Indian Antiquary Vol 56

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 189

SEPTEMBER, 1921)
THOMAS CANA
163
There is a small, endogamous group of ancient Christians in Malabar, called Tekkumpakar (literally, those of the Southern side), or Southists. They have scarcely any marriage relations with the Northists, the rest of the St. Thomas Christians. The appellations Northists and Southists came into existence because, it is alleged, in the new town of Makotayar Pattanam founded by Thomas Cana, 400 shops of the former were constructed in the northern row and 72 of the latter in the southern. There are several points of difference between the Northists and the Southists in customs, manners and physical features. (Ittûp's History, op. cit., pp. 92-94.) Foreign characteristics like blue eyes and brown facial hair are noticeable in some of the Southists, while there are others among them who do not differ at all from the Northists in bodily features.
Cana' in Thomas Cana' is not, I think, the place Cana of Galilee where Jesus Christ turned water into wine. (John, II. 1.) To my mind, Thomas Cana means Thomas the mer. chant. The Syriac root kono means to get, to buy, and kánôyo, one who gets or buys. The old annals and songs of Malabar state that the four hundred10 foreigners who colonized
7 The terms Suddists and Nordists derive from French writers, from Nordistes' and Sudistes.' "Suddists' with two d's is highly objectionable, as it tends to hide its origin. [The Latin term is Gens Suddistica.-T.K.J.]
8 Do Couto (Dec. 12, L. 3, c. 1, Tom. 8, Lisboa, 1788, pp. 271-273) has a very curious itinerary for St. Thomas, taken from the Chaldean books of the Serra. Taking leave of St. Thaddeus at Edessa, St. Thomas sells his body to a merchant and visits in turn Sokotra, Melinde and Cafraria, the kingdom of laces and Zarique (by do Couto identified doubtfully with Ampazes and Moçambique), finally Marhozaya, which Bishop F. Roz, at do Couto's request, identified with Malaca. Another passago in the Chaldean hooks Eent St. Thomas to Persia, Samarkand, Sokotra and Malabar. Can copies of such books still be found in Malabar? They would solve certain difficulties and would prove missionary endeavours or Syrian trade on the coasts of Africa in pre-Portuguese times. We have to account for the occurrence of the cross among South African tribes
I think that Marhoznya is Mahuza, (perhaps Makota or Mahodaya Pattanam, i.e., Cranganore), whenco, according to Jacob of Sarug, either St. Thomas made a start for Indis or whence inerchants had come to fetch him for Gondophares. Schröter could not decide, as the copies of Jacob of Sarug's poem woro incomplete. Cf. Medlycott, pp. 248, 249. We have a similar difficulty for the MSS. of the Syriac Acta of St. Thomas. Cl. Ind. Ant., 1903, p. 160. We do not know yet what place is meant in Jacob of Sarug by Mahuza. Assemani, Bibl. Or., T. III, Part II, p. 761, mentions two Mahuzas, but neither appears to be appropriate for St. Thomas' story, as neither is a harbour on the sea. One is near Ctesiphon, and is called Carcha, Corch, or Carch; the other is called Ariuna. Fr. Bernard of St. Thomas in letters to me asserts that Mahuza or Mahosa means simply 'town' and that the Syrians applied it to Cranganore. If that were so, might it not have been applied also to Mylapore ? St. Thomas in the Hymn of the Soul mentions a dear friend, a native of Maishân, the companion of his travels, whom I identify with Uzanes, the son of King Mazdai. If Maishan is not a mistake for Mailan, Mylapore, might it not stand for Mahond and still apply to Mylaporo The idea of the Syrians was that Gondophares lived at Mylapore, and that idea seems to be shared already by Jacob of Sarug (A.D. 500-521). (Malabar tradition, at least in its recent form, knows no such name as Gondopharos or Kandapparaja. Mahosa or Mahúså in Syriac is the name of a small town somewhere in south-west Asia.-T.K.J.)
Did not a division into Northists and Southists prevail in Mesopotamias at one time? I find something to that effect in Monserrato (1579). Something akin to the division between the right hand and left-hand parties of S. India, but sprung from religious divisions. I believe there is such a division as the right-hand and left-hand party in Abyssinia among the Christians.
10 De Conti has a reference, I think, to some 20,000 washermen in the army of the King of Vijayanagar. I have sometimes thought there might be question of Syrians, who were great fighters in those days. The other day, I came across a passage speaking of numerous Syrians fighting in the Bisnaga army, but I cannot now trace it again. The mercantile community of Belgaum, N.E. of Goa, "had already at the beginning of the 13th century included foreign settlers from Lala, i.e., Lata (Gujarat) and the Malayalam country," As evidenced by an inscription. Soo A.S.I.A. Report, 1916-17, part I, p. 19. Could there Malayalis have Loon St. Thomas Christians, the mercantile community par excellence, of Malabar ? Abdar Razak (15th century) speaks of Nimeh Pozir, Christian minister to the king of Vijayanagar.-T.K.J.).
May not the Southists who came with Thomas Cana have been dyers and fullore, as inany Christiacus in Persia were, who took Christ for their patron. Cl. As. Researches, X, 1808, p. 82. The Syrians were great Feavers and dyers, I think, in the Near East.