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( This wallpaper was in the first place presented in the National Seminar on The Identity of the St. Thomas Catholic Migrants held from 12th to 15th September 2013 at Animation and Renewal Centre, Panvel, Diocese of Kalyan, in connection with the Silver Jubilee Celebration of the Kalyan Diocese )
Christian Communities of St. Thomas Tradition in Maharashtra and its Neighbourhood in Mid-Sixth Century
All through indian history the geographic region of Konkan in general and Maharashtra in finical has been located as the mid-point between the commercially vibrant maritime zones of Kerala and Gujarat and it is the junctional target where the trade circuits from Gujarat and Kerala used to converge and intervene in different ways. interestingly this area has besides been the center of two geographies, Kerala and Northwest India, which were connected by historians and tribe traditions with the papal sour of St. Thomas at two different points of time. The discovery of first base hundred coins bearing the identify of Gondophares from Northwest India from mid-1830s onwards and inscription of Gunduphara from Takht-i-Bahi near Peshawar in 1872, made many scholars view that Gondophares mentioned in these coins a well as Gunduphara of this inscription were the lapp person as Gondophoros of Acts of Judas Thomas, who was mentioned in this work as the rule of the kingdom which St. Thomas reached for preaching gospel in India. Against this background they argue that the function of India to which St.Thomas came first gear for preaching gospel must have been North-West India and its historic probability is now attested to by many. however, the oral traditions of St.Thomas Christians, chiefly Margamkali Pattu and Rabban Pattu, say that St. Thomas reached Kerala, where he preached gospel and laid basis for seven christian communities. For a retentive period of clock time, historicity of this oral tradition was debated by scholars arguing professional and contra ; however holocene researches have highlighted the historical probability of the arrival of St.Thomas in India, particularly against the background of intensify maritime trade happening between coastal westerly India and Red Sea ports on the one handwriting and coastal western India a well as the ports of Persian Gulf on the other. The physical presence of about four million St. Thomas Christians, claiming their origin to one or another set of the seven initial christian settlements of Kerala set up by St. Thomas as per their custom, frequently serves as ethno-historical evidence adding significantly to the diachronic claims of their oral custom .
A batch has been written on the lineage and growth of christian communities of these two regions and historians now broadly maintain that St. Thomas must have come first gear to North-west India, peculiarly to the kingdom of Gondophoros for preaching gospel probably through silk-route and then seems to have gone back to Jerusalem to attend the Jerusalem council and then he must have taken the sea route from Persian Gulf, probably from Basra to reach Cranganore and preach religious doctrine in south India in 52 AD. however, what has been puzzling the historians is the larger historical context within which the early Christians appeared in coastal Maharashtra and Goa, as is mentioned in ancient literature and testified by the discovery of ancient Christian symbols and artifacts from this region .
The cardinal purpose of this paper is to look into the nuanced ways and mechanisms by which Christian communities evolved in the first millennium in Mahrashtra and its vicinity and their kinship with the respective christian groups of St. Thomas tradition in the indian Ocean. This is done by looking into the stick to queries : Did St. Thomas or St. Bartholomew or any early apostle of Jesus ever preach gospel in Konkan or any contribution of Maharashtra ? How does one account for the presence of some christian communities in Konkan with a bishop residing at Kalyan in the begin of sixth century, as is evidenced by Cosmas Indicopleustes ? How can one historically locate it and several Pre-Portuguese christian objects obtained from Goa including the sixth century Pahlavi-cross in the late past ? Can their beginning be linked somehow with the preach of gospel by St. Thomas or St. Bartholomew ? How far were they connected with the assorted christian groups of St. Thomas custom in the indian Ocean ? What happened to these christian communities in former period ? These issues are addressed by analyzing the primary information obtained for this period and contextualizing the developments within the larger diachronic processes of the indian Ocean .
The Early Christian Settlements of St. Thomas Tradition in India: Historical Setting
Acts of Judas Thomas is the earliest written source that speak of the preach of St. Thomas in India. This was written in the third century AD and it refers to the preach of St.Thomas in the kingdom of Gondophoros, who was late identified as an Indo-Parthian rule. With the discovery of first hundred coins bearing the appoint of Gondophares from Northwest India from mid-1830s onwards and rock dedication of Gunduphara from Takht-i-Bahi in Mardan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan in 1872, scholars began to view that Gondophares mentioned in these coins american samoa well as Gunduphara of this inscription were the same person as Gondophoros of Acts of Judas Thomas and consequently they argued that the part of India to which St.Thomas came must have been North-West India. The kingdom of Gondophoros with capital at Taxila, extended from Baluchistan, Kabul, Punjab and Sind. Against this background of highly dependable archaeological evidences supporting the information of Acts of Judas Thomas, many scholars subscribe to the historical probability of St.Thomas ’ preaching in this region. By mid-first hundred AD the political control of this geography that is said to have heard Christian message inaugural in India passed into the hands of the Kushans, who finally set up an empire like political building with the wealth that they derived from the silk route barter and extended their operate from Bactria to Peshawar, Taxila and Mathura on the one side and probably must have extended up to Malwa and Maharashtra ( through western Kshatrapas ) on the other hand. Though we do not have details about what happened to this Christian community former, it is quite discernible that at least some of them must have moved to places that were under the Bishoprics established on the silk-route in their contiguous vicinity like the dioceses of Merv and Tus established under irani Church in 334 and raised to metropolitan condition in 420 ; they must have been spiritually catered to by the church of Korasan. The appearance of several dioceses under iranian Church on the silk path in the one-eighth and ninth centuries, particularly Merv in Korasan and Transoxiana region, Herat in Afghanistan and Samarkhand shows that at least from fourth hundred onwards the initial converts in the places of the first base apostolate of St. Thomas in north west India got opportunities to get connected with persian Church and could continue to live as Christians, credibly till their eventual extinction with their blend with the Budhists or with the Muslims following their invasions in the eleventh and one-twelfth centuries .
