Truth About The Crucifixion — Page 86
commonly used to paddle them. Major T. R. Swinburne in his book A Holiday in the Happy Valley, on this unusual evidence alone, connects the Kashmiris with the lost tribes of Israel. Again, all three peoples name their sub-tribes after various animals and practice methods of irrigation of which the origin can be traced back to the Israelites and Egypt. The evidence of common ancestry and heritage is also to be found embedded deeper even in traditions, folklore and fables which resound with stories of Jewish flavor and origin. There is a well in Afghanistan and also in Kashmir called Chahi Babal, that is the Well of Babylon, associated with angels like Harut and Marut. Archaeological discoveries also point in the same direction of common ancestry and the pottery found in Afghanistan and Kashmir bears close resemblance to that found in Babylon and associated with the Jews. The old monuments in Kashmir tell the same story. The ancient temples in Kashmir have little in common with Buddhist or Brahmanical architecture and have more affinity with the Jewish synagogues and pediments of Syrian origin. G. T. Virne in his book Travels in Kashmir, Ladakh and Iskardoo raised the question whether the Kashmiri temples had not been built by Jewish architects, Similarly, Dr. James Fergusson, an authority on Indian and Eastern architecture, notes as a point of interest that temples in Kashmir reproduce, in plan at least, the Jewish temple more nearly than any other known building. There is also the famous Takhte Sulaiman in Srinagar which is associated in Kashmiri tradition with the visit of King Solomon and is described as an exact replica of the throne of Absalom, the third son of David, in the Woods of Ephraim not far from Jerusalem. 78