What
the Hopi Indians Need to Know About Themselves!
-Gene D. Matlock, B.A., M.A.
Knowledgeable Hindus never fail to be amazed when I discuss the Hopis and
the tribes that "emerged" in America with them, for each of these tribes
has a Hindu counterpart. The Navajos or Diné, as they prefer to call themselves,
have the same names and traditions of a people who once lived in Western
Tibet:
Nabhi-Ha (Poverty-Stricken Prophet or Holy Person) or Nabhi-Hya (Prophet
or Holy Warriors). Din(i) means "People of Religion." Both terms fit them
well, for their whole culture revolves around religion. Their famous sand
paintings are used to cure physical and spiritual diseases, just as the
Tibetan Buddhists sand paintings do. Both the Navajos and the Tibetans destroy
these paintings after they are finished.
The Utes (Yutes) must be descendants of the Hindu Yuddhi who once scattered
all over the ancient world. The word Supai derives from a dialectical form
of god Shiva/Siva: Suva. The Paiutes? ancestors left their ancient home
on the banks of the river Baihoot, or Jailum, the most westerly of the five
great rivers of the Punjab (an Indian state and also a territory in Pakistan).
In Greece, they became the Baoetia.Back in India, the Heheyas were Hahayas,
a leadership clan of the Rajputs, better known to us as Phoenicians. The
Heheyas were probably related to the Bahannas (White men) who led them to
New Mexico, for the Hindu Rajputs had white skin.Apache easily derives from
the Sanskrit Apazu/Apashu, meaning "without cattle; penniless; poor; wretched."
The Apaches prefer to call themselves Inde (Indus People). The Hopis are
Ophites or snake worshipers. The Opis religion was once one of the major
religions of the ancient world, even in Egypt and Greece. It played an important
part in the development of ancient Christianity.
Many English-speaking Americans practice Christian Ophiolatry, It originated
in Afghanistan where it and the practitioners were called Khofis, Hopis,
or L?Hopitai. Afghanistan (Oph-gani-stan), Land of Ophis (snake-worshipping)
tribes), derives its name from them. The Afghan Hopis were a conservative
people who, as much as possible, took much less from the land than what
it had to give, just as the Hopi traditionalists still do in modern New
Mexico.
Ancient Afghanistan, once part of India, was larger than it is now and included
the neighboring republic of Uzbekistan. The forefathers of our Hopis were
subject to a royal city state named Kiva. The Cologne Sanskrit Lexicon defines
Kiva, as follows: Ki = "ant hill"; Va = "Dwelling."
Kiva was so named because the majority of the common people lived in raised,
mound-like pit-houses having clay or adobe roofs. People entered these houses
by climbing down a ladder in the center, just as ants enter their mounds
through a center hole. The royal buildings and homes of the higher classes
were built of sun-dried bricks.
They were tiered, looking exactly like the adobe villages of our own Southwestern
pueblo Indians and those of the Anazasi whose ruins tourists now admire
in Mesa Verde, Colorado and Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. In remotest times,
Kiva was dominated by two dominant powers with similar names: Massaga (also
called Massaka) and a smaller kingdom: Musaka. Their chiefs were called
Yavhas.
The Greeks called Musaka "Mousika." Nearly all the inhabitants of ancient
Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Kashmir, even the snake-worshiping Hopis, worshiped
God Shiva under the name of Mah-eshvara (Shiva the Great). Therefore, the
whole of this area was known as Sivapuri (Land of Shiva).
There was much enmity between the Musaka and the Brahmin priestly class,
but the former did ally themselves with the Brahmins long enough to help
drive Alexander the Great out of India. The Hopis insist that their place
of origin was Sibapu or Sibapuni, in an "Underworld" known as Kiva. They
were cruelly oppressed by the "spirit" leaders and priests of the ghostly
kingdom of Muski.
