Imagining Nature, Early Civilizations 

 Religious faiths play an important part in people’s lives. Even today when man has made tremendous progress specially in the field of science and technology, he  is inclined to devotion and worship of some unseen powers which may give him some inspiration and solace.

 The archaeological studies and the available literature of different civilizations reveal how early people imagined nature and how his thoughts were influenced by different natural phenomena.

 Ancient people worshiped various gods and often linked their gods with planets in the sky.

 Mars is named often the Roman god of war. The planet got its name from the fact that it is the color of blood. Other civilizations also got it named differently (god with red tongue). Urans was considered father of Saturn. Neptune god of sea (due to blue color).

 Egyptians worshipped over 2000 gods and goddesses. They honored  Amun creator god  of  the world as the most powerful.

  But  from (1352 to 1336 bc) the sun god Aten was worshipped by the people there. They built a city full of temples honoring the gods.

 Nut was the beautiful goddess of the night sky . Religious myths told how Nut swallowed the Sun every evening then gave birth to it again each morning.

 The mighty god Osris lord of the dead ruled the underworld where dead spirits lived for ever.

 Ordinary people of Egypt worshiped in two different ways. Firstly they said prayers and made offerings at little shrines (holy places) in their homes. Secondly they took part in great processions , escorting statues of the gods from one temple to another on festival days.

  Honus the hawk headed god of the sky , his bright eyes represented the  sun and moon . Honus was the protector of pharaohs and statues of him stood in many royal tombs.

 India was the home of one of the oldest civilizations of history, which grew up along the banks of the Indus river. The Indus valley culture and the vedic culture , which succeeded and was influenced by it, were the basis of  the development of later Indian society, in particular the major religious systems of Hinduism, Buddhism  and Jainism.

 One major source of information about the Aryans in India is the great literature –the Vedas.

  Rig veda includes hymens to a number of deities, including the warrier god Indra,the fire god Agni.  Indra is the god of thunder and rain and a great warrier. In Hindu Mythology the rainbow is called Indra’s Bow.  People believed in Agni as the source of all creation. In addition to the worship of gods people believed in worship of stones, trees and animals.

Shiva was considered god of destruction. The natural calamities like earthquake and tsunami was considered due to anger of Shiva. How people imagined Shiva is found in prayers written for worshiping Shiva.

 Vishnu was considered Chief god ,the preserver and Brahma, the creator. Some popular Hindu gods and goddess are: Ganesha,  god of knowledge, wisdom, intellect,  Lakshmi  goddess of wealth and Saraswati goddess of wisdom.

In the literature one finds different stories about these gods which were result of imaginations of various natural phenomena observed in the sky.

  For basic information on our solar system and planets refer my blog “Connecting different traditions, ideas  and myths” (posted on  04/04/2011) url:https://blogs.siliconindia.com/Academics