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 Number 
 

CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST. 
 
" "We should feel cheered by the words of that pious philosopher (St. 
 Augustine) when he boldly declares that there is no religion which 
 among its many errors, does not contain some real and divine truth." — 
 Professor Max Miiller. 
 
 "A man ought to honour his own faith only; but he should never 
 abuse the faith of anybody. There are even circumstances when the 
 religion of others ought to be honoured. And in acting thus a man 
 fortifies his own faith and assists the faith of others." — From King 
 PiyudatVs Rock Inscriptions. 
 
CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; 
 
 OR, 
 
 PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH 
 AND CULTURE. 
 
 CHARLES J. STONE, F.E.S.L., F.R. Hist. S., 
 
 AUTHOR OF "CRADLE-LAND OF ARTS AND CREEDS." 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 TRUE NEE & CO., LUDGATE HILL. 
 
 1885. 
 
 [AH rights reserved.] 
 
BALLANTYNE, HANSON ANI> CO. 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 
 
<C*vv G * ' 'inns 
 
 O 
 
 SYLLABUS OF CHAPTERS. 
 
 Chapter I. — The monastic system of Buddhism in India, as 
 described by the Chinese Pilgrim, Fah-Hian, in the fifth 
 century a.d. 
 
 Chapter II. — Hiouen Thsang's description of Buddhist monas- 
 teries in the seventh century A.D., and of the towns, &c. 
 
 Chapter III. — The drama of the ancient Hindus, " Hero and 
 Nymph." 
 
 Chapter IV. — The dramas of "Malati and Madhava," and of the 
 " Necklace." 
 
 Chapter V. — Allegorical drama of the " Rising of the Moon of 
 Awakened Intellect." 
 
 Chapter VI. — Wealth found in India by the Mohammedans in 
 the eleventh century. 
 
 Chapter VII. — Remains of ancient Central America, Mexico, 
 and Peru — Romance of our media3val days in the great 
 Indian epic. 
 
 Chapter VIII. — The "Great Supporter" (Mahabharata epic)— 
 Wedding presents — Ancient banquets — Fortified towns- 
 Rules for fair fighting. 
 
 Chapter IX. — Philosophical aphorisms — Assembly of princes — 
 Names of the Divine in the human — Duty of the warrior. 
 
 Chapter X. — Krishna as the earthly mediator — The camp, 
 doctors, &c. — The battle array — Cookery — Yavanas (? not 
 Greeks). 
 
 Chapter XL — Magnificence of the old Indian heroes — Fetes and 
 amateur theatricals — Description of Krishna's city of 
 Dwaravati — Mr. H. Chintamon on the " Divine Song." 
 
 Chapter XII. — The ancient deities of the Hindus — All mani- 
 festations of one Supreme Being. 
 
 Chapter XIII. — The incarnation of the "All-Pervading" in 
 Krishna — Competition in feats of arms for the hand of 
 the Princess — Krishna reveals himself to his relations. 
 
 Chapter XIV. — Professor Monier Williams and the " Divine 
 Song " — Milton — The holy Fire— Krishna as the Eternal 
 Creator — Destruction of a sceptical monarch. 
 
 Chapter XV. — Descent of Vishnu as Krishna for the benefit of 
 humanity — Primeval sacrifice of Purusha (universal soul). 
 
vi SYLLABUS OF CHAPTERS. 
 
 Chapter XVI. — Spell upon the Princess Krishna on account of 
 sins in a previous existence — Krishna's wives — Association 
 of Krishna, so also of Buddha, with the ancient philosopher 
 Kapila. 
 
 Chapter XVII. — The ages of the world's history — Prominence- 
 of sacrifice — Paradise attained by charity and the other 
 virtues. 
 
 Chapter XVIII. — The wreck of the universe — Survival of one 
 holy sage, and entry into the eternal Infant's body. 
 
 Chapter XIX. — Krishna brings food by miracle to the Princess 
 Krishna — Commencement of the " Song Celestial " (so 
 entitled by Mr. Edwin Arnold in his translation in verse). 
 
 Chapter XX. — Continuation of the " Bhagavad Gita," or " Song 
 Celestial." 
 
 Chapter XXI. — Infinity of Hari or Krishna — He is the sacrifice 
 of all sacrificers — Creator of beings — The eternal man. 
 
 Chapter XXII. — Reconciliation of the adoration of the Divine 
 in Shiva and Vishnu. 
 
 Chapter XXIII. — Account of the birth and infancy of Krishna 
 — The tyrant Kansa endeavours to encompass his destruc- 
 tion, &c. 
 
 Chapter XXIV. — The childhood of Krishna amongst the pas- 
 toral folk — Homage done to him by Indra, the Indian 
 Jupiter — Theatre of King Kansa prepared for a tournament. 
 
 Chapter XXV. — Overthrow of King Kansa's wrestlers, then of 
 the king himself — Prototype of Washington Irving's story 
 of the long sleep — Construction of Krishna's city. 
 
 Chapter XXVI. — Faith inculcated in Krishna as Vishnu upon 
 earth — Chivalrous devotion to woman shown in the an- 
 cient Indian books. 
 
 Chapter XXVII. — Allegorical termination of the great Indian 
 epic, in the style of Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Progress." 
 
 Chapter XXVIII. — The war between angels and devils de- 
 rived from the " ancient books " of India — Professor H. 
 H. Wilson of Oxford upon these — Hari and the Indian 
 Venus. 
 
 Chapter XXIX. — Professor H. H. Wilson on the Puranas, and 
 parallel with the Platonic Christians — The All-Pervading 
 and the Mother of the World. 
 
 Chapter XXX. — Story of constancy of faith in the " Indian 
 Preserver" — Hell from the Christian Tertullian. 
 
 Chapter XXXI. — Stages of existence in the "Ancient Book of 
 the Preserver " — Constant existence of Cesava (Hari- 
 Krishna). 
 
 Chapter XXXII. — End of the existing world — Vasudeva or 
 Krishna as the Supreme and Universal Spirit — Suggestion 
 of Archaic Buddhism. 
 
SYLLABUS OF CHAPTERS. vii 
 
 Chapter XXXIIL— Bhagavata Purana (Ancient Book of the 
 Blessed One) — Quotation from the Veda as to the 
 universal embodied spirit and the primeval sacrifice — 
 Krishna as the manifestation of the Divine. 
 
 Chapter XXXIV. — Doctrines of the " Ancient Book of the 
 Blessed One " as compared with Christian Evangelicalism 
 — Series of incarnations of the All-Pervading. 
 
 Chapter XXXV. — Incarnation of the All- Pervading at the end 
 of the present world — Reconcilement of Krishnaism and 
 Buddhism. 
 
 Chapter XXXVI. — M. Leveque on the Orphic theology — 
 Quotation from Ovid's " Metamorphoses " — The Golden 
 Verses. 
 
 Chapter XXXVIL— City of the "Blessed One," and his do- 
 mestic relations. 
 
 Chapter XXXVIII. — Great period required for the systematisa- 
 tion of the Hindu formulas of faith, supposing the actual 
 books to have been written within our era. 
 
 Chapter XXXIX. — Corroboration of the developments of both 
 Buddhism and Krishnaism from the philosophy attributed 
 to Kapila — Sir W. Jones as to Krishna and the Divine 
 Spirit — Transmigration of souls in the Institutes of Manu 
 — The individual soul united with the Supreme Soul. 
 
 Chapter XL. — Inscription from Buddha-Gaya with mingling of 
 Krishnaistic ideas — Last words of the Chinese Buddhist 
 Pilgrim, Hiouen Thsang — Protestantism in India. 
 
 Chapter XLI. — Buddhist ritual from Nepaulese tracts — The 
 Hindu reformer Ramanuja and others. 
 
 Chapter XLII. — Monasticism and adoration of the " Mother of 
 the Universe " in India. 
 
 Chapter XLIII. — Succession of Buddhas — M. Emile Burnouf 
 as to the succession of religions. 
 
 Chapter XLIV. — Description of the daughters of Zion in Isaiah 
 as applicable to Hindu women in the present day — Insti- 
 tutes of Manu on transmigration and final beatitude. 
 
 Chapter XLV. — Arrian as to Ancient India — Its cities, system 
 of " standing armies," &c. — Also the testimony of Megas- 
 thenes. 
 
 Chapter XLVI. — Affinities to Christianity in the ancient reli- 
 gions of Mexico, Peru, &c. 
 
 Chapter XLVII. — The cross, &c, in Mexico — Remark of Dr. 
 Zerffi as to the striking analogies between East and West. 
 
 Chapter XLVIII. — "Forest" portion of the Hymns of the 
 " Praise " Veda — Quotation from the Yajur Veda as to the 
 Universal Spirit— Sacrifices without actual death in the 
 Vedic ritual. 
 
viii SYLLABUS OF CHAPTERS. 
 
 Chapter XLIX. — Colebrooke on the integrity of the Vedas — 
 Agni as the first self-existent man — The Cross as exhumed 
 by Dr. Schliemann from Troy. 
 
 Chapter L. — Hymns of the " Praise" Veda from the translation 
 of M. Langlois. 
 
 Chapter LI. — Unity of Deity in the Vedas — The sacred Brah- 
 minical confession of faith — "Speech "as the All-Per- 
 vading. 
 
 Chapter LII. — Krishna, Hercules, Quetzalcoatl seeming iden- 
 tical ; also Apollo. 
 
 Chapter LIU. — Upanishads from Professor Max Miiller's 
 " Sacred Books of the East." 
 
 Chapter LIV. — Doctrines of St. Origen as to the transmigra- 
 tion of souls — Theophilus of Antioch in regard to Chris- 
 tians holding the transmigration of souls — St. Irenseus as 
 to the resurrection of the body, &c. 
 
 Chapter LV. — St. Irenseus as to the duration of the life of 
 Christ — Paley, in his " Evidences of Christianity," as to 
 St. Irenseus. 
 
 Chapter LVI. — Quotations from Christian Fathers as to Buddha, 
 &c. — Mr. Lillie on the history of Buddha — Quotations 
 from the rock-cut inscriptions of King Piyudasi. 
 
 Chapter LVII. — The Nestorian or Malabar Christians in India 
 — Story of Mandavya — His death upon the stake and 
 descent into Hell to punish the King of the dead. 
 
 Chapter LVIII. — Salem and the previous incarnation of the 
 Divine in Melchizedek in the Bible. 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 I. — Mr. H. S. Ashbee in description of the Library of Tan- 
 
 jore. 
 II. — The invocation of the Mahabharata as compared with 
 
 Froissart's introduction to his History. 
 III. — Buddhist temple in the Japanese village on view in 
 
 London in 1885. 
 IV. — Adam in Ceylon. 
 V. — Authenticity of the inscription at Buddha-Gaya. 
 VI. — Hymns of the Rig Veda, from Professor H. H. Wilson's 
 translation. 
 VII. — Ancient crosses found in India. 
 VIII. — The doctrine of the metempsychosis in Mohammedanism. 
 IX. — Attributes of Krishna as compared with the Odin of 
 Ancient Germany. 
 
CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Strange resemblances appear in the world's ancient 
 faiths to the religion revealed to us in Judrea. Weird 
 prototypes of our most sacred doctrines and ordinances 
 are found in the ancient books of the East, and in what 
 we know of the religions of ancient America on the 
 one hand, and Etruria, &c. on the other. Our modern 
 science acknowledges the doctrines of Buddhism, the 
 religion of the " Enlightened," to have been promul- 
 gated by at least the third century B.C. Of a 
 period in the East about coeval with that in which 
 the Emperor Constantine professed and established 
 Christianity in the West, we have recently had 
 revealed to us curious and interesting pictures in the 
 accounts of the travels of the Chinese Buddhist Pil- 
 grims. In these the line of march of the spiritual in 
 the material world is distinctly displayed to us at about 
 the fifth and seventh centuries of our era. And there 
 is much that is amazing. The travels in Affghanistan 
 and India, in the fifth century of our era, of the first of 
 
 A 
 
2 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 these Buddhist Pilgrims, Fah Hian, show religious and 
 philanthropical establishments which we have certainly 
 held to have been of comparatively modern growth. 
 His narrative has been translated by the Eev. S. Beal, 
 Professor of Chinese in University College, London. 
 
 The Pilgrim describes monasteries which appear to 
 present absolute similarities to those of the Church 
 of Rome both in general aspect and interior regula- 
 tions. He relates that all the resident priests have 
 chambers, beds, coverlets, food, drink and clothes, 
 provided without stint or reserve. The priests con- 
 tinually employ themselves in works of benevolence, 
 or in reciting their scriptures, or remaining in pro- 
 found meditation. Strangers are hospitably received 
 and their feet washed. He also mentions convents 
 of nuns. He describes the monks as erecting towers 
 in the monasteries, several stories in height, in honour 
 of their saints. He altogether indicates fashions in 
 architecture as elaborate as our own ; with political 
 and social institutions, outside the world of the 
 "religious," correspondingly complete. The excavated 
 temples, monastic halls, and cells of India have lately 
 been assigned to some centuries before and after this 
 period. But a description of the Pilgrim's seems 
 evidently to apply to the excavations of Elora in the 
 province of Aurungabad. He styles them a Sang- 
 harama of the former Buddha Kasyapa. He indicates 
 venerable antiquity, and that they have been deserted 
 by regular monks. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 3 
 
 Throughout India the monastic establishments 
 appear to have been in a most flourishing condition 
 in the fifth century a.d. He observes that, from the 
 time of Buddha's Nirvana, the kings and nobles of 
 India began to erect Viharas for the priesthood, and to 
 endow them with lands, gardens, houses, and also men 
 and oxen to cultivate them. " The records of these 
 endowments," he continues, " being engraved on sheets 
 of copper, have been handed down from one king to 
 another ; so that no one has dared to deprive them 
 of possession, and to this day they continue to enjoy 
 their proper revenues." 
 
 He alludes to priests, numbered by tens of thousands, 
 to processions, cars, images, &c. 
 
 He finds in Affghanistan 3000 monks studying 
 the Buddhistic Scriptures styled the Small and Great 
 Vehicles. Going south-eastwards, he passes various 
 temples, containing 10,000 priests or more, who 
 appear, however, to have been Brahminical. He finds 
 Buddhism in the vicinity of the Jumna; but what 
 he terms the worship of the deities (devas) appears 
 to prevail in that region. He comes, however, to 
 kingdoms in Western India, which " firmly believe in 
 the law of Buddha." Here laymen, even kings, are 
 not allowed to remain seated in the presence of the 
 priesthood on any loftier seat than a carpet on the 
 ground. He says of Madyadesa (the middle country), 
 " The inhabitants are prosperous and happy — there 
 are no boards of population and revenue. Those only 
 
4 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 who farm the royal demesnes pay a portion of the 
 produce as rent. The king, in the administration 
 of justice, inflicts no corporal punishment ; only, 
 after repeated attempts to excite rebellion, the right 
 hand is cut off." " The people of this country," 
 he continues, " kill no living creature, nor do they 
 drink intoxicating liquids ; and with the exception 
 of the chandalas, they eat neither garlic nor onions. 
 They do not deal in living animals, nor are there 
 shambles nor wine shops around their markets." 
 He visits the city of Kapilavastu, and sees the ruins 
 of the palace of Buddha's father. Here he mentions 
 monasteries containing 600 or 700 priests, scholars, 
 &c. He remarks that the nobles and landowners 
 of this country have founded hospitals within the 
 city, to which the poor of all countries, the desti- 
 tute and cripples, may repair for shelter. Physicians 
 inspect their diseases, and, according to their cases, 
 order them food or drink, medicine or concoctions — 
 everything, in fact, that may contribute to their ease. 
 He states that King Ashoka constructed 84,000 pago- 
 das ; and that he presented the whole of Jambudwipa 
 (the island of the Eose Apple, old name for India) to 
 the priests of the four quarters, and redeemed it again 
 in money. " He did this four times." Fah Hian 
 alludes to what appears to have been a very elaborate 
 system of relic worship. The " Enlightened " (Buddha) 
 himself, assisted by his disciples, had raised a tower of 
 70 or 80 feet in height, as a model for all future 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 5 
 
 commemorative buildings of the sort. He states that 
 the highest tower in Jambudwipa was 470 feet in 
 height. He mentions flags and silken canopies as 
 articles of religious decoration. 
 
 The Pilgrim weeps in pious ecstasy at a cave where 
 the " Enlightened " is alleged to have sat in adoration. 
 He recounts his (Buddha's) endurance of every sort of 
 agony for the sake of all flesh. He narrates that he 
 left his country, wife, and child. He tore out his eyes 
 to bestow them on another. He mangled his flesh to 
 deliver a dove from a hawk. He sacrificed his head 
 in alms. He gave his body to a famishing tiger. He 
 grudged not marrow nor brains. When he became 
 perfect Buddha, he was in the world forty-nine years, 
 preaching the law, and converting men. 
 
 He gave rest to the wretched. He saved the lost. 
 Having passed through countless births, amongst which 
 he had done the above-mentioned acts of self-sacrifice, 
 he entered Nirvana. Since that event 1497 y ea1 * 3 
 have passed. 
 
 The Chinese Pilgrim, then, travelling through India 
 to learn what he could of his religion, to visit its 
 sacred places, and to obtain copies of the Buddhist 
 scriptures, believed that the epoch of the Enlightened 
 was at the period at which our first great Sanscrit 
 scholar, Sir William Jones, placed it, viz. about 1000 
 B.C. It appears that the Buddhist scriptures were 
 usually learnt by rote in the monasteries, or, at all 
 events, that copies of scriptures and their books were 
 
6 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 rare. He could not obtain one till he reached Patna, 
 on the Ganges. 
 
 Fall Hian visits the birthplace of Buddha, and con- 
 templates the ruins of his father's palace. The whole 
 of his narrative seems consistent in indicating a greater 
 antiquity for the founding of his faith than we have 
 been disposed, in our reliance upon the Ceylonese 
 Chronicles, to admit for it. 
 
 Altogether he displays the existence of what must 
 have been a highly artificial civilisation, and a care- 
 fully ordered system of religious ritual, with attention 
 to practical philanthropy. And Fah Hian's state- 
 ment seems to show that the aristocratical and military 
 classes Lad become as thoroughly subservient to the 
 Buddhist clergy as ever they had or have become 
 to the Brahminical or Eomanist priesthoods. If the 
 account which has been quoted is accurate, the lofty 
 pretensions of the Buddhist monks may be reasonably 
 supposed to have had a share in producing their sup- 
 pression, or expulsion from India, by the regal power, 
 or by a general revolt of the laity against these pre- 
 tensions. This has usually been ascribed only to the 
 Brahmins. 
 
 By this period of Fah Hian, Buddhism had adopted 
 the idea of an antagonist to Buddha, extremely sug- 
 gestive of the Christian Antichrist. Fah Hian relates 
 that this person, Devadetta, poisoned his nails, in order 
 that he might destroy Buddha ; but he was sent down 
 alive into hell. He states that Devadetta had still a 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 7 
 
 body of disciples existing, who paid religious reverence 
 to the three past Buddhas, but not to Sakia Muni 
 (Gautauma Buddha). He mentions the existence of 
 six heretical sects in Middle India, who " allowed the 
 reality of worldly phenomena." " When the law of 
 Buddha is perishing," says Fah Hian, in curious analogy 
 to the words of St. Mark xiii. 14, "men who have 
 acquired religious merit shall escape from destruction, 
 and seek refuge in the mountains. Then the wicked 
 will repent, and Maitreya Buddha will come." 
 
 Extracts from the Hindu drama of this period, in 
 chapter iii. and following chapters, will show that 
 besides the spiritual in religion, the spiritual in life 
 was very assiduously cultivated. Philosophy, general 
 education, and the fine arts seem to have been peace- 
 ably pursued, with both imagination and refinement, 
 at the time when Borne was taken and plundered by 
 Alaric, king of the Visigoths. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Chinese pilgrim, Hiouen Thsang, visited India 
 about two centuries later than Fah Hian. Here is an 
 account of a monastery in Magaddha, taken from M. 
 Stanislas Julien's translation of his travels. It appears 
 to have been considered by the Pilgrim as the most 
 magnificent of the monasteries of India. He describes 
 
8 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 it as surrounded by a brick-wall, and containing eight 
 courts and several halls. Steeples were ranged in 
 regular order, and pavilions ornamented with coral. 
 Domes, he says, were boldly elevated to the clouds, 
 and the summits of the temples seemed to fly beneath 
 the vapours of the heaven. From their windows the 
 rising of the winds and clouds could be beheld, and 
 beneath their roofs, audacious in their height, the 
 sun and moon might be seen in conjunction. The 
 monastery was surrounded by water, adorned with the 
 blue lotus, overhung by the glistening butea fronclosa 
 with its scarlet blossoms, and shaded by luxuriant 
 mango groves. In the various courts the houses of 
 the " religious " had each four stories. The pillars of 
 the pavilions were decorated with dragons, and they 
 had balconies brilliant with the colours of the rain- 
 bow, and with carved balustrades. Columns were orna- 
 mented with jade, painted and richly chiselled. The 
 door-posts were elegantly decorated, and the roofs 
 were constructed of glittering tiles, flashing every 
 instant with variegated light. The monastery con- 
 tained 1 0,000 " religious," who studied that collection 
 of the Buddhist scriptures styled the Greater Vessel. 
 Even Oxford, with its increased numbers of late years, 
 only contains about 3000 students and resident 
 graduates in all its colleges combined. 
 
 The travels of Hiouen Thsaug testify to the exist- 
 ence of monasteries numbered by thousands, and 
 Buddhist monks by tens of thousands through a 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 9 
 
 great part of India at about the seventh century a.d. 
 The religious fervour had, however, already begun to 
 decline in favour of that particular form of devotion, for 
 he finds many ruined and deserted monasteries. He 
 constantly comes across relic mounds or monuments 
 attributed to the great Buddhist monarch Ashoka, who 
 has been assigned to about the third century B.C. In 
 the district of Benares he finds a flourishing and 
 dense population, the villages being close together, and 
 many families enormously rich. Their houses are 
 filled with rare and precious objects. He describes 
 the people there as polite in their manners and fond 
 of study, though few revere the law of Buddha. In 
 the city he beholds twenty temples of the Brahminical 
 deities, with towers of many stories, magnificent chapels 
 constructed of artistically sculptured stone and of wood 
 richly painted. Shady trees and streams of pure water 
 impart their cooling charms to the scenes. He de- 
 scribes the statue of the god Mahesvara, or Shiva, as 
 being made of brass and little under a hundred feet in 
 height. " His aspect is grave and majestic, and, at his 
 sight, respectful awe is felt as though he still lived." 
 
 To the north-east of Benares, he finds a relic monu- 
 ment constructed by Ashoka, and a great Buddhist 
 monastery. By the monument is a column of blue 
 stone, pure as a mirror, its surface being polished and 
 clear as glass. In it the shade of the Enlightened 
 (Buddha) might be seen. The monastery is divided 
 into many courts, all surrounded by a wall. Here 
 
io CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 he beheld balustrades, pavilions with double stories, 
 admirable in construction. In its midst was a Vihara, 
 two hundred feet in height, with its summit sur- 
 mounted by an image of the Amra tree, fabricated in 
 gold. The bases of the building and staircases were of 
 stone. All around this monument there were a hun- 
 dred richly-adorned niches ; each containing a statue of 
 the " Enlightened " in brass, of life size. There were 
 fifteen hundred monks in this monastery. 
 
 Mr. Eergusson seems to suggest, in his history of 
 Indian architecture, that the epoch of its grandeur 
 commenced at about the seventh century of our era. 
 But the circumstantial accounts of this pilgrim, even 
 allowing for exaggeration, appear to demonstrate that 
 India, throughout its extent (which is about equivalent 
 to that of Europe without Eussia and Sweden), was 
 then already filled with magnificent edifices. They 
 were erected in stone and in wood, with decorations 
 in the precious metals and in gems. They had towers 
 and pinnacles, and they were constantly adorned by 
 statues. Sacred and domestic edifices of imposing 
 dimensions and varied architecture seem to have 
 existed throughout the country, as in our modern 
 Europe, by at least 600 a.d. Many were old, while 
 there were numerous ruins in the land. At Mahasara 
 on the Ganges, at its confluence with the Sona, the 
 Pilgrim finds, for instance, a temple consecrated to 
 Narayanadeva, i.e. to the divinity, or form of divinity, 
 also styled Vishnu, and held to have been incarnate 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 11 
 
 on the earth as Vasudeva, Hari, or Krishna. He 
 describes it as having pavilions and towers with 
 double stories, decorated in the most brilliant manner. 
 " The statues of the deities are sculptured in stone 
 with marvellous art, and numerous miracles are re- 
 lated to have occurred there." 
 
 Of the inhabitants of several provinces he observes 
 that they have much esteem for the cultivation of 
 letters; sometimes he even states that they are 
 actually ardent in study, while they are usually de- 
 scribed as benignant in disposition and most polite in 
 manners. 
 
 He describes the towns as generally built of brick, 
 with walls around them, sometimes of bamboo stakes. 
 The public edifices have their towers, belvideres, and 
 terraces. Houses constructed of wood have tiled 
 roofs. The form of the buildings is the same as in 
 China. The monasteries he states to have been 
 erected with extraordinary art, with pavilions of two 
 or three stories in height at their angles, and the joists 
 and beams adorned with elegant sculptures. The 
 doors, windows, and porches are covered with paint- 
 ings in different colours. 
 
 Taking his accounts into consideration, with those 
 in the plays, and other indications which are to be 
 found throughout the literature in the Sanskrit, the 
 theory seems utterly untenable that the inhabitants 
 of this continent of India learned the arts of building 
 and sculpture in stone from the Greeks after Alex- 
 
12 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 ander's invasion. Considered conjointly with the old 
 civilisation of the still vaster China, long ages of in- 
 digenous culture are suggested. 
 
 Hiouen Thsang travelled down the eastern side 
 of India, nearly to the south of the peninsula, and 
 ascended by the western side. In the south as well 
 as the north he finds the intermingling of Buddhist 
 monasteries with congregations of " heretics," frequent- 
 ing the temples of the " deities." Of one district in 
 the present Madras Presidency he observes that the 
 people are brusque in their manners, but attached to 
 good faith and justice, and much given to religious 
 disputations. Of Kosala in this region, he remarks 
 that the inhabitants are brave but violent ; that there 
 are partisans both of heresy and truth amongst them ; 
 and that they are distinguished by the elevation and 
 brilliance of their knowledge. In Dhanakatcheka, in 
 the district of the river Godaveri, he remarks that 
 their skins are black, and that they are naturally 
 violent in their manners ; still that they love to culti- 
 vate letters. 1 Here he finds many temples of the 
 divinities and many ruined convents. In one district, 
 bordering on the sea, he remarks that they care not 
 for letters, but only for the pursuit of lucre. Here 
 are the ruins of a great number of ancient convents, 
 while many hundred temples of the " deities " (devas) 
 are in existence. 
 
 In Dravida of the South, he states that the in- 
 
 1 See Appendix I. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 13 
 
 habitants show a great respect for learned men. He 
 observes that their language and the characters of 
 their writings differed from those of Central India. 
 
 Altogether, in south as well as north, he finds a cul- 
 tivated, literary people, usually of amiable character 
 and honest disposition. Occasionally, as has been 
 the case in Italy to recent times, he encounters brig- 
 ands. He often finds the relic monuments, called 
 stiipas, of one hundred or two hundred feet in height ; 
 and images of Buddha, of ninety feet in height, are 
 mentioned, sculptured in stone as well as in brass. 
 The numerous images of smaller size are often adorned 
 with precious stones. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The India of this later Buddhistic period, viz., at about 
 the seventh century A.D., seems rather to have afforded 
 prototypes of future European culture than copies of 
 that of the Roman Empire. It was certainly far in 
 advance of the Empire of Charlemagne in the west. 
 We can trace the progress of Indian culture aud 
 spirituality backwards to the Vedas or sacred " Books 
 of Knowledge." These have been assigned, at the 
 latest, to the epochs of the Argonautic expedition and 
 the siege of Troy, viz., from 1225 to 1184 B.C. From 
 specimens of Indian poetry which will be adduced it 
 
H CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 will appear that the inhabitants of ancient India had 
 not much to learn from the Greeks at the time of 
 the temporary establishment of their power in the 
 north-west, after the decease of Alexander the Great. 
 But of course the unsurpassed perfection of Greek 
 sculpture must be admitted, the Indian being pro- 
 bably over-elaborate always ; but over-elaboration is 
 suggested by their world of foliage and flowers. 
 
 It is said in the Tatlcr, No. 42, that in Wills' 
 Coffee-house a gentleman remarked that there was no 
 method in the world of knowing the taste of an age or 
 period so good as by the observations of the persons 
 represented in their comedies. At about the epochs 
 corresponding with those of the abandonment of Britain 
 by the Bomans, the Danish invasions, the Saxon hep- 
 tarchy, and Alfred the Great's victories, with his in- 
 troductions of culture — extending, perhaps, to the 
 periods of the Crusades — many elaborate dramas were 
 produced in India. Of these, " Sakuntala, or the 
 Fatal Bing," — first translated by Sir William Jones, 
 and lately by Brofessor Monier Williams — has been 
 adapted and performed in Germany. 
 
 A play entitled " Hero and Nymph " is attributed 
 to Kalidasa, author of " Sakunlala." In this "Hero 
 and Nymph," old artificial civilisation and spiritual 
 love of the beauties of nature appear, such as it has 
 been customary only to place to the credit of our own 
 age. It has been translated by H. Hayman Wilson, 
 late Brofessor of Sanskrit in the University of Oxford. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 15 
 
 In the prelude a dialogue between " Manager " and 
 " Actor " demonstrates that- dramas were no novel 
 institution at this epoch. 
 
 The Manager says — 
 
 " Many assemblies have witnessed the composition 
 of former dramatic bards ; I therefore propose to 
 exhibit one not hitherto represented, the drama of 
 Vikrama and Urvasi. Desire the company to be ready 
 to do justice to their respective parts." 
 
 Actor. " I shall, sir." 
 
 Manager. " I have now only to request the audience 
 to listen to this work of Kalidasa with kindness and 
 attention." 
 
 A chorus of Apsarasas, or heavenly nymphs, is 
 introduced ; and the play is altogether suggestive, in 
 its mingling of human and supernatural beings, of our 
 "Midsummer- Night's Dream," or "Tempest." The 
 principal character in the piece, the king, has a 
 Brahmin for a confidential companion. But he is by 
 no means represented as an austere ascetic, but rather 
 in the guise of what we should consider as a character 
 of " eccentric comedy." Observing, for instance, that 
 the king is sad and silent, he proposes a visit to the 
 kitchen ; because " the very sight of the savoury dishes 
 in course of preparation will be sufficient to dissipate all 
 melancholy ideas." On another occasion he remarks 
 that the moon is " as beautiful as a ball of almonds 
 and sugar." 
 
1 6 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 Here is a description of the noontide heat, of 
 another style : 
 
 "'Tis past mid-day. Exhausted by the heat, 
 The peacock plunges in the scanty pool 
 That feeds the tall tree's root ; the drowsy bee 
 Sleeps in the hollow chamber of the lotus, 
 Darkened with closing petals. On the brink 
 Of the now tepid lake the wild duck lurks 
 Amongst the sedgy shade ; and even here 
 The parrot from his wiry bower complains, 
 And calls for water to allay his thirst." 
 
 The king loses the nymph by whose charms he has 
 been fascinated, while wandering with her amidst the 
 groves, for she has entered upon enchanted ground, 
 and consequently been transformed into a slender vine- 
 tree. Distracted, he searches for his beloved. He 
 exclaims : 
 
 " The monarch of the woods, 
 With slow desponding gait, 
 Wanders through vales and floods, 
 And rocks and forest bowers, 
 Gemmed with new-springing flowers, 
 And mourns, heart-broken, for his absent mate." 
 
 In his anxiety to obtain tidings he makes inquiries 
 of a peacock which he sees perched upon a jutting 
 crag : 
 
 "Bird of the dark-blue throat and eye of jet, 
 Oh tell me, have you seen the lovely face 
 Of my fair bride, lost in this dreary wilderness ? " 
 
 The peacock shows no sympathy, so the king con- 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 17 
 
 tinues to lament, now singing, while music is con- 
 tinually heard : 
 
 "Yonder amid the thick and shady branches 
 Of the broad jambic, cowers the koil, faint 
 Her flame of passion in the hotter breath 
 Of noon. She, of the birds, is wisest framed." 
 
 I will address her : 
 
 " Say, nursling of a stranger nest — 
 Say, hast thou chanced my love to see, 
 Amidst these gardens of the blest, 
 Wandering at liberty, 
 Or warbling with a voice divine 
 Melodious strains, more sweet than thine ? " 
 
 He entreats this bird, " whom lovers deem love's 
 messenger," to lead his steps to where she strays. He 
 exclaims passionately : 
 
 <: Why did she leave one so devoted to her will ? 
 In wrath she left me. But the cause of anger lives not 
 In my imagination. The fond tyranny 
 That women exercise o'er those that love them 
 Brooks not the slightest show of disregard. 
 How now, the bird has flown. 'Tis ever thus. 
 All coldly listen to another's sorrows." 
 
 After asking the swan whether he has seen her, 
 
 " Graceful straying 
 Along the flowery borders of the lake," 
 
 and apostrophising other birds, he contemplates witli 
 envy " a royal elephant," and his mate accepting a 
 bough snapped off from a tree. At length he per- 
 ceives a gem " more roseate than the blush of the 
 
 B 
 
18 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 ashoka blossom." He is unwilling to take this jewel, 
 because she is absent whose brow it should have 
 adorned. But a voice in the air bids him take it, 
 for it possesses wondrous virtue. Let it adorn his 
 hand, and he will shortly cease to lament for his 
 absent bride. He obeys, and forthwith feels a strange 
 emotion. He gazes on a vine : " No blossoms deck 
 the boughs, no bees regale her with their songs; 
 silent, sad, and lonely, she shows the image of his 
 repentant love, who now mourns for her causeless 
 indignation. He presses the ' melancholy likeness to 
 his heart,' and the vine changes into Urvasi." After 
 affectionate explanations, and expressions of delight at 
 their reunion, they return to the city, which laments 
 its absent lord, making " a cloud their downy car." 
 Music is heard, and the invisible voice or chorus 
 sings : 
 
 " The ardent swan his mate recovers, 
 And all his spirit is delight ; 
 With her aloft in air he hovers, 
 
 And homeward wings his joyous flight." 
 
 There is another act, however, in which the Indian 
 Mercury, Narada, descends to assist in the inauguration 
 of the king's son as vice-monarch, and the chorus 
 invokes blessings on him : 
 
 " Son of the monarch the universe filling, 
 Son of the god of the mist-shedding night, 
 Son of the sage, whom the great Brahma, willing, 
 Called, with creation, to life and to light." 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 19 
 
 In fact the spiritual side of life is always present 
 in these dramas. The play ends with the following 
 benediction from the king : — 
 
 " May learning and prosperity oppose 
 
 No more each other, as their wont, as foes ; 
 But, in a friendly bond together twined, 
 Ensure the real welfare of mankind." 
 
 This drama of " Hero and Nymph " may be pro- 
 nounced ultra-sentimental, but surely it cannot be 
 denied that it indicates cultured life fitted for the 
 reception of spiritual ideas. It not only suggests 
 Shakespearian plays, but the masques of our ancestors, 
 modern French Feerics, and the partly sentimental, 
 partly humorous extravaganzas by Mr. Planch e, which 
 were produced on the English stage about the year 
 1853. " King Charming, or the Blue Bird of Paradise," 
 is curiously recalled to mind by the king's dialogue 
 with the peacock. In our " King Charming," however, 
 it is not the heroine who is transformed, but the king 
 who is changed into a " blue bird of Paradise." 
 
 CHAPTEK IV. 
 
 Mrs. Manning observes, in her "Ancient and Mediaeval 
 India," that the play of Malati and Madhava is one 
 of the few which shares with Sakuntala the honour of 
 being still occasionally read by pandits. It represents 
 
20 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST ; OR, 
 
 a time at which the temples of Shiva and Kama (the 
 Indian Cupid) were generally frequented, although 
 Buddhists and Buddhist schools and convents were 
 powerful. 
 
 This play is attributed to the eighth century a.d. 
 by Professor Weber. It has a plot founded upon a 
 dramatic device which has been frequently employed 
 in modern times, one of the latest examples being 
 Mr. Theyre Smith's comedietta of " My Uncle's Will." 
 The story here is that two school companions of high 
 rank pledged each other that so soon as their respec- 
 tive children should be of the right age they should 
 be married. The father of the girl is Prime Minister 
 to the King of Padmavati, supposed to be Oujein, at 
 which place the scene of the play is laid. The father 
 of the boy is the Prime Minister of a neighbouring 
 kingdom to the south of Oujein. In preparation for 
 the intended marriage the boy, or young man, is sent 
 to study logic in a Buddhist college at Oujein, the 
 city in which resided the future bride and her father, 
 then its Prime Minister. 
 
 Curiously the head of this college or convent is a 
 woman who had been nurse to the lovely Malati. 
 Here is a marriageable youth sent to study under a 
 woman. We have in England our preparatory schools 
 for boys presided over by the fair sex, but that a 
 woman should be considered the correct head of a 
 college in which logic is to be taught to a boy who 
 is old enough to love, seems to have been a realisation 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 21 
 
 of the " sweet-girl graduate " idea. We have our 
 feminine colleges now in Oxford and Cambridge, and 
 the time may he approaching when hoys or young 
 men will be sent to be under the instruction of some 
 celebrated feminine Principal of one of them. An 
 interchange may even take place between the semi- 
 naries at present set apart for young men and ladies 
 respectively, and the two become commingled. " This 
 woman," remarks Mrs. Manning, " is a Buddhist — good 
 and conscientious, clever and scheming, and by her 
 the whole plot of the drama is worked out." She 
 promotes the love-making between the two, and assists 
 them, when, owing to the command of the King, the 
 girl is ordered to wed another instead of her lover. 
 A former pupil of hers has, by long-continued austeri- 
 ties, obtained mystic powers of flying, &c. ; and by 
 her aid the denouement is brought about, and the 
 lovers are united." This feminine ascetic bows in 
 adoration before the Lord of Bhavani (Shiva), showing 
 that the Buddhists had continued the adoration of 
 the Deity, now considered Brahminical, with that of 
 Buddha. 
 
 The worship of the spouse of Shiva, under her 
 terrible aspect as Kali, here called Chamunda, claimed 
 at this epoch even human victims. One sensational 
 incident in the drama is the kidnapping of the 
 heroine to sacrifice her to the goddess. She is 
 rescued from the sacrificial sword by her lover. 
 The hero observes, on one occasion, that the damsel 
 
22 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 draws his heart like a rod of the ironstone gem. 
 " This renders it possible," remarks Professor H. H. 
 Wilson, " that artificial magnets, as well as the pro- 
 perties of the loadstone, were known to the Hindus." 
 
 The play terminates with a tag of philanthropic 
 character, after the Buddhist Abbess has brought 
 about the happy denouement. The lover, blest with 
 the object of his adoration, says : 
 
 " My happiness henceforth is perfect ; all 
 The wish I cherish, more is this, and may 
 Your favour, holy dame, grant it fruition. 
 Still may the virtuous be exempt from error, 
 And fast to virtue cling. May monarchs, merciful 
 And firm in equity, protect the earth ; 
 May in due season from the labouring clouds 
 The fertile showers descend ; and may the people, 
 Blest in their friends, their kindred, and their children, 
 Unknowing want, live cheerful and content." 
 
 When Malati is to be wedded to the King's pro- 
 tege, she escapes from her predicament by her lover's 
 friend, who disguises himself in the bridal costume 
 sent for her to assume in the temple of Sri (the 
 Indian Ceres). This consisted of a corset of white 
 silk, a red muslin mantle, with necklace, sandal, 
 and a chaplet of flowers. Here is a description 
 of the marriage procession conveying her to the 
 Temple : 
 
 A hollow murmur comes upon the ear like that of 
 rushing clouds, and as the procession draws nearer, 
 drums that peal in joy drown every other sound. 
 " White umbrellas float, like trembling lotuses, in the 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 23 
 
 lake of the atmosphere." Banners undulate like 
 waves as they play before the wind of the choiuris, 
 which hover about like swans. The elephants ad- 
 vance, their golden bells tinkling as they stride. They 
 are mounted by merry bevies of damsels singing songs 
 of rejoicing, " uttered indistinctly, as interrupted by 
 the betel which perfumes their mouths, and blazing 
 like rays of light with glittering jewels." And these 
 jewels, the writer further remarks, were of variegated 
 tints, as if they were portions of Indra's divine bow. 
 As Malati herself draws near we are told that the 
 throng of attendants fall off to a respectful distance, 
 and keep back the crowd with staves covered with 
 gold and silver. Her elephant, painted with vermilion, 
 resembles the ruddy dawn ; or with the twenty-seven 
 pearls on her brow (an allusion to the twenty- 
 seven lunar mansions), looks like the brilliant night. 
 Malati herself, in her deep grief, appears like some 
 fair plant just budding into flower, but withered at 
 the core. 
 
 Here is a speech assigned to a plotting prime 
 minister in a play of much dramatic action, ascribed 
 also by Professor Weber to the eighth century. It is 
 suggestive of the words which Shakespeare puts into 
 the mouth of the sleepless monarch. It also shows 
 that the drama of the period was no mere spontaneous 
 outburst of uncultured genius, but artificial, elaborated 
 with rules, and constructed in what we have styled the 
 " unities : " 
 
24 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 " It will not be. Sleep flies me ; nor the change 
 Of night or clay, short intermission brings 
 From watchful care ; whilst fate continues adverse, 
 And aids the crooked projects of Chanakya. 
 Such task is mine, as on dramatic bard 
 Devolves, to fix the object of the action, 
 Develop fitting incidents, uprear 
 Fruit unexpected from self-pregnant seeds, 
 Dilate, condense, perplex, and last reduce 
 The various acts to one auspicious close." 
 
 Ill a play called " The Necklace," attributed to 
 King Harsha of Kashmir, who reigned between A.D. 
 1 1 13 and 1 125, we find a princess skilled in por- 
 trait-painting. The scene is in the garden of the 
 palace. 
 
 The Princess Sagarika has just painted a portrait of 
 the king, with whom she has already fallen in love. 
 In her picture he is the god of love, to whom flowers 
 and perfumes are being presented, as in a sort of 
 masque in which she had seen him play that part. 
 The friend and companion with whom she has come 
 from Ceylon discovers her, and says, " Ha ! she is 
 here, but so intent upon some painting that she does 
 not notice my approach." The friend, Susangata, by 
 name, perceiving whose portrait she has taken, rallies 
 her upon her admiration for this god of love ; and saying 
 she must give the god his bride, she adds the portrait 
 of Sagarika to the picture. This friend was in charge 
 of the Queen's favourite talking-bird, called here a 
 s&rika. 
 
 The princess is rather distressed to find she has 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 25 
 
 revealed her secret. The friend says, " Be assured I 
 will not betray you ; it is more likely this prattling 
 bird will repeat our conversation." The princess be- 
 comes much agitated ; the friend cools her with lotus- 
 leaves and fibres. Nevertheless the princess faints 
 until aroused by confused voices behind the scenes, 
 which announce that " the monkey has escaped from 
 the stable ; " and, rattling the ends of his broken chain 
 of gold, he " clatters along as if a number of female feet, 
 bound with tinkling anklets, were in sportive motion." 
 Chased by the grooms and frightening the women, 
 he has bounded through the inner gate. 
 
 By this device of the monkey terrifying the girls, 
 the picture is dropt when they make their escape, 
 and it comes into the possession of the king. 
 
 The ambassador from Ceylon is struck with admira- 
 tion at the magnificence of the king's palace. He 
 exclaims that its " avenues present a splendid scene. 
 The eye is bewildered amongst the stately steeds and 
 mighty elephants of war. The ear is regaled with 
 harmonious sounds, and the heart is gratified by 
 mixing with the throng of attending princes. The 
 state of the King of Sinhala (Ceylon) is here effaced ; 
 and the magnificence of the entrance into every court 
 betrays me into rustic admiration." 
 
26 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST: OR, 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Our allegories of the European literary renaissance 
 certainly had their prototypes in India some centuries 
 earlier, not only in the poetry of the country but in 
 the drama. A curious play, attributed to the twelfth 
 century a.d., which is entitled " Prabodha-Chandro- 
 daya ; or the Rising of the Moon of Awakened Intel- 
 lect," is theological and philosophical in its design. 
 Delusion is represented as king and commander of 
 Love, Anger, Avarice, and all other sensuous powers ; 
 whilst Hypocrisy, Self-importance, Materialism, and 
 all heresies are his allies. 
 
 On the opposite side is Reason, monarch and leader 
 of an army of virtues. An encounter ensues between 
 these opposing forces, but finally Tranquillity enables 
 Reason to harmonise with Revelation. Then the 
 Moon of Awakened Intellect can arise and illuminate 
 mortals. 
 
 The prologue commences with an invocation to the 
 Supreme Spirit — the primeval cause. " With reverence 
 we approach that spotless, heavenly, self-recognising 
 Light, which, appearing as a sea in the deceiving 
 beams of the mid-day sun, evolved itself as ether, air, 
 fire, water, earth." " To that highest Light the created 
 soul returns when plunged in deepest stillness." By 
 this is intended the conception that when the aspira- 
 tions of earthly ambitions, desires, and unrest in 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 27 
 
 general are extinguished in the contemplation of the 
 Supreme Being, and in the realisation of the Spirit 
 of All in the individual self, then the individual 
 becomes one with the Divine. 
 
 " The light prevails when the world is filled with 
 the ascetic followers of the Deity whose head is 
 adorned with the crescent moon, and who is made 
 known by the eye in the centre of his forehead " 
 (Shiva). " But wherefore many words ? " continues 
 the manager. " The glorious Gopala (i.e. the goatherd 
 Krishna), he whose lotus feet are irradiated by the 
 diadems of kings, . . . desires us this day to evince 
 our joy in the accomplished victories of our prince, 
 King Kirtivarman. For this purpose we propose to 
 perform a drama in which personified Tranquillity 
 shall be a leading character ; and we have chosen 
 that which is entitled 'The Rising of the Moon of 
 Awakened Intellect.' " This piece, the manager con- 
 tinues, composed by the much-honoured Krishna 
 Misra, which " the king and the multitude are 
 eager to see," we will at once prepare. He lifts a 
 curtain and calls. An actress appears, inquiring 
 what it is he proposes. The manager replies as 
 follows : — 
 
 " You are aware that Gopala, whose fame resounds 
 through every region, has with his sword conquered 
 inimical kings, and has re-established our Raja Kirti- 
 varman upon his throne. The battlefield on which 
 the demonesses dance, proclaims his praise in far- 
 
28 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 resounding notes, whilst the little women of the 
 Kobbolds clash together with their nimble ringers the 
 skulls of the dead, and the wind, resounding through 
 the frontal cavities of the slain elephants, trumpets 
 forth his fame. This Gopala," he concludes, " having 
 become tranquil, desires the performance of the Rising 
 of the Moon of Awakened Intellect. Desire the per- 
 formers to take their parts." 
 
 The actress asks for explanation of Gopala's tran- 
 quillity. The manager replies that it is analogous to 
 no other proceeding in the world's history. Periods 
 of violent activity, followed by seasons of absolute 
 repose, are characteristic of Eternal Deity. And this 
 Gopala, as soon as his duties had been fulfilled, con- 
 quered Karman (activity) as Eeason conquers De- 
 lusion. 
 
 A voice is heard behind the scenes, which says : 
 
 " You good - for - nothing fellow ! how dare you 
 declare that Delusion will be conquered so long as I 
 exist ? " 
 
 " Ah ! " says the manager, " that is Love or Kama 
 (Desire) who, with his rolling eyes, bewitches the 
 world. We have enraged him. Let us begone." 
 
 Love is represented as accompanied by Pleasure. 
 He declares that Eeason originates in mere books, and 
 cannot acquire an ascendancy over his weapons, such 
 as lovely palaces, youthful maidens, flowers amongst 
 which the bees are humming, winds laden with the 
 scent of jessamine, moonlit nights. Pleasure, however, 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 29 
 
 thinks that Eeason is a formidable opponent, but Love 
 observes that fear is natural to the feminine heart, and 
 he bids her remember that, although his bow is com- 
 posed of sugar-cane and his arrows of flowers, that 
 he can nevertheless, subdue the universe. Love, how- 
 ever, states that Saraswati (eloquence or divine wis- 
 dom) is about to appear on the earth, and that she will 
 be a terrible enemy. 
 
 Hypocrisy is represented as a Brahman. Egotism, 
 Deceit, Greed, and Avarice are his friends. King 
 Delusion enters with numerous followers, and speaks 
 superciliously of those who conceive that soul is dis- 
 tinct from body, and that reward can be enjoyed in a 
 future existence. When he appears, a voice exclaims 
 behind the scenes : 
 
 "Make ready the bejewelled crystal palace. 
 Sprinkle the floors with sandal- scented water. Let 
 the fountains play. Erect arches of precious stones. 
 Plant waving flags, brilliant as the rainbow, on the 
 palace roof." 
 
 The King declares that the Material alone is true. 
 Nothing is known of what is beyond. Death is the 
 end. 
 
 A Charvaka, or materialist, appears accompanied 
 by a pupil. These thank King Delusion for giving 
 them and their friend Vice comfort and courage ; and 
 they warn him of a dangerous female, a strict devotee 
 of Vishnu (the All-pervading) called Devotion. Heresy 
 boasts that he will convince Eeligion, who has become 
 
30 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 the ambassador of Reason, that justice, blessedness, 
 the Yedas, ascetic practices, knowledge of holy books, 
 and the doctrine of rewards in future existence are all 
 mere follies ; that she will perceive the error of seek- 
 ing blessedness by the abstinence from sensuous enjoy- 
 ment and become indifferent to Eevelation. 
 
 An ascetic of the sect of the Jains and a Buddhist 
 mendicant appear on the scene, who are enslaved by 
 the allurements of sense, and become intoxicated, 
 handing one another wine-cups and dancing together 
 in drunken frolic. 
 
 The troops of King Eeason are ordered to be in 
 readiness for action, — elephants, war-chariots, cavalry, 
 and infantry, whose spears are said to move onwards 
 like a forest of lotus' blossom. On arriving at the 
 temple of Vishnu in Benares, Eeason adores the deity 
 and prays that he may grant to the world, which im- 
 plores him, that Awakened Intellect may arise and 
 that Delusion may be destroyed. 
 
 In the battle that ensues, Eeason is victorious, and 
 offers as terms of peace that Delusion should abandon 
 the altars of Vishnu, the holy places on rivers or in 
 woods, and also the hearts of the pious ; betaking him- 
 self and his followers to such peoples as are barbarous. 
 But Delusion is not yet conquered, and he calls Hereti- 
 cal Doctrine and Logic to the rescue. Then Divine 
 Wisdom reveals herself, armed with the beneficent 
 influence of the sacred books from the Vedas onwards ; 
 and the adorers of Vishnu, Shiva (literally the aus- 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 31 
 
 picious one), and of the Sun rally round her. She 
 declares that Brahma, or primaeval Light, is tranquil, 
 changeless, and without beginning or end. From this 
 holy Light have proceeded Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, to 
 whom man prays ; and she says that the Lord of the 
 Universe must be apprehended by means of the holy 
 teaching of the Scriptures. Again a fierce battle is 
 waged. Some heretics are destroyed by holy learning. 
 Buddhists fly to the eastward, and others take refuge in 
 distant countries. Love is slain by Eight Discrimina- 
 tion, Anger by Patience, and Eeason becomes united 
 with Revelation. It is announced that the Moon of 
 Awakened Intellect has arisen, that Light has entered 
 into Mind and swallowed up Delusion and his adhe- 
 rents. And the drama concludes with the following 
 " tag " — 
 
 "Now is Eeason contented, now are his enemies 
 overthrown ; and I, through the favour of worshipping 
 the All-pervading, have attained true blessedness. 
 Now, therefore, I pray that seasonable rain may 
 fertilise the earth, that kings may rule in peace, and 
 that the noble-minded, who are delivered from sin by 
 the knowledge of truth, may be safely carried across 
 that ocean of life which is afflicted by the sorrows of 
 egotism." 
 
 This work, observes Mrs. Manning, was little known 
 in Europe until the year 1842, when Professor Eosen- 
 kranz of Konigsberg induced a friend, who was 
 familiar alike with Sanskrit and with Sanskrit philo- 
 
32 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 sophies, to make for him a new translation from 
 Sanskrit into German. If this translator was correct 
 in assigning it to the twelfth century of our era, it 
 must have been written before Mahommed's capture of 
 Benares in 1 194, when he is said to have demolished 
 the idols of a thousand temples and to have loaded 
 four thousand camels with his spoil. During the 
 preceding two centuries the North- Western Provinces 
 had been overrun by the Mohammedans ; and terrible 
 destructions of life, and of temples and images, had 
 taken place at Lahore, at Somnauth in Gujerat, and 
 other places. Benares is described in the drama as 
 splendid in buildings which have stolen their white- 
 ness from the moon, adorned with many-coloured flags, 
 and possessing gardens filled with lofty trees, and 
 flowers of delicious perfumes. It does not seem pro- 
 bable that it can have suffered from the Moham- 
 medans when this work was composed. 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 The extracts which have been cited from this and 
 other plays display culture, both of mind and body, of 
 a very elaborate kind. From Mohammedan history 
 we obtain an insight into the wealth of India at the 
 close of this dramatic period. Mahmoud is stated to 
 have found in the temples of Mathura, on the Jumna, 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 33 
 
 five large idols of pure gold, with eyes of rubies of great 
 value, and above a hundred images of silver. When he 
 returned to Ghizni, he displayed, as his spoil, bullion 
 in value .^"4 5 9,000, with jewels, pearls, and other 
 precious effects, and 350 elephants. At Somnauth he 
 found a spacious hall, with its lofty roof, supported by 
 fifty-six pillars, covered with plates of gold, and inlaid 
 with precious stones. One pendent lamp spread a re- 
 fulgent light over thousands of small images in gold or 
 silver, ranged around the temple. In the midst stood 
 a great idol of marble, which he caused to be broken 
 in pieces, and in which an immense quantity of jewels 
 were discovered. The treasure which he took from 
 this celebrated sanctuary is stated to have amounted 
 to 20,000,000 dinaurs, computed to be equal, at the 
 lowest computation, to ,£9,166,666, 13s. 4d. In this 
 establishment, besides 2000 Brahmins, there were 500 
 dancing girls, 300 musicians, and 300 barbers. In 
 the south of India, as well as in the north, an almost 
 incredible amount was obtained of wealth — in gold, 
 precious stones, pearls, elephants and horses, &c. &c. 
 The Mohammedan soldiers are said to have thrown 
 away their spoil in silver as too cumbersome to carry 
 on the march, such was the abundance of gold. They 
 reported that no persons wore bracelets, chains, or 
 rings of any other metal than gold ; and all the plate 
 in the houses of the great, as well as in the temples, 
 was of beaten gold. 
 
 At about this period the enthusiasm of Europe was 
 
 c 
 
34 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST ; OR, 
 
 engaged in the crusades for the recovery of the Holy 
 Sepulchre. Notwithstanding the amenities of chivalry, 
 and the rising beauty of Gothic architecture, it can 
 scarcely be contended that our civilisation was then 
 so advanced as that indicated in these Indian plays of 
 the epoch rangiug from the first to the twelfth century 
 of our era. In the year 45 5, Borne had been taken 
 and sacked by the Vandals under Genseric. In 476 
 the Western Empire came to its end, and Odoacer the 
 Goth assumed the title of King of Italy. In the sixth 
 century Justinian, in the Eastern Boman Empire, had 
 reformed the law, and published the code which be- 
 came the foundation of jurisprudence in Europe upon 
 the revival of learning in the West. But Gibbon 
 observes that at every step, as we sink deeper into 
 the decline and fall of the Eastern Empire, the annals 
 of each succeeding reign impose upon the historian 
 an ungrateful and melancholy task. " The subjects of 
 the Byzantine Empire, who assume and dishonour the 
 names both of Greeks and Bomans, present a dead 
 uniformity of abject vices. A succession of priests or 
 courtiers tread in each other's footsteps in the same 
 path of servitude or superstition." In the fourteenth 
 century Constantinople was besieged, in the fifteenth 
 captured by the Turks, Mohammedanism thus con- 
 quering the two great Aryan civilisations of the 
 Hindus in Northern India and of the Greeks in 
 Eastern Europe at about the same period. The zeal 
 of Christianity had been manifested in religious war 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 35 
 
 so early as the sixth century. " Vitalian," says Gib- 
 bon, in chapter xlvii. of his History, " with an army 
 of Huns and Barbarians, for the most part idolaters, 
 declared himself the champion of the Catholic Faith. 
 He depopulated Thrace, besieged Constantinople, ex- 
 terminated sixty-five thousand of his fellow-Christians, 
 till he obtained the recall of the bishops, the satisfac- 
 tion of the Pope, and the establishment of the Council 
 of Chalcedon, an orthodox treaty reluctantly signed by 
 the dying Emperor Anastasius ; " who was considered 
 to have offended against the true Trinitarian doctrine 
 of the Church. The seventh and eighth centuries are 
 described as a "period of discord and darkness, when 
 much science and literary accomplishment had dis- 
 appeared, to reappear in the dawn of restoration in the 
 ninth century." India possessed certainly at this epoch 
 science as well as art in high development. In the 
 Code of Manu, by at least a thousand years before the 
 Code of Justinian, laws had been promulgated for the 
 regulation of commerce, the conveyance of property, 
 and the duties of rulers, as well as regulations for 
 moral and religious observances. Curiously at about 
 the time when monasticism in India was declining, it 
 was obtaining its full influence in Europe in the 
 establishment of the Dominicans and Franciscans in 
 about the year 1 2 1 o a.d. But imposing as may 
 have been the extent and flourishing condition of the 
 monastic bodies in Europe, the revelations of the 
 Chinese Pilgrims certainly exhibit a more amazing 
 
36 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 spread in India of their system in Buddhism, which 
 seems precisely analogous to that of our begging Friars. 
 Considering it in conjunction with the culture displayed 
 in the plays, it seems impossible to conceive the Eastern 
 civilisation to have been imitated from the West. 
 Indeed this is demonstrated by allusions in the Vedas, 
 admitted by all scholars to have been compiled in their 
 present form -by at least the time of David, in the 
 eleventh century B.C. Certainly the spiritual was 
 marching with progressing civilisation. And the 
 accounts of the Chinese Pilgrims of the fifth and 
 seventh centuries testify to an extraordinary amount 
 of religious fervour side by side with the worldli- 
 ness depicted in the drama. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 At this period, corresponding to the " Flight " of the 
 Prophet Mahomet from Mecca to Medina, and to the 
 firm establishment of the use of images in the Catholic 
 Church, as Gibbon informs us, China boasted to have 
 had a code of laws for nearly 2000 years ; while the 
 art of block-printing had been known there for four 
 centuries. The religions of Brahminism and Buddhism 
 in India each possessed a voluminous body of sacred 
 writings, the latter of which had been adopted in 
 China. In India also existed numerous essays of a 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 37 
 
 scientific, and poems of elaborate and fanciful but 
 always spiritual character. The general life of these 
 great countries, embracing populations at least twice 
 as extensive as those of modern Europe and America 
 combined, was widely cultured. In the rules of 
 civilised warfare, in the social ceremonies and in the 
 love of the beautiful, our modern states were certainly 
 forestalled. There was not that extent of barbarism 
 or ferocity which mingled with the grandeur and 
 literary culture of Borne. Greece, if not equalled in 
 taste or surpassed in temporary power, had been 
 excelled in the permanence and stability which has 
 even to this day marked the institutions of the popu- 
 lous realms of Asia to the east of the Indus. 
 
 In Central America, Mexico and Peru, magnificent 
 temples and palaces were in existence, with colleges 
 of priests, educational establishments of a religious 
 character for both sexes, and a most elaborate devo- 
 tional ritual, combined with exceedingly careful and 
 apparently long-matured systems of political economy. 
 
 Prescott, in his " Conquest of Peru," observes that 
 " no man could be rich, no man could become poor in 
 Peru." " The law was constantly directed to enforce 
 a steady industry and a sober management of a man's 
 affairs." In regard to religion, temples were in every 
 city, and altars smoking with burnt-offerings. 
 
 Of its ruins Prescott observes that " some find in 
 them a warrant for an antiquity of thousands of years. 
 Trees, which measure nine feet in diameter, have shot 
 
3 8 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 up ill the midst of buildings." Accumulations of 
 vegetable mould are found nine feet above pavements. 
 Between Vera Cruz and the capital of Mexico " stands 
 the venerable relic called the Temple of Cholula. It 
 is a pyramidal mound, built, or rather cased, with 
 unburnt brick, rising to the height of nearly 180 feet. 
 The popular tradition of the natives is that it was 
 erected by a family of giants, who had escaped the 
 great inundation, and designed to raise the building 
 to the clouds ; but the gods, offended with their pre- 
 sumption, sent fires from heaven on the pyramid, and 
 compelled them to abandon the attempt." 
 
