1

Early historical and archaeological traditions of

Christianity in Greater India: reality and hagiography

As a corollary appendix to the narrative of History of Bharatam Janam, it is necessary to review

the roots of Christianity in India, to start with. This account has to be extended to cover the early

presence of Christian traditions in the Indian Ocean Region, what may be called the d’Extreme

Orient or Greater India.

In my view, a reliable, falsifiable historical narrative on the appearance of Christianity along the

Indian Ocean Rim, has NOT yet appeared. Only apocryphal, hagiographic accounts disfigure the

itihaasa of rim of the Indian Ocean. For a bibliography compiled by the Kerala Council for

Historical Research, with reference to Pattanam Archaeology Research, see

http://www.keralahistory.ac.in/pdf2014/international_fellow_2014.pdf

The context of this open-ended enquiry are the opinionated reports and conjectures based on the

ongoing archaeological digs in Pattinam, Kerala, with ardent hopes to find the remains of the

mythical St. Thomas. Archaeological distortions of Pattinam digs well arguned in the media and

in some journals necessitate a fresh enquiry into the historical and archaeological traditions of

Christianity in Greater India

A sample report here:

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Unearthing Pattanam. Explore "Muciri Pattinam", the legendary Indian Ocean port site

New Delhi, National Museum, 28th November 2014 - 10th January 2015

The National Museum of New Delhi houses an exhibition dedicated to the archaeological site of

Pattanam.

The exhibition shows the results of the research about the ancient port overlooking the Indian

Ocean and explains the excavation works conducted at the archaeological site.

A replica of the archaeological trench with the excavation tools and an explicative video are

provided. A wide range of artifacts are displayed: pottery, coins, gold ornaments etc. illustrate

the material culture of the site from 3000 to 1000 BC.

The exhibitions will be open until 10th January 2015.

3

http://arabiaantica.humnet.unipi.it/index.php?id=28&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=83&cHash=ac

3f191fe9f8ebf4b4e81bb885abb28c

A separate area was allocated for Christians in the ancient capital Anuradhapura and there was a

Christian chapel used by the Persian merchants who came to Ceylon in around 5th century.

(MahavamsaTranslated by Wilhelm Geiger, Chapter 10).

A hypothesis: Roots of Christian presence in India are post-modern phenomena; dated not earlier

than ca. 5th century CE (and do NOT date back to mythical Thomas the Apostle, who is said to

have visited Muziris in Kerala in 52 CE) since ancient Indian texts have no reference to the

Christian gestalt (excepting for a Mahavamsa reference to Anuradhapura chapel).

The earliest known Christians who came to India were those from Syria who were forced to

leave their homeland because of persecution by the Christians who accepted Rome as their

masters. This happened in the 4th

century or thereabouts. These Christians are now called in

India as Syrian Christians. When the Portuguese tried to colonise India and Sri Lanka, some of

these Syrian Christians in India and Sri Lanka changed their allegiance to Rome, and that was

the beginning of the Syrian Rites amongst the Roman Catholics in India. There is still tension

about continuation of these rites in the Church.

4

The others who refused to accept Rome as the masters, are called Syrian Orthodox Church.

They have a major problem with the Roman Catholic Church. These Orthodox, both the laity

and the cleric, have good relations with the RSS in Kerala.

Here is one quote on the subject:

"In brief, the caste system seems to have made it possible for Christianity to survive in Kerala,

but on condition that it observed the norms of the system, in particular the prohibition on

recruitment from `other castes’ and the acceptance of the rules of a radically hierarchical society.

The Syrian Christians, like the Jews of Cochin and the Bene Israel of Bombay, survived and

indeed flourished because they accepted the social system within which they found themselves

and observed its norms."

Hindu-Christian Dialogue, Harold Coward (ed) (Page No. 18) {Duncan B. Forrester,

Caste and Christianity: Attitudes and Policies on Caste of Anglo-Saxon Protestant

Missions in India (London: Curzon Press, 1979). In this section I am following the

sources and conclusions of Forrester. pp. 100-1.}

On St. Thomas

It would seem that this Thomas was a well travelled person. In 52 AD he had the means to be

able to travel from Europe to South America, do his missionary work there, and then come to

South India to do his missionary work here. See notes of Francis S.J. Clooney and Klaus

Karttunen -- Ashok Chowgule

Again on St. Thomas

Thomas or another apostle seems to have come to NW India via Iran and been at the court of the

Ephtalite or Kushan kings (his remains were repatriated to Edessa or Antioch later according to

local traditions). Much less likely that he reached South India though. -- Come Carpentier

On the myth of St. Thomas See: http://ishwarsharan.wordpress.com/ This website hosts the 2010

revised and updated edition ofThe Myth of Saint Thomas and the Mylapore Shiva Temple. It is a

complete study of the St. Thomas in India legend—its origin, history, ideology, and communal

ramifications—and is named after the main, 24-chapter essay by Ishwar Sharan.

If, as Xavier found, non-Christian peoples were not entirely bereft of God’s wisdom and inklings

of revealed truth, the cause of this knowledge had to be explained, and later generations spent a

good deal of time reflecting on the matter. There were numerous theories early on among the

missionary scholars. For example, Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, writing in Peru in the mid-

seventeenth century, thought that since God would not have overlooked the Americas for fifteen

hundred years, and since among the twelve apostles St. Thomas was known for his mission to the

‘most abject people in the world, blacks and Indians,’ it was only reasonable to conclude that St.

Thomas had preached throughout the Americas:

5

He began in Brazil - either reaching it by natural means on Roman ships, which some maintain

were in communication with America from the coast of Africa, or else, as may be thought closer

to the truth, being transported there by God miraculously. He passed to Paraguay, and from

there to the Peruvians.

Ruiz de Montoya reported that St. Thomas even predicted the arrival of later missionaries,

including the Jesuits themselves:

[Thomas] had prophesied in the eastern Indies that his preaching of the gospel would be revived,

saying: ‘When the sea reaches this rock, by divine ordinance white men will come from far-off

lands to preach the doctrine that I am now teaching you and to revive the memory of it.’

Similarly, the saint prophesied in nearly identical words the coming of the Society’s members

into the regions of Paraguay about which I speak: ‘You will forget what I preach to you, but

when priests who are my successors come carrying crosses as I do, then you will hear once more

the same doctrine that I am teaching you.’12

Clooney, Francis, S.J., “A Charism for Dialog”, URL: http://fmwww.bc.edu/SJ/dialog.html

Date: Tue, 8 Jun 1999 13:32:54 +0300

Reply-To: Indology <[log in to unmask]>

Sender: Indology <[log in to unmask]>

From: Klaus Karttunen <[log in to unmask]>

Subject: Apostle Thomas again

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Dear Colleagues

Sorry that I am rather late wit h my reply. I had to switch my e-mail to a new machine, and it

took some time to have it running again.

As to the question of Ganesan, Cosmas mentions twice, in 3, 65 and 11, 14, Christian

communities in South India and Sri Lanka, with a Persian bishop, but he does not mention

Thomas' death. In fact he does not mention Thomas at all, in this I made a mistake. Sorry!

Of course the legend of Thomas' death near Madras is not true, as I think I made clear in my first

message, but it was wise that Bal Prasad did not vouch for the veracity of his "paraphrase". Even

the names of scholars were wrong: instead of C-J De la Vallee-Poussin and Robert Garbe, Louis

de La Vallee-Poussin and Richard Garbe.

As to the Acts of Thomas, it is an apocryphal work, and no more history than other such legends.

This kind of literature is common in many religions. As far as I know, no serious scholar is

taking it as part of the Bible or as a historical source, although it may contains some points

originating in history (such as the name of Gondophares-Gudhaphar). The point is that it is a

genuine work of the fourth century and can be used as a source for ideas then current among

Christians in the West. It is thus among the earliest sources locating Thomas' mission and its end

in India. But as I said, nothing here points to South India, rather to the Indus country.

I do agree with Bal Prasad that there is no evidence of Thomas having travelled to India (only the

spurious tradition nevertheless much earlier than the Portuguese), but I wonder, whether he

6

visited Ethiopia and Arabia either. The earliest tradition seems to restrict his travels to Edessa

(now Urfa in southeastern Turkey, then a principality under Parthian suzerainty).

Stephens quotes a few "Greek" (mostly Latin) Christian sources on India. His second extract,

Jerome (in Latin) about Pantaenus and Bartholomew hails from the (Greek) Ecclesiastical

History of Eusebius (early 4th century). Many more passages can be found in the old collection

by W. R. Phillipps in Indian Antiquary 32, 1903, 1-15 and 145-160. It shows that it was common

belief in the West since the 4th century (but not earlier) that Thomas went to India (though not to

the South).

As to Mylapore, attempts to identify it with Calamina, the traditional place given as Thomas'

burial "in India", do not seem convincing. The first to mention Thomas' grave in Mylapore is

thus Marco Polo (3, 18 in Yule - Cordier) in the 13th century. John of Montecorvino visited a

church of Thomas on way to China in 1292, this probably was in the South. In 1345 John of

Marignolli, another Catholic envoy to China, also visited Mylapore. Thus the Mylapore tradition

was earlier than the Portuguese, although they certainly made much of it.

Michael Rabe asked about the stone cross found near Mylapore. See A. C. Burnell, Indian

Antiquary 3, 1874, 308-316. If anybody knows a more recent source, please inform.

I was afraid that somebody will take up the story of Jesus visiting India. There are two traditions,

both quite recent. One is propagated by the Ahmadiyyas, another by the Russian charlatan

Notovich about hundred years ago. I do not know the German book still defending it, but I think

Günter Grönbold, Jesus in Indien. Das Ende einer Legende (Munich 1985) has said everything

that is necessary.

There are at least 10 books and some 50-60 articles about Thomas traditions, but I think my

answer is long enough without listing them. I am not theologian and not much interested in

history of Christian missions, so I would like to drop the subject now.

Regards

Klaus Karttunen

Institute for Asian and African Studies

Box 59, 00014 Helsinki, Finland

tel. +358-9-191-22224, fax. +358-9-191-22094

The question of the St. Thomas origin of Indian Christianity – C.I. Issac

Posted on December 7, 2012 | Comments Off

“The Thomas origin of Christianity in the Dravidian South was the outcome of the missionary

schema against Hindu religion and culture.” – Prof. C.I. Issac

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Speech by Prof. C. I. Issac, Former Head of Department of History, Mahatma Gandhi

University, Kottayam, Kerala, on the occasion of the release of the bookBreaking India by Rajiv

Malhotra and Aravindan Neelakandan, in Chennai on 03 Feb 2011.

First of all I would like to congratulate Mr. Rajiv Malhotra and Mr. Aravindan Neelakandan for

their painstaking endeavour of the book “Breaking India”. Most of our intellectual community

conveniently bypasses the contemporary realities that are chasing the Hindu society in their

mother land.

The respected authors of “Breaking India” have shown enough courage to unwrap the vanity of

the pseudo-secularist and democrats of contemporary India. The book gives us a thumbnail

picture of how far the missionaries misused the word “dravida” and “arya” in order to balkanize

and Christianize India since the days of British Raj.

The fabrication of South Indian history is being carried out on an immense scale with the explicit

goal of constructing a Dravidian identity that is distinct from that of the rest of India. It is factual

that term dravida is derived from the Greek tongue. They used Dhamir and Dhamarike

respectively for Tamil and Tamizakaom. Similarly they introduced our arasi and inchi in the

West as rice and ginger.

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But Bishop Caldwell, with his missionary zeal, misused the Greek derivative of Tamil and

Tamizakaom and had given an anthropological representation. It was started in the 19th century

with specific designs.

Suniti Kumar Chatterji, (1890-1977), a renowned linguist, was of the opinion that: Friedrich

Max Muller, by the middle of 19th century, introduced Aryan-Dravidian dichotomy.

Subsequently Bishop Robert Caldwell (1814-1891) followed the same foot-steps and in 1856

published the book “A Comparative Grammar of The Dravidian or South Indian Family of

Languages”.

This book epitomized distinctive anthropological status to the South and pictured as

linguistically separate from the rest of India with an un-Indian culture. There is no definite

philological and linguistic basis for asserting unilaterally that the term Dravida. His work was

influenced with the defunct Aryan-Dravidian race theories proposed by Max Muller the German

linguist. Thereupon the term Dravida became the name of the family of a language.

During the early days of Common Era (CE) Greeks usedDhamir/Damarike for

Tamil/Tamizakaom. Ancient Sri Lankans used Dhamizha for Tamil. Sanskrit also

used Dramida/Dravida for Tamil long before the birth of Common Era. (Probably between 1500

to 1000 BCE).

Brahmins of India broadly divided themselves into two groups Pancha Gauda (Gaudam/Bengal,

Saraswatam, Kanyakubjam, Utkalam, Kashmeeram) & Pancha Dravida (Gurjara, Maharashtra,

9

Karnataka, Andhra, Dravida includes Kerala and Tamilnadu). Thus it has no anthropological

base.

(Suniti Kumar Chatterji, Dravidam, Annamalai Nagar, 1965, passim).

In the light of the said Aryan-Dravidian dichotomy it is better to make an enquiry into the

contemporary attempts to transform Tamil identity into the Dravidian Christianity. The

advocates of this venture are striving to baptize Saint Thiruvalluvar through re-writing history.

For instance Chennai Arch Bishop Arulappa once hired Ganesh Iyer alias Acharya Paul for re-

writing the history with the said end. Such vicious endeavours targets to transform even Saint

Thiruvalluvar, the pride of Mother India, as the disciple of Saint Thomas. (Anyhow their

rationality failed to depict Saint Thiruvalluvar as the disciple of Jesus).

They are reducing Saint Thiruvalluvar’s greatness by making him as the disciple of Thomas who

never visited India. Thomas’s mission to India is rejected even by Vatican also. Thus, I think, it

is genuine to peep into the futility of apostolic origin of the Indian Christianity.

First question to be discussed here is the question of the arrival of Saint Thomas and subsequent

conversion of Hindu aristocracy (particularly the Namboothiris/Brahmins) to Christianity.

Second one is the date of the question of the origin of Christianity in Kerala, the gateway of

Christianity to India.

Third is the European interest behind popularization of generating aristocratic (savarna) feeling

among the native Christians.

Before the arrival of Europeans in India, a nominal Christian presence was seen only in the

Travancore and Cochin regions of Kerala. According to Ward and Conner, even after two

centuries of the birth of Christianity, the number of Christians on the Malabar Coast shrank to

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eight families. (Ward and Conner, The Survey of Travancore and Cochin States, Trivandrum,

1863, p 146).

The antagonism that was generated amongst the Christians and Muslims due to the Crusades of

11th, 12th and 13th centuries prevented Christians from planting their roots in the Malabar

region where Muslims got roots quite earlier.

The Christian population altogether in Travancore and Cochin during the early decades of the

19th century CE was 35,000 with 55 churches. (Ward and Connor, The Survey of Travancore

and Cochin States,Trivandrum, 1863, pp 146 & 147).

C. M. Augur says that from the arrival of Portuguese till the early decades of the nineteenth

century here in Kerala there were only less than 300 Christian churches for of all the

denominations . (C. M. Augur, Church History of Travancore, Kottayam, 1902, pp 7, 8, 9).

G. T. Mackenzie observes, Christians prior to the arrival of Portuguese, did not form the part of

Travancore aristocracy. (G. T. Mackenzie, Christianity in Travancore, Govt. Press, Trivandrum,

1901, p 8).

Pope Nicolas IV sent John of Montecorvino, a missionary to convert India and China into

Christianity and thus he wrote to pope in 1306 that “There are very few Christians and Jews (in

India) and they are of little weight”. (See G. T. Mackenzie, Christianity in Travancore, Govt.

Press Trivandrum, 1901, p 8. & Cosmos Indicopleustus comments that Christians are not

masters but slaves. Quoted from N. K. Jose, Aadima Kerala Christavar, (Mal.) Vechoor-

Vaikom, 1972, p 127).

The center of the present savrna feeling of Syrian Christians of Kerala is the upshot of the

wealth, which they had acquired through enhanced spice trade of the European period and the

Portuguese pre-eminence in the Church. Above all the Christian Muslim antagonism of West

Asia was the real cause of the birth of Christianity of Kerala as seen today. To escape from the

Muslim persecution several Persian, Syrian, etc regions Christians secured refuge in India and

thus it resulted in the birth of Christianity here. It is evident from the above mentioned pre-

European period Christian Muslim settlement pattern of Kerala.

In 1816 C.E there were, in the Travancore State (now the part of Kerala), 19,524 temples and

301 churches for all denominations. But in 1891, that is after 76 years, the number of temples

had shrunk in to 9,364 and the number of churches had burgeoned to 1,116. (C. M.

Augur, Church History of Travancore, Kottayam, 1902, pp 7, 8, 9).

Under the recommendation of Diwan (Col. Munroe, a British subject) in 1812 Queen of

Travancore nationalized 378 wealthy temples. The villain Diwan tactically awarded a natural

death to the temple with insufficient resources. Considering the geographical area, the number of

the temples set ablaze or knocked down or tactically buried down in Travancore (a princely state

11

of modern Kerala) was proportionately much higher than that of temples demolished by the

Muslim rulers of Northern India or Mysore Sultans.

In the year 1952 CE, the native Catholic Church approached the Papacy in Rome for Pontifical

approval to celebrate 1900th year of proselytism of Thomas. The Papacy declined the request of

the Kerala Catholics on the ground that the claim has no historicity. Pope Benedict XVI had also

declined the Thomas’s arrival and mission in the peninsular India. Only after the Portuguese

Christianity in the South became a notable religious sect.

Terisapalli (St. Theresa Church) Copper Plate Grant (Terisapalli Cheppedu) executed in 849 CE

by Ayyan Atikal Tiruvatikal of Venaduduring the reign of Emperor Sthanu Ravi (844-855) is the

available oldest historical document linking to Christianity of Kerala. [That] the grant holders

were not native Christians is a notable fact.

Kottayam is the Rome of India. First church of Kottayam (Valiyapalli – Big Church) was built

by a Hindu raja (Thekkumkur dynasty) in 1550 CE for the Persian Christian

merchants (Knanaya Christians)who settled here. (A. Sreedharamenon, A Survey of Kerala

History, Kottayam, 1970, p 43).

The quality of missionaries to India until early British period was also remarkably very low.

Missionary urge for Christianization of India was fermented in England long before the 1813

Charter Act. In 1793 William Carey reached in Bengal, at Serampore, with missionary spirit

without proper permission from the Company. Originally he was a cobbler by profession and

turned out to be a Baptist missionary and became instrumental to the general missionary spirit

that prevailed over England during this period. (R. C. Majumdar & others, An Advanced History

of India, Madras, rpt. 1970, pp 810, 811).

It is the fact that several of the much applauded missionary families of the colonial period were

failed business men or opportunity seekers.

12

Christian population became decisive power only after the European intervention in the socio-

economic structure of Kerala. Robert De Nobili, an early 17th century Catholic Missionary of

India, who lived in the attire of a Hindu hermit and established a monastery in Madurai to

convert Brahmins. His attempt was to present Christianity in India as an aristocratic and Vedic

offshoot. Thus the Thomas origin of Christianity in the Dravidian South was the outcome of the

missionary schema against Hindu religion and culture.

The construction of Dravidian identity and induction of Saint Thomas myth is a calculated affair

by the European Church which is now facing the extinction syndrome. The fragility of Christian

base in the West is a well attested factor. In this changing scenario the Church cast its eyes in the

third millennium over a highly spiritualistic society, the Hindu, for its survival. To a certain

extent missionaries of the South succeeded to construct and politicize the Dravidian illusion. The

need of the hour is to prepare the society to counter all such disguised and overt anti-Hindu

accomplishments.

RELATED

How Christian missionaries invented "Dravidian Christianity" - Rajiv MalhotraIn "apostle"

1 - In memory of a slain saint – C.A. SimonIn "apostle"

About the St Thomas reference in Shashi Tharoor's book Pax Indica - Poulasta ChakraborthyIn

"history writing"

https://apostlethomasindia.wordpress.com/2012/12/07/the-question-of-the-st-thomas-origin-of-

indian-christianity-c-i-issac/

orthodox christian society

preserving the roots of christianity

13

1825AD - A SHORT VIEW OF THE HISTORY, AND PRESENT STATE, OF CHRISTIANITY IN

SOUTH INDIA.

from THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER AND THEOLOGICAL REVIEW, 1825

THERE are few who have not heard of the Syrian Christians in India. A strong sensation was

excited throughout christendom, when Dr Buchanan announced, that he had ' ascertained that

there are upwards of 200,000 Christians in the south of India, besides the Syrians, who speak

the Malabar language ; that theseChristians asserted, that they had existed a pure church of Christ

from the earliest ages; and that, in addition to other valuable manuscripts, he had obtained from

them a Syriac copy of the Scriptures, engrossed on strong vellum, of which the Bishop of the

Syrian church, in presenting it to him, said, 'we have kept it, as some think, for near 1000 years.'

'My own church,' said Buchanan to this Bishop, 'scarcely knows of the existence of the Syrian

church.'f That christianity had long existed in this part of India was, indeed, known; and that

there were many Christians of the Roman communion upon the Malabar coast. But few records

of them were possessed in Europe. No means had been employed to learn the early history of

christianity in this country ; and now, whatever authentic documents may have been possessed

on the subject, are lost. The SyrianChristians.

however, have their history; a few of the leading statements of which, uncorroborated as they

are, will not be uninteresting.

The Syrian Christians of South India say, that the Apostle Thomas arrived there, in the year of

our Lord 52 ; and that, after living and labouring 30 years on the Malabar coast, he went to

Mailapore, where he was murdered by a heathen priest. Many converts, it is stated, were made

by his ministry. But after the death of two priests, who immediately succeeded him in the charge

of the churches, which he had established, there were no priests for a long succession of years.

The services of baptism and of marriage, though continued, were performed by the elders of the

churches; and many, in consequence, relapsed into idolatry. In the year 345 a Bishop, with same

priests and others, came to them from Syria. The Rajah of Malabar took them under his

protection, granted to them important privileges, and issued a decree that no one should

persecute them.

After this, we are told, certain Nazarites came from Jerusalem, and intermarried with the

Christians in Mnlabar. They settled about the village of Cranganore, where the Apostle Thomas

14

was said to have landed, when he arrived in India. These Nazarites adopted the Indian institution

of caste, and divided into parties ; and these divisions, from the circumstance of their settlement,

one on the north, and the other on the south side of the village, are to this day called the north

party, and the south party.* That there is some truth in these statements, there can be no doubt.

But while it is very questionable, whether the ancient church in India was founded by the

Apostle Thomas, or by emigrants from Syria, it is hardly to be doubted, whether christianity was

planted there, as early as the 4th century of our era.

Dr Buchanan says, that, ' in the acts of the council of Nice, it is recorded, that Johannes, Bishop

of India, signed his n;itrie at that council, in A. D. 325 ;' and, that 'we have as good authority for

believing, that the Apostle Thomas tliec! in India, as that the Apostle Peter died at Rome.'f If,

however, Dr Buchanan had any better authority, than that of report on this subject, he would

probably have adduced it.

* An abstract of a Brief History of the Syrians nf Malabar, translated from the Malayalim, by

Mr Bailey, a Missionary in South India. Chh. Miss. Report, 1819, pp. 317, 318.

t Christian Renearches, pp. 165 and 167.

The next account, in which mention is made of the Christians in India, is given by a writer, who

flourished early in the 6th century. ' There is,' he says, ' in the island of Ceylon, towards interior

India, a church ofChristians, where are found a clergy, and a congregation of the faithful; but

whether it extends farther, I know not. Likewise in Male, as they call it,'—probably a contraction

of Malabar,—' where pepper grows. But in Calliana, there is a Bishop, who is usually ordained

in Persia,' &c. From this statement, it appears that theChristians in India had, early in the 6th

century, embraced the doctrines of Nestorius; for the archbishop of Persia was, at that time,

subject to the Patriarch of Seleusia, who was a Nestorian.*

In the year of our Lord 1500, intelligence was brought to Europe of the Christians in India, by

a Portuguese adventurer, who had stopped at the port of Cranganore. Two brothers, from

these Christians, embarked with him for Portugal; one of whom died there, and the other

proceeded to Rome, and from thence to Venice ; where, from his information, a Latin tract was

published, giving some account of the Christians in Malabar. In the same year, Don Vasco de

Gama, with a Portuguese fleet, arrived at Cochin. A deputation of theChristians of St Thomas,

was sent to the Admiral, requesting that his master, whom they understood to be a Christian

15

king, would take them under his protection, and defend them from the encroachments and

oppression of the native princes. The admiral dismissed them with favourable promises; but as

conquest was his object, nothing more appears to have been done for these Christians, after the

establishment of the Portuguese among them, during the forty following years, than the erection

of some commodious convents for the friars.

In 1545, the Bishop of Goa began the enterprise of bringing them to the faith of Rome.

Various expedients were adopted for this end during the succeeding fifty years. But all these

having proved ineffectual, the Syrian Bishop was seized, and sent to Portugal, in order to his

being conveyed to Rome; where, it was hoped, that he would be detained through the remainder

of his life. In Portugal, however, so successful was his dissimulation, that he obtained the entire

confidence of Donna Catarina, the Queen Regent; by whom he was sent back, with letters patent,

ordering that he should be restored to his diocese. His churches, during his absence, in despair of

seeing him again, had applied to the patriarch of Babylon, who sent a Bishop into India. These

two Bishops soon became rivals and enemies; and the churches, which had refused to submit to

the authority of Rome, were thus rent asunder by dissensions.* From that time, until within a lew

years, the fires of the Inquisition have burned at Goa j and the church of India has suffered all

that could be endured, from divisions among themselves, and from the persecutions of their

invaders.

* A Brief History of the Syrian Churchy in South India. Cbb. Miss. Soc. Report, 1817, p. 4»6.

In a synod, in which the archbishop Menezes presided, 150 of the Syrian clergy were

assembled ; and here it was decreed, that all the Syrian books on ecclesiastical subjects, which

could be found, should be burned ; that no pretended apostolical monuments might remain. Thus

were the churches on the Malabarcoast compelled to acknowledge the supremacy of Rome ;

except that they refused to pray in Latin, and insisted upon retaining their own language and

liturgy. And they have still priests of their own nation, and their liturgy in Syriac, printed at

Rome for their own use. They have, also, their superior governors sent to them from Europe, and

are in a singular state of schism. The Portuguese archbishop of Cranganore, a suffragan of Goa,

still claims them as his charge; while this right is denied by the ' propaganda society' at Rome,

who have constantly sent out Italian Vicars Apostolic; and now, latterly, an Irish Bishop has

been sent to rule over them. These unhappy churches, still sufficiently proud of their ancient

16

character to feel their present degradation, submit partly to one, and partly to the other, of these

opposite claimants.

But the churches in the interior proclaimed eternal war against the Inquisition. They hid their

books ; fled occasionally to the mountains; and sought the protection of the native princes, who

had formerly been proud of their alliance. To this happier division of this singular people, we

may look with great interest and hope, as to those whose recovery, and rise to their primitive

character, may bring with it the emancipation of the rest.f

* A Brief History of the Syrian Churches in Sooth India. Chh. Miss. Soc Report. 1817. p.

497—500.

t Buchanan's Christian Researches, pp. 148.150. Missionary Register, 1823f .pp. 397, 39R

In 1806, Dr Buchanan, having obtained every facility for his journey from the Rajah of

Travancore, penetrated to the hills at the bottom of the high Chants, which divide the Carnatic

from Malay-ala. There it was, he tells us, that he found 200,000 Christians, besides the Syrians,

who speak the Malabar language. The form of the oldest churches, he says, is not unlike that of

some of the old parish churches in England ; the style of building in both being of Saracenic

origin. They have sloping roofs, pointed arch windows, and buttresses supporting the walls. The

beams of the roof being exposed to view, are ornamented; and the ceiling of the choir and altar,

is circular and fretted. Most of the churches are built of a reddish stone, squared and polished at

the quarry ; and the wall of the largest edifices is six feet thick. The bells of the churches are cast

in the foundries of the country; and their sound among the hills, made me forget for a moment,

that I was in Hindostan, and reminded me of another country.

The sight of the women here, says Dr Buchanan, assured me that I was once more

among Christians; for all women of this country, who are not Christians, are accounted by the

men an inferior race, and are confined to the house for life. In every countenance now before me,

I thought that I could discover the intelligence of christianity. But, at the same time, I perceived

all around symptoms of poverty and of political depression. In the churches, and in the people,

there was an air of fallen greatness. I said to a senior priest, 'you appear to me like a people who

have known better days.' ' It is even so,' said he, ' we are in a degenerate state, compared with

that of our forefathers.' He ascribed their present decay to two causes. 'About 300 years ago,' he

17

said, 'an enemy came from the west, bearing the name of Christ, but armed with the inquisition;

and compelled us to seek the protection of the native princes ; and the native princes have kept us

in a state of depression ever since. They, indeed, recognise one ancient personal privilege, for we

rank in general, next to the Nairs, the nobility of the country. But they have encroached by

degrees upon our property, until we have been reduced to the humble state in which you find us.

The glory of our church has passed away; but we hope that your nation will revive it.'

Now it was that, for the first time, these priests saw a printed copy of the Syriac New Testament;

and as it passed from hand to hand, each read it fluently. But the Syriac is now among them

alone the language of the learned, and of the church. The Scriptures are expounded in the

Malayalim, or Malabar language.

Their copies of the Scriptures were few in number, and that number was diminishing instead of

increasing. According to the popular belief, the Syriac version of the Scriptures was carried to

India, before the year of our Lord 325 ; and some of their present copies are certainly of an

ancient date.* The Abbe Dubois says, (Letters, p. 22,) that ' all the science of their clergy

consists in being able to read, or rather to spell, their sacred language, in order to be qualified to

perform their religious ceremonies.' But Mr Hough, chaplain to the East India Company, on the

Madras establishment, visited them in 1820, and heard them express their gratitude for the Syriac

Testaments, which the Bible Society, at the solicitation of Dr Buchanan, had sent to them. This

Testament, says Mr Hough, was used by the priest, whom I heard officiating at the Syrian altar;

and as his eye passed over the Syriac page, he rendered it into Malayalim with such facility, that

I thought the book before him was written in that tongue, until I was informed to the contrary.

Mr Hough admits, that there is much superstition in their religious services; and was pained to

witness so close a resemblance in them, to the ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church. But

the Syrian metropolitan informed him, that they had no canon, which prohibited the translating

of the whole of their liturgy into the vernacular tongue, for the use of the church; except, indeed,

a few prayers, which are addressed to the Virgin Mary.f

It seems, indeed, that the number of these Syrian Christians is hardly to be determined. The

Abbe Dubois, I think, supposes them to be 70 or 80,000; of whom two thirds are Catholics, and

one third Nestorians. Mr Hough says that, at the lime Ke was with them, the number who were

not Catholics, was stated to be 53,000; but that they have since been reckoned at 13,000 families;

18

which, allowing live to a family, will raise them to 65,000.f That they were once, however, in a

far better condition than they now are, and far more nu

merous, there can be no doubt. La Croze informs us that, in his time, the diocese of the Syrian

bishop contained more than one thousand five hundred churches, and as many towns and

villages.*

Lieut. Col. Munro, finding within the sphere of his influence such an interesting race of people

as the Syrian Chrisdans,—a people, he tells us, remarkable for mildness and simplicity of

character, honesty and industry,—like a judicious and a christian statesman, saw the policy,

acknowledged the duty, and valued the privilege, of endeavouring to ameliorate their condition.

