Ans. It has been truly said that the most glaringly obvious is often the most difficult to see. This is certainly true in Mexico's case. When I was a young student there, an English ex-Bengal lancer living there told me that he thought Mexico was more Indian than India itself! To say that India never conquered Mexico is like saying that England had nothing to do with the settlement of the United States. Wherever one goes in Mexico, he sees place names that are as Indian as curry and rice.

The state of Chihuahua was named after a Native-American name for the region: Shivava; Tamaulipas = Tamralipta; Nayarit = Nairtti. In pre-Columbian (or should I say in Hindu?) times, the hereditary kings of the area were called Nayar. Tehuantepec = Devantepec (Divine Hill); Tabasco = Tapas-Koh (Place of Meditation); Sinaloa = Sinhala; Jalisco (pronounced HallEEsko) = Halys-Koh. Halys was an ancient North Indian name for "Sun." Chiapas = Shiva-Pas (Chiefs of Shiva); Yucatan = Yakhustan (Land of Guardian Angels); Cosala = Cousala; Sonora = Sunuta, a mythical Hindu devil.

The place is well-named. It has one of the most inhospitable deserts on earth. Purandaro = Puruandaro, a name of Shiva. The list is endless! Taking into consideration that the Nahuatl-speaking people could not pronounce "R," their word for "Temple Mount," Sacualli, is nearly identical to its Sanskrit equivalent: Sugkharu. Citlalli (pronounced "S'tlalli"), was the Nahua "Star Goddess." This name must surely derive from the Sanskrit Str (Star) plus Ili (Goddess). Early in December, 2000, my wife and I attended a Novena (nine day rosary ceremony in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe) in the home of a neighbor.

While I was watching the people chant, I wondered whether they could appreciate the antiquity of their sacred hill of Tepeyac, and the deep significance of that name, on which the Virgin of Guadalupe made her appearance to the Native-American farmer Juan Diego. They probably didn't know that the words Tepe and Depe meant "hill" in Northern India and Central Asia. A Tepe, in both ancient Northern India and Mexico, was usually a natural stronghold, usually rocky and devoid of vegetation, jutting up abruptly from the surrounding region. The English term for such a hill is "Acropolis." In ancient India, as in Mexico, the shrine of an important deity was usually located on top of the Tepe. In Northern India, many of the Tepes appear to have been abandoned about 2,000 BC.

It is curious to observe that the name Tepe, known first in ancient India, given to certain sacred mountains and to a deity to which such mountains was related, would go to Mesopotamia and Persia, finally arrived in Mesoamerica� (El Astronauta de Palenque, by Tom�s Doreste, p. 28.) More than 120 Tepes can be found on the map of Mexico. In ancient Harappa, several villages were built on Tepes and Depes. Yakh was the Northern Indian word for "Guardian Angel."

In remotest times, the Northern Indians worshipped guardian angels. "Gods" were a later innovation. They evolved from the Yah(k)s Yakhs, Yakhus, or Yaksas. Some Harappan ruins in South Central Iran are named Tepeya-yah. (See From Sumer to Meluhha, edited by Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, p. 4.) When the Spaniards invaded Mexico, the most sacred holy Tepe of the Aztecs was Tepeyac, outside of Mexico City. On top of Tepeyac, the Aztecs had erected the temple to their Mother Goddess, Innan. This goddess's ancient Indian equivalent was named Inan or Innana. They also called this goddess No-nan-tsin. Tsin was an Aztec or Nahua honorific, nearly exactly the same in pronunciation as the Sanskrit Sin.

No-Nan-Tsin derived from the Sanskrit Naya-Nan/Naya-Nana, which meant "Wise Mother Goddess." I believe this Innan to be none other than Parvati, the consort of Shiva. When the Spaniards conquered and destroyed the Aztec civilization, they eventually turned the latter away from all their old gods except one: Nonantsin, the Mother Goddess, whose shrine was at the top of Tepeyac hill. Not even the cruelest of tortures could make them quit worshipping Nonantsin, the beloved mother of the Mexicans.

Since torture couldn't turn the Mexicans against Nonantsin, the priests in Mexico City devised another strategy. One day, a Mexican Indian named Juan Diego, supposedly a dyed-in-the-wool Christian, was running to Mexico City to buy some healing herbs for his deathly ill uncle. The small but exceedingly steep hill of Tepeyac, which stands on a plain, was beside the path.

When Juan was passing by the hill, a beautiful lady appeared before him, requesting that he convince the Church to build a shrine in her honor atop Tepeyac. The rest is history. Nonantsin became the Virgin of Guadalupe. Mexico became totally Christianized almost overnight, without the Spaniards having to gouge out any more eyes or burn anyone else at the stake.

The Nonantsin tradition, inherited from India itself, has been kept alive for thousands of years! We must ask ourselves why that hill was named "Hill of the Guardian Angel" several thousand years ago, and in the Near Eastern language Farsi (Persian): Tepeyahk. Perhaps something supernatural has always happened there. The guardian angel Nonantsin could have taken on the form of the Holy Virgin in order to save her people from further misery.

Even today, the Mexican country people hear the cries of a beautiful woman in a blue dress who wanders around at night sobbing, "My children! What has happened to my children!" I say that she is the holy goddess of both the Hindus and Mexicans, who constantly grieves at the poverty and suffering of her people! In Sanskrit, Zailamaya = "Stony; of stone." In Kashmiri, Shail = "Rock; a big stone." Maya = "Source; essence." After putting the crowns on their heads, and if they are in automobiles, decorating their autos with floral chains, an old Native-American man approaches, violin in hand, and obliges females and males to dance together (Nataraja, or Lord Shiva in his role as "Lord of the Dance?).

After dancing for a minute or two, the pilgrims enter Chalma. At the entrance to the temple housing the "worked over" stone shivling, visitors must place their garlands and other floral offerings on a a wooden shivling, just as the Indian Shaivites did and do. After that, they enter the temple. Indian members of the Shaivite cultus would feel at home, both geographically, culturally, and spiritually, in Chalma. Pilgrims are not permitted to get too close to the black stone effigy of Christ.

The local Indians never did take kindly to the liberties that the Spanish priests took with their shivling. I know that some of them would like to remove it from the temple and return to their ancient practices of Ishvara.

Pilgrims visiting Chalma also adore an ancient tree which is reputed to have the same powers to grant wishes as the Christ (Shiva) image in the local temple. The description of Mexico's most popular Catholic/Hindu shrines is just one of many hundreds of proofs in my possession that India once conquered Mexico.

I can almost guarantee that any Hindu pilgrim to these shrines will almost convince himself that he never left home! This article was contributed to Vandemataram.com by Gene D. Matlock � Genmatl@gte.net