Highest Sageness -26

India and Greece

Indian civilization is distinctive for its antiquity and continuity. Apart from its own vitality, the continuity of Indian civilization is largely due to its ability to adapt to alien ideas, harmonize contradictions and mould new thought patterns. Her constant contacts with the outside world also gave India the opportunity to contribute to other civilizations. Whilst other ancient civilizations have long ceased to exist, Indian civilization has continued to grow despite revolutionary changes. The ancient cultures of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Persia have not survived. But in India today, Hindus seek inspiration from concepts similar to those originally advanced by their ancestors. 
Jawaharlal Nehru says in his book The Discovery of India " Till recently many European thinkers imagined that everything that was worthwhile had its origins in Greece or Rome. Sir Henry Maine has said somewhere that except the blind forces of nature, nothing moves in this world which is not originally Greek." 
However, Indian contacts with the Western world date back to prehistoric times. Trade relations, preceded by the migration of peoples, inevitably developed into cultural relations. This view is not only amply supported by both philological and archaeological evidence, but by a vast body of corroborative literary evidence as well: Vedic literature and the Jatakas, Jewish chronicles, and the accounts of Greek historians all suggest contact between India and the West. Taxila was a great center of commerce and learning. "Crowds of eager scholars flowed to it for instruction in the three Vedas and in the eighteen branches of knowledge." Tradition affirms that the great epic, the Mahabharata, was first recited in the city." (An Advance History of India, R. C. Majumdar, H. C. Raychanduri p.64) Buddha is reputed to have studied in Taxila. Pythagorean and Platonic philosophy owe their origin to Indian thought and spirituality.

Alexander's raid, which was so significant to Western historians, seemed to have entirely escaped the attention of Sanskrit authors. From the Indian point of view, there was nothing to distinguish his raid in Indian history. Jawaharlal Nehru says, " From a military point of view his invasion, was a minor affair. It was more of a raid across the border, and not a very successful raid at that." 

Indian Thought and the West

Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, has said, 

"The Europeans are apt to imagine that before the great Greek thinkers, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, there was a crude confusion of thought, a sort of chaos without form and void. Such a view becomes almost a provincialism when we realize that systems of thought which influenced countless millions of human beings had been elaborated by people who never heard the names of the Greek thinkers."

(source: Eastern Religions and Western Thought - By Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan p. 350).

There has been too much inclination among Western writers to idealize the Greeks and their civilization, and they have tended to discover too much of the contemporary world in the Greek past. In fact almost everything was traced to ancient Greece. In all that concerned intellectual activity and even faith, modern civilization was considered to be an overgrown colony of Hellas. The obvious Greek failings, their shortcomings and the unhealthy features of their civilization, was rationalized and romanticized. 

In the words of Sir Charles Eliot, who affirms that "it is clearly absurd for Europe as a whole to pose as a qualified instructor in humanity and civilization. He writes: "If Europeans have any superiority over Asiatics it lies in practical science, finance and administration, not in philosophy, thought or art. Their gifts are authority and power to organize; in other respects their superiority is imaginary."

(source: Hinduism and Buddhism - By Sir Charles Elliot Curzon Press ISBN 0700706798  volume I (1920), pp. xcvi and xcviii )

Modern research, however, has marred this comforting image and is helping to put Greek culture into its proper historical perspective showing that, like any other culture, it inherited something from preceding civilizations, profited from the progress of its neighboring cultures (like India and Persia) and, in turn, bequeathed much to later generations. 

We are not completely in the dark on the question of Indian influence on Greece. Speaking of ascetic practices in the West, Professor Sir Flinders Patrie (1853-1942) British archaeologist and Egyptologist, author of Egypt and Israel (1911) observes:

" The presence of a large body of Indian troops in the Persian army in Greece in 480 B.C. shows how far west the Indian connections were carried; and the discovery of modeled heads of Indians at Memphis, of about the fifth century B.C. shows that Indians were living there for trade. Hence there is no difficulty in regarding India as the source of the entirely new ideal of asceticism in the West."

(source: Eastern Religions and Western Thought - By Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan p. 150).

Gods of heaven

It is significant to note that although the Indians and Greeks (Yavanas) had come from the same Indo-European stock, they met as strangers in the sixth century B.C. Persian Empire. Soon, however, the cousins became associates in a a common cultural enterprise. Similarities in language, associated by similarities in religious beliefs, indicate that these two peoples must have either been in close contact at some early period or have had a common origin, even though neither had any recollection of those times.

For example, the gods of heaven (Varuna - Ouranos; Dyaus - Zeus ) and the dawn (Ushas - Aurora) were common to the Greeks and Indians. The most prominent characteristics of the gods of both races was their power of regulating the order of nature and banishing evil. The Olympian religion of the Greeks and Vedic beliefs had a common background. The Greek concept of logos was very close to the vedic Vac, which corresponds to the Latin Vox. 

Both Greeks and Romans habitually tried to understand the religions of India by trying to fit them as far as possible into Greco-Roman categories. Deities in particular were spoken of, not in Indian but in Greek terms and called by Greek names. Thus Shiva was identified as 'Dionysos', and Hare Krishna as ' Hercules'. 

In a passage of the Rig Veda, Vac is praised as a divine being. Vac is omnipotent, moves amongst divine beings, and carries the great gods, Mitra, Varuna, Indra and Agni, within itself. The doctrine of Vac teaches that "all gods live from Vac, also all demi-gods, animals and people. Vac is the eternal being, it is the first-born of the eternal law, mother of the Vedas and navel of immortality." Vedic Aryans attached such great importance to the spoken word that one who could not correctly pronounce Sanskrit was called barbar (meaning stammering). 

The Greek barbaroi had the same meaning. The brisk intercourse between India and Greece is attested by the fact that a special rule was inserted in the great grammar of Panini to distinguish three feminine forms of yavana: a Greek woman was yavani, the curtain was yavanika, and the Greek script was yavanani. There is also a striking similarity between the social life described in the Homeric poems- the Illiad and Odyssey- and that found in the Vedas. Homeric gods, like the heroes who believed in them, often rode in the horse driven chariots. Horse-chariotry was a feature of the life of the Indo-European people. The Homeric idea of a language of the gods is also found in Sanskrit, Greek, Old Norse, and Hittite literatures. Some scholars, like Fiske, have even asserted that elements of the Trojan war story are to be found in the war between the bright deities, and the night demons as described in the Rig Veda. It is clear from Homer that even they used articles of Indian merchandise which were known by names of Indian origin, such as Kassiteros (Sanskrit, Kastira), elephas (Sanskrit, ibha), and ivory. 

Alain Danielou (1907-1994), son of French aristocracy, author of numerous books on philosophy, religion, history and arts of India, remarks that: "the Greeks were always speaking of India as the sacred territory of Dionysus and historians working under Alexander the Greek clearly mentions chronicles of the Puranas as sources of the myth of Dionysus." He quotes Clement of Alexandria who admitted that "we the Greeks have stolen from the Barbarians their philosophy." 

Alexander's Insignificant Raid 

The Alexander mythos

Alexander is supposed to have invaded the Punjab in 326 B.C. Every schoolboy is taught and is expected to know, that he invaded India's Northwest. Strangely, this event, so significant to Western historians, seemed to have entirely escaped the attention of Sanskrit authors. Nowhere did Sir William Jones, (1746-1794),who came to India as a judge of the Supreme Court at Calcutta and pioneered Sanskrit studies, find any mention of Greeks or any sign of Greek influence.

(source: India Discovered - By John Keay p. 33).

British historian Vincent A. Smith, conservatively appraised the impact of Alexander's invasion as follows:

"The Greek influence never penetrated deeply (into the Indic civilization)...On the other hand, the West learned something from India in consequence of the communications opened up by Alexander's adventure. Our knowledge of the facts is so scanty and fragmentary that it is difficult to make any positive assertions with confidence, but it is safe to say that the influence of Buddhist ideas on Christian doctrine may be traced in the Gnostic forms of Christianity, if not elsewhere. The notions of Indian philosophy and religion which filtered into the Roman empire flowed through channels opened by Alexander."

(source:  In Search of The Cradle of Civilization: : New Light on Ancient India - By Georg Feuerstein, Subhash Kak & David Frawley p. 252-253).

Even more than the Vedas and the Epics, Sindh figures very prominently in, of all places, the annals of Sikander that is Alexander. British historians used to talk of Alexander as ``the world conqueror'' who ``came and saw and conquered'' every land he had visited. He is still advertised in Indian text-books as the victor in his war with India's Porus (Puru). 

However, the facts as recorded by Alexander's own Greek historians tell a very different tale. And Marshal Zhukov, the famous Russian commander in World War II, said at the Indian Military Academy, Dehra Dun, a few years back, that India had defeated Alexander.

