India in the 1st Century AD
A Japanese professor visited a museum in Calcutta, India.
He checked a collection of coins of India. They displayed coins used along successive eras of history. Then the Japanese researcher found something strange.
Most of coins used in India till the second or third century AD were made of gold. But on the surfaces of these gold coins engraved were gods or kings who looked like Romans or Greeks. So he searched for gold coins with images of Indian gods on. In fact, such coins appeared only in the fourth century when India was in the Gupta era.
He was naturally convinced that merchants in ancient India used coins designed and produced in ancient Rome. Those Indian merchants traded with their counterparts in Mediterranean Sea regions. And they loved to use gold coins circulated in the cultural sphere subject to the Greek/Roman civilization.
Specifically in the middle of the first century AD, the Kushan Empire was established in India by Iranian people. They monopolized trade between Parthia and Central India. In this era, it is thought that Indians received not only interest the trade produced but also cultural and religious influences from the Hellenistic world. One example were statutes of Buddha built in Gandhara.
But the Japanese professor thought that the influence from Mediterranean Sea regions must not have been only related to figurative arts. Indian philosophy and religion must have been also subject to the cultural influx from ancient Greece or Rome.
In deed, about the first century AD Mahayana (greater vehicle) Buddhism appeared in India. This school of Buddhism prevailed in the central Asia and China and as far as to Korea and Japan. But the exact origin of this type of Buddhism is a mystery. No scholars can identify the source of this school.
So, the Japanese professor concluded that some philosophy in Mediterranean Sea regions must have induced this religion in India around the 1st century AD.
Accordingly, I think some Christian legend that Thomas the Apostle traveled to India to preach the gospel must be true. Maybe it was somebody else, but some disciples of Christ Jesus must have had a chance to promulgate their faith in ancient India. And as an impact of such a mission was so great, Buddhists in India must have developed a new version of Buddhism, taking into some lessons those early Christian missionaries taught.
If this theory was true, even the Japanese Buddhism can be regarded as having been influenced from the beginning by the early Christianity conveyed through ancient India and China.
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Statute of Buddha Made in Gandhara in the Era of Early Christianity
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Joh 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.