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"...It is clearly the fabrication of the Portuguese to camouflage their destruction of the Hindu Temple of Kapaleeswara which was situated on the seashore, probably at the very place where Santhome Church now stands. The great Saivite saint of sixth century A.D., Tirujnanasambandar, sings in the 6th Poompavai Padikam Thevaram: The Lord of Kapaleeswaram sat watching the people of Mylapore A place full of flowering coconut palms Taking ceremonial bath in the sea on the full moon day of the month of Masai. In the same strain sings Arunagirinathar, who came to Mylapore in 1456, in his Tirumayilai Tiruppugazh: O Lord of Mailai (Mylapore) temple, situated on the shores of the sea with raging waves ... This clear and indisputable evidence gives the lie to the legend that the Portuguese invented to hide their nefarious work. The Portuguese domination of Mylapore was from 1522 to 1697, by which time the British had established themselves in the Fort St. George and adjoining territories, and the Portuguese had to withdraw to Goa where their empire lasted till 1962. In Goa their rule was noted for a spree of destruction of Hindu temples and persecution of the Goanese, so much so that large sections of them had to flee that territory and settle all along the west coast of India. They are the Gauda Saraswats. The fate of these Goanese would have overtaken the temples and the people of Madras also, a foretaste of which contingency they got in the destruction of the holy Kapaleeswara Temple. Thanks to the British domination of the region and the consequent elimination of the Portuguese, this tragic fate did not overtake them. The British had more political maturity and diplomatic perception, which helped them perceive that trade was more important for themselves than religious propaganda. And so they kept an attitude of indifference towards the religion and religious edifices of the people in whose midst they carried on their trading activities, which eventually led to the establishment of a political empire. The destruction of the seashore Temple of Kapaleeswara is said to have taken place in 1561. The new temple at its present site, about one km. to the west, was built by pious Hindu votaries about three hundred years ago, i.e., about two hundred and fifty years after its destruction. When the Santhome Church was repaired in the beginning of the current century, many stones with edicts were found there. Among them one mentions Poompavai, the girl whom Tirujnanasambandar is said to have miraculously revived from her ashes kept in an urn. These are all matters of the forgotten past. Both the Kapaleeswara Temple and the Santhome Church are now thriving and catering to the spiritual needs of the Hindus and the Christians. In such a situation it is better not to rake up the memories of these unpleasant facts. According to forward-looking people many things of the past are better forgotten than remembered and ruminated upon. The history of the Kapaleeswara Temple and Santhome Church belongs to this category...." |
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"...The Myth Of Saint Thomas is the prototype of the Jesus-in-India stories that began to appear in the last century to explain the early years of Jesus that are not accounted for in the New Testament. They were invented by Western spiritualists who also paraded as historians of the arcane, and they have become a favorite tale of today's spiritual seeker and the convent-educated Hindu who is flattered to learn that the founder of Christianity may have visited India. The devotees of these stories do not notice that in them neither Judas Thomas nor his twin brother Jesus is presented as seeker of of truth or admirer of Hindu religion and culture. Instead both are presented as teachers of their own superior truth or as enlightened social reformers who are persecuted by pagan priests. Whether the tales are set in Palur or Mylapore as is the case of Thomas, or Puri or Benares as is the case of Jesus, the theme of martyrdom is the same. The "superior" teachings of both men are rejected and their lives threatened by "reactionary" caste Hindus. Thomas is murdered on a hill-top near Madras and Jesus is stoned and driven from the country by a mob - only to return and marry a princess of Kashmir after surviving the Crucifixion. The first objective of these tales is to vilify Brahmins and malign the Hindu religion and community. The second objective - and here we part company with the Jesus stories - is to present Christianity as a native Indian religion, not a Western import, and show that Syrian Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism can rightfully claim religious hegemony in India. The legend of St. Thomas was invented to give these Syrian immigrants Indian ancestry and the patronage of a local martyr- saint - Chritianity is the religion of martyrs - and it was resurrected and embellished in the sixteenth century by Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries who needed a pious story of persecution to cover up their own persecution of the Hindus. This is another reason for the Church to promote the tale in Madras, for during that period she and her imperial Portuguese 'secular arm' destroyed many temples including the Shiva Temple on the Mylapore beach, the Murugan Temple on Little Mount and the Vishnu Temple on Big Mount. The Archaeological Survey of India has never investigated the origins of early Christian churches in India in the same way that it has studies old mosques and other Moslem monuments, but this work has been done by German scholars and awaits translation and publication in English. It shows that almost all sixteenth and seventeenth century churches in India contain temple rubble and are built on temple sites. The destruction of one of these temples, the first Kapaleeswara Temple on the Mylapore beach, is reviewed here because of its inexorable link with the myth of St. Thomas. This reputed burial place of St. Thomas must now become a center of pilgrimage for archaeologists, historians and philosophers who do not have a theological ax to grind like the pilgrims of old and the priests of today, but who would know the plain truth about old Mylapore and record it for our children. Every modern-day Hindu must read this book and understand the full implications of the Jesus stories now being circulated by interested missionaries among the common people of India....." Click here to read the book on Myth of St.Thomas |