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NOVEMBER, 1928)
THOMAS CANA
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published catalogues the Descriptive Catalogue of Sans. MSS. in the Ulwar State Library (p. 38) rightly attributes it to Krsnadása 4.
This KrsnadAsa seems to be identical with Krşnadasa Kaviraja, the well-known author of the Chaitanyacharitamata (a Bengali metrical work on the life-story of the great Vaisnava reformer of Bengal, viz., Chaitanya), which, by a statement of the author himself, was com. posed in 1503 S.E. (=1581 A.D.) He came after the celebrated companions of Chaitanya viz., Rûpagosvamin, Jivagosvamin, Raghunatha Dasa and Raghunatha Bhatta and held them, as did all later Vaisnava Masters of Bengal, in high respect. This accounts for his reverential mention of them in the Govindarlamrta.
THOMAS CANA. BY T. K. JOSEPH, B.A., L.T.
(Continued from page 165.) 6. Thomas Cana finds the crucifix in Malabar.-Roz (1604) says that Thomas Cana found the Christians of Paru (Parur) wearing wooden crosses round their necks. This point appears therefore to rest on an ancient tradition. Cross, but not crucifix.]
7. No ordained ministers in Malabar.- This is suspect. In Land's Anecdota, the Christians of Malabar are several times represented as being without priests and leaders, i.e. at the persecution of Manikka Vachakar (the date of which appears to be 293-315), and before the arrival of Thomas Cana. Cf. Mingana, op. cit., 43. Mingana (ibid., 18) has, however, found that “during the Patriarchate of Shahlûpha and Papa, say about A.D. 295-300, Dadi (David), bishop of Basrah, on the Persian Gulf, an eminent doctor, left his see and went to India, where he evangelised many people." [No one knows which part of India.)
In document IV.1. 4 we are told that there were clergy in Coromandel, but that they neg. lected Malabar. We have some idea that long before A.D. 345 there was at Mylapore a monastery of 200 monks, and that therefore the abandonment of the Christians in Malabar is an exaggeration. The church of Kuravalangad claims to be of the year 335120.
Before A.D. 363 Yonan was Abbot of a monastery of St. Thomas in India, near (or below) the black island (Syr. : gazarta akamatd). It had 200 monks. The island was near the town of Milon, six days from Maron, and got its wine from Persia. It had date-trees and palm-trees and crabs of enormous size. It was the see of a bishop. The inhabitants of Milon fished for pearls. Brother Påpa sailed to it from Mesopotamia, and it was constantly visited by solitaries from Mesopotamia. Mingana does not know (ibid., 18-22) where to locate it. His efforts to place it in an island of the Persian Gulf are not convincing. He would not mind if it had been at Mylapore, since the placo of St. Thomas' tomb in India had a monastery and a church 131 of vast size before A.D. 594. Precisely. There is room for it in India as early as 363, close to St. Thomas' tomb, near the black sand' island, (Karumanal, & village on
* In recording this Aufrecht in his Catalogus Catalogorum, vol. II, Supplement, curiously makes Kropaddsa the son of Raghunatha Bhatta. The statement however lacks any corroborative evidence.
6 Yadunandana, at the end of his translation of the Govindalllampla, and the Sadanandavidhdyint, the Sanskrit oonmentary on it, in the introductory verses identify the two authors, and there is no reason why we should reject that identification.
130 This claim is not supported by any document. In fact the dates for the Malabar churches in the Catholic Directory are mere guesses in most cases. We know how in Bishop Lavigne's time these dates were arrived at for the purpose of the Directory-from mere tradition in most cases.
191 In spite of Medlycott's argumenta in his India and Thomas, (London, 1905, pp. 74-79) I think that the church and monastery that Theodore saw some time before A.D. 590 were in Edessa in civitatem quam Syri Aedissam vocant: in supra dicta igitur urbe, in qua beatos artus diximus tumulatos. (Ibid., p. 80, aote).
