October, 1873.]

CHRISTIAN TRACES IN THE BHAGAVAD GíTA.

By the decree of God, in the city of Bejápúr, [the mausoleum of P J the Mā Qāheb Shāhzādi is con tiguous to the mosk. In the city of Bejápúr and Nāmūjptiri the expenses of the mosk, the founda tion of the edifice, and the building, were defrayed by the Sirkār of the Pádeshāh ’Aly 'Adil Sháh.

283

Múza' Bhostán, Müza’ Aisapúr, Srol. Múza

Bhopan. Múza Pangári Khard, Máza' Bhu raviti. Máza Mundrar, Máza' Chivili. Su perintendent Kāmel Khán built the mosk of Mā Qāheb.

TRACES IN THE BHAGAVAD.GITA OF CHRISTIAN WRITINGS AND IDEAS.

From the Appendix to Dr. Lorinser's Bhagavad-Gita.” To prove that in the manifold and often sur prising coincidence of thoughts and expressions in the Bhagavad-Gita, as well with single pas sages in the New Testament, as with the com mon Christian ideas and principles, we have no accidental similarities, but that an actual

borrowing has taken place, it may not be superfluous to exhibit in a collective form the results already won, and from them to draw some further conclusions which give such a high degree of probability to the opinion that the doctrines of the Bhagavad-Gita are not only an eclectic mixture of different Indian philoso phies, but have also a strong infusion at least of ideas and sayings taken over from Chris tianity, that it may almost lay claim to cer tainty. Up to the present time the means for an accurate chronology of Indian Antiquity are entirely wanting, and in judging of the age of the literary monuments we can only speak -

of relative dates.

Our aim here then must be

to establish that the Bhagavad-Gita may be attributed to a period in which it is not impos sible that its composer may have been acquaint ed with Christianity and its sacred writings, that is to say, with different books of the New Testament.

And here we do not need to depart from the results of modern criticism of the age of the Bhagavad-Gita. On the one hand it is cer tain that it dates after Buddha, and on the other

hand there is the strongest reason to believe that its composition must be attributed to a

period terminating several centuries after the commencement of the Christian era. The date after which it could not have been

composed must, however, be left an open question till we are certain when Sankara,

the renowned philosopher of the Vedānta school, lived. According to the usual hy pothesis, resting, it must be confessed, on weighty reasons, which however can make no

claim to irrefragable certainty, Śankara lived in the 8th century after Christ. Hence Lassen infers that the Bhagavad-Gita must have been composed some five centuries earlier, i. e. in

the third century after Christ. If this sup position is correct (and it must not be forgotten that it only professes to give the earliest date at which the Bhagavad-Gita could have been composed), it is clear that the composer of the poem might have had some acquaintance with

the doctrines

Christianity.

and

sacred records

of

For we know that there were

already at that time Christian communities in India, in which from Eusebius (IIist. Eccles. lib. V. cap. 10) we learn that Pantaenus, a mis sionary who had penetrated to India as early as the second century, found, and brought to Alexandria on his return, a copy of the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, which had apparently been taken there by the apostle Bartholomew. Further, and this is of peculiar importance in the present discussion, there already existed an Indian translation of the New Testament,

of which we have positive proof in the writings of St. Chrysostom, which seems to have been till now overlooked by Indian antiquarians. The place in questiont is Evang. Joan., Homil. I. cap. 1, and runs as follows:– “The Syrians, too, and Egyptians, and Indians, and Persians, and Ethiopians, and in numerable other nations, translating into their own tongues the doctrines derived from this man, barbarians though they were, learnt to philosophise.” We might be tempted to regard the importance

• Die Bhagavad Gita webersetzt wrid erläutert von Dr.

F. Lorinser (Breslau, 1869).

perağa)évres y@Trav rá trapá rotºrov 86yuara elorax

+ 'AAAa kai Süpot, kai Aiyúm riot, kai 'Ivöoi, kat IIéparat, Kai Aiótomes, kai pupia repa tºwn, eis rºv airów

Montfaucon, tom. viii. pp. 11, 12.).

6évra, ºuabov čv6potrot Băp{3 pot ºptAooroºpeiv.–(Ed.