descent from the Rishi Suta Mahamuni. It has been suggested [191]
as probable that the Besthas gained the name from their superiority
in the culinary art, suta meaning cook.
Sutarlu.--Recorded by the Rev. J. Cain [192] as bricklayers and masons
in the Godavari district.
Suthala (needle).--An exogamous sept of Kamma.
Svarupam.--Svarupam has been defined [193] as "a dynasty,
usually confined to the four principal dynasties, termed the Kola,
Nayaririppu, Perimbadappu, and Trippa Svarupam, represented by the
Kolatiri or Chirakal Rajah, the Zamorin, and the Cochin and Travancore
Rajahs." Svarupakkar or Svarupathil, meaning servants of Svarupams
or kingly houses, is an occupational sub-division of Nayar.
Swayi.--A title of Alia, Aruva, Kalinji, and other Oriya classes.
Swetambara (clad in white).--One of the two main divisions of the
Jains.
Syrian Christian.--The following note, containing a summary of the
history of a community in connection with which the literature is
considerable, is mainly abstracted from the Cochin Census Report,
1901, with additions.
The Syrian Christians have "sometimes been called the Christians of
the Serra (a Portuguese word, meaning mountains). This arose from the
fact of their living at the foot of the ghauts." [194] The glory of the
introduction of the teachings of Christ to India is, by time-honoured
tradition, ascribed to the apostle Saint Thomas. According to
this tradition so dearly cherished by the Christians of this coast,
about 52 A.D. the apostle landed at Malankara, or, more correctly, at
Maliankara near Cranganur (Kodungallur), the Mouziris of the Greeks,
or Muyirikode of the Jewish copper plates. Mouziris was a port near
the mouth of a branch of the Alwaye river, much frequented in their
early voyages by the Phoenician and European traders for the pepper and
spices of this coast, and for the purpose of taking in fresh water and
provisions. The story goes that Saint Thomas founded seven churches
in different stations in Cochin and Travancore, and converted, among
others, many Brahmans, notably the Cally, Calliankara, Sankarapuri,
and Pakalomattam Nambudri families, the members of the last claiming
the rare distinction of having been ordained as priests by the apostle
himself. He then extended his labours to the Coromandel coast, where,
after making many converts, he is said to have been pierced with a
lance by some Brahmans, and to have been buried in the church of
St. Thomé, in Mylapore, a suburb of the town of Madras. Writing
concerning the prevalence of elephantiasis in Malabar, Captain
Hamilton records [195] that "the old Romish Legendaries impute the
cause of those great swell'd legs to a curse Saint Thomas laid upon his
murderers and their posterity, and that was the odious mark they should
be distinguished by." "Pretty early tradition associates Thomas with
Parthia, [196] Philip with Phrygia, Andrew with Syria, and Bartholomew
with India, but later traditions make the apostles divide the various
countries between them by lot." [197] Even if the former supposition
be accepted, there is nothing very improbable in Saint Thomas having
extended his work from Parthia to India. Others argue that, even if
there be any truth in the tradition of the arrival of Saint Thomas
in India, this comprised the countries in the north-west of India,
or at most the India of Alexander the Great, and not the southern
portion of the peninsula, where the seeds of Christianity are said to
have been first sown, because the voyage to this part of India, then
hardly known, was fraught with the greatest difficulties and dangers,
not to speak of its tediousness. It may, however, be observed that
the close proximity of Alexandria to Palestine, and its importance
at the time as the emporium of the trade between the East and West,
afforded sufficient facilities for a passage to India. If the Roman
line of traffic viâ Alexandria and the Red Sea was long and tedious,
the route viâ the Persian Gulf was comparatively easy.
