Thomas The Apostle; India's Syrian Christians

[@thomasthomasphilp4393]

I am a Syrian Christian from Kerala. Our descendants are Hindus. We lite lamps in our Church. We have no issue whatsoever in claiming our Hindu identity. Hindu kings have donated land to build Churches and Mosques in Kerala, which many have forgotten

[@Nero6570]

syrian christians are hindus but how?

[@ftx453]

Your ancestors were Hindus, you mean?

[@goodomen5801]

@@Nero6570 actually in kerala back then there where more Buddhist compared to Hindus.

[@freedom_fight]

@@Nero6570 They are not. they were of Jewish ancestry

[@sangamp6292]

Dont you feel to come back to your own religions which has roots to your ancestors?

[@dharmapersona2084]

Francis Xavier's Goa Inquisition is the true face of Christianity in India.

[@javipralayankar7978]

Yes.

[@dharmapersona2084]

@@joyalsajan1168 Ricebag is Ricebag, whether it be Kathleen or Orthodox

[@anakata3254]

I agree.

[@SainaBidi]

@@r1a150 is that how your face look like.

[@vinthsouza]

@@dharmapersona2084 It not the true face of Christianity.

[@Rajesh-vq8vg]

I'm Syriac orthodox Christian (Jacobite) in India ❤️

[@arealist8565]

@Rajesh: FYI, the breakaway faction from the Jacobite church has claimed the title of 'Indian Orthodox'

[@janeswan1124]

@@arealist8565 ....really😁😂🤣or is it the other way around, Mr.Genius? Post the 2017 Supreme Court verdict, you guys are clinging on to communist boobs for nurture huh😁

[@Nairboybharath]

I am from Kerala. I know a few relatives who are Syrian Christians. And what I have understood is that they were Judeans migrated or came as refugees to Kerala (during their trading days with Muzris, Kodungallur may be), and later got converted into Christianity. Or they may be Christians themselves who migrated from Syria. And what I could understand from most is their extreme focus on transactional nature of life and they are very much business minded in general. Its almost like they are Jew in some ways. Because they adopted Dowry system of Kerala, and celebrate festivals like Kerala Hindu temple festivals. But otherwise they in no way relate to Hindu way of life and thinking. Syrian Christians are not hell bent on converting people. They are concerned about their pure Christian lineage, that they don't want intermixing in their community. And most of them say that they were namboothiris/brahmins who got converted. But in reality Namboodiris will never get converted in those days, as they had monopoly over power, wealth and land in Kerala, unlike now. Why would anyone get converted from top of the societal food chain to bottom of the food chain? But anyway these days Syrian Christians are also largely targeted by Love Jeh@d!s.

[@Nox-jz1hv]

Really I thought muslims and Christians get along really well in kerala and target only Hindus?

[@zenjm6496]

BAck in those days, Brahmins didn't have much power in Kerala. Buddhism was the dominant religion in those days across the subcontinent. So a bunch of them converting doesn't seem too farfetched. But there's no way to verify it. I would say it's just a legend like that story of Parashuram creating Kerala with his axe. Just leave it at that!

[@zenjm6496]

@@descendedofrigvedicclans2216 What?

[@Nairboybharath]

@@zenjm6496 By your logic, its fair to say to say grandson came before grandfather... 🤣

[@zenjm6496]

@@Nairboybharath Somehow I don't doubt that's all you understood from my comment!

[@amitpratap7551]

If Jews could migrate from middle east to Kerala to flee the Romans, probably sometime later Syrian Orthodox Christians did as well. Then they would have married the local Hindus as well ( unlike most Jews who strictly maintain their blood line / Gotra ). History is interesting. Portuguese/ Spanish version of Christianity was a "tool for slavery", meant to blunt the resistance. Best example are the native American Indian who were converted, never treated equal, looted, dispossessed of their lands but because they were converted, they lost their zeal to fight back. In a way, Imperialist & Evangelist were have in glove to help each other. This also explains why the Portuguese tried to impose their "slavish" version of Christianity onto the Kerala orthodox Christian and Goan Hindus.

[@abs6875]

Syrian christians are jews who accepted christianity from Apostle Thomas as Jews were there in kerala. They also followed endogamy. When portugese converted locals, syrian christians maintained their separate identity from locals converted,who are called latin christians. This division is only there in kerala as in other parts converts are locals and all comes under latin..

[@mathewalex7824]

Nope.... liar

[@ashishmeshram5057]

The native americans used to practice human sacrifice and torture rituals so.... It was a good thing that they converted to Christianity

[@glennjacksonofficial3001]

Apparently us Syrian Christians practice the Onam festivity which is hindu, so we're culturally hindu

[@bhavishkumar3123]

Bruh one question, is the syrian christian community involved in conversion? I have heard they are not hell bent to convert people like european versions of christianity.

[@Varghese09]

@@bhavishkumar3123 we don’t convert only pentecosts and evangelicals do tht

[@bestofcomedy1378]

@@bhavishkumar3123 nope

[@idkwtdrn]

@@bhavishkumar3123 Syrian Christians has an unspoken weird purity mentality, and doesn't actually like new converts to the community, because you know, there is always Latin Christianity if you want to convert. It goes for All Syrian Catholics, Syrian orthodox, Chaldeans etc. [ Everyone except protestents. They are the ones who goes crazy over conversions]

[@asurrealistworld4412]

​@@idkwtdrn The Latin church forcibly imposed itself upon Indian Christianity and tried destroying the church when they busy were doing their inquisitions against everybody. The Indian Christians resisted the Portuguese and the Latin church in order hold on to Christianity and church tradition. Protestantism is just watered-down Christianity (they can have zeal for God but its teachings don't go deep enough into Christianity). The Malankara Church doesn't believe in pressuring or manipulating people by material benefits into converting. If someone wants to convert they should do so from their free choice because that is what they believe from their heart. And if any Indian chooses to convert to a Christian church it really should be to the ancient Church of India not some church that didn't exist in India until the 16th-century and that fought against Indian Christianity. Being an Orthodox Christian isn't about how you are born but about what you believe which is not the same as the Latin church and Protestantism.

[@dograkhalsa1098]

Sir you may be surprised to know that Christianity in Kerala is very much Indianised, and has many Hindu elements in it. A lot of Churches here has a Dhwaja Stambham in front it like temples do and they sometimes also have this kind of lamps made out of hard rock which we call "kallu vilakku" in Malayalam which is an ubiquitous icon you'll find in Hindu temples as well. You'll also be surprised to hear that the Malayalam word for Bible is "Veda Pusthakam" and that Christians in Kerala also tie Mangalasutra during weddings similar to Hindus.

[@manojs6647]

Converting hindu to Christian identity is the only agenda .. even though all practices are hindu and it's significance ...

[@dograkhalsa1098]

@@manojs6647 true dat

[@gauraangsonkar]

I think this Strategy is known as "Inculturation".

