Jesus in India

Jesus in India

The Ahmadiyya sect of Islam believes Jesus did not die on the cross but swooned.
According to this view, Jesus then went to India, where He was known as Yuz Asaf
(“leader of the healed”) and died at the age of 120.

Quran 23:50

The Ahmadiyya base their belief on Quran 23:50.

Quran 23:50

Quran 23:50


And We made the son of Maryam (Mary) and his mother as a sign,
And We gave them refuge on high ground, a place of rest, security
and flowing streams.

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad stated:

“It is a pity that Muslims, on account of their bigotry and ignorance,
do not reflect duly on this verse. They are too eager to see Jesus
descend from heaven, while the Holy Qur’an testifies that he is dead
and was buried in Srinagar, Kashmir, as God Almighty has said:

وَآوَيْنَاهُمَا إِلَىٰ رَبْوَةٍ ذَاتِ قَرَارٍ وَمَعِينٍ

That is: ‘We delivered Jesus and his mother from the hands of the Jews
and conveyed them to a region of high mountains which was a place of
security and was watered with clear springs.’ This was Kashmir.
And this is why Mary’s tomb is not to be found in Palestine, and the
Christians claim that she too disappeared like Jesus. How unjust it is
of the ignorant Muslims to believe that the followers of the Holy
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) are deprived of
converse with God while at the same time they repeat the sayings of
the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) that among
his people there will be those who will resemble the Prophets of Israel,
and there will also be one who will be a Prophet in one aspect and the
follower of the Holy Prophet in another. He would be the one who will
be called the Promised Messiah.”

The Ahmadiyya claim is not supported from history

Here is an example of the unsubstantiated theories about Jesus in India,
“Jesus in Kashmir”:

This documentary doesn’t give any credible evidence that Jesus died and was
buried in India. However, there is a lot of untrue information in this
documentary and a number of unsubstantiated assertions.

22:47–22:50

“Many of us associate crucifixion with death, but many biblical experts
feel that Jesus had not died on the cross.”

Answer:
It would be helpful if we were told who these biblical experts are, but names
are not given.

The documentary refers to Jesus’ body being
“scratched” (23:13–23:22).

Answer:
The Scriptures teach that Jesus’ body was pierced and not scratched
(John 19:34).

The documentary goes on to say that after Jesus’ body was “scratched,”
blood and water came out:
“This can happen only if the person is alive”
(23:13–23:22).

Answer:
This claim is disputed by the medical analysis published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association.

34:37–34:41

The documentary quotes Jesus-in-India scholar

Fida Hassnain
:

“The greatest evidence we have [for Jesus in India] is

Bhavishya Maha Purana
.”

The passage cited from the Bhavishya Maha Purana says:

“…One day, Shalivahan, the chief of 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 of 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.”

Answer:
If this is the “greatest evidence” for Jesus in India, then it is problematic
because, according to the source cited here, the
Bhavishya Maha Purana contains material from different periods.

“Even though serious scholars do not consider Bhavishya Purana as
authentic, in the recent times it appears that the exporters of
Hinduism have projected this as authentic. The word Bhavi means future.
Bhavishyam actually means ‘consequence of’. The whole history of
mankind here is explained as a consequence of the fall of man and
God’s plans of redemption.

This is a text that has grown over a period of 2000 years starting from
the 3rd or even the 4th century B.C. The suggested upper and lower
limits of the period are 450 or 500 B.C. to 1850 A.D. In the course of
this growth and evolution, later-day material was added to the original
stuff that formed the core.

What is more, the later-day material was added in the form of
predictions for the future. Events of the seventeenth, eighteenth or
nineteenth centuries were incorporated as if they were foreseen by the
sages of the epic period. This device of collecting past events and
passing them off as predictions is a literary evolution of a rather
unique kind.”

You may be interested in:

Jesus’ death on the cross: A certain fact of history

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, tahrif, The Gospel of Barnabas and Yuz Asaf

References for Jesus in India

Slomp, Jan,

“The Gospel of Barnabas”
,
in Christian-Muslim Relations 1500–1900,
General Editor David Thomas.

Jan Slomp,

The Gospel of Barnabas in Recent Research

Lost Years of Jesus

in Wikipedia.