Indian Influences on Western Culture

Extract

Indian influence upon European literature goes back to the earliest times. The learned German scholar, Dr. Gerland, traces to Indian sources a number of the episodes in the Odyssey; the story of Circe, for instance, appears also in Somadeva's Kathā Sarit Sāgara, where a Yakshinī, or female demon, changes men into beasts by playing to them on her magic flute. The Sirens are the Indian Rākshasīs, and the Cyclops are Rākshasas. India is the home of fables, especially of beast and fairy stories, and these found their way to the West by a variety of channels. Some were carried by traders, others by wandering tribes like the gypsies, whose Indian origin is now generally accepted. Others again reached the West by way of Baghdad and Alexandria. Thus the story of the Judgment of Solomon occurs also in the Mahoshadha Jātaka, where it is attributed to the Buddha in one of his previous incarnations; doubtless it found its way from India to Palestine along with the ivory, apes, and peacocks which Hiram, King of Tyre, brought from Ophir to Jerusalem by way of Ezion Geber. If we identify Ophir with Sopara on the west coast of India, near Bombay, this becomes still more probable, for Sopara or Śurpāraka was a well-known port in Buddhist times, and the capital of Aparānta, mentioned by Aśoka in his list of Buddhist countries.