however, the oral traditions of St.Thomas Christians, chiefly Margamkali Pattu and Rabban Pattu, say that St. Thomas reached Kerala, where he preached gospel and lay foundation for seven christian communities ; but it is interesting to note that none of the Mediterranean or west asian sources give any details about the apostolic work of St.Thomas in Kerala, in the room they are articulated in these Pattukal. Nevertheless, these songs, which form the carriers of the collective memory of this community, were codified and written polish much later : Rabban Pattu, which was initially circulated in sing shape, got written around 1601, and Margamkali Pattu, which was orally transmitted from generation to generation as a song, got ultimately written down in 1732. Though their final articulation happened later, it is believed that these songs carry grains of accuracy a far as spread of Christianity in Kerala was concerned. Out of the first seven christian settlements mentioned in these songs, Palayur, Cranganore, Parur and Quilon were trade centres located near sea-side or urine channels, while Niranam was located on the banks of the river system of Pamba. Nilackal or Chayal was surely an inland center distanced away from water-side, but located on the trade wind path running across the ghat to Tamil Nadu. If there are elements of truth in what these songs say, then it becomes open that most of the initial christian settlements were located in the relatively significant trade centres of Kerala accessible by water channels or land routes .
The physical presence of Christians in a highly concentrated form in most of these settlements with claims of their lineage to apostolic sermon of St.Thomas in one of these old seven christian settlements in fact serve as an ethno-historical tell that substantiates the high probability of the arrival of St.Thomas in Kerala .
Historians have been trying to see whether elements of accuracy are traceable in both these traditions and if therefore, how to get reconciled with these two pieces of information. The probability that many suggest is that St.Thomas after preaching in northwest India must have gone back to Palestine to attend the Jerusalem council and then after the decision of council he might have taken the traditional sea -route from iranian Gulf to reach Kerala for proclaiming the gospel, as is suggested by the sources in both written and oral circulation. obviously the crucial commercial centres of Kerala and Tamilnadu reachable through trade routes happened to be the core area of his apostolic work in South India
Early Christians of Maharashtra and Konkan
The first reference to the Christians of Konkan, particularly of Maharashtra and Goa is seen in the writings of Cosmas Indicopleustes ( literally meaning amerind Voyager ), when he refers to Calliana ( Kalyan ) and Sibor ( Chandor in Goa ). Cosmas was referring to the bishop and Christians of Calliana against the context of the places having the settlements of persian Christians in India and Sri Lanka. He writes : “ even in Taprobane ( Sri Lanka ), an island in Further India, where indian ocean is, there is a church of Christians, with clergy and a body of believers, but I know not whether there be any Christians in the parts beyond it. In the state of Male ( Malabar ) where capsicum grows, there is besides a church, and another seat called Calliana, there is furthermore a bishop, who is appointed from Persia. In the island, again called the island of Dioscorides ( Socotra ), which is situated in the same indian sea, and where the inhabitants speak Greek, having been primitively colonists sent there by the Ptolemies who succeeded Alexander the Macedonian, there are clergy who receive their ordination in Persia, and are sent on to the island, and there is a battalion of Christians ”. Kalliena ( Kalyan ) had been an significant center of Roman trade in the early centuries of Christian era, as is evidenced by Periplus of Erythraen Sea .
Cosmas Indicopleustes besides hints at the economic importance of the geographies that made christian merchants settle down in these places. He says that Male ( Malabar ) is the place ‘ where capsicum grows ’ and Calliana ( Kalyan ) is the place ‘ which exports copper, sesame-logs and fabric for making dresses, and which ultimately made it ‘ a bang-up set of commercial enterprise ’. It is to be here particularly remembered that Kalyan and its neighbor trade centres of Bassein ( Vasai ) and Chaul were major centres of fabric trade for long span of time, as is evidenced from the late portuguese sources. however the reference to copper export from Kalyan is a quite confusing data, as India is said to have had no copper mine during this period. After the extinction of the erstwhile Khetri mines of Rajasthan, from which copper was mined for the multiple uses in the zones of Harappan culture, there were not many copper mines in India. then where did the bull for export come from ? here one should link it with the former passage of Christian Topography which speaks of Tzinista ( China ), from where a big bulge of copper used to enter India by the third draw of sixteenth century, as is evidenced by later portuguese sources. Cosmas says that from China flowed besides a variety show of goods including silk ( from China ), along with cloves ( obviously from Moluccas, South East Asia ) and sandalwood ( from Timor ) to Persia. The copper that was exported from Kalyan obviously must have come from China or Japan, which were major sources for copper mobilize in the amerind Ocean for long, as is evidenced from the belated portuguese documents. These details make us infer that the seat of the diocese of Kalyan was located not in the vacuum, but in the heartland of a stimulated economy and international trade, whose networks were intrinsically linked with the ecclesiastical and missionary networks connected with iranian Church .
