Page Content (OCR)
the Old Testament can be dated exactly. Although we are inclining more and more to date the oldest parts of the Mahabharata to around 1500 B.C., it is a very cautious estimate and an assumption that refers to the oldest, central core of the epic. Naturally there were many additions and elaborations that were not made until "A.D.". Even today exact datings must still be made with reservations. The original nucleus of the Mahabharata may well be a hundred and more years older than 1500 B.C. You know that the oldest texts were written on the bark of palm trees, yet before these palm texts originated, the texts had already been handed down orally for many generations. There are also inscriptions on stone, but they are comparatively rare in India.’ In your work have you come across parallels between the texts of the Old Testament and the original Indian texts?’ "Undoubtedly there are some parallels, but in my opinion these similarities can be observed in some form or other in most peoples' legends. You have only to think of an event like the Flood or the story of the gods who created men, or the heroes who were snatched up to heaven, or the constant thinking of the divine lightning and ray weapons, of a kind of hypnotic weapon, like the one mentioned in the Mahabharata, and of the discus which the gods threw and which always returned to them like a boomerang, and of the texts that seem to be referring to bacteriological weapons. What do you think about them?’ 'They are just exaggerations of fanciful descriptions of an imaginary divine power. The ancients undoubtedly felt the need to endow their leaders and kings with a mystical, mysterious nimbus. They certainly invented the incredible and invulnerable attributes later—multiplying them with each new generation." "Flying objects called Vimanas are continually being described in Indian and Tibetan texts. What do you think about them?’ 'To be quite honest, I don't know what to make of them. The descriptions obviously mean something like aeroplanes, in which the gods fought in the sky.' references to the weapons they used.’ ‘But it is the old Indian and Tibetan texts in particular that teem with science-fiction weapons. I am ‘Can these fantastic conceptions be reconciled with the world of ideas of primitive times?’ ‘Obviously. But we ourselves are always being confronted with puzzles! 'Then can we or should we simply classify these traditions as myths and dispose of them like that?’ Professor Solomon thought for a moment before she answered, almost with resignation: "Yes, we should.’ ‘And supposing these texts were descriptions of very remote real events?’