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BY: SUN STAFF
Dec 17, 2016 — CANADA (SUN) — Excerpts from 'The Lost Years of Jesus', by E.C. Prophet. In 1894, Nicholas Notovitch published his book, The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ. It was the first of many books to follow on the subject of Saint Issa's travels through India and into the Himalayas. The manuscripts Notovitch had translated, and copied into his journal, are said to have been compiled in several different places in India and Nepal, and at differing period of time. From the principle scrolls Notovitch heard translated and himself wrote down at Ley, Ladak on the life of Issa, the following statements are recorded: Chapter V 1. "In the course of his fourteenth year, the young Issa, blessed of God, came on this side of Sind and established himself among the Aryas in the land of God. 2. "Fame spread the reputation of this marvelous child throughout the length of northern Sind, and when he crossed the country of the five rivers and the Rajputana, the devotees of the God Jaine prayed him to dwell among them. 3. "But he left the erring worshippers of Jaine and went to Juggernaut in the country of Orissa, where repose the mortal remains of Vyasa-Krishna and where the white priests of Brahma made him a joyous welcome. 4. "They taught him to read and understand the Vedas, to cure by aid of prayer, to teach, to explain the holy scriptures to the people, and to drive out evil spirits from the bodies of men, restoring unto them sanity." ... 
It is not certain what route Jesus took on his journey to the East. The map above shows one possible route, reconstructed from the writings of Notovich, Abhedananda and Roerich, along with historical information about ancient roads and trade routes, described in The Lost Years of Jesus. According to this map, Issa departed Jerusalem (follow the yellow line), took the Silk Road to Bactra, headed south to Kabul, crossed the Punjab and proceeded to a Jain region on the Kathiawar peninsula, where Jain temples were later built near the town of Palitana. He then crossed India to Jagannatha Puri, made trips to Rajariha (Rajgir), Benares, and other holy cities and, fleeing his enemies, went to Kapilavatsu (Kapilavatthu, in Pali) -- birthplace of Gautama Buddha in the Shakya kingdom. Issa is then thought to have taken a trail west of Mt. Everest to Lhasa. On the return trip (follow the violet line), he took the caravan route to Leh, went south to the state of Rajputana, then north to Kabul. He proceeded on the southern trade route through Persia, where Zoroastrian priests abandoned him to the wild beasts. Issa survived and arrived unharmed in Jerusalem. Continuing with recorded statements from Notovitch's journal of the translated Issa scrolls: Chapter IV 2. "But Issa, warned of his danger by the Sudras, left the neighborhood of Juggernaut by night, reached the mountain, and established himself in the country of Gautamides, the birthplace of the great Buddha Sakyamuni, in the midst of a people worshipping the one and sublime Brahma. 3. "After having perfected himself in the Pali language, the just Issa applied himself to the study of the sacred writings of Sutras. 4. "Six years after, Issa, whom the Buddha had elected to spread his holy word, had become a perfect expositor of the sacred writings." While today's segment is the last in this Sun series, 'Jesus in India', in the weeks ahead we will revisit the subject, offering a Sun interview with a devotee who personally travelled and researched some of the Issa legends and locales. Excerpts from 'The Lost Years of Jesus' by E.C. Prophet, text republished in the Wolf Lodge Journal (1995).
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