30 REV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL, M.A., D.D., ON THE INFLUENCE 



other forms of the Sun-god in opposition to the claims of Christ, 

 so it is in India at the present time in relation to Krishna. 



An attempt has been made to prove the existence of Christian 

 influence in the composition of the Bhagavad-Gita, and quite a 

 number of passages have been culled* from it and compared with 

 those in the New Testament, with w^iich it has been thought 

 that some similarity exists. But the more carefully the 

 Bhagavad-Gita is studied, the less grounded does the comparison 

 appear to be. Such comparisons are apt to be misleading, and 

 the greatest care should be exercised before admitting them. An 

 instance of this is afforded by the supposed quotation of the 

 Golden Kule in the Mahabharata. This enormous Epic consists 

 of some 220,000 lines. Some scholars suppose it to have been 

 begun in the fourth or fifth century before Christ, and completed 

 about the end of the sixth century of our era. Hence it would 

 be quite possible for a passage from one of the Gospels to occur 

 in it, yet there are good reasons for doubting the Christian 

 origin of the sentiment referred to. It occurs more than once in 

 the form 



" Na tat parasya sandadhyat pratikulam yad atmanas " : 

 " One should not inflict upon another what is unpleasant to 

 oneself." 



The resemblance to the Golden Eule is clear. But this form of 

 the precept differs from that in the Gospel by being purely 

 negative, while that which our Lord gives in Slatt. vii, 12, is 

 positive. The difference here is enormous. Again, it should be 

 noticed that the same negative form of the precept occurs in 

 earlier Buddhist works. For example, in the Dhamma/pada we 

 have :t 



" Na hi verena verani sammant' idha kudacanam, 

 Averena-ca sammanti, esa dhammo sanantano " : 

 For not by hatred are hatreds ever caused to cease here 

 (on earth) : by absence of hatred they are caused to 

 cease ; this is the perpetual rule." 

 As this book is pre-Christian, the sentiment cannot be due to 

 Christian influence. It is, moreover, well known that Confucius 

 uttered practically the same opinion, for he commended 

 " Eeciprocity,"^ saying it meant, " Do not to others what you 

 would not wish done to you." From the Buddhists it was 

 adopted by the Hindus, and is repeated in various forms in the 

 Hitopadsa, the Pancatantra, and other Sanskrit works. 



* e.g.y in Monier- Williams' Hinduism^ pp. 212-217. 

 t SI. 5, cf. sll. 133, 134, etc. 

 t Analects, Book XV, 23. 



