Gods, Sages and Kings: Vedic Secrets of Ancient Civilization

By Vyaas Houston
David Frawley's book Gods, Sages and Kings is, as the author himself acknowledges in its preface, not a conservative book. It calls into question our entire view of human history, and therefore our primary understanding of who we are as human beings inhabiting the planet earth. Although the book on one level is a fascinating and colorful revelation of a highly developed ancient culture, it is much more significantly a truly spiritual vision of where we come from and who we are. Gods, Sages and Kings is a very important book. It fills a major void in our understanding of human history, and grants us the possibility of actually redefining our- selves in the light of our origins.

Twenty years ago, I had the good fortune of discovering the world's oldest living language: Sanskrit, the language of ancient India and Vedic civilization. It was an unmistakable homecoming, a return to a spiritual source. It was perfectly clear to me that I had come upon a perfect language, a language that invokes the spirit, an inexhaustible wellspring of spiritual inspiration. The ancients called it devavani, the language of the gods.

Where did it come from? - a language infinitely more sophisticated than any of our modern tongues. How could language have been so much more refined in ancient times, especially among a people, the Vedic Aryans, whom scholars tell us were nomadic barbarians from the north? The discrepancy between the language and what has been traditionally offered as its origin is so great that either we have been thoroughly at a loss, or have tended at times to resort to supernatural explanations. The obvious truth is that there must have been an equally refined and advanced civilization, which evolved along with the language over a very long period of time. Gods, Sages and Kings is the first book I have seen that skillfully uncovers precisely how time and cultural bias have obscured this fact. This was possible because we do have a perfectly preserved account of that ancient culture, the Vedas, and because David Frawley, more than any other researcher to date, has been able to fathom its spiritual symbolism, as well as its historical and cultural orientation and chronol- ogy.

This book also solves a long standing dilemma, encountered by those who have cherished a spiritual vision of life. Whereas, on the one hand, we have inherited a lofty spiritual vision through the Sanskrit language and an inspired body of literature, we have at the same time seemingly had no historical source, no established order by which we could ground this vision, and bring it to earth. The predominant elements of our historical identity have been war, technology and trade. Our human identity has been captured in a belief in domination by force as a necessary condition of survival. Under such circumstances, spiritual life, be it yoga and meditation, or prayer and devotion has tended to be largely a means of escaping domination - hence life denying and therefore unfruitful. What should be obvious to us after millennia of spiritual striving with limited success is that we have had no foundation on which to build. Yet it is not that we have really lacked a spiritual foundation - but that we have not recognized the one which existed.

The Sanskrit language alone is a certain testimony that it did exist, and at that, for a very long time. We simply have never turned on the light to see that it has always been there, in the Vedas themselves, the world's oldest, most perfectly preserved and comprehensive scriptural history. David Frawley has turned on the light in a big way. For the first time we see a rich and radiant vision of the origins of human civilization in a spiritual culture, based upon yogic knowledge. Rather than taking pride in our technological and intellectual progress, it would serve us fir more and be much closer to the truth to acknowledge that we are the children of great seers, rishis, and we have somewhat lost our way. It is indeed a great reassurance, even more, a healing balm to our souls and minds to know that for at least 5,000 years, in the relatively recent past (c. 6000-1000 Be), a culture based upon the yogic knowledge of the absolute oneness of all life flourished.

David Frawley is not the first to expostulate a spiritual interpretation of the Vedas. But he is the first to give us the full panoramic view of their magnificence, revealing layer by layer the culture, the politics, the ritual, the astrology, the geography, and the deep spiritual understanding which connected it all so perfectly. No one to my knowledge has ever presented us with such a convincing and thorough proof of the spiritual origins of civilization.

I am deeply grateful to David Frawley for writing this book. Even more than a remarkable piece of brilliant scholarship, it is a work which reflects Dr. Frawley's deep commitment to the awakening of self knowl- edge for all human beings, and the reemergence of our true spiritual heritage. For me personally, it has put some very large and nagging doubts to rest, once and for all. At the same time, it has brought into the light of

There is much ground for believing that ancient India was more central to the origins of civilization than is presently considered, that it may be the source of civilization as we know it. This has been the main belief of the Hindu and Buddhist traditions, and many Western mystical and occult groups like the Theosophists have held similar ideas. A few Western historians have also inclined to this view. Though most Western scholars and the current view of history still see a Middle Eastern origin for civilization, much new information is coming out that may challenge this view.

Gods, Sages and Kings proposes the idea of an ancient Indian and Himalayan home for world civilization. It proceeds primarily through a reexamination of the Vedic literature of ancient India and proposes a new decipherment of Vedic symbolism on three levels:

1. The Rig Veda, the oldest of the Vedic texts, portrays the geography of north India as it was thousands of years ago, probably before 3000 Be.
   The Veda shows a very early era prior to the coming into being of the Rajasthan desert of western India when a mighty river - the Vedic Saraswati - flowed through what was then the cen- tral Vedic land. The existence and extent of this river has now been proved by modem research, which has traced its ancient course from the Himalayan foothills to the Rann of Kutch on the Arabian Sea.
   The Vedic rivers can be identified with the main rivers of modem India and Pakistan. The J1?da also shows a maritime culture that knew of and travelled on more than one sea.
2. The Vedic people had a calendar based upon astronomical sightings relative to the equinoctial positions going back from 2000 Be to at least 6000 Be, from the age of Taurus to that of Cancer.
   This Vedic calendar was modified periodically according to precessional changes which can be documented up to the posi- tions found in Hindu calendars today. It indicates that astron- omy and astrology may have originated in India.
3. The Vedic hymns reflect the practice of Yoga and meditation, including a knowledge of the seven chakras of the subtle body - the foundation of all later yogic practices both Hindu and Buddhist.
   This indicates a profound spiritual culture existing at the dawn of human history and a spiritual rather than materialistic origin for human culture as a whole.
   Gods, Sages and Kings also examines the different kings and dynasties of ancient India and the regions they ruled. On this basis, it attempts to reveal how the peoples of the ancient world relate to and may be descendants of the Vedic people. This includes peoples of similar languages to the Vedic, like the Iranians and Europeans, and people of similar religions, like the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians. It can be extended perhaps to include all the peoples of the ancient world. Ancient civilization as a whole was probably much more advanced, particularly along spiritual lines, and older than prevalent scholarly models today propose.
I approach the ~das here not primarily from an academic standpoint, as an historian, archaeologist or linguist. Though aspects of these studies are brought into play, the approach is primarily of one who perceives the spiritual nature of ancient culture and takes their teachings seriously, not as primitive utterances but as the secret wisdom of the sages. In the course of nearly twenty years of study, whenever I found something in the ~das that appeared superstitious, primitive or irrational I have never just accepted it as such. I always looked deeper as to whether such apparent primitiveness may merely reflect my own lack of under- standing of the background or orientation of the ancient mind. So doing, I found that what may appear to be a deficiency in the ancients is usually a lack of empathy and insight in the modem mind which distorts the ancient language according to the superficial framework of modem thought. It is our own failure to understand the ancient language of mantra, myth and symbol that causes us to see ancient teachings as primitive. The wisdom of the ancient seers, like that of the deeper psyche, proceeds by a poetic and imagistic expression, not by the rational terms of the surface mind.