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MAY, 1927)
LAND'S ANECDOTA SYRIACA ON THE SYRIANS OF MALABAR
83
from King Shakirbirti to build a church and city at Kaulam. It would seem that there is some connection between the date assigned to this event and the Kollam era '; but what it is we cannot say. Shakirbirti is ovidently a form of Chakravartti Raja." Yule, Hobson-Jobson, s.v. Quilon.
300 Denho, Thomas, Jacob, and Jahbaloho. "From the letter of the bishops of India in 1016 [sic for 1604] what is said of those three bishops, 1.e., Mar-Dus or Dena, Thoma, Jonnam, appears to be wrong, because only two were then sent, vix., John and Thomas, i.e., in A.D. 1490. Thomas alone then returned to Mesopotamia and he then brought three other bishops with him to India, i.e., Denha, Jaballaha and Jacob." Raulin, p. 9 n. b. See also rar. Man, II. 148-149.
31 Lord Abraham in 1580. His credentials contained a letter from Pope Pius IV. of Febr. 28, 1565. Cf. Trav. Man., II. 165-171. He died in 1597 (not in 1596), according to the Jesuit authorities.
99 Burning of Syriac books. Most authors, not excluding our modern Romo-Syrians, cannot write dispassionately of this matter. Let them examine the Jornada and the decrees of the Council of Diamper for what was done. Of. Raulin's Eloyia for an extract from a letter of J. M. Campori, S.J., Nov. 28, 1599.
34 30,000 double gold pieces. I find no allusion to this in any other book at my disposal. 344 They submitted to the Frank bishops. The real story is in Trav. Man., II. 174-180.
36 Mar Ignatius. Even the Romo-Syrians still believe, as I had occasion to hear more than once while in Malabar (1924), that Mar Ignatius was drowned by the Portuguese before Cochin. But foul play we ascribed equally to the Portuguese, and each time rashly, in the case of several other Bishope and priests who died whilo out of Malabar, in territory belonging either to the Portuguese or to the French. Some Latin authors, for instance Raulin, p. 442 col. 2, say Mar Ignatius was burned by the Inquisition of Goa. Friar Paulinus says be diod at Goa about A.D. 1654 (Ind. Or. Christ, p. 73). There is no reason why the ordinary historia should not accept Mackenzie's findings about his being deported to Portugal and dying at Paris on his way from Lisbon to Rome.
37 By means of the Syrian deacons. Menezes had deposed neither the bishops, because alter Mar Abraham's death there was no Syrian bishop left, nor the priests. Land, finding only descons mentioned here, jumps to the conclusion that Menezes had deposed bishops and prieste. No attempt to verify & statement.
38 Mutumseri. Matancheri, now part of Cochin. Cf. Trav. Man., II. 184. Alanghat is the same as Mangate.
40 A bishop of the Franks. This cannot be Francisco Roz, who died in 1624 at Parur, where he is buried. It is not likely either that Bishop Francis Garcia be referred to. The allusion appears to be to the Carmelito bishops, the first of whom arrived at Palur on Febr. 22, 1667. Cf. Trav. Man., II. 186.
41a Catholicus of the East. The title seems to be used here in the sense of "the Jacobite Catholicus of Antioch."
49 Mar Gabriel. There is much divergence about the year of his arrival in Malabar : 1704 and 1709 (cf. Raulin, 445. col. 2) and 1708 (Trau. Man., II. 203-204). He did not die in 1716, as Assemani asgarte, but in 1731 (Trav. Man., II. 205).
44 of the Franciscans? We should understand the Jesuits, chiefly those of Ambalakada. They were called Paulites or Paulista all over India, from their College of S. Paolo de 8. Feat Goa.
46 The priest Matthew. The date of Matthew's letter does not appear. Land seems to confuse him with Mar Thomas IV, with whom Dr. Schaaf, Professor of Oriental Languages at the Leyden University, entered into correspondence after 1714. Mar Thomas IV. mentions Schaaf in a letter to the Patriarch of Antioch, dated from Pharahur Patana (Parur) the 25th of Elul (Sept.) 1720. In the same letter he mentions & bértain priest, Matthew Boticulel, whom he trusted. Of. Trav. Man., II. 204-208. As Mar Thomas IV. died in 1728 and Mar Gabriel in 1731, it is possible that, as Mar Thomas IV is not mentioned by Mattbew, our document was written after his death. We might therefore think that Matthew's letter is of about A.D. 1730.
Among the Oriental MSS. of the Leyden University, No. 1214 is entitled thus :
Malaydlatil olla suriyani-kkárkka bhavicca bhavitankal, i.e., Events which occurred among the Syrian Christians.
" It begins with the arrival of 'Mar Thomma' in the year 824 after the birth of Christ," wrote R. Rost, Professor of Dravidian languages at Cambridge (6 Nov. 1860). He took it to be 800 years old, but R. Collins, Principal of the Church Missionary College, Kottayam, wrote: "It is the commencement of one of the many histories, scattered amongst the people, relating to the Syrian Church. A reader in my employ has a MS. beginning much in the same way. The bit which Dr. Rost sends is certainly quite modern." Of. Land, Anecdota Syriaca, I, pp. 7-8.
4 Sic.
