Actually, it’s a lot more complicated than that in Kerala. Christians are deeply divided into multiple sectarian groups that started with schism in the Pre-colonial period and increased greatly moving into the colonial period. Historically, the original pre-colonial Christian communities that existed in the state were heavily interrelated with Levantine Christian groups such as the Assyrians, and mainly centered their religious activity around their center of operation in Iraq specifically.
After the initial migration to India happened around the same time as the Gondhpharid Kardamaka dynasty ruling over Gujarat, as seen in the traditional literature, there were a few other waves. In one of these migrations, a set of Jewish-Christians from southern Mesopotamia led by Thomas of Cana, who settled and gradually developed into the modern sub-Nazarene group called the “Knanaya”. These new groups of Christians conflicted with the old Christians, leading to the North-South Divide between the old and new groups. Eventually, more divisions kept on happening as theological disagreements continued over time.
When the colonial empires took over the land, they basically Westernized Christianity on the population, and the pre-existing Christian population opposed this imposition. Things became dicey after the portugese “lost” *cough* killed *cough* a major archbishop from the local community in France. Then, the oath at the bend cross took place, where the christian community stated that they will never fully merge into the European churches.
Then, this created a massive divide between the original “Nazrani” Christian and the later “European” Christian groups. Nazaranis function as the upper caste, and the European-origin churches function as the lower caste since they were more open to external converts. Also, the Knanaya community within Nazaranite community straight ban inter-denominational (*cough*Intercaste*cough*) marriage with the other Nazarine. Then, there are further internal complex hierarchies, where denominations functioned as a caste (specifically Jaati) group.
Also, Kerala Christians are nothing like Goan Christians. Anecdotally, I was born into an old conservative “Nazrani” family, where one of my great-grandfathers published books on Christian theology, and another was so sectarian he would walk on the other side of the road if he came across someone from another sect. At the same time, one of my great-grandfathers (the road walker) was an ayurvedic physician, and he literally built a family home/Tharavad according to the Vastu Shastra. Another one literally served as a scribe or minister in the royal court of the Poonjar dynasty and was even rewarded with lots of land that kept him rich for generations, until they naturally squandered it.
One short addition: Malayali Nazranis played an important role in the political administration of the Thekkankoor Kingdom one of the largest (by area) kingdoms in the post 1100s and pre 1750s Kerala. They were also important stakeholders in the Perumpadapp Kingdom (later Kochi). This tract of land from northern border of modern Thrishur district to somewhere in modern Pathanamthitta district is the core Nazrani area. Incidentally, Manu Pillai and friends have recently made a short video on the Nazranis of Thekkankoor.
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what is the author’s view that st.thomas’ 50 AD arrival is not substantiated and is not agreed by many of that community.
also shankara and others have not mentioned this community at all.
Well, I think there are textual sources from the churches in Iraq that suggest that Saint Thomas came to Kerala, then went up north to the Western Satrap kingdom, which was a vassal of the Kushan empire. A few things happened, and st Thomas was killed somewhere north of Sialkot, potentially in Afghanistan. Albeit, this is kinda the general story, which is part of the “church tradition”/mythology associated with the broader church of the East, centered around Seleucia-Ctesiphon, so it’s more of an Eastern Christian rather than a Kerala Christian thing.
Nonetheless, no one in modern Kerala fully believes that the st Thomas story was true; rather, it’s mostly treated as a semi-mythical story. The younger generation mostly think its a myth, while the older generation may believe it is true.
In terms of Shankara’s references, well, two main points exist. One, the Christian community wasn’t politically relevant in the scene until the 8th century onward due to two main reasons: Middle Eastern politics and guild formation. Muziris, the port of the Chera dynasty, used to be a major trading center with the Roman Empire in the olden days, and that naturally brought a lot of merchants from Europe and the Middle East. When these merchants converted to Christianity, they naturally brought their new religion with them. Nonetheless, the original Christian community pre-8th century would have been smaller in size and was as dominant an entity in the region.