When we come to the second century, we read of Demetrius of Alexandria
receiving a message from some natives of India, earnestly begging for
a teacher to instruct them in the doctrines of Christianity. Hearing
this, Pantænus, Principal of the Christian College of Alexandria,
an Athenian stoic, an eminent preacher and "a very great gnosticus,
who had penetrated most profoundly into the spirit of scripture,"
sailed from Berenice for Malabar between 180 and 190 A.D. He found
his arrival "anticipated by some who were acquainted with the Gospel
of Mathew, to whom Bartholomew, one of the apostles, had preached,
and had left them the same Gospel in Hebrew, which also was preserved
until this time. Returning to Alexandria, he presided over the
College of Catechumens." Early in the third century, St. Hippolytus,
Bishop of Portus, also assigns the conversion of India to the apostle
Bartholomew. To Thomas he ascribes Persia and the countries of Central
Asia, although he mentions Calamina, "a city of India," as the place
where Thomas suffered death. The Rev. J. Hough [198] observes that
"it is indeed highly problematical that Saint Bartholomew was ever
in India." It may be remarked that there are no local traditions
associating the event with his name, and, if Saint Bartholomew
laboured at all on this coast, there is no reason why the earliest
converts of Malabar should have preferred the name of Thomas to that
of Bartholomew. Though Mr. Hough and Sir W. W. Hunter, [199] among
others, discredit the mission of St. Thomas in the first century,
they both accept the story of the mission of Pantænus. Mr. Hough says
that "it is probable that these Indians (who appealed to Demetrius)
were converts or children of former converts to Christianity." If,
in the second century, there could be children of former converts in
India, it is not clear why the introduction of Christianity to India
in the first century, and that by St. Thomas, should be so seriously
questioned and set aside as being a myth, especially in view of the
weight of the subjoined testimony, associating the work with the name
of the apostle.
In the Asiatic Journal (Vol. VI), Mr. Whish refutes the assertions made
by Mr. Wrede in the Asiatic Researches (Vol. VII) that the Christians
of Malabar settled in that country "during the violent persecution
of the sect of Nestorius under Theodosius II, or some time after,"
and says, with reference to the date of the Jewish colonies in India,
that the Christians of the country were settled long anterior to the
period mentioned by Mr. Wrede. Referring to the acts and journeyings
of the apostles, Dorotheus, Bishop of Tyre (254-313 A.D.), says "the
Apostle Thomas, after having preached the Gospel to the Parthians,
Medes, Persians, Germanians, Bactrians, and Magi, suffered martyrdom
at Calamina, a town of India." It is said that, at the Council of
Nice held in 325 A.D., India was represented by Johannes, Bishop of
India Maxima and Persia. St. Gregory of Nazianzen (370-392 A.D.),
in answering the reproach of his being a stranger, asks "Were not
the apostles strangers? Granting that Judæa was the country of
Peter, what had Paul in common with the Gentiles, Luke with Achaia,
Andrew with Epirus, John with Ephesus, Thomas with India, Mark with
Italy"? St. Jerome (390 A.D.) testifies to the general belief in
the mission of St. Thomas to India. He too mentions Calamina as the
town where the apostle met with his death. Baronius thinks that,
when Theodoret, the Church historian (430-458 A.D.), speaks of the
apostles, he evidently associates the work in India with the name of
St. Thomas. St. Gregory of Torus relates that "in that place in India,
where the body of Thomas lay before it was transferred to Edessa,
there is a monastery and temple of great size." Florentius asserts
that "nothing with more certainty I find in the works of the Holy
Fathers than that St. Thomas preached the Gospel in India." Rufinus,
who stayed twenty-five years in Syria, says that the remains of
St. Thomas were brought from India to Edessa. Two Arabian travellers
of the ninth century, referred to by Renaudot, assert that St. Thomas
died at Mailapur.
