________________
* The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ
research is a continuous process, therefore, the matter in the book needs to be validated by other evidences. Nevertheless, researches do show us the direction to move towards and from this point of view Virchand Gandhi's translation of this book, while in Chicago, is enough proof of his insatiable curiosity, which is so important in researches.
The details available in the manuscript affirm the fact that Jesus came to India with his caravan when he was twelve to: sixteen years old and he stayed in India. In support of this fact, we get detailed description from him about business and commerce in India at that time and also about the natural beauty of Tibet. Besides this, Virchand Gandhi drew beautiful illustrations related to the subject and this reflects his aesthetic sense.
The present volume is an English translation from French which was written by Nicholas Notovitch.
Nicolas Notovitch was a Russian aristocrat, a Cossack officer, a spy and a journalist known for his contention that some years of Jesus Christ's life are missing from the Bible and that Jesus followed travelling merchants into India and the Himis Monastery in Ladakh, India, where he studied Buddhism.
Notovitch claimed that, at the lamasery or monastery of Himis, he learned about the “Life of Saint Issa, Best of the Sons of Men." His story, with the text of the "Life," was published in French in 1894 as La vie inconnue de Jesus Christ. It was translated into English, German, Spanish, and Italian.
According to Virchand Gandhi, Notovitch's account of his discovery of the work is that he had been laid up with a broken leg at the monastery of Himis. There he prevailed upon the chief Lama, who had told him of the existence of the work, to read to him, through an interpreter, the somewhat detached verses of the Tibetan version of the “Life of Issa," which was said to have
-
14
-