Theos-Talk Archives (April 2004 Message tt00083)

Charles Ryan on Nisi Kanta Chattapadhyaya

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Editor, Canadian Theosophist: - May I draw attention 
to one or two points in regard to Mr. H. R. W. Cox's 
excellent defence of H.P.B. against the most recent 
attack. The first deals with a statement in your 
August number.

On pages 173-4 Mr. Cox discusses the problem of the 
Hindu who met a certain scholar named Fechner, and 
quotes Mr. Basil Crump's Evolution. The main points 
are these: In The Mahatma Letters, p. 44, the Master 
K.H. mentions a conversation he had "one day" with 
a certain "G. H. Fechner", but does not say when or 
where it took place. Mr. Crump, in Evolution, informs 
us that C. C. Massey, once a leading Theosophist, received 
information from Leipzig that a Professor Fechner, living 
there, remembered having met a Hindu at some unnamed period 
and having heard him lecture. The Hindu also visited 
Professor Fechner. The Professor said that the name 
of the Hindu was Nisi Kanta Chattapadhyaya, and that 
he was not particularly conspicuous. Mr. Massey seems 
to have thought that he had, in this way, received 
independent evidence of the presence of the Master K.H. 
at Leipzig in the earlier `seventies, for he explains 
the reason that Professor Fechner did not know the name 
Koot Hoomi by a very reasonable supposition, viz.:

"In case it may be wondered why he [the Master K.H.] used a different 
name, it may be mentioned that when members of this Order have to 
travel in the outer world they always do so incognito."

Mr. Cox appears to agree with Massey, or he would not quote the above 
remark in his defence of H. P. Blavatsky against the Messrs.
Hares' 
charges.

Unfortunately Nisi Kanta Chattopadhyaya and the Master K.H. are two 
different persons, and the argument is therefore not valid, useful as 
it would be if confirmed. The former was a well-known Hindu 
gentleman, Principal of the Hyderabad College and author of sundry 
interesting works on Oriental, philosophical, and other subjects. He 
was evidently interested in Theosophy, for he presented Katherine 
Tingley, when she was in Bombay in 1896, with an autograph copy of 
one of his books, now in the Oriental Department of the Theosophical 
Library at Point Loma, California.

The first article or chapter in this book is called "The 
Reminiscences of the German University Life," and it is a report of a 
lecture by Dr. N. K. Chattopadhyaya on April 30, 1892 at 
Secunderabad. In this chapter he says: 

"I once met Prof. Gustav Fechner, the author of a book called "Psycho-
Physik" in which he has enunciated certain laws whose 
importance . . . . is as great as Newton's Law of Gravitation . .
. . 
I had the privilege of escorting the old sage home and on the way he 
asked quite a number of questions about the Yogis and the Fakirs of 
India . . . Seeing more of him by and by I came to discover that he 
was quite a mystic, and had actually written a book called the "Zend-
Avesta" a masterly exposition of Vedantic pantheism in the light of 
modern science."

The "Sage" was, of course, the famous Gustav Theodor Fechner.

Turning to The Mahatma Letters, we find that the Master's 
conversation "one day" was held with a certain G. H. Fechner, and, as 
mentioned above, it was not connected with Leipzig. Question: was the 
Master K.H. referring to some unknown Fechner whose initials were G. 
H. and not G. T. and who has not been identified? That seems highly 
improbable. Is it more likely that the H. is a mere slip of the pen 
or even a typographical error, and that the Master really referred to 
the eminent philosopher, with whom he had a short conversation, 
probably so short that it had been quite forgotten by G. T. Fechner, 
who only recollected N. K. Chattopadhyaya.

However this may be, Professor Gustav T. Fechner's message to C.
C. 
Massey cannot be used as if it related to the Master K.H., because 
the Professor definitely states that his Hindu was Chattopadhyaya, 
and the latter positively confirms the fact. We have learned from 
other sources that the Master spent some time in Germany, but I am 
not aware that Leipzig is mentioned in Theosophical literature in 
that connection. In the Sinnett letters, H. P. Blavatsky says: 

". . . Wurzburg. It is near Heidelberg and Nurenberg, and all the 
centres one of the Masters lived in, and it is He who advised my 
Master to send me there. . ." (p. 105)
............................................

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Quoted from:

http://theosophy.info/ryancorrection.htm

or 

http://blavatskyarchives.com/ryancorrection.htm

Daniel