reply to post by mr-lizard
Where to start, eh? Well, firstly, Jesus lived in the Roman Empire, where trade contact with Britain was already well established, and given that
Gaul (France) at that time was pretty much the same Druidic culture as Britain, he may well have picked up things from soldiers, traders, slaves,
travellers or migrants.
Another thing to consider is Which Jesus? Does the Christ of faith reflect the Jesus of history, or is he a composite figure, of which Historical
Jesus was only one component.
And another thing to remember is that in Britain, Christianity did not so much replace paganism, but rather, absorbed it, taking on many pagan rites
and myths, but replacing a lot of names with Biblical ones. The idea of Jesus travelling to India is not a new one, but I'm not sure a Galilean
peasant would have that much freedom to cross inter-imperial frontiers, but who knows? There are long standing, but small, Jewish and Christian
communities in India who do have legends like this, and there is an unAbrahamic level of asceticism in Jesus' story which does fit in more with
certain schools of Hindu/Buddhist thought.