LIBERATING-42

In our survey so far we have found that no other country had religion but the Semitic nations. They shared common mythology but have different prophets. The idea of Prophet is although close to incarnation of God but not the same. There are such elements in Indian speculations and western beliefs that we may reiterate William Jones observations regarding kinship of Indo-European languages :

“The Sanscrit language whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing with both of them a stronger affinity, both in roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists; there is a familiar reason, though not quite forcible, for supposing that both the Gothick and the Celtick, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanscrit; and the Old Persian might be added to the same family, if this were the place for discussing any question concerning the antiquities of Persia.” 34
He proceeded to make some other comparisons, “These letters, with no greater variation in their form by the change of the straight lines to curves, or conversely, than the Cusick alphabet has received in its way to India, are still adopted on more than twenty kingdoms and states, from the border of Cashgar and Khoten to Rama/s bridge, and from Sindhu to Siam; nor can I help believing, althrough the polished and elegant Devanagari may not be so ancient as the monumental characters in the Caverns of Jarasandha, that the square Chaldaick letters, in which Hebrew books are copied, were originally the same, or derived from the same prototype, both with the Indian and Arabic characters: that the Phoenician, from which the Greek and Roman alphabets were formed by various changes and inversions, had a familiar origin, there can be little doubt ; and inscriptions at Canarah, of which you now possess a most accurate copy, seem to be compounded of Nagari and Ethiopick letters, which bear a close relation to each other, both in the mode of writing from the left hand, and in the singular manner of connecting the vowels with consonants. ….
“Of the Indian religion and philosophy I shall here say but little; because a full account of each would require a separate volume: it will be sufficient in this differentiation to assume what might be proven beyond controversy, that we now live among the adorers of those very deities who were worshiped under different names in Old Greece and Italy, and among the professors of those philosophical tenets, which the Ionick and attic writers illustrated with all the beauties of their melodious language. On one hand we see the trident of NEPTUNE, the eagle of JUPITER, the Satyrs of BACCHUS, the bow of CUPID and the chariot of the Sun; on another we hear the cymbals of RHEA, the sone of Muses, and the pastoral tales of APOLLO NOMIUS. In more retired scenes, in groves, and in seminaries of learning, we may perceive the Brahmans and Sarmanes, mentioned by CLEMENS, disputing in the forms of logick, or discoursing on the vanity of human enjoyments, on the immortality of the soul, her emancipation from the eternal mind, her debasement, wanderings, and final union with her source. The six philosophical schools, whose principles are explained in the Dersana Sastra, comprise all the metaphysicks of the old Academy, the Stoa, the Lyceum; nor is it possible to read the Vedanta, or the many fine compositions in illustration of it without believing, that PYTHAGORAS and PLATO derived their sublime theories from the same fountain with the sages of India.”

What was missed by Jones was a close comparison between Indian ideas and their reflection on the Semitic mythology and Christ’s teachings. Similarly of ideas, method of expression is so similar that no one can read them in isolation. But he was not familiar with that literature at the initial stage. Anatolian connection of Sanskrit (Vedic) speakers and their prolonged stay with dominance has not been unearthed even a century after him and Max Muller who came across similarly of certain word that did not appear accidental to him only suspected the presence of ‘Aryans’ there, but only hesitantly.

But looking at his religiousness he could hardly have admitted the borrowings straightaway. It goes to the credit of Jones that he flattered Indians to believe that Sanskrit language was imported from West, even though Europeans did not rely on his thesis for a long time. The task of reversing the Indian content in the Bible was taken by Weber, who suggested identify of the name Christ and Krishna and perhaps ish (ईश/ ईश्वर) and Jesus pronounced as (ईशस्) but soon the damage was noticed and averted silence as to the correspondences. But We have a good case here for a comparison. We may take it later.

Here we intend to suggest that extreme missionary aversion towards Hinduism was caused out of the panic as well, lest they should lose the very ground of missionary work in India.

How strange that a country that had no religion produced three religions out of its ideas and ideology and the latter did not owe any gratitude to the inspiration, nor we noticed it earlier.