 Mr. George Squier, in " Incidents of Travel and 
 Exploration in the Land of the Incas," observes that 
 " the temple of the sun was the principal and pro- 
 bably the most imposing edifice, not only in Cuzco, 
 but in all Peru, if not in all America. The accounts 
 of its splendour and riches left by the conquerors, 
 and in which they have exhausted the superlatives of 
 their grandiose language, have been so often repro- 
 duced as to be familiar to every intelligent reader. 
 They represent the structure as being 400 paces in 
 circuit, with high walls of finely cut stones. The 
 chronicle, erroneously attributed to Sarmiento, states 
 that the writer never saw but two edifices in Spain 
 comparable with it in workmanship. The cornice of 
 the walls, outside and in, was of gold, or plated with 
 crold, as were the inner walls. At the eastern end 
 was a great plate of gold representing the sun ; and, 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 39 
 
 ranged beneath it, in royal robes, and seated in golden 
 chairs, were the desiccated — some say embalmed — 
 bodies of the Inca rulers. This plate, all of one 
 piece, spread from one wall to the other, and was the 
 only object of worship in the building. Surrounding 
 the court were other separate structures, dedicated 
 respectively to the Moon, Venus, the Pleiades, Thunder, 
 Lightning, and the Eainbow. There were also a large 
 saloon for the Supreme Pontiff, and apartments for 
 attendants. All these are described as having been 
 richly decorated with gold and silver." 
 
 In Mr. Norman's " Ptambles in Yucatan, or Notes 
 of Travel through the Peninsula ; including a Visit to 
 the remarkable Euins of Chi-Chien, Kabah, Zayi, and 
 Uxmal," he remarks of the first : — 
 
 " For five days did I wander up and down among 
 these crumbling monuments of a city which, I hazard 
 little in saying, must have been one of the largest the 
 world has ever seen. I beheld before me, for a circuit 
 of many miles in diameter, the walls of palaces and 
 temples and pyramids, more or less dilapidated. The 
 earth was strewed, as far as the eye could distinguish, 
 with columns, some broken and some nearly perfect, 
 which seemed to have been planted there by the 
 genius of desolation which presided over this awful 
 solitude. After the most careful search I could dis- 
 cover (amongst the Indians) no traditions, no supersti- 
 tions, no legends of any kind." 
 
 He remarks that " the buildings which are now in 
 
4 o CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 the most perfect state of preservation, are the temple, 
 castle, pyramid, and other erections, upon a succession 
 of terraces composed of rubble, embedded in mortar, 
 held together by finished walls of fine concrete lime- 
 stone ; the sides of which are invariably located with 
 reference to the four cardinal points, and the priucipal 
 fronts facing the East." 
 
 All this must signify an educated and cultivated 
 people with a spiritual life. Their traditions seem to 
 have pointed to the West for their origin ; while the 
 Etrurians, Pelasgi, &c. appear to have evidently de- 
 scended from the East. The account of the origin of 
 the Babylonian Empire in Genesis xi. 2, and the 
 mystery in which the commencement of art and 
 science in Egypt is involved, seem to suggest the 
 regions of tropical and sub-tropical Asia 1 for the 
 starting-points of the march of the spiritual. The 
 Hindus, on the evidence of language, &c, are acknow- 
 ledged to be our cousins. Certainly their devotional 
 and didactic scriptures — their moral, philosophical, 
 scientific essays, and their epic, idyllic, and dramatic 
 poems and fables, &c. &c. seem to demonstrate the 
 most complete ancient advance in the spiritual to 
 have taken place amongst them. While suggestive of 
 our own culture, and that of the Greeks and Eomans, 
 there is so much that is purely characteristic of India 
 that all seems to be indigenous. Their culture appears 
 
 1 See " Cradleland of Arts and Creeds," by C. J. Stone, chaps, x., 
 xii., &c. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 41 
 
 to be much more in harmony with our European life 
 than that suggested by the mouuments of Egypt and 
 Babylon, or even by the records of Greece and Eome. 
 If we consider Europe as a whole during the last three 
 centuries, with its warlike aristocracies, its religions 
 and priestcraft, its absolutisms, and, on the other hand, 
 its free commercial cities, its art, architecture, and 
 literature, the institution of chivalry and its general 
 code of manners, we find strikingly analogous consti- 
 tutions of all kinds in the descriptions of the Sanskrit 
 literature. Mohammedan influence and the depression 
 of conquest had not then affected India. Venison, 
 mutton, and strong potations nourished the old warrior 
 race there. The rules for fair fighting in the field are 
 more elaborate than those which have been pro- 
 mulgated in European warfare. In regard to the 
 softer side of life, in the constant admiration of the 
 charms of nature, in the luxury and artistic taste dis- 
 played in the adornments of dwellings, and in the 
 devotion of the brave to the fair, the romance of our 
 mediaeval days seems suggested, combined with the 
 luxuries of the present time. Whether the great 
 Indian epic poem, the " Mahabharata," which gives us 
 so much information upon these points, be relegated 
 to the tenth or thirteenth centuries before our era, or 
 ascribed to some centuries after its commencement, 
 seems to signify little in considering the life depicted 
 in it. An indigenous civilisation appears to be dis- 
 played, demanding many thousands of years for its 
 
42 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 development when we compare with it our own 
 civilisation and the three thousand years of historical 
 culture which we know to have preceded it. Cer- 
 tainly neither the classical civilisations of the Mediter- 
 ranean, Babylon nor Egypt, nor the Roman Empire, 
 seem to be able to claim parentage for the life and ideas 
 displayed in its pages. It appears to show the life of 
 the Aryan race — the race akin to the Greeks and 
 ourselves — on the plains of the Upper Ganges at the 
 period before the Buddhistic influence was widely 
 extended. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Mahabharata 1 (Great Bharata, that is, " supporter," 
 from the old name of India) poem consists of about 
 215,000 long lines, as Professor Monier Williams of 
 Oxford has observed. Whether it has been composed 
 by one or several poets, it is remarkable not only for 
 the grandeur of its size, but the completeness of its 
 conception. Milton's " Paradise Lost " seems great in 
 dimensions as in merit, but it only extends to about 
 10,600 lines, and the "Paradise Regained" contains 
 about 2 1 00. Even the voluminous Spenser's " Fairy 
 Queen " has only some 30,000 lines. It is difficult 
 to conceive that this " Great Bharata " poem can have 
 been composed at or after the epoch of the Chinese 
 
 1 See Appendix II. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 43 
 
 Pilgrims. It was formerly assigned by European 
 scholars to some period before the fifth century B.C., 
 but of late years portions have been attributed to cen- 
 turies within our era. By the Hindus it is ascribed 
 to Divine revelation at about 3000 B.C. The culture 
 revealed in its pages is elaborate ; but it seems to 
 appertain to an earlier age than the era of Buddhist 
 monasticism. 
 
 It contains accounts of passages in the life of Hari, 
 Krishna, or Vasudeva, as he is variously styled, amongst 
 many other appellations, who is held to have been the 
 divine Narayana (or he who moves upon the waters) 
 incarnate upon the earth. But it does not afford a 
 succinct history of his whole life, seeming to infer 
 that the readers or auditors of the poem are acquainted 
 with it. The narrative of his parentage and youth is 
 given in the last book as an appendage. The main 
 subject of the poem is a great civil or dynastic war, 
 from which many efforts have been made to deduce 
 historical facts ; but the whole epic bears the aspect 
 of being poetical or allegorical rather than historical. 
 A mass of ancient legends have been gathered together 
 in it. Didactic discourses on points of religious 
 doctrine, moral and ceremonial conduct, the rules of 
 fighting, &c. &c. are continually introduced, as deli- 
 vered by Krishna, or the venerable or virtuous kings, 
 chieftains, and prelates, who form the characters in 
 the work. From the significations of their names 
 these have an allegorical aspect ; especially as many of 
 
44 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 them are related to have been incarnations of various 
 Brahminical divinities, and some to have been miracu- 
 lously born. A remote tradition seems apparent in 
 the marriage of the five princes, the heroes of the 
 story, to one princess. But the poet has smoothed 
 over this legend — certainly repugnant to the ordinary 
 minds either of the inhabitants of ancient Bharata or 
 of modern Hindustan — by asserting that the five were, 
 in reality, only incarnations of the same divinity under 
 different forms. 
 
 When the marriage takes place, an Arch-Brahmin 
 presides in the sacramental ceremony at the sacred 
 fire, and offers prayers. The wedding procession is 
 gorgeous with robes, bouquets, ornamented cars, golden 
 garlands, &c. The antiquity of the custom of be- 
 stowing presents upon the bride and bridegroom is 
 shown by the enumeration of the gifts sent on the 
 occasion by the divine Prince Krishna, who is a 
 relation of the husband. These consisted of golden 
 ornaments embellished with precious stones, costly 
 vestments, tissues of various countries, coverlets of 
 furs, and glittering gems. He also sent couches and 
 chairs of various kinds, hundreds of vases incrusted 
 with diamonds and lapis lazuli — accompanied by 
 servants born in many countries, endowed with youth, 
 beauty, and good manners, and splendidly attired. He 
 also presented them with well-trained elephants of 
 great size, with horses excellent and well trained and 
 richly adorned, and with cars handsomely embel- 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 45 
 
 lislied and resplendent with golden studs. Finally, 
 he sent a quantity of unstamped gold, and millions of 
 golden pieces of money. On another occasion, amongst 
 the presents sent by Krishna are enumerated cars drawn 
 by four horses, with garlands of bells, and with coach- 
 men who had been instructed by able masters ; also 
 one thousand radiant damsels, with one hundred thou- 
 sand horses from the district of Balkh. 
 
 Dr. Hunter observes that "glass was already known 
 to the Hindus in the time of the Mahabharata, in 
 which we read that at the raja-surya of Yudishthira, 
 one of the royal pavilions was paved with ' black 
 crystal,' which Duryodhana on entering mistook for 
 water, and drew up his garments lest he should be 
 wetted." 
 
 Yudishthira (firm in battle), the elder of the virtu- 
 ous princes who are associated with the divine Krishna, 
 being themselves indeed incarnations of inferior divini- 
 ties, is described as banqueting on venison and wild 
 boar, with fruits, sweetmeats, and various potations. 
 The company is entertained with instrumental music, 
 singing, and dancing. The palace is described as im- 
 mense and beautiful, adorned with statues and precious 
 stones, and surrounded by lakes, lovely with the red 
 and blue lotus, &c. The sage Narada, a semi-divine 
 personage, comes to them, and is declared to be versed 
 in all the ancient histories, expert in logic, and greatest 
 of doctors in his knowledge of the six philosophical 
 treatises, acquainted with the true nature of peace and 
 
46 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 war, and capable of absorption by contemplation in 
 that One, who is at the same time Two and Many. 
 He tenders the king advice concerning the regal 
 duties — 
 
 " Let thy ministers," he says, " who should be well 
 acquainted with the treatises on politics, carefully keep 
 secret thy counsels. Let thy kingdom be securely de- 
 fended, that it may not be even insulted by enemies." 
 
 He inquires whether the king's fortresses are well 
 stored with water, corn, arms, engines of war, soldiers, 
 workmen, and money. Does his Arch-Brahmin duly 
 announce the times of sacrifice ? and, after proper 
 ablutions, does he explain to him the position of the 
 stars ? 
 
 Is the general of his army truly a hero ? Are his 
 officers skilled in the use of arms ? and does he give 
 his army a proper allowance of pay and rations ? For, 
 remarks the sage, if the day passes without their receiv- 
 ing either pay or rations, the soldiers may behave in 
 a manner suggested by the indigence of their master, 
 which has been recognised as a cause of very great 
 evils. When he marches to meet the enemy, the king 
 is to be careful to throw out advance guards, and also 
 to protect the rear of his army. " But," the sage wisely 
 demands, " do you conquer yourself before attempting 
 to vanquish others ? March valiantly to battle," he 
 says, " but when you have gained the victory, become 
 yourself the protector of your enemy." 
 
 The king must have secretaries to regulate his ex- 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 47 
 
 penses. He is asked whether his societies of handi- 
 craftsmen are composed of honest folk ? for, says the 
 sage, it is only by the practice of the arts and handi- 
 crafts that the world can exist in easy prosperity. 
 Are his villages formed for defence after the fashion of 
 the towns ? Are his decrees proclaimed in the midst 
 of the assembly of the people ? Is he surrounded by 
 a bodyguard, in red and splendid attire, with sabre 
 in hand ? Then inquiries are made concerning his 
 medical men ; aud he is warned against materialism, 
 falsehood, rage, negligence, sloth, and idleness ; to- 
 gether with such persons as avoid those who possess 
 knowledge. 
 
 The sage further inquires as to whether the tax- 
 collectors have recourse to impositions, such as extort- 
 ing false dues from foreign merchants who visit the 
 country ; whether the king looks into the state of 
 the agriculture, whether regular relief is extended to 
 labourers, and protection given to the blind, to idiots, 
 &c. 
 
 On another occasion Krishna depicts a fortified 
 town, and sets forth the manner in which it is be- 
 leaguered. Its arched gateways, arsenals, wide streets, 
 and engines of war are mentioned. Additional defence 
 to the moats surrounding it is afforded by pallisades. 
 The attacking army encamps everywhere around the 
 city, except in the cemeteries and temples of the 
 deities. The true warrior is said never to abandon 
 the field of battle. He will not strike one who has 
 
48 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 already been smitten to the ground, nor one who 
 renders himself a prisoner, nor a woman, nor a child, 
 nor an old man, nor a warrior who flies, or with his 
 weapons broken. 
 
 Flights of arrows are described as concealing every- 
 thing in their density like clouds. Cuirasses and 
 many weapons are enumerated. Amongst various 
 species of lances, swords, &c, appears a word (bhou- 
 coundis) which M. E. Burnouf and others have held 
 to mean firearms. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Such aphorisms as the following, from the Mahabha- 
 rata, must surely have been the product of a highly 
 cultivated age. 
 
 Politeness is especially displayed by the happy. 
 Holy Scripture is the grandest of riches. Health is 
 the greatest of gains. Contentment the greatest of 
 pleasure. Humanity the highest duty. That man is 
 happy who can abandon avarice. A son is a man's 
 soul. A wife is the friend given by destiny. A 
 mother is of great weight upon earth. That man 
 does not live, although he breathes, who gives nothing 
 to these five — to the deities, guests, servants, the 
 Manes, and to his soul. 
 
 Pienown is the aim of the dancer and comedian, 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 49 
 
 good living that of the servant ; fear is the lot of 
 the king. 
 
 Cupidity keeps us from heaven. Patience supports 
 disputes. Science is the explanation of the true 
 nature of things. Pity is the desire of good towards 
 all beings. Anger is an enemy difficult to conquer. 
 Avarice is a malady without end. A man without 
 pity is wicked. Constancy is immobility in duty, 
 while folly is ignorance thereof. 
 
 Neither birth, prayer, nor the knowledge of Holy 
 Scripture, but only good conduct, can bestow the real 
 quality of a Brahmin. 
 
 " Truth is the ladder for mounting to heaven ; as 
 necessary as is a vessel for traversing the sea. Patience 
 is the virtue of the feeble and the ornament of the 
 strong. These two men are over Paradise — a master 
 endowed with patience, a poor man who can find the 
 means to give. These two have a part in the disc 
 of the sun — a religious mendicant absorbed in medita- 
 tion and a warrior wounded to death, with his face 
 towards his enemy. These three doors open to hell 
 — desire, anger, and avarice. Let not a king take 
 advice from the idle, the unscientific, or from dancers. 
 Let these remain in thy house with the surroundings 
 of prosperity — an old father, an unfortunate Brahmin, 
 a poor friend, and a sister with her children. This 
 indicates a period before the prevalence of Sati, or the 
 immolation of the widow on her husband's pyre." 
 
 Here is a sucrcrestion of sea voyaging bein^ within 
 
 D 
 
50 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 the general cognizance of the readers or audience of 
 the poem : a vessel is said to be hated by those who 
 have traversed the worst part of the sea. 
 
 The iron-tipped arrows and barbed shafts may be 
 extracted from a man's body, but it is impossible to 
 pull out the dart of a word which has buried itself in 
 the depths of the heart. Do not estimate a Brahmin 
 by his recitations of low-voiced prayer, but by his 
 never abandoning truth. By truth immortality may 
 be attained. Covetousness, desire, and anger achieve 
 man's ruin. Death does not devour that man who, 
 duly awakened by his reflections, smites those vices 
 which have taken possession of him. Poets utter 
 praises of death ; but death is negligence, while vigilance 
 is immortality. The warrior who has read the Vedas, 
 if he is slain in battle, he is exalted to Paradise ; and 
 so also the merchant who has read, and distributed 
 his wealth, and so the man of inferior class. 
 
 In the Oudyaga division of the Mahabharata a de- 
 scription is given of an assemblage of princes. This is 
 held in a court, vast, white with marble, decorated with 
 gold, glistening, and suggesting the splendour of the 
 moon. It was sprinkled with the most precious sandal. 
 It was furnished with chairs, dazzling in decorations, 
 constructed of wood, iron, ivory, or gold, on which were 
 thrown coverlets elegantly designed. The princes are 
 costumed in the richest robes, with celestial ornaments. 
 They are powdered with sandal ; and they have great 
 bouquets of flowers. They drink even to inebriety, 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 51 
 
 of spirituous liquors. The forms of ceremonial address 
 are minutely described, corresponding to the modern 
 salaam of the Hindu, i.e. in the lowly bending of the 
 body and the joining together of the hands in attitude 
 of supplication, &c. It was no crude conception of 
 deity which, having adopted what we hold to be the 
 Christian truth of the Divine manifested in the Human, 
 uttered these words of Krishna — That he is called 
 Vasou, because he abides in all creatures ; then, from 
 his divine birth, comes the name of Vasoudeva. He is 
 called Vishnu (the All-pervading) from his grandeur. 
 From his unification in God, know that his name of 
 Mddhava is derived ; and his name Madhouka be- 
 cause he is formed of all true nature. He is called 
 Krishna on account of his union with this dark- 
 blue colour; also he is styled the White Lotus, the 
 supreme 'habitation, the immortal and imperishable 
 God with the blue-lotus eyes. He is styled Hrishikesa 
 for ruling over the organs of sense, and Narayana for 
 his march upon the waters. He is everlasting. He 
 assists at the birth of every being, good or evil. He 
 names each creature, for he possesses the science of 
 everything. He reposes in truth, and truth in him ; 
 for he is the truth. He is styled Govinda (the herds- 
 man), and the eternal duty. It must be remembered 
 that herdsman precisely corresponds to our shepherd. 
 Flocks of sheep are not kept by Indians. They do 
 not breed mutton for eating. The pastor there can 
 only be a herdsman. 
 
52 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 Krishna advocates peace, still he propounds the 
 sacred duty of the warrior in terms which would be 
 received with the highest applause amongst the chivalry 
 of Europe. He says that defeat is no better than 
 death. The duty of the warrior is to seek victory or 
 death in battle. Death has many advantages over the 
 incurring of reproach. Cynical wisdom is apparent 
 in the remark that Brahmins, friends, and relations 
 themselves turn away from a poor man. The Brah- 
 minical author or authors of this work frequently 
 assert that the true Brahminhood depends upon the 
 spirit of the Brahmin's deeds and life, not upon his 
 mere hereditary association with the order ; but care 
 is taken to inculcate the constant propriety of sup- 
 porting the Brahmins. At all great ceremonies ac- 
 counts are given of vast numbers of presents bestowed 
 upon them — golden pieces, cattle, fruits, golden adorned 
 cars, &c. &c. It must be allowed that our modern 
 priesthoods and ministers of various denominations 
 have also secured for themselves as corporations their 
 fully due proportion of the wealth of the communities 
 with which they are connected. 
 
 In reading this great poem it is not that a few 
 gems of high religious feeling, or of pithy wisdom, or 
 rare poetical descriptions, suggesting high culture, are 
 to be extracted from masses of matter worthless except 
 from an archaeological point of view. On the contrary, 
 earnest devotional addresses which would be perfectly 
 suitable to a modern pulpit, worldly-wise apophthegms, 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 53 
 
 accounts of the magnificence, taste, and luxuries of life, 
 and of carefully educated political and social order, 
 abound throughout its pages. Continually the ap- 
 parent polytheism is shown to express the attributes 
 or aspects of one eternal, omnipresent, and omniscient 
 Supreme Spirit ; incarnated upon earth in many forms, 
 but especially and entirely in the Prince of many 
 appellations, who is, in modern times, more particularly 
 known as Krishna. The enthusiastic love of the 
 beauties of nature is ever apparent ; whether exulting 
 in the grandeur of mountains, the loveliness of sylvan 
 scenes — rich in the flowers which, in India, bloom in 
 gorgeous tints on forest trees, in the beauty of tropical 
 gardens, or perhaps most fervently in dilating on the 
 tranquil charms of waters, exquisitely adorned with 
 the blue and crimson lotus, &c. Flowers are showered 
 upon triumphant heroes, cities on ceremonial occasions 
 are odorous with the sandal and other perfumes. 
 Meats of many styles of cookery, sauces and sweet- 
 meats, intoxicating liquors of various kinds, are also 
 recounted at banquets with admiration ; but the more 
 refined delights certainly seem to inspire, in the higher 
 degree, the poetic ecstasies of the author. And con- 
 stantly truth, courage, purity of soul and gentleness 
 are extolled. Ceremonial acts of religion are enjoined ; 
 but the highest aspiration of holiness is declared to 
 be the seeking after union with the Divine through 
 meditation and faith. 
 
 There are many eccentric legends in the poem, but 
 
54 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 like those in our own Scriptures, they appertain to a 
 past age. In Christianity the stories of the tempta- 
 tion of Eve by the Serpent, of the Ark, of the speak- 
 ing of Balaam's ass, and of the strength of Samson 
 residing in his hair, &c. &c, have been credited as truth- 
 ful facts of ages of miracles, which have ceased in the 
 present day. These ancient stories are held to be 
 divine, and are reverently read throughout Christen- 
 dom. And so the curious legends in the Mahabharata 
 of the wonderful doings of old patriarchs and saints, 
 and of the first manifestations of the Divine to the 
 human, are still esteemed sacred amongst the Hindus. 
 It would . certainly seem that there has been no 
 advancement of indigenous thought in India since the 
 epoch of this poem. An immense number of old 
 stories and allegories are collected in it, with stores 
 of didactic sayings on all topics, religious and secular ; 
 and with frequent and varying illustrations of the 
 real unity of the Divine. The numerous conceptions 
 of the Hindu Pantheon are shown repeatedly to be in 
 reality only forms of one Supreme Spirit, who is in 
 all and everything. Altogether, like the discoveries 
 of geology in respect to the history of the earth, these 
 revelations of the great Indian epic seem to open to 
 our conceptions a remote past of civilisation. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 55 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Krishna endeavours to mediate between the inimical 
 
 parties in the poem, and goes as ambassador. (Vide 
 
 trans, by Hippolyte Fauche, vol. vi., p. 126, ct scq.) 
 
 Before setting out, he bathes and solemnly performs 
 
 the due matutinal ceremonial; adoring the sun and 
 
 fire, and inclining before the Brahmins. His car is 
 
 armed for the journey. It is adorned with moons and 
 
 crescent moons, and with brilliant standards, and it 
 
 is styled a charming object of art. Birds and beasts 
 
 of good augury are said to follow his march. His 
 
 friends, the five " virtuous " princes, accompany him 
 
 to some distance from their capital ; and when they 
 
 bid him adieu, " Firm in Battle," the eldest, addresses 
 
 him as " Lord of all beings, eternal god of gods ; 
 
 whom the man exempt from passion ought to obey." 
 
 Saints assemble from all parts to greet Krishna, whom 
 
 they style, " this god, become a warrior prince.'' 
 
 " Courtesans and kings," they say, " contemplate thee 
 
 who art the verity." As Krishna advances thunder is 
 
 heard and rain falls in a cloudless sky. The seven great 
 
 rivers of Scinde turn their courses from East to West. 
 
 Darkness prevails over all the world, except upon his 
 
 own route. The women assembled upon his line of 
 
 march overwhelm with flowers of the sweetest fragrance 
 
 " this grand being, whose happiness is found in the 
 
 welfare of all creatures." In traversing the various 
 
b 
 
 56 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 towns and kingdoms the inhabitants all come forth 
 to behold him. "When he alights he gives orders to 
 "room the horses in due accordance with the treatises 
 on their treatment. Brahmins invite him to repose 
 in their houses, described as adorned with precious 
 stones. Everywhere he constitutes the topic of con- 
 versation ; and it is agreed that pleasure will result 
 to those who treat him with due honour, and pain to 
 those who do not receive him. The roads are watered ; 
 the gates of the towns are decorated to receive him ; 
 while the inhabitants throng in cars or on foot. 
 Crowds of charming women are upon every palace. 
 The hymns of poets, bards, and minstrels, the sweet 
 chants of women and concerts of tambourines and 
 drums, flutes and conch shells, accompany him. 
 
 When Krishna's mission has failed to preserve 
 peace, and war has been declared, the tumult of a 
 vast encampment is powerfully described, the noise 
 of men, horses, elephants, horns, cars, and engines of 
 war. Then there is the putting on of cuirasses, &c, 
 and the whole is described as in commotion like the 
 waves in a tempest. Market-places are established 
 in the camps. Doctors and surgeons are mentioned, 
 duly provided with instruments and learned in the 
 treatises on medicine. Cars, armoured elephants, 
 cavalry and infantry are described as numbered by 
 tens of thousands. And a district having been 
 selected for the camp, well watered, shaded by woods, 
 with abundance of turf, the king surrounds it with 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 57 
 
 cemeteries, temples, altars, &c, and then constructs 
 a palace for himself. Mountains of weapons are 
 provided — bows and arrows, coats of mail, maces, 
 battle-axes, iron arrows, sabres, standards, &c. The 
 warriors have vestments ornamented with gold, and 
 even golden cuirasses and coats of mail. 
 
 If they had not, in those days, quite arrived at 
 the civilised neatness of the breechloading rifle as an 
 engine of destruction ; if they had not altogether 
 reached to the extent of Christian culture in designing- 
 weapons of war in general, they had, at all events, 
 manifested considerable imagination in conceiving and 
 skill in completing these. Besides all the varieties of 
 spears, axes, and swords, they had arrows which were 
 shot through tubes as well as from the ordinary bows ; 
 and they had some species of shells filled with boiling 
 water, and they threw from their chariots burning 
 balls. They had also the mysterious firearms to 
 which allusion has been made, the nature of which 
 does not seem to be known. The proportion of the 
 troops is stated to have been — one car to ten elephants, 
 to each elephant ten horsemen, to each horseman seven 
 foot-soldiers. It seems to Lave been customary for 
 the troops of each description to engage with one 
 another, cavalry with cavalry, infantry with infantry, 
 &c. That the general equipment of the whole was 
 brilliant, may be inferred from the foot-soldiers being 
 described as wearing golden garlands. 
 
 Several of the heroes who are on the side of the 
 
58 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 princes opposed to those whose cause is espoused by 
 Krishna, appear to feel that it is hopeless to expect 
 to conquer as he is against them ; but they conceive 
 themselves to be bound in honour, and in the true 
 spirit of our mediaeval chivalry, to fight on. 
 
 The allegorical nature of the poem seems to be 
 shown in Krishna's friends, the virtuous Princes, 
 having preferred his alliance without armies, and him- 
 self engaging not to bear arms in the contest, to that 
 of hosts of warriors without him. 
 
 The army is described as drawn up in different 
 array on each of the days of battle — in a half moon, 
 a cross in the form of an eagle with its wings out- 
 stretched, a lotus, and in other fanciful forms. The 
 air is darkened with the flights of arrows. Heroes, in 
 their chariots, even send showers of arrows from their 
 single bows, such is the rapidity of their fire. Their 
 aim is so exquisite that they are described as cutting 
 in sunder lances hurled at them, or other arrows in 
 their flight ; employing arrows with a crescent head 
 for slicing purposes. Allowing for the exuberant 
 imagination and exaggerations of the poet, it must 
 still appear, from the descriptions of the shooting, that 
 archery had been brought to a pitch of perfection not 
 surpassed by our magnificent English long-bowmen of 
 the Cressy and Poictiers period. The uproar of the 
 battle is heightened by the sound of the drums and 
 conch-horns. Flaming darts are thrown. The cavalry 
 have barbed javelins and swords with glittering points. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 59 
 
 After the melee, in confusion upon the field of battle 
 are banners, the embroidered caparisons of horses, and 
 rich coverlets of variegated colours, javelins, maces, 
 tridents, hooks to seize the golden ornaments of the 
 enemy, glistening scimitars, arrows feathered with 
 gold, golden cuirasses, tiaras, and helmets, swords 
 inlaid with gold, with ivory hilts ; amidst bodies, 
 decapitated heads with their earrings, aigrettes, &c, 
 batons of command made of lapis lazuli or precious 
 stones, severed arms of cavaliers with their bracelets 
 on them, turbans of divers hues, with golden half-moon 
 crests, &c. Surgeons are mentioned as coming with 
 their instruments to extract the arrows from the 
 wounded. The chieftains are described as eagerly 
 ascending their war chariots, burning as ardently with 
 the desire "of victory as merchants with that of gain 
 when they embark upon the great ships. When 
 victory has been obtained, the hero is celebrated in 
 songs chanted by the bards, minstrels, and poets. 
 But attention is continually turned towards Krishna, 
 in whom are said to be victory and eternal glory. He, 
 in reply to laudations of himself, says, I cease not to 
 work for the preservation of the entire world. And 
 he declares that death is merely the destruction of 
 the body ; the soul will live again. 
 
 Amongst a list of evil-doers those who commit 
 suicide are reprobated, with those who maintain 
 atheistic or infidel opinions. 
 
 Though the Hindus have been blamed for possessing 
 
60 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 no histories of their country, it is not impossible that 
 many valuable historical MSS. may have perished, for 
 bards are said to be especially learned in the ancient 
 histories. 
 
 Comfitures, pates, various kinds of cakes, rice boiled 
 with sweetmeats, &c, condiments flavoured with rum, 
 in addition to meats "artistically prepared," with care- 
 fully seasoned gravies, &c, and various kinds of intoxi- 
 cating liquors, seem not only to have been enjoyed by 
 the warriors, but by the Brahmins to great extent. 
 There are even said to have been rivers of ingeniously 
 made potations. And their revels were accompanied 
 by songs as in Northern Europe. 
 
 Throughout the poem, on the other hand, honour, 
 courage, patience, truth, and tenderness are lauded in 
 precept and example. But to become inebriated after 
 a gay banquet seems to have been regarded with no 
 more abhorrence than in England during the Georgian 
 era, when the clergy as well as the gentry indulged 
 freely in all the pleasures of the table. The descrip- 
 tions of the life of the heroes of the poem, associated 
 as they are with allusions to the excellence of agri- 
 culture, and the admirable work of artisans, and with 
 the civilised form of the warfare, suggest a set of 
 men corresponding to those of that period rather than 
 to those of such an age as the Homeric in Greece. 
 Culture and grandeur of archaic civilisation appear 
 in the noble pages of the Iliad and Odyssey ; but the 
 frequent allusions in this Indian epic to treatises on 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 61 
 
 the various branches of the political and social arts, 
 and the allegorical rather than descriptive nature of 
 the poem itself, indicate an epoch which may be styled 
 literary. 
 
 Perhaps our sixteenth century, which produced 
 Shakespeare and Spenser, and which was witnessing 
 the revival of classical learning — and of Protestantism 
 — corresponds more accurately with the age of this 
 Mahabharata epic than the Georgian period. As has 
 been observed, it is difficult to conceive that it can 
 have been written after Buddhistic monasteries and 
 relic monuments had overspread the land. It is also 
 difficult to conceive that the invasion of Alexander, 
 and the subsequent establishment of the Greeks upon 
 the north-west of India, can have attracted no more 
 attention than appears in allusions to people styled 
 Yavanas — in a manner certainly not at all suggestive 
 of the Greeks. As this term Yavana, which was be- 
 stowed upon the Greeks, was subsequently applied to 
 the Mohammedans, it is evident that it may have been 
 employed to designate the people of the Bactrian region 
 before the advent of the Greeks. In fact, the word 
 seems clearly to have been applied to the inhabitants 
 of that district, or to some neighbouring territory, 
 before it fell under the power of Alexander's successor. 
 The epoch of the poem would therefore appear to have 
 been earlier than the latter half of the fourth century 
 B.C. at the latest. Portions or episodes may, of course, 
 have been introduced afterwards, but the descriptions 
 
62 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 of the civilisation, and the doctrine of faith in the 
 manifestation of the Supreme Spirit in Krishna, appear 
 throughout the work. They are not merely episodical. 
 They have an aspect of distinct antiquity. In the 
 episode called the Bhagavad Gita, or Divine Song, 
 Krishna especially reveals to his favourite Prince 
 Arjouna that release from transmigrations upon earth 
 and union with the Divine may be attained through 
 faith in himself. But if the association of this doc- 
 trine with Krishna could be shown to be within our 
 era, its deduction is evident from the doctrine of union 
 with the Divine taught in the older Platonic-like philo- 
 sophies. The six great systems of the ancient Hindus 
 or Bharatans, with their elaborately-framed logical 
 modes, &c, seem to take the antiquity of cultured life 
 further backwards even than this poem. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Beneath the gorgeous azure of the Indian sky, and 
 in the dazzling sunshine, the ancient Indian armies 
 must have presented a most brilliant aspect at this 
 period, when a poet, or poets, became inspired to com- 
 pose the Mahabharata. As has been observed, it is 
 difficult to conceive that this was after the monastic 
 system of Buddhism had become established in the 
 land, and from the thirteenth to the fifth century B.C. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 63 
 
 seems to have been the more likely epoch. Allowing 
 for the heightened colouring of the descriptions, as we 
 can scarcely suppose the pictures to have been drawn 
 from no model, we may conceive the " pomp and 
 panoply of glorious war " to have been marvellously 
 glittering. The chieftains wore tiaras of gold, and 
 bouquets of flowers also of gold. Their banners were 
 heavily emblazoned with the same, and had many 
 devices which have descended to us in mediaeval 
 heraldry. Their four -horsed chariots clanged and 
 sparkled with bells, and their arrows were winged 
 with peacocks' or herons' plumes. Lances and great 
 maces were decorated with ribands of golden tissue ; 
 their weapons in general, their bracelets, and the 
 dangling jewels of their head-dresses glittered with 
 precious stones. The horses and elephants were 
 caparisoned with colour and magnificence. The war- 
 riors also had umbrellas and fans like the old Japanese 
 swordsmen. One great and pious hero is represented 
 as having been only vanquished after being so trans- 
 fixed with arrows that he is enabled to repose upon 
 them. They support him from the ground. Upon 
 this couch of seeming torture he has the courage and 
 constancy to remain for some time, uttering many 
 moral reflections. A tremendous combat with clubs 
 is described ; and it is stated that it is unfair to strike 
 below the waist in a club-fight, as in a modern English 
 boxing-match. 
 
 To return from war to the stage, the Harivansa 
 
64 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 (or history of the family of Hari), the last book of the 
 Mahabharata, has been ascribed to about the period of 
 our Plantagenet monarchs ; but again the descriptions 
 of India in the travels of the Chinese Pilgrim render 
 it difficult to conceive its having been written at that 
 epoch. It also suggests the fifth century B.C. rather 
 than a later period. 
 
 Fetes are described as given on the occasion of a 
 great sacrifice of Vasudeva (the name of Krishna's 
 father, but often applied to Krishna, or Hari, himself). 
 The narration suggests that amateur theatricals were 
 in vogue at the period. Firstly, an account is given 
 of an apparently professional actor who charms them 
 by his admirable light-comedy style, and his power of 
 universal mimicry, which had been especially bestowed 
 upon him by the Brahmins at his request. Then the 
 principal members of Krishna's tribal family disguise 
 themselves in the garb of comedians. One is described 
 as becoming what we should call the " leading man " 
 of the company, another is the " low comedian," and 
 the rest take various" parts. With them are conjoined 
 ladies distinguished by their graces and talents, and 
 an orchestra is added. Concealed under the guise of 
 the characters which they were to enact, they arrive 
 in a popular quarter of the city ; and five houses are 
 assigned to them for residences, and hospitalities and 
 presents conferred upon them. 
 
 At the representation they firstly perform a drama 
 upon the subject of the Eamayana epic, the actors 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 65 
 
 being in suitable costumes. After the customary- 
 prologue it is related that many interesting scenes 
 ensue, which evoke enthusiastic applause ; and precious 
 stuffs and gems are bestowed upon the performers. 
 After the principal piece, recitations, &c, are given. 
 The King causes a handsome theatre to be constructed, 
 and therein concerts are held of wind and stringed 
 instruments, also vocal, with choirs of women. A play 
 is performed, entitled the " History of Couvera 
 (the god of riches) and the Loves of Bambha (a 
 nymph of Indra's heaven)." And now a passage sug- 
 gests that not only were they careful to attire their 
 characters in fitting costumes, and not only were women 
 allowed to perform as upon our modern stage, but that 
 they actually had our scenic effects. It is related that 
 the decorations, by a magical effort of the art of the 
 Yadavas, represented, in its natural aspect, Mount 
 Kelasa — the Olympus of the Hindus. 
 
 The description of Krishna's city of Dwaravati, 
 or Dwarvaka, suggests a capital not unworthy to be 
 placed by the side of our modern Paris. Its turrets 
 overlook parks, flower gardens, plantations, canals, and 
 basins of water, walls resplendent with gold, woods, 
 and the distant mountains. Its arcades are enriched 
 with gold and precious stones, and it is surrounded by 
 deep moats and lofty ramparts glistening with yellow 
 stucco, on which are placed engines of war capable of 
 killing a hundred men at a shot. The town contains 
 eight principal streets and six grand squares, with a 
 
66 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 wide road running around it. In these streets the 
 ladies and great men could display their corteges with- 
 out crowding, for seven chariots could go abreast. The 
 houses had staircases enriched with gold and precious 
 stones, and the windows had golden lattices. In 
 Krishna's palace were a thousand crystal columns, and 
 it was chiefly constructed of precious stones. When 
 Krishna enters the city in triumph vases of agreeable 
 liquors are placed here and there, the heads of the 
 corporations come to meet him, and the women shower 
 flowers upon him from the housetops, &c. The allego- 
 ries contained in this work are not only religious and 
 moral, but astronomical and meteorological. 
 
 Mr. Hurrychund Chintamon, in his commentary on 
 the " Divine Song " (Bhagavad Grita) of the Mahabha- 
 rata, observes that its object is the removal of those 
 mists of error which hide from man the beauty of his 
 ■own spiritual nature. The Prince Arjouna addresses 
 Krishna as " Thou All," and Krishna is declared to be 
 " Him in whom we live, and move, and have our being, 
 and without whom nothing is — the origin of all birth, 
 death, might, wisdom, and goodness." Mr. H. Chint- 
 amon remarks that all this beautiful poem is but an 
 allegory, in which the opposing forces represent Passion 
 and Intelligence. Reason, in the form of Krishna, 
 advises Arjouna (Mind) to wage war against Passion, 
 Pride, &c. Intelligence, Devotion, Patience, Content- 
 ment, Friendship, Compassion, Tranquillity, Retire- 
 ment, Intellect, Revelation, and Science are respec- 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 67 
 
 tively opposed to Passion, Irreligion, Anger, Avarice, 
 Falsehood, Pride, Envy, Haughtiness, Injury, Enjoy- 
 ment, and Hypocrisy. 
 
 Constantly in the " Great Bharata " faith is urged 
 in the divine upon earth, suffering in sympathy with 
 man. Hopes of union with the Supreme Being, 
 through and in that manifestation, are held forth. 
 These appear to afford distinct analogies to Christian 
 doctrines. Gentleness combined with courage, charity, 
 patience, and universal love are in it continually 
 exalted for admiration. Altogether not merely sug- 
 gestions, but the actual teaching of Christianity, seems 
 to be contained in it, as will be shown in quotations 
 — not accidentally, or in episodes, but in the design 
 and completion of the whole. 
 
 Krishna, under his various appellations, is invoked 
 and adored as divine, with unvarying constancy of 
 assertion ; and self-sacrifice is inculcated as the 
 supreme example of religion. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Let us suppose that additions or interpolations have 
 been made in this " Great Bharata " since the time of 
 Christ. Our Gospel narratives, nevertheless, cannot be 
 reasonably conceived to have suggested all the Chris- 
 tian analogies of the poem. Actual Christianity 
 
68 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 might have been considered to have formed the basis 
 of some of them if we had found them isolated. But 
 the work contains such immense profusion of allegories, 
 variety of legends, and multiplicity of the forms of 
 doctrines, in which the unity of Deity, and faith in His 
 manifestation in Krishna, is set forth. These seem 
 to render the supposition humanly untenable that 
 they have been all imagined from the suggestions 
 of the Christian faith introduced into India in the 
 first ages of the Church. Their connection is too evi- 
 dent with the religious ideas and philosophical expo- 
 sitions of those Indian scriptures which are acknow- 
 ledged by all the science of our day to be pre- 
 Christian. The " Great Bharata " poem seems to be 
 a stupendous and profusely variegated and ornamented 
 commentary upon the following texts in the Institutes 
 of Manu : — " Of all duties the principal is to acquire 
 a true knowledge of one supreme God ; that is the 
 most exalted of all sciences, because it ensures immor- 
 tality." ..." Him some adore as present in elemen- 
 tal fire, others in Manu, lord of creatures, or more 
 distinctly present in Indra, regent of the clouds and 
 the atmosphere, others as the Most High Eternal 
 Spirit." 
 
 This ancient Indian code of laws is attributed usually 
 to about the ninth century B.C., but some modern com- 
 mentators have argued it to be later. Whether earlier 
 or later, its originality is undoubted. The associa- 
 tion of divinity with an earthly prince had also been 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 69 
 
 suggested in the following text of Maim : — " A king, 
 even though a child, must not be treated lightly from 
 the idea that he is a mere mortal ; no, he is a power- 
 ful divinity, who appears in human shape." From 
 this suggestion, to conceive the Almighty incarnate in 
 an actual or mythical monarch, of extreme valour and 
 sagacity, seems a sequence absolutely prototypical of 
 Christianity. Even the celestial King of birds is in 
 his turn shown to be only One with the Supreme 
 Spirit of the Universe. But especially this Supreme 
 Spirit is to be worshipped as Xarayana, moving on 
 the waters, incarnate upon earth as Krishna for man's 
 benefit. The divisions of the poem commence with the 
 following adjuration : " Honour Xarayana and N"ara, 
 greatest of men, the goddess Sarasvati (divine wisdom), 
 and Vyasa (meaning compiler or collector, a holy 
 sage, alleged author of the work), and then recite this 
 poem, which gives the victory." 
 
 Nara, always coupled with Narayana, is incarnate 
 upon earth as Arjouna, a brilliant young prince, and 
 constant friend of Krishna. As Krishna is invoked 
 as the incarnation of the Supreme Spirit, so Arjouna 
 is said to be the incarnation of, or son of, Indra, 
 chief regent of the elements. Krishna means the 
 dark one, Arjouna the white or shining one. 
 
 The darkness of Krishna in one place is explained 
 by the idea that the colour of the Deity metaphori- 
 cally changes with the ages of the world. As we 
 are now in the fourth, the black, equivalent to the 
 
70 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 classical Iron Age, it has become dark in correspond- 
 ence with it. Now Krishna, or Hari, as has been 
 observed, does not seem to be introduced into the 
 " Great Bharata " epic as any novelty. It seems to 
 assume that those to whom the poem is addressed will 
 be acquainted with his name, and that they will already 
 be believers in his divine office. The poem is said to 
 have been inspired by the Creative Power, and to be in 
 harmony with the four Books of Knowledge (Vedas). 
 
 Having been first recited in royal presence, it is then 
 recorded in the introduction to have been narrated before 
 holy sages, and the supposed bard thus commences — 
 
 " When I shall have done homage to the Primitive 
 Man, to Isana, the adorable, the honoured, the absolute 
 Being, the Eight, the Eternal One, to him who is revealed 
 and unrevealed, the essence of the ineffable monosyllable, 
 the non-existent, or rather to that which at the same 
 time exists and does not exist, who is All, who is above 
 that which exists and which does not exist, to the 
 Creator, the ancient, supreme, imperishable ; to the 
 All-pervading, called also Hrishikesa and Hari, the 
 chief of beings — pure, without sin, happy and bestow- 
 ing happiness ; I will declare the holy purpose of the 
 admirable work of the magnanimous Vyasa, which 
 many bards are recounting, which lives in the abridg- 
 ments and developments of Brahmins," &c. 
 
 Further on the old blind monarch, who is one of 
 the principal characters in the story, says : " When 
 I have heard how, in the interest of the world, 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 71 
 
 Maghava-Vasudeva came to incarnate his universal 
 soul on this earth, of which he is the sole energy " 
 — He seems to assume here that it is merely a new 
 narration of an acknowledged story. Again, before 
 Krishna himself appears upon the scene, he is called 
 " the imperishable and blessed Vasudeva, who is, 
 assuredly, the truth, immortality, purification, and 
 sanctity itself — the eternal Brahman, the Supreme 
 Certainty, the Light without end, whose divine works 
 the sages have related, who at the same time exists 
 and exists not, from whom the universe derives its 
 origin, who is the commencement and development, 
 the birth, death, and resurrection of beings." 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The author of the work adopts a very self-opinionated 
 view of its comprehensiveness, and declares that there 
 exists no legend upon the earth which rests not its 
 basis upon this recital ; and its perusal is declared to 
 be capable of effacing all sin except the sin against Ma- 
 hadeva (Great God, or Great Shining Being literally). 
 Mahadeva is one with Shiva, the third person in the 
 Hindu trinity. 
 
 After Krishna under some one of his names has 
 been frequently mentioned, the following account of 
 his incarnation is given : — " To favour the worlds, the 
 illustrious divinity, who receives the adoration of the 
 
72 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 world, Vishnu, incarnated himself in the womb of 
 Devaki (the Divine One), and became the Son of 
 Vasudeva. He who is without beginning or end, the 
 God, Creator of the world, the Imperishable, the Chief 
 of beings, the Universal Soul, Nature, the All-power, 
 the Principle of life, the Creator of all ; he whose 
 essence is goodness, the Immortal, the Infinite One, 
 the Swan, the adorable Narayana, he who nourishes 
 all, who is not born — the ineffable Purusha (universal 
 soul), — He willed, for the increase of virtue, to be born 
 in the race of men." 
 
 Krishna is first introduced in the epic under the 
 following circumstances : — The hand of a princess is 
 offered to any prince or noble who can win her in 
 competition of feats of arms at a species of tournament. 
 On such an occasion great distributions of riches of 
 various sorts are made to Brahmins. Hither, it is 
 said, come kings, and sons of kings, and sacrificers — 
 students in the Veda, firm in their vows, and admirable 
 young men of many countries, also actors, poets, 
 athletes, &c. The " virtuous " princes come whose 
 side in the war Krishna espouses, and who have been 
 ejected from their rightful heritage in a manner which 
 recalls to mind the banished duke and his followers 
 in Shakespeare's " As you like it." And as they make 
 their journey it is related that they read the " Books 
 of Knowledge." Outside the city grand preparations 
 are made for the competition. Pavilions are raised 
 with porticoes, arcades, and commodious staircases. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 73 
 
 They are adorned with elegant carpets, couches, and 
 seats. They are perfumed with aloes and sandal, and 
 decorated with wreaths of flowers. 
 
 Here we have the first meeting of Krishna with 
 these virtuous princes, his friends and relations ; and 
 he certainly appears upon the scene as one supposed 
 to be familiar to the reader of the poem, also repre- 
 sented as known to the public present at this sort of 
 tournament described in it. After diversions of 
 comedians and dancers, &c. &c, on the sixteenth day 
 of the fete the princess, who is in competition, elabo- 
 rately costumed, descends into the amphitheatre to 
 display herself. Then religious ceremonies are per- 
 formed, the musical instruments are silenced, and it 
 is solemnly proclaimed that whoever draws a bow of 
 tremendous strength, and shoots five arrows in suc- 
 cession through a ring, shall have the princess to 
 wife, provided his qualifications in respect to manly 
 vigour, beauty, and birth are satisfactory. Krishna, 
 who has not yet made himself known to them, falls 
 into reverie as he recognises the exiled princes under 
 their disguise as Brahminical students. The disguised 
 princes are victorious, much to the delight of the 
 Brahmins present, and to the disgust of the aristocratic 
 warriors, who exclaim that they are not qualified to 
 win the prize. Then Krishna informs the assembled 
 kings that the princess has been legally won, and he 
 comes to the disguised princes, embraces the feet of 
 the eldest, and says, " I am Krishna." In this in- 
 
74 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 cident Krishna appears, as is frequently the case, 
 more as a wise prince than as a divine person ; for 
 on being asked how he knew them in their disguise, he 
 simply rejilies that no others could have accomplished 
 the deed. But the Prince Arjouna, before accomplishing 
 the feat of bending the bow and shooting the arrow, 
 has thought of Krishna as divine. He has bent in 
 reverence to Indra, Isana (Shiva), and Vishnu ; and 
 he also has rendered homage in thought to Krishna. 
 At the conclusion of this part of the narrative it 
 is said that the " God - made man departed quickly, 
 accompanied by Baladeva, his brother." 
 
 Krishna is certainly a charming conception, a 
 beautiful ideal of man. It can easily be compre- 
 hended how such a hero can have become too be- 
 loved by the Hindus to be easily deserted for the 
 object of adoration set before them by Christian mis- 
 sionaries. There is but one association connected with 
 him calculated to render him odious in the eyes of 
 Europeans, viz., the plurality of wives. But in the 
 manner in which this attribute of his personality is 
 narrated, and in other particulars, such as his colour, 
 the antiquity of the conception seems certainly demon- 
 strated, especially as it is associated with the strange 
 marriage of the princes, his associates. 
 
 Honour, the sanctity of the plighted word, and 
 general benevolence, are always connected with the 
 sanctity of faith in Krishna as the divine manifested 
 upon earth. But the brilliant, joyous, and even 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 75 
 
 voluptuous sides of life are not considered to be in- 
 compatible with religion. Great ascetics and hermits 
 are constantly held up to admiration and accredited 
 with superhuman powers ; but even these ascetics 
 seem, upon occasions, to indulge in gaiety. So in 
 mediaeval Europe, 1 while the Christianity of nobles 
 and knights, burghers and peasants, appears to have 
 corresponded with this aspect of the Krishna religion, 
 monks and hermits co-existed who are held not to 
 have been invariably superior to carnal gratification. 
 There is much in the " Great Bharata " epic which 
 suggests our mediaeval conceptions of mingled chivalry 
 and religion. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Till the puritanical and " evangelical " elements were 
 introduced into or revived in Christianity, some three 
 or four centuries ago, there does not seem to have 
 existed so distinct an idea of the separateness of the 
 divine and profane in the Catholic Church. In 
 Buddhism the misery and worthlessness of worldly 
 existence was preached, and true happiness inculcated 
 to be found in the entire abnegation of self and its 
 desires. In the religion of Krishna, although tremen- 
 dous austerities and fearful penances were extolled, the 
 
 1 See Appendix IX. 
 
76 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST ; OR, 
 
 general conception of religion was more worldly. It 
 certainly seems to correspond, as has been suggested, 
 with what may be conceived to have been the religion 
 of one of our mediaeval knights-errant. The spirit 
 of devotion seems akin to that which induced Count 
 Eobert of Paris to take his stand before the Chapel of 
 our Lady where four cross-roads met, as Sir Walter 
 Scott narrates. Here, in mingled adoration of the 
 Madonna and his lady-love, he dared any knight to 
 combat who might pass. Even in the sacred Bha- 
 gavad-gita, the " divine song " of the " Great Bharata " 
 epic, Krishna exhorts the Prince Arjouna to do his 
 duty as a warrior, before declaring his universal 
 divinity and propounding a system of pious philo- 
 sophy. The feasting, with strong meats and potent 
 potations, described in the poem, again brings the life 
 generally depicted into juxtaposition with our mediaeval 
 days rather than with modern Hinduism. 
 
 Professor Monier Williams of Oxford is amongst 
 some scholars who seem to conceive that the didactic 
 discourses in the " divine song " present an aspect so 
 analogous to Christian doctrine that they must be 
 derived from it. But similar teaching, equally Christian 
 in conception, seems to pervade the poem so continually, 
 that this especially Christian-like portion may be more 
 reasonably argued to be a spiritual development in 
 old India, logically to be expected from the context of 
 the work. The Hindus have seemed so slow in taking 
 advantage of the efforts of Christian missionaries in our 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 77 
 
 age, and translations of the Bible, that it is difficult 
 to comprehend how they can so eagerly have adopted 
 Christian ideas eighteen hundred years ago. But of 
 course the difficulty may be explained by supposing 
 the divine aid to have miraculously accompanied early 
 apostles in India. In that case the Hindus must be 
 regarded as Christians who have exaggerated and 
 altered the life of Christ, while retaining a resemblance 
 in many incidents, and assigned Him to their own part 
 of the world. 
 
 As Milton, 1600 years after the promulgation of 
 our faith, became inspired to glorify the work of 
 redemption in his great epic, so the more ancient 
 Aryan poet, or poets, would seem to have become 
 inspired to recount the glories of Krishna, and the 
 grandeur and goodness of actual or imaginary heroes 
 devoted to him. It would appear that, as in the case 
 of our own poet, the belief of the multitude must 
 have been necessary to yield the requisite inspiration 
 for such a stupendous and often sublime work. It 
 has been asserted by European critics to have been a 
 compilation by " crafty Brahmins " to promote their 
 own ends. But their system is complete without the 
 aid of Krishna. It would seem probable, if the work 
 was dictated by Brahminical design, that this happened 
 after Krishna had become the veneration of the people, 
 in order to associate him with Brahminism. 
 
 The stories of Krishna in this poem connect him 
 with the sun and the holy fire (Agni). And his 
 
7S CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 constant association with Arjouna, the incarnate Indra, 
 seems to signify the Supreme Spirit, associating with 
 and directing the Eegent of the Elements, the Monarch 
 of Heaven and of the divine beings. Agni, the sacred 
 fire of the earlier scriptures, as will be shown in 
 quotations from the Vedas, is invoked in those " Books 
 of Knowledge " as the mediator between the divinities 
 and men. He is thus addressed in the " Great 
 Bharata " — "Thou art the mouth of the gods, the 
 purifier and the sacrifice ; thou conveyest the offering 
 to the deities ; the Vedas are born of thee. Thou art 
 the admirable light, the breath of life. Thou art the 
 Holy One. supreme Energy ! purify me by the truth." 
 
 So is Krishna addressed as the soul of the Vedas, 
 Hari, greatest Being in the world, the eternal Origin, 
 the Sustainer of that which has been, of that which 
 is, of that which will be, the asylum assured to the 
 unfortunate, &c. 
 
 It is said in the Sabha division of this " Great 
 Bharata " that Narayana, the adorable lord of the 
 world, was born in the race of Yadu. He shone upon 
 earth like the queen of the stars in the midst of the 
 constellations. " This Hari, exterminator of enemies, 
 whose might all the gods adore, behold him, dwelling 
 upon earth, like a child of Manu." The expression, 
 " child of Manu," is frequently used in this poem. It 
 would seem to signify child of the first self-existent 
 man-type. 
 
 " Oh, is it not marvellous ! " is exclaimed in this 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 79 
 
 Sabha portion of the epic, " that the Being existing by 
 himself, should take unto himself the form of this 
 warrior, endowed with such vigour?" Subsequently 
 the king, whose cause Krishna espouses, answers to a 
 holy sage that he has heard of the actions of Krishna 
 since his birth, who has brought happiness on eartli 
 for all creatures. He then recounts his praises, his 
 knowledge, his universal good qualities, his liberality, 
 science, humility, firmness. He calls him the Father, 
 the perfect Founder of worlds, the Sovereign, the Soul ; 
 " in effect," he continues, " the generation and fortune 
 of worlds is in Krishna ; this universe, and all which 
 exists, moveable and immoveable, has its cause in 
 Krishna. He is invisible Nature, the eternal Creator, 
 the Superior of all beings, the Intelligence, the grand 
 Soul, the Wind, the Light, the Water, the Heaven and 
 the Earth ; he is all. All which exists, composed of 
 four elements, has its root in Krishna — the sun and 
 the moon, the constellations, the planets, the cardinal 
 points — all subsist in Krishna, the Vedas, kings, and 
 Mount Meru — the way of the universe, however far 
 it may extend on high, below, on all sides, everything 
 has for its head, in the worlds and amongst the divine 
 beings, the adorable Cesava." 
 
 This is uttered in an assembly of kings and chief- 
 tains at which Krishna is present. A prince impetu- 
 ously exclaims that he will place his foot on the head 
 of any one who doubts it. At this a shower of flowers 
 falls on his head from heaven, and invisible voices 
 
So CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 applaud him. But one of the monarchs present says 
 that although Krishna may have worked miracles, 
 sustained a mountain for seven days, &c, it is nothing 
 wonderful. In fact, he admits Krishna's power, but 
 contends that it does not reach to the marvellous ; 
 and he then proceeds to inveigh against Krishna. The 
 latter replies that he has promised to endure offences 
 worthy of death from this monarch to the hundredth 
 time, but that this has arrived. He then thinks of 
 his discus. The glittering weapon, evidently typical of 
 the sun, comes to his hand at the thought. He casts 
 it, and cuts off the head of the unbelieving king. 
 Forthwith prodigies occur. Rain falls in a cloudless 
 sky, with lightning, &c. 
 
 Though inculcating gentleness and mercy, Krishna 
 slays the unrighteous, both demons and men. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The happiness of the earth, according to the " Great 
 Bharata " poem, had been ruined by demons entering 
 into the forms of men and animals. The Earth (per- 
 sonified), heavily oppressed by the weight of her 
 burden, and tormented by fear, implores succour of 
 that God who is the parent of all creatures. She sees 
 Brahma, surrounded by divine beings, sages, heavenly 
 nymphs, &c, and prays for deliverance. Brahma 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. Si 
 
 orders the gods (devas = divine beings) to get sons to 
 contend against the demons (Asuras), and they all pro- 
 ceed to become incarnate in the world. But first they 
 go to the heaven of Narayana, or Vishnu — " to him of 
 the yellow robe, the brilliant one, with the charming 
 eyes ; " and Indra, chief of the heavenly host, says 
 to him, " Be incarnate thyself in a portion of thy sub- 
 stance." And Vishnu assents. 
 
 In concert with the deities, Indra makes with ISTarfi- 
 yana arrangements for the descent upon earth. Vasu- 
 deva, the father of Krishna, is alleged to be himself a 
 portion of the immortal God of gods ; and Baladeva, 
 the brother of Krishna, is also an incarnation of 
 Vishnu, considered as Sesha, the serpent, type of 
 eternity. 
 
 Krishna's infancy, his escape from the reigning 
 tyrant who has been informed that a child will be 
 born of Krishna's mother for his destruction, his 
 youthful days amongst the cowherds, &c. — these stories 
 are not related till the end of the "Great Bharata." 
 A book, the Harivansa, containing them has been 
 added. But that the story of his pastoral life is not 
 a later invention is shown by the epithet, " Lover of 
 the shepherdesses," being applied to him, &c. &c. 
 
 Under the name of Cesava, he is thus addressed by 
 the sage Vyasa, the alleged author of the poem, who 
 is supposed to have been his contemporary, and who 
 appears among the personages of the work attributed 
 to him : " Thou art the beginning and the end of all 
 
 F 
 
S2 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 beings, thou art the treasure of penitences, the eternal 
 sacrifice ; thou art Hari, Brahma, the sim and moon, 
 time, the earth, the cardinal points, the creator, and 
 the grandest of men. Thou art slayer of Madhu (the 
 demon), the supreme way. Thou destroyest the demons 
 by hundreds. There exists in thee neither anger, nor 
 envy, nor falsehood, nor cruelty. At the end of an 
 age of the world thou withdrawest all beings into 
 thyself, and thou then becomest this world. At the 
 beginning of the world's age, it is from the lotus of 
 thy navel that Brahma is born, father of all things, 
 moveable and immoveable." Krishna replies to him, 
 " That which belongs to me, belongs to thee. Every 
 one who hates thee, hates me." 
 
 Again, Krishna is addressed thus : " In the first 
 creation of beings thou wast the only patriarch — thou 
 wast the creator of all worlds. Thou art Vishnu, thou 
 art the sacrifice, the sacrificer and the victim. Patience 
 and truth art thou. Thou art the sacrifice which is 
 truth. Thou art the Eternal, the way on which the 
 holy inarch, soul of beings, without cessation in action. 
 The constellations, the worlds, and the guardians of 
 worlds all subsist in thee ; thou art the lord of all 
 beings, of those who are divine, and of those who are 
 born of Manu." 
 