Kalyan existed as a nodal point in the indian Ocean for both commercial and ecclesiastical circuits. Cosmas Indicopleustes refers to the geographic components of these circuits in India, when he gives the list of places where persian christian merchants used to conduct trade wind. They were : ‘ Sindhu ( Sind ), Orrhotha ( Saurashtra ), Sibor ( Sindabor or Chandrapura, which is an abbreviation of confront day Chandor ), and then five marts of Male which export pepper : Parti ( ? ), Mangarouth ( Mangalore ), Salopatana ( Chaliyampattanam ), Nalopatana ( Dahbatan or Dharmapttanam ) and Poudopatana ( Puthupattanam or present day Pattanam ? ). then out in the ocean, at the distance of about five days and nights from the continent, lies Sielediba, that is Taprobane ( Sri Lanka ). And again on the continent is Marallo, a marketplace exporting chank shells ( obviously referring to Pearl Fishery Coast ), then Caber ( Kaveripattanam ), which exports alabandenum, and then farther away is the clove country ( referring to Moluccas ), then Tzinista which produces the silk. For meeting the apparitional needs of irani christian merchants involved in such a huge cross of geography stretching from coastal western India to South China sea, there was only one bishop whose base was then at Kalyan. These pieces of information are dependable as Cosmas himself made trips to India, as is mentioned in the script, and for a considerable lump of his narrative he got information from his merchant supporter named Sopatros, adenine well .
With his across-the-board familiarization with these geographies, Cosmas developed a cosmologic perception on the ideological basis connected with the teachings of Nestor and Theodore of Mopseustia. The ecclesiastical affiliation of Cosmas Indicopleustes to the Church of Nestor is indicated in the work, which besides is indicative of the ecclesiastical connectivity of these spread christian settlements with persian church. He refers to his fear to Patricius, who was a christian convert from irani Zoroastrianism and who was known as Mar Aba, and was subsequently in 540 made the Bishop Catholic ( Patriarch ) of the whole of Persia. Mar Aba visited Alexandria along with his close up disciple Thomas of Edessa and Cosmas Indicopleustes was profoundly influenced by the lectures that Mar Aba made on the doctrines and works of Nestor and Theodore of Mopseustia in that city. Referring to it Cosmas writes : ‘ the great Patricius … came among us from the state of the Chaldaens ’. Cosmas calls Mar Aba ‘ the Man of God, ’ from who he obtained information about currents in the amerind Ocean and the time of navigation. With the ban of Nesotrianism in Alexandria after the council of Ephesus ( 431 ), there were only a identical few in that city who maintained teachings of Nestor and Cosmas was a member of that minority group. however he regards the teachings of Mar Aba about Nestor as the ‘ doctrines of holy religion ’.
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Though Kalyan having a diocese is the only Christian enclave in the contemporary Maharashtra that Cosmas Indicopleustes refers to in his make, he besides speaks of another settlement of persian Christian merchants on the southerly Konkan, i, Sibor, which is identified as Sindabor or Chandrapura ( contemporary Chantor ) located on the banks of a tributary of Zuari river of Goa. It is interesting to note that both Kalyan and Chandor are geographically located not on the steer sea-side of contemporary times. These two places, relatively distanced away from the confront day sea-front, were connected with ocean through some dependable water channels as in the case of Kalyan or rivulets like the conducive of Zuari in the encase of Sibor. furthermore, the continuous geophysical changes and interaction happening between the sea and domain over prison term must have led to the silting up of the coastal side let out distillery further the distance from these places to the contemporary sea-side .
