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The Myth of Saint Thomas and the Mylapore Shiva Temple Fourth Revised Edition Ishwar Sharan Voice of India 1 Cover Image Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Peter Paul Rubens – 1636-38 ISBN 978-81-85990-11-8 © Voice of India First Edition 1991 Second Revised Edition 1995 Third Revised Edition 2010 Fourth Revised Edition 2019 Published by Voice of India, 2/18, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110002, India. Email: [email protected] Website: www.voiceofin.com Printed at DK Fine Arts Press (Pvt.) Ltd., Ring Road, Pitam Pura, Delhi 110052, India. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. 2 ॐ This Book Is Dedicated To Sri Kapaleeswara Shiva The Lord Of Mylapore And His Favoured Sons Jnanasambandar And Arunagirinathar Who Offer The Best Evidence This Edition Is Dedicated To Vasanti Amma Of Sri Vaishnavi Shrine Tirumullaivoyal And Sita Ram Goel Of Voice Of India New Delhi 3 Contents ▫ Author’s Note ... 7 Part One ▫ Foreword - Koenraad Elst ... 13 ▫ Introduction - Ishwar Sharan ... 17 ▫ The Myth Of Saint Thomas And The Mylapore Shiva Temple - Ishwar Sharan ... 22 Part Two ▫ Archbishop Arulappa’s History Project Goes Terribly Wrong - K.P. Sunil ... 140 ▫ Archbishop Arulappa’s Document Forger Goes To Jail - Ganesh Iyer & K.P. Sunil ... 148 ▫ Indian Historian Makes A Mockery Of Indian History - Veda Prakash ... 155 ▫ The Pre-Thinking Debate - Sita Ram Goel & Khushwant Singh ... 159 Part Three ▫ Pope Doubts St. Thomas Evangelised South India - Ishwar Sharan ... 162 ▫ Bishop Doubts St. Thomas Evangelised South India - Times News Network ... 165 ▫ How Missionaries Invented ‘Dravidian Christianity’ - Rajiv Malhotra ... 167 ▫ Questioning The St. Thomas Origin Of Indian Christianity - C.I. Issac ... 171 ▫ Christian Author Misrepresents Tiruvalluvar As Disciple Of Thomas - R.S. Narayanaswami ... 176 ▫ Madras-Mylapore Archdiocese Plans Blockbuster Movie On St. Thomas - Ishwar Sharan ... 180 ▫ Tiruvalluvar ‘Baptised’ To Betray Hindus - B.R. Haran ... 188 ▫ The Madras Archbishop Is Obliged To Accept The Pope’s Stand On St. Thomas - V. Sundaram ... 194 4 Part Four ▫ In Memory Of A Slain Saint - C.A. Simon ... 199 ▫ The Legend Of A Slain Saint To Stain Hinduism - Swami Tapasyananda ... 207 Part Five ▫ St. Thomas And Caste - Ishwar Sharan ... 217 ▫ St. Thomas And Anti-Brahminism - Koenraad Elst ... 225 ▫ Christian Churches Threaten Dalit Rights - Leela Tampi ... 233 ▫ How Casteless Muslims And Christians Obtain Benefits Meant For Caste Hindus - Vigil Review ... 243 Part Six ▫ Hideaway Communalism In The Indian Express - Ishwar Sharan ... 249 ▫ Hideaway Communalism In The Hindu - Ishwar Sharan ... 259 ▫ Madras Musings And Madras Muthiah - Ishwar Sharan ... 263 ▫ St. Thomas As A Tourist Attraction - Ishwar Sharan ... 266 ▫ Christians Threaten Kamakoti Magazine - Ishwar Sharan ... 269 Part Seven ▫ The Mount Of Thomas - S. Muthiah ... 272 ▫ Chennai’s Own Holocaust Deniers - Ishwar Sharan ... 275 ▫ San Thome Cathedral Cover-Up Uncovered - G.P. Srinivasan ... 280 ▫ The New Indian Express Makes A Tsunami - Ishwar Sharan ... 284 ▫ Did A Hindu King Kill St. Thomas? - Ishwar Sharan ... 288 ▫ The Deccan Chronicle Deceits - Ishwar Sharan ... 293 5 ▫ The Secrets Of The Twelve Disciples Revealed - Ishwar Sharan ... 308 ▫ A Feast For St. Thomas - Ishwar Sharan ... 313 Part Eight ▫ The Dalrymple Massage Of The St. Thomas Myth - Koenraad Elst ... 321 ▫ The Confabulated Leftist Murder Of St. Thomas - Koenraad Elst ... 323 Part Nine ▫ Searching For Muziris At Pattanam - A. Srivathsan ... 328 ▫ Nagaswamy Nails False Propaganda On St. Thomas And Pattanam - Express Buzz ... 333 ▫ Digging For The Bones Of St. Thomas - B.S. Harishankar ... 334 ▫ ASI Doubting Thomases Suspend Dubious KCHR St. Thomas Dig - G. Ananthakrishnan ... 339 ▫ Marxists And Christians Continue The Search For St. Thomas - Sandhya Jain ... 342 Part Ten ▫ Why Indians Should Reject St. Thomas And Christianity - Koenraad Elst ... 347 Bibliography ▫ Bibliography & Websites … 366 6 Author’s Note This book is a revised and updated version of The Myth of Saint Thomas and the Mylapore Shiva Temple that was published by Voice of India in 2010. It includes everything in the earlier edition plus a number of new and important references. The Tamil and religious scholar Veda Prakash, who in 1989 brought us the original data he had collected on the St. Thomas myth and destruction of the Kapaleeswara Shiva Temple in Mylapore, continues to share his research materials and Tamil translations. Sita Ram Goel, Koenraad Elst, K.P. Sunil and Ganesh Iyer, Leela Tampi, R.S. Narayanaswami, Rajiv Malhotra, C.A. Simon, Khushwant Singh, G. Ananthakrishnan, B.R. Haran, G.P. Srinivasan, V. Sundaram, S. Muthiah, A. Srivathsan, B.S. Harishankar, Sandhya Jain, Swami Tapasyananda of the Sri Ramakrishna Math in Mylapore, and a number of Indian and foreign