 The meaning of the expressions, sacrifice and victim, 
 as applied to Krishna, would seem to have been sug- 
 gested by his being regarded as the universal soul. 
 Evidently sacrifice had grown into an institution before 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 83 
 
 the religion of the Veclas became systematise*!. Sacri- 
 fice produced benefits apparently to the priests, who 
 received presents, or obtained the victims. It was as 
 requisite for them to procure the offerings of the people 
 as for the priests of modern days to receive their 
 stipends. From such reasons, or from superstitious 
 feelings of veneration, sacrifice became regarded as 
 something so essential to life that the deities were 
 said to have produced the world by offering up uni- 
 versal, primeval soul in sacrifice. Victims, even in 
 the Vedas, had begun to give place to the bloodless 
 rice-cake, or offering of the juice of the moon-plant. 
 And when Krishna came to be regarded as the soul 
 of the world, he was styled the sacrifice, the victim. 
 As Purusha, universal soul, he seems to have been the 
 sacrifice. Purusha is said, in the A'eda, to be the 
 whole universe, which has been, and whatever shall 
 be, and the lord of immortality. 
 
 " The gods performed a sacrifice with Purusha as 
 the oblation. This victim, Purusha, born in the begin- 
 ning, they immolated on the sacrificial grass. Purusha 
 is recognised as having a personality as the universe, 
 or rather as the soul of the universe ; and he is also 
 Vishnu, Bhagavat, Narayana, i.e. the all-pervader, 
 blessed, he who moves upon the waters, &c, incarnate 
 on earth as Krishna, and in numerous other forms in 
 all times and all worlds." 
 
 Sacrifice, reading of the scriptures, alms, penitence, 
 truth, patience, the suppression of the sensual desires, 
 
84 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST ; OR, 
 
 the contempt of riches — these are said to be the eight 
 branches into which is divided the way of duty. 
 
 As the sacrifice rather corresponds to the sacrament 
 of our Christian altars than to the old blood sacrifices, 
 these eight would seem to precisely constitute what 
 are considered the proper qualities of Christianity. 
 And that form of Christianity which contemns cere- 
 monies, and derides the efficacy of works, except as 
 the fruit of faith, is also inculcated in the " Great 
 Bharata," though not so constantly and strenuously 
 perhaps as in the Bhagavata Purana and other writ- 
 ings sacred to Krishna. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 In consoling the Princess, who becomes the bride of 
 the princes his friends, Krishna exhibits his absolute 
 reliance in himself. "The Himalaya," he says, "shall 
 be broken, the earth be split in fragments, and the grand 
 basin of waters dried up before his words shall have 
 been uttered in vain." 
 
 It is related of this Princess that, in a former birth, 
 owing to sins committed in a still previous existence, 
 she was unable to find a husband, notwithstanding her 
 beauty and accomplishments. The single condition 
 being considered disgraceful in the ancient civilisation, 
 before Buddhism had spread with its recommendations 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 85 
 
 of celibacy, she prayed earnestly for a husband in five 
 emphatic repetitions. 
 
 She was informed from heaven that the spell which 
 ruled her life in this respect, in chastisement of her 
 former actions, could not be removed in this existence, 
 but that she should have five husbands in her next life. 
 She replied that she only desired one, not five spouses ; 
 but she was informed that her five emphatic prayers had 
 each been separately answered, and that she must have 
 the five husbands. And so it happened that the five 
 semi-divine princes, brothers, won her in the competi- 
 tion of feats of arms, and together married her. 
 
 Krishna, on the other hand, has numerous wives. 
 It appears to have been conceived that the Deity, 
 incarnate upon earth, would dwell amongst humanity 
 in all that was considered most highly becoming to a 
 man. Marriage was held to be a sacred institution. 
 Even the Brahminical student, who might continue in 
 his studies till middle life, and who might retire to 
 the hermit existence at the end of his days, was bound 
 to become the married man and householder for a 
 time. Krishna, however, even exhibits an apparent 
 licentiousness which recalls to mind the vagaries of 
 the classical divinities. But this is alleged to have 
 been mere illusion. Ascetic celibacy has occasionally 
 been adopted amongst his adorers. The stories of his 
 amours certainly seem to have been suggested by 
 astronomical observations. The sun and moon and 
 constellations appear to have been the foundations 
 
86 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 upon which many fanciful tales have been based, which, 
 as time went on, became more and more materialised. 
 One of the morals which the "Great Bharata" appears 
 to be intended to teach is the sinfulness or folly of 
 gambling. The chief of the virtuous Pandu princes 
 cannot resist an invitation to play. He protests that 
 he does not desire to gamble, but he succumbs to temp- 
 tation, and finally loses kingdom and everything with 
 the dice. At length he stakes the Princess, who, 
 however, indignantly repudiates his right to do so. 
 The affair ends by these princes going forth into the 
 forests, stript of all their possessions, and burning to 
 avenge an insult which has been put upon their wife. 
 In consoling her, Krishna utters the words which have 
 been quoted at the beginning of this chapter. He 
 remarks that women, dice, the chase, and ardent liquors 
 precipitate men from the summit of their prosperity; 
 that great blame in the eyes of wise men is seen in 
 gambling ; and he says that he would have stopped 
 the play if he had been present. He then relates vari- 
 ous deeds of war which had occasioned his absence, for 
 not only is Krishna the incarnate Narayana, a husband, 
 but an ardent warrior. He has become incarnate, in 
 fact, to deliver the world from demons and tyrants, 
 but also to instruct it in virtue and goodness, and 
 lead it into the way of happiness by faith in himself. 
 Doubtless the former view of his office was the more 
 ancient. But the characters of the moral teacher and 
 the warrior are so indissolubly intertwined, and both 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 87 
 
 are so evidently in sequence with ideas of the Vedas, 
 that it is impossible to aver that the moral side only 
 has been attributed to him after acquaintance with 
 our Gospel dispensation. 
 
 Krishna, in this warlike character, seems to have 
 been naturally adored by the warriors of North-Western 
 India, and under corresponding forms by the old war- 
 like tribes of Northern Europe, while the peaceful 
 Buddhistic doctrines were obtaining a hold amongst 
 the milder races of the East. In the gentle precepts 
 of Pythagoreanism these last seem to have obtained 
 a footing upon the Mediterranean, developing into 
 Platonism, and eventually displaced by Christianity. 
 
 Although Krishna is concerned in these wars for 
 the destruction of depraved humanity, he deprecates 
 unnecessary wars, and endeavours to act as mediator 
 between the opponents in the great war narrated in 
 this poem. 
 
 Nara and Narayana are said to have descended 
 upon earth to accomplish what neither divine beings 
 nor holy men could perform — to relieve the earth of 
 the burden which oppressed it. " The fortunate, All- 
 pervading Spirit has come upon the earth (Vishnu) ; 
 he is the adorable God, Hari, the Invincible, named 
 also Kapila " (Maluibhdrata Vanaparva). 
 
 Now Kapila, with whom Hari, or Krishna, is thus 
 connected, is the reputed founder of one of the six 
 great Indian systems of philosophy. Professor Weber 
 of Berlin remarks, in his " History of Sanscrit Litera- 
 
8S CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 ture," that " Kapila, the originator of the Samkhya 
 system of philosophy, appears in it raised to divine 
 dignity itself " (i.e. in a book which the Professor classes 
 amongst Yedic literature). Kapila, in fact, became 
 regarded as an incarnation of Vishnu or Narayana. 
 Kapila is also associated closely with Buddhism. 
 Professor Weber observes that the close connection of 
 Kapila's tenets with Buddhism — the legends of which 
 uniformly speak of him as long anterior to Buddha — 
 proves conclusively that the system bearing his name 
 is to be regarded as the oldest system of philosophy. 
 Krishna and Buddha are therefore both connected with 
 the same philosophical system, which is undeniably 
 to be assigned to a period previous to Buddha's epoch, 
 in about the fifth century B.C. And this again cor- 
 roborates views concerning the antiquity of Krishna. 
 In fact, Krishna and Buddha were really different 
 aspects or the same realisation of the need of a 
 Divine Being to lead mankind to happiness by an 
 actual revelation on earth in Person. 
 
 It is exclaimed in this vana division of the " Great 
 Bharata," that Krishna is the ancient god descended 
 upon the earth. " He is the eternal deity. Brahmins 
 who know the Books of Knowledge (Vedas), men who 
 possess science of universal soul, are assured that the 
 magnanimous Krishna is the eternal deity. Govinda 
 (the Herdsman) is the greatest of purifiers. He is 
 the saint of saints, the most fortunate of the fortunate, 
 the everlasting god of gods — he is imperishable, the 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 89 
 
 supreme lord, Hari, whose soul is inconceivable in 
 thought — the pure and primitive essence of life." 
 
 Succour is implored of the God who bestows succour 
 — the august N amy ana, who has had no birth. The 
 deities (devas) say to him, Thou art our creator, author, 
 and destroyer of the world — king of the king of the 
 deities. 
 
 Again it is said that Kapila is the Vasoudevide, i.e., 
 Krishna, the son of Vasudeva. 
 
 Then Krishna is invoked by the mystic syllable 
 Om (or Aum), signifying the divine union of three 
 in one. Om, adoration to the Preserver of the Uni- 
 verse, adoration to thee, distinct from the universe, 
 Sovereign of the deities ; thou art Agni (fire), Yaruna 
 (sovereign of the waters) ; thou art the Divine Seed 
 of Eight ; the earth is thy body. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 We commonly use the word "gods" in translation 
 of the Sanscrit devas, which means, literally, shining 
 beings. The ancient P>haratans imagined a heaven of 
 powerful and brilliant personages who ruled the 
 elements, directed the course of the planets, and 
 interfered with the life of humanity upon the earth. 
 They also conceived regions of darkness inhabited by 
 beings corresponding to our demons. But the word 
 
90 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 god, which we apply to the Supreme Ruler of the 
 universe, is scarcely an accurate appellation for these 
 sublime but still created and not everlasting heavenly 
 beings. The stars must have naturally suggested 
 habitations for superhuman, glittering persons. After 
 it had been perceived that the whole universe of stars 
 and planets was in motion, while the polar star re- 
 mained seemingly fixed, a beautiful legend originated 
 connected with this adoration of Bhagavat, or Vishnu, 
 Krishna, &c. A young prince, Dhruva (Firm), who, 
 in despite of temptations and trials, remained constant 
 in faith to him, was conceived to have been translated 
 to this fixed point in the highest heaven, where he was 
 established, nearest to Bhagavat, and ever devoted to 
 him. The seven stars of the Great Bear were supposed 
 to be seven great sages. Then the dark, tumultuous 
 army of clouds coming up in the rainy season in gloomy 
 mass, awe-inspiring in their weird forms, seemed an 
 array of evil spirits invading the realms of light. 
 Hence came stories of wars between the heavenly and 
 dark-angel hosts. When Bhagavat or Narayana had 
 come to be adored as the Supreme Spirit, it was he 
 who delivered the heavenly beings from the demons. 
 All, indeed, had proceeded from him. All beings and 
 all things must eventually return to him. Meanwhile 
 the idea gradually grew, apparently from about 1500 
 B.C. at least, that he was frequently present on earth, 
 in some form or other, to relieve suffering, and lead to 
 bliss here and hereafter. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 91 
 
 In the first of the four ages of the world, corre- 
 sponding to the Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages 
 of the classics, eternal virtue is related to have reigned. 
 There were no divine beings nor demons. Creatures 
 did not die ; there were no human sacrifices, wars, or 
 hatred. The Cause, incorporeal, reigned alone. The 
 Soul of all beings, Nariiyana, was then white. The 
 Brahmin, regal, merchant, and labouring classes pre- 
 served their distinctions, and all creatures loved their 
 occupations. They had but one God. They followed 
 the same ceremonial. Man was given solely to duty ; 
 he obtained the supreme way in association with the 
 Universal Soul. 
 
 In the next ages sacrifice had become requisite, 
 and passions had become prominent. Vishnu, or 
 Narayana, assumed the yellow and red colours, and 
 the Books of Knowledge became divided into four. 
 Alms and penitence were necessary, maladies and 
 sufferings increased upon the children of Manu, who 
 is the son of the Self-Existent. At length, in the 
 dark or Iron Age, Vishnu became black (i.e. mani- 
 fested as Krishna, the dark one). Calamities followed ; 
 then the Deity descended to save the world and 
 created beings from destruction. 
 
 " Above the heavenly palace of Brahma even is the 
 abode of Narayana, the Master, Supreme, who has had 
 no beginning, who will have no end, who is called 
 the Nature of the nature of all beings ; whom the 
 deities themselves cannot behold in his beauty, com- 
 
92 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 posed of all splendours. This place of Vishnu is more 
 ardent than the sun or fire ; its brilliance can scarcely 
 be sustained by deities or demons. There the Master 
 of creatures, the Nature of all things, the Being existent 
 of himself, illumines in his grandeur all beings. In his 
 presence the stars give no light. To him, Hari-lSrara- 
 yana, devotion conducts all those who are wedded to 
 supreme penitence." 
 
 All this was not mere abstract religion. By charity 
 and truth, it is said, heaven may be attained. Truth 
 is more estimable than any mere purposeless contem- 
 plation of charity ; but charity in any reality is more 
 estimable than even truth. " How can heaven be 
 reached ? how can a man assure himself of the fruit 
 of his works ? " 
 
 Man pressing on, without sloth, can arrive at Para- 
 dise by his works, associated with the merit of doing 
 harm to no living being, by charity, and by the other 
 virtues. Truth, the suppression of desires, penitence, 
 charity, persistence in virtue, — these must ever be 
 profitable to man. 
 
 Religious ceremonies are especially enjoined to 
 Brahmins, and the other classes are to present offer- 
 ings to them. In fact, a religion of rites, repentance, 
 and good works is apparent. But the "Great Bharata" 
 continually connects these works with faith in Krishna, 
 while the Puranas ("ancient books ") still more strenu- 
 ously urge this doctrine. 
 
 " First," says a holy sage in the " Great Bharata," 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 93 
 
 " homage must be offered to the Self- Existent, to the 
 Ancient, Immortal, Eternal, Indistinct — to him of 
 the Yellow Kobe, Creator and Destroyer, the Pure, to 
 him who is the Source and Energy of all. Even the 
 Vedas know not what this Man knows. All marvels 
 here below have their completion in him." 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Heaven and earth have passed away, and will be 
 destroyed again. 
 
 In the wreck of the universe it is narrated that one 
 most holy sage alone survived. Nothing remained but 
 a waste of waters, without even atmosphere ; but holy 
 ascetics are continually gifted with powers even tran- 
 scending those of the deities, when they are absorbed 
 in Narayana. This sage, Markandeya, swam with 
 the waters, but found no asylum. Presently he per- 
 ceived a sacred Indian fig-tree. Beneath it was an 
 infant, who told him to rest there. " Enter," he says, 
 " into my body." 
 
 The sage enters, and sees the entire world, with 
 kingdoms and cities, the ocean with its sea-monsters, 
 and the Eiver Ganges, the four castes, the deities, and 
 their enemies the demons, &c. And travelling for one 
 hundred years, he still cannot find the limit of the 
 infant's body. But at length he emerges, and again 
 
94 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 sees the child lying under the branch of the tree, in 
 yellow robe and luminous with splendour. 
 
 The saint adores him, saying, " Clod, I desire to 
 know thee, thou who art sublime in this illusion of thy 
 grandeur. All powerful deity was in thee. Infinite 
 Power, how was all the world in thy body ? " 
 
 The God of gods replies, " Even the deities know 
 me not in truth, but for love of thee I will recount 
 how I precede creation. Thou hast placed thyself 
 under my protection, and I have shown myself to 
 thee. It is a great lesson from the Books of Know- 
 ledge which is given thee. The intellectual waters 
 existed before the material. This work of intelligence 
 was done by me. Hence am I called Narayana ; my 
 birth is in eternity, and I shall have no end. I 
 am the creator and destroyer of all beings. I am 
 Vishnu, Brahma, and Sakra, and the monarch of the 
 dead. I am Shiva, and Soma, and the Patriarchs. I 
 am the Sacrifice, thou greatest of Brahmins. The 
 fire is my mouth, the earth my feet, the sun and the 
 moon my eyes, the heaven my head, and the wind 
 my breath. The Brahmins are my mouthpiece, the 
 warriors my arms, the merchants and farmers my 
 thighs, the labourers my feet. The Books of Knowledge 
 have issued from me. I am the sun, and Agni (the 
 material fire). My law disposes beings towards truth, 
 penitence, and the absence of malignity towards all 
 creatures. When virtue diminishes and vice increases, 
 then I create myself and enter into a human body. I 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 95 
 
 am the Soul of all. I bring joy to all the universe. The 
 faithful honour me in all ways throughout the world. 
 The universe sleeps while I am under the form of an 
 infant — I, who am 110 infant, while Brahma awakes 
 not. Under the form of Brahma he will arise and 
 create the world and its beings." 
 
 This god, says the sage who recounts these marvels, 
 is Krishna, Hari, Govinda. " Go," he continues, "and 
 seek succour of him who gives succour." 
 
 He is asked what limit this age of the world will 
 have, and he replies in terms eminently suggestive of 
 the accounts of the end of the world in our Scrip- 
 tures. Truth, he says, will be lost, the classes inter- 
 mingled, atheists will abound, and Brahmins will 
 become merely disputatious. Husbands and wives, 
 fathers and sons, will be at enmity. Darkness, sin, 
 misery, and shortened lives will ensue. Then trees 
 and gardens will be destroyed. The lower classes 
 will preach, and the Brahmins become their disciples. 
 The temples will be in ruins, wars will prevail, rains 
 will become overwhelming, and the constellations will 
 lose their brilliance. The stars will only show 
 sinister auguries. At length fire will consume every- 
 thing, no asylum will remain, and only groans of 
 anguish be heard. 
 
 At length on the ruins of the world will come the 
 new age. Brahmins will again be recognised as the 
 first of classes. Then will arise the Brahman Kalki, 
 surnamed the Glory of Vishnu, surpassing in beauty, 
 
96 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 energy, and intelligence. From his thought will be 
 born chariots of war, warriors, and weapons. He will 
 be king, victorious in virtue, monarch of the entire 
 world ; and he shall bring the celestial favours upon 
 earth. He will immolate the barbarians, and prepare 
 the great sacrifice of the horse (in significance of 
 universal dominion). Then the children of Manu, by 
 his example, will obtain happiness, and the destruc- 
 tion of robbers will ensure tranquillity. Vice will be 
 exterminated. Virtue will return. Temples to the 
 deities and holy hermitages will be revived. And the 
 faithful will replace heretics. 
 
 This would certainly seem to suggest a period for, at 
 all events, this portion of the poem, when Buddhistic 
 ideas, antagonistic to Brahminical supremacy, were 
 gaining ground. But it seems scarcely probable that 
 it was written after Buddhism had apparently become 
 a state religion under Ashoka. Though Brahminism 
 continued to exist when that form of faith had become 
 so prominent, in its councils, canons of scripture, mon- 
 astic establishments, and in the favour of a powerful 
 monarch, it is difficult to conceive that the poet could 
 have alluded to it, except in more elaborate manner, 
 considering his usual prolixity. If this view be correct, 
 these passages must have been written at least three 
 hundred years B.C. 
 
 The " Great Bharata " contains an account of a 
 king of Yavanas, who comes from beyond the north- 
 western borders of India, to combat with Krishna, 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 97 
 
 and who is eventually slain in a mystic manner. It 
 seems, however, almost impossible that the King of 
 the Yavanas in the poem can have symbolised Alex- 
 ander and his invasion, or other Greek influence. The 
 idea of blackness is associated with him, and in fact 
 no suggestiveness of the Greek appears except the 
 name. Altogether this poem, and its accounts of the 
 manifestation of the divine in Krishna and his doctrine, 
 seem to appertain to a grand civilisation which was 
 in existence in the present British India by the fifth 
 century B.C. That civilisation was then ancient, elabo- 
 rate, and artificial in laws, commerce, arts, and arms. 
 India has retained to this day a valiant class of 
 warriors ; but in those days, as in medieval Europe, 
 war seems to have been more generally the pastime 
 of an aristocratical class. The Brahmins, however, 
 were preaching docility, gentleness, temperance ; and 
 they subdued the haughty warriors by assertions of 
 their own transcendent powers. They taught that the 
 curse of a Brahmin possessed terrific and certain force, 
 and they also taught that no house of king or chief- 
 tain was complete without its Brahmin chaplain. 
 Indeed the connection of warriors and Brahmins is 
 very similar to that of the combined barons and priests 
 of mediaeval Europe. But the priest of the Papist 
 Church in his celibacy has rather resembled the 
 Buddhist than the Brahmin. 
 
CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Princess Krishna, who, in this transmigration, 
 had received the five husbands, after having to remain 
 single in her previous life, reposes implicit faith in the 
 power of Krishna. Wanting food during the time 
 when she and her husbands are outcasts and wanderers 
 on the face of the earth, she thinks of him. She calls 
 him, in her heart, the Imperishable Son of Devaki — 
 the protector of the world, the soul of the world, 
 and its author. " Oh Lord," she says, " Way of those 
 who want a way, protect me in thy compassion, 
 God, thou beginning and end of beings — thou Supreme 
 Boot!" 
 
 Cesava comes to her and says, "Krishna, I am 
 hungry ; give me to eat, and I will do all that you 
 desire." She replies that she has no food. He rejoins 
 that she must bring him a seething-pot ; and for the 
 moment she thinks that he is making fun of her. 
 But speedily dishes of all sorts are produced from it, 
 and beverages as well as eatables to entertain a number 
 of Brahmins who have arrived and craved hospitality. 
 
 Krishna, in this aspect of the beneficent friend, con- 
 tinually affords prototypes of Christ. But the warrior- 
 king is always his accompanying character. He is 
 said to have descended upon earth to chastise the 
 wicked and save the virtuous. " This adorable Vishnu 
 now is named, here below, Krishna. The exploits of 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 99 
 
 this august god, without birth, without beginning or 
 end, adored in all the worlds, are celebrated by the 
 sages. He is called Krishna, the Invincible, who bears 
 the club, discus, and conch shell." 
 
 " This deity (Krishna) is adorned with a diadem, and 
 clad in a robe of yellow silk. He is versed in all the 
 sacred treatises. He is the supreme Divinity, and 
 Arjouna is ever protected by him." 
 
 It is in the so-called episode of Bhagavad-gita or Divine 
 Song that the system of Krishna is especially displayed. 
 
 This portion of the Mahabharata was translated by 
 Mr. J. Cockburn Thompson a generation ago. It has 
 been styled an episode, and its nature is certainly epi- 
 sodical, but it arises naturally out of the context, and is 
 in no way a separate portion of the whole. 
 
 When the princes entered upon the great war, 
 Krishna, although he had engaged himself not to be- 
 come a combatant in the contest, consents to act as 
 Arjouna's charioteer. 
 
 As they are advancing amid the martial din of 
 drums, trumpets, and conch shells, Arjouna has just 
 raised his grandly-powerful bow, when he says to 
 Krishna, " Stay ! Imperishable One ! Let the car 
 remain between the armies." At the sight of his 
 relations on the other side, whom he is to destroy, he 
 is seized with profound compassion. Can good, he 
 inquires, come from this slaughter of those his connec- 
 tions ? " Krishna ! " he says, " I desire neither kingdom, 
 nor pleasure, not even the empire of the three worlds 
 
ioo CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 (heaven, earth, and hell) at this cost." And he sits 
 down upon the seat of the chariot. 
 
 The slayer of (the demon) Madhou addresses him, 
 with his eyes full of tears. " Whence comes, Arjouna," 
 he inquires, " this failure of spirit ? " He tells him 
 that it is his duty to fight, and consoles him for the 
 slaughter by saying that in reality it is of no con- 
 sequence. Notwithstanding death, there will be no 
 real cessation of existence. Just as in this life we 
 behold in their turn infancy, maturity, and old age, so, 
 after this life, another body will be obtained, and the 
 wise need not be troubled with what happens here. 
 The contact with matter causes both pleasure and 
 pain. These things must be endured, for they are not 
 everlasting ; in their turn they are born and die. 
 The man who can regard pleasure and pain as equal is 
 wise, and he participates in immortality. These bodies 
 come to an end, but the soul is eternal, imperishable. 
 He who thinks the soul can be killed is unable to 
 distinguish between soul and body. The soul will pass 
 into a new body, just as the body takes new clothes. 
 Soul is invulnerable. Death is better than dishonour, 
 and the gate of Paradise is open to the warrior. 
 
 Krishna then continues by saying that he will 
 expound the Sankhya philosophy, i.e., the system attri- 
 buted to the above-mentioned Kapila, whose soul was 
 alleged to have been himself, Narayana, &c, in a 
 previous manifestation. 
 
 Accomplish works, said Krishna, without considering 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE, ioi 
 
 their recompense. Seek wisdom as thy refuge. When 
 your reason shall have traversed the dark regions of 
 error, you will arrive at absorption in the Absolute 
 Being. Folly comes of anger. He who is without 
 desires of this world can obtain, in the hour of death, 
 complete separation from matter and union with the 
 Absolute. The world retains us with the chain of 
 works. Those men who, full of faith, continually 
 follow, without murmuring, the opinion which I 
 declare, are freed from the influence of works. Births 
 are many. I know them all, but you know them not. 
 Whenever there is weakness in virtue and accession of 
 vice, then I produce myself. I am born in each age 
 for the preservation of the good and the destruction of 
 the wicked. Whoever knows, in its verity, my birth 
 and my divine office, will return no more to birth. 
 Renouncing anger, fear, desire, many of my faithful, 
 purified by the fire of knowledge, and taking refuge in 
 my bosom, are come to the life in me. Those who 
 desire perfection in works obtain them in this world of 
 men by sacrificing to the deities. But the man to whom 
 I am known is freed from the bondage of works. The 
 man who is without knowledge, without faith, with 
 soul lulled asleep by doubt, perishes. The sage who 
 has renounced the fruit of works arrives at tranquil- 
 lity. He who is attached to the recompense is en- 
 chained by the force of desire. He whose soul is fixed 
 on union sees that the Great Soul is in all creatures, 
 and that all creatures are in the Great Soul. 
 
io2 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 No one, my son, continues Krishna, if he is the 
 author of good works, can enter into the way of un- 
 happiness. Having become a citizen of worlds reserved 
 for the good actions, when he has there made his 
 abode for a vast period, fallen away from the union, 
 he will pass into the families of those who are happy 
 and pure. He can become united with the thoughts 
 which animated his previous body, and again he may 
 strive to attain perfection. At length, having washed 
 away all his sins in the purification of many births, 
 he is led into the supreme way. I am the principle 
 of living beings, the birth and death of the entire 
 world. Whatever may be the divine person whom 
 one of the faithful desires to honour, it is really me 
 to whom the honour is given. I know all beings, 
 past, present, and future, but I am known by none of 
 them. Those who take refuge in me, know the supreme 
 soul in its plenitude. Those who have learnt, with 
 soul identified with me, that I am before all beings, 
 before all the deities, before all the sacrifices, these 
 know me. Arjouna inquires, How art thou the first 
 sacrifice ? Krishna replies that the man-type was before 
 all beings, before the deities ; in this essence of the 
 perishable, he is the first of sacrifices. Those who 
 have come to me, he says, entered into the supreme 
 perfection, are no longer condemned to be reborn in 
 the abode of pains. From this earth to the world 
 of Brahma men describe the revolution of a circle, 
 and return to animate fresh bodies, but he who 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 103 
 
 seeks his abode in me, endures no new births here 
 below. 
 
 " I am the supreme way, Invisible ; I have created 
 the world, and all beings repose in me. I am the 
 sacrifice, I am the ceremony, the mother and father, 
 the asylum, immortality and death. I am, Arjouna, 
 that which is and that which is not ; and those who 
 sacrifice to other gods in faith, honour me. If any 
 one offers to me with piety water or a flower, I 
 receive it willingly. I am equal towards all creatures : 
 women, the lowest ranks, if they seek refuge in me, 
 they shall enter the supreme way. Attach thy soul 
 to me, and you shall come to me. I am the First- 
 born ; before the deities." 
 
 " Thy divinity," replies Arjouna, " is supreme ; thou 
 art Purity, the eternal Man, the first God, the Lord 
 without birth." 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 While two great armies, marshalled in their opposing 
 ranks, are about to commence an internecine strife, 
 this dialogue between one of the principal leaders and 
 his divine charioteer curiously continues. Krishna, to 
 illustrate his supreme divinity, bestows upon Arjouna, 
 for the time, divine eyes. " Behold," he says, " my 
 supreme union with all things." He is then trans- 
 
104 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 figured before Arjouna, who beholds in his body the 
 entire universe, conserving unity in its multiple divi- 
 sions. Krishna informs him that he, Bhagavat, is 
 Time, which works the destruction of all men, that all 
 the warriors in the two armies shall perish, himself 
 only excepted. 
 
 Arjouna then adores him, and addresses him as 
 First Creator, Infinite, Sovereign of the gods, the 
 Habitation of the world, the great Treasure of this 
 universe, the Wind, the Fire, the universal God. He 
 says, " If I have spoken to thee brusquely, if I have 
 not duly honoured thee, forgive me, deign to pardon 
 me as a father a son, a friend his friend, or a lover 
 his mistress." Krishna declares that no other than 
 Arjouna has seen his form. By exclusive devotion 
 he may be known, he may be seen in verity, and 
 even oneness may be obtained with him. " I am," he 
 says, " first object. He who is exempt from enmity 
 towards all beings comes to me. I will lift out 
 of the sea, whose waves overwhelm the world, and 
 save from death, those who place their thoughts on 
 me. If you cannot establish yourself solidly in me 
 by thought, arrive by ascetic process. Knowledge 
 is of more value than religious ceremony, meditation 
 is before knowledge ; the renouncing of the fruit of 
 works is above all. When a mortal conies to the time 
 of dissolution, if truth is in all his belief, he enters 
 the pure world of the saints. If he dies, still delivered 
 to passion and desire of action, or still immersed in 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 105 
 
 obscurity of soul, he will be reborn in a foolish or 
 wicked mother. Whoever serves me in constant piety, 
 participates in the essence of Brahma. For I am the 
 habitation of Brahma, the incorruptible food of life, 
 the eternal justice and infinite happiness. There is, 
 it is said, a divine fig-tree imperishable, the branches 
 of which are upon earth, but the roots in heaven. 
 Hymns are its leaves ; and to know it is to know the 
 Books of Knowledge. When this tree, with its wide- 
 spreading roots, has been cut down with the axe of in- 
 difference to the world, then may that place be sought 
 from which there is no return. Let man, therefore, 
 turn towards this primordial, universal soul, from 
 which came the ancient origin of things." ..." Under 
 the form of the sun I penetrate all bodies. I am 
 Memory, Science, the Books of Knowledge and Sacred 
 Scriptures. Whoever knows me for the Supreme 
 Spirit, knows all. Courage, constancy, and patience 
 are qualities appertaining to the divine condition ; 
 hypocrisy, anger, vanity belong to the nature of demons. 
 Those who give way to their desires, and deny the 
 existence of God, will descend to the impure hell." . . . 
 Krishna continues to Arjouna, " Hearken still to 
 my sublime word; thou art my well-beloved, I will 
 declare to thee that which is for thy good. Fix on 
 me thy heart, address to me thy adoration, offer to me 
 sacrifices {i.e., the bloodless sacrifices or sacraments of 
 offerings of clarified butter, &c. In the morning this 
 and honey seem to have been offered, the holy fire 
 
106 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 adored, with other ceremonies. Then there was the 
 sacrifice of the moon-plant, &c). Thou shalt come to 
 me," he continues, " I promise that which is true. . . . 
 Come to me only as thy refuge. I will deliver thee 
 from all sins. Afflict not thyself. Do not repeat these 
 words to the impenitent ; but he who will reveal this 
 mystery to my servant will come, without doubt, to 
 me. The man who possesses faith without desire, 
 who has heard these words, shall go to the happy 
 worlds of souls who have done holy works." 
 
 He enjoins the observance of caste. He praises 
 the hermits — calm, living on little food, &c, participat- 
 ing in the essence of Brahma. Charity exercised in 
 hopes of return is not good, he declares. He who 
 discerns one single imperishable soul in all beings, 
 realises the Indivisible in all his creatures. Iswara 
 resides in the heart of all beings ; he traverses all 
 creatures on the wheel of Time. " Take refuge with 
 all thy soul, son of Bharata, in this only asylum, 
 and you shall obtain the grace of supreme peace and 
 the eternal Paradise." 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 It had been suggested that this Divine Song, from 
 which these few extracts have been given, is an inter- 
 polation. But surely if any author had intruded it 
 into the older poem, he would have selected a more 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 107 
 
 suitable opportunity than this field of battle for his 
 disquisition on the soul and on the adoration of 
 Krishna as the Supreme. It would seem much more 
 probable that the inspiration of genius happened to 
 come to the poet who composed the whole account 
 at this point in his work. He did not pause to 
 consider the unities of the story, but let his ideas 
 flow. It seems reasonable to suppose, from this and 
 other portions of the work, that the story of the war 
 was a mere peg on which to hang religious, moral, 
 didactic, and epigrammatic vesture. It has been 
 thought that the story of the war had been written, 
 and then that later hands interspersed it with these 
 religious and other topics. The gambling incident in 
 the story suggests that there may have been some 
 legend of a family or dynastic feud arising out of that 
 vice. The author may have taken that story as 
 suitable for illustrating one of his morals, viz., the 
 depravity of gambling, which seems to have been 
 very prevalent in ancient India, even in Vedic times, 
 as in modern Europe. But his main design and 
 purpose was evidently to illustrate the divine office 
 of Krishna, and produce, in interesting form, a com- 
 pendium of profitable exhortations and instruction. 
 Of course there may have been more than one author, 
 and alterations and emendations may probably have 
 occurred, but its mere length need not hinder us from 
 ascribing it to a single author. And if differences of 
 style are discerned, the inequalities of genius may be 
 
io8 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 the cause. So has Shakespeare's real authorship been 
 deuied. It is a compilation evidently of all the exist- 
 ing stories with which the author was acquainted. 
 To transcribe these, with all the ancient maxims within 
 his knowledge, addiug his own ideas, and bringing the 
 whole to the length of 215,000 lines, is a great but 
 not impossible work for one man. Fifty lines a day, 
 for less than 300 days in the year, would complete 
 it in fifteen years. Hallam has calculated, says a 
 writer in "Temple Bar" of March 1 881, that Lope 
 de Vega was author of at least 21,300,000 lines. 
 But Krishna Dwaipayana, or Krishna of the Island, 
 also styled Vyasa (collector or arranger), who is said 
 to have composed this poem and to have collected the 
 Vedas and Puranas, seems too miraculous a personage 
 to be the real author. Moreover, he is introduced in 
 the epic ; and it would seem that the real author's 
 name has become merged in that of the personage to 
 whom he attributed it. So did Sir Walter Scott 
 introduce the name of Jedediah Cleishbotham in pre- 
 lude to his Waverley Novels ; and Washington Irving 
 attributes his history of New York to Knickerbocker. 
 
 The Divine Song of the " Great Bharata " may be a 
 more complete exposition of the doctrines attributed 
 to Krishna than appears elsewhere ; but it is in per- 
 fect harmony with his aspect throughout the poem, 
 as set forth in deeds, discourses, and descriptions of 
 the popular veneration of him. Again he says, in 
 the Bhishma division of the poem, " Depose thy heart 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 109 
 
 in me, let thy reason dwell in me, and thou shalt be 
 in me, and shalt have no more doubt." "He who 
 honours me, as existing in all beings, arrives at unity." 
 
 Brahma, creator of the world, adores Krishna as 
 Vishnu or Narayana, and says, " I take refuge in thee. 
 Thy feet are the divine earth, the regions of heaven 
 thy arms ; I myself am thy form ; the deities are thy 
 body ; thou hast for eyes the sun and moon. Strength, 
 patience, and duty are thy daughters. Krishna, 
 destroyer of sorrow, thou art the way, thou art the 
 guide of all beings ; the mouth of the world. Filled 
 with faith, in reliance on some one of thy names, 
 saints and deities sing thy praises, as the most sub- 
 lime of marvels. All beings are in thee, their asylum." 
 
 Brahma owned himself created of Xarayana or 
 Bhagavat. He besought him to take the human form, 
 to destroy the demons, and restore virtue upon the 
 earth. Then the blessed Bhagavat, commander of the 
 lords of the worlds, replied in favourable accents, 
 and descended to be born of Vasudeva. Brahma says, 
 " This son of Vasudeva must be propitiated. He is 
 the master of the entire world, the sovereign lord of 
 all the universe, whose son I, Brahma, am. Still 
 he is a man. Behold there the greatest of mysteries. 
 There he is who is the Unknown, the Imperishable, 
 the Eternal ; there his praises are sung under the 
 title of Man. Demons and deities, with Indra at 
 their head, must not disdain the son of Vasudeva 
 because he is called man. He who can despise him 
 
ho CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 — incarnated in human members — is enveloped in 
 darkness." Bhishma, one of the great, pious heroes of 
 the poem, says that he has learnt this sublime, eternal 
 mystery, that the son of Vasudeva is the august Lord 
 of the worlds. Brahma, father of the entire universe, 
 is his son. This son of Vasudeva is the eternal God, 
 formed of all beings. He is Shiva himself also. He 
 appointed to the castes their proper duties. When he 
 (Narayana, manifested in Krishna) had created light, 
 wind, and water, he reposed on his couch in the midst 
 of the water, and became absorbed in the Absolute Being. 
 He created the fire and breath, the word, and the Books 
 of Knowledge — the worlds, the deities. He is the 
 bestower of favours, past, present, and future — Infinite. 
 He slew the terrible, malignant demon ; he became 
 incarnate as the boar and the man-lion. He is Hari, 
 father and mother of all. " Joy will be the companion 
 of the child of Mauu (here again the first created 
 thinking being, the primeval man-type), who shall 
 have the happiness to read this book, who shall bow 
 down before Krishna, falling into no faintness of 
 spirit." " He is the sacrifice of the sacrificers, creator 
 of all beings — the eternal man — the way of the first 
 of all duties." After the leading prince of Krishna's 
 side has conquered, he attributes his success to him. 
 " Victory comes from thy grace, destruction from 
 thine anger. For thou art our asylum, Krishna, thou 
 placest thy faithful where fear cannot reach them." 
 Again in the Drona division of this " Great Bharata," 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE, in 
 
 the old blind king, whose sons are striving against 
 the princes with whom Krishna is allied, being him- 
 self convinced of the divinity and might of the divine 
 man, inquires, " How can these princes be defeated 
 when they have for their asylum the most eminent 
 of men — the eternal, the spiritual teacher of the worlds, 
 the absolute lord of the universe, the august Narayana ? " 
 
 "Listen," he says, "to the divine actions of the son 
 of Vasudeva. The magnanimous infant, having taken 
 his birth in a family of shepherds, slew the (demon) 
 king of horses in the forests of Yamouna ; he im- 
 molated in his infant arms a malignant beimj in the 
 form of a bull. The monarch Kansa in his splendour, 
 and other monarchs, bit the dust. He vanquished 
 many armies of enemies ; and conquering Varuna 
 (deity of the ocean), he became master of the celestial 
 conch shell. What other could repeat that great 
 prodigy which he accomplished in my assembly ? 
 Then it was the recompense of my devotion to behold 
 Krishna as the sovereign of the universe." 
 
 (In an assembly of princes and chieftains Krishna 
 had displayed a vision of himself as the supreme 
 spirit, and had enabled the blind monarch to see his 
 grandeur.) 
 
 " This son of Vasudeva," he continues, " whom the 
 Eegenerated invoke as the father of the whole universe, 
 he fights for the Pandu princes. Arjouna is the soul 
 of Cesava (Krishna). Victory is for ever with Arjouna, 
 and eternal glory with the son of Vasudeva." 
 
CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 CHAPTEE XXII. 
 
 While Krishna is acting as charioteer to Arjouna, he 
 intercepts with his own bosom a dart aimed at him. 
 This dart, in the breast of Cesava, became a bouquet 
 and garland of flowers. 
 
 After the death of Arjouna's son, Krishna, much 
 afflicted, repairs to Arjouna's palace to console his 
 sister (Arjouna's wife). " Do not be inconsolable," 
 he says ; " there is an hour, supreme in our destinies, 
 which death has appointed for all creatures. Derive 
 happiness from this, that he was a valiant hero ; he 
 has conquered those worlds created pure, where all 
 desires are satisfied. Thy son is entered into that 
 way to which those aspire who seek the good — by 
 learning, the Scriptures, purity, and penitence. Do 
 not weep. By the most exalted of ways he has 
 entered Paradise." Before the fighting has again 
 commenced, in which Arjouna craves to revenge his 
 son's death, Krishna conveys him to heaven, where 
 both render homage to Bhava (Shiva), and seek aid of 
 him. 
 
 The poet, in describing Krishna's homage to Shiva, 
 the auspicious one, who is a manifestation like him- 
 self of the Supreme Spirit, would seem to be desirous 
 of reconciling to his views those who had been ac- 
 customed to adore the divine under the name of Shiva 
 and his numerous titles. In fact the Brahminical 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 113 
 
 assertion, that the Almighty may be truly worshipped 
 under different appellations if adored in faith and 
 earnestness, seems here to be illustrated. But hap- 
 piness in this life, and that to come, seems to be 
 especially and continually throughout the poem held 
 forth by the author as attainable in the utmost per- 
 fection by faith in Krishna. 
 
 " By thy grace, Govinda, the victory over our 
 enemies is assured," says the chief of Krishna's party. 
 " Those with whom thou art satisfied are assured of 
 conquering the three worlds themselves (heaven, earth, 
 and hell). They can commit no fault, nor can they 
 suffer defeat in war. Entered into immortality, they 
 enjoy the eternal worlds. By thy favour, Lord of the 
 organs of sense, this world of beings, moveable and 
 immoveable, appointed to its course, describes its 
 revolution in the midst of low-voiced prayers and 
 oblations of clarified butter." 
 
 " In the beginning there was nothing but sea, 
 wrapped in obscurity. Thanks to thee, the world 
 came into being. The Lord of the organs of sense 
 is the creator of all the worlds, the Eternal, the First 
 Soul, without beginning or end, the everlasting God, 
 the Architect of the world, the primitive Man, the 
 Ancient One celebrated in the Books of Knowledge, 
 lord of the children of Manu. Adoration to thee, 
 greatest of men, Master, Lord, Sovereign, Good Fortune 
 of the universe." 
 
 H 
 
ii4 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 It must be, at all events, evident from the quota- 
 tions that have been given, that Krishna was regarded 
 as the Supreme Almighty manifested on earth as 
 man, and that faith in him was held to conduct to 
 happiness here and hereafter. It can surely not be 
 denied that such a religion is analogous to Christi- 
 anity. But the aspect under which it appears seems 
 to be more evidently derived from ideas in the oldest 
 Indian scriptures than from our own Old or New 
 Testaments. In the quotation just given it is claimed 
 that Krishna is in the Vedas. But it seems that he 
 is rather suggested than actually named or described 
 in them ; just as we perceive references to Christ in 
 the Old Testament. The Vedas or Books of Knowledge 
 appear to have been composed before the belief in 
 him arose. But passages in these works, referring to 
 the holy fire, &c, and to incarnations of the Divine 
 for man, and, in the Institutes of Mann, to deities 
 incarnate in kings, &c, as has been remarked, seem 
 clearly to lead to the belief in him. The religion of 
 Krishna, though analogous in some of its aspects to 
 Christianity, seems connected indissolubly with the 
 elaborate system of incarnations of deities, religious 
 ritual, faith in the metempsychosis, &c. So many of 
 these fanciful yet usually allegorical conceptions seem 
 undoubtedly Indo-Aryan that it is difficult to con- 
 ceive that the remainder are borrowed, as they are dis- 
 tinctly akin to the rest in conception and sentiment. 
 And much of the whole can be assigned to astro- 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 115 
 
 nomical or physical observations. In fact, the whole 
 system seems homogeneous and of unascertained 
 antiquity. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 The story of Krishna's birth, infancy, and youth is 
 given at length in the Harivansa, the last book of or 
 an addendum to the " Great Bharata " epic. 
 
 The Harivansa has been translated into French by 
 M. Langlois. " Now learn," it is said in this history 
 of the " Hari Family," " how Vishnu descended on the 
 earth to save beings, whose hope and lord he is ; 
 how this god, full of glory and holiness, was born in 
 the house of the sage Vasudeva." A demon had be- 
 come incarnate in Ivansa, the monarch of Madura, 
 which is described as a city beautified with parks and 
 gardens, terraces, open places, altogether " brilliant as 
 the smile of beauty." It is full of elephants, chariots, 
 and horses, and surrounded by fertile fields, duly 
 watered by Indra, the regent of the elements. 
 
 Curiously, Narada, the sort of Indo- Aryan Mercury, 
 though represented as a divine person, goes to the 
 tyrant Kansa, and warns him that the eighth child of 
 Devaki will be born for his destruction, and that his 
 enemy is " the way of heaven, the grand mystery of 
 the gods, he who is amongst these the greatest, and 
 
n6 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR. 
 
 who only exists of himself." He says that he (Kansa) 
 must respect him ; still, if he can attack him when an 
 infant, let him do so. Kansa pretends to fear nothing, 
 though really devoured by disquiet, and he gives 
 orders to destroy Devaki's children. Meanwhile he 
 prays that destiny may be averted ; but the prayers 
 of the wicked avail not. 
 
 Before descending upon earth Hari goes to the 
 goddess Kali in heaven, who seems to be identified 
 with the divine sun (Savitri) of Vedic hymns. He 
 tells her that in order to deceive Kansa she must be 
 born of the shepherdess Yasoda, wife of Nanda, when 
 he is born of Devaki. After birth Vasudeva will 
 change the children, transferrin" Kali to the side of 
 Devaki. Kansa, hearing of the birth, will come and 
 seize the new-born infant, and in his rage grasp her by 
 the foot and dash her to pieces on the stones. Then 
 she shall forthwith be relegated to heaven in glory, 
 appearing in a robe of sable silk, with yellow vestment 
 and pearls gleaming like the rays of the moon, &c. 
 
 Then follows a hymn in her praise, in which, as in 
 the case of all the deities introduced in the poem, she 
 becomes associated with the Supreme Spirit, appearing 
 to be a personification of certain forms in which the 
 power of life and death becomes manifested. 
 
 " Mortals," says Hari to her, " who believe in my 
 virtues and honour thee, shall receive all that they 
 desire, children or riches. Those who fall into evil 
 ways, those who are tossed on the tempest of the 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 117 
 
 ocean, or besieged by their enemies, shall have re- 
 course to thee. Thou shalt be perfection, happiness, 
 glory, modesty," &c. 
 
 " Thou shalt be deity of the terrible and barbarous 
 as well as the beautiful. Thou art the night, the first 
 way of all beings ; thou art death, and ready to devour 
 the ensanguined flesh ; thou art the sacrifice and the 
 supreme light — the object of hunger in all beings. 
 It is in thee that the chief points of the horizon are 
 beheld. Thou art piety in young girls, for the 
 pleaders the object of litigation. Thou sustainest 
 all, — in voyages, in prison, in danger of life : thou art 
 the assured protectress of mortals. Goddess, my 
 heart is in thee, — my thought, my soul ; deliver me 
 from all sin, and bestow on me thy favour." 
 
 " Behold," says the author, " the panegyric of the 
 divine Dourga as it has been transmitted to us in 
 ancient traditions." 
 
 When the proper hour arrives the wife of the pastor 
 Nanda gives birth to Kali, and Devaki to Krishna. The 
 seas rage, the mountains tremble. The night found 
 itself in the constellation Abhidjit, and the name of 
 Victory was given to that hour in which the divine 
 Hari manifested himself to the world — the powerful 
 Narayana, the eternal spirit, the first element of the 
 worlds. Music sounded in heaven, with chants of joy, 
 and showers of flowers fell. The entire world was 
 happy in the birth of the Lord of the organs of sense ; 
 and Vasudeva beheld on his breast the marks of his 
 
n8 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 divinity. He then took the child and effected the 
 change of infants. Kansa became informed of what 
 had occurred and went to Devaki. Amid the cries of 
 the women about her, she implored compassion for her 
 daughter. " You have slain," she said, " seven of my 
 children ; must my poor daughter die also ? " 
 
 But he ruthlessly seized the infant and dashed it 
 to his feet. 
 
 Then Dourga quitted the form, and arose in the air, 
 crowned and magnificent. All her limbs have the 
 gleam of pearls ; and she has now become " that 
 divine Virgin, object of the eternal homage of the 
 deities." Her robe is of black and gold. She dissi- 
 pates the obscurity of night as she appears in the air, 
 holding in her hand an immense goblet, in which she 
 quenches her thirst. She dances and laughs, and 
 announces to Kansa his death. 
 
 This " Divine Virgin " protectress of those engaged 
 in voyages, in battle, &c, certainly has a curious 
 prototypical aspect to " Our Lady " of mediaeval days, 
 to whom, as the saviour of shipwrecked mariners, we 
 see chapels dedicated on the French coast hung with 
 offerings to the Virgin-Mother. But in her other 
 aspect Kali is a fury, a Hecate, a power of horror and 
 destruction. Kansa craves the pardon of Devaki for 
 destroying her child, saying that destiny was the 
 cause. She says that she forgives him. She accuses 
 only Time, " the first author of evils, who follows 
 the direction which he lias received from the moment 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 119 
 
 of the first creation of beings. Death is the necessary 
 consequence of birth." 
 
 Then follows a description of the country to which 
 the infant Krishna has been taken. The properties 
 there are duly fenced, and in their centres are the 
 stables. Allusion is made to butter-making. The 
 young shepherdesses are attired in black and yellow 
 vestments ; their earrings are formed of wild flowers, 
 their breasts are modestly veiled, and they are carry- 
 ing jars upon their heads to fetch the water of the 
 Yamouna. 
 
 When Narayana became incarnate in Krishna, he 
 simultaneously became incarnate in Bala-Eama also, 
 who was born of Vasudeva's wife Eohini. But Krishna 
 is always represented as the actual Narayana on earth, 
 this collateral incarnation merely constituting a com- 
 panion to him. Bala- Rama is the incarnation of eternity, 
 as has been observed, personified as the serpent Sesha. 
 Bala-Eama is light in colour, while Krishna is dark. 
 Amongst the miracles of Krishna's childhood, it is 
 related that in order to keep him from straying, he is 
 tied to a ponderous car ; but he drags it off, and 
 carries away two great trees also in its course. At 
 another time he kicks over a chariot ; this being sup- 
 posed to refer to the passage of a star through the 
 constellation Rohini, which is represented by a chariot. 
 He and his brother Bala-Rama spend seven years in 
 this pastoral region, Krishna being described as attired 
 in yellow, with a garland of wild-flowers and the 
 
120 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 pastoral flute, the brother in black. He then recom- 
 mends the pastors to move to another region, as 
 herbage was becoming scanty. 
 
 It appears that the cowherds formed a sort of 
 nomadic race in India, dwelling in temporary abodes. 
 The migration is described. There are crowds of cars, 
 files of shepherdesses in black and yellow, with gar- 
 lands. Then at the new camping-ground they con- 
 struct huts covered with turf, and cabins consisting 
 of branches of trees. Skins and stuffs are spread 
 fur beds ; and they have abundance of milk, and are 
 contented. 
 
 The charms of the forest are described, where re- 
 sound the cries of the wild peacocks, where the trees 
 and flowers form arches overhead, and everything 
 breathes of the tender passion. 
 
 In this sylvan district is a lake inhabited by a 
 terrible and obnoxious serpent. One day, to the con- 
 sternation of the cowherds, Krishna tumbles himself 
 into this lake. The monstrous serpent, with his five 
 heads, rises amidst flames, and surrounded by other 
 great serpents, the officers of his court. But Krishna 
 kicks him and stamps upon him, knocks about the 
 serpents in general, and seizes and hurls away one of 
 the serpent-king's heads. Upon this the serpent owns 
 himself vanquished ; and Krishna orders him to betake 
 himself to the sea with all of his. And the cowherds 
 raise a song of praise, and congratulate Xauda on 
 bavin ct such a son. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 121 
 
 The brother, Bala-Rama, having taken some fruit 
 from a forest of date-palms, a sort of monster, cor- 
 responding to the giant and enchanter of the old 
 European mediaeval romances, comes in the form of a 
 shepherd and seizes him. Bala-Rama cries out to 
 Krishna for advice as to what he is to do in this 
 emergency. And here again occurs one of those 
 episodical interpolations which seem to show that 
 the author cared less for the progress of his story 
 than for the expositions of Krishna's doctrine which 
 it contained. 
 
 Krishna replies that the difficulty in which Kama is 
 placed is one of the inconveniences of his human nature. 
 
 " But there is another nature in thee," he con- 
 tinues, " spiritual and unalterable. Thou art clad in 
 a terrestrial body, mysterious form of an incompre- 
 hensible being ; but thou art also the spirit of Nara- 
 yana, the revolution of worlds, the breath of life which 
 animates the universal era, the essence of the antique 
 deities, Brahma himself. The heaven is thy head, 
 the world thy body. Who can tell the secrets which 
 thou guardest in thyself ? even the gods have no 
 knowledge of them. Thou art surnamed Ananta, 
 Infinite. Thou sustainest the universe, and thou art 
 in the world that which I am myself. We constitute 
 but one body — separated, yet always united. Thou art 
 the eternal, immortal Sesha. That which I am thou 
 art also ; that which thou art equally I am. We are 
 two in one body." 
 
122 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 Then Bala-Kama recalls to mind his divine existence, 
 and finds himself full of the force " which circulates 
 in the three worlds." He strikes the monster on the 
 head, and a voice from heaven applauds the victory of 
 the Invincible Infant. Bala-deva literally means the 
 deity of force ; and here again is a suggestion of 
 Hercules. But the adoration of Bala-Kama seems to 
 have become merged in that of Krishna. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 After two months of rain the fete of Indra is cele- 
 brated amongst these pastoral people. The cows' 
 horns are adorned with peacocks' feathers, bells, and 
 autumnal flowers. Chants of joy resound, cream is 
 abundant, with mountains of rice and viands. Then 
 the great " sacrifice " of the " Hill " is accomplished. 
 Brahmins perform the sacred rites, and are duly pre- 
 sented with various kinds of nourishment. Krishna 
 mystically becomes himself the hill, and rice, milk, 
 and other provisions are offered to him. The cows 
 are crowned with flowers, and are driven in solemn 
 procession around this hill. But while Krishna, as 
 the Universal and Supreme Spirit, enters this moun- 
 tain, to which the villagers are offering adoration, he 
 is, at the same time, present amongst them as the 
 Goatherd Krishna, and renders homage unto himself 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 123 
 
 in the mountain. This must surely be intended to 
 set forth that the simple, ancient superstition which 
 led the pastoral people to venerate the hill as divine, 
 was still acceptable, if sincerely offered, to the divinity 
 who is of all nature, and who was himself the hill, as, 
 indeed, he was the entire universe. The Church of 
 Christendom has conceived that, in similar significance, 
 Christ laid His hand upon the bread and declared that 
 it was His body though He was there present Himself 
 in the flesh. Indra is angered at the devotion to 
 Krishna, and he pours down a deluge of rain, the 
 clouds being described as resembling elephants. The 
 goatherds have recourse to Krishna, and beseech him 
 to defend them. 
 
 He " whose power was founded upon truth " deter- 
 mined to protect them with the mountain ; and he 
 raises and sustains it on his finger, while the people 
 with their flocks and herds find shelter beneath. Indra 
 is induced to own the supreme power of Narayana in 
 Krishna. 
 
 Indra then does homage to him, and says that he 
 will bestow upon him the royal baptism, by emptying 
 on his head certain golden vases filled with divine 
 milk. This he accomplishes according to the proper 
 rite. Flowers fall from heaven, ambrosia drops from 
 the clouds, and heavenly music is also heard as the 
 ceremony is performed. Indra tells him that after 
 the two rainy months his adoration as Govinda shall 
 commence. He recommends him to slay the tyrant 
 
124 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 Kansa, and says that an emanation of himself, Arjouna, 
 shall accompany Krishna, and that as he, Indra, lives 
 in Krishna, so shall Arjouna live in him. 
 
 The pastoral folk do honour to Krishna, and inquire 
 who he really is that he wields such power. Krishna 
 smiles upon them, and replies, " I am only your kins- 
 man ; cease to believe me such as I seem to your souls, 
 now influenced by fear. If there is any mystery in 
 my existence, Time will teach it to you, and then 
 you shall know me when you see me as I am! If 1 
 seem to you a deity, it is well for you." 
 
 Again Krishna is described as attired in yellow, 
 with garlands of flowers. The shepherdesses fall in 
 love with him, and follow him about, imitating him in 
 dances, &c, their eyes tender as those of the black 
 antelope. Altogether the sylvan delights of Krishna 
 and the "Gopis" lead up to the "pastorals" ami 
 " china shepherdesses " of modern Europe. 
 
 Meanwhile Kansa has become aware of Krishna's 
 existence and miracles, and designs his death. He 
 has killed a fierce bull, really an incarnate demon, 
 which Kansa has sent against him, and afterwards a 
 savage horse. Kansa now orders that the goatherds 
 shall be summoned to Mathura to pay the annual 
 tribute. Thither Krishna and Bala-Bama proceed; 
 and together they enter the city, and pass along the 
 royal street. Being clad in rustic attire, they demand 
 some rich vestments from a dealer ; and as he abuses 
 them grossly, they knock him down, and march off 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 125 
 
 with the coveted garments. They enter a flower- 
 seller's shop, and request a garland ; and the flower- 
 seller is so much impressed with them that he 
 immediately presents them with garlands, and Govinda 
 informs him that great wealth shall come to him. 
 
 They proceed on their way, and presently meet a 
 hunch-backed woman, who is carrying vases of per- 
 fume. Krishna says to her, " Amiable hunch-back, 
 with eyes like the lotus, for whom do you destine 
 these perfumes ? " " Do you not know me," she says, 
 " employed as I am in supplying the king with per- 
 fumes ? " 
 
 Krishna asks her to give them some cosmetics in 
 harmony with the colour of their bodies. We are 
 from the provinces, he says, " wrestlers " by profes- 
 sion. The hunch-back expresses delight with Krishna, 
 and says, " Take this marvellous perfume, which is 
 worthy of a king." 
 
 Then Krishna lightly touches her back, and she 
 finds herself upright. 
 
 " charming friend ! " she cries, " let me follow 
 thee everywhere that thou goest." And she is quite 
 overcome with love for Krishna. 
 
 However, he and his brother gaily take leave of 
 her, and march into the palace. There they desire to 
 be shown a mighty bow, the drawing of which is to 
 be one of the feats of strength at a forthcoming tour- 
 nament or competition of deeds of arms. 
 
 Krishna takes it, breaks it in sunder with a terrible 
 
126 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 sound, and then lie and Bala-Kama disappear from the 
 view of the attendants of the palace. 
 
 Kansa is informed of this prodigy, and he is much 
 troubled. He, however, proceeds to visit the great 
 hall which has been prepared for the approaching 
 spectacle. 
 
 This is described as situated in the interior of the 
 palace. It contains reserved places for the chiefs of 
 the various corporations ; and the elegance of the 
 building is praised, with its graceful columns and 
 cornices, and commodious approaches between the 
 balconies and terraces, &c. 
 
 The king orders it to be hung with garlands, flags, 
 and draperies. Large vases filled with drinks are to 
 be placed here and there, golden jugs with acidulated 
 liquors, and eatables. This theatre is described as 
 octagonal in shape, with eight staircases, decorated 
 with paintings and with alcoves, &c. ; and the whole 
 interior is resplendent with golden columns, gorgeous 
 chairs, divans glittering with gold, superb carpets, 
 woven to represent trees, flowers, &c. Eefreshment- 
 rooms are provided, with golden vases of drinks and 
 basins of fruit. The ladies have " boxes " with light 
 gratings of sugar-cane in front of them. The courtesans 
 have separate places assigned to them, ornamented with 
 magnificent fabrics. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 127 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 The King Kansa, on the clay of the spectacle, takes 
 his place upon his throne with all due ceremony. He 
 is described as dressed in two pieces of white, with 
 white turban and gems. The wrestlers come into the 
 arena with floating vestments, accompanied by strains 
 of music. Then Krishna and Bala-llama enter ; and 
 by the orders of Kansa, a fierce elephant is let loose 
 upon them. But Krishna merely plays with him, 
 deciding, however, to kill him as being an accomplice 
 of Kansa. He and his brother accordingly smite the 
 elephant to death ; Krishna remarking that killing in 
 a theatre is brutal. 
 
