in
Buddhism but appear to have no parallels in Jewish, Syrian, or
Egyptian antiquity. Up to a certain point, it is a sound principle
not to admit that resemblances prove borrowing, unless it can be shown
that there was contact between two nations, but it is also certain
that all record of such contact may disappear. For instance, it is
indisputable that Hindu civilization was introduced into Camboja, but
there is hardly any evidence as to how or when Hindu colonists arrived
there, and none whatever as to how or when they left India.

It is in Christian or quasi-Christian heresies--that is, the sects
which were rejected by the majority--that Indian influence is
plainest. This is natural, for if there is one thing obvious in the
history of religion it is that Indian speculation and the Indian view
of life were not congenial to the people of Europe and western Asia.
But some spirits, from the time of Pythagoras onwards, had a greater
affinity for oriental ways of thinking, and such sympathy was
specially common among the Gnostics. Gnosticism consisted in the
combination of Christianity with the already mixed religion which
prevailed in Alexandria, Antioch and other centres, and which was an
uncertain and varying compound of Judaism, Hellenistic thought and the
ideas of oriental countries such as Egypt, Persia and Babylonia. Its
fundamental idea, the knowledge of God or Gnosis, is clearly similar
to the Jnanakanda of the Hindus,[1133] but the emphasis laid on
dualism and redemption is not Indian and the resemblances suggest
little more than that hints may have been taken and worked up
independently. Thus the idea of the Demiurgus is related to the idea
of Isvara in so far as both imply a distinction not generally
recognized in Europe between the creator of the world and the Highest
Deity, but the Gnostic developments of the Demiurgus idea are
independent. Similarly though the Aeons or emanations of the Gnostics
have to some extent a parallel in the beings produced by Brahma,
Prajapati or Vasudeva, yet these latter are not characteristic of
Hinduism and still less of Buddhism, for the celestial Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas of the Mahayana are justly suspected of being additions
due to Persian influence.

Bardesanes, one of the latest Gnostic teachers (155-233), wrote a book
on Indian religion, quoted by Porphyry. This is important for it shows
that he turned towards India for truth, but though his teaching
included the pre-e