Indian Christianity

HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA : M. M. NINAN
blossomed into an almost perfect Christian kingdom, ruled over by this legendary king, Prester John. A
second century Peutinger Map (11) indicates a temple not far from Muziris as “Temple Augusti” or
“Temple of the Great King”. Around the middle of the 12th century, a series of letters (forged?) found
their way to the court of Pope Alexander III. These letters were from the Prester himself. Apparently an
emissary was sent to the King Prestor John, but he was never seen again. This mythical (mystical?)
figure certainly came from Chera Kingdom as Meir Bar-Ilan (55) points out. India is mentioned several
times in these letters and the city of Kalicut is mentioned in one of the letters specifically. It specifies that
he was in the land of India where the body of St. Thomas the Apostle was buried and they celebrated
the memorial of Thomas on July 3 rd . The letter also mentions that it is the land of the pepper and
elephants.
Apart from the migration stories and the copper plates we have not much to go for in reconstructing the
Christian Church, the Christian Society and the Kingdom of God established by the Christian communes
of Kerala. These were all intentionally wiped clean by the Aryan invasion from North India. The only oral
tradition lie in the story of Mahabali and his time which is celebrated by the Christians in memory of the
Golden Age of the Thomas Christianity.
When history finally opens, it was with Kulasekara Alwar who ruled Kerala in the 8th century. He became
a devotional Vaishnavite poet. The earliest document, which tells us about the Onam festival, comes
from this period. A last Perumal, Cheraman Perumal abdicated his throne in 825 AD, (some documents
give it as 642-643 AD) converted to Islam and went to Mecca and died in Yemen. (56) He divided the
kingdom and gave it to his Nephews.
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