 The two brothers then overthrow Kansa's wrestlers ; 
 and when the music of the theatre ceases, heavenly 
 music is heard. The finest diamond in Kansa's diadem 
 ominously falls. After the defeat of the wrestlers, 
 Kansa gives orders for soldiers to attack the two. 
 Krishna then springs to the side of Kansa, and, hurl- 
 ing him into the arena, kills him. The lamentations 
 of his wives resound ; but the people in general appear 
 to sympathise with Krishna. He explains that he is 
 touched by the women's lamentations, and that Kansa 
 shall have befitting burial, but that it was necessary 
 that he should be killed on account of his wickedness. 
 And he then proceeds to moralise on death as the 
 common lot of all who are clothed in a perishable 
 
128 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR. 
 
 body. " Kansa has ceased to live, victim of Time, and 
 his destiny was prepared by his deeds in a preceding 
 birth." He says that he does not want the throne for 
 himself ; that he immolated Kansa for the good of the 
 world ; and that he will return to the life of the 
 country, " free as a bird." 
 
 However, Krishna and Bala-Rama do not return 
 to the pastoral life ; but, having set up a king of 
 Mathura, they go to study the art of war. This is 
 contained in the sixty-four parts of the " Dhanour- 
 Veda," one of the later of the sacred " Books of Know- 
 ledge." And as their preceptor's son has died, Krishna 
 promises to revive him. Proceeding to the abode of 
 the king of death, he endows this son with a new 
 body, and restores him to his father. 
 
 When Krishna and Bala-Bama return to Mathura, 
 the whole population issues forth to greet them. The 
 chiefs of the corporations of the divers orders in the 
 state, the ministers, priests, and old and young, come 
 with all the instruments of a fete day, with music, 
 flags, garlands, &c, and chants and benedictions are 
 heard everywhere. " Behold," they cry, " those noble 
 brothers, Piama and Govinda, whose glory fills all the 
 world ; peace reigns in your country, sons of Yadu." 
 Then, in the mansion of their father Vasudeva, they 
 give themselves up to pleasure in gardens, and by cool 
 waters, adorned with the crimson, blue, and white 
 lotus, &c. 
 
 But Djarasandha, king of Magadha, puts his army 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 129 
 
 in motion against Mathura, for his two daughters had 
 been married to Kansa ; and many other kings are 
 allied with him. 
 
 Krishna and Bala-Eama miraculously overcome the 
 invading armies, and a triumphant entry into Madura, 
 amidst the euthusiasm of the people, is again described. 
 After this Bala-Eama returns to visit the pastoral 
 people, amongst whom he has passed his boyhood. 
 They rejoice to see him, and in the festivities which 
 ensue he becomes decidedly inebriated over good 
 liquor. 
 
 It would certainly seem to be an indication of the 
 antiquity of this Harivansa that both Krishna and 
 Bala-Eama, but especially the latter, indulge freely in 
 intoxicating drinks. These are distinctly reprobated 
 in the Brahminical " Institutes of Manu," generally 
 ascribed to between the iifth and tenth centuries B.C. 
 As the " Great Bharata," including the concluding 
 Harivansa, seems to display Brahminical influence 
 with equal distinctness, it is strange, if it is more 
 modern, that the inebriety of a divine incarnation 
 should be introduced. In the archaic Vedas, on the 
 other hand, we find that when the juice of the sacred 
 moon-plant (soma) was discovered to possess intoxicat- 
 ing qualities it became venerated as divine. It was 
 found to impart a sensation of joy which seemed to 
 elevate above this mundane life ; so they conceived that 
 it must be heavenly, and they offered it to the deities, 
 in solemn sacrifice, with the rice cake. 
 
 I 
 
130 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 No reprobation is expressed in Genesis ix. of Noah's 
 drunkenness. It is his son, who accidentally beholds 
 him in an intoxicated condition, who is cursed and 
 punished. 
 
 King Djarasandlia has lied from the might of 
 Krishna. In a council of chieftains he admits his 
 divinity, and inquires what is to be done, " for 
 Krishna is Narayana, ancient source of the world, 
 creator of all beings, without beginning, end, or 
 middle." 
 
 One king advises peace, but another says, " Why 
 this fear ? I know that Krishna is the Eternal, — born 
 to deliver this world, an avatar of Vishnu, — but I also 
 know that we die when our time comes ; till then 
 we are assured against harm. This divine Vishnu 
 himself is subject to Fate." 
 
 Eventually these inimical monarchs march on 
 Mathura ; and Krishna, who has meanwhile been con- 
 secrated king with great ceremonies and rejoicings in 
 heaven and earth, announces that they are too power- 
 ful. Apparently it is destined that he should found 
 Dwaraka, on the coast of Gujerat. He expatiates to 
 his assembly on the advantages of its site ; and he 
 finally conducts the Yadavas, his people, thither in 
 grand procession. 
 
 Djarasandlia and his ally, the Kala-Yavana king, 
 advance with numerous armies, the latter having 
 under his standard a crowd of barbarians from the 
 mountains. Krishna returns to Mathura and shows 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 131 
 
 himself to the Black Yavana, who chases him. Krishna 
 disappears in the cave. The enchanted monarch, who 
 lies therein, has attached to him the spell of causing 
 by fire the destruction of any one who touches him. 
 The Yavana enters, finds him sleeping, kicks him, and 
 is forthwith consumed by flames. 
 
 The sleeper awakes, and inquires of Krishna who 
 he is. Krishna replies that he is the son of Vasudeva, 
 and that he (the slumbering monarch) had fallen to 
 sleep in a former age of the world's history. 
 
 The awakened one, like the hero of Washington 
 Irving's story who has slept for years while the 
 Americans have cast off King George, &c, is much 
 astonished at the changed aspect of affairs. He sees 
 men with lessened stature, and he finds that patience, 
 courage, and other virtues are much enfeebled in the 
 world's present (the black) age. Krishna now attacks 
 and destroys the hostile army, and then proceeds to 
 make surveys for his new town, having offered up the 
 usual prayer after sunrise. 
 
 By the power of his thought he summons Yisva- 
 karman, the All-Architect, and tells him that the city 
 must be the finest in the world — its architecture 
 according to rules, its temples properly provided with 
 places for the Brahmins and assistants at the sacri- 
 fices, and for the maintenance of the holy fire, &c. 
 The ocean obeys his demand to cede a large domain. 
 Then magnificent houses, gates, and triumphal arches 
 arise, with ramparts and towers. Elegant pavilions. 
 
132 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 and delicious gardens, and thousands of streets are 
 constructed, with houses decorated with precious 
 stones, and refreshed by the sea-breezes. Then the 
 Regent of the Winds brings a divine Hall from heaven. 
 In this Sanctuary of Justice, placed in the centre of 
 Dwaraha, the princes of the Yadus are enthroned with 
 the same majesty as the deities in heaven. And 
 Krishna establishes corporations, ministers of state for 
 military and civil affairs, high priests, &c. 
 
 Then Krishna falls in love and elopes with Euk- 
 zuini, vanquishing, but sparing at her intercession, 
 her brother who had followed them. He now 
 solemnly espouses her, and finds great happiness in 
 her love ; and they had ten sons and one daughter. 
 
 As has been observed, the ancient Indo-Aryans 
 conceived that deity, incarnate in the world, should 
 fulfil to the utmost the obligation inherent upon every 
 one to beget children. Buddhism encouraged the celi- 
 bate life ; but in these books, sacred to Krishna, as in 
 the Erahminical Institutes of Manu, matrimony is in- 
 culcated. The Institutes, save in exceptional instances, 
 ordain only one wife. Krishna marries seven other 
 principal wives ; and he weds the sixteen thousand 
 secondary spouses, by whom he has thousands of sons. 
 
 In our Old Testament (Kings xi.) the fact of 
 Solomon's espousing seven hundred wives does not 
 seem in itself to be mentioned as reprehensible ; only 
 in respect to his having " loved many strange women," 
 who " turned away his heart after other gods," so that 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 133 
 
 " his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as 
 was the heart of David his father." 
 
 Yet the Lord had appeared unto him twice (Ki igs 
 xi. 2). This prototypical form of Christianity, i.e. of 
 deliverance from evil and guidance into bliss, through 
 faith in the Divine incarnate upon earth, naturally 
 appears in archaic form. The unfettered imagination 
 of early civilisation was permitted full play. But it 
 must be remembered that our Song of Solomon has to 
 be interpreted mystically, else its exoteric aspect is 
 certainly that of a mere love-song, and a similar treat- 
 ment has been bestowed upon Krishna's amours. The 
 general conception seems to have been that, in imagin- 
 ing in the flesh the Supreme and Universal Soul, which 
 sustains all being, animate or inanimate, mere numbers, 
 which rule ourselves, should have no significance. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Thus Krishna became settled in Dwaraka, in which 
 city he remained as its prince till his death, and the 
 destruction of all the race of the Yadus, to which he 
 belonged, under the fated influence of a curse. And 
 the city itself was overwhelmed by the ocean ; but 
 to the present day a temple of great sanctity bears 
 asserted testimony to the city's existence on the shores 
 of Gujerat. 
 
134 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 It is after he has become settled here that Krishna 
 appears upon the scene in the " Great Bharata," and 
 after vainly striving to act as mediator between the 
 contending hosts, aids by his presence and advice his 
 friends the Pandu princes. 
 
 It has been surmised that he was a prince who 
 supported the Brahmins, that they afterwards bestowed 
 upon him his divinity on that account, and set him 
 up as an object for popular adoration. But the oppos- 
 ing warriors equally respect the Brahmins ; and their 
 religious crime seems to be their contending against 
 those who are aided by Krishna. There are great 
 religious heroes on the side of the wicked princes, 
 who fight for them because they hold it to be their 
 duty, and there are also Brahmins with them. And 
 altogether the perusal of the poem does not seem to 
 support this view of its purport. The war appears, 
 in fact, to be the mere basis of a magnificent allegory 
 of the contending human emotions, in which Narayana, 
 incarnated in Krishna, is declared throughout to be 
 the true way to happiness here and hereafter. 
 
 He is repeatedly addressed as the Soul of Nature, 
 the Supreme Intelligence, the Great All, clothed in 
 mortal personifications. And the Harivansa also spiri- 
 tualises. It is said therein that Eukmini and Krishna's 
 other wives are mere manifestations of this Being, the 
 nature of whose immensity is Vishnu (the all-pervading 
 spirit). Vishnu is at the same time Iswara and also 
 his wife (i.e. Shiva and the " glorious Uma "). " There 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 135 
 
 is no difference between Eudra (Shiva as the destroyer) 
 and Vishnu. The powerful Narayana is the author and 
 substance of all beings. He, with Iswara, has given 
 birth to Brahma, to the ancient universal soul." 
 
 As has been observed, it is the continual effort of these 
 works to show that all these modes of addressing the 
 Divine, as Shiva or Vishnu, or as their wives, Lakshmi 
 the goddess of good fortune, or as Uma, Parvati or 
 Dourga, the bride of Shiva, who is also adored as the 
 terrible Kali, and as the divine and beneficent Virgin, 
 — that all these forms of adoration are in reality only 
 expressions of the one Spirit. Originally they may 
 have been conceived as powers of the unseen world 
 in systems of actual polytheism. But undoubtedly 
 in this Indo- Aryan sacred literature, from the period 
 when the Vedas (Books of Knowledge) were compiled, 
 many centuries B.C., these divinities are adopted or 
 continued in veneration only to be associated in 
 divine unity. Even the 16,000 wives of Krishna are 
 regarded as forms of One, who is at the same time one 
 and several, who is wife or energy not only of Vishnu 
 but of Shiva, and also of Brahma ; for these three and 
 all the deities are still One, who is from everlasting 
 to everlasting, who is all-pervading and infinite. 
 
 " To-day," it is said, " for the salvation of the world, 
 Cesava is manifested at Mathura." 
 
 " As a meat patty is throughout impregnated with 
 the unctuous dripping, so is the world everywhere 
 penetrated with the presence of Vishnu." 
 
136 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 " The sages who know the Books of Knowledge are 
 aware that he is the Sacrifice. His ordinary course 
 is to destroy those who have rejected penitence and 
 complacently abided in ill-doing." 
 
 A great saint, Kashyapa, says, " I incline before 
 thee, whose force is infinite, whose firmness is not to 
 be moved. First of beings, Master and Victim of the 
 Sacrifice, thou art the offering of the piety of the 
 world, and the companion of destiny — Divine con- 
 soler, who triumphs over death. Thou art the soma 
 (intoxicating juice corresponding to the wine) of the 
 sacrifice, brilliant in thy own light. Preserve me 
 from all ill, efface my sins, god of gods, thou who 
 art the enemy of every fault committed in secret, or in 
 thought, the beginning and end of every sacrifice, pastor 
 of pastors. Thou art All." 
 
 Again Narada invokes him as, " you who are the 
 way of the just, be ever favourable to me. Grant me 
 the power to visit ever your abode, and that I may 
 be exempt from being reborn in the flesh. In all my 
 future existences may I still be a divine being." 
 
 In the Bhagavata Purana (Ancient Book of the 
 Blessed), Brahma, creative agent of the worlds, pros- 
 trate before Bhagavat, calls him the abode of happi- 
 ness, supreme bliss, where the law of regeneration is 
 arrested for those who have taken refuge in him. 
 Even we, the deities, he says, only know him not in 
 his verity, but in the external form which he has 
 created by means of his Illusion (Maya). The first 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 137 
 
 Incarnation was the soul of the Universe (Purusha), 
 that is, the Supreme Essence, called Hari by the first 
 thinking being. Brahma imposed upon himself great 
 austerities in order that he might create the worlds ; 
 and then Bhagavat was born as the Son of Justice 
 (Dharma). " Adoration," he says, " to Bhagavat, the 
 tree of the world, who divided his proper root into 
 three trunks, forming himself, Shiva and Vishnu." 
 
 " He becomes disengaged from attachment to the 
 world wdio is endowed with faith," says Bhagavat, 
 " w T ho is exercised in the practice of intense devotion 
 towards me, who bestows due attention on my his- 
 tories, who regards all creatures with perfect equa- 
 nimity, and who continues in the practice of kindness 
 and chastity — calm, charitable — master of himself. 
 The sage perceives within his personality, which has 
 no real existence, a reflex of the Being, whom he 
 beholds exempt from real attributes. By persistence 
 in duty, devotion, penitence, nature disappears in 
 spirit. When, after numbers of existences, in this 
 world or in that of Brahma, he becomes indifferent to 
 personality, devoid of egotism, he who is full of de- 
 votion to me, and who knows the truth, thanks to my 
 goodness, obtains that which constitutes his proper 
 nature. That state of happiness which is called 
 absolute deliverance is found in my bosom. Casting 
 aside all doubts he speedily comes, here below, to that 
 state from which there is no more return. Be chaste 
 
13S CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 and pure, lead a life of penitence, read the Books of 
 Knowledge, and adore the Universal Soul." 
 
 " Meditate on the smile, so noble, of Hari, which 
 can abate the ocean of tears, which overwhelm, in 
 their profound sorrows, all the worlds." 
 
 " I reside perpetually in the bosom of all beings, 
 whose soul I am. The man who cannot recognise me 
 has but the false image of piety. 
 
 "Till man, indeed, actually goes to abide in hell, 
 he desires not to abandon his body. He becomes 
 attached to his goods, becomes culpable and violent, 
 and finally degraded. Despair and death come to him, 
 and enclose him in a body destined to the sufferings 
 of hell. Then he has to follow the way of sinners 
 in long and terrible darkness, tormented by hunger 
 and fire, till he reaches the abode of the Monarch of 
 Death (Yama). Then come the pains of hell upon 
 him. His limbs are enveloped in flames, his flesh 
 torn from him ; the dogs and vultures of hell devour 
 his entrails before his face. Even in this world, it is 
 said in the Bhagavata, men exclaim, ' This is heaven ! 
 This is hell ! ' for the sufferings of hell are not un- 
 known here, but in hell itself shall the fruits of faults 
 Vie gathered. Having traversed all the places of pain 
 in the infernal regions, he shall be purified and return 
 to this world. He again has to become a germ, and 
 to re-enter the world helpless and ignorant." 
 
 Those who worship the Supreme Being under the 
 material form of Brahma, may arrive at his heaven. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 139 
 
 But those who take refuge in the Being who dwells 
 in the hearts of all, who is First of all, moveable and 
 immoveable in this universe, who is the Parent of the 
 Scriptures — Bhagavat, son of Vasudeva, who is sup- 
 reme soul, and knowledge — those may cease from the 
 migrations of their individual souls, and come to him. 
 " Take refuge with him," it is said, " who is at the same 
 time immortality and death. Vowing devotion ex- 
 clusively for Bhagavat, happiness will be with thee." 
 In finishing an address to his mother, Bhagavat 
 says : 
 
 " By continuing in the way which I have indicated, 
 and which you can easily follow, you will come 
 speedily to supreme perfection. Preserve with faith 
 my word, which those love who possess the Books of 
 Knowledge. It will bring thee to me, who am Safety. 
 Those who do not know me fall into death." 
 
 The mother then deserted her abode, became an 
 ascetic, practised severe mortifications, with her heart 
 fixed only on the son of Vasudeva, till she arrived at 
 the possession of the Supreme Spirit Bhagavat, who is 
 the final deliverance. Eelease from transmigrations 
 upon earth and punishments in hell, and an eternal 
 abode above even the heaven of the powers of the 
 elements, &c, is promised to those who, in faithful 
 and exclusive devotion, adore the " blessed," manifested 
 in Krishna. 
 
 Chivalrous devotion to woman has been supposed 
 to have emanated from the Christianity of the valiant 
 
i 4 o CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 warriors of Northern Europe. But M. Leveque ad- 
 duces quotations from the Harivansa to show that the 
 adoration of the fair sex, in terms of humble devotion, 
 is found in the more ancient Aryan poetry. As in a 
 modern romance, the handsome Pradyoumna takes 
 in his the hand of the beautiful Prabhavati with its 
 o-litterino; ornaments. He feels that it trembles. 
 " Celestial beauty," he says, " object of the most tender 
 hopes, why do you hide your countenance, brilliant as 
 the stars of night ? why do you maintain this cruel 
 silence ? Do not be envious of my beholding your 
 charming face. adorable being, disdain not your 
 slave. Accept the homage which he has rendered to 
 you by resigning his liberty. You have no cause for 
 fear; submissive and respectful I address to you my 
 prayer. incomparable one, let me know that I 
 have touched your heart." 
 
 M. Leveque remarks that gallantry of this kind 
 was unknown to the Greeks and Romans. It appears 
 to have passed from India to the romances of the 
 Breton cycle, and thence to modern times. So in 
 Ptacine Achilles addresses himself to Iphigenia — 
 
 " Princesse mon bonheur ne depend que de vous, 
 Votre pere a l'autel vous destine un epoux ; 
 Venez y recevoir uu coeur qui vous adore." 
 
 Iii regard to the story from which this illustration 
 of ancient gallantry has been taken, M. Leveque, in 
 his work entitled " Les Mythes et les Legendes de 
 l'lnde et la Perse, dans Aristophane, Platon, Aristote, 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 141 
 
 Virgile, Ovide, Tite-Live, Dante, Boccace, Arioste, 
 Eabelais, Perrault, La Fontaine," inquires (p. 6S), 
 " Comment se fait-il que nous trouvous la meme scene 
 dans VHistoire de Pradyoumna et dans le Old. La 
 chose est nioins surprenante quelle ne le parait de 
 prime abord. Corneille a puisse dans la piece de 
 Guillem de Castro, et Guillem de Castro peut avoir en 
 connaissance de la le'gende ou de la piece sanscrite par 
 des intermediaires. Les contes de l'lnde ont penetre 
 en Espagne, com me on le voit par le livre du Prince 
 Jean Manuel, intitule le Livre de Patronio et du comte 
 Lucanor" 
 
 In the late Tom Eobinson's play of " Caste," the 
 heroine buckles the sword around the waist of the 
 hero when ordered to the wars. This was forestalled 
 so, long ago as to appear in this ancient Sanskrit story 
 of Pradyoumna. 
 
 " ' Noble hero,' exclaims his beautiful Prabhavati, 
 ' arm thyself. Live for thy children, thy wife, and 
 thy venerable parent.' She took the sword, raised 
 her eyes to heaven, and firmly placed it in the hands 
 of Pradyoumna, ' Go,' she said, ' be victorious.' The 
 hero, transported with joy, grasped the sword which 
 his faithful beloved one had presented to him." 
 
142 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 The allegorical character of the " Great Bharata " epic is 
 continued throughout. A curious suggestiveness of Bun- 
 yan's " Pilgrim's Progress " appears in the conclusion 
 of the lives of the five princes. The eldest, " Firm in 
 Battle," is established on the throne. But he and his 
 brothers, disconsolate at the death of Krishna, and realising 
 the vanity of human hopes, aspire only to the heavenly 
 rest. The king assigns the throne to his nephew. He 
 and his brothers, Bhinia the Terrible, Arjouna the 
 special friend of Krishna, and the two heroes who 
 suggest the classical Castor and Pollux, with the 
 Princess Krishna or Draupadi, take their departure 
 from Hastinapura, their capital, the modern Delhi, to 
 the deep regret of all its inhabitants. They set forth 
 upon their pilgrimage on foot. The citizens and 
 courtiers follow them for some distance. The princes 
 and princess then wander on through many countries. 
 They come to the site of the old city of Krishna, on 
 the sea coast, now washed over by the waves. Then 
 they turned towards the north, to reach Indra's heaven 
 on Mount Meru, yearning for union with the Infinite ; 
 bent on abandonment of worldly things. A transla- 
 tion in verse of this portion of the poem was given 
 by Mr. E. B. Cowell, in the Westminster Review of 
 October 1848, from which the following lines are 
 extracted : — 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 143 
 
 '• With souls well disciplined 
 They reached the northern region, and beheld with heaven- 
 aspiring hearts 
 The mighty mountain Himavat. Beyond its lofty peak they 
 
 passed 
 Towards the sea of sand, and saw at last the rocky Meru, king 
 Of mountains. As with eager steps they hastened on, their 
 
 souls intent 
 On union with the Eternal, Draupadi lost hold of her high hope, 
 And, faltering, fell upon the earth." 
 
 Then the four princes fall, one by oue, and " Firm in 
 Battle" ascribes their inability to continue on their 
 way to worldly thoughts having distracted their souls ; 
 and the king continues on his way alone ; but a dog 
 has come with them from the city, and he still follows : 
 
 " Suddenly, with a cry that rang through heaven and earth, 
 Indra came riding on his chariot, and he cried to the king, 
 
 ' Ascend ! ' 
 Then, indeed, did the Lord of Justice look back to his fallen 
 
 brothers, 
 And thus unto Indra he spoke, with a sorrowful heart : 
 ' Let my brothers, who yonder lie fallen, go with me ; 
 Not even into thy heaven would I enter, if they were not 
 
 there. 
 And yon fair-faced daughter of a king, Draupadi, the All- 
 deserving, 
 Let her too enter with us ! India, approve my prayer.' 
 Indra. In heaven thou shalt find thy brothers ; they are 
 
 already there before thee, — 
 There are they all, with Draupadi. Weep not, then, son of 
 
 Bharata. 
 Thither are they entered, prince, having thrown away their 
 
 mortal weeds. 
 But thou alone shalt enter, still wearing thy body of flesh. 
 
14+ CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 The King. Indra ! and what of this dog ? It hath faithfully 
 
 followed me through ; 
 Let it go with me into heaven, for my soul is full of com- 
 passion. 
 Indra. Immortality and friendship with me, and the height 
 
 of joy and felicity — 
 All these hast thou reached to-day ; leave then the dog behind 
 
 thee. 
 The King. The good may oft act an evil part, but never a part 
 
 like this. 
 Away, then, with that felicity whose price is to abandon the 
 
 faithful. 
 Indra. My heaven hath no place for dogs ; they steal away our 
 
 offerings on earth. 
 Leave, then, thy dog behind thee, nor think in thy heart that 
 
 it is cruel. 
 Tlie King. To abandon the faithful and devoted is an endless 
 
 crime, like the murder of a Brahman. 
 Never therefore, come weal or woe, will I abandon yon faithful 
 
 dog. 
 Yon poor creature, in fear and distress, hath trusted in my power 
 
 to save it ; 
 ot, therefore, for e'en life itself, will I break my plighted 
 
 word. 
 To oppress the suppliant, to kill a wife, to spoil a Brahman, and 
 
 to betray one's friends — ■ 
 These are the four great crimes ; and to forsake a dependant I 
 
 count equal unto them." 
 
 " Firm in Battle " thus continues in his grand, 
 chivalric refusal to desert the faithful dog for heaven ; 
 and he is rewarded for his constancy by finding that 
 the animal was really Yama, monarch of death, in 
 disguise. When he reaches Indra's heaven he is again 
 tried, for instead of seeing there his brothers, he only 
 meets the princes against whom he had been fighting 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 145 
 
 in the great war. And learning that his brothers are 
 in hell, he resolves to abide there with them rather 
 than remain in heaven without them. 
 
 But this is a mock scene of heaven, and was in- 
 tended merely to try his endurance again and con- 
 stancy of affection, and at length the real heaven is 
 revealed. 1 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 The biblical foundation for Milton's magnificent de- 
 scriptions of the contest between the powers of right- 
 eousness and evil, in the " Paradise Lost," appears to 
 be the text in Eevelation xii. 7 and an allusion in 
 the book of Daniel. 
 
 It is difficult to conceive that the texts in Eevela- 
 tion suggested the elaborate accounts of the wars 
 between the beings of light and darkness which are 
 found in the " Puranas " or " Ancient P>ooks." Taking 
 these accounts in conjunction with the whole context 
 of the Indo-Aryan system as promulgated in the 
 Vedas, legal treatises, later scriptures, &c, it seems 
 almost impossible to deny that they are equally indi- 
 genous with these " Books of Knowledge " (the Vedas) 
 
 1 Mr. Edwin Arnold has, in his " Indian Poetry," published by 
 Messrs. Triibner & Co. in 1SS1, given a version of this portion of the 
 Mahabharata. 
 
 K 
 
146 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 themselves. And, as has been remarked, the battalions 
 of dense clouds, which at the commencement of the 
 rainy season seem to march upwards in gloomy array, 
 seem naturally suggestive of the idea. The rays of 
 the sun, and moon or star beams by night, have filled 
 a serene atmosphere for months. Then come the 
 clouds, weird in aspect, black and awful, accompanied 
 by vivid flashes of lightning and tremendous peals of 
 thunder. And an invasion of the spirits of good by 
 the evil seems an obvious idealisation of the aspect of 
 nature. 
 
 It is said in " The Eevelation of St. John the 
 Divine," xii. 7-9: "And there was war in heaven: 
 Michael and his angels fought against the dragon ; 
 and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed 
 not ; neither was there place found any more in 
 heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old 
 serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth 
 the whole world ; he was cast out into the earth, and 
 his angels were cast out with him." 
 
 In the " Ancient Book of the Blessed " (Bhagavata 
 Purana) it is related that the Asuras (corresponding 
 to demons), " beings full of folly and pride, and loving 
 murder," invade the deities. A terrible demon defeats 
 the divine beings, who seek refuge in Narayana, 
 whom they address as " Supreme Being, Nature, Spirit, 
 and the universe, from which he is distinct." He 
 promises them succour. A terrific battle ensues, with 
 flaming weapons, &c. The Asuras see the inutility of 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 147 
 
 their efforts, but their chief, " though born amongst 
 this race, characterised by evil passion, has learnt to 
 adore and feel solely dependent on Bhagavat. So the 
 divine beings even cannot prevail against him. And 
 he would have destroyed Indra, the regent of the 
 elements, if he had not been protected by the cuirass 
 of Supreme Universal Soul." 
 
 Indra praises the Asura as having escaped from 
 illusion and renounced his nature as a demon. " It 
 is a marvel," he says, " that a heart such as his, of 
 which passion is the nature, should become so firmly 
 attached to the blessed Vasudeva, who is all-goodness." 
 The fight, however, proceeds. The Asura increases in 
 bulk till he occupies all space and swallows Indra, who 
 emerges by the force of his own devotion, and cuts off 
 the Asura's head with his thunderbolt. This clearly 
 signifies that the stormy clouds advance till one black 
 mass seems to overshadow the whole world before they 
 break in the monsoon. They are rent in the first 
 lightning-flash. Then Indra's welcome rainfall de- 
 scends upon the parched earth. 
 
 An elaborately fanciful account is given of the 
 attack of the Asuras ; they advance in their ranks to 
 the sound of conch shells, tambourines, kettle-drums, 
 &c, with great variety of weapons. And the devas 
 assume warrior forms to encounter them. Chariots 
 are urged against chariots, cavalry against cavalry, 
 infantry against infantry. There are warriors upon 
 elephants, camels, asses, antelopes, rhinoceroses, bulls, 
 
148 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 vultures, herons, &c. &c. Standards, umbrellas of 
 honour, and elaborately adorned fans are mentioned. 
 The combatants are resplendent in cuirasses and 
 sparkling ornaments, and their weapons glitter in the 
 sunbeams. Their mantles float in the wind. They 
 have swords, sabres, crescent-shaped arrows, burning 
 projectiles, and arrows shot through tubes. The 
 demons hurl a whole mountain on the deities, with 
 its savage beasts, reptiles, &c. The divine personages 
 were altogether becoming worsted in the encounter, 
 when Indra thought on Bhagavat, creator of the 
 universe. He came, as he had promised, to their 
 assistance. Bhagavat is then described as he may be 
 seen in the ordinary Hindu representations of him. 
 He has many arms, which wield eight weapons, in- 
 cluding the discus. Indra, with his thunderbolts, 
 strikes Bali, chief of the Asuras, from his chariot. 
 But the showers of arrows -from the demon army for 
 a time conceal him from the view of the deities, who 
 . cry out " like merchants whose vessel is wrecked 
 in the midst of the ocean." But the arrows of Hari 
 are irresistible, and the divinities are victorious. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Horace Hayman Wilson, Boden Professor of Sanscrit 
 in Oxford between the years 1 832-1 860, observes, 
 in the Introduction to his translation of the Vishnu 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 149 
 
 Purana, that the Purana and epic-poem systems were 
 " extensively, perhaps universally established in India 
 at the time of the Greek invasion. The Hercules of 
 the Greek writers was undoubtedly the Bala-Rama of the 
 Hindus ; and their notices of Mathura on the Jumna, 
 and of the kingdom of the Suraseni and the Pandsean 
 country, are evidence of the prior currency of the 
 traditions which constitute the argument of the Maha- 
 bharata. These are constantly repeated in the Puranas, 
 relating to the Pandava and Yadava races, to Krishna and 
 his contemporary heroes, and to the dynasties of the 
 solar and lunar kings." He says that the " theogony and 
 cosmogony of the Puranas may be traced to the Vedas, 
 and that these last appear occasionally to allude to 
 the incarnations of Vishnu." 
 
 He observes that there is a general agreement in 
 the Puranas' scheme of primary creation, taken from 
 the Sankhya philosophy. In them appears pan- 
 theism, represented as God, manifested in Vishnu or 
 Siva. He finds a parallel in the Platonic Christians- 
 " Epiphanius (adv. Manichreos) and Eusebius (Hist. 
 Evang.) accuse Scythianus of having imported from 
 India, in the second century, books on magic, and 
 heretical notions leading to Manichceism ; and it was 
 at the same period that Ammonius instituted the sect 
 of the New Platonists at Alexandria. The basis of 
 this heresy was that true philosophy derived its origin 
 from the Eastern nations ; his doctrine of the identity 
 of God and the universe is that of the Vedas and 
 
ISO CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 Puranas ; and the practices he enjoined, as well as 
 their object, were precisely those described in several 
 of the Puranas under the name of Yoga (union). His 
 disciples were taught to extenuate by mortification 
 and contemplation the bodily restraints upon the 
 immortal spirit, so that in this life they might enjoy 
 communion with the Supreme Being, and ascend after 
 death to the Universal Parent" (Mosheim, v. i. p. 173). 
 But Professor Wilson also wrote that " the importa- 
 tion was not perhaps wholly unrequited ; the loan 
 may not have been left unpaid." He says that 
 " Anquetil de Perron has given, in the introduction 
 to his translation of the Oupnekhat, several hymns by 
 Synesius, a bishop of the beginning of the fifth cen- 
 tury, which may serve as parallels to many of the 
 hymns and prayers addressed to Vishnu in the Vishnu 
 Purana." 
 
 Professor Wilson remarks that "the present popular 
 forms assumed their actual state under Sankara Acharya, 
 a great Saiva reformer, who probably flourished in the 
 eighth or ninth century a.d., and that the Puranas 
 previously existed in more ancient form." 
 
 Indian tradition assigns Sankara Acharya to the 
 second century B.C. Whatever may be the date, it is 
 evident that his conceptions are in sequence with 
 those ancient Indo- Aryan books whose antiquity is 
 admitted, rather than with our own Scriptures. His 
 poem entitled the " Atma-Bodha," or " Knowledge of 
 Spirit," seems precisely in accordance with their ideas 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 151 
 
 of the attainment of tranquillity, and overcoming of 
 passion, as the prelude to final emancipation; also of the 
 unreality of the world, and the error of supposing the 
 individual soul to be truly itself, but that in realising 
 Brahma, as I am, is knowledge, &c. &c. 
 
 Indeed Professor Wilson says that " it is irrational 
 to dispute the antiquity or authenticity of the greater 
 portion of the contents of the Puranas, in the face of 
 abundant, positive, and circumstantial evidence of the 
 prevalence of the doctrines which they teach, the 
 currency of legends which they narrate, and the in- 
 tegrity of the institutions which they describe, at least 
 in the third century before the Christian era." 
 
 " But the origin and development of their doctrines, 
 traditions, and institutions were not the work of a 
 day ; and the testimony which establishes their exis- 
 tence in the third century B.C., carries it back to a 
 much more remote antiquity, that is probably not 
 surpassed by any of the prevailing fictions, institutions, 
 or beliefs of the ancient world." 
 
 " The metaphysical annihilation of the universe, by 
 the release of the spirit from bodily existence, offers 
 analogies to doctrines and practices taught by Pytha- 
 goras and Plato, and by the Platonic Christians of 
 later days." 
 
 He places the commencement of the recorded regal 
 dynasties of India at 2600 B.C., i.e. 252 years before 
 the date ascribed to the Flood in Archbishop Usher's 
 Chronology, which has been adopted in the Church of 
 
152 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 England. He assigns the eastern confines of the Punjab 
 as the " earliest seat of the Hindus." 
 
 He thinks that no date can be conjectured for the 
 Vishnu Purana from its contents. But the Maha- 
 bharata epic is mentioned in it, and allusions are made 
 to both Buddhists and Jains (who possess analogous 
 opinions). 
 
 He places its composition at 1045 A.D. As has 
 been observed, however, it appears in his opinion to 
 be irrational to dispute the pre-Christian antiquity of 
 the doctrines, legends, and institutions described in it. 
 He refers them to the period of the Greek invasion, 
 considering them likely to have been then established 
 in growth of antiquity. 
 
 The Vishnu Purana (i.e., the Ancient Book of the 
 Pervading One, from vish, to pervade), or, as Vishnu 
 is styled the Preserver, the Ancient Book of the Pre- 
 server, to quote from Professor Wilson's translation, 
 commences with the usual mystic syllable Om or Aum : 
 
 " Aum, glory to Vasudeva ! May that Vishnu, who 
 is the existent imperishable Brahma, who is Iswara ; 
 who is spirit ; who is the cause of creation, preser- 
 vation, and destruction ; who is the parent of nature, 
 intellect, and the other ingredients of the universe, 
 be to us the bestower of understanding, wealth, and 
 final emancipation. Glory to the Supreme Vishnu 
 the cause of the creation, existence, and end of this 
 world ; who is the root of the world, and who consists 
 of the world ; who exists everywhere, and in whom 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 153 
 
 all things here exist ; and who is thence named Vasu- 
 deva. He then existed in the forms of Universal 
 Soul and Time." " There was neither day nor night, 
 nor sky, nor any other thing, save only One. The 
 Supreme Brahma, the Supreme Soul, the Supreme 
 Euler Hari, of his own will entered into matter and 
 spirit. A vast egg, compounded of the elements, and 
 resting upon the waters, became his abode. Then in 
 the form of Brahma, he engaged in the creation of the 
 universe. Vishnu, with immeasurable goodness and 
 power, preserves created things through successive 
 ages, till the close of a world-period (Kalpa). Then 
 the same mighty deity Janarddana {i.e. the object of 
 adoration to mankind) assumes the awful form of 
 Kuclra, devours all things, and converts the world into 
 one vast ocean. Then the Supreme reposes upon his 
 mighty serpent (Eternity) amidst the deep, till he 
 awakes after a season, and again, as Brahma, becomes 
 the author of creation. Thus the one only God 
 Janarddana takes the designation of Brahma, Vishnu, 
 and Siva, as he creates, preserves, or destroys." 
 
 The personified Earth (Prithivi) apostrophises him 
 thus : " Hail to thee, who art all creatures ! From 
 thee have I proceeded. Those who are desirous of 
 final liberation worship thee as the Supreme Brahma. 
 Thou art my creator, and I liy to thee for refuge ! 
 Thou art sacrifice, and the sinless lord of sacrifice ! 
 Thou art the oblation ! " 
 
 " Created beings, although they are destroyed (in 
 
154 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST ; OR, 
 
 their individual forms) at the periods of dissolution, 
 yet, being affected by the good or evil acts of former 
 existences, they are never exempted from their conse- 
 quences. When Brahma creates the world anew, they 
 are the progeny of his will, in the fourfold condition 
 of deities (devas), men, animals, or inanimate things. 
 The demons (Asuras) are born in darkness from 
 Brahma's thigh. Then, besides the devas, there are 
 heavenly minstrels and nymphs, centaurs with the 
 limbs of horses and human bodies, &c. The four 
 castes are born from his mouth, breast, thighs, and 
 feet respectively. At first these abide in righteous- 
 ness and perfect faith, and Hari dwells in their sanc- 
 tified minds. Then through darkness and desire come 
 the seeds of iniquity. As sin gains strength, mortals 
 become afflicted with pain, and they construct places 
 of refuge, protected by trees or water. Villages and 
 cities arise, and from their manual labour come the 
 seventeen useful kinds of grain. 
 
 " The sun, moon, and planets shall repeatedly be 
 and cease to be ; but those who internally repeat the 
 mystic adoration of the divinity shall never know 
 decay. For those who neglect their duties, who revile 
 the Books of Knowledge, and obstruct religious rites, 
 the places assigned after death are the terrible regions 
 of darkness, of deep gloom, of fear, and of great terror. 
 Sri, bride of Vishnu, mother of the world, is thus 
 exalted and brought into the unity of one all-pervad- 
 ing spirit, here regarded under the double aspect of 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 155 
 
 masculine and feminine. As he is all-pervading so is 
 she. Vishnu is meaning, she is speech. He is polity, 
 she is prudence. He is righteousness, she is devotion. 
 Sri is the earth, Hari the support of it. He is sacri- 
 fice, she is sacrificial donation. Kesava is the sun, 
 and his radiance the goddess. Sri is the heavens ; 
 Vishnu, who is one with all things, is widely extended 
 space. Govinda is the ocean, Lakshmi (her name as 
 the goddess of good fortune) its shore. Lakshmi is 
 the light, and Hari, who is all and lord of all, the 
 lamp. She, the mother of the world, is the creeping 
 vine, and Vishnu the tree round which she clings. 
 Govinda is love, and Lakshmi, his gentle spouse, is 
 pleasure. Hari is all that is called male, Lakshmi is 
 all that is termed female ; there is nothing else than 
 they. Sri seems to be the classic Ceres, as she appears 
 under her more comprehensive character when sup- 
 posed to be identical with Rhea, Tellus, Cybele, Bona 
 Dea, &c. Identified with Lakshmi, she has the aspect 
 of Venus, even rising, like her, from the ocean. It 
 is said that when Vishnu was Krishna she became in- 
 carnate as his wife, Rukmini. 
 
156 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 In illustration of constancy of faith on the Preserver 
 the following story is given : — 
 
 The son of a daitya (the daityas are a demoniacal 
 order of beings, corresponding with the Asuras) be- 
 comes devoted to Vishnu, and endures much contumely 
 from his father on account of his still remaining 
 faithful to Janarddana. He is overwhelmed with rocks, 
 but remains unhurt, for his thoughts never swerve 
 from the Preserver, and the recollection of the deity 
 is his armour of proof. He is cast into flames, but 
 it merely occasions the reflection that the dead are 
 born again, that pain is necessary, that only a fool is 
 fond of his body, composed of flesh, blood, &c. He 
 (Prahlada) then preaches to the daityas, and says, "In 
 this ocean of the world, in this sea of many sorrows, 
 Vishnu is your only hope. We are children ; spirit 
 embodied is eternal ; birth, youth, and decay are pro- 
 perties of the body, not of the soul. Even in child- 
 hood let the embodied soul acquire discriminative 
 wisdom. Let us lay aside the angry passions of our 
 race, and so strive that we obtain that perfect, pure, 
 and eternal happiness which shall be beyond the 
 power of the elements, or their deities, or the in- 
 firmities of human nature. In truth I say unto you, 
 that you will have no satisfaction in various revolu- 
 tions through this treacherous world, but that you 
 shall obtain eternal calm by propitiating the Preserver 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 157 
 
 whose adoration is perfect peace. Let the whole 
 heart rest on Cesava. Wealth, pleasure, virtue are 
 things of little moment. Precious is the fruit which 
 you shall gather, be assured, from the exhaustless store 
 of the tree of true wisdom. Love for all creatures 
 will be assiduously cherished by all those who are 
 wise in the knowledge that Hari is all things." 
 
 The daitya casts his son from the summit of the 
 palace ; but he falls, cherishing Hari in his heart, and 
 Earth, the nurse of all creatures, received him gently 
 on her lap, thus entirely devoted to Kesava the pro- 
 tector of the world. And so Prahlada becomes as one 
 with Vishnu. The Preserver, in his yellow robe and 
 glittering splendour, appears to him, and the prince 
 prays to him. " In all the thousand births," he asks, 
 " through which I may be doomed to pass, may my 
 faith in thee never know decay." But Vishnu replies 
 that through his faith he shall obtain liberation. 
 
 Analogous traditions certainly seem to have de- 
 scended to the author of this book and to Dante. An 
 elaborate enumeration of various hells is given, in 
 which certain tortures are assigned to certain crimes. 
 There are hells of red-hot iron, of salt, and of great 
 flame. There is a hell of heated caldrons, another 
 where heads are inverted, another where the con- 
 demned feed on worms, another with wells of blood. 
 Besides hells for the great offences of murder and 
 the like, a hell with leaves of sword-blades is re- 
 served for those who wantonly cut down trees. A 
 
158 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR. 
 
 liell where the flesh is tortured with pincers is ascribed 
 to those who break the vows of their Order. 
 
 The inhabitants of the infernal regions, as they 
 move with their heads inverted, see the divine beings 
 in heaven, who look down upon the sufferings of hell. 
 Besides the illustration of this in the parable of Dives 
 and Lazarus, the writings of the Father of the Christian 
 Church, Tertullian of Carthage, who wrote about the 
 year 207 a.d., give a very distinct view of his pos- 
 sibly just but indubitably cruel-seeming ideas upon 
 the topic. Certainly it is absolutely analogous to this 
 Inclo- Aryan conception. 
 
 In his essay against stage-plays, &c, he writes (as 
 translated in Eoberts and Donaldson's " Ante-Nicene 
 Christian Library ") : 
 
 " But what a spectacle is that fast-approaching 
 advent of the Lord, now owned by all, now highly 
 exalted, now a triumphant one ! What that ex- 
 altation of the angelic hosts ! What the glory of 
 the rising saints ! What the kingdom of the just 
 thereafter ! What the city, New Jerusalem ! Yes, 
 and there are other sights : that last day of judgment 
 with its everlasting issues ; that day unlooked-for by 
 the nations, the theme of their derision, when the 
 world, hoary with age, and all its many products, 
 shall be consumed in one great flame ! How vast a 
 spectacle then bursts upon the eye ! What there 
 excites my admiration ! What my derision ! Which 
 sight gives me joy ? which rouses me to exultation ? 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 159 
 
 as I see so many illustrious monarchs, whose reception 
 into the heavens was publicly announced, groaning 
 now in the lowest darkness with great Jove himself ; 
 and those, too, who bore witness of their exaltation ; 
 governors of provinces, too, who persecuted the Chris- 
 tian name, in fires more fierce than those with which, 
 in the days of their pride, they raged against the 
 followers of Christ ! What world's wise men besides, 
 the very philosophers in fact, who taught their fol- 
 lowers that God had no concern in aught that is sub- 
 lunary, and who were wont to assure them that either 
 they had no souls, or that they would never return to 
 the bodies which at death they had left, now covered 
 with shame before the poor deluded ones, as one fire 
 consumes them ! Poets also, trembling, not before 
 the judgment-seat of Minos or lihadamanthus, but of 
 the unexpected Christ ! I shall have a better oppor- 
 tunity, then, of hearing the tragedians, louder voiced 
 in their own calamity ; of viewing the play-actors, 
 much more dissolute in the dissolving flame ; of 
 looking upon the charioteer, all glowing in his chariot 
 of fire ; of witnessing the wrestlers, not in their 
 gymnasia, but tossing in the fiery billows, unless even 
 then I shall not care to attend on such ministers of 
 sin in my eager wish rather to fix a gaze insatiable 
 on those whose fury vented itself against the Lord. 
 ' This ' — I shall say — ' this is that carpenter's or 
 harlot's son, that Sabbath-breaker, that Samaritan 
 and devil-possessed ! This is He whom you pur- 
 
160 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 chased from Judas ! This is He whom you struck 
 with reed and fist, whom you contemptuously spat 
 upon, to whom you gave gall and vinegar to drink ! 
 This is He whom His disciples secretly stole away, 
 that it mi^ht be said He had risen again, or the 
 gardener abstracted, that his lettuces might come to 
 no harm from the crowds of visitants ! What quaestor 
 or priest, in his munificence, will bestow on you the 
 favour of seeing and exulting in such things as these ? 
 And yet, even now, we, in a measure, have them by 
 faith in the picturings of imagination. But what 
 are the things which eye has not seen, and ear has 
 not heard, and which have not so much as dimly 
 dawned upon the human heart ? Whatever they are, 
 they are nobler, I believe, than the circus, theatre 
 and amphitheatre, and every race-course." 
 
 Tertullian, in these expressions, leads up to the 
 ideas of those English Puritans who have considered 
 the door of a theatre as an entrance to hell. He 
 seems more savage, or, it may be urged by those who 
 believe in eternal punishment, more strictly just than 
 the Indo-Aryan, as he appears to leave no hope for 
 the condemned. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 161 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 . The stages of existence are declared, in this " Ancient 
 Book of the Preserver," to consist of inanimate things, 
 fish, birds, animals, men, holy men, deities, and liber- 
 ated spirits. Through these states, beings in heaven 
 or hell must proceed till final emancipation. To 
 obtain this end, reliance on Krishna is far better than 
 expiatory acts, such as religious austerity. By ad- 
 dressing his thoughts to Xarayana, a man becomes 
 quickly cleansed of all guilt. The whole heap of 
 worldly sorrows is dispersed by meditation on Hari ; 
 and his worshipper, even looking upon the enjoyment 
 of heaven as an impediment to real happiness, obtains 
 in him final emancipation. " Of what avail is ascent 
 to the summit of heaven if it is necessary to return 
 from thence to earth ? " But meditation on Vasudeva 
 is the seed of eternal freedom. The man who thinks 
 of the Preserver day and night goes not to hell after 
 death, for his sins are all atoned. Heaven delights 
 the mind, hell gives it pain ; hence virtue is called 
 heaven, and vice, hell. Above Dhruva (the fixed 
 polar star) is the region of saints, above again is the 
 abode of Sanandana, and the other pure minds, sons 
 of Brahma. There are habitations of deities which 
 cannot be consumed by fire. But above all is the 
 sphere of Truth, whose inhabitants will never again 
 know death. 
 
 L 
 
162 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 It may be asserted that all these ideas of faith in 
 an incarnate deity of heaven and hell are derived 
 from the teachings of the Apostles ; and that the 
 doctrine of the metempsychosis was learnt from 
 Pythagoras, who is related, however, to have himself 
 acquired it in Egypt or the East. It may be con- 
 ceived that the astronomical notions with which they 
 are conjoined were adopted from the Greeks, after 
 Alexander's invasion. But, as has been observed, the 
 sequence of ideas from the Vedas, through the philo- 
 sophical books, law treatises, &c, seems so evident, 
 and these points which bear Christian or Greek simili- 
 tudes are intermingled with such a mass of matter, 
 which appears exclusively indigenous, that it seems 
 contrary to reason not to allow the growth of the 
 whole system in Bharata, or Ancient India, from re- 
 mote antiquity. The phenomena of Nature in that 
 exuberant region of the earth offer suggestions for the 
 whole of it, from a commencement in adoration of the 
 Sun and Regents of the Elements. If admitted to 
 have been thus apprehended in proto-typical or archaic 
 form in the East, the full development of science, and 
 the complete apprehension of religion, may be held to 
 have been reserved for the western side of our hemi- 
 sphere. 
 
 Professor Weber remarks that " several hymns of 
 speculative purport, in the last book of the songs of 
 the Rig Veda, testify to a great depth and concen- 
 tration of reflection upon the fundamental causes of 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 163 
 
 things ; necessarily implying a long period of philo- 
 sophical research in a preceding age. This is . borne 
 out by the old renown of Indian wisdom, by the 
 reports of the companions of Alexander as to the 
 Indian gymnosophists," &c. 
 
 Even in this Vedic period discussions were held 
 upon such a topic of advanced thought as the assump- 
 tion of matter or spirit for the first cause. " The 
 latter," says Professor Weber, " became gradually the 
 orthodox one, and is therefore the one most frequently, 
 and indeed almost exclusively, represented in the 
 Brahmanas or essays explaining the sacrificial and 
 devotional hymns and rites, with philosophical specula- 
 tions," &c. 
 
 He remarks that the word buddha, awakened or 
 enlightened, was originally a name of honour given 
 to all sages. 
 
 Naturally in that region which, for eight months in 
 the year, enjoys uninterrupted brilliance and beauty 
 of starlit or moonlit nights, astronomy commenced 
 with, and continued to be combined with, the theo- 
 logical and scientific systems. The chariot of the Sun 
 is described as drawn by seven horses, which are alle- 
 gorised as poetical metres. It is said that the glorious 
 Sun darts like an arrow on his southern course, attended 
 by the constellations of the Zodiac. 1 
 
 " While the Sun shines in one continent at mid-day, 
 in the opposite continents it will be midnight." 
 
 1 "Vishnu Purana," translated by H. H. Wilson, p. 218. 
 
164 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST ; OR, 
 
 " There is in truth neither rising nor setting of the 
 Sun, for he is always ; and these terms merely imply 
 his presence and his disappearance. In the com- 
 mencement of his northern course the Sun passes to 
 Capricornus, thence to Aquarius, thence to Pisces, going 
 successively from one sign of the Zodiac to another. 
 After he has passed through these the Sun attains his 
 equinoctial movement (the vernal equinox), when he 
 makes the day and night of equal duration. The 
 polar star is the centre of the Zodiacal wheel." 
 
 It is difficult to conceive that these astronomical 
 ideas, as well as certain Christian doctrines, should 
 have been inserted in the sacred books of a people 
 who, in modern times, have been so self-satisfied with 
 their religions. Even if Christian morality could have 
 been introduced into their Scriptures, with a holier 
 view of the Incarnation than their own, they would 
 scarcely have inserted a foreign system of dividing 
 the constellations in the Sun's path. Their ideas 
 must be assigned to the evolution of antiquity. The 
 Sun is said to be a principal part of the Preserver, 
 and light is his immutable essence ; the active mani- 
 festation of which is excited by the mystic syllable 
 Aum. The Equinoxes occur at spring and autumn 
 when the Sun enters the signs of Aries and Libra. 
 When the Sun enters Capricorn (the winter solstice), his 
 northern progress commences, and his southern when he 
 enters Cancer (the summer solstice). Liberality, it is 
 said, at the Equinoxes, is advantageous to the donor. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 165 
 
 In the " Ancient Book of the Preserver " an 
 enumeration is made of the earlier Indian Scriptures. 
 These comprise the four Books of Knowledge (Veda-), 
 six Angas, or subsidiary portions of the Vedas ; which 
 contain rules for reciting the prayers, with accents and 
 tones to be observed ; orders on ritual, and on grammar. 
 Then there are Glossarial comments, the rules of metre, 
 astronomy, theology, logic, the institutes of law, medical 
 science, and that of archery; also there are treatises 
 on the arts of music and dancing, and on the science 
 of government. 
 
 Death is said to have power over all but the wor- 
 shippers of the Preserver. He who never deviates 
 from the duties prescribed for his class, who regards 
 with equal indifference friend or enemy, who takes 
 nothing that is not his own, and injures no being, is 
 to be regarded as the worshipper of the Preserver — 
 Janarddana occupies not his thoughts who envies 
 another's prosperity. He who injures living beings 
 injures him, for Hari is all beings ; dwelling with 
 their wives for the sake of progeny, tenderness towards 
 all creatures, patience, humility, truth, purity, content- 
 ment, decency, adornment, gentleness of speech, friend- 
 liness, and freedom from envy and repining, from 
 avarice and from detraction, these are the duties of 
 every condition of life. 
 
 " A wise man will never engage in a dispute with 
 those who are his superiors or inferiors ; controversy 
 and marriage are only to be permitted between equals." 
 
1 66 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 "A considerate man will always cultivate in act, 
 thought, and speech, that which is good for living 
 beings both in this world and the next." 
 
 In such sentences as these which have been quoted 
 the Christian spirit certainly seems present, while the 
 incarnation of the Almighty is continually recounted 
 with some variation of epithet — " The divine Pre- 
 server himself, the root of the vast universal tree, in- 
 scrutable by the understandings of all deities, demons, 
 sages and men, past, present, or to come ; He who is 
 adored by Brahma and all the divine beings, who is 
 without beginning, middle, or end, descended into the 
 womb of Devaki, and was born as her son Yasudeva. 
 At his birth the world was relieved from all iniquity ; 
 the sun, moon, and planets shone with unclouded 
 splendour, all fear of calamitous portents was dis- 
 pelled, and universal happiness prevailed." Again, in 
 this " Ancient Book of the Preserver " it is declared, 
 that " When the practices taught by the Yedas and 
 the Institutes of law shall almost have ceased, and the 
 close of the Black Age shall be near, a portion of that 
 divine Being, who exists of his own spiritual nature 
 in the character of Brahma, who is the Beginning 
 and the End, and who comprehends all things, shall 
 descend upon earth. He will be born as an eminent 
 Brahman, Kalki, endowed with superhuman faculties. 
 By his irresistible might he will destroy all the impure 
 persons and thieves, and all whose minds are devoted 
 to iniquity. He will then re-establish righteousness 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 167 
 
 upon earth, and the minds of those who live at the 
 end of the Black Age shall be awakened, and shall be 
 as pellucid as crystal. The men who are thus changed 
 by virtue of that peculiar time, shall be as the seeds 
 of human beings, and shall give birth to a race which 
 shall follow the laws of the Age of Purity. This age 
 shall return when the Sun and the Moon, and the 
 lunar asterism Tishya, and the planet Jupiter, are in 
 one mansion. The Black Age of the world com- 
 menced so soon as the incarnation of the eternal 
 Preserver had departed. And the son of Justice, 
 with his brethren (i.e. the princes with whom 
 Krishna had sided in the war), abdicated the sove- 
 reignty. 
 
 In this " Ancient Book of the Preserver " an account 
 is given of the birth of Krishna, virtually similar to 
 that which has been quoted from the Hari-vansa. The 
 tyrant Kansa, in order to compass the infant Krishna's 
 death, orders : " Let therefore active search be made 
 for whatever young children there may be upon earth, 
 and let every boy in whom there are signs of unusual 
 vigour be slain without remorse." 
 
 The father of Krishna goes to Nanda, with whom 
 the child has been deposited, and says : " The yearly 
 tribute has been paid to the king, and men of property 
 should not tarry near the court, when the business 
 that brought them there has been transacted ; up, 
 Nanda, and set off to your own pastures." 
 
 " Accordingly Nanda and the other cowherds, their 
 
168 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 goods being placed in their waggons, and their taxes 
 having been paid to the king, returned to their vil- 
 lage." 
 
 The story of the childhood is in this book, given in 
 similar form to the narrative in the Hari-vansa ; and 
 also the abandonment of Mathura, and construction of 
 Dwaraka. 
 
 A curious instance of a false Krishna is related : 
 "A Vasudeva, called Paundraka, flattered by ignorant 
 people, fancies himself the Vasudeva, who had descended 
 upon earth. He sends to Krishna to do him homage. 
 But Krishna comes, destroys his army, and with his 
 discus cuts him to pieces. The head of a king who 
 continues to believe in him, by Krishna's power is 
 shot into his own city to the astonishment of the in- 
 habitants. The discus of Krishna, which is described 
 as blazing with the radiance of ioo suns, always 
 returns to his hand, after it has accomplished its sure 
 work. It evidently typifies the power of the Sun, 
 which in India is very suggestive of these ideas. 
 It is destined that all the race of Krishna, the Yadus, 
 shall be exterminated. When the time approaches 
 for the end, the deities send to Krishna to say to 
 him that more than a century has elapsed since he 
 descended. His work is accomplished in the destruc- 
 tion of demons, &c, — let them behold their monarch 
 in heaven. Krishna replies that the burdens of the 
 earth are. not removed until the Yadus are destroyed. 
 " When I have restored the land of Dwaraka to the 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 169 
 
 ocean, and annihilated the race of Yadu, I will proceed 
 to the mansions of the Immortals." Terrible portents 
 now are seen — the Yadus all go to a fete, become 
 drunk, fight and destroy one another, amid super- 
 natural occurrences. The spirit of Bala-Eama issues 
 from his mouth in the form of a great serpent 
 (Eternity) and departs into the ocean, celestial hymns 
 accompanying the proceeding. 
 
 Beholding the departure of the spirit of Bala-Eama, 
 Krishna says to the one Yadu remaining : " This must 
 be related by you to Vasudeva and Ugrasena ; I shall 
 engage in religious meditation and quit this body ; the 
 sea will inundate the town. 
 
 " Then the divine Govinda, having concentrated in 
 himself that supreme spirit which is one with A r asu- 
 deva, was identified with all beings." "He sat in 
 thought resting his foot upon his knee." 
 
 " Then came Jara" (old age or decay), " who mistook 
 the foot for part of a deer, and lodged his arrow in 
 the sole." 
 
 Discovering what he has done, he demands forgive- 
 ness, and the Blessed One replies, " Fear not thou in 
 the least. Go, hunter, through my favour, to heaven, 
 the abode of the deities." Then a celestial car ap- 
 peared, and the hunter ascended in it. 
 
 " Then the illustrious Krishna, having united him- 
 self with his own pure, spiritual, inexhaustible, incon- 
 ceivable, unborn, uudecaying, imperishable,, and uni- 
 versal spirit, which is one with Vasudeva, abandoned 
 
i;o CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 his mortal body and the condition of the threefold quali- 
 ties, he became Nirgiina, devoid of all qualities." 
 
 The Prince Arjouna found Krishna's body and per- 
 formed obsequial rites. His eight queens embraced 
 the body and then entered the funeral fire. 
 
 Arjouna then conducts the thousands of the other 
 wives of Krishna, and the other women from Dwaraka ; 
 and on the same day that Hari departed from the 
 earth, it is said that the powerful, dark-bodied Black 
 Age descended. The ocean submerged Dwaraka, ex- 
 cept the dwelling of the deity of the race of Yadu. It 
 was not able to wash that temple away. 
 
 " There Cesava constantly abides, even in the 
 present day. Whoever visits that holy shrine, the 
 place where Krishna pursued his sports, is liberated 
 from all his sins." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 Various prophecies are uttered as to the Black Age in 
 which we are supposed to be. Caste shall no longer 
 prevail, money shall be the master of men, and all 
 shall think themselves equal to Brahmins. Food shall 
 be eaten without ablutions, women shall become fickle, 
 princes plunder their subjects, the lowest class will 
 seek a subsistence by begging, and, assuming the out- 
 ward marks of religious mendicants, these will become 
 the impure followers of impious and heretical doctrines, 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 171 
 
 horrible penances shall be enjoined, and life be short- 
 ened. Vishnu, the lord of sacrifice, Creator and Lord 
 of all, shall not be adored. Then shall the rainfall 
 become scanty, and confusion reign in families. 
 
