That country could hardly have been India. There is a story in remote
districts of India which relates that the first woman was born out
of an expanding lotus on the Ganges, and was there received in his
paradise by the first man (Adima, or Manu). Having partaken of the
Soma, they were expelled, after first being granted their prayer to be
allowed a last draught from the Ganges; the effect of the holy water
being to prevent entire corruption, and secure immortality to their
souls. But nowhere in Indian legend or folklore do we find any special
dishonour put upon woman such as is described in the Hebrew story.
Rather we find the reverse. Early in the last century, a traveller,
John Marshall, related stories of the creation which he says were
told him by the Brahmins, and others 'by the Brahmins of Persia.' [35]
'Once on a time,' the Brahmins said, 'as (God) was set in eternity,
it came into his mind to make something, and immediately no sooner had
he thought the same, but that the same minute was a perfect beautiful
woman present immediately before him, which he called Adea Suktee,
that is, the first woman. Then this figure put into his mind the
figure of a man; which he had no sooner conceived in his mind, but
that he also started up, and represented himself before him; this he
called Manapuise, that is, the first man; then, upon a reflection of
these things, he resolved further to create several places for them
to abide in, and accordingly, assuming a subtil body, he breathed in
a minute the whole universe, and everything therein, from the least
to the greatest.'
'The Brahmins of Persia tell certain long stories of a great Giant that
was led into a most delicate garden, which, upon certain conditions,
should be his own for ever. But one evening in a cool shade one of
the wicked Devatas, or spirits, came to him, and tempted him with vast
sums of gold, and all the most precious jewels that can be imagined;
but he courageously withstood that temptation, as not knowing what
value or use they were of: but at length this wicked Devata brought
to him a fair woman, who so charmed him that for her sake he most
willingly broke all his conditions, and thereupon was turned out.'
In the first of these two stories the names given to the man and woman
are popular words derived from Sanskrit. In the second the Persian
characters are present, as in the use of Devatas to denote wicked
powers; but for the rest, this latter legend appears to me certainly
borrowed from the Jews so far as the woman is concerned. It was they
who first perceived any connection between Virgo in the sixth mansion
of Ormuzd, and Python in the seventh, and returned the Persians their
planisphere with a new gloss. Having adopted the Dragon's tail (Ketu)
for a little preliminary performance, the Hebrew system dismisses
that star-snake utterly; for it has already evolved a terrestrial
devil from its own inner consciousness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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