EE ———- i 
1923.] St. Thomas and San Thomé, Mylapore. 231 
writes of Shaka or S’alivahana.” ‘‘'This Mléch’havatara, or 
superior incarnation of the deity among foreign tribes, Ruma- 
déja-pati, the lord of the country of Roum, or Rome, because 
his doctrine, Bactokes, and laws prevail through it ; 
nagaré, said to reside in Rome its metropolis, (because he is 
revered and worshipped there with unusual pa art atte ;) 
‘Saces wara, the lord of a sacred period, (or as [ think it 
should be understood, after whom it is ayaa deo is obvi- 
ously Jesus Christ ; atleast it appears so to 
The era a after Saliv: ee is a one beginning 
in A.D. 78 (or 68 i me parts of ia ?), an era introduced 
into India, says the "he Purana (ibid., pp. 47, 54-55), at a 
period corresponding to the year 676 of Christ, i.e., at the time 
when the Christian era began to get adopted in Christendom. 
In February 1924, the Catholic Syrian Bishop of Kottayam 
showed me a Malayalam MS., some 300 years old, of which he 
had half a dozen copies, in the first lines of the preface of which 
it was stated that St. Thomas died A.D. 78. 
. for an Orientalist who will either refute or corroborate 
Wilford’s findings ! 
low is it that so many of our Christians in Southern 
India bear the name of Salivahana as a Christian name? In 
many parts of India, notably in the history of the Warangal 
kings and in the Rajatarangini of Kashmir, ier of the 
crucifixion are connected with Salivahana or Mandavya. See 
Wilford’s essay in Asiatick Researches, X. 27-126. 
26. Inter-borrowing of legends between Christians and non- 
Christians—A Muhammadan story from Covalong, in the close 
Vicinity of Mylapore, about the finding of a box that came 
Y sea, the impossibility of moving it, and the receding of 
the sea, bears a close resemblance to the story of St. Thomas’ 
log from chee Aes the inability of the King and his people to 
> US 
on 
3 
2 
3 
Se 
legends between Christians and non-Christians which publi shed 
ists = The Catholic Herald a India, agent 31st—March 
3 
“We pnd story te i A: Sigg re ar Esq., Presidency 
oe oh Deak a n Rd., Egmore, Madras, who, on sending 
it, favours us with some remarks (April 29, 1923) -— 
“T also enclose a brief history of the Muhammadan saint 
Tamim, whose tomb is venerated at Covelong, 18 miles south of 
San Tho omé. You will find the re further evidence of inter- 
4 printed pamphlet on the same subject, which I shall send 
you as soon as as I can get a translation. 
