H Curious-  you might check out the following link

www.sacred-texts.com/journals/ia/banav.htm

"Arya" is Sanskrit for "high" or "exalted", while "deva" is translated as "spirit" or "demi-god" or "god". The pronumciation with the suppressed letter "R"  would be "Ayadeva" in Pali, as opposed to Sanskrit.

A person who spoke Pali would have to learn a "Hindu language" (of which there are several, Hindi being only one) in order to read the Vedantic writings such as a Bhagavad Gita. Just as Latin and Greek were the languages of schiolarly writing in the West, Sanskrit is the language of scholars in India and vicinity.

Because the Buddha was a Hindu brahmin, the entire Hindu culture is pertinent to Buddhism, although Buddhists deny it, just as a lot of Christians forget that Christianity is simply a form of Judaism in which the Messiah has arrived. And, in the same way, Islam is also a form of Judaism, except in that case the Messiah was named Mohammed. That's why there is so much emphasis on Moses and Abraham. (For the rest of the Jews and Muslims, hang tight - He will be back as soon as you're ready. The Messiah, or Christ if you prefer, is simply a projection of God into our world, which occurs constantly.) There's a line in the 'Gita spoken by Krishna,  "In every age I return, to restore the Law, to reward the righteous, to annul the sin of the sinner."  There's more but I forget.

Anyhow, Aryadeva was a teacher and bodhisattva, and studied under Nagarjuna. The timing places your recall at roughly after the time of the 'Gita - 540 - 300 BC, which corresponds with Budhism's expanding influence in Northern India under King Ashoka, and roughly in accord with the life of Nagarjuna, founder of the Budhist Madhyamika Prasangka school of Mahayana Buddhism in Tibet at about 150-200 AD.

Whether that's you recalling your own past or a spirit giving you a few prompts to get you to look into various things is something you'll have to discover.

To get back to whatever it was, one way is to write down your intention to understand, using a new pen and clean paper. Dip the paper in a glass of water, thus making a causal connection that your psyche can chew on, drink the water and go to bed. In general you'll get dreams that start giving answers.  As you sort of become half-awake, write down whatever it is. Your automatic writing skills should be very helpful.

Of course this is an imperfect approach, and simply to learn to meditate more deeply would do more. Bruce's "Home Study Course" and a little experience with retrievals would definitely help in that. And there are a few other options available.

Thanks for sharing!  - I'm interested in hearing how it all turns out later.

dave