He therefore applied for missionaries to the Madras corresponding committee of the Church

Missionary Society. Three missionaries were accordingly sent, in 1810, 1S17, and 1818. In 1820,

Mr Hough found one of these missionaries, Mr Bailey, engaged in translating the New

Testament into Malayalim. Mr Fenn, the second missionary, had the charge of the college at

Cotym, in Travancore. The third, Mr Baker, superintended the parochial school department. The

last account states the number of their schools at 87, containing 921 scholars; and in the last

report of the college, it is said, there were then 50 students,—the whole studying English and

Syriac; and some, Latin, Hebrew, and Sanscrit. Her highness, the Rannee of Travancore, has

appointed a considerable number of the Syrians to public offices ; and has lately presented the

sum of 20,000 rupees to the college of Cotym. A printing press is also established there, and the

Syrian bishop favours all the plans of the missionaries for reform. Nothing, indeed, is done

without his approbation.f There is, therefore, much to be reasonably hoped for, from these wise

measures in regard to this interesting people. They are few, among the many millions of

Hindostan. But they stand a glorious monument of the early triumphs of our religion ; and great

may yet be their influence, in extending a spirit of reform throughout India.

A traveller, who visited the ancient Syrian churches, in the neighbourhood of Travancore, in

1822, informs us that, in Carangalancherry, the largest of all the Syrian towns, and in its vicinity,

there are about 10,000; and that they are divided into four churches. He asked the Metropolitan,

what he thought of the new printed Syriac Testament, and was told by

" Hough's Reply to the Abbe Dulioi". p. 221. t Ib.pp.226. 243.

19

him, that he had not discovered the slightest error in it.*—The following, says this traveller, are

the four principal improvements, which have been effected in these churches, with general

approbation; or, at least, without any dislike having been manifested. 1st, The marriage of the

clergy. 2d, The removal of all images from the churches. 3d, The reading of a portion of the

Scriptures in Malayalim, every Sunday, in the churches. 4th. The opening of schools attached to

most of the churches. And these have been effected in the short space of four years, since Mr

Bailey, the first missionary settled among them.f

But along the whole of the Malabar coast, from Cape Comorin to Calicut, there exists another

class ofChristians, totally distinct both from the Syrian Christians, and from the catholics of

whom we have spoken, who still retain their Syriac liturgy. These are too frequently, and very

improperly, confounded with the Syrians. They are all persons of the fishermen's caste; (which,

further north, is pagan;) and they live in great ignorance, repeating the Latin ritual; and are

subject to the Portuguese Bishop of Cochin.

Far beyond the regions which contain these, from Mangalore, northward to the Goa country,

lie the most numerous remains of the converts made by Francis Xavier, and other Portuguese

missionaries of the 16th century. Their character is generally respectable, as compared with that

of their heathen and Mahomedan neighbours. But in the paganism of their rites, they greatly

exceed the Romanists of the western world ; and they even retain among them the distinction of

caste. Their pastors, who are all of the half Portuguese, half Indian race, sent to them from Goa,

are little disposed, or qualified, to improve ; and appear to hold the people in the utmost

contempt.

The city of Goa presents, at this time, a very remarkable spectacle. Its splendid cathedral,

churches, convents, &c. now stand insulated, as it were, in the country; no remnant existing of

that populous city, with which they were once surrounded. The inquisition, too well known for

its atrocities, is now mouldering to ruins ; and it is said, that all the European Portuguese, who

refuse to take the oaths to the new government, which is a government of half castes, will be

banished from the country. In this number, the archbishop primate is included.*

* Diary of a Tour through Southern India, Egypt and Palestine, in the years 1821 and 1822, by

a Field Officer of Cavalry. London, 1823. pp.11) —113.

20

t Ib. pp. 97—101.

If we turn from the Malabar to the Coromandel coast, on the east side of South India, we

behold another extensive tract of country, which is said also to be inhabited by Christians. Of all

the missions of the 17th century, no one has been more applauded, than that of Madura ; and no

one is said to have produced more abundant, and permanent fruit. Nobili, who was considered by

the Jesuits as the chief Apostle of the Indians, after Francis Xavier, took incredible pains to

acquire a knowledge of the religion, customs, and language, of Madura. Knowing, on the one

hand, that the Indians beheld with an eye of prejudice and aversion all the Europeans, and on the

other, that they had held in the highest veneration the order of the Brahmans, as descended from

the gods; and that, impatient of other rulers, they paid an implicit and unlimited obedience to

them alone ; he assumed the appearance and the tide of a Brahman, that had come from a far

country. By these means, and by imitating the austere and painful practices of the Indian

penitents, he at length persuaded the credulous people that he was, in reality, of that order. To

silence his opposers, and particularly those who treated him as-an impostor, he produced an old

and worn parchment, in which he had forged, in ancient Indian characters, a document, shewing

that the Brahmans of Rome were of much older date, than those of India; and that the Jesuits of

Rome descended, in a direct line, from the god Brahma. Father Jonvenci, a learned Jesuit, tells

us, in the history of his order, that when the authenticity of this parchment was called in question

by some Indian unbelievers, Robert de Nobili declared upon oath before the assembly of the

Brahmans of Madura, that he really and truly derived his origin from the god Brahma; and this

pious fraud is not only acknowledged but applauded. By this stratagem, he gained over twelve

eminent Brahmans to his cause; whose example and influence brought a prodigious number of

people, to hear the instructions, and to receive the doctrines, of this famous ecclesiastic. So

triumphant, indeed, was his cause, that we are told, each of his coadjutors baptized at least a

thousand every year.f

* Mill's Account of the Syrian Churches. Miss. Reg. 1823, pp. 398,399. t Moshcim's Eccles.

Hist. v. 5. pp. 10—13.

But not only do the Jesuits in South India, announce themselves as Brahmans, and not only do

they adopt the dress of the Hindoo teachers and penitents ; not only do they imitate the Indian

21

ablutions, and apply to their foreheads the paste of sandal wood, as it is used by the Brahmans;

and all this in direct disregard of the reproofs they have received from the Holy See ; they not

only call the crucifix, or image, which they wear suspended from their necks, their Swanny, the

name which the heathens there give to their amulets and idols; but they drag the image of the

Virgin Mary round the church, in a vehicle resembling Juggernaut's car, ns the Hindoos do their

idols, around their temples. I once asked a priest, on the Coromandel coast, says Sir Hough, by

what scriptural authority he performed this ceremony. He replied, there is no authority for it in

Scripture ; but, if you come among dogs, you must do as dogs do. 1 have never heard, adds Mr

Hough, of a translation of the Scriptures by the Jesuits; nor have I seen a New Testament in the

possession of one of their catechists ; unless it were one, which he had privately received from

some protestant missionary, and which he kept carefully concealed from the priests. In the

Tinnevelly district, where there are 30,000 members of that communion, they have only one

school, containing 40 scholars.*

Henry Martyn, in a sermon preached for the purpose of exciting to the formation of a Bible

Society in Calcutta, stated that 900,000 Christians in India were in want of the Bible. A meeting,

therefore, took place on the 21st of February, 1811, when the Calcutta Auxiliary Bible Society

was formed ; and in the second resolution, adopted on that occasion, it is said,' the object of this

society shall be, to supply the demands of the nativeChristians in India, computed to be near a

million, including those in the island oj Ceylon.' Those of Ceylon, however, were computed at

between 3 and 400,000; of whom, 250,000 were stated to be protestants.f

Now we suppose that, including those between Cape Comorin and Calicut, on the west, and

those of Madura on the east, with those in Ceylon, there may, indeed, be near a million of natives

in India, who are calledChristians. It appears, also, from the statements of the Abbe Dubois,* that

there are in India between 6 and 700,000 nominal Christians, exclusive of what he calls the

Nestorian congregations in Travancore, and the Armenians of Madras, who are without the

Scriptures, and without any competent religious instruction. But, while we would not withhold

the name of Christians, from the Roman Catholics, either of Europe, or of America, it seems to

us to be a very great abuse of language, to apply this name to the Catholics of South India; and a

great mistake, to represent the number to be so great of those, who are in want of the Bible. The

truth is, that a very large part of these Christians do not want the Bible, more than it is wanted by

22

their heathen neighbours ; nor are they better prepared to profit by the possession of it. By the

Abbe Dubois' own shewing, far the greatest part of these nominal Christians have little better

claim to the christian name, than they would have, if they had never heard of the author of our

faith. We speak freely on this subject, because the cause of missions, not only in India, but in

almost every section of the heathen world, has suffered greatly from unqualified assertions in

regard, to them, that are not to be sustained; and from exagerated statements, the tendency of

which is, to counteract the very purposes of piety and of benevolence, which they were intended

to advance. Still it is not to be doubted, whether the number is very great of native christians, in

South India, to whom the gift of a Bible would be the best of all charities, that could be extended

to them ; and, thanks be to God, much has been done, and is now doing, to extend to them the

precious records of the word of life. Their number, and their character, we leave to be inferred by

the reader ; and will detain him only, to ask his attention, for a few moments, to the Christians in

the district of Tanjore.

" Hough's Reply, pp. 62, 63. 82. 98. 105,106.

t Lushington's History of the Religious and Benevolent Institutions in Calcutta, pp. 5 and 10.

In November, 1705, Bartholomew Ziegenbalg, and Henry Plutcho, embarked at Copenhagen ;

and in July, 1700, arrived at Tranquebar, the principal town belonging to the Danes, in that

quarter of the world. These two young men had been educated for the ministry, at the university

in Halle, in Upper Saxony. They entered upon their labours with the zeal and devotedness of

Apostles; and as soon as they had obtained a competent knowledge of the prevailing languages

of the district,—Tamulian, and a barbarous kind of Portuguese,—

they instituted schools ; and toiled with indefatigable diligence, in the translation of the

Scriptures. Plulcho opened a Portuguese and a Danish school; but the number of pupils increased

so rapidly, that it was found necessary to establish two separate schools for these languages, and

to employ a European teacher in each of them. Ziegenbalg opened a Tamulian school; but it

likewise became necessary to divide it into two, one for boys, and' the other for girls. The latter

were placed under the inspection of a widow, who, besides the principles of religion, taught them

to read, write, spin, knit, and other useful domestic employments j and every evening, all the

children repeated, in the presence of their teacher, whatever they had learned in the course of the

23

day. The society for promoting christian knowledge, which was established a few years before in

London, furnished, these missionaries with elementary books, a press, and types in the Italic and

Tamulian character; and from this time, very great numbers of books were published by them,

and circulated among the natives, who received them with avidity, and among whom they acted

with great power. Other missionaries followed, who were worthy successors of these good men;

and in 1747, it is said, 'the whole number of converts, since the commencement of the mission

atTranquebar, including children who were baptized in th.:ir infancy, amounted to 8056; of

whom, 5235 were still alive.' The pupils of the mission had amounted to 1828, of whom,, 1114

had been clothed and supported by the missionaries.

The name of Zeigenbalg, and of other missionaries, who cooperated with him at this station, until

this time, will live in the grateful remrmbranre of millions, when the names of cotemporary

conquerors and heroes will be forgotten.* But in 1750, a missionary arrived at Tranquebar, than

whom, our religion never had a worthier representative among men. Christian Frederick Swartz,

while a student in the university at Halle, devoted a year and a half to the study of the Tanml

language, under the instruction of a missionary, who was there to correct the press for the

publication of the Tamul Bible. During the early years of his mission, he presided over the

establishment at Trichinapoly. But the populous city of Tanjore was the sphere, to which his

heart was most powerfully drawn. He therefore removed there, with three of his catechists ; and,

having obtained the favourable regard of the Rajah, he had several conversations with him ; and,

at his request, preached before him. There was in this man, at once, that happy mixture of

courage, of humility and benevolence, of zeal and good sense, that his control of the minds of

those about him was almost miraculous. He conversed in the freest and most aftionate manner;

and multitudes followed to hear him preach. He was as earnest, and faithful too, for the salvation

of the Europeans, both civil and military, who resided within the reach of his christian efforts, as

for that of the heathen. He expended his income in the erection of comfortable habitations for

poor widows, until his funds were exhausted ; and then applied to the young Rajah for assistance,

by which he was enabled to complete a row of small houses, for the reception of these destitute

women.

* I cannot deny myself the pleasure of appending here a short extract from Dr Burhnnan.

24

' There is another custom among them,'—the Christians of Tanjore,— ' which pleased ran

much. I,> the midst of the discourse, the preacher put* a question to the congregat,on, who

answer it, without hesitation, in one voice. The object is to keep attention awake, and the

minister generally prompts the answer himself. Tims, pappose thit be is saying, " my brethren, it

is true that your profession of the faith of Chrut is attended with some reproach, and that you

have lost your caste with the Brahmans. But your case is not peculiar. It has been thus from the

beginning. Every faithful Christian must be willing to lose caste, if he be called to it, for the

Gospel; even as Christ himself, the forerunner, made himself of no reputation, and was despised,

and rejected of men. In like manner, if you are despised, be of good cheer, and

.

*

At one time, he performed an embassy for the East India Company at Madras, to Hyder Ally,

in which no other person dared to engage. But this great and good man could perform it without

danger; for this Hindoo Prince, in the midst of a bloody and vindictive war sent orders to his

officers, that they should suffer the venerable Swartz to pass unmolested; and not only so, but

that they should show him respect and kindness. He passed three months on this occasion, in

Hyder Ally's country ; executed his commission to the satisfaction of the East India Company;

and had a tent pitched on the glacis of the fort, in which divine service was performed without

the

•ay, though we have lost our caste and inheritance among men, we shall re. ceirc in heaven a new

name, anoVn better inheritance, through Jesus Christ our Lord." He then adds, " what, my

beloved brethren, will you obtain in heaven ?" They answer," a new name, and a better

inheritance, through Jesus Christ our Lord."—It is impossible for a stranger not to be affected

with this scene This custom was introduced by Ziegenbalg, who proved its use by long

experience."

least impediment. Hyder Ally presented to him a bag of rupees, for the expense of his journey.

But he refused to receive it,—his expenses having been provided for by the East India

Company,—except upon the condition, that he might appropriate it to the erection of an English

charity school at Tanjore. When war and famine raged in the peninsula, in the years 1781, 2 and

25

3, Mr Swartz, by procuring rice, while it was cheap, and afterwards distributing it to the

famishing inhabitants, who were lying about the roads, saved great numbers from dying by

starvation.

The city of Tanjore was besieged, and the garrison was dying with hunger. The streets were

every morning lined with the corpses of those who had died in the night. The country people,

who, at this time, had provisions enough, refused to bring them into the fort, because their pay

had formerly been refused to them. At last, said the Rajah to one of the principal gentlemen who

were with him,' we all, you and I, have lost our credit. Let us try whether the inhabitants will

trust Mr Swartz.' Accordingly, the Rajah sent a blank paper to the missionary, empowering him

to make a proper agreement with the people. In a short time he obtained a thousand bullocks; and

with the assistance of his catechists, and other christians, he brought 80,000 kalams of grain into

the fort. The personal promise of Swartz, that all who carried grain to the fort should be paid,

obtained perfect confidence; and thus this important fortress was saved.