Alexander fared badly enough with Porus in the Punjab. Indeed, Porus put him on the spot when he told him: ``To what purpose should we make war upon one another. if the design of your coming to these parts be not to rob us of our water or our necessary food, which are the only things that wise men are indispensably obliged to fight for? As for other riches and possessions, as they are accounted in the eyes of the world, if I am better provided of them than you, I am ready to let you share with me; but if fortune has been more liberal to you than to me, I have no objection to be obliged to you.'' Alexander had no reply to the questions posed by Porus. Instead, with the obstinacy of a bully, he said: ``I shall contend and do battle with you so far that, howsoever obliging you are, you shall not have the better of me.'' But Porus did have the better of Alexander. In the fighting that ensued, the Greeks were so terrified of Indian prowess that they refused to proceed farther, in spite of Alexander's angry urgings and piteous lamentations. Writes Plutarch, the great Greek historian: ``This last combat with Porus took off the edge of the Macedonians' courage and stayed their further progress in India.... Alexander not only offered Porus to govern his own kingdom as satrap under himself but gave him also the additional territory of various independent tribes whom he had subdued.'' Porus emerged from his war with Alexander with his territory doubled and his gold stock augmented. So much for Alexander's ``victory'' over Porus. However, what was to befall him in Sindh, was even worse. In his wars in Iran. Afghanistan, and north-west India, Alexander had made so many enemies that he did not dare return home by the same route he had come. He had, therefore, decided to travel via Sindh. But in Multan the Mallas gave him hell.

(source: Alexander's Waterloo in Sindh - By K R Malkhani).

According to Indian historian Dr. R. C. Majumdar,  "The invasion of Alexander has been recorded in minute details by the Greek historians who naturally felt elated at the progress of their hero over unknown lands and seas. From the Indian point of view, there was nothing to distinguish his raid in Indian history. It can hardly be called a great military success as the only military achievement to his credit were the conquest of petty tribes and States by installments. He never approached even within a measurable distance of what may be called the citadel of Indian military strength, and the exertions he had to make against Poros, the ruler of a small district between the Jhelum and the Chenab, do not certainly favor the hypothesis that he would have found it an easy task to subdue the mighty Nanda empire." 

According to Paul Masson-Oursel and others, "The importance of this Indian campaign of Alexander has been exaggerated. It had no decisive influence on the destinies of India, for its results were short-lived.

H. G. Rawlinson, refers to the invasion, " had no immediate effect, and passed off like countless other invasions, leaving the country almost undisturbed." 

Vincent  A. Smith " India remained unchanged. She was never Hellenised. She continued to live her life of splendid isolation, and forgot the passing of the Macedonian storm. No Indian author, Hindu, Buddhist, or Jain, makes even the faintest illusion to Alexander or his deeds."

(Source: Ancient India - By V. D. Mahajan 1994. published by S. Chand & Company New Delhi. p. 265-268)

Jawaharlal Nehru in his book Discovery of India says, " From a military point of view his invasion, was a minor affair. It was more of a raid across the border, and not a very successful raid at that." He met with such stout resistance from a border chieftain that the contemplated advance into the heart of India had to be reconsidered. If a small ruler on the frontier could fight thus, what of the larger and more powerful kingdom further south? Probably this was the main reason why his army refused to march further and insisted on returning."

(source Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru p. 114-115)

Another myth is propagated by the Western historians that Alexander was noble and kind king, he had great respects for brave and courageous men, and so on. The truth is other-wise. He was neither a noble man nor did he have a heart of gold. He had meted out very cruel and harsh treatment to his earlier enemies. Basus of Bactria fought tooth and nail with Alexander to defend the freedom of his motherland. When he was brought before Alexander as a prisoner, Alexander ordered his servants to whip him and then cut off his nose and ears. He then killed him. Many Persian generals were killed by him.

The murder of Kalasthenese, nephew of Aristotle, was committed by Alexander because he criticised Alexander for foolishly imitating the Persian emperors. Alexander also murdered his friend Clytus in anger. His father's trusted lieutenant Parmenian was also murdered by Alexander. The Indian soldiers who were returning from Masanga were most atrociously murdered by Alexander in the dead of night. These exploits do not prove Alexander's kindness and greatness, but only an ordinary emperor driven by the zeal of expanding his empire.

(source:  Alexander, the Ordinary - By Prof. Dinesh Agarwal).

Alexander’s raid of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, finally turned out to be a overthrow of the Achaemenid dynasty, usurpers of the Assyrian Empire. Unable to make headway into India, as the Indian Brahmins had helped and influenced Indian princes to organize and support the Indian war against Alexander. Greek sources cite, after this realization, at ‘The City of Brahmans’, Alexander massacred an estimated 8000-10,000 of these non-combatant Brahmans.

Alexander’s massacres in India, a colonial historian informs us (without naming a source), earned him an “epithet … assigned (to) him by the Brahmins of India, The Mighty Murderer.” This Indian Brahmanic characterization of Alexander, commonly taught to English schoolchildren and present in English college texts, as The Mighty Murderer, curiously disappeared from Western-English texts soon after 1860 – and instead now “a positive rose-tinted aura surrounds Alexander” … !

Since Indian texts were completely silent about the very existence of Alexander, colonial Western historians had a free run. Using hagiographic Greek texts as the base, Alexander became the conqueror of the world.

(source: The Alexander mythos - 2ndlook.wordpress.com). 

The religious scripture of ancient Iranians was the Avesta. The Avesta available today is only a fraction of what existed thousands of years ago. When Alexander captured Iran (Persia) in 326 B. C. after a bloody war, he destroyed each copy of the Avesta available. After return of political stability Persian priests tried to salvage the Avesta and much had to be  written from memory. Another cruel legacy of Alexander.

(source: Vedic Physics - By Raja Ram Mohan Roy p. 8)
Marshal Zhukov, the famous Russian commander in World War II, said at the Indian Military Academy, Dehra Dun, a few years back, that India had defeated Alexander

Indian Philosophy

By contrast, philosophical thought in India in the sixth century B.C. had become quite mature. It had reached a stage which could have been arrived at only after long and arduous philosophical quest. Jainism and Buddhism, the latter enormously influential in Indian and neighboring cultures, had emerged by this time. But even before their advent, the philosophical reflections of the early Upanishads (900-600 B.C.) had set forth the fundamental concepts of Hindu thought which have continued to dominate the Indian mind.  

It is perhaps necessary to point out that there has often been a wide divergence between Indian and Western interpretations of Indian thought. Dr. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy once even declared that a true account to Hinduism may be given in a categorical denial of most of the interpretation that have been made by Westerners or Western-trained Indians. 

The tradition of Indian philosophic thought is as complex as it is long. The complexities of Indian philosophy have arisen through centuries of deep reflection on the many aspects of human experience, and, in the search for some reality behind the external world, various methods have been restored to ranging from experimental to the purely speculative. It is the oldest philosophical tradition in the world is to be traced in the ancient Vedas. Although the religious and philosophical spirit of India emerges distinctly in the Rig Veda, the Upanishads are its most brilliant exposition, for the Vedic civilization was naturalistic and utilitarian, although it did not exclude the cosmological and religious speculation. 

Older than Plato or Confucius, the Upanishads are the most ancient philosophical works and contain the mature wisdom of India's intellectual and spiritual attainment. They have inspired not only the orthodox system of Indian thought but also the so-called heterodox schools such as Buddhism. In profundity of thought and beauty of style, they have rarely been surpassed not only in Indian thought but in the Western and Chinese philosophical traditions as well. 

The Upanishads have greatly influenced Indian culture throughout history and have also found enthusiastic admirers abroad. Schopenhauer was almost lyrical about them. Max Muller said: " The Upanishads are the .... sources of .....the Vedanta philosophy, a system in which human speculation seems to me to have reached its very acme."  The Upanishads are saturated with the spirit of inquiry, intellectual analysis, and a passion for seeking the truth.

India, is the home of philosophy. Certainly India is a country where philosophy has always been very popular and influential. An American scholar has stated that teachers of philosophy in India were as numerous as merchants in Babylonia. The sages have always been heroes of the Indians. If philosophy did emerge in India earlier than in Greece, and if the two countries were in close contact  soon after this emergence, it is not unlikely that Indian thought had some influence on Greek philosophy.

Indian Inspiration of Pythagoras

The similarity between the theory of Thales, that water is the material cause of all things, and the Vedic idea of primeval waters as the origin of the universe, was first pointed out by Richard Garbe. The resemblances, too, between the teachings of Pythagoras (ca. 582-506 B.C.) and Indian philosophy are striking. It was Sir William Jones, the founder of comparative philology, who first pointed out the pointed out the similarities between Indian and Pythagorean beliefs. Later, other scholars such as Colebrooke, Garbe, and Winternitz also testified to the Indian inspiration of Pythagoras.

Professor H. G. Rawlinson writes: " It is more likely that Pythagoras was influenced by India than by Egypt. Almost all the theories, religions, philosophical and mathematical taught by the Pythagoreans, were known in India in the sixth century B.C., and the Pythagoreans, like the Jains and the Buddhists, refrained from the destruction of life and eating meat and regarded certain vegetables such as beans as taboo" "It seems that the so-called Pythagorean theorem of the quadrature of the hypotenuse was already known to the Indians in the older Vedic times, and thus before Pythagoras (ibid). (Legacy of India 1937, p. 5). 

Professor Maurice Winternitz is of the same opinion: "As regards Pythagoras, it seems to me very probable that he became acquainted with Indian doctrines in Persia." (Visvabharati Quarterly Feb. 1937, p. 8).

It is also the view of Sir William Jones (Works, iii. 236), Colebrooke (Miscellaneous Essays, i. 436 ff.). Schroeder (Pythagoras und die Inder), Garbe (Philosophy of Ancient India, pp. 39 ff), Hopkins (Religions of India, p. 559 and 560) and Macdonell (Sanskrit Literature, p. 422).

(source: Eastern Religions and Western Thought - By Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan p. 143).

