Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect c10: Lecture III. Bhāgavatism and the Non-Brāhmaṇical Creeds of Ancient India

Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect c10

Language
English

Contents

Lecture III. Bhāgavatism and the Non-Brāhmaṇical Creeds of Ancient India

c10.2

While the Religion of Vāsudeva was slowly spreading from its cradle in the valley of the Jumna, India saw the rise and progress of three great non-Brāhmaṇical creeds which had chequered careers in the annals of Hindusthān. These were the religions of Makkhali Gosāla, of Vardhamāna Mahāvīra, and of Gautama Buddha. The followers of these faiths were known as Ājīvikas, Nirgranthas or Jainas, and Saugatas or Bauddhas respectively. A foreign religion, Christianity, was also introduced, probably as early as the third century A.D.

c10.3

The question of the relation of Bhāgavatism to these religions is a subject well worth study.

Bhāgavatism and the Ājīvikas

c10.s1.1

Kern and Bühler were of opinion that the Ājīvikas were a subdivision of the Bhāgavatas. The Ājīvikas acknowledged as their first teacher Nanda Vachchha; in the Purāṇas this epithet, "the child of Nanda," is applied to Kṛiṣhṇa Vāsudeva. Utpala in commenting on a passage in the *Bṛhajjātaka* of Varāhamihira which mentions the Ājīvikas together with the *Vṛddhaśrāvakas*, *Nirgranthas*, etc., says :—*Ājīvika grahaṇaṃ cha Nārāyaṇāśritānām*—" and the use of Ājīvika refers to those who have taken refuge with Nārāyaṇa," and in support of his explanation brings forward two passages which he ascribes to Kālakāchāryya. The first of the passages shows the use of *Ekadaṇḍin* for Ājīvika, the second passage Utpala renders by *Keśava mārga dīkshita Keśava-bhaktaḥ Bhāgavataḥ ityarthaḥ*.

c10.s1.2

Dr. Bühler¹ observes that the recovery of the *Vaikhānasa Dharma sūtra* permits him fully to prove the correctness of Kern's identification of the Ājīvikas with the Bhāgavatas.

c10.s1.3

¹ J. R. A. S., 1911, p. 960.

c10.s1.4

The theory of Kern and Bühler has been plausibly controverted by Prof. D. R. Bhandarkar.² He says that the real meaning of the extract from Utpala's commentary has been misunderstood by Kern and Bühler. Utpala does not say that the word Ājīvika means *Nārāyaṇāśrita*. He merely says that in the text on which he is commenting the word Ājīvika is used as an *Upalakṣaṇa* to denote *Nārāyaṇāśrita*. *Upalakṣaṇa* means a mark indicative of something that the word itself does not actually express. The view of Bhandarkar is now generally accepted by scholars.³

c10.s1.5

² The Indian Antiquary, 1912, pp. 286, et seq.

c10.s1.6

³ Cf. V. Smith's Ear'y History of India, Third Edition, p. 166 n.

Bhāgavatism and Jainism

c10.s2.1

The Jainas represent Vāsudeva as a near relation of the Arhat Ariṣṭanemi.¹ They include Vāsudeva and Baladeva among the sixty-three Śalākā-Purushas.² The Śalākā-Purushas are the great personages who, according to the belief of the Jainas, have, since the present order of things, risen in the history of the world, and directed or influenced its course; they comprise the twenty-four Tīrthankaras, the twelve Chakravartins, the nine Vāsudevas, the nine Baladevas, and the nine Prativāsudevas. The first Jaina Upāṅga called the Aupapātika Sūtra mentions Baladevā and Vāsudevā, and cites two ancient Ślokas or verses where eight Kshatriya teachers are mentioned, sharply distinguished from eight Brāhmaṇa parivvāyā (wandering friars) Among the former we find the name of Bala Rāma. The Ślokas containing the lists of teachers are given below:—

c10.s2.2

¹ Uttarādhyayana, Lec. xxii.

c10.s2.3

² Hemachandra's Triṣhashṭiśalākā-purusha-charita; Rādhākānta Deva's Sabdakalpadruma, p. 1492; Jacobi's Sthavirāvalicharita, p. 3; Barth, Religions of India, p. 167 n.

c10.s2.4

“ tattha khalu ime aṭṭha māhaṇa-
parivvāyā bhavanti, taṁ jahā :
Kuṇṇe ya Karakaṇṭe ya
Ambaḍe ya Parāsare
Kaṇhe Dīvāyaṇe ceva
Devagutte ya Nārae ;

c10.s2.5

*tattha khalu ime aṭṭha khattiya-* *parivvāyā bhavanti, taṃ jahā :*

c10.s2.6

*Silāī Masim hāre* *Naggaī Bhaggaī tiya* *Videhe Rāyā Rāme Bale tiya.*¹

c10.s2.7

¹ *Aupapātika Sūtra*, edited by Dr. Ernst Leumann, pp. 61, 69-70.

c10.s2.8

It will be remembered in this connection that in the *Bhīṣma Parvan* of the *Mahābhārata* the *Sāttvata-vidhi* (the code of the Sātvatas or Bhāgavatas) is said to have been sung by Saṅkarṣaṇa (Balarāma) :

c10.s2.9

*Sāttvataṃ vidhim āsthāya*
*gītaḥ Saṅkarṣaṇena yaḥ*
*Dvāparasya yugaśyānte*
*ādau Kaliyugasya cha.*

c10.s2.10

In the *Ahirbudhnya Saṃhitā*, too, the original *Śāstra* of the *Pañcharātra* sect “which, at the beginning of the golden age, came down from heaven like a thunder-clap, dispelling all inner darkness,” is stated to have been proclaimed by Saṅkarṣaṇa.²

c10.s2.11

² Schrader, *Introduction to the Pāñcarātra and the Ahirbudhnya Saṃhitā*, pp. 15, 108.

c10.s2.12

In the *Chhāndogya Upanishad* Ghora Āṅgirasa while instructing his disciple Kṛṣṇa Devakīputra placed certain moral states on an equality with certain parts of the sacrificial procedure. Among these moral states *Ahiṃsā* is specially mentioned. The *Ahiṃsā* doctrine foreshadowed here was taken up by the Jainas.

c10.s2.13

In the opinion of Dr. Keith¹ “the (Jaina) faith is deeply permeated with Hindu influences, and especially with influences of Kṛṣṇa worship.” “Of this there can be no more striking proof than the taking over of the Kṛṣṇa legend and its reworking in a tedious shape; its importance is seen in the fact that the legend of Mahāvīra’s birth is entirely derived from that of Kṛṣṇa’s birth.”²

c10.s2.14

¹ J.R.A.S., 1915, pp. 842-843.

c10.s2.15

² Cf. Jacobi, Jaina Sūtras, Part I, S.B.E.. Vol. XXII, pp. 218-230, and Viṣṇu Purāṇa, v, 1, 72 *et seq*.

c10.s2.16

‘Dr. Macnicol observes :³ “in its original democratic character and in its universalism, we have two notes of theism which the sect of Mahāvīra may have learned from such worship as that of Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa.”

c10.s2.17

³ Indian Theism, p. 63.

