THE TEMPLE OF GARNI IN ARMENIA – THE VEDIC-SANSKRIT CONNECTION

The oldest surviving building in Armenia is the Temple of Garni represented by Mithira, the Sun God. Mithira is said to have been adapted into the Zoroastrian pantheon from the Rig Vedic deity ‘Mitra’ who is ‘an important divinity of Indic culture, and the patron divinity of honesty, friendship, contracts and meetings’. Also the word ‘mitra’ (मित्र) often translated as ‘friend’ from Sanskrit, also means ‘sun’.

A Uratian ‘Vishapa’ is connected with water
much like the Vedic Shivalinga. The Uratian pagan
tradition was gradually rejected by the Zoroastrians.

‘Mitra’ evolved into its Zoroastrian form of ‘Mithira’ during the Bronze and Iron Ages, and was later carried to Greece by remnants of Alexander the Great’s armies in the 3rd-2nd century BC, where it was incorporated into the Greek concept of the ‘Helios’- the Sun god. Again ‘heli’ (हेलि) means ‘sun’ in Sanskrit.

The Temple of Garni was built in the 2nd…