Agreeably to the promise of a late Rajah to Mr Swartz, his brother, Amu Sing, delivered to him a

written document, sealed by himself and his chief ministers, in which he made an appropriation,

forever, of a village of about the yearly income of five hundred pagodas, for the school, and

more especially for the orphans.

His influence with the natives was astonishing. A thieving tribe of Collaries, who were in the

practice of making nightly excursions for robbery, were induced by him to relinquish these

practices, and to return to the cultivation of their land ; so that the part of the country which they

inhabited, soon became safe to the traveller. f

The people, at a certain time, had forsaken their lands, on account of the oppressions under

which they suffered. They refused to labour, because their produce, as soon as it was obtained,

was wrested from them by violence. It seemed that famine must be the inevitable consequence.

The Rajah used his influence to induce them to return, promising to them justice. But they would

not trust him. Mr Swartz went to them, and made the same promise. All immediately came back;

and, among the first, were the Collaries just mentioned. Seven thousand men returned to their

land in one day.

26

The district towards the west of Tanjore had been much neglected, so that the water courses had

not been cleansed for the last fifteen years. Swartz proposed, that the collector should advance

500 pagodas to cleanse them. The gentlemen consented, if he would inspect the business. The

work was finished ; and all that part of the country rejoiced in reaping four times more grain than

they had reaped before.

The confidence of the heathen princes in Mr Swartz, was not less, than that of their subjects. The

Rajah of Tanjore frequently consulted him upon affairs of the greatest moment; and, on his death

bed, desired him to take charge of his son, who was to succeed him. This honour Mr Swartz

dedined. To this son, however, he was a faithful counsellor; and from him received many tokens

of favour. At the death of Mr Swartz, the Rajah mourned, as for a father; and w^s greatly

affected by his dying charge. He was present at the funeral, and wept over the corpse, which he

covered with a gold cloth. He erected also a monument to his memory. A portrait of Mr Swartz,

in 1306, was seen by Dr Buchanan, hanging in the grand saloon of the Rajah, among the portraits

of his ancestors. From regard to the memory of Mr Swartz, this prince established a charitable

institution, for the maintenance and education of fifty poor christian children. Thirty

indigent Christians are likewise fed and clothed there. At another place, fifty poor, lame, blind,

and other objects of charity, belonging to the mission, are entirely supported by him ; besides

numerous other poor of all religions.

Swartz died at the age of 72, on the 13th of February, 1798, having spent 48 years as a

missionary in India. He believed, it is said, even some time before his death, that he had been

instrumental in the conversion of about 2'100 to the faith of the Gospel, and to a christian

character; of whom 500 were Mahomedans, and 1500 Hindoos.*

" The facts concerning the Tranquebar, or Tanjore Mission are taken, principally, from

Brown's History of the Propagation of Christianity among the Heathen, v. 1. pp. 166—226.

In the church of Tanjore, we are told by a late traveller, is a grave stone, inscribed to his

memory. Some lines of bad poetry are engraved on it; which, however, obtain some interest from

the circumstance, that they are said to have come from the pen of the present Rajah. There is also

another monument to his memory in the Lutheran church, within the fort, excuted by Flaxtnan, in

Basso Relievo; representing the Rajah's visit to him on his death bed. Col. Blackburn, says this

traveller, related to me an anecdote of Swartz, which I do not remember to have heard before.

27

About ten minutes before his death he closed his eyes; and his friend Jcenicke, who was

watching by his bed side, supposing that he had expired, began to siug his favourite hymn, and

had gone through the first verse. On commencing the second, to his utter astonishment, the good

old missionary having revived a little, accompanied him with an audible voice; and actually

finished the hymn before he breathed his last.*

With regard to the number of Christians in the Tanjore district, the fruits of the labours of the

Danish missionaries, in conjunction with those from Germany, sent by the Christian Knowledge

Society, Mr Hough says, that ' they occupy eight frirtcipal stations; and M. Dubois will perhaps

know, that when state them at 20,000, I estimate them far below their actual number. I can speak,

says Mr Hough, of a considerable number of these native Christians, having lived among them

for sometime. Some of their congregations are indeed small; but there are several amounting to

near, and upwards of 100. There is one of 300, another of 400 souls. The two last, form two

distinct villages, in each of which, there is a church, a boy's and a girl's school, a native priest

and cateckist, and two school masters. And there is neither an idolater, nor a papist among them

; nor is there a popish image, a heathen idol, or altar, to be seen in any corner of their streets. I

admit, he adds, that the Tinnevelly Christians of this mission will disappoint the man, who

expects to find them an intelligent, and a very spiritually minded people. But when their situation

is known, such expectations would be most unreasonable. When 1 first arrived among them in

1816, they had been ten years without a missionary ; nearly that time with only one country

priest; their schools had gone to decay, and they were almost totally destitute of the Scriptures,

and of elementary books. Yet I will affirm, that they were equal to what any town or village in

Christendom would be, if left for the sameJength of time under similar circumstances.

Persecuted as they were, by their heathen neighbours, not one, as far as I could learn, had

apostatized, to avoid personal suffering. Let this be contrasted with the apostacy of 60,000

Roman Catholics, upon the command of Tippoo Sultan, to have them made converts to

Mahomedanism.*

Iii this short survey of the state of Christianity in South India, we hare said but little of

the recent exertions, which have been made, and which are making there, for the advancement of

knowledge, religion and happiness. But in the view alone which we have taken, is there not

much to excite missionary zeal, and much to reward missionary expenditure ? There are there, at

28

the smallest computation, many thousands, who profess to believe the religion of the Bible ; and

who, in truth, leant the Bible. There are Christians, who, for many centuries, have possessed

manuscript copies of the Scriptures; but who have never, until very lately, seen a printed copy of

the Scriptures. And there are many christian societies, who are without teachers and without

books. But a day, bright in promise, is opening upon them. May God give to them missionaries,

like Zicgenbalg, and Svvartz! The field is ripe for the reaper. Who will not pray to the Lord of

the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his vineyard ?

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perfect enumeration, represents to a large extent a real growth.

The origin of Christianity in India is obscure. Early Origin tradition, accepted popularly by

Catholics, and more doubtfully "/J^ by Protestants, connects it with St. Thomas the

Apostle, India, who is said to have preached in Southern India, on the Malabar and Coromandel

coasts; to have founded several The churches; and finally, to have been martyred at the Little

Mount, near Madras, in 68 A.D. The Catholic tradition narrates further, that a persecution arose

not long after, in which all the priests perished ; that many years later, the Patriarch of Babylon,

while still in communion with Rome, heard of the desolate state of the Indian Church,and sent

29

forth bishops who revived its faith ; that about 486 A.D., Nestorianism spread from Babylon into

Malabar.

To orthodoxy this tradition has a twofold value. It assigns Value an apostolic origin to the

Christianity ofIndia; and it explains °f '^. away the fact that Indian Christianity, when it emerges

into history, formed a branch of the unorthodox Nestorian Church. Modern criticism has

questioned the evidence for the evangelistic labours of the Doubting Apostle in Southern India. It

Syrian Christians • if India.

Their

numbers

and

antiquity.

has brought to light the careers of two later missionaries, both bearing the name of Thomas, to

whom, at widely separated dates, the honour of converting Southern India is assigned. Gibbon

dismisses the question of their respective claims in a convenient triplet:—' The Indian missionary

St. Thomas, an Apostle, a Manichaean, or an Armenian merchant.'1

This method of treatment scarcely satisfies the present century; and the Statistical Survey

of India has thrown fresh light on the Syrian Christians of the Southern Peninsula. At this day

they number 304,4io,2 or more than double the number of Native Protestants in India in 1861.

Indeed, until within the past ten years, the remnants of the ancient Syrian Church had still a

larger native following in India than all the Protestant sects put together.3 It would be unsuitable

to dismiss so ancient and so numerous a body without some attempt to trace their history. That

history forms the longest continuous narrative of any religious sect in India except the Jains.

The Syrian Church of Malabar had its origin in the period when Buddhism was still triumphant;

it witnessed the birth of the Hinduism which superseded the doctrine and national polity of

Buddha; it saw the arrival of the Muhammadans who ousted the Hindu dynasties ; it suffered

cruelly from the Roman inquisitors of the Portuguese; but it has survived its persecutors, and has

formed a subject of interest to Anglican inquirers during the past eighty years.4

30

The three legends of St. Thomas, the missionary of Southern India, may be summarized as

follows. According to the Chaldaean Breviary and certain Fathers of the Catholic Church,

The three

Legends

<>f St.

Thomas.

1 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (quarto edition, 1788), vol. iv. p. 599, footnote 122.

* Census of India, 1881, vol. ii. pp. 20, 21. The Census officers return the whole as ' Syrians,'

without discriminating between Jacobites and Syrian Catholics. A statement kindly supplied to

the author by the VicarApostolic of Verapoli returns the Syrian Catholics within his jurisdiction

at over 200,000, and the Jacobites at about 100,000. The latter are chiefly under the jurisdiction

of the Roman vicars-anostolic of Verapoli and Quilon, but are still distinguished as ' Catholics of

the Syrian rite.'

3 See Protestant Missions in India, Burma, and Ceylon, Statistical Tables, 1881, drawn up

under the authority of the Calcutta Missionary Conference. This valuable compilation returns

138,731 Native Protestant Christians in 1861, and 224,258 in 1871, in India, exclusive of Burma.

4 From the time of Claudius Buchanan and Bishop Heber downwards. See Asiatic

Researches, vol. vii., 'Account of St. Thome Christians on the coast of Malabar,' by Mr. Wrede;

Buchanan's Christian Researches in Asia, 4th ed. (1811), pp. 106, 145; Heber's Journal, vol. ii.j

Bishop Middleton's Life of Le Bos, chapters ix.-xii. (1831); Hough's Hist, of Christianity

in India, 5 vols. (1839-60).

THREE LEGENDS OF ST. THOMAS.

St. Thomas the Apostle converted many countries of Asia, and 52 i° 68 found a martyr's death

in India, The meagre tradition of the A'D' '' early Church was expanded by the Catholic writers

of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The abstract by Vincenzo Maria makes the Apostle

commence his work in Mesopotamia, First and includes Bactria, Central Asia, China, ' the States

of the cf Great Mogul,' Si,mi, Germany, Brazil, and Ethiopia, in the the circle of his missionary

labours. The apostolic traveller then sailed east again to India, converting the island of Socotra

on the way, and after preaching in Malabar, ended his labours on the Coromandel coast.1 The

final development of the tradition fills in the details of his death. It would appear that on the aist

31

December 68 A.D., at Mailapur, a suburb of Madras, the Brahmans stirred up a tumult against the

Apostle, who, after being stoned by the crowd, was finally thrust through with a spear upon the

spot now known as St. Thomas' Mount.

The second legend assigns the conversion of India to Second Thomas the Manichaean, or

disciple of Manes, towards the end of the third century. Another legend ascribes the honour the

Manito an Armenian merchant, Thomas Cana, in the eighth century, chican^yy The story relates

that Mar Thomas, the Armenian, settled in A-D''' Malabar for purposes of trade, married two

Indian ladies, and Third grew into power with the native princes. He found that such j^eencl •'

Christians as existed before his time had been driven by tneArpersecution from the coast into the

hill-country. Mar Thomas menian secured for them the privilege of worshipping according to

" A'K ' their faith, led them back to the fertile coast of Malabar, and became their archbishop. On

his death, his memory received the gradual and spontaneous honours of canonization by the

Christian communities for whom he had laboured, and his name became identified with that of

the Apostle.

Whatever may be the claims of the Armenian Thomas as the The three re-builder of

the Church in SouthernIndia, he was certainly not its founder. Apart from the evidence of

Patristic literature, there is abundant local proof that Christianity flourished in

Southern India long before the eighth century. In the sixth the third; century, while Buddhism

was still at the height of its power, Kalyin, on the Bombay coast, was the seat of a Christian

bishop from Persia.2

1 The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian. Colonel Yule's second edition, vol. ii. p. 343,

nole 4 (1875).

* Gasettcer of the Bombay Presidency, vol. xiii. part i., Thana District, pp. 66, 200, etc. It is

not necessary to dispute whether the seat of this bishopric was the modern Kalyan or Quilon

(Coilam), as the coast from Bombay southwards to Quilon bore indefinitely the name of Caliana.

the second The claims of Thomas the Manichsean have the European legend; SUppOrt of

the Churchhistorians, La Croze,1 Tillemont, and others. The local testimony of a cross dug up

near Madras in 1547, bearing an inscription in the Pehlvi tongue, has also been urged in his

favour. The inscription is probably of the seventh or eighth century A.D., and, although

somewhat variously deciphered, bears witness to the sufferings of Christ.2

32

and the For the claims of St. Thomas the Apostle, a longer and more lirst" ancient series of

authorities are cited. The apocryphal history

of St. Thomas, by Abdias, dating perhaps from the end of the first century, narrates that a certain

Indian king, Gondaphorus, sent a merchant called Abban to Jesus, to seek a skilful architect to

build him a palace. The story continues that the Lord sold Thomas to him as a slave expert in that

art3 The Apostle converted King Gondaphorus, and then journeyed on to another country

of India, under King Meodeus, where he THE 'INDIA' OF THE FATHERS. 233

1 Hisloirc iiu Christiatiismt dcs fuJes, 2 vols. 121110 (The Hague, 1758). 1 Professor Haug

reads it thus : ' Whoever believes in the Messiah, and in God above, and also in the Holy Ghost,

is in the grace of Him who bore the pain of the cross.' Dr. Burnell deciphers it more

diffidently:— ' In punishment [?] by the cross [was] the suffering of this [one] : [He] who is the

true Christ and God above, and Guide for ever pure.' Yule's Marco Polo, 2nd ed., p. 345, vol. ii.;

also p. 339, where the cross is figured.

8 This legend forms the theme of the IJynimts in Festo Sancti Thomac Aposloli, ad

Vcsperum, in the Mozarabic Breviary, edited by Cardinal Lorenzana in 1775. Its twenty-one

verses are given as an appendix in Dr. Kennel's Madras monograph. Three stanzas will here

suffice :— 1 Nuncius venit de Indis Quaerere artificem: Architectum construere

Regium palatium :

In foro deambulabat

Cunctorum venalium.

Habeo servum fidelem,

Locutus est Dominus,

Ut exquiris talem, aptum

Esse hunc artificem:

Abbanes videns, et gaudens,

Suscepit Apostolum,"

The hymn assigns the death of the Apostle to the priest of a sun temple which had been

overthrown by St. Thomas :—

' Tune sacerdos idolorum

33

Furibundus astitit,

Gladio transverberavit

Sanctum Christ! martyrem.

Glorioso passionis

Laureatttm sanguine.'

was slain by lances.1 The existence of a King Gondaphorus has been established by coins, which

would place him in the last century B.C., or within the first half of the first century of our

era.2 But, apart from difficulties of chronology, it is clear that the Gondaphorus of the coins was

an Indo-Scythic monarch, reigning in regions which had no connection with Malabar. His coins

are still found in numbers in Afghdnistdn and the Punjab, especially from Peshdwar to Ludhiana.

He was essentially a Punjab potentate.