Coming to modern times, we have several authorities, who testify to
the apostolic origin of the Indian Church, regarded as apocryphal by
Mr. Milne Rae, Sir W. W. Hunter, and others. The historian of the
'Indian Empire,' while rejecting some of the strongest arguments
advanced by Mr. Milne Rae, accepts his conclusions in regard to the
apostolic origin. The Romanist Portuguese in their enthusiasm coloured
the legends to such an extent as to make them appear incredible,
and the Protestant writers of modern times, while distrusting
the Portuguese version, are not agreed as to the rare personage
that introduced Christianity to India. Mr. Wrede asserts that the
Christians of Malabar settled in that country during the violent
persecution of the sect of Nestorius under Theodosius II, or some
time after. Dr. Burnell traces the origin to the Manichæan Thomas,
who flourished towards the end of the third century. Mr. Milne Rae
brings the occurrence of the event down to the sixth century of the
Christian era. Sir William Hunter, without associating the foundation
of the Malabar Church with the name of any particular person, states
the event to have taken place some time in the second century,
long before the advent of Thomas the Manichæan, but considers that
the name St. Thomas Christians was adopted by the Christians in the
eighth century. He observes that "the early legend of the Manichæan
Thomas in the third century and the later labours of the Armenian
Thomas, the rebuilder of the Malabar Church in the eighth century,
endeared that name to the Christians of Southern India." [It has
recently been stated, with reference to the tradition that it was
St. Thomas the apostle who first evangelised Southern India, that,
"though this tradition is no more capable of disproof than of proof,
those authorities seem to be on safer ground, who are content to
hold that Christianity was first imported into India by Nestorian or
Chaldæan missionaries from Persia and Mesopotamia, whose apostolic
zeal between the sixth and twelfth centuries ranged all over Asia,
even into Tibet and Tartary. The seat of the Nestorian Patriarchate
of Babylon was at Bagdad, and, as it claimed to be par excellence
the Church of St. Thomas, this might well account for the fact that
the proselytes it won over in India were in the habit of calling
themselves Christians of St. Thomas. It is, to say the least, a
remarkable coincidence that one of the three ancient stone crosses
preserved in India bears an inscription and devices, which are stated
to resemble those on the cross discovered near Singanfu in China,
recording the appearance of Nestorian missionaries in Shenshi in the
early part of the seventh century."]
As already said, there are those who attribute the introduction of
the Gospel to a certain Thomas, a disciple of Manes, who is supposed
to have come to India in 277 A.D., finding in this an explanation
of the origin of the Manigramakars (inhabitants of the village
of Manes) of Kayenkulam near Quilon. Coming to the middle of the
fourth century, we read of a Thomas Cana, an Aramæan or Syrian
merchant, or a divine, as some would have it, who, having in his
travels seen the neglected conditions of the flock of Christ on the
Malabar coast, returned to his native land, sought the assistance of
the Catholics of Bagdad, came back with a train of clergymen and a
pretty large number of Syrians, and worked vigorously to better their
spiritual condition. He is said to have married two Indian ladies,
the disputes of succession between whose children appear, according
to some writers, to have given rise to the two names of Northerners
(Vadakkumbagar) and Southerners (Thekkumbagar)--a distinction which
is still jealously kept up. The authorities are, however, divided as
to the date of his arrival, for, while some assign 345 A.D., others
give 745 A.D. It is just possible that this legend but records the
advent of two waves of colonists from Syria at different times, and
their settlement in different stations; and Thomas Cana was perhaps
the leader of the first migration. The Syrian tradition explains
the origin of the names in a different way, for, according to it,
the foreigners or colonists from Syria lived in the southern street
of Cranganur or Kodungallur, and the native converts in the northern
street. After their dispersion from Cranganur, the Southerners kept
up their pride and prestige by refusing to intermarry, while the name
of Northerners came to be applied to all Native Christians other than
the Southerners. At their wedding feasts, the Southerners sing songs
commemorating their colonization at Kodungallur, their dispersion
from there, and settlement in different places. They still retain
some foreign tribe names, to which the original colony is said
to have belonged. A few of these names are Baji, Kojah, Kujalik,
and Majamuth. Their leader Thomas Cana is said to have visited the
last of the Perumals and to have obtained several privileges for the
benefit of the Christians. He is supposed to have built a church at
Mahadevarpattanam, or more correctly Mahodayapuram, near Kodungallur
in the Cochin State, the capital of the Perumals or Viceroys of Kerala,
and, in their documents, the Syrian Christians now and again designate
themselves as being inhabitants of Mahadevarpattanam.
