Life of Ahmad — Page 676
JESUS as IN INDIA as 676 edited by Eadie and Haydon’s Dictionary of the Bible ). Ambrose says that to Matthew God opened the country of the Persians. In the History of Mary (Budge, ET, 105) Thomas is said to have preached to 'the Indians, and the Chinese and the Cushites, and (the people of) all the islands near and far. . . ' The Church of Thomas Christians of Malabar refers its origin to the apostle himself. ( Ency. Bib : 5059) A. E. Medlycott, Bishop of Tricomia, writes in his book India and the Apostle Thomas (David Nutt, London, 1905, p. 16) 'We maintain there is every reason to conclude that the Apostle Thomas had entered King Gondophares dominions 162 in the course of his apostolic career. ' On page 17 of the same book he writes that M. Reinaud says: "A tradition, according to the first centuries of the Christian era, asserts that the Apostle Thomas went to preach the Gospel in India, and that he suffered martyrdom on the Coromandel coast. " 162 In 1854 General Alexander Cunningham wrote in the journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (Vol. 23, pp. 711-712) 'The coins of Gondophares (A. D. 21-60) are common in Kabul and Kandhar and Seistan, and in the Western and Southern Punjab. All these countries, therefore, must have owned his sway. ' J. Richter says that numerous discoveries of coins in the mountainous districts of Eastern Iran and the adjoining districts of India show that 'in the centuries about the time of the birth of Christ the Greek language and culture were widespread in these regions' (page 28 of his book A History of Missions in India , Oliphant Anderson and Ferrier, Edinburgh, 1903).