A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s7.45

v2.c19.s7.45

It has also been attempted to trace some of the mediæval legends of the Christian saints back to Indian sources. Māra appears in the form of Buddha in two different Buddhist legends, on one occasion it is in order to seduce a pious man, in which he does not succeed; and the other time, Upagupta causes Māra, whom he has converted, to appear in the form of Buddha.² Christian legends tell of several monks to whom the devil appeared in the guise of the Saviour. The Christian legend of the presumptuous monk Valens, to whom the devil appeared in the shape of Christ, whereupon the monk worshipped the devil and related that Christ had appeared to him, is traced by Garbe¹ to the Buddhist narratives, especially as "the monstrous idea of the apparition of the devil in the shape of the Saviour is not to be found anywhere in Christian literature except in this one isolated instance." Günter² has shown, however, that "the monstrous idea" occurs frequently enough in Christian legendary literature. For this reason it is just as much possible for the legends to have originated independently of each other in Christianity and in Buddhism, as for the theme to have migrated to the West from India, where a legend of this nature was translated into Chinese as early as in the year 401 A. D.³