Category Archives: Ancient Relics

Beginning on page 153 of the Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Men, James Churchward begins his description of a knife he asserts is ancient:

A NAGA-HINDU KNIFE.- I have in my possession an extremely ancient knife, which I believe to be the oldest knife in the world and is said to have been worn at one time by an ancient Naga king. As I have stated elsewhere, the Nagas were Mayas, who came to India from the Motherland by way of Burma. They settled in the Deccan and eventually turned this settlement into a colonial empire known as the Naga Empire. Their capital city was on the spot where the city of Nagpur now stands.
It is not known when the Naga Empire ended. Legends point to about 5,000 years ago. There are innumerable Hindu records, legends and traditions. Valmiki does say, however, that it was the First Hindu Colonial Empire of the Motherland.
A careful examination shows that the present blade of this knife is not the blade originally fitted to the handle. The blade now attached is not of steel at all, but of hard iron. It is riveted to the handle by a hardened copper rivet. To make the blade fit the sheath, an overlaying ring is put on the blade, close to the handle. Everything points to the probability that the original blade was of either bronze or tempered copper and that it was thick enough at the handle to fit the sheath without the ring. The handle of the knife and the scabbard are of silver, richly carved with symbols, hieroglyphics and Maya tracings.
Apart from the interest that may be taken in the age of the knife, there remains a greater interest in the hieroglyphics and symbols which are carved upon the handle and scabbard. One symbol opens up an immense field for research work.
The symbols which appear on the handle of the blade,

A Hindu Naga Knife

SYMBOLS ON THE HANDLE AND SHEATH OF THE KNIFE

front and back, are conventional tableaux, telling us who the people were that wore this knife and whence they came.
Fig. 1 – I will first take the symbol on the front of the handle. This is a tableau both symbolical and conventional. That it refers to the Motherland is plainly told by the many times that the number three is repeated- three being the symbolical number of the Motherland.
The face depicted is a conventional face, in which two elongated squares form the mouth and the nose. This symbol reads “Mu, the Motherland.” I can prove this statement because it is substantiated in the tableau. First, in the crown and plumes which adorn the head. The headdress is composed of three-three times repeated. Second, with an ancient water jar with a bud of the royal lotus on either side, thus denoting that the land stood in the midst of water and that it was the land of the royal lotus-Mu. On each side of this triple figure is a conventional plume which makes the main three. Each of these plumes is trifurcated so as to produce three points.
On each side of the conventional nose is the hieratic letter “k,” which is used to denote the four cardinal points thus: North, South, East and West. These are conventional eyes looking east and west in the direction of the two main lines of colonization, as will be shown in the next tableau.
The cheeks are arched to symbolize the horizon. On both horizons are seen three suns appearing as semispheres without rays. The sun appearing on the horizon without rays symbolized a colony; with rays, a colonial empire.
The lower part of the figure is put there to balance the whole and give an artistic effect. At each side of this tableau is engraved a fully open royal lotus, thus emphasizing the fact that Mu-the Motherland-is indicated.
From the foregoing it seems evident that this knife was of the date of the Naga colonial days.
Fig. 2 – On the back of the handle is a tableau showing the Motherland standing in water, with two fish jumping along on top of the water, one traveling east, the other west. This symbol shows that India was separated from the Motherland by water and that the Nagas crossed the ocean to get to India. Their mode of travel is amusingly and very effectively told by the fish being out of water and neither flying nor swimming but hopping along the surface. Berosus, the ancient Chaldean priest and historian, spoke of the Akkad-Mayas as being half fish and half man.
The rest of the handle is carved in artistic Maya patterns.
Fig. 3-The scabbard commences with five bands of very pronounced Maya traceries. Below these bands is a tableau, a compound hieroglyphic which no doubt will be astounding to all students of archaeology. It is most amazing to me to find it in India. The central figure in this tableau is a scarab rising through rays of glory. Beneath is the symbol of earth, or mother earth-the hieratic letter M-which is shown to be productive by the conventional leaves drooping from each end of the symbol. Beneath the surface of the earth are two young scarabs still unborn to light. On each side of the risen scarab is the symbol of first man, Keh, the deer, both in the act of adoration. This shows first man in adoration of the scarab beetle.
What does a scarab beetle symbolize ?
This is the first time I have come across the scarab in India, either in writings or carvings. The scarab has hitherto been looked upon as being a purely Egyptian symbol. It was selected by the Egyptians as the symbol of the Creator, who was called Kephera. On the headdress of Kephera, the scarab always surmounts it.
Anani, the king’s scribe and companion of Seti II, in one of his beautifully illustrated papyri, gives the following reason why the Egyptians selected the scarab to symbolize the Creative God:
“The scarab rolls up little balls of mud with its feet and in these balls deposits its eggs, there to hatch out. The Egyptians think this a perfect example of the Creator rolling the world around and causing it to produce life.”
This italicized sentence would be startling to the modern scientist if he understood anything about the origin and workings of The Forces, because here it is shown that the Egyptians, 3,000 or 3,500 years ago understood the origin and workings of the Great Forces, which I shall hereafter explain from the Hindu translations. Anani carries us back 3,500 years only, but the carvings on this knife’s scabbard will carry us back to a time before the Egyptians came to Egypt.
The symbol on the front of the handle tells us that this handle and scabbard were made when the Nagas were only a colony in India.
Now I shall try to fix an approximate date of the Naga colony in India before it became a colonial empire.
One very prominent figure in the Naga or Maya Empire in India was Prince Maya. The time of Prince Maya is doubtful. Although I have come across many records about him, not a single one even estimates the date when he lived; but according to traditions, and these traditions are as plentiful as leaves on a tree, Prince Maya lived 15,000 to 20,000 years ago.
In Ramayana, we find this reference to him: “In olden times there was a prince of the Nagas whose name was Maya.”
Prince Maya was the author of the Sourya Siddhanta, the most ancient treatise on astronomy in India. Its age has been variously estimated at from 10,000 to 22,000 years.
At the time of Prince Maya, the Nagas were an empire. When the handle and sheath of this knife were made, the Nagas were a colony antedating the Empire. That they were only a colony is clearly shown by the suns without rays on the horizon. This proves the extreme antiquity of the handle and sheath.

The same knife is described in My Friend Churchey and His Sunken Island of Mu a little differently…

From the unpublished “My Friend Churchey and His Sunken Island of Mu page 134

Other artifacts described by James Churchward:
Relics of Mu
Examining the ‘Mound Builder’s Calendar Stone’
The Egyptian Book of the Dead and James Churchward (part 1) (part 2)
The Madrid Codex