Monday, June 8, 2020

Buddha came from Nubia


Buddhism originated in the Nile Valley. Anta Diop in The African Origin of Civilization . wrote that “It would seem that Buddha was an Egyptian priest, chased from Memphis by the persecution of Cambyses. This tradition would justify the portrayal of Buddha with woolly hair. Historical documents do not invalidate this tradition…There is general agreement today on placing in the sixth century not only Buddha but the whole religious and philosophical movement in Asia with Confucius in China, Zoroaster in Iran. This would confirm the hypothesis of a dispersion of Egyptian priests at that time spreading their doctrine in Asia. (p.287)”

The ancient literature of India written in the Epic Purana and Pali text support  Diop’s view that Buddhism originated in Africa. Dr. Liny Srinivasan in her books Desi (2011) and  Crete to Egypt: Missing Links of the Rigveda (2013) explains that the priests of the Epic Purana and Rigveda came from the Nile Valley and Levant; and the history mentioned in these text is about these regions not India.



Dr Liny explains (2011,2013) that much of Pali and Epic Purana literature is about the Nile Valley, especially Kush called Kaši (Kashi) and  Lower Egypt during and after  the fall of the Hyksos Dynasty . She maintains that after the fall of the Hyksos in Lower Egypt there was a dispersal of Kushite priest and mercenaries into the Levant and Anatolia.


The Egyptians called Lower Egypt: Tameh. The people of Tameh were called  ḫЗst .  This name for the people of Lower Egypt, the Levant and Nubia goes back to Narmer times. The Kushites were called ḫЗst in Africa and the Levant. Kushites had early settled in the Levant since Narmer times. We find  Narmer's name  on jars and  serekhs from excavations in Israel and Palestine , for example Tel Erani, Arad, 'En Besor, Halif Terrace/Nahal Tillah and more . A bulla dating to this period makes it clear that this part of the Negev was called ḫЗts.t ("Kush") or ḫ3s.tj ("Kushite").

The Egyptian term for Kushites ḫЗst  agrees with Kaši (Kashi) the Pali and Purana text name for Nubia. After the Old Kingdom of Egypt, the Nubian Kushites were usually referred to as Nehesy. During the New Kingdom the Kushites in Lower Egypt were called ḫЗst . and the Nubian Kushites were called K3š .

 In relation to Buddhism Dr. Liny (2013) explained that the Pali text, makes it clear that the original Budhha, Bodhisatta was born a prince of Kaši (Kashi) or a viceroy of Kaši (Kashi) (p.379). This Buddha was called Chanda,Chendak or Chenda-Kumara in the land of Gold, i.e., Egyptian Nub.

Gautama Buddha was also a Kushite. He was born in the city of Kapilavastu. Dr. Srinivasan (2013) says that Kapilavastu, is the Kushite city of Byblos or Egyptian Kpn (p.45). Gautama Buddha was born c.  563 and died in 483 BC. He was a member the Saka, tribe which Dr. Srinivasan claims originated in Nubia. He was a Kushite priest that preached in Kapilvastu or Byblos.


Indian literature establishes the Buddha in
Kaši (Kashi) Nub, and Heliopolis. The Pali literature claims he was born in Saka. The Egyptian coffin text, according to Dr. Srinivasan (2013) is mentioned in the Egyptian coffin text to a riparian land called the “Land of Sk”.   Dr. Srinivasan explains that the ‘Land of Sk’, is associated with the “House of the Red Crown”—the royalties of the Lower Egyptian Kingdom” in the Delta. Chanda Buddha was a priest at Heliopolis and Memphis before he was forced out of Egypt.


Beja tribal people were called Blemmyes in ancient times.     Blemmyes may have played an important role in Buddhist because Blemmyae, a prominent group in the Meroitic Sudan are mentioned in Pali text Tipitaka .     

Some Meroites  played an important role in Buddhist because Blemmyae, a prominent group in the Meroitic Sudan are mentioned in Pali text Tipitaka (see:JDM Derrett, (2002) A Blemmya in India, Numen 49:460-474). Dr.Derrett wrote that in early Pali text " we have a Blemmya (an African) in front rank Buddhist texts of very respectable age (p.465).

The Buddhist text where Blemmya were mentioned are very old. The Vinaya pitaka, is dated to the 4th century B.C.E.

If Blemmya are mentioned in Buddhists text we can be sure that Meroites were not ignorant of Kharosthi. This would explain why many of the Meroitic symbols agree with Kharosthi. They agree because some Meroites were probably already literate in Kharosthi due to the influence of Buddhism in the Meroitic Empire.


The Egyptian historical literature makes it clear that Buddhism was practiced by Nile valley populations in Lower Egypt, and Nubia. Memphis was a center of Buddhist worship. This makes Diop's mention of Memphis  quite interesting because it is here that Petrie (1908) found evidence of Buddhist colonist in Egypt.

 Petrie claimed the iconography date d back to the Persian period of Egyptian rule (c 525-405BC). he wrote:"on the right side, at the top is the Tibetan Mongolian, below that the Aryan woman of the Punjab, and at the base a seated figure in Indian attitude with the scarf over the left shoulder. These are the first remains of Indians known on the Mediterranean. Hitherto there have been no material evidences for that connection which is stated to have existed, both by embassies from Egypt and Syria to India, and by the great Buddist mission sent by Asoka as far west as Greece and Cyrene. We seem now to have touched the Indian colony in Memphis, and we may hope for more light on that connection which seems to have been so momentous for Western thought" (p.129).



If Petrie's  dating is correct this puts Buddhists in Egypt two hundred years before Asoka, sent Buddhist missionaries to Egypt.The Classical writers report on Indian sages in the region. This makes it clear that Buddhist had probably been living in Meroitic Empire and Egypt for 600 years before the Meroites invented Meroitic writing.
.
In summary Buddha came from Nile Valley . It was the Nehesy and Heqa ḫЗst people from the Nile Valley, including the Blemmya that were the foundation of Buddhist doctrine.

Reference:

Anta Diop. (1975). The African Origin of Civilization .

W. M. Flinders Petrie,(1908)  The peoples of the Persian Empire, Man (1908) No.71:pp.129-130.

J.D.M. Derrett, (2002) A Blemmya in India, Numen 49:460-474
.
, Thomas E Levy,David Alon,Yorke M. RowanYorke M. Rowan.(1997). Egyptian-Canaanite Interaction at Nahal Tillah, Israel (ca. 4500-3000 B. C. E.): An Interim Report on the 1994-1995 Excavations. Available from 6/8/2020; https://www.researchgate.net/publication/302287010_Egyptian-Canaanite_Interaction_at_Nahal_Tillah_Israel_ca_4500-3000_B_C_E_An_Interim_Report_on_the_1994-1995_Excavations/figures?lo=1

.Liny Srinivasan (2011). Desi

 Liny Srinivasan . (2013)  Crete to Egypt: Missing Links of the Rigveda .

2 comments:

1122 said...

This is absurd Buddhism is from the North of India this flies in the face of all scholarship

tommymogaka said...

This is an amazing piece of scholarship. Further evidence could be the many-handed Hindu God Lord Narasimha is very similar to Apedemak/Apademak the lion-headed Nubian God often depicted as a figure with a male human torso with many hands and a lion head.