Sanskrit is one of the ancient Indian languages, which is still used today. This language is spoken in northern and central India, Pakistan and several other countries around the world.
It has been noticed that the Russian language and Sanskrit have a lot in common. So, for example, we use almost the same terms of kinship (mother, father-in-law, uncle, etc.), pronouns (that, like, yours, you, etc.), numerals (one, three, first, etc. ). We have a similar process of word formation, in which prefixes and suffixes play a particularly important role. But what is especially striking is the similarity of the names of geographical objects and, first of all, the names of rivers - the most ancient of them.
You may ask, is it so important to know who named this or that river? In principle, it doesn’t matter, but this is only up to a certain limit.
The answer to this question becomes special meaning when they try to prove through the names of rivers that in the territory through which they flow, those who assigned their names to the rivers once lived.
Judge for yourself, in Lately There is, perhaps, not a single place in the vastness of Russia where local historians would not find among geographical names"traces of Sanskrit".
Even the names of the rivers Moscow and Oka are already explained through Sanskrit. The name of the Moscow River, like a certain Masikawa, is “mounted” from three words: masi- - “black paint”; -ka - “water”; -va - similar. The result is “water like black paint” or “black water”. The name of the Oka River is translated from Sanskrit as “flow” or “tide”.
The most daring researchers even claim that peoples whose language was Sanskrit once lived on the banks of our native rivers and lakes. Then, supposedly, all these tribes went far to India, leaving us alone with the burning question regarding the meaning of naming them water bodies in the vastness of the Russian Land.
Due to the fact that this or that region, and sometimes even a district or region of Russia, is easily proclaimed the homeland of the Aryans - speakers of Sanskrit, experts even have a joke: “Where the scientist comes from, the Aryans come from there.”
However, the increased attention to river names of incomprehensible meaning is far from groundless. There are indeed rivers in the Oka basin, the names of which are fraught with roots that bring them closer to the language spoken by those who inhabit India today.
You don't have to look far for examples.
All rivers, in the names of which Russian-Sanskrit parallels are found, can be divided into groups.
There are names that go back to the names of the gods of Slavic paganism and the gods mentioned in ancient Indian religious hymns - the Vedas.
By territory Kaluga region The rivers Rudnya and Rudyanka flow. In the names of these rivers one can guess the names of the gods Rod (among the Slavs) and Rudra (in the Vedas). Both of these deities are carriers masculinity, giving seed to the earth and everything that lives on it, prolong the blood relationship of generations. It is not at all accidental that the concepts of “kin” and “nation” among Russians are so consonant with the Sanskrit “rodas” - land.
There is also a Sanskrit origin in the name of the Ugra river: ugra - “strong, mighty, huge.” In Indian mythology, Ugra, this is also one of the names of the above-mentioned storm god Rudra.
Rivers flow in Poochya, the names of which are consonant with the names of rivers flowing through the lands described in the ancient Indian Vedas.
The author of a number of scientific works on the culture and ancient forms of religion of the Indians and Slavs, Natalya Guseva, argues that the names of the rivers Aksha, Archik, Vaman, Vansha, Khubja and Ushanas, which are found in the ancient Indian epic, are quite consistent with the names of the rivers in the Oka basin: Aksha, Archikov , Vamna, Vansha, Kubja and Ushanes. Agree, an intriguing coincidence.
There are rivers whose names are associated with the properties inherent in water in general or with the words “river, stream”, as they sound in Sanskrit.
For example, the name of the Ptara River comes from the Sanskrit word tara - “crossing”. With the direct participation of this word, Indians form such concepts as taranga - “wave”, tarangini - “river”, tarani - “flowing” or “fast”.
The name of the river Upa is translated from Sanskrit as “about”, i.e. a river running somewhere near or nearby.
In order to answer the question of where the “Sanskrit trace” in the names of Russian rivers comes from, let us turn to the history of the emergence of Sanskrit and the nature of its relationship with other languages.
One of most ancient languages, which has been preserved in a fairly wide range, is ancient Indian. This language is also commonly called Indo-Aryan, because it was spoken by the Aryans (from -Aryans, i.e. noble) - a group of Indo-European tribes - the Indo-Iranians. At the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. they came to the territory of Iran, India, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
The Aryan tribes brought with them the Vedic language, that is, the language of the above-mentioned Vedas. By the middle of the 1st millennium BC, Sanskrit was formed on the basis of the Vedic language. This is a literary, strictly standardized language that guided the priests. By that time, the Aryans no longer meant any specific tribes, but only the three highest castes.
Thus, Sanskrit was born on the territory of India, far beyond the borders of the places where the ancestors of the Slavs lived with their Proto-Slavic language. Scientists argue about where the settlement territory of the most ancient of the Slavs was located, but most of them associate it with the place of residence of the Scythian plowmen in the Northern Black Sea region and along the Dnieper.
The language of the ancient Aryans underwent its development to Sanskrit far from the places where it was later formed and Old Slavic language, and these are the limits ancient Russian state, i.e. Kievan Rus is well known to us.
