DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.959#0164
THE SUASTIKA IN INDIA.
103
Rama—in which he carried his troops across the Ganges
on his expedition of conquest to India and Ceylon—bore
the pM on their prows. Sanscrit scholars believe that this
heroic epic (the Rama-
yana) was composed at
the latest 800 years before
Christ, and they assign
the campaign of Rama at
the latest to the thirteenth
or fourteenth century
b.c, for, as Kiepert
points out in his very
interesting article in the
National - Zeihmg, the
names of the products
mentioned in the 2nd
Book of Kings, in the
reign of King Solomon, as brought by Phoenician ships
from Ophir, as for example, ivory, peacocks, apes and
spices, are Sanscrit words with scarcely any alteration.
Hence we may surely regard it as certain, that it took at
least three or four centuries before the language of the con-
querors was generally introduced into the immensely large
and densely peopled country of India, especially as the
number of the conquerors cannot have been very large.
In the myths of the Rigveda, which were written before
the expedition into Northern India {Heptopotamia\ the
Aryan population is always represented as inconsiderable
m numbers.
Emile Burnouf, in his excellent work La Science des
Religions, just published, says, "The ^ represents the
two pieces of wood which were laid cross-wise upon one
No. 69. The Foot-print of Buddha.
likewise frequently repeated (comp. the lithographed whorls, Nos. 330,
339, &c), and the central circles show a close resemblance to some of
the Trojan whorls.—[Ed.]
103
Rama—in which he carried his troops across the Ganges
on his expedition of conquest to India and Ceylon—bore
the pM on their prows. Sanscrit scholars believe that this
heroic epic (the Rama-
yana) was composed at
the latest 800 years before
Christ, and they assign
the campaign of Rama at
the latest to the thirteenth
or fourteenth century
b.c, for, as Kiepert
points out in his very
interesting article in the
National - Zeihmg, the
names of the products
mentioned in the 2nd
Book of Kings, in the
reign of King Solomon, as brought by Phoenician ships
from Ophir, as for example, ivory, peacocks, apes and
spices, are Sanscrit words with scarcely any alteration.
Hence we may surely regard it as certain, that it took at
least three or four centuries before the language of the con-
querors was generally introduced into the immensely large
and densely peopled country of India, especially as the
number of the conquerors cannot have been very large.
In the myths of the Rigveda, which were written before
the expedition into Northern India {Heptopotamia\ the
Aryan population is always represented as inconsiderable
m numbers.
Emile Burnouf, in his excellent work La Science des
Religions, just published, says, "The ^ represents the
two pieces of wood which were laid cross-wise upon one
No. 69. The Foot-print of Buddha.
likewise frequently repeated (comp. the lithographed whorls, Nos. 330,
339, &c), and the central circles show a close resemblance to some of
the Trojan whorls.—[Ed.]