Bhāgavatism and Buddhism

c10.s3.1

We now come to the important question of Bhāgavata influence on Buddhism. We have already stated that the story of Vāsudeva forms the subject of one of the Buddhist *Jātakas*, viz., the *Ghata Jātaka*. Ghata, the brother of Vāsudeva, is identified with the Buddha himself, while Vāsudeva is identified with Sāriputta.¹

c10.s3.2

¹ Cowell's *Jātaka*, Vol. IV, p. 57.

c10.s3.3

There can be no doubt of the immense influence which Bhāgavatism exercised upon Buddhism. The *Ahimsa* doctrine foreshadowed in the *Chhāndogya Upanishad* was afterwards taken up by the Buddhists as well as the Jainas. The *Saddharmapuṇḍarīka* contains a number of passages which remind us of the *Gītā*. In *Saddharma*, xv, 7-9, Buddha says : "Repeatedly am I born in the world of the living......... I see how the creatures are afflicted......... I will reveal to them the true law." This looks like an echo of the *Gītā*, iv, 7-8, "Whensoever piety languishes, and impiety is in the ascendant, I create myself. I am born age after age, for the protection of the good, for the destruction of evil-doers, and the establishment of piety."

c10.s3.4

The *Mahāyānaśraddhotpāda* (Awakening of Faith), attributed to the famous Buddhist writer Aśvaghosha, also shows abundant traces of the influence of the *Bhagavadgītā*. Teitaro Suzuki, the translator of the *Awakening of Faith*, observes² : "A supplementary point to be noticed in Aśvaghosha is the abundance of similar thoughts and passages with those in the *Bhagavadgītā*." The same writer adds that "it is an open question which of the two has an earlier date." But a comparison of the styles of Aśvaghosha's *Buddhacharita* and of the *Bhagavadgītā* leaves no room for doubt that the *Gītā* preceded Aśvaghosha. The *Gītā* belongs to an age considerably prior to the epoch of the artificial *Kāvya* literature to which the *Buddhacharita* belongs. In its general character, the style impresses one as quite archaic in its simplicity. It is considered by a critic like Hopkins to be one of the older poems of the *Mahābhārata*. We have adduced reasons for believing that it was probably composed before the Christian era, whereas "by the unanimous testimony of the best authorities we yet have on the later forms of Buddhism, that is to say, the Tibetan and Chinese historiographers, Aśvaghosha lived in the time of the most famous of the Kushān kings, Kanishka."'¹ Aśvaghosha alludes to numerous episodes of the *Mahābhārata* including the *Harivaṃśa*.² That he was fairly acquainted with the Kṛṣṇa story is proved by his reference to the famous deeds of Śauri (Kṛṣṇa) which his ancestors who were mere warriors were unable to perform :—

c10.s3.5

² P. 44.

c10.s3.6

¹ Rhys Davids, *Buddhist India*, pp. 314-15. ² Raychaudhuri, *Studies in Indian Antiquities*, pp. 173f. ³ *Buddhacharita*, Canto I, 50.

c10.s3.7

Āchāryyakaṃ yogavidhau dvijānām
aprāptamanyair Janako jagāma
khyātāni karmāṇi cha yāni Śaureḥ
Śūrādayasteshvabulābabhūvuḥ.³

c10.s3.8

“ Janaka attained a power of instructing the twice-born in the rules of yoga which none other had ever reached ; and the famed feats of the grandson of Sūra (Kṛiṣhṇa) Sūra and his peers were powerless to accomplish.” ¹

c10.s3.9

¹ The Buddhacharita of Aśvaghosha, translated by E. B. Cowell, p. 50.

c10.s3.10

In the *Gītā* ² Kṛiṣhṇa says : “ I am immortality and also death ; and I, O Arjuna ! am that which is and that which is not.” In the *Awakening of Faith* we have the following passage :—“ The Soul as birth-and-death comes forth from the Tathāgata’s womb. But the immortal (*i.e.*, suchness) and the mortal (*i.e.*, birth-and-death) coincide with each other.” ³

c10.s3.11

² ix. 19.

c10.s3.12

³ Teitaro Suzuki’s translation, pp. 60-61.

c10.s3.13

Aśvaghosha says ⁴ that “ After this reflection they should make great vows (*mahāpraṇidhāna*), and with full concentration of spiritual powers think of the Buddha and the Bodhisattvas. When they have such a firm conviction, free from all doubts, they will assuredly be able to be born in the Buddha country beyond, when they pass away from the present life, and seeing there Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, to complete their faith and to eternally escape from all evil creations (*apāya*).” The same idea of salvation, says Suzuki, is expressed in the *Bhagavadgītā* : ⁵ “ He who leaves this body and departs (from this world) remembering me in (his) last moments, comes into my essence. There is no doubt of that. Also whichever form (of deity) he remembers when he finally leaves this body, to that he goes, O son of Kunti! having been used to ponder on it. Therefore, at all times remember me, and engage in battle. Fixing your mind and understanding on me, you will come to me, there is no doubt.’”

c10.s3.14

⁴ Op. cit., p. 145.

c10.s3.15

⁵ viii. 5-7.

c10.s3.16

Dr. Macnicol agrees with Senart that “the Buddhist tradition certainly moves in a Kṛṣṇaite atmosphere.”¹ Senart and Poussin are of opinion that there was an intimate relation between the new way of deliverance and the old theistic cults of India, and affirm with confidence that devout worshippers of Nārāyaṇa had much to do in the making of the Buddhist doctrine even from its inception.² Mr. Jayaswāl points out³ that the custom of worshipping footprints had been already an old institution before the time of the Buddha. It probably originated in the Vedic legend of Viṣṇu’s stepping over the earth, and was borrowed by the Buddhists. In the opinion of Mr. Jayaswāl Aurṇavābha, a predecessor of Yāska, takes the verse ‘idam Viṣṇur vichakrame tredhā nidadhe padam’ in the sense that Viṣṇu literally and physically in the past strode in the manner described by Sākapūṇi, stepping over the earth, horizon and sky, and "in ascending (he stepped) at the Vishṇupada on the Gayā peak" (Samārohaṇe Vishṇupade Gayaśirasītyaurṇavābhaḥ). The passage has, however, been interpreted differently by Durgāchārya. According to Durga Aurṇavābha says, "He (Vishṇu) plants one foot on the Samārohaṇa (ascension); (another) on the Vishṇupada, the meridian sky; (a third) on the Gayaśiras, the hill of setting."' 1

c10.s3.17

¹ Indian Theism, p. 65.

c10.s3.18

² Poussin’s Opinions, pp. 241-8.

c10.s3.19

³ Ind. Ant., 1918, March, p. 84.

c10.s3.20

¹ Muir, *Original Sanskrit Texts*, Vol. IV, Ch. 2.

