Affinities between Vedic and Baltic Cultures | Dr. Gintaras Songaila | Sangam Talks

Lecture will refer to ancient links between the Indo-Aryan and Baltic cultures. The direct descendants of these cultures now live more than 6000 km apart. The two little Baltic nations (Latvians and Lithuanians) live in the North Eastern Europe, along eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. While Hindu people, one of the largest nations in the world, from ancient time are inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent. These countries and nations seem to be very different in their historical destiny, cultural and anthropological background. Some basic facts about cultural history of distant Baltic nations will be presented in the lecture. Yet astonishing is the fact, well known to educated people starting from XIX century, about the similarities and even matches between ancient Sanskrit language and present-day Baltic languages. Number of these matches will be provided in the lecture (some important isoglosses in grammar, as well as revealing lexical isoglosses mainly from religious but also from other spheres of life). Old Indian-Baltic affinities are usually presented as an outcome of the common Indo-European heritage. Dr. G. Songaila argues that these affinities do reflect far more than that. They probably attest some groups of Indo-Aryans of the past to live in close and lasting neighborhood to the Eastern European forest people. About the Speaker: GINTARAS SONGAILA, b. in Lithuania, Vilnius Manager of Media Support Foundation (public institution in Lithuania) 1988-1991 one of the founders of Lithuanian Independence movement (Sąjūdis) Politician, former MP, former chairman of Lithuanian National Union (political party), Active member of Romuva religious community (pre-Christian religion in Lithuania), of ethnographic and cultural heritage protection movement, poet. Active Lithuanian publicist, TV script writer and editor (mainly for TV documentaries), author of many innovative projects in ITT, digital TV field, news radio. Author of many publications and educational TV programs in the fields of ethnology, linguistics, Lithuanian and European medieval history, ancient Baltic mythology. Medical doctor, psychiatrist. Subscribe to our YouTube channels: YouTube English: YouTube Hindi: Follow Sangam Talk on social media : Telegram : Twitter: Facebook: Instagram: Website: Donate: