Indian Antiquary Vol 60

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 262

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
( DECEMBER, 1931
(1) The Indian monastery of St. Thomas existing in Zadoe's time (say between 350-390
A.D.) (8) Christians in South India about 290-315 A.D. .
We shall briefly examine the several parts of this bridge.
1. According to Budge's edition (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1886) of Solomon's Book of the Bee, the sentence mentioning the burial place of St. Thomas has another reading which does not contain the name Mahlûph. Budge's translation runs: "Others say that he was buried in Mahlûph, a city in the land of the Indians [the Oxford MS says he was buried in India)." (See Medlycott's India and the Apostle Thomas, 1905, p. 38.)
2. I do not know if the Indian Bishop, who, coming from the town where was St. Thomas' tomb, appeared at Rome about 1122 A.D., specified the name of the town as Hulf or Hulfa.'
3. Reliance cannot be placed on my identification in The Indian Antiquary for 1924, pp. 93—95) of Calamina with Chinnamalai, the Little Mount near Mylapore. It was nothing more than a surmise based on nothing better than a Malabar tradition of the Portuguese period. When the authenticity of that tradition itself is open to question, how could my surmise based on it be accepted and made the basis of an argument ! In my letter itself (in The Catholic Register for April 1930) which called fortb Fr. Hosten's article under consideration here, I had said in so many words that "my identification of Calamina with Chinnamalai is, of course, open to question.”
Previous to the above identification of mine in 1924 Calamina had been identified (1) with Kalyān near Bombay ; (2) with Min-nagara of the Periplus (by Cunningham in Archæological Survey of India, Report for 1863-4, p. 60); (3) with Kalama, a village on the west of Gedrosia, opposite the island of Karbine or Karmina (by Gutschmid); (4) with Carmana, the capital of the well-known ancient country Carmania Propria in Persia, on the west of Sistân, which is on the south-west frontier of Afghánistán (by W. R. Philipps in Ind. Ant., 1903, p. 149); and (5) with Kalah, which is either a place on the Malaya Peninsula, or Point de Galle or some ancient port on the south-east coast of Ceylon formerly known as the Galla country (Medlycott in his India and Thomas, 1905, pp. 156 and 158).
These, like my identification and those by Fr. Kircher, Baldaeus, Fra. Paulinus, Fr. Bernard, Mr. F. A. D'Cruz and some others are mere speculations. They may or may not be right. It is not wise, therefore, to basc any argument on any of them,
Thus we find that one long portion of Fr. Hosten's bridge, extending from about 1250 back to about 600 A.D., is weak.
4. As for King Alfred's cmbassy taking alms (883 A.D.) “ to India to Saint Thomas and Saint Bartholomew,” according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the earliest document on the subject, no one can say for certain which part of the world the alıns for St. Thomas actually reached.
Nor can one assume that since a 'tomb of St. Thomas' existed at Mylapore in the thirteenth century it had been to Mylapore itself that King Alfred's alms were taken in 883 A.D.
According to Dr. Mingana, "The mention of Bartholomew renders almost certain the opinion that King Alfred's India was not India at all, but South Arabia or Abyssinia." Early Spread of Christianity in India (Reprint) 1926, p. 21. Says Dr. Mingana : "the expression 'Great India is used of Ethiopia and Arabia Felix combined " in a passage of Michael the Syrian's history.-(Ibid., pp. 12, 13, 63.)"Indeed, many other writers count as integral parts of India some localities situated in Persia, Afghanistan and Baluchistan. So the great Michael the Syrian clearly mentions the city of Kabul, in present Afghanistan, as part of Inclia. Another writer, supposedly of the end of the fourth century, counts Ceylon as India.” (Ibid., pp. 11, 12.) "It is impossible to resist the temptation to believe that the