The similarity of hundreds of words in Russian and other Slav languages with Sanskrit is so great that even today in every page of any Russian-English or Russian-Hindi dictionary such words and roots can be discovered which are akin to Sanskrit. Unfortunately the dominance of English in India has clouded the lesser known fact which is still amazing to us. Not much is talked or written about it in our English media. This one single factor has been responsible for us being oblivious to our Vedic past which can trace our common roots between our countries thousands of kilometers apart.

Would anybody believe that even today numerals from one to ten are called adi, dva, tri, chatire, pyat, sem, vocyem, devyat and dashyat. For Hundred it is shto - derived from 'shat'? Similar Mat, Brat, Sistra, etc. are the words for mother, brother, sister itself. Agon is from Agni and Dween from Dhoom.

The enormous scholarship that some Russians and Ukranians have undertaken is astounding. terms such as Vedas, Vedic, Shudras and Aryans are turning into common parlance in these regions. They have found out a lot of parallels between Slavic languages and Hindi and Sanskrit. For example, our tea which we call 'chai' is 'chai' in Russian, knowledge 'jnan', sugar 'sakhar' and most surprising there is a beautiful word for fire brigade - 'agnetusheetal'.

Whether we agree or not Russians also believe that there has been an ancient connection between language and race. They have also staked their claims that their land was the original place of Aryans. During the 19th century, the originally linguistic term Indo-European came to have racial connotations. This word was coined to cover those languages of Europe, the middle-east and Sanskrit which linguists had discovered, were historically related to each other. Now Russians have also claimed to have relationship with Aryans and Sanskrit in the hoary past. The myth has constantly grown up about an Indo-European or Aryan race who had not only spoken the parent Indo-European language but who were also the ancestors of the Germans, Romans, Slavs and others who now speak Indo-European languages. However, they ignore the possibility that ancient Hindus had a large wave of migrations from this subcontinent to the European world. Ideas about language and race die hard. But the fact of the matter is that Sanskrit, in all this controversy or the 19th century colonial game, was the core of evidence. Those were the days when Germans not only thought of racial purity in terms of blue-blood Aryans but also preserving linguistic purity. This was also broadly accepted that changing environment and social structure also influenced the nature of language.

Whatever might have been the historical compulsions, at one time Berlin, Gottingen, St. Petersberg and cities of Eastern Europe were great centres of Indological studies. Gerasim Lebedev had laid the foundation of Indian learning in Russia. Academician A.P.Varanneker and later on celebrities like Chelishev, Dr.Lipiroski, Chernishov and Dr.Veskrovniy emerged such an inspirational factor that together with Sanskrit, study of Hindi got a shot in the arm. Very surprisingly and unfortunately, more due to the continued propaganda of Indian leftists, oriental studies relating to ancient languages like Sanskrit got a setback. The fall of Soviet Union brought about almost total neglect for studies which were earlier termed Indology.

The new interest, however, is due to renewal of interests of some Russian scholars. Bal Gangadhar Tilak is the most quoted person by those Russians who are in search of a new identity. Excerpts from Tilak's work have appeared in different journals to prove the point that the proto-Aryans were a white race, more specifically, the Russians, and their civilisation predates that of the Egyptians and the Sumerians. The debates in Russia are confined to the specific geographical regions where their 'ancestors' might have settled after climatic changes forced them to move southwards from their original home in the North Pole. Was it the steppes of southern Russia, south of Ural mountains, or somewhere between the Ukraine and Kazakhstan? The linguist O.N.Trubachev maintains that their habitation stretched along the northern coast of the Black Sea, the Crimean Peninsula and the western coast of the Azov Sea. To prove his point, Trubachev cites 150 place-names with linguistic parallels in Sanskrit.

What has gained rapid currency amongst many Russians is the notion that the Vedas were composed in parts of Russia, and not in India. Moreover, G. Grinevich in his book Praslavyanskaya Pismennost published in 1993 claims to have deciphered the Mohenjodaro script and thus solved its mystery. It now transpires that the Indus Valley civilisation was that of Slavs (read Russian) and the language was Slavic. We are told, in another work, that the famous and elusive 'soma' drink is actually home brew made from fermented milk (samogon). The word 'russ' is from the Sanskrit - rooksha - white, fair-skinned and the Russian word for Moscow - Moskva is derivative of moksha.

Let us move on to Ukraine. In 1996, Yu Kanygin published a book with an innocuous title, The Path of the Aryans: The Role of Ukraine in the Spiritual History of Mankind. Kanygin informs us that Rama, a Druid, was born in the northern Baltic region. Appalled by the inhuman rituals of the Druids, Rama departed and travelled to Europe, Egypt and finally proceeded towards the banks of the river Dnieper in the Ukraine, which became his adopted homeland. At the time of his arrival in the Ukraine, Rama was nineteen years old. The exact date of his arrival in the Ukraine was 5510 BC. Within one year the local people could follow his sermons.

Rama forbade human sacrifice and instead introduced the festival of the mother-night. Rama spent five years in the Ukraine lands before a voice from heaven bade him move eastwards. That is how Rama came to India where, according t the author, he created a great civilisation by uplifting the local people, teaching them ways of tilling the land, producing clay utensils and constructing shelters. Rama introduced technology, medicine and even taught the locals the art of smelting metal. Importantly, he taught people civilised behaviour. After his death, we are told, Rama was buried, according to his wishes, in the Ukraine, and not in some mountain in India or Scandinavia, where his body, according to legend, was brought by his disciples.

Ukraine, the author states, was called Ramavarta or the country of Rama. Moreover, the Greek script is a modern version of Devanagari, which the Aryans (read Rama) introduced in the Ukraine. The Ukraine language, Sanskrit, became the progenitor of all Indo-European languages and scripts. The second wave of the Aryans to the Ukraine was in the third millennium BC. By this time Ukraine was known as Aratta or Oratania, which, its author maintains, is from Sanskrit root Arati, i.e. the warrior. The Christian cross is a derivative of Rama's symbol of a circle with four rays.

Yu Shilov, another Ukrainian, is an archaeologist who has been researching the burial mounds (kurgans) in the region. Shilov believes that the burial mounds are those of the Aryans. Moreover, the Vedas were composed by the Ukrainian Aryans in the fourth millenium BC. The author gives the exact location of the area where the Rig Veda was composed. It was on the left bank of the river Dnieper's tributary, the Psla. Yoga, according to Shilov, also owes its origin to the same area in the Ukraine. 

As was to be expected an acrimonious debate between the Russians and the Ukrainians has erupted over all these claims and counter-claims.