The Russo-Bulgarian Vedas

The term “**Russo-Bulgarian Vedas**” can mean one of two things: either a collection of mostly fake “Ancient manuscripts” by Alexander Asov, or the general concept of the Slavs having a variant of the Hindu Vedas as their holy scripture, which is still up for debate.

## As a collection

The “Russo-Bulgarian Vedas” is what Alexander Asov called the Slavic forgeries, or at least the most popular ones. Asov, who was a believer in the forgeries, made his own translations of the forgeries, and printed them in one book, split into two chapters and verses (taking obvious inspiration from the Bible). It was split into Russian, Bulgarian, and Great Vedas.

###### The Russian Vedas:

The Book of Veles (with the Hymn of Boyan and the inscription on Bus’ monument)

The Book of Yarillo

The Book (or “Wings”) of Poetry

These are the most famous forgeries, though only the Book of Veles has multiple publications, as the other two sort of fell into obscurity.

###### The Bulgarian Vedas:

The Dragon Manuscript (Cäğfär Taríxı)

The Veda Slovena

These forgeries (specifically the Cäğfär Taríxı) are still being debated on to this day concerning their authenticity. A conclusion had been reached for the Veda Slovena, with most agreeing that it is either partially or entirely forged, but many believe that at least some of the songs in it are genuine, or that they all are genuine and that the lyrics were just meddled with to make them more pagan.

###### The great Vedas:

About the great teachers

The Book of Kolyada

These two books were written by Asov himself. The first is simply about his theory, that give or take 300 years a new “great teacher” is born, and brings to an example Jesus and Bus Beloyar. The Book of Kolyada is a reconstruction of Slavic creation myths, based on rock carvings, Vedic mythology, Germanic mythology, and what is hinted at in the Slavic forgeries.

## As a concept

As a concept, “Slavic Vedas” are not denied by scientists, but nor are they confirmed. We know that there were Scythian tribes known to drink Surya, many Slavonic gods seem to have been borrowed from the Vedas (Indra Parjanya - Perun), and there are many etymological similarities between them (Svarga - Svarog).

However, no definitive proof has been found of Slavic translations of these Vedas, and most seem to lean towards the idea that we will never know for sure.

#### Disproven evidence:

##### The Poetic Edda

It was long thought that the word “Edda” was a Germanic corruption of the word “Veda”. A conclusion was then made: if the Germans had their own Vedas, why wouldn’t the Slavs have their own too? However, the word “Edda” actually means something like “Great—grandmother’s tales”, whereas “Veda” means “knowledge”. It was also proven, that the word “Veda” fits perfectly into the Germanic range of pronunciation, and therefore would never be corrupted to “Edda”. Therefore, any link between the Eddas and Vedas was deemed unscientific.

##### The Book of Veles

Although it doesn’t claim to be one of the Slavic Vedas, the Book of Veles does make numerous references to the Vedas. Before the authenticity of the Book of Veles was definitively disproven in the early 2000s (doubt had been cast since its first publication, and by the 1980s most lost their faith in it) this was seen as proof of the Slavic Vedas.

##### The “Aryan Hypothesis”

This claims that the Slavs are Aryans, and that they brought their Vedic religion with them from India (or Iran). It also claims that “Slavic” is a highly corrupted descendant of Hindu or some other Aryan dialect. Although there is no shortage of etymological similarities between the Slavic and Aryan languages, we know now that the base of Slavic is definitely European, and that they simply had great influence from Aryans. This is not at all surprising, since their closest neighbors in antiquity were the Scythians, an Iranian (Aryan) people.

#### Possible evidence for:

##### The “Dove” or “Deep” Book

The “Dove Book” (Голубная Книга, also translated as “deep book”) as an apocryphal book written in Novgorod in the late 1400s (the earliest manuscript dates to the 1700s). It is a poem about a book of knowledge, which falls to the earth from the sky. Prince Vladimir and King David ask Jesus about what the book says, as they are not allowed to read it. Many had interpreted this book as a reference to the Vedas, as there it features a “book of knowledge” which “falls from the sky”. However, what is strangest is that the book seems to be a complete paraphrase / Russian Orthodox adaptation of the Zoroastrian Book of Creation (*Bundahishn,* written in the 7th century AD). This, although quite late, proves at the very least that there were Slavic adaptations of Iranian texts, which were paraphrased and Christianized. The Dove Book was banned in the Russian Empire for “mixing paganism with Christianity”, proving also that the common characteristics of the Dove Book and the Bundahishn were indeed considered “Slavic paganism”, and therefore that Slavs had at least some Zoroastrian influence. Though Zoroastrian and Vedic mythologies are different, the two had many similarities.

##### Folksongs

A British enthusiast of Slavic culture named W. R. S. Ralston provided english translations of folk songs which he chose out specifically because of their mythological roots. You can read the entirety of his analysis, as well as excerpts from the songs, here. Although these songs are not entirely “paraphrases” of Vedic hymns, they still depict some Vedic influence.

##### Etymological

There are many words borrowed from Aryan languages in the Slavic language family. These words tend to be religious or philosophical in nature, such as “svet” (“light” in Slavic, “white” in Aryan) “rai” (“heaven” in Slavic, something similar in Aryan), “mir” (“world and peace” in Slavic, “the one that causes binding, friend” in Aryan), and even “Veda” (“vision” in Slavic, “knowledge” in Aryan).

#### Evidence against:

##### Etymological

Generally, linguists believe that Slavic is not a descendant of Aryan, but more of a sister-language.

### The forgeries

Almost all Slavic forgeries mention the Vedas at least once, but only two actually claim that they are the Vedas, or at least a part of the Vedas. These are the Veda Slovena, which claims to be a “descendant” of the Slavic Vedas, corrupted over centuries of retelling through generations, and the Slavic-Aryan Vedas, which claim to be a direct coming down of the Slavic Vedas. The Slavic Aryan Vedas are only believed by the Ynglingists, a Rodnover group, and are denied by all other Rodnover groups. The reason for this is the extreme racism present in those books, and also the ludicrous events it portrays, such as space battles.