I’m from Bulgaria and my name is Stoil Stoilov.

I have been many times in the village of Madara visiting the historical Madara Horseman site. I have spent 10 years in research in the ancient Bulgarian history and found out many new facts and made some important conclusion about the ancient Bulgarian history and among hen about the origin and meaning of the Madara monument which I represented in a book.

The book “They called themselves Bulgarians”, ISBN 978-954-9447-83-5 of the author Stoil Traykov Stoilov sets out and proofs a number of new ideas about the origin of the Bulgarian people and the ancient Bulgarian history: • The Bulgarians are from indoaryan, saka (scythian), toharian and from some other peoples/tribes origin; • The main kings tribe was the Onogonduri tribe. It was composed from the population of an ancient highly developed country Gandhara > Gondur of nowadays Pakistan and the Chionite tribe (Oiono, Ounnoi). After heavy battles in 515 AD with the White huns of Toramana and his son Mihirakula they were forced to emigrate to the west in a total number of 800000 men and women. They were followed by the population of many other regions of nowadays Afghanistan, Pakistan and Northern India. • In 632 the Great Bulgaria was found; • In 680/681 kan Asparuh with the Onogondurs moved to the south of Danube to create the Danube Bulgaria. • It can be supposed that in 715 AD the very successful Bulgarian king Tervel ordered in memory of the wars, victims and 200 years from the emigration in 515 the Madara horseman monument to be created. Who is the Madara rider? Is he kan Tervel Himself? The rock monument of the Madara horsmen in the village of Madara in the district of Shumen, thought by different authors to be hunting scene or more exactly scene of triumph of the new created Bulgarian state and depiction of god Tangra, kan Asparuh, Unknown Great warrior, kan Krum and most of all a monument of the victorious kan Tervel, is a depiction of a famous Bulgarian queen Gandhari. She was kept in high honour and was represented as a nation-wide divinity - defender of the rightousnes (dharma), of the faith, the state and the motherland. She was princes of Gandharan origin and a very famous queen. Queen Gandhari was married for the blind king Dhritarashtra of the biggest and most strong state in Northern India (Bharatavarsha, Aryadesha) of the indoaryan tribes - this of Kuru-Panchala. In order to share the ill fortune of her husband she tied a band on her eyes. In this way she is depicted on the rocks of Madara. She has 100 sons and a daughter. At her days took place the biggest war of the remote past - the war between the Aryan tribes, called Mahabharata in which were killed all her sons. This event took place, according to the greater part of the scientists, around 3100 years before Christ. Almost all Bulgarian tribes participated in this war. All objects the horseman is holding or are positioned on the horse or on the image as a whole are religious symbols. The Madara horseman - queen Gandhari - is depicted as a peaceful deity of people’s choice (Yidam). These divinities are represented holding a vase (on the monument in Gandhari’s right hand) with amrita for initiation of a new followers in the religion and are dressed in rainbow-colored, pantlike lower garments under a short brocade skirt. The upper body is naked except for a shortsleeved blouse coming just below the nipples and, over it, a short, draped mantle. A long scarf floats from the neck. The image of the Madara horsman combines in itself also the peculiarities of the “wrathful female deities (mahakali)”, who are defenders of faith. The mahakalis wear the bone and jewel ornaments. They usually ride a horse or mule, from whose saddle hangs a goatskin bag of poison, which kills the enemies of the teaching. On the Madara monument the bag hangs on the neck of the horse. They also carry a mirror of judgment (in the left hand), a snake lasso and a bow and arrows. They are fierce and swift in destroying whatever obstructs the dharma. The dog is a symbol of righteousness and truthfulness. The lion is the vehicle of the Mother Goddess. That is why the lion is pedestal for the entire image and is not a victim killed with a spear. Behind the lion a holy stick (sceptre Danda) with a “U” shape on the upper end is fixed in the ground. Up to now this attribute was interpreted as a spear, piercing the agonizing lion in the interpreted as a hunting scene monument. In the tantric religion through the scepter in the native land flows the cosmic heavenly energy and thus the motherland shall always stay young and strong. As a conclusion we must say that the monument from Madara is not a hunting scene or scene of triumph as it is explained up to now but a religious symbol of the nation. The monument MADARA HORSEMAN - QUEEN GANDHARI is a defender and a symbol of the Madara religious centre. The monument has been carved in the year of 715 by the order of kan Tervel in honour of 200 years from the emigration from Gandhara. In 2015 ã. completes 1300 years from the creation of the monument. Almost fully correspondence to the caves and sanctuary of Madara as a landscape and Buddhist religious orientation is almost the same complex in the holy city of Mathura, described by the traveler and pilgrim Hsuan Tsang. Thank you for your interest in the Bulgarian ancient past and the Madara monument.

I’ll be glad if you publish on your site my findings.

Stoil Stoilov