When they had reached the limits of their endurance, they begged their chief,
Yai-Owa (Yavha), to lead them out of bondage. Yai-Owa called on Masauwa
(Maheshvara), to remove them from Muski (Musaka) and lead them to a new
homeland. Some White men called Bahanna - a term similar to Vahana, the
Sanskrit word for "mover; transporter; vehicle; ship; vessel; boat" - led
them across a great lake to the new homeland.
Yaponche, the Hopi Wind God, blew them there. Yah is an ancient Indian word
for "Great Lord;" Ponch and Pani were ancient Sanskrit words for "Phoenician."
After the Bahanna (Vahana?) took the Hopis to Southwestern USA and helped
them get established, they left, promising to return someday with supplies.
As we all know, the Bahanna (White men) did come back, but not the ones
the Hopis were expecting.
Back in ancient India, the Hopis of Kiva stored their food in a type of
underground cellar which looked exactly like their homes. It was called
Khava. In Sanskrit, Kha = "cavity; hollow; cave; cavern." Again, Va = "Abode;
dwelling."
Since this was dry, inhospitable desert country, nearly as dead productively
as the Muski of the Hopi myths, a few enterprising inhabitants of Kiva,
who did not share the Hopis "grin and bear it" philosophy of taking constant
beatings from Nature (Ishvara), or of being poor by choice, decided to mine
the mountains and gorges for precious gems and the newly discovered metals
now known as copper and gold.
From that time forward, the whole area began to progress. No longer did
everyone have to farm for a living. People could survive in other ways,
such as being miners, metalworkers, and merchants. All that area sprouted
into one the greatest and most advanced civilization of the ancient world,
though it is now dead.
These Khivites or Hivites, as the Bible calls them, were honored with the
titles of Khi-Vira ("Ant Hill Heroes"). Kha-vira ("Cave Heroes"), and Kuh-Vira
("Mountain Heroes) because they burrowed deep into mountains to get the
wealth that made this new empire of Khyber (Kheevira/Quivira) prosper.
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Today's Khiva is a small city composed of little more than 40,000 inhabitants.
Nobody knows how old it is. Legends state that it was founded by Shem, the
son of Noah. In olden times, it was an oases on the silk road of Central
Asia. Khiva was also the last important outpost where westbound travelers
on the Silk Road could get good lodging and meals before crossing the Kara
Kum desert to Iran.
Khiva's companion cities, Samarkand and Bukhara, hailed as the Phoenix cities
of Central Asia, have been built, destroyed, rebuilt, and destroyed by nomadic
invaders, conquerors and occasional earthquakes, over, over, and over again,
for more than ten thousand years.
Khiva rests above uncountable layers of ancient civilizations, whose clay
and adobe buildings are now dust. That other area of Sibapu (Sivapuri),
Kashmir, was heavily forested. The inhabitants of Kashmir built their homes,
palaces, and temples out of logs. These, too, rotted away millenniums ago,
leaving not one trace of Sivapuri's ancient glory. It is significant to
note that the Hopi word for "metal; silver; money" is SIIVA. The Sanskrit
word, Sva, means "money; riches; property; glory."
This word Siiva leads me to believe that the Hopis probably knew what metal
was before the arrival of the Spaniards. The Hopis are famous for their
Kachina dancers or dolls representing beings from various parts of the spirit
world. The Kashis/Kassis, known in history as Kassites, were just the Hindu
Kshatriya leadership caste. There are hundreds of Kachinas or Katsinas in
Hopi religious traditions.
Nearly all the names of these Kachinas can be traced to places or people
in ancient India. I am of the opinion that Kachinas are the Hopi way of
struggling with their lack of written history. Some of these Kachinas are,
as follows: Ahola and Ahool: The Aiolas or Haiyulas also went to Greece,
becoming the Elysians.
Anga and Angwus: Anga was a large district in India, including Bengal,
parts of Tibet, and Baghapuri. We English speaking people also descend from
our Anga-Land ancestors. Eewiro/Eewero: These were the Iberians (originally
Kheeveria) of Spain and Portugal. Haniya: the Hans or Huns of Western China.
