Hindus are the people of Noah:
Even otherwise, it is an established fact that the Vedic religion is the oldest of all the religions of the world and Noah the earliest of all the prophets with Shari’at (the revealed law). But, before taking it for granted, it is very essential to investigate it from the Vedic religion itself. For the time being let us not accept this claim of Hindus that The Vedas are the Word of God but we should at least investigate that who, according to their scriptures, was the prophet to whom they were revealed. A French writer, A.J.A. Dubois, who studied the Hindu religion and Indian Civilization for forty years subsequently wrote a voluminous and most authentic book of its kind on Hindu rituals, customs, manners and traditions. Some of the facts, he related in this will certainly be of vital interest to our reader:
“Suffice it to remark that a celebrated personage, reverred by the Hindus, and known to them as mahanuvu, escaped the calamity in an ark, in which were also the seven famous Penitents of India… The appellation mahanuvu… is a compound of two words – Maha, great and Nuvu, which undoubtedly is the same as Noah.
“It is practically admitted that India was inhabited very soon after the Deluge, which made a desert of the whole word…
“It is definitely stated in the Markandeya Purana and in the Bhagavata that this event caused the destruction of all mankind, with the exception of the seven famous Rishis or penitents whom I have often had occasion to mention, and who were saved from the universal destruction by means of an ark, of which Vishnu himself was the pilot. Another great personage called Manu, who, as I have tried elsewhere to show, was no other than the great Noah himself, was also saved along with the seven great penitents…. The universal flood is not, to my knowledge more clearly referred to in the writings of any heathen nation that has preserved the tradition of this great event, or described in a manner more in keeping with the narrative of Moses, that is in the Hindu books to which I have referred.
It certainly remarkable that such testimony should be afforded us by a people whose antiquity has never been called in question…
The details about the event of Noah and Deluge have also been given in the Bhavishya Purana and the Matsya Purana, the references of which will be given in the chapters to follow.
The word Manu has been used for a number of Hindu religious personages6 but Manu who figures most in the Puranas, the Vedas and other Hindu scriptures is Noah undoubtedly. Even in the Vedas the mention of Noah by the name Manu is at 75 places. The English translator commentator of the Vedas, Griffith writes in explaining the word Manu, in one of the mantras: “Manu is the man par excellence, or the representative man and father of the human race, regarded as the first institutor of sacrifices and religious ceremonies.
Besides these references of Noah in the Vedas and the purans, I am presenting here yet another authentic proof of the affiliation of Hindu race with Noah. Generally speaking, the relation between a race and its prophet can be established by the calender which, in one way or the other, starts with the prophet himself. For example, Muslims count their calender from prophet Mohammad’s Hijrah (Migration from Mecca to Madina), and the Christians theirs, from the departure of Jesus. Like-wise the Hindu people count the time of their main events from Noah’s times, and, thereby, count the period that elapsed since the Deluge in terms of sixty years as one year. Dubois writes “…the commencement of the true era of the Hindus, that is to say, of their Kali-yuga, dates from about the same time as the epoch of the Deluge—an event clearly recognised by them and very distinctly mentioned by their authors, who give it the name of Jala-pralayam, or the Flood of waters…. And curiously enough, in all their ordinary transactions of life, in the promulgation of all their acts, in the their monuments, the Hindus date everything from the subsidence of the flood… Their public and private events are always reckoned by the year of the various cycles of sixty years which have elapsed since the Deluge.
These are a few examples of Noah’s unique affiliation with Hindu history and scriptures: We have also seen from the Hadith of Al Bukhari, quoted in the beginning of this chapter, that the people of Noah will not recognise him as their Prophet and we also know that in spite of having a close relation with Noah, the entire Hindu race at present does not know him. It is also clear from this Hadith that on the Day of Resurrection the Muslims will testify that Noah had brought the Message of God unto his people. We also know that various other Hadiths also hinted at the race emerging finally as the true followers of prophet Mohammad.
From all these testimonies it is obvious that after getting included amongst the followers of Prophet Mohammed they (Hindus) alone will be the witnesses on the day of Resurrection. However, in spite of all these testimonies the final and the most authentic proof needs to be discussed it is the Holy Qur’an.
