There are eighteen books of the Hindus called the Puranas. The ninth book, the Bhavishya Mahapurana, records an encounter of King Shalivahana with Jesus Christ near Srinagar long after the crucifixion. In contrast to the Gospels, the exact date of this book is clearly known. It was compiled by Sutta in the year 3191 of the Kaukikia Era. That corresponds to the year 115 AD. (Jesus Christ is believed to have died at age 120, so this account was compiled five years before his death). Alongside the oral tradition of The Followers of Jesus in Afghanistan, this written account is perhaps the most important of any of the documents recording the presence of Jesus long after the crucifixion, because it was written while Jesus, according to the theory, would still have been alive.

Christian scholars state that the only extant Gospels possibly dating to the first century are Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Thomas. But they theorize that there may also have existed a Q document [see the discussion in the Buddhist link] that pre-dated these Gospels, and served as the source material for at least Matthew and Luke. This Q document is not available anywhere today. Though scholars assume its existence, we cannot know for certain whether it actually existed prior to the compilation of the Gospels. So the Bhavishya Mahapurana is an extant book that reveals information about Jesus Christ during his lifetime. So it can be suggested that the Bhavishya Mahapurana stands as a more reliable document than any of the Gospels, as it was not derived from a “Q” document, but is an original text. This is a very striking account:

"Shalivahan, who was a grandson of Bikrama Jit, took over the government. He vanquished the attacking hordes of Chinese, Parthians, Scythians and Bactrians. He drew a border between the Arians and the Mleacha (= non-Hindus), and ordered the latter to withdraw to the other side of India. One day, Shalivahan, the chief ot the Sakyas, went into the Himalayas. There, in the Land of the Hun (= Ladakh, a part of the Kushan empire), the powerful king saw a man sitting on a mountain, who seemed to promise auspiciousness. His skin was fair and he wore white garments.

"The king asked the holy man who he was. The other replied: 'I am called a son of God, born of a virgin, minister of the non-believers, relentless in search of the truth.' The king then asked him: 'What is your religion?' The other replied, 'O great king, I come from a foreign country, where there is no longer truth and where evil knows no bounds. In the land of the non-believers, I appeared as the Messiah. But the demon Ihamasi of the barbarians (dasyu) manifested herself in a terrible form; I was delivered unto her in the manner of the non-believers and ended in Ihamasi's realm.

"'O king, lend your ear to the religion that I brought unto the non-believers: after the purification of the essence and the impure body and after seeking refuge in the prayers of the Naigama, man will pray to the Eternal. Through justice, truth, meditation and unity of spirit, man will find his way to Isa in the center of light. God, as firm as the sun, will finally unite the spirit of all wandering beings in himself. Thus, O king, Ihamasi will be destroyed; and the blissful image if Isa, the giver of happiness, will remain forever in the heart; and I was called Isa-Masih.' After the king heard these words, he took the teacher of the non-believers and sent him to their pitiless land."
(verses 16-33 of the third khanda of the Pratisarga parvan of the Bhavishya Mahapurana)

Here again we see a teaching similar to the Gnostic, Buddhist and Afghani versions that we studied earlier, with Jesus here stating that personal acts involving prayer, self-purification, the practice of truth and justice and the practice of meditation would bring human beings to God. In none of those four versions has Jesus spoken about himself as the object of worship or as a mediator through which one must go in order to reach God. And again, this idea is contrary to today’s Christian teachings.

The reader will notice above that the “holy man” used the indefinite article, “a” in describing himself as, “a son of God.” Recall the discussion on the Nazarenes (Ebionites) in the Jesus link in which we quoted verses of the Old Testament that mention Israel, Solomon, and David as God’s “sons.” As stated there, the Nazarenes referred to Jesus as “son of God,” and they used that appellation to describe his spiritual status, not his literal position as the sole Son of God. Also recall the previous section on The Followers of Jesus where the head of that community, Abba Yahya, said that Jesus bore the appellation, son of God, “because he had attained that rank through his goodness and sacrifices.”

Kersten states that the name “Isa,” or “Issa”, derives from the Syrian, Yeshu (Jesus), “being altered to conform to Musa (=Moses).” What is striking about the above account is that Jesus is mentioned by the name that he is known by in the scripture of Islam, the Quran. But the above document was compiled hundreds of years before the Quran was written. Also, the above document was written in Sanskrit—the language of the Hindus, a totally different religion. Since the name Isa appears in an ancient Hindu document as well as in the scripture of Islam, apparently it was a name by which Jesus was known in the East.

Although Kersten states that “Isa” is derived from the Syrian, Yeshu, the above verses seem to use the name Isa as an attributive name, and not as the actual personal name of Jesus. The reader will note that he stated: “…man will find his way to Isa in the center of light.” Then later he refers to himself as Isa-Masih —the Isa Messiah. So, could the word Isa actually have meant some kind of attribute of the Divine? Had this holy man been sent as the “Isa Messiah” to reestablish this special Divine attribute in those to whom he ministered? He defines Isa as, “the giver of happiness,” and does not seem to refer to himself by the name Isa. In short, he is the Messiah of Isa, or he is the Messiah for Isa. It seems that his mission was to teach spiritual practices that would lead to Isa, the giver of happiness, with the words “giver of happiness” being an attribute of God. As he states, “Through justice, truth, meditation and unity of spirit, man will find his way to Isa in the center of light.” It appears that Jesus Christ was teaching a spiritual prescription for finding happiness “in the center of light,” and the words “center of light” must certainly have been metaphorical for the Divine—for God. The word “light” refers not only to physical light. In religious literature of various religions, the word light refers to guidance. So the “center of light” or the center of all guidance would be God.

The reader will also notice the transliteration of the Sanskrit verses of the Bhavishya Mahapurana. This has not appeared at any other website or in any Jesus-in-India book (except Saving the Savior). You will note in the transliteration that the name, “isa masi” is clearly recorded in the first line of verse 26, and we have highlighted the name in bold type. Please note that verse numbers have been placed at the end of a given verse. So, verse 26 runs for two lines, and the actual number has been placed at the end of the verse on the second line. You will also note the name, “isa masiha” in the second line of verse 31, again in bold type.