2S4

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

[October, 1873.

of this testimony as weakened by the addition

Christianity, and even to use some of its doc

of the words “and innumerable other nations.” But such a consideration loses its force when we remember that all the translations mentioned

trines, and maxims from its holy writings, in order to suit them to, and incorporate them with, his own system P Here too we must first show the possibility of such a thing before we can

by name in this passage, with the single excep tion of the Indian, are known to us from other

proceed to demonstrate the actual fact from

sources and are still extant. We may be certain that Chrysostom would not have expressly mentioned the Indian if he had not had positive knowladge of a translation in their tongue. Now Chrysostom died in the year 407 A.D. The

the evident traces we can adduce.

The composer of the Bhagavad-Gita belongs to the sect of the Vaishnavas; for he transfers to Vishnu all the attributes of supreme

Indian translation of which he knew must have

deity—of Brahma in the philosophical sense of that word—and sees in the hero Krishna

-existed for at least a hundred years before in

an incarnation of this supreme nature. Now

formation about it could in those times have

this incarnation of Krishna, which is perhaps

reached him.

more sharply defined in the Bhagavad-Gita than in any of the other similar episodes of

But probably Pantaenus, the

teacher of Clemens Alexandrinus, who we know

was himself in India, had brought this inform ation to the West.

The date of this transla

tion then may possibly reach to the first or second century A.D. It would be difficult to ascertain whether it was composed in Sanskrit, the learned speech of the Brahmans, which had already died out in the mouths of the common people, or in one of the Indian popular dialects. This, however, is not of importance, since we must of course presume that the learned and

highly-gifted Brahman who wrote the Bhaga

the Mahābhārata, was, as Weber among others has shown in his Indische Studien, greatly in fluenced by contact with Christianity. Misled by the similarity of the name, they recognised in Christ the hero Krishna, and transferred to Krishna much of what the Christians related and believed of Christ. In reference to this connection between the

legend of Krishna and the doctrines of Christi

anity, Professor Weber, whose authority in the sphere of Indian philology and antiquities is

recognised even in India, says (Indische Studien, I. 400):—“A supposition of a different nature of an Indian translation of the New Testament, here involuntarily occurs to me, namely, that it would still be possible that a Brahman Brahmans may have come across the sea to Alex acquainted with the Greek language may have andria, or even to Asia Minor, at the beginning known and used the original text. And such a of the Christian era, and that they, on their return supposition may perhaps find confirmation in to India, may have transferred the monotheistic the circumstance that, besides the NewTestament, doctrine and some of its legends to their own sage there are traces of the use of the Book of Wis or hero, Krishna Devakiputra (son of Devaki, Divine *), whose very name reminded them of dom, which was originally written in Greek. Christ, the son of the divine (?!) maiden, and In this way the possibility that the composer of the Bhagavad-Gita may have been acquainted to whom divine honours may already have not merely with the general teaching of Chris been granted, replacing in other particulars tianity, but also with the very writings of the the Christian doctrines by those of the San New Testament, might be shown in a very khya and Yoga philosophies, as these in their natural way, without the necessity of having turn may perhaps have had an influence in the formation of Gnostic sects. The legends of recourse to rash hypotheses. But is it conceivable that a Brahman, who the birth of Krishna, and his persecution by Kaūsa, remind us too strikingly of the corre holds fast to the traditional wisdom of his sponding Christian narratives to leave room for caste and puts it above everything, as the author the supposition that the similarity is quite acci of the Bhagavad-Gita does, should have con dental. Nor does chronology oppose us in the descended to take such special knowledge of vad-Gita knew the popular dialect also. But even if we shut our eyes to the existence

• This derivation of Dew a ki is, however, only apparently correct, as Weber shºws in his recent treatise on Krishna's

Geburtsfest (Berlin, 1868), which only reached me when this was in the press. The word should rather be translated ‘player” (root div).