Christian Networks of Faith and Commerce and the Evolution of a Community of St. Thomas Tradition
By the middle of sixth century there evolved an intricate net of faith and department of commerce among these christian settlements scattered in the indian Ocean, whose consolidation and cohesion was ensured by religion and barter related travels and circuits. In fact the citation of Cosmas Indicopleustes to the presence and activities of the christian merchants on the fringes of indian Ocean is foster attested to by the discovery of stone crosses with Pahlavi ( archaic Persian ) inscriptions in several places in southwest India and Sri Lanka, which is further suggestive of the boastfully net of religion and commerce developed by iranian christian merchants. sol far nine crosses with Pahlavi inscriptions were found in the integral indian Ocean region : One in Anuradhhapuram in Sri Lanka, which was associated with the commercially oriented Christian community migrated from Persia. Cosmas writes : “ The island ( of Sri Lanka ) has besides a church of persian Christians who have settled there, and a Presbyter who is appointed from Persia, and a Deacon and a complete ecclesiastical ritual. ” besides were found eight Pahlavi-inscribed crosses in India namely, Mylapore ( 1 ), Kottayam ( 2 ), Muttuchira ( 1 ), Kadamattam ( 1 ), Alengad ( 1 ), Kothanalloor ( 1 ) and Agassaim in Goa ( 1 ). The maritime deal activities of the persian Christians through the Goan port of Revatidvipa or Gopakapattanam then controlled by the Chalukyas, led to the establishment of mercantile settlements of the persian Christians in Sindabor ( or Sibor or Chandrapura standing for present day Chantor ) and on the banks of lower Zuari, from where a Pahlavi-inscribed crossbreed was discovered in 2001 by Fr.Cosme Costa. The concentration of persian Christians in Gopakapattanam in Goa and Kalyan adenine well as its vicinity got augmented with the intense nautical trade happening between the Chalukyans, who controlled these ports a well as their backwoods, and the Sassanids following the dispatch of a commercial envoy by the Chalukyan ruler Pulikesin II ( 610-642 ) to the Sassanid court. It is said that a painting in Cave I at Ajanta represents a return embassy from Sassanid Persia to the Chalukyan court .
The common blueprint seen in the execution of these crosses speaks of the inter-connectedness between these christian settlements. Since Pahlavi was the linguistic process used in Sassanid Persia particularly in the Fars region before its islamization in the seventh-century AD., it is broadly believed that these Pahlavi-inscribed crosses must have taken shape before seventh hundred, and seem to have developed chiefly among the Pahlavi-speaking Christians. Out of the assorted Pahlavi-inscribed crosses found in India, the one at Mount St.Thomas of Mylapore seems to be the oldest, which is traced back to the sixth hundred AD., and probably adenine old as Anuradhapuram thwart. several attempts were made by many scholars to decipher and translate the archaic Pahlavi-inscriptions ; however the most late one was the translation given by Gerd Gropp who translated the Pahlavi-inscription of Mylapore in the watch words : “ Our Lord Messiah may show mercy on Gabriel, the son of Chaharbokht ( literally meaning having four sons ), the grandson of Durzad ( literally meaning born in distant farming ), who made this ( traverse ) ” .
migration of iranian Christians to India became frequent with the stimulation that the Sassanids gave to maritime trade with coastal India from the middle of third base century AD onwards. King Ardashir, who laid foundation of the Sassanid rule in Persia in 224 founded or re-founded several ports including Rew Ardashir in the Persian Gulf region for the aim of carrying out trans-oceanic trade with the marts of the indian Ocean. The one-fourth century writer Palladius refers to the Sassanid vessels plying in the amerind Ocean for trade .
The active engagement of christian traders from Sassanid Persia in the nautical craft is testified by the nestorian annals. The eleventh hundred nestorian Chronicle of Seert refers to a bishop, Dodi of Basra ( 3rd or fourth hundred ), having gone to India for converting the people. It besides refers to Mar Ahai, a nestorian Catholicos, who was sent by the Sassanid rule Yazdigird I ( 399-421 ) to Fars to investigate the piracy of ships returning from India and Ceylon. The Catholicos was entrusted with the task of collecting information about the sea-borne piracy credibly because of the connections that the Catholicos had with the christian trade groups of India and Ceylon, who either must have been the victims of such piratical attacks or must have been viewed as electric potential allies for countering such problems .
It is obvious that by sixth century channels of trade between Sassanid Persia and India were increasingly used by missionaries from Persia to move to the huge regions bordering the amerind Ocean. interest of persian Christians in indian trade was referred to by the report of Abraham Kashkar, a sixth hundred monk, who made his voyage to India as a merchant. B.E. Colles mentions about one Bar Sahde, who besides made several journeys to India before entering a monastery following the attack of his embark by the pirates .
Following the track of traders, the belief system of Christianity spread to different parts of the indian Ocean region including Malaya peninsula and South East Asia. At this orient of fourth dimension the commodities that the irani Christians used to take to Chinese and South East asian markets were called Possu ( which initially was a chinese version of the invest diagnose Parsa or Fars or Persia ) merchandise in these places. The unfold of irani Christians to coastal China and South East Asia seems to have happened relatively at an early period and vitamin a early as 410 AD we have attest of a bishop attending the synod of that year with the resounding title of “ Metropolitan of the Islands, Seas and Interior, of Dabag, Chin and Macin. ” Chin and Macin of this deed obviously stand for China and Mahachina, whereas Dabag stands for the island of Java .