Ludwig von Schröder German philosopher, author of the book Pythagoras und die Inder (Pythagoras and the Indians), published in 1884, he argued that Pythagoras had been influenced by the Samkhya school of thought, the most prominent branch of the Indic philosophy next to Vedanta.

(source:  In Search of The Cradle of Civilization: : New Light on Ancient India - By Georg Feuerstein, Subhash Kak & David Frawley p. 252).  Refer to The Passion of the Greeks: Christianity and the Rape of the Hellenes – By Evaggelos G. Vallianatos - Reviewed by Christos C. Evangeliou - indianrealist.wordpress.com

Watch Scientific verification of Vedic knowledge

"Nearly all the philosophical and mathematical doctrines attributed to Pythagoras are derived from India." 

Orphic religion, Pythagorean philosophy, Neo-Platonism, Stoicism and several others not so well-known have been influenced by the Samkhya-Vedanta thought of India. In pre-Christian centuries Persia served as a middle ground between India, and Greece. It is known that Indian archers with their long bows, one end of which was planted in the ground, fought in Darius's war against Greece. Brahmins and Buddhists were in Greece before Socrates. Later Alexandria became a great center of commerce and learning, where Buddhists and Brahmins congregated and where Neo-Platonism was born. The great astronomical observatory at Ujjayini (now Ujjain) in central India was linked to Alexandria in Egypt. The first Greek book about India was perhaps written by Scylax, a Greek sea-captain whom Darius commissioned to explore the course of the Indus about 510 B.C. (Herodotus, iv. 44 ). 

Vitsaxis G. Vassilis, in his book Plato and the Upanishads, argues that exponents of literature, science, philosophy and religion traveled regularly between the two countries. He points to accounts by Eusebius and Aristoxenes, of the visits of Indian sages to Athens and their meetings with Greek philosophers. And reference to the visit of Indians to Athens is found in the fragment of Aristotle preserved in the writings of Diogenes Laertius who was also one of Pythagoras’ biographers.

The essence of Socratic and Platonic philosophy has remained unintelligible in the West because of lack of insight into Indian thought. Plato's view of Reality is the same as that of the Upanishads. His method of attaining knowledge of the Good is that of Vedanta. In the Phaedo, Plato describes silent meditation as withdrawal of the senses from their objects and as stilling the processes of mind.

The Greek theoria of the Pythagoreans, of Socrates and Plato, from which the world 'theater' comes is the vision or darshana of the Upanishads.  Plato mentions that philosophic wisdom can only be communicated directly from a teacher to disciple, like lighting one lamp by another. The Timaeus indicates after the manner of the Upanishads that the receiver of philosophic truth must be a fit person - fit by character and not by reason of intellect alone. Platonic thought is so un-Greek in the sense in which Greek thought is generally taken, namely, purely rationalism, that some philosopher, such as Nietzsche, have called it " un-Hellenic."

According to Voltaire, "The Greeks, before the time of Pythagoras, traveled into India for instruction. The signs of the seven planets and of the seven metals are still almost all over the earth, such as the Indians invented: the Arabians were obliged to adopt their cyphers."

(source: The Philosophy of History p. 527).

Some sources even credit Pythagoras with having traveled as far as India in search of knowledge, which may explain some of the close parallels between Indian and Pythagorean philosophy and religion. These parallels include: 

1. a belief in the transmigration of souls;
2. the theory of four elements constituting matter;
3. the reasons for not eating beans;
4.  the structure of the religio-philosophical character of the Pythagorean fraternity, which resembled Buddhist monastic orders; and
5. the contents of the mystical speculations of the Pythagorean schools, which bear a striking resemblance of the Hindu Upanishads. 

According to Greek tradition, Pythagoras, Thales, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Democritus and others undertook journey to the East to study philosophy and science. By the time Ptolmaic Egypt and Rome’s Eastern empire had established themselves just before the beginning of the Common era, Indian civilization was already well developed, having founded three great religions – Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism – and expressed in writing some subtle currents of religious thought and speculation as well as fundamental theories in science and medicine.

(source: The crest of the peacock: Non-European roots of Mathematics - By George Gheverghese Joseph   p. 1 - 18). For more refer to chapter on Hindu Culture1).

Pythagoras was particularly influenced by Indian philosophy. Professor R. G. Rawlinson remarks that:

"almost all the theories, religious, philosophical, and mathematical, taught by the Pythagorians were known in India in the sixth century B.C." 

Even Aristotle, the great rationalist and empiricist, upheld so strongly by teachers of philosophy in the West, is not fully understood. Aristotle speaks of intellect in the same sense as do the Upanishads- intellect which is not thinking logically but which grasps truth immediately. The Indian term for intellect is buddhi, the purest understanding. 

The thought of Plotinus is Hindu. Eusebius in his biography of Socrates, relates an incident recorded in the fourth century B.C. in which Socrates met a Brahmin in the agora or the market place. The Brahmin asked Socrates what he was doing. Socrates replied that he was questioning people in order to understand man. At this, the Brahmin laughed and asked how one could understand man without knowing God.

The Socrates conception of freedom and virtue is that of the Upanishads. Socrates defined virtue as knowledge. Virtue is character, the realization of the essence of man. Know thyself, which is exactly the same as the Upanisadic command, Atmanam biddhi. In the Gita, knowledge or wisdom is defined as character. Virtue, comes from the Vedic word vira (hero, man).

Greek philosophy began in Asia Minor and Greek writers refer to the travels of Pythagoras, and others, to the East to gain wisdom. According to his biographer Iamblichus,

"Pythagoras traveled widely, studying the esoteric teachings of the Egyptians, Assyrians, and even Brahmins." According to Gomprez, "It is not too much to assume that the curious Greek who was a contemporary of Buddha, and it may be of Zoraster, too, would have acquired a more or less exact knowledge of the East, in the age of intellectual fermentation, through the medium of Persia." 

Pythagoras's theorem discovered in India in 800 BC according to renowned historian Dick Teresi. author and coauthor of several books about science and technology, including The God Particle. He is cofounder of Omni magazine and has written for Discover, The New York Times Magazine, and The Atlantic Monthly. 
"Two thousand years before Pythagoras, philosophers in northern India had understood that gravitation held the solar system together, and that therefore the sun, the most massive object, had to be at its center."
"Our Western mathematical heritage and pride are critically dependent on the triumphs of ancient Greece. These accomplishments have been so greatly exaggerated that it often becomes difficult to sort out how much of modern math is derived from Greece and how much from...the Indians and so on. 
"Our modern numerals 0 through 9 were developed in India. Mathematics existed long before the Greeks constructed their first right angle. On the other hand George Cheverghese Joseph (author of The Crest of the Peacock: Non-European Roots of Mathematics) points out that the early Indian mathematics contained in the Sulbasutras (The Rules of the Cord) contain their own version of the Pythagorean theorem as well as procedure for obtaining the square root of 2 correct to five decimal places. The Sulbasutras reveal a rich geometric knowledge that preceded the Greeks."
(source: Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science - By Dick Teresi  p.  32). For more on Dick Teresi refer to chapter on Quotes301_320).

Vivekananda said that Samhkya was the basis of the philosophy of the whole world. " There is no philosophy in the world that was not indebted to Kapila. (Kapila is the founder of the Sankhya philosophy). Krishna says in the Gita that, among the perfected sages, he is Kapila. Pythagoras came to India and studied his philosophy and that was the beginning of the philosophy of the Greeks. Later it formed the Alexandrian school, and still later the Gnostic."

Panini, who speaks of the Greek script as yavanani lipi. The Prakrit equivalent of yavana, viz. yona, is used in the inscriptions of Ashoka to describe the Hellenic princes of Egypt, Cyrene, Macedonia, Epirus, and Syria. 

"It is believed that the Dravidians from India went to Egypt and laid the foundation of its civilization there. the Egyptians themselves had the tradition that they originally came from the South, from a land called Punt, which an historian of the West, Dr. H.R. Hall, thought referred to some part of India.

The Indus Valley civilization is, according to Sir John Marshall who was in charge of the excavations, the oldest of all civilizations unearthed (c. 4000 B.C.) It is older than the Sumerian and it is believed by many that the latter was a branch of the former. 

Some people called the Brahui who dwell in Baluchistan which is at present a part of Pakistan, still speak the Dravidian language. It is likely that their ancestors were the people who sailed across the narrow waters at the entrance of the Persian Gulf to Oman and then to Aden along the southern littoral of Arabia, crossing over to Africa at the narrow strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, near Somaliland and proceeding north along the Nile Valley."

(Source: The Bhagvad Gita: A Scripture for the Future - Translation and Commentary by Sachindra K. Majumdar p. 28).

"We hear of Arabian trade with Egypt as far back as 2743 B.C. probably as ancient as was the trade with India." 

(source: The Story of civilizations - Our Oriental Heritage ISBN: 1567310125 1937 vol. 4 p. 157).

Klaus K. Klostermaier, in his book A Survey of Hinduism pg 18 says: 

"For several centuries a lively commerce developed between the ancient Mediterranean world and India, particularly the ports on the Western coast. The most famous of these ports was Sopara, not far from modern Bombay, which was recently renamed Mumbai. Present day Cranganore in Kerala, identified with the ancient Muziris, claims to have had trade contacts with Ancient Egypt under Queen Hatsheput, who sent five ships to obtain spices, as well as with ancient Israel during King Soloman's reign.  Apparently, the contact did not break off after Egypt was conquered by Greece and later by Rome.