 At the end of a thousand periods of four Ages, a 
 total dearth shall occur for one hundred years. " The 
 eternal Vishnu then assumes the character of Eudra, 
 the Destroyer, and descends to reunite all his creatures 
 with himself. The seven solar rays dilate to seven 
 suns. He becomes the scorching breath of the serpent 
 Eternity. The three spheres become like a frying- 
 pan amidst flames. Darkness ensues, and all crea- 
 tion, animate or inanimate, perishes. Then Hari, the 
 Creator, sleeps upon the ocean in the form of Brahma, 
 glorified by the saints in heaven ; till he again wakes 
 to re-create the universe. 
 
 It is again said in this book that " the term Vasu- 
 deva means that all beings abide in that Supreme 
 Being, and that he abides in all beings." " Hence 
 the Lord Vasudeva is the Creator and Preserver of the 
 world. Assuming at will various forms, he bestows 
 benefits upon the whole world, which was his work. 
 He is known by holy study and devout meditation. 
 He may first be contemplated under his manifested 
 forms, but at length he can be realised as the supreme 
 and universal Spirit," " the glorious being, without be- 
 ginning or end, who destroys all sin ; who, though one, 
 became many ; who, although pure, became as if im- 
 pure, by appearing in many and various shapes." 
 
172 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 " May that unborn, eternal Hari, whose form is 
 manifold, and whose essence is composed of both na- 
 ture and spirit, bestow upon all mankind that blessed 
 state which knows neither birth nor decay." 
 
 Again, in this book are allusions to Buddhists or 
 Jains. Vishnu is supposed to descend as Buddha, in 
 order to entice certain demons from the truth ; for due 
 devotions are supposed to be efficacious, even when 
 offered up by the wicked. He is described as ap- 
 proaching certain heretical ascetics as a naked mendi- 
 cant, with his head shaven and carrying a bunch of 
 peacocks' feathers. He maintains to them the equal 
 truth of contradictory tenets. These to whom he 
 preached, in their turn, became teachers ; and their dis- 
 ciples again taught, till the Vedas became abandoned. 
 
 Then the Deluder put on garments of a red colour, 
 assumed a benevolent aspect, and not only converted 
 the Daityas to Jaina and Buddha heresies, but pre- 
 vailed upon others, who deserted the doctrines and 
 observances inculcated in the three Vedas. Some 
 spoke evil of the sacred books ; some treated sacrifices 
 and devotional ceremonies with scorn ; others calum- 
 niated the Brahmins. " The precepts," they cried, 
 " that lead to the injury of animal life (as in sacrifices) 
 are highly reprehensible ; " " to say that casting butter 
 into flame is productive of reward is childishness," &c. 
 The Daityas having thus abandoned the armour of 
 religion are defeated by the Devas (deities). " Men, 
 indeed, fall into hell from only conversing with those 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 173 
 
 who unprofitably assume the twisted hair and shaven 
 crown." 
 
 As has been observed, this sort of description seems 
 to suggest the Buddhism of or before the fourth cen- 
 tury B.C., rather than the form which it appears to have 
 assumed after the days of Ashoka or Priyadasi, in the 
 third century B.C. 
 
 It seems absolutely necessary that we should accept 
 as fact the gradual apprehension in India in long 
 periods of time amongst the Indo-Aryan race, our 
 ethnological cousins, of many spiritual ideas apper- 
 taining to our own religious culture. This would seem 
 calculated to enlarge not to destroy our Christian faith. 1 
 And the gradual apprehension of these ideas, in long 
 periods of time, is in accordance with the views of 
 modern science in regard to the world's historv. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 The Bhagavata Purana, or " Ancient Book of the 
 Blessed One," was translated into French, under the 
 auspices of the French Government, by M. Eugene 
 Burnouf, about the year 1840. In this book the 
 warrior aspect of Krishna appears to be less regarded 
 than in the " Great Bharata " poem. His beneficent 
 character, as the Asylum of all humanity, as the 
 
 1 See Appendix IV. 
 
174 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 means of release from all pain, seems to be put for- 
 ward prominently rather than his princely aspect. 
 He is essentially identified with Purusha, the Soul of 
 the universe, or man soul collectively. 
 
 The ideas centered about his personality seem cer- 
 tainly to find their prototypes, or antecedent ideas, in 
 the following hymn from the Eig Veda. This hymn 
 also seems to shadow forth in prophetical, or proto- 
 typical strain, the leading ideas of the Christian 
 religion. It is quoted as translated by Coleridge, and 
 published in volume vii., page 251, of "Asiatic Ee- 
 searches : " — 
 
 "The embodied Spirit, which hath 1000 heads, 
 1000 eyes, 1000 feet, stands in the human breast, 
 while he totally pervades the earth. That being is 
 this universe, and all that has been or will be : he is 
 that which grows by nourishment, and he is the dis- 
 tributor of immortality. Such is his greatness, and, 
 therefore, he is the most excellent embodied spirit ; 
 the elements of the universe are one portion of him ; 
 and three portions of him are immortality in heaven. 
 That threefold being rose above (this world), and the 
 single portion of him remained in this universe, which 
 consists of what does, and what does not taste (the 
 reward of good and bad actions) : again he pervaded 
 the universe. From him sprung Viraj (the male 
 power), from which the first man was produced ; and 
 he being successively reproduced, peopled the earth. 
 From that single portion, surnamed the universal 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 175 
 
 sacrifice, was the holy oblation of butter and curds 
 produced : and this did frame all cattle, wild or 
 domestic, which are governed by instinct. From that 
 universal sacrifice were produced the strains of the 
 Eig and Saman (Vedas), from him the sacred metres 
 sprung ; from him did the Yajur (Veda) proceed ; 
 from him were produced all horses and all beasts that 
 have two rows of teeth ; from him sprung cows ; from 
 him proceed goats and sheep. Him the gods, the 
 derni-gods named Sad'hya, and the holy sages, im- 
 molated on the sacred grass, and they performed a 
 solemn act of religion. Into how many portions did 
 they divide this being whom they immolated ? His 
 mouth became a priest, his arm was made a soldier, 
 his thigh was transformed into an husbandman, from 
 his feet sprang the servile man. The moon was pro- 
 duced from his mind ; the sun sprung from his eye ; 
 air and breath proceeded from his ear, and fire rose 
 from his mouth. In that solemn sacrifice, which the 
 gods performed with him as a victim, spring was the 
 butter, summer the fuel, and sultry weather the obla- 
 tion. Seven wera the moats (surrounding the altar), 
 thrice seven were the logs of holy fuel at that sacri- 
 fice which the gods performed, immolating this being 
 (Purusha — universal soul) as the victim. By that 
 sacrifice the gods worshipped this victim. Such were 
 primeval duties ; and thus did they attain heaven, 
 where former gods and mighty demi-gods abide." 
 This mystic illustration must surely mean that 
 
176 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 spirit can only become realised in the flesh by suffer- 
 ing and self-sacrifice. The active 'soul of passive 
 nature can solely exist, in the body, by means of that 
 pain which, in a greater or less degree, accompanies 
 all earthly life, and alternates to some extent with 
 all human happiness. But from this pain, Bhagavat 
 became manifested to deliver man. The Bhagavata 
 Purana, or Ancient Book of the Blessed or Holy One, 
 commences with : 
 
 " Aum, adoration to Bhagavat, son of Vasudeva ! 
 let us meditate on the Being, from which is derived 
 the conservation and destruction of this universe. He 
 is united to all things, yet remains distinct from them, 
 powerful, resplendent in his own brilliance ; who drew 
 from his intelligence the Veda, for the first inspired 
 singer. Behold a book in which is displayed the 
 Supreme Law, disengaged from all illusion, in which 
 the essence is revealed of that which ought to be 
 known, which can confer happiness, and cause the 
 three sorts of sorrow to disappear." 
 
 Like the " Great Bharata Epic," this book is sup- 
 posed to have been delivered by word of mouth ; and 
 the form of dialogue is sustained in it. " Deign to 
 declare to us," say certain sages or hermits, to one 
 who has become versed in it, " the history of him 
 whose incarnation had for its design the protection 
 and happiness of creatures. We have faith. Belate 
 to us the most excellent histories of the incarnations 
 of Hari (Vishnu, &c), — of the sovereign lord, who of 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 177 
 
 his own free will delivers himself to those sports of 
 his illusive power (Maya) ; in which he assumes the 
 fallacious appearance of man. Now that Krishna, 
 Master of the Yoga (the uniting of the individual 
 spirit to the Supreme spirit), has entered into his 
 proper substance, in what asylum has Justice taken 
 refuge ? " 
 
 It does not seem to be intended that the incarna- 
 tion in Krishna should not be considered real as to 
 the actuality of the flesh ; but that he appeared to be 
 man, while he was in reality Almighty Power of the 
 Universe. The Docetes, in the early Christian Church, 
 educated in the Platonic doctrines, conceived that an 
 emanation of the Deity assumed the form and appear- 
 ance of mortality, and that Christ was really a phan- 
 tom. Amongst the Indian divines, the incarnations of 
 Deity seem to have been regarded as true in respect to 
 substance, but they are considered as disports of Deity. 
 
 Krishna is the manifestation of the Bhagavat, the 
 Blessed or Divine One ; but through him it is Bhagavat 
 who is to be adored, — who ought to be the exclusive 
 object of attention, meditation, praise, and respect : 
 " In his compassion for the virtuous of mankind, who 
 give hearing to the narration of his actions, Krishna, 
 whose history equally purines him who listens to it 
 and him who repeats it, descends to the depths of 
 their hearts, and chases away all evil desires. When 
 once the evil thoughts have lost their empire, the 
 constant worship of Bhagavat produces an unflagging 
 
 M 
 
178 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 devotion to the god of excellent glory. Then the 
 heart braves the attacks of Desire, Greed, and all the 
 vices born of Passion and of Darkness, and tranquillity 
 reposes in the bosom of Goodness. And the heart 
 which has thus found repose in devoting itself to the 
 worship of the Blessed One, after having sundered the 
 bonds of attachment to the world, arrives at the in- 
 ward knowledge of Truth, which is the Blessed One 
 himself. All doubts are dissipated, the works of the 
 man are brought to nothing, for then he beholds within 
 himself the Sovereign Lord. Behold therein the reason 
 why the inspired singers, with hearts full of joy, in- 
 cessantly vow to Bhagavat, the son of Vasudeva, that 
 devotion which brings repose to the soul." 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXIV. 
 
 The aspects in which the adoration of Krishna, under 
 his various immortal and mortal epithets, appear in 
 the "Great Bharata" epic and in the "Ancient Book 
 of the Blessed," afford a parallel to the high and low 
 doctrines of the Church of England. In both faith in 
 the divine manifestation is the way of happiness, and 
 in both there are ceremonial observances ; but in the 
 Poems, as in High Churchism, the ceremonial seems to 
 be more closely associated with faith. 
 
 In reading this Bhagavata Purana, the sermons 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 179 
 
 and tracts of Evangelical Protestantism are continually 
 suggested. Of course the local colouring differs with 
 climate and outer aspect of vegetable, animal, and 
 human life ; but the essentials of the doctrines seem 
 to be the same. 
 
 As has been observed, the word Bhagavata signifies 
 Holy One. As, however, it seems primarily to mean 
 possessing fortune, the term Blessed seems perhaps 
 most fully to render it. Bhaga means a liberal or 
 wealthy master, an apportioner of food ; and in that 
 sense the expression would seem to bring us to the 
 conception of Christ as the Bread of Life, &c. Purana 
 seems to mean " ancient " in the complete sense of 
 belonging to ancient times. Indeed, it is almost in- 
 conceivable that this " Ancient Book of the Blessed 
 One," if written, as has been supposed possible, in 
 about the twelfth century of our era, can have been 
 other than a re-editing of the old stories of the in- 
 carnations. In fact, this seems to have been admitted 
 by M. E. Burnouf and Professor H. H. Wilson, the 
 great and acknowledged students of the Puranas. It 
 may, however, have been heightened in its colour- 
 ing as to the implicit faith and absolute devotion 
 to be bestowed upon Krishna, i.e. Bhaga vat, in all 
 his manifestations. So in Christendom the evangeli- 
 cal doctrines, which may be supposed to have been 
 preached by all the apostles, appear less earnestly 
 propounded by their more immediate successors. 
 Evangelicalism became speedily overlaid in the Church 
 
1S0 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 with ceremonial and priestly assumptions. This in- 
 tense fervour of Indo-Aryan faith in manifested Deity, 
 as superior to all " works," however late it may be 
 placed, seems to have preceded the Protestant move- 
 ment of Europe ; just as the previous adoration of 
 Har.i-Krishna, as the Herakles of Megasthenes, pre- 
 ce'ded the manifestation of Christ Himself in Judaea. 
 Both equally seem prototypes or previous conceptions. 
 It is said of Bhagavat — " Creator of the worlds," — he 
 conserves them by the aid of his quality of goodness ; 
 loving to assume, in the sports of his incarnations, the 
 forms of a deity, a man, or an animal. Then are 
 enumerated, in the " Book of the Blessed," his principal 
 births : 
 
 1st. To create the universe, he took the form of 
 Purusha, composed of Intelligence and other principles 
 (soul of the universe, or man-type, as has been ob- 
 served). 
 
 2d. Then he became the Boar to raise the earth 
 from the abyss. 
 
 3d. He became the Instructor of the Deities (Devas). 
 
 4th. He manifested himself as Nara and Narayana. 
 
 5 th. He became Kapila (to reveal the system of 
 philosophy, afterwards adopted in both Krishnaism 
 and Buddhism). 
 
 6th. He came to communicate knowledge to many 
 sages. 
 
 7th. He reigned over a former Age, peopled by 
 divine beincrs. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 181 
 
 8th. He showed the just way, revered by men of 
 all the " orders." 
 
 9th. He made the most excellent herbage to grow 
 at the solicitation of Holy Sages. 
 
 10th. He became a fish, to save the seventh Manu 
 from the flood, and recover the Books of Knowledge 
 which had been carried, by a demon, into the depths. 
 
 1 ith. When a great churning of the ocean took 
 place, by the divine beings, to obtain the drink of im- 
 mortality, he sustained a mountain on his back as a 
 tortoise. 
 
 1 2th and 13th. He became an enchantress, to de- 
 ceive the demons, and enable the deities to secure for 
 themselves the drink of immortality. 
 
 1 4th. He became the man-lion, to destroy the chief 
 of a race of demoniacal beings. 
 
 1 5 th. He became a dwarf, to deceive the demon 
 Bali, who allowed him to claim as his own all that he 
 could cover in three steps. In his strides he com- 
 passed heaven and earth. 
 
 1 6th. Observing that the kings were tyrannising 
 over the Brahmins, he purged, twenty-one times, the 
 earth of the warrior caste. 
 
 17th. Seeing that men had insufficient intelligence, 
 he divided the tree of the Vedas (as Vyasa, reputed 
 author, also, of the " Great Bharata "). 
 
 1 8th. As Eama, he invaded Ceylon to recover his 
 bride Sita, and destroy the demon Eavanna, who had 
 become obnoxious to < r ods and men. 
 
1 82 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 19th and 20th. Born as Krishna and Bala Rama, to 
 relieve the earth of the burden which oppressed it. 
 
 2 1 st. At length, in the course of the Black Age, 
 in design of deceiving enemies of the divine beings, it 
 is said that he will be born under the name of Buddha. 
 
 2 2d. Then, towards the end of this Age, when kings 
 will have become no more than brigands, the Master 
 of the World will be born under the name of Kalki. ! 
 
 But the reciter of the Poem is represented as 
 adding : " Oh, wise Brahmins, the incarnations of Hari, 
 Treasure of Goodness, are innumerable — as Deities, 
 Manus, sons of Manu. and patriarchs — brilliant in 
 splendour, but really only manifestations of divers 
 portions of Hari himself. Krishna alone is Bhagavat 
 entirely. So the wise, directing their intelligence ex- 
 clusively towards the son of Vasudeva, sovereign of the 
 worlds, thus deliver themselves from the terrible law of 
 regeneration (i.e. the being re-born in the flesh). 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 In the most ancient of the Books of Knowledge, the 
 Piig Veda, appears a hymn in which Vishnu, regarded 
 as the Sun, performs the three strides of the fifteenth 
 incarnation, related in the last chapter. 
 
 This has been translated by Dr. Muir, in his 
 " Sanskrit Texts." 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 183 
 
 " Vishnu strode over this (universe) ; in three places 
 he planted his step ; (the world or his step was) enve- 
 loped in his dust. 
 
 " Vishnu, the unconquerable preserver, strode three 
 steps, bearing from thence fixed observances. 
 
 " Behold the acts of Vishnu, through which this 
 fitting (or intimate) friend of Indra perceived religious 
 ceremonies. 
 
 " Sages constantly behold that highest position of 
 Vishnu, like an eye fixed in the sky." 
 
 The three steps have been surmised to have signified 
 sunrise, mid-day, and sunset; but before the time of 
 the Bhagavata the idea had evidently become further 
 allegorised. 
 
 The last incarnation, declared to be yet to come, 
 is suggestive of the appearing of Him whom St. 
 John in his " Eevelation " saw on the white horse ; 
 out of whose mouth went a sharp sword to smite the 
 nations. 
 
 This incarnation is thus described, in the ode of 
 Jayadeva ; who has been supposed to have written 
 about the twelfth century of our era — 
 
 " For the destruction of all the impure, thou drawest 
 thy cimeter like a blazing comet (how tremendous). 
 Cesava, assuming the body of Kalki ; be victorious, 
 Heri, lord of the Universe." 
 
 This final incarnation has also been thus versified — 
 
 " When Kalki mounts his milk-white steed, " 
 Heaven, earth, and all will then recede." 
 
1 84 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 In this " Ancient Book of the Blessed One," as in 
 the other works of a similar character, this future 
 incarnation in Ivalki is associated with descriptions of 
 disorders of various kinds, prevailing before his coming. 
 These are certainly very analogous to those foretold in 
 the New Testament, as about to happen before the 
 Second Coming of Christ. 
 
 The one before the last of these incarnations of 
 Bhagavat, that of Buddha, is introduced as if prophe- 
 tically written. The author ascribed the work to 
 Vyasa, who belonged to the epoch of Krishna, at 
 about 1300 B.C., according to views of European 
 scholars, or 3000 B.C., according to the notions of the 
 Indians themselves. This introduction of Buddha 
 either shows an interpolation, or it probably assigns 
 the, book, at least, to a later date than 500 B.C. But, 
 as has been remarked, Professor Wilson, and others, 
 have ascribed it, in its present form, to so recent a 
 period as the 12 th century. Some learned Hindus 
 have agreed with them ; though, in India, the work is 
 generally believed to have been inspired in the remote 
 past. 
 
 Considering the prominent position occupied by 
 Buddhism, in the time of Ashoka, who assembled a 
 Buddhist Council, B.C. 258, at Fatal iputra, the modern 
 Patna, and the number of monastic establishments, in 
 which the Buddhistic canons of scripture were studied 
 in the Age of the Chinese pilgrims, about the 4th 
 and 6th century, A.D., it is again difficult to conceive 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 185 
 
 that a writer, 1500 years after its rise, -i.e. in about 
 the 10th or 12 th centuries of our era, could treat it 
 as something still in the future. 
 
 It is more reasonable to suppose that such an idea 
 mi"ht have occurred to a Brahminical author on 
 observing the rise of Buddhistic teaching. He saw 
 ascetics promulgating principles opposed to the Brah- 
 minical views, and reprobated them accordingly. He 
 was assigning his rescript of old legends, with height- 
 ened Krishnaism for doctrine, to the holy sage Vyasa, 
 of ancient days. He wished to check these rising 
 errors, and had perhaps found that Buddha had been 
 asserted to be an incarnation of Vishnu or Bhagavat. 
 He therefore stated, prophetically, as if from Vyasa, 
 that it was merely an incarnation to effect benefit by 
 deceiving the enemies of the good. If he had lived 
 at a period when Buddhism, for some 1200 or 1500 
 years, had been extensively triumphant throughout the 
 land, he must, surely, have indicated its system more 
 distinctly. Indeed, at the time when Amara-Sinha 
 compiled the oldest Sanskrit dictionary, which has 
 descended to us, attempts seem to have been made to 
 reconcile Krishnaism and Buddhism. 
 
 With regard to the date of this dictionary-compiler, 
 various periods, from 56 B.C. to 1050 a.d., seem to 
 have been assigned to him. At all events, the ideas 
 prevailing at any epoch between these limits must be 
 reasonably supposed to have had influence upon the 
 views which a Brahminical writer, at the later date, 
 
1 86 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 would have taken of Buddhism. He may have dis- 
 approved of them, but he must surely have recognised 
 their existence, and combated them more definitely, 
 if he introduced them at all. This is not a mere 
 sketchy author, hurrying over his delineations. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXVI. 
 
 M. Leveque observes on page 95 of his work, which 
 has been quoted, that the orphic theology is of Indian 
 origin. It has two characteristic features. 
 
 1. Zeus is the universal soul. 
 
 2. All things are contained in the body of Zeus. 
 Now the fragments in which these two conceptions 
 
 are displayed, are merely a free translation of the 
 " Vision of Markandeya," as related in the Maha- 
 bharata. 1 
 
 Zeus, lord of the thunder-bolt, is the first-born ; he 
 is the last ; he is the head and the middle. He has 
 produced all things. He is the male, he is also the 
 immortal nymph. There is but one master, one God, 
 chief of all beings. There is but one royal body, in 
 which move all things. After that Zeus has absorbed 
 all beings into himself he again brings them forth, and 
 by ineffable deed returns them to the light. 
 
 M. Leveque exhibits the Indian doctrine of the 
 
 1 This has been narrated in Chapter XVIII. of this book. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 187 
 
 metempsychosis in juxtaposition with that of Plato, as 
 expounded in the Phcedo, &c. 
 
 He remarks that the theory of the transmigration 
 rests upon two principles ; the one metaphysical, the 
 other moral. 
 
 1. Souls are eternal, as motive forces — the living 
 are born from the dead, the dead from the living. 
 
 2. Justice demands that the soul should be punished 
 for its vices and recompensed for its virtues. This 
 principle is realised by transmigration ; for the con- 
 duct which has characterised a soul in one life deter- 
 mines the corporal form with which it will be united 
 in another life. 
 
 Reminiscence is the consequence of the pre-existence 
 and transmigrations of the soul. 
 
 Our idiosyncrasies, according to this doctrine, are 
 really owing to unconscious reminiscences of the de- 
 sires and influences, mental and bodily characteristics, 
 tastes, habits, and deeds of previous existences. 
 
 " Not only is this Indian doctrine to be found in 
 the writings of the Platonic school, it distinctly ex- 
 isted in those numerous sects of Christians which are 
 denounced by the orthodox Irenssus and others in their 
 writings against heresies. 
 
 There is certainly nothing immoral or contrary to 
 the wellbeing of humanity in a doctrine which 
 teaches that every act of our lives, good, evil, or 
 indifferent, must have its necessary sequences in this 
 life and in life to come. Every wrongful deed will 
 
1 88 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 eventually react upon the doer ; and punishment, or 
 consequences of the nature of punishment, if escaped 
 in this life, will inevitably arrive hereafter. 
 
 Buddha in the East, Pythagoras on the Mediter- 
 ranean, the Brahmins and sects of early Christians 
 have taught or held this doctrine as a spiritual fact. 
 Many uncivilised races appear to have entertained 
 crude ideas concerning some sort of analogous belief. 
 The ancient Germans, Druids, &c, seem to have 
 entertained it ; and, as Josephus informs us, it was 
 a tenet of the Pharisees. We have abandoned it as a 
 doctrine in Christianity ; but Christianity now seems to 
 be abandoning the conception of hell, if not of heaven. 
 Certainly, in so-called Christian nations, numbers are 
 lapsing into Agnosticism or positive Materialism. As 
 lias been shown in Chapter V., a " Materialist " ap- 
 pears, with a pupil, in the ancient Hindu drama of 
 the " Eising of the Moon of Awakened Intellect." 
 
 In fact, the contest between the two schools of 
 Thought, which may be classed as the Platonist and 
 Aristotelian, extends backwards far beyond the periods 
 of the Greek supremacy. 
 
 Gautauma Buddha narrated past existences. Pytha- 
 goras affirmed that he had been present at the siege 
 of Troy. He asserted that he had been Euphorbus, 
 slain by Menelaus. He also claimed to have been 
 ^Ethalides, son of Mercury. 
 
 In the Mahabharata, the Deity of Deities said to 
 Arjouna, " In a former existence thou wast Nara, 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 189 
 
 companion of Narayana (Krishna)." Ovid has said in 
 the Metamorphoses — 
 
 " genus attonitum, gelida formidine mortis 
 Quid Styga, quid tenebras et nomina vana timetis 
 Materiem vatum, falsique pericula nmndi 1 
 Corpora sive rogus flamma, seu tabe vetustas 
 Abstulerit, mala posse pati non ulla putetis. 
 Morte carent aninue, semperque priore relicta 
 Sede, novis domibus vivunt habitantque receptee." 
 
 -(xv. 153.) 
 
 race terrified by cold death, why do ye dread the 
 Styx, the darkness and pains of an imaginary world, 
 vain names and fictions of the poets ? Your body, 
 which the flame of the pyre or decay can destroy, can 
 suffer no further ill. Souls are immortal, and they 
 leave their first abodes only to live in others. 
 
 This certainly agrees with the Mahabharata, in which 
 it is said that the soul is not born, neither does it die. 
 It is eternal, ancient. It is not slain with the body. 
 The sages have said that the bodies of mortals are as 
 houses; they are destroyed by time, only the soul 
 is eternal. 
 
 M. Leveque writes of the Pythagorean and Orphic 
 verses that — 
 
 "Les vers dores ont &e" composes par un Fytha- 
 goricien. lis contiennent des idees empruntes au 
 Brahminism, au Bouddhism, au Mazdeism. En voici 
 deux examples." 
 
 1. "Si ayant quitte* ton corps, tu t'eleves dans 
 
i 9 o CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 Tether libre, tu seras irnmortel, tu seras un dieu a 
 l'abri du trepas, tu ne seras plus un mortel." 
 
 2. " N'accueille pas le somrueil sur tes yeux 
 appesantis avant d'avoir examine trois fois chacun 
 des actes de ta journee. Par ou ai-je peche ? qu'ai 
 je fait? quel devoir ai-je neglige d'acconiplir. Ke- 
 prends ainsi tous les actes l'un apres l'autre ; puis, 
 si tu as fait quelque chose de honteux, gourniande toi, 
 toi-meme ; si quelque chose de bon, rejouis toi " (Vers 
 dores 40-44). 
 
 This last precept, he says, is borrowed from Maz- 
 deism, in which the faithful are enjoined, in retiring 
 to rest, to examine the acts of the day. 
 
 He continues, "Aux Pythagoriciens se rattachent 
 les Orphiques dont la theologie est d'origine indienne." 
 
 The recognised antiquity of the most ancient Indian 
 and Persian Scriptures negatives the assertion that 
 in Greece, in comparatively modern times, these ideas 
 had their birth. It was not claimed that Pythagoras 
 taught, but that he learnt in or from the East. 
 
 The doctrine of faith in the " Blessed One," in this 
 " Ancient Book," is entirely connected with this belief 
 in the transmigration of souls. But Bhagavat, incar- 
 nate in Krishna, saves not only from recurring ills in 
 transmigrations but from immense periods of torments 
 in hell. And by faith in him not merely an absorption 
 of self in the divine soul of the universe seems incul- 
 cated ; but an actual consciousness of eternal bliss. 
 In constancy of devotion to the Blessed or Holy One, 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 191 
 
 as manifested in multitudinous forms, but especially 
 in Krishna, happiness as well as rest is to be 
 found. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 The divine personage named Narada appears to hold, 
 in the Indian Olympus, a position somewhat analogous 
 to that of the classic Mercury. He is one of the ten 
 Lords of Creation (Prajapatis), sons of Brahma. He 
 relates that, in a previous birth, he had served certain 
 Yogins, or saints united to Bhagavat, who appear to 
 be prototypes of our evangelical " converted." These 
 saints instructed him in the pure glory of Hari. 
 They informed him that works were the cause of 
 return to this world ; but that works could themselves 
 destroy their influence, if only they were entirely 
 directed towards the Supreme Being. When men 
 deliver themselves to works, solely in the spirit of 
 submission to Bhagavat, they repeat the names and 
 attributes of Krishna, and meditate on him ; saying, 
 " Adoration to thee, Bhagavat, son of Vasucleva. He 
 who thus addresses his devotion to the male of the 
 sacrifice, to this incorporeal one, whose spiritual form 
 is a prayer, this man possesses the true knowledge." 
 
 " Adoration to Krishna, son of Vasudeva, cherished 
 child of Devaki, to Govinda, the young shepherd of 
 
192 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 the Pastor Nanda. He was born of the wife of 
 Vasudeva, for the happiness of this universe." 
 
 Such is the constant style of invocation or praise 
 addressed to this incarnation of the divine in this 
 work of doubtful age ; which certainly seems to be 
 the sequence of ideas which appeared many cen- 
 turies before the commencement of the Christian 
 era. 
 
 When Krishna returns to his own city of Dwarka, 
 on the sea coast of Gujerat, all the inhabitants came 
 forth to meet him. Joyfully they cry, " We prostrate 
 ourselves, Lord, before the lotus of thy feet — O 
 thou who art worshipped by Brahma, by the chiefs 
 of the divinities, who art in this world the asylum of 
 those who desire the supreme happiness — thou who 
 causest the universe to exist, grant to us existence — 
 thou who art for us mother, father, spouse, friend — 
 in your absence each instant seems ages to your 
 faithful servants." 
 
 The city is again described in the usual fashion, 
 as ornamented with woods, gardens, orchards, groves. 
 At the gates and in the streets, arches of triumph had 
 been erected — flags and standards of various colours 
 enlivened it, and it was sprinkled throughout with 
 perfumed waters. He is greeted with flowers, fruits, 
 roasted grain, baskets of fruits and provisions set forth 
 at the doors of houses, the general uprising of the 
 people from couches, chairs, or repasts. A procession 
 of Brahmins brings offerings of good augury, with 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 193 
 
 sacred prayers from the Vedas, and accompanied by 
 elephants, instruments of music, &c. 
 
 With them come on chariots, that they may behold 
 Krishna, hundreds of dancing girls, brilliant in jewel- 
 lery, and troops of actors, dancers, singers — of men who 
 recite the sacred histories, genealogists and panegyrists, 
 repeating the history and marvels of him whose glory 
 is excelling. 
 
 Bhagavat, seeing his relations and servants, salutes 
 them, bowing, smiling, &c. He embraces some and 
 takes the hands of others, and he distributes valuable 
 presents. As he advances up the royal street, the 
 women ascend to the housetops, and would apparently 
 have overwhelmed him with showers of flowers but 
 for the fans and white umbrella held over him. He 
 is brilliant in yellow garments, with garlands of wood- 
 land flowers (which may be as large and gorgeous in 
 colour in India as our choicest products of the conser- 
 vatory). He prostrates himself before the seven wives 
 of his father, Vasudeva, of whom his mother, Devaki, 
 was the chief. Then he entered his own palace, with 
 its 16,000 pavilions for his wives, who eagerly em- 
 brace their husband, shedding tears of joy. 
 
 " So Bhagavat descended into the world of men 
 under the veil of the illusion which he wields, and 
 delivered himself to pleasure amidst his numbers of 
 incomparable spouses like a simple mortal." 
 
 Even Shiva, it is said, the enemy of love, would 
 have forgotten himself amidst Krishna's spouses. Their 
 
 N 
 
194 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 charms, however, could not really affect the soul of 
 him whom men believed to have been a mere mortal, 
 slave to passions like themselves. The Supreme Spirit, 
 even in the bosom of Nature, is not enchained by its 
 qualities. Intelligence reposes in the various envelopes 
 of the soul without being attached to them. But the 
 wives, deceived, ignorant of the real grandeur of their 
 husband, thought him enslaved by their charms. 
 
 Brahma is represented as instructing his son, Narada, 
 that it is to. Bhagavat that we must address our adora- 
 tions — " to Narayana the Vedas are really addressed." 
 " When," says Brahma, " I was born from the lotus 
 (which came from the navel of Narayana), I found 
 only the members of the Soul of the Universe for 
 sacrifice — the prayers, the utensils were all of him 
 (Purusha = Naray ana). Then I celebrated the sacri- 
 fice in honour of Purusha, the Sovereign Lord, who 
 had himself become the sacrifice. Then," continues 
 Brahma, addressing Narada, " thy nine brothers, the 
 lords of creation, celebrated the sacrifice of Purusha 
 considered under his forms visible and invisible. And 
 divine beings, saints and men, addressed their sacrifices 
 to him who pervades the universe." 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 195 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 This " ancient book of the blessed or holy one," like 
 the other Puranas, is alleged to have been indited in 
 order to set the truths of religion before the masses. 
 As Sanscrit, the language in which it is written, had 
 become corrupted into various dialects after the com- 
 mencement of our era, and was only understood by 
 the learned classes, it seems curious that this should 
 have been composed in Sanscrit at the late date attri- 
 buted to it. M. Eugene Burnouf, translator of the 
 Bhagavata Purana, seems to have agreed with H. H. 
 Wilson in attributing it to Vopadeva, a grammarian of 
 the thirteenth century a.d., resident at Dowlutabad. 
 But it certainly is difficult to conceive how he can 
 have made the slight allusions to Buddhism which the 
 book contains without pursuing the topic further, if he 
 wrote it at this period. As has been shown from the 
 Chinese Pilgrims, corroborated by recent archaeological 
 explorations, &c, what may be styled multitudes of 
 Buddhist monasteries had been established in India 
 before this epoch. Buddhism had become systematised, 
 and its canons of scripture, defined in general councils, 
 were elaborately studied in these monasteries. The 
 allusions in the Puranas undoubtedly suggest the 
 period when Buddhism was first making its appear- 
 ance in a form of asceticism differing from that of the 
 
196 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 Brahminical sects, or in a rejection of the Brahminical 
 caste system. 
 
 Considering the invasion of Alexander, the subsequent 
 establishments of the Greeks in the North-West, and 
 the Mohammedan inroads of the eleventh century a.d., 
 it certainly seems more reasonable to suppose that the 
 epic poems and Puranas, in forms approximating to 
 their present, were composed between the tenth and 
 fourth centuries B.C. rather than the fourth and tenth 
 centuries a.d. Supposing the Greek and Scythic in- 
 vasions of the North-West before the time of Christ 
 to have been ignored, surely the Priyadasi of the 
 edicts must have been mentioned in connection with 
 Buddhism, also Vicramaditya and his exploits. The 
 general contents of the Bhagavata and Vishnu "An- 
 cient Books," suggest their composition at a period 
 preceding the invasion of Alexander the Great, and 
 before the extensive promulgation of Buddhism under 
 Asoka or Priyadasi, about the third century B.C. 
 
 But let us admit these books to have been re-edited, 
 or compiled, or altogether composed at a period corre- 
 sponding to our Mediaeval Ages. Even then those vast 
 storehouses of legends, myths founded on observations 
 of the heavens, moral and didactic discourses, &c, 
 would seem to have required two or three thousand 
 years for their development, judging from the develop- 
 ments which have taken place in our own culture. 
 Portions of them might seem to have been adopted 
 from our New Testament. But these portions are 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 197 
 
 intertwined with such a mass of matter distinctly 
 Indian or old Bharatan. The doctrine of the Incar- 
 nation seems to be so elaborately conceived, in progress 
 of growth to be traced from the oldest to the most 
 modern of the existing sacred literature in the Sanscrit. 
 It is accompanied by such an enormous accumulation 
 of astronomical allusions, sun-myths, speculations as 
 to the origin of things, and metaphysical and moral 
 reflections, that it is difficult to imagine that the aspect 
 of the doctrine which resembles the Christian idea is 
 an interpolation. 
 
 If we consider the elaboration of the system with 
 'which these incarnation ideas are connected, and the 
 association of the whole with astronomical observations, 
 and conceptions suggested by the sunshine and rainy 
 seasons, &c, the remote antiquity seems demonstrated. 
 Taking the ramifications of the idea and exuberant 
 fancies into consideration, together with the mass of 
 literary evidence, it seems absolutely certain that they 
 exhibit the legitimate growth of spiritual ideas. The 
 Vedas afford us earliest existing exposition of these ideas. 
 But the ideas themselves must have been gradually 
 evolved before the poet was inspired to chant them. 
 
198 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 Horace Hayman Wilson observes that the chief 
 dramatis personam of the Indian epics are impersona- 
 tions of gods, demi-gods, and celestial spirits, and that 
 the ritual appears to be that of the Vedas. " The 
 Puranas repeat the theoretical cosmogony of the two 
 great poems, they expand and systematise the chrono- 
 logical computations, and they give a more definite 
 and connected representation of the mythological 
 fictions and historical traditions." Of these eighteen 
 " Ancient Books," twelve seem more particularly 
 devoted to the adoration of deity manifested in 
 Krishna or in some of his forms. The others hold 
 up Shiva to veneration. But as the trinity of Brahma, 
 Vishnu, and Shiva, and indeed all the deities, are con- 
 tinually asserted to be only forms of the one Supreme 
 Spirit, the difference between the sects appears to 
 amount to no more than the diversities between the 
 "reat branches of the Christian Church. 
 
 Evangelical Protestantism asserts that the Church 
 of Rome does not do proper honour to the Son while 
 it permits images of the Virgin to be set up and 
 litanies to be hymned to her. The Church of Rome 
 has held those to be outside the pale of salvation who 
 have denied the viceregency on earth of the supposed 
 successors to St. Peter in the possession of the keys 
 of heaven. Certainly these are differences equal to 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 199 
 
 those which are maintained by the Hindu sects. And 
 there appears to be no evidence of their waging such 
 sanguinary wars over their tenets as have agitated 
 Christendom. 
 
 The Puranas are said by him to have contained, 
 in the aggregate, 400,000 slolcas, or 1,600,000 lines. 
 These do not appear to be all forthcoming now. But 
 they extend to a length which is great (or even 
 stupendous) in comparison with the New Testament 
 of Christianity. Their numerous legends seem to de- 
 mand long periods for their evolution. 
 
 The epics and " Ancient Books " seem to be re- 
 counting current legends. These they ad-apted to 
 Brahminism. But although mighty powers, and the 
 most exalted position, are attributed to Brahmins, the 
 actual, fervent desire to urge the adoration of the 
 Supreme Spirit, on earth in Krishna, seems to have 
 been the most absorbing motive of the authors. Then 
 there are other books called Upa-Puranas, and later 
 works in pursuance of the same topic. 
 
 While the All-pervading or Preserving Spirit is 
 more especially to be worshipped in the incarnations, 
 the deity, contemplated as Shiva, is adored in the 
 Lingam (a point), which is a dome-shaped emblem of 
 Creative Power, or of the Universe. Shiva is repre- 
 sented as the Ascetic; and in the performance of 
 severe penances and mortifications of the flesh, the 
 Hindu votary of Shiva seems only to follow his 
 divine example. 
 
200 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 It appears to be evident, although these Puranas 
 describe Buddha as a deceptive incarnation of Vishnu, 
 that Buddha came to be regarded under a very similar 
 aspect to Krishna. In fact, both Krishnaism and 
 Buddhism arose out of the ancient philosophical 
 systems ; but the former became venerated in Brah- 
 minism and amongst the military aristocracy of the 
 north-west of India. In the case of the latter the 
 monastic and celibate life was enjoined, and caste 
 taught to be of no religious consequence. It seems to 
 have arisen amongst the more peaceful populations of 
 the east of Hindustan. 
 
 Various dates have been assigned to Gautauma 
 Buddha, or Sakya Muni (i.e. Gautauma the Enlight- 
 ened, or the Ascetic of the Eace of Sakya). These 
 range from B.C. 2422 to B.C. 546. European scholar- 
 ship assigns him to the latter period. Professor 
 Weber states the possibility of his having died so late 
 as 370 B.C. On the other hand, doubts have been 
 raised as to whether he ever existed. His story is con- 
 nected with superhuman events. Tradition ascribes 
 his birthplace to Kapila-vastu, i.e. the abode of Kapila. 
 As his mother's name is Maya-devi (the divine Maya), 
 and as his miraculous birth occurs at a place named 
 after the founder of a philosophical system, these 
 considerations, conjoined with his father's nomenclature 
 of " clean-food," and other points in his history, have 
 raised suspicions that he is but the embodiment of a 
 school of religious thought. These have been put 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 201 
 
 forward by M. Senart in his work on Buddhism. 
 Krishna, in his expositions in the " Divine Song " of 
 the " Great Bharata," seems equally connected with 
 Kapila. In fact, it appears that in the period when the 
 Sanscrit dictionary of Amara-Sinha was compiled at 
 the court of Vicramaditya, Krishna and Buddha had 
 equally come to he regarded as forms of the One 
 Supreme Being. Sir William Jones, writing towards 
 the close of the last century, has recorded his observa- 
 tion in the " Asiatic Eesearches," that " in the principal 
 Sanscrit dictionary, compiled about two thousand years 
 ago, Krishna, Vasudeva, Govinda, and other names of 
 the Shepherd God are intermixed with epithets of 
 Narayan or the Divine Spirit." Again, however, we 
 are upon debatable ground as to whether this A r icra- 
 maditya, emperor of India, lived at the time of the 
 commencement of the era (Samvat), which is supposed 
 to date from his reign, or at some subsequent epoch. 
 
 This Samvat, the era of northern India, commences 
 B.C. 56. But Vicramaditya and Amara-Sinha, the 
 author of the " principal Sanscrit Dictionary," are 
 together enveloped in doubt by our modern Anglo- 
 Indian chronologists. 
 
 It appears, at all events, to be evident that the 
 system delivered under the name of Krishna, and that 
 attributed to Buddha, both of which present many 
 points of close contact with Christianity, are develop- 
 ments in somewhat different directions of the ideas 
 expounded under the name of Kapila, which name 
 
202 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 appertains to an age centuries B.C. An exposition of 
 undoubtedly pre-Christian religion is associated with 
 the name of Kapila, who became himself elevated to 
 divine rank, and regarded as an incarnation of the 
 Preserver. 
 
 As in the Institutes of Manu, usually attributed to 
 about the same period, it is taught in Kapila's system 
 that the soul transmigrates into semi-divine, human, 
 or animal bodies, according to its deeds and desires. 
 By the study and practice of the highest philosophy 
 the soul may achieve reunion with the Divine Spirit 
 of All, from which it originally proceeded. To this 
 end it must throw off its desire of individuality. It 
 is taught that sentient soul experiences pain, arising 
 from decay and death, until it be relieved of its per- 
 sonality. By attainment of perfect knowledge, the 
 separation of the soul from the corporeal frame at 
 length becomes complete. In Yoga, i.e. in junction 
 or union, the individual soul becomes united with 
 the Supreme Soul. Man's liberation is to be obtained 
 by concentrating his attention on Iswara, who is God, 
 on whom reliance is to be obtained by knowledge. 
 This comes in meditation, and the highest happiness 
 is to be secured in this union with the Supreme Spirit. 
 
 By delivering the body to a life of asceticism and 
 entire abnegation of self, in constant consideration of 
 Nature (both of the material and immaterial universe) 
 in God, the bliss of union with God is to be attained. 
 The systems of both Krishna and Buddha, in holding 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 203 
 
 forth the perfections of Krishna or Buddha for imita- 
 tion, and in affording these material persons as objects 
 of devotion by faith, seem to have been a natural 
 sequence to the more abstruse philosophies. They 
 offered a tangible manifestation of God upon earth in 
 the first case, and of highest human perfection in the 
 second, to enable the soul to grasp the divine idea. 
 While in Krishna the actual divine spirit of the 
 universe enters the human flesh, Buddha seems to be 
 rather a man, who in successive transmigrations has 
 attained complete enlightenment and become divine 
 or equivalent to the divine. In Krishnaism release 
 from earthly woes appears to be achieved essentially 
 by faith. Buddhism seems to teach reliance upon 
 continued good works, or abnegations of self-indulgence, 
 and increase of knowledge in study. But again the 
 ideas are interchanged in the two religions. 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 In vol. i. " Asiatic Researches," the following inscrip- 
 tion from Buddha-Gaya is given, as translated by 
 Charles Wilkins towards the close of the last cen- 
 tury. It seems distinctly to show an intermingling of 
 Buddhist and Krishnaist ideas : — 
 
 "In the midst of a wild and dreadful forest, flourish- 
 in ^ with trees of sweet-scented flowers, and abounding 
 
204 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 in fruits and roots, infested with lions and tigers, desti- 
 tute of human society, and frequented by the Munis 
 (saints), resided Buddha, the author of happiness, and 
 a portion of Narayana. The deity Hari, who is the 
 Lord of Hari-sa, the possessor of all, appeared in this 
 ocean of natural beings at the close of the Dwaipara 
 and beginning of the Kali Age. He who is Omni- 
 present and everlastingly to be contemplated, the 
 Supreme Being, the Eternal One, the Divinity, worthy 
 to be adored by the most praiseworthy of mankind, 
 appeared here with a portion of his divine nature. 
 Once upon a time the illustrious Amara, renowned 
 amongst men, coming here, discovered the place of 
 the Supreme Being, Buddha, in the great forest. The 
 wise Amara endeavoured to render the god Buddha 
 propitious by superior service, and he remained in the 
 forest for the space of twelve years, feeding upon roots 
 and fruits, and sleeping upon the bare earth ; and he 
 performed the vow of a Muni, and was without trans- 
 gression. He performed acts of severe mortification, 
 for he was a man of infinite resolution, with a compas- 
 sionate heart. One night he had a vision, and heard 
 a voice, saying, ' Name whatever boon thou wantest.' 
 Amara Deva having heard this, was astonished, and 
 with due reverence replied, ' First give me a visitation 
 and then grant me such a boon.' He had another 
 dream in the night, and the voice said, ' How can 
 there be an apparition in the Kali Yug (Black Age) ? 
 The same reward may be obtained from the sight of 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 205 
 
 an image as may be derived from the immediate 
 visitation of a deity.' Having heard this he caused an 
 image of the Supreme Spirit, Buddha, to be made, and 
 he worshipped it according to the law, with perfumes, 
 incense, and the like ; and he thus glorified the name 
 of that Supreme Being, the incarnation of a portion of 
 Vishnu, ' Reverence be unto thee in the form of Buddha, 
 reverence be unto the Lord of the Earth, reverence be 
 unto thee, an incarnation of the Deity and the Eternal 
 One. Beverence be unto thee, God ! in the form of 
 the god of mercy, the dispeller of pain and trouble, 
 the Lord of all things, the Deity who overcomest the 
 sins of the Black Age, the Guardian of the Universe, 
 the emblem of mercy towards those who serve thee. 
 Aum, the possessor of all things in vital form ! Thou 
 art Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesa ! Thou art Lord of 
 the Universe ! Thou art, under the proper form of all 
 things, moveable and immoveable, the possessor of the 
 whole ! And thus I adore thee ; reverence be unto the 
 bestower of salvation ; and Hrishikesa, the ruler of the 
 faculties ! Beverence be unto thee (Kesava), the de- 
 stroyer of the evil spirit Kasi ! Damodara, show me 
 favour. Tliou art he who resteth upon the face of the 
 milky ocean, and who lieth upon the serpent Sesha. 
 Thou art Trivikrama (who at three strides encompassed 
 the earth) ; I adore thee, who art celebrated by a thou>- 
 sand names, and under various forms, in- the shape of 
 Buddha, the god of mercy ! Be propitious, most 
 high God ! ' Having thus worshipped the guardian of 
 
2o6 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 mankind, he became like one of the just. He joyfully 
 caused a holy temple to be built of a wonderful con- 
 struction, and therein were set up the divine foot of 
 Vishnu, and in like manner of Brahma and the rest 
 of the divinities. This place is renowned and is 
 celebrated by the name of Buddha-Gaya. The fore- 
 fathers of him who shall perform the ceremony of the 
 Sraddha (funereal ceremony) at this place shall obtain 
 salvation. The great virtue of the Sraddha to be per- 
 formed here is to be found in the book called Vayu 
 Furana, an epitome of which hath by me been en- 
 graved upon stone. 
 
 " Vicramaditya was certainly a king renowned in the 
 world. So in his court there were nine learned men, 
 celebrated under the epithet of the Navaratnani, or 
 nine jewels ; one of whom was Amaradeva, who was 
 the king's chief counsellor, a man of great genius and 
 profound learning, and the greatest favourite of his 
 prince. He it certainly was who built the holy 
 temple which destroyeth sin, in a place called Jam- 
 budwipa, where, the mind being steady, it obtains its 
 wishes, and in a place where it may obtain salvation, 
 reputation, and enjoyment, even in the country of 
 Bharata and the province of Kikata, where the place 
 of Buddha, purifier of the sinful, is renowned. A 
 crime of an hundredfold shall undoubtedly be expiated 
 from a sight thereof, of a thousandfold from a touch 
 thereof. But where is the use of saying so much of 
 the great virtues of this place ? even the hosts of 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 207 
 
 heaven worship with joyful service both day and night. 
 That it may he known to learned men that he verily 
 erected the house of Buddha, I have recorded upon a 
 stone the authority of the place, as a self-evident 
 testimony, on Friday, the fourth day of the new moon, 
 in the month of Madhu, when in the seventh or man- 
 sion of Ganisa, and in the year of the era of Vicrama- 
 ditya 1005, i.e. a.d. 949." 
 
 This inscription would seem to indicate that at all 
 events in this part of India Krishna had become 
 merged in Buddha. 1 The Supreme Spirit which had 
 been specially venerated under the form of Krishna, 
 came to be adored in the Enlightened (Buddha). He 
 (the Enlightened) became regarded as Brahma, Vishnu, 
 and Mahesa (Shiva), i.e. as the Indian Trinity. Now 
 it must be remembered that Buddhism was not a mere 
 contention against caste. It was a great systematised 
 organisation of monastic institutions, for the worship 
 of the Enlightened and the study of the voluminous 
 Scriptures which had been pronounced orthodox in 
 Buddhistic councils before the time of Christ. This 
 inscription displays the superstitions which had been 
 fostered in the religion. It has been represented as 
 an atheistic system; and doubtless atheism, nihilism, 
 or agnosticism are in it as in Christianity (i.e. among 
 those who are born and baptized in Christianity). But 
 the Nirvana, or extinction of the soul, seems to mean 
 the abandonment of all desires and the obtaining of 
 1 See Appendix V. 
 
208 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 perfect calm — not of absolute nothingness in the 
 Supreme Spirit — through the Enlightened One. 
 
 Here are the last words of the great Chinese 
 Buddhist Pilgrim, Hiouen Thsang, of the seventh cen- 
 tury, as quoted from Professor Max Midler's " Chips 
 from a German Work ship." "I desire," said the Chinese 
 Pilgrim before his death, " that whatever merits I have 
 gained by good works may fall upon other people. 
 May I be born with them again in the heaven of the 
 blessed, be admitted to the family of Mi-le, and serve 
 the Buddha of the future, who is full of kindness and 
 affection. When I descend again upon earth, to pass 
 through other forms of existence, I desire, at every new 
 birth, to fulfil my duties towards Buddha, and arrive at 
 last at the highest and most perfect intelligence." 
 
 This adds the Roman Catholic doctrine of works of 
 supererogation, in which the good works of the saints 
 in excess of those required for their own salvation are 
 imputed to others, to the numerous similitudes exist- 
 ing between the practices of Buddhism and the Church 
 of Rome. We find in the former, as in the latter, 
 monks with conventual dress and shaven crown, nuns, 
 the adoration of relics, the use of bells and rosaries, a 
 high Pontiff corresponding to the Pope, altars and 
 choirs, &c. &c. Prom what Protestants consider the 
 erroneous adoration of Christ in Romanism, mingled 
 with vows to the Blessed Virgin and saints, and the 
 obedience to a celibate priesthood, emerged the Protes- 
 tant faith, in which reliance only on Jesus was incul- 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 209 
 
 cated. Buddhism, after the time of Ash oka, seems to 
 have widely abrogated the Brahminical system of caste, 
 sacrificial or sacramental ordinances, &c, and substi- 
 tuted for faith in Krishna the belief in Buddha. A 
 celibate monastic order took the place of the heredi- 
 tary Brahminical priesthood to a great extent. Strict 
 morality appears to have been required in Buddhism, 
 and the practices of asceticism seem to have differed, 
 from those of Brahminism in kind, though not in 
 virtual effect. It would seem probable that the reli- 
 gion became in some way effete in India. Perhaps, on 
 the one hand, it was gradually overlaid with too many 
 superstitions. On the other hand, it may have become 
 too lax in the estimation of certain zealous religionists 
 of deep and earnest convictions. At all events, between 
 about the twelfth and fifteenth centuries of our era arose 
 a great revival of the adoration of the Supreme Spirit 
 in Krishna. Kabir, Eamanuja, and Chaitanya appear, 
 in the Indian religion, as curious forerunners of the 
 Protestant opponents of the Papacy in Europe. Here 
 the change was effected in return from the worship 
 of Christ as overlaid with Mariolatry, &c, to what 
 seems to have been its pristine simplicity. In India, 
 the adoration of the Supreme and Universal Spirit 
 was similarly brought back from Buddhism. This 
 seems to have become a system of most ritualistic 
 character, strikingly analogous to that of the Eoman 
 Church, as has been observed. These reformers 
 desired to return to a pure and simple religion of the 
 
 
 
2io CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 heart — of faith in Krishna as the incarnation of the 
 Supreme, to he worshipped on earth to secure the bliss 
 of hereafter. Brahminism had existed through all 
 changes. But Brahminism is really independent of all 
 these faiths. It is a system of hereditary class sanc- 
 tity, of which the Vedas are the great, holy, rallying 
 point. And the system of incarnations is considered 
 divine as connected with the revelation of religion in 
 these " Books of Knowledge." 
 
 After this reformation, from the twelfth to the fif- 
 teenth centuries A.D., superstitions and ritual again 
 seem to have overspread the Indian faiths, just as the 
 Protestantism of the Church of England has witnessed 
 a revival of the last. Never, of course, entirely extinct, 
 it would seem that, in all religions, the tendency to 
 ceremonial worship, and to venerate tangible images, 
 may be repressed for a time, but that it is a natural 
 bias in humanity to resort to it. This is especially 
 shown in our Old Testament. These Indian reformers 
 might have appeared to have been led to their ideas by 
 our great European movement, but the periods of their 
 careers can be accurately estimated. They seem dis- 
 tinctly to have preceded Luther, Calvin, and John 
 Knox. In vol. xvi. of " Asiatic Researches," Professor 
 H. H. Wilson has left an essay on the various sects of 
 the Hindus. Before showing from this essay the 
 efforts at establishing a sort of Protestantism in India, 
 an illustration of Buddhistic worship is given in the 
 next chapter. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 211 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 Tn volume xvi. of " Asiatic Researches," Professor H. 
 H. Wilson gives an extract, in illustration of Buddhist 
 ritual, from iSTepaulese tracts. The following rite is 
 directed to be performed on the eighth lunar day of 
 each half month ; upon which day, in the Vedas also, 
 fasting and oblations were enjoined. In the Puranas 
 it was made sacred to Vishnu. 
 
 The rite seems analogous to " confession " in the 
 Christian Church. 
 
 The worshipper, accompanied by his wife and family, 
 presents water and flowers, incense, lights, and rice to 
 Tathagata Sakya Sinha (Buddha). He then says : 
 
 " I ever offer my salutation with my head declined, 
 to the holy Benefactor of the world — to the Lord of 
 the saints, the Remover of the ills of the Black Age. 
 I adore Sakya Sinha (the Lion of the Race of Sakia), 
 the ruler of all, propitious, the asylum of clemency, 
 the all-wise, lotus-eyed, comprehensive Enlightened. 
 Whatever sin may have been committed by me, child 
 and fool that I am, whether originating in natural 
 weakness, or done in conscious wickedness, I confess 
 all, thus standing in the presence of the lords of the 
 world, joining my hands, afflicted with sorrow and 
 fear, and prostrating myself repeatedly before them. 
 May the holy sages conceive the past as the past, and 
 then the evil I have done shall never be repeated." 
 
212 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 Then the disciple, before his spiritual adviser (Guru), 
 places his right knee on the ground and continues : 
 " I, such an one, having uttered my confession, take 
 refuge with the Enlightened from this time forward, 
 until the ferment of ignorance shall have subsided, 
 for he is my protector, the lord of exalted glory. Of 
 an imperishable and irresumable form, merciful, omni- 
 scient, all-seeing, and free from the dread of all terrors. 
 I do this in the presence of men." To this the Guru 
 replies, " Well done, well done, my son ! perform the 
 Niryatana." Then the worshipper takes flowers, rice, 
 and water, places them on a consecrated place, and 
 says, " This consecrated place is the Lord, the com- 
 prehensive ' Enlightened,' replete with divine know- 
 ledge, the Supreme, the Curber of the wild steeds of 
 human faults. To him, gem of the ' Enlightened,' I 
 address the rites performed in this consecrated place." 
 
 He then makes offerings, a portion of ground having 
 been marked off as consecrated, and exclaims : " Om, 
 namah to the gem of the Enlightened, whose heart is 
 laden with the burden of compassion, the Supreme 
 Spirit, the universal Intellect, the triple essence, the 
 endurer of all ills for the benefit of existing beings, 
 accept this offering, savoury and fragrant, and confirm 
 me and all men to the supreme, all-comprehending 
 wisdom." Then the devas, demons, regents of the 
 planets, spirits of the earth, &c, are invoked ; spirits 
 of lakes, villages, and deserted temples, existing where 
 cross-roads meet, and in cemeteries, &c, — all are invited 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 213 
 
 to receive the lights, incense, and food, and render the 
 act of worship propitious. Indra, Agni, Yama, the 
 progenitors of mankind, &c, are prayed to accept, 
 eat, drink, and render the act propitious. In fact, 
 Buddhism has continued to be a highly ritualistic 
 religion. While its ceremonials have been considered 
 analogous to those of the Eoman Church, the classical 
 rites which have been revived in a London theatre 
 for the Laureate's drama of the " Cup " have been 
 pronounced similar to Chinese Buddhistic ceremonies. 
 Images, the adoration of relics, the celibacy of monks, 
 vestments, incense, the chanting of religious services 
 by choirs, right and left of the altars, and various 
 instruments of music employed, with the institution of 
 a high pontiff in Thibet — certainly these all combine 
 to impart an outer aspect to the religion absolutely 
 analogous to that of the Church of Borne. 1 
 
 Altogether our mediaeval days are suggested, when 
 various orders of monks and begging friars existed in 
 England ; for the Buddhist monk usually lives upon 
 alms. In India, as in England, these orders seem to 
 have been abolished or become extinct in about the 
 fifteenth century of our era. No evidence seems to 
 exist of their being extirpated by war, except, perhaps, 
 in occasional instances. As has been shown, the 
 dramas exhibit them co-existing with the Brahmins 
 without any apparent antagonism to suggest civil war, 
 or persecution such as the hierarchy of Borne has 
 
 1 See Appendix III. 
 
214 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 inflicted. It would seem that there was a great revival 
 of faith in the Supreme as manifested in the Pastor 
 Krishna. Reformers arose who preached zealously the 
 adoration only of Vishnu, the pervading Spirit or Pre- 
 server. 
 
 " The chief religious tenet of the followers of Ra- 
 manuja, who arose in the twelfth century," says H. H. 
 Wilson, " is that Vishnu is Brahme, before all worlds, 
 cause and creator of all. He and the universe are 
 one, but, in opposition to old philosophies, they deny 
 that the Deity is void of form or quality, and regard 
 Him as endowed with all good qualities, and of two- 
 fold form, viz., the Supreme Spirit, Paramatma, or 
 cause, and the gross one, the universe or matter. 
 Creation originated with Vishnu, who was alone. He 
 willed to become embodied as visible and ethereal light, 
 and became manifest in the elements. Narayana, after 
 having created men and animals, through the subordi- 
 nate angels which he willed into existence, still re- 
 mained the supreme authority of the universe. He has 
 assumed at different times particular forms and appear- 
 ances for the benefit of his creatures, of which four 
 are especially to be revered, viz., Vasudeva or Krishna, 
 Balarama, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha. He is to be 
 worshipped in temples with offerings of flowers, per- 
 fumes, &c, and prayers to be repeated with the aid of 
 the rosary. Union with the Divine is to be sought. 
 And perpetual residence in Vishnu's heaven, in con- 
 dition of pure ecstasy and eternal rapture, is the goal." 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 215 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 It may have been the re-writing or re-editing of the 
 " Ancient Books," Vishnu and Bhagavata Puranas, 
 &c., which occasioned a wider dissemination of these 
 conceptions of the Divine. As has been observed, it 
 seems impossible that they can have originated at this 
 epoch. Probably philosophisings had abrogated the 
 fervour of the Buddhistic faith. The monks had, 
 perhaps, become generally regarded as idlers rather 
 than zealous religionists. An aversion to the celibate 
 system is likely to have arisen ; and the devotion to 
 the all-pervading spirit in Vishnu infected men with 
 the ardour of a fresh impulse. Monastic establish- 
 ments, however, remained in the revived Hinduism, 
 with their superiors, monks, attendants, and scholars, 
 their chapels and accommodation for travellers, &c, 
 but not, apparently, established upon so extensive a 
 scale as in Buddhism. Professor Wilson (who had an 
 actual acquaintance with India) mentions from thirty 
 to forty monks in a monastery, whereas Hiouen 
 Thsang has informed us that there were often 1000 
 or more in a single Buddhistic establishment. The 
 ideas promulgated in the " Ancient Books " at this revi- 
 val do not appear, during the period of the Buddhist 
 supremacy, to have actually sunk into abeyance, but 
 to have continuously existed side by side with the 
 religion of Buddha. They seem to have continued 
 
2l6 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 in their stages of successive growth, from the time 
 when they emerged, as the natural sequence of certain 
 doctrines, from the Vedas at iooo B.C. or 1500 B.C. 
 There seems to be much religious fervour in both the 
 Puranas and the Buddhistic books ; and while the 
 latter are still revered in Nepaul, China, Tibet, Bur- 
 mah, Siam, &c, the former have made the more lasting 
 impression in India. 
 
