Jesus In India — Page 146
136 JESUS IN INDIA Afghans without admitting some early connection with the Israelitish nation. Still more difficult is it to account for certain observances, such for instance as the keeping of the Feast of the Passover (which, by the Yusufzai branch of the Afghan race, is at most curiously well imitated) or for the persistence with which the least educated Afghans maintain this tradition, without some original basis of truth for it. Bellew thinks that this Israelitish connection may be a real one, but he points out that one at least of the three main branches of the Afghan family traditionally sprung from Kish (Qais), is called by the name Sarabaur, which is but the Pushto form of the ancient name applied to the solar race of Rajputs, colonies of whom are known to have immigrated into Afghanistan after their defeat by the Chandrabans, the lunar race in the great contest, the Mahabharat of early Indian records. Thus the Afghan may possibly be an Israelite absorbed into ancient Rajput tribes, and this has always appeared to me to be the most probable solution of the problem of his origin. Anyhow, the modern Afghan takes his stand, on the grounds of tradition, to be one of the chosen race, a descendant of Abraham. . . We have reproduced all these quotations from the writings of well- known authors, and if considered together, they will convince the impartial reader that Afghans and Kashmiris, who are to be found in India, on the frontier and in its neighbourhood, are really the Beni Israel. In the second part of this book, God willing, I shall prove in greater detail that the ultimate object underlying