In the Syrian seminary at Kottayam are preserved two copper-plate
charters, one granted by Vira Raghava Chakravarthi,and the
other by Sthanu Ravi Gupta, supposed to be dated 774 A.D. and 824
A.D. Specialists, who have attempted to fix approximately the dates
of the grants, however, differ, as will be seen from a discussion of
the subject by Mr. V. Venkayya in the Epigraphia Indica. [200]
Concerning the plate of Vira Raghava, Mr. Venkayya there writes
as follows. "The subjoined inscription is engraved on both sides
of a single copper-plate, which is in the possession of the Syrian
Christians at Kottayam. The plate has no seal, but, instead, a conch is
engraved about the middle of the left margin of the second side. This
inscription has been previously translated by Dr. Gundert. [201]
Mr. Kookel Keloo Nair has also attempted a version of the grant. [202]
In the translation I have mainly followed Dr. Gundert."
Translation.
Hari! Prosperity! Adoration to the great Ganapati! On the day of (the
Nakshatra) Rohini, a Saturday after the expiration of the twenty-first
(day) of the solar month Mina (of the year during which) Jupiter (was)
in Makara, while the glorious Vira-Raghava-Chakravartin,--(of the race)
that has been wielding the sceptre for several hundred thousands
of years in regular succession from the glorious king of kings,
the glorious Vira-Kerala-Chakravartin--was ruling prosperously:--
While (we were) pleased to reside in the great palace, we conferred
the title of Manigramam on Iravikorttan, alias Seramanloka-pperun-jetti
of Magodaiyarpattinam.
We (also) gave (him the right of) festive clothing, house pillars,
the income that accrues, the export trade (?), monopoly of trade, (the
right of) proclamation, forerunners, the five musical instruments,
a conch, a lamp in day-time, a cloth spread (in front to walk on),
a palanquin, the royal parasol, the Telugu (?) drum, a gateway with
an ornamental arch, and monopoly of trade in the four quarters.
We (also) gave the oilmongers and the five (classes of) artisans as
(his) slaves.
We (also) gave, with a libation of water--having (caused it to be)
written on a copper-plate--to Iravikorttan, who is the lord of
the city, the brokerage on (articles) that may be measured with
the para, weighed by the balance or measured with the tape, that
may be counted or weighed, and on all other (articles) that are
intermediate--including salt, sugar, musk (and) lamp oil--and also
the customs levied on these (articles) between the river mouth of
Kodungallur and the gate (gopura)--chiefly between the four temples
(tali) and the village adjacent to (each) temple.
We gave (this) as property to Sêramân-lôka-pperun-jetti, alias
Iravikorttan, and to his children's children in due succession.
(The witnesses) who know this (are):--We gave (it) with the knowledge
of the villagers of Panniyûr and the villagers of Sôgiram. We gave
(it) with the knowledge (of the authorities) of Vênâdu and Odunâdu. We
gave (it) with the knowledge (of the authorities) of Eranâdu and
Valluvanâdu. We gave (it) for the time that the moon and the sun
shall exist.
The hand-writing of Sêramân-lôka-pperun-dattan Nambi Sadeyan, who wrote
(this) copper-plate with the knowledge of these (witnesses).
Mr. Venkayya adds that "it was supposed by Dr. Burnell [203] that
the plate of Vîra-Râghava created the principality of Manigramam,
and the Cochin plates that of Anjuvannam. [204] The Cochin plates
did not create Anjuvannam, but conferred the honours and privileges
connected therewith to a Jew named Rabbân. Similarly, the rights
and honours associated with the other corporation, Manigrâmam, were
bestowed at a later period on Ravikkorran. It is just possible that
Ravikkorran was a Christian by religion. But his name and title give
no clue in this direction, and there is nothing Christian in the
document, except its possession by the present owners. On this name,
Dr. Gundert first said [205] 'Iravi Corttan must be a Nasrani name,
though none of the Syrian priests whom I saw could explain it, or had
ever heard of it.' Subsequently he added: 'I had indeed been startled
by the Iravi Corttan, which does not look at all like the appellation
of a Syrian Christian; still I thought myself justified in calling
Manigrâmam a Christian principality--whatever their Christianity may
have consisted in--on the ground that, from Menezes' time, these grants
had been regarded as given to the Syrian colonists.' Mr. Kookel Keloo
Nair considered Iravikkorran a mere title, in which no shadow of a
Syrian name is to be traced."
