Book Title: Indian Antiquary Vol 59
Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications
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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[ August, 1930
for, and there is still another view in regard to the spread of Babylonian and Assyrian legends westwards, which has apparently not been generally considered-viz., the action of the Kurdish race. The Kurds are a collection of ancient tribes more or less combined politically and having an origin in the very land of ancient Assyria. They still exist in pockets every. where between Persia and the Ægean Sea, have always been a fighting race and have occupied all kinds of political positions from rulers of kingdoms to wild primitive peasants of the mountains, adhering to their ancient beliefs behind a profession of Islam. In such circumstances it is hardly believable that they have not been carriers of the old Babylonian cults, and this allusion to them is now made in the hope that they will be studied with the object of showing how far this is the case. After Alexander, came the Romans to disturb the East, and there was a like interchange between Eastern and Western religious ideas.
But reverting to Alexander's date, we find that the first Ptolemy, nearly connected with him. took possession of Egypt with his largely Asiatic army, and it may be fairly assumed that Oriental religious ideas though by no means for the first time-were introduced into Egypt, and what is more important for the present purpose into the Ægean Sea of the Greeks-into the sea that washes the coasts of Greece itself, the Greek Archipelago, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine and Egypt, largely, in fact the whole coast line where prevails the modern cult of al-Khidr, the Green Man. In this region we find also the cult--as ancient as any other like belief-of Glaukos, the Greek god of the shallow seas and the seashore, whose yery name shows him to have been conceived as a Green Man-even if we had no statuary and no description to show that he was so conceived. Assuming then that al. Khidr, although he only appears in the seventh century, is really a memory of an Oriental god, whose name is lost, his cult would be readily transferred to the peoples of the Ægean Sea, who already had their Green Hero in Glaukos, with a varying legendary history, one form of which makes him a deified fisherman. At any rate in Glaukos of the Ægean we find an early legendary form of al-Khidr as & sea-god, and the point of real interest here is that along the Syrian and Palestine coasts the performances of Mediterranean sailors, when passing shrines of al-Khidr, Ilyas and other saints, are exactly those of the sailors in the Bay of Bengal, when passing shrines of saints identified with al-Khidr.
These considerations tend to induce us to see one possible origin for al-Khidr in Glaukos. and this is confirmed by Dr. Lionel Barnett, who in a recent paper has shown a remarkable connection of Vedic and Avestio-i.e., of the most ancient Indian and very early Persian legends-with those of Glaukos. If then such a connection of Glaukos and al-Khidr is correct, the conception of the Green Man as a deified hero of the people is thrown back far indeed. The method by which al-Khidr achieved his immortality, i.e., his godhead, by drinking the Water of Immortality, takes us into a subject as old and as wide as that we have been discussing, and far beyond the limits of the time at our disposal now. It must therefore be left untouched, and we must pass at onoe to what may be called the most important, though not the longest, portion of this discourse—the scientific nature of folklore enquiry.
The general scientific questions that arise out of the above discussion are: How came the idea of al-Khidr to arise? How for that matter came all the ideas above described as to Elijah, St. George and the rest to be accepted? The theory on these important questions to be put forward for your consideration commences with an investigation into the idea of al-Khidr as the object of a general cult. Why is it that he has no form, no history, no locality, no tribe? Why can he assume any form ? And be the patron of any kind of worshipper! Of men of the desert and town alike; of the clerk, the field labourer and the mariner ? Why is he ubiquitous ? Why is he identified with such totally different personages as Elijah, St. George and Glaukos, and indeed with practically every popular saint-Christian, Muslim, or even Hindu ? And shall we say Zoroastrian as well? Why is he immortal ? These are all fair questions for us to ask ourselves.