 War may in places have overthrown the Buddhists, 
 but in general Brahmins and Buddhists seem to have 
 co-existed with, possibly, wordy warfare, but no more 
 recourse to bloodshed than exists amongst Romanists 
 and Protestants in England in the present day. Ivabir 
 was one of the twelve disciples of Eamanand the 
 weaver. He attacked the whole system of idolatrous 
 worship, and ridiculed the learning of the Pandits. 
 He is related to have been born of the virgin widow 
 of a Brahmin, having been in the world, according to 
 his followers, from 1149 a.d. to 1449 a.d. And he 
 is said to have vindicated his doctrine by miracles, 
 having been thrown into flames without harm, &c. 
 Outward signs of religion, according to him, were of 
 no importance, and attention was especially to be 
 paid to the inward man. The worship of his followers 
 was largely expressed in chanting hymns, and after 
 his death he was claimed as a saint by both Hindus 
 and Mohammedans. 
 
 Chaitanya was born in 1485 a.d., and became 
 regarded as an incarnation of Krishna or Bhagavat. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 217 
 
 At the age of twenty-four lie shook off the obligations 
 of society, and commenced preaching between Mathura 
 and Jaganath ; and after a course of asceticism beheld 
 beatific visions of Krishna, Eaddha, his shepherdess 
 love, and the other shepherdesses. He disappeared 
 about a.d. 1527. Although admitting other incarna- 
 tions, he held that the principal, the actual, sensible 
 manifestation of the Supreme Spirit was as Krishna. 
 But when identified with the Supreme Spirit, Krishna 
 possessed real attributes, in opposition to the old 
 philosophising belief in the negative properties of God. 
 The whole moral code of his sect is comprised in the 
 word Bhahti, a term which signifies an union of 
 implicit faith with incessant devotion. Caste is of 
 no account in these systems of intense devotion to 
 Krishna, though Brahmins always seem to have been 
 held in respect, even under Buddhism, as Mr. Pdrys 
 Davids has shown in his work on that religion. 
 
 The higher form of this Bhakti, says H. H. Wilson, 
 is a tender affection for the divinity, of the same 
 nature as the love of parents for their children ; 
 the highest is such passionate attachment as the 
 shepherdesses (Gopis) felt towards their beloved 
 Krishna. 
 
 In Chaitanya's system, homage was to be performed 
 in Krishna's temples twice daily ; but the ritual and 
 sacrifice were only repetitions of his name. Singing 
 and dancing in his honour were allowed. Fasting is 
 to be practised every eleventh day. Anger, avarice, 
 
2i8 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 and lust are to be suppressed, and the Guru or 
 spiritual teacher venerated. The teachers, as a rule, 
 were married ; but there have been amongst them 
 hermits or begging ascetics. 
 
 The adoration of Radhu, bride of Krishna, seems to 
 have been introduced at this period. She is regarded 
 as the incarnate will of the deity, and she is styled 
 the Mother of the Universe. She appears to corre- 
 spond with Durga or Parvati. Besides numerous sects 
 who worship Krishna, others are enumerated by Pro- 
 fessor Wilson who adore the Supreme Spirit in Shiva, 
 who seems to be a manifestation of deity in a super- 
 human rather than human form, though there are 
 also incarnations of him. The bull which seems to 
 connect him with Osiris and the Apis of Egypt is 
 associated with his worship, and placed before his 
 shrines. 
 
 CHAPTEE XLIII. 
 
 It must be remembered that Buddha- Gay a, the chief 
 centre of Buddhist history, is situated at about 450 
 miles distance from Mathura or Muttra, the centre of 
 the legendary lore of Krishna. This is about equi- 
 valent to the distance between Eome and Geneva. 
 As each of these centres has been surrounded by a 
 nourishing and extensive region of cultivated territorv, 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 219 
 
 there is ample space for two religions to have arisen. 
 The adoration of the Divine as Brahma, and the pro- 
 mulgation of the system of Brahminism, with the legal 
 Institutes of Manu, seem to appertain to the north- 
 west of Mathura, while the adoration of Mahadeva or 
 Shiva was probably more prevalent in the district 
 about Bahar. Shiva became regarded as Rudra, then 
 as forming part of a trinity with Brahma and Vishnu. 
 It would seem that a mass of stories and legends 
 became centred round two persons associated with 
 these respective centres. At Mathura, amongst a 
 warlike and aristocratic race, deity was regarded as 
 manifested in the brilliant Prince Krishna. In the 
 district of Bahar, where the adoration of Mahadeva 
 seems to have encouraged excess of asceticism, and to 
 have laid little stress upon caste considerations as 
 connected with religion, a prince also became wor- 
 shipped. But it was a prince who abandoned his 
 rank and wandered forth in poverty and self-abnega- 
 tion. The soul of each is held to have been often 
 incarnate in previous terrestrial existences for the 
 sake of mankind. While their lives as Krishna and 
 Buddha are different, many similar stories are con- 
 nected with them in the histories of their previous 
 incarnations. It has been asserted that Shivaism as 
 well as Krishnaism merely succeeded Buddhism. But 
 the evidence seems to demonstrate that Buddhism arose 
 out of Brahminism and Shivaism. This is shown by 
 the Buddhist legends containing frequent allusions to 
 
22o CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 Tndra and other personifications of the Hindu Pantheon, 
 including Rudra or Shiva. 
 
 The doctrine of previous incarnations of the Supreme 
 Spirit is not inconsistent with the Christianity revealed 
 to us in our Old and New Testaments. To this testi- 
 mony is afforded by the statements in both concerning 
 Melchizedek. Return will be made to this topic in 
 a subsequent chapter. 
 
 Gautauma Buddha or Sakya Muni seems invariably 
 to be represented as a successor of previous Buddhas. 
 The institution of celibate monks and nuns may have 
 been due to him. It would certainly seem that the 
 conception of a Buddha, the Enlightened, in India, 
 may have arisen out of the worship of Shiva (the aus- 
 picious one) as the ascetic, in which incarnation or 
 manifestation he is often represented. 
 
 Some of the eighteen " Ancient Boohs " advocate 
 his supremacy; but as all declare the real unity of 
 deity, though adored under different forms, the differ- 
 ences are not more important than those which divide 
 Christian sects. The universality of deity, its per- 
 sonification for the sake of humanity, the necessity 
 of self-sacrifice and universal love and charity, — these 
 seem to be essential points of Christianity, which 
 have been leading doctrines of the allied religions of 
 our race, prototypes seemingly in the ancient civilisa- 
 tions of our own religion. 
 
 M. Emile Burnouf, in his " Science des Religions," 
 observes (p. 4) that " il est certain que les dieux ont etc 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 221 
 
 adores, par des peuples qui, a Lien des egards, nous 
 egalaient en civilisation." (P. 8.) " La lecture des 
 livres Indiens et l'histoire qui commence a s'eclaircir, 
 de la propagation des idees indiennes prouvent que ni 
 la philosophic antique, ni les lettres grecques, ni les 
 croyances anciennes ou modernes ne peuvent etre 
 suffisamment comprises, si Ton ne remonte vers l'ancien 
 Orient. Or, l'lnde est la contree religieuse par excel- 
 lence ; on n'y pent pas separer la literature des rites 
 sacres, ni la philosophic des dogmes religieux." 
 
 (P. 183.) "Tandis que les religions afhrment leur 
 propre originality les recherches scientifiques, pour- 
 suivies, sans parti pris d'avance, et avec la seule 
 pensee de decouvrir les lois de la nature, font que 
 l'homme d etude se demande a lui meme s'il n'y a eu 
 en effet aucune filiation reelle entre les religions. Les 
 faits constates sont aujourd'hui si nombreux et telle- 
 nient d'accord entre eux que toute illusion a cette 
 egard est scientifiquement impossible. Les religions 
 out procedes les unes des autres. Non seulment les 
 formes du culte ne sont originales chez aucune d'elles, 
 non seulement les symboles ont passes des unes aux 
 autres et l'appareil exterieur dont elles se sont servies 
 s'est transmis a travers les siecles, ne subissant que des 
 alterations superficielles ; mais encore la doctrine mys- 
 tique ou, si Ton veut, metaphysique, qui se cache sous 
 ces voiles, ce que nous pouvons appeler l'&ement divin 
 des religions, est demeure le meme depuis les temps 
 les plus anciens jusqu'a nos jours, animant tour a tour 
 
222 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 ces figures symboliques, ces rites et ces formules qui 
 en sont l'element sensible." 
 
 GHArTEE XLIV. 
 
 The other great Indian epic, the Eamayana, is also 
 rich in descriptions which indicate elaborate systems 
 of cultivation of the various aesthetics of life. In the 
 Gentleman s Magazine of October i 880, Sylvanus Urban 
 observes, in commenting upon " Cradleland of Arts and 
 Creeds," that " we hear of watering the roads, of public 
 gardens, curtained screens, folding doors, golden statues 
 and inlaid floors ; of music, palaces, terraces, ramparts, 
 and warlike instruments which slay an hundred men ; 
 all sorts of inventions indeed, which are supposed to 
 be altogether modern discoveries. What, however, is 
 from a literary standpoint even more remarkable, 
 is that modern poetry is anticipated by the constant 
 celebration throughout the epic (the Eamayana) of 
 the grandeur and beauties of nature, especial praise 
 being bestowed upon the charms of forests and flowers. 
 What then became of this taste ? Nothing is more 
 remarkable in European literature, or has furnished 
 subject of more frequent comment, than the insensi- 
 bility to the beauties of landscape which seems to 
 have prevailed until times altogether recent." 
 
 This poetical history of Eama, who is held to have 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 223 
 
 been an earlier incarnation of the Divine than Krishna, 
 has been ascribed by its translator, Mr. Griffiths, Head 
 of the College of Benares, to about the twelfth century 
 B.C., with the exception of certain possible interpola- 
 tions, which do not affect the illustrations of civilisa- 
 tion contained in it. 
 
 Certainly the people of ancient India possessed a 
 spiritual culture in philosophy, literature, art, and 
 science before the epoch of Pythagoras, viz., the sixth 
 century B.C. That philosopher is related to have been 
 educated in Eastern knowledge, and the whole tradition 
 of his life and teaching points not merely to Egypt or 
 Babylon having been his Almcc Matres in science, but 
 to his having been fostered by the learning of the 
 great realms further to the east. 
 
 Undoubtedly since the epochs of these epics there 
 have been changes in India. But the alterations have 
 so slightly affected the pictures of its general aspect 
 of life that the description of the daughters of Zion 
 in Isaiah iii. 16—23 might apply to Hindu women in 
 the streets of the commercial Bombay in the present 
 day. Still as they walk do they " make a tinkling 
 with their feet," i.e., with the bunches of silver bells 
 upon their anklets. Their bracelets and spangled 
 ornaments (as the New Version renders the words 
 which have been translated as chains and mufflers), 
 their headbands, earrings, nose-jewels ; their mantles, 
 fine linen, hoods, and veils, — all these still appear on 
 the figures of the wealthier Hindu women in forms 
 
224 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 apparently corresponding closely to the fashions of 
 the days of Isaiah, amongst our English feminine modes. 
 And their aspects are true outward signs of their 
 inward manner of life- — of their spirituality. The 
 pictures of old civilisation, therefore, which we behold 
 in these ancient poems cannot be reasonably supposed 
 to have been of rapid growth. If borrowed from 
 Babylonians. Greeks, or others, it would seem that 
 Portuguese and British would, in their turn, have 
 been imitated. Of course a few of the natives have 
 adopted our costume, language, and customs ; but as 
 a people the inhabitants of British India remain un- 
 affected by our settlements in the country. We have 
 overcome the land in war, but not conquered it socially 
 or spiritually. Indeed, we are still strangers there, in 
 no sympathy with the mass of its inhabitants. And 
 there appears to be no evidence of our being nearer 
 the winning of the people to our religion and our 
 manner of life, though a few more Hindus may be 
 seen in London, studying our legal system, &c, and 
 doubtless the efforts of our missionaries have made 
 some impression in Hindustan. 
 
 At about the epoch of the Bamayana epic, some 
 300 to 1000 or more years B.C., appertains the earliest 
 Indian code of laws, the Institutes of Mann. This 
 is still held to be an authority in our Anglo-Indian 
 courts of law when adjudicating upon Hindu matters. 
 The word Manu is derived from the Sanskrit verb 
 man, to think ; and it is considered by the Hindus to 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 225 
 
 represent the first grand existing man-type, to whom 
 these laws were delivered by the Divine. 
 
 Like the laws of Moses, these Institutes contain 
 rules for moral as well as legal obligations, and for 
 the duty of man to the Divine as well as to his neigh- 
 bour. And the spiritual conception of one Supreme 
 Deity is distinctly set forth. The laws are thus pre- 
 faced : " Manu sat reclined, with his attention fixed 
 upon one object, the Supreme God, when the divine 
 sages approached him, and, after mutual salutations 
 in due form, delivered the following address : ' Deign, 
 sovereign ruler, to apprize us of the sacred laws 
 in their order, as they must be followed by all the 
 four classes in their several degrees. For thou, 
 the Lord, and thou only amongst mortals, knowest 
 true sense, the first principle, and the prescribed 
 ceremonies of this universal, supernatural Book of 
 Knowledge.' " 
 
 After prescribing the laws in questions of inherit- 
 ance, merchandise, contracts, wrongs, &c. &c, and 
 assigning penalties for criminal transgressions, these 
 laws proceed to describe penalties in purgatorial 
 hells. They even lay down the rule as to the future 
 transmigrations of the soul in accordance with its 
 deeds. 
 
 Chapter xii. of the Institutes of Manu is headed 
 " On transmigration and final beatitude." In ver. 3 
 it is said that " action either mental, verbal, or cor- 
 poreal, bears good or evil fruit as itself is good or evil, 
 
 P 
 
226 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 and from the actions of men proceed their various 
 transmigrations, in the highest, the middle, and the 
 lowest degree." 
 
 And as to the purgatorial liells of punishment it is 
 declared : " By the vital souls of those men who have 
 committed sins in the body which has been reduced 
 to ashes, another body composed of nerves with five 
 sensations, in order to be susceptible of torment, shall 
 certainly be assumed after death. They shall feel in 
 that new body the pangs inflicted in each case by the 
 sentence of Yama (the deity of the dead), having 
 endured torments according to his sentence ; and the 
 taint having been removed, the soul may reach the 
 five pure elements, &c. 
 
 " The three qualities of the rational soul are a 
 tendency to goodness, to passion, and to darkness. 
 Goodness is true knowledge. Darkness is gross 
 ignorance. Passion is an emotion of desire or aver- 
 sion. In the transmigrations, souls endowed with 
 goodness can attain the state of deities (devas = 
 shining beings) ; those who cherish ambitious passions 
 will return to the state of men ; those involved in 
 darkness may descend to the state of beasts." 
 
 Each of these has a threefold division, and the 
 dark quality may even bring the individual down to 
 the condition of minerals, vegetables, worms, fish, &c, 
 to elephants and lions, &c, or to contemptible bar- 
 barians in the middle division ; or to dancers, singers, 
 birds, and bloodthirsty savages in the highest division 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 227 
 
 of the states entered by the souls of those imbued 
 with the quality of darkness. 
 
 From the lowest division of the passionate quality, 
 boxers and wrestlers, cudgel-players, actors, gamesters, 
 &c, may result; kings, domestic priests, warriors, con- 
 troversialists, &c, are allotted to the middle division ; 
 while the condition of heavenly nymphs may even be 
 attained by the highest of those who have the quality 
 of passion. 
 
 Hermits, Brahmins, demi-gods, genii of the signs 
 and lunar mansions, are the lowest states reserved for 
 those distinguished* by the quality of goodness. Sacri- 
 ficers, holy sages, deities of the lower heavens, regents 
 of stars not in the paths of the sun and moon come 
 from the middle divisions ; while even to be Brahmas 
 with four faces, creators of worlds under him, the 
 genius of virtue, &c, may be the destiny of those 
 endowed in the highest degree with the quality of 
 goodness. 
 
 A priest who has drunk spirituous liquor may be- 
 come an insect or fly feeding on ordure. 
 
 Those who do injury to sentient beings may be born 
 cats and eaters of raw flesh. 
 
 More than once it is said that the wicked shall 
 have agonising births, lives afflicted with diseases, and 
 terrible deaths. " With whatever disposition of mind 
 a man shall perform in this life any act, religious or 
 moral, in a future body endued with the same quality 
 shall he receive his retribution." Hells are described 
 
22S CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 for the wicked as in the Puranas, which forestall the 
 horrors of Dante, except that the agony of hopeless- 
 ness was not considered to appertain to the just punish- 
 ments of the old Aryan Deity. There are hells of 
 utter darkness, with forests of sword leaves, with 
 burning sands, &c. On the other hand " Studying 
 and comprehending the Veda, practising pious aus- 
 terities, acquiring divine knowledge of law and philo- 
 sophy, command over the organs of sense and action, 
 avoiding all injury to sentient creatures, and showing- 
 reverence to a natural or spiritual father, — these are the 
 chief branches of duty which ensure final happiness." 
 In this life, indeed, as well as the next, the study of 
 the Veda, to acquire a knowledge of God, is held the 
 most efficacious of duties in procuring felicity to man. 
 For in the knowledge and adoration of one God, which 
 the Veda teaches, all the rules of good conduct, before 
 mentioned in order (i.e. in these Institutes), are fully 
 comprised." " The ceremonial duty prescribed by the 
 Veda is of two kinds, — one connected with this world 
 and causing prosperity on earth, the other abstracted 
 from it and procuring bliss in heaven." " He who 
 frequently performs interested rites obtains an equal 
 station with the regents of the lower heaven ; but he 
 who frequently performs disinterested acts of religion 
 becomes for ever exempt from a body composed of the 
 five elements." " Equally perceiving the Supreme Soul 
 in all beings, and all beings in the Supreme Soul, he 
 sacrifices his own spirit by fixing it on the spirit of 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 229 
 
 God, and approaches the nature of that sole divinity 
 who shines of his own effulgence." 
 
 In this and other texts in these Institutes, the 
 numerous gods of what has been called the Hindu 
 Pantheon are declared to be only emanations from or 
 expressions of the One Supreme Spirit. And the 
 sacred scriptures, the Vedas or Books of Knowledge, 
 and works founded upon them, are repeatedly held up 
 to veneration : "To patriarchs, to deities, and to man- 
 kind the scripture is an eye giving constant light." 
 " Nor could the Veda Shastra have been made by 
 human faculties." " All systems which are repugnant 
 to the Veda must have been composed by mortals and 
 shall soon perish ; their modern date proves them vain 
 and false." " He alone comprehends the system of 
 duties, religious and civil, who can reason by rules of 
 logic, agreeable to the Veda, on the general heads of 
 that system as revealed by the holy sages." " Let 
 every Brahmin, with fixed attention, consider all 
 nature, both visible and invisible, as existing in the 
 Divine Spirit ; for when he contemplates the bound- 
 less (universe existing in the Divine Spirit) he cannot 
 give his heart to iniquity." " It is He (the Supreme 
 Omnipresent Intelligence) who, pervading all beings in 
 five elemental forms, causes them, by the gradations 
 of birth, growth, and dissolution, to revolve in this 
 world until they deserve beatitude." 
 
 It must, at all events, be evident, on the evidence of 
 a few texts which have been quoted out of many to 
 
22,o CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 the same effect, that great veneration was paid to 
 scripture as the word of God. Our Aryan cousins in 
 India at about 500 B.C. certainly regarded their Bible 
 with reverence ecpial to that which Protestants have 
 bestowed upon the Christian Scriptures. It might 
 have been urged that this veneration for the written 
 word was suggested by the Jewish devotion to their 
 sacred writings. But the systematic reverence for the 
 Books of Knowledge (Vedas) seems too deeply im- 
 planted in the Indo-Aryan mind to be a merely 
 borrowed idea, considering the religious conservatism 
 now displayed by them. 
 
 CHAPTEK XLV. 
 
 Arrian in his " Indica," of the second century of our 
 era, observes that " none of the Indian kings ever lead 
 an army out of India to attempt the conquest of any 
 other country, lest they should be deemed guilty of 
 injustice," which certainly seems a Christian sentiment, 
 though it has rarely been acted upon by so-called 
 Christian monarchs. He says that the Indians allow 
 no monuments to their dead, but have odes in their 
 praise. He thinks the Indian cities too numerous to 
 be reckoned, stating that those which are situated near 
 the sea or upon any river are constructed of wood, 
 because no buildings of brick would long withstand 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 231 
 
 the violence of the rains and the overflow of the 
 rivers. But the cities seated on any eminence are 
 frequently built with brick and mortar. He states 
 that Megasthenes assures us that the capital Palim- 
 bothra (Pataliputra, argued to be the modern Patna 
 by General Cunningham in his "Ancient Geography 
 of India"), situated at the confluence of the rivers 
 Erannoboas and Ganges, measured in length ten miles, 
 in breadth two miles, that it was surrounded by a 
 wide and deep moat, and that its walls were adorned 
 with 570 towers and 64 gates. "All the Indians are 
 free, being neither slaves themselves nor suffering 
 any others to be slaves in their country." 
 
 Arrian then bears testimony to the civilised nature 
 of the warfare waged in old India, by saying that in 
 the event of intestine war it is deemed a heinous 
 crime either to seize the husbandmen or to spoil the 
 harvest. He says that the soldiers who during the 
 time of war were obliged to serve their country, in 
 peace lived merrily and pleasantly. " They had as 
 much stipend allowed them from the public as was 
 sufficient to maintain them with their dependants." 
 
 Here then we find the archaic " standing army " 
 duly supported at the public expense, with this differ- 
 ence, that instead of being composed of volunteers from 
 the general body of the public, as in modern England, 
 it was drawn from a caste devoted from birth to 
 warfare. In fact, Arrian shows elsewhere the strict 
 maintenance of caste, and observes that only the 
 
232 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 Sophists could exercise what employments they pleased. 
 The remainder had to continue in the craft in which 
 they were born. But their religion, as set forth 
 amongst the Institutes of Manu, taught them that in 
 another birth they might enter a higher or lower caste, 
 according to their life or aspirations in the present life. 
 They might also be exalted to heaven or debased to 
 temporary hell. But even then they would return to 
 this or some other world, unless in absolute purity, 
 perfection, and faith, union with the Supreme Spirit 
 had been obtained. 
 
 He remarks that the lives of the Sophists in general 
 were not easy but vastly laborious. 
 
 He speaks of the hunting of elephants and wild 
 beasts and the taming of elephants. He says, " I 
 myself have seen an elephant beat upon a cymbal 
 whilst others danced to his music. Two cymbals hung 
 upon his forelegs, and one was tied to his trunk ; the 
 other elephants moved around him and danced justly." 
 He tells us that the foot-soldiers were usually 
 bowmen ; that their bow was of the same length as 
 the bearer, and that it was placed upon the ground 
 and drawn with their left foot upon it. The arrows 
 were shot with such force that no shield or breastplate 
 could withstand them. They wore swords of great 
 breadth, &c. &c. 
 
 Altogether the whole picture seems to present a 
 race highly civilised according to our modern ideas in 
 civil government, arts, and arms. Their long-bows 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 233 
 
 recall our British yeoman's famous yew-tree bow, six 
 feet in length ; while the arrows, described as three 
 cubits long, seem the forerunners of our old " cloth-yard 
 shafts." We are informed that the people wore shirts 
 of white cotton reaching to the middle of the leg, 
 with veils which covered the head, and shoes of white 
 leather, curiously stitched, sometimes having high 
 soles. The richer persons were adorned with ivory 
 earrings, and had umbrellas carried over them. 
 Beards were dyed white, black, red, purple, or green. 
 The richer rode upon elephants ; horses, camels, and 
 asses being also employed. Both bricks and wood 
 were employed for the walls of towns. Alexander had 
 been informed that the country beyond the Hyphasis 
 was rich, that the inhabitants were good husbandmen 
 and also excellent soldiers, that they were governed 
 by the nobility and lived peaceably, their rulers im- 
 posing nothing harsh or unjust upon them. 
 
 Megasthenes, Greek ambassador in India in about 
 the third century B.C., in addition to his descriptions 
 of the civilisation, has afforded us direct extraneous 
 evidence upon the antiquity of Krishna (Strabo xv. 
 3). He states that the inhabitants of the plains of 
 Hindustan are addicted to the worship of Hercules (or 
 Heracles, as it should be written, 'Hpa.K\ea). He 
 thinks that this Heracles had, in ancient times, con- 
 quered India. But Arrian (second century a.d.) 
 informs us (Arrian, Ind. Hist. chap, viii.) that the 
 Indians say that the Heracles who had penetrated so 
 
-34 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 far was a native of their country. Arrian further 
 states that he was particularly worshipped by the 
 Saraseni, who have two great cities belonging to them, 
 viz., Methoras and Clisoboras, and that the navigable 
 Iobares passes through their territories. 
 
 There appears to be no doubt that the Methoras 
 refers to Mathura, or Muttra, on the Jumna, related 
 to have been the birthplace of Krishna, and where his 
 adoration was especially established. 
 
 Arrian continues : " This Herakles, as Megasthenes 
 asserts and the Indians themselves assure us, used 
 the same habits with the Theban Hercules. He took 
 many wives, and begot a great number of sons, though 
 but one daughter, whom he named Pandcea. Other 
 Indians tell this story of Hercules, namely, that when 
 lie had travelled through all the earth, and purged it 
 of every vice, he found a pearl in the sea, such as the 
 merchants at this day in India buy up at a great price 
 and bring to us. And he commanded pearls to be 
 searched for. His daughter ruled over his realm : in 
 this the women were marriageable at seven, the men 
 not till forty." 
 
 Is the Krishna of a period corresponding with 
 mediaeval Europe one and the same with the Herakles 
 mentioned by Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador in 
 India, as adored in the region of Mathura three cen- 
 turies B.C. ? It seems to be so, because Krishna is 
 constantly called Hari in the " Great Bharata " poem, 
 and Mathura is still traditionally assigned for his 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 235 
 
 birthplace. And it is difficult to say what other 
 divine being in the Hindu Pantheon can have been 
 indicated. In some points, indeed, Krishna's brother, 
 Bala-Eama, appears rather to afford attributes akin to 
 the Greek Heracles ; but Bala-Eama is mystically one 
 with Krishna. In fact, the analogy seems completed 
 by Iphiclus, the twin brother of Hercules. The club 
 with which Hercules is represented is amongst the 
 weapons of Krishna. 
 
 CHAPTEE XLVI. 
 
 Just as the first Eoman Catholic missionaries in the 
 East saw in the Buddhist ritual suggestions of their 
 own, so the early Spanish invaders of the Central 
 American civilisations seem to have observed what 
 they conceived to have been a wicked imitation of 
 their Christian rites at the instigation of the devil. 
 Instead, however, of the Mexicans acknowledging one 
 human-divine sacrifice for mankind, they offered many 
 human sacrifices with great solemnity to the Deity. 
 The sun was adored by them with magnificent cere- 
 monial and implicit reverence ; and ideas seem to have 
 existed concerning regents of the elements, corre- 
 sponding to those of the Vedic religion. But as an 
 expiatory sacrifice they continued, what had been 
 abandoned in India in what we call the Vedic period, 
 
236 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 actual human sacrifice. This was, at all events, equi- 
 valent to the idea of vicarious satisfaction, the doctrine 
 of Christianity, though only one human sacrifice of 
 Deity as man is proclaimed to be sufficient for all 
 time. The Gauls are also related to have immolated 
 human victims. In fact, it seems to have been a fre- 
 quent conception that the Divine wrath was to be 
 appeased by the sufferings of some sort of " scape- 
 goat." This was a natural prototype of the Divine 
 and universal Victim. 
 
 In the ancient American civilisations appear very 
 curious analogies to Christian beliefs, also to the 
 Krishnaism and Buddhism of India. It has been 
 considered that the apostolic preaching not only ex- 
 tended to India, but even reached America. If the 
 apostles or their disciples can be conceived to have 
 travelled thus far, the Divine blessing may be held to 
 have especially accompanied their work and rapidly 
 accomplished conversion. The human sacrifices, how- 
 ever, seem to render it apparent that the converts 
 rapidly forgot the apostolic lessons. 
 
 " It is a remarkable fact," says Prescott in his 
 " History of the Conquest of Peru," " that many if 
 not most of the rude tribes inhabiting the vast 
 American continent, however disfigured their creeds 
 may have been in other respects by a childish 
 superstition, had attained to the sublime conception 
 of one Great Spirit, the Creator of the Universe, who 
 immaterial in His own nature, was not to be dis- 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 237 
 
 honoured by an attempt at visible representation, and 
 who, pervading all space, was not to be circumscribed 
 within the walls of a temple. They admitted the 
 existence of the soul hereafter, and connected with 
 this a belief in the resurrection of the body. They 
 assigned two distinct places for the residence of the 
 good and of the wicked, the latter of which they 
 fixed in the centre of the earth. The good were 
 supposed to pass a luxurious life of tranquillity and 
 ease, which comprehended their highest notions of 
 happiness. The wicked were to expiate their crimes 
 by ages of wearisome labour. They associated with 
 these ideas a belief in an evil principle or spirit, 
 bearing the name of Cupay, whom they did not 
 attempt to propitiate by sacrifices, and who seems 
 to have been only a shadowy personification of sin 
 that exercised little influence upon their conduct. It 
 was this belief in the resurrection of the body which 
 led them to preserve the body with so much solici- 
 tude — by a simple process, not of the elaborate 
 embalming of the Egyptians, but by exposing it to 
 the cold, dry, highly rarefied atmosphere of the moun- 
 tains." 
 
 The Peruvians adored the Supreme Being under 
 the names of Pachacamac and Viracocha. The first 
 of these signifies He who sustains or gives life to 
 .the universe. The second has been thought to mean 
 the Foam of the sea, suggesting a foreign origin. 
 
 Only one temple has been dedicated to this being, 
 
233 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 to which numerous pilgrimages were made by the 
 Indians from remote parts. 
 
 The sun was the chief representation of Deity. 
 In honour of the sun were consecrated temples in 
 every city, with numerous altars smoking with burnt- 
 offerings. The moon, the stars, thunder and light- 
 ning, also had their shrines ; and deities of the ele- 
 ments, mountains, rivers, &c, were invoked. Every- 
 thing had its mother, or spiritual essence, which 
 seems to correspond to the notions of the Hindus, 
 who assigned to each deity a wife or energy. 
 
 " The ritual of the Incas involved a routine of 
 observances as complex and elaborate as ever distin- 
 guished that of any nation whether Pagan or Christian. 
 The sacrifice with the Peruvians consisted of animals, 
 grain, flowers, and sweet-scented gums, sometimes of 
 human beings, on which occasions a child or beautiful 
 maiden was usually selected." 
 
 " In the distribution of bread and wine at the high 
 festival the orthodox Spaniards, who first came into 
 the country, saw a striking resemblance to the Chris- 
 tian communion, and also in the practice of confession 
 and penance." " The good fathers were fond of trac- 
 ing such coincidences, which they considered as the 
 contrivance of Satan, who thus endeavoured to delude 
 his victims by counterfeiting the blessed rites of 
 Christianity." " Others, in a different vein, imagined 
 that they saw in such analogies the evidence that 
 some of the primitive teachers of Christianity, perhaps 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 239 
 
 an apostle himself, had paid a visit to these distant 
 regions, and scattered over them the seeds of religious 
 truth." 
 
 In similitude with their own nuns, they found 
 Virgins of the Sun, who were to be buried alive 
 if caught in the offence of intrigue. i 
 
 The Peruvians were divided into castes, which 
 seems to associate their civilisation with that of India ; 
 and they were acquainted with husbandry, like the 
 Hindus. 
 
 The Mexicans had the terrible Huitzilopotchli at 
 the head of their deities, under the Supreme. He was 
 a sort of Mars, whose " altars smoked with the blood 
 of human hecatombs in every city of the empire." 
 
 " A far more interesting personage in their mytho- 
 logy," continues Prescott, " was Quetzalcoatl, god of 
 the air, who, during his residence on earth, instructed 
 the natives in the use of metals, in agriculture, and 
 in the arts of government." He was doubtless one of 
 those benefactors of their species, observes Prescott, 
 who have been deified by the gratitude of posterity. 
 " Under him there were halcyon days, when the earth 
 teemed with fruits and flowers, without the pain of 
 culture. He was compelled by the wrath of the 
 principal deity to abandon the country. On the 
 shores of the Mexican Gulf he took leave of his 
 followers, promising that he and his descendants 
 would revisit them hereafter." Then, "entering his 
 wizard skiff, made of serpents' skins, he embarked on 
 
240 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 the great ocean for the fabled land of Tlapallan. He 
 was said to have been tall in stature, with a white 
 skin, long dark hair, and a flowing beard." " The 
 Mexicans looked confidently to the return of this 
 benevolent deity." 
 
 The Mexicans held that there were three states in 
 the future. The wicked, which were the greater part 
 of mankind, would have to expiate their sins in a 
 place of everlasting darkness. Others, who had died 
 of certain diseases, were to have a negative existence 
 of indolent contentment. The highest class, heroes 
 who fell in battle or in sacrifice, passed at once into 
 the presence of the sun, whom they accompanied 
 with songs and choral dances in his bright progress 
 through the heavens. After some years their spirits 
 went to animate the clouds and singing birds of beau- 
 tiful plumage, and to revel amidst the rich blossoms 
 and odours of the gardens of Paradise. 
 
 An " extraordinary coincidence may be traced with 
 Christian rites in the ceremony of naming their 
 children. The lips and bosom of the infant were 
 sprinkled with water, and the Lord was implored to 
 permit the holy drops to wash away the sin that was 
 given it before the foundation of the world, so that 
 the child might be born anew." 
 
 "We are reminded," remarks Prescott, "of Chris- 
 tian morals in more than one of their prayers, in 
 which they used regular forms." " Wilt Thou blot us 
 out, Lord, for ever ? " " Impart unto us, out of Thy 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 241 
 
 great mercy, the gifts which we are not worthy to 
 receive through our own merits." " Keep peace with 
 all ; bear injuries with humility. God, who sees, will 
 avenge you." 
 
 The most striking parallel with Scripture, says 
 Prescott, is in the remarkable declaration that "he 
 who looks too curiously on a woman commits adultery 
 with his eyes." " These pure and elevated maxims," 
 he adds, " are mixed with others of a puerile or even 
 brutal character." 
 
 Numerous priests who superintended education be- 
 sides filling the sacerdotal office, choirs, oral traditions, 
 the ordinances of confession and absolution, hierogly- 
 phic paintings in the temples, continue the affinities 
 presented to the Catholic Church. The priests were 
 married, but they lived in the stern severity of conven- 
 tual discipline, suggestive of the asceticism enjoined 
 to the Brahmins, who were not, like the Buddhist 
 monks, ordered to celibacy. Thrice during the day, 
 and once at night, they attended at prayers. They en- 
 dured frequent vigils, fastings, penances, flagellations 
 in which blood was drawn, and piercing the body with 
 the thorns of the aloe. Ablutions were ordained as 
 in India. There was a sort of parochial clergy. 
 Priestly absolution was even received in place of the 
 legal punishment of offences, suggesting our mediaeval 
 privilege of sanctuary and benefit of clergy. There 
 were priestesses, to whom the education of the girls 
 was entrusted. The boys were drilled in monastic 
 
242 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 discipline and great decorum. The temples were en- 
 dowed with lands. There were religious processions, 
 some of which were bright and cheerful fetes, in which 
 garlands were carried and offerings of fruits were made. 
 The temples seem to have assumed a form suggestive 
 of our old pictures of the Tower of Babel, in which 
 an ascent wound upwards, encircling the tower to the 
 flat summit. On this were the sanctuaries with 
 images, and altars " with fires inextinguishable as those 
 in the Temple of Vesta," or, it may be added, upon the 
 old Aryan and modern Parsi altars. They had calen- 
 dars of their sacred days. 
 
 Altogether there appear to be suggestions of both 
 Brahminism and Christianity. The human sacrifices 
 are in accord with those practised, probably, in very 
 ancient times in India, and amongst the ruder Aryans 
 of Europe till the spread of Christianity and the sub- 
 stitution of the belief in the One Human and Divine 
 Sacrifice. 
 
 It must be remembered that the sacrificed were sup- 
 posed to obtain immediate entrance upon the realms of 
 bliss. For some time before the sacrifice the victim 
 was permitted to live in the most indulgent luxury, 
 and perhaps a consciousness of the dignity of the des- 
 tiny consoled for the deprivation of life. 
 
 AccordinQ- to Prescott, the Mexicans seem to have 
 fastened upon this horrible rite with extraordinary 
 avidity. In Christianity the flesh of the sacrificed Ee- 
 deemer is figuratively eaten in commemoration. They 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 243 
 
 actually fed upon their victims as a part of the cere- 
 mony, not in any barbarous fashion, but in the course 
 of an elaborate and delicious banquet. He says that 
 human sacrifices were adopted by the Azteks early in 
 the fourteenth century of our era, about two hundred 
 years before their conquest. They even sacrificed as 
 many as 20,000 victims in a year — men, women, and 
 children. They are described as luxuriantly treated 
 for a time ; and, as has been observed, this death, like 
 the Christian martyrdom, opened Paradise. 
 
 Perhaps the Mexicans would have been as much 
 horrified at being informed of the burnings and tortures 
 of the Inquisition, and the martyrdoms in our own 
 land for refusing to receive all the dogmas of the 
 Church, as ourselves at discovering their religious 
 bloodshed. 
 
 The inhabitants of India and China, Brahmins and 
 Buddhists, seem to have been far superior in tolera- 
 tion, and what we now consider the Christian quality 
 of gentleness, to the inhabitants of Europe, till the last 
 few centuries, and to those of the old " New "World." 
 There may have been local wars between the fol- 
 lowers of the Prayerful and the Enlightened ; but 
 there seems to be no evidence of any general persecu- 
 tion, and the principles and edicts of both religions 
 enjoin respect for the religious professions of others. 
 Only in the worship of the benign Dourga or Parvati, 
 under the destroying aspect of Kali, does bloodshedding 
 seem to be offered to Deity. As has been shown by 
 
244 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 Dr. Hunter in his work on Orissa, there may have 
 been religious suicides at Jacjanatha as there are in 
 the Ganges, but the religion of the " Lord of the 
 world " absolutely forbids any shedding of blood before 
 him. 
 
 CHAPTEE XLVII. 
 
 A serpent typifies Time with the Azteks, which cor- 
 responds with the Hindu serpent of Eternity. They 
 venerated a goddess, whom they called " Our Lady 
 and Mother," " who had bequeathed the sufferings of 
 childbirth to women as the tribute of death, by whom 
 sin came into the world." She was usually represented 
 with a serpent near her, and her name (Cioacoatl) 
 signified the " serpent-woman." It was the good 
 deity, mentioned in the last chapter (Quetzalcoatl), who 
 had established ecclesiastical communities, the rules 
 of confession and penance, &c, and who had dissemi- 
 nated knowledge of the Trinity and Incarnation, ac- 
 cording to the curious antiquaries of Mexico, says 
 Prescott. Some of the orthodox have identified him 
 with the Apostle Thomas ; others have seen in him a 
 type of the Founder of Christianity. Even the cross 
 was found on the temples of Anahuac ; and the Chris- 
 tians were astonished at beholding in the religious 
 service an image of the tutelary deity, compounded of 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 245 
 
 maize mixed with blood, distributed amongst the people. 
 As they ate it, they exhibited signs of humiliation 
 and sorrow, and declared that it was the flesh of the 
 Deity. 
 
 Prescott remarks that Mr. Stephens considered that 
 the celebrated Cozumel cross, which claims the credit 
 of having been originally worshipped by the natives 
 themselves, was a mere Spanish cross, but that the 
 existence of the worship does not depend upon such 
 spurious monuments. " The existence of the cross as 
 an object of worship in the New World rests on the 
 unequivocal testimony of the Spanish discoverers them- 
 selves." 
 
 In the word from which Mexico is derived, another 
 analogy with Christianity appears. The word from 
 which is derived the epithet anointed, is thought to 
 be nearly identical with Mesi or Mexi, which was the 
 name of the chief who was said to have led the Azteks 
 on the plains of Anahuac. 
 
 The tradition of the Deluge existed amongst the old 
 Americans. Coxcox and his wife survived the general 
 destruction of beings, and are depicted in a boat float- 
 ing at the foot of a mountain, with a dove holding in 
 his mouth the hieroglyphic emblem of languages. In 
 one account the boat is described as filled with animals. 
 A vulture is sent forth to look for the land, but does 
 not return. The little humming-bird comes back with 
 a twig in his mouth. 
 
 Between Vera Cruz and the capital, says Prescott, 
 
246 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 stands the venerable relic called the Temple of Cholula. 
 It is a pyramidal mound, built or rather cased with 
 unburnt brick, rising to the height of nearly 180 feet. 
 The popular tradition of the natives is that it was erected 
 by a family of giants who had escaped the great inun- 
 dation, and designed to raise the building to the clouds ; 
 but the gods, offended with their presumption, sent 
 fires from heaven on the pyramid, and compelled them 
 to abandon the attempt. Prescott observes that the 
 partial coincidence of this legend with the Hebrew 
 account of the Tower of Babel, received also by other 
 nations of the East, cannot be denied. 
 
 There seems sufficient evidence for supposing that 
 these ancient American civilisations had emanated 
 from or been in communication with Asia. It does 
 not appear to have been asserted that they can have 
 come from the Eoman Empire, or any previous 
 European civilisation westwards. 
 
 Prescott observes that the coincidences are suffi- 
 ciently strong to authorise a belief that the civilisation 
 of Anahuac was in some degree influenced by that of 
 Eastern Asia. And, secondly, that the discrepancies 
 are such as to carry back the communication to a 
 very remote period, so that a peculiar and indigenous 
 civilisation had time to grow. Dr. Zerffi observes, 
 in his " Manual of the Historical Development of 
 Art," that there are analogies between East and West 
 which are too striking to be attributed to mere 
 chance. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 247 
 
 CHAPTER XLVIII. 
 
 In more or less spiritual or material forms the Divine 
 seems to have been worshipped as present to man in 
 the human form throughout the great old civilisations. 
 Noble prototypes of the Revelation in Judaea seem to 
 have been afforded. The termination of the allegories 
 of the " Great Bharata " poem, in the illustration of the 
 unsatisfactory nature of all earthly aspirations even 
 when crowned with success, seems in perfect con- 
 sonance with much of Christian teaching. From the 
 period of this poem in the classical Sanscrit, the march 
 of spiritual thought may be reviewed nearer to its 
 apparent starting-point. 
 
 In the " Aitareya Aranyaca " or " Forest " portion 
 of the addenda to the hymns of the " Praise " Veda, so 
 called because intended to be studied by hermits in 
 the forest, we have an incarnation of Narayana pre- 
 sented to us. He descends in Mahidasa during a 
 solemn religious ceremony at which both divine beings 
 and priests are present. The whole assemblage, 
 alarmed or astounded at his sudden appearance, faints, 
 but is revived at the intercession of Brahma, and in- 
 structed in holy science. It must be remembered that 
 in the climate of India, amid the bounty of nature in 
 the plantains, roots, hot peppers, &c, hermit life could 
 be easily sustained. The meditative life has been 
 pursued under most favourable conditions. 
 
243 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 In the Yajurveda, according to Colebrooke's trans- 
 lation, in vol. vii. of "Asiatic Researches," " Bhrigu, 
 the offspring of Varuna (Eegent of the Ocean), ap- 
 proached his father, saying, ' Venerable (father), make 
 known to me Brahme.' Varuna replied, ' That whence 
 all beings are produced, that by which they live when 
 born, that towards which they tend, and that into 
 which they pass, do thou seek (for), that is Brahme.' 
 He meditated in devout contemplation, and having 
 thought profoundly, he recognised food (or body) to 
 be Brahme ; for all, when born, live by food. Then, 
 having deeply meditated, he discovered breath (or life) 
 to be Brahme ; for all these beings are indeed produced 
 from breath ; when born they live by breath. Then he 
 discovered intellect to be Brahme ; for all these beings 
 are produced from intellect, they live by intellect, &e. 
 Then he thought deeply, and knew Ananda (felicity) 
 to be Brahme ; for all these things are produced from 
 pleasure ; when born they live by joy, they tend to- 
 wards happiness, they pass into felicity." 
 
 In the Yajur Veda, also, " Fire is that (original 
 cause) ; the sun is that, so is air, so is the moon ; such, 
 too, is that pure Brahme, and those waters, and that 
 Lord of creatures. Moments (and other measures of 
 time) proceeded from the effulgent person, whom none 
 can apprehend (as an object of perception) above, 
 around, or in the midst. Of him whose glory is so 
 oreat there is no image ; he it is who is celebrated in 
 various holy strains. Even he is the god who per- 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 249 
 
 vades all regions : he is the first-born ; it is he who 
 is in the womb, he who is born, and he who will be 
 produced ; he, severally and universally with all per- 
 sons. He, prior to whom nothing was born, and who 
 became all beings ; himself the Lord of creatures, with 
 (a body composed of) sixteen members, being delighted 
 by creation, produced the three luminaries (the sun, 
 the moon, and fire). To what God should we offer 
 oblations but to him who made the fluid sky and solid 
 earth, who fixed the solar orb and celestial abode, and 
 who formed drops (of rain) in the atmosphere ? To 
 what God should we offer oblations but to him whom 
 heaven and earth mentally contemplate, while they are 
 strengthened and embellished by offerings, and illumi- 
 nated by the sun risen above them ? The wise man 
 views that mysterious (being), in whom the universe 
 perpetually exists, resting on that sole support. In 
 him this (world) is absorbed, from him it issues ; in 
 creatures he is twined and wove, with various forms 
 of existence. Let the wise man who is conversant 
 with the import of revelation promptly celebrate that 
 immortal being, the mysterious, existing, and various 
 abode ; he who knows its three states (its creation, 
 continuance, and destruction), which are involved in 
 mystery, is father of the father. That (Brahme), in 
 whom the gods attain immortality, while they abide in 
 the third (or celestial) region, is our venerable parent, 
 and the providence which governs all worlds — know- 
 ing the elements, discovering the worlds, recognising 
 
250 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 all regions and quarters (to be him), and worshipping 
 (speech or revelation who is) the first-born, the votary- 
 pervades the animating spirit of solemn sacrifice by 
 means of (his own) soul. Recognising heaven, earth, 
 and sky (to be the same), he views that being ; he 
 becomes that being, and is identified with him on 
 completing the broad web of the solemn sacrifice." 
 
 Colebrooke observes, " The Aswa-medha and Purus- 
 hamed'ha, celebrated in the manner directed in this 
 Veda, are not really sacrifices of horses and men. In 
 the first of these ceremonies 609 animals of prescribed 
 kinds, wild and domestic, including birds, fish, and 
 reptiles, are made fast, the tame ones to twenty-one 
 posts, and the wild in the intervals between the pillars. 
 After certain prayers have been recited the victims are 
 let loose without injury. In the other, 185 men of 
 various specified tribes, characters, and professions are 
 bound to eleven posts, and after the hymn concerning 
 the allegorical immolation of Narayana has been re- 
 cited, these human victims are liberated unhurt, and 
 oblations of butter are made to the sacrificial fire." 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 251 
 
 CHAPTER XLIX. 
 
 Colebrooke "remarks that " the practice of reading the 
 principal Vedas in superstitious modes tends to pre- 
 serve the text. Copies prepared for such modes of 
 recital are dispersed throughout India. Interpolations 
 and forgeries have become impracticable since this usage 
 was introduced. The explanatory table of contents, 
 belonging to the several Vedas, also tends to ensure 
 the purity of the text, since the subject and length of 
 each passage are therein specified. The index again 
 is itself secured from alteration by more than one 
 exposition of its meaning. It is a received and well- 
 grounded opinion of the learned in India that no book 
 is altogether safe from changes and interpolations till 
 it has been commented. When once a gloss has been 
 published no fabrication can succeed, because the 
 perpetual commentary notices every passage and, in 
 general, explains every word. Commentaries exist 
 whose genuineness is secured by a crowd of annotators, 
 whose works expound every passage in the original 
 gloss, and whose annotations are again interpreted by 
 others. The Nirukta, with its copious commentaries 
 on the obsolete words and passages of Scripture, further 
 authenticates the accuracy of the text. The grammar 
 of the Sanscrit language contained rules applicable to 
 the anomalies of the ancient dialect. Philosophical 
 works illustrate and support every position advanced in 
 
252 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 them by ample quotations from the Vedas. Numerous 
 collections of aphorisms by ancient authors on reli- 
 gious ceremonies contain, in every line, references to 
 passages of the Vedas. Eituals are extant, not only 
 for ceremonies which are constantly observed, but for 
 others which are rarely practised, and even for such as 
 have been long disused. In all, the passages taken 
 from the Vedas agree with the text of the general 
 compilation. The Indian legislators frequently refer 
 to the Vedas. especially on those points of law which 
 concern religion. So writers on ethics draw illustra- 
 tions from them. In astronomy, so far as it relates 
 to the calendar, in medicine, in the writings of the 
 heretical sects, the Vedas still appear, in fact, in 
 numerous citations, in thousands of volumes, dispersed 
 through Hindustan and the Deccan." 
 
 In the first of the four, the Eig Veda or " Praise 
 Book of Knowledge," Agni, the Fire of the Altar, as 
 personified, is said to have been born as the Saint or 
 Patriarch Angiras ; also as Manu, or the personified, 
 first self-existent Man. He is constantly styled the 
 sacrificer, who is to arouse the deities to the due 
 reception of the offerings. He is young and wise, the 
 guardian of the domestic hearth. He is the purifier, 
 who is spiritually to protect his votaries, just as the 
 material fire in actual fact warms, comforts, and defends 
 from numerous ills. 
 
 M. S. A. Langlois, who has been mentioned as the 
 translator of the Harivansa, or history of the family 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 253 
 
 of Hari Krishna, has also translated the hymns of the 
 Eig Yeda. They fill the greater part of four octavo 
 volumes of about 500 pages each. And as Professor 
 Weber has remarked, the songs dedicated to Agni are 
 the most numerous therein. They seem to suggest 
 an archaic or prototypical Christianity, in which a 
 mediatorial divine being, present with humanity, is 
 besought to protect and aid in the acquisition of 
 material blessings, which may be spiritualised like 
 the prayers in our psalms. He is the light of the 
 world, realised and possessed by man for communica- 
 tion with the great light of the universe. And he 
 not only is of that light, but he seems to be, in the 
 accretion of ideas, held to be the omnipotent light. 
 It is not merely once incidentally or accidentally that 
 this idea appears, but it is urged and repeated with 
 the fervour of Indian religious zeal, which may be 
 too superstitious, but which is certainly in earnest. 
 
 In hymn after hymn expressions appear, which would 
 certainly have been considered most holy and essentially 
 prototypical of Christ if they had been found amongst 
 our Hebrew Scriptures. It is altogether very difficult 
 to conceive that this fervent, beautiful, and apparently 
 pure adoration of Agni can have had no effect upon the 
 Western Aryan world, with which we know that there 
 was much commercial intercourse by at least the com- 
 mencement of our era. And what do we find ? Dr. 
 Schliemann has exhumed from fifty feet below the 
 ground of what he held to be the site of ancient Troy, 
 
254 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 a number of relics marked with the old fire cross, the 
 suastika. This suastika (or in Greek ev ecrri, Let it 
 be well with you) assumes the shape of a sort of 
 Maltese cross (amongst numerous cruciform figures), 
 and it is a common symbol in ancient India. Com- 
 bined with the whole evidence of the question, it may 
 be assumed as an historical fact that the religion of 
 the Agni (or Holy Fire upon earth) was in existence 
 in Asia Minor long before the beginning of our era. 
 Hence has come the assertion of M. Emile Burnouf in 
 his " Sciences des Eeligions," that the Agni-deva of the 
 Indo- Aryan altars is connected with the Agnus-Dci, 
 the light of the New Jerusalem in the Revelation of 
 St. John. This may have come through interchange of 
 ideas, or by word-derivation. It is curious that when, 
 in his " Industrial Arts of India," Sir George Birdwood 
 gives an illustration of Agni, he appears to be de- 
 picted as riding on a ram, which also seems to be 
 connected with Buddha the Enlightened. We have 
 become familiar with the Lamb, as expressed in St. 
 John i. 29, and associated with Isaiah liii. 7. It is 
 perhaps safer to suppose that the similarity existing 
 in sound between the Sanscrit Agni and the Latin 
 Agnus is merely accidental. But there are indubi- 
 tably links between the sacrifice on the cross of the 
 Agnus Dei and the symbolism of the Agni. It is 
 curious that the latter is constantly styled in the 
 Vedas the sacrificer, and that he also seems to become 
 the sacrificed. The symbol of the Agni, in the form 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 255 
 
 of a cross, had marks of nails in it to represent the 
 nailing down of the woodwork to constitute a firm 
 platform. In its centre was a hollow to signify the 
 hole in which the churning-stick was inserted to 
 engender the divine spark. This newly born fire is 
 called, in the Veda, the Child of Force. The officiating 
 priest is styled his Father, and the two pieces of wood, 
 out of which the fire is engendered by friction, are 
 addressed as the two mothers of the infant. 
 
 CHAPTEE L. 
 
 As the sacrificial books of these Vedas adapt much 
 of the hymnal portion of the " Praise " Veda to their 
 ceremonials, the hymns of that book form the main 
 portion in existence of the ancient devotional out- 
 pourings of our Indo-European or Aryan race. Though 
 the material blessings seem to be more frequently the 
 object of the devout prayers than spiritual satisfyings, 
 still the aspiration of heavenly happiness does appear. 
 With this is associated the merging of all the deities 
 (devas) in one Supreme Spirit of the universe, as 
 inculcated in the later religious books. It must be 
 remembered that many of the prayers in our Liturgy 
 are for temporal benefits. And certainly in the Old 
 Testament temporal advantages are prominently the 
 objects for which devotion is paid to the Almighty. 
 
256 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 The hymns of the " Praise Veda " in which ideas 
 emblematical or prototypical of Christianity especially 
 appear are those addressed to this Divine Fire of the 
 Altar. The first hymn in the collection is subjoined 
 from M. Langlois' translation. Hymns translated by 
 Professor H. H. Wilson will be found in Appendix 
 VI.:— 
 
 A Agni. 
 
 1. Je chante Agni, le dieu, pretre et pontife, le magnifique 
 (Agni) heraut du sacrifice. 
 
 2. Qu'Agni, digne d'etre chante par les Richis, anciens et nou- 
 veaux, rassemble ici les dieux. 
 
 3. Que par Agni (l'homnie) obtient une fortune sans cessey 
 croissante (une fortune) glorieuse, et soutenue par une nombreusej 
 liguee. 
 
 4. Agni, l'offrande pure tu enveloppes de toute part, s'eleve 
 jusqu'aux dieux. 
 
 5. Qu'avec les autres dieux vienne vers nous Agni, le dieu 
 sacrificateur, qui jouit a la sagesse des ceuvres, la verite et l'eclatj 
 si varie de la gloire. 
 
 6. Agni, toi qui portes le" nom dAngiras, 1 bien que tu feras a 
 ton serviteur (par le fruit de sa reconnaissance), tourner a son 
 avantage. 
 
 7. Agni, cliaque jour, soir et matin nous venous vers toi, ap-j 
 portant rhommage de notre priere. 
 
 8. (A toi), gardien brillant de nos offrandes, splendeur du 
 sacrifice ; k toi qui grandis au sein du foyer que tu habites. 
 
 9. Viens a nous, Agni, avec la bonte qu'un pere a pour son 
 enfant ; sois notre ami, notre bienfaiteur. 
 
 As the collection commences, so it concludes with a 
 hymn to this Holy Fire or Light. 
 
 1 Here appears the incarnation as Angiras, first of sages. The name 
 is of the same derivation as Agni, from Ag, to shine. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 257 
 
 A Agni. 
 
 1. Agni, maltre genereux, tu te mules a tout ce qui existe. 
 Dans la demeure de i'offiande tu allumes tes feux. Apporte nous 
 la ricbesse. 
 
 2. Venez, rassemblez vous pour vous entendre. Que vos ames 
 se comprennent. C'est en unissant que les antiques devas ont 
 obtenu leur part (de l'immortalite). 
 
 3. Les (mortels) ici assembles n'ont qu'une priere, un vceu, une 
 pensee, une anie. J'offre dans ce sacrifice votre priere et votre 
 bolocauste presented par une intention commune. 
 
 4. Que vos volontes et vos coeurs soient d'aceord, que vos ames 
 s'entendent, et le bonheur est a vous. 
 
 In the following hymn the incarnation idea seems 
 again distinctly apparent : 
 
 A Agni. 
 
 Section 1, Lecture 2, Hymn 12. 
 
 r. Agni, tu as ete l'antique Richi Angiras, dieu, tu es l'heureux 
 ami des autres dieux. . . . 
 
 10. Agni, tu es pour nous un defenseur prudent et un pere ; 
 a toi nous devons la victoire, nous sommes ta famille. En toi 
 sont les pieux par centaines, par milliers, (Dieu) invincible, tu 
 es la force des beros et le gardien des sacrifices. 
 
 11. Agni, alors que tu pris une forme bumaine, pour le bien 
 de l'humanite, les devas te donnerent comme general a, Nalioucha. 
 Quand le fils de notre (premier) pere naquit, ce sont eux aussi qui 
 choisirent Ila pour commander aux enl'ants de Manou. . . . 
 
 16. Agni, si nous avons commis une faute, si nous avons 
 marcbe loin de toi, pardonne nous. Tu es un parent, un pere, 
 un defenseur prevovant. En faveur des mortels qui offrent le 
 soma tu apparais pour accomplir le sacrifice. 
 
 17. Agni, toi qui fus Angiras, (dieu), saint, viens en ces lieux 
 avec ces sentiments qu'avaient autrefois Manou, Angiras, Yayati 
 et les anciens. 
 
 Agni is addressed as Djatavedas (him in whom 
 
 R 
 
253 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 wisdom is inborn). He is said to be honoured, the 
 divine messenger, our refuge, the friend of men. He 
 is styled the treasure of light, the master of the prayer, 
 the author of the sacrifice, the wise and victorious high 
 priest, a divine being in the midst of mortals, priest of 
 humanity, a friend amongst the pious, to be honoured 
 in hymn and sacrifice. He is said to save by the 
 sacrifice, and to be the wonderful king of nations, and 
 supreme sustainer of the world. 
 
 A Agni. 
 
 Section 2, Lecture i, Hymn 7. 
 
 1. II nait sous la forme de Manou, le premier des pontife?, 
 Agni, sacrificateur de l'ordre des Ouvidjs (a family of saints), oui, 
 sacrificateur d'un ordre qui nous appartient (i.e., which is in our 
 nature). Agissant partout avec empressement, il est pour celui 
 qu'il aime comme un seigneur opulent. Pontife invincible, il 
 s'assoit au foyer du sacrifice ; ou il s'entoure d'un cordon (lumi- 
 neux) au foyer du sacrifice. 
 
 6. (Dieu) universel, immense, infatigable, et protecteur, il tient 
 (tous les biens) dans sa main droite. 
 
 7. Le fortune Agni, place dans sa demeure humaine, est au 
 milieu des sacrifices comme un monarque desirable; il est au 
 milieu des sacrifices comme un monarque cheri. Anie de tous 
 les etres, connaissant la nature entiere, sacrificateur digne lui 
 meme des sacrifices. 
 
 Section 2, Lecture 2, Hymn 5. 
 
 I. Le Dieu, en prenant une forme apparente, se distingue par 
 sa substance lumineuse, qu'il doit a la Force, dont il est ne. 
 Une fois produit il est fortifie" par la priere, et les voix du sacri- 
 fice, le soutiennent et l'accompagnent. 
 
