1 邨 -- "ኔ . . . . . . . . . . , ' ,
- * *
‘. . . . ', 皓 臀 爵 н வ o * R , ' W’ 'y. i o w , sts . . . . . أم . . . .I’’: f {"» r ከዚ J
- ुश्tु 3४८९ .”
- t # - 邊
· ቋ I o ير في ancient'Hindus and a German anthropologue once assured me that the celebrated traveller and savant, Schweinfurth, was of opinion that by far the greater part of civilisation in the western Countries of Asia and in the eastern Countries of Africa bore distinct traces of the Hindu Mind—that future antiquarian researches would gradually bring to light how this “Light from the East” passed. off into those remote countries. As the Hindu Mind has made itself felt in all parts of the world —quite remarkably on all the Asiatic races and those bordering on Asia, so we could give a complete account of its history only if we knew the language and history of all those countries and not earlier. Even a study of the Slavonic Races—their পত্র s f :
- -
- I h 1,情 Č.
به وه i f ... 1 p( ، ، ، «م prove for the great antiquarian Lassen affirus that there were thousand of Buddhist monasteries and Buddhist monks in Syria and Pales. tine so early as the era of the Buddhist Jonstantine, Piyadase Asoka, that is to say, about 250 years before the birth of Christ (Vide Lassen: Indische Alterthums-kunde) Besides, it is well-known that there was a wide-spread numerous Buddhistic Sect in the Asia Minor when Christ appeared ; this sect was called the Essenes and to it is said to have belonged Jesus himself according to the best authorities on the Life of the Founder of Christianity. Thus it would not be very difficult to prove how Buddhism and Jiuddhist architecture penetrated through Alexandria on the Kaukasusa (Vide Lassen Indische , Alf erthums-kunde), An menia amó Byzantitiir, sanguages, manners, “ ceremonies, popular songs and mythologies, monuments &c., is . likely to help us in elucidating that past History of our country. When I arrived at Moscow, one of the first things which greatly struck me was the resenblance which some of the towns and temples of the celebrated skremlin bore to out Matis aud Mandirs. Ön my first regular visit into the interior of the Kreutin, I had the larc advantage of being acco.upanied by two of the greatest men of tussia. hy M. Ivan Turgenieste the greatest literaay unan living and by M. Zabieline-- the grcwtest antiqtia iam living after the decease of Solovios; a year ago. M. Turgeoieff had the amiablenesss, as I thought, of asking M. Zabieline for the occasion. On entering into the Krumliu M. Zabioline whose modest and amiable looks had already prepossessed me in his favour asked me point ing towards the towers: “Are they not similar to those of your country f" “Yes, and very strikingly similar too !” I replied. I then communicated to M. Ivan Turgenieff my theory of what obligations Christianity probably owed to Buddhism and remarked that this striking resemblance in architecture was another confirmation of what I have once so hesitatingly and after long waiting publicly affirmed. “But to prove that the Bussian architecture has borrowed from the Indian, it would be first necessary to prove. that ths. Byzantine architecture has dome it before for all our church-architecture ve, have from Byzantium" in reply, i said that this is what it would not be difficult to Greece and Italy. they have done for Greece and Italy. into Moscow and Russia. Thus it appears to me that there is as yet little cause of despair on our part to “more light. '" on the past history of our country. We must in the first place diligently study what we have in own country and them what onto neighbours near and far hard to sity about our great (unrestors. But it is incumbent on us to employ the first of these means. It is for us to begin to do for the past of our country what the whole of Europe has done for luave We cannot expect the Europea118 take the snmo interest foi us as ᎢᏇ Greece and Italy they stand in quite peculiar relations—to them they owe the germs of almost all the civilising factors that have made modern Europe what she is to-day aud not one of then could give a true account of her own history without taking into consideration the history of one or the other or of both. It is therefore chiefly on us that falls the duty of making researches into our Past and we should not be long in acknowledging and carrying it out as such. In this way thoro is every hope that we shall gradually arrive at quite distinct ideas about a past which is yet so, dim and obscure—and we shall also have a History of India in the proper sense of the word, just as there is a Grote's History of # le, Mommsen's History of Rome and Solovioffs {{istory of Russia. of Despérarts I think” is have written you enough for to-day, if I do not fatigue your patience,