The reference of the commercial activities of the irani Christians to the respective ports in the indian Ocean finally resulted in the formation of respective trade colonies by them on its brim, followed by migration of Christians in considerable numbers in the consecutive phases. The traders from West Asia moving to South East Asia had to halt at Malabar or some other seat on the western coast of India for a considerable menstruation of clock time cashbox they got favorable scent for their long-distance voyage through Bay of Bengal, where the northeast monsoon obstructed navigation during the time period between October and February. The iranian Christian merchants, who used to halt in respective trade centres of west seashore of India till they got favorable monsoon lay besides foundation for some of the principal christian settlements like those of Anuradhapuram in Srilanka, Kaveripattanam/Mylapore, Quilon, Pattanam/Cranganore, Sindabor or Goa, Kalyan and so forth, which by and by swelled in size, with the inflow of people in the succeeding periods. It is against this background that one should historically locate the reference book of Cosmas Indicopleustes to ‘ Sindhu, Orrhotha, Sibor, the marts of Male including Parti, Mangarouth, Salopatana, Nalopatana and Poudopatana ’ as centres of trade wind for iranian Christians .
As is apparent from the report of Cosmas Indicopleustes, Kalyan, Dioscorides ( Socotra ), Taprobane ( Sri Lanka ) were administered by clergy sent from Persia, and these christian settlements operated in close connection with the christian settlements of Kerala, causing some form of ecclesial communion to evolve among them under the bishop of Kalyan. These christian settlements extending from Persian Gulf and stretching to coastal India and South East Asia had shared identity and liturgical adenine well as spiritual bequest linked with St. Thomas and they were welded together not only by priests and bishops from Persia sporadically visiting and administering Sacraments, but besides by a network of monasteries, out of which the monastery of Kharg island in the Persian Gulf seems to have been the main prepare center for the geological formation of the missionaries meant for India and other regions in the indian Ocean. The St.Thomas Christians of Kerala and the migrant irani Christian merchants, who settled down in the major centres of maritime trade on the fringes of indian Ocean operated in unison and they were bound together by the commonality of religion and religious political orientation, which was followed by sharing of common Christian liturgy, corporate memory and folk-stories related to St. Thomas. Wherever the St.Thomas Christians went for trade they besides carried along with them the stories of apostolic work of St.Thomas among them, which finally their descendants and late the members of diverse local Christian community seem to have besides appropriated and circulated as something that had happened among them. The nucleus of such phenomena can be traced back to the St.Thomas Christians or their descendants, who used to conduct deal along with iranian Christians or in localities connected with the department of commerce of the latter and finally a Thomas-centric tradition and identity began to get disseminated in such trade wind centres and settlements extending up to Konkan and beyond .
Did St.Thomas or St. Bartholomew Preach in Konkan ?
This wonder emerges at a sharpen when one looks into the probable reasons for the egress of such early christian groups in Maharashtra and Goa, besides other parts of the amerind Ocean. recently there have been several attempts to link the origin of the early Christians of Kalyan and other parts of Konkan with the apostolate of St. Bartholomew. Their argument is based on the writings of St. Jerome and the historian Eusebius who refer to the preach of St.Bartholomew in India. very frequently the pre-Portuguese Christians of Goa and Maharashtra were identified by some as descendants of those who were baptized by St.Bartholomew. I feel that this seems to have been either a mistake or a distant probability. There is no conclusive tell or firm survive tradition or any authentic early on written bill other than the ones given by St.Jerome and Eusebius to substantiate the papal function of St.Bartholomew in Maharashtra and Goa. It should be here noted that these two church fathers do not refer to Maharashtra or Goa or Konkan anywhere in their writings as to link Bartholomew with this region. furthermore, while we have a large corpus of documents in Portuguese and Dutch languages mentioning the papal work of St.Thomas and the religious traditions of the St.Thomas Christians of Kerala we do not find any substantial account of that nature about the apostolate of St.Bartholomew in India in general or in Maharashtra or Goa in particular in such works. This indicates that during the period of one-sixteenth and seventeenth centuries or late, when local Christian traditions of respective regions were written down by the Portuguese and the Dutch and late circulated in print-form, Bartholomew custom was not at all prevailing in this region. It was only late in the twentieth hundred that some started linking the pre-Portuguese Christians of Goa and Maharashtra with St. Bartholomew, for substantiating which they tried to bank upon the accounts of St.Jerome and Eusebius. At a time when inquiry on the pre-Portuguese Christian group of Kalyan was in its inceptional stagecoach and the logic of their presence could not be historically contextualized, these historians seem to have mistakenly attributed its origin to St.Bartholomew as a guess, without explaining the logic with which they connected the papal exercise of St. Bartholomew with Konkan regions like Bombay and Kalyan. Some say that Kalyan is Felix India, where Bartholomew is said to have preached religious doctrine. however this does not seem to be a convert argumentation as from first century AD onwards the Mediterranean writers including the author of Periplus of Erithraen Sea used to refer to Kalyan as Calliena and not as India Felix. so far nothing has been unearthed or discovered from this region or anywhere as to substantiate that the geography of Bartholomew ’ s mission was Konkan. similarly the probability of the origin of Christians of Maharashtra and Goa through the sermon by St. Thomas is equally indefensible, as so far nothing has been obtained from the region to link its pre-Portuguese Christians with the missionary activities of St.Thomas. however the feeble layer of inhabitants of these places maintaining folk-tradition about St. Thomas, and the presence and visibility of elements of the share culture of St. Thomas Christians of Kerala show that these Christians once upon a clock time lived and evolved as a community of St. Thomas custom. historically speaking these Christians of Konkan, particularly of Maharashtra and Goa were the descendants of iranian christian migrants who later got outspread and settled down in different trade centres of Konkan including Kalyan, Goa, Thana, Sopara and so forth, but thrived and expanded as communities sustained by traditions woven around St. Thomas. The ecclesial and commercial connectivity that these Christians of Konkan had with the St. Thomas Christians of Kerala seems to have created over a period of meter a conducive atmosphere, whereby the common liturgical traditions, ecclesiastical inheritance and apparitional bequest of St. Thomas Christians got disseminated among the former and a variety show of Thomas-centric traditions got currency among them as to cause to evolve a Christian community of St. Thomas tradition over there .