[@health_ness]

It is just a technique of attracting more people to christianity by making them feel that you are not loosing anything by becoming a christian

[@yourstrulytk12worldaffairs]

ohoooo

[@engineer.9519]

A conversation between Abhijit Chavda , and j Sai Deepak will be a blessing

[@naiyayika]

#AskAbhijit Irony is sir, that some Christians here are conscious of their Brahmin identity and there are certain churches which are meant for "Brahmin" Christians across the Malabar coast. They even wore the sacred thread during a period to differentiate themselves. Casteism in Church continues to this day.

[@naiyayika]

I'd like to add something more sir, if my Christian Bhārātiyās won't mind, Christianity lacks all legitimacy to appropriate anything of Paganism including the Greek language. It cannibalizes or consumes pagan culture in an effort to displace it. The Christians have also penned their plagiarized works in Hindi in an effort to convert us - it means nothing. The argument would not change if the NT was written in Hebrew or Arabic or whatever. That argument in fact shows the arbitrary and artificial nature of monotheism's claims to even Europe, since the next claim is to things like shared skin color and even more supremacist notions. Next they will say monotheism is carried by humans and thus we're supposed to give way.

[@akshaychandranb]

The brahmins did not convert to Christianity it's just a story told by them (By them I mean various bishops and Churchs) most modern day scholars say this is not true in modern Times some say that jews + dalits (the minority class in ancient India) are converted to Syrian Christians

[@rajbhargava7796]

Lol,while history books claim that Hindus civerted to i$l@m and xtianity because of discrimination in Hinduism on the basis of caste

[@panjabipandit]

They're not Brahmins. That's just a made up claim like the whole "Syeds are Brahmins" claim by Muslims. You tell me if someone is a true Brahmana (ie. Did the schooling, learned the Vedas, partakes in a priestly specialty) how would you convert to something that completely defies what you spent years if your life learning and practicing? The only "Brahmins" that converted would have been those who weren't true Brahmins to begin with or as I like to call it Surname Brahmins. Even then I don't believe this claim and see it as a way for converts to retain some level of their Hindu identity whilst also elevating their status with made up claims. After all who would know what profession and title your ancestors held prior to converting? No one and hence no one will question it. Til now because legitimately makes no sense and is disrespectful to claim to be something they are not. They're Christian and whatever their ancestors profession was prior to conversion they should be proud of that instead of claiming to be something they literally are not. The Brahmins of Goa were massacred for not converting, their women's br/asts were cut off, massive assaults, you get the idea.

[@panjabipandit]

@@rajbhargava7796 Yes so oppressive that they carry the same castes post conversion. Makes lot of sense no? The British love hierarchies. They took professional titles and jaatis and put them in a hierarchy. A doctor is "better" than a salesman, a army man is "better" than a farmer. In reality Hindu culture believed they were all needed and that's the reality, we wouldn't function as a society without someone doing each of these jobs. No doubt. Sad that we're still thinking caste is Hinduism when The Vedas doesn't mention caste or anything remotely close to caste anywhere. More amusing is caste is not Sanskrit but Portuguese so that says everything.

[@p.e.a.c.e.o.u.t6713]

Mapilla or mopla is a bastardsised version of the word "mapla" which means son in law in malyalam and tamil..the word came from arab settlers marrying local women officially becoming son in laws or mapla. Its restricted only to the arab/ muslim settlers. Syriac christians reffering to themselves as mapla or mopla is unheard of untill you mentioned it. I am half kashmiri annd half tamil so I can pretty much understand most of the dialects spoken in the south and the north. So yeah just a humble opinion

[@sandeeptiwari7157]

You being half kashmiri and half Tamil doesn't make you master of most of the dialacts and languages In southern states and northern states .

[@GS-ss8gm]

In Kerala in many parts Christians are also called mapilla but it is commonly used for muslims

[@srijithnam]

I did hear of this on an Epic TV program too. It is highly likely that Mappila did in fact come from the Tamil word Mapla when a then foreigner married a local. As it is, there are quite a few Tamil words that have a different (yet related) meaning in Malayalam.

[@MrTeacupcoffee]

so you being half tamil makes you think you can understand telugu, kannada, tulu and malayalam? lol nice one bud

[@miltonm1491]

Mapilla is used to refer to Syrian Christian nasrani community.

[@vaibhavkrupakar240]

To all those here ,learn about an indian scientist called Dr ECG sudharshan, he was nominated 5 times for nobel prize and proposed the concept of tachyons challenging einstein's views, though born to a syrian christian family he found hinduism more spiritual and converted to it

[@vaibhavkrupakar240]

@@GirishVenkatachalam kind sir, are you malayalee

[@niccolopaganini1782]

Indeed, it is Hinduism that won him the awards and nominations, totally related

[@vaibhavkrupakar240]

@@niccolopaganini1782 did I say that anywhere

[@GirishVenkatachalam]

@GOUTHAM KRISHNA ok i thought so

[@Lampoffaithig]

Follow Christ not Christians,read bible then you'll understand why jesus is the lord❤️ no hate ❤️ love from Karnataka

[@lucilleavakian833]

Wow, India even has one of the coolest Christian sects! I thought they were Catholic. It's so awesome that you use the Arameic language. My traditional Christianity is Armenian Apostalic. This sect predates all of the Orthodox Christianities. It is funny that Ajhijit is Doubting Thomas... If the community calls themself as "foriegner" perhaps they are differentiating themselves only. Whar a rich topic. Thank you for including it here. I encourage you to not lump all Christians together. Evangelical zealots are quite different you Kerallite Christians I would imagine. I also agree that Christianity has been and still is mind blowingly destructive and short sighted. The idea of genetics being related to being Christian is odd considering the conversion that is available to all humans and as far as I know does not contain a genetic reset or component.

[@NishantKumar-gk8zb]

@@vinthsouza Christianity and islam are curse of the world .

[@naiyayika]

@@vinthsouza It's not hate, it's facts. Unless you believe Christianity has Dharmic roots. It's a foreign system. And that doesn't mean any harm. Fact is, Bharat's identity and culture doesn't have anything to do with Islam or Christianity. A Vietnamese Buddhist has more cultural inclination to Bharat than an orthodox indian Christian if you know what I mean.

[@akkkkk813]

@@vinthsouza so for you facts means hate 😂😂😂 nonetheless we are not a victim of it ,it was your ancestors who are the real victim of it😂😂

[@vinthsouza]

@@akkkkk813 Not really dumbo

[@vinthsouza]

@@akkkkk813 There's nothing to laugh 😃

[@dhamalsri]

Syrian Christian Community does indeed follow customs which are unique and more aligned with Indian Traditional customs. They are not called Mappilai (meaning Son in Law - not foreigners - it could be generally for foreigners who married local girls and settled in Kerala). That are called Nasranis. As per the traditional knowledge of of Sankar Mutt - they are Brahmins of the region who were involved in local trade guilds and heeded the message of Christ and started following Christianity - so among other local christians, they are sometimes refried to as Brahmin Christians.

