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MUNDA LEGEND
12. VAISHNAVISM
"The Cheras of the Chotanagpur region, the ancestors of Keralites, had a great king called Bali who governed the Dinajpur area; he was an asur, who did not worship Vishnu, the Aryan God. He continued to worship the native Munda god, Lord Shiva. After being defeated by the Vaishnavites the Mundas were forced to settle down in Kerala. The Mahabali-story of the Keralites, in the Munda-Chera tradition, indicates the triumph of the Vaishnavite brand of Aryans over the Shiva-worshipping MundaCheras. Bali/Balia is a common personal name among the Mundas."
"In Tamil Sangam-work, Puram, Maveli appears as the Vellala chief of Milalaikurram. There are documentary evidence that there was a Christian Church among them."
Dr. Zacharias Thundy, Northern Michigan University
This was the Kingdom of Mahabali in South India.
A
Speculation of the Indian historians always left out the impact of St. Thomas and his ministry. similar willful neglect on this historical reality is also seen in every modern Hindu History. All Hindu historians agree that for some reason Vedic gods got extinct and new gods of Hinduism came in during the first century AD. But there is no reason given!. A sudden change for no reason? They also agree that St. Thomas came to India and had his ministry from North India to South India. But they refuse to see the connection. There is an intentional blacking out or ignoring of the Christian presence and influence anywhere in India. This is really the basic Kalabhra Interregnum. What I am suggesting is that the period referred here as "Black Age" is the epithet given to the Christendom in South India by the later Gnostic Brahminic historians. It was simply a period which they did not want to remember.
Christianity was indeed the religion that supplanted Vedism. But this was soon followed by intense conflict between Christians of Thomas and the Gnostic heresies which came from Syria (Aryan - Persian) by the second century AD. Mani came to India and China taking the Silk route and hence his ministry was concentrated initially in the North India. In the North India this conflict easily resulted in the destruction of Christian churches soon after the fall of Taxila kingdom. Most Christian Churches went underground as a result of persecution and others fled to Syria where the Syrian churches gave them refuge. In the South India the story was different. All the three regions of Dravidia - the Chola, Chera and Pandya were ruled by Christians in the Indian myth - by an Asura King called Maha Bali. It is this period when Maha Bali ruled that came to be the Dark Ages of South India which will explain
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