Indian Antiquary Vol 33

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

Page 17

JANUARY, 1904.]
The forerunner of Columbus, Eudoxus of Cyzicus [about 130 B. C.], on setting out from Gades to go to India, shipped as cargo μουσικὰ παιδισκάρια καὶ 'ιατροὺς καὶ ἄλλους τεχνίτας.
NOTES ON THE INDO-SCYTHIANS.
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The wild asses, which came of their own accord to be harnessed to the apostle's chariot [34] and drew him to the town of Misdeos, are in India found only upon the borders of the Indus, where Gondophares and his neighbour reigned (cf. Hunter, Imperial Gazetteer of India, Vol. 14, Index, s. v. Asses, Wild).
We also find that monuments agree with nature and with the texts in attesting the accuracy of the narrator: the ruins of Gandhara, recovered from the dust of ages after a long period of oblivion, still bear the indisputable stamp of the Greek artists, who came, like the hero of the Acts, "to fashion columns (stèles) in stone, and also temples and royal residences." Did that unknown sculptor also dream of heavenly palaces, who cut upon a Buddhist pillar the image of the Good Shepherd, such as it is seen in the catacombs at Rome (Cole, Græco-Buddhist sculptures from Yusufzai, 1885; ef. Grünwedel, Buddhistiche Kunst in Indien, Berlin, 1893; Foucher, Les scènes figurées de la légende du Bouddha, in Bibliothèque de l'École des hautes-études, sciences religieuses, t. 7, 1896).
The Acts and connected literature do not include all the current traditions regarding the voyage of St. Thomas to the Indies; other legends, equally founded upon exact information, were also in circulation. The apocryphal writing, De Transitu Mariae, which is considered one of the most ancient Christian works, with surprising accuracy briefly alludes to one of these episodes.? St. Thomas, who has been brought by a miracle to the Blessed Virgin in her last [35] moments, converses with the epostles: "I was traversing the country of the Indies and, by the grace of Christ, I proclaimed the "gospel there; the son of the sister of the king, called Labdanes, was on the point of receiving "baptism, when the Holy Spirit said to me ." The nephew of Gondophares does not appear in the Acts; they name only Gad, brother of the king," but coins have shewn us the nephew. The bilingual legends on the coins of Abdagases declare his royal relationship: vydipepo adeλpidews on one side, and gandaphara-bhrata-patrasa on the reverse, 10 Abdagases, it is true, is the son of a brother of Gondophares; Labdanes is the son of a sister of the king; but, in spite of this slight divergence, it is difficult to separate the two personages, and even the two names. The initial lambda of Labdanes is perhaps the result of dittography (AJABAANHC. Marquart (Beiträge zur Geschichte und Sage von Erän in Z. D. M. G., XLIX., 1895, 682) explains Abdagases by "wunds. schön" [wonderfully beautiful] from gas, "beautiful." The employment of the hypocer, tic form is proved by a certain number of Parthian names.
[36] As so many exact facts and positive notions have been thus preserved in the cycle of the apostle Thon us, we ought to search the real history of India for the king named in the Acts along with Go. iophares. Though the date is doubtful, we have a useful mark in the Takht-i-Bahi inscription (Down, J. R. A. S., N. S., 7, 376 ff. and 9, 144-46; Senart, J. A., Jan.-June, 1890, 113-163). This in. cription, which commemorates a pious foundation, bears as date "the year 26 of "the king Guduphar 103 [in letters and figures] of the continuous era (sambaddha?), the fifth day of the month Vaisakh." The reading and meaning of the epithet applied to the era are uncertain, and its starting point is determined. But there is no doubt about the identity of the king: on the bilingual coins of Gonde res, Guduphara is one of the Indian forms into which the name is Tischendorf, Apocalypses apocrypha, Intr. p. xxxvi: "(librum) non pertinere ad medii aevi, sed antiquitatis "christiane monumenta certum est, quanquam ambigi potest utrum sæculo demun quarto an prius prodierit."
[The apocryphal work on "the Falling Asleep of the Holy Mother of God," here cited as De Transilu Marias, has been somewhat fully dealt with in the Indian Antiquary, 1903, pp. 152, 157, in respect of the proposed identification of Labdanes with Abdagases, which seems to be not so probable as M. Lévi has thought.-W. R. P.] Apocalypses apocrypha, p. 131. The Syriac text No. 2 (quoted ibid. p. xxxvi, note), in consequence of some confusion, has "The nephew of Ludan, king of India." The tekio, Latin and Syriao No. 2 versions indicate simply that Thomas was in India.
Gutschmid thought he had recovered the name of Gad, brother of Gondophares, in the legend Barideva oaða read by Longpérier on a coin of Gondophares: But Longpérier's reading arose from an error, since rectified by new specimens, and Gutschmid's explanation is thus struck out.
10 For the coins of Abdagases, besides Cunningham's articles already mentioned, see Hoernle, Coppor-coins of Abdagases, J. A. S. Beng., 1895, Proceedings, p. 82-81.