[@patelabhishek8260]

Can u give examples of such custom

[@Varghese09]

@@patelabhishek8260 Dwajastham, our dress and earings, dance called margam kalli, hindu atrological beliefs, our old churches were built like temples, they also practised caste system

[@izac90210]

@@Varghese09 even vastu shasthra is followed in homes and outside

[@Varghese09]

@@izac90210 athe nazrnai used to belive on reincarnation before the synod of diamper

[@prashanthkamath7437]

Nasrani is derived from Nazrath in Judea.

[@sruthiskakkattil1141]

Am a Syrian Christian. I believe that we have Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu n tribal heritage.

[@harshal343]

Nice👍

[@SattickDas2001]

I'm from Kolkata , and here christians take part in most Hindi festivals and rituals. Despite conversion to the other faith, by choice or for favours, they haven't let go of their previous beliefs. Many of them don't consume beef. The same kind of mutual respect exists in the Hindus , and probably a Hindu wouldn't shy away from praying to Jesus despite being a Hindu, afterall our religion doesn't bar us from anything of that sort.

[@सनातनी-ध8झ]

तुम्हारा भी कटेगा किसी दिन। 😂

[@SattickDas2001]

@@reyaroy4236 just so you know, despite bangladesh being an Islamic country , has a national temple, the Dhakeshwari temple. Yes, fanatics are there, but the general bengali population is not that very different from us.

[@senor2930]

We Hindus also celebrate Christmas, right? I know many Hindus who enthusiastically celebrate it. Christianity is one Abrahamic religion which can actually peacefully coexist with Hinduism & it is globally evident. I think to an extent Judaism has no problems with us either, but they are quite exclusive in their practices. That isn't the case about Hindu & Christian practices.

[@ShiningSunMorningStar]

​@@senor2930christianity is slow poison...😂😂😂

[@momentousmanav]

वो छोड़ तूने कितनो को हिन्दू बनाया हैं क्यूंकि वो तो लगे हुए हैँ दान देना दान कन्वर्ट करने में

[@LAP-f9z]

Thanks for this detailed video sir.😀

[@mercedesbenz3751]

I'm from a very small town in chhattisgarh surrounding by tribal villages on all 4 sides. Many tribal people here are christians with hindu names and they wear sarees and bindis. You could never tell they're christian until they say 'Jai Eshu' ('Hail Jesus') in hindi. . So, I used to go eat dhuska every morning in a small stall here, one of the female servers was a christian, I was eating and a woman came and greeted the waitress saying, 'Jai Eshu' now christians sake hand here when they say Jai Eshu, but the waitress automatically joined hands while saying Jai Eshu. I was watching all these, I felt so terrible and sad at the core of my heart. My heart said, *''You converted them but you couldn't convert their culture."*

[@PBaraik]

In Jharkhand, they greet with "jesu bada hai".

[@Ayeshakhan45650]

Here in odisha (Jai yesu masi ki) mera l ka masi 🌚

[@Nero6570]

@@Ayeshakhan45650 it is because of missionaries these missionaries should be hanged on spot

[@dekazuedits]

@@Ayeshakhan45650 masi toh mein bua ko bolta hu Jesus masi hai😂

[@niccolopaganini1782]

I'm a devout Christian but I love my Indian culture, I don't want to be born in any other country.

[@gokuLM10]

Mapilla or Mopilla is derived from Tamil "Mapillai" meaning son-in-law. Arabs used to come to Kerala and marry local women and thats where the name originated. The original descendants of Arabian muslims/Christians live in Kerala.

[@abs6875]

Mapilla was generally used for people of semetic origin. In central kerala for Christians and in malabar for muslims. Yes, syrians were jews.

[@iamsamuelpaul]

The story of St Thomas' death is not to portray Indians as barbarians. If that were so, then the story of Angulimala who was an infamous serial killer who converted to Buddhism and was killed when he went begging for alms unarmed, will also have a same motive. This was not the intent of both stories to begin with, and hence responsible people should refrain from drawing false narratives.

[@Varghese09]

Lol Peter died in Rome, so was it made up to portray the west as barabric lmao

[@theakvon7434]

@@user-rf8um1xy9s 1st provide hard evidence..that apostle thomas was in india...till then keep beating the bush..

[@theakvon7434]

@@user-rf8um1xy9s typical idiotic comment as expected from a moron...this is called shifting the burden of proof fallacy...its you christians who claims that thomas came..so it is upto you to prove that he came..

[@theakvon7434]

@@user-rf8um1xy9sHard evidence...and only hard evidence...

[@ishmaelsassoon795]

@@theakvon7434 thereis evidence to stronly suggest that he was there , in inscriptions ,so most historians agree. Purely basing it on his remains is difficult.

[@NickyV23]

Hi Abhijit, one thing I would like to share after watching your video on this particular topic is that 'Nasrani' is the word which is exclusive used for syrian christians and 'mappila' is the word which is exclusively used for muslims in Kerala. The word 'Mappila' is not used for addressing Christians here. If so I haven't heard of it. I am someone who belong to the particular community which you are talking about in this video and yes our community has maintained the old Indian traditions. Our women wear sarees as their wedding dress, of course the gown is optional but still they change to sarees in between the ceremony, when they enter the homes after marriage, that traditional way of welcoming, etc. is practiced. Not only that various practices which this particular community follows are deeply rooted to our tradition. Unlike the ones form Goa and all, our community has done a wonderful job at maintaining the old traditions even after having numerous foreign influences and I respect them for that.

[@royandrews4980]

I have heard some Syrian Christians refer to themselves as Mappila., also Nasrani Mappila

[@jonasninanmathew9312]

There is a community among the st Thomas christians called the Knanaya christians which translates as canaanite christians who are claimed to be the descendants of St Thomas of Cana (not St Thomas the apostle) who came to India with a community to escape persecution from the Sasanian empire. They are strictly endogamous.

[@rajanram1960]

Mapila is a different pronunciation to Mapilai in tamil which means son in law. Arab traders did marry local girls and were traditionally referred to as Mapilai. So the community of such mixed marriages gave rise to the community being referred to as mopalahs.

[@vedicwarriorOriginal]

Incredible, Abhijitji. You are India's national treasure. Jai Ho. Jai Bharat! 🙏🕉

[@ManojMaths-vh5ko]

History is divided in to AD & BC..do u need more evidence that Christ existed ! Don't know what this guy is talking

[@vedicwarriorOriginal]

@@ManojMaths-vh5ko Bwahahaha... AD and BC is western history, my dear! What do you think existed before then? No year? No calendar? Hahaha... Bharatiya rishis had it all figured out, sweetheart. Now, go to ur church and ask a few uncomfortable question. Let's see if ur padre makes u kneel down for a bit of sermonising. 😉

[@ansoneldhose7990]

I am syrian christian from kerala.yes we use syrian language in our rituals .'kunnan kurush sathyam' was an oath done the us opposing the European/catholic version of Christianity.hindu culture is present for example in marriage we tie a knot around the bride which is absnent in the other christian sects. roman catholic church is the prominent church in kerala.on a broad spectrum we belong to the oeriental orthodox churches which also include the russian,coptic,chuches.the main difference spotted is that our rituals and form of christianity has a great connection with the middle east.for example the language use use is a dialect of Aramaic,which was believed to be spoken jesus himself.it is culturally very exotic to see because the mainstream media only shows Catholicism as christianity and we are forgotten. Any way in kerala all is well and people co exist in per fect harmony Jai hind ❤️

[@ShiningSunMorningStar]

But you don't look syrian 😮

[@beachboy922]

​@@ShiningSunMorningStarwhy should he ? Centuries of intermarriage would have made it so. Aren't many communities like so ?

