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120
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JULY, 1928
(6) Thomas of Jerusalem comes to Malabar in 345 with the bishop of. Edessa, priests, deacons, and 472 families. 94
(7) Joseph, bishop of Antioch, came with 472 families in 345 and built Cranganore.
(8) In 345 Thomas Cana came with bishops, priests, deacons, and laymen by order of the Patriarch Ignatius. 95
(9) With Thomas Cana came in 345 Mar Joseph of Edessa, priests, deacons and about 400 families. Thus in Ittûp's History, which agrees with our songs, except that our songs speak of 72 families consisting of 400 persons.
There are still other versions, in which either the Catholicos or 5th Patriarch of Jerusalem is mentioned, or Yustêdiûs, Patriarch of Antioch. These other versions should be collected.
Considerably different is the story of the merchant Qison, a fire-worshipper, who, coming to Qalonya, in the country of Philippois, somewhere in India, made the acquaintance of the Christians there and of their bishop; he goes home by sea and brings his family to the bishop for baptism. He goes home again, and dies. His widow Helena and her four sons, John, Stephen, Joseph and Daniel, come to India, to the capital of a king where there are no Christians. So many miracles happen on their account that John and the king write for a bishop to Constantine the Great. John, bishop of Ephesus (sic), comes to India, baptises the king and his people, and consecrates John, one of the four brothers, as first bishop of that city. [Could Qalonya be Caliana of Cosmas, A.D. 535 ?-In Caliana....episcopus est in Perside ordinari solitus.-T.K.J.]
The writers who speak of 472 families brought over by Thomas Cana seem to have lumped into one figure, and into one category the 400 persons of 72 families. How was the figure 336 families' arrived at ?
Line 4. It is surprising that the Syrians, apparently in imitation of the Hindus and Buddhists, whose saints are golden-faced, ascribe to Mar Joseph of Urfa a golden complexion. Many of the old statues of our Catholic Churches in India are entirely gilt, even in the face. (But see noté 65, p. 105, supra.-T.K.J.]
Line 8. The Catholicos of the East or a Patriarch appears here to be placed at Jerusalem. In 345 did not the whole farther East depend on the Patriarch of Antioch, and would the Catholicos of the East, dependent on Antioch, not have lived in Mesopotamia ? Mingana (The Early Spread of Christianity in India, reprint, 1926, p. 44 n. 1) says that after the Catholicos of the East Shahdost, martyred in 342, the see was vacant for more than two years, his successor Barba -Shemin was in prison from February 345 to January 9, 346, when he was martyred. It is still a hopeless task to reconcile the conflicting statements about the bishop who came to India in 345, his name, the place he came from, the Patriarch then ruling, and the Catholicos of the East.
Line 11. The rank of Catholicos given at this early date to Mar Joseph of Edessa is probably an exaggeration. Did he come to India as Catholicos of the East, with the idea of returning home after three years (1. 50)? The title of Metropolitan of India given to one of the bishops in India is probably much later than 345. [He was given some privileges or marks of honour, not the office of Catholicos.-T.K.J.]
Line 12. I understand that this send-off, in the mind of the poet, took place at Jerusalem.
Line 13. In Thomas Ramban's Song of A.D. 1601, Thomas I. of Maliyokal receives from St. Thomas the title of Ramban and a book. lle was not however a bishop. The same poein describes the investiture of a bishop by St. Thomas in the person of Peter, the son-in
94 From another Malayalam account by a Jacobite, in an English relation of Trichur, 1820 ; cf. n. 92 above. 05 Mingana, op. cit., 50 (njer hy & Jacobite, 1891)
[Footnotes 80-95 are by Fr. Host..n!
