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9. COMING OF THOMAS
Vestiges of North Indian Christian Churches
"Bardaisan in his Book of Fate (AD 196) speaks of Parthian Christians living among pagans, which might be a result of the destruction of the Indian Parthian empire by Kushan invaders about AD 50.
There are also said to be Christian tribes still living in north India, but holding their faith a secret from all others. For example, at Tatta in Sind (the ancient port of Pattiala at the mouth of Indus), there is a fakir community which calls itself by an Aramaic name, something like 'Bartolmai', and claims to have been descended from St. Thomas's converts and to have books and relics to prove it."
T.V.Phillip
In general, we have no reason not to believe the story as given by the traditions. We cannot exactly trace the cris-crossing intertwined routes of Thomas over the 20 years. We are however certain that Thomas visited kerala twice and he might have visited China at least once. It evidently covered the entire Indian continent - North and South, East and West. Below is a map showing the possible areas of the ministry of Thomas based on the trade routes of the period and taking into consideration the placement of early Christian churches for which we have definite evidence...
HINA
ROTA
C
RAY OF WINE
NICOLAR
The extent of the ministry of Thomas
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