The Druids, the Brahmans of Europe
An etymological connection suggests that the Hindi mysticism evolved into Celtic magic.
A certain mystical inclination in history tends to try and connect several civilizations, following the idea that global Gnosticism derived form a true knowledge, or a great esoteric trunk. Most of these efforts are practically unsustainable, at least within the common knowledge based on the scientific method. This, however, is not the case with the Druids, the high priestly order of the Celtic culture, and the Brahmans, the high priestly order of Hinduism.
The parallels between these two cultures are without a doubt two of the highest points that human civilization has reached in terms of penetrating the mystery of existence —magic and spirit—, which can be clearly discerned in the linguistic etymology that is the foundation for blood communication. The cultures that were established in Europe, among them the Celts, share the same Indo-European roots that go back as far as the Arian culture that produced the Vedanta wisdom some 5000 ago. Knowledge such as the yogic or tantric for instance can trace their origins back to this branch.
3000 years after the first blossoms of Hinduism, the Celts achieved a splendor of sorts and extended from Ireland to the central plane of Turkey. Little else is known about the Druids, which today we associate with the pagan rituals of Stonehenge or with the wizard Merlin, but, according to the other cultures that wrote about them, we know they were considered to be a group initiated into the art of mysteries, particularly associated with magic and language (Robert Graves points out that the bards and ollams were priests and poets as well). A vein of brilliant magic that inhabits oak-tree forests deriving in an alphabet of trees, letters, leaves and constellations.
Sanskrit, India’s mother-tongue, is one of the languages whose influence has been most transcendental around the world. According to Harvard Professor Calvert Watkins, the Celtic linguistic remains constitute a treasure among the Indo-European languages. Their verbal system can actually be traced back to the Vedic Sanskrit.
The similitudes are incredibly abundant: ancient Irish uses the same name that Hinduism uses to refer to the planet Mercury: Budh (“the always victorious”). Danu, the mother goddess of the Celts, because of her abundant flow (she is holy water), creates the Danube. Danu in Sanskrit means “humidity” and is “the sacred water”. The story of Dany is the equivalent of Ganga and the Ganges. As Borges wrote:
What river
lies under the Ganges?
What river has no source?
What river
drags along mythologies and swords?
The Thames, “the dark river”, is named after Thamesa, a tributary of the Ganges in India. This fluvial connection may have been part of the inspiration that led James Joyce to conceive his hermetic masterpiece Finnegans Wake, where the rivers and tongues flow as one towards an oceanic source.
Other words that show an identity between the Celtic society and Hindis are:
Old Irish – arya (freeman), Sanskrit – aire (noble)
Old Irish – naib (good), Sanskrit – noeib (holy)
Old Irish – badhira (deaf), Sanskrit – bodhar (deaf)
Old Irish – names (respect), Sanskrit – nemed (respect)
Old Irish – righ (king), Sanskrit – raja (king)
To what extent has the hidden tradition of the great seers of India, the rsi’s, made its way to the Druids? Is there some residue of the Brahmans in the Arthurian knights? Apparently, in the whispering forest, we can hear some of their echoes.
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