Hindu Gods Abroad

The Worship of Magna Mater in Turkey leads to an important point. For the most part, we think of Hinduism as being confined to Greater India. However, That's because the north Indian's as I explained in Chapter 2 , " Hindus in History", are related to many of the European peoples. When you understand this, it becomes less surprising Turkey in the first millennium B.C.E.

In fact, a thousand years earlier, the Mitanni people of Turkey are known to have propitiated Indra, Mitra, Varuna, and the Ashvins-gods staright out of the Veda. Mitra, whose worship was already ancient in India in 4000 B.C.E., reincarnated as Mithras, one of the Persian's most important deities, and eventually found work as the patron deity of the Roman Army!