Hanomana: The Hanuman or "Monkey Warriors" mentioned in the epic
Ramayana.
Hemishu/Hemis: This is the "Far Away" Kachina. It is indeed "far
away," being Hemis, a town and Buddhist monastery in Western Tibet.
Hewta/Hooti/Hootsani: Huta is one of the thousand names of Shiva.
Hoohoomana/Hool: The Hoohoos or Hoos were an ancient group of Northern Indians.
Isoo: Issa, a name of Shiva. Kaasaye: derived from Kshatriya. Maakka:
A people of Northern India who also became the Greek Macedonians (Makkadonia).
Masaw: Masiha or Mahesa, a name of Shiva.
Ngayaya: Naga-Yaya or "Snake Worshiping Shiva" cult.
Nukeshheya: Nahusha-Haya, or "Warrior of the God Nahusha," the same
as the Indian Dyaus-Nahusha or the Greek Dionysius.
Oham: Ahom, a tribe of Nepalese. Palasa;
Palak: Pelasa/Pelasgos, a people from one of India's most ancient
regions, Bihar. They also became the Palestinians. There are at least 8
Kachinas beginning with the prefix Pala.
Sakwahu/Sikya:Sakha/Sakya, Scythians.
Sivu: God Shiva.
Tseeveya: God Shiva.
Yuam: Yamm, the Hindu God of Death. I have presented only about
one-tenth of the total amount of Kachinas. The ones not named are no less
"Hindu" in sound and meaning. I was truly astonished when I found out the
names of the Hopi Warrior Gods: Pokanghoya and Polangahoya. The Hindu
origin of these two "Gods" is absolutely undeniable.
In India in Greece, the 17th century Oriental scholar, Edward Pococke, himself
wrote about the India-Indian warrior clan Pokanghoya: "the Greek Guneus,
the title of the military chieftains of the Thessalonians, is a corruption
of the Greek Gangyus, a name of the Hindu God of War." In ancient India,
Po-gang-Hya meant "Chief Gang Warrior."
Pokanghoya's warrior companion, Polangahoya, was also a Northern Indian:
Po-Lanca-Hya (Chief Lanca Warrior). These two warriors are the Hopi version
of the Cabeiri/Quivira. The "Spider Woman" legends of many Amerindian tribes
always give her different names of the Multi-Armed Mother Goddesses of the
Hindus, such as Bhairavi, whom the Yaquis, Mayos, Opatas, and some Oodham
clans called Vairubi.
The Hopi name for "Spider Woman" also screams out its connection with India:
Sowiti. Sowiti appears to be derived from Sati, a Shiva consort. Sati and
Bhairavi were just two names of the same Hindu "Mother Goddess." The Hopi
nation is covered with Hindu place names. Oraibi (Orayvi) derives from Eu-Ravi
(The Great Sun God).
The name of the Bahanna village of Hotevilla corresponds to the Persian
influenced North Indian Hodee-Vira (Hindu Hero). The Hopi word Homolawa
means "mounded vagina." Some Hopi clans claim to have "emerged" from the
low hills near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, called Homolowi, where
there are ruins of an ancient Hopi village bearing the same name.
Homala is linguistically similar to the Sanskrit Himala, meaning the Himalayas.
I insist that the Hopis really did "emerge" from the Himalayas. Hindu names
and traditions are so abundant in the Hopi nation, language, culture, and
religion, that to name them all would be like counting the trees in a forest.
Some people may think that all these hundreds of names and traditions are
coincidences, but I cannot. I am convinced absolutely that the freshness
and vigor of these names and traditions indicate that the Hopis haven't
been here as long as the claim, for the Hopi myths definitely describe political
and social conditions in India between 1000 and 1200 AD, when the Brahmins
were trying to bring the tribals and lower classes into the caste system
and deprive them of their land.
There were many demographic upheavals in those days. For sure, someone brought
them to America. I say that the Hopis have not been here for more than one
thousand years!
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