The St. Thomas Tradition and a Recent Discovery in Travancore

C. S. Srinivasachari

The St. Thomas Tradition and a Recent Discovery in Travancore

Vol. 7 · No. 4December - 1931pp. 757–759English

Summary

Addressing the long‑standing tradition that the apostle Thomas visited India, this article assesses a recent archaeological discovery in Travancore (present‑day Kerala). The find consists of a granite cross and inscriptions in Pahlavi script unearthed near a coastal church. The author argues that the cross, dated to the eighth or ninth century, supports the existence of an early Christian community on the Malabar Coast and lends credence to the Syrian Christian oral tradition. He reviews earlier evidence for the St. Thomas mission, including the Acts of Thomas and references by Church Fathers, while cautioning against uncritical acceptance of legendary details. The article situates the Travancore discovery within the broader context of Indian Ocean trade networks, which facilitated the arrival of Persian merchants and missionaries. By analysing the iconography of the cross and comparing it with similar artefacts from Persia, the author concludes that the find testifies to enduring connections between South Indian Christians and the Near East.

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Conclusion

The Travancore cross strengthens the argument that Christianity had an early and continuous presence on the Malabar Coast. It illustrates how maritime trade enabled cultural and religious exchanges across the Indian Ocean.

Key passages

Chosen by AI from the article's text. Each one is checked word for word against the text before it is shown.

“There is the evidence of an લ્ય) Muhamtnadan writer that Mani, the founder of Manichaism (born 215 A.C.) visited India to spread 1135 rival creed and succeeded in winning some Christians over 10 his faith ;”
“The date of the Kadamarram Cross thus becomes definitely computable as the end of the gth century, fe, about two centuries and 2 quarter later than the earlier Kottayam and St.Thomas’ Mount Crosses whiclh have been assigned to about the middle of the 7th century ;”
“The discovery of this Kadamarram Cross may be regarded as indicating an important landmark in the history of Christianity as it grew up in the Malabar Coast,”

Works cited in this article

Travancore Arckaeological Series
Kottayam Copper-plate Charter

Discussed in this article

People

Mani
Mar Shapur
Dr. Sir J. 7, Modi
Mr. હે. 5, Ramanatha Iyer
King Sthanu-Ravi

Places

Kottayam 4
Kadamarram
Malabar 22
St. Thomas’ Mount
Cranganore 6
Quilon 5

Texts & works

Tarisa’ alli Church
St. Gabriel's Church

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In this issue

Vol. 7 · No. 4

629–634Mahanitakam – Our Text 635–650Notes on the Nagarjunakonda Inscriptions 651–654Kulasekhara Alvar and His DateK. G. Sesha Aiyar 655–679Early Visnuism and Narayaniya WorshipMrinal Das Gupta 679–689King Nanyadeva of MithilaRamesh Chandra Majumdar 683–702The Sea and Land Travels of a Buddhist Sadhu in the Sixteenth CenturyGiuseppe Tucci 689–702The Coins and Weights in Ancient IndiaA. K. Sarkar 703–708Fire-Arms in Ancient IndiaJogesh Chandra Roy 703–709Finger-posts of Bengal HistoryBijoy Nath Sarkar 709–715Studies in the KautilyaNarendra Nath Law 716–726On Some Castes and Caste-origins in SylhetK. M. Gupta 727–734The Chando-Vedanga of PingalaMano Mohan Ghosh 735–737On the origin of the Aryan word IstakaJean Przyluski 737–740An Inscription of Asoka discovered at YerragudiDineshchandra Sircar 740–741Bodhichitta-vivarna of NagarjunaP. C. Bagchi 741–742On the antiquity of the name "Kasthamandapa" or "Kathmandu"P. C. Bagchi 743–746Identification of BrahmaputraK. M. Gupta 746–747MeradaLakshmi Narayan Harichandan Jagadeb 747–750Origin of the Lotus-CapitalAnanda Kentish Coomaraswamy 750The Gudimallam LingamAnanda Kentish Coomaraswamy 751–753GopalaJogendra Chandra Ghosh 753–756Early Capital of the Gurjara Pratiharas of MahodayaJogendra Chandra Ghosh 757–759The St. Thomas Tradition and a Recent Discovery in TravancoreC. S. SrinivasachariCurrent article 760–768ReviewsSushil Kumar De, Batakrishna Ghosh, D. Bhattacharya 769–775Select Contents of Oriental Journals 776–778Obituary Notice: Pandit R. D. BanerjiRamaprasad Chanda 779–782Bibliographical Notes

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