.

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6. Seeing is Believing

The following is an assortment (usually pairs) of pictures,

matching early Indian art with its Egyptian counterpart. They not

necessarily reflect the exact same period of time. Simply because

both cultures were w orld - leaders i n continui ty and stabili ty oftheir memeti c beli ef- systems and symbolism. As for India, not

even today much has changed and many new er cultures and

religions, like Buddhism, Jainism, etc. have been infl uenced by

the symbolism of Vedic times - not to speak of very recent

esoteric traditions like the New Age movement or modern Free-

Masonry, who both still employ many Indian and Egyptian

memes - be they two- dimensional , reliefs, statues or buildi ngs

orjustancientmathematics.

These pictures and more were part of my poster- presentation at

CPAK 2009 atUniversityofCaliforniaIrvine(UCI).

Picture 6: Salabhanjika Pillar, Sunga Dynasty 2nd centu ry BC, Mehrauli , N ew

Delhi , India. byauthor

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(a) Lotus - Mediator between the Waters and

Heaven

Picture 7: Nefertem withblueLotusonhisHead. byJeffDahl, WikipediaPicture 8: Indian Tantric Chakra-system with Lotus on Top. by Sir John

Woodroffe: TheSerpentPower.

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(b) Seth-Scepter / wAs-Scepter

Picture 9: Magical stick in "Black Magic" w indow of the Ethnological Mu seum,

Pune.

Picture 10: w A s-scepters from Egypt. by w ik ipedia & Jon Bodsw orth (British

Museum).

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(c) The 'light bulbs'

Picture 11: Reli ef insid e the H athor Templ e, Dendera, Egypt. Notethesingleball

on the head of the ri ghtmost person, joining the 'bulp' - and compare that to the

four balls or 'chakras' that surround and join the followi ng picture! Simi larely to

belowspicturethereisasocket andasnakeinside. byA lf Kontermann.

Picture 12: Bulb-like relief with curled snake i nside and flower-like socket.

Sunga Dynasty, ca. 2nd century BC found in M aharashtra, India; now at the

N ational M useum,

New Delhi.

Notice the workers at the right side who seem toThere something underground - and in this case would definitely appreciate

some 'light'. byauthor.

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(d) Crowns & Headdresses

Picture 13: Nemes-headdress cum Ur aeus-crown at Abu Simbel . Specifically

compareit totheheaddressofthelateLadakhiking! bySteveF. E. Cameron.Picture 14: Late King Choegyal Kunzang Namgyal of L adakh, early 20th century.

byMuseumatStok-Palace, Ladakh.

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Picture 15: StatueofRamsesII wearingaKephresh-crown. byAymericLopez.

Picture 16: Guardian-statue. Jogesw ari Caves, Ellora, Maharashtra, India. by

author.

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(e) Columns and Pillars

Picture 17: Tent-pole style column in Amun temple of Tuthmosis III at Karnak .

byeuler.slu.org.

Picture 18: Pillar in frontofKarla-Caves, Maharashtra, India. byauthor.

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Picture 19: Luxor, Egypt. Socalled "Papyrus-columns". bywikipedia.

Picture 20: Columns w ith similar capital and plant-bundle style at Ajanta,

Maharashtra, India. byauthor.

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(f) Pyramids

Picture 21: TheGizahPyramids. byRicardoLiberato. Picture 22: Pyramid ical Templ es at M asrur , H im achal Pradesh/ India. by

author.

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Picture 23: Reversed Pyramid on top of a Stupa. Bhaja Caves, Maharashtra/

India. byauthor.Picture 24: Daulatabad Fort. Maharashtra/India. Though built in the 14th century

by the M ughals as capital for their empire, the auspicious pyramid-shape

playedarolein perfectingthisstrangehill-fort. byauthor.

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Picture 25: Pyramidal roof on Kailash-Temple, Ellora / India. The temple

symbolizes Mt. Kailash, the centre of the world. The original Mt . Kailash in

westernTibetalsostrikingly resemblesapyramid. byauthor.

Picture 26: Ziggurat like pyramid at Nalanda, once housing one of the greatest

librariesandthefirstuniversity oftheIndiansub-continent. ?

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(g) Temple Caves

Picture 27: Abu Simbel cave-temples on riv er Ni le. Drawn by Faucher-Gudin

in "HistoryofEgypt" byG. Maspero.

Picture 28: Ajanta cave-temples on river Waguma. Maharashtra / India. by

author.

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(h) Guardian Lions

Picture 29: Guardian Lion with Globe (?) under left paw . Ellora, Maharashtra/

India. byauthor.

Picture 30: Though this pendant of a 'guardian lion' to the Ind ian v ersion stems

from China, the simil arity is astonishing. The di stance from Ellora/India to

Beijing is almost the same as t o Cairo. In one case y ou have to cross the

Himalayas, in the other the A rabian Sea. Choose w hat is m ore demanding and

probable. M ainstream historiography still assigns the latter version a much

smaller chance to have happened in the form of direct cultural exchange. This

lionstemsfromtheForbiddenCity. Beijing, China. byauthor.

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Picture 31: There are guardian lions in Egypt, but usually w ithout objects under

their front-paw (s). This small example made out of Al abaster is a rare exception.

Al so the slightly tw isted head is not fitti ng w ell into Egypt 's iconography. Still,

somethingisnoteworthy. 525 - 404 BC; byBrooklynMuseum.

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7. References

Blavatsky, H.P. (1892) From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan.Indological Book House, Delhi.

Deshpande, P.S. (2006) Ajanta & Ellora. Samarth Udyog,Aurangabad.

Hancock, G. (2002) Underworld: Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age.Michael Joseph, London / New York.

Herodotus. (1890) The History of Herodotus - English/Greek.Macmillan, London, New York.

Heyerdahl , T. (1950) Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft. RandMcNally, Chicago.

. (1979) Early M an and the Ocean: A Search for the Beginningsof Navigation and Seaborne Civi lizations. Doubleday, Garden City,N.Y.

Kel ley, D.H. & M i lone, E.F. (2005) Exploring Ancient Skies: AnEncyclopedic Survey of Archaeoastronomy. Springer, New York.

Kramrisch, S. (1946) The Hindu Temple. Univ. of Calcutta,[Calcutta].

Londhe, S. (17.8.2009) India and Egypt.

Schoch, R.M . & M cNal ly, R.A . (2003) Voyages of the PyramidBuilders: The True Origins of the Pyramids, from lost Egypt to AncientAmerica. Jeremy P. Tarcher/ Putnam, N ew York.

Schwaller de Lubicz, R.A . (1998) The Temple of M an: Apet of the

South at Luxor. Inner Tradi tions, Rochester, Vt.

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Documents

Claus Dettelbacher.india and Egypt.affinities and Memetics.for CPAK 2009