Indian Antiquary Vol 03

SR No.: 032495
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 420
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 343

NOVEMBER, 1874.]
PAHLAVI INSCRIPTIONS IN SOUTH INDIA.
309
mythology of one country is transplanted to, amplified, and localized in another. The visit of St. Thomas (the Apostle) to India has long been a favourite legend, but it rested on the apocryphal Acta Thomæ,t which seomed totally devoid of an historical foundation till Reinaud pointed out that the king Gundopharus is probably the Gandophares of the IndoScythian coins. The legend goes on to state that he was killed in another part of India.
This, however, is no warrant for supposing that St. Thomas visited Southern India, an idea which appears to have arisen in the Middle Ages, and has been since supported on fanciful grounds by some missionaries. It seems as if the early travellers finding some sect of Christians in India, and relying on the legend, called them Christians of St. Thomas, just as they called the Mandæans Christians of St. John. The Indo-Syrians tell a story that the Apostle Thomas founded seven churches in Mala kare (i. e. Malabar or S. W. India), but the names are given differently in different parts, and whereas in Travancore the legend excludes the Mount, intelligent Syrians of the Cochin territory, with whom I conversed, expressly included it. This legend cannot be worth any notice historically, as it is evidently based on the mention of the seven churches in Asia in the Apocalypse (i. 4), but the names are certainly those of old churches. They are usually given as Niranam, Châyal, Kollam,
Pâlûr, Kodungalûr, Gokka ma ngalam, and Kotta kâ y al. Of these the second (in the Travancore mountains), and the fifth (i. e. Cranganore) are no longer existing; the rest are in the Travancore or Cochin territory.
Another Syrian legend mentions a Kanan Tôm må i.e. Thomas), a foreigner, as having preached in Malabar. This may be the disciple of Manes. After him the same source mentions a Mâr Śâ phôr and a Mâr A phrôtta as coming from Babylon: both of these are evidently Persian names. Of the date of their arrival in India nothing is however known, and were not their names so unlike forgeries, this legend would be of as little value as the last.
The first historical notice of a Christian Mission to India we have is that of Persians who were Manichæans. It is uncertain, though not improbable, that Mani himself preached in India, but one of his works was a Greater Epistle to the Indians, and it also appears probable that one of his disciples came to this country. I As, after his execution, about 272 A.D., his numerous and influential followers were much persecuted in their native country, it is not unreasonable to suppose that many emigrated to India and Ceylon. Without some such event it is difficult to understand how the Christians became no numerous in Southern India during the Middle Ages as can be proved to have been the case; and there does not
• Everything strange that the medieval travellers from Europe found in India was connected with the legend of St. Thomas. Elephantiasis was imagined to be a panishment on his murderers and their descendants several trees and plants with remarkable flowers are still called after him, and are supposed to prove the legend.
+ Attributed to a bishop of Babylonis named Abdias. These Acts state that the Indian king Gundopharus wanted an architect, and that Thomas was sent by Christ. This Syrian legend is copied in other documenta: see Z. d. D. M. G. XXV. p. 321. The Syriac text has Gadnpr or Gůdnfr (Wright, 4pocryphal Acts of the Apostles, II. p. 147). It must be recollected that in the early centuries
Indis' hads very extensive meaning the importance of the story of Pantoonus is therefore doubtful. So also that the Metropolitan of Persia and India attended the Council of Nice.
1 Yule's Cathay-Recollections of Travel in the East by John de Marignolli, pp. 376-7 (notes). Since this paper was written, Col. Yale writes to disclaim all right to this identification (which I attributed to him), and points out that it was first made by the late eminent Arabic 'scholar the Abbé Reinaud.
Peter Paulinus à St Bartholemo India Orientalis Christiana, p. 125 ff. He relies on the "traditio Catholicorum et schismaticorum,” which he supporta by distortion of Malaylam words and similar obsolete learning.
Essay on the Syrian Church of Malabar (in Malay. lam) by Rev. I. Ippan (a Syrian), p. 3. There is another
similar tract, also lately published, by another Syrian (Rev. G. Kuriyan), in which I do not find mention of this legend. Both these essays give an account of the Travancore Syriau Church in a brief compass, but they rely on Little except English second-hand compilations. The Roman Catholic History of the Syrians in India (printed at Kunamavu in 1872) gives ample quotations from Syriac and other origina! sources.
Ippan, ut supra, p. 9. Apbråtta is evidently Aphraates. • Al Nadim (Flügel, Mani, p. 52) says that Mant" called on" Hind and Sin and the people of Khorasan, and a deputy of one of his companions in each province." The verb lsy (called on or preached to) does not appear to mean that he actually went to those countries.
Flügel's Mani, pp. 73, 103, and 370. There can be no doubt as to what country is here intended by "Hind," nor consequently to a Manichæan Mission to the peninsula of India.
I Flügel's Mani, p. 174. The anthorities are Abd'lfaraj and Al-Nadim.
About 277 A.D. Manichseism began to spread to s wonderful extent in the Roman Empire. Beausobre(I. pp. 122-8) says of the date : " Quant au tems où son hérésie commença d'être connue dans l'Empire Romain, il y a trop d'accord entre nos auteurs pour nier que ce ne soit la première ou la seconde année de Probus." In the Theodosian Code (A.D. 438) they and the Gnostics are persecuted. They were also proscribed at Rome much about the same time.