the book review of the book -Jesus in Kashmir-The Lost Tomb.

[Guest guest]

here is the book review of the book -Jesus in Kashmir-The Lost Tomb.

The book is reviewed by Geetika Kaw Kher.

 

Suzanne Olsson's Jesus in Kashmir: The lost tomb is an eclectic mix of science

fiction,

hypothetical racial claims, and a good number of fantastic speculations and

possibilities.

The entire work is aimed at justifying the legitimate (sic) claim of Jesus to

the throne of

Kashmir, on account of his having allegedly been buried in a tomb named `Roza

Bal' near

Srinagar.

 

 

 

What seems to have instigated the author to write the book is the `deliberate'

proclamation of the site as an Islamic one, and the misuse of money donated to

the shrine

by Islamic fundamentalists. So far so good…

 

 

 

But to prove her point, she has gone to absurd lengths to situate all famous

Biblical

patriarchs in or around India. Olsson approaches the problem like a theorem and

moves

step by step from Adam, Noah, Abraham, and finally to Jesus, and identifies them

with

Hindu deities or personalities. Such a linear approach fails miserably when

applied to

cultural or religious studies. Negation of all other possible interpretations

and meanings to

reach a preconceived conclusion makes the work shallow and full of loopholes.

 

 

 

Right in the beginning, the author in all humility admits she hasn't taken

careful notes or

references as most of the language of texts and inscriptions was unfamiliar to

her. Yet for

someone claiming to have come up with startling new discoveries such an

admission is

disastrous and puts a question mark on the credibility of the entire work.

Rather than

approaching the `issue' in a scholarly manner, incidentally the only way to

question

history unless one is writing fiction, she resorts to seeking phonetic

similarities between

Jewish and Hindu tongues to come up with wild assumptions, such as Abraham, the

Jewish

prophet, was raised to a status of divinity in India and called Brahma;

Saraswati (goddess

of learning and arts) is the Sanskritized form of Sarah!

 

 

 

She writes: " It is difficult for a Hindu to accept that Brahma and Sarasvati

were Jewish

prophets who they turned into gods and their most sacred texts were begun by and

perhaps influenced by the Jewish prophets and scribes who once called the soul

of mother

India home " (p. 133). Such statements betray something like a colonial hangover,

besides

a total ignorance of Hindu religion and culture.

 

 

 

Wherever in India Olsson sees a `six pointed star' or a `lion,' she

automatically dedicates it

to the Jews. By this logic, the `Chakreshwari' shrine atop Hari Parbat hill in

Kashmir, a

highly venerated and historical site of Kashmiri Pandits, automatically becomes

a Jewish

shrine related to the house of David.

 

 

 

Her poor knowledge about the importance of `Sricakra' (the yantra of Devi

Sharika) is

revealed by a callous remark on `dejehoru' (an ear ornament worn by married

women

based on the sricakra): " This style (dejeharu) has now become limited to a few

shepherd

girls because girls in villages and towns regard it as too old fashioned. These

exquisite

little jewelry pieces can now be purchased for a few rupees in local shops in

Srinagar who

are anxious to dispose of these valueless old fashioned granny items… " (p. 211).

 

 

 

It would be too much to expect Olsson to have an inkling of the tantric concept

of union of

masculine and feminine elements (something similar to Sankhya concept of Purusha

and

Prakriti ) that these two inverted triangles symbolize.

 

 

 

I would like to stress that symbols like lion, eagle, serpent, cross, star,

wheel, etc., are

used all over the world. Lots of folk stories from various parts of the world

seem to follow

similar motifs. It is futile to see these similarities as the influence of one

culture on

another. They can be understood better in the context of the `theory of

collective

unconscious' proposed by Carl Jung - there are certain things humans do

instinctively. It

would be preposterous to suggest that a Jewish baby learnt to suckle from a

Muslim one,

one or vice versa. Basing any work only on such parallels leads nowhere.

