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APRIL, 1903.
THE OONNECTION OF ST. THOMAS WITH INDIA
159
An unpublished Armenian version of the Apts of St. Thomas in the Berlin Library is montioned, the text of which appears to be identical with the Syriac. M. Lévi has made some tuse of the Armenian forms of proper names coutained therein.
The most important and suggestive part of the article is that which relatos to the proposed identification of Mazdai with Vasudeva. But it is impossible to deal with that properly horo; and the reader must go to the article itself. A few points may, however, be taken up, mostly in further clucidation of the proper names occurring in the Acts and in "The Falling asleep of the Holy Mother of God."
M. Lévi appears to hold, with Von Sallet, that Labda nos and Abdagases are the same person. He suggests that the initial lambda results from dittography, [AJABAANHC. Hypocoristic fornis are found among Parthian names, and gas meang 'beautiful.'
On coins, the names of Vasudeva appears in Greek as BAZOAHO and BAZAHO. Coming into Iranian territory, the name would fall under Masdian influences, and become Masdeo; moreover, he remarks, the two labials aro constantly confused, as for instance in Mumba turued by the Portuguese into Bombay, and Minnagar in the Periplus made into Binnagar by Ptolemy. (Compare what has been said above by Mr. Burkitt that Mazdai is a good old Persian name.) M. Lévi gives the further information that the name is Mstēh in the Armenian Acts, Smidsios in the Menaea [liturgical books of the Greek Church, containing short histories of the saints), and Smindaios in Nicephorus (presumably N. Callistus Xanthopalas, 14th century). These forms may be added to tl:ose already given.
As regards Visān (Vizan in the Armenian according to M. Lévi) son of Mazdai, Gutschinid and Marquart considered the name to be the same as the Pahlavi Wijén, Persian Bijén. This does not harmonise with the Greck and Latin forms, and further, thongh admissible if we locate Mazdai in Iranian territory, it is not at all so, if we make St. Thomas go into India, to Vasudeva, as guggested. M. Lévi thinks the compiler of the Acts was too well informed about India to give to an Indian prince the name of a secondary hero of the Iranian epic, the name in fact of Bezhan, son of Gêy, son of Guderz. Be that as it may, M, Léyi thinks that, though the remembrance of this personage may very well have influenced the Syriac and Armenian transcriptions, the Greek and Latin forms exclude the identity of the two names. The Greek Oazanes, etc., and Latin Zuzanis, etc., all Lead back to an original owsan or rather gowan. The change of us into gu, which had been definitely accomplished by the time of the Sassanidans, was in progress soon after the Christian era, and facilitated the sabstitution of one syllable for the other; and, at the same epoch, on the confines of India and Iran, the pronunciation oscillated between initial # and gu. This is contirmed by the forma "Gondopharon," "Induphrru," and "Undopherrou," in Greek, on coins, being all equivalent to the “Gudaphara," "Gudupharna," and "Gondopharna" of the Indian legends on the same. (I quote the names as printed in the article, bat they do not all seem correot.)
Thus, -M. Lévi conclades, Ousanes would seem to be equivalent to Gushaņa. The forms Iouzanes in Greek, and Zuzanes and Lucanes in Latin perhaps preserve the trace of a initial lost in Ouzanes, and roučavns in writing might easily become louçams. Hence and for other reasons given, M. Lévi suggests that the Mahardja Gushana, who closely followed the Kushan Vasudeva, was perhape identical with Ouzades or Vizān, the son of the king Mazdai, who put St. Thomas to death.
4. Syriac versions of the Acts of St. Thomas. As mentioned on page 3 above, Wright's translation from British Museum Add, MS. 14645, dated A. D. 936, has been followed. Allusion was made to two other MSS. of these Acts, one at Berlin in the Sachau collection, and the other at Cambridge. In answer to enquiries, Mr. F. C. Burkitt has kindly supplied some further information regarding these M88.
