Vishnu on the banks of the Volga river

[Hock, Hans Henrich]

Are you thinking of the Guldestrup Cauldron? I don't have the reference here, but some people have tried to attribute this to Thracian or Celtic origin (for the time being see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gundestrup_cauldron#Origins).

I want to take this opportunity to thank Viktoria Lyssenko for the image, which does indeed look like it may be quite old (how old, I wouldn't be qualified to tell). It's also interesting how this story, with or without embellishments such as "contracted poloniumitis of the nose"), is being adopted by Russian "Aryanists". (If I am right, the Russian version suggests that the embezzlement involved paper clippings, rather than paper clips.)

Cheers,

Hans



On 24 Feb 2012, at 10:26, <mkapstei at UCHICAGO.EDU>
 wrote:

> I have not succeeded in locating the reference, but I
> recall that many years ago, in a Danish academic series,
> I came across an archeological report on the discovery
> of a Buddha image in burial in a Danish bog. If my memory
> serves, it was also speculated that it must have arrived
> in Denmark via the Volga trade route, which played 
> an important role in the trade in slaves and valuables
> between Byzantium and Northern Europe. It might be
> interesting to bring together what evidence there is
> of Indian relics discovered in medieval Europe. I note, too, in this context, though it involves neither India nor the Volga the magnificent Sassanid silver plate that forms part
> of the trésor de St. Denis. Has there been any effort to
> treat exchange between early medieval Asia and Europe with
> the kind of comprehensiveness we find in work on Hellenistic
> and Roman relations with the East, or the period
> following the Mongol conquests? 
> 
> Matthew T. Kapstein
> Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies
> The University of Chicago Divinity School
> Directeur d'études
> Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris