Editor Алексей Германович Виноградов

Illustrator Алексей Германович Виноградов

Translator Алексей Германович Виноградов

© A. G. Vinogradov, 2025

© S. V. Zharnikova, 2025

© Алексей Германович Виноградов, illustrations, 2025

© Алексей Германович Виноградов, translation, 2025

ISBN 978-5-0065-5005-6

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

The book of outstanding researchers A. G. Vinogradov and S. V. Zharnikova is devoted to the study of the ancestral home of the Indo-European peoples: Indian, Iranian, Slavic, Baltic, German, Celtic, Romance, Albanian, Armenian and Greek language groups. Part six of this huge work is devoted to the mysteries of the land of the ancient Aryans. The book was written in 1989—90 but could not be published in Russia. Over the past time, additional materials have appeared that confirm the opinion of the authors.

Перевод осуществлен Виноградовым А.Г.

Иллюстрации взяты из издания книги «Загадки арийской цивилизации» на русском языке.

Translation by A.G. Vinogradov

The illustrations are taken from the Russian edition of the book «Загадки арийской цивилизации».

Introduction

In the modern world, the urgency of the problems of the ethnic history of the peoples of various regions of our planet is obvious. The growth of ethnic self-awareness, which has been observed everywhere in recent decades, is accompanied by an increase in interest in the historical past of peoples, in the transformations that each of them experienced in the course of its millennia-old formation. It became a spiritual need for a representative of a modern urbanized society to find the roots of his ethnic existence, to understand the diverse processes that led to the formation of that ethnocultural environment through which he perceives the world around him.

Since the origin and historical existence of the overwhelming majority of the peoples of our planet was associated with numerous migrations, movements to new habitats, causing changes in a number of cultural factors both among the alien people and the indigenous population, today, studying the ethnic history and culture of their people, we, of course, study them in the process of historical transformations and mutual influences of many tribes and peoples, which to one degree or another took part in their formation. Regional ethno-historical research in our time is becoming especially acute, since it is knowledge of the history of one’s own people that helps a modern person to free himself from the narrowness of the nationalist view of the world, to understand the role and significance of the contribution to the common treasury of human culture of all peoples, to realize that humanity is one.

Of course, it is impossible to solve the most difficult issues of ethnic history today without involving data from the most diverse fields of science. It is necessary to combine the efforts of ethnographers, historians, archeologists, linguists, folklorists, anthropologists, art historians, as well as paleobotanists, paleozoologists, paleoclimatologists and geomorphologists, since the development and formation of peoples took place in certain climatic zones, in certain landscapes, with a certain flora and fauna, and this must be taken into account.

Only if the questions posed by ethnic history will be given mutually supportive answers by all of the above branches of science, we can, with a certain amount of confidence, believe that we are close to a true understanding of a particular stage of the historical process. Therefore, at present, the search for an answer to any of the questions of the ethnic history of peoples cannot be considered legitimate without involving data from related sciences.

Viktor von Hen responded very interestingly in 1890 about Russian culture: «Russia is a country of eternal change and completely non-conservative, and a country of ultra-conservative customs, where historical times live, and does not part with rituals and representations, no matter how related. The modern culture here is an external gloss, it develops in a wave-like fashion, generates disgusting phenomena; what the Ancient Tradition has preserved with regard to goods, customs, tools, etc., has been invented solidly, rationally, wisely and skillfully used… They are not a young people, but an old one – like the Chinese. All their mistakes are not youthful flaws, but arise from asthenic exhaustion. They are very old, ancient, conservatively preserved all the oldest and do not refuse it. By their language, their superstition, their disposition, etc. you can study the most ancient times. " («Victor Hen, biography.» 1894.)

The Sanskrit texts that have come down to us contain many amazing puzzles related, first of all, to the ancestral home of the Aryans. Here I would like to recall again some of the characteristic features of this ancestral home, preserved by Mahabharata.

Chapter 1 Catastrophes of the stone age

1

Over Canada, Over Canada

The sun sets low.

I should have fallen asleep long ago

Why can’t I sleep?

The sky over Canada is blue

Between birches – slanting rains.

Although it looks like Russia,

Only still not Russia.