Bhāgavatism and Christianity

c10.s4.1

The appearance in India of a religion of Bhakti was, in the opinion of several eminent Western scholars, an event of purely Christian origin. Christianity, according to these scholars, exercised an influence of greater or less account on the worship and story of Kṛishṇa.

c10.s4.2

P. Georgi in his *Alphabetum Tibetanum* stated that 'Kṛishṇa' is only "a corruption of the name of the Saviour; the deeds correspond wonderfully with the name, though they have been impiously and cunningly polluted by most wicked impostors." He supposed that the borrowing took place from the "apocryphal books concerning Jesus Christ," and especially from the Manichaeans. But even Weber was forced to admit that his proofs were very wild. He derived the names Ayodhyā, Yudishṭhira, Yādava, from Juda, Arjuna from John, Durvāsas from Peter.¹

c10.s4.3

¹ The Indian Antiquary, 1874, 21 ff.

c10.s4.4

Sir William Jones went the length of asserting² that "the spurious gospels which abounded in the first ages of Christianity, had been brought to India, and the wildest part of them repeated to the Hindus, who ingrafted them on the old fable of Cesava, the Apollo of Greece."

c10.s4.5

² As. Res., i, 274.

c10.s4.6

Polier,³ sought at least in the victory over Kāliya, "a travesty of the tradition of the Serpent, the tempter who introduces death into the world, and whose head the Saviour of the human race shall crush."

c10.s4.7

³ Mythologie, i, 445.

c10.s4.8

Kleuker, in his treatise on the history and the antiquities of Asia, says that he can believe that the Kṛishṇa story did not take its origin from the Gospels, but it is quite possible that it has borrowed something from them.

c10.s4.9

In later times there were, we are told, special theological reasons unfavourable to the discussion of the question of the indebtedness of Kṛishṇaism to Christianity. Writers seemed to fear that some of the sanctity of Christianity would be lost if something borrowed from it was found in the Kṛishṇa cult.

c10.s4.10

The discussion of the question was revived by Weber, the great German writer, in his essay, "An investigation into the origin of the festival of Kṛiṣhṇa Janmāṣṭamī."¹ Weber's theory of the indebtedness of Kṛiṣhṇaism to Christianity rests on the following points²:—

c10.s4.11

¹ Indian Antiquary, 1874.

c10.s4.12

² Ind. Ant., 1873, p. 285; Ind. Ant., 1874, "Weber on the Kṛiṣhṇa Janmāṣṭamī."

c10.s4.13

(1) The worship of Kṛiṣhṇa as sole God is one of the latest phases of Indian religious systems, of which there is no trace in Varāhamihira.

c10.s4.14

(2) This worship of Kṛiṣhṇa as sole God has no intelligible connection with his earlier position in the Brāhmaṇical legends. In the Chhāndogya Upanishad Kṛiṣhṇa is an "eager scholar." In the Mahābhārata he is a brave hero and warrior of the Vṛiṣhṇi race. But in the same epic he appears further exalted to semi-divine rank as the wise friend and counsellor of the Pāṇḍavas, of supernatural power and wisdom. There is a gap between the earlier and later positions of Kṛiṣhṇa which nothing but the supposition of an external influence can account for.

c10.s4.15

(4) The legend, in the Mahābhārata, of Śveta-dvīpa and the revelation which is made there to Nārada by Bhagavat Himself shows that Indian tradition bore testimony to such an influence.

c10.s4.16

(5) The legends of Kṛiṣhṇa's birth, the solemn celebration of his birthday, in the honours of which his mother Devakī participates, and finally his life as a herdsman, a phase the furthest removed from the original representation, can only be explained by the influence of Christian legends.

c10.s4.17

As to the first point, the Ghosūṇḍī and Besnagar Inscriptions prove conclusively that the divinity of Kṛiṣhṇa Vāsudeva is not a post-Christian innovation, but is as old at least as the second century B. C. In the Ghosūṇḍī record Saṅkarṣaṇa and Vāsudeva are called *Sarveśvara* (lord of all). In the Besnagar inscription of Heliodoros Vāsudeva is called "Devadeva," *i.e.*, the God of gods, and his votary, the ambassador of the Greek king Antialkidas, is called a *Bhāgavata*. In another Besnagar epigraph we have reference to the erection of an excellent temple (*Prāsādottama*) by a *Bhāgavata* during the reign of a king named Bhāgavata. Thus not only the deification of Kṛiṣhṇa, but the existence of the *Bhāgavata* sect preceded the birth of Jesus Christ by at least two centuries. The testimony of the *Mahābhāshya* of Patañjali points to the same conclusion. The identification of Vāsudeva and the god Viṣhṇu is clearly implied in the *Taittirīya Āraṇyaka*¹ which, according to Dr. Keith, cannot be placed later than the third century B.C. The *Āraṇyaka* was known to Āpastamba who must have lived two or three centuries before Christ.²

c10.s4.18

¹ X, 1, 6.

c10.s4.19

² Bühler's *Introduction to the Sutras of Āpastamba*, pp. xxv, xliii; *The Cambridge History of India*, Vol. I, p. 249.

c10.s4.20

As regards the second point, Telang rightly points out that the transition from a great human hero to a hero regarded as an incarnation of the Deity is neither so unusual nor inexplicable that we must imagine some external influence to explain it. What external influence was at work in the apotheosis of Kapila, of Pārśvanātha or of Buddha? Even if we assume, for argument's sake, that there was some external influence, it could not have been the influence of Christianity, because Kṛiṣhṇa was already worshipped as the God of gods two centuries before the birth of Christ.

c10.s4.21

We now come to the legend of Śvetadvīpa which occurs in the Śāntiparva of the Mahābhārata.¹ Uparichara Vasu performs an Aśvamedha sacrifice in which Bṛihaspati is the priest, and Ekata, Dvita, and Trita act as overseers (Sadasya). No animals are killed on the occasion, and the oblations are prepared in accordance with the precepts of the Āraṇyakas.² The Bhagavat, the God of gods, being invisible, takes the offering and carries it off without showing Himself to Bṛihaspati. Bṛihaspati is angry, when Ekata, Dvita and Trita explain to him that God is to be seen only by those on whom He shows His Grace. They themselves once went to the White Island (Śveta dvīpa) to see Hari or Nārāyaṇa, performed austerities for a long time, but were told that Nārāyaṇa was not to be seen by them, as they were not His *Bhaktas*. They give an account of the White Island and its inhabitants. We have next an account of Nārada’s visit to the Island and his success in seeing Nārāyaṇa. Weber supposes that in this narrative of the three *Rishis* Ekata, Dvita and Trita, we have a description of a Christian worship that certain Hindu pilgrims might have witnessed.

c10.s4.22

¹ XII, 335-339.

c10.s4.23

² Was Sarvatāta of the Ghosuṇḍi Inscription an Aśvamedhayājin of this type ?

