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| 0413 |
The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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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 martyr-
dom and original burial-place of the Saint upon a mount. Gregory of Tours
(A.D. 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 Mesdeus, where he is put to death by lances. M. Reinaud
first, I believe, pointed out the remarkable fact that the name of the King Gonda-
phorus 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 Peshâwar, 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 Vaisâkha." . . . 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 Vaisâkh, 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 Vaisâkha." (See Rep. of R. As. Soc., 18th January,
1875.) In ordinary application of Samvat (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; Trübner's Record, 30th June, 187; Cunningham's Desc. List of Buddhist
Sculptures in Lahore Central Museum; 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
Mailapûr, and that the Shrine visited by King Alfred's envoy, Sighelm, may have
been the same.
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731
732
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