[@dhruv3185]

Indian's having it own holy Festival on 25 dec. Indian's don't need Christmas on 25 dec. to celebrate it. I don't know how many hindus know it but this 25 December is the precious day as this contain the holy day of hindus. As on 25 December we have the "TULSI PUJAN" SO it's a request to every hindu jain sikh buddh... Pls share or wish tulsi pujan festival on 25 dec. and make sure to stay away from the so called western culture.

[@manasvisharma3949]

Thank you for sharing it .

[@shyamsasi989]

You are blinded by your Pride it's will be your downfalls.

[@dhruv3185]

@@shyamsasi989 I think you are blinded by your fathers so just get lost. And if you don't know buy a hindu calander and see it. Even way before Christianity was made tulsi real indians are celebrating the "HOLY TULSI PUJAN"

[@manasvisharma3949]

@@shyamsasi989 it is not pride , it's remembrance shri tulsi is very holy/pujya in sanatan dharma due to many reasons you can see it's material medicinal activity as side effect . By the way your name is very beautiful! Plz do have a remembrance and pranam 🙏🏻 to shri tulsi with your Christmaas too which may gave you remembrance of great guru christ . 🙏🏻❤

[@lingayatlinge6059]

how can some Indian festival come on a particular English calendar day, that's impossible, for instance ram navmi, gudi padwa, diwali none of the Indian festivals come on a particular english calendar day, please do some homework before talking some stupid things like this ....

[@jaybarua7095]

It is quite plausible that St Thomas came to India because it fits time wise to him being an original apostle, because of the Aramaic language and the fact that all he would have to do in hop on a boat in the middle east and it would carry him to Kerala because of the ocean currents. If so, that was the true Christianity which came to India hundreds of years before it went to Europe. It was apparently somewhat compatible with Hindu faiths like Vaishnava and Buddha faiths and that is why it existed in fair harmony in India for over a thousand years. The later Europeans who came did not practice Christianity but an abomination that can be labeled Churchianity. Please do a video on the Roman Councils of Nicea which usurped the several Christian faiths and organized them under a new "religion" called "Christianity" which was essentially a political power play by an entity (the Roman Emperor Constantinople) that became the Catholic Church. Today, even the non-Catholic christian churches (dozens of them) accept the belief of their basic religious/spiritual superiority and trans-national political power nature of the Catholic church over non-"christian" faiths. Ditto for Islam. If true Christians want to know the authentic "Christianity", they should come to India.

[@abs6875]

Nicea is applicable to orthodox christians as well and were in communion with rome. We follow nicean creed. We are under partiarch of Antioch. Sychm happened in AD 451. But now mostly in communion with catholic church..

[@andreamessiasgomes7118]

@@descendedofrigvedicclans2216 his body is buried there ,what more proof you want? How can you be so dumb.

[@renorgan]

Sir, I am borne as a Syrian Christian in Kerala and are known as Malankara Christian; but not a believer if that religion. Malankara chrstianity originated long before the Portuguese era in Goa. So please don't compare it with the christianity of Kerala. The Portugese were Catholic christians who came from europe whereas Kerala christians are converts from Syria (in which Jerusalem and Palestine are included)

[@prashanthkamath7437]

I have to attend a month-long course to learn how to handle the schisms of Orthodox Christians in Kerala. Yes, I do know that many of the groups have accepted the authority of the Latin pope.

[@bhanuyalla2158]

If they eat prasaad i am ready to accept that he is culturally a hindu 😁😁😁😁😁😁

[@aj9969]

Yes we do.. unlike other christians elsewhere in India.. we also visit Sabarimala.

[@testing___]

Syrian Christians have pachoor and other nercha, almost same same like prasaad, but to eat.

[@testing___]

Also Syrian Christians use chandana, which hindus put on forehead, Christians use it for house warming.

[@jerseyneil1]

Although I grew up in the US, my parents are Syrian Christians from Kerala. I have taken two DNA tests with Ancestry and with 23andMe. Both tests confirm that I am 97.5% from the subgroup of Malayali of Kerala. The other 2% of East Asian origin. My family goes back for generations as Christian. This idea that we migrated from the Middle East is nonsensical. I have even heard some people say Syrian Christians are descendants of Apostle Thomas, this is not based on facts. Historically, there have been ancient sea trade routes from the Middle East to Kerala for spices and other materials. Even ancient Roman literature talks of such routes. There are no DNA links between me and Arabs, Turks, or Persians

[@asashin3242]

Sir , as a physicist and scientist , are u proud of your hindu identity by means of cultural or religious identity?

[@Aeyo]

To ask question, you have to add #AskAbhijit tag.

[@donthidefrommeh5374]

What type of question is this?

[@A_LeftyCatcher_Mitt]

Is that a question?

[@asashin3242]

@@donthidefrommeh5374 bruh , I just want the answer and by any means I don't want to offend him or anyone 🙂

[@asashin3242]

@brahmastra brahmastra I know about the term religion & dharma , but since religion is the word mostly people use , that's why ? If u have problem with it , I will change it.

[@thrinethran2885]

Much more probable is the version that first Christians in India were a group of around four hundred Christians led by a Syrian merchant named Thomas Cananeus who sought and found asylum in South India in 345 CE after they fled persecution in Persia. It is highly unlikely that someone came to Kerala from Palestine to preach the Gospels 10 - 15 years before any of them was written. According to historians, Paul alone was beginning to preach Christianity to Non Jews at that time and he had differences on the matter with Jesus's disciples who were orthodox Jews.

[@thedescanteer]

This needs more eyeballs.

[@joelbiju9184]

It is believed that St Thomas came to India in search of the lost tribes of Israel as after the fall of the Kingdom of Israel by the Mesopotamian king Nebuchadnezar many Jews scattered around and some came to India too

[@bernardthome9003]

Mappilla doesn't mean descendant of foreigners. Mappilla is title given by hindu kings to followers of religions other than hinduism. While followers of Hindu religion were considered the 'sons' (pillai) of the Hindu kings, Christians were considered 'sons in law' (mappillai)

[@franklinmampilly9805]

Syrian Christians follow many "Hindu" cultural aspects such as bridegroom tying "thali-minnu" to the bride's necklace ,similar to the "mangal-sutra" that is used in most hindu wedding to site just one example among many others.

