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as the 9th century. The Syrians themselves speak All this does not, however, diminish one jot the of the care of the Edessans for them. And interest one feels in the discovery of the Pahlavi Eusebius and other Church historians tell us Inscriptions at the Mount and at Kottayam. I that St. Thomas was the Apostle of Edessa. It is tender my very best thanks to Dr. Burnell for remarkable too tbat Pseudo-Abdias, in his account his antiquarian researches, and trust they may of the Consummation of Thomas, adds to the be long continued. original that St. Thomas's bones were taken by The true value of these Pahlavi Inscriptions is, his brethren after his martyrdom, and buried in I venture to think, that they testify to the fact. Edessa. Even though we allow that this is a which I believe I was the first to bring forward, myth, we cannot but ask, Whence did Abdias re- that there was a very early connection between ceive this idea of Edessa P'
the Church at Edessa and the Church of TravanMy own strong impression is that St. Thomas core and Cochin. was ühe Apostle both of Edessa and Malabar, and
RICHARD COLLINS. that hence their connection aroge. The Persian colonists thus become no mystery. The Pahlavi
Kandy, Ceylon, 18th March 1875. language, according to Max Müller, originated in an Aramæan dialect of Assyria, and may well therefore have been known and used so far north
NOTES :- SÅMPGÅM, BELGÅM, &c. in the Persian Empire as Edessa; and from An- Town Så mpgam, or the Village of Snakes, tioch, which is not many miles from the ancient S.E. from Belgâm : Ind. Ant. vol. IV. p. 6. Edessa, the Malabar Christians have reccived Fort Belgån was conquered from Parikshit, their Bishops from at least a very remote period.
the father of Janamejậya of the Gauja Agrahara As Edessa was also the see of Jacob Albardai, the grant*, by Sultan Muhammad Shah Bâhmani in reviver of Eutychianism, I suspect that the A.D. 1472. Church of Malabar, or at least many of its mem- In 1523 Igmail Adil Sh&h conferred it in bers, have been Eutychians since the 6th century. jågir upon Khusra Türk, from Láristân, with the But this is too wide a subject for me to enter title of Asad Khån, and upon the death of that on now.
nobleman in 1546 it was confiscated, with all Dr. Burnell seems to think that some causes his other estates and property, by Ibrahim Adil must have arisen to "transform the old Persian Shah. Church into adherents of Syrian sects." But The town and great Temple of Harihara, surely there is no necessity whatever to raise such where the burning of the snakes mentioned a question. The Church of Edessa early became in the Gauja Agrahara grant took place in 1521, subject to Antioch, and beyond this there is no is situated 120 miles S.E. from Belgån, where evidence of change. The name Syrian was, no Dr. Francis Buchanan discovered some inscripdoubt, first given to these people by Europeans. tions of the reign of Yudishthira when he visited They never, I believe, call themselves Syrians, but the place in 1803. Nasrani Mappilla.
When and by whom was the Mosque at SampIt only remains for me to add that having read gåm erected ? and may not the passages from the through Dr. Burnell's paper with increasing Qorån ably deciphered by Professor Blochmann astonishment at the slender grounds, as they ap- l be applied in throwing further historical light pear to me, on which he seeks to establish the upon the atrocious burning of the wretched beings fact that the earliest Christian sects in India were denounced as heretics at the solar eclipse at Manichæans, and having supposed that the Pah- Harihara, 6-7 April 1521 A.D.P lavi Inscriptions were to make it all plain, my Why was the town designated by the name astonishment came to a climax when I read, "If Sampgår, or Village of Snakes P Was it at any these Pahlavi Inscriptions were Manichman, they period inhabited by a Sori or Syrian populawould be in a different character. It seems to me tion,t and what accounts are given there of the not unlikely, however, that relics of the Manichæ- burning at Hariharap ans may yet remain to be discovered on the west Notes.-Ferishtah, Persian tert, vol. II. p. 31; coast of the Peninsula, where they once were very Buchanan's Southern India, vol. III. p. 83; Scott's numerous." (The italics are my own.)
Dekhan, p. 277; Araish-i-Mahfil, translated by The Manichæan origin of Christianity in South Lieut. M. H. Court (1871), p. 164. India, then, is a thorough miserrimus dexter-and we may safely shelve the subject till the "relics
R. R. W. ELLIS. of the Manichæans" actually do come to light. Star-cross, near Exeter, 6th March 1875. Conf. Ind. Ant. vol. I. p. 877, and vol. III. p. 288.-ED.
Certainly not.-ED.