The church of the East was centered around Iraq, which at that point was under the control of the Iranian Sassanid empire. Kinda the reason why many of the figures, like Mar Sabor and Mar Afroth, associated with the church were Persian, even though they used the Byzantine cross. Eventually, the expansion of the Islamic caliphate in the Middle East destabilized the Sassanid empire and led to its eventual conquest by the Arabs. I believe there was even greater migration during this time period to external regions like India, fleeing the chaos. This led to a gradual expansion of the pre-existing Christian communities in Kerala. Another major thing that happened was the formation of the Anjuvanam guild, a proto-merchant corporation primarily composed of Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Zoroastrians. This guild gradually gained a lot of trading privileges and established many of the major trading communities that formed the backbone of Kerala’s economy to this very day.
Before the 9th century, really, the Christians were not a dominant player in the region and only became important after the settlements expanded as a result of later migrations. Shankara and many of his contemporaries wouldn’t really care for a small (at that time), irrelevant community of merchants. Think of how Alexander the Great was remembered much in ancient India, or that random Chinese-Nepalese-Tibetan “invasion”/”raid” thingy that happened with Harsha Vardhana’s usurper Arunasva. It didn’t really impact the general elites and wasn’t important to write about.
None of this includes the fact that a lot of Christian writing is generally not accessible at this time. A majority of the texts are written in Suriyani/Aramaic in the Garshuni script, which isn’t commonly understood or studied, for that matter. The other issue is the fact that most of these texts were scattered or destroyed after the Synod of Diamper, which acted as a semi-inquisition that forced Latinization and suppressed local traditions extensively. Also, Christians in Kerala just suck at conservation since they have literally destroyed old artifacts/paintings in the process of modernization. The courts have to personally come in and stop these excessive modernization attempts. So, there is a lot of missing information here.
Indeed! Plus, Sankara, in general has mentioned very little of Kerala anyway in his writings. I wonder if there is any explicit reference made by the man himself of him being from Kerala.
@Fly Die: I would be interested in seeing references regarding the Iraqi Church sources.
I believe the main references from the Eastern church about Thomas is found within the “Acts of Thomas” an apocryphal text from around the 180-230AD in addition to references to found in Caesarea’s Ecclesiastical history and Mar Epram the syrian writing related to Edessa’s religious shrines.
So the myth that he was killed in madras is also not strong….
I mean it is heavily contested. There main claims about where st. Thomas was buried ranging from Edessa in modern Turkey to Mylapore. The oldest versions of the story found in works like the acts of Thomas say that he died in Sistan (I mislabeled it as Sailkot before sorry). Mind you the pilgrimage site at Mylapore pre-dates European arrival in the region and it seems to have been controlled by the Syriac community. I believe there was text called the “History of the Mamluk sultunate” written by coptic christian in the 1300’s that references Mylapore long before Vasco Da Gama was even born. It was found in the study: “SAINT THOMAS THE APOSTLE, INDIA AND MYLAPORE: Two little known documents” by E. R. Hambye.
Honestly, there isn’t much information about Mylapore from the early days and the present church was erected by the Portugese after altering the original structure and taking it from the Syriac Christians, I believe. It’s basically a mystery.
In my recent Kerala trip, the guide said this.
Attached is a picture of a Latin Catholic church I clicked.
And this is a church by one of the “older” branches. They have done it in a very old “Nubian” style.
Some context: This is a very modern reconstruction by an architect at the site of a historically-attested Church, where the first major schism happened. This schism can also be seen as one of the earliest peoples’ resistances in the subcontinent against colonial powers. Summary of the story is that the Thoma Nazranies, who were forcefully brought under the Catholic Church through the Synod of Udayamperoor (1599 CE), gathered at this site in circa 1650 CE and pledged that they will not obey the Portugese anymore. This event was a turning point in the history of the Church in Kerala. The two broad factions of Syrian Catholics (those who accept the Roman Patriarch as the authority) and Syrian Orthodox (those who derived authority from the Eastern Patriarchs) formed as a result of this event. The Latin Catholics are a third branch, generally viewed as the more recent (still ~500 years old) converts during the Portugese period. The Latin faction remarkably differs from the other two in that they completely follow the Latin rite of worship.
Yes. I had asked if this was an old church but it was rather modern.