India in Primitive Christianity

India in Primitive Christianity
by Arthur Lillie

What are the links between Buddhism and early Christianity?

THE first edition of this work, issued in 1893, had an unexpected success, especially abroad. In France, the eminent Sanskrit scholar, M. Léon de Rosny, reviewed it very favourably in the "XXme Siêcle" in a long article that gave a digest of the subject.

He said: "The astonishing points of contact (ressemblances étonnantes) between the popular legend of Buddha and that of Christ, the almost absolute similarity of the moral lessons given to the world, at five centuries’ interval, between these two peerless teachers of the human race, the striking affinities between the customs of the Buddhists and of the Essenes, of whom Christ must have been a disciple, suggest at once an Indian origin to Primitive Christianity."

Chapter I. S’iva
Chapter II. Baal
Chapter III. Buddha
Chapter IV. “The Wisdom of the Other Bank”
Chapter V. King Asoka
Chapter VI. The Mahâyâna
Chapter VII. Avalokitishwara
Chapter VIII. The Cave Temple and its Mysteries
Chapter IX. Architecture
Chapter X. The Essenes
Chapter XI. The Essene Jesus
Chapter XII. More Coincidences
Chapter XIII. Rites
Chapter XIV. Paulinism
Chapter XV. Transubstantiation
Chapter XVI. Ceylon
Chapter XVII. Alexandria
Chapter XVIII. Ophis and the Serpents
Chapter XIX. Descent Into Hell