These words from the famous song of Alexander Gorodnitsky emphasize the fact of the amazing similarity of flora and fauna, separated by the oceans of eastern North America and Europe. Based on this fact, Alfred Wegener wrote in the book «The Origin of the Continents and Oceans»: «North America used to be close to Europe. Starting from Newfoundland, located close to Ireland, and further north, it was a single block with it and with Greenland».

This was emphasized by the fact that: «The consequences of the rupture of a single faunistic region should have been especially pronounced in North America and Europe, because the rupture occurred relatively late, and paleontological data are correspondingly numerous. In addition, these areas are especially well studied.

Birch trees. Canada

Birch trees. Russia

Moreover, the existing ones Due to the short time of isolation, the forms have probably not yet developed very divergingly. Indeed, we find such a correspondence that there is nothing better to wish for. So, in the Eocene we find almost everything suborders mammals in North America and also in Europe.

Similar distribution features are characteristic of other classes of animals.

The boundaries of the spread of continental ice in the Quaternary period. For the time before the complete separation of North America from Europe. According to A. Wegener.

A young family of earthworms (Lumbricidae) is distributed from Japan to Spain, and on the other side of the ocean – only in the eastern United States. Barley is found on the edges of the former contact of the continents in Ireland and Newfoundland and in areas adjacent to these islands on both sides. The percidae family and other freshwater fish are found in Europe and Asia, and in North America only in the eastern part.

Pearl Oyster Newfoundland

Pearl Oyster of Europe

Calluna uulgaris Newfoundland

Calluna uulgaris of Europe

Probably, one should also call the common heather (Calluna uulgaris), which is found in addition to Europe only on the island of Newfoundland and in the areas bordering it.

On the other hand, the distribution of a significant number of American plants is limited in Europe to the western part of Ireland. Although it is possible that the latter can be explained by the influence of the Gulf Stream; with regard to heather, such an explanation cannot be accepted. Especially noteworthy is the spread of field slugs from southern Germany through the British Isles, Iceland and Greenland all the way to the American side, where it, however, is found only on Labrador, Newfoundland.

Field slug spread

V. A. Yashnov in his work on crustaceans of Novaya Zemlya indicates that the current distribution of freshwater crayfish is best explained by the theory of drift: «With high probability we can say that in hydrobiology many issues of the distribution of lower aquatic organisms, at least Hemispheres can be solved on the basis of the principles of the theory of movement of continents.As an example, we mention the modern scattered distribution of Limnocalanus macrurus, for which passive movement (by wind and birds) due to lack of «at the stages of dormancy.

In the presence of a combination of both continents, according to Wegener’s theory, the distribution range of these species becomes relatively small.»

What could be the reason for the division of the continent?

2

The plot of the liberation of the rivers by Indra as a result of the murder of the Vritra that bound or barred them (Vrtra – harbor, abundance, mountain, from the root of Vrti – shell, cover, obstacle) seems to be extremely interesting for science. It is believed that in the Avesta, Vritra is attested as an independent mythological character of Varabragna. Indra gave the earth a firm footing and at the same time freed the fettered waters and fired the fire enclosed in the hill of Vritra.

In the ordinary sense, rituals dedicated to this feat of Indra could probably be perceived in connection with the spring opening of the rivers, the liberation of the waters from the ice and snow that bound them and with spring floods. But if you think about this plot, then at the mythological level such an interpretation is contradicted by the simultaneity and univariance of the phenomenon, repeatedly emphasized in the Rig Veda and Mahabharata, its clear localization, attachment to a specific geographical region, as well as some circumstances that characterize the incident as extraordinary event.

Considering the main characteristics of the battle of Indra and Vritra, we must note that the time and place of this incident are indicated exactly. According to the Mahabharata, it happened in Crete South.

«The tribes of formidable, ferocious, frantic tribes of Danavas, nicknamed the Kalei, lived in Crete South. In the Vritra…» The chronology of kings and sages – rishis testifies to the same. Thus, according to the Puranas and the Mahabharata, immediately after the assassination of Vritra, King Nahush took the place of Indra until he was overthrown and Yayati became his heir. The Yayati era lasted more than a thousand years, the time of the reign of Nakhusha also amounted to a significant period. Meanwhile, Yayati was considered «mainly belonging to Crete-yuga», that is, part of his era went beyond its borders (possibly in the «twilight» of Crete-yuga). Crete-yuga, according to the total length of 12,000 years adopted in the Mahabharata, began over 10,800 years and ended 6400 years before the last Kali-yuga began in 3102 BC, i.e. between 13900 BC and 9500 BC And if we take into account only Crete South itself without «twilight» (400 years each), then since 13500 BC until 9900 BC But the defeat of Vritra was to happen at least 1—1.5 thousand years before the end of Crete-yuga, i.e. between 13500 BC and 10500—10000 BC.

The location of the battle of Indra and Vritra is also quite localized.

Firstly, the action took place in the north, since after the destruction of Vritra Indra hid in the south in the cool «Sea of Manas», which, according to the Puranas, is located south of Kailasy (a lake region south of the Pinega River).

Secondly: after the crash of Vritra, Indra «released seven streams for running» and «Manu flowed up billowing water.» Here, one should probably recall that one of the highest peaks of the Polar Urals is called Manaraga and the Manaraga River flows from it. (It is interesting that, according to legend, the 13 forefather of Manu attached his ship to the spur of one of the highest peaks of Himavat during the flood).

Thirdly: Vritra was considered a daitya and a Brahmin, but on the whole the east side was Brahmin, and Vritra lay on the great river. The river, which was located in the northeast, is also mentioned in Avesta as the «good Daitiya» adjacent to Ardvi-Sura (Northern Dvina) in Aryan Wedja. This river of daityas could well be called the «waters of Manu» among the Aryans. The only great river flowing in the northeast from the Urals near the Northern Dvina is Pechora, the tributary of which is the Manaraga River.

Mountain and river Manaraga

11 thousand BC – This is the end time of the continuous glaciation of the Far North of Eastern Europe. As paleogeographers note: «It was established that the degradation of the last ice sheet of the Pechora lowland, as well as of the entire north-east of the European territory of the USSR, occurred in an unusual way, fundamentally different from the degradation of the Scandinavian ice sheet… the destruction of the ice sheet was accompanied, and possibly caused by a process having a seismic nature, that is, earthquakes.» The question of how strong the earthquake must be to destroy the Pechora glacier with a thickness of up to 700 meters, and what caused it, paleogeographers leave open, but note that: «About 13.5 thousand years ago (i.e. 10,5 thousand BC) The Pechora valley lake was lowered and channels of permanent drains (Pechora and other rivers) formed along the loss of continuity zone, «the Barents Sea ice sheet collapsed, of which the Pechora glacier was a part.

Researchers’ conclusions seem to be extremely interesting: «according to the calculations… for a powerful glacier similar to the Antarctic to arise from a small glacier, it is required at temperatures typical for the Valdai maximum that is 14180 years. With a warm average Valdai or sea climate 16—17 thousand years. "These numbers can be compared with the following lines of the Mahabharata, which say that Vritra, «for the sake of strengthening strength, sixteen thousand years committed the killing of the flesh.»

It remains for us to ask the question: could the destruction of this North-East European glacier and the myth of Indra’s victory over Vritra be related to each other? Here is how Vritra is described in the Mahabharata: «Vrita, which covered itself with heaven and earth from all sides, was guarded by giants – kalaneys; when they waved their weapons, it seemed: the mountains were lifting their peaks.»

«Vritra said: Having appropriated the smells and tastes of various creatures of the slain, I thrived in three worlds. Framed with a radiant crown, I ruled in the heavens, invincible to all creatures, I never experienced fear.» The following fragment of Mokshadharma, telling about the meeting of the gods and Vritra, is especially striking: «Once Indra rode in a chariot surrounded by a somn of gods and saw him standing opposite the mountain-bearing Vritra. He went up five hundred yojanas, the destroyer of enemies, and over three hundred yojanas he was in girth.»

The horns of Vritra are also spoken of in the hymns of the Rig Veda:

«You, O Indra, this mountain, great, wide,

A club of thunder, oh thunderer, split into pieces