Unknown Life of Jesus Christ New Edition 2009 Publication

Author(s): Nicholas Notovitch, Virchand R Gandhi, Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: World Jain Confederation

Page 30

Editor's Note
world. Ashoka the Great, the Emperor of Northern India, was converted to the faith of Buddha in 257 B. C. and his grandson, Samprati, later on was converted to Jainism. The grandfather and the grandson have done for their respective religions what Constantine has done for Christianity. Ashoka has left a number of edicts in the form of inscriptions cut on rocks, caves and pillars and in the language and alphabet of the time, and scattered all over India.
The famous French scholar Senart has recently published these inscriptions in his learned work “Les Inscriptions de Piyadasi”. From the thirteenth inscription, which mentions the names of Antiochus of Syria, Ptolemy of Egypt, Antigonus of Macedon, Magas of Cyrene, and Alexander of Epiros, it appears that these kings were contemporaries of Ashoka and they made treaties with him and with their permission he sent Buddhist missionaries to preach his religion in those countries. Ashoka's grandson sent missionaries to many foreign countries to preach Jainism and often the monks of one religion were mistaken for those of the others, by reason of a close similarity in dress and ceremonial observances. These religions were, therefore, wellknown.in Egypt, Syria, Greece and other places, long before Jesus born. “Buddhist missionaries”, says a Christian writer, 'preached in Syria two centuries before the teaching of Christ (which has so many moral points in common) was heard in northern Palestine.
It is beyond doubt that India was commercially connected to the countries situated on the shores of the Mediterranean many centuries before the birth of Jesus; that India's wealth and commodities had attracted different people to her in very ancient times; that her religions were openly preached and known in the very land which afterwards became the birth-place of Jesus; that Alexander's conquest had made foreign nations more familiar with India and her people and her glory had spread throughout the world then known. Is it then impossible that Jesus, having