[@sherlockholmes6345]

I am a Syrian Christian. As far as I know, St Thomas the Apostle established church in Kerala and after him death, they where in close relationship with the Persian Church which was also founded by St Thomas the Apostle. Due to this relationship, Christians in Kerala adopted the East Syriac liturgy . But after the Coonan Cross oath, they failed to maintain relationship with the Persian Church and established Relationship with the Antioch Church which followed West Syriac liturgy.

[@glennjacksonofficial3001]

The term 'Persian Church' is confusing because in Syriac rite we don't use the Persian language, (it would sound weird if we did) or adopt the Persian culture, but semitic rites and the syriac language, the reason why they use the term 'Persian church' because this ancient Syriac community settled in the Persian Sassanian Empire who spoke Middle Persian.

[@andreamessiasgomes7118]

@@descendedofrigvedicclans2216 it's not stories go and do some research it's all there, you people only have pride that's the problem.

[@JohnDoe19991]

@@descendedofrigvedicclans2216 And Hindus have hard evidence of Pushpak viman and brahmastra .lol stop smoking pot

[@andreamessiasgomes7118]

@@descendedofrigvedicclans2216 ask the people of South India for proof.

[@jesskodankandath7330]

@@descendedofrigvedicclans2216 absence of evidence is not evidence of absence

[@shreya446]

“Goa is sadly famous for its inquisition, which is contrary to humanity as much as to commerce. The Portuguese monks deluded us into believing that the Indian populace was worshipping the Devil, while it is they who served him” (Voltaire, Lettres sur l’origine des sciences et sur celle des peuples de l’Asie (first published Paris, 1777, letter of 15 December 1775)

[@sigmavariant]

Being a Syrian Christian myself, I can say that there are 2 groups of Syrian Christians.. The majority being the Indian descendant and the other being the Knanaya Christians who came from Middle East..

[@552rita]

Syrian Christians one generation before dont have Indian names. Their names were mostly Hebraic. Culture is a blend of Hebraic and Indian. There is a dna project , called Syrian Christians of Kerala. Some show middle eastern markers.

[@nobull772]

I once had a vivid dream of being on a big house boat (reminded me of a reed boat), on a river lined with many many coconut palms, and for some reason the words “Saint Thomas” resonated in my dream. I then woke up and did research about Saint Thomas , and found out that Saint Thomas the apostle is believed to have traveled to Kerala India to preach the gospels. The scenic pictures I found of Kerala India was exactly what I saw in my dream. I have had no prior knowledge of Kerala India, nor did I know about Kettuvallam boats-I grew up in a Buddhist household, so I didn’t have deep knowledge of saint Thomas the apostle; all I knew was that saint Thomas wasn’t an immediate believer of Jesus’s revival. That for me was pretty convincing.

[@mettayana]

maybe u were a saint thomas christian in a past life?

[@achgunners]

Fantastic question and good understanding - Jijo

[@ant2725]

This comment section looks mature

[@LivyaKukunoor]

Such a controversial topic to be put across so subtly without hurting anyone. Hats off Abhijit sir ..

[@jaihind150]

Sir, I like your podcasts very much and I am your fan . I am extremely interested in astrophysics, cosmos, quantum physics, etc. I am 18 years old, so, please can you recommend me some books.

[@sunishmc2485]

Am an indian christian....

[@xzx970]

Hey Christianity has done lot of bad things in india man need to talk about talk and fix those issues. There should be strong convertion bill across india.

[@sunishmc2485]

@@xzx970 please dnt get agitated.... Am against forced conversion and all the attrocities commited by the so called european forces not only to hindus but also to the native Indian christians in this country. My forefathers are all hindus....and bro i cant decide my birth....u born hindu u born mulim or whatever....but to me my land is my mother.....and we are indians......we cant change the past but we can do something about the future.....

[@abs6875]

@@xzx970 What about your iskon?

[@bluepraetorian]

Abhijit you make great videos about topics that are hardly ever discussed. Thank you for taking up this question. Jijo's question and your analysis is incorrect on both counts: 1) there is plenty of extrabiblical evidence for Jesus' existence and the claim that there is none is actually very recent and not really a serious one; and 2) there is some evidence for Thomas' arrival and journey through India. For example, in the outskirts of Taxila (in modern day Pakistan), there are ruins of an ancient city called Mohra Maradu where Thomas is said to have been welcomed by a local king and asked to stay. There is a section within the ruins where Thomas supposedly stayed and meditated during his time in the area. It is no insult to say that some Indians were barbarians at the time. Provincialism has existed in all societies throughout history. The place where Thomas is supposed to have been murdered (also in northern Pakistan) is still inhabited by pretty backward people. Imagine what they would have been like 2000 years ago.

[@ashishmeshram5057]

the place where St. Thomas died was Chennai, not northern pakistan

[@Dhksksjjsjjs]

Another thing is that they made it look like Thomas died exactly like Sri Krishna ... A hunter accidentally shooting ! These people are so funny 😂 They would literally do anything to gain more followers and validation

[@Varghese09]

No we do not knw his death

[@idkwtdrn]

No, it's not. It's death from spear to back by a soldier on kings order while praying on a hill.

[@apogeelord7013]

The meaning of the word "Mapilla" is son-in-law in Old Tamil, when Arab Muslims arrived in Kerala, they took Hindu wives, thus those first Muslims are considered as son in law (Mapilla). Over the period of time, Keralaites stopped speaking Old Tamil and switched to the new Malayalam language. But the word "Mapilla" remained and it was used to describe everyone following Abrahamic religions - Jewish people are called as Juda Mapilla, Christians are called Nasrani Mapilla, and Muslims are called Mapilla Muslims

[@michelle-vedic-human4723]

Namaste 🕉🙏: This eternal accusation against Christianity I shall write upon all walls, wherever walls are to be found--I have letters that even the blind will be able to see. . . . I call Christianity the one great curse, the one great intrinsic depravity, the one great instinct of revenge, for which no means are venomous enough, or secret, subterranean and small enough,--I call it the one immortal blemish upon the human race... Friedrich Nietzsche german philosopher: jai🕉🙏hind.!!’

[@A_LeftyCatcher_Mitt]

Neitzche was right abt all along

[@indranidutta1945]

Couldn’t have been more correct except that the Islamists are giving them tough competition

[@shreya446]

word

[@niccolopaganini1782]

Elaborate in a mere way

[@max78966]

if Neitzsche was born in india he would have said the same thing

[@akshaychandranb]

The brahmins did not convert to Christianity it's just a story told by them (By them I mean various bishops and Churchs) most scholars say this is not true in modern Times some say that jews + dalits +foreigners(the minority class in ancient India) are converted to Syrian Christians

[@Nairboybharath]

Namboodiris of those days would never convert. They had control over Power, Land and Wealth. Why would they convert? Its just a lie said to satisfy and exert their ego of being the superior pure Christian.