Changing Contours of Hierarchical Structure and the Phase of Vicissitudes
The diocese of Kalyan and early settlements of iranian Christians in the indian Ocean, particularly those of Sri Lanka, Goa and Socotora ( where priests were sent from Persia for serve ), in concert formed an ecclesial communion and they, along with the St. Thomas Christians of Kerala, existed and operated as different class in the ecclesiastical hierarchy developed by Seleucia- Ctesiphon Church. At the time of the composition of christian Topography ( between 540 and 550AD ), Kalyan was a diocese that functioned directly under the Patriarch of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, i, Mar Aba and the settlements of iranian Christians in Maharashtra, Goa and Sri Lanka were subordinate units under this diocese although there was the Metropolitan of Rew Ardashir ( of Fars region ), who stood as the average authority between the bishop of Kalyan and the Patriarch. however, Cosmas does not give the depression that the Christians of Kerala were under the diocese of Kalyan, though he refers to the being of a church of Christians over there .
however after 552 AD, with the death of the Patriarch Mar Aba, things got changed following the fresh developments happening in the irani Church and the direct ecclesiastical kinship of Kalyan with the Seleucia-Ctesiphon seems to have got break. This patch of information is provided by the Patriarch Isho-Yab III ( 650-58 ), who refers to the rebellion of Metropolitan of Rew Ardashir ( Fars ) in around 554AD. Patriarch Isho-Yab III wrote to Metropolitan of Rew Ardashir : “ .. you closed the door of episcopal ordination in the side of the many peoples of India… since your rebellion against the ecclesiastical canons, the priestly succession has been broken for the people of India. In darkness …dwells not only India.. but even your own region of Fars ”. It seems that because of this schism in iranian church following the rebellion of the Metropolitan of Rew Ardashir, which lasted from 554 till 790, the direct link of Kalyan with Seleucia-Ctesiphon got break and the diocese of Kalyan got extinct, evening though the Christians hush continued to live there for a relatively longer straddle of clock time. however that does not mean that the christian settlements in the indian Ocean were not spiritually attended to. The same Patriarch Isho-Yab III writes that in his day the Metropolitan of Rew Ardashir was creditworthy for catering to the spiritual needs of the Christians of not alone Fars, but besides for “ India ”, a geographic concept in which he included the places between the nautical borders of the Sassanid kingdom and the nation called QLH ( Kedah ) in Malay Peninsula, covering a distance of 1200 parasangs and extending up to the doors of South East Asia. Though the seat of patriarch was at Ctesiphon, for about about two and a half centuries ( from 554 cashbox 790 ) the metropolitan of Rew Ardashir had been administering the Church affairs of Fars and India as an mugwump and parallel ecclesiastical unit and baseball swing of all ecclesial communion with Seleucia-Ctesiphon Church, to which Patriarch Isho-Yab took strong objection in 650s. The separation of the Fars church from the nestorian Patriarch of Ctesiphon was based chiefly on differences about monasticism, the ordering of the bishops and on use of linguistic process. The church of Mesopotamia ( Cetsiphon ) had the liturgical celebrations in Syriac, whereas the Church of Fars ( Persia ) had its own bible translation in Pahlavi ( archaic Persian ) language in the fifth century. In fact, this Pahlavi translation of Bible ( which was used in contrast to the Syriac Psita Bible ) was made by Metropolitan Ma ’ sodium of Rew Ardashir in 420 A.D. A replicate of this translation was excavated in 1966 in Turfan in China, where it seems to have reached through the silk-route along with missionaries, and now kept in Berlin. Metropolitan Ma ’ sodium of Rew Ardashir had composed Pahlavi madrase ( discourses ), memre ( verse homilies ) and enyane ( antiphons ) and dispatched these books to ‘ the islands of the sea and India ’ for liturgical use .