The mention of St. Thomas the Apostle in connection with

India by the Fathers, and in the Offices of the Church, does 1()f

not bring him nearer to Malabar, or to the supposed site of his

martyrdom at Madras. For the term 'India,' at the period

to which these authorities belong, referred to the countries

beyond Persia, including Afghanistan and the basins of the

Upper Oxus, Indus, and Ganges, rather than to the southern

half of the peninsula. In the early accounts of the labours of in the

St. Thomas, the vague term India is almost always associated

with Persia, Media, or Bactria.3 Nor does the appellation of

St. Thomas as the Apostle of India in the Commemorations

of the Church, help to identify him with the St. Thomas who

preached on the Malabar and Coromandel coasts. For not

only does the indeterminate character of the word still adhere

to their use of ' India,' but the area assigned to the Apostle's

labours is so wide as to deprive them of value for the purpose

of local identification. Thus, the Chaldaean Breviary of the

Malabar Church itself states that ' by St. Thomas were the

34

1 Colonel Yule's Marco Polo, second edition, vol. ii. p. 243. Dr. Kennet, in an interesting

monograph entitled St. 7/iomas, the Apostle of India, p. 19 (Madras, 1^82), says :—' The history

of Abdias was published for the first time by Wolfgang Lazius, under the title of Abdia

Babylonia, Episcopi ft Apostolomm Discipuli, de Histcrria cerlaminis Aposlolici, libri dtctm ;

Julio Africano Intcrprete. Basilia;, 1532.'

* For the various dates, see Colonel Yule's Marco Polo, second edition, TO!, ii. p. 343.

Colonel Yule'sCathay deals with the Chinese and Central Asian aspects of the legend of St.

Thomas (2 vols. 1866).

J Thus the Paschal Chronicle of Bishop Dorotheus (born A.D. 254) says : 1 The Apostle

Thomas, after having preached the gospel to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Germanians fan

agricultural people of Persia mentioned by Herodotus, i. 125], Bactrians, and Magi, suffered

martyrdom at Calamina, a town of India.'Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus (circa 220 A.D.), assigns

to St. Thomas, Parlhia, Media, Persia, Hercania, the Baclri, the Mardi, and, while ascribing the

conversion of India to St. Bartholomew', mentions Calamina, a city of India, as the place of St.

Thomas' martyrdom. The Metropolitan Johannes, who attended the Council of Nicrca in 325,

subscribed as Bishop of 'India Maxima and 1'ersia.' Dr. Kennel's monograph (Madras, 1882);

Hough, i. pp. 30 to 116.

and

Church

Offices.

First

glimpse at Indian Christians, firca 190 A.D.

The

Roman

fleet from

Kgypt.

Chinese and the Ethiopians converted to the Truth,' while one of its anthems proclaims: ' The

Hindus, the Chinese, the Persians, and all the people of the Isles of the Sea, they who dwell in

35

Syria and Armenia, in Javan and Roumania, call Thomas to remembrance, and adore Thy Name,

O Thou our Redeemer!'

Candid inquiry must therefore decline to accept the connection of St. Thomas with the ' India' of

the earlyChurch as proof of the Apostle's identity with Thomas, the missionary to Malabar.

Nevertheless, there is evidence to indicate that Christianity had reached Malabar before the end

of the second century A.D., and nearly a hundred years previous to the supposed labours of

Thomas the Manichasan (circa 277 A.D.). In the 2nd century a Roman merchant fleet of one

hundred sail steered regularly from Myos Hormus on the Red Sea, to Arabia, Ceylon, and

Malabar. It found an ancient Jewish colony, the remnants of which still remain to this day as the

Beni-Israels,1 upon the Bombay coast. Whether these Jews emigrated to India at the time of the

Dispersion, or at a later period, their settlements probably date from before the second century of

our era.

The Red Sea fleet from Myos Hormus, which traded with this Jewish settlement in India, must in

all likelihood have brought with it Jewish merchants and others acquainted with the new religion

of Christ which, starting from Palestine, had penetrated throughout the Roman world. Part of the

fleet, moreover, touched at Aden and the Persian Gulf, themselves early seats of Christianity.

Indeed, after the direct sea-course to Malabar by the trade winds was known, the main navigation

to India for some time hugged the Asiatic coast. Christian merchants from that coast, both of

Jewish and other race, would in the natural course of trade have reached Malabar within the

second century A.D.2 The Buddhist polity then supreme in Southern India was favourable to the

reception of a faith whose moral characteristics were humanity and selfsacrifice. Earlier Jewish

settlers had already familiarized the native mind with the existence of an ancient and imposing

Jew

settle-

ments

in ancient

Malabar.

1 For their present numbers and condition, see the Bombay Gazetteer, by Mr. J. M. Campbell,

LL.D., of the Bombay Civil Service, vol. xi. pp. 85 and 421 ; vol. xiii. p. 273.

36

• - The Roman trade with the southern coast of India probably dates from, or before, the

Apostolic period. Of 522 silver denarii found near Coimbatore in 1842, no fewer than 135 were

coins of Augustus, and 378 of Tiberius. Another find near Calicut about 1850 contained

an axreus of Augustus, with several hundred coins, none later than the Emperor Nero.

INDIAN CHRISTIANS, 190 A.D. 235

religion in Palestine. When that religion was presented in its new and more attractive form of

Christianity, no miraculous intervention was probably required to commend it to the tolerant

Buddhist princes of SouthernIndia.

About 190 A.D., rumours, apparently brought back by the Malabar Red Sea fleet, of a Christian

community on the Malabar coast, ^y"3,'^5' fired the zeal of Pantaenus of Alexandria. Pantsenus,

in his A.D. earlier years a Stoic philosopher, was then head of the cele- Panttenus. brated school

which formed one of the glories of his city. He started for India ; and although it has been

questioned whether he reached India Proper, the evidence seems in favour of his having done so.

He ' found his own arrival anticipated by some who were acquainted with the Gospel of

Matthew; to whom Bartholomew, one of the apostles, had preached; and had left them the same

Gospel in the Hebrew, which also was preserved until this time.'' His mission may be placed at

the end of the and century. Early in the 3rd century, St. HippolyHippolytus, Bishop of

Portus (eirr. 220 A.D.), also assigns the 2l2o A"D* conversion of India to the Apostle

Bartholomew. To Thomas he ascribes Persia and the countries of Central Asia, although he

mentions Calamina, a city of India, as the place where Thomas suffered death.

Indeed, the evidence of the early Christian writers, so far as it goes, tends to connect St. Thomas

with theIndia of the ancient world,—that is to say, with Persia and Afghanistan,— and St

Bartholomew with the Christian settlements on the Malabar coast Cosmos Indicopleustes writes

of a Christian Cosmos Church in Ceylon, and on the Callian or Malabar

seaboard 1"<ll^t°"s (fire. 547 A.D.). But he makes no mention of its foundation circ. 547 by St

Thomas, which, as an Alexandrian monk, he would have A>D< been almost sure to do had he

heard any local tradition of the circumstance. He states that the Malabar Bishop was consecrated

in Persia; from which we may infer that the Christians of Southern India had already been

brought within the Nestorian fold. There is but slight evidence for fixing upon the Malabar coast

as the seat of the orthodox Bishop Frumentius, sent forth by Athanasius to India and the East,

37

««•• 355 A-D

The truth is, that the Christians of Southern India belonged Nestorian from their first clear

emergence into history to the Syrian rite. If, as seems probable, Christianity was first brought to

Malabar by the merchant fleet from the Persian Gulf, or the

1 Dr. Kennet, quoting Eusebius, in his monograph on St. Thomas, the Apostle of India, p. 9

(Madras, 1882).

years.

Asiatic coast of the Arabian Sea, the Malabar Christians would follow the Asiatic forms of faith.

When, therefore, in the 5th century, Nestorianism, driven forth from Europe and Africa,

conquered the allegiance of Asia, the Church of Southern India would naturally accept the

Nestorian doctrine.

It should be remembered that during the thousand years when Christianity flourished in Asia,

from the 5th to the isth century, it was the Christianity of Nestorius. The Jacobite sect dwelt Side

by jn the midst of the Nestorians; and for nearly a thousand iiuddnUm years, the Christianity of

these types, together with Buddhism, for 1000 formed the two intelligent religions of Central

Asia. How far Buddhism and Christianity mutually influenced each other's doctrine and ritual

still remains a complex problem. But Christianity in western Central Asia appears to have

offered a longer resistance than Buddhism to the advancing avalanche of Islam; and in the

countries to the west of Tibet it survived its Buddhist rival. ' Under the reign of the Caliphs,' says

Gibbon, ' the Nestorian Church was diffused from China to Jerusalem and Cyprus; and their

numbers, with those of the Jacobites, were computed to surpass the Greek and Latin

communions.'1

The marvellous history of the Christian Tartar potentate, Prester John, king, warrior, and priest,

is a mediaeval legend based on the ascendancy of Christianity in some of the Central Asian

States.2 The travellers in Tartary and China, from the izth to the 15th century, bear witness to the

extensive survival, and once flourishing condition, of the Nestorian Church, and justify Pierre

Bergeron's description of it as ' £pandue par toute 1'Asie.'3 The term Catholicos, which the

Nestorians applied to their Patriach, and the Jacobites to their Metropolitan, survives in the

languages of Central India. The mediaeval travellers preserve it in various forms;4 and the

British Embassy to Yarkand, in 1873, still

38

1 Decline and Fall of the Koman Empire, p. 598, vol. iv. (quarto ed. 1788). Gibbon quotes his

authorities for this statement in a footnote. The whole subject of early Christianity in Central

Asia and China has been discussed with exhaustive learning in Colonel Yule's Cathay, and tki

Way Thither. Hakluyt Society, 2 vols. 1866.

3 'Voyage de Rubruquis en Tartarie," chap, xix., in the quarto volume of Voyages at

Asie, published at the Hague in 1735. Guillaume de Rubruquis was an ambassador of Louis IX.,

sent to Tartary and China in 1255 A.D. Colonel Yule also gives the story of Prester John

in Marco Pdo, vol. i. pp. 229-233 (ed. 1875).

3 ' Traite des Tartares,' par Pierre Bergeron, chap. iii. in the Hague quarto of Voyages fit

Asie, above quoted (1735).

* fathaUk,Jatolic,Jatclic; originally Galhallk.

Its wide diffusion.

ST. THOMAS OF MADRAS. 237

came upon a story of ' a poor and aged Jdtlik, or Christian priest,'1

Whether the Christians on the coast of Malabar were a direct ' Thomas offshoot of the

Nestorian Church of Asia, or the result of an earlier seedling dropped by St. Thomas or St.

Bartholomew on their apostolic travels, it is certain that from their first appearance in local

history, the Malabar Christians obeyed bishops from Persia of the Nestorian rite.2 By the 7th

century, the Persian Church had adopted the name of Thomas Christians, and this title would in

time be extended to all its branches, including that of Malabar. The early legend of the and of

Manichjean Thomas in the 3rd century, and the later labours n la' of the Armenian Thomas, the

rebuilder of the Malabar Church, in the 8th, had endeared that name to the Christians of

Southern India. In their isolation and ignorance, they confounded the three names, and

concentrated their legends of the three Thomases in the person of the Apostle.3 Before the 14th

century, they had completed the process by believing that St. Thomas was Christ.

The fitness of things soon required that the life and death Legend of the Apostle should be

localized by the Southern Indian jhsj^ Church. Patristic literature clearly declares that St.

Thomas localized ; had suffered martyrdom at Calamina, probably in some country east of

Persia, or in Northern India itself. The tradition of the Church is equally distinct, that in

394 A.D. the remains of the Apostle were transferred to Edessa in Mesopotamia.4 The attempt to

39

localize the death of St. Thomas on the south- in spite of western coast ofIndia started, therefore,

under disadvantages, difficulties,

, . , ,, at Madras.

A suitable site was, however, found at the Mount near Madras, one of the many hill shrines of

ancient Indiawhich have formed a joint resort of religious persons of diverse faiths,— Buddhist,

Muhammadan, and Hindu(ante, p. 203).

Marco Polo, the first European traveller who has left an i3th cenaccount of the place, gives the

legend in its undeveloped form ^he"TM

legend.

1 Dr. Bellew's ' History of Kashgar,' in the Official Report of Sir Douglas Forsyth's Minion, p.

127. (Quarto, Foreign Office Press, Calcutta, 1875.)

* Mr. Campbell's Bombay Gazetteer, Thana District, chap. iii. (Bombay, 1882.)

3 The Jacobites, or followers of Jacobus Baradaeus, prefer in the same way to deduce their

name and pedigree from the Apostle James. Gibbon, iv. 603, footnote (ed. 1788).

4 For the authorities, see Dr. Rennet's Madras monograph, St. Thomas, the ApostU

of India (1882); and Colonel Yule's critical note, Marco Polo, vol. ii p. 342 (2nd edition, 1875).

Mixed worship at the shrine.

Tiie

legend as developed

by the Portuguese.

Relics at

Goa.

in- the 131)1 century. The Apostle had, it seems, been accidentally killed outside his hermitage

by a fowler, who, ' not seeing the saint, let fly an arrow at one of the peacocks. And this arrow

struck the holy man in the right side, so that he died of the wound, sweetly addressing himself to

his Creator.'1 Miracles were wrought at the place, and conflicting creeds claimed the hermit as

their own. ' Both Christians and Saracens, however, greatly frequent the pilgrimage,' says Marco

40

Polo truthfully, although evidently a little puzzled.2 ' For the Saracens also do hold the Saint in

great reverence, and say that he was one of their own Saracens, and a great prophet.' Not only the

Muhammadans and Christians, but also the Hindus seem to have felt the religious attractions of

the spot. About thirty years after Marco Polo, the Church itself was, according to Odoric, filled

with idols.3 Two centuries later, Joseph of Cranganore, the Malabar Christian, still testifies to the

joint worship of the Christian and the heathen at St. Thomas' Mount. The Syrian bishops sent

to India in 1504 heard ' that the Church had begun to be occupied by some Christian people. But

Barbosa, a few years later, found it half in ruins, and in charge of a Muhammadanya&r, who

kept a lamp burning.'4

Brighter days, however, now dawned for the Madras legend. Portuguese zeal, in its first fervours

of Indian evangelization, felt keenly the want of a sustaining local hagiology. Saint Catherine

had, indeed, visibly delivered Goa into their hands: and a parish church, afterwards the cathedral,

was dedicated to her in 1512. Ten years later, the viceroy Duarte Menezes became ambitious of

enriching his capital with the bones of an apostle. A mission from Goa despatched to the

Coromandel coast in 1522, proved itself ignorant of, or superior to, the well-established legend

of the translation of the Saint's remains to Edessa in 394 A.D., and found his sacred relics at the

ancient hill shrine near Madras, side by side with those of a king whom he had converted to the

faith. They were brought with pomp to Goa, the Portuguese capital of India, and there they lie in

the Church of St. Thomas to this day.5

The finding of the Pehlvi cross, mentioned on a previous page, at St. Thomas' Mount in 1547,

gave a fresh colouring to

Final form of the legend.

1 Colonel Yule's Marco Polo (2nd edition, 1875), vol. ii. p. 340.

1 Idem, ii. pp. 337-338. * Idem, ii. p. 344. • Ibid.

6 Ibid. Colonel Yule's Cathay (2 vols. 1866) should also be referred to by students of the

legend of St. Thomas, and his alleged labours in Asia and India.

KING ALFRED'S EMBASSY. 239

the legend. So far as its inscription goes, it points to a Persian, and probably to a Manichaean

origin. But at the period when it was dug up, no one in Madras could decipher its Pehlvi

41

characters. A Brdhman impostor, knowing that there was a local demand for martyrs,

accordingly came forward with a fictitious interpretation. The simple story of Thomas' accidental

death from a stray arrow, had before this grown into a cruel martyrdom by stoning and a lance-

thrust, with each spot in the tragedy fixed at the Greater and Lesser Mount near Madras. The

Brdhman pretended to supply a confirmation of the legend from the inscription on the cross—a

confirmation which continued to be accepted until Dr. Burnell and Professor Haug published

their decipherments in our own day. 'In the i6th and i-jih century,1 says Colonel Yule, ' Roman

Catholic ecclesiastical story-tellers seem to have striven in rivalry who should most recklessly

expand the travels of the Apostle.'