c10.s4.24

Lassen concurs in the belief that some Brāhmaṇas became acquainted with Christianity in some country lying to the north of India, and brought home some Christian doctrines.¹ This he considers to be supported by—

c10.s4.25

¹ J. Muir, *Metrical Translations from Sanskrit Writers*, Introduction, pp. xxviii ff. Lassen, *Indische Alterthumskunde*, 2nd edition, Vol. II, 1118 ff.

c10.s4.26

(a) the name of the White Island and the colour of its inhabitants, so different from that of the Indians;

c10.s4.27

(b) the ascription to these people of the worship of an Unseen God, while the Indians of the same period had images of their deities;

c10.s4.28

(c) the attribution to them of faith, the efficacy of which is not an ancient Indian tenet;

c10.s4.29

(d) the value attributed to prayer, which is a less important element in Indian than in Christian rites; and (e) the fact that the doctrine which they learnt is described as one only made known to the Indians at a late period.

c10.s4.30

Lassen holds it as the most likely supposition that Parthia was the country where the Brāhmaṇas met with Christian missionaries. Weber prefers Alexandria or Asia Minor. According to Dr. Macnicol it probably refers to some Christian settlement to the north of India. Kennedy says,¹ “The direction can only point to some place beyond the great mountain ranges, to Bactria, perhaps to Lake Issykul.” Garbe has identified the Svetadvīpa with the shores of the Balkhash sea.²

c10.s4.31

¹ J. R. A. S., 1907, p. 482.

c10.s4.32

² *Indien und das Christentum*, pp. 192 ff.

c10.s4.33

Dr. Seal in his *Comparative Studies in Vaishnavism and Christianity*, observes: “This Nārāyaṇīya record, in my opinion, contains decisive evidence of an actual journey or voyage undertaken by some Indian Vaishnavas to the coasts of Egypt or Asia Minor, and makes an attempt in the Indian eclectic fashion to include Christ among the Avatārs or Incarnations of the Supreme Spirit Nārāyaṇa, as Buddha came to be included in a later age.”³ He refers to the following passage of the Mahābhārata:⁴

c10.s4.34

³ P. 30.

c10.s4.35

⁴ Mbh., xii, 335, 11.

c10.s4.36

Chhatrākritiśīrshā meghaughaninādāḥ Samamushkachatushkā rājīvachchhadapādāḥ

c10.s4.37

*Shaṣṭyā dantairyuktāḥ*
*śuklairashṭābhirdaṃṣṭrābhirye*
*Jihvābhirye viśvavaktraṃ*
*lelihyante sūryaprakhyam.*

c10.s4.38

“Their heads seem to be like umbrellas. Their voice is deep like that of looming clouds. Each of them has four *mushkas*, a hundred lotus-feet, sixty white teeth and eight tusks. With their tongues they licked the universal-faced god of sunlike effulgence.”

c10.s4.39

According to Dr. Seal¹ “the Eucharist is here described. The inhabitants drink up the Logos *Sūryaprakhyaṃ viśvavaktraṃ devam*. All these epithets are applicable to the Logos, especially as conceived by the Syrian Christians and Gnostics.”

c10.s4.40

¹ Comp. Studies, p. 53.

c10.s4.41

The highly imaginative character of the description of the White Island and its inhabitants, as well as some indications in the narrative that it is not to be taken literally, has however convinced some scholars, that the story is a mere flight of fancy. The *Svetadvīpa* is said to lie to the north of the Ocean of Milk, and to the north-west of Mount Meru, and above it by 32,000 Yojanas.² “I should like to know,” asks Telang, “what geography has any notion of the quarter of this earth where we are to look for that sea of milk and mount of gold. Consider next the description of the wonderful people inhabiting this wonderful Dvīpa.

c10.s4.42

² Mbh., xii, 335, 8, 9.

c10.s4.43

*Te Sahasrārchchishaṃ devaṃ*
*praviśanti sanātanaṃ*
*Anindriyā nirāhārā*
*anishpandāḥ sugandhinaḥ.*¹

c10.s4.44

¹ XII, 336, 29.

c10.s4.45

“They enter that eternal deity of a thousand rays. They have no organs of senses. They do not take any food. Their eyes are winkless and they emit a sweet smell.”

c10.s4.46

“It will be news to the world, that there were in Alexandria or elsewhere a whole people without any organs of sense, who ate nothing, and who entered the Sun—whatever that may mean! Remember, too, that the instruction which Nārada receives in this wonderful land is not received from its inhabitants, but from *Bhagavat*, from God Himself. Nor let it be forgotten, that the doctrines which the Deity there announces to Nārada cannot be shown to have any connexion whatever with Christianity . . . . . the whole of the prelection addressed to Nārada bears on its face its essentially Indian character, in the references to the three qualities, to the twenty-five primal principles, to the description of final emancipation as absorption or entrance into the Divinity, and various other matters of the like character.”²

c10.s4.47

² Introductory Essay to the *Bhagavadgītā*, p. xxxv.

c10.s4.48

We have already pointed out that the distant abode of the "thousand-rayed" deva of sun-like effulgence, laved by the sea of milk, has a suspicious likeness with the *parama pada* of Viṣṇu with its well of honey where pious men rejoice and, no doubt, sing the praise of the deity "who envelopes the earth on every side with beams of light (*mayukhaih*)." The favoured votaries who have no organs of sense and yet use their tongues do so in the manner of the perfect being of the Gītā who is *Sarvendriyaguṇābhāsa*, *Sarvendriya-vivarjita*.

c10.s4.49

Even assuming that the story is not a 'flight of fancy,' there are still grave reasons for doubting the correctness of Weber's theory.

c10.s4.50

"The fact," says Hopkins,¹ "that the 'one god' is already a hackneyed phrase of philosophy; that there is no resemblance to a trinitarian god; that the hymn sung to this one god contains no trace of Christian influence, but is on the other hand thoroughly native in tone and phraseology, being as follows: 'Victory to thee thou god with lotus eyes; Reverence to thee, thou creator of all things; Reverence be to thee, O Viṣṇu (Hṛṣīkeça); thou Great Person; first born one;' all these facts indicate that if the White Islanders are indeed to be regarded as foreigners worshipping a strange god, that god is strictly monotheistic and not trinitarian. Weber lays stress on the expression ‘first-born,’ which he thinks refers to Christ; but the epithet is old (Vedic), and is common, and means no more than ‘primal deity.’”

c10.s4.51

¹ The Religions of India, p. 432.

c10.s4.52

The name of the White Island and the colour of its inhabitants (“śvetāḥ Pumāṃsaḥ”) do not necessarily prove that some Christian settlement (Parthia) is meant. Hopkins observes¹ that the white men of the White Island ‘in the north-west’ may be Kashmere Brāhmaṇas. The question whether Lassen or Hopkins is right cannot be definitely settled. There seems no more reason to reject Hopkins’ theory than to accept the theory of Lassen.

