Part – II

Ire of gods and sorrow of souls

Section 2: Gods admonish

Caring Vishnu

Vishnu of Angiras people

My family belongs to a Shak clan of Vedic people haling from Shak Dweep. Dweep means a land between two important water bodies like major rivers or seas. Identification of Shak Dweep or the home of Shak people during long past is easy even today. It lay between Shak Deniz or Caspian Sea and an extinct river named as Shak-ti.  The river is no more now, but its past trace joining Azov Sea is visible in the space-imagery. A signifier township named Shakhty is on the trace of once flowing river. The watery river of the past has shifted pretty far in the east by now, and its name is Don.  Accordingly, land between the Caspian and Azov Seas was the Shak-country of my ancestors between 10000 and 5000 years. There were several migrations between Shak-land and Sarasvatee land of India during Vedic past on account of climatic and sea-level changes. Shak people were Sanskrit speaking and some of their rules of grammar are preserved. 

Our gotra-name Aangiras also fixes our exact dwelling place in Shak-country. Around 10 thousand years ago populations of Vedic people were identified with their land or gotra, which were named after major rivers, water bodies and hill features. Thus the people settled on the banks of Sarasvatee River were Saraswats; those on the Shore of Aegian Sea were Ajas and inhabitants of Aryawart were Aryas.  River Angiras of Shak country, then joining Azov Sea, proves to be a renamed as Volga in the later times. Its original name was Am-Gi-Ras (Watery Gi River) replaced by Wa-Ud-Ga (Watery River Ga) when it Joined Caspian Sea around 5000 years ago due to river-piracy.  Volga is a transformation of Vudga.

Angiras people were dwellers of Volga country in Shak-land, and worshiped little ground-fires called Archi in contrast to fire goddess volcano in Turkey through Saudi Arabia. The little fires were on account of inflammable gases leaking to the ground surface from petroleum reserves underground.

 Our family, settled on the banks of river Angiras of Shak country was worshiper of Vishnu when it moved and settled in India during Vedic period.

God Vishnu has more than one image in Hindu mind.  First, Vishnu is a Rigvedic god corresponding to one of the seven ‘devas’ of Aditi.  Goddess Aditi figures in a prayer of Assur people along with rising stars Ashvinies (β Arietes) and the date of the composition of the hymn is 3500 years before present astronomically (19). Aditi of those days, a giant multi-channeled, river (Ut +I+Ti), was same as Firat (Euphrates) of today. Its seven large contributories (devas) are Besni, Tohma, Divrigi, Karasu, Pertek, Murat and Helvan. Accordingly, Vishnu represents a river god corresponding to the channel of Besni in the Aditi-land. Besni changed to Bishnu or Vishnu when masculine deities replaced feminine ones. Later, Aditi turns into a mythological figure and mother of twelve solar gods. Vishnu is the most prominent of these, denoting the first or key month in a solar calendar after the summer solstice.  He is also a god in the trinity of Indian gods with the function of rearing and protecting the objects in nature.

Images of Vishnu above are different from the deity of the Angiras people.   Vishnu is neither of the three for Angirasas. Vishnu is fierce Fire-god hunting demons with his pet flesh-eaters like wolves and leopards for the Angiras people (22). They invoked Him for riddance from possessing and harassing spirits.  

Nearest seat of family god

 In the reincarnation theory, Vishnu is accepted in the image of Lord Krishna, especially after Sankar’s annihilation of Buddhism. Krishna is worshiped all over India as a Vishnu since the period of campaign against Buddhism. Sankar established three centers for worship of Vishnu in north India – Dwarka, Puri and Badrinath.

My parental home is in a village of Varanasi. Nearest shrine of Vishnu for the people of Varanasi is at Puri, almost 450 miles from the township of Kashi or Varanasi. The deity of the shrine is Juggernaut or more correctly Jagannath in Sanskrit. It means Lord of the world.  He is our family deity. Jagannath temple is a temple of Krishna with some uniqueness. It has three odd looking idols carved out of wood – Krishna, his brother and their sister.