''Jesus in India'' ( ur, ; ''Masīh Hindustān Meiń'') is a treatise written by

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Mirzā Ghulām Ahmad (13 February 1835 – 26 May 1908) was an Indian religious leader and the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam. He claimed to have been divinely appointed as the promised Messiah and Mahdi—which is the metaphoric ...

, the founder of the

Ahmadiyya Movement Ahmadiyya (, ), officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community or the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ, ar, الجماعة الإسلامية الأحمدية, al-Jamāʿah al-Islāmīyah al-Aḥmadīyah; ur, , translit=Jamā'at Aḥmadiyyah Musl ...

in 1889. The treatise, which was then published as a book, puts forward the view that Jesus survived crucifixion, left

Judea Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Hebrew language#Modern Hebrew, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian vocalization, Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous L ...

and migrated eastward in order to continue his mission to the '

Lost Tribes of Israel The ten lost tribes were the ten of the Twelve Tribes of Israel that were said to have been exiled from the Kingdom of Israel after its conquest by the Neo-Assyrian Empire BCE. These are the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Ashe ...

', traveling through

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

and eventually dying a natural and honourable death in

Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...

at an old age. Ghulam Ahmad applied textual analysis of both the

Gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

and Islamic sources – the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...

and ''

hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval ...

'' – and also drew upon medical and historical material, including what he claimed were ancient

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

records, to argue his case. Modern scholars such as

Norbert Klatt Norbert Klatt (24 December 1949 – 1 October 2015) was a German scholar of Buddhism and Christianity and publisher; he was the founder of Norbert Klatt Verlag, Göttingen. Klatt proposed Buddhist influence on some New Testament narratives (1982), ...

(1988) have rejected Ghulam Ahmad's use of these latter sources as misreadings of material unrelated to Jesus.

Background

The book was completed in 1899 and was partly serialised in the ''

Review of Religions The ''Review of Religions'' is an English-language comparative religious magazine published monthly by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Regularly in print since 1902, it is one of the longest running Islamic periodicals in English. It has been de ...

'' in 1902-1903. It was published in book form shortly after Ghulam Ahmad’s death in 1908.The publisher's note (page v) at the beginning of the book states: "Written in 1899, and partly serialized in

in 1902 and 1903, the book itself was posthumously published on 20th November 1908." ''Jesus in India'' by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1 July 2003) The first complete English translation was published in 1944.

Content of the book

The treatise suggests that Jesus, having survived crucifixion, discreetly left Roman jurisdiction for the East, starting his journey from

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

and passing through

Nisibis Nusaybin (; '; ar, نُصَيْبِيْن, translit=Nuṣaybīn; syr, ܢܨܝܒܝܢ, translit=Nṣībīn), historically known as Nisibis () or Nesbin, is a city in Mardin Province, Turkey. The population of the city is 83,832 as of 2009 and is ...

and

, eventually reaching

where he met the

Israelite The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...

tribes who had settled there after their escape from the bonds of

Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar II (Babylonian cuneiform: ''Nabû-kudurri-uṣur'', meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir"; Biblical Hebrew: ''Nəḇūḵaḏneʾṣṣar''), also spelled Nebuchadrezzar II, was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling ...

centuries before. From here he travelled to Kashmir where some Israelite tribes had also settled and lived there until his death at an old age. Other authors have suggested that the resemblance between Buddhist and Christian teachings and between the lives of Jesus and Buddha as recorded in their respective scriptures indicate that Buddhist teachings must have reached

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

been incorporated by Jesus into his own teaching, or that he must have travelled to India pre-crucifixion. Ghulam Ahmad, however, asserts that Jesus reached India only after the crucifixion and that Buddhists later reproduced elements of the Gospels in their scriptures. He argues that Jesus also preached to Buddhist monks, some of whom were originally Jews, who accepted him as a manifestation of the Buddha, the 'promised teacher', and mingled his teachings with Buddha’s. ''Jesus in India'' also contains claims on the whereabouts of the Lost Tribes of Israel, suggesting that these tribes were scattered throughout Afghanistan, Kashmir, and Tibet. It also provides a list of tribes of these regions seeking to trace their Israelite roots.

