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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. X.V. HISTORY OF BUDDHA CHRISTIANISED
.
~ 1
4*
,.
327
some long theological discussions. From this Greek, it was translated into all the known languages of Europe, while the Peblevi version being rendered into Arabic, was adapted by the Mussulmans and the Jews to their own creeds. (II. Zotenberg, lClJüz. sur le texte et les versions orientates du L ivre de Barlaant et foasaph, Not. et Ext. XXVIII. Pt. I. pp. 1-166 ; G. Paris, Saint josapIzat in Rev. de Paris, Ier Juin, 1895, and Poèzzzes et Le' euza'es du lib yen Age, pp. 181-214. )
Mr. Joseph Jacobs published in London, 1896, a valuable little book, Barlaam and josapizat, English Lives of Buddha, in which he comes to this conclusion (p. xli.) : " I regard the literary history of the Barlaam literature as completely parallel with that of the Fables of Bidpai. Originally Buddhistic books, both lost their specifically Buddhistic traits before they left India, and made their appeal, by their parables, more than by their doctrines. Both were translated into Pehlevi in
Sakya Muni as a Saint of the Roman Martyrology.
Z TIic bi s $un in bent au r; irchen an ,e Stan $ahe in bent Meg
ehttett blinbcn nub chit ,tixt tnörekigen unb rctjctt aitett krummen 41lian."
the reign of Chosroes, and from that watershed floated off into the literatures of all the great creeds. In Christianity alone, characteristically enough, one of them, the Barlaam book, was surcharged with dogma, and turned to polemical uses, with the curious result that Buddha became one of the champions of the Church. To divest the Barlaam-Buddha of this character, and see him in his original form, we must take a further journey and seek him in his home beyond the Himalayas."
Professor Gaston Paris, in answer to Air. Jacobs, writes (Poèmes et Lis. du 11loyen Age, p. 21 3) : " Mr. Jacobs thinks that the Book of Balauhar and X dâsaf was not originally Christian, and could have existed such as it is now in Buddhistic India, but it is hardly likely, as Buddha did not require the help of a teacher to find truth, and his followers would not have invented the person of Balauhar-Barlaam ; on the other hand, the introduction of the Evangelical Parable of The Sower, which exists in
* The quotation and the cut are from an old German version of Barlaam and Josaphat printed by Zainer at Augsburg, circa 1477. (B. M., Grenv. Lib., No. II,766.)
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