 Hymn 9. — 1. Priez le : il vient, il (nous) en tend, il s'avance, 
 plein de sollicitude, il s'avance rapidement. Pour lui sont les 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 259 
 
 benedictions, pour lui les offrandes. II est le maitre d'abondance, 
 de la force, de la splendeur. 
 
 3. II nous donne un secours infaillible, il nous airae de l'amour 
 d'uu nourisson. 
 
 A Agni. 
 Section 7, Lecture 8, Hymn 1 3. 
 
 1. Agni, (surnomme) Djatavedas, ne une premiere fois dans le 
 ciel, une seconde fois dans (l'air) qui nous environne, une troi- 
 sieme au milieu des ondes, d'ou il encliante les mortels. L'homme 
 pieux allume ses feux perpetuels et le chante. 
 
 2. Agni, nous savons que tu es triple, et place en trois 
 demeures. Nous savons aussi que tu liabites en beaucoup de 
 lieux. 
 
 5. Pere de la ricbesse, gardien de 1' opulence, roi magnifique, 
 enfant de la Force, depositaire de nos prieres, il conserve les 
 tresors de Soma (the intoxicating juice of the moon-plant, offered 
 as a sacrifice or sacrament), il s'allume et resplendit devant 
 TAurore. Agni, toujours jeune. 
 
 A Agni. 
 Section 8, Lecture 1, Hymn 1. 
 
 1. 11 est ne le grand sacrificateur ; il soutient tout. 
 
 2. Les pretres par leur saintes pratiques, ont fait et arnene, 
 parmi les enfants de Manou, cet adorable et fortune sacrificateur, 
 quivient a nous pour diriger nos ceremonies, cet bote des mortels 
 qui purifie (la terre) et porte nos bolocaustes. 
 
 5. Les insenses ont amene le (dieu) sense, le vainqueur des 
 mondes, le maitre qui soutient le sage, et brise les vi lies (celestes). 
 lis ont etabli (dans le sacrifice) l'enfant (de l'Arani) pour Stre 
 un ricbe tresor d'hymnes et de prieres : (ils l'ont lance^) comme 
 un coursier aux poils dores. II veut le bien de la terre. 
 
 He is said to be above us in one of his forms, here 
 below in another, and in a third in the luminous star. 
 Generous and brilliant, by his rays he kills the demons. 
 
260 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 He is the only refuge. He is represented under one 
 name as dead in the Arani, and reviving to life by 
 means of the rubbing together of the two pieces of 
 wood ; and he returns to life with each new sacrifice. 
 He is both Master and Way of the People. His way 
 is black, white, and red. Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva 
 are represented as red, black, and white respectively. 
 Straight is his advance, grand, brilliant, glorious. His 
 father (i.e. the sacrificing priest) has given him a golden 
 car. His cuirasse defends humanity. He is the first- 
 born amongst the deities, surnamed the Lord of Increase, 
 and presiding over speech. He opens to us great pas- 
 tures, abounding in cattle. He is Varuna (lord of the 
 ocean), Mitra (who seems to have become the Persian 
 Mithras, incarnation or embodiment of the sun). He, 
 the antique Agni, is son of heaven and son of earth. 
 
 A Agni. 
 
 Section 3, Lecture 1, Hymn 23. 
 
 1. Voici le moment d'agiter (l'Arani), le moment d'enfanter 
 (Agni). Apporte la reine du people (lArani, the wood of the 
 sacred fig-tree or banian). 
 
 2. Le (dieu) qui possede tons les biens est dans les deux pieces 
 de TAraui : il est comme l'embryon au sein de la mere. Cet 
 Agni que chaque jour les enf'ants de Manou, en s'eveillant, doi- 
 vent honorer avec l'hymne et l'holocauste. 
 
 3. (Pretre) intelligent, pouse(la piece superieure) dans la piece 
 interieure ; et qu'a l'instant (lArani) fecondee enfante (le dieu) 
 qui reniplit tons les vceux. (Cependant) re§ue sur une poignee 
 (de feuilles) l'etincelle rougeatre a brille, et le fils d'lla, (the 
 earth) a paru sur le foyer. 
 
 4. O Agni, possesseur de tous les biens, nous te placons sur 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE, 261 
 
 ]e sein d'lla, sur ton trone de terre, pour te charger de nos 
 holocaustes. 
 
 5. Prltres pieux, travaillez a, produire (le dieu) sage, prudent, 
 veridique, immortel et charmant. Enfantez Agni, le heraut dn 
 sacrifice, le premier des etres adorables. 
 
 So the priest, in the sacrifice of the Mass, in his 
 prayer of consecration, brings Christ into the elements 
 on the altar, according to the Church of Eome. 
 
 7. Agni est ne ; ses feux. s'animent ; fort, sage, bienveillant. 
 II est chante par les poetes ; et les devas out etablis pour le 
 sacrifice ce (dieu) adorable, qui connait tout, et qui porte l'holo- 
 causte. 
 
 10. Voila le berceau (yoni), ou, dans le moment favorable, tu 
 brilles apres ta naissance. Reconnais le, O Agni, et viens t'y 
 placer, pour te montrer sensible a nos vceux. Les immortels ont 
 enfante un mortel invincible, iin sauveur, vigoureux, redoutable. 
 
 It is said that, under the name of Vishnu, Agni 
 becomes the great Pastor ; he is then born for the 
 happiness of the world. Adorable author of life, 
 guardian of the seasons, he triumphs over the demons. 
 He reigns in heaven and on the earth, known as its 
 pastor. 
 
 CHAPTER LI. 
 
 Colebrooke observes, in his article on the Vedas in 
 vol. viii. of " Asiatic Researches : " 
 
 " In the last part of the Niructa (of Yaska), which 
 entirely relates to the deities, it is twice asserted that 
 
26 2 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 there are but three gods ; and many passages in the 
 Vedas support that these intend but one deity, per- 
 sonifying the elements and planets, and peopling 
 heaven and the world below with various orders of 
 beings." He quotes from the Niructa, which appears, 
 without doubt, to have been composed many centuries 
 B.C., as follows : 
 
 " The deities are only three, whose places are earth, 
 the intermediate region, and heaven, viz., Fire, Earth, 
 and the Sun. They are pronounced to be (the deities) 
 of the mysterious names severally of bhur, bhuvah, and 
 swar, called the Vyahritis ; and Prajapati, the Lord of 
 creatures, is the (deity) of them collectively. The 
 syllable Om intends every deity : it belongs to 
 (Paramesthi), him who dwells in the supreme abode ; 
 it appertains to (Brahme) the vast one, to (Deva) 
 god, to (Adhyatma) the superintending soul. Other 
 deities belonging to those several regions are portions 
 of the (three) gods ; for they are variously named or 
 described on account of their different occupations ; 
 but (in fact) there is only one deity, the Great Soul 
 (Mahamatma). He is called the Sun, for he is the 
 soul of all beings ; (and) that is declared by the 
 Sage — the soul of (jagat) what moves, and of that 
 which is fixed." " The wise call fire, Indra, Mitra, 
 and Varuna, &c." 
 
 The Gayatri, or sacred Brahminical confession of 
 faith, is subjoined, with its context, in which the sun 
 is regarded as the emblem of the divine. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 263 
 
 " This new and excellent praise of thee, splendid, 
 playful sun (Pnshan), is offered by us to thee. Be 
 gratified by this my speech ; approach this crawling 
 mind as a fond man seeks a woman. May that sun 
 (Fushan) who contemplates and looks into all worlds 
 be our protector. 
 
 " Let us meditate on the adorable light of the Divine 
 Rider (Savitri) ; may it guide our intellects. Desirous 
 of food, we solicit the gift of the splendid sun (Savitri), 
 who should be studiously worshipped. Venerable men, 
 guided by the understanding, salute the divine sun 
 with oblations and praise." 
 
 Speech declares, according to Colebrooke's literal 
 translation : " I range with the Eudras, the Vasus, 
 the Adityas, and the Visvadevas. I uphold both the 
 sun and the ocean (Mitra and Varuna), the firmament 
 (Indra) and fire, and both the Aswins (sunbeams). I 
 support the moon (soma), destroyer (of foes) and (the 
 sun entitled) Twashtri (divine carpenter), Pushan or 
 Bhaga (food-giver). I grant wealth to the honest 
 votary who performs sacrifices, offers oblations, and 
 satisfies (the deities). Me, who am the queen, the 
 conferer of wealth, the possessor of knowledge, and 
 first of such as merit worship, the gods render uni- 
 versally present everywhere, and pervader of all 
 beings. He who eats food through me, as he who 
 sees, who breathes, or who hears through me, yet 
 knows me not, is lost ; hear, then, the faith which I 
 pronounce. Even I declare this self, which is wor- 
 
264 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 shipped by gods and men. I make strong whom I 
 choose ; I make him Brahma, holy and wise. For 
 Kudra I bend the bow, to slay the demon foe of 
 Brahma ; for the people I make war (on their foes), 
 and I pervade the heaven and earth. I bore the 
 father on the head of this (universal mind) ; and my 
 origin is in the midst of the ocean ; and therefore do 
 1 pervade all beings, and touch this heaven with my 
 form. Originating all beings, I pass like the breeze ; 
 I am above this heaven, beyond this earth ; and what 
 is the great one, that am I." In the Aitareya Aranya 
 of the Veda it is said — "Originally this universe was 
 indeed soul only, nothing else whatsoever existed, 
 active (or inactive). He thought, ' I will create 
 worlds,' thus He created these various worlds ; water, 
 light, mortal (beings) and the waters. That 'water' 
 is the (region) above the heaven which heaven up- 
 holds ; the atmosphere comprises light, the earth is 
 mortal, and the region below is the waters. He 
 thought, ' These indeed are worlds. I will create 
 guardians of worlds.' Then he drew from the waters, 
 and framed an embodied being. He viewed him ; 
 and of that being, so contemplated, the mouth opened 
 as an egg ; from the mouth speech issued ; from 
 speech fire proceeded. The nostrils spread ; from the 
 nostrils breath passed; from breath air was propa- 
 gated." 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 265 
 
 CHAPTER LI I. 
 
 Haei or Krishna is apparently the Heracles of the 
 Kaseni, whose adoration seems to have been intro- 
 duced into Etruria in about the twelfth century e.g. 
 Mrs. Hamilton Gray observes, in her work on Etruria, 
 that Hercules, the deified man, was the first of the 
 series of forty- five Hercules. To him were anciently 
 erected altars, but no images. In Tyre he was styled 
 Melek-karta, the king of the city. His image became 
 represented with four wings ; and he held a bow in one 
 hand, and a club in the other. Mrs. Gray remarks that 
 " he was worshipped in Tartary as the introducer of 
 agriculture, and that he was one of the gods of India." 
 No image was so common as his upon the Etrus- 
 can terra-cotta or bronzes. He became, in Etruscan 
 mythology, the husband of Minerva, thus constituting 
 the union of wisdom and strength. To Saturn, or Time, 
 who may have been equivalent to the destroying and 
 terrible deity of the Mexicans, and to Shiva, as 
 liudra or Kali of the Hindus, human victims were 
 offered. These were afterwards replaced by figures 
 made of clay. Altogether it seems reasonable to 
 suppose that the great populous territories of Asia 
 sent forth their superfluous populations in emigrations 
 which extended eastwards into Central America, and 
 westwards to the Italian peninsula, and that this 
 accounts for the affinities. LanrmaGre and religion 
 
266 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 alike accompanied them. Amongst these ancient 
 people in Hari-Krishna, Heracles or Quetzalcoatl was 
 
 presented the idea of the Divine incarnate for the 
 benefit of humanity, suffering that our sufferings 
 might be alleviated. The way was thus prepared 
 for the development of Christianity and the general 
 knowledge of our advanced civilisation of the last 
 three centuries. 
 
 The cross l seems to demonstrate the connection 
 between the three great cultured centres of the ancient 
 world, viz., the tropical and subtropical Asia, Central 
 America, and the shores of the Mediterranean. In 
 the three prevailed the custom of maintaining the 
 perpetual lire. The cross, which has been found in 
 Old America, and in Dr. Schliemann's excavations 
 beneath the site of Troy, is probably the symbol of 
 the Agni in both. It is the sign of devotion to the 
 benign and mediatorial personification of Deity, hymned 
 in the most ancient books of our race. Our collateral 
 Indo- Aryan ancestors are now allowed by the science 
 of the age to have had a language more regular and 
 perfect than the Greek or Latin. Their voluminous 
 literature is gradually being revealed to us, with 
 habits of life akin to those of our actual ancestors. 
 Surely we may be permitted to recognise in their 
 faiths prototypes of Christian doctrines, the truths of 
 all time, without indignity to our religion. With the 
 sacred fire of the Vedas Krishna is associated as being 
 
 1 See Appendix VII. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 267 
 
 on earth Supreme Being, Agni of the altar, Indra of the 
 atmosphere, Narayana, who moves upon the waters. 
 
 As has been observed, the actual name of Krishna 
 may have come into greater prominence since the 
 fourteenth century of our era. But Krishna is dis- 
 tinctly Hari, who seems to have become the Hercules 
 of the West. Language and mythology will be found 
 to be in evident accordance between ancient India 
 and the settlements on the Mediterranean. Phoebus 
 Apollo would seem to have been derived from Vishnu, 
 considered as the Sun, or Surya, whom Sir G. Bird- 
 wood represents in the plates of his " Industrial Arts 
 of India " in a chariot drawn by a horse with seven 
 heads. The materialistic story of Apollo, exiled from 
 heaven and employed as one of the shepherds of 
 Admetus, seems suggested in a Vedic hymn which 
 has been quoted, in which Vishnu as Agni becomes 
 the Great Pastor, born for the happiness of the 
 world. 1 Parts of his history certainly suggest a deri- 
 vation from the same legends which appertain to 
 Hari-Krishna ; as, for instance, the destruction of the 
 serpent Python, and his employment amongst the 
 shepherds when incarnate upon earth. In Heracles 
 the same story appeared under another form. His 
 mother was mortal, but he claimed the chief of the 
 Olympian deities as his father. He had a twin 
 brother, Iphiclus, as has been observed, just as 
 Krishna was accompanied by Bala-Eama. Hercules 
 1 See Appendix VIII. 
 
2 6S CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 was adored as a model of piety and virtue, and as 
 spending his whole life in the benefit of humanity ; 
 and after his painful death, his immortal self is said 
 to have been carried to heaven in a chariot, saluted 
 by peals of thunder. The stories related concerning 
 him also seem suggestive, not of those actually nar- 
 rated of Krishna, but of those from which these latter 
 were derived. 
 
 CHAPTER LIIL 
 
 In his introduction to Vol. I. of " Sacred Books of 
 the East," Professor Max Miiller observes that " it has 
 been stated that the religious notion of sin is wanting 
 altogether in the hymns of the Pag- Veda. Yet the 
 gradual growth of the conception of guilt is one of 
 the most interesting lessons which certain passages in 
 the ancient hymns teach us." 
 
 Also he remarks that " it has been asserted that 
 in the Eig Veda Agni, fire, was adored essentially as 
 earthly sacrificial fire, and net as an elemental force. 
 How greatly such an assertion has to be qualified may 
 be seen from a more careful translation of the Vedic 
 hymns." 
 
 In this volume he gives translations of treatises 
 connected with the Vedas, and styled Upanishads. 
 These are considered by the Hindus to be revealed 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 269 
 
 scriptures, and there appears to be no doubt that 
 those which are quoted must be assigned to a period 
 earlier than the time of Plato in the West. The 
 appellation Upanishad is considered to have been 
 derived from a root signifying to destroy, as these 
 writings are intended to destroy passion and ignor- 
 ance. 
 
 In the Khandogya Upanishad it is said, " All this 
 universe has the Supreme Deity for its life. That 
 Deity is truth. He is the Universal Soul." " The 
 path of the deities is the path that leads to Brahma. 
 Those who proceed on that path do not return to the 
 life of man." In this book allusion is made to the 
 contest between the divine beings and demons, which 
 is so evidently the foundation of the Christian legend 
 which Milton has adopted in the " Paradise Lost." 
 The eye, the ear, speech, mind, and air are said to be 
 the five men of Brahma, who are the door-keepers 
 of the heaven-world. " The chest which has the sky 
 for its circumference and the earth for its bottom, 
 does not decay, for the cpuarters are its sides, and 
 heaven its lid above. That chest is a treasury, and 
 all things are within it." In the Aitareya Aranyaka 
 it is said that water was the root-cause, the world the 
 effect. The Supreme Being is the father, and earth, 
 fire, &c, are the sons. Whatever there is belonging 
 to the sou, it belongs to the father also. Whatever 
 belongs to the father belongs to the son. 
 
 In the Kanshitaki Upanishad the spirit is described 
 
270 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 as going after death to heaven, where is the river called 
 Ageless, and the tree which showers down the sacred 
 soma-juice, &c. There is also the palace styled Un- 
 conquerable, and the hall of Brahma, named Egoism. 
 Herein are the throne Perception, the couch Endless 
 Splendour, &c. Five hundred celestial nymphs come 
 with garlands, ointments, perfumes, garments and 
 fruits, and adorn the soul entering heaven with the 
 adornment of Brahma. The soul arrives at the lake 
 Ara, and crosses it by the mind alone ; while those 
 who come to it without knowing the truth are drowned. 
 Then he crosses also the river Ageless by the mind 
 alone, and there shakes off his good and evil deeds. 
 His beloved relatives obtain the good, and his un- 
 beloved relatives the evil, which he has done. And 
 as a man, driving in a chariot, might look at the two 
 wheels without being touched by them, thus will he 
 look at day and night, thus at good and evil deeds, 
 and at all pairs such as heat and cold, &c. He ap- 
 proaches the hall of Egoism, and the glory of Brahma 
 reaches him, and he thinks, as he approaches the 
 throne, " I am Brahma." Verses of the Vedas are 
 the feet of that throne, and the throne itself is know- 
 ledge. Brahma says to him, " Who am I ? " and he 
 shall answer, " That which is true." 
 
 It has beeu remarked that the doctrine of the 
 metempsychosis does not appear in the actual hymns 
 of the Vedas ; but in this literature associated with 
 the Vedas, and also esteemed as revealed from the 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 271 
 
 Almighty, we find it. Three classes of people are 
 said, for instance, to have transgressed and to have 
 been born again as birds, trees, herbs, and serpents. 
 
 As has been shown, the Institutes of Manu declare 
 re-birth in animal or vegetable life, instead of human, 
 to be the consequence of very dark or debased life. 
 
 It is declared in the Khandogya that there are 
 three branches of the law. Sacrifice, study, and 
 charity are the first. 
 
 The offering of the sacred soma juice, the libation 
 of clarified butter to the holy fire— these are the sacri- 
 fices enjoined, with the self-sacrifice of the desires of 
 the flesh. The Books of Knowledge are lauded as 
 nectar, and hymns as spiritual food. Worshippers 
 are said to approach Agni slowly when his name does 
 not stand at the beginning of the hymn. But here 
 it is written (where Agni's name appears early in 
 the hymn) ; the worshipper obtains his proper food at 
 once ; he strikes down evil at once. 
 
 Five Upanishads are combined in one, called the 
 Atharva shiras. Two of these are especially inte- 
 resting, as displaying the continued effort of the old 
 Bharatau divines to set forth the unity of deity under 
 the apparent polytheism. The sectaries of the two 
 principal forms of deity, Vishnu and Shiva, have been 
 styled antagonistic ; but really they seem to have 
 been constantly endeavouring, or at all events their 
 teachers have endeavoured, to demonstrate that the 
 two are one. Here, side by side in one collection, 
 
272 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST ; OR, 
 
 are the Narayan and Rudra (Shiva) Upanishads, 
 which distinctly affirm this equality of the two 
 deities, otherwise called Vishnu and Shiva — in fact, 
 their absolute unity. They again appear as links in 
 the chain of connection between the Yedas and the 
 accounts of the incarnation of the Almighty in 
 Krishna. They are taken from Professor Max Midler's 
 " Sacred Books of the East." 
 
 The Nardyana Upanishad. 
 " The primeval male Narayana loves the beings 
 that he has created. From Narayana were produced 
 the vital breath, the mind, the senses and their organs, 
 ether, fire, air, water, and earth. From Narayana 
 were produced Brahma, Eudra, the Prajapatis " (Patri- 
 archs virtually), " the twelve suns " (? the passage 
 through the twelve signs of the Zodiac), " the Eudras 
 and Vasavas ; and from Narayana were produced the 
 Vedas and all sacred learning. By Narayana are 
 all things created, preserved, and destroyed, and again 
 produced. Thus Narayana is Eudra, Narayana is 
 Brahma, and all Eishis. He is Kala " (time), " and all 
 that is above or below, external or internal : Nara- 
 yana is all that was or shall be, without parts, with- 
 out passion, incomprehensible, unnamable and im- 
 maculate. Narayana is the one God, and there is 
 not a second. He is certainly Vishnu. Let Aum 
 be first said, then nama, and afterwards Nardyanaya. 
 Aum is one syllable, nama is two syllables, and 
 Narayana is live syllables ; thus Aum Nardyanaya 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 273 
 
 nama is the eight-syllabled invocation from the re- 
 petition of which are obtained long life, wealth, and 
 progeny, and finally immortality, by participating in 
 the bliss ineffable of God. The syllable Aum is com- 
 posed of the letters A, U, and M, and he who repeats 
 these letters thus joined together shall be delivered 
 from the miseries of transitory existence. Hence 
 Aum Nardyanaya nama is that invocation which 
 whoever repeats, he shall ascend to Vaiknntha, he 
 shall ascend to Vaikuntha " (heaven). " Of divine 
 nature is the son of Devaki " (Krishna). " Of divine 
 nature is Madhusudana ; for Narayana, who dwelleth 
 in all things, the uncaused cause of all that exists, is 
 Parabrahm. Aum, He who meditates on this portion 
 of the Atharvashiras at night, the sins which he has 
 committed during the day shall be remitted ; if in the 
 morning, all nocturnal sin shall be destroyed ; and if 
 at mid-day, seated opposite the sun, the five great 
 sins, and all lesser ones, shall be forgiven to him : 
 his virtue shall become equal to that acquired by a 
 thorough knowledge and observance of the Vedas, 
 and he shall obtain identification with Karayana." 
 
 TJie Rudra Upanishad. 
 
 The deities proceeded to the celestial abode of 
 Eudra, and inquired, " Who art thou ? " He replied, 
 " I am the first and sole essence ; I am and shall be, 
 and there is not anything which is distinct from me." 
 Having thus spoken he disappeared, and then an unseen 
 
 s 
 
274 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 voice ivas heard saying, " I am he who causeth transi- 
 toriness, and yet endureth for ever ; I am Brahm ; I 
 am the east and the west, the north and the south ; 
 I am space and vacuum ; I am masculine, feminine, 
 and neuter ; I am Savitri, the Gayatri, and all sacred 
 verse ; I am the three fires ; I am the most ancient, 
 the most excellent, the most venerable, and the 
 mightiest ; I am the splendour of the four Vedas, 
 and the mystic syllable ; I am imperishable and mys- 
 terious, but the revealer of mysteries ; I am all that 
 is, and all space is pervaded by my essence." This 
 heard, the deities meditated on Eudra, though unseen, 
 and then with uplifted hands thus adored him : 
 " Praise be unto thee, who art Brahma, Vishnu, and 
 Maheswara " (that is, who hast manifested thyself 
 under all these different forms) ; " praise be unto thee 
 who art Uma, Ganesha, and Skanda ; praise be unto 
 thee who art Indra and Agni ; praise be to thee 
 who art the earth, the sky, and heaven ; praise be 
 to thee who art the sun and moon, the stars and 
 planets ; praise be to thee who art Time, Death, and 
 Yama (king of hell), who art immortal, the past, the 
 present, and the future ; praise be to thee who art all 
 that is, the sole and universal essence ; praise be to 
 thee, Eudra and Ishana, Maheswara, O Mahadeva, 
 Lord, for thou art Parabrahm, the one and only God." i 
 The Eev. K. M. Banerjea, in his " Occasional Papers 
 on Missionary Subjects," observes that " The funda- 
 
 1 See Appendix IX. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 275 
 
 mental principles of Christian doctrine in relation to 
 the salvation of the world find a remarkable counter- 
 part in the Veclic principles of primitive Hinduism in 
 relation to the destruction of sin, and the redemption 
 of the sinner by the efficacy of sacrifice, itself a figure 
 of Prajapati, the Lord and Saviour of the creation, 
 who had given Himself up as an offering for that 
 purpose." He holds that " the meaning of Prajapati, 
 an appellative variously described as a Purusha be- 
 gotten in the beginning, as Viswakarma, the Creator 
 of all, singularly coincides with the meaning of the 
 name and offices of the historical reality Jesus Christ." 
 He remarks that " sacrifice offered according to the 
 three ways — the right path — has been held in the 
 Eik, Yajus, and Saman (Vedas), to be the good ferry- 
 ing-boat or raft by which we may escape from sin," 
 and that " the idea of a sacrifice of a Divine Person is 
 not found merely in a single isolated passage, in which 
 case it might have been explained away, but in 
 various passages ; in the different Vedas it finds ex- 
 pression in different ways." He quotes an obscure 
 passage in the Eig Veda which Yaska, the author of 
 the Nirukta, thus expounds : " Viswakarma had, in a 
 universal sacrifice, offered all creatures, and then 
 eventually offered himself also ; " and then from the 
 Brihadaranyaka Upanishad : " Priests solemnise the 
 sacrifice (Asvamedha) as if it were an offering of 
 Prajapati himself, or the universal Godhead." He 
 observes that Prajapati or Purusha is spoken of as 
 
276 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 Atmada (giver of self), whose shadow, whose death 
 is immortality ; " that Prajapati not only means the 
 lord of creatures, but also "the supporter, feeder, and 
 deliverer of his creatures ; and that the name Jesus, 
 in the Hebrew, means the same." 
 
 CHAPTEE LIV. 
 
 The writings of the Fathers of the Church testify very 
 completely to the extensive prevalence of the doctrine 
 of the metempsychosis, for they frequently allude to 
 and condemn it as a heresy. The sects who held this 
 ancient Aryan doctrine appear to have asserted them- 
 selves to be true followers of Christ with ardour equal 
 to that of their opponents, though the doctrine of the 
 resurrection of the actual body for reward or punish- 
 ment became the acknowledged doctrine of the Church. 
 Origen, however, who flourished in the 3d century A.D., 
 avowed distinctly his acquiescence with this doctrine 
 of the transmigration of souls. He is esteemed, in a 
 general way, as an orthodox Father of the Church, 
 his admirable defence of Christianity having probably 
 condoned his heterodoxy upon this point. The state- 
 ments of his belief certainly seem to reveal ideas 
 approximating to those of the Buddhists in the East 
 and Platonists in the West. 
 
 In the preface to Pioberts and Donaldson's transla- 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 277 
 
 tion of Origen in the " Ante-Nicene Christian Library," 
 it is said : 
 
 " Origen's work, ' De Principiis/ exposed him to more 
 animadversion in the ancient Church than any other. 
 The points in which he had plainly departed from the 
 orthodox faith were the four — 
 
 " 1 st. That the souls of men had existed in a previous 
 state, and that their imprisonment in material bodies was 
 a punishment for sins which they had then committed. 
 
 " 2nd. That the human soul of Christ had also pre- 
 viously existed and been united to the Divine nature 
 before that incarnation of the Son of God which is 
 related in the Gospels. 
 
 " 3rd. That our material bodies shall be transformed 
 into absolutely ethereal ones at the resurrection. 
 
 " 4th. That all men, and even devils, shall be finally 
 restored through the mediation of Christ." 
 
 The Eev. Messrs. lloberts and Donaldson continue : 
 " There seems no adequate reason to doubt his sub- 
 stantial orthodoxy, though the bent of his mind and 
 the nature of his studies led him to indulge in many 
 vain and unauthorised speculations." Origen, how- 
 ever, quotes scriptural authority for his contentions ; 
 and he was undoubtedly a man of learning and talent. 
 Of course he was intrinsically not less qualified to com- 
 prehend the truth of Christian doctrine than the zealous 
 Tertullian, whose anticipations of satisfaction in be- 
 holding the torments of the condemned players, &c, 
 have been quoted. 
 
278 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 " How could his soul or its images," inquires Origen, 
 referring to John the Baptist, " be formed along with 
 his body who, while lying in his mother's womb, was 
 filled with the Holy Ghost ? I allude to John leaping 
 in his mother's womb, and exulting because of the voice 
 of the salutation of Mary which had come to the ears 
 of his mother Elizabeth. How could his soul and its 
 images be formed along with his body who, before he 
 was created, is said to be known to God ? Some, 
 perhaps, may think that God fills individuals with His 
 Holy Spirit, and bestows upon them sanctification, not 
 on grounds of justice and according to their deserts, 
 but undeservedly. And how shall we escape that 
 declaration, ' Is there unrighteousness with God ? ' 
 God forbid ! Or this, ' Is there respect of persons 
 with God ? ' For such is the defence of those who 
 maintain that souls come into existence with bodies. 
 . . . Those who have been made the sons of God or 
 children of the resurrection ; who have abandoned the 
 darkness and loved the light ; who have become sons 
 of peace ; who, mortifying their members upon earth, 
 and rising above not only their corporeal nature, but 
 even the uncertain and fragile movements of the soul 
 itself, — these have united themselves to the Lord, being 
 made altogether spiritual, that they may be for ever one 
 spirit with Him." 
 
 This certainly resembles closely the doctrine of the 
 Bhagavata Purana, &c. 
 
 Origen thinks that human souls cannot fall so as to 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH' AND CULTURE. 279 
 
 become animals. " Angels may sink to be men or 
 demons, and the latter may rise to be men or angels." 
 
 He holds those to be wrong who have quoted the 
 speaking of Balaam's ass in proof of the soul which 
 inhabited it having been human. 
 
 He writes that " the necessity of logical reasoning 
 compels us to understand that rational creatures were 
 created at the beginning, but that material substance 
 was separated from them only in thought or under- 
 standing, and that they never were without it — an 
 incorporeal life being a prerogative of the Trinity alone 
 — but that when the soul becomes the servant of 
 blessed beings, it shines in the splendour of celestial 
 bodies, with the clothing of a spiritual body such as 
 adorns the angels of God, or sons of the resurrection." 
 The soul may be dragged down to beings of a lower 
 order, "moulded into the crasser and more solid con- 
 ditions of a body." In rising to the divine, it may 
 obtain an immortal and incorruptible body. At length, 
 in progress from the more refined bodies, death is 
 swallowed up in the gradual disappearance of the 
 material nature. But rational natures, with free will, 
 may again be subjected to movement through the act 
 of the Lord Himself. These movements may again 
 be attended by variety and diversity of bodies, by 
 which the world is always adorned. He holds that 
 there may be worlds not exactly similar to our own. 
 
 Theophilus of Antioch, bishop in a.d. 168, exhibits 
 acquaintance with this doctrine of the metempsychosis. 
 
28o CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 In book iii. chap. vii. he says, " And Plato, who spoke 
 so much of the unity of Gocl and of the soul of man, 
 asserting that the soul is immortal, is afterwards found, 
 inconsistently with himself, to maintain that some souls 
 pass into other men, and that others take their depar- 
 ture into irrational animals." And he observes that 
 Pythagoras, too, is found venting " similar nonsense." 
 Irenoeus strongly reprobates it also. He (Bishop of 
 Lyons in the last quarter of the second century) says 
 that " our bodies must rise again in the flesh to con- 
 fess the power of Him that raises them from the dead." 
 In his Book against Heresies, he observes that some 
 heretics declare themselves similar to Jesus, maintain- 
 ing " that things are evil and good simply in virtue 
 of human opinion. They deem it necessary, therefore, 
 that by means of transmigration from body to body, 
 souls should have experience of every kind of life as 
 well as every kind of action (unless indeed by a single 
 incarnation one should be able to prevent any need 
 for others), and some one thing being wanting for 
 their deliverance, they should be compelled once more 
 to become incarnate. They quote this text, ' While 
 thou art with thy adversary in the way, give all dili- 
 gence that thou mayest be delivered from him, lest he 
 give thee up to the judge, and the judge surrender 
 thee to the officer, and he cast thee into prison. Verily 
 I say unto you, thou shalt not go out thence until thou 
 pay the very last farthing.' The adversary is equiva- 
 lent to the devil, an angel in the world who may shut 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 281 
 
 up souls in another body. Souls may be saved by 
 participating in all actions in one incarnation ; or by 
 passing from body to body, at length accomplish what 
 is requisite. They declare that Jesus spoke in a 
 mystery to His disciples and apostles privately, and 
 that they requested to hand down the things which 
 He taught them. We are saved, indeed (they say), 
 by means of faith and love ; but all other things, 
 while in their nature indifferent, are reckoned by the 
 opinion of men — some good and some evil, there being 
 nothing really evil by nature." 
 
 Now this demonstrates that there were followers 
 of what they asserted to be Christian doctrine, who 
 held views absolutely in correspondence with those 
 of the " Divine Song," &c. of the Indian epic. And 
 their assertion that Christ spoke in a mystery to his 
 disciples about these matters, certainly is corroborated 
 by no word of His having been recorded against this 
 doctrine ; which must have certainly been sufficiently 
 prevalent to suggest His reprobation if He disapproved 
 of it. 
 
 As his own opinion, Ireneeus declares that " God 
 gives each soul its special character. And therefore 
 when the number (fixed upon) is completed, which 
 He had predetermined in His own counsel, all those 
 who have been enrolled for life (eternal) shall rise 
 again, having their own bodies, and having also their 
 own souls and their own spirits, in which they 
 had pleased God. Those, on the other hand, who 
 
282 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST ; OR, 
 
 are worthy of punishment, shall go away into it ; they, 
 too, having their own souls and their own bodies, in 
 which they stood apart from the grace of God. They 
 shall cease from marrying and giving in marriage ; so 
 that the number of mankind, according to the fore- 
 ordination of God, being completed, may fully realise 
 the scheme formed of the Father." St. Paul seems to 
 have taught that, if not entirely a spiritual body with- 
 out form, it was at all events spiritualised in the 
 resurrection. But Irenseus seems to have held the 
 actual material resurrection for good or evil. This 
 doctrine seems to have had its prototype in Egypt. 
 The idea must undoubtedly have existed, in the 
 making of mummies, that the body would be resus- 
 citated for the soul's residence, if we consider this 
 practice in conjunction with the Egyptian concep- 
 tion of the judgment of the soul, &c. 
 
 Irenseus is undoubtedly one of the greatest links 
 between Christ upon earth and the Church founded 
 on His life and doctrine. It is Irenseus who first 
 quotes the four Gospels by the names of the authors 
 to whom they have since been attributed. He was 
 personally acquainted with Polycarp, who related his 
 conversation with St. John the Apostle and others 
 who had seen the Lord. Irenseus says that Polycarp 
 " related their sayings, and what he had heard con- 
 cerning the Lord, both concerning His miracles and 
 His doctrine." 
 
 Irenseus, therefore, ought to be reliable authority ; 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 283 
 
 but as the Church accepts his testimony iu respect to 
 the doctrine of Christ on the strength of this acquaint- 
 ance with Polycarp, &c, it certainly ought equally to 
 receive his account of the lifetime and period of the 
 death of Christ. He is very strangely at variance 
 with our accepted traditions upon those points. The 
 account given by Irenseus of the duration of the 
 preaching of our Lord shows that the account which 
 we now accept was by no means universally estab- 
 lished in his time. In fact, this great pillar of the 
 early Church, St. Irenseus, Christian Father of the 
 second century, held that Christ had continued to 
 preach till a comparatively advanced period of life, 
 till long after the age at which we have doctrinally 
 alleged that He quitted the earth. The acquaintance 
 of Irenseus with St. John the Apostle, through only 
 one intervening person, St. Polycarp, ought, it might 
 be supposed, to have rendered the Church more dis- 
 posed to take his words into earnest consideration. 
 It must be observed, however, that Keim, in his 
 " Jesus of Nazara," argues that the John with whom 
 Polycarp was personally acquainted was the Presbyter 
 of Asia Minor, not the Apostle. Irenseus himself 
 seems to have absolutely believed that it was the 
 beloved Apostle of the Lord. 
 
2S 4 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 CHAPTER LV. 
 
 In chapter xxii., sections 4, 5, and 6, of the transla- 
 tion of the works of St. Irenaeus by the Revs. A. 
 Roberts and W. H. Eambaut, in Roberts and Donald- 
 son's " Ante-Nicene Christian Library," Irenoeus re- 
 counts various miracles as we have received them. 
 He relates how Jesus had made the water wine, con- 
 versed with the Samaritan woman, cured the paralytic 
 at the pool, fed the multitude with five loaves, and 
 raised Lazarus from the dead. He also alludes to 
 Christ's coming to Bethany six days before the Pass- 
 over, then to His proceeding to Jerusalem, eating the 
 Passover, and suffering on the next day. He then 
 gives the account of the preaching life of our Lord, 
 to which allusion has been made in the last chapter. 
 " Being thirty years old when He came to be baptized, 
 and then possessing the full age of a master, He came 
 to Jerusalem so that He might be properly acknow- 
 ledged by all as a master. Fur He did not seem one 
 thing while He was another, as those affirm who 
 describe Him as being man only in appearance; but 
 what He was that also He appeared to be. Being a 
 master, therefore, He also possessed the age of a 
 master, not despising nor evading any condition of 
 humanity ; not setting aside in Himself that law 
 which He had appointed for the human race, but 
 sanctifying every age by that period corresponding to 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 285 
 
 it which belonged to Himself. For He came to save 
 all through means of Himself — all, I say, who, 
 through Him, are born again to God — infants and 
 children, boys, youths, and old men. He therefore 
 passed through every age, becoming an infant for 
 infants, a child for children, thus sanctifying those 
 who are of this age ; being, at the same time, made 
 to them an example of piety, righteousness, and sub- 
 mission ; a youth for youths, becoming an example to 
 youths, and thus sanctifying them for the Lord. So 
 likewise was He an old man for old men, that He 
 might be a perfect master for all, not merely as 
 respects the setting forth of the truth, but also as 
 regards age, sanctifying at the same time the aged 
 also, and becoming an example to them likewise. 
 Then, at last, He came on to death itself, that He 
 might be the first-born from the dead, that in all 
 things He might have the pre-eminence, the Prince 
 of Life, existing before all, and going before all. 
 
 " They, however (i.e. the heretics), tbat they might 
 establish their false opinions regarding that which is 
 written, ' to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,' 
 maintain that He preached for one year only, and 
 then suffered in the twelfth month. (In speaking 
 thus) They are forgetful to their own disadvantage, 
 destroying His whole work, and robbing Him of that 
 age which is both more necessary and more honour- 
 able than any other ; that more advanced age, I mean, 
 during which also, as a teacher, He excelled all others. 
 
286 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 For how could He have had disciples if He did not 
 teach ? And how could He have taught unless He 
 had reached the age of a master ? For when He 
 came to be baptized, He had not yet completed His 
 thirtieth year, but was beginning to be about thirty 
 years of age (for thus Luke, who had mentioned His 
 years, had expressed it, ' Now Jesus, as it were, begin- 
 ning to be thirty years old, when He came to receive 
 baptism '), and according to these men He preached 
 only one year, reckoning from His baptism ; complet- 
 ing His thirtieth year He suffered, being in fact still 
 a young man, and who had by no means attained to 
 advanced age. 
 
 Now that the first stage of early life embraces thirty 
 years, and that this extends onwards to the fortieth year, 
 every one will admit ; but from the fortieth and fiftieth 
 year a man begins to decline towards old age, which 
 our Lord possessed while He still fulfilled the office 
 of a teacher, even as the Gospel and all the elders 
 testify ; those who were conversant in Asia with 
 John the disciple of the Lord (affirming) that John 
 conveyed to them that information. And that He 
 remained among them up to the time of Trajan. 
 Some of them, moreover, saw not only John but the 
 other apostles also, and heard the very same account 
 from them, and bear testimony as to (the validity) 
 of the statement. Whom, then, should we rather 
 believe ; whether such men as these, or Ptolemseus, 
 who never saw the apostles, and who never, even in 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 2S7 
 
 his dreams, attained to the slightest trace of an 
 apostle ? But, besides this, those very Jews who 
 then disputed with the Lord Jesus Christ have most 
 clearly indicated the same thing. For when the Lord 
 said to them, " Your father Abraham rejoiced to see 
 My day ; and he saw it and was glad," they answered 
 Him, " Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast Thou 
 seen Abraham ? " Now such language is fittingly 
 applied to one who is already past the age of forty, 
 without having as yet reached his fiftieth year, yet is 
 not far from this latter period. But to one who is 
 only thirty years old it would unquestionably be said, 
 " Thou art not yet forty years old." For those who 
 wished to convict Him of falsehood would certainly 
 not extend the number of His years far beyond the 
 age which they saw He had attained, but they 
 mentioned a period near His real age. 
 
 Whether they had truly ascertained this out of 
 the public register, or simply made a conjecture, 
 from which they observed that He was about forty 
 years old, He certainly was not one of only thirty 
 years of age. For it is altogether unreasonable to 
 suppose that they were mistaken by twenty years 
 when they wished to prove Him younger than the 
 times of Abraham. For what they saw that they also 
 expressed ; and He whom they beheld was not a 
 mere phantasm, but an actual being of flesh and 
 blood. He did not then want much of being fifty 
 years old, and, in accordance with that fact, they said 
 
288 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 to Him, " Thou art not yet fifty years old (St. John 
 viii. 57), and hast Thou seen Abraham ? " He did not, 
 therefore, preach only for one year, nor did He suffer 
 in the twelfth month of the year ; for the period 
 included between the thirtieth and fiftieth years can 
 never be regarded as one year." Irenseus then pro- 
 ceeds to argue against an heretical idea that the 
 woman afflicted by the issue of blood was a type of 
 the " suffering ./Eon," and against the folly of heretical 
 arguments from letters and numbers, &c. Messrs. 
 Eoberts and Donaldson say, with respect to this 
 " extraordinary assertion of Irenseus," that " Harvey 
 remarks that the reader may here perceive the un- 
 satisfactory character of tradition where a mere fact 
 is concerned. From reasonings founded upon the 
 evangelical history, as well as from a preponderance 
 of external testimony, it is most certain that our 
 Lord's ministry extended but little over three years ; 
 yet here Irenaeus states that it included more than 
 ten years, and appeals to a tradition derived, so he 
 says, from those who had conversed with an apostle." 
 
 Paley observes in his " Evidences of Christianity," 
 chap, ix., when he comes to Irenseus : " The evidence 
 now opens upon us full and clear. In his youth he 
 had been a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple 
 of John. In the time in which he lived he was dis- 
 tant not much more than a century from the publica- 
 tion of the Gospels ; in his instruction, only by one 
 step separated from the persons of the apostles . . . 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 289 
 
 the testimony which this writer affords to the historical 
 hooks of the New Testament, to their authority and 
 to the titles which they bear, is express, positive, and 
 exclusive." Yet we have utterly ignored his statements 
 as to the duration of Christ's ministry. 
 
 CHAPTER LVI. 
 
 East and West had been long in communication 
 eighteen hundred years ago. The early Christians 
 of eminence did not neglect to study the spiritual 
 tone of the age in East as well as West. That they 
 were impressed with the merits of the Brahminical 
 religion is evidenced by the following quotation from 
 the " Recognitions " of the Roman Clement, chap. xx. 
 (taken also from the Rev. Messrs. Roberts and Donald- 
 son, " Ante-Nicene Christian Library ") : " There are 
 likewise, amongst the Bactrians in the Indian country, 
 immense multitudes of Brahmans, who also themselves, 
 from the tradition of their ancestors and peaceful cus- 
 toms and laws, neither commit murder nor adultery, 
 nor worship idols, nor have the practice of eating 
 animal food ; are never drunk, never do anything 
 maliciously, but always fear God. And these things, 
 indeed, they do, though the rest of the Indians commit 
 both murders and adulteries, and worship idols, and are 
 drunken, and practise other wickednesses of this sort." 
 
 T 
 
290 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 Hippolytus also, the disciple of Ifenaeus, alludes to 
 the Brahmans — to their philosophical pursuits, their 
 content, their temperance. He states that they de- 
 spise death, and affirm that God is light, and that he 
 who triumphs over sensuality — which holds all men 
 captive — goes to God. 
 
 In the " Miscellanies " of Clement of Alexandria it 
 is written : " Numa, the king of the Romans, was a 
 Pythagorean, and aided by the precepts of Moses, 
 prohibited from making an image of God in human 
 form, as the best of kings could not be comprehended 
 but by the mind alone. Thus philosophy flourished 
 in antiquity among the barbarians, shedding its light 
 over the nations. Afterwards it came to Greece. 
 First in its ranks were the prophets of the Egyptians, 
 and the Chaldeans among the Assyrians, and the 
 Druids amongst the Gauls, and the Samanreans amongst 
 the Bactrians, and the philosophers of the Celts ; and 
 the Magi of the Persians who foretold the Saviour's 
 birth, and came into the land of Judea guided by a 
 star. The Indian gymnosophists are also in the number, 
 and the other barbarian philosophers. And of these 
 there are two classes, some of them called Sarmanse, 
 and others Brahmans. And those of the Sarmanse 
 who are called Hylobii neither inhabit cities nor have 
 roofs over them, but are clothed in the bark of trees, 
 feed on nuts, and drink water in their hands. Like 
 those called Eucratides in the present day, they know 
 not marriage nor begetting of children. Some, too, 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 291 
 
 of the Indians obey the precepts of Buddha (Bovrra), 
 whom, on account of his extraordinary sagacity, they 
 have raised to divine honours." 1 
 
 Mr. Arthur Lillie, in his work on " Buddha and 
 Early Buddhism," 2 remarks that in the " Clementines " 
 we have a theory about Christ which is quite the 
 mysticism of esoteric Vedism and Buddhism. Christ, it 
 is said, " has changed His forms and names from the be- 
 ginning of the world, and so reappeared again and again 
 in the world" (Boman Clement, Homilies, chap. 20). 
 
 He also quotes St. Augustine, in reference to the 
 connection between Buddhism and Christianity, when 
 that saint says, " For the thing itself which is now 
 called the Christian religion really was known to the 
 ancients, nor was wanting at any time from the be- 
 ginning of the human race until the time that Christ 
 came in the flesh, from whence the true religion which 
 had previously existed began to be called ' Christian ; ' 
 and this in our clay is the Christian religion, not as 
 having been wanting in former times, but as having in 
 later times received this name" (Opera, vol. i. p. 12). 
 
 The links in the chain of connection between the 
 earliest Indian Scriptures and the later books narrat- 
 ing the incarnation of Krishna, seem too succinct to 
 have been mended by any interpolation from a foreign 
 source. If we accept the theory of Clement, Krishna, 
 
 1 See Appendix X. 
 
 2 " Buddha and Early Buddhism," by Arthur Lillie, late Regiment 
 of Lucknow. Messrs. Trtibner & Co. 
 
292 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST ; OR, 
 
 Buddha, and previous incarnations were manifestations, 
 suggestions, or prototypes of Christ, with distinct fore- 
 shadowings of His life and of the Eoman Catholic 
 doctrine of the immaculate conception of His mother. 
 
 The name of the father of Krishna, as shown in a 
 previous chapter, has a divine significance. Devaki, 
 the mother, also is divine. She is held to have been 
 an incarnation of Aditi, who, in the Yedic hymns, 
 seems identified with the sky, or equivalent to heaven 
 and earth, and yet distinct from them. She is mother 
 of Mitra, Varuna, and other divinities. Indeed a mystic 
 account is given of the parents, in which they appear 
 together as incarnations of deities. Vasudeva, the 
 father, is related to have been born exempt from sin. 
 
 The idea of birth from a virgin does not appear to 
 have been attributed to Krishna in the Mahabharata 
 or Puranas. In the " Great Bharata," one of the prin- 
 cipal chieftains, who fights against Krishna's friends, 
 has been thus miraculously brought into the world. 
 While virginity has also been assigned to the mother 
 of Buddha, whose name is Maya, curiously coinciding 
 with Maria, in the "Ancient Book of the Blessed," 
 Bhagavat is said to manifest everything in the world 
 by his association with Maya. (This signifies illusion 
 personified, or art, from md, which signifies " measure ; " 
 mdtri, "mother.") Maya is sometimes identified with 
 the goddess Dourga, who is, under one aspect, as has 
 been shown, the divine virgin Kumari, 1 and she is 
 represented, like all the divine beings of the Pantheon, 
 
 1 Hence Cape Comorin. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 293 
 
 as being a manifestation of the Supreme Spirit of the 
 universe. Mr. Lillie observes x of Queen Maya that it 
 has been debated whether she was a virgin at the time 
 of Buddha's birth, and that, as she is without doubt 
 Virgo of the sky, he thinks the question must be 
 answered in the affirmative. 
 
 " Before Buddha's birth," in Mr. Lillie's words, 
 " the queen receives a presentiment that something 
 unusual is about to occur. The king releases many 
 prisoners, and gives bountiful presents around ; and 
 banners, scents, flowers, and parasols are provided in 
 profusion in the upper rooms of the palace, whither 
 the Queen betakes herself. She lies on a couch 
 jealously guarded by innumerable women." Mr. 
 Lillie observes that he has " shown that the solar 
 god-man is known in the Eig Veda as Marttanda, 
 and the symbol of Marttanda is the elephant." 
 
 In the Chinese and Burmese versions Maya dreams 
 that Buddha conies down in the form of an elephant. 
 So in spring, when appeared the constellation Visakha 
 (April-May), the Bodhisatwa, under the appearance of 
 a young white elephant, entered the right side of his 
 mother, and she, by means of a dream, was conscious of 
 the fact. In the garden of her royal father, beneath a 
 beautiful palasa tree (ficus rdigiosa) the infant Buddha 
 was born. The branches of the tree, having bent 
 down to salute, overshadow the queen. " No sooner 
 has the infant touched the earth than a large white 
 
 1 " Buddha and Early Buddhism," p. 70. 
 
294 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 lotus springs up. He sits upon it, and gazes upon 
 the four cardinal points with the glance of Purusha." 
 " I am in my last birth," he exclaims ; " none is my 
 equal. I have come to conquer death, sickness, and 
 old age. I have come to subdue the spirit of evil, 
 and give peace and joy to the souls tormented in the 
 fire of hell." These words roll forth with mighty 
 sound through all the worlds. Then strains of 
 celestial music are heard, flowers and perfumes fall 
 from the skies, brilliant lights illumine all the worlds, 
 &c. &c, while the sick are healed, the blind receive 
 sight, the hungry are fed, the prisoners released, &c. 
 &c, and the torments of those in the hell Avitchi 
 cease. 1 
 
 Mr. Lillie has ably adduced the points of similarity 
 between the religions of Buddha and Woden. He 
 remarks that Professor Max Miiller ridicules the idea 
 that there is any connection between Buddha and 
 Woden ; but that, on the other hand, the great 
 archaeologist, Professor Holmboe, takes up the opposite 
 view. He comments upon the resemblance of the 
 relic mounds, the symbolism, and mythological con- 
 ceptions of Northern India and Northern Europe. 
 The warlike spirit of Krislmaism, 2 rather than the 
 peaceful precepts of Buddhism, pervade the old 
 Northern Europeans ; but the Scandinavian Balder 
 is gentle and benignant, and seems to be homogeneous 
 
 1 Lillie's " Buddha and Early Buddhism," p. 75. 
 2 See Appendix XI. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 295 
 
 with the divine men who appear in the Old and in 
 what has been termed the New World. The Hiawatha 
 of the lied Indians presents the same character ; and 
 traces of a similar ideal — of a beneficent superhuman 
 man — have been discovered amongst the Southern 
 Africans. 
 
 Mr. Lillie has given many extracts from Buddhist 
 ritual, which demonstrate undeniably that the hopes 
 of conscious bliss in heaven, and the belief in an 
 actual God, have been great features in that religion, 
 although agnosticism has also existed in it. As has 
 been shown in the inscription from Buddha Gaya, 
 Buddha became associated with Krishna as the 
 Supreme Being manifested to mankind in many 
 forms. Mr. Lillie adduces the inscriptions of Asoka 
 or Piyadasi, of the third century B.C., and much other 
 clear evidence of the ancient Buddhistic faith in an 
 actual God and in a future life. 
 
 The following quotations are from page 61, &c. of 
 his " Buddha and Early Buddhism : " — 
 
 " I pray with every variety of prayer for those who 
 differ with me in creed, that they, following after my 
 example, may with me attain unto eternal salvation."' 
 — Delhi Pillar, Edict vi. (Prinsep). 
 
 " All the heroism that Piyadasi, the beloved of the 
 gods, has exhibited is in view of another life. Earthly 
 glory brings little profit, but, on the contrary, produces 
 a loss of virtue. To toil for heaven is difficult to 
 
296 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST ; OR, 
 
 peasant and to prince, unless by a supreme effort lie 
 gives up all." — Rock, Edict No. vii. (Burnout). 
 
 " May they (my loving subjects) obtain happiness 
 in this world and the next." " This stiipa (religious 
 mound) has been erected for consolation, advantage, 
 and happiness in this world and the next, and thus 
 to the end of time this stupa, will allow my people to 
 gain heaven." — Second Separate Edict (Burnouf). 
 
 King Asoka's ideas about God. 
 
 "Much longing after the things (of this life) is a 
 disobedience, I again declare ; not less so is the 
 laborious ambition of dominion by a prince who 
 would be a propitiator of Heaven. Confess and 
 believe in God, who is the worthy object of obedi- 
 ence (Isanameva manyata manam) ! For equal to 
 this (belief) I declare unto you ye shall not find 
 such a means of propitiating Heaven. Oh strive ye 
 to obtain this inestimable treasure." — First Separate 
 Edict, Dhauli (Prinsep). 
 
 " Thus spake King Devanampiya Piyadasi : The 
 present moment and the past have departed under 
 the same ardent hopes. How by the conversion of 
 the royal born may religion be increased ? Through 
 the conversion of the lowly born if religion thus 
 increaseth, by how much (more) through the convic- 
 tion of the high born and their conversion shall 
 religion increase ? Among whomsoever the name of 
 God resteth, verily this is religion." 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 297 
 
 " Thus spake Devanampiya Piyadasi : Wherefore 
 from this very hour I have caused religious discourses 
 to be preached. I have appointed religious observ- 
 ances, that mankind, having listened thereto, shall be 
 brought to follow in the right path, and give glory to 
 God." — Edict No. vii. (Prinsep). 
 
 " In like manner, turning his mind to law in an 
 establishment of learned men, he called together the 
 Buddhist priests of Eastern Kalinga, who were settled 
 there under the ancient kings . . . act of devotion 
 ... all equipages ... he gives to God." — Prinsep' s 
 translation of a defaced inscription on the Khandagiri 
 Rode, erected by the grandson of Asoka. 
 
 " By love alone can we conquer wrath, by God alone 
 can we conquer evil. The whole world dreads violence. 
 All men tremble in the presence of death. Do to others 
 that which ye would have them do to you. 
 
 " Kill not ; cause no death. 
 
 " Say no harsh words to thy neighbour. He will 
 reply to thee in the same tone. 
 
 "I am injured and provoked. I have been beaten 
 and plundered ! They who speak thus will never cease 
 to hate. 
 
 " That which can cause hate to cease in the world 
 is not hate, but the absence of hate. 
 
 " The awakened man goes not on revenge, but 
 rewards with kindness the very being who has injured 
 him, as the sandal tree scents the axe of the woodman 
 who fells it," 
 
298 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 CHAPTER LVII. 
 
 The Portuguese found Christians on the Malabar coast 
 when they arrived in India in the sixteenth century. 
 But they appear to have been more akin to modern Uni- 
 tarians than to members of our " orthodox " Churches. 
 They were followers of Nestorius, who was degraded 
 from the position of Patriarch, and eventually, under 
 the stigma of heresy, buried in Upper Egypt, in the 
 fifth century a.d. They obeyed the Patriarch of the 
 Nestorian sect in Syria. In the beginning of the six- 
 teenth century they had a hundred churches in the 
 countries subject to the Travancore and Cochin Rajahs. 
 And at the time when the account of them was written 
 in vol. vii. "Asiatic Researches" (a.d. 1790), they 
 numbered about 150,000. They were styled St. 
 Thome Christians, Nestorians, Syrians or Malabar Chris- 
 tians by the Portuguese. By the Hindus they were 
 named Nazaranee or Surianee Mapila. They have 
 been supposed to have arrived during the persecution 
 of the Nestorians under Theodosius in the fifth century. 
 They used the Syrian or Chaldean language in their 
 sacred rites. Many of them observed a similar mode 
 of life to the Brahmins ; but they seem mainly to have 
 followed trade or husbandry, and they wore swords and 
 targets. 
 
 They rejected the Divine nature of Christ ; and called 
 the Virgin Mary only the mother of Christ and not of 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 299 
 
 God. They also maintained that the Holy Ghost pro- 
 ceeded only from the Father, not from the Father and 
 Son. They allowed no images ; only the cross. They 
 held three sacraments — baptism, the eucharist, and 
 Orders ; and they would not admit the doctrines of 
 transubstantiation or purgatory. They conceived that 
 saints were kept, neither in heaven nor hell, but in a 
 third, place, till the day of judgment. Their priests 
 were permitted to marry, at least once. Their Sunday 
 lasted from the Saturday evening vespers till the first 
 matins of Sunday, and after sunrise they might work 
 again. 
 
 The Portuguese endeavoured to convert them to 
 Romanism, and many, in appearance, became united 
 with the Roman Church. But thirty-two churches, 
 called Schismatic Syrians, still remained. The old St. 
 Thome Christians considered themselves as under the 
 Rajahs of the different districts in which they lived. 
 
 It seems evident, at all events, that it was not from 
 these Malabar Christians that the doctrine of the In- 
 carnation in Krishnaism was derived, in those points 
 in which it presents analogies to our Christian 
 doctrine. 
 
 A curious story exists in the Mahabharata, which 
 lias no actual resemblance to that of the death on the 
 cross, but it presents a strange suggestiveness of it. 
 It is related in explanation of the reason why Yama, 
 the king of death, had been compelled to become 
 incarnate upon the earth. 
 
3oo CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 " There was an illustrious Brahmin, named Man- 
 davya, who was full of constancy, and acquainted 
 with all religious duties. He was immoveable in his 
 life of penitence and truth. This great ascetic re- 
 mained at the foot of a tree, with his arms elevated 
 in the air, enchained in the vow of silence. Some 
 robbers came with a great booty, and being pursued 
 closely by the police, they concealed their booty in 
 the ascetic's hermitage. When the troops in pursuit 
 arrived, they proceeded to interrogate the man ' rich 
 in penitence.' They inquired what road the thieves 
 had taken ; but he would not answer a single word, 
 good or bad. Then the police, having searched the 
 hermitage, found the brigands hidden there, and their 
 booty. The anchorite, suspected of being concerned 
 in the robbery, was bound with the rest, conveyed 
 before the king, and condemned to death. The 
 soldiers fixed him upon a stake, and after they had 
 raised it up, they collected the booty, and returned 
 to the palace. The just man remained for a long- 
 time upon the stake, still preserving the breath of 
 life. His misfortune caused the saints and anchorites 
 to assemble from all parts, who were deeply afflicted 
 at beholding this most worthy man affixed to the 
 stake, tormented by such torture. By night, trans- 
 formed to birds, they flew together to the impaled 
 Brahmin. They said that they desired to learn what 
 crime had brought him to the frightful punishment of 
 the stake. He replied, ' I will go to the king of the 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 301 
 
 dead to become informed of this crime, for I know it 
 not; it is he, no other, that inflicts this chastisement 
 upon me.' 
 
 "After many days the soldiers announced to the 
 king what had occurred, and the monarch proceeded 
 to deliberate with his ministers, and then came to 
 demand pardon of this most virtuous man fixed 
 upon the stake. ' I beseech you to pardon me, 
 
 most excellent of saints,' said the king, ' for 
 this offence which I have committed towards thee, 
 in ignorance and folly ; have no animosity towards, 
 me.' 
 
 At these words the anchorite pardoned him, and 
 the king had the saint lowered, and would have 
 pulled out the terrible stake, but as it could not be 
 extricated, he had it cut off. At the same instant as 
 the stake was severed, the hermit uttered his last sigh. 
 He had conquered by this torturing trial all the 
 worlds, i.e., heaven, earth, and hell, which others so 
 earnestly covet. He is celebrated throughout the 
 worlds under the name of Animandavya. This Brah- 
 man, who in his inner soul beheld the universal soul, 
 then descended to the palace of Yama. He saw 
 the king of the dead seated on his throne, and he 
 addressed to him these words : " What evil deed have 
 
 1 committed, for the fruit of which I have merited 
 such a recompense ? Let me forthwith know the 
 truth, for you are aware of the power of my peni- 
 tence." Yama replied, " When a young child you 
 
3 o2 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 made a needle pierce the tail of a grasshopper ; your 
 punishment was in consequence of this action ! " 
 
 " You have inflicted a heavy punishment for a 
 slight fault," replied Animandavya, " and in conse- 
 quence you shall be born as man, the son of a slave 
 woman. There is this limit in the world for receiving 
 the fruits of works : till the age of fourteen they 
 shall not be accounted as sin, but after that period 
 evil shall be accounted sin whenever worked." In the 
 Brahman's forgiveness of those who had inflicted upon 
 him this cruel death, and in his descent to hell after- 
 wards, there seems to appear not a similitude, perhaps, 
 but a suggestiveness of incidents attending the cruci- 
 fixion ; and in his silence amongst the robbers, Isa. liii. 
 7, i 2 is recalled to mind : " He was oppressed, and He 
 was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth." " He 
 was numbered with the transgressors." But the story 
 bears strong signs of Indian originality in respect to 
 the ascetic's vow, and the idea of the incarnation of 
 Yama. 
 
