On many ancient maps of Eastern Europe you can see a strange mark: "Ra River". Which of the waterways of Russia does this name mean? Where did this hydronym come from? And is there a connection between the river Ra and the ancient Egyptian god of the sun?
The mysteries of ancient cartography
Travelers from different countries and eras gave the same objects different names, and this is not surprising. The most ancient maps on which you can see the hydronym of the river Ra belong to the 1st century AD. They were drawn by the Greek philosopher Ptolemy and, to our days, have reached, unfortunately, only in the form of copies made in the age of geographical discoveries (1500s). On maps of Eastern Europe, a large aquatic artery, marked "Rha fl." (Rha flumine).
One name and two rivers: secrets of the Urals
Nowadays, there is no doubt that the Volga was called the Ra River. It is enough to look at the map, which is supposedly dated to 1540, where the inscription “Wolga ot Rha fl.” Is clearly visible. To learn the bends of the “mother of Russian rivers” is not difficult. And the first word in the name is transcribed absolutely unambiguously. So the Volga is the river Ra? Not so simple…
On the maps of different centuries marked “Rha fl.” two different water bodies were designated:
- On a copy of the 16th century, the Kama River, the western tributary of the Volga, is named the Ra River.
- On the TABVLA EVROPAE VIII map, the Volga is marked as the “Western course of Ra”. From which we can conclude: the hydronym equally applied to both channels, only the geographical position of each was specified.
- On the maps of “Asian Scythia” (that is, the Trans-Urals), the Volga was not marked at all for a simple reason: it turned out to be beyond the boundaries of the depicted territory. "Ra" is again called Kama.
- Another author, without thinking twice, marked “Rha fl.” both channels at once - both the Volga and its main tributary.
Based on this, we can draw an interesting conclusion. Perhaps such a wide scatter in the names is due to the fact that in ancient times the river Ra was called not only the main channel of the Volga, but also all its tributaries.
It is also noteworthy that the recognizable root, which signifies the flow, movement, is also in the modern name of the Riphean mountains - the Urals. What some linguists interpret precisely as "near the Ra River."
Other names of Volga
At different times, the "mother of Russian rivers" was called differently. We must not forget that its shores were inhabited by representatives of various nations. And each language had its own designation for the river, which served for people as a source of food, and the main waterway, and the object of worship. In addition to the name "Ra", history has preserved the following hydronyms:
- Russian “Volga”, originating from the ancient Slavic word “valga”, meaning simply “water”, “dampness”, “river”.
- Erzyan "Rav", also translated as "river", "stream".
- The Khazar Idel (or Itil) is the “great river”. On Arabic maps, this name was transformed into Atel.
City on the river Ra
Volga-Volga, mother dear ... Who does not know this song? The Volga is not in vain called the "mother of Russian rivers." From time immemorial, it has played a huge role in the life of the peoples inhabiting it. One of the most famous cities that control shipping on the Volga was the capital of the Khazar Khanate - Itil. Kazan played no less important, which for several centuries collected tribute from merchants traveling to Persia. Now on the banks of the great river there are more than fifty cities, many of which are of great importance for the economy and culture of the entire region. Among them:
- Kazan;
- Samara
- Astrakhan;
- Kostroma;
- Tver
- Nizhny Novgorod;
- Volgograd
- Saratov;
- Tolyatti;
- Cheboksary;
- Dubna;
- Yaroslavl
The history of the Russian Plain is widely covered in the work of Dmitry Kvashnin, a resident of one of the largest megalopolises of the Volga Region, Nizhny Novgorod. In his book “City on the Ra River”, a local historian talks about the unique history and geology of the Russian Plain.
And in the names of the cities of Samara, Saratov and Astrakhan, interested linguists can hear the same root of "ra". True, this point of view has not yet been proven and is more likely to be speculation. For example, there are various theories about the origin of the toponym Astrakhan, ranging from the name of the Tatar village of Ashtarkhan, which once stood almost on the site of the current metropolis, to references to Astarkhan, the son of one of the Bulgarian rulers who once built a fortified settlement on the lower Volga.
Mysteries of ancient languages
Scientists are still arguing about the origin of the ancient name of the Volga - Ra. There are several versions:
- The word has Latin roots and translates as “Generous”.
- The term comes from the language of the Erzyan, one of the ethnic groups of the Mordovians. Their word rav means a stream of water.
- The hydronym has a common root with such Russian words as “rainbow”, “joy”, “dew” and ... “Russia”. The fact is that the ancient Slavic root “ra” (“ro”, “ru”, depending on the pronunciation) means “bright”, “bright”, “sunny”. The Volga, indeed, has always been surprisingly transparent. However, the root of “ra” can be interpreted in different ways: from an indication of the purity of the river to a hint that a huge riverbed connected the entire world to the locals with its sleeves. "Sunflower" river, so to speak. Some amateur etymologists, by the way, see the similarity of the ancient name of the Volga with the name of the Egyptian god of the Sun. Whether this is so far is not reliably known.
- And one more Latin, or rather, the Indo-European theory. The root “rha” or “rhe” can be found in such words as “hemorrhage” (bleeding), “rhea” (name of the moving part of the rigging on sailing ships), “rapids” (part of the river with the fastest flow), “rhyme” (move, flow, dabble, including in the wind). As you can see, this sound combination means movement, flow. And here it’s time to recall another hydronym, however, located in Western Europe: the Rhine.
Proponents of different points of view still cannot agree on where the ancient name of the Volga comes from - Ra. However, it is quite possible that all these theories are true to one degree or another. Especially if you recall that, according to many linguists, all the languages of the Indo-European group are descended from Sanskrit and are related to each other.