Googling for Marsh Arabs I find that the religion followed by some has been given the stupid name Mandaeism. But look st its tenets and tell me - do you see something familiar? I have highlighted stuff that I find familiar - stuff that are fundamentally Hindu conceptsRajeshA wrote: Published on Feb 05, 2015
By Premendra Priyadarshi
Vedic Indian Migration to Sumer: DNA evidence
Thus we can see that about 8% of the male Marsh Arab population consists of DNAs of Indian origin. When these Indians went there, they were rich with the wealth of cattle and buffalo. They had the bags of rice seeds and the art of cultivating rice. From the female lineage or the mitochondrial DNA side, we find a larger migration from India to Sumer having taken place. Today it is represented in the Marsh Arab population by the presence of the mtDNA U7, R2 and M (Al-Zaheri 2011:12). One particular sample was found to have mtDNA of the type M33a2a (GenBank accession number: JN540042), which is found in the Uttar Pradesh state of India (ibid). Thus the migrations from India were not male exclusive, but they consisted more of the females. This is understandable, because women play a greater role in paddy cultivation as well as buffalo keeping.
Once the Sumer civilization took off with the help of Indian water-buffaloes and rice cultivation in the South Iraq’s marshes, males of some Semitic tribes arrived to live in the area, and married in this community. They could outnumber the original population. This can be noted today by the 72.8% frequency of Hg J-Page08 in the Marsh Arab population in the male lineage side (Y-chromosomal DNA). The scientific examination reveals that this population (J-Page08) expanded in the region at 4.8 years ago, or about 2,800 BC (Al-Zawahri: Table 2 on page 11). They had arrived there from the northwest (Al-Zaheri 2011:Fig 6). We know from the history that a powerful wave of the Semitic speaking people known as the Akkadian arrived in the region and settled just to the north of the Sumerian marshland establishing an empire about the middle of the third millennium. The Hg J-Page08 male DNA could have been the dominant lineage of the Akkadians. Hence we can say that the Semitic arrival, although male alone, was later than the Indian arrival to the region and it outnumbered the original Sumerians genetically and wiped them out linguistically.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandaeism
Fundamental tenets
According to E. S. Drower, the Mandaean Gnosis is characterized by nine features, which appear in various forms in other gnostic sects:[16]
A supreme formless Entity, the expression of which in time and space is creation of spiritual, etheric, and material worlds and beings. Production of these is delegated by It to a creator or creators who originated in It. The cosmos is created by Archetypal Man, who produces it in similitude to his own shape.
Dualism: a cosmic Father and Mother, Light and Darkness, Right and Left, syzygy in cosmic and microcosmic form.
As a feature of this dualism, counter-types, a world of ideas.
The soul is portrayed as an exile, a captive; its home and origin are the supreme Entity, to which the soul eventually returns.
Planets and stars influence fate and human beings, and are also places of detention after death.
A saviour spirit or saviour spirits which assist the soul on the journey through life and after it to 'worlds of light.'
A cult-language of symbol and metaphor. Ideas and qualities are personified.
'Mysteries', i.e. sacraments to aid and purify the soul, to ensure rebirth into a spiritual body, and ascent from the world of matter. These are often adaptations of existing seasonal and traditional rites to which an esoteric interpretation is attached. In the case of the Naṣoreans this interpretation is based upon the Creation story (see 1 and 2), especially on the Divine Man, Adam, as crowned and anointed King-priest.
Great secrecy is enjoined upon initiates; full explanation of 1, 2, and 8 being reserved for those considered able to understand and preserve the gnosis.
Mandaeans believe in marriage and procreation, and in the importance of leading an ethical and moral lifestyle in this world. They also place a high priority upon family life. Consequently, Mandaeans do not practice celibacy or asceticism. Mandaeans will, however, abstain from strong drink and red meat. While they agree with other gnostic sects that the world is a prison governed by the planetary archons, they do not view it as a cruel and inhospitable