c10.s4.53

¹ The Great Epic of India, p. 116.

c10.s4.54

As regards the second point of Lassen we need only point out that the God of the White Islanders was invisible only to those who were not his Bhaktas--na sa śakyaṣṭvabhaktena draṣṭuṃ devaḥ kathañchana²--but could be seen by His Bhaktas. He was therefore not altogether an Unseen God. Moreover it has not been proved that all the Indians of the period when the Nārāyaṇīya was composed had images of their deities. The most advanced philosophers and the Ṛishis who meditated upon God in the woods usually dispensed with images. The ‘worship of an unseen God’

c10.s4.55

² Mbh., xii, 336-54.

c10.s4.56

was familiar to the Indians from the age of the *Rig Veda*.¹

c10.s4.57

¹ *Cf.* the hymns to Hiranyagarbha.

c10.s4.58

Lassen opines that the efficiency of ‘faith’ is not an ancient Indian tenet. This is hardly correct. Dr. Seal observes : ² “ The Vedic Hymns are replete with sentiments of piety and reverence (*Bhakti* and *Sraddhā*) in the worship of the gods.....The *Upāsanā Kāṇḍas* of the *Āraṇyakas* and *Upanishads* lay the foundations of the *Bhakti-Mārga*, way of Devotion or Faith.”³ The *Pātañjala Yoga Sūtras* lay down devout worship of the Lord as the surest and swiftest means of attaining Yoga as a means to Emancipation. Sir R. G. Bhandarkar also proves that *Bhakti* had a purely Indian origin.⁴ “ The thought of India,” says Dr. Keith,⁵ “ started from a religion which had in Varuṇa a god of decidedly moral character and the simple worship of that deity with its consciousness of sin and trust in the divine forgiveness is doubtless one of the first roots of *Bhakti* ” (loving faith). “ There is much,” says Dr. Macnicol,⁶ “ in the prayers and hymns to Varuṇa that brings back to one who knows it the lofty language of Hebrew seers and psalmists.”

c10.s4.59

² *Comparative Studies in Vaishnavism and Christianity*, p. 5.

c10.s4.60

³ p. 8.

c10.s4.61

⁴ *Vaishnavism*, pp. 28-29.

c10.s4.62

⁵ J.R.A.S., 1915, p. 834.

c10.s4.63

⁶ *Indian Theism*, pp. 11 f.

c10.s4.64

Prof. Garbe, in his translation of the *Bhagavad-gītā*,¹ observes that a monotheistic religion, in which the object of worship was looked upon as a kindly, not a terrible, deity, would naturally beget the feelings of *Bhakti* in the hearts of his worshippers. Pāṇini actually speaks of *Bhakti* dedicated to Vāsudeva. Edmund Hardy points out that the word *bhatti* (*bhakti*) is to be found in the sense of "love," "self-resignation" in the *Jātakas*, while in the *Theragāthā* it passes into the specific sense of "devotion to God."²

c10.s4.65

¹ pp. 29 ff.

c10.s4.66

² Garbe's Introduction to the *Bhagavadgītā*, translated by Utgikar, pp. 16-17.

c10.s4.67

The statement of Lassen that prayer is less important an element in Indian than in Christian rites is also not accurate. From the age of the *Rig Veda* to that of the latest *Purāṇas* prayer formed an important part of Hindu worship. "There is in fact," says Professor Macdonell,³ "no hymn to Varuṇa and the Ādityas in which the prayer for forgiveness does not occur, as in the hymns to other deities the prayer for worldly goods."

c10.s4.68

³ Macdonell's *Vedic Mythology*, p. 27.

c10.s4.69

How e'er we who thy people are,
O Varuṇa, thou shining god,
Thy *ṛita* injure day by day,
Yet give us over nor to death,
Nor to the blow of angry foe.⁴

c10.s4.70

⁴ R. V., i, 25, 1, 2 (Hopkins' translation).

c10.s4.71

It is clear from what we have said that the doctrines which the travellers to the Śvetadvīpa learnt were not imported to India at a late period.

c10.s4.72

As regards the Nārāyaṇīya verse¹ referred to by Dr. Seal, the following translation is given by Pratāpchandra Rāya, C.I.E. :²

c10.s4.73

¹ Mbh., xii, 335, 11.

c10.s4.74

² Çāntiparva, Vol. II, pp. 744-45.

c10.s4.75

“Their heads seem to be like umbrellas. Their voices are deep like that of the clouds. Each of them has four mushkas. The soles of their feet were marked by hundreds of lines. They had sixty teeth all of which were white (and large) and eight smaller ones. They had many tongues. With those tongues they seemed to lick the very sun whose face is turned towards every direction.”

c10.s4.76

Where are we to find the men with four mushkas, and sixty teeth? The whole description seems to be a flight of imagination—an attempt on the part of “mythologizing philosophers” to depict an Isle of the Blessed where perfect beings of Bhāgavata fancy hold communion with their beloved Lord. The omission of the name of the Buddha from the list of the Avatāras given in the Nārāyaṇīya³ shows that the author was singularly wanting in that spirit of eclecticism, which, according to Dr. Seal, led him to include Christ among the Avatāras of Nārāyaṇa.

c10.s4.77

³ Mbh., xii, 339, 103-04.

c10.s4.78

We have now to consider whether there is any reliable evidence of Christian influence on the legends of the Child Kṛiṣhṇa and on the celebration of his birth-day.

c10.s4.79

Weber observes :¹ “The most difficult point in connection with the festival of the birth-day of Kṛiṣhṇa lies clearly in the description, and particularly in the pictorial representation; of him as a suckling at his mother’s breast, and in the homage paid to the mother, represented as lying on a couch in a cow-house, who has borne him, ‘the lord of the world,’ in her womb. Such a representation of the god is a strange contrast to the other representations of him—to that of the epos, for example, in which he appears as a warrior-hero and is moreover, the only thing of its kind in India.”

c10.s4.80

¹ Ind. Ant., 1874, p. 21.

c10.s4.81

According to the great German scholar, the birth-day festival of Kṛiṣhṇa, and the pictorial representation of him as a suckling at his mother’s breast, which forms an integral part of that festival, are borrowed from the legends regarding the virgin and the representations of the *Madonna lactans*, and came to India from the West at a time when “The Madonna and the child” had already on their side won a firm and sure place in the Christian ritual.