[@akshaychandranb]

@@Nairboybharath actually it is a tactical way to please the people feudal lords and Kings (they were afraid that they will be prsecuted) Like everywhere else. Some even say that all the money that thy have is given by the king and made from trading with Portuguese and British (well of course they were Christians)

[@ameynamjoshi741]

@@Nairboybharath aren't the namboodiris the same people to whom apulanyan or apollonius of tyana came from, whose life is copied for jesus's life story? I always doubt that abrahmic cults was formed after mincing of traditions and practices of keralite travellers and Zoroastrian texts

[@GirishVenkatachalam]

Yes every Muslim/Xtian claims they were all converted from Brahmins, this is just a lie and meant to glorify their existence which faces identity crisis throughout their lives.

[@abs6875]

Jews never intermarry. Yes, they are jews..lost the identity during portugese invasion thrpugh fyamper of synod..Portugese called syrains" sanath seeking judaizers". Yes, but I also agree that portugese brought many good reforms among syrians..

[@aldrinsojan.p.8834]

5:13 mappila does not mean descendants of foreigners in any way the word is used to refer to the people who were not involved in the caste system (ie, the followers of abrahamic faiths) in tamil, it is also used to refer to bridegrooms,(and sometimes son in laws.

[@prashanthkamath7437]

DNA evidence shows significant genetic material from the levant among the Syrian Christians of Kerala.

[@discomallu9769]

What dna evidence? If a Hindu in Kerala gets rich by hard work or whatever, they wouldn't rush to rewrite their family history & trace ancestry to somewhere abroad as they belong to that land. Their culture,food,beliefs are all exclusive to that land. Unfortunately this is true for others. Rich Muslims in Kerala claim Arab ancestry just like rich Muslims in other parts of India claim to be Ashraf ( foreign origin superior) . Similarly rich Christians in Kerala claim foreign ancestry and I wouldn't be surprised if rich goan Catholics claim Portuguese ancestry.

[@shivajiraje7555]

MY COSINS CLAIM TO BE SYRIAN XTIANS BUT WE DID NOT LEAVE DID DHARMA

[@shivajiraje7555]

@@Theactualstoic yup they r xtians they say they their ansistors left cuz of caste

[@Thephilosopher319]

@@shivajiraje7555 to justify the conversion christian said these things 😁😁😁😁😁even my christian friends 😁😁😁

[@bobinsunilgeorge7780]

In central travancore and some other parts of kerala like kottayam, Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, some parts of kollam , idukki and eranakulam Christians are known as mappilas. But in northern malabar kerala, muslims are known as mappilas... Still when our grandmother tell something about our grandfather, she still adress him as her mappila and grandfather adress her as her pempila...

[@dineshpanicker9614]

Hi #ASKABHIJIT can you talk about the Danish occupation of Kerala and how the Nair army of the Zamorins basically wiped them out of India.

[@puravdesai2334]

Sorry abhijit sir a small correction if i may - mapila word came from mapilai in tamil which means son in law. Arab merchants in south came and settled and married daughters of indians (hindus) hence they became mapilais and in turn became mapilas 😊

[@ARYAN-jn4dk]

No joke of the century

[@keriddunk1520]

It is. Arabs came to India first in Kerala

[@poodamakku]

Chavdaji one thing I would like to clarify is that mappila means son in law. I am a tamilian and we share a lot of similar words with Malayalam.

[@shashanks8035]

It is said that Thomas the Apostle was murdered and buried in Chennai, Santhome church

[@Nationalist04]

Sir , i have huge love and respect for you call spade a spade , no mixing of words , Jai hind

[@gamingwitheagleofficial8477]

Iam a Syrian Christian from kerala

[@richubabu8990]

There is evidence for the existence of historical Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth. His crucifixion is an historically recorded fact.

[@milymathew]

Who is this guy to validate kerala christians...we dont owe him any explanation.....we r indians and proud indians...

[@sallythomas4403]

It is not true ,it is not 1900 these people come to Kerala, Syrian Christian’s came to Kerala may CE 400 or 600 ,they don’t do dna because they will know all of them they are Indians

[@idkwtdrn]

Little does you know Syrian Christians are the ones who does most of the DNA testing in India and has plenty of middle eastern markers in DNA

[@krishnashilpa7]

@@idkwtdrnmy friend did and it said 97% south East Asian like all other mallus

[@Philipp-dt2zy]

It would be very interesting to examine the bones of St. Thomas with the radiocarbon dating method.

[@meenaraut5704]

Good information about Syrian Christian emigration in Kerala. Thanks sir thanks 🙏

[@Nazarene_Judaism]

Nasranis means Nazarenes. We Nazarenes are the original Acts 24:5.

[@MonEsperance]

Abhijit, the mummy of Thomas was kept in state in the altar of the San Thome Cathedral, Chennai -- one could have seen it as late as in the late 80's. When the surrounding areas were acquired and the church rebuilt on a grand scale, the mummy came off, the bones are still kept in a 'museum' behind the original location of the erstwhile church. If you had been to Saint Thomas Mount, you can see the place where the apostle stayed -- clear evidences -- if you are led... the spring and the cave. So, there! Interesting, the way you put it as 'hindu' by culture -- that denotes the tribes including Simeon(Undertakers!) and Levi(Brahmins) -- worshippers of God, the Creator -- Brahma along with the Naphtalites(metal workers) and idol worshippers -- of the heifer and the snake. Those of Naphtalite-moabite descent came down again during Solomon's reign for the peacocks and gold and stayed back in the peninsular region.😊

[@gvsankar1]

You got it wrong. “Mapilla” in Tamil and Malayalam means Son in law or “Damaad” in Hindi.

[@ayushmishra4375]

#AskAbhijit Were Muslims in India before the islamic invasion?

[@macv8507]

Yes. The 2nd oldest mosque in the world after mecca is in kerala.

[@dograkhalsa1098]

Yes Muslims have been in India since when Malayalis used to be Tamils.

[@shitaljha0711]

@@macv8507 2nd oldest? Bro the first mosque in this whole world was built in cochin. Even recently a mosque is found somewhere in gujrat which has it face towards jerusalem. So may that is the oldest mosque..

