Indian Christianity

HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA : M. M. NINAN
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Here he must have stayed for at least a year and proceded to serve the rest of India. During the first visit
to Kerala Thomas established a church among the Jews of Cochin and ordained one Prince Kepha and
left for the rest of India. We have no details of this ministry which might have included Southern and
Northern regions even unto China. He seems to have returned from there to the North India along
Ganges area to the Kaveri River area and to Coromandels – the land of Cholas. The capital of Chola
Kingdom was Urayar with its port Kaveri and the Capital of Pandian Kingdom was Madurai with its port
Korkai. It is during the second visit Thomas converted the local Brahmins and Dravidians and
established seven and a half churches in Chera (Kerala). There was also another minor kingdom known
as Ayr (probably the present Ayroor) ruled by Vel (from which we get the word Venad.) where Thomas
established his church at Nilackel. Ptolemy mentions this Kingdom as Aioi in the second century. Ayr
Kingdom lasted for over a thousand years from the time of Thomas. Even today most people in this area
are Christians. (59) He then returned to Coromandel Area which was probably his head quarters. We
have evidence to show that he made trips between Chera, Chola and Pandya regions during this time.
Evidently Thomas’ ministry covered the entire land of India over twenty years until his martyrdom in
Mylapore. In AD 72 he was speared at Mylapore, Madras. The legend has that spear was inflicted on
his side. He did not die instantly but crawled while bleeding through a tunnel and reached Chinnamalai
and died there.
His followers took his body and buried him in the tombs of the Chiefs. A merchant from Edessa in Syria
who visited that region exhumed his body and took it to Syria where it was entombed in about AD 200.
We could see these tombs in Mylapore and in Edessa. They were later translated from Edessa to the
island of Khios in the Aegean, and from there to Ortona in Italy, where they are now.
What form of Church did Thomas Institute?
The question now is, what happened to these churches? Looking at the story of Thomas as a rationalist
doubter turned believer, who unhesitatingly declared Jesus as “My Lord, and My God “, we should have
no doubt about the theology of the churches he established. He certainly emphasized the God incarnate
as the Jesus ben Joseph, the Carpenter, his Lord and Master. He was no Gnostic. Jesus of Nazareth
was indeed God and Lord.
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