Where Did Jesus Die? — Page 165
Chapter Eleven—Jesus Goes to India 165 to Greeks as Gondopharnes, is of especial interest to us because, according to the apocryphal Acts of Thomas, the Apostle Thomas came to his court to preach Christianity. There was formerly a great deal of doubt whether Saint Thomas ever visited India, but recent researches tend to prove that the legend is founded on historical fact, Bartholomew and Thomas were sent to preach the gos- pel in the East. Thomas probably reached Taxila by the well known sea-route, from Alexandria to the mouth of the Indus. He was hospitably received at the court of Gondopharnes, for Taxila was a cosmopolitan centre of culture and accustomed to give a ready hearing to teachers from strange countries. His missionary labours were, how- ever, interrupted by the Lushan invasion, and Thomas was compelled to flee. He retraced his steps to the mouth of the Indus, and thence took a boat to Muziris, the Roman colony on Malabar coast, touching at Socotra on the way. Here he arrived in A. D. 52 and founded the Church in Malabar. Twenty years later he transferred his labours to the East Coast, and was martyred by the Brahmins. His relics repose in the Cathedral dedicated to him at Mylapore near Madras. * Gondopharnes is a corruption of the Persian Vindaphorna, Bringer of Victory. In the Armenian version of the story, this becomes Gathaspar, from which is derived Gaspar, the name given to the * J. N. Farquhar, The Apostle Thomas in Southern India, John Rylands Library Bulletin, 1927, p. 20.