Dioceses of Saint Thomas of Mylapore - Early History

Early History

According to local tradition amongst Saint Thomas Christians, the Apostle Thomas arrived in India, supposedly at Kodungallur, Kerala, in 52 AD. According to the tradition, Thomas later moved to the east coast of South India, fixing his see at the city of Mylapore. However, Christianity was not known to the ancient Dravidian Tamils, and it is not mentioned in their Sangam literature. The Syrian Malabar Nasrani and the European and colonial rulers assert without evidence that Mylapore was ruled by Non-Dravidians. But Mylapore too was not mentioned in Dravidian inscriptions or Sangam literature. The Silappatikaram, written in the Chera Capital Kana Vayil Kottam (Cochin) by the Chera prince Ilango Adigal did not mention Christianity in Kerala in the 4th century.

Again according to the tradition, Thomas, having aroused the hostility of the local priests by making converts, fled to St. Thomas's Mount four miles (6 km) southwest of Mylapore. He was supposedly followed by his persecutors, who transfixed him with a lance as he prayed kneeling on a stone, AD 72. His body was brought to Mylapore and buried inside the church he had built there. The present Santhome Church is on this spot but is clearly of a much later date. The Acts of Thomas and oral traditions (only recorded in writing centuries later) provide weak and unreliable evidence.

The acts of Judas Thomas the apostle written by Jewish poet Bardesan in the 3rd century mentions Calamina in Persia as the place where St. Thomas was martyred. Saint Thomas is said to have visited the (historical) kingdom of Gondophorus of the Indo-Parthian Kingdom at the Indo-Persian border with the capital at Taxila to build a Palace for King Gondophares where he was commissioned to build a palace for the King. Thomas is said then to have visited the kingdom of Misdaeus (also called Mazdai). Gondophares and Mazdai were Greco-Persian Kings not related to Dravidian Tamils.

The acts then state that Thomas converted the wife of King Misdeus, Queen Tertia, Princess Mygdonia wife of Charisius, Prince Juzanes and Cyphorus who was ordained as Deacon. The infuriated King Misdaes ordered four soldiers to take Saint Thomas to a hill in his Persian kingdom and spear him where he was martyred. Thomas's remains were moved to Edessa, Mesopotamia. All these are Greco-Persian, not ancient Tamil names. Bardesan never mentioned Brahmins as the killers of Saint Thomas; this tradition is Portuguese. Syrian Christians appeared in Madras only when it became an important outpost of the Delhi Sultanate in the 13th century. Ancient Tamils of Chola Dynasty and Pandyan Kingdoms never knew Syrian Christians. Tharisapalli plates issued by King Aiyanadikal Thiruvadikal of the Ay kingdom in 825 AD was the first Tamil to record the existence of Persian immigrant Christians who had signed in Pahlavi, Kufic and Hebrew. These were Nestorian Christians known locally as Nasrani Mappillas, as they married local women. Nestorian Syrians came from the Iraqi cities Baghdad and Karbala in Arab ships in the middle ages.

However there were Nestorians in China (Xian and Turfan), Manchuria and Mongolia already in the 6th century, so it is perfectly possible that they also arrived earlier to the Coromandel coast.

Marco Polo visited the Saint Thomas tomb at Kayalpatnam. The Portuguese initially identified Kalamina where Saint Thomas was martyred with (Kalyan, Bombay).

Mylapore became famous only after the Portuguese came to colonise India. The Portuguese with Nestorian Christians of Kerala organised an army. Portuguese descendents called Cochin Mestizos appeared when the Portuguese soldiers had numerous mistresses and slave girls in the 16th century. The Indian Mestizo army of Portuguese had three classes: Mestizo, Castizo and Toepass. The Nestorian Syrian community was an integral part of this Portuguese community; they remained Cathoics until the Portuguese left in 1660. The Portuguese claimed that Saint Thomas visited Kerala in 52 AD and converted Nambudiris of Kerala. Namudiris appeared in Kerala only after the Chalkyan attacks on Kerala. The Portuguese legends were carefully designed to stake their claims over Madras, Quilon and Cochin as these early Christians states belonged to Syrian Nambudiris and not to Dravidian Tamils. Syrian Christians were migrants from the Assyrian Church of the East before they encountered the Portuguese, and were not related to Tamils.

Saint Thomas could have talked Greek and Hebrew and not Tamil. Nasrani Mappillas of Kerala did not have a Tamil Bible until the Portuguese started printing bibles in Lingua Malabar Tamul in the 16th century.

There were at least older Syriac Christian catechisms in Kerala - since the Portuguese actually had to burn several Nestorian Syriac Christian books after the synod of Diamper in 1599 (including the Peshitta, the Syriac Christians Bible). Even today several old Syriac documents (not destroyed by the Portuguese) still survive in the Malabar coast - proving they are older than the Portuguese arrival.