The appearance of Proto-Slavic, and then Old Russian languages and Sanskrit are “dispersed” not only territorially, but also in time. Sanskrit - the middle of the 1st millennium BC, the Proto-Slavic language - the beginning of the 1st millennium AD, and Old Slavic - the 8th-14th centuries AD.
From the above it follows that Sanskrit could not have contact with either the Old Russian or the Proto-Slavic language. This language developed in India around the time when the East Slavic tribes were just emerging from the common Slavic community.
THE ARIES NEVER LIVED IN THE UPPER REGION. It turns out that they did not need to live for a long time in a place where they would have contact with the Slavs in order for the latter to learn from them something from the Aryan language or religion.
Rivers having non-Slavic " appearance"were formed thanks to the successive settlement of the territory by peoples who had strong family ties. Only these relationships go back much further than the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e., when Sanskrit was formed.
The answer to the question: where did Sanskrit names for rivers, lakes, and tracts appear in the European part of Russia must be sought from our very, very distant ancestors, which HAVE A COMMON LANGUAGE HERITAGE - THE PRIOR-INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGE. They came out of it Indo-European languages: Indo-Aryan (Indian), Iranian, Greek, Baltic, Celtic, Germanic, Slavic and other groups of languages, as well as the Armenian language.
In the Stone Age, from the 8th to the 3rd millennium BC. (Neolithic), all Indo-Europeans were united, spoke the same Proto-Indo-European language, were in close contact with each other, and prayed to the same gods. It was then that things took shape family ties future Sanskrit with ancient Greek, Latin, Baltoslavic, Gothic languages.
We will not go into details about where the Globe the “exodus” of the Proto-Indo-Europeans began. There are several opinions on this matter: Arctida, Hyperborea, Atlantis, etc. - in the north. Scientists also admit that all of them could, for example, live in the Black Sea region, which was also inhabited by Baltoslavic tribes - the ancestors of the Slavs and Balts. From here they are all in different time began to spread around the world. Proto-Indo-Iranians passed through Asia Minor to the East to India, Afghanistan and other places of modern residence.
In more late time Other Proto-Indro-Europeans also began their journey to new places. Upper Poochie became one of the places where the Baltoslavs - the ancient ancestors of the Balts and Slavs - arrived. Most of the river names came from them; it was they who brought the Aryan foundations here in their language.
The Finno-Ugric names of the rivers came from the tribes that came to us in Poochye from the Urals. The languages spoken by the Finno-Ugric peoples (Finnish, Karelian, Estonian, Mordovian, Udmurdian, etc.), although they are not Indo-European, they also absorbed Sanskrit elements. This also happened in Neolithic times, but only in the Urals, where the ancestors of the Finno-Ugric peoples, the Proto-Saamis, lived closely and had contact with the bearers of one of the branches of Proto-Indo-Europeans who came close to the Urals from the Black Sea region.
But let’s return to the names of our rivers and try to identify among the listed rivers those whose names have Sanskrit principles.
Not far from the village of Veyno our river Veenka runs, and there is a Veenka among the tributaries of the Oka. It turns out that Eastern Slavs There was a pre-Christian god Wei, to whom the Indo-Aryans correspond to the god of wind, war, the giver of glory and wealth - Veyu.
Or here's another interesting fact. The small river Agnishna is a tributary of the Koshcha River. In Sanskrit, agni means “fire”, and the Vedic god of fire is Agni.
Comparing the name of the god Agni and the name of the Agnichnaya river, we see not only and not so much a phonetic coincidence. Before us is an indication of two ancient Slavic cults that played vital role simultaneously in religious thinking and all Indo-European peoples. First, the reverence of rivers as a source of life. Secondly, the deification of fire itself. They respected him, they took care of him, they prayed to him.
Similar external features Not only the gods were endowed, but even mermaids - monsters inhabiting water streams.
Amur– the name comes from the stem “amar”, “damur” - “big river”, common to the Tungus-Manchu languages. The Chinese called the Cupid "Heihe" (" Black River"), then "Heilongjiang" ("Black Dragon River").
Angara– the name comes from the Mongolian word “anga” - mouth, gorge.
Barnaul– translated from Ket means “wolf river”.
Brahmaputra – Indian name river translated from Sanskrit into Russian means “Son of Brahma”.
Volga– most likely comes from the Proto-Slavic Vьlga – vologa, moisture, the possible meaning of the name Volga is “water” or “big water”.
Vytegra– translated from Finno-Ugric means “lake river”.
Vyatka– exact origin is unknown. According to one hypothesis, the river was named after the Udmurt “tribe” Vatka.
Euphrates– translated from Aramaic means “sweet water”.
Yenisei– the name comes from the Evenk “Ionessi” - big water.
Inta– translated from Nenets means “a place abundant in water, a waterlogged place.”
Irtysh– there is no exact information about the origin of the name of the river, but some scientists suggest that Irtysh is the name of the ancient Kets, which was remade by the Turks and means “Digger”.
