< Buddhism in America (continued from page 4-63) >
it. Moreover, for the Brahmans to call their God the “black one” would be unnatural and absurd; while to style him the sacred, or pure essence, would be perfectly appropriate to their notions. As to the name being Caneya, Mr. Textor de Ravisi, in suggesting it, completes his own discomfiture. In escaping Scylla he falls into Charybdis. I suppose no one will deny that the Sanskrit Canya means Virgin; for even in modern Hindostanee the zodiacal sign of Virgo is called Kaniya. Christna is styled Caneya, as having been born of a virgin. Begging pardon, then, of the “learned friend” at your elbow, I reaffirm that if there “never was a Hindu reformer named Jezeus Christna,” there was a Hindu Saviour, who is worshipped unto this day as Jas-i-Christna, or, if it better accords with his pious preferences, Jas-i-Kristna.
When the 84,000 volumes of the Dharma-Khanda, or sacred books of the Buddhists, and the thousands upon thousands of ollas of Vedic and Brahmanical literature, now known by their titles only to European scholars, or even a tithe of those actually in their possession are translated, and comprehended, and agreed upon, I will be happy to measure swords again with the solar pundit who has prompted your severe reflections upon your humble subscriber.
Though, in common with various authorities, you stigmatize Jacolliot as a “French fraud,” I must really do him the justice to say that his Catholic opponent, de Ravisi, said of his Bible in India, in a report made at the request of the Société Académique de St. Quentin, that it is written “with good faith, of absorbing interest, a learned work on known facts and with familiar arguments.”
Ten years’ residence and studies in India were enough to fit him to give an opinion. Unfortunately, however, in America it is but too easy to gain the reputation of “a fraud” in much less time. Respectfully,
The Buddhist Movement in a New Light
...
Wang Ching Foo is Preaching Buddhism in Minneapolis
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Wong Ching Foo`s Mission
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Hierophant Olcott`s Preacher
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Editor's notes
- ↑ The Buddhist Movement in a New Light by unknown author, Sun, The. From the Jersey City Journal
- ↑ Wang Ching Foo is Preaching Buddhism in Minneapolis by unknown author, Sun, The, April 1876
- ↑ Wong Ching Foo`s Mission by unknown author, Sun, The, May 3, 1877
- ↑ Hierophant Olcott`s Preacher by unknown author, Sun,The, May 3, 1877
- ↑ image by unknown author. Portrait of Chinese in color