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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[Accuat, 1927
thrce Churches, one of St. Thomas, another of Our Lady, and another of St. Cyriacus, 14 I say St. Quirce, a martyr-child, the son of St. Julita, and very famous (muy celebrado) among these Chaldeans, whose feast they celebrate on the fifteenth of July. According to the era in which the said book was written, it was written ninety-seven years before this year 1604."45
Diogo do Couto, who died in 1616, and was some 40 or 50 years ir. India writing the his. tory of the Portuguese in the East, says -
“Many years after that, there landed at that harbour of Patana a ship, (p. 283) in which came an Armenian Christian, called Thomé Cananeo, a very rich man : and, on meeting that king, he gave an account of himself and he gave the place of Patana for him to settle with his people, who brought their wives; and after that the same king gave him the field of Cranganor, where now is our Fortress, where Thomé Cananeo ordered to make the Church at the place where it now is, under the invocation of the same Apostle ; and afterwards he made two others : one of the title of Our Lady, and another of St. Cyriac, Martyr. And, as the grant of these fields, which the king ordered to pass, is remarkable and declares many things which deserve knowing, it appeared good to me to put them here word íor word, as they were found in certain copper plates, to which I refer in my seventh Decada, which disappeared from the Factory of Cochin, and from them I conclude that this king was a Christian and was called Cocurangon.":46
In his Decada 7 do Couto writes :
(P. 14) "The Bishops whom he (St. Thomas) left in those parts of Malavar, governing that Christianity, founded Churches in the City of Cranganor and in that of Coulão, which still to-day are seen in the same places, and they keep (p. 15) in many things their memory and antiquity,47 and, among them 48 on certain padrões (memorials), *' and on plates of metal, of lands and revenues, granted by those kings for the building of those Temples, which we60 still found in the Factory of Cochin a very few years ago,61 which, from the beginning of that Fortress, had passed from Factor to Factor to be kept in the house. And, when I wished to know about them, in order that, according to duty, we might place them in the Torre do Tombo,63 considering they were such an ancient thing, and so greatly worth keeping and
44 Barbosa wrote before 1616: "Further along the coast [than Chatua) is another river which forms the frontier with the Kingdom of Cochim, on the hither bank of which is a place called Cranganor (p. 89) where the King of Cochim holds certain dues. In these places dwell many Moors, Christians, and Heathen Indians. The Christians follow the doctrine of the Blessed Saint Thomas, and they hold here a Church dedicated to him, and another to Our Lady. They are very devout Christians, lacking nothing but true doctrine whereof I will speak further on, for many of them dwell from here as far as Charamandel, whom the Blessed Saint Thomas left established here when he died in these regions." Dames, Duarte Barbosa, II. 88.89.
Correa (Lendas da India, J. 509) says that the Christians of Cranganore asked of Lopo Soares (1804) not to burn their Church. "Some Christians of the land came to the Captain-in-chief asking mercy, that he might not order to burn the settlement, because (p. 509) they had there a Church and crosses in their houses, being Christians of the teaching of St. Thomas; wherewith the Captain-in-chief was pleased, and therefore he would not burn the settlement, which was depopulated, as all the people had flcd with the King."
When the Portuguese came to India," there was still in existence at Cranganore An old Christian Church called The House of St. Thomas. This was destroyed in 1536 by the troops of the Zamorin of Calicut, and the Portuguese then built two churches under the title of St. Thomas and St. Jamen. (Lendas da India)." Trar. Man., II. 192.
45 160197 = A.D. 1507. 16 Dec. 12, 1. 4, c. 5 (Tom. 8, Lisboa, 1788, pp. 282-283). 17 Sua memoria e antiguidade, i.e., the memory of their antiquity. 49 Among the things of the antiquity of which they keep the memory. 4 Does he refer to padrões like the pillar of Quilon? 50 Do Couto means himself.
$1 Ha bom poucos annos. 53 Por entren da ram.
59 The record-room of Goa.