Neva– there are many versions of the etymology of the name of the river. Most historians believe that the Neva got its name from the ancient name of Lake Ladoga - “Nevo”, which translated from Finnish means “sea bay” or “sea”. In Swedish sources of the 7th-8th centuries the river is mentioned under the name “Nu” (or “New”), i.e. "new".
Nile- from the Greek name of the river “Nilos”.
Oka- To unanimous opinion Scientists have not come up with information about the origin of the name. According to one version, Oka got its name from the Latin aqua “water”; in another way, the name is translated as an unfrozen place in a river, lake, swamp; ice hole; a small open area of water in an overgrown lake or swamp; a spring gushing from the depths.
Kama– translated from Udmurt means “river, big river.”
Kashkadarya– translated from Uzbek means “transparent river”.
Colorado– translated from Spanish as “painted, colored.”
Kolyma– the etymology has not been fully developed. On Turkic languages“kul”, “kol” means “lake”. In Finno-Ugric languages, "kolyma" means death. The Evens, through whose settlement territory the river flows, called it Kulu (the slope of the river bank facing north). Possibly borrowed from the Koryak-Chukchi language kuul (deep river).
Lena– it is believed that the name of the river comes from the Evenki language, in which the names of the river “Elu-Ene” (“Eluene”, “Line”) are derived from “yene” - “big river”.
Mississippi– in the Ojibwe language - “big river”.
Ob– the origin of the name of the river is not known for certain, but according to one version, it came from a word in the Komi language that meant “snow”, “snowdrift”, “place near the snow”.
Pechora– according to one hypothesis, the word “pechora” means “cave”.
Svir– translated from the Vepsian language means “deep”.
Selenga– translated from Evenki means “ironous”.
Seine- name of the river in ancient times sounded like Sequana. The Celtic word Siquana is believed to be derived from Proto-Indo-European sak- (sacred).
Sizran– translated from Turkic means “swamp place”.
Thames– the name presumably means “dark”.
Khatanga– the name of this river in Taimyr, translated from Dolgan, means “birch”.
Yellow River– translated from Chinese its name means “yellow river”.
Yangtze- according to one version, translated from Chinese name This river is translated as “blue river”, according to another, “long river”.
Why do you think the word “river” is in Russian? female? Why do most Russian rivers have “female” names? Maybe because peoples and civilizations have long been born on the banks of rivers, and so they are associated with the feminine, maternal principle...Mad Amu Darya
Amu Darya is a river in, partially flowing along the border of Tajikistan and Afghanistan. It received its name in the 6th century. from the name of the city Amul (with the addition of the Iranian “Darya” - big river). They flourished on the banks of the Amu Darya powerful states Khorezm and Sogdiana. Even in ancient times, travelers noticed that the Oxus (Oxus, Araks, Okuz - from the Turkic “flowing water”), as it was called then, was one of greatest rivers world, flowing with forty branches and only one reaching the Caspian Sea.The Arabs gave her the name Jeyhun, which means “mad”, “wild”. But nevertheless, historians who accompanied Alexander the Great described the crossing of his troops across the Oxus on wineskins.
Rocks of the Syrdarya
The Syr Darya flows through Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. Translated from Iranian, the name sounds like “abundant, high-water river.”A touching legend about Farhad and Shirin is associated with the river. Once upon a time, on the banks of the Syr Darya there lived a supposedly beautiful woman named Shirin. She had many suitors, but she said that she would marry only the one who could divert water from the stormy river and irrigate the suffering lands. Among the unsuccessful applicants were the son of the rich khan, Khosrov, and the young hero, the poor man Farhad. But even the hero could not immediately overcome the stormy river. And the young khan resorted to cunning. He ordered the servants to weave many reed mats and lay them out on the ground at night. When the moon rose, the narrow strip of mats sparkled in its light. Shirin, going out onto the balcony, saw under the rays of the moon “ water flow” and agreed to become Khosrow’s new wife. Having learned about this, Farhad threw himself from a cliff into the river... The deception was revealed, Shirin's true feelings awakened, and in despair she followed the sad example of her lover. Since then, the rocks above the Syrdarya have been named after Farhad, and the low ridge on the left bank is called Shirin...
Angara's mouth
Two of them bear the name Angara. One is the right tributary of the Yenisei, flowing from Lake Baikal. The other is the Upper Angara, which in turn flows into Baikal. The base "hangar" is found in different languages. In Buryat and Mongolian it is “gap, crack, crevice”, in Evenki it is “mouth”, in Yakut it is “opening, gate, gorge”. Indeed, in the upper reaches the river, cutting through the mountains, violently rushes through a gorge, a chasm, reminiscent of an “open mouth”, continuously and greedily absorbing the waters of Lake Baikal.The Evenks (aka Tungus) considered the Angara the main river, and the Yenisei its tributary. In the lower reaches they called it Upper Tunguska.
After the construction of the Angarsk hydroelectric power station in 1951 on the banks of the Angara in Irkutsk region the city of Angarsk arose.
