of Buddhism in this part of India is not in favour of Christian Evangelization), it is impossible to accept the theory of the martyrdom of St. Thomas in Southern India.
The late Mr. J. F. FLEET, in his paper on St. Thomas and Gondophernes (Journ. Roy. As. Soc., April, 1905, pp. 223–236), remarks that “Mr. Philipps has given us an exposition of the western traditional statements up to the sixth century.” He gives some of the most ancient statements; one in its earliest traceable form runs thus: “According to the Syriac work entitled The Doctrine of the Apostles, which was written in perhaps the second century A.D., St. Thomas evangelized ‘India.’ St. Ephraem the Syrian (born about A.D. 300, died about 378), who spent most of his life at Edessa, in Mesopotamia, states that the Apostle was martyred in ‘India’ and that his relics were taken thence to Edessa. That St. Thomas evangelized the Parthians, is stated by Origen (born A.D. 185 or 186, died about 251–254). Eusebius (bishop of Cæsarea Palæstinæ from A.D. 315 to about 340) says the same. And the same statement is made by the Clementine Recognitions, the original of which may have been written about A.D. 210. A fuller tradition is found in the Acts of St. Thomas, which exist in Syriac, Greek, Latin, Armenian, Ethiopic, and Arabic, and in a fragmentary form in Coptic. And this work connects with St. Thomas two eastern kings, whose names appear in the Syriac version as Gūdnaphar, Gundaphar, and Mazdai; and in the Greek version as Goundaphoros, Goundiaphoros, Gountaphoros, and Misdaios, Misdeos; in the Latin version as Gundaforus, Gundoforus, and Misdeus, Mesdeus, Migdeus; and in the remaining versions in various forms, of the same kind, which need not be particularized here.” Mr. Fleet refers to several papers, and among them to one by Prof. Sylvain Lévi, Saint Thomas, Gondopharès et Mazdeo (Journ. As., Janv.–Fév., 1897, pp. 27–42), who takes the name Mazdai as a transformation of a Hindū name, made on Iranian soil and under Mazdean influences, and arrived at through the forms Bazodēo, Bazdēo, or Bāzodēo, Bāzdēo, which occur in Greek legends on coins, and to identify the person with the king Vāsudēva of Mathurā, a successor of Kanishka. Mr. Fleet comes to the conclusion that: “No name, save that of Guduphara—Gondophernès, in any way resembling it, is met with in any period of Indian history, save in that of the Takht-i-Bahi inscription of A.D. 46; nor, it may be added, any royal name, save that of Vāsudēva of Mathurā, in any way resembling that of Mazdai. So also, as far as we know or have any reason to suppose, no name like that of Guduphara—Gondophernēs is to be found anywhere outside India, save in the tradition about St. Thomas.”
XVIII., p. 357.
CALAMINA.
On this city of the martyrdom of St. Thomas, see Indian Antiquary, XXXII., pp. 148 seq. in Mr. Philipps’ paper, and XXXIII., Jan., 1904, pp. 31–2, a note signed W. R. P.
XIX., p. 361. “In this kingdom [Mutfili] also are made the best and most delicate buckrams, and those of highest price; in sooth they look like tissue of spider’s web!”