Genome studies show that Australia’s Indian connection can be traced to at least 4,000 years ago. This contradicts the Eurocentric view that Australia had no contact with the rest of the world until the coming of Europeans in the eighteenth century. Some Australian Aboriginals can even trace as much as 11% of their genomes to Indian migrants.
In 1623, the Dutch explorer Jan Carstenz was the first to write about the similarity in the physical appearance of Indigenous Australians and Indians. This was confirmed In 1870 by T. H. Huxley who proposed that Indigenous Australians were closely related to the people of South Asia.
“The only people out of Australia who present the chief characteristics of the Australians in a well-marked form are the so-called hill-tribes who inhabit the interior of the Dekhan, in Hindostan.”
Along with their genes, these Indian migrants brought different tool-making techniques, the dingo and socio-religious heritage. Based on their interaction, it can be argued that the aboriginal peoples have been naming places that are sacred to their beliefs.
Western Australia’s Lake Clifton is a good example of how Hindu religious story of Bhagwan Shiva, the serpent God, interact or is well-preserved in the memory of these aboriginal inhabitants.
In Noongar creation story, the Wagyl (great Serpent) is the ruler of the Earth and sky, and that it inhabits water sources.
At the edge of Lake Clifton, in the Yalgorup National Park, rock-like structures called thrombolites that are similar to Shivalinga (the Symbol of Lord Shiva) can be seen.
The scientists believe that thrombolites are one of the first life forms on earth, dating back approximately 570 million years, producing oxygen that made all subsequent life possible. These are built by tiny micro-organisms believed to resemble the earliest forms of life on Earth.
However, These structures are approximately 2,000 years old and the largest in the southern hemisphere and hold a significant place in the Dreaming stories that explain how the waterways were created.
Aboriginal Elder Joe Walley retells the creation story of the formation of the Shivalinga-like structures.
During the time of extreme drought, three old people from the tribe, Elders, went down to the sea to pray to their creator, Wagyl, for water so that the plants and animals could survive. On hearing the prayer, the creator came out of the water in the form of a snake which was coloured green and smokish grey.
As the Wagyl came out of the sea all along its path an inlet was formed and thus Wagyl gave birth to its young creating unique shapes.
Soon Wagyl’s young left their birthplace, travelling away uphill and forming the Murray, Harvey, and Serpentine rivers.
“The old people believed that when the young of the Wagyl became water, the bush got more moisture, more sap, and the sap flowed into the animals, and the animals became fat and tender. The Six seasons of the people started working again, and the land was green once more.”
The other aboriginal groups in the area such as the Ballardong people also believe the Wagyl as the creator of the rivers, lakes and swamps, and the Wiilman people consider the Wagyl as the creator of their hills and rivers.
The aboriginal people also believe that if the resting place of the serpent God is harmed, all the water in the world would dry up. This view is very similar to the Hindu belief that the celestial river Ganga drips from Bhagwan Shiva’s dreadlocks. The snow-covered peaks of the Himalayas, from where many small rivulets join to become Ganga, if destroyed will result in the end of very life on Earth.
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