Indian Antiquary Vol 55

SR No.: 032547
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1985
Total Pages: 370
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
DECEMBER, 1926
apostles met in synod at Jerusalem. Some of our prose accounts of St. Thomas give 51 A.D. instead of 62, and a Malayalam song of 1601 A.D. has 50 A.D. for the advent of St. Thomas.
9. The incidents of the Andrapolis of Sandaruk section of The Acts, which evidently took place before St. Thomas reached Gondaphares' kingdom, are found in the extant Portuguese period versions of our tradition. The incidents of the Gondophares or Gudnaphar section also are in them. These undoubtedly took place in North-West India.
10. The Portuguese missionaries must probably have read the Passio (published c. 1480) and De Miraculis (published 1531 and 1552) in printed form, and made their Malayali students in the seminaries of Malabar read them too. These missionaries and students most probably transferred the incidents of the Sandaruk and Gudnaphar sections of The Acts into our genuine, pristine tradition and gave it the present form. See section VIII of Joseph's What Thomas Wrote, in The Young Men of India (Calcutta), May, 1926.--
11. There is no means of ascertaining what our genuine tradition (in Malabar) was in pre-Portuguese times. (See 13 and 14 infra).
12. The Greek and Syriac writers from c. 700 A.D. onwards must have got the name Calamina (which I am almost sure is Chinnamalai, the name of The Little Mount near Mylapore, metamorphosed) from the pre-Portuguese tradition of Malabar or Mylapore. Vide Modlycott, pp. 160 ff., 98-100, and W. R. Philipps in Ind. Ant., 1903-04, for Calamina. Also Joseph's "Malabar Miscellany," Ind. Ant., 1924, pp. 93-95.
13. There is, however, a residue left, if from our extant tradition all elements derived from the Syriac Liturgy and from the Latin versions of The Acts, and those (like the dates) interpolated in the Portuguese period, are removed.
14. This residuum or residual tradition may be regarded as our pre-Portuguese tradition.
15. It says (a) that St. Thomas came to Malabar, founded seven churches and set up seven crosses ; (b) that he passed on to the East Coast, and was (as Marco Polo and Marig. nolli say) aocidentally wounded (at Calamina), died and was buried in Mylapore.
16. This residual tradition, too, may contain the accretions of centuries. For instance, (a) the name St. Thomas, added by confusion arising from the annual celebration of the im. portant 3rd Tomms feast, and (b) the seven crosses added long after the Nestorians came and set up the Pahlavi-inscribed crosses, four of which have already been discovered in Malabar.
Who, then, was the missionary who came and evangelized Malabar and the Coromandel Coast and lies buried in Mylapore ? None can say. Several theories are possible. Mine is that he was a saintly missionary sent from Edessa after the deposition of St. Thomas's relics and the institution of the 3rd Tommús feast there. He might have been sent by King Abgar IX who reigned in Edessa, A.D. 179-214 (Medlycott, p. 295, and Encyc. Brit. 8.v. Abgar) and was converted. This missionary (perhaps a Thomas) must have introduced the Syriac liturgy and the 3rd Tommas feast into South India. He died and was buried, and in course of time the grand St. Thomas feast engendered the notion that the saint lying buried at Mylapore was St. Thomas himself. The church in North-West India died out in the early centuries after Christ, and so could not put in a counter-claim. Neither could Edessa say where in India their rolice had come from. Chinnamalai (Calamina), the place where the Edessene saint died, was shown to travelers as the place of St. Thomas's martyrdom. From them it (Calamina) found its way into Greek writings of c. 700. This is my speculation. It may or may not be correct.
May I now offer some remarks on a few names in The Acts ?
1. Mazdai of The Auis is not a proper name, but a modified Iranian or Parthian form of Sanskrit Mahadeva, which means Great King. Dêva in Sanskrit, may be god or king. For the title Mahadeva applied to a king, see Cambridge History of India, I, p. 539, where there is a coin legend Mahddévasa rdño Dhardghoshasa Oudumbarisa.
2. Bifur, the general of King Mazdai, may be Aspavarman, strategos or commander-inobiet of Gondophares (Cambridge History of India, I, 577, 578, 580, 581). Aspavarman may