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ST. THOMAS THE APOSTLE AND INDIA
SI
Mr. TlIOMA1 and others have tried to afford the missing proofs
from native sources. There is undoubtedly in that legendary
chronicle of Malabar, the Këralölpatti, an account of a certain
Thöman, described as an ’opponent of all the Vedas’, who is
said to have arrived in Malabar and converted to his Bauddha
(Buddhist) faith the king of that country together with many
prominent people. But this proof is of no value whatsoever.
First of all we know nothing definite at all about the original
date of the Këralölpatti; and furthermore no historical criticism
has ever been applied to that text so that the passages
concerning Thöman may very well be later interpolations. Nor can
any weight whatsoever be ascribed to a poem of some 450 lines
called the Thömä Parvam which was admittedly composed in
16012 though it has been suggested that it draws upon older
materials partly destroyed at the synode of Diamper (1599). It
thus seems quite obvious that the oldest authority for the South
Indian tradition is Marco Polo — so far anyhow.3
But if there is nothing to prove historically that St. Thomas
did ever visit South India there are definite proofs of the
existence, at an early date, of Christian communities in Malabar and
even further south, in the island of Ceylon. Not much credit
can be given to the story that the Hindu Saint Mänikka
Väsakar visited Malabar and converted several families from
Christianity to Hinduism, the descendants of which are still known
as Manigramakars and do not enjoy the full privileges of caste
Hindus.4 For even if that story were true we are, unfortunately,
1 Cp. Centenary Supplement p. 213 sqq.; Indian Historical Records
Commission V, 121 sqq. etc.
2 The author of the poem, one Thömä Rambän, is said to have been
forty-eighth in descent from a man who was converted by the Apostle
himself.
3 I do not enter here upon the question of some old copperplates with
inscriptions possessed by the Christians of St. Thomas and said to be of
very great age. Even Mr. joseph who emphatically denies that the
Apostle ever visited South India seems to ascribe them to the third century
A.D., if I have rightly understood him. Modern scientific research,
however, has put their age down to the 9th or even the 14th century.
4 Cp. V. Smith Early History of India3 p. 247; Daniel Indian
Antiquary LIII, 257 sqq.
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