egypt

there are personalities from ancient times whose achievements still stand.
the vaishnavite stories are grand but there is nothing on the ground to sustain them.
the jews and the vaishnavites seem to have watched great civilisations from the sidelines and yet remained separate in wanting to retain their identities.
the martial civilisations would have overrun them which resulted in creating grand stories to retain their flock and identity.
the desire to proclaim a special descent probably arose from these encounters with the great civilisations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imhotep
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/akhenaten_02.shtml