Sanskrit and Russian Connections
Sanskrit has been studied by Western scholars since the late 18th century. In the 19th century, the study of Sanskrit played a crucial role in the development of the field of comparative linguistics of the Indo-European languages which Sanskrit is also part of it along with Latin/Greek and English. In similar note, you will find striking similarities in Sanskrit and Russian.
Taking my surname as example… In Sanskrit, GOD is referred as ‘Bhag’ for Bhagvan Buddha, Bhagvan Rama, Bhagvan Krishna etc. A devotee of Bhagvan Krishna is called a Bhagavata. This is my current surname :-).
‘Bag’van related names appears as far as Russia, Romania and most of European countries. This is used by automobile companies like Bogdan group, famous football players and other great personalities. ‘Bogdan’ or Bohdan is derived from the Slavic words Bog/Boh (Cyrillic: Бог), meaning “god”, and dan (Cyrillic: дан), meaning “gift”. Either Bogdan or Bohdan may be used in Poland.
‘Dan’ is gift in Sanskrit, Hindi and almost all India languages even today and Bhag is god for referring Bhagvad Gita, Bhagvan and Bhag followers like us as ‘Bhagwath’.
In our mother tongue(Konkani), we call Water as “Udda”. Vedic Sanskrit word for water is Udaka. In Russian, it is Vodka. If you note very clearly, “Water” — English word has derived from Latin ‘Wada’/’Unda/Uda’ or Greek —hudor. It was all same once upon a time and hence relation between all of ancient Indo-European languages is very close.
When it comes to names of towns, you could get several 100’s of towns, rivers and mountains like Shurchi, Muhchak, Gowrudak, Surkhandarya province that are similar to Sanskrit. Some towns that end with “grad” is nothing but “Gram” as used in Sanskrit.
The highest point of the Ural Mountains is the Mount Narodnaya also known as Naroda. Narada is the name of Vedic sage who carries enlightening wisdom in ancient Hindu Puranas.
Moksha is the name of a river in Central Russia and Moscow is located on the banks of the Moskva River which has given its name to the Russian Capital. In Vedic Sanskrit, Moksha has meaning — liberation, salvation of soul.
Sanskrit svár — heaven / paradise, Persian χvar — sun) has close relation with Slavic Deities. The traces of pre-Christian cult of Svarog/ Swaróg are in numerous place names.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svarog
Further, deities of Slavic Religion are very similar to current Hindus deities. ‘Praboh’ is Supreme GOD for Slavs like ‘Prabhu’ in Hinduism. Eastern European countries and towns around Caspian sea have very familiar names that have Indo-European origin. The proposed Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans
Below are few examples that I was able to collect from various sources in Internet and online dictionaries that have striking similarities between Sanskrit and Russian Languages:
Most of verbs are very similar as captured below and it looks exactly same:
Some known Nouns:
Same striking similarities can be found with English, German, Latin and almost all of Indo-European languages too and you can find some reference here specific to English :
In similar way, eastern Iranian language of Avestan and Sanskrit are almost similar. There are several passages in the Vedas, especially the Atharvaveda and Avesta that are identical, except that they are in the different languages of Avestan and Vedic Sanskrit. Ahura Mazda, whom the Zoroastrians worship as the Supreme Lord is the Avestan equivalent to Vedic Sanskrit’s Asura Medhira.
In the ancient Zoroastrian scriptures of the Avesta, Harā Bərəzaitī is the source of all mountains of the world. Harā Bərəzaitī came to be identified with Harborz and also Alborz, Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus range. In Avestan cosmogony, High Harā is the geographic center of the universe, immediately surrounded by the steppes of the Airyanem Vaejah, the first of the seven lands created by Ahura Mazda. From these high Hara mountains, waters rush down from the mountain as the mighty world river Arədvī Sūrā Anāhitā ( Vedic Saraswati Equivalent), which in turn feed the great sea Vourukaša.
As per (Yasht 10.88) ….Harā is tall and luminous. The sacred plant haoma(Soma in Vedic) grows on Harā. It is also the home of the yazata Mithra. It is the site in legend of sacrifices (yasnas) to the yazatas Mithra, Sraoša, Arədvī Sūrā Anāhitā, Vayu, and Druvāspa, by sacrificers such as the divine priest Haoma (epitome of the sacred plant) and kings like Haošyaŋha and Yima.
RigVedic mention of Saraswati river is similar and hence it clearly appears that both of these cultures belonged same to civilization once upon a time.
To further add, Old Persian cuneiform(one of the oldest form of human writing) and Sanskrit pronunciation has striking similarities.
PIE(Proto-Indo European) is hypothesized to have been spoken as a single language from 4500 BC to 2500 BCE during the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age, though estimates vary by more than a thousand years.
Scholars of comparative mythology have attempted to reconstruct aspects of Proto-Indo-European mythology based on the existence of similarities among the deities, religious practices, and myths of various Indo-European peoples. This method is known as the comparative method. Different schools of thought have approached the subject of Proto-Indo-European mythology from different angles. One of the earliest attested and thus most important of all Indo-European mythologies is Vedic mythology, especially the mythology of the Rigveda, the oldest of the Vedas and locate the origins.
The Sintashta culture emerged from the interaction of two antecedent cultures. Its immediate predecessor in the Ural-Tobol steppe was the Poltavka culture, an offshoot of the cattle-herding Yamnaya horizon that moved east into the region.The oldest evidence of Vedic Swastika is available at Mezine, Ukraine. In archaeology point of view, Arkaim (Russian: Аркаим) is an archaeological site in Russia, situated in the steppe of the Southern Ural. Scholars have identified the structure of Arkaim as the cities built “reproducing the model of the universe” described in ancient Aryan/Iranian spiritual literature, the Vedas and the Avesta.The structure consists of three concentric rings of walls and three radial streets, reflecting the city of King Yima described in the Rigveda.
Reference : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_mythology
Reference : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_language