[@addalavenkataratnam5449]

Let us not have any doubt about the fictional story of Thomas's arrival to india in 52 CE. Thomas was an illiterate Jewish disciple to jesus, as per the Bible. He was a daily labourer. Aramaic language was being spoken by many people in syria , Jordan( petra) and in Israel. This language has been derived from The Armenian language. Aramaic language was used by the Assyrians during their regime as Armenia was part of their empire. . Thomas had natural death , that took place in Alexandria. The church on the hill palayur, Trissoor is in persian architecture . Could you imagine the construction of a church in Persian architecture by an illiterate Thomas?. Could you expect Thomas's arrival to india from Jerusalem at the age of about 55 years.? Gospel of Thomas was found in Naghammadi in 1945 . who has written this gospel.? The first Gospel was written in 59 ce and it was gospel of mark. Could you imagine the gospel of Thomas was written by Thomas, though he was an illiterate man before other gospels and then came to india in 52 ce .?. what route did he take to arrive india. Land route or sea route.? Pope said Thomas propagated gospels in western india. Is kerala in western india as stated by the pope ? There were no brahmins in kerala in 1st century . How could he convert the brahmins and killed by the Brahmins ,when they were no brahmins at all in kerala.? Thomas used cross as the sanctified object in the church as alleged.. Usage of cross as sanctified object ,was started after the convention of Nacea in 325 ce. Do you think thomas used cross in the 1st century CE itself before it was accepted and sanctified by the Christians. There was no Bible in 1st century as such what did Thomas teach. Maark 16 15 was added to the bible after 1100 CE. Gospel of John was written betwern 90 CE to 110CE On what purpose DID Thomas COme to india without GOSPELS or Paul's letters and start propagation.?. Thomas of cana came to kerala between 4th to 8th century CE along with many people .He was a big merchant of ships traveled by sea route due to persecution by the fellow Christians ,after Nacea convention IN SYRIA.. The later Christians attributed martyrdom to all disciples to propagate the religion, though no one, except peter and Paul were killed. Later Christians attributed sainthood to Thomas though this is Thomas of cana's grave. The grave was looked after by a muslim till 17th century .. The Christians took advantage of Thomas of Cana as Apostle Thomas. .Kerala Christians are syrian Christians, not Jerusalem jewish Christians.

[@addalavenkataratnam5449]

@@anoopmathen4566 You are requested to counter my arguments with evidence. Pl tell how an illiterate Galilee dialect Aramaic mother tongue fisherman could do all the acts which have been attributed to him.

[@jobin1611]

@@addalavenkataratnam5449 Followers of Cana Thomas Christians are called Knanaya Christians,Its different to the thomas christians of kerala.St thomas came to india to meet the jewish people settled in Kodungalur (Muzris).Thomas established 8 communties across kerala called 7 ara pallikal. In the book of "Act of Thomas" found in edessa believed to be written between 3rd century and 4th century, it connects Thomas the apostle's Indian ministry with two kings. The first mission to North west of India with the help of king Gondophares.Gondphores Many considered it a myth till first century coins of Gondophorus, an indo-Parthian ruler was discovered from North West India(near today's Khandahar) around 1830.Later around 1873 a stone inscription in the name of Gondophorus was also discovered .According to Act of Thomas On his second mission he came to kerala.Act of thomas is rejected by Vatican,the reason for that the difficulty to reach kerala from isreal at that time, but why does a book written in Edessa need to mention a remote place in India????There are some other books that confirms Thomas journey to India Writing of the Christian fathers of early centuries: Doctrine of the St.Ephrem of Nisibis (c.306-373),[St.Gregory Nazianzen(c.329-390), St.Ambrosius(c.333-397),St.Jerome (c.342-419),St. Gaudencius of Brescia(+410),St.Paulinus of Nola(353-431),St. Gregory of Tours(538-594),St.Isidor of Sevilha(560-636)etc refer to the apostolic work of St.Thomas in India. There is a book called "The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea" written between AD 40-70 , which describes the details of Trade between india and roman empire,and Hippalus finding the sea route between India and Tamilakam ,it mentions the port city of Muzris in the chera kingodm if you look up the history and belief of suriyani Christians you have to belive that St.Thomas visited kerala in the first century

[@addalavenkataratnam5449]

@@jobin1611 Thank you friend for your reply in this academic discussion. I request you to answer all my questions. Attributing the martyrdom to the Apostles was started after convertion of Rome empire in to the christianity in early 4th century . james , paul and peter Except these, all others had natural deaths only. Who wrote the Gospel of Thomas ? When it was written .? Historians have established the natural death of Thomas in Alexandria . Solomon's rule in judea was a mythological legend, not proved by the Archeologists. Jewesh settlements in kerala can't be proved with historical evidence in the1st century . Could you think of construction of 7 churches in kerala in 1st century ,when the Christians in Roman empire were not clear about structural design of churches with cross.. I do agree, there were contacts between north western India and Greece since 7 th century bce and there were matrimonial relations between the Mouryan empire and the seleucid Empire. There was no preachers of jesus word outside the judea until ,stephen was killed , then the followers left Jerusalem due to fear of persecution. . Paul also didn't start preaching for 3 years after this murder while he was in Arabia. There is no historical proof about Thomas's arrival to india. The followers of jesus had destroyed the literature of other religions and persecution other denominations in the christianity was started after 325 ce Nacea convention. Thomas was a an illiterate. Thomas was a fisherman Thomas was a poor believer The followers of jesus till 54 ce were hardly 100 .Incidentally the believers in Israel in 1948 were about 100 only. It proves the Christianity was never successful in the Jewish community. When there were hardly hundred daily labourers( believers )in Israel,could. you expect Thomas's arrival to infia with a group.? Kerala history proves that there was no religion in kerala in the first century except worshiping of ancestors. . No record of foreign faiths in kerala in first century. . Thomas Christians are not the Jewish descendants as you claim, had Thomas come with other jewish people to india in the 1st century there would have been many Jewish Thomas Christians in kerala by now. pl remember there was no NT IN first century or not a single book written untill 54 ce in the new testment. There was divinity to Jesus untill Gospel of jhon was writtrn in the early 2nd century . Jesus was only a Rabbi for his followers and divinity attributed to jesus by paul . Christianity was a cult in the Jewish community until 4 th century and Thomas as an Apostle believed jesus as a Rabbi only.. Kodungallur was the capital of Chera dynasty and a port city on the mouth of Periyar River. The existence of this port city is not a proof of Thomas's arrival to india. Could you imagine Thomas's travel to Mylapur from kodungallur in 72 bce covering 650 km at the age of 80 years on foot, when there was no Madras at all.? No need to travel to my Mylapur by sea route. pl remember, the judea was a part of Parthian EMPIRE for some years in 1st century bce.

[@jobin1611]

