|
Most major eastern religions have traceable backgrounds that Tolkien, as a learned man, was probably aware of. Here are a few that I can think of:
-Buddhism: Started by Siddhartha Gautama, circa 600 B.C.E.
-Islam: Started by Mohammed, late sixth century C.E.
-Confucianism: Started, obviously, by Confucius, 500's B.C.E.
-Taoism: Credit for the start given to Lao-zhi, circa 580 B.C.E.
-Shinto: Exact origins unknown, but believed to have begun circa 500 B.C.E.
-Hinduism: Origins in the Aryan invasion of what is now India, circa 1500 B.C.E.
Since the Third and Fourth Ages, according to Tolkien, were far longer ago than the origins of any of these major eastern religions, and since there is no evidence anywhere to suggest that Tolkien would ever want to include fake origins of an entire real religion in his mythology, it can safely be assumed that your theory is groundless.
__________________
"This miserable drizzling afternoon I have been reading up old military lecture-notes again:- and getting bored with them after an hour and a half. I have done some touches to my nonsense fairy language - to its improvement."
|