OF CHRISTIANITY UPON OTHER RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 



31 



At least one passage in the Mahabharata may well be due 

 to Christian influence — the account of the future Kali-Avatara 

 of Vishnu. There it is stated that, at the end of the age, Yishnu 

 will appear as Kalki, mounted on a white horse, bearing in his 

 hand a drawn sword, for the purpose of slaying the wicked.* 

 This may be derived from Eevelation vi, 8. 



Some writers have been much impressed with the importance 

 of the conception which they think is represented by the word 

 Trimurti, but the most opposite views have been expressed on 

 the subject. Certain writers have thought that this "great 

 Hindu doctrine of the Trinity " is borrowed from Christianity, 

 and they mention it as a very potent argument in proof of the 

 extent of early Christian influence in India. On the other hand, 

 it has been asserted that this doctrine is very ancient in India, 

 that it is one of the leading dogmas of Hinduism, that the 

 Christian Church has here taken over into her theology a 

 doctrine which is purely heathen, and that the proof of its Hindu 

 origin is that in the Elephanta Cavern near Bombay a statue 

 with three faces, representing the Trimurti and " of immense 

 antiquity," still exists. 



The whole argument well illustrates the danger of yielding to 

 prejudice instead of calmly studying the facts of the case. These 

 aref briefly as follows : (1) The figure in the Elephanta Cave is 

 now admitted to represent not the Trimurti, but only Siva in 

 his three aspects ; (2) It is a sculpture of quite modern date, not 

 more than some five or six centuries old ; (3) the Hindu 

 Trimurti represents three distinct gods, Brahma, Vishnu, and 

 Siva, not a tri-unity, but a Triad, such as is often found in many 

 different religions {cf. the Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Juno, and 

 Minerva) ; (4) The conception^ in India is not older than the 

 Middle Ages, and hence may have been due to Christian 

 influence ; (5) especially because the word Trimurti as an adjec- 

 tive meaning " three-formed " {tri-formis) is applied in Sanskrit 

 literature to each of the three gods, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva ; 

 (6) At any rate, the " doctrine of the Trimurti " is not an essen- 

 tial part of Hinduism, indeed, it can hardly be called a Hindu 

 doctrine at all, since it is of no importance whatever in 

 comparison with Belief in the Transmigration of Souls, the 

 necessity for preserving caste, the religious supremacy of the 

 Brahmans, and not a few other matters of that kind. 



* Book XII, si. 12, 941, sqq. ~ 

 t Cf. Moore, pp. 344, 345 ; Hopkins, p. 387. 



X De Gubernatis, ETiciclopedia indica^ p. 363 ; De Harlez, Vedisme^ 

 Brahmanisme et Christianisme^ p. 112. 



