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Previous Reference: Part_‘C’
Part ‘D’
After the Flood, Noah’s descendants spread all over the world. According to the Bible it was the successors of Misrayim, the son Noah’s son **Ham, **who established a civilisation in Egypt. Similarly, centres of civilisation like Arabia, Iraq, and Syria were under the authority of the descendant of another of Noah’s sons, Shem. These people founded ancient city states like Babylonia, Assyriya, Chaladea and Phoenicia. Abraham and his stock belong to this race. This race it is that modern historicans call “Semites”.
But the Bible does not tell us much about the genealogy of yet another of Noah’s sons, Japheth. What one gathers from the Book of Genesis is that they inhabited some islands.
India is of course a peninsula or a semi-island. It is not improbable that Japheth’s descendants migrated to India and settled here. What Abul Hasan Massodi (d. 959 A.D.), an Arab historian and world traveller, records in his historical book Muroojud-dahab may also be noted in this context: “*Noofeer, a great grandson of Noah, travelled with his offspring to India, to Sind. The inhabitants of Sind belong to Noofeer’s lineage”. *Elsewhere in the same book he writes: "Aaboor, or Aamoor, son of Subel (Tubal), son of Japheth, son of Noah, settled in the boundaries of India".
In the light of this statement it may be ascertained that the race which migrated to Sind from Sumer were descendants of Noah.
We have already noted that htere are stories in **Mesopotamian **literature of a great flood that occurred there.
A similar story of a flood has found its place in the Indian **Purans (legends) **as well. The story as recounted in the latter concerns a great man named ‘Manu’. In the ancient Indian literature Manu has another name too: Satyavatara (the truthful). It may be deduced from a verse of **Mahabharata **that this Manu was the patriarch of the **Dravidians: **It goes without saying that Noah, the Biblical hero of the Deluge, and Noah the Qur’anic hero are one and the same person. And he could as well have been the hero of the Indian Flood. It was usual for great names to be spoken with a respectful prefix, ‘Ma-’; ‘Mabali’ is an instance in point. It may thus be conjectured that ‘Nooh’ combined with the prefix 'Ma-’ became ‘Manooh’, which in the course of time got transformed into 'Manu’. In days of yore, races and clans were named after some tribal chiefs. So was the Semitic race was called after its chief, Shem. On this analogy again, there is reason to believe, the Dravidians of India were named after their chief, Japheth. ‘Tiru’ was reverential prefix added to the names of great men. So it may be gussed that the Dravidians called their chief Tiru Japheth (Tiru Yaafit), and were themselves known later as Dravidians (**Tir—f----t **became Dr—v–d). Just as *tirutti became drishti.
*In any case, it is safe to say that the first culture to flourish in India was born of Prophet’s mission. The monotheistic conception of the Sinds bears testimony to it. And the moral vision that this tradition inspired still exercises its influence among Indians, even today.
References:
1- Genesis [10:25] says: “The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madani, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz Riphath, and Togarmah. The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. From these the coastland people spread. These are the sons of Japheth in their lands each with his own language, by their families, in their nations”. (All Biblical qutations are from The Bible, Revised Standard Version, Fontana Books). From this is is evident the descendants of Japheth inhabited certain Islands.
2- See Vol. 2, PP.144-145.
3- Ibid., Vol.1, PP.131-132 P-132 says: “A group of Abur’s offspring reached Indian boundries… they accepted the Indian castes”.
4- Mahabharata, see Skandha 9. Skandha 8 of the same book has a similar verse describing Manu as the god of the Dravidians. It reads: "This indicates that Manu was the great tribal chief of the Dravidians. The word Ishwara means lord, sovereign, guardian, king etc. In the Dravidian language, the corresponding word is eswara.
