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JULY, 1928)
THOMAS CANA
law or nephew of the king of Cranganore : St. Thomas invests him with part of his owu dress. [This song of 1601 is spurious.--T.K.J.]
Line 15 and note 68. Esrå cannot be Urfa (Edessa). The poet knows Edessa by the name Uraha, which may be compared with the form Oruay in a Malabar MS. earlier than 1820 (cf. my note to ll. 1-7 above). If Esra is Osroene, it is practically equivalent to Edessa. Why does Mar Joseph of Urfa go for permission to Esra, identified with Osroene, unless the Catholicos of the East lives there? But if Mar Joseph had been himself given the powers of a Catholicos, appointed apparently to that dignity by a Patriarch, had he to apply to the Catholicos of the East for permission to go to India ? His getting a signet ruby, after obtaining permission, implies however that he applied to a superior religious authority, as the signet ruby would signify the reception of special power.
Line 18. The start must have been from Esra, and the embarking at Basra. I do not think that Esrå can itself.be Basra. Ittüp in his History (1869, p. 78n.) makes Gundaphar's messenger Habban meet St. Thomas at Mahosen in Yûsse. Mahösen is Mahosa, and there was a Mahosa near Basra. Must Yûsse be compared with Esrå and Basra ? The meaning of Yûsse requires elucidating.
"Together they started ": a reference to the goodly company of priests and deacons, and possibly others, who went with Mar Joseph.
Lines 20-24. Cochin and Cranganore appear to be treated here as identical ; also in 1. 17. Did the Cochin harbour exist in A.D. 345 ? The island of Paliporto, north of Cochin, did not exist then. According to Roz, it was formed in A.D. 1327. If it did not exist in 345, the sea stretched from Cochin to Cranganore without any intervening island to obstruct from Cranganore the view of Cochin. At any rate, as the party is said to have landed at Cranganore, the salutes were meant for the place where the king was, and he appears to have been at or near Cranganore, not at Cochin. The city gate mentioned in 1.23 could not have been at Cochin, but at or near Cranganore. Roz, recording traditions, says the king was then living at Paru, where he had a pagoda. In fact, Roz and more clearly de Barros place Mahôdêvarpattanam at Paru,
Lines 22, 23. When did the Chinese invent the use of gunpowder? Elliot in his History of India (8 volumes ; I cannot now consult them) has an essay on this question. I should think that by 345 the Chinese used gunpowder, in which case the invention could not have been unknown to the Indiana. In Du Perron's translation of four copper-plates granted to Thomas Cana we read that the plates were presented to Thomas amid the firing of guns. (Cf. note 73, p. 106, supra, by T.KJ.)
Line. 24. These seem to be the soldiers who had accompanied the ships of Mar Joseph as a protection against pirates. I understand that they give a shout of joy at having arrived safe ; the languishing of the limbs also betokens rest after a strenuous voyage. In the time of Pliny, archers were placed on ships for the Indian voyage, to protect them against pirates. Pirates at Sokotra, at the Maldives, in Sind, all along the west coast of India : they were worse than all the other terrors of the sea.
Line. 33. These again may be soldiers who came with Mar Joseph ; if the ships were Yavana ships, the soldiers would return to Basra with their ships and their Indian cargo.
Line. 40. The fort is within a walled city (cp. I. 23); the reception, at the city gate, of the bishop by Raja Varma (perhaps distinct from the Peruma!) and two other Râjas denotes the highest honour.
Line. 41. If the Peruma! is not Raja Varma, he awaited the bishop in his palace within the fort: he is an Emperor, and Raja Varma (of Cochin ?) is his vassal. [Råja Varma is not a proper name. It can mean nothing more than king of the Varma or Kshatriya caste. Raja may be a misprint for Rama.-T. K. J.]
Line. 42. The insignia mentioned in this line would have been used during Mar Joseph's progress from the ships to the fort.