The lying interpretation of the Brahman, and the visible King relics in the church at Goa, seem to

have influenced the popular imagination more powerfully than the clear tradition of the

early Church regarding the translation of the Apostle's relics to Edessa. Our own King Alfred has

been pressed into the service of St. Thomas of Madras. 'This year,' 883 A.D., says the Anglo-

Saxon Chronicle, ' Sighelm and Athelstane carried to Rome the alms which the king had vowed

to send thither, and also to India to St. Thomas and to St. Bartholomew.'* Gibbon suspects ' that

the English ambassadors collected their cargo and legend in Egypt.'2There is certainly no

evidence to show that they ever visited the Coromandel coast, but to and much to indicate that

the ' India' of Alfred was the India of the early Church, and far north-west of the Madras exploits

of the Apostle. The legend of St. Thomas' Mount has in our own century been illustrated by the

eloquence and learning of bishops and divines of the Anglo-Indian Church. ' But,' concludes

Colonel Yule, ' I see that the authorities now ruling the Catholics at Madras are strong in

disparagement of the special sanctity of the localities, and of the whole story connecting St.

Thomas with Mailapur,' the alleged scene of his martyrdom.3

1 Hough, i. p. 104 (1839); Dr. Kennet's Madras monograph, St. Thomas, the Afostle

of India, pp. 6, 7 (1882).

• Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. iv. p. 599, footnote 123 (ed. 1788); Hough, vol.

i. pp. 105-107.

* Colonel Yule's Marco Polo, ii. p. 344 (ed. 1875),

Troubles

of the

42

Ancient

Indian

Church.

As a matter of history, the life of the Nestorian Church in India has been a troubled one. A

letter from the Patriarch Jesajabus to Simeon, Metropolitan of Persia, shows that before

660 A.D., the Christians along the Indian coast were destitute of a regular ministry.1 In the 8th

century, the Armenian friar Thomas found the Malabar Christians driven back into the recesses

of the mountains. In the 14th century, Friar Jordanus declared them to be Christians only in

name, without baptism. They even confounded St. Thomas with Christ.2 A mixed worship,

Christian, Muhammadan, and Hindu, went on at the old high place or joint hill shrine near

Madras. In some centuries, the Church in Southern India developed, like the Sikhs in the Punjab,

into a military sovereignty. In others, it dwindled away; its remnants lingering in the mountains

and woods, or adopting heathen rites. The family names of a forest tribe3 in Kanara, now

Hindus, bear witness to a time when they were Christians; and there were probably many similar

reversions to paganism.

The downfall of the Nestorian Church in India was due, however, neither to such reversions to

paganism nor to any persecutions of native princes; but to the pressure of the Portuguese

Inquisition, and the proselytizing energy of Rome. Before the arrival of Vasco da Gama in 1498,

the St. Thomas Christians had established their position as a powerful military caste in Malabar.

The Portuguese found them firmly organized under their spiritual leaders, bishops, archdeacons,

and priests, who acted as their representatives in dealing with the Indian princes. For long they

had Christian kings, and at a later period chiefs, of their own.4 In virtue of an ancient charter

ascribed to Cherumal Perumal, Suzerain of Southern India in the ninth century A.D., the Malabar

Christians enjoyed all the rights of nobility.6 They even claimed precedence of the Nairs, who

formed the heathen aristocracy. The St. Thomas Christians SYWOD OF DIAMPER. 241

The St. Thomas Christians a military caste;

1 Assemani Bibliothcca, quoted by Bishop Caldwell, Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian

Languages,p. 27, footnote (ed. 1875). Jesajabus died 660 A.D.

1 Jordanus, quoted in Mr. J. M. Campbell's Bomliay Gazetteer, vol. xiii. part i. p. 2CO (ed.

1882).

43

J The Maralhf Sidis. For an interesting account of them, see Mr. J. M. Campbell's Bombay

Gazetteer,Kanara District, vol. xv. part i. p. 397 (ed. 1883).

* Histoire du Christianismc dcs Indcs, par M. V. La Croze, vol. i. p. 72, ii. p. 133, etc. (2 vols.

I2mo, The Hague, 1758).

1 Jdem, i. p. 67. For details, see The Syrian Church of Malabar, by Edavalikel Philipos, p. 23,

and footnote (Oxford, 1869). Local legend vainly places Cherumal Perumal and his grant as far

back as 345 A.D.

and the Nairs were, in fact, the most important military castes on the south-west coast1 They

supplied the bodyguard of the Powerful local kings ; and the Christian caste was the first to learn

the ^" use of gunpowder and fire-arms. They thus became the matchlockmen of the Indian troops

of Southern India, usually placed in the van, or around the person of the prince.

The Portuguese, by a happy chance, landed on the very PortuProvince of India in which

Christianity was most firmly estab- 6"ese lished, and in which Christians had for long formed a

recog- t|lejr Con. nised and respected caste. The proselytizing energy of the new- version to

comers could not, however, rest satisfied with their good fortune. ome' That energy was

vigorously directed both against the natives and the ancient Christian communities. Indeed, the

Nestorian heresy of the St. Thomas Christians seemed to the fervour of the friars to be a direct

call from heaven for interference by the orthodox Church. The Portuguese established the

Inquisition, as we shall presently see, at Goa in 1560. After various Portuguese attempts, strongly

resisted by the St. Thomas Christians, the latter were incorporated into the Catholic Church, by

the labours of Alexis de Menezes, Archbishop of Goa, in 1599. The Synod held by him at

Udayampura (or Diamper), near Cochin, in that year denounced Nestorius and his heresies, and

put an end to the existence of the Indian NestorianChurch.

No document could be more exhaustively complete than Synod of the Acts and Decrees of the

Synod of Diamper, in its pro- '"P"' visions for bringing the Malabar Christians within the Roman

fold.2 The sacred books of the St. Thomas congregations, their missals, their consecrated oil

and church ornaments, were publicly burned; and their religious nationality as a separate caste

was abolished. But when the firm hand of Archbishop Menezes was withdrawn, his parchment

conversions began to lose their force. Notwithstanding the watchfulness of the Goa Inquisition

44

over the new converts, the Decrees of the Synod of Diamper fell into neglect,3 and the Malabar

Christians chafed under a line of Jesuit prelates from 1601 to 1653.

In 1653 they renounced their allegiance to their Jesuit

1 For the military aspects of the Christian caste of St. Thomas, see \A Croze (op. fit.), ii. pp.

128, 129, 130, 140, 155, etc. The History of the Church of Malabar and Synod of Diamper, by

the learned Michael Geddes, Chancellor of the Cathedral Church of Sarum (London, 1694), an

earlier and independent work, bears out this view.

* The Acts and Decrees of the Synod of Diamper (i.e. Udayampura) occupy 346 pages of the

Chancellor of Sarum's History of the Church of Malabar, pp. 97-443 (ed. 1694).

3 La Croze, ii. p. 193.

VOL. VI. Q

Reversions bishop. A Carmelite mission was despatched from Rome in

version"" l6S6 to restore order. The vigorous measures of its head, 1653-1663. Joseph of St

Mary, brought back a section of the old Christian communities; and Joseph, having reported his

success at Rome, returned to India as their bishop in 1661. He found the Protestant Dutch

pressing the Portuguese hard on the Malabar coast, 1661-1663. But the old military caste of

Malabar Christians rendered no assistance to their Catholic superiors, and remained tranquil

spectators of the struggle, till the capture of Cochin by the Dutch brought about the ruin of the

Portuguese power in 1663.

Malabar The Malabar Christians, thus delivered from the temporal fre'e^b'""13 power of the

Portuguese, re-asserted their spiritual independihe Dutch, ence. The Portuguese had compelled

the native princes to l663; persecute the old Christian <:ommunities ; and by confiscations,

imprisonments, and various forms of pressure, to drive the Indian Nestorians into reconciliation

with Rome.1 Such a persecution of a long recognised caste, especially of a valued military caste,

was as foreign to the tolerant spirit of Hinduism, as it was repugnant to the policy of the Indian

princes, and it has left a deep impression on the traditions of the south-western coast. The native

Jacobite historian of the Church of Malabar rises to the righteous wrath of an old Scottish

covenanter in recounting the bribing of the poorer ^chiefs by the Portuguese, and the killings,

45

persecutions, and separations of the married clergy from their wives. The new Dutch masters of

the southern coast, after a short antagonism to the Carmelite prelate and the native bishop whom

he left behind, lapsed into indifference. They allowed the Roman missionaries free scope, but put

an end to the exercise of the temporal power in support of the Catholic bishop.2

The chief spiritual weapon .of conversion, a weapon

dexterously used by the Portuguese Viceroys, had been the

interruption of the supply of Nestorian bishops from Persia.

receive a This they effected by watching the ports along the west

Jacobite coast of jn(}ja) and preventing the entrance of any Nestorian

1665. ' prelate. The Syrian Church in India had therefore to struggle

on under its archdeacon, with grave doubts disturbing the

mind of its clergy and laity as to whether the archidiaconal

consecration was sufficient for the ordination of its priests.

The overthrow of the Portuguese on the seaboard put an end

to this long episcopal blockade. In 1665, the Patriarch of MALABAR CHRISTIANS SINCE 1665.

243

1 La Croze, vol. ii. pp. 169, 176, 183, 189, 192, 198, 203, etc. - La Croze, vol. ii. pp. 204, 205.

Antioch sent a bishop, Mar Gregory, to the orphaned Syrian

Church of India. But the new bjshop belonged to the

Jacobite instead of the Nestorian branch of the Asiatic Church.

Indian Nestorianism may therefore be said to have received

its death-blow from the Synod of Diamper in 1599.

Since the arrival of Mar Gregory in 1665, the old Syrian Malabar Church of India has remained

divided into two sects. The Christians Pazheia ktitlakar, or Old Church, owed its foundation to

Arch- 1665 ; bishop Menezes and the Synod of Diamper in 1599, and its reconciliation, after

revolt, to the Carmelite bishop, Joseph of St. Mary, in 1656. It retains in its services

46

the Syrian language (i) Syrian and in part the Syrianritual. But it acknowledges the supremacy of

the Pope, and his vicars-apostolic. Its members are now known as Catholics of the Syrian Rite, to

distinguish them from the converts made direct from heathenism to the Latin Church by the

Roman missionaries. The other section of the Syrian Christians of Malabar is called thePtttten

kuttakdr, or New Church. It adheres to the Jacobite tenets introduced by its first Jacobite bishop,

Mar Gregory, in 1665. 100,000?

The present Jacobites of Malabar condemn equally the Tenets of errors of Arius, Nestorius, and

the bishops of Rome.1 They ^labar hold that the Bread and Wine in the Eucharist become the

Jacobites. Real Body and Blood of Christ, and give communion in both kinds mixed together.

They pray for the dead, practise confession, make the sign of the cross, and observe fasts. But

they reject the use of images ; honour the Mother of Jesus and the Saints only as holy persons

and friends of God; allow the consecration of a married layman or deacon to the office of priest;

and deny the existence of purgatory. In their Creed they follow the Council of Nicaea

(325 A.D.). They believe in the Trinity; assert the One Nature and the One Person of Christ, and

declare the procession of the Holy Ghost to be from the Father, instead of from the Father and

the Son.2

The Syrian Catholics and Syrian Jacobites of Malabar main- Nesiotain their differences with a

high degree of religious vitality atrianlsm

, j -m. • ' »• i , ' i i- • extinci in

the present day. Their congregations keep themselves distinct Malabar. from the Catholics of the

Latin Rite converted direct from heathenism, and from the Protestant sects. No

Nestorian Church is now known to exist in Malabar.3 The Syrian

1 The Syrian Christians of Malabar, being a Catechism of their doctrine and ritual, by

Edavalikel Philipos, Chorepiscopus and Cathanar (i.e. priest) of the Great Church of Cottayam in

Travancore, pp. 3, 4, 8 (Parker, 1869).

' The above summary is condensed from the Catechism of Edavalike Philipos, of. fit. pp. 9-13,

17, 19. *Idem, p. 29.

Christians were returned in 1871 at about one-third of a million ; but the Census officers omitted

to distinguish between Catholic Syrian and Jacobites. The Catholic Archbishop and Vicar-

Apostolic of Verapoli, to whose kind assistance this chapter is indebted in many ways, estimates

47

the Syrian Catholics at 200,000, and the Jacobites at 100,000. The totals for all

Southern India cannot, however, be ascertained until the next Census of 1891.

1'ortu- Roman friars had visited India since the 13th century. The

Nonaries3" ^rst regu'arly equipped Catholic mission, composed of Fran

1500 A.I)., ciscan brethren, arrived from Portugal in 1500. Their attacks

on the native religions seemed part of the Portuguese policy of

aggression on the Native States. The pious Portuguese monks

were popularly identified with the brutal Portuguese soldiery,

whose cruelties have left so deep a stain on early European

identified enterprise in India. The military attempts of-the Portuguese,

wnhPortu- ancj their ill-treatment of the native princes and the native

I'll CSC

aggrcs- population, provoked unmerited hatred against the disinterested, sions. . if sometimes ill-

judged, zeal of the Portuguese missionaries. Native re- Native reprisals, which certain writers

have dignified by the pnsals or name of persecutions, occasionally took place in return for

lions.1 Portuguese atrocities. But the punishments suffered by the friars were usually inflicted for

disobedience to the native civil power, or for public attacks on native objects of veneration; such

attacks as are provided for by the clauses in the AngloIndian Penal Code, which deal with words

or signs calculated to wound the religious feelings of others. Attacks of this kind lead to tumults

among an excitable population, and to serious breaches of the peace, often attended with

bloodshed The native princes, alarmed at the combined Portuguese assault on their territory and

their religion, could not be expected to decide in such cases with the cold neutrality of an Anglo-

Indian magistrate. Father Pedro de Covilham was killed in 1500. Slow For some time, indeed,

missionary work was almost con

progress. fine(j to the Portuguese settlements, although King Emmanuel (1498-1521) and his son

John in. (1521-57) had much at heart the conversion of the Indians. The first bishop in India was

Duarte Nunex, a Dominican (1514-17); and John de Albuquerque, a Franciscan, was the first

48

bishop of Goa (1539Xavierand 53). With St. Francis Xavier, who arrived in 1542, began

the > labours of the Society of Jesus in the East, and the progress of Christianity became more

rapid.

St. Francis' name is associated with the Malabar coast, and with the maritime tracts of Madura

and Southern Madras.

EARLY JESUIT MISSIONS. 245

He completed the conversion of the Paravars in Tinnevelli St. Francis District.1 His relics repose

in a silver shrine at Goa.2 XavlerPunnaikdyal, in Tinnevelli, was the scene, in 1549, of the death

of Father Antonio Criminale, the protomartyr of the Society of Jesus ; and in the following year,

several other lives were lost in preaching the gospel. Goa became an Archbishopric in 1577. In

1596 to 1599, the Archbishop of Goa, Alexis de Menezes, an Augustinian, succeeded in recon-

Alexis dealing the Indian Nestorians to Rome; and at the Synod of Meilczc;-Diamper

(Udayampura, near Cochin) in 1599, the affairs of the Indian Christians were settled. The use of

the Syrian rite was Syrian rite retained after it had been purged of its Nestorianism. The

[,uf°TMei1' later history of the Syrian Christians in Malabar has already tained, been traced. '599

The Jesuit mission to the Madras coast dates from 1606, The and is associated with the names of

Robert de Nobili (its JIatl.ras

Jesiuls.

founder, who died 1656), John de Britto (killed in Madura 1693), Beschi the great scholar (who

died about 1746), and other illustrious Jesuits, chiefly Portuguese.3 They laboured in Madura,

Trichinopoli, Tanjore, Tinnevelli, Salem, etc. The mission of the Karnatic, also a Jesuit mission,

was French in its origin, and due in some measure to Louis xiv. in 1700. Its centre was at

Pondicherri.