Main river of Russia
- the largest river in Europe. It originates at the “crown” of the Valdai Upland, in the area of Mount Kamennik, near the village of Volgo-Verkhovye, Ostashkovsky district, Tver region. Here, back in 1649, by decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the monastery of John the Baptist was built.There are disagreements about the origin of the name Volga. There are many assumptions: it could come from “oriole”, and from “wolf”, and from the ancient Finnish “ox” - “light, white, holy”... And the most suitable explanation is the Slavic “moisture” or, in ancient Russian, “ vologa”, from which the adjective “volgly” was born - “raw, wet”. The Volga was known to the Greeks as Ra (from the Iranian “river”), to the Arabs and Tatars as Itil (from the Turkic “idel” - “big river”), among the Mordovians it was known as Rau, among the Chuvash - as Etel... Presence in space from Oki to Karelia lakes Volgan, Volgozero, rivers Volgoma, Volga-Yoki, Volga, Volkhov gives reason to assume that all these names arose in the languages of the tribes that lived in these places of the Russian Plain in ancient times.
White River
The Kama is a large left tributary of the Volga, more than 1800 km long. Toponymy experts do not find any connection between the name and the Slavic “kama” - “stone”. Rather, it comes from the Udmurt “kam” - “river”, which, by the way, is also common in some other Finno-Ugric languages.In addition to the Kama, other rivers with similar names are known - Kema, Kem, Kyama, as well as those associated with water local terms: Tuvan “hem” - “river”, Finnish “kymi” - “stream”, Uzbek “kam” - “big canal”.
There is another version: they say that the name of the Kama perhaps comes from the name of the Komi people who lived in the upper reaches of the river. And besides, those who lived in the Volga region Volga Bulgars once they called the Kama the Belaya River (Ak-Idel) and considered it the main one, and not the Volga. And there were reasons for this. The influx of the Kama to the meeting place with the Volga brings one and a half times more water than “the main river of Russia”.
Moscow is everywhere!
, the capital of Russia, as you know, is located on the river of the same name, a tributary of the Oka. There is virtually no doubt that the name was first given to the river, and then to the settlement. The most common hypothesis is that the word consists of two parts “mosk” and “va”, and together they, according to the Balto-Slavic version, mean “marsh, viscous place, swamp, dampness.” In the Oka basin there is also Lake Moskovo, the Moskovka River, and the Moskvin and Moskovishchi ravines. The Mozgawa or Moskava rivers flow in Poland and Germany, Moskovitsa - in the Berezina region in Belarus, there are Moskovkas - a river and a ravine - in Ukraine. Words similar in sound and meaning are found in Lithuania and Latvia: “mazgoti” - to rinse, “moskat” - to wash.The element “va” is found in the names of numerous rivers from the Baltic states to the northern Urals - Protva, Smedva, Lysva, Sylva, Kosva... So the names of rivers, wherever they flow, have more in common than one might think.
Some place names last for decades, others last for centuries, others for millennia.
And some arise and die like mayflies.
The blue roads and rivers keep their names the most firmly.
Rename a street, square or even the whole city is not difficult, but changing the name of a river is extremely difficult. After all, a river is not just geographical point, but a long ribbon stretching for hundreds, or even thousands of kilometers. Dozens of cities in our country, which received their name from the river on which they arose, were subsequently renamed. But the rivers are called the same as they were called before. "The names of rivers help determine which peoples lived on the banks of a particular river, and serve as faithful assistants in the search for lost and forgotten languages disappeared peoples.
Geographer E. Murzaev in his book “Unbeaten Paths” writes:
“The older the settlement, the larger the river, the lake, the more majestic mountain ranges, the earlier they are baptized by a person and the more difficult it is to find out the original forms and their meaning. Geographic names distorted, changed, and, of course, it happens that when modern level In science, we cannot decipher some names, and they seem meaningless to us. But there are no meaningless names. Many of them, previously incomprehensible and saying nothing, later turned out to contain a certain meaning. This is explained by the fact that geographical names that arose in the past often had common noun, But modern population perceives many names only as his own..."
This is easy to understand if you remember that lexicon our ancestors had very little. They had a limited number of words at their disposal, and they used the same word in different cases life. When they needed to express objects and concepts that were similar in meaning, such as river, water, lake, thirst, drink, they used only one word. Linguistic scientists researching vocabulary ancient languages, as well as words modern languages, which preserved the prehistoric roots of many concepts, explained the meaning of many geographical names. In most cases, these names represent the simplest words denoting water, mountain, earth.
We must also not forget that some people, which replaced another, changed the names, distorting their original pronunciation. Even in our time, the same geographical name sounds in different nations in my own way. Russian name Ukrainians pronounce “Dnepr” “Dnipro”, the French “Dniper”, and the Chinese “Denepohe”.
Danube in Serbian - Dunav, in Slovak - Dunava, in German - Donau, in Hungarian - Duna, in Turkish - Tuna...
In an old Russian song it is sung: “Beyond the rivers, beyond the Danubes...” So given name rivers has become a common noun, similar to the fairy-tale saying “beyond the seas and oceans.” But this proper name of the river in our time was once common noun, denoting water, river, lake, etc.
