In the beginning - Reconstructing history from myth

“Histories became legend, and legends became myth… Winners became heroes and heroes became gods …Losers became villains and villains became demons.”

What if our history began like this? Compiled by correlating the similarities in mythologies across the globe.

Asura was the first god as per Rig Veda. Some people also called him Ahura Mazda (Zoroastrians), the lord of light and wisdom. His power prevailed during the Golden era (Satya Yug) of human civilization ruled by the fourth and the greatest king of all times, Yama Raja, also known as Jamshid. Yama was a Suryavanshi  and was also called Shani or Saturn, the Roman king of Golden Age, closely related to the Greek deity Cronus. Even though later all the different names of Yama became separate gods, there is still a lot common between them. Who Asura actually was is a mystery, but he definitely was like a godfather to the great king.

Yama's kingdom was at it's peak when Asura, like the matsya avatar of Vishnu, warned Yama of an upcoming catastrophe. He advised Yima to construct a boat and populate it with the fittest of men and women, a pair of all animals and plants, and enough supply of food and water. As per his wish Yima constructed a boat/Ark. This story became famous and spread in the ancient mythologies all around the world. But how? Probably because they all had a common source. 

In Mesopotamia ‘Manu’ means boat or Ark (//www.indoeurohome.com/rohina.html). But in German and Indian story Manu is the progenitor of mankind, from whom the English word Man, Mankind and hu-man originate (English is a Ger'man'ic language).  Manu, also son of Sun god like Yima and Shani, is probably the same person as King Yama. That makes Manu and Yama the same person as Noah (Nao means boat in India). In China the character 船 means boat. The character combine of 舟(which means vessel), 八(meaning eight), 口(meaning mouth).  八 and 口 together sometimes also have a meaning of person, and adding 舟 would make it eight people in the boat just like in Noah’s story (http://creationwiki.org/Chinese_characters_for_Noah's_ark). 

The flood is probably related with a global climate change with sudden rise of sea level. There was also onset of glaciation that led to the migration of these people (Aryans?) to warmer areas. Yama’s (Jamshid/ Noah/ Manu/ Shani/ Yima/ Saturn/ Cronus) tribe migrated to Sumeria , land of the civilized lords. From here some of the gang migrated eastward to India and settled in the Indus Valley during Bronze Age while others like Huang Ti ( 2697–2597 BC), the fabled "Yellow Emperor", led his people to China (http://www.creationism.org/csshs/v07n4p24.htm). Rest stayed back or spread in Europe.

The Zoroastrians, who stayed back in Sumeria prayed to Ahura as opposed to the tribe that came to India and prayed to Devas. For the Zoroastrians the Devas became Daevas which originally meant ‘the shining ones’. Later Daevas became ‘younger gods’, ‘wrong gods’ or demons. For the Indian tribe Devas were the true gods while Asura became the devil. The fights between these two clans became the main theme of Puranas.

Ahura Mazada has a lot of similarity with YHWH, the god of Jews, Christians and Islam (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/15283-zoroastrianism). It was Vishnu for Hindus, Ahura for Zoroastrians and YHWH for Jews and later Christians and Muslims, who warned Manu/Yima/Noah about the great flood. Interesting how the idea of ‘God’ (different from the natural pagan god’s earth, air, fire, water) of major religions of the world seems to have a common source. One wonders how much truth is there to all these stories. However, the similarity of the myths of different people around the world and the possibility of a common origin is remarkable.