According to I .K. K. Menon:

"there is evidence of a temple of Augustus near Muziris (Cranganore, Kerala) and a force of 1200 Roman soldiers stationed in the town for the protection of Roman commerce." Large hoards of Roman traders, who must have rounded the southern tip of India to reach that place."

(Note: The ancient Alexandrian port of Muziris, now Cranganore, Kerala  is where the Romans built a temple to Augustus in the first century.)

Thus, both upon archaeological and historical grounds, India is the mother of civilizations. Material skill and spiritual ideas spread from the Indus valley to Nineveh and Babylon, to the entire Middle East, to the Nile Valley and thence to Greece and Rome. 
Other Indic Influences:
American mathematician, A. Seindenberg has demonstrated that the Sulbhasutras, the ancient Vedic mathematics, have inspired all the mathematic sciences of the antique world from Babylonia to Egypt and Greece". "Arithmetic equations from the Sulbhasutras were used in the observation of the triangle by the Babylonians and the theory of contraries and of inexactitude in arithmetic methods, discovered by Hindus, inspired Pythagorean mathematics." writes Abraham Seidenberg. 
In astronomy, too, Indus were precursors: Jean-Claude Bailly (1736–93) 18th century French astronomer and politician. His works on astronomy and on the history of science (notably the Essai sur la théorie des satellites de Jupiter) were distinguished both for scientific interest and literary elegance and earned him membership in the French Academy, the Academy of Sciences, and the Academy of Inscriptions. Bailly had already noticed that:
"the Hindu astronomic systems were much more ancient than those of the Greeks or even the Egyptians the movement of stars which was calculated by Hindus 4,500 years ago, does not differ even by a minute from the tables which we are using today." And he concludes: "The Hindu systems of astronomy are much more ancient than those of the Egyptians - even the Jews derived from the Hindus their knowledge."  There is also no doubt that the Greeks heavily borrowed from the "Indus."
Alain Danileou (1907-1994), son of French aristocracy, author of numerous books on philosophy, religion, history and arts of India, including Virtue, Success, Pleasure, & Liberation : The Four Aims of Life in the Tradition of Ancient India. He was perhaps the first European to boldly proclaim his Hinduness. He settled in India for fifteen years in the study of Sanskrit. He had a wide effect upon Europe's understanding of Hinduism. He has remarks that:
"the Greeks were always speaking of India as the sacred territory of Dionysus and historians working under Alexander the Great clearly mention chronicles of the Puranas as sources of the myth of Dionysus." Alain Danielou quotes Clement of Alexandria who admitted that "we the Greeks have stolen from the Barbarians their philosophy." 
We know that the Greeks had translated the Bhagvad-gita and French philosopher and historian Roger-Pol Droit writes in his classic "L'oubli de l'Inde (India forgotten) "that there is absolutely not a shadow of a doubt that Greeks knew all about Indian philosophy."

The Roman Empire - A Gangster State?
According to Peter Beckman, author of 'A History of Pi: " While Alexandria had become the world capital of thinkers, Rome was becoming the capital of thugs. Rome was not the first state of organized gangsterdom nor was it the last; but it was the only one that managed to bamboozle posterity into an almost universal admiration. Few rational men admire the Huns, the Nazis or the Soviets; but for centuries, schoolboys have been expected to read Julius Caesar's militaristic drivel. They have been led to believe that the Romans had attained an advanced level in the sciences, the arts, law, architecture, engineering and everything else. 
It is my opinion that the alleged Roman achievements are largely a myth; and I feel it is time for this myth to be debunked a little. What the Romans excelled in was bullying, bludgeoning, butchering and blood bath. They enslaved peoples whose cultural level was far above their own. They not only ruthlessly vandalized their countries, but they also looted them, stealing their art treasures, abducting their scientists and copying their technical know-how, which the Romans' barren society was rarely able to improve on.
Then there is Roman engineering: The Roman roads, acquaducts, the Coliseums. Warfare, alas, has always been beneficial to engineering. In a healthy society, engineering design gets smarter and smarter; in gangster states, it gets bigger and bigger. 
The architecture of the Coliseums and other places of Roman entertainment are difficult to judge without recalling what purpose they served. It was here that gladiators fought to the death; that prisoners of war, convicts and Christians were devoured by a many as 5,000 wild beasts at a time; and that victims were crucified or burned alive for the entertainment of Roman civilization. When the Roman screamed for ever more blood, artificial lakes were dug and naval battles as many as 19,000 gladiators were staged until the water turned red with blood. The only Roman emperors who did not throw Christians to the lions were the Christian emperors. They (Christians) threw the pagans to the lions with the same gusto and for the same crime - having a different religion. 
Romans were not primitive savages, but were sophisticated killers. The Roman contribution to sciences was mostly limited to butchering antiquity's greatest mathematicians, burning the Library of Alexandria. and it demonstrates an abysmal ignorance of sciences. Pliny tells us that in India there is a species of men without mouths who subsist by smelling flowers. 
Yet most historians extol the achievements of Rome. "it accustomed the Western races to the idea of a world-state, and by pax romana....."
(source: A History of Pi - by Peter Beckan St. Martin's Press; ; 19th edition (August 1976) 0312381859 p. 55-59).

Did You Know

Iron with Mettle

Ancient India developed advanced metallurgical technology that made it possible to cast a remarkable iron pillar, dating to about 300 B.C.E. Still standing today in Delhi. This solid shaft of wrought iron is about 24 feet high and 16 inches in diameter. It has been exposed to weather and pollution since its erection, yet shows minimal corrosion, a technology lost to current ironmakers. Even with today's advances, only four foundries in the world could make this piece and none were able to keep it rust-free.

The earliest known metal expert (some 2,200 years ago) Rishi Pantanjali. His book Loha Shastra, "metal manual" describes in detail metal preparation. 
The pillar is a solid shaft of iron sixteen inches in diameter and 23 feet high. What is most astounding about it is that it has never rusted even though it has been exposed to wind and rain for centuries! The pillar defies explanation, not only for not having rusted, but because it is apparently made of pure iron, which can only be produced today in tiny quantities by electrolysis! The technique used to cast such a gigantic, solid pillar is also a mystery, as it would be difficult to construct another of this size even today. The pillar stands as mute testimony to the highly advanced scientific knowledge that was known in antiquity, and not duplicated until recent times. Yet still, there is no satisfactory explanation as to why the pillar has never rusted!

(source: Technology of the Gods: The Incredible Sciences of the Ancients - By David Hatcher Childress p. 80) 
Refer to Delhi Iron Pillar - By Prof. R. Balasubramaniam  - Professor Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engng Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur 208016.  Contributed to this site by Prof. R. Balasubramaniam. URL  : http://home.iitk.ac.in/~bala 
Watch Scientific verification of Vedic knowledge
The iron pillar near Qutub Minar at New Delhi is in the news, thanks to the research by Prof. R. Balasubramaniam of IIT, Kanpur and his team of metallurgists. The pillar is said to be 1,600 years old. A protective layer of `misawite' — a compound made up of iron, oxygen and hydrogen on the steel pillar, which is said to contain phosphorus -
is claimed as the reason for the non-corrosive existence.

(source: Iron pillar and nano powder - http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/seta/stories/2002082900020200.htm

Hinduism’s influence on World Religion

From the beginning of her history, India has adored and idealized, not soldiers and statesmen, not men of science and leaders of industry, not even poets and philosophers, who influence the world by their deeds or by their words, but those rarer and more chastened spirits, whose greatness lies in what they are and not in what they do; men who have stamped infinity on the thought and life of the country. To a world given over to the pursuit of power and pleasure, wealth and glory, they declared the reality of the unseen world and the call of the spiritual life. This ideal had dominated the Indian religious landscape for over forty centuries. Hinduism has thus had a long and continuous evolution and in the process has influenced all other major world religions.
India, which is, in a sense, representation of the Asiatic consciousness, has never been isolated from the Western continent in spite of geographical, linguistic, and racial barriers. A large part of the world received its religious education from India. In spite of continuous struggle with superstition and theological baggage, India has held fast for centuries to the ideals of the spirit. Its influence or, at any rate, connection with Western thought, though not constant and continuous, has been quite significant. Commenting on the teachings of Christian missionaries as Plotinus, Clement, Gregory, Augustine and the like, Dean Inge observes: "They are the ancient religion of the Brahmins masquerading in the clothes borrowed from the Jewish, Gnostic, Manichaen and Neo-Platonic allegories. That is why Mahatma Gandhi told Romain Rolland in Switzerland on his way back to India from the Round Table Conference (1911) that Christianity is an echo of the Indian religion and Islam is the re-echo of that echo."
Jules Michelet (1789-1874) French writer, the greatest historian of the romantic school, affirms this: " Follow the migration of mankind from East to West along the sun's course and along the track of the world's magnetic currents; observe its long voyage from Asia to Europe, from India to France.....At its starting point in India, the birthplace of races and religions, the womb of the world...."

Introduction
Dr. Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1889-1975) the great British historian. His massive research was published in 12 volumes between 1934 and 1961 as `A Study of History'.  Toynbee was a major interpreter of human civilization in the 20th century. He has said: 
" India is not only the heir of her own religious traditions; she is also the residuary legatee of the Ancient Mediterranean World's religious traditions." "Religion cuts far deeper, and, at the religious level, India has not been a recipient; she has been a giver. About half the total number of the living higher religions are of Indian origin." he said.

