199 



Hie in the . Mahd Bhdrata ; so that it has not unreasonably 

 been concluded that the story of Krishna was inserted in the 

 Malid-Blidrata to furnish a divine sanction to the BJiaqavat- 

 GUa. If, then, as there is the strongest reason to believe, the 

 Christian story, somewhere between the first and tenth cen- 

 turies of the Christian era, forced itself into the great Hindu 

 epic, and was at the foundation of the most remarkable poem 

 that ever saw the light in India, can we be surprised if we find 

 similarly borrowed and imitated wonders in the later Buddhist 

 stories also ? 



1 1 . The early influence of Christianity in India may have 

 been very much greater than is generally supposed. We 

 must not judge only by the India of our own era. Buddhism 

 itself once held supreme sway in India, but there is not a 

 Buddhist now to be found between the Himalayas and Cape 

 Comorin. Cosmas Indicopleustes, in the sixth century, found 

 Christians in Ceylon ; but, though I made diligent search when 

 in the island some years ago, I could not discover any trace or 

 tradition of them remaining. India has been the scene in the 

 past of great and sweeping changes. But it is to be observed 

 that there is still on the Malabar coast a body of probably 

 250,000 Christians, the representatives of a Church that was 

 undoubtedly founded by an Apostle or Apostles. This may 

 be only a remnant of what once was a much more widely- 

 extended influence ; for, at the Mount, near Madras, there is 

 an ancient Christian cross with a Pahlavi inscription, first 

 deciphered by the late Dr. Burnell, that seems to belong to 

 not later than the seventh or eighth century. There is a 

 similar Pahlavi inscription on a cross at Kottayam, on the 

 Malabar coast ; and other crosses, with writings in the same 

 character, were recorded by early Roman Catholic missionaries. 

 There are also Pahlavi writings in the caves near Bombay. 

 These Pahlavi inscriptions are to be accounted for, I believe, 

 by the early and continued connexion between the Indian 

 Christians and Edessa, and may indicate a very wide-spread 

 Christian influence in the past.* When we know also 



* See Indian Antiquary, vol. iii., p. 308 ; vol. iv., pp. 153, 183, 311, &c., 

 for fuller discussion of this subject between Dr. Burnell and myself. Pahlavi 

 was the Court language of the Sassanian dynasty in Persia (226-6.'3I A.D.) 

 The authorised version of the Avesta, in use at that period, as well as con- 

 temporary inscriptions, were in Pahlavi. It is an Aramaic dialect, supposed 

 to be a dialect of ancient Assyria. It is, therefore, the language that early 

 Edessan and Babylonian Christians would probably bring with them to 

 India. The traditions of the Jacobite Church on the Malabar Coast connect 

 them in their early history with Edessa and Babylon. They even now own 

 VOL. XVIII. P 