 It seems to testify to the ancient appreciation of 
 the Christian precepts of patience, long-suffering, and 
 forgiveness, and the King of death is conquered by 
 the saint. The name Animandavya signifies that he 
 had been impaled. 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 303 
 
 CHAPTEE LVITI. 
 
 The Bible appears clearly to allow that a more ex- 
 pansive view of the dealings of the Divine with the 
 human should be adopted than is often set forth in the 
 teachings of the Church. In it are only related, at 
 length, the dealings of the Almighty with the patriarchs 
 of the Hebrew race. But it shows, in the account of 
 Melchizedek, king of Salem, that truth was on the 
 earth (Gen. xiv. 18). The Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 vii. 3, demonstrates that those who accept the Bible 
 as inspired revelation must acknowledge the verities 
 of religion to have been within the cognisance of 
 Melchizedek. He is said to have been " made like 
 unto the Son of God, and abideth a priest con- 
 tinually." Here, then, is a centre of what must be 
 admitted by Biblical Christians to have contained true 
 religion in ancient days. 
 
 Apart from the apparent birth of the eastern Aryan 
 faiths on the ground of India itself — if it should be 
 held that in Palestine only was true religion revealed, 
 in Palestine in the 20th century B.C., according to 
 Archbishop Usher's chronology, was a " king of right- 
 eousness." He is also styled a " king of peace " — 
 without father, without mother, without descent ; hav- 
 ing neither beginning of days nor end of life (Heb. 
 vii. 3). He was the "priest of the most high God;" 
 
3 o4 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST; OR, 
 
 and Jesus is said to have been " made an High Triest 
 for ever after the order of Melchizedek." 
 
 According to the orthodox chronology of Archbishop 
 Usher, Abraham is assigned to 1950 B.C. While 
 Abraham and his descendants were wandering about 
 till they became temporarily settled in Egypt, whence 
 they emerged after some two hundred years, there 
 was, according to the Bible, a high priest of righteous- 
 ness and king of Salem (stated by orthodox com- 
 mentators to be Jerusalem). When the Jews took 
 possession of that city, we are not informed of the 
 existence there of this high priest, or of any descendant 
 of his, spiritual or other. But in the meantime it 
 may be reasonably asserted, on the authority of the 
 Bible, to those by whom Divine inspiration may be 
 denied to the further East, that the knowledge of the 
 truth may have been disseminated eastwards from 
 him. The expressions concerning him in Hebrews 
 are such as are applied to Christ Himself, and would 
 be held, according to the Eastern- Aryan conceptions, 
 to indicate a previous incarnation. He is described 
 as personally blessing Abraham, and bringing forth 
 bread and wine (Gen. xiv. 1 8). He has neither 
 beginning nor end according to the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews. A reasonable explanation would be that 
 he was regarded as the Almighty on earth ; for there 
 can be but One without beginning or end. He is 
 distinctly described as personally present. In him the 
 Bible itself seems to afford an indication of a source 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 305 
 
 whence revelation of the truth could have been given 
 in Palestine 1900 B.C. for the benefit of the ancient 
 world, to be again revealed there for our own times 
 by Christ, " made an High Priest for ever after His 
 order." 
 
 The word Salem appears to be Sanscrit, derived 
 from Saileya, mountainous or rocky ; equivalent to 
 Founded on a rock. That the Bible, though dealing 
 especially with the Israelites and their origin, contains 
 this idea of righteousness in the East, seems suffi- 
 ciently proved by the texts in Isa. xli. 2-4, com- 
 mencing with, "Who raised up the righteous man 
 (Hebrew righteousness) from the East." 
 
 It is held in our Biblical chronology to have been 
 about the year 1706 B.C. that "all the souls of the 
 house of Jacob which came into Egypt were three- 
 score and ten" (Gen. xlvi. 27). It is held to have 
 been in the year 1491 B.C. that "all the hosts of the 
 Lord went out from the land of Egypt " (Ex. xii. 4 1 ). 
 These consisted of " about 600,000 on foot that were 
 men, besides children." " And the Lord went before 
 them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the 
 way ; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them 
 light." During this period which was passed by the 
 Hebrews in Egypt, we are not informed of any special 
 revelation till " the angel of the Lord appeared unto 
 Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush," 
 and " God said unto Moses, 7" am hath sent me unto 
 you " (Ex. iii.) From the time, therefore, when Mel- 
 
306 CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST ; OR, 
 
 clrizedelc, " priest of the most high God," blessed 
 Abraham, in about the year 19 13 B.C., till this reve- 
 lation to Moses, some 400 years elapsed. During 
 this period vast civilisations were nourishing in arts, 
 laws, commerce, and appreciation of the moralities of 
 life. On the great Chinese and Indian rivers, as well 
 as on the Euphrates and on the shores of the Mediter- 
 ranean, millions of people were spending their lives in 
 a manner more approximate to our own modern life 
 apparently than ever that of the Jews has been in 
 Palestine. The remote antiquity of the incarnation 
 doctrine thus seems to be suggested in the case of 
 Melchizedek, as well as in the appearances of the 
 Almighty upon earth, as recorded in the Old Testa- 
 ment. He is mentioned in Gen. iii. 8 as " walking 
 in the garden in the cool (Hebrew wind) of the day." 
 He talked with Abraham (Gen. xvii. 3). He then 
 appeared unto him in the form of three men (Gen. 
 xviii. 1,2). The Almighty also wrestled with Jacob, 
 and " when He saw that He prevailed not against 
 him, He touched the hollow of his thigh, and the 
 hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he 
 wrestled with Him" (Gen. xxxii. 24-32). But no 
 system seems to have been deduced from these 
 recorded appearances. The favour of the Almighty 
 was thereby held merely to have been assured to the 
 chosen prophet. But in the acknowledged commer- 
 cial intercourse between Eastern and Western Asia, 
 some knowledge of the Aryan doctrine of the incar- 
 
PROTOTYPES OF OUR FAITH AND CULTURE. 307 
 
 nations must have passed. At all events this inter- 
 course was flourishing in the epoch of Solomon, about 
 1000 B.C., according to orthodox chronology. If our 
 Western world will not admit that the Eastern can 
 have rightly apprehended divine truth, the mysterious 
 Melchizedek may be held to have disseminated, in 
 ancient days, the doctrine realised subsequently in 
 Christianity. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Mr H. S. Ashbee, in a description of a visit to the Library 
 of Tanjore, published in the French "Livre" in 1881, 
 states that it contains 18,000 manuscripts, of which 8000 
 are written upon palm leaves. This library, which also 
 possesses a fine collection of European books, was founded 
 at the end of the sixteenth century, when Tanjore was 
 under the government of the Telugu Naiks, who came 
 from Vijayanaga, and deposed the Chola princes. The 
 manuscripts are written in the Telugu character but in 
 the Sanscrit language, and also in the idioms of later 
 days ; and works on architecture and kindred topics are 
 mingled with the religious writings which constitute the 
 greater portion. Mr. Ashbee informs us that — " Les livres 
 imprimes sont ranges sur des rayons a la maniere Euro- 
 peenne, tandis que les manuscrits, soigneusement enveloppes 
 dans des morceaux de soie ou coton, sont tenus dans des 
 armoires." For the inditing of these Mr. Ashbee tells us 
 that " on n'emploie ni plumes ni encre. Un simple stylet 
 de fer suffit. Prennant la palme, longue de plusieurs pieds, 
 
3io APPENDIX. 
 
 dans la main gauche, on trace rapidement dessus avec le 
 stylet un charactere excessivement petit, mais tres net. 
 Pour faire ressortir les lettres on frotte la feuille d'un 
 liquide noir, on lave aussitot la feuille et les lettres restent 
 noires comme si elles avaient etc" ecrites avec une plume. 
 Pupitres et tables sont inconnus. Pour ecrire on se tient 
 a terre, assis on couche. Bien qu'elles n'aient aucun appui 
 les mains ecrivent avec une facility et une vitesse eton- 
 nantes "... "II ne nous manque pas de livres oil sont 
 decrites les bibliotheques celebres, en grande partie de- 
 truites, de l'Egypte, de l'Assyrie, de la Judee, de Constan- 
 tinople, de la Grece et de Rome ; mais, autant que je sache, 
 aucun bibliographe ne s'est occupe specialement des collec- 
 tions, encore plus importantes de l'liide, qui nous restent 
 heureusement aujourd'hui." 
 
 Mr. Aslibee further observes that it is now almost uni- 
 versally admitted, by those who have deeply studied the 
 subject, that our religion, arts and sciences, have come, 
 not from Egypt, as was formerly supposed, but from India 
 through Greece, the first inhabitants of which were Indian 
 refugees, Buddhists, and others, exiled on account of their 
 religion. He concludes his article by expressing his regret 
 that the greater part of the literature of the Hindus, 
 Buddhists and Jains, remains, and will probably long re- 
 main, a dead letter. He quotes Professor Max Midler's obser- 
 vation, that modern history would be incomplete without that 
 of the moyen dge, and that this would be incomplete without 
 the history of Greece and Rome. So the entire history of 
 the world must be studied in the first chapter of the life of 
 Aryan humanity, preserved in the Vedic literature. Many 
 
APPENDIX. 311 
 
 noble translations have certainly been made in French and 
 English by the admirable industry of the Sanscrit scholars 
 of our day, as has been shown in this book. A fair exposi- 
 tion of the so-called heathen religions of our Aryan cousins 
 in the East seems to have been made; but as Mr. Ashbee 
 says, What riches are still concealed in the great libraries 
 of India ! 
 
 II. 
 
 The Mahabharata commences, as quoted in chapter ii. 
 of this book, with an adjuration to Nara and Narayana, 
 and to the goddess Sarasvati (divine wisdom). Sir John 
 Froissart commences his Chronicles in not dissimilar terms : 
 " To thentent that the honorable and noble aventures 
 of featis of arms, done and achyued by ye warres of 
 Frace and Inglande, shulde notably be inregistered, and 
 put in perpetuall memory, whereby the prewe and hardy 
 may have example to encourage them in theyr well doyng, 
 I, Syr John Froissart, wyll treat and recorde an hystory 
 of great louage and preyse ; but or I begyn, I require the 
 Sauyour of all the worlde, who of nothyng created all 
 thynges, that He wyll gyue me suche grace and vnder- 
 standyng that I may cotinue and perseuer in suche wyse, 
 that whoso this proces redeth or hereth, may take pastance, 
 pleasure, and ensample." 
 
 " Fyrst by the grace of God and of the blessed Virgyn, 
 Lady Saynt Mary, from whom all comfort and consolation 
 
312 APPENDIX. 
 
 procedeth, I wyll take my foundation out of y c true cronicles, 
 sometime copyled by the right reverend, discrete, and sage 
 Maister John la Bele, sometyme chanon in Saint Lam- 
 bartis," &c. &c. — Lord Berner's Translation. 
 
 III. 
 
 The Buddhist temple in the Japanese village, on view in 
 London in 1885, affords a striking instance of the similarity 
 between the Boman and Buddhist forms of ecclesiastical 
 decoration. The altar, with its super-altar, candles, lamps 
 burning before it, &c, is almost identical with a Boman 
 Catholic altar, making allowances for the general differences 
 between Europe and Japan. Instead of the crucifixion, 
 Buddha, under a canopy, occupies the place above the altar. 
 Instead of the stations of the cross, Buddha, in some of the 
 forms which he has assumed during his transmigrations, is 
 seen in the images ranged along the super-altar. Although 
 not crucified in the flesh for humanity, he is related to have 
 often sacrificed his body for the welfare of human beings. 
 The red garb of the priest is certainly again in accordance 
 with the vesture of the priests of the Bomish Church. 
 In the old religion of Japan, called the Sin-Sin (faith in 
 gods), the Supreme Deity was held to be too great to be 
 addressed in prayer, save through the mediation of the 
 Mikado, the Son of Heaven, or of inferior spirits called 
 Kami, of which 492 were born spirits, and 2640 were 
 canonised mortals. For these Kami temples were especially 
 
APPENDIX. 313 
 
 erected. Japanese dwellings had invariably a kind of 
 
 oratory, in which prayers were offered morning and 
 even in a 
 
 IV. 
 
 In the " Annual Eegister" of 1S03, p. 93, is an extract 
 from " Mr. Percival's Account " of the Island of Ceylon. 
 After descriptions of the Buddhistic religion there prevail- 
 ing, &c. &c, he says : " The mountain called Hannoralleel, 
 or Adam's Peak, is one of the highest in Ceylon. It is 
 from the summit of this mountain, as tradition reports, 
 that Adam took his last view of Paradise before he quitted 
 it, never to return. The spot on which his foot stood at 
 the moment is still supposed to be found in an impression 
 on the summit of the mountain resembling the print of a 
 man's foot, but more than double the ordinary size. After 
 taking this farewell view, the father of mankind is said to 
 have gone over to the continent of India, which was at that 
 time joined to the island; but no sooner had he passed 
 Adam's Bridge than the sea closed behind him and cut off 
 all hopes of return. This tradition, from whatever source it 
 was originally derived, seems to be interwoven with their 
 earliest notions of religion, and it is difficult to conceive 
 that it can have been engrafted on them without forming 
 an original part. I have frequently had the curiosity to 
 inquire of black men of different castes concerning this 
 tradition of Adam. All of them, with every appearance of 
 
314 APPENDIX. 
 
 belief, assured me that it was really true ; and in support 
 of it produced a variety of testimonies, old sayings, and 
 prophecies, which have for ages been current among them. 
 This mountain, which is looked upon as the original 
 residence of Adam, is held in great veneration not only by 
 the natives of Ceylon, but also by a variety of persons of 
 different castes and persuasions throughout India. Most 
 of these have particular places of worship on it, to which 
 they make pilgrimages at certain seasons of the year. 
 The Koman Catholic priests have also taken advantage of 
 the current superstitions to forward the propagation of 
 their own tenets." 
 
 V. 
 
 Mr. R. Mitra, in his work on Buddha Gtaya, gives ex- 
 pression to doubts concerning the authenticity of this in- 
 scription, with its mingling of Krishnaistic and Buddhistic 
 ideas. One argument urged against its appertaining to 
 the age at which it is dated is that it describes Buddha 
 Gaya as being in a forest. But it does not appear neces- 
 sarily to say this, but merely that Buddha took up his 
 abode in a forest. There are certainly wild forests in the 
 district of Bahar ; but doubtless the temple would have 
 been erected in the open and cultivated country for the 
 convenience and consolation of worshippers. Another 
 argument is that the mingling of Brahminical and 
 Buddhistic conceptions is unnatural. But in the illustra- 
 
APPENDIX. 315 
 
 tration in this work of Buddhistic ritual in Nepaul, it 
 will be seen that there is a similar association of the 
 Brahrainical conceptions of deity with Buddhism. 
 
 VI 
 
 Specimen Verses of the Hymns of the Eig-Veda, 
 Translated from the Original Sanscrit by H. 
 H. Wilson, M.A., F.R.S., &c. 
 
 First Ashtdka, First Adhydya, Silkla II. 
 
 1. Hasten hither, friends, offering praises ; sit down and 
 sing repeatedly the praises of Indra. 
 
 2. When the libation is poured forth, respectively praise 
 Indra, the discomfiter of many enemies, the lord of many 
 blessings. 
 
 3. May he be to us for the attainment of our objects ; 
 may he be to us for the acquirement of riches ; may he be 
 to us for the acquisition of knowledge ; may he come to us 
 with food. 
 
 4. Sing to that Indra, whose enemies in combats await 
 not his coursers harnessed in his car. 
 
 5. These pure soma juices, mixed with curds, are poured 
 out for the satisfaction of the drinker of the libations. 
 
 Anuvdka III, Sukta I. 
 
 1. Indra, bring for our protection riches, most abundant, 
 enjoyable, the source of victory, the humbler of our foes. 
 
 2. By which we may repel our enemies, whether (en- 
 
316 APPENDIX. 
 
 countering them) hand to hand, or on horseback, ever 
 protected by thee. 
 
 3. Defended by thee, Indra, we posses a ponderous 
 Aveapon, wherewith we may entirely conquer our oppo- 
 nents. . . . 
 
 7. The belly of Indra, which quaffs the soma juice abun- 
 dantly, swells like the ocean. 
 
 8. Verily the words of Indra to his worshipper are true, 
 manifold, cow-conferring, and to be held in honour; (they 
 are) like a branch (loaded with) ripe (fruit). 
 
 First Ashtdka, Second Adhydya, Sukla III. 
 To Agni. 
 
 1. Lord of sustenance, assume thy vestments (of light), 
 and offer this our sacrifice. 
 
 2. (Propitiated) by brilliant strains, do thou, ever youth- 
 ful Agni, selected by us, become our ministrant priest 
 (invested) with a radiance. 
 
 3. Thou, Agni, art verily as a loving father to a son, as 
 a kinsman to a kinsman, as a friend to a friend. . . . 
 
 10. Agni, son of strength, (accept) this sacrifice, and 
 this our praise, with all thy fires, and grant us (abundant) 
 food. 
 
 Fourth Adhydya, Siikta V. 
 
 1. Ushas, daughter of heaven (the personified dawn or 
 Aurora), dawn upon us with riches ; ditfuser of light, dawn 
 upon us with abundant food; bountiful goddess, dawn 
 upon us with wealth (of cattle). 
 
APPENDIX. 317 
 
 2. Abounding with horses, abounding with kine, be- 
 stowers of every sort of wealth, (the divinities of morning) 
 are possessed of much that is necessary for the habitations 
 of men. 
 
 3. The divine Uslias has dwelt (in heaven of old) ; may 
 she dawn to-day, the excitress of chariots, which are har- 
 nessed at her coming, as those who are desirous of wealth 
 (send ships) to sea. 
 
 Fourth Adhydya, Sukta V. 
 
 1. The amplitude of Indra was vaster than the (space 
 of) heaven ; earth was not comparable to him in bulk ; 
 formidable and most mighty, he has been ever the afflicter 
 (of the enemies of) those men (who worship him) ; he 
 whets his thunderbolt for sharpness as a bull (his horns). 
 
 2. The firmament-abiding Indra grasps the widespread 
 waters with his comprehensive faculties, as the ocean (re- 
 ceives the rivers) ; he rushes (impetuous) as a bull, to 
 drink of the soma juice; he, the warrior, ever covets praise 
 for his prowess. 
 
 3. Thou, Indra, hast not (struck) the cloud for (thine 
 own) enjoyment ; thou rulest over those who are possessed 
 of great wealth ; that divinity is known by us to surpass 
 all others in strength ; the haughty (Indra) takes pre- 
 cedence of all gods, on account of his exploits. . . . 
 
 6. Ambitious of renown, destroying the well-built dwell- 
 ings of the Asuras, expanding like the earth, and setting 
 the (heavenly) luminaries free from concealment, he, the 
 performer of good deeds, enables the waters to flow for the 
 benefit of his worshippers. 
 
3 i S APPENDIX. 
 
 Professor H. H. Wilson observes, in a note, that the sun 
 and the constellations were obscured by the same cloud 
 which detained the aggregated waters. 
 
 Sulda VI. 
 
 ... 2. His (India's) adorers, bearing oblations, are 
 thronging around (him), as (merchants) covetous of gain 
 crowd the ocean (in vessels) on a voyage. Ascend quickly 
 with a hymn to the powerful Indra, the protector of the 
 solemn sacrifice, as women (climb) a mountain. 
 
 3. He is quick in action and mighty ; his faultless and 
 destructive prowess shine in manly (conflict) like the peak 
 of a mountain (afar), with which, clothed in iron (armour), 
 he, the suppressor of the malignant, when exhilarated (by 
 the soma juice), cast the wily Sushua into prison and into 
 bonds. 
 
 SUKTA II. 
 
 To Agni, in the form of Vaiswdnara (from viswa, all, and 
 nam, a man). 
 
 1. Whatever other fires there may be, they are but 
 ramifications, Agni, of thee ; but they all rejoice, being 
 immortal in thee ; thou Vaiswanara art the navel of man, 
 and supportest them like a deep-planted column. 
 
 2. Agni, the head of heaven, the navel of earth, became 
 the ruler over both earth and heaven ; all the gods engen- 
 dered thee, Vaiswdnara, in the form of light, from the 
 venerable sage. 
 
 3. Treasures were deposited in the Agni, like the per- 
 
A PPENDIX. 
 
 319 
 
 manent rays (of light) in the sun ; thou art the sovereign of 
 all the treasures that exist in the mountains, in the herbs, 
 in the waters, or amongst men. 
 
 4. Heaven and earth expanded, as it were, for their son. 
 The experienced sacrificer recites, like a bard, many ancient 
 and copious praises addressed to the graceful-moving, truly 
 vigorous, and all-guiding Vaiswanara. 
 
 5. Vaiswanara, Avho knowest all that are born, thy 
 magnitude has exceeded that of the spacious heaven ; thou 
 art the monarch of Manu-descended men ; thou hast re- 
 gained for the gods in battle the wealth (carried off by the 
 Asuras). 
 
 6. I extol the greatness of that showerer of rain whom 
 men celebrate as the slayer of Vritra : the Agni, Vaiswa- 
 nara, slew the stealer (of the waters) and sent them down 
 (upon earth) and clove the (obstructing) cloud. 
 
 7. Vaiswanara by his magnitude is all men, and is to be 
 worshipped as the diffuser of manifold light in offerings of 
 nutritious viands. Agni, the speaker of truth, praises with 
 many commendations Purunitha, the son of S'atavani. 
 
 Seventh Adhydya, Sukta II. 
 To Agni. 
 
 1. Two periods of different complexions (black and 
 white, or night and day) revolve for their own purposes, 
 and each, in succession, severally nourishes a son ; in one 
 Hari is the receiver of oblations, in the other the brilliant 
 Agni is beheld. 
 
 2. The vigilant and youthful Ten beget, through the 
 
320 APPENDIX. 
 
 wind, this embryo Agni, inherent (to all beings), sharp- 
 visaged, universally renowned, shining among men ; him 
 they conduct (to every dwelling). 
 
 3. They contemplate three places of his birth, one in the 
 ocean, one in the heaven, one in the firmament ; and 
 dividing the seasons of the year, for the benefit of earthly 
 creatures he formed, in regular succession, the eastern 
 quarter. 
 
 4. Which of you discerns the hidden Agni 1 a son, he 
 begets many mothers by oblations ; the germ of many 
 (waters), he issues from the ocean ; mighty and wise, the 
 recipient of oblations. . . . 
 
 7. Like the sun, he stretches forth his arms, and the 
 formidable Agni, decorating both heaven and earth (with 
 brightness) labours (in his duties) ; he draws up from every- 
 thing the essential (moisture), and clothes (the earth) with 
 new vestments (derived) from his maternal (rains). 
 
 Sukta IV. 
 
 1. May our sin, Agni, be repented of; manifest riches to 
 us ; may our sin be repented of 
 
 2. We worship thee for pleasant fields, for good roads, 
 . and for riches ; may our sin be repented of. . . . 
 
 7. Do thou, whose countenance is turned to all sides, 
 send off our adversaries, as if in a ship (to the opposite 
 shore) ; may our sin be repented of. 
 
 8. Do thou convey us in a ship across the sea, for our 
 Avelfare ; may our sin be repented of 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Second Ashtdka, First Adhydya, SAMa I. 
 
 To Vayu (Wind). 
 
 i. Let thy swift coursers, Vayu, bring thee quickly hither, 
 that thou mayest be the first to drink — the first (of the 
 gods) to drink of the soma libation. May our upraised, 
 discriminating, and sincere (praise) be acceptable to thy 
 mind. Come with thy steed-yoked car for (the libation) to 
 be presented to thee ; come, Vayu, (for granting) the objects 
 of our worship. 
 
 2. May the exhilarating drops (of the libation) exhilarate 
 thee, Vayu, being fitly prepared, doing their office, adminis- 
 tered opportunely, rendered efficacious by (our) praises, and 
 flowing (in due season) ; for which purpose thy docile and 
 active steeds, the ISTiyuts, attending- (thy presence, bring 
 thee) to the sacrificial hall to accept the offering ; to the 
 sacrifice in which the pious (priests) represent their 
 desire. 
 
 3. Vayu yokes to his car his two red horses; Vayu 
 (yokes) his purple steeds ; Vayu (yokes) his two unwearied 
 (coursers) to his car to bear their burden, for most able are 
 they to bear the burden. Arouse, Vayu, the intelligent 
 (sacrificer), as a gallant (awakens) his sleeping mistress ; 
 summon heaven and earth ; light up the dawn ; light up 
 the dawn (to receive) thy sacrificial food. . . . 
 
 6. These soma juices, poured out in our rites and borne 
 by the priests, are prepared for you both (Indra and Vayu). 
 
 x 
 
322 APPENDIX. 
 
 The pure juices were passed through the oblique filter; the 
 soma juices, intended for you both, pass through the woolly 
 fleece. 
 
 First Ashtdka, Fifth Adhydya, SuJcta VII. 
 To the Maruts (Winds collectively). 
 
 i. Offer earnest praise to the company of the Maruts, 
 the senders of rain and ripeners of fruit, deserving of 
 adoration. 
 
 2. They were born handsome and vigorous from the 
 sky, the sons of Rudra, the conquerors of their foes, pure 
 from sin, and purifying (all), radiant as suns, powerful as 
 evil spirits, diffusers of rain drops, and of fearful forms. . . . 
 
 4. They decorate their persons with various ornaments ; 
 they have placed, for elegance, brilliant (garlands) on their 
 breasts ; lances are borne upon their shoulders, and with 
 them and their own strength they have been born leaders 
 from the sky. . . . 
 
 6. The munificent Maruts scatter the nutritious waters 
 as priests at sacrifices the clarified butter ; as grooms lead 
 forth a horse, they bring forth for its rain the fleet-moving 
 cloud, and milk it, thundering and exhausted. 
 
 7. Vast, possessed of knowledge, bright shining, like 
 mountains in stability, and quick in motion, you, like 
 elephants, break down the forests when you put vigour 
 into your ruddy (mares). 
 
 8. The most wise Maruts roar like lions ; the all-knowing 
 are graceful as the spotted deer; they come with their 
 
APPENDIX. 323 
 
 antelopes and their arms (to defend the sacrificer) against 
 interruption. . . . 
 
 11. Augmentors of rain, they drive with golden wheels 
 the clouds asunder, as elephants (in a herd break down 
 the trees in their way). . . . 
 
 15. Grant us, Marats, durable riches, attended by pos- 
 terity, and mortifying to our enemies. 
 
 Second Ashidlca, Fifth Adhydya, Sulda XII. 
 
 1. Some creature of little venom, some creature of great 
 venom, or some venomous aquatic reptiles, have anointed 
 me with their poison. 
 
 2. (The antidote) coming (to the bitten person) destroys 
 the unseen (venomous creatures) ; departing, (it destroys 
 them) by its odour ; being ground, it pulverises them. . . . 
 
 4. The cows had lain down in their stalls, the wild beasts 
 had retreated (to their lairs), the senses of men were at 
 rest, when the unseen (venomous creatures) anointed me 
 (with their venom). . . . 
 
 6. Heaven (serpents) is your father ; Earth, your mother ; 
 Soma, your brother ; Aditi, your sister ; unseen, all-seeing, 
 abide (in your own holes), enjoy (your own) good pleasure. 
 
 7. Those (who move with their) shoulders, those (who 
 move with their) bodies, those who sting with sharp fangs, 
 those who are virulently venomous, what do ye here, ye 
 unseen ? Depart together far from us. 
 
 8. The all-seeing sun rises in the east, the destroyer of 
 the unseen, driving away all the unseen (venomous creatures) 
 and all evil spirits. . . . 
 
3 24 APPENDIX. 
 
 10. I deposit the poison in the solar orb, like a leather 
 bottle in the house of a vendor of spirits ; verily that 
 adorable (sun) never dies, nor (through his favour): shall 
 we die (of the venom) ; for though afar off, yet drawn by 
 his coursers, he will overtake (the poison). The science of 
 antidotes converted thee (poison) to ambrosia. . . . 
 
 12. May the thrice-seven sparks (of Agni) consume the 
 influence of the venom; they verily do not perish, nor 
 shall we die ; for, although afar off, the sun, drawn by his 
 coursers, will overtake the poison. The science of anti- 
 dotes has converted thee, poison, to ambrosia. 
 
 13. I recite the names of ninety and nine (rivers), the 
 destroyers of poison. 
 
 14. May the thrice-seven pea-hens, the seven sister rivers, 
 carry off (0 body) thy poison, as maidens with pitchers 
 carry away water. 
 
 15. May the insignificant mungoose (carry off) thy 
 venom (poison) : if not, I will crush the vile (creature) 
 with a stone, so may the poison depart (from my body) 
 and go to distant regions. 
 
 16. Hastening forth at the command (of Agastya), thus 
 spake the mungoose : The venom of the scorpion is inno- 
 cuous ; scorpion, thy venom is innocuous. 
 
 Sixth Adhydya, Sukta VI. 
 1. Address worshippers, after the manner of Angiras, 
 a new (hymn) to that Indra, whose withering (energies) 
 were developed of old; who, in the exhilaration of the 
 soma, forced open the obstructed and solid clouds. . . . 
 
APPENDIX. 325 
 
 7. As a virtuous (maiden), growing old in the same 
 dwelling with her parents (claims from them her support), 
 so come I to thee for wealth ; make it conspicuous, measure 
 it, bring it (hither), grant (a sufficient) portion for my 
 bodily sustenance, (such as that) wherewith thou honourest 
 (thy worshippers.) 
 
 Salda IX. 
 
 1. We bring to thee, Indra, (sacrificial) food, as one 
 desiring food brings his waggon ; regard us benevolently, 
 when glorifying thee, rendering (thee) illustrious by (our) 
 praise, and soliciting such guides as thou art to felicity. . . . 
 
 7. Indra, the slayer of Vritra, the destroyer of cities, 
 has scattered the black-sprung servile (hosts). He engen- 
 dered the earth and the waters for Manu ; may he fulfil 
 the entire prayer of the sacrificer. 
 
 8. Vigour has been perpetually imparted to Indra by 
 his worshippers (with oblations), for the sake of obtaining 
 rain ; for which purpose they have placed the thunderbolt 
 in his hands, wherewith, having slain the Dasyus, he has 
 destroyed their iron cities. 
 
 9. That opulent donation which proceeds, Indra, from 
 thee, assuredly bestows upon him who praises thee the boon 
 (which he desires) ; grant (it) to (us) thy adorers ; do not 
 thou, who art the object of adoration, disregard our prayers; 
 so that, blessed with worthy descendants, we may glorify 
 thee at this sacrifice. 
 
326 APPENDIX. 
 
 Seventh Adhydya, Sitlda V. 
 
 i. I present continually, with the ladle (of speech), these 
 oblation-dropping hymns to the royal Adityas. May Mitra, 
 Aryaman, Bhaga, the multi-present Bhaga, the multi-present 
 Varuna, the powerful Ansa, hear us. . . . 
 
 4. The divine Adityas are the upholders (of all things), 
 moveable or immoveable ; the protectors of the universe ; 
 the provident in acts ; the collectors of rain ; the possessors 
 of veracity ; the acquitters of our debts. 
 
 5. May I be conscious, Adityas, of this your protection, 
 the cause of happiness (and security) in danger ; Aryaman, 
 Mitra, and Varuna, may I, through your guidance, escape 
 the sins which are like pitfalls (in my path). . . . 
 
 7. May Aditi, the mother of royal sons, place us beyond 
 the malice (of our enemies) ; may Aryaman lead us by 
 easy paths ; and may we, blessed with many descendants 
 and free from harm, attain the great happiness of Mitra 
 and Varuna. 
 
 8. They uphold the three worlds, the three heavens ; 
 and in their sacrifices three ceremonies (are comprised) ; 
 by truth (Adityas) has your great might (been produced), 
 such as is most excellent — Aryaman, Mitra, and Varuna. 
 
 9. The Adityas, decorated with golden ornaments, 
 brilliant, purified by showers, who never slumber nor 
 close their eyelids, who are unassailable and praised by 
 many, uphold the three bright heavenly regions for the 
 sake of the upright man. 
 
APPENDIX. 327 
 
 Anuvdka IV., Sukta I. 
 To Eudra. 
 
 1. Father of the Maruts, may thy felicity extend to us ; 
 exclude us not from the sight of the sun, (grant that) our 
 valiant (descendants) may overcome (foes), and that we 
 may be multiplied, Eudra, by (our) progeny. 
 
 2. Nourished by the sanatory vegetables which are 
 bestowed by thee, may I live a hundred winters ; extirpate 
 mine enemies, my exceeding sin, and my manifold in- 
 firmities. 
 
 3. Thou, Eudra, art the chiefest of beings in glory ; 
 thou, wielder of the thunderbolt, art the mightiest of the 
 mighty ; do thou waft us in safety over (the ocean) of sin ; 
 repel all the assaults of iniquity. 
 
 4. Let us not provoke thee, Eudra, to wrath by our (im- 
 perfect) adorations ; nor, showerer (of benefits), by our un- 
 worthy praise, nor by our invocation (of other deities) ; 
 invigorate our sons by thy medicinal plants, for I hear that 
 thou art a chief physician among physicians. 
 
 Sukta II. 
 
 13. They, the Eudras, (equipped) with melodious (lutes) 
 and decorated with purple ornaments, exult in the dwell- 
 ing of the waters ; and scattering the clouds with rapid 
 vigour, they are endowed with delightful and beautiful 
 forms. 
 
328 APPENDIX. 
 
 SUKTA III. 
 
 To Apain-napat (son of the trees, or fuel, the progeny 
 of the rains). 
 
 ... 4. The young and modest (waters) wait upon the 
 youth, assiduous in bathing him, and he, although unfed with 
 fuel, yet cleansed with clarified butter, shines with bright 
 rajs amidst the waters, that abundance (may be) to us. 
 
 5. Three divine females present food to that uninjurable 
 divinity, as if formed in the waters they spread abroad, 
 and he drinks the ambrosia of the first-created (element). 
 
 6. In him is the birth of the horse, of him is (the origin 
 of) the world ; do thou, grandson of the (waters), protect 
 the pious worshippers from the malevolence of the oppres- 
 sors ; those who give no offerings, those who practise un- 
 truths, attain not the inconceivable deity, whether abiding 
 in the immature or the perfect waters. . . . 
 
 9. The grandson of the waters has ascended the firma- 
 ment above (the region) of the tortuously moving (clouds), 
 arrayed in lightning ; the broad and golden-coloured (rivers) 
 spread around, bearing (to. all quarters) his exceeding 
 glory. 
 
 SUKTA VII. 
 
 To the Asicins (the pervaders or sunbeams ; in one hymn 
 they make the lame to walk and the blind to see, and 
 restore an aged man to youth ; and they save Bhujyu, 
 who went to sea in an hundred-oared vessel). 
 
APPENDIX. 329 
 
 1. Descend, As wins, like falling stones, for the purpose 
 (of destroying our foes) ; hasten to the presence of the 
 wealth-possessing (worshippers), like vultures to a tree ; 
 like two Brahmans repeating hymns, (be present) at the 
 sacrifice, and come like (royal) messengers in the land, 
 welcomed by many people. . . . 
 
 4. Bear us across (the sea of life), like two vessels, or 
 (over difficult places) like the poles of a car, the axles, the 
 spokes, the fellies (of two wheels). Be like two dogs, 
 warding off injury to our persons, and like two coats of 
 mail, defend us from decay. 
 
 Suhta X. 
 ... 2. May no kite, no eagle, kill thee ; may no archer, 
 armed with arrows, reach thee. 
 
 3. Bird, who art ominous of good fortune, the proclaimer 
 of good work, cry from the south of our dwellings. 
 
 Third Ashtaka, First Adhyaya, Suhta VIII. 
 
 ... 2. Agni, born of sacrifice, three are thy viands, 
 three thine abiding places, three the tongues satisfying (the 
 gods) ; three verily are thy forms, acceptable to the deities, 
 and with them, never heedless (of our wishes), be propitious 
 to our praises. . . . 
 
 4. The divine Agni is the guide of devout men, as the 
 sun is the regulator of the seasons ; may he, the observer 
 of truth, the slayer of Vritra, the ancient, the omniscient, 
 convey his adorer (safe) over all difficulties. 
 
33o APPENDIX. 
 
 Sukta XIII. 
 
 i. Agni, who art omniscient, and the discriminator (of 
 acts), thou art the son of heaven or the son of earth ; do 
 thou, who art intelligent, worship severally the gods on 
 this occasion. 
 
 5. Agni, son of strength, Jatadevas 1 the eternal, tra- 
 versing the inhabited regions with thy protection, thou 
 art kindled in the dwelling of the waters. 
 
 Sukta XVII. 
 
 1. This, the apparatus of attrition, is ready. . . . 
 
 3. Let the intelligent priest place the lower of the sticks 
 Avith the face upwards, the upper (with the surface down- 
 wards), so that, quickly impregnated, it may generate the 
 showerer (of benefits) Agni ; then the bright blazing son 
 of lid, whose light dissipates the darkness, is born of the 
 Avood of attrition. . . . 
 
 6. When they rub (the sticks) with their arms, the 
 radiant Agni bursts forth from the Avood like a fleet 
 courser. 
 
 7. As soon as born, Agni shines, intelligent, SAvift moving, 
 skilled in rites, whom the gods have held as the bearer of 
 oblations at sacrifices, adorable and all-knowing. 
 
 1 He in whom wis lorn is inborn. 
 
APPENDIX. 331 
 
 Adhyaya II, Svlcia VII. 
 
 To Indra. 
 
 ... 6. As the rivers pursue their course, the waters rush 
 to the ocean like the drivers of cars (to a goal) ; so the vast 
 Indra (hastens) from his dwelling (in the firmament) when 
 the humble soma libation propitiates him. 
 
 SuJcta Fill. 
 
 ... 1 1. Come to us, Sakra, whether from afar or nigh : 
 whatever, Indra, wielder of the thunderbolt, be thy region, 
 come from thence hither. 
 
 Adhyaya III, SuJda VII. 
 
 1. Come, Indra, with thy exulting, peacock-haired steeds. 
 
 2. The fracturer of the cloud, the sender of the waters, 
 the demolisher of cities, India, the destroyer of powerful 
 enemies, has mounted his chariot to urge his horses to our 
 presence. 
 
 It should be observed that the hymns of the Vedas 
 invariably suggest the origin of the Aryan race on the 
 river plains of Hindustan or the Panjab, not in the region 
 to the north-west of the Hindu Kush. Allusions are 
 made to spotted deer, antelopes, peacocks, &c. Elephants 
 trample down the woods. Allusions are made to the 
 ocean, rainy season, &c. ; not to the necessary camel of 
 
332 APPENDIX. 
 
 the Bactrian district. This poiut has been put forward in 
 the author's " Cradleland of Arts and Creeds," chap, xii., 
 &c. Earlier forms of language doubtless preceded the 
 Vedic Sanscrit, and travelled westward before the Yedas 
 had assumed their present aspect. There is nothing to 
 show that the Dasyus (p. 325) were a conquered indigenous 
 race. The word means enemies of gods or men in the 
 sense of robbers. The "black sprung servile hosts" were 
 probably to the south of the Panjab. 
 
 Fourth Ashtaka, Fourth Adhyaya, Sulda VII. 
 
 To MlTRA AND VARUNA. 
 
 i. Guardians of water, observers of truth, you ascend 
 your car in the highest heaven ; to him whom you, Mitra 
 and Varuna, protect, the rain sends down the sweet (shower) 
 from the sky. 
 
 2. Imperial rulers of this world, you shine, Mitra and 
 Varuna, at this sacrifice, the beholders of heaven ; we ask 
 of you the wealth (that is) rain, and immortality, for your 
 forms traverse earth and heaven. 
 
 Sulla IX. 
 
 1. The wise apply their minds; they perform sacred 
 rites for the propitiation of the intelligent, great, adorable 
 Savitri ; he alone, knowing their functions, directs the 
 priests ; verily great is the praise of the divine Savitri. 
 
APPENDIX. 333 
 
 2. The wise Savitri comprehends all forms (in himself) ; 
 he has engendered what is good for biped and quadruped ; 
 the adorable Savitri has illumined the heaven, and shines 
 in sequence to the passage of the Dawn. . . . 
 
 5. Thou alone rulest over (the actions of) living beings ; 
 thou art Pushan, divine (Savitri) by thy movements ; thou 
 art sovereign over the whole world ; Syavaswa offers 
 praise, Savitri, to thee. 
 
 Fourth Ashtaha, Seventh Adhydya, Sukta IV. 
 
 ... 10. Make me happy, Indra; be pleased to prolong 
 my life; sharpen my intellect like the edge of an iron 
 sword. . . . 
 
 18. Indra, the prototype, has assumed various forms, 
 and such is his form as that which (he adopts) for his 
 manifestation : Indra, multiform by his illusions, proceeds 
 (to his many worshippers), for the horses yoked to his car 
 are a thousand. . . . 
 
 22. Prastoka has given to thy worshipper, Indra, ten 
 purses of gold, and ten horses, and we have accepted this 
 treasure from Divodasa. . . . 
 
 23. I have received ten horses, ten purses, clothes, 
 ample food, and ten lumps of gold from Divodasa. . . . 
 
 29. War-drum, fill with your sound both heaven and 
 earth. 
 
334 APPENDIX. 
 
 Fifth Ashtaka, Sixth Adhyaya, Sukta VI. 
 
 i. This Saraswati, firm as a city made of iron, flows 
 rapidly with (all) sustaining water, sweeping away in its 
 might all other waters, as a charioteer (clears the road). . . . 
 
 6. Auspicious Saraswati, for thee Vasishtha has set open 
 the two doors (the east and west) of sacrifice : white- 
 complexioned (goddess), be magnified ; bestow food on him 
 who glorifies thee ; and do you (gods) cherish us with 
 blessings. 
 
 Bulla XL 
 
 ... 5. Resplendent Vishnu, I, the master of the offering, 
 knowing the objects that are to be known, glorify to-day 
 thy name. I, who am feeble, praise thee who art power- 
 ful, dwelling in a remote region of this world. 
 
 Sixth Ashtaka, First Adhyaya, Sukta V. 
 
 To Indra. 
 
 ... 7. May this soma, invested (with milk), approach 
 thee, observant Indra, like a bride (clad in white apparel). 
 
 Sukta Fill. 
 
 . . 1 14. Praise them, praise the Maruts, for we are (de- 
 pendent) upon those agitators (of all things), as a menial is 
 
APPENDIX. 335 
 
 upon his lord ; therefore are their donations (characterised) 
 by munificence. 
 
 Sukta Fill. 
 
 ... 25. Whatever medicaments there may be in the 
 Sindha, in the Asikari, in the oceans, in the mountains, 
 Maruts, who are all gratified by sacrifice . . . 
 
 Eig-Veda, Vol. III., p. 175 of Translation by H. H. Wil- 
 son. Appearance of the Doctrine of Transmigration 
 and Allusion to Iron. 
 
 1. Being still in the germ, I have known all the births 
 of these divinities in their order, a hundred bodies of iron 
 confined me, but as a hawk I came forth with speed. . . . 
 
 3. (? the archer Krisanu), when the hawk screamed with 
 exultation, on his descent from heaven, the guardians of 
 the soma perceived that the soma was carried away by it. 
 Then the archer, Krisanu, pursuing with the speed of 
 thought, and stringing his bow, let fly an arrow against it. 
 
 As to the Unity of the Deities in Agni (p. 236), Sukta 
 III.— 
 
 1. Thou, Agni, art born Varuna, thou becomest Mitra 
 when kindled ; in thee, son of strength, art all the gods : 
 thou art Indra, son of strength, to the mortal that presents 
 oblations. Thou art Aryaman in relation to maidens. . . . 
 
336 APPENDIX. 
 
 5. For thy glory the winds sweep the firmament. When 
 thy birth, Rudra, is beautiful and wonderful, the middle 
 step of Vishnu has been placed, so that thou cherishest the 
 mysterious name of the waters. . . . 
 
 11. Agni, youngest of the gods, verily thou bearest 
 thine adorer safe beyond all calamities. 
 
 VII. 
 
 In the "Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal" for 
 1877, an account is given of a discovery of a burial ground, 
 with crosses, by Mr. W. King, Deputy Superintendent of 
 the Geological Survey of India. He describes them as 
 being in the midst of forest and scrub jungle, near Mun- 
 gasset in the Nizam's dominions, on the right bank of the 
 Godaveri. He states that he found four large cruciform 
 monoliths, one still standing upright and perfect, near a 
 number of stone tombs. One of the crosses was 13 feet in 
 height, with an unbroken arm of 3 feet 8 inches in length. 
 In the diagrams which accompany his article the crosses 
 seem to resemble our Christian crosses. The arms are 
 near the summit ; and the crosses altogether look perfectly 
 adapted for erection in our burial grounds or old cross- 
 ways. The tombs are constructed of worked stones, and 
 contain coffin-like cavities, which suggest the embalming 
 of bodies. They number about 150; and the four crosses 
 
APPENDIX. 357 
 
 do not appear to have any special connection with indivi- 
 dual tombs. Mr. King states that he thinks them pre- 
 historic. Of course the hypothesis, as he observes, may be 
 entertained that they are Christian, though it is difficult 
 to conceive that an old Christian burial-place can have 
 been formed so far inland. The general style of the tombs 
 and of the crosses seems not to have suggested Christian 
 work to him altogether, though the latter certaiidy have 
 the aspect of Gothic crosses in the diagrams. The sur- 
 rounding natives called the place the Village of Demons, 
 and its history appears to be quite enveloped in mystery. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Professor Curtius, in his " History of Greece," observes 
 that " In the entire religious life of the Greeks no great 
 epoch is more clearly marked than the first appearance 
 of Apollo. It resembles a second day of creation in the 
 history of their spiritual development. In all the Greek 
 towns, from which a rich treasure of myths has been handed 
 down to us, there attaches itself to his blessed arrival a 
 lofty revolution of the social order of things, a higher 
 development of life. The roads are levelled, the quarters 
 of the towns are marked out, the castles are encircled with 
 walls, things sacred are separated from things profane. 
 The sound of song and stringed instruments is heard, men 
 approach nearer to the gods. Zeus speaks to them through 
 
338 APPENDIX. 
 
 his prophets ; and guilt, even the guilt of blood, no longer 
 rests inexpiable, like a leaden weight, on ill-fated man ; no 
 longer drags itself, as a curse, from generation to generation. 
 Rather as the laurel cleanses the sultry air, so the laurel- 
 crowned god purifies Orestes from his stains of blood, and 
 restores to him serenity of soul ; the dread power of the 
 Erinnys is broken ; and a world of higher harmony, a 
 reign of grace, is founded." This Apollo the Greeks of the 
 hither side only knew as one who had come to them from 
 abroad, and his chief sanctuaries they only regarded as 
 the terminating points of the path along which he had 
 entered anions; them. 
 
 IX. 
 
 The antiquity of the idea that the Supreme Spirit may 
 be present on earth as Hari-Krishna, or any other mani- 
 festation, seems evident. He may, at the same time, be in 
 himself all the divine beings, and all that which is spiritual 
 in the universe. It is a spiritual pantheism in which the 
 divine is in the non-sensual human. The remnants of the 
 Orphic hymns which have descended to us bear testimony 
 to this. M. De la Barre (in Mem. de l'Acad. des Ins., torn 
 vi. p. 2S) makes observations upon these which seem to 
 display the exact affinity of the ancient religions of Greece 
 with that set forth in the Indian " Great Bharata " poem 
 and "Ancient Books." He was apparently quite unac- 
 
APPENDIX. 339 
 
 quainted with the spiritual pantheism of our cousins in the 
 East, and only perceives contradictions and absurdities in 
 the Orphic system. He remarks : "Mais l'examen leur 
 est infiniment desavantageux ; puisqu'il y de^couvre un 
 melange monstrueux d'idees philosophiques qui se croisent, 
 et qui n'ont pas plus de rapport entre elles qu'avec la 
 religion commune, qui ne laisse pas de s'y trouver partout. 
 C'est la en effet qu'Hercule est tout a la fois le premier 
 des etres qui a paru, ne de lui meme et production de la 
 terre, celui qui porte autour de sa tete l'Amour et la nuit, 
 et celui aussi dont le bras delivra la terre des scelerats" qui 
 troubloient la tranquility publique. [Hari, or Krishna, 
 seems evidently repeated in this conception.] C'est la 
 encore que, suivant je ne sais qu elles ide^es, Pan est le 
 monde entier, dont le ciel, la terre, la mer, et le feu 
 kernel sont les membres ; et que suivant les idoes Grec- 
 ques c'est un dieu qui court les forets, qui se cache dans 
 les antres, qui se plait a faire peur, a s'entretenir avec 
 l'echo, a danser avec les nymphes. Jupiter est represente 
 ici comme 1'auteur de la nature, celui qui a produit la terre, 
 la mer et tout ce que les cieux enserrent : il est, dit on, le 
 commencement et la fin de toutes choses, et tout de suite 
 on lui donne pour femme Junon considered comme Pair. 
 II me paroit d'ailleurs assez plaisant de voit que Atrea soit 
 dans un hymne fille de Protogone et mere de ciel, et que 
 dans un autre hymne le ciel soit son pere." 
 
 The Orphic hymns seem to be acknowledged to be of 
 uncertain origin and remote antiquity ; and they are only 
 found scattered amongst the writings of philosophers and 
 
340 APPENDIX. 
 
 historians. Certainly the cosmogony expounded in them 
 seems in absolute accord with that developed in the 
 Bharatan or ancient Indian books. We find the universe 
 created by one Supreme, Self-existent Being. We have the 
 primeval egg which opens into two halves, and forms 
 heaven and earth, &c. &c. 
 
 X. 
 
 According to the " Preliminary Discourse to Sale's 
 Koran," an heretical sect amongst the Mohammedan 
 Shiites seems to have maintained doctrines quite identical 
 with the Indo-Aryan. "They unanimously held a metemp- 
 sychosis and what they call al Holul. or the descent of God 
 on His creatures ; meaning thereby that God is present in 
 every place, and speaks with every tongue, and appears in 
 some individual person, and hence some of them asserted 
 their Imams to be prophets, and at length gods. The 
 Nosairians and Ishakians taught that spiritual substances 
 appear in grosser bodies ; and that the angels and the 
 devil have appeared in this manner. They also assert 
 that God hath appeared in the form of certain men ; and 
 since, after Mohammed, there hath been no man more 
 excellent than Ali, and, after him, his sons have excelled 
 all other men, that God hath appeared in their form, 
 spoken with their tongue, and made use of their hands ; 
 for which reason, say they, we attribute divinity to them. 
 
APPENDIX. 34i 
 
 And to support these blasphemies they tell several miracu- 
 lous things of Ali, as his moving the gates of Khaibar, 
 which they urge as a plain proof that he was endued with 
 a particle of divinity and with sovereign power, and that 
 he was the person in whose form God appeared, with 
 whose hands He created all things, and with whose tongue 
 He published His commands; and therefore they say he 
 was in being before the creation of heaven and earth. In 
 so impious a manner do they seem to wrest those things 
 which are said in Scripture of Christ by applying them to 
 Ali. These extravagant fancies of the Shiites, however, 
 in making their Imams partake of the Divine nature, and 
 the impiety of some of these Imams in laying claim thereto, 
 are so far from being peculiar to this sect, that most of the 
 other Mohammedan sects are tainted with the same mad- 
 ness, there being many found among them, and among the 
 Sufis especially, who'pretend to be nearly related to Heaven, 
 and who boast of strange revelations before the credulous 
 people." 
 
 Professor Weber observes that the Samkhyayoga system 
 of Indian philosophy had an important influence upon the 
 growth of the Sfifi philosophy. So that it appears that 
 the Indo- Aryan religious conceptions had obtained a foot- 
 ing in Arabia. And the Sabian religion, which was the 
 most prevalent faith of the Arabs before Mohammed, seems 
 to have been connected with the ancient Vedic system of 
 the Indo-Aryans. 
 
 "They do not only believe one God," says Sale, "but 
 produce many strong arguments for this unity, though they 
 
342 APPENDIX. 
 
 also pay an adoration to the stars, or the angels and intelli- 
 gences which they suppose reside in them, and govern the 
 world under the Supreme Deity. They endeavour to per- 
 fect themselves in the four intellectual virtues, and believe 
 the souls of wicked men will be punished for nine thousand 
 ages, but will afterwards be received to mercy. They are 
 obliged to pray three times a day : the first, half an hour 
 or less before sunrise, ordering it so that they may, just as 
 the sun rises, finish eight adorations, each containing three 
 prostrations ; the second prayer they end at noon, when 
 the sun begins to decline, in saying which they perform 
 five such adorations as the former; and the same they do 
 the third time, ending just as the sun sets. They fast 
 three times a year : the first time thirty days, the next nine 
 days, and the last seven. They offer many sacrifices, but 
 eat no part of them, burning them all. They abstain from 
 beans, garlic, and some other pulse and vegetables. Besides 
 the book of Psalms, the only true Scripture they read, they 
 have other books which they esteem equally sacred, parti- 
 cularly one in the Chaldee tongue which they call the book 
 of Seth, and is full of moral discourses. Travellers com- 
 monly call them Christians of St. John the Baptist, whose 
 disciples also they pretend to be, using a kind of baptism, 
 which is the greatest mark they bear of Christianity." 
 
 " The idolatry of the Arabs, then, as Sabians, consisted 
 chiefly in worshipping the fixed stars and planets, and the 
 angels and their images, which they honoured as inferior 
 deites, and whose intercession they begged as their medi- 
 ators with God." 
 
APPENDIX. 343 
 
 "Manah was the object of worship of the tribes of 
 Ilodhail and Khazaah, who dwell between Mecca and 
 Medina. This idol was a large stone, demolished by one 
 Saad in the eighth year of the Hegira (A.D. 630), a year 
 so fatal to the idols of Arabia. The name seems derived 
 from mana, to flow, from the flowing of the blood of the 
 victims sacrificed to the deity." Its sound seems sugges- 
 tive of the Aryan manu. 
 
 " Some of the pagan Arabs believed neither a creation 
 past nor a resurrection to come, attributing the origin of 
 things to nature, and their dissolution to age. Some 
 believed a metempsychosis. The Persians had, by their 
 vicinity and frequent intercourse with the Arabians, intro- 
 duced the Magian religion among some of their tribes. 
 Christianity had likewise made a very great progress among 
 this nation before Mohammed." 
 
 " Mohammed taught that God had the goodness to re- 
 inform and re-admonish mankind by several prophets, of 
 whom Moses and Jesus were the most distinguished till 
 the appearance of himself, who is their seal, no other being 
 to be expected after him." 
 
 Mohammed, then, like the Christian Church, ignored 
 the possibility of divine knowledge amongst the millions 
 of the Eastern civilisations, aud contemned the Aryan 
 conception of the Incarnation, which seems to have invaded 
 Arabia from both East and West. He fell back upon what 
 seems to be the Mosaic doctrine of God in heaven com- 
 municating personally His will to His chosen prophet on 
 earth. 
 
344 APPENDIX. 
 
 XL 
 
 The life and attributes of Krishna, regarded under his 
 warlike aspect, certainly present well-defined aspects of 
 being the originals of those of the Odin of ancient Ger- 
 many. Odin is related to have effected great changes in 
 government, manners, and religion. Colonel Vans Kennedy 
 observes that divine honours were paid to him, and that 
 in the midst of dangers the invoking of the name of Odin 
 was an unfailing resource. He is said to have instituted 
 Asiatic rites and ceremonies, to have taught magic and 
 performed miracles. He would sometimes appear trans- 
 formed into a fish, bird, or serpent. After his death his 
 body was said to have been burnt. Sacrifices of captives 
 taken in war were instituted in his honour. 
 
 According to the Edda of Northern Europe, one supreme 
 God created heaven and earth. A mystic cow appears in 
 the account of the creation, which suggests ancient Indo- 
 Aryan legends. 
 
 PRINTED BY BALI.ANTVNE, HANSON AND CO. 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON. 
 
Demy 8vo, pp. xx-420, cloth, price 7s. 6a. 
 
 CRADLELAND OF ARTS AND CREEDS; 
 
 OR, 
 
 NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN. 
 By CHARLES J. STONE. 
 
 Globe, June 4, 1880. — "Mr. Stone has brought very wide read- 
 ing to enforce his argument that the cradle of modern civilisation lies 
 far beyond Egypt and the adjacent countries. He claims for Hindustan 
 this high honour." 
 
 Gentleman's Magazine, October 1880. — "In his singularly 
 able and scholarly treatise on the ' Cradleland of Arts and Creeds,' 
 Mr. C. J. Stone supplies an account of the Ramayana, the earliest of 
 Indian romances. . . . Modern poetry is anticipated throughout the 
 epic by the constant celebration of the grandeur and beauties of 
 nature." 
 
 Morning Post, May 19. 1880. — "He has sought out all the points 
 of interest in the doctrines of Buddha and of the Brahmins ... he 
 seizes and turns to his purpose any salient point which has existed in 
 any theory of worship in any place at any time." 
 
 Guardian, November 10, isso. — "Mr. Stone's aim is to show 
 that India was not only the cradleland of religion but of art. . . . His 
 book is worth reading." 
 
 Sunday Times, April 11, 1880. — "Readers will discover many 
 facts that are new, many old legends and myths put in a novel and 
 attractive form, and a marvellous amount of thought, erudition, and 
 poetry." 
 
 Daily News, December 11, 1880. — "He writes in a clear and 
 readable style." 
 
 Examiner. August 14, 1880. — "His chief faults are an excess of 
 enthusiasm, pardonable enough in view of the magnitude and interest 
 of his subject." 
 
( 2 ) 
 
 Westminster Review. July isso. — "In the 'Cradleland of Arts 
 and Creeds/ Mr. Charles Stone derives the civilisation of Egypt from 
 the East, makes India the original seat of the Aryan race, discovers 
 there a Trinity in Unity, and finds a Christian cultus and Christian 
 speculation." 
 
 Graphic, April 17, 1880. — " He has the merit of bringing Indian 
 culture before us in a form which to many will be new and attractive." 
 
 European Mail, Augusti9. 1880. — "This volume shows consider- 
 able erudition on the part of the author, who possesses many qualifica- 
 tions for treating his subject, having been a resident in the East. . . . 
 This interesting work traces the germs of all existing arts and creeds to 
 India." 
 
 Glasgow News. July 22. isso. — "It is very well written and 
 extremely interesting. . . . Dip where we may into the volume, some 
 new fact is brought before us, or some fresh light shed upon periods of 
 remote antiquity." 
 
 Notes and Queries, July 16, 1881. — "His book is really a store- 
 house of miscellaneous information, as well as a challenge to thinkers, 
 on points of interest in the Vedic, Buddhistic, and other systems of 
 Eastern philosophy, art and science, which are attracting so much 
 attention in the present day." 
 
 The Queen, September 4, 18S0.— "This is in several respects a 
 curious book." 
 
 South London Press, June 12, isso.— "Nothing is so striking 
 in India as her temples and caves — those of Elephanta are the most 
 celebrated, and exhibit a mixture of Egyptian and classic elements . . . 
 in the place of the high altar is a colossai three-headed bust, rising from 
 floor to roof . . . the columns and decorations are much decayed . . . 
 in the case of Elora a solid mountain has been hewn out. The evi- 
 dences of a grand civilisation are numerous and astounding. ... In 
 mythology the old Hindus seem to have preceded all the world. The 
 book . . . is in a solid and, at the same time, essentially popular form. 
 As a picture, necessarily drawn partly from imagination, of ancient 
 Hindu civilisation, it stands alone, as far as we remember, for the 
 extent of its plan and the amount of its information, and it can scarcely 
 fail to be read without profit by priest or layman. . . . The fact that 
 India, in spite of 800 years of foreign domination, still retains forms of 
 Aryan civilisation, is quoted as strong evidence of its having been 
 native to the soil . . . that this cradleland of humanity should, after 
 the lapse of so many centuries, have become an integral portion of the 
 British Empire, invests Mr. Stone's book with extraordinary interest 
 for Englishmen." 
 
 LONDON : TRUBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL. 
 
 

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