@@addalavenkataratnam5449 I know Christianity established after 3rd century by Constantine. Jesus apostles lived in the first centaury, through their preaching's Christian communities started to establish in the middle east and rest of the world. How can you say that apart from James and Paul rest of the apostles had natural death do you have any scientific evidence to claim your arguments I don't know who wrote the Gospel of Thomas (The book is a recent Discovery),but its date back to ad 60-250.In the case of Act of Thomas most people believe its written by Epiphanius of SalamisEpiphanius of Salamis. First time I'm hearing the story about Death of Thomas in Alexandria,Most agreed tradition is St thomas Died in Mylapore. I dont have any proof to jewish presence in Kerala in the first Century,but everybody agrees that first jewish settlement of kerala was in kodungallur, they have a jewish cemetery there later people started to move to Cochin. Kerala was a major attraction for Babylonians, Assyrians and Egyptians as early as 3000 BC. The Malabar Coast was used extensively for exporting spices across different parts of the world. This fact is proved by the hoards of Roman Gold and silver coins and finds of Greek, Chinese and Arab coins that were discovered. A rare hoard of Roman silver from Nedumkandam and an AKSUM copper coin from Karur, the capital of Chera empire were also unearthed.So there is a chance for Jewish settlement in kerala from the first century Ezhara pallikal means communties,not like the established churches that we see today. Preaching Gospel and your literacy doesn't have any connection, you are speaking from the power of God, here we are not explaining about any normal man. A person believed to be son of God and his Apostles. Muslims and haters accuse that Paul created Christianity and he was a liar, if he was a liar why should he martyred in the name of Jesus. More evidence for St thomas in Kerala and Mylapore Writing of the Christian fathers of early centuries: Doctrine of the St.Ephrem of Nisibis (c.306-373),St.Gregory Nazianzen(c.329-390), St.Ambrosius(c.333-397),St.Jerome (c.342-419), St. Gaudencius of Brescia(+410),St.Paulinus of Nola(353-431),St. Gregory of Tours(538-594),St.Isidor of Sevilha(560-636)etc refer to the apostolic work of St.Thomas in India. Interestingly these references linking St.Thomas with India were made by the Church Fathers who lived during the period from 250 to 650 AD, a time period when there existed vibrant trade relations between Kerala and the Middle East and Europe, which also suggests that these church Fathers must have got their information from the various merchants engaged in Kerala-Rome trade route, who were also the chief carriers of information and circulators of news in that period. One of the more important references to early medieval contacts between Britain and the wider world is found in the ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’, which mentions a late ninth-century emissarry visit to India sent by the Anglo- Saxon King Alfred. According to the ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’ for AD 883, King Alfred of Wessex sent two men, Sigehelm and Aethelstan, overseas with alms to carry both to Rome and to the shrines of ‘St Thomas in India/Indea for the purpose of fulfilling a promise that he had made when he besieged a Viking raiding-army at London. India was the very furthest-known reaches of Christendom, the very far edge of the known world, at that point of time. It was a common belief in the England of king Alfred’s time, as gleaned from the ninth-century Old English Martyrology that St Thomas and martyred in India. The ninth century English poem of Cynewulf entitled “The fates of the Apostles” explicitly links Thomas apostle with India. It is being told that Thomas is the second largest proper name used in England. Marco Polo who visited South India in 1292 refers to the Christians of Koulam(Quilon) and the Christians of St.Thomas in Maábar( Malabar) and his eventual martyrdom in a place called Melappur in coromondal coast which is of 10 days distance from Celone.He also speaks of the tomb of St. Thomas in Mylapore , where the apostle suffered martyrdom , and also about the practice of pilgrims taking mud for making a mixture with water and administering it to the sick as a healing remedy[5]. References of Papal emissaries .Friar Jordanus, who visited Quilon in 1330s , refers to the Christians of this city in the following words : “In this India there is a scattered people, one here, another there, who call themselves Christians, but are not so, nor have they baptism, nor do they know anything else about the faith. Nay, they believe St. Thomas the Great to be Christ ! ” [6] The emphasis that the these Christians give to St. Thomas is well-depicted by Friar Jordanus. John Marignoli who visited Quilon in 1546 refers to the Christians of Quilon as “rich people” and as “owners of pepper plantations”and while speaking of the martyrdom of St.Thomas in Mylapore he says that St. Thomas retired to a place with numberless peacocks , where he was shot in the side with an arrow. These data show that various travellers from Europe to India even long before the arrival of the Portuguese had been very much familiar with the way how the Christians of Kerala and Mylapore linked their origin with the apostle St.Thomas, which piece of information they must have got from these local Christians only. 'Ramban pattu' a song believed to be written in 1606 to be recited in the Niranom church refer the visit of the apostle to South India and his martyrdom in Mylapore. The church established by the St Thomas was administered by the east Syrian church for many centuries. Now the tradition of this church says St Thomas established a church in India and also martyred here Not only St thomas St berthaomeow also blieved to be vsited India around Ad 55 He preached Gospel along the konkan Region.Later he moved to Armenia

[@addalavenkataratnam5449]

@@jobin1611 I am happy to see your posts supported by some historical evidenece.. All contemporary historians record and Roman empire chronicles support , the execution of James due to his differences with the jewish high priest in jerusalam and his death has been credited in martyrdom accounts of the Apostles. pl remember one thing ,the Roman empire had documented every important occurrence in the Empire. Roman empire was following the polytheistic way of worship and they never persecuted people on the ground of Religion . Romans honoured the jewish customs and it is not known the allegation of persecution of jesus followers, after all it was a small cult in the Judaism. pl understand the whole problem with jewish writings as , they were apocalyptic in nature. 1) Some one in the name of Moses instigated the jews in the name that they were the chosen people of God ,yhwh, who was the hill God of midianites and the son of EL , the principal god of the cannanites. pl ,you can't even write the name , "yhwh " in the Hebrew language. 2) Moses exodus is a fictional story, but a motivational story to the jews. It is a fictional, because the cannan land was a part of the Egyptian empire,.until 10th century BCE . It is a fictional because , philistines started ruling southern Mediterranean area from 1175 bce and showing philistine's threat , moses taking alternate route via Red sea and midian is unacceptable during Remesis period, as during that period there were no philistines. Finally; it is a fake because of the exodus of the jews from one part of the Egypt to another part of the Egyptian empire is a big joke. Daniel's book is a full-fledged apocalyptic book in the old testment. The most cursed community on the earth is jewish community because of their apocalyptic nature. Jesus was a apocalyptic jewish Rabbi and he promised the jews about God's kingdom and promised that it would be coming very soon to the jewish people. Unfortunately, jews since writing of the Torah, they had been the subjects to other empires, except a small area under David's rule for a little time and during the maccabees's period .Jerusalem had always been a vassal state to others. Hezekiah and his father were tributary kings to the pharaohs. Israel had been a separate state and was following polytheistic religions. pl see Hezekiah's coins which contain the sungod, but bible says he had followed monotheistic religion ,like David. It proves, the Biblical stories are apocalyptic stories or falsified mythological stories. pl read about secular accounts of jesus He was a jew His had followed the jewish customs Jesus lived as a jew. He observed the jewish festivals, even on the day of crucifixion(passoverfestval). His body was cremated as per the jewish customs . He prayed in the jewish Synagogues. He cleansed a jewish place of worship. He told that he came for the Jews only. He said he came to implement the jewish law.. Jesus never tried to create a new religion. He wanted jews to be happy as God's kingdom was coming soon. Jesus had preached to the illiterate jews in rural area of Galilee and avoided towns due to nonacceptance by the literate jews, except visiting of Jerusalem synagogue. Jesus never wanted to tell the law to the Genetiles. jesus turned down the tables of coin exchangers and drove them away in the last week of his life. could you think the high priest of Jerusalem kept quiet for jesus' demeanor in the synagogue?. Wnen it comes paul Paul was also a apocalyptic jewish man . He also made promises about God's kingdom, using jesus' name. Paul wanted to admit Genetiles into the jewish fold. He diluted the dietary habits and permitted comman dining with the Genetiles. He