The early Jesuit missions are particularly interesting. Their Good priests and monks became

perfect Indians in all secular TMortfjee matters, dress, food, etc., and had equal success among

all Jesuits. castes, high and low. In the south of the peninsula they brought, as we have seen, the

old Christian settlements of the Syrianrite into temporary communion with Rome, and converted

large sections of the native population throughout extensive districts. The Society of Jesus had

also numerous although less important missions in the north ofIndia. During the i7th and i8th

49

centuries, religious troubles and difficulties arose in Western India through the action of the

missionaries in regard to caste observances. Schisms troubled the Church. The Portuguese king

claimed, as against the Pope, to appoint the Archbishop of Goa ; and the Dutch adventurers for a

time persecuted the Catholics along the coast. •

But in the i6th century it seemed as if Christianity was destined to be established by Jesuit

preachers throughout

1 See article TINNEVEI.T.I DISTRICT, Tin Imperial Gazetteer of India.

1 See article GOA, The Jmfrrial Gaze/t<'f of India.

1 See articles MADURA anil TINNEVELLI, iJcm.

a large part of India. The literary activity of missionaries belonging to the Order was also very

great. Their early efforts in the cause of education, and in printing books in the various

languages, are remarkable. l)e Nobili and Beschi have been named. Fathers Arnauld and

Calmette should not be forgotten.

Letters But apart from works of scholarship, the early Indian

Jesuits Jesuits have left literary memorials of much interest and value.

i6th and Their letters, addressed to the General of the Order in Europe,

'7th cen- a(for(j a yi^d giimpse into the state of India during the i6th

and i jth centuries. One volume,1 which deals with the period

ending in 1570, furnishes by way of preface a topographical

Jesuit guide to the Jesuit stations in the East. Separate sections are

stations m devoted to Goa, Cochin, Bassein, Thana, and other places in

Western India, including the island of Socotra, in which the

Jesuit brethren still found remnants of the Christians of St.

Thomas.

50

Basis of The letters, as a whole, disclose at once the vitality and the Portu" , weakness of the

Portuguese position in the East. The Lusitanian conquest of India had a deeper fascination, and

appeared at the time to have a higher moral significance for Christendom than afterwards

attached to our more hesitating and matter - of- fact operations. Their progress formed a brilliant

triumph of military ardour and religious zeal. They resolved not only to conquer India, but also

to convert her. Only by slow degrees were they compelled in secret to realize that they had

entered on a task, the magnitude of which they had not gauged, and the execution of which

proved to be altogether beyond their strength. All that chivalry and Conquest enthusiastic piety

could effect, they accomplished. But they version" ^a''ed to fulfil either their own hopes, or the

expectations which they had raised in the minds of their countrymen at home. Their viceroys had

to show to Europe results which they were not able to produce; and so they were fain to accept

the shadow for the substance, and in their official despatches to represent appearances as

realities. In their military narratives, every petty Raja or village chief who sent them a few

pumpkins or mangoes, becomes a tributary Rex, conquered by their arms or constrained to

submission by the terror of their name. In their ecclesiastical epistles, the whole country is a land

1 Rcrum a Socittale Jesu in Oriente Gcslaritm Vdnmen, Colonioe, Anno 1574. It purports to

have been translated into Latin from the Spanish. The author has to thank Mr. Ernest Satow, of

H.B.M.'s Japanese Legation, for a loan of this curious volume.

JESUIT SYSTEM OF WORK. 247

flowing with milk and honey, and teeming with a population eager for sacramental rites.

The swift downfall of the Portuguese power, based upon Parochial conquest and conversion, will

be exhibited in a later chapter. ?^n^[3'' But the Portuguese are the only European nation who

have purtucreated, or left behind them, a Christian State polity in India. £ue*e To this day, their

East India settlements are territorially arranged in parishes; and the traveller finds himself

surrounded by churches and other ecclesiastical features of a Christian country, among the rice-

fields and jungles of Goa and Damdn. This parochial organization of Portuguese India was the

direct result of the political system imposed on the viceroys from Europe. But, indirectly, it

represents the method adopted by the Society of Jesus in its efforts at conversion. The Jesuits

worked to a large extent by means of industrial settlements. Many of their stations consisted of

regular agricultural communities, with lands and a local jurisdiction of their own. Indeed, both in

51

the town and country, conversion went hand in hand with attempts at improved husbandry, or

with a training in some mechanical art.

This combination of Christianity with organized labour may Thana, a best be understood from a

description of two individual settle-16TM11

i rr-i ' -i- i , • , f, i • station,

ments:l lhana, a military agricultural station; and Cochin, 1550 A.D.

a collegiate city and naval port. Thdna, says a Jesuit letterwriter in the middle of the i6th century,

is a fortified town where the Brethren have a number of converts. Once on a time a wrinkled and

deformed old man came to them from distant parts, greatly desiring to be made a Christian. He

was accordingly placed before a picture of the Blessed Virgin, and, having sought to kiss the

Child, was forthwith baptized. He died in peace and joy next morning. Many boys and girls were

likewise bought from the barbarians for a few pence a-piece. These swelled the family of Christ,

and were trained up in doctrine and handicrafts. During the day they plied their trades as

shoemakers, tailors, weavers, and iron-workers; Christian on their return at evening to the

College, they sang the craftsmen, catechism and litanies in alternate choirs. Others of them were

employed in agriculture, and went forth to collect fruits or to work with the Christian cultivators

in the fields.

There was also a Christian village, the Hamlet of the

1 The following details were chiefly condensed from the Keruni a Socictate Jcstf in Oricnte

Geslarum Vo/umeti, already referred to. This book is no longer in the author's possession, and as

no copy is procurable in India, the pages cannot be cited nor the exact words verified.

Trinity, 3000 paces off, upon temple lands bought up and consecrated by the Order. The

Society had, moreover, certain and culti- farms, yielding 300 pieces of gold a year. This money

supvators. ported the widows and orphans, the sick, and catechumens while engaged in their

studies. The poorer converts were encouraged in agriculture by a system of advances. Everything

seemed to prosper in the hands of the Jesuit Brethren, and their very goats had kids by couplets

and triplets every year. The husbandmen ' are all excellent cultivators and good men,' well skilled

in the Mysteries, and constant in the practice of their faith, assembling daily together ad signum

52

angeliae salutationis. ' Even in the woods, boys and men are heard chanting the Ten

Commandments in a loud voice from the tops of the palm-trees.'

Jesuit rural The management of the mission stations seems to have been tion'niZa" admirable.

Four or five Brothers of the Order regulated alike the secular and the spiritual affairs of each

community. One of them was a surgeon, who cured ulcers, sores, and dangerous maladies. The

Christian village of the Trinity had, moreover, certain gardens which the inhabitants held in

common, well irrigated and rich in vines, figs, and medicinal fruits. The catechism was publicly

rehearsed once on ordinary days, twice on holidays. They held frequent musical services; the

youths chanting the psalms, robed in white. The Thana choristers, indeed, enjoyed such a

reputation that they were invited to sing at the larger gatherings at Bassein; and were much

employed at funerals, at which they chanted the ' Misericordia' to the admiration alike of

Christians and heathens. Besides their civil and secular duties in the town of Thana, and at the

Christian village and farms, the Brethren of the Order visited a circle of outposts within a

distance of thirty thousand paces; ' to the great gain of their countrymen, whom they strengthen

in their faith; and of the natives (l>arbari), whom they reclaim from their errors and

superstitions to the religion of Christ.'

Cochin, a The station of Thana discloses the regulated industry,

collegiate spiritual and secular, which characterized the Jesuit settlements

in India. Cochin may be taken to illustrate the educational

labours of the Order and its general scheme of operations.

The College of the Society, writes brother Hieronymus in

I570,1 has two grammar schools, attended by 260 pupils,.who

have made excellent progress both in their studies and in the

practice of the Christian sacraments. They are all skilled in

1 Letter to the General of the Order, dated Cochin, February 1570.

JESUIT COLLEGE AT COCHIN. 249

53

the tenets of the faith; many of them have learned the catechism, arranged in questions and

answers, and are nowteaching it to the heathen. The rites of confession and communion are in

constant use, and resorted to on saints' days by 300 or 400 persons. An equal concourse takes

place when Indulgences are promulgated; and on a late occasion, when the jubilee granted by the

Pope in 1568 was celebrated, 'such was the importunity of those seeking confession, that our

priests could not find a breathing space for rest from morning to night.' At the

College Church alone a thousand persons received the Eucharist, chiefly new communicants. A

wholesale restitution of fraudulent gains took place, with a general reconciliation of enemies, and

a great quickening of the faith in all. ' So vast was the concourse at this single church, without

mentioning the other churches in the city, that we had from time to time to push out the throngs

from the edifice into the courtyard, not without tears and lamentation on their part.'

The College of the Order likewise ministered to the Portu- Jesuit guese fleet stationed off

Cochin; and the writer relates, with College at perhaps pardonable exaggeration, the strict

discipline which oc the Brethren maintained among both officers and men. During the winter

they had also collected a fund, and with it redeemed five Portuguese who, the year before, had

fallen into captivity among ' the Moors.' These men, on coming to offer up public thanksgiving

in church, edified the worthy fathers by relating how the Christians still remaining in captivity

continued firm in the Catholic faith, although sorely tormented incommodis et cruciatibus. They

told how one youth, in particular, ' who had attended our school, on being tied to a tree and

threatened by the Moors with bows and arrows, had bravely answered that he would give up his

life rather than his faith.' Upon which the Moors seem to have laid aside their lethal weapons,

and let the lad off with a few kicks and cuffs. Another boy had at first apostatized; but his fellow-

captives, foremost among them a nobleman of high station, threw themselves at his feet, and

begged him to stand firm. The boy burst into tears, and declared that he had been led astray by

terror, but that he would now rather die than abandon his religion. He proved himself as good as

his word, rushed in front of his persecutors, and openly proclaimed himself to be still a Christian.

' The Moors,' as usual, seem to have taken the affair with much good nature; and, after another

little comedy of tying him to a tree and threatening to shoot him and cut his throat, let their

young apostate go.

Con versions.

54

Jesuit < I come now,' continues Father Hieronymus, ' to the harvest

1 '"'' '" s- of this year.' He goes on to describe the work of itinerating, from which we gather that

the King of Cochin was friendly rather than otherwise to the members of the Order and their

converts, protecting them by letters patent, and even giving rise to hopes of his own conversion.

No fewer than 220 natives were baptized in one day; and the Father adduces, as a proof of their

sincerity, the fact that they did not expect any material advantage from their conversion. ' For

neither do they look for a present of new clothes at their baptism, nor for anything else from us,

excepting spiritual food. They think themselves greatly honoured by the name of Christians, and

labour to bring others to the truth.' Among the converts the Nairs figure a good deal; and an

acolyte of this race, notwithstanding that he was harassed by the 'older Christians,' brought in

other Nairs, by twos and threes, for baptism. The worthy Father uses ' Nair' as the name of ' a

certain military class,' and so touches on the actual position held by» this tribe three hundred

years ago.

Conversion was not, however, always without its troubles. The story of a young Moor, whose

mother was a cruel woman, and buried him in the ground up to his mouth for turning a Christian,

is told with honest pride. His unkind parent likewise placed a huge stone round his head,

designing that he should die a slow and painful death. But the boy managed to peep through a

cleft in the stone, and spied some travellers passing that way, whereupon, although he had

formerly known nothing of Latin, he managed to shout out the two words, ' exopto Christum.' On

hearing this, the travellers dug up the lad and took him before the Governor, who, in an obliging

manner, gave over the boy to the College to be baptized, and sent the mother to prison. The

neophytes seem to have been spirited lads; and the Father narrates how about two thousand of

them took part in the military games held when the fleet was lying off Cochin, and distinguished

themselves so greatly with various sorts of darts and weapons, that ' they came next to the

Portuguese soldiers.'

The College took advantage of the illness of the king during royal con- the course of the year

to try to convert him ; but his majesty, although civil and friendly, declined their well-meaning

efforts. They were more successful with two ' petty Rajas' (reguli) in the neighbourhood, who,

'being desirous of the Portuguese friendship,' professed an interest in spiritual matters on behalf

of themselves and people. Three hundred, apparently of their

55

Efforts at

CONVERSION AND CASTE. 251

subjects, promised to get themselves baptized as soon as a church should be built. ' But,'

concludes the candid chronicler, ' as this particular people have a grievously bad reputation as

liars, it is much to be prayed for that they will keep their word.' From another instance of a royal

conversion, it appears that the introduction of Christianity, with ' letters of privilege' to converts,

was a favourite method among the weaker Rdjds for securing a Portuguese alliance.

The story of the Catholic missions thus graphically told by The the Rerum Gestarum Volumen of

the i6th century, is continued for the i?th and i8th by the letters from the Jesuit Fathers in

Malabar. These letters have been edited by Le l8t.h ceuPere Bertrand in four volumes, which

throw an important light, not only upon the progress of Christianity in India, but also upon the

social and political state of the native kingdoms in which that progress was made.1 The keynote

to the policy of the Society of Jesus, in its work of Indian evangelization, is given in the

following words :—'The Christian religion cannot be regarded as naturalized in a country, until it

is in a position to propagate its own priesthood.'2

This was the secret of the wide and permanent success of the Catholic missions ; it was also the

source of their chief troubles. For in founding Christianity on an indigenous Question basis, the

Fathers had to accept the necessity of recognis- ° tailt:' ing indigenous customs and native

prejudices in regard to caste. The disputes which arose divided the Jesuit missionaries for many

years, and had to be referred, not only to the General of the Order, but to the Pope himself.

The Question des Rites Malabares occupies many pages in Pere Bertrand's volumes.3 In the end,

a special class of native priests was assigned to the low castes^ while an upper class ministered

to the Indians of higher degree. The distinction was rigidly maintained in the churches. Pere

Bertrand gives the plan of a

1 Mtmoires Historiques sur les Missions des ordrcs religuiix (l vol. 2nd ed., Paris, 1862): La

Mission du Maduri tfaprts lies documents inedits (3 vols., Paris, 1848, 1850, 1854). The first

edition of the MAiioirts Historiqucs (Paris, 1847) formed apparently an introduction to the three

volumes of Letters which constitute Pere Bertrand's/,a Mission du <Waitun'. The author takes

this opportunity of acknowledging his obligations to the authorities of St. Xavicr's College,

Calcutta, for the loan of Pere Bertrand's works, and for much kind assistance in his inquiries.

56

* Condensed from Pere Bertrand, Missions, vol. i. p. I.

3 For example, Altmoires Hisloriquts, vol. i. pp. 353 ft seq. Indeed, this volume is largely

devoted to the polemics of the question. Also La Mission tin Madurc, vol. ii. pp. 140 et seq.

; vol. iv. pp. 404 to 496; and in many oiher places of Pere Bertrand's work.

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xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/20688877/545443624/name/origin The Origin of Syrian Christians of

Keralam

Posted October 31, 2004 (Published in Aseemaa, A Journal for National Resurgence, Mangalore,

Vol. I. No. 4, pp 37-43) Dr. C. I. Issac.