In the same way, the words (not names, but words) “Don”, “Dnieper”, “Dniester” originally meant the same thing: river, water.
Dozens of rivers North Caucasus have names with the same endings: Khaznidon, Ursdon, Ardon, Fiagdon, Gizeldon, etc. Word Don in Ossetian and means “river” or “water”.
But we will not find names of rivers with words such as “Dnepr”, “Dniester”, “Don”, “Danube” either in the north of our country, or in Siberia, or in Far East, neither in Central Asia- peoples live there whose languages define the concept of water in completely different words. Only in the history of the Danube River is the eastern word “Uzu” or “Usu” found - this is how the Danube was called many hundreds of years ago. This word came here during the period Mongol invasion, when millions of hordes of steppe peoples burst into the vastness of Eastern and Western Europe.
In the territory from the Far to the Middle East, the concepts of “water” or “river” are denoted by other words and terms: in China - shu, in Tibet - chu or chyu, in Central Asia - chu And su... As you can see, the terms are similar almost everywhere. True, they are pronounced slightly differently, but it depends on phonetic features one language or another. The Mongolian term "usu", "usa" or "us" can be found in the south of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, where the Us River flows into the Yenisei near the village of Ust-Usa.
Hundreds of rivers, streams, mountain streams in the Caucasus, Kazakhstan, and Central Asian republics are called names that include the term “su”: Karasu, Sarysu, Aksu, Kyzylsu, etc.
How much for geographical map rivers whose names include the term “Chu”: the Chu River in the Tien Shan, Chuya in Altai, Chuna, Chunya, Chulym in Siberia.
In the west of our country there is another term - UPA or up. In Latvian and Lithuanian this word means “river”. This is the name of one of the rivers of the Neman basin. There, in the Baltic states, there are the Melnupe and Zilupe rivers. The Upa River also flows through the city of Tula.
In Karelia and on the Kola Peninsula, many rivers include the term “yoki” in their names: Tulema-Yoki, Koito-Yoki - in Karelia, Yauri-Yoki, Yokanga - on the Kola Peninsula. Yoki- in Finnish “river”, “stream”.
The names of many rivers flowing in the northeast of the European part of our country end in “va”: Lysva, Kozhva, Sosva, Yayva... Especially many river names with this ending are found in the Kama basin. The Komi people live there, in whose language va means “water” and “river”: Ayva - “Male River”, Inva - “Women’s River”, Vilva - “New River”, Koyva - “Bird River”, Sylva - “Thawed River” water"…
According to some scientists, the name words “Oka”, “Vyatka”, “Kama” also mean river or water.
In the south, behind Caucasus mountains, geographical names for blue roads include the terms "chai", "tskhali" and "su". The first term (of Turkic origin) is most often found in Armenia, the second in Georgia, and the third in Azerbaijan. In Central Asia, you can get acquainted with another term - ab, which came from the Iranian language and means the same water. In Tajikistan this term sounds like about, and Tajiks generally “okay”: they pronounce not Tajikistan, but Tojikiston, not Leninabad, but Leninobod.
That's how much various terms, denoting the concepts of “water”, “river”, “stream”, “moisture”, can be found in the geographical names of our country. All these terms were once living, everyday words, the same as today are “su” among Azerbaijanis, Turkmen, Tatars, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz or “ob” among Tajiks.
But one millennium gave way to another, the level of human culture rose, the languages of peoples became richer, more precise, more expressive - and geographical names became more diverse and more precise. The word “water” alone, which included everything associated with water, could no longer be used. After all, after a person accustomed animals and began to move with his herds from place to place, after he saw other rivers and lakes, he needed new words to distinguish one river from another and one lake from another. And then, when the pastoral tribes began to move from a nomadic lifestyle to a sedentary one, when agriculture appeared, the word “water” turned out to be too comprehensive - it did not give an idea of what exactly it was about. we're talking about: about a big river or a small river, about a stream or a waterfall, about a lake or sea.
After all, the blue roads could be different: one river is wide, full-flowing, deep, with flat and solid banks, the other is narrow, winding, shallow, with steep, steep or swampy banks; in one stream flowed good fresh “sweet” water, in the other - tasteless, salty, and maybe even bitter; one lake was large and long, the other was small and round... So more and more new words appeared among people, carrying certain toponymic concepts.
Most of the names associated with blue roads include the concept of water and moisture. The external diversity of these names is explained only by the fact that the same concept is expressed in many languages, although the people who replaced the previous owners of the territory most often adopted already existing geographical names, and not yet named rivers, lakes and others geographical features he called names in his own language. Thanks to these place names, which have survived to this day, scientists can study the history of the country, even if it was not recorded by local chroniclers.
