193 



tho question has readily followed. If Buddha six centuries* 

 before the Christian era taught so much of what we have 

 called Christian ethics, is Christianity original ? And may 

 not Christ and his followers have been indebted to Buddhistic 

 teaching ? 



3. One recent writer has been so far under the influence of 

 this suggestion, that he endeavours to trace the Pauline doc- 

 trine, and especially the doctrine of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 

 through the Essenic channel up to Gautama Buddha, though 

 there is really no valid proof that the Essenes were in any 

 degree indebted to Buddhism. It is, in fact, easier to show 

 the probability of the influence of the Christian religion in India 

 in the early centuries of the Christian era, since which time 

 the Buddhist literature has been penned, than the probability 

 of the influence of Buddhism westwards before that era. 

 There is no really historical evidence of the name, for instance, 

 of Buddha himself having travelled westwards before the time 

 of Clemens Alexandrinus in the third century : ho is the first 

 to mention the name of Buddha in these words : — " Some, too, 

 of the Indians obey the precepts of Boutta, whom, on account 

 of his extraordinary sanctity, they have raised to divine 

 honours. '^t His information was, no doubt, in a great mea- 

 sure derived from Pantgenus, whose pupil and successor he was ; 

 but he is also indebted to as early a writer as Megasthenes, 

 who was in India, and wrote his Indica, about 300 B.C. 

 Bardesanes, of Bdessa, in the second century A.D., as quoted 

 by Porphyry, J refers probably to the Buddhists, but in a very 

 cursory manner, as of something very distant, and not giving any 

 information as to Buddhist doctrines. The distinctive charac- 

 teristics of Buddhism are wanting in all other early descrip- 

 tions of Indian philosophies that are usually quoted. Between 

 the time of Clemens and Megasthenes there is no reliable 

 evidence of any influence exerted by Buddhism in the West, 

 and only the most meagre hints of even the knowledge of the 

 fact that such a religion existed. With regard to Mega- 

 sthenes himself, from whom most subsequent writers seem to 

 have borrowed, like Clemens, v/hen writing on the philosophies 

 of the Indians, it is extremely doubtful whether he even 

 alludes to Buddhism at all. His Sarmance, which have been 

 connected with the Buddhist monks, or by some with the 



* According to the Ceylon books, the date of Gautama Buddha's birth 

 was 623 B.C. This date, however, is not absolutely verified, and it may 

 ultimately prove to be somewhat too early. 



t Clemens, Stromata, i. 15. J Porphyry, Dc Abstinentid, iv. 17. 



