FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: Lassen interprets ophir as Abh[=i]ras, at the mouth of the Indus. The biblical koph is Sanskrit kapi, ape. Other doubtful equivalents are discussed by Weber, Indische Skizzen, p. 74.]
[Footnote 2: The legend of the Flood and the fancy of the
Four Ages has been attributed to Babylon by some writers.
Ecstein claims Chaldean influence in Indic atomic
philosophy, Indische Studien, ii. 369, which is doubtful;
but the Indic alphabet probably derived thence, possibly
from Greece. The conquests of Semiramis (Serimamis in
the original) may have
included a part of India, but only Brunnhofer finds trace of
this in Vedic literature, and the character of his work we
have already described.]
[Footnote 3: Senart attributes to the Achaemenides certain
Indic formulae of administration. IA. xx. 256.]
[Footnote 4: Certain Hindu names, like those to which we called attention in the epic, containing Mihira, i.e., Mithra; the Magas; i.e., Magi; and recommendations of sun-worship in the Pur[=a]nas are the facts on which Weber bases a theory of great influence of Persia at this later period. Weber claims, in fact, that the native sun-worship was quite replaced by this importation (Indische Skizzen, p. 104). This we do not believe. Even the great number of Persians who, driven out by Arabians, settled in Gujar[=a]t (the name of Bombay is the same with Pumbadita, a Jewish settlement in Mesopotamia) had no other effect on the Brahmanic world that absorbed them (ib. p. 109) than to intensify the fervor of a native cult.]
[Footnote 5: Weber ascribes to Greek influence the Hindus first acquaintance with the planets. On a possible dramatic loan see above, p. 2, note. The Greeks were first to get into the heart of India (as far as Patna), and between the court of Antiochus the Great and the king S[=a]ubhagasena there was formal exchange of ambassadors in the third century B.C. The name of Demetrius appears as Datt[.a]mitra in the Hindu epic. He had "extended his rule over the Indus as far as the Hydaspes and perhaps over M[=a]lava and Gujarat" (about 200 B.C.; Weber, Skizzen). In the second century Menandros (the Buddhists' 'Milinda') got as far as the Jumna; but his successors retreated to the Punj[=a]b and eventually to Kabul (ib.) Compare also Weber, Sitz. d. könig. Preuss. Akad., 1890, p. 901 ff., Die Griechien in Indien. The period of Greek influence coincides with that of Buddhist supremacy in its first vigor, and it is for this reason that Brahmanic literature and religion were so untouched by it. There is to our mind no great probability that the Hindu epic owes anything to that of Greece, although Weber has put in a strong plea for this view in his essay Ueber das R[=a]m[=a]ya[n.]a.]
[Footnote 6: The romance of a Russian traveller's late 'discovery,' which Sanskrit scholars estimate at its true value, but which may seem to others worthy of regard, is perhaps, in view of the interest taken in it, one that should be told correctly. Nicholas Notovitch asserts that he discovered seven years ago in the Tibetan monastery of Himis, a work which purports to give a life of Christ from birth to death, including sixteen years spent in India. This life of 'Issa' (Jesus) is declared to have been written in the first century of the Christian era. Unfortunately for the reputation of the finder, he made a mistake in exploiting his discovery, and stated that his manuscript had been translated for him by the monks of Himis 'out of the original P[=a]li,' a dialect that these monks could not understand if they had specimens of it before them. This settled Notovitch's case, and since of course he did not transcribe a word of the MS. thus freely put at his disposal, but published the forgery in a French 'translation,' he may be added to the list of other imposters of his ilk. The humbug has been exposed for some time, and we know of no one who, having a right to express an opinion, believes Notovitch's tale, though some ignorant people have been hoaxed by it. If the blank sixteen years in Christ's life ever be explained, it may be found that they were passed in a Zoroastrian environment; but until real evidence be brought to show that Christ was in India, the wise will continue to doubt it. As little proof exists, it may be added, of Buddhistic influence in the making of the Gospels. But this point is nowadays scarcely worth discussing, for competent scholars no longer refer vague likenesses to borrowing. Certain features are common to the story of Christ and to the legends of Buddha; but they are common to other divine narratives also. The striking similarities are not found in the earliest texts of the Southern Buddhists. [=I]ça for Jesus is modern, Weber, loc. cit., p. 931.]
[Footnote 7: Elphinstone, I. pp, 140, 508; II. chap. I. The 'slave dynasty' of Kutab, 1206-1288. It was the bigoted barbarity of these Mohammedans that drove Brahmanic religion into the South.]
[Footnote 8: Though immediately before it the Harihara cult, survival of Sankhyan dualism, is practically monotheistic. Basava belongs to the twelfth century.]
[Footnote 9: The literary exchange in the realm of fable between Arabia and later Sanskrit writers (of the twelfth century) is very evident. Thus in Indic dress appear at this time the story of Troy, of the passage over the Red Sea, of Jonas, etc. On the other hand, the Arabians translated native Hindu fables. See Weber, IS. iii. 327, Ueber den Zusammenhang griechischer Fabeln mit indischen, and Indische Skizzen, p. 111, and Die Griechen in Indien. Arabia further drew on India for philosophical material, and Alber[=u]ni himself translated Kapila's work (Weber,loc. cit.).]