''Jesus in Indien. Das Ende einer Legende'' is a 1985 book by the German
indologist
Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies.
The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is o ...
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 ...
investigating the Islamic, Christian and Buddhist source material used by the
Ahmaddiya Muslim founder
Ghulam Ahmad in his book
''Jesus in India''. The book is Grönbold's best known book among the general public in Germany, and is the most cited scholarly text about the sources of Ahmad's interpretation and 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 ...
shrine among subsequent academic and popular writing. Following consideration of the original context and history of the literary sources cited by Ahmad and later Ahmaddiya supporters of the theory that Jesus of Nazareth survived the crucifixion and made a journey to India and was buried in Srinagar
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 ...
, Grönbold concludes that Ahmad misidentified material about the putative Christian saint "Yuzafa" 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 ...
traditions telling 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 ...
, as being material concerning Jesus of Nazareth. Grönbold's work was revisited, cited and developed by
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) and Mark Bothe (2009, 2013).
Bothe regarded Grönbold as the first and only scholar in the area to have developed a history of the origination of the various "Jesus in India" legends.
[Mark Bothe ''Die Jesus-in-Indien-Legende: Über eine alternative Lebensgeschichte'' 3640439791 2009 "Die Geschichte der Jesus-in-Indien-Legende Um die Jesus-in-Indien-Legende, kurz JiIL, verstehen zu können, benötigt man zu Beginn einen Blick auf ihre Entstehungsgeschichte. Als bisher einziger hat Günter Grönbold versucht, eine Darstellung dieser Entstehungsgeschichte zu geben. Ihm zufolge gibt es zu verschiedenen Zeiten immer wieder neue, voneinander abhängige Werke, die der heutigen JiIL als Grundlage]
References
1985 non-fiction books
German non-fiction books
{{reli-book-stub