Gandhi Before Gandhi

Author(s): Bipin Doshi, Priti Shah
Publisher: Jain Academy Educational Research Center Promotion Trust Mumbai

Page 122

GANDHI BEFORE GANDHI
which suggests an explanation of the true Brahmin origin of Bacchus and of the Dionysiac rites of ancient Greece. In the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, the sap of the date palm particularly was substituted for that of Soma or hom as an intoxicating drink. There is a verse in the Rig Veda IX. Celebrating the virtues of Soma, a finer Bacchic burst cannot be met with among the most enthusiastic of poets who have song of wine: "O, Soma! there is nothing so bright as thou. When poured out, thou welcomest all gods, to bestow on them immortality. ** The praiseworthy Soma has from ancient times been the drink of the gods; it was milked from the hidden recesses of the sky; it was created for Indra and was extolled. * * In that realm where there is perennial light, and where the heaven is placed, O Soma, send me to that deathless and immortal realm! Flow thou for Indra
wood to Palestine, but they also brought their Sanskrit names. This was about 1000 B.C. The Assyrian monuments show that the rhinoceros and elephants were among the tribute offered to Shalmaneser II (859-823 B.C.). The Greek historian Hekataios, of Miletos, (549-486 B.C.) speaks clearly of India. Herodotos, too, (450 B.C.) had some knowledge of India; and since Alexander's invasion (327 B.C.) the knowledge of the Western nations about India has become a matter of history. After Alexander's death his empire was partitioned, and Bacteria and India fell eventually to Seleucus Nikator, the founder of the Assyrian monarchy (323 B.C.) While Seleucus reigned in Syria from 312 to 280 B.C., Chandra Gupta reigned in the Gangetic valley from 316 to 292 B.C. In 312 B.C., Seleucus having recovered Babylon, proceeded to re-establish his authority in Bacteria and the Punjab. After a war with Chandra Gupta, Seleucus ceded the Greek settlements to the Indian king and left Megasthenes as an ambassador at the Gangetic court. He also gave his daughter to Chandra Gupta in marriage
Long before Jesus, India was familiar with Western people
These facts prove the prehistoric antiquity of the trade of India with the West; it originated through Persia, Media, Mesopotamia, Syria and Asia Minor with the exodus of the Aryan race from Central Asia, as the philologists infer, from the
names of various spices, drugs, vegetables, stones, etc. We also know that the ship captains of Solomon and Hiram not only brought Indian apes, peacocks and sandal
We see, therefore, that long before Jesus was born, India had become a familiar topic with the Western people. Alexander had brought Greece and India face to face; his officers wrote descriptions of different parts of his route, which have since perished, but they furnished materials to Strabo, Pliny and Arrian. Arrian gives a minute account of the sea-born trade of India. Megasthenes, on the other hand, has left a life-like picture of the Indian people.