the route to Europe, that he received at Samos an embassy from India, to which Horace seems to refer1 with national pride. Florus states that the ambassadors brought as presents elephants, pearls, and precious stones. There was a second embassy from India sent to the Emperor Claudius, of which Pliny gives an account. He received from the ambassadors, who were four in number, the information about Ceylon which he has embodied in his "Natural History."2 Two other embassies from Hindu princes to Rome were sent before the third century A.C.-one to Trajan (107 A.C.) and another to Antoninus Pius. They continued as late as the time of Justinian (530 A.C.)

But apart from this occasional intercourse, a constant trade was carried on between Alexandria and Western India.3 There was also an overland trade through Palmyra. Ptolemy (138 A.C.) met some Hindus at Alexandria, and received information of a large inland sea, which he calls Hippados, probably, as Wilford suggests, the Sans. abdhi, a general term for the sea. This commerce seems to have been at its height in the reign of Commodus, for a vessel was found in the last century among the ruins of a Hindu temple near Vellore, containing gold denarii of the Emperors Trajan and Hadrian. Some had been perforated and worn as ornaments, according to the custom of Hindu women, but others had apparently been used in the ordinary course of commerce.5

1 Bk. iv. 14; bk. i. 12. 2 Nat. Hist., vi. 24.

3 "We are assured on undisputed authority that the Romans remitted annually to India a sum equivalent to £400,000 to pay for their investments, and that in the reign of the Ptolemies 125 sail of Indian shipping were at one time lying in the ports of Mysus, Hormus, and Berenice, the ports whence Egypt, Syria, and

Rome itself were supplied with the products of India."-"Life in Western India" (Guthrie), from Tod's "Western India," p. 221.

4 Asiat. Researches, iii. 53.

5 Asiat. Researches, ii. 332. In 1842 an earthen pot containing 522 Roman denarii was dug up at Vellalūr, near Koimbatūr. They were chiefly coins of Augustus and Tiberius, with some of Caligula and

There was ample knowledge at this time, probably through the channels of trade, of the religious systems of India. Clemens Alexandrinus (192-217 A.C.) mentions Brahmans and Buddhists. He describes the monastic life of the latter, and mentions some doctrines and usages of the former.1 He obtained his information from some Hindūs who resided in Alexandria, and Dion Cassius states that Hindus were often found there. At that time Philostratus and Ælian wrote about India, and Bardasanes, as we learn from the extracts preserved by Porphyry, published his "Indica," for which he obtained materials from one Dandaas or Sandamines, whom he met at Babylon in the reign of Elogabalus. He gives a full account of Brahmanic customs, and speaks of ascetics who forsook their wives and children to devote themselves to the study of divine things.2

We have evidence of the fact that the traders to India brought back a knowledge of its religious systems in the history of Scythianus. He was a cotemporary of the Apostles, and was engaged as a merchant in the Indian trade. In the course of his traffic he often visited India, and made himself acquainted with Hindu philosophy. Having amassed a considerable fortune, he settled at length in Alexandria, and here, according to Epiphanius and Cyril, he wrote a book in four parts, which they affirm to be the source from which the Manichæan doctrines were derived. Whether this be true or not, it is evident that Hindu ideas were brought to Europe by some who traded with India. This name is sometimes

Claudius. In 1856 sixty-three gold coins of the early Roman emperors were found near the boundary of the Madura and Koimbatur districts. (Indian Antiquary, August 1876.)

1 Strom I. xv. iii. 7. Journ. As. Soc. xix. 277.

2 Journ. Asiat. Soc. xix. 280. In the time of Dionysius Periegetes

(probably about the end of the third century A.c.) the river Ganges was well known, and was frequented by Western traders. He had not reached it himself, but many others had done

80.

οὐδ ̓ ἐπὶ Γάγγην ἔρχομαι, οἷα τε πολλοί.-709 7.

given to Southern Arabia, but the Hindu philosophy could have been brought only from India proper.1