The pre-colonial Christian converts of Kerala are popularly known as the Syrian Christians.

Among them there are two groups, namely, Kananaya Syrian Christians and Saint Thomas

Syrian Christians. The former claims that they are descendants of Thomas of Kana (Canaan), a

central Asian merchant who reached the Malabar coast in the 4th

century CE and the latter claim

that they are the only Christians who received baptism directly from the Apostle (Saint) Thomas,

one of the disciple of Jesus Christ. Both sects are still maintaining an extreme ‘savarna jati’

(upper caste) mentality in their social as well as religious transactions and above all they are very

particular in legitimizing their superiority complex in the Christian discourse of Keralam. The

Syrian Christians who claim the Saint Thomas tradition are still maintaining the belief that their

forefathers were converted to Christianity in the first century C.E from among the Nambootiries

(Vedic Brahmins of Keralam) at a time when the Apostle Thomas, one disciple of Jesus Christ

started his miraculous missionary activity in the Malabar Coast.

Through generations, the vested interests of various groups and sections in the core and

periphery of the Christian community of Keralam fabricated so many stories to historicise the

Saint Thomas legend and the Nammbootiri tradition of the early Christian fragments of Keralam.

No doubt, this legendary story, with no historicity, canonized by the church, became the very

foundation of the customs, beliefs and even faith of the Syrian Christians of Keralam…

…

57

Conclusion.

In the case of Keralam chaturvarniam as seen elsewhere in Bharatam was not completely

applicable. Here the social stratification was limited to two broad orders of Brahmins and Sudras

only. Thus there were only Nambootiries (Brahmins) and Sudra hierarchy based on social

ranking of occupational status. Sixty-four jaties and an addition of several avant jaties (later

additions based on new occupations) were functioning in the ancient Keralam.

The center of savrna feeling of Syrian Christians is the outcome of the wealth, which they had

acquired through

enhanced spice trade of the European period and the Portuguese pre-eminence in the church.

Syrian Christians got an extraneous status in the history of Keralam only after the arrival of the

Portuguese. Till then they were functioning as one among the Sudra jaties like Nairs or Elavas.

In short, before the arrival of Europeans they remained here as a Sudra jati like Elava or Nair,

doing trade, agriculture, ‘uliam’ work in temples, etc. The testimony of sixth century CE traveler

Cosmos Indicopleustus is sufficient to determine Syrian Christian social status of the early

Keralam.

The hardworking Christian community gained much through the enhanced spice trade and

European support since the days of Portuguese interlude. The wealth acquired through the cash

crops cultivation and European pressure on native rajas created a social position to Christians in

general. Thus they began to think of tradition and aristocracy.

The result was the birth of the story of Nambootiri conversion and Saint Thomas. Thus the story

purposefully catered the needs of native as well as alien Christian interest in the changing social

scenario.

Treachery: India and the Syrian Christians of Kerala – Pradeep Nair

Posted on December 21, 2011 | Comments Off

“It was the Syrian Christians called St. Thoma Christians of the East by the Europeans, who

brought Vasco da Gama to Kerala shores, beginning the colonisation of India, ” – Pradeep Nair

58

59

“Kerala Virus Spread to Kutch” was the title of an article that appeared in Organiser around

fifteen years back. Then a Malayali working in Gujarat I was curious, it talked about the

Christian missionary activity in Kutch. Spear headed by the Kerala Christians, who start schools,

help the poor and “salvage” the people in myriad ways. I remembered this after seeing an

article written by one Dr. C. I. Issac, a Syrian Christian from Kerala, on the history of the Syrian

Christians. It so happens that Dr. Issac is now an established RSS leader and is Secretary of the

RSS outfit Bharateeya Vichara Kendram founded by the veteran P. Parameswaran in

Thiruvannathapuram.

Here was yet another attempt, as shrewd as it can be, trying to shield a community which did

enormous harm to Kerala and India. Till the British left they were allies of the British, “our

Christian brethren in Malabar” as innumerable British documents narrate, and enjoyed all

privileges. Even today they are spear heading all the conversion initiatives across India and pool

in international church funds for the purpose. Several organisations in Kerala do just this. Have

budgets mounting to billions. Seeing the tilt in India they are now trying to be good boys. Quite

normal with them, till 1947 they called Mahatma Gandhi Mr. Gandhi, just as the British did.

Their news paper Malayala Manorama is evidence. Later they said they are freedom fighters,

Congress men. Now they rule Kerala.

Going back historians have talked about them, one time refugees to Kerala from Syria. After

religious persecution, like the Parsees. But recent studies have come up with shocking data.

Like Sanjay Subrahmanyam in Lisbon taking Portugese Documents (“Career and Legend of

Vasco Da Gama”), they have said that it was the Syrian Christians called St. Thoma Christians of

the East by the Europeans, who brought Vasco da Gama, beginning the colonisation of India, to

Kerala shores. That they had offered to the Portuguese, French and British support to evict the

local kings, Zamorins, who gave them refuge. Obviously the early Syrians were here for

centuries, came as refugees, later more coming in. The same fact is also there in the Dutch

history of Travancore, also in the French sources. That the Syrian Christian refugees of Kerala

wanted the Europeans to help them to have “Thy Kingdom Come”.

60

They are now exposed, despite Syrian Christians in control of Kerala, despite the backroom boys

of Sonia Gandhi being Syrian Christians of Kerala there are demands from within Kerala that the

Syrians go back to Syria. Why Dr. C. I. Issac is taking the mantle of an RSS leader in Kerala, is

“fighting for the Hindus” against “minorities”. Too clever that, as the weapons go against the

diluted “minority” more to the Muslims. These are a shrewd people and the worst sufferers were

the Nairs and the Brahmins, formerly the Kerala warrior caste like Rajputs and the priestly caste,

the so-called upper castes. On whom the British spat venom, made the others enemies of them.

They also converted the lower castes and tried to liquidate the Hindu leadership, ruining Kerala.

Once called the richest nation in the world by the world traveller Marco Polo (13th century)

Malabar, present day Kerala, is today a suicide capital. There are armies of the Hindu

unemployed roaming all Indian cities, the only people wallowing in luxury are the Syrian

Christians, with their international church funds and vote bank politics. The other rich in Kerala

are the Muslims who have oil money from the Gulf. It is a sin to spread this lie about the Syrian

Christians. Their core beliefs, language of worship (Syriac) and totems are all from West Asia, to

this day. They came from old Syria, today part of Iraq, Turkey and modern Syria is well

established. Most of them are still under the Christian Church of Antioch, now in Muslim

Turkey. It is also well established in world history that there were exodus of people Jews,

Christians and Parsis from that region.

61

It is futile for Dr. Issac, how so ever shrewd he is, to cover up history written through a few

centuries, in many countries, in many languages. The question is this, the Syrian Christians who

came as refugees have now captured Kerala. They own all major establishments, own up to 85

percent of educational institutions, 80 percent of media, most of the banks, financial institutions

and the Hindus, once ruling Kerala, slave it out as workers. Impoverished they commit suicide in

thousands. What began during the British regime, continued with the secular communist phase.

Why go elsewhere, see Kerala now ruled by a Christian-Muslim coalition, has no Hindu political

party worth the name in the state. It is branded communal by the predominantly Christian media.

The chief minister, chief secretary, police chief, majority IAS officers, why even the sportsmen

are all Syrian Christian.

62

Capital-starved, cornered, the Hindus suffer in silence. But at last there are many who talk out,

like the Ezhava community leadersVellapally Natesan and now the NSS leader Narayana

Panikker. They are not afraid anymore, they were. Many groups are now asking that the Syrian

Christians, who came as refugees and captured Kerala be driven out. Why this new explanations

from people like Dr. Issac. But it will not help, truth is known to the people and the Syrian

Christians may have to own up at last. A people given refuge eventually destroying a place is

unusual in world history. It is what the Syrian Christians are guilty of. They could cover up the

truth so far with the British in power and later naive pro-west groups in charge. Today an

awakened India understands what is the truth. – Christian Aggression, Tiruvananthapuram,

March 3, 2005

https://apostlethomasindia.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/india-and-the-syrian-christians-of-kerala-

pradeep-nair/

Ancient Christians in India

April 24, 2009

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: In southern India, in Kerala, there are millions of people known as

St. Thomas Christians. Their ancestors, many believe, were converted by the Apostle Thomas in

the first century. Portuguese missionaries later destroyed most of the ancient church writings,

replacing them with their own. But now Benedictine monks at St. John’s Abbey in Minnesota are

rediscovering the surviving texts. Fred de Sam Lazaro has a close-up view of all this. He is both

our correspondent and journalist-in-residence at St. John’s University.

63

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: St. John’s Abbey in Minnesota may be best known in the world of

biblical manuscripts for its illuminated, hand-written Bible.

Reverend COLUMBA STEWART, OSB (St. John’s Abbey, Collegeville, MN, handing over

manuscripts): Ethiopian manuscript, Latin manuscript.

DE SAM LAZARO: But also here, in the subterranean Hill

Museum and Manuscript Library, is one of the most extensive records of sacred texts from

around the world.

Reverend STEWART: This project of preserving manuscripts photographically was started out

of our Benedictine tradition of being guardians of culture. The monasteries have been places

where texts particularly have been treasured.

DE SAM LAZARO: Father Columba Stewart’s quest to record church history, to fill in its

blanks, has taken him to the farthest trails of early Christianity — Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and,

perhaps the least well-known destination, Kerala, a province in southwestern India where he

recently brought a delegation of his museum’s benefactors.

Rev. STEWART: We got to India through the Middle East, and of course that’s how Christianity

got to India in the first place. There’s an assumption that there were no Christians in India until

the Western missionaries brought the Gospel to this land of pagans, and that’s not the truth at all.

DE SAM LAZARO: Long before it reached many parts of Europe, Christianity came across the

Arabian Sea to Kerala along the thriving spice trade routes. Today about seven million people, a

fifth of Kerala’s population, call themselves St. Thomas Christians after Jesus’ apostle, who

many here believe arrived in India in 52 A.D. Even today, parts of some liturgies are sung in

Syriac, close to the Aramaic language spoken by Christ.

Professor ISTVAN PERCZEL (Department of Medieval Studies, CEU): They claim to have

been converted by St. Thomas the Apostle. This we cannot prove either or disprove. But from

the, I don’t know, third, perhaps fourth century onwards we have testimony to their existence

here.

DE SAM LAZARO: Professor Istvan Perczel, a Hungarian scholar of medieval Christianity, has

championed the effort to document Kerala’s church history, bringing together the Minnesota

monastery and local Indian scholars

Prof. PERCZEL (looking at manuscript): Hmmm. We have never seen this.

64

DE SAM LAZARO: He’s spent months in Kerala scouring

dusty church closets for old texts and records.

Prof. PERCZEL (pointing at page in manuscript): Can we come back to digitize this?

DE SAM LAZARO: Most of these go back only as far as the beginning of colonization around

the 15th century, when the first European colonists — the Portuguese — arrived to find both

spices and the St. Thomas Christians who, they discovered, were a distant branch of Middle

Eastern Orthodox churches

Rev. STEWART: By their lights, viewing it through the lens of the 15th- and 16th-century

European perspective, these people were heretics. They were concerned that their liturgies and

their other writings be purified and corrected on the basis of what a Portuguese Latin-Rite

Roman Catholic would expect to be normative. So there is very, very little manuscript evidence

from before the Portuguese era, because the Portuguese were very good at collecting these

manuscripts that they’d already found, destroying them, and issuing corrected copies of them.

(speaking to Father Ignatius): So, Father Ignatius, this is your oldest Syriac manuscript?

Reverend IGNATIUS PAYYAPPILLY (Director, Catholic Art Museum of the Archdiocese of

Ernakulam-Angamaly, India): This is the oldest Syriac manuscript which I have here in these

archives. It is written in 1563.

Rev. STEWART: It’s a Syriac manuscript, but there’s a Latin note that this manuscript belonged

to the Carmelites, and it’s interesting that they write it in Latin. It, again, tells you something

about the religious situation.

DE SAM LAZARO: Latin or Roman Catholic were introduced or imposed on the St. Thomas

Christians, though Syriac continued in use in their liturgies. But many outlawed rites survived, as

did factions that resisted pledging loyalty to a Syriac patriarch instead of the pope. Scribes from

Kerala were later sent to the Middle East to recover texts destroyed by the Portuguese. The only

surviving copies of many are now in Kerala.

Rev. STEWART: Those are treasures, because we can find

manuscripts that may have disappeared in Middle Eastern libraries, some collections of East

Syrian canon law, for example, preserved in unique manuscripts in Kerala, which haven’t

65

survived because of the later persecution of these Christians in the Middle East in the 19th and

20th centuries.

DE SAM LAZARO: The Kerala church, meanwhile, has seen schisms both between and within

the Western and Eastern branches. But through it all the St. Thomas Christians have maintained

a distinctly Indian — that is non-European — character.

Rev. PAYYAPILLY: We are Christians in faith, and we are Indian in citizenship, and we are

Hindus in culture.

DE SAM LAZARO: Father Ignatius Payyapilly started this museum a few years ago, collecting

relics and statues mostly from demolished church buildings.

Rev. PAYYAPILLY: See the halo of Jesus around his head, Jesus, and see the long ears and his

hair. These are all typical resemblance of the statue of Buddha.

DE SAM LAZARO: Although the Western scholars first came in search of Syriac manuscripts,

they’ve also discovered a rich local history inscribed on palm leaves and in Malayalam, the local

language, and tongues that preceded it. Much of it is everyday church accounts and records.

Valuable history to scholars — just clutter to most priests in the local churches

SUSAN THOMAS (Church Scholar): And most of these palm leaves were, you know, either put

in somewhere where you have them exposed to termites and mice, or just put up with the logs

and water wells or the waste material. Sometimes they burn it up.

DE SAM LAZARO: The palm leaves reveal a community

that could serve as a model of interfaith harmony in a larger region that’s often seen sectarian

violence. The churches employed Hindu scribes, for example, and bishops enjoyed warm

relations with the local kings who reigned in the area

Rev. PAYYAPILLY: I have seen here in these archives a beautiful document written by the

bishop — handwritten together with the printed one — requesting all the churches belonging to

the Cochin Kingdom — they should celebrate the 60th birthday of the king.

DE SAM LAZARO: The king is Hindu?

Rev. PAYYAPILLY: Yes, the king is a Hindu…and they have to say special mass, solemn high

mass for the longevity of this king.

DE SAM LAZARO: There’s still much to be analyzed, much to be discovered. All of it will be

digitized — rescued from moisture, termites, and neglect and stored here for scholars and for

posterity. There will also be back-up copies in an unlikely safe haven: a monastery in central

Minnesota.

For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, this is Fred de Sam Lazaro.

Related Reading

CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA: FROM BEGINNINGS TO THE PRESENT by Robert Eric

Frykenberg

66

REBELS AND OUTCASTS: A JOURNEY THROUGH CHRISTIAN INDIA by Charlie Pye-

Smith

Related Links

Hill Museum and Manuscript Library: Saint Thomas Christian Manuscript Collections, Kerala,

India

Catholic Near East Welfare Asssociation: The Thomas Christians

Project for Preserving the Manuscripts of the Syrian Christians in India

The Hindu: "A language saved" by K.P. M. Basheer, September 14, 2008

Embassy of India: "Kerala: India's Cradle of Christianity"

Time: St. Thomas in India, January 12, 1953

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2009/04/24/april-24-2009-ancient-christians-in-

india/2754/

·

The Origin of Syrian Christians of Keralam Posted October 31, 2004 (Published in Aseemaa, A

Journal for Nat...

S. Kalyanaraman

January 1, 2015