Nestorius, a native of Germanicia, was educated at Antioch, where,
as Presbyter, he became celebrated, while yet very young, for his
asceticism, orthodoxy, and eloquence. On the death of Sisinnius,
Patriarch of Constantinople, this distinguished preacher of Antioch
was appointed to the vacant See by the Emperor Theodosius II, and
was consecrated as Patriarch in 428 A.D. The doctrine of a God-man
respecting Christ, and the mode of union of the human and the divine
nature in Him left undefined by the early teachers, who contented
themselves with speaking of Him and regarding Him as "born and unborn,
God in flesh, life in death, born of Mary, and born of God," had, long
before the time of Nestorius, begun to tax the genius of churchmen, and
the controversies in respect of this double nature of Christ had led
to the growth and spread of important heretical doctrines. Two of the
great heresies of the church before that of Nestorius are associated
with the names of Arius and Apollinaris. Arius "admitted both the
divine and the human nature of Christ, but, by making Him subordinate
to God, denied His divinity in the highest sense." Apollinaris,
undermining the doctrine of the example and atonement of Christ,
argued that "in Jesus the Logos supplied the place of the reasonable
soul." As early as 325 A.D. the first OEcumenical Council of Nice
had defined against the Arians, and decreed that "the Son was not
only of like essence, but of the same essence with the Father, and
the human nature, maimed and misinterpreted by the Apollinarians, had
been restored to the person of Christ at the Council of Constantinople
in 381." Nestorius, finding the Arians and Apollinarians, condemned
strongly though they were, still strong in numbers and influence
at Constantinople, expressed in his first sermon as Patriarch his
determination to put down these and other heretical sects, and
exhorted the Emperor to help him in this difficult task. But, while
vigorously engaged in the effectual extinction of all heresies, he
incurred the displeasure of the orthodox party by boldly declaring,
though in the most sincerely orthodox form, against the use of the
term Theotokos, that is, Mother of God, which, as applied to the
Virgin Mary, had then grown into popular favour, especially amongst
the clergy at Constantinople and Rome. While he himself revered the
Blessed Virgin as the Mother of Christ, he declaimed against the use
of the expression Mother of God in respect of her, as being alike
"unknown to the Apostles, and unauthorised by the Church," besides
its being inherently absurd to suppose that the Godhead can be born or
suffer. Moreover, in his endeavour to avoid the extreme positions taken
up by Arians and Apollinarians, he denied, while speaking of the two
natures in Christ, that there was any communication of attributes. But
he was understood on this point to have maintained a mechanical rather
than a supernatural union of the two natures, and also to have rent
Christ asunder, and divided Him into two persons. Explaining his
position, Nestorius said "I distinguish the natures, but I unite my
adoration." But this explanation did not satisfy the orthodox, who
understood him to have "preached a Christ less than divine." The clergy
and laity of Constantinople, amongst whom Nestorius had thus grown
unpopular, and was talked of as a heretic, appealed to Cyril, Bishop
of the rival See of Alexandria, to interfere on their behalf. Cyril,
supported by the authority of the Pope, arrived on the scene, and, at
the Council of Ephesus, hastily and informally called up, condemned
Nestorius as a heretic, and excommunicated him. After Nestorianism
had been rooted out of the Roman Empire in the time of Justinian,
it flourished "in the East," especially in Persia and the countries
adjoining it, where the churches, since their foundation, had been
following the Syrian ritual, discipline, and doctrine, and where
a strong party, among them the Patriarch of Seleucia or Babylon,
and his suffragan the Metropolitan of Persia, with their large
following, revered Nestorius as a martyr, and faithfully and formally
accepted his teachings at the Synod of Seleucia in 448 A.D. His
doctrines seem to have spread as far east as China, so that, in 551,
Nestorian monks who had long resided in that country are said to have
brought the eggs of the silkworm to Constantinople. Cosmos, surnamed
Indicopleustes, the Indian traveller, who, in 522 A.D., visited Male,
"the country where the pepper grows," has referred to the existence
of a fully organised church in Malabar, with the Bishops consecrated
in Persia. His reference, while it traces the origin of the Indian
church to the earlier centuries, also testifies to the fact that,
at the time of his visit, the church was Nestorian in its creed
"from the circumstance of its dependence upon the Primate of Persia,
who then unquestionably held the Nestorian doctrines."