media organisations who report news without a by-line, have all made invaluable contributions. Two important events have taken place since the publication of this book in 2010. One, the eminent and learned archaeologist Dr. R. Nagaswamy has criticised the Pattanam archaeological dig1 and categorically stated that there is no evidence for St. Thomas’s visit to India, and two, a California production company, Dharlin Entertainment, is planning a major motion picture on St. Thomas’s alleged stay in Kerala and murder in Mylapore.2 They may succeed in cinematically perpetuating the blood libel of Thomas’s murder by Hindus where the Madras-Mylapore Archdiocese failed in 2008. Added to this is the vast work and expense the Archdiocese has lavished on rebuilding the fake St. Thomas tomb in San Thome Cathedral Basilica and on its garish development around the old Portuguese churches on Little Mount in Saidapet and St. Thomas Mount. All this and more has happened in direct response to our books. So, we can say with some certainty that St. Thomas is here in India with us―if not in truth than in fiction and scholarly sectarian scandal. In this book we have traced the legend of St. Thomas in some detail, from its origin in third century Mesopotamia to its religious, commercial and 7 communal manifestation in Chennai today. It is a complicated story with many details and side issues attached, and the reader will have to pay close attention. What was originally an introductory essay to the study of the St. Thomas in India myth and the related issue of the destruction of a great Shiva temple on the Mylapore beach, has taken the shape of a broader investigation into the negative Christian presence in South India today. Whatever Christian believers in Malabar and their ecclesiastical counterparts in Chennai may say, there is only one original source for the St. Thomas in India legend, the Acts of Thomas. It is a moral fable written by the Gnostic poet Bardesanes (Bardaisan, Ibn Daisan) at Edessa about 210 CE, and it was brought to South India by Syrian Christian refugees in the fourth century CE. The allegedly ancient oral narratives produced today by the descendants of these Christian refugees in Kerala, however dear they may be to the faithful, are church and family traditions that have no historical credibility and no bearing on real historical research. The fact that the Indian government and encyclopaedias like Britannica and Wikipedia accept these family tales as Indian history does not make them any more truthful or valid as historical records. This has to be recognised by Indian government officials and scholars alike if Indian history writing is to be taken seriously. The first three editions of this book were received by the Indian public with great interest even though they were reviewed in only one newspaper, The Pioneer. This is very gratifying, and the fact that the book is going into a fourth edition is even more welcome. The brown sahibs who control the mainstream Indian media will continue to do their distasteful St. Thomas propaganda and black out the opposing historical view because that is what they are paid to do, but we are sure of the interest and critical intelligence of the Indian reader and are satisfied that the work we set out to do in 1989 has borne fruit. The irony―and the brown sahibs may take note―is that had the Indian Express published our response to C.A. Simon’s malafide Catholic propaganda piece, In Memory of a Slain Saint, in 1989, we would never have bothered to follow up the St. Thomas in India tale with an investigation. But because we were rudely obstructed, first by the Indian Express editor, 8 then by The Hindu editor, and finally by Chennai’s own self-styled historian S. Muthiah, we decided to look deeper into this matter of Indian Thomases―and believe me there is more than one Thomas involved in this history swindle even as there is more than one tomb for him. So, the moral of the story is this: don’t tell lies for Jesus―or in this case for his twin brother Thomas―and if you must tell lies let the historian reply to the lies so that the matter may die a quiet and non-controversial death. The brown sahibs and so-called secular scribes who make up the Indian media mafia3 have only themselves to blame for our continued interest in the ancient St. Thomas in India fable and its modern political and hatefully communal manifestation in Tamil Nadu today. ISHWAR SHARAN _______________ 1. The Archaeological Survey of India has found no evidence for Muziris (Muchiri in Tamil) in Kodungallur. But the village of Pattanam seven km south of the city has produced some Roman beads and become the focus of Marxist and Christian excavators searching for St. Thomas proofs. Muziris was a known international trading entrepot from the sixth century BCE to the thirteenth century CE when it suddenly disappeared due to natural catastrophe.