Indian Antiquary Vol 33

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 15

JANUARY, 1904.)
NOTES ON THE INDO-SOYTHIANS.
11
“Historiographers say that India is divided into three parts: the first, according to them reaches to “Ethiopia; the second to Media ; the third is at the end of the country; on one side it extends to "the region of darkness, and on the other to the Ocean. It was to this India that Bartholomew " went" (Acta Apostolorun apoorypha, ed, Tischendorf, Lipsiae, 1851, p. 243; Abdia Apostolicæ historie, ed. Fabricius, Hambourg, 1719, p. 669). The other notions are of the same character; the scene of the Acts is so indefinite, that king Polymius, who put the apostle to death, has been taken for Polemon IL, king of Pontus, and also for Puļumāyi, king of the Dekkan (Lipsius, op. cit., II. 2, 71; E. Kuhn, Barlaan und Joasaph, München, 1893, Abhand. d. k. bayer, Akad. d. Wiss., XX, bd., I. abth., p. 85). [20] The route of Thomas is, on the contrary, clear and logical. The king Goondaphoros has directed the merchant Abbanös, who was returning to Syria, to get him a skilful architect, for he wishes to have a magnificent palace built. Christ appears to Abbanēs and sells Thomas to him as one of his slaves. The apostle, who hesitated to go so far, does not dare to resist his divine master, and embarks with Abbanēs. A good voyage brings them to the port of Andrapolis, capital of a kingdom. They disembark, continue their journey by land through the towns of India, and arrive at last at the residence of Goundaphoros. Then, at Christ's command, the apostlo directs himself towards the east, and penetrates into Further India (Inde Ultérieure). He arrives at the capital of the king Misdeos, and suffers martyrdom upon a hill near the town. A Christian piously steals away the body of the saint and takes his relics to Mesopotamia.
Abbanēs and his companion follow the regular trade route between the coast of Syria and the Pañjāb. Pliny (Hist. natur. 6, 26, 103) and the author of the Periplus, who wrote soon after St. Thomas, trace in detail the same route. Passengers and cargoes which came to Alexandria from Mediterranean ports, were reshipped on the Red Sea ; thence direct services and coasting lines went from Myos Hormos and from Berenikē, touched at Cape Syagros [80] in Arabia, and from this point reached, with or without stoppages (escales), the trading places comptoirs) of the mouths of the Indus, Patala or Barbarikon; "the ships remain there at anchor; the goods go up the river to "the capital, Minnagar, situated quite inland, the metropolis of Soythia, governed by Partbians, "who, troubled by internal dissensions, are constantly driving each other out" (Periplus mar. Erythr. 38-39). If the country was not safe, it was better to prolong the voyage to Barygaza, on the coast of Ariskë, at the mouth of the Narmada ; a great caravan route led from this port, by Ozēno (Ujjayanī), to Proklais (Pashkalavati) on the borders of Bactriana (Perip. mur. Erythr. 48).
[31] Carried away by the spirit of system, Gutschmid thought he must amend the apostle's route. So he makes Andrapolis, the city where St. Thomas disembarked, a town of the Andhras; thus locating it on the Konkaņ coast, where the Andhra-Satakarņi dynasty ruled in the first century of our era. Then he makes the travellers take their course thence towards the north and
? In connection with his rondering of India superior by Indo Ultérieure, Further India, M. Lévi has horo added a note as follows: I have found exactly the (XXXIII., 6, 32 67.): Zoroaster and Hydasper, the father of Darius, developed magie; the latter of them "cum superioris Indias secreta fidentius penetraret, ad nemorosam quandam venerat solitudinem cujus tranquillis silentiis pracoalas Braomanorom ingenis potiantur." It is plain that superior India means here the most remote part of India. We may compare the expressiona Garmania superior, Maesia superior, in which the word superior marks the province situated furthest up in going up the course of a river. In the same way, India superior should designate the upper busin of the Indus (of course, in India); in opposition to the lower course of the river, where there were India citerior with prima Indiae civitas, and India ulterior with the kingdoin of Gudnafar.
- The tradition of the Christians of Malabar, the Christians of St. Thomas as they are called, apparently invalidates the data of the Acts. A coording to their tradition, the apostlo came in 52 A. D. from Socotra to the island of Malankara, near Cranganor (Malabar), and founded the seven communities of Cranganur, Palur, North Parur, South Pallipuram, Naranam, Nellakkul and Quilon; having gone thance to Mailapur (auburb of Madras) in Coromandel, he converted the king Sagan; a brahman put him to death with a thrust from a lance on a neighbouring mount. The body of the Saint was transported to Edessa, as in the other legend. But the antiquity of this legend has still to be proved; it
ny positive document. Most historiane, including Lipsius, rejeet it. The precision of the Aots contrasts with this colourless story, the former contain the name of a true contemporary, forgotten by history: the latter borrows from looal fable a dynastio name which symbolises the past. Paulinus * S. Bartholomeo saw in Sagan the Saraganes of the Periplus, a Batakappi king, and in particular Salivahana the Batakarpi; as a chronological indication, Sagan-Salivāhana has as much value as the Vikramaditya of the tales.