16 
THE LEGEND OF ST. THOMAS. 
whereabouts of this Misdeus is disclosed to us in the future 
by the rause of history, it is much more likely that she will 
point to the Persian side^ to the area within which there 
were temples of the Sun, and kings who measured their 
distances by stadia and called their officers polemarclis. It 
seems not improbable that he may turn out to have been 
an Indo-Parthian king. 
But another construction of the facts, in consistency with 
the tradition that St. Thomas actually visited Southern India, 
is to be found in a Tamil manuscript, one of the Mackenzie 
collection. This manuscript is a translation from Latin by 
Nanapracasa Pillai, a Native Christian, who was probably 
trained by the Jesuits at Pondicherry, in whose library he 
most likely found the Latin manuscript. According to this 
story, St, Thomas first landed at the capital of the king 
of Malabar, which thus corresponds to Andrapolis in the 
Apocryphal Acts. Afterwards he crossed the country to 
Maylapur, which was at that time ruled by a learned, charit- 
able, and courageous prince, named Candapa Eaja (meant to 
be the Tamil equivalent of Grandapharasa or Gondophares). 
The story, which is but a clumsy imitation of the Apocry- 
phal Acts of Thomas but does not lead up to the Apostle's 
death, is as follows : — 
In the days when this prosperous king Candapa ruled, oiu- 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ having ascended to heaven, St. 
Thomas, according to the command just before given to him, was 
appointed to the charge of the country of Lidia. Accordingly, 
after having preached the Holy Gospel and made disciples in 
various places of Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine, he landed at 
first in the M;ilayala country. Having travelled much therein, 
he at length came near to the palace of the Kerala Raja and 
halted. Immediately on arriving there, he heard the sounds of 
splendid music, and, from -svishing to satisfy himself as to what 
it was, he went directly to the public hall of the palace. On 
doing so he was astonished at seeing dancers exerting them- 
selves M-ith certain musical instruments, and vocal musicians 