It was against the background of the increasing use of Pahlavi by the missionaries from Rew Ardashir that Pahlavi-inscribed crosses appeared on a big way in many of the spread christian settlements of the indian Ocean. Material remnants obtained from the late archaeological excavations carried out at Pattanam show that Sassanid traders, who were actively involved in the indian Ocean commerce, had developed a major commercial base on the banks of Periyar, particularly in Pattanam, besides Shingly or Cranganore located in the vicinity, where Alexis de Menezes found an old Pahlavi-inscribed cross in 1599. On the Coromandel coast while Kaveripattinam continued to be a significant port of call for the Sassanid traders, Mahabalipuram developed by the Pallava rulers finally became an significant larboard for the department of commerce of the Sassanids, because of its geo-physical placement as mid-way port between the Persian Gulf and South East Asia. The fact that persian Christians used to live as confused mercantile group in this region stretching from Mahabalipuram to Mylapore in outback past is evidenced by the discovery of a Pahlavi-inscribed crabbed from Mylapore in 1547. The Christians of Vasai still following several of West asian dressing blueprint including veil, jnori ( fabric with foldings at the back ) big earrings and so forth, retain the cultural remnants of honest-to-god iranian linkages. The christian communities of Kalyan, Thana on the Salcette island and Sopara ( Surparaka ) and of Broach ( Barukachha ) in Gujarat, which Jordan Catalani of Severac saw in 1329 were all remnants of these persian Christian settlers, who once operated inter-connectedly in ecclesial communion in the indian Ocean .
In the deepen situation, particularly after 554, the metropolitan of Rew Ardashir in Fars, besides spiritually controlling the bishoprics of coastal Persia, Bahrain-Oman and Socotora regions, wove together the scatter mercantile settlements of irani Christians in the amerind Ocean by giving them a distinctive individuality of their own with Pahlavi as the linguistic medium and Pahlavi-inscribed rock crosses as the aim of idolatry, and probably supplying Bible in Pahalvi terminology. The discovery of Pahlavi-inscribed stone crosses from the churches of St.Thomas Christians of Kerala and the key signature in Pahlavi language in the copper plates granted to Tharisapally of Quilon address of the dominant function of Pahlavi speech in the churches of Malabar and coastal western India credibly in Goa ( from where a Pahlavi-inscribed cross was discovered ) and Maharashtra. The descendants of irani migrant Christians seems to have had a longer continuity in Goa, from where Afonso Albuquerque discovered a cross from the crush buildings of Old Goa in 1510, when he conquered it and Fr. Cosme Costa unearthed a Pahlavi-inscribed crisscross from Agassaim in 2001. The descendants of these Christians retained cashbox recently maintained the remnants of their traditions linking themselves with St.Thomas and calling themselves Thomase in Goa and Kalyanpur ( near Mangalore ), as Fr. Cosme Costa has shown in his late work and Fr. Mascarenhas has mentioned in his article in Examiner .
however, the christian communities of India, Sri Lanka and eastern regions were spiritually administered by the Metropolitan of Rew Ardashir entirely up to 790, when calculate linkage with Seleucia-Ctesiphon Church was re-established. We do not know for certain whether the diocese of Kalyan still continued after the death of Patriarch Mar Aba in 552 and after the assumption of direct spiritual caution of India and other countries bordering indian Ocean by the Metropolitan of Rew Ardashir in 554. however, with the occupation of Fars, coastal Persia and Sassanid territories by the Muslims under Caliph Umar during the time period between 641 ( when the Muslim forces defeated the Sassanids in the conflict of Nihawand ) and 644, there was large scale islamization of the Persian Gulf region and the might of the Metropolitan of Rew Ardashir got weakened. Against this background he could not cater to the spiritual needs of the diverse christian settlements in the indian Ocean in the manner he used to do earlier. however by 750 with the localization of function of the ability free-base of the Abbasids in Baghdad in the vicinity of Patriarchal seat of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Patriarch got enormous importance in the modern go of developments and the weakened see of the Metropolitan of Rew Ardashir over amerind Ocean Christians finally gave way to Patriarchal control from Seleucia-Ctesiphon. Gerd Gropp says that it was only after 1040/50, with the second coming of the Seldjuq Turks in Iran, that the Metropolitan of Rew Ardshir was extinguished. From that time on, the bishops for the Gulf and India were ordained directly by the Patriarch of Baghdad .
The feeble level of the descendants of these migrant Christians, seems to have finally got merged into the Muslim population that overwhelmingly appeared with islamization in most of the ports of the Konkan. Jordan Catalani of Severac refers in 1329 to the eventual conflicts that evolved between the Muslims and the christian communities of Kalyan, Thana on the Salcette island and Sopara ( Surparaka ) and of Broach ( Barukachha ) in Gujarat. Some of them besides seem to have merged into the Indo-Portuguese population and Latin rite that came up in Goa, Bassein, Thana, Chaul, Kalyanpur ( near Mangalore ) and Gujarat, out of which a few retained their linkage with the old community of St. Thomas tradition by calling themselves as Thomasee ( in Goa and Kalyanpur ), while some others, particularly in Vasai, continue to retain the memories about their linkages with St. Thomas tradition by still following the trim custom of veil, njori ( wearing of fabric around the shank with multiple foldings at the back ), chatta ( upper berth garment with sleeves fully covering the hands ), and big earrings etc. The descendants of this people, particularly of Vasai and Bombay, finally got merged into the category of ‘ East Indians ’, whom the English by and by employed on a bad scale as a supportive social group for carrying out their commercial, sea-faring and naval endeavours in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries .
The foregoing discussion shows that there was a very significant size of christian population in coastal Maharashtra and coastal Goa at least from fifth /sixth centuries onwards, which evolved due to migration of persian christian traders to the lucrative commercial centres of this region. It is true that so far nothing was obtained from this region as to prove that these Christians originated because of the missionary function of St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew ; however, the nature of ecclesial communion within which they lived and operated in connectivity with the St. Thomas Christians of Kerala, Persian Christians of Sri Lanka, Socotora and Persia and memories of their Thomas-centric traditions intelligibly shows that the pre-Portuguese Christians of coastal Goa and coastal Maharashtra evolved as christian communities of St.Thomas custom and developed a distinctive identity stemming out of it. It is sealed that the diocese of Kalyan and the neighbor christian enclaves, spiritually sustained and administered by it, operated as components of the hierarchical structure that evolved in the irani Church under the patriarch of Seleucia-Ctesiphon. At the time of sojourn of Cosmas Indicopleustes, Kalyan and other mercantile settlements of the iranian Christians in India were immediately under the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon. however, the period between 554 and 790 witnessed the incorporation of Kalyan and early Christian enclaves of Mahrashtra and Goa into the ecclesial communion that evolved under the spiritual leadership of the Metropolitan of Rew Ardashir in Fars, whose efforts led to the evolution and institutionalization of a parallel ecclesiastical tradition with Pahlavi-Bible and church services in Pahlavi-language rather of Syriac Psíta Bible and function of Syriac lyric ampere was in Seleucia-Ctesiphon Church.. Its impact was felt strongly in many of the christian settlements along coastal western India and Sri Lanka, as a consequence of which Pahlavi-inscribed crosses began to appear as objects of worship among these migrant Christian communities, including that of Goa, which were linked with the Church of Rew Ardashir. After the extinction of this schism under Metropolitan of Rew Ardashir, the Christians in coastal Maharashtra and Goa were spiritually catered to again by Seleucia-Ctesiphon Church and thanks to the efforts of missionaries sent from there, Christianity spread to Thana, Sopara, Broach etc ,., where vibrant christian communities were observed by Friar Jordanus in 1329. evenly dynamic was the Christian residential district of Goa, whose material end was unearthed in the shape of cross obtained from Panjim in 1510 and Pahlavi-inscribed crossbreed excavated from Agassaim in 2001. With the islamization of indian Ocean commerce and the attendant occupation of major christian barter centres of coastal Gujarat, Sopara, Kalyan, Thana, Goa, Mangalore and Mylapore by versatile Muslim traders, the connectivities and linkages of christian communities with one another and besides with irani Church broke off and finally for want of proper spiritual leadership some of them got converted to Islam and those who still survived were late absorbed into Latin christian traditions of Padroado Real. interim, the cultural images of the larger ecclesial communion that they once had and the dim pictures of their outback cultural past got reflected and circulated in their oral tradition in the form of names of places and cultural groups like that of Thomasee, where one sees some screen of connection with Thomas. Because of the engagement of their ancestors in the common commercial ventures and ecclesiastical traditions of the St. Thomas Christians of Kerala and the liturgical bequest of Persia, there evolved among these Christians coarse practices and shared tradition around St. Thomas, causing them develop their own individuality and singularity as a community of St. Thomas tradition .
About the Author
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Dr.Pius Malekandathil, Professor at Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi hails from Muvattupuzha parish of Kothamangalam eparchy, Syro Malabar Church, Kerala. He is besides the sectional president of Medieval Indian History of Indian History Congress, Cuttack.He has earlier worked as Lecturer in History, St. Thomas College, Pala, Reader in History at Goa University and Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady. He has authored Ten books and more than hundred articles in assorted international journals, seminars and publications. His areas of specialization include Indo-Portuguese History, Transmarine Trade, Maritime History of India, european expansion and urbanization in Asia, Socio-Economic History of Medieval India, Culture and State of South India, Studies in indian Ocean Societies and Religion and Society in South Asia .
Some of Dr Pius Malekandathil ’ mho publications are : The Germans, the Portuguese and India ( 1999 ) ; Portuguese Cochin and the Maritime Trade of India : 1500-1663 ( 2001 ) ; Jornada of D. Alexis Menezes : A portuguese history of the Sixteenth Century Malabar ( 2003 ) ; The Portuguese, The Portuguese and the Socio-Cultural Changes in India : 1500-1800 jointly edited with K.S. Mathew and Teotonio R. de Souza ( 2001 ) ; The Kerala Economy and european Trade jointly edited with K.S. Mathew ( 2003 ) ; Goa in the Twentieth Century : history and Culture jointly edited with Remy Dias ( 2008 )
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