The small territory of the Moldavian SSR, the main population of which is Moldovans, was visited at one time by Scythians and Greeks, Sarmatians and Romans, Goths and Huns, Slavs and Magyars, Pechenegs and Cumans, Turks and Nogais... And in early XIX centuries, Russians, Bulgarians, Gagauz, Germans, Albanians, etc. began to move to Moldova and Bukovina. Naturally, on these lands you can find many multilingual geographical names - out of one hundred and twenty-three rivers, seven rivers have Turkic names, twelve - Hungarian, twenty-three - Moldavian, and seventy-four rivers have Slavic names... By comparing these numbers, you can easily establish who lived on these lands the longest and gave their names to the blue roads.
Since ancient times, people have settled along the banks of rivers. Rivers were the most convenient means of communication - they did not need to be laid, paved, or repaired. They led a man out of the deepest forest. Along the river flowing between impassable swamps, he reached convenient land. Blue roads served people all year round - in winter and summer, spring and autumn, breaking down only at short days floods or long weeks of freezing.
Large cities grew in the areas of the original coastal settlements.
This is how Kyiv rose on the Dnieper and Novgorod at the source of the Volkhov River, near Lake Ilmen. At the mouth of the Velikaya River, from where Narva flows, running to Baltic Sea, ancient Pleskov arose, which later turned into Pskov. Arkhangelsk was built at the exit of the Northern Dvina into the White Sea, Astrakhan - in the Volga delta. Riga stands at the confluence of the Daugava (or Western Dvina) into the Baltic. Nizhny Novgorod(present-day Gorky) is located on the banks of the Oka and Volga, where these two rivers merge. And Moscow, too, arose on the river from which our great city took its name.
The names of rivers are often preserved in the name of the city even when this river disappears, that is, it dries up or hides in a pipe underground, and when the river, changing its course, leaves the city, or when the city itself “leaves” the river that gave it its name, as happened with Orenburg.
This city was founded in 1735 at the mouth of the Or River, at its confluence with the river, which was then called the Yaik River. And the name of the Or River, as geographers believe, comes from the Turkic word “or”, which means basin, pit.
Orenburg was founded as border fortress to protect Russian lands from attacks by nomads. But the location of the city - in a low-lying, open area - was poorly chosen. This fortress did not inspire any fear in the nomads, and four years later they decided to move it to a new location - much lower downstream of the Yaik. Where Orenburg stood, a small Orsk fortress remained, around which the city of Orsk subsequently grew.
For the second time, Orenburg rose on Yaik, near Red Mountain, about two hundred kilometers west of the Orsk fortress. But the new place also turned out to be unsuccessful. Three years later, Orenburg was moved even further to the west and the city was founded for the third time, on the high bank of the Yaik, eighty kilometers downstream. It still stands here today.
It is impossible to list all the settlements named after the rivers on whose banks they grew: there are many such settlements.
Take, for example, names that begin only with the letter “B.”
Vasilsursk Gorky region founded in the 16th century, under Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich, on the Sura River. At first it bore the name Vasiliev-Novgorod, later Vasilgorod or simply Vasil, and finally became Vasilsursk, Volsk Saratov region... The name of the city does not come from the word “will” or “freedom”, but from the name of the great Russian river. This city was once called Volgsk, then Volzhsk, but the sounds “g” and the derivative “zh” did not remain in the name. And in our years, in the memory of young readers, cities appeared on the Volga that are directly related to her name: the city of Volzhsk between Cheboksary and Kazan, the city of Volzhsky near the Volgograd hydroelectric station and the city of Volgograd, as old Tsaritsyn is called today.
Volkhov Leningrad region, ancient city, where the customs house for Hanseatic ships heading to Novgorod was located, got its name from the river flowing from Lake Ilmen and flowing into Lake Ladoga.
Varzuga, a small village near south coast Kola Peninsula, named after the Varzuga River, which flows into the White Sea.
Volchansk Kharkov region was formerly called the town of Volchye Vody, named after the Volchya River.
The town of Vanch in the Pamirs got its name from the Vanch River (a tributary of the Pyanj), into which the Vakhsh River flows. There is a city on this river, also named Vakhsh.
The city of Ventspils in Latvia stands at the mouth of the Venta River. Pile is “city” in Latvian, and in the republic you can find many city names with the same ending: Jekabpils, Krustpils, Valdemarpils, etc.
What about the city of Vetluga and the village of Vetluzhsky? They stand on the banks of the Vetluga, Vilyuysk and Vilyuchan - on the Vilyuy River, where Verkhnevilyuysk is also located, Vitim stands on the Vitime River - a tributary of the Lena, Vitebsk - on the Vitba River...
A river can give its name not only settlements. Siberian city Verkhoyansk arose on the Yana River, in the place from where the river becomes navigable. Downstream of the Yana, on its right bank, stands the village of Yansky; even lower, beyond the Yansky rapids, the river crosses the Yana-Indigirka Lowland and flows into the Yansky Bay of the Laptev Sea.
That's how many geographical names can be born from one blue road.
