Abraham Is Brahma: Mere Etymological Word-Play Or Something Deeper?

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 20 June 2023 "Once you start digging out the fundamental similarities, be that in religion or something else, one common source emerges, much to the embarrassment of all. You also realize to your discomfiture that all your (modern) religions and their gods are actually mankind's throwbacks to its prehistoric past. " Ernest Klein (1899-1983), Hungarian-born Romanian-Canadian linguist Lord Brahma ---- Recently, some Jewish scholars at Tel Aviv University opined that the 'prophet' Abraham was nothing but Semitic distortion of Brahma (Adi Purush or the Creator of the universe in Hindu mythology). This is not new. Many scholars of religion and linguists like Edmund Sapir, Umberto Eco, Grearson, Kshitimohan Sen, Rahul Sankrityayan, Noah Webster, James Murray, Marko Snoj et al thought and doubted long ago that the creator of the three Semitic faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam (also called Abrahamic faiths) must have been a linguistic variant of Brahma. Don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating Hinduism. I'm NOT a Hindu. I don't follow any man-made faith. Nor do I believe in any damn god. I'm just a dispassionate chronicler of unvarnished truths and facts. Regarding the link between Abraham and Brahma, Steven Rosen writes: The similarities between the names of Abraham and Brahma have not gone unnoticed. Abraham is said to be the father of the Jews, and Brahma, as the first created being, is often seen as the father of mankind. Abraham’s name is derived from the two Semitic words ab meaning ‘father’ and Raam/Raham meaning ‘of the exalted….’ We might also note that the name of Brahma’s consort Saraswati seems to resonate with that of Abraham’s wife, Sarah [… each one’s identity as a wife and/or sister]. Also, in India, the Saraswati River includes a tributary known as the Ghaggar…. According to Jewish tradition, Hagar was Sarah’s maidservant…. Both Brahmins … and Jews see themselves as the ‘chosen people of God.’ The Hebrews began their sojourn through history as a ‘kingdom of priests’ (Exodus 19:6). Likewise, Brahmins are also a community of priests. But in fact, Abraham and Brahma are mythical figures. Both never existed. Just because, Vedic Hinduism is much older than pristine Judaism, it stands to reason that evolving communities in that part of the world looked towards the East and its Sanatan Dharm. Those primitive communities also needed to concoct the concept of a creator and they had Brahma as a point of reference. …Flavius Josephus … (in the) Antiquities of the Jews … quotes Aristotle (384 b.c.e.–322 b.c.e.) as saying that Jews are derived from the Indian philosophers and are known as the Calani. Clearchus of Soli was a student in Aristotle’s school. In his book, De Somno, he elaborates on the story of how Aristotle discovered this information, but the basic concept remained the same. Megasthenes was a traveller who became an ambassador of Seleucus I of Syria to the court of Chandragupta Maurya, the first unifier of India, before the latter’s death in 288 b.c.e. According to Godfrey Higgins, in the first volume of his massive Anacalypsis, Megasthenes wrote that the Jews were an Indian tribe or sect called Kalani. Except for the spelling he agreed with Aristotle and Clearchus. From the perspective of phonetics, the name 'Abraham' is pronounced in classical Hebrew as 'Au-Braham'. Since Hebrew originated from Ladino and Yiddish, many vowel and consonant patterns along with prefix and suffix were retained in Hebrew, which still has a flawed and unclear alphabet. The prefix 'Au' in Hebrew, Ladino and Yiddish is almost silent and it sounds like 'Braham'. Because of this phonetical and connotational fluidity, Abraham became 'Ibrahim' in Islam, Gabriel became 'Jibreel' and Solomon became 'Salman.' It's worthwhile to state that all these fictitious characters are found in all the three Semitic faiths. Mankind is so deeply immersed in the cesspool of religious bullshit that we knowingly ignore the truth because it's too disconcerting and we don't want to come out of our comfort zone of religious stupor. We never bother to know that the word 'Girja' (Hindi for Church) was coined by the cunning Portuguese Catholic missionaries who wanted to Christianise the fishing community of Goa and Konkan. Those missionaries knew that the rustic and uneducated fishermen could be converted if they were slowly brainwashed with their own symbols. ‘Girija’ is 'mother earth' (it's also an obscure synonym of Durga). Mother Mary was installed in the churches of Goa by the Roman Catholics and the ignorant people were exhorted to worship their 'mother earth' (Girija). Alas, those yokels could never realise how imperceptibly they became Christians. And this is how a religion is disseminated by its priests and proponents. Yet, we all will continue to inhale the miasma of this pigshit till human civilization comes to an end. ---- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/interfaith-dialogue/abraham-brahma-etymological/d/130031 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism