Atala: The White Island

"Ahura Mazda warns Yima, the first king of men, of the approach of a dire winter, which is to destroy every living creature by covering the land with a thick sheet of ice, and advises Yima to build a Vara, or an enclosure, to preserve the seeds of every kind of animal and plant." -- Zend-Avesta, Fargard II, 1000 B.C.

"On the northern shores of the Ocean of Milk there is an island of great splendour called by the name of White Island [Atala]. The men that inhabit that island have complexions as white as the rays of the Moon and that are devoted to Narayana. Worshippers of that foremost of all Beings, they are devoted to Him with their whole souls. They all enter that eternal and illustrious deity of a thousand rays. They are divested of senses. They do not subsist on any kind of food. Their eyes are winkless." -- Mahabharata, Book 12 (Santi Parva), SECTION CCCXXXVII, 8th century B.C.

"Now the Caspian Sea is apart by itself, not having connection with the other Sea: for all that Sea which the Hellenes navigate, and the Sea beyond the Pillars, which is called Atlantis, and the Erythraian Sea are in fact all one...." -- Herodotus, historian, History, Book I, 440 B.C.

"After this at a distance of ten days' journey there is another hill of salt and spring of water, and men dwell round it. Near this salt hill is a mountain named Atlas, which is small in circuit and rounded on every side; and so exceedingly lofty is it said to be, that it is not possible to see its summits, for clouds never leave them either in the summer or in the winter. This the natives say is the pillar of the heaven. After this mountain these men got their name, for they are called Atlantians; and it is said that they neither eat anything that has life nor have any dreams." -- Herodotus, historian, History, Book IV, 440 B.C.

"In the year 1193 after the birth of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, the Aztec nation reached this land. These people, like the others who populated the country, departed from seven caves in a land called Aztlán. This name could mean 'Whiteness' or 'Place of the Herons.' Because of this the people were called Aztec which means 'People of Whiteness.'" -- Diego Duran, historian, 1581

"The account of this delightful country [Aztlan] given by Cueuhcoatl to the elder Montezuma, is as follows: 'Our fathers dwelt in that happy and prosperous place which they called Aztlan, which means 'whiteness.' In this place there is a great mountain in the middle of the water, which is called Culhuacan which means 'crooked mountain.'" -- John T. Short, historian, The North Americans of Antiquity, 1880

"The elder Montezuma said to Cortez, 'Our fathers dwelt in that happy and prosperous place which they called Aztlan, which means whiteness. ... In this place there is a great mountain in the middle of the water which is called Culhuacan, because it has the point somewhat turned over towards the bottom; and for this reason it is called Culhuacan, which means 'crooked mountain.' ... Here we have the same mountain in the midst of the water that Plato describes -- the same mountain to which all the legends of the most ancient races of Europe refer." -- Ignatius L. Donnelly, author, Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, 1882

"Do the Greeks, accused of borrowing a Hindu fiction (Atala) and inventing from it another (Atlantis), stand also accused of getting their geographical notions and the number seven from them?" -- Helena P. Blavatsky, theosophist, The Secret Doctrine, 1888

"... the four well-known native documents which have been preserved and which depict the wanderings of Montezuma's people, the Aztecs, from their original home to the valley of Mexico, agree in representing their point of departure as an island named Aztlan. Friar Duran translates this name as 'Place of Whiteness' which can be rendered as 'White land.'" -- Zelia Nuttall, anthropologist, The Island of Sacrificios, American Anthropologist, Volume 102, Issues 1-2, 1910

"The Vishnu Purana, the oldest of the Hindu puranas, speaks of Atala, the White Island, which is one of the seven islands (dwipas) belonging to Patala (the home of the Naga serpent deities)." -- Philip Gardiner, author, Gnosis, 2006