If a knowledge of Hindu systems was brought to Europe by traders, we might reasonably infer that Christian traders carried the doctrines of their faith to India. But we have positive evidence that a knowledge of Christianity existed there before the third century A.C., whether by this channel or otherwise. Syrian merchants laid the foundation from which the settlements of the St. Thomé Christians arose, and it was probably from them that a request was made, as St. Jerome asserts,2 to Demetrius, Bishop of Alexandria, that he would send out a Christian teacher to India. He sent Pantænus, who went forth, according to the same authority, to instruct the Brahmans. It has been assumed that the St. Thomé Christians were Nestorians who fled from Syria when this sect was persecuted by Theodosius II. ; but Nestorius was condemned by the Council of Ephesus (A.C. 431), and we learn from St. Jerome (born 340 A.C.) that St. Thomas, the apostle of India, was famous in his time. Maffei and Orosius state that when Don Alfonso Souza was the Viceroy of John III., King of Portugal, the St. Thomé Christians brought before him some ancient brass tablets, containing a record of a grant of land made to their founder by the king who reigned there at that time, and an inscription preserved in St. Thomas's Church at Malipur which recorded the fact that he came to India during the reign of King Sagamo. the "Journal of the London Sangha appears, who reigned

1 Jr. Asiat. Soc. xx. 269. Though apparently of Scythian descent, he was born in Palestine. He is said to have been well acquainted with the Greek language and literature.

De Scrip. Illust. c. 36, and Epis. 83.

In a list of kings inserted in Asiatic Society," a king named from 150 to 168 A.C.5 This

Epis. ad Marcellum.

4 Cave's Lives of the Apostles, p. 187. He refers to Maff., Hist. Indica, lib. 2, p. 85, and to Osorius, De Rebus Emman., lib. 3, p. 120.

• Vol. iv. p. 122, New Series.

name seems to be a variation of Saghana, which in the Pali, or common speech, would be pronounced Saghano. No other name appears in the list approaching this form. Unfortunately the fierce Portuguese bigot, Archbishop De Menezes, destroyed all the records of these Churches, and we must rely on the reports of Maffei and Orosius concerning these documents.

In the third and fourth centuries A.C. the Christian communities in India were numerous. Mr. Priaulx observes that "of Eastern travellers in the fourth or fifth centuries many were priests, as we may surmise from the number of Christian Churches in India." In the sixth century Cosmas Indicopheustes wrote of India, and from him we learn that there was a Christian church even in Ceylon: there was a bishop's see at Calliena, and probably many others. He was accompanied on one occasion by Thomas of Edessa, afterwards Metropolitan of Persia, and Patricius, a monk, whose journeys were on behalf of the Christian population. The cause of Christianity declined in India after the sixth century; but in the third and fourth centuries the Christians in India seem to have borne as large a proportion to the whole of the Hindu population as in the present century. We may reasonably. assume that the New Testament was translated into their vernacular tongue, though probably not in any authorised version, and that therefore St. Chrysostom was justified in saying that "the Syrians, and the Egyptians, and the Indians, and the Persians, and the Ethiopians, and countless other nations, having the doctrines promulgated by him (St. John) translated into their own languages, have learned, though barbarians, to philosophise." 2

Professor Weber maintains that in another part of the Mahābhārata (xii. 12, 776 ff.) there is a reference to Christian

1 Journ. Asiat. Soc. xx. 297.

2 Hom, on St. John's Gospel, i. c. I.

"We

doctrines and usages. The passage referred to is certainly coloured by the glow of an Oriental imagination, but it seems to have a groundwork of fact. It relates the voyage of three pilgrims, Ekata, Dvita, and Trita, to the Svetādwīpa (White Country). Its inhabitants are said to be worshippers of the Divine Unity: "Go there, O Munis; there my true nature is revealed;" and the narrative proceeds: "At the end of the time we beheld glistering men, white, appearing like the moon, adorned with all auspicious marks, with their palms ever joined in supplication, praying to the Supreme Being with their faces turned to the east: the prayer which is offered by these great-hearted men is called the mental prayer." They heard a loud sound of those "who were offering an oblation to the god," but they did not see him. only heard a loud cry uttered, 'Thou art victorious, O lotuseyed one. Hail to thee, O Creator of the universe! Hail to thee, the eldest son of the Supreme Soul!' Such was the sound heard by us, accompanied by teaching. In the meanwhile a pure wind, laden with all perfumes, brought heavenly flowers and healing drugs." The reference to the Son of God and the act of worshipping towards the east are significant. The writer of an article in the "Calcutta Review" (January 1876) says: "It is scarcely too daring a conjecture to suppose that the passage contains a description of the effect produced upon some Indian pilgrims by witnessing a Christian service. The burning of incense and the celebration of the Eucharist are sufficiently clearly indicated."

Professor Weber also maintains that the Krishna legend, in its latest development, was affected by the knowledge of the facts recorded in the Gospels. He refers to the statements of the Vishnu Purāṇa, that "Nanda, the foster-father of Krishna, went with his pregnant wife, Yashoda, to Mathura to pay taxes at the time when Krishna was born;" that he is represented as lying in the cow-stall, which corresponds to