S.V. Zharnikova
Northern Uvaly
“Northern Uvaly is an anomaly of the Russian Plain,” said one of the leading geomorphologists of the second half of the twentieth century, Yu.A. Meshcheryakov. Indeed, it is the Northern Uvals that are the main watershed of the northern and south seas. But it was precisely at this latitude of the Northern Uvals that the famous historian of antiquity Claudius Ptolemy placed the famous Riphean - Hyperborean - Alaun mountains, similar to the Meru and Khara mountains of the Aryan Tradition. Claudius Ptolemy wrote that “inside Sarmatia live the Alauan Scythians, they form a branch of the strong Sarmatians and are called the Alaunians.”
Russian ethnographer N.A. Ivanitsky in 1890, speaking about the landscapes of the Vologda province, noted: “According to southern border The province stretches the so-called Ural-Alaunsky ridge, covering the counties of Ust-Sysolsky, Nikolsky, Totemsky, Vologda and Gryazovets. These are not mountains, but gentle hills and flat hills that serve as the watershed of the Dvina and Volga systems. One must think that the Vologda peasants, who called these hills (like their fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers) the Alaun Mountains, for the most part in the 19th century did not read Ptolemy and hardly suspected that the names of their mountains were so ancient.”
Voronezh or Varanasi?
"The greatest of the 7 sacred mountains odes of the ancient Aryans there was a city " Varanasi" - the center of learning and the capital of the kingdom " Porridge"(that is, "shining"). The epic claims that the city of Varanasi was founded in ancient times - under the grandson of the great-ancestor of the people, Manu, who escaped the flood. By astronomical chronology Mahabharata, the city of “Varanasi”, as the capital, existed already 12 thousand 300 years before the present day. Its name is derived from the name of the rivers " Varana" And " Asi", on which this city stood, or, which is quite possible, from " Vara is ours"("circle" or "fortress" is ours).
But if you remember:
- that the current river " Voronezh"until the 18th century was called " Great Crow»;
- what is on this river ancient Russian city Voronezh, whose name is very close to “Varanasi”;
- that back in the 17th century the Voronezh fortress was called “ Voranash»;
- that the ancient Aryan epic indicates that in the area of Aryan Varanasi the rivers “Asi”, “Kaveri”, “Deva” flowed, and nearby there was a reservoir “Vai-durya” (in Sanskrit “ stupidity" - mountain) and mountain "Deva-sabha" (in Sanskrit " sabha" - hill);
- as today in Voronezh and Lipetsk regions the Bai Mountain river flows, and the hills south of Voronezh, near the Sosna and Don rivers, are called “ Devogorie»,
then you will draw a completely logical conclusion from the above yourself.
Nettle. City of Matsev Uplava?
“One of the books of the Mahabharata tells about the city UPLAVA, which was once the capital of the Matsya people who lived in the kingdom of Virata (in Sanskrit the word “ virata" means " nettle"). The Matsya people are mentioned in the Rigveda, Kaushitaka Upanishad, Gopatha Brahmana, Manu Sanhita and Shatapatha Brahmana. The Mahabharata (the book “Sauptikaparva” - “The Book of the Attack on the Sleeping”) reports about the Matsyas as allies of the Pandavas during the bloody battle on the field of Kurukshetra.
In modern Tula region There is a city in Russia called Krapivna. It is believed that the name of this city came from the dense growths of nettles in these places. Another, possibly sacred version of the origin of the name of the city has also been preserved (since in old documents Krapivna is often written with an “o” - “Kropivna”) - from the word “sprinkle”, in the sense of consecrating.” But the most amazing thing is that this Tula city stands at the confluence of two rivers... Upa and Plava.
Everything is just like in ancient times
“Describing ancient, even pre-Aryan times, the Mahabharata reports that the length of the Meru ridge (or “ Khar") was equal (translated into our measure of length) to 1600 km, and in the West it was limited by the terrain of "Gandhamadana". But even today Vologda region Russia, in the Northern Uvaly area you can find such names of rivers, mountains, populated areas as Kharovo, Kharovskaya ridge, Kharovka, Mandara, Mandarovo. On the neighboring Kostroma land, on the closest approaches of the Northern Uvals to the Volga, the river still flows Measure. And if we put aside the modern mountain Narada in the Northern Urals (now “Narodnaya”), it is along the Northern Uvals 1600 km due west, then we will end up in the Karelian Zaonezhie, where there is still a lake... Gundamadan and Mount Gundamadana. And here, in the Gandamadana region, the river still flows Sagarov Ruchey. One of the plots of the most famous ancient Indian epic, which we have already mentioned, tells about the sons of Sagara, who once dug a large canal in ancient times.”
One of the plots of the Mahabharata tells about the sons of the king of the Solar dynasty Sagara, who once dug a very large canal in “Hyperborean antiquity”. 60,000 sons of Sagara participated in this matter. In ancient times they dug a canal from southwest to northeast all the way to the Northern Ocean.