c10.s4.82

Weber adds that “ in the train of the birthday festival we must suppose that other legendary matters came to India which are found in the accounts of the *Harivaṃśa*, of the *Jaimini Bhārata*, and in some interpolated passages of the *Mahābhārata*, in the *Purāṇas*, specially in the *Bhāgavata Purāṇa* and its offshoots which describe and embellish the birth and childhood of Kṛṣṇa with notices which remind us irresistibly of Christian legends. Take, for example, the statement of the *Viṣṇu Purāṇa* that Nanda, the foster-father of Kṛṣṇa, at the time of the latter’s birth, went with his pregnant wife Yaśodā to Mathurā to pay taxes (*cf.* Luke II, 4, 5) or the pictorial representation of the birth of Kṛṣṇa in the cowstall or shepherd’s hut, that corresponds to the manger, and of the shepherds, shepherdesses, the ox and the ass that stand round the woman as she sleeps peacefully on her couch without fear of danger. Then the stories of the persecutions of Kaṃsa, of the massacre of the innocents, of the passage across the river (Christophoros), of the wonderful deeds of the child, of the healing-virtue of the water in which he was washed, etc., etc. Whether the accounts given in the *Jaimini Bhārata* of the raising to life by Kṛṣṇa of the dead son of Duḥśalā, of the cure of Kubjā, of her pouring a vessel of ointment over him, of the power of his look to take away sin, and other subjects of the kind came to India in the same connection with the birth-day festival may remain an open question."

c10.s4.83

Weber does not stand alone in his view concerning the influence of Christianity on the legends of Kṛiṣhṇa. "The coincidences," says Hopkins,¹ "as some scholars marvellously regard them, between the legends of Christ and Kṛiṣhṇa are too extraordinary to be accepted as such. They are direct importations, not accidental coincidences ......... It remains only to ask from which side is the borrowing? Considering how late are these Kṛiṣhṇa legends in India there can be no doubt that the Hindu borrowed the tales, but not the name; for the last assumption is quite improbable because Kṛiṣhṇa (=Christ?) is native enough, and Jishṇu is as old as the *Rig Veda*."

c10.s4.84

¹ The Religions of India, p. 430.

c10.s4.85

"About the first century of the Christian era," says Sir R. G. Bhandarkar,² "the boygod of a wandering tribe of Ābhīras came to be identified with Vāsudeva. In the course of their wanderings eastward from Syria or Asia Minor they brought with them, probably, traditions of the birth of Christ in a stable, the massacre of the innocents, etc., and the name Christ itself. The name became recognised as Kṛiṣhṇa, as this word is often pronounced by some Indians as Krista or Kusta. And thus the traditional legends brought by the Ābhīras became engrafted on the story of Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa of India.”

c10.s4.86

² Ind. Ant., 1912, p. 15.

c10.s4.87

Dr. Macnicol is inclined to believe that about the middle of the seventh century A. D. Nestorian missions (which are believed to have entered India from the north in the year 639) may have brought stories of the child Christ as well as pictures and ritual observances which affected the story of Kṛṣṇa as related in the Purāṇas, and the worship of Kṛṣṇa especially in relation to the celebration of his birth festival. To this belong the birth in a cow-house among cattle, the massacre of the innocents, the story that his foster-father Nanda was travelling at the time to Mathurā to pay tax or tribute to Kaṃsa, and other details to be found in the various Purāṇas and in the Jaimini Bhārata.

c10.s4.88

No one can help being struck by the points of resemblance between the story of the child Kṛṣṇa and that of the child Christ. When one investigates, however, one finds that the hypothesis of a plagiarism rests on a weak basis.

c10.s4.89

With regard to the birth-day festival of Kṛṣṇa, the representation of him as a suckling at his mother’s breast, and the homage paid to the mother, Weber himself points out that the festival of the Rāmanavamī presents many striking analogies to the Kṛṣṇa-janmāṣṭamī. The Rāmāyaṇa, which is a pre-Christian work according to Prof. Macdonell¹ gives a detailed account of Rāma’s birth, and in one passage of that epic Rāma is represented as “resting in the lap of his mother,” *māturaṅkagataḥ*.² Kennedy observes:³ “There is no Christian representation of the suckling mother before the twelfth century, but there is a much earlier Hindu one. At Elūra we have a bas relief of the seven divine mothers each with her child on her knee or beside her; and Varāhī, the third of the seven, is giving suck to her infant.” According to Piper’s representation, the adoration of Virgin Mary was even in the fourth century A. D. far from prominent, and we are to date its decisive introduction from the Nestorian disputes in the fifth century.⁴ If the decisive introduction of the worship of the Virgin dated from the fifth century, its propagation in distant foreign lands must have taken place in a later age. But the association of Krishna with Devakī, his mother, is, as is well known, as old as the Chhāndogya Upanishad. We learn from the Bhitari Pillar Inscription that early in the fifth century A.D. Devakī already occupied a prominent place in the Krishna cultus. In his *History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon*,⁵ V. Smith mentions “a composition, nearly life-size, at Pathārī in the Bhopāl Agency, believed to represent the new-born Kṛṣṇa lying by the side of his mother, who is watched by five attendants.” The composition belongs to the Gupta Age. Bas reliefs of Badami dating from the early Chalukya period depict several scenes connected with the child Kṛṣṇa and in one of these we find two females standing each with a child in her arms. Mr. R. D. Banerji thinks that these females represent Yaśodā and Rohiṇī with Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma in their laps.¹ The Bhāgavatas did not borrow the idea of a mother-goddess from the Christians. Dr. Keith observes : ² “Rhys Davids has brought evidence to show that there was in early days a widespread worship of Śrī comparable to the worship of Here or Athene in many Greek cities which with the rise of Christianity became transmuted into the adoration of the Madonna.” The worship of Śrī is as old as the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa³ and the Bodhāyana Dharma Sūtra.⁴ We have representations of this goddess at Bharhut and other ancient Buddhist centres⁵ and also on the coins of Rājuvula.⁶ In a letter to the author Grierson suggests that the homage paid to the suckling mother is a relic of the Buddhist worship of Hāritī, the “Buddhist Madonna.”¹ Recent discoveries at Mahenjo-Daro in Sind prove that the worship of the Mother Goddess can claim a hoary antiquity.²

c10.s4.90

¹ Sanskrit Literature, pp. 307-310.

c10.s4.91

² Ind. Ant., 1874, p. 21, n.

c10.s4.92

³ J. R. A. S., 1907, p. 484.

c10.s4.93

⁴ Ind. Ant., 1874, p. 47.

c10.s4.94

⁵ p. 164.

c10.s4.95

¹ Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 25, p. 25.

c10.s4.96

² J.R.A.S., 1907, p. 491.

c10.s4.97

³ ix, 4, 3.

c10.s4.98

⁴ ii, 5-24.

c10.s4.99

⁵ Buddhist India, pp. 217-218.

c10.s4.100

⁶ Cunningham's Coins of Ancient India, p. 86.

c10.s4.101

¹ Cf. Foucher, The Beginnings of Buddhist Art, translated by Thomas, pp. 171 ff. ² Sir John Marshall, Mahenjo-Daro and the Indus Civilisation, I, Ch. V. ³ The Vedic Index, Vol. I, p. 238. ⁴ The Religions of India, p. 57. ⁵ Ind. Ant., 1918, p. 84.

