A History of Sanskrit Literature c19.29

c19.29

Nothing, perhaps, in the history of the migration of Indian tales is more remarkable than the story of *Barlaam and Josaphat*. At the court of Khalif Almansur (753–774), under whom *Kalīlah and Dimnah* was translated into Arabic, there lived a Christian known as John of Damascus, who wrote in Greek the story of *Barlaam and Josaphat* as a manual of Christian theology. This became one of the most popular books of the Middle Ages, being translated into many Oriental as well as European languages. It is enlivened by a number of fables and parables, most of which have been traced to Indian sources. The very hero of the story, Prince Josaphat, has an Indian origin, being, in fact, no other than Buddha. The name has been shown to be a corruption of *Bodhisattva*, a well-known designation of the Indian reformer. Josaphat rose to the rank of a saint both in the Greek and the Roman Church, his day in the former being August 26, in the latter November 27. That the founder of an atheistic Oriental religion should have developed into a Christian saint is one of the most astounding facts in religious history.