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The Oldest Living Religion
the 8th to the 13th century A.D., stray visitors like AlBeruni (C. 1000 A.D.), Marco Polo (1288-1293 A.D.) and Ibn Batuta (1325 A.D.), the Jesuit Missionaries of Portugese Goa who visited the Mughal court, and the European adventurers and travellers of the 17th century onwards, like Terry, Pernier, Tavernier, Manucci, Peter Munde, etc. have all left their respective accounts of India, as and what they saw of it. Of these the original Greek records had long since been lost and could only be partially gathered from the Greek and Roman historical works written several centuries after them, but wherein they were said to have been freely used and often quoted. Most of the other earlier accounts have also not come down to us complete in their original forms. The outlook of the Chinese Pilgrims was entirely Buddhistic and what they saw and described was in the main pertaining to their own faith. Most of the Muslim writers and historians were biased and their outlook was predominantly Mohammadan. And as Prof. Rawlinson remarks, 'the European travellers of 17th and 18th century also usually took Mohammadan point of view about the Hindus'. Besides, all these foreign writers were practically stangers in a strange land, seldom if ever knew any of the languages of the country, and many of them were ordinary lay people of mediocre intelligence, They did not come in contact with the real life of the country, had very little opportunity and means of obtaining reliable and adequate information on most points, and whatever meagre, vague and often erroneous information they succeeded in collecting,
1. Rapson - Anctent Indis, p. 84. 2. The Legacy of India - India in European Literature
and Thought, page 30.
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