c10.s4.102

As regards the pastoral associations of Kṛiṣhṇa we have already pointed out that Viṣhṇu, the Vedic deity with whom Kṛiṣhṇa is identified in the pre-Christian Taittirīya Āraṇyaka, is called, in the Ṛig Veda, Gopā which means “protector of cows” according to Macdonell and Keith,³ and “herdsman” according to Hopkins.⁴ In the Ṛig Veda, I. 155.6 Viṣhṇu is called “ever young” Yuvā akumāraḥ. The epithets Gopā and Yuvā akumāraḥ of the Vedic Viṣhṇu might have been suggestive of the Purāṇic tale of the youthful herdsman of Vṛindāvana, just as the three strides of the same god suggested the legend of the Dwarf Avatāra.

c10.s4.103

Mr. Jayaswāl points out⁵ that before the Baudhāyana Dharma Sūtras Dāmodara and Govinda were known deities. This disposes of the view that the Kṛiṣhṇa worship in the child and pastoral form owes its origin to Christianity.

c10.s4.104

It has been observed by Sir Charles Eliot¹ that the first allusions to the presence of Christians in Parthia, Bactria and the borderlands of India date from the third century and that the oldest account of Christian communities in Southern India is the narrative of Cosmas Indicopleustes (c. 525 A.D.). Now, the worship of the pastoral Kṛiṣhṇa-Viṣhṇu in the early centuries of the Christian era in Southern India is clearly suggested by a significant royal name, " Viṣhṇu gopa," occurring in the Allahabad Pillar Inscription of the middle of the fourth century A.D. A Junāgaḍh record of A.D. 457-58 refers to a provincial administrator as one " whose life is devoted to the feet of Govinda " (Govindapādārpitajīvita).

c10.s4.105

¹ Hinduism and Buddhism, Vol. III, 414.

c10.s4.106

The enmity between Kaṁsa and Kṛiṣhṇa is referred to as familiar in Patañjali's Mahābhāshya (usually assigned to the second century B.C.), and it is fair to conclude, as Macnicol does, that the legend of the attempt of Kaṁsa to kill Kṛiṣhṇa in his childhood was also extant at that period.

c10.s4.107

The story of the passage across the river need not be traced to a Christian source. In the Vinaya Texts,² we have the story of Buddha's miraculous crossing of the Ganges.

c10.s4.108

² Part II, p. 104.

c10.s4.109

The Harivaṁśa and the Purāṇas in which the stories about the child Kṛiṣhṇa, referred to by Weber, Hopkins and others, occur, are really not so late works as these scholars would have us believe. The *Harivaṃśa* and all the eighteen *Purāṇas* are mentioned in the *Mahābhārata* and we know from the Khoh Inscription of Śarvanātha that the Great Epic was complete, that is to say, it contained one hundred thousand *Ślokas*, in the sixth century A.D. We have independent proof of the celebrity of the *Vāyu*, *Agni*, *Bhāgavata*, *Mārkaṇḍeya* and *Skanda Purāṇas* in the seventh century A.D.¹ The *Harivaṃśa* is mentioned as a famous work by Subandhu, a writer of the seventh century A.D.² A *Bhavishyat Purāṇa* is mentioned in the *Dharma Sūtra* of Āpastamba.³

c10.s4.110

¹ See V. Smith's Early History of India, 3rd edition, p. 22.

c10.s4.111

² Weber's Ind. Lit., p. 119.

c10.s4.112

³ Bühler's Introduction, p. xxviii.

c10.s4.113

There is reason to believe that the *Vāyu*, *Brahmāṇḍa* and the *Viṣṇu Purāṇas* were compiled during the reign of Chandragupta I, the founder of the Gupta dynasty, who is said to have ruled from 320 A.D. to about 335 A.D. “It seems to be to his reign that the verses in the *Purāṇas* defining the Gupta dominions refer.”⁴ Mr. Pargiter, in his valuable work, the *Dynastics of the Kali Age*, adduces good grounds for placing the original *Matsya Purāṇa* in the third century A.D. Some of the Christian Scriptures from which the *Purāṇas* are alleged to have borrowed the stories about the child Kṛṣṇa are not much older.¹ Jackson² refers to the discovery at Mandor in Mārwār of sculptures of certain exploits of the child Kṛṣṇa which are of very early date.³ Sten Konow finds a reference to the youthful deeds of Kṛṣṇa (Siri-Kaḍāra) in the Hāthigumphā Inscription of Khāravela.⁴ Echoes of some of the Kṛṣṇaite legends are found in Jaina Sculptures in Mathurā belonging to the first century B.C.⁵ We have already seen that many of the Purāṇic stories about the child Kṛṣṇa are illustrated by bas reliefs at Badami dating from the sixth century A.D. Tales about Kṛṣṇa’s sports on the banks of the Jumna travelled to the most distant countries of Indo-China in the ninth century A.D.⁶

c10.s4.114

⁴ Allan's Catalogue of the Coins of the Gupta Dynasties, p. xix.

c10.s4.115

¹ Telang’s Introductory Essay to the Bhagavadgītā, pp. xxiv, lxii, lxiii, n.

c10.s4.116

² J.R.A.S., 1908, p. 533.

c10.s4.117

³ See Arch. Survey Report, W. India, 1906-7, p. 33, para. 24.

c10.s4.118

⁴ Acta Orientalia, I, 1923, 39.

c10.s4.119

⁵ Winternitz, A History of Indian Literature—English translation, Vol. II, 463n.

c10.s4.120

⁶ Eliot, Hinduism and Buddhism, II, 159n.

c10.s4.121

We now come to the theory of Sir R. G. Bhandarkar. We learn from the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea that the Abhīras were already settled in Western India (“Abiria”), in the first century A.D. They are also mentioned by Patañjali.⁷ How could they bring with them traditions of the birth of Christ in a stable, of the massacre of the innocents and so on? Mr. V Kanakasabhai, in his *Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago*,¹ says that the Ayar (Ābhīras) had a tradition that they came into the Tamil land, along with the founder of the Pāṇḍyan family, *i.e.* several centuries before Christ. Their name Ayar is derived from the Dravidian “Ā” meaning a cow.

c10.s4.122

⁷ Ind. Ant. 1918, p. 36.

c10.s4.123

¹ p. 57.

c10.s4.124

Referring to Macnicol's conjecture that Nestorian Missions may have brought stories of the child Christ about the middle of the seventh century A.D., Dr. Keith observes that it is not true that Nestorian Missionaries entered the north of India in 639 A.D.² This error is borrowed from Garbe and ultimately from Sir G. Grierson,³ but for giving it wide currency the latter has already made complete amends by his correction of Takakusu on whom the ultimate responsibility for the mistake rests.⁴

c10.s4.125

² J.R.A.S., 1915, pp. 839-840.

c10.s4.126

³ See his article *Bhakti Mārga* in Hastings' *Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics*, ii, 548.

c10.s4.127

⁴ J.R.A.S., 1913, 144.

