OF CHRISTIANITY UPON OTHER RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 23 



A. — Christian Influence on the Eeligions of the 

 Farther East. 



l.—HINDtllSM. 

 (1) Bhdgavantism in its Later Developments. 



Hinduism, as Sir MonierMonier-Williams* has well pointed out, 

 has assimilated with itself some feature of each of the various 

 religions with which in its long history it has come into contact. 

 The amorphous mass, though yielding to every impact, has yet 

 shown sufficient power of resistance to absorb a great deal from 

 without, while remaining in its essential characteristics un- 

 affected thereby, and retaining its own philosophy and even 

 many of its ancient rites and practices. Krishna, the most 

 popular god in India to-day, is not among the deities mentioned 

 in the Rig- Veda. His worship in all probability was borrowed 

 from the aborigines whom the Aryans conquered and absorbed 

 into the lower strata of the population. Demon-worship, 

 idolatry, and probably the doctrine of transmigration, came 

 from the same source. These are but examples of the way in 

 which Hinduism in the past showed itself tolerant of new ideas 

 and welcomed fresh deities into the Pantheon — as it does still. 

 This plasticity, so to speak, would render it easy for various 

 forms of Christianity to begin to exercise more or less influence 

 upon the chief Indian religions (Hinduism and Buddhism espe- 

 cially) as soon as it came in touch with them. 



This must have occurred as early as the first century of our 

 era. Tradition relates that St. Thomas preached the Gospel in 

 Parthia and India,f though it is true that the term India was 

 used in an extremely vague sense in antiquity. Yet the fact 

 that the name of the " Indian " king Gundaphorus,:j: who is 

 declared to have sent for and heard St. Thomas, is said to have 

 been found in a Sanskrit form on an early coin, lends some 

 support to the story that the Apostle visited the country. If 

 so, it is very probable that Christianity has been known to some 

 in India ever since that time. At any rate, the existence of the 

 " Christians of St. Thomas " has been traced back to a.d. 522. 

 Christian doctrines were certainly known in Northern India § 

 " in the seventh century, and possibly long before this." 



* Hinduism, p. 85. 



t Eusebius, Hist. Ecc. Ill, i. 



X Acta Sancti Thomae, initis : Abdiae Hist. Apost., IX, 2. 

 § Hopkins, Religions of India, p. 567. 



