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The Mitanni were a people of Indo-Aryan origin who ruled a vast kingdom (with a common Hurrian population) in West Asia in the second millennium BC. Mitanni arose near the sources of the Khabur River in upper Mesopotamia sometime after 1500 BC. It was a feudal state led by a warrior nobility. The kingdom Hanilgalbat ruled northern Mesopotamia (including Syria) for about 300 years, out of their capital of Washshukanni (or Wassukkani, or Vasukhani, meaning "a mine of wealth.") Their warriors were called marya, which is the proper Sanskrit term for it. By approximately 1350 BC, the Mitanni kingdom had weakened, and had become practically dependent on the Hittites, then under the rule of Shuppiluliuma I. Assyria, previously under Mitanni control, was able to assert its independence during the reign of Ashuruballit I in approximately 1330 BCCenturies: 15th century BC 14th century BC 13th century BC Decades: 1380s BC 1370s BC 1360s BC 1350s BC 1340s BC 1330s BC 1320s BC 1310s BC 1300s BC 1290s BC 1280s BC Events and Trends Significant People 1338 BC Queen Tiy of Egypt, Chief Queen of Amenhote.
They seem to have venerated VedicThe Vedas are part of the Hindu Shruti these religious scriptures form part of the core of the Brahminical and Vedic traditions within Hinduism and lay the inspirational, metaphysical and mythological foundation for later Vedanta, Yoga, Tantra and even Bh deities and their nobility used Indo-Aryan names, and worshipped Indo-Aryan gods. In a treaty between the Hittites and the Mitanni, Indic deities MitraMitra is an important deity of Indic culture; he appears in the Vedas as one of the Adityas, a solar deity and the god of honesty, friendship, and contracts. In Iranian civilization, where his name was rendered as Mithra he later came into increased promi, VarunaThis article is about the god. See 20000 Varuna for the trans-Neptunian object. In Vedic religion, Varuna ("he who covers", referring to the sky) is one of the most important gods in the pantheon, and chief of the asuras. In pre- Vedic era, he was probabl, IndraIndra , god of weather and war, and Lord of Heaven or Swargaloka, was the supreme deva of Hinduism during the early Vedic period. The Rig-Veda states, "He under whose command are horses and cows and villages and all chariots, who gave birth to the sun and, and Nasatya ( Ashvins) are invoked. A text by a Mitannian named Kikkuli uses words such as aika (eka, one), tera (tri, three), panza (pancha, five), satta (sapta, seven), na (nava, nine), vartana (vartana, round). Another text has babru (babhru, brown), parita (palita, grey), and pinkara (pingala, red). Their chief festival was the celebration of vishuva ( solstice) which was common in most cultures in the ancient world. Some people believer that it is not only the kings who had Sanskrit names; a large number of other Sanskrit names have been unearthed in the records from the area; other point out that over interpretation of ancient names is an issue that must be taken into account.
1 Chronology of Mitanni rulership
The name Sutarna I means ("good sun"). He was followed by Paratarna I ("great sun"), Parashukshatra ("ruler with axe"), Saukshatra ("son of Sukshatra, the good ruler"), Paratarna II , Artatama or Ritadhama ("abiding in cosmic law"), Sutarna II , Dasharatha , and finally Mativaja (Matiwazza, "whose wealth is prayer") during whose lifetime the Mitanni state appears to have become a vassal to Assyria.
The daughter of the King Tushratta (Tushyaratha or Dasharatha), Princess Tadukhipa, became the second queen of Akhenaten; the daughter of King Artatama was married to Thutmose IV, Akhenaten's grandfather; and the daughter of Sutarna II ( Gilukhipa) was married to his father, Amenhotep III, the great builder of temples who ruled during 1390- 1352 BC ("khipa" of these names is the Sanskrit "kshipa," night). In his old age, Amenhotep wrote to Dasharatha many times wishing to marry his daughter, Tadukhipa. It appears that by the time she arrived Amenhotep III was dead. Tadukhipa married the new king Akhenaten and she may have became famous as the Queen Kiya (short for Khipa ). Some theories however identify her with Nefertiti, also a Queen of Akhenaten.