c10.s4.128

Weber and his followers do not seek to present Kṛṣṇaism as a distorted form of Christianity. They do not mean to assert that in Kṛṣṇa India ever paid divine honour to Jesus. The Hindu god, in their opinion, “had only arrogated to himself a certain number of Christian endowments.” But Dr. Lorinser, in his *Bhagavadgītā*, goes further than this. He arrives at the singular conclusion that the author of the Hindu poem knew and used the Gospels and the Christian Fathers. His arguments may be summarised as follows.¹

c10.s4.129

¹ See *Indian Antiquary*, Vol. II, 283 *et seq.*

c10.s4.130

Śaṅkarāchārya lived in the eighth century A.D. ; from that it is to be inferred that the Gītā was composed some five centuries earlier, *i.e.*, in the third century A.D. ; at that time there were Christian communities in India ; and there was also an Indian translation of the New Testament of which we have positive proof in the writings of St. Chrysostom. “In this way,” Dr. Lorinser goes on to observe, “the possibility that the composer of the *Bhagavadgītā* may have been acquainted not merely with the general teaching of Christianity, but also with the very writings of the New Testament, might be shown in a very natural way, without the necessity of having recourse to rash hypothesis.” The Doctor finds in the *Gītā* passages, and these not single and obscure, but numerous and clear, which present a surprising similarity to passages in the New Testament, and concludes that the composer was acquainted with the writings of the New Testament and used them as he thought fit. He places side by side the most important of these passages in the *Gītā*, and the corresponding texts of the New Testament.

c10.s4.131

Dr. Lorinser further observes that the ideas *Sraddhā* and *Bhakti* are not originally Indian, but that they have been taken over from Christianity. In his opinion the incarnation of Vishnu as Krishna—the only one represented as a truly human incarnation of the person of the god—is an imitation of the Christian dogma regarding the person of Christ.

c10.s4.132

Let us examine the arguments of Dr. Lorinser. It is not difficult to prove that the *Gītā* is much older than the third century A.D. While discussing the age of the *Mahābhārata*, Hopkins observes :—¹ “We may say with comparative certainty that, with the exception of the parts latest added, the introduction to the first book and the last book, even the pseudo-epic was completed as early as 200 A.D.” By pseudo-epic Hopkins means the didactic books, notably the *Śānti* and the *Anuśāsana Parvas*.² As the *Bhagavadgītā* is referred to in the *Śāntiparva* it must be assigned to a period considerably anterior to the second century A.D. Hopkins says explicitly ³ that the *Gītā* is “unquestionably one of the older poems in the epic.” He further observes ⁴ that “the *Gītā* and the Gambling scene are, as wholes, metrically and stylistically more antique than are the *Anugītā* and the extravaganzas in the battle-books.” In his *Ethics of India*¹ Hopkins admits the validity of the present author’s contention that the triple formula *dama*, *tyāga* and *apramāda*, occurring in the didactic epic, is quoted by the *Bhāgavata* Inscription of Heliodoros belonging to the second century B.C.

c10.s4.133

¹ The Great Epic of India, p. 387.

c10.s4.134

² The G.E.I., p. 381.

c10.s4.135

³ p. 203.

c10.s4.136

⁴ p. 402.

c10.s4.137

¹ p. 171n.

c10.s4.138

Regarding the coincidences between passages in the *Gītā* and the New Testament, Dr. Macnicol says² that a careful examination of the parallels that have been traced shows the resemblances to be in many cases purely verbal and unreal, while others can be paralleled from the Upanishads which are certainly pre-Christian. When Kṛṣṇa says “ of creations I am the beginning and the end........of letters I am the Syllable A ”³ the likeness to the words in *Revelation* (i, 8), “ I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, which is, and which was, and which is to come,” is no doubt striking, but Kṛṣṇa is only repeating what is found in the Upanishads, “ Brahma is the A.”⁴ “ Kṛṣṇa’s identification of himself with everything in the Universe is in full agreement with the claims for Brahman in the Upanishads, and that among the lists of those things, that he is there should be found some of the names such as the truth, the light, the way, which are applied to Christ, and especially to Christ in His aspect as the Eternal Word, is not surprising and cannot be said to prove indebtedness."¹ Referring to the striking similarity between the declaration of the Gītā, ix, 29, "They who devoutly worship me are in me, and I in them," and John, vi, 56, "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him," Dr. Muir observes² that "the condition of oneness with the speaker is different in each case" and that it is that oneness with him only that is common to the two texts." In the Rig Veda some passages occur which in part convey the same or a similar idea. Thus in i, 11, 12, it is said: "O Indra, we sages have been in thee;" and in x, 142, 1, "This worshipper, O Agni, hath been in thee : O Son of strength, he has no other kinship; in viii, 92, 32, the worshippers say to Indra, "thou art ours, and we thine—tvamasmākam tavasmasi."

c10.s4.139

² *Indian Theism*, p. 276.

c10.s4.140

³ *Gītā*, x. 20-33.

c10.s4.141

⁴ Hopkins, *The Religions of India*, p. 226

c10.s4.142

¹ Indian Theism, p. 276.

c10.s4.143

² Ind. Ant., 1875, pp. 79-80.

c10.s4.144

Let us take a few more parallel passages.

c10.s4.145

"He is far from darkness,"

c10.s4.146

"Sarvasya dhātāramachintyarūpam Adityavarṇam tamasaḥ parastāt.³ “Light of lights, far from darkness is his name.”

c10.s4.147

³ Gītā, viii, 9.

c10.s4.148

“jyotiṣāmapi tajjyotistamasaḥ paramuchyate.”

c10.s4.149

“God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”²

c10.s4.150

² I John, i, 5.

c10.s4.151

The words here translated “far from darkness” (*tamasaḥ parastāt*) are not peculiar to the *Gītā*, but occur also in the *Muṇḍaka Upanishad*.³ The word *tamasaspari* meaning “above, or beyond the darkness” occurs also in the *Rig Veda*.⁴ “Gazing towards the upper light beyond the darkness, we have ascended to the highest luminary Sūrya, a God among the gods.” Curiously enough this was one of the verses which Kṛṣṇa learnt from Ghora Āṅgirasa.⁵ In the *Gītā* the words *tamasaḥ parastāt* are immediately preceded by ‘*āditya-varṇam*’ “the sun-coloured.” The *Gītākāra* had thus no need to borrow anything from the Bible. Dr. Muir observes “most of the verses cited from that poem (the *Gītā*) by Dr. Lorinser as parallel to texts in the Bible appear to me either to exhibit no very close resemblance to the latter, or to be such as might naturally have occurred to the Indian writer, and to offer therefore only an accidental similarity.”⁶

c10.s4.152

¹ Gītā, xiii, 17.

c10.s4.153

³ II, ii, 6.

c10.s4.154

⁴ I, 50, 10.

c10.s4.155

⁵ Chh., iii, 17, 7.

First 200 of 227 passages. Read on

Linked texts (32)