(source: One World and India - By Arnold Toynbee p. 42- 59).   
Volney, Constantin Francois de Chasseboeuf, comte de 1757-1820) historian and philosopher and French scholar. His principal work, Les Ruines; ou, Méditation sur les révolutions des empires (1791), which popularized religious skepticism, was influential not only in France but also in England and the United States; it went through many translations and editions and stimulated much controversy. 
Volney of France was perhaps the first to propound in the 18th century that "Jesus was a solar myth derived from Krishna' of Hindu mythology." Buddhism existed at least four hundred years before Christianity.  Another French theologian, Ernest Havet, did the same in his study of primitive Christianity published in 1884. A 
He was followed by Ernest Renan, the famous Catholic theologian from France, who pointed out Buddhist parallels in the parables of Jesus in his Life of Jesus published in 1863.
Max Muller noted "startling coincidences between Buddhism and Christianity in his India - What It Can Teach Us published from England. 
A stronger case along the same lines was made by Rudolf Seydel, Professor in the University of Leipzig (Germany), whose first book, The Gospel of Jesus in relation to the Buddha Legend, published in 1882, was followed by a more elaborate one, The Buddha Legend and the Life of Jesus, published in 1897. Finally, J. M. Robertson, a British scholar and a Member of Parliament, revived the Volney thesis in 1900 by stating in his Christianity and Mythology that "the Christ-Myth is merely a form of the Krishna-Myth. 
Listen to The Bhagavad Gita podcast - By Michael Scherer - americanphonic.com.
(source: Jesus Christ: An Artifice for Aggression - By Sita Ram Goel p. 53).
In the past, the West and India were immediate neighbors. Before the Islamic civilization came between the two, the empire, which was first Persian, then Greek and later Roman, stretched from the Mediterranean to the Indus. The commercial ties between India and Europe were more direct than they have ever been over the last ten centuries. Indian monks and their disciples lived and taught for several hundred years in the Middle East and founded large monasteries, the traces of which can be seen mainly in Antioch and Alexandria. In the 4th A.D. Saint Jeremy fulminated against the fake prophets from India. But his protest came to late, for the men from India had already left their mark on the Mediterranean mind in search of holiness. 
(source: The Genius of India - By Guy Sorman  ('Le Genie de l'Inde') p.189).
Refer to Did the Hindus Help Write the Bible and Give the Ancient Mexicans Their Religious Traditions? - By Gene D. Matlock. Who was Abraham? - By Gene D Matlock and Is the Hopi Deity Kokopelli an Ancient Hindu God? - By Gene D. Matlock and Ancient Sanskrit Pictograph near Sedona, Arizona? - By Gene Matlock and Atlantis in Mexico - By Gene Matlock.

The Bhagavad Gita, Buddhism and Christianity

The Dalai Lama has said: “When I say that Buddhism is part of Hinduism, certain people criticize me. But if I were to say that Hinduism and Buddhism are totally different, it would not be in conformity with truth.” 

(source: Who is a Hindu? – By Koenraad Elst p. 233).

The Bhagavad Gita doctrine of lokasmgraha (good of humanity) and of Divine Incarnation influenced the Mahayana or the Northern school of Buddhism. The Buddhist scholar Taranath who wrote the history of Buddhism mentions that the teacher of Nagarjuna, who is regarded as the chief originator of the Mahayana school of Buddhism, was Rahulabhadra who “was much indebted to sage Krishna and still more to Ganesha…..This quasi-historical notice, reduced to its less allegorical expression means that Mahayanism is much indebted to the Bhagavadgita and more even to Shaivism.” 

(source: Dr. Kern’s Manual of Buddhism). 

(Artwork courtesy of The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc. www.krishna.com).

Dr. S. Radhakrishnan has said: "Buddhism which arose in India was an attempt to achieve a purer Hinduism. It may be called a reform within Hinduism. The formative years of Buddhism were spent in the Hindu religious environment. It shares in a large measure the basic pre suppositons of Hinduism. It is a product of the Hindu religious ethos."  

(source: Religion and Culture - By S. Radhakrishnan p. 29).

The origin of Christianity is due also to Buddhist influence. The teachings of the Buddha got woven into Greek, Egyptian and Hebraic theology, giving rise to the new Christian religion. Renan sensed this when he wrote in his Life of Christ that 'there was something Buddhist' in the Word of Christ. Flavius Joseph observed that the Pharisees of Alexandria had taken from the Indians the belief in resurrection of the dead. Though this idea was alien to the Hebrew dogma, it gradually got absorbed into it, which probably explains the resurrection of Jesus Christ. At a more mundane level, Christians who venerate relics, ring bells and burn incense are unwittingly imitating Indian rituals that were established many centuries before Christianity. Ironically in the 19th century, some Christian missionaries expressed their indignation at Indian pagans ringing Christian bells and burning Christian incense when in point of fact it was the Christians who were imitating the Indians. 

These influences from India may come as a surprise to many Christians. Yet they were often discussed in the early 19th century when Europe discovered the Vedas and the Upanishads in translation. European philosophers, especially Soren  Kierkegaard, were amazed by the evangelical tone of these holy books from India. More recently, with the discovery of the Dead Sea Biblical manuscripts, some archaeologists who specialize in religion have spoken once again of an Indian connection between Buddhist monks and the Essenian community which lived next to Jerusalem. 

(source: The Genius of India - By Guy Sorman  ('Le Genie de l'Inde') p.189-195).

The Hindus venerate Christ as an Incarnation, and they see that his essential message is that of the Sanatana Dharma (the Eternal Religion). The special ethical and religious ideas contained in the teachings of Christ have no antecedents in the religious traditions in which he was born. Non-resistance to evil, love of enemies, monasticism, love of death, the assertion of man’s innate perfection (kingdom of heaven is within you), universalism are principles not to be found in the religion into which he was born.   

John the Baptist, who belonged to the monastic sect of the Essenes, was a Buddhist. Dr. Moffatt, in his book, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. v, p.410,  remarks, "Buddhist tendencies helped to shape some of the Essenic characteristics." King Ashoka of India (third century B.C.) sent Buddhist missionaries to different parts of the world, from Siberia to Ceylon, from China to Egypt, and for two centuries before the advent of Christ, the Buddhist missionaries preached the ethics of Buddha is Syria, Palestine and Alexandria. The Christian historian, Mahaffi, declared that the Buddhist missionaries were forerunners of Christ. “ Philosophers like Schelling and Schopenhauer, and Christian thinkers like Dean Mansel and D. Millman admit that the sect of the Essenes arose through the influence of the Buddhist missionaries who came from India. 

(source: Complete works of Swami Abhedananda, vol.2, p.120). 

Professor Friedrich Heiler (1892-1967) German scholar of religion, writing during and after the First World War, in an important article on 'Christian and Non-Christian Religions' writes: " The doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation as well as the Virgin Birth, belief in the Divine Sacrifice of love, the conception of irresistible Grace and justification by faith alone, prayer prompted by the grace of God, petition for forgiveness of sins, all-embracing love towards every creature, heroic love of enemies, belief in everlasting life, in the judgment and the restoration of the world - there is not a single central doctrine of Christianity which does not have an array of striking parallels in the various non-Christian faiths." (Hibbert Journal, January 1954) 

(source: Religion and Culture - By S. Radhakrishnan p. 67).

Many incidents in Christ’s life as well as the organization of the Catholic Church and its rituals suggest their Buddhistic and Hindu origin. The Gospel stories of the immaculate conception of a virgin mother, the miraculous birth, the story of slaughter of the infants by Herod, and the chief events of Christ’s life seem like repetitions of what happened in the lives of Krishna and of Buddha. The idea of Incarnation is purely and Indian idea. It was not known among the Jews. The star over Buddha’s birthplace and the prophecy of the old monk Asita are repeated in the Gospel story of Simeon. The temptation of Buddha by Mara, the evil spirit, the twelve disciples, with the beloved disciple Ananda, and the many miracles recall the stories in Christ’s life. 

Under cover of the legend of Barlaam and Josaphet, Buddha has found a place among Catholic saints and has his saint-day in the calendar of the Greek and Roman churches. The story is a Christianized version of one of the legends of Buddha, as even the name Josaphat would seem to show. This is said to be a corruption of the original Joasaph, which is again corrupted from the middle Persian Budasif (Budsaif=Bodhisattva). 

The rosary, the veneration of relics, asceticism, baptism, confession, etc. are also of Indian origin. The name Josaphet is Bodhisattva in the corrupt form.  The story of the Buddha's life underwent an extraordinary transmutation as it moved west and became what is one of the most widespread legends ever told -- the story of Barlaam and Josaphat. More than sixty translations, versions, or paraphrases have been identified. It was altered to fit the religious climate of each language and culture. As it moved westward, the story was adopted and adapted by Manicheans in central Asia, and then it became Christianized. In its new version, Barlaam was a Christian monk who had converted Josaphat (the name was a linguistic development from the word Bodhisattva -- one capable of Buddhahood). It may be that Georgian Christians in the Caucasus were the first to give the story a Christian cast, in the sixth or seventh century.

There are innumerable similarities between Hindu-Buddhist practices and doctrines and those of Christianity.