Alleged discovery

Ahmadiyya literature states that one of Ghulam Ahmad’s disciples, Khalifa Nur Din (or Noor al-Din) of

Jalalpur Jattan Jalalpur Jattan ( pnb, , ur, ) is a city in Gujrat District in the province of Punjab (Pakistan), Punjab, Pakistan. It is the centre of Jalalpur Jattan Tehsil and about 50 km from Azad Kashmir, Kashmir. History When Alexander the Great ...

, District Gujrat,

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

spoke to him about a tomb in

Srinagar Srinagar (English: , ) is the largest city and the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It lies in the Kashmir Valley on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus, and Dal and Anchar lakes. The city is known for its natu ...

that was said to be the tomb of a prophet named

Yuz Asaf Youza Asaf, Youza Asaph, Youza Asouph, Yuz Asaf, Yuzu Asaf, Yuzu Asif, or Yuzasaf, ( ur, ) are Arabic and Urdu variations of the name Josaphat, and are primarily connected with Christianized and Islamized versions of the life of the Buddha found ...

. Ghulam Ahmad instructed him to do some further research into the matter. Nur Din went to Srinagar and stayed there for about four months. He collected information and also obtained the signatures of 556 inhabitants who attested that, according to their traditions, the remains of Jesus Christ lay in the

Roza Bal The Roza Bal, Rouza Bal, or Rozabal is a shrine located in the Khanyar quarter in downtown area of Srinagar in Kashmir, India. The word ''roza'' means tomb, the word ''bal'' mean place. Locals believe a sage is buried here, Yuz Asaf, alongsi ...

. He also brought back a sketch of the Roza Bal. Thereafter, Ghulam Ahmad decided to send one of his followers, Maulvi Abdullah, to Kashmir to investigate this tomb. Maulvi Abdullah arrived in Kashmir, conducted his investigations, and wrote back to Ghulam Ahmad about his findings. Ghulam Ahmad then published a poster that contained Maulvi Abdullah’s letter, as well as Maulvi Abdullah’s sketch of the Roza Bal. Ghulam Ahmad began studying the local traditions of the people of Kashmir, both oral and written, and discovered that these traditions, as mentioned in the letter from Maulvi Abdullah, referred to the Roza Bal as the tomb of ''Nabi Isa'' (Prophet Jesus). According to this information, the Muslims in that locality did not believe Jesus to be in heaven, as was taught by the orthodox clergy. The Ahmadiyya publication, ''Review of Religions'', recorded this belief in its October, 1909 edition.

Modern reception

The claims of the book regarding a journey of Jesus to India are rejected or ignored by most scholars. The documents used by Ahmad were reviewed by the German indologist

Günter Grönbold Günter Grönbold (Munich, 18 September 1943) is a German Indologist and Tibetologist. He was head of the Oriental Section at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich. He is an authority on the Pāli Canon and the Buddhist art of the Silk Road and ha ...

in '' Jesus in Indien. Das Ende einer Legende'' (Munich, 1985), with Grönbold concluding that Ahmad had misidentified material from the

Barlaam and Josaphat Barlaam and Josaphat, also known as Bilawhar and Budhasaf, are legendary Christian saints. Their life story was based on the life of the Gautama Buddha, and tells of the conversion of Josaphat to Christianity. According to the legend, an Indian ...

texts relating to a Christianized version of the life of

Siddhartha Gautama Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...

, not of Jesus.Historia animae utilis de Barlaam et Ioasaph (spuria): Einführung 2009 3110210991 "...Jahrhunderts, in dem auf die Barlaam-Parabel vom König und seinem weisen Ratgeber (Kitāb Bilawhar wa Būdāsf, übers. ... Ghulām Ahmad aber scheint ganz selbständig eine Manipulation von Yūdāsafzu Yūzāsaf vorgenommen zu haben, und sie ist für ihn höchst wichtig: Das Grab in Srinagar ... 99 101 sein Buch überarbeitet104, Grönbold und Klatt sogar ins Literaturverzeichnis aufgenommen, 156 " Another German scholar

in ''Lebte Jesus in Indien?'' (1988) examined the same Muslim and Christian source texts and came to the same conclusions as Grönbold.

References

External links