IMPRESSIONS OF AN OFFICER OF GERMAN GENERAL STAFF OF HIS TRAVELS IN INDIA 110 YEARS AGO (2)

The twilight shadows of sombre virgin forest were still lying heavily on the Western world, its human cave-dwellers were still waging war against the aurox and the bear,when the sun of civilization had,ages ago,risen over the  rich campaign of India-Zarathustra and Budha,constellations whose splendour irradiates both hemispheres.

The treasures the philosophy of those two great names bequeathed us defy computation-like a never-failing well spring that must always refresh and invigorate the inconstant,restless humours of us - Europeans.

From what other source  could we-akin by race as we are to Aryans of India,though for many a century we may have scavenged the intellectual heritage of the Roman and the Greek-hope to draw to greater profit than from the fountainhead of Sanskrit ? For Latin and Greek,Celtic and Germanic are suckers from the same stem which puts forth the old  sacred language as its mightiest growth.

It was in India that the cradle of our intellectual and ethical evolution stood;it was here that the West found its nurture in the rich milk of an up-lifted outlook on life and of deep-rooted wisdom.

This Peninsula has contributed immensely to the advancement of Western civilisation.For it was here that,fascinated by the dazzling glamour of the tropics,by the magnificence and luxuriance of the East,allured by the bait of all those diverse products that the teeming soil under the hot sun of India bears with the fertility of a forcing-horse,the adolescent nations of Europe recruited their knowledge and their craft.

It was here that they braced,their youthful strength in the struggle for existence; here that they gleaned those experiences and resources that later on were to allot them place and voice in the council-chamber of the Power.

(To be Continued)