The Russian author, Nicholas Notovitch translated in 1894 a biography of Christ found in Nepal in a Buddhist monastery which said that Christ went there during the thirteen years of his life of which there is no record in the Gospel.  Notovitch author of a book, The Unknown Life of Christ, asserting that during his long period of obscurity Jesus had stayed with Brahman and Buddhist monks, who had initiated him into Indian religions. The book was first published in French and edited, abridged, and translated into English by Violet Crispe in 1895. This study was based on the materials Notovitch had collected during his travels in India and Tibet, particularly on the records of Saint Issa discovered by him at the monastery Himis. Inevitably the book excited fierce controversy and reproach from some theologians. Max Muller disputed Notovitch's assertions and questioned the authenticity of the latter's evidence. Despite this, Notovitch reaffirmed his views when the English version was published. The German scholar Faber-Kaiser's more recent book entitled Jesus died in Kashmir' also supports Ahmadiya sect in Islam that Jesus did not die on the Cross, but came to India and died near Rozabal not far from Srinagar in Kashmir. ( http://www.tombofjesus.com/AcharaS.htm#Yuz )
French historian Alain Danielou had noticed as early as 1950 that "a great number of events which surround the birth of Christ - as it is related in the Gospels - strangely remind us of Buddhists and Krishnaites legends".
Danielou quotes as examples the structure of the Christian Church, which resembles that of the Buddhist Chaitya; the rigorous asceticism of certain early Christian sects, which reminds one of the asceticism of Jain and Buddhist saints; the veneration of relics, the usage of holy water, which is an Indian practice, or the word 'Amen', which comes from the Hindu 'OM'. 

There are some indication that Christ came to India for spiritual initiation and borrowed from Buddhism for his teachings. According to Alain Danielou, who wrote the Histoire de l'Inde,

"Many sects which developed in the first century before Christ in Palestine, had a strong Hindu and Buddhist influence and a great number of legends surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ, are strangely similar to Buddhist and Krishnaites stories. He adds that the structures of the church resembles those of Chaitya Buddhism and that the early Christian asceticism seems to have been inspired by Jainism."

(source: Rewriting Indian History - By Francois Gautier pg 9-10)        

Belgium's historian Konraad Elst also remarks "that many early Christian saints, such as Hippolytus of Rome, possessed an intimate knowledge of Brahmanism." Elst even quotes the famous Saint Augustin who wrote:

        "We never cease to look towards India, where many things are proposed to our admiration". 

Unfortunately, remarks American David Frawley, "from the second century onwards, Christian leaders decided to break away from the Hindu influence and show that Christianity only started with the birth of Christ". Hence, many later saints began branding Brahmins as "heretics" and Saint Gregory set a future trend by publicly destroying the "pagan" idols of the Hindus.

Refer to Jesus of History and The Pagan Evidence and Jewish Evidence and Evidence of the Gospels - hamsa.org).

It is unknown as to how Christianity arrived in India during the first century. If Christianity could reach India during the first century and find a sanctuary why could not Indian religions, especially Buddhism which was equally proselytizing reach western Asia and the Greco-Roman world and find a footing there? The road surely must have been open both ways

In 1842, two French missionary travelers to Tibet, Hue and Gibet, were shocked at the close resemblances between Catholic and Lamaistic rituals. They wrote,  “The crozier, the exorcism, the censer with the five chains, the blessings which the lamas impart by extending the right head over the heads of the faithful, the rosary, the celibacy of the clergy, their separation from the world, the worship of saints, the fasts, processions, litanies, holy water – these are the points of contact the Buddhists have with us.” 
(source: The Legacy of India - edited By G T Garratt Oxford At The Clarendon Press). 
Indeed, Lamaistic Buddhism, which did not follow the serene metaphysical teaching of the Buddha closely, represented demons and torments of hell as lurid as those of mediaeval Christianity. Even in the most Judaic of the epistles in the New Testament the phrase "the wheel of birth" occurs, which Schopenhauer ascribed to Indian influence.

In an interview in Detroit in 1894, Vivekananda said, “Our religion is older than most religions and the Christian creeds came directly from the Hindoo religion. It is one of the great offshoots. The Catholic religion also takes all its forms from us, the confessional, the belief in saints and so on, and a Catholic priest who saw this absolute similarity and recognized the truth of the origin of the Catholic religion was dethroned from his position because he dared to publish a volume explaining all that he observed and was convinced of."
(Swami’s reference was no doubt to Bishop Brigandet’s Life of Buddha).  (From Vivekananda, New Discoveries by Marie Louise Burke, 2^nd ed, p 208).  For more refer to Resurrection of the Dead In the Nag Hammadi Codices  & Its Relationship to the Buddhist Doctrine of 'Rebirth).
Great Indian sages, such as Sri Aurobindo or Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of the Art of Living, which is practiced in more than 80 countries, have often remarked that the stories recounting how Jesus came to India to be initiated, are probably true. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar notes, for instance, that Jesus sometimes wore an orange robe, the Hindu symbol of renunciation in the world, which was not a usual practice in Judaism. "In the same way", he continues, "the worshipping of the Virgin Mary in Catholicism is probably borrowed from the Hindu cult of Devi." Bells too, which cannot be found today in synagogues, the surviving form of Judaism, are used in church and we all know their importance in Buddhism and Hinduism for thousands of years. There are many other similarities between Hinduism and Christianity: incense, sacred bread (prasadam), the different altars around churches (which recall the manifold deities in their niches inside Hindu temples); reciting the rosary (japamala), the Christian Trinity (the ancient Santana Dharma: Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh), Christian processions, the sign of the cross (Anganyasa), and so on.

The Catholic Church, however, developed with dualistic principles of God in heaven and creation below which have created an insoluble conflict between faith and reason. The conflict has reached its ultimate acuity in our day of scientific development. Hindus believe that the non-dualistic teachings of Christ have not been generally understood in the West. 

Christianity's Hindu Heritage

Commenting on the teachings of Christian missionaries as Plotinus, Clement, Gregory, Augustine and the like, Dean Inge observes: "They are the ancient religion of the Brahmins masquerading in the clothes borrowed from the Jewish, Gnostic,Manichaen and Neo-Platonic allegories. That is why Mahatma Gandhi told Romain Rolland in Switzerland on his way back to India from the Round Table Conference (1911) that Christianity is an echo of the Indian religion and Islam is the re-echo of that echo." 

(source: India in Primitive Christianity -  Arthur Lillie).

Objective and open-minded scholars long ago conceded that Christianity is at heart a revamped form of Judaism. In the process of its development as something distinct from its mother religion, it became hybridized with so much pagan influence that it ultimately alienated its original Jewish base and became predominantly Gentile. The source of this pagan influence is varied and vague in the minds of most advanced Bible critics, but it may owe more to Hinduism than most people suspect. 

The average person does not connect India with the ancient Middle East, but the existence of some trade between these two regions is documented, even in the Bible. Note the reference to spikenard in the Song of Solomon (1:12; 4:13-14) and in the Gospels (Mark 14:3; John 12:3). This is an aromatic oil-producing plant (Nardostachys jatamansi) that the Arabs call sunbul hindi and obtained in trade with India. It is axiomatic that influence follows trade, and the vibrant culture of India could not help but impact on anyone exposed to it. The influence on Judaism came for the most part indirectly, however, via the Persians and the Chaldeans, who dealt with India on a more direct basis. (Indeed, the Aryans, who invaded and trans- formed India over 1500 years before Christ, were of the same people who brought ancient Persia to its greatest glory. Persia's name today--Iran--is a corruption of Aryan.) The ancient Judeans absorbed much of this secondhand influence during the Babylonian captivity of the sixth century B. C., and during the inter testamental period, when Alexandria became the crossroads of the world, intellectuals both Jew and Gentile were exposed to a variety of ideas, some of which originated on the Indian Subcontinent.

From Pythagoras, who believed in the transmigration of souls, apparently because of his contacts with religious teachers from the east. Pindar, who believed in metempsychosis, Plato, who could not have been ignorant of Karma, through Klaxons, the Indian sage, who accompanied Alexander, Apollonius of Tyana, who came to Taxila to study under the Brahmins, Clement of Alexandria, the early Christian teachers of the second century A.D., who refers to Buddhists and Brahmins in his work and Plotimus, who went to Persia to meet the Brahmins, the Contacts between India and Greek thinkers seem to have been continuous.

According to Klaus K. Klaustmaier, in his book A Survey of Hinduism pg 18-19 

"The kings of Magadha and Malwa exchanged ambassadors with Greece. A Maurya ruler invited one of the Greek Sophists to join his court, and one of the greatest of the Indo-Greek kings became famous as the dialogue partner of the great Buddhist sage Nagasena, while in the opposite direction, Buddhist missionaries are known to have settled in Alexandria, and other cities in the Ancient West. It is evident then, that Indian thought was present in the fashionable intellectual circuit of ancient Athens, and there is every reason to suppose that Indian religious and philosophical ideas exercised some influence on early and classical Greek philosophy. Both Greeks and Romans habitually tried to understand the religions of India by trying to fit them as far as possible into Greco-Roman categories. Deities in particular were spoken of, not in Indian but in Greek terms and called by Greek names. Thus Shiva, was identified as "Dionysos," Krsna (or perhaps Indra) as "Heracles." The great Indian epics were compared to those of Homer. Doctrinally, the Indian concept of transmigration had its counterpart in the metempsychosis taught by Pythagoras and Plato; nor was Indian asceticism altogether foreign to a people who remembered Diogenes and his followers."

