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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
| CHAP. X VII I. TRADITIONS OF ST. THOMAS | 357 | ||
| the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, but it is presumably very old, though subsequent to the translation of the relics (real or supposed) to Edessa, in the year 394, which is alluded to in the story. And it is worthy of note that this legend places the martyrdom and original burial-place of the Saint upon a mount. Gregory of Tours (A.1). 544-595) relates that " in that place in India where the body of Thomas lay before it was transported to Edessa, there is a monastery and a temple of great size and excellent structure and ornament. In it God shows a wonderful miracle ; for the lamp that stands alight before the place of sepulture keeps burning perpetually, night and day, by divine influence, for neither oil nor wick are ever renewed by human hands ; " and this Gregory learned from one Theodorus, who had visited the spot. The apocryphal history of St. Thomas relates that while the Lord was still upon earth a certain King of India, whose name was Gondaphorus, sent to the west a certain merchant called Abban to seek a skilful architect to build him a palace, and the Lord sold Thomas to him as a slave of His own who was expert in such work. Thomas eventually converts King Gondaphorus, and proceeds to another country of India ruled by King llleodeus, where he is put to death by lances. M. Reinaud first, I believe, pointed out the remarkable fact that the name of the King Gondaphorus of the legend is the same with that of a King who has become known from the Indo-Scythian coins, Gondophares, Yndoferres, or Gondaferres. This gives great interest to a votive inscription found near Pesháwar, and now in the Lahore Museum, which appears to bear the name of the same King. This Professor Dowson has partially read : " In the 26th year of the great King Guna . . . pharasa, on the seventh day of the month Vaisákha." . . . General Cunningham has read the date with more claim to precision : " In the 26th year of King Guduphara, in the Samvat year 103, in the month of Vaisákh, the 4th day." . . . But Professor Dowson now comes much closer to General Cunningham, and reads : " 26th year of the King, the year 100 of Samvat, 3rd day of Vaisákha." (See Rep. of R. As. Soc., 18th January, 1875.) In ordinary application of Sanavat (to era of Vikramaditya) A.S. 100 = A. D. 43 ; but the era meant here is as yet doubtful. Lassen put Yndoferres about 90 B. c., as Cunningham did formerly about 26 B. c. The chronology is very doubtful, but the evidence does not appear to be strong against the synchronism of the King and the legend. (See Prinsep's Essays, II. 176, 177, and Mr. Thomas's remarks at p. 214 ; Triibner's Record, 30th June, 187 ; Cunningham's Desc. List of Buddhist Sculptures in Lahore Central illuseum ; Reinaud, Inde, p. 95.) Here then may be a faint trace of a true apostolic history. But in the 16th and 17th centuries Roman Catholic ecclesiastical story-tellers seem to have striven in rivalry who should most recklessly expand the travels of St. Thomas. According to an abstract given by P. Vincenzo Maria, his preaching began in Mesopotamia, and extended through Bactria, etc., to China, " the States of the Great Mogul " (!) and Siam ; he then revisited his first converts, and passed into Germany, thence to Brazil, " as relates P. Emanuel Nobriga," and from that to Ethiopia. After thus carrying light to the four quarters of the World, the indefatigable Traveller and Missionary retook his way to India, converting Socotra as he passed, and then preached in Malabar, and on the Coromandel Coast, where he died, as already stated. Some parts of this strange rhapsody, besides the Indian mission, were no doubt of old date ; for the Chaldaean breviary of the Malabar Church in its office of St. Thomas contains such passages as this : " By St. Thomas were the Chinese and the Ethiopians converted to the Truth ; " and in an Anthem : " The Hindus, the Chinese, the Persians, and all the people of the Isles of the Sea, they who dwell in Syria and Armenia, in Javan and Romania, call Thomas to remembrance, and adore Thy Name, O Thou our Redeemer !" The Roman Martyrology calls the city of Martyrdom Calamina, but there is (I think) a fair presumption that the spot alluded to by Gregory of Tours was Mailapúr, and that the Shrine visited by King Alfred's envoy, Sighelm, may have been the same. | |||
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