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THOMAS CANA AND HIS COPPER-PLATE GRANT
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OCTOBER, 1927]
1601 A.D. they appear to have received sudden inspiration. Barhebraeus (1246-86) seems to be the earliest writer (barring, of course, the Syriae and Grook martyrologiaa of c. 700, which mention Calamina, i.e., probably Chinnamalai, near Mylapore) who connects St. Thomas definitely with South India. Cosmas (c. 535) says nothing about St. Thomas in Male (Malabar).
(6) As already shown Thomas Ramban's Song is spurious, and must be ruled out of court.
(7) "Thoma Parvam of 1601." Thomas Ramban's Song of 1601 A.D. is not the same as Thoma Parvam, another Malayalam song about St. Thomas. The song of 1601 and Carmen Thoma Ramban' used in Zaleski's The Apostle Thomas, Mangalore, 1912, are the same.
(8) "The name Antrayos " (Andrew) given by the song of 1601. The Margam-Kali Song (in Malayalam) about St. Thomas, which was the sole, undisputed authority for all Malabar Christians until the publication in 1916 of the song of 1601 A.D., and is still jealously regarded as such by the Southist section claiming descent from Thomas Cana, calls the king not Andrew, but Pól. I think we need not hesitate to affirm that both these songs got the names from Andra-polis, the Margam-Kali Song taking the latter half, and the song of 1601 the former. Both the songs seem to be adaptations of the Passio or De Miraculis. (See Remark No. 13 infra). (9) "Son-in-law." The word in the original (marumakan) has the senses of son-in-law and nephew. (10) Thoma Parvam is independent." Correct Thoma Parvam into Thomas Ramban's Sony of 1601, as indicated in Remark No. 7, ante. The song of 1601 seems to be, on the contrary, dependent on, and in fact an adaptation of the Latin versions of The Acts, interlarded with a large number of details seemingly invented by the author. (See anté, p. 180).
(11) The Malabar tradition vouches," etc. I beg to submit that we should say Malabar tradition of recent centuries. But was Malabar tradition of the first, second, third, fourth and the succeeding two or three centuries, identical with that of subsequent centuries? We do not know, because the early Malabar tradition has not come down to us in written form. (See my "St. Thomas in South India," Ind. Ant.. December, 1926). Tradition grows and is constantly pruned and grafted. The St. Thomas tradition of Malabar must have been no exception.
(12) "It would be invaluable, had it kept only the name Andrew." As already pointed out in Remark No. 8, the Margam-Kali Song which, unlike the upstart song of 1601, is still religiously treasured by the Malabar Christians as an invaluable possession, calls him Pêl, not Andrew.
And, be in noted that this Margam-Kali Sony makes Thomas land first in Mylapore, then takes him to Pol's daughter's marriage feast (at an unnamed place outside the Mylapore king's territory) and to other countries including Malacca and China, back again to Mylapore, thence to Cranganoro and other places in Malabar, from which country he goes again to Mylapore in obedience to the king's indignant summons and is later killed in a riot at the temple of the goddess Kali.
On the other hand, the song of 1601 makes Thomas land first in Cranganore in A.D. 50, and, without allowing him to preach in other parts also of Malabar, hurries him away to Mylapore, whence he proceeds to China and returns to Mylapore. At the invitation of a nephew of the king of Malabar he sails back to Cranganore, establishes churches in that kingdom, goes back to Mylapore on foot, returns to Malabar on foot (across the Ghats) with the help of angels and goes back again to Mylapore, where he is killed.
(13) Pôl, king of an East Coast territory, mentioned in the Margam-Kali Sony, and Andrew of Cranganore on the West Coast, mentioned in the spurious song of 1601 can easily be traced to Andrapolis of The Acts, the name of a city.
Thomas Rambân, the author of the latter, though unscrupulous, seems to have been the more learned of the two bards. For he recognised that Andrapolis could mean Andrew's city, and so christened the king Andrew. While the other called him Pôl, most probably because he mist ook Andrapolis for a personal name, of which the latter half was to him a surname.
(14) A close study-comparative and analytic-of all the available versions of our Malabar tradition has convinced me (a) that they are not faithful, consistent reproductions of contemporary tradition, but confused essays, studies, or lucubrations based on the materials that the authors could lay hands on, and (b) that the tradition in its modern form contains two layers.-(1) the purely indigenous story of the saint who lies buried in Mylapore, and (2) the story of The Acts of Thomas.-T.K.J.66
Page 128, note 31.-Barbosa mentions two churches at Cranganore, which must have been burnt down when the Christians fled to Katutturutti and built a church there. When? Before 1590. I must see the Parur inecription. I write to the Vicar.-T.K.J,
[At page 148, note 44, supra-We find that before A.D. 1516 there was at Cranganore a Church of Our Lady of Mercy, and another of St. Thomas. This latter was destroyed in 1536. Mgr. Roz (cf. text ibid.) states that a Syrian MS. of 1507 mentions at Cranganore three churches: Our Lady's, St. Thomas' and St. Quirce's. In a Syriac MS. of A.D. 1301, the deacon Zechariah, a relative of Mar Jacob, director of the Church of Christian India, states that he writes in the Church of the martyr Mar Cyriacus of Shingala (Cranganore)
66 Not having seen Mr. Joseph's rejoinder before it was in printed proof form, I reserve my answer for a future number of the Indian Antiquary,--H.H.