Parallels have also been found between the Biblical account of the creation of man by God in his own image and the creation of woman out of man (Genesis I :27) and the statements in the Hindu scriptures in the Hindu scriptures that God became man and created woman (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad(1:3 and 1:4) and Brahma as God divided himself into svayambhu Manu (man) and Satarupi (Woman the Bhagavata purana). There is a further parallel between the temptation of Adam and Eve, Who ate of the apple (Genesis III) and the references to two birds "beautiful of wing, inseparable friends, dwelling together in the same tree (the universe) of whom one (the individual being) eats the fruit of action, while the other (universal being) looks on and Svetesvatara Upanishad(4:6). The Indian scriptures, far from being in conflict with Western thought, seem very often to contain the same or parallel ideas as in Biblical literature. The ascent of man in the Books of Enoch is said to match a similar account in the Kausitaki Upanishad and even the concepts of the kingdom of God and the son of man have been discovered in the Rig Veda.

The precise pattern of influence was neither observed nor documented, but it can be inferred from the numerous uncanny similarities in concept and expression, not all of which can be coincidental. Let us examine the telltale evidence (none of which, it may be added, depends upon any apocryphal account of the alleged "lost years" of Jesus in India). 

The Brahmin caste of the Hindus are said to be "twice-born" and have a ritual in which they are "born in the spirit." Could this be the ultimate source of the Christian "born again" concept (John 3:3)?

The deification of Christ is a phenomenon often attributed to the apotheosis of emperors and heroes in the Greco-Roman world. These, however, were cases of men becoming gods. In the Jesus story, the Divinity takes human form, god becoming man. This is a familiar occurrence in Hinduism and in other theologies of the region. Indeed, one obstacle to the spread of Christianity in India, which was attempted as early as the first century, was the frustrating tendency of the Hindus to understand Jesus as the latest avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu.   

It is in the doctrine of the Trinity that the Hindu influence may be most clearly felt. Unknown to most Christians, Hinduism has a Trinity (or Trimurti) too: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, who have the appellations the Creator, the Preserver, and the Destroyer (and Regenerator). This corresponds to the Christian Trinity in which God created the heavens and the earth, Jesus saves, and the Holy Spirit is referred to as a regenerator (Titus 3:5). It is interesting to note, furthermore, that the Holy Spirit is sometimes depicted as a dove, while the Hebrew language uses the same term for both "dove" and "destroyer"!

The Bhagavad Gita has influenced great Americans from Thoreau to Oppenheimer. Its message of letting go of the fruits of one’s actions is just as relevant today as it was when it was first written more than two millennia ago.  

Listen to The Bhagavad Gita podcast - By Michael Scherer - americanphonic.com.

In  the Bhagavad Gita, a story of the second person of the Hindu Trinity, (Vishnu) who took human form as Krishna. Some have considered him a model for the Christ, and it's hard to argue against that when he says things like:

"I am the beginning, the middle, and the end" (BG 10:20 vs. Rev 1:8). 

For more refer to chapters on Dwaraka and Hindu Scriptures).

With the historical reality of Indian influence on the Middle East being an established fact, how can the Christians account for these similarities with anything less feeble than coincidence, or less bizarre than the notion of "Satanic foreknowledge and duplication," which is sometimes invoked to explain the similarities of Judeo-Christian precursors?

(source :http://www.infidels.org/library/magazines/tsr/1994/3/3hare94.html - By Stephen Van Eck )

Christ spend his youth in India ?

The celebration of the birthday of Christ might lose a little sheen if we seriously pursue the question, where did Jesus spend 18 years of his life, between the ages of 12 and 30? Both history and gospels, are completely silent about the life of Jesus before his 30th year.

 A Chilean diplomat Miguel Serrano in his book, "The Serpent of Paradise: The Story of an Indian Pilgrimage (1963) has written of his rich and varied experiences among yogis and sadhus of India. He was looking for great mystics who he believed were living in the Himalayas guarding a magical science. During his sojourn in Kashmir, Serrano came across evidence to suggest that Jesus Christ had come to India and that the tomb of Yousa-Asaf in Srinagar was in fact the tomb of Jesus. He quotes a legend, according to which he was in Kashmir, the original name for Kashmir, Ka means  "the same as" or "equal to" and shir means Syria. Manuscripts in the Sharda language,  which is derived from Sanskrit, seem to bear close relationship to the biblical story. According to this Kashmir legend, Jesus came to Kashmir and studied under holy men, who taught him mysterious practices. Later the legend says, Jesus returned to the Middle East and he then began to preach among the ignorant masses of Israel the mystical truths he had learned in Kashmir. To impress and to convert them he often used the powers he had acquired through the practices of Yoga, and these were then referred to as miracles. Then in due course Jesus was crucified, but he did not die on the cross. Instead, he was removed by some Essenes brothers, restored to good health and sent back to Kashmir, where he lived with his masters until his death. There is yet another theory, which holds that the Jewish race originated in India centuries ago and some of them came back almost by instinct in search of their roots. This theory ties in with the legend of Jesus Christ also came to live in India at the age of about 13. This legend asserts Jesus spent 17 years in India, finally returning to the country of his birth to preach the doctrine of salvation and to assert that he was the Son of God. 
(source: India Post - By Vinod Dhawan. vol. 6 December 29, 2000. p. 44). For more refer to Did Jesus die in Kashmir - by Abu Abraham).

Divine Incarnations 

We find mention of prophets, messengers and messiahs in the different religions of the world. In Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity we have the doctrine of Divine Incarnation.   The Christian religion as organized is dualistic. The Christian have a doctrine of incarnation fitting into their theology and their partial view of history and creation. They have only one incarnation

According to the Eternal Religion (Sanatana Dharma) taught in the Gita, there are many divine incarnations. An incarnation is a special manifestation of the Divine in history. Such manifestations take place in response to special needs of the time, in the altered circumstances of life and history. They come in times of decline of civilizations due to materialism which causes disintegration of man and society. 

 Krishna in the Gita makes the classic declaration about incarnation.

"O Descendant of Bharata! Whenever religion becomes tarnished and irreligion prevails, I create myself. I incarnate myself in every age for saving the good, for the destruction of the wicked and for the establishment of religion. "

The birth of an incarnation, like the birth of the universe, is a mystery. In Sanatana Dharma incarnation is periodic manifestation in time of the power of the Divine. It is a mystery, but the power play of the Divine in history is a fact of experience. Krishna says in the Gita that incarnations start rolling anew the wheels of religion. Buddha also spoke of his movement as starting the wheel of religion.

Interesting Parallels between the Hindu/Buddhist temple and the Catholic Church. 

 

Angels	Apsaras
Saints	Sants
Halos	Halos
Catacombs	Cave-temples
Cathedral floor plan	Chaitya hall floor plan
Rosary	Rosary
Orders of priests/nuns	Orders of monks/nuns (in Buddhism)
Repetition in prayer	Repetition in prayer
Symbolism of wheel	Symbolism of wheel
Tree of life	Tree of life
Use of relics	Use of relics (Buddhism)
Temptation of Jesus by Satan	Temptation of the Buddha by Mara
Circumambulation	Circumambulation

(source: The Church and The Temple - By Subhash Kak - sulekha.com). Also Refer to Indic Challenges to the Discipline of Science and Religion - By Rajiv Malhotra).
Refer to Did the Hindus Help Write the Bible and Give the Ancient Mexicans Their Religious Traditions? - By Gene D. Matlock. Who was Abraham? - By Gene D Matlock and Is the Hopi Deity Kokopelli an Ancient Hindu God? - By Gene D. Matlock and Ancient Sanskrit Pictograph near Sedona, Arizona? - By Gene Matlock and Atlantis in Mexico - By Gene Matlock. 

Buddha and Jesus

Alexander's invasion of India in 327. B.C. starts a closer interchange of thought between India and the West. Buddhism must have been prevalent in India for over a century before Alexander's time, and he made an effort to acquaint himself with Hindu and Buddhist thought. He succeeded in encouraging an ascetic called Kalanos to join his entourage. He himself married a princess from Bactria, and a hundred of his superior officers followed his example and took Asiatic brides. 

Pyrrho is said to have taken part in Alexander's expedition to India and acquired a knowledge of Indian thought. 

Pliny tells us of a certain Dionysius who was sent to India from Alexandria by Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-247). Asoka, who ascended the throne of Magadha in 270.B.C., held a Council at Pataliputra, when it was resloved to send missionaries to proclaim the new teaching throughout the world. In accordance with this decision Asoka sent Buddhistic missions to the sovereigns of the West, Antiochus Theos of Syria, Ptolemy Philadelphius of Egypt, Antigonos Gonatas of Macedonia, Magas of Cyrene, and Alexandria of Epirus. From Asoka's statements it may be inferred that his missions were favorably received in these five countries. Between 190 and 180 B.C. Demetrius extended the Bactrian Kingdom into India and conquered Sind and Kathiawar.

The Greeks who settled in India gradually became Indianized. Of the monuments which survive of the Indo-Greek dynasties is a pillar discovered at Besnagar in the extreme south of Gwalior State (140B.C.) The inscription on it in Brahmi characters says: 

"This garuda column of Vasudeva (Vishnu) was erected here by Heliodorus, son of Dion, a worshipper of Vishnu, and an inhabitant of Taxila, who came as a Greek ambassador from the great King Antialcidas to Kind Kasiputra Bhagabhadra, the saviour, then reigning prosperously in the fourteenth year of his kingship."

The greatest of the Indo-Greek kings was Menander, who was converted to Buddhism by the Buddhist teacher Nagasena (180-160 B.C.) His conversion is recorded in the famous work Milindapanha (questions asked by King Milinda)

For more on Garuda column of Vasudeva refer to chapter on Dwaraka.

