It was one family, the Aryans…

Excerpts

In this excerpt, Osho speaks on the origins of the Aryans and the Sanskrit roots many languages have evolved from.

Osho

At one time there was a theory, accepted by all the scientists, that life was born in Mongolia and from there it spread. The reason for it was the Sanskrit language.

The North Indians came from Mongolia, perhaps ninety thousand years ago. They pushed the natives from North India towards South India; that’s why you find the South Indians are black. They are not Aryans, and their languages have no connection with Sanskrit.

But all European languages, English, Swiss, Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, German – all European languages have thirty percent, forty percent Sanskrit roots. One language, Lithuanian, has ninety percent Sanskrit roots. German has forty percent of its roots in Sanskrit.

The reason was that these people had lived together in Mongolia. It was one family, the Aryans, and when the population became big – they were hunters, and they had hunted all the animals – small groups started moving in different directions.

One group reached India. One group reached Iran; its old name was ‘Ay-ran’, the country of the Aryans. That Ay-ran has become Iran. And branches of the same family reached from Mongolia to England, to Holland, to Germany, to Sweden, to Switzerland, to the whole of Europe.

This is one family. The Sanskrit roots prove, basically, that all these people once lived together. Then they dispersed, because there was a food shortage and they had to move in different directions.

You should look at the world map and cut out the maps of Africa and India, and try to put them together. You will be surprised: they match perfectly. There was a time when Africa and India were connected. Now, it is a well-established fact that the continents go on continuously moving. Under the continents, far down deep, they are floating.

Africa moved, but the cut where they broke away remained the same. The South Indian languages and the South Indians have some Negroid blood in them. That’s why they are black, and that’s why their languages don’t have anything to do with Sanskrit.

Now that theory has changed. Now they say that life started in Africa, because Africa has chimpanzees, apes, gorillas. Because Indian monkeys are very small, they could not have become man. Mongolian monkeys are also very small, they could not have become man.

So now that old idea from Sanskrit has receded and a new idea has come to light; that life was born in Africa. Perhaps there is no contradiction in it. It is possible that life was born in Africa, and a few chimpanzees moved to Mongolia. They prospered in Mongolia, and then with over-population they started moving towards Europe, to India. There is no contradiction in the two. But who is to decide now?

There is a small fraction of scientists who say that life must have been born in different places simultaneously; it was not one place. That seems to be also relevant, because the Chinese, the Japanese, the whole East, the Far East, does not fit with any theory. Neither does the African theory fit with the Chinese.

The African apes, chimpanzees and gorillas have really thick beards. Look at the Chinese beard: you can count the hairs on your ten fingers. Look at their high cheekbones, which are not seen anywhere else in the world.

It seems to me there is no contradiction in all the three. Perhaps in different places life arose simultaneously. There is no reason to deny it, because the differences are so clearly there. Chinese has nothing to do with Sanskrit – not even with the alphabet; it is a non-alphabetical language. It has nothing in common with Sanskrit, and nothing in common with Africa.

Chinese and Japanese and the Far Eastern people, Taiwanese and Koreans, they must have been born separately. Perhaps the theory based on Sanskrit has its own truth. Certainly these people have lived together some place, and it seems that place can only be Mongolia because now Mongolia is almost empty. You will find only reminders of some very ancient cities – houses, roads – but nobody lives there. So the people who lived there must have moved because of the scarcity of food; that also seems to be right.

And the theory that life was born in Africa… perhaps one section of life must have been born in Africa.

But all these are guesswork!

So sometimes you may find my facts not collaborating with the fashionable theory, but don’t think I am lying. I have never lied in my life. If I have lied, I have lied only as a device to help you to come to truth.

Osho, Yakusan: Straight to the Point of Enlightenment, Ch 5, Q 1 (excerpt)

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