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potheees are not lacking. One of the Mohenjo Daro majolica plates represents an ascetic plunged in meditation, in a character-istic sitting posturę, surrounded with divine and human worsh-ippers. Ite likeness to Buddhist sculpture is striking, and, as ac-cording to Budhist doctrine, Sakyamuni was not the first, nor the last teacher of the Dharma, what is easier than to dra w the conclusion that he only renewed ancient pre-Aryan tradition?^{1 2} It is possible to evolve still farther reaching guesses. The schools of later period, explain Buddha’s epithet Tathagata as »he who has realized the truth«, but its primary meaning must have been »he who has gone thus, i. e. along the road leading to immor-tality«. In Vedic mythology Yama was the first being to show that way. Are we not authorised to presume that there was some connection between Yama and Tathagata? Yama, the primordial man, perhaps identical with the cosmic Purusha *, is an Indo-Iranian, but probably not an Aryan conception ³. Both Tathagata and Yama-Purusha are presumably remote variants of the same Asianic myth of the god who died for the benefit and salvation of the world.

2. These however are mere suppositions, and, if the ąuestion of un-Aryan elements in Buddhism was confined to such hypo-theses, I would not hesitate to consider it immature for scientific treatment. Luckily the situation is not quite so hopeless. Amongst numerous, morę or less problematical criteria of Indo-European-ism and Aryanism, there is one which, in certain cases, can be used efficaciously. It is universally accepted that, wlierever Indo-Europeans rule, blood-relationship through the father determines kinship, and conseąuently power is yested entirely in man⁴. In

1

Cf. H. Zimmer, Der Buddha, Der Erdball, 5 Jahrg., Heft 7, Berlin 1931.

2

* Cf. H. Giintert, 1. c., p. 320 ff.

3

   Cf. H. Giintert, 1. c., p. 341.

4

   Cf. E. Kornemann, Die Stellung der Frau in der vorgriechi9chen Mit-telmeerkultur, Heidelberg, 1927, p. 8: »t)berall, wo Indogermanen herrschen, gilt fflr das Geschlecht der M&nnerstamm... Die alteste Form der Ehe in dieeen durchaus vom Mannę beherrschten Gemeinschaften aber ist die I\aub-ehe, damach die Kaufehe, und ais die Rechtsehe an die Stelle trat, war auch jetzt noch der Wille der Frau bei Eingehung einer Ehe gleich Nuli*. — p. JO: »Neben dem Fehlen des Pferdes ist die g&nzlich andere Stellung der Frau das hervorstechendste Merkraal der iiltesten, fur uns erfassbaren Mit-telmeer- und Vorderasienkultur«.