(Artwork courtesy of The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc. www.krishna.com).

During all this period India and the West had extensive trade relations. When Alexander chose in Egypt the site for a city which was destined to perpetuate his name, the preparation for the blending of Eastern and Western cultures started. For a thousand years Alexandria continued to be a center of intellectual and commercial activity because it was the meeting-place of Jews, Syrians, and Greeks. Milindapanha mentions it as one of the places to which the Indians regularly resorted. 

Two centuries before the Christian era, Buddhism closed in on Palestine. The Essenes, the Mandeans, and the Nazarene sects are filled with its spirits. ( The Mandeans flourished in Maisan, which was the gate of entry for Indian trade and commerce with Mesopotamia. Indian tribes colonized Maisan, whose port had an Indian temple. Mandean gnosis is full of Indian ideas.)

Nearly five hundred years before Jesus, Buddha went round the Ganges valley proclaiming a way of life which would deliver men from bondage of ignorance and sin. In a hundred and fifty years after his death, tradition of his life and passing away became systematized. He was miraculously conceived and wondrously born. His father was informed by angels about it, and, according to Lalitavistara, the queen (Maya) was permitted to lead the life of a virgin for thirty-two months. On the day of his birth a Brahmin priest predicts his future greatness. Asita is the Buddhist Simeon. He comes through air to visit the infant Gautama. Simeon came by the apirit into the Temple. Buddha grew steadily in wisdom and stature. Early in his career, he was tempted by Mara to give up his quest for truth with promises of world dominion. His enlightenment was marked by thirty-two great miracles. The blind receive their sight, the deaf hear, and the lame walk freely. He set out to establish the kingdom of righteousness. He has twelve disciples. Buddha has his troubles with his disciples. Devadatta, Buddha's cousin, was the Judas among his followers. On the last day before his death, Buddha's body was again transfigured, and when he died a tremendous earthquake was felt throughout thee world. 

Many of the parables between Buddha and Jesus are common. Buddha is a sower of the word. He feeds his five hundred brethren at once with a small cake which has been put into his begging bowl, and a good deal is left over, which is thrown away. In Jataka 190 we read of an eager disciple who finds no boat to take him across and so walks on the water. 

Max Muller remarks that mere walking on water is not an uncommon story, and we must remember that the date of the Buddhist parable is chronologically anterior to the date of the Gospel of St. Luke. Between the language of Buddha and his disciples, and the language between Christ and his apostles, there are strange coincidences. When some of the Buddhist legends and parables sound as if taken from the New Testament, though we know that many of them existed before the beginning of the Christian era.

Richard Garbe assumes direct borrowing from Buddhism in the matter of Simeon, temptations, and the miracles of walking on the water, and loaves and fishes. We have many parallels between Krishna and Christ. 

• A marvellous light envelops Mary when Christ is born. a similar light envelops Devaki before Krsna is born. 
• There is universal gladness of nature at their birth. 
• Herod inquires of the wise men, " Where is he that is born King of the Jews? "(Matthew ii 40 
• Narada warns Kamsa the King that Krsna will kill him (Harivamsa ii 56)
• Herod is mocked by the wise men (Matthew, ii 16) and Kamsa is mocked by the demon that takes the place of Yasoda's infant (ibid ii 59).
• The massacre of the infants in found in both. 
• Joseph came with Mary to Bethlehem to be taxed: Nanda came with Yasoda to Mathura to pay tribute.
• The flight into Egypt is similar to that into Braj.

Dr. S. Radhakrishnan says:

"The curious may find matter for reflection in these coincidences in the lives of Buddha and Christ. But those trained in European culture find it somewhat irksome, if not distasteful, to admit the debt of Christian religion to non-Christian sources, especially Hindu and Buddhist."

" In these cases, Max Muller writes, "our natural inclination would be to suppose that the Buddhist stories borrowed from our Christian sources and not vice versa. But here the conscience of the scholar comes in. Some of these stories are found in the Hinayana Budddhist Canon and date, therefore, before the Christian era." It is not unnatural to suspect that some of the prominent ideas traveled from the older to the younger system. As Christianity arose in a period of eclecticism, it is not impossible for it to have adopted the outlook and legends of the older religion, especially as the latter were accessible at the time when intercourse between India and the Roman Empire was quite common. Let us realize that Christianity was in a formative stage and Budhhism was both settled and enterprising.

Speaking of the Apocryphal gospels, such a cautious critic, as the late Dr. Maurice Winternitz says: " We can point to a series of borrowings from Buddhistic literature which are absolutely beyond all doubt"

(source: Visvabharati Quarterly Feb. 1937, p.14).

Sir Charles Eliot, a famous scholar and linguist of Oxford observed, " A number of Buddhist legends make their appearance in the Apocryphal gospels and are so obviously Indian in character that it can hardly be maintained that they were invented in Palestine or Egypt and spread thence Eastwards." 
(source: Hinduism and Buddhism - By Sir Charles Eliot vol. iii (1921), p. 441). 
" The similarity of Roman Catholic services and ceremonial to the Buddhist is difficult to explain. "When all allowance is made for similar causes and coincidences, it is hard to believe that a collection of practices such as clerical celibacy, the veneration of relics, the use of the rosary and the prominent ideas traveled from the older to the younger system. 
T. W. Rhys Davids, the famous Pali scholar and author of " Buddhist India," wrote,

"It is not too much to say, that almost the whole of the moral teaching of the Gospels as distinct from the dogmatic teaching, will be found in Buddhist writings, several centuries older than the Gospels; that for instance, of all the moral doctrines collected together in the so-called Sermon on the Mount, all those which can be separated from the theistic dogmas there maintained are found again in the Pitakas." 

"There is every reason to believe that the Pitakas [sacred books containing the legends of Buddha] now extant in Ceylon are substantially identical with the books of the southern canon, as settled at the Council of Patna about the year 250 B.C. As no work would have been received into the Canon which were not then believer to be very old, the Pitakas may be approximately placed in the forth century B.C. and parts of them possibly reach back very nearly, if not quite to the time of Gautama (Buddha) himself.

Albert Schweitzer, who is regarded almost as a modern Christian saint, declined to accept the historicity of the traditional view of Jesus. Both A.. J. Edmonds, and Richard Garbe, have insisted on the Christian indebtedness to Buddhism. 

Count Keyserling noticed a great affinity of spirit between Mahayana Buddhism and Christianity; and although he considered Mahayana Buddhism to be far superior to Christianity.

Otto Pfleiderer in his Chrisitan Origin, E. T. (1906), p.226, says: " These Buddhist parallels to the childhood stories of Luke are too striking to be classed as mere chance; some kind of historical connection must be postulated."  M. Labbe Huc, Nineteenth century: " The miraculous birth of Buddha, his life and instructions, contain a great number of the moral and dogmatic truths professes in Christianity."

T. W. Doane, Nineteenth century, ...nothing now remains for the honest man to do but acknowledge the truth, which is that the history of Jesus of Nazareth, as related in the books of the New Testament is simply a copy of that of Buddha, with a mixture of mythology borrowed from other nations.

Scholars have been profoundly struck and at times perplexed by the remarkable similarities between the Gospel story and the life and teachings of the Budhha, as told in the Latitavistara, and between the Budhhist and Christian parables and miracles. Both the Buddha and Christ are miraculously conceived and wondrously born and angels rejoiced at both births. He was miraculously conceived and wondrously born. His father was informed by angels about it and the queen - mother Maya (Mary in case of Christ)  was permitted to lead the life of a virgin for thirty-two months. Christ was born in the royal tribe of Judah, Buddha was born in a royal household. On the day of his birth a Brahmin (Asita) priest predicts his future greatness. Asita is the Buddhist Simeon. Early in his career, he was tempted by Mara to give up his quest for truth with promises of world dominion. Both reveal their unusual wisdom at about the same age, twelve.  Asita is the Buddhist Simeon. Early in his career, he was tempted by Mara to give up his quest for truth with promises of world dominion. Both reveal their unusual wisdom at about the same age, twelve.  Asita is the Buddhist Simeon. Early in his career, he was tempted by Mara to give up his quest for truth with promises of world dominion. Both reveal their unusual wisdom at about the same age, twelve.  Asita is the Buddhist Simeon. Early in his career, he was tempted by Mara to give up his quest for truth with promises of world dominion. Both reveal their unusual wisdom at about the same age, twelve. 

  Nothing is known of Jesus' life during the next seventeen years and there have developed a variety of legends suggesting that he traveled to India, lived with the Essenes at Qumran. The Gospels, however, refute these suggestion by implication. Whether Jesus traveled abroad or not, that he chose to remain unknown after having revealed himself and his wisdom causes some surprise. As Jesus claimed to be God, it could not have been a period of preparation. In contrast, more is known of Buddha's life his childhood, youth, marriage, increasing discontent with the world, renunciation, quest of Enlightenment, and finally his attainment of the Buddhahood, followed by a long period of missionary activity until he died. 

Om Tat Sat

                                                        

(Continued...) 

( My humble Pranam, Honour  and also gratefulness  to   Ms. Sushma Londhe ji for her  noble, magnanimous and eminent works on the   peerless  Wisdom of our Sacred Scriptures)

  

_{(My humble salutations to   , H H Swamyjis, Hindu Wisdom, great Universal Philosophers, Historians, Professors and Devotees   for the discovering  collection)}

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