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ST. THOMAS THE APOSTI.E AND INDIA
2 5
problem as with the aid of the literature quoted he should be
able to find out for himself still other works on the subject.
It is not especially dealt with in a few other articles which
might perhaps have found their place here. But I shall only
point to the discussion on the Nestorians in India carried on
by Sir george GriersON and other scholars in the Journal of
the Royal Asiatic Society 1907, 311 sq., 477 sq., and to the
learned papers by the låte J. Kennedy ibid. 1907, 951 sq.;
1908, 505 sq., and 1917, 209 sq., 469 sq. which are of some
importance to our subject of research. The article of Dr.
mlngana on ’The early spread of Christianity in India’
(Bulletin of the John Rylands Library X (1926), 435 sqq.) should also
be consulted.
The Christians of St. Thomas or Syrian Christians are
divided into several different churches the members of which
seem to have numbered in all about 850.000 in 1921.1 Nearly
all of them live in the province of Malabar and in the native
states of Cochin and Travancore. They all without exception
seem to cherish the tradition that their church was founded by
St. Thomas, one of the Apostles of Jesus.
According to the South Indian tradition the Apostle in the
year 52 A.D. arrived from the island of Socotra to a port
called by classical authors Muziris and situated in the Kerala
country, i.e. in Malabar.2 He at once set out to preach the
faith of Christ and made several conversions even amongst the
Brahmins of that part of India, viz. the Nambütiris who are
known even to-day as very strict upholders of an extremely
conservative Hindu ritual. He ordained priests out of two
special families the one living at Shankarapuri, the other one at
1 This is as far as 1 can make it out from Census of India 1921,
Vol. I: i, p. 125. Of these about half the number, or some 425.000, are
Romo-Syrians owing allegiance to the Pope. Numbers, however, are
admittedly uncertain. Mr. Thoma Centenary Supplement p. 213 n. affirms
the Syrian Christians to be more than 1.000.000.
2 Muziris is generally identified with the present town of Cranganore.
It is mentioned by Pliny Nat. hist. VI, 24, in the Periplus maris Erythræi
54 etc.
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