Vyasa is a legendary ancient Indian rishi (sage), revered as the compiler of the Vedas, Puranas and creator of the Mahabharata. According to the Mahabharata, Vyasa, the grandfather of the Pandavas, was born on an island in the middle of the sacred Yamuna; his mother was young Kali (Satyavati), and his father was the sage Parashara, the son of Shakti. He was a true sage who saw his essence, pure spirit and sincere. He was a poet and seer of the past, present and future. The greatest of all Vedic scholars, he divided one Veda into four. Tradition reports that “having divided the Vedas, Vyasa still experienced inner unrest and dissatisfaction with himself. And only by writing down the Srimad-Bhagavatam did he find peace and tranquility in his soul.”
The famous Vedic treatise Srimad-Bhagavatam reports that “there are also other mountains that are beautifully located around the foot of the mountain measure, like fibers around a lotus cup. These include Kuranga, Kurara, Kusumbha, Vaikanka, Trikuta, Shishira, Patanga, Ruchaka, Nishadha, Sinivasa, Kapila, Shankha, Vaidurya, Jarudhi, Hamsa, Rishabha, Naga, Kalanjara and Narada. WITH east side mountains Sumeru there are two mountains: Jathara and Devakuta, extending north and south for 18,000 yojanas. Just like two more mountains - Pavana and Pariyatra- located with west side Sumeru and extend north and south the same distance. WITH south side Sumeru located Kailasa and Karavira- two mountains stretching east and west for 18,000 yojanas, and finally with north side Sumeru, extending to the east and west for the same distance, there are two mountains called Trishringa and Makara».
And today, as in the time of Vyasa, in the north of Russia, in Arkhangelsk region you can walk along the Kailash plateau, oriented exactly from west to east.
Ancient Yamuna of the land of Brahma
“As the Avesta narrates, along the shores of the sea Vorukasha(“Sea of Milk” of the Mahabharata) and the Ranhi River there were a number of Aryan countries from Aryanam Vaeja to far north up to seven Indian countries in the south, beyond Ranha. These same seven countries are mentioned in the Rigveda and Mahabharata as the lands between Ganga and Yamuna, Kurukshetra. It is said about them: “The illustrious Kurukshetra, all living beings, as soon as they come there, get rid of their sins,” or “Kurukshetra is the holy Altar of Brahma; holy brahmanas - sages - come there. Whoever settles in Kurukshetra will never know sorrow.”
So what kind of rivers are these? Ganga And Yamuna, between which lay the country of Brahma?
Ranha (Ganga) is the Volga. But ancient Indian legends call Yamuna the only major influx Ganges flowing from the southwest. Let's look at the map. And it will immediately become clear to us that the ancient Yamuna is our Eye! Is it possible? Apparently, yes! It is no coincidence that along the course of the Oka here and there there are rivers with the names: Yamna, Yam, Ima. Moreover, according to Aryan texts, the second name of the Yamuna river was Kala. So, to this day the mouth of the Oka is called the mouth of the Kala by local residents.”
"People's Beauty"
The great ancient Indian epic Mahabharata is considered greatest monument culture, science and history of the ancestors of all Indo-European peoples. Initially, this was a story about the civil strife of the Kuru peoples, who lived more than 5 thousand years ago between the “Indus and the Ganges.” The Mahabharata has reached us in 200 thousand lines of poetry in 18 books. One of them, “Forest”, describes the sacred rivers of the country of the ancient Aryans, which in the epic was called “Bharata”. The final event of the Mahabharata narrative was the Battle of Kurukshetra in 3102 BC. However, according to scientific data, the Aryan tribes in Iran and Hindustan in 3102 BC. It didn’t exist yet, since they were still living in their ancestral home.
But where was she?
As you know, the great Russian river - Volga up to the 2nd century. AD bore the name " Ranha" (or " RA"), by which the sacred book of the Zoroastrians, Avesta, knew her. But “Ganga” is only a slightly modified Avestan “Rankha”. It is also the current Russian river Volga, the name of which is translated from Sanskrit as “ beautiful"(in Sanskrit " valga»)!
Kubera Kingdom
“The Mahabharata tells that in the north, the system of sacred mountains included “Kailasa” - the kingdom of the God of wealth Kubera. And today the source of the river Pinega(a tributary of the Northern Dvina) is still called “ Kailasa" And it flows among the plateau, which in ancient times was also called “Kailasa” by local residents.
I couldn’t find a photo of the Kailasa River, only Pinega
Source of the Pinega River
"Narada's Dwelling"
The legends of the Mahabharata tell about the great sage and ascetic Narada, who lived in the North and conveyed the orders of the Gods to people, and the requests of people to the Gods. And the most high peak Northern Urals until 1928 was called " Narada"when in honor of the 10th anniversary October revolution it was renamed the mountain " People's».
Mount Manaraga
According to Vedic legends, the ancestor of the people Manu, fleeing from the flood, attached his ship to the horn of a huge fish and stopped on a spur of the mountain, which was called the “Slope of Manu.” There is still a mountain in the Northern Urals - Manaraga, and a river of the same name flows near it. Manu's wife, according to legend, was a woman named Ila or Ida, who emerged from milk and butter sacrificed by her ancestor. But the Ila or Ilych river still flows next to Manaraga.”