 

 

 

Interestingly, wherever references from texts like `Talmud' and `Rajatarangini'

do not fit in

her scheme of things, she finds fault with the writer or compiler of the text.

Thus she

found reference to a minister Sandimatti in Rajatarangini, who was put on a

stake by the

king as he feared the minister would usurp his throne. She promptly linked

Sandimatti to

Jesus, though the dates of the two men don't match: " Because Sandimatti was born

long

before Jesus we can assume either Kalhana erred by applying the crucifixion

story to the

wrong man in the wrong years, or this might represent Joseph, father of Jesus

(or Joseph

of Arimathea). We can be quite certain that Kalhana's crucifixion story was

erroneously

applied to the wrong time, and perhaps the wrong man "

 

 

 

Such an audacious conclusion helps her link Sandimatti with Solomon, and she

sees the

temple atop Shankaracharya Hill (renamed Takht-e-Sulaiman by Islamic rulers) as

the

temple of Solomon! Stein had clearly stated that the ancient name of the hill

was Gopadri

and there was a temple of Jyesthesarudra built on top of the hill by Gopaditya,

a shrine

dedicated to Siva as the name suggests. He considered its allocation to

Sandimatti totally

baseless and a concoction of later Islamic scholars (Rajatarangini, trans. A.

Stein, Vol. 1,

Book I, Verse 341 and note 341).

 

 

 

Olsson's identification of Harwan in Kashmir with the final resting place of

Aaron (brother

of Moses) merely on the basis of phonetic similarity with Mount Hor fades in

comparison

to Stein's scholarly derivation of Harwan from Shadarhadvana, used by Kalhana,

and

meaning forest of six saints (Rajatarangini, trans. A. Stein, Vol. 1, Book I,

Verse 171 and

note 171).

 

 

 

The book is replete with such uncertain claims, but a major problem she

encounters in

linking biblical patriarchs with kings of Kashmir is the adherence of most kings

to

Shaivism, and Shiva can with no stretch of the imagination be compared to any

biblical

prophet and hence could not be appropriated. Rajatarangini, whether talking of

Sandimatti, Meghvahana, Pravarasena II or Ranaditya, calls them all devotees of

Siva. In the

case of Sandimatti (whom she identifies with Solomon) there is a clear reference

to his

worshipping of Sahastralinga (thousand lingas), his ash-smeared body indicating

adherence to the Pashupata Shaivite stream. The identification of Pravarsena

with Jesus

falls flat in the light of his strong Shaivite leanings, as do claims that he

had to do

anything with Buddha or the fourth Buddhist Council (Rajatarangini, trans. A.

Stein, Vol. 1,

Book I, Verse 170 and 129).

 

 

 

Based on all this paraphernalia, Olsson finally identifies `Roza Bal' as the

final resting

place of Jesus. According to her, shortly after the arrival of Islam in Kashmir,

the tomb and

the casket were opened and the rod removed, hence we have no solid proof to link

it with

Jesus. She finds a family who claim descent from Jesus, and appeals to all

humanity to

save the tomb and snatch it from the hands of Islamic fundamentalists.

 

 

 

About Mary Magdalene she writes: " ...while they were there (in Magadha)

Magdalene's

father became ashamed of some inappropriate childish behaviour and abandoned her

to

the Brahmin priests, who used her as a temple prostitute. It was in the temple

where Jesus

entered for studies that he met Magdalene. It was here in India where the paths

of Jesus

and Mary crossed " (p. 333).

 

 

 

Interestingly, the Catholic Secular Forum (CSF) has demanded an apology from the

airline

Spicejet and withdrawal of an article in its in-flight magazine that portrays

Roza Bal as the

tomb of Jesus. CSF General Secretary Joseph Dias said: ''There is no evidence to

prove that

Jesus fled from Israel and in fact, the Garden Tomb near Calvery, where he died,

has

millions of tourists compared to the unheard tourist spot near Srinagar. This

strikes at the

fundamentals of Christian faith.'' The whole exercise of writing this book is

self-defeating.

 

 

Best Regards

 

Rashneek Kher