Indian Antiquary Vol 33

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

Page 16

12
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JANUARY, 1904.
west to the kingdom of the Iranian Masdeos, otherwise Mazda. This amended route is abatid; in order to go from Syria to the Parthians, it was unnecessary to make a détour by the Dekkan. Gutsch mid, having thus gratuitously introduced absurdity into the narrative, proceeds to impute it to the compiler of the Acts, and makes it his text in order to prove what he thinks is the true origin of the story. He decides accordingly that the author had clumsily borrowed the legend of a Buddhist missionary, perhaps Nāgārjuna, who went from the Dekkan to preach to the Yavanas and Pahlavas. Then he makes all the details support his hypothesis: the frequent appearances of Christ (christophanies) are apparitions of the Buddha; the healing power of the relics is a Buddhist superstition; the miracles of Thomas correspond to the sapernatural powers of the arbat; the demons driven out by the sign of the cross are only rāksbasis ill disguised; finally, the lion wbich tears to pieces and kills the impious attendant is the unintelligent realisation of a consecrated name : Sakyasimha, the lion of the Sakyas !
Gutschmid's ingenious structure rests on disputable and false data. [32] His geographical interpretation, founded on the name Andrapolis, is upset by the Syriac and Armenian ; the former writes Sndrūk, the latter Sndrak; in the Greek the initial sibilant may have dropped, as, for instance, in Andrakottos, a form nsed concurrently with Sandrakottos. Thus the Andhras, the Dekkan, and Nāgārjuna would all be struck out at once. However, let us even suppose the name Andrapolis to be correct, and Gutschmid's location right. But then how about the route ? The Periplus marks out the way from the ports of Gujarat to Kābul as via Ujjayini. Bat, in order to bring the apostle to the Parthians, Gutschmid is obliged to flatly contradict the unanimous testimony of the texts. In the Acts, the apostle on quitting the kingdom of Gondophares directs his course towards the east; in the Passio, he takes his way to Further India (Inde Ultérieure). The Ethiopian version, which represents an autonomous form of the tradition, also conducts St. Thomas to the east after the conversion of Gondophares ; in that version the capital of the king Mastius (Misdeos) is called Quantaria, a name which suggests Gandhära, occupied by Sakas, Kushaņas and Parthians at different times. Another tradition, foreign to the Acte, bat constant among the Greek fathers from the 5th century, gives the name Kalaminē to the town where St. Thomas suffered martyrdom. As to this name, Gatschmid calls attention to a village Kalama upon the coast of Gedrosia, opposite the island of Karbinē or Karmina; the name perhaps conceals, in a distorted form, the [33] town of Min, Minnagara, metropolis of Indo-Scythia..
An exact knowledge of India appears in the episodes and details of the Acts. On disembarking at Sndrūk-Andrapolis, Thomas is obliged to take part in a feast; he there sings & mystical hymn in his mother tongue. In the multitade which surrounds him, only one person understands him ; she is only a flute player, like Thomas, & native of Palestine ("Espaia); the king of the country had engaged her to enliven the assembled guests with her musio. This accidental meeting is not so removed from probability as to be surprising. According to Strabo (ed. Müller-Didot, 82, 18), young female musicians of western origin were articles of import oertain to please in India ;' professionally they were not distinguished from the young well-made girls intended for debauchery," whom the Greek merchants offered together with musical instruments to the kings of the ports of Gujarat (Perip. mar. Erythr., § 49; the term ovouká, which reappears in this passage, and is generally translated "musical instruments," recalls at once the poup à raiderkápa of Strabo).
• The town of Gondophares has no name given to it except in the Pario, the manuscripts of which onll it Eliforam, Yroforam, Hienforum, Inforum, Hierapolis, -[What is here briefly called the Passio is the second of the two Latin versions of the Acts of St. Thomas printed by Max Bonnet, op. cit. Its heading is Passio Sancti Thomas Apostoli. The other version is headed De Miraculis Beati Thomae Apostoli. W.L.P.]
• M. Lévi has here added a note as follows:--This occasion is a suitable one for drawing attention to a new Illustration, as unexpected as it is striking, of the liking which the wealthy Indians had for young people of the wont. The 3rd fasciculas of the Oxyrhynohns Papyri, edited by Mesera. Grenfell and Hart (London, 1903), 000 tains a fragment of a Greek faroo, played in Egypt, which has its soene laid in India, and has for its topio the Adventures of young Grook, Charition, who finds himself in the power of an Indian king. By its importance for the history of the Indian theatre, this fragment oalls for special study.