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JULY, 1928)
THOMAS CANA
117
THOMAS CANA. By T. K. JOSEPH, B.A., L.T.
(Continued from page 106.) Further Remarks by the Rev. H. Hosten, S.J.
On Document No. 1. Nasrani. If the word Nasrani was used in A.D. 315, it would have been the name by which the Jews knew the Christians. They may have been known similarly through the Jews to the rest of the people in Malabar.
Document No. 1 is not of 345 A.D. But the term Nasrani might have been applied to the Malabar Christians from the very beginning of their history. For Nasråņi is a modified form of Greek Nazarenos, a term applied to a member of the early Jewish Christian sect. In pre-Islamic days the Christians of Arabia (and presumably of Mesopotamia also) were called Nasranys. Even European Christians are to-day called Nasranys in Arabia, as we learn from Doughty's Travels in Arabia Deserta and other sources.
The Malabar Syrian Christians are known as Nasranis even to-day. The earliest known instance of the application of the term to the Syrian Christians of Malabar, is in Pope John XXII's letter of A.D. 1330. The passage runs: "Nobili viro domino Nascarinorum et universis sub eo Christianis Nascarinis de Columbo" (i.e., Quilon in Travancore). The Malabar Nasranis came to be called Christians (Kristyanika!) locally only after the Portuguese connection in A.D. 1498.-T.K.J.)
On footnote 32. The gold crown. On February 7, 1924, at the Southist Church of Chungam, said to have been built in 1579, we photographed a boy and a girl dressed up for the occasion in the ceremonial dress of a bridegroom and a bride. This attire belongs to the Church. Bridegroom's dress: long qabayt or surcoat, like the robe of state (khilat) presented by Eastern princes to those whom they wish to honour; six-pointed star on each sleeve; crown (aigrette fixed on turban), said to be part of the property given to the Christians of Chungam, when they filiated from the Southist Church of Katutturutti to settle at Chungam. Bride's dress : peculiar bodice; crown, a facsimile of the one of Katutturutti, now the property of the Jacobites of Mulanturutti, which latter is said to be the original crown presented to the Christians by Chéraman Perumaļ. By Chêra mån Perumal they mean apparently the king who favoured Thomas Cana.
[The gold crown I refer to is like the conical Indian jata-mukuta put on the heads of ancient statues of kings and images of gods. The aigrette mentioned by Fr. Hosten is not a crown, but the golden flower referred to by Gouvea (Jornada, fol. 4r): "The Christians" (of Malabar) "alone, when marrying, were allowed to wear their hair tied up with a golden flower." See the accompanying plate. The bride's "crown" is really a half-crown covering only the front half of the head, as can be seen from the picture.-T.K.J.)
On Document No. 3. Rosary. Did the Christians of Mesopotamia use the rosary of beads which the present Bishops of Mesopotamia visiting India are seen to use? How many beads does this rosary consist of? [Of 153 beads-T.K.J.)
On footnote 45. Veil. I do not think it means that the Christian women of Mesopotamia came with their faces veiled as the Arab custom is in many parts.
[Veils seem to have been used by Southist women in the sixteenth century. For there is this saying in Malayalam current among the Syrian Christians : The city is burnt, and we go out in broad daylight. Why then a mutfak (veil), my daughter ?' These were the words of a Southist Christian mother to her daughter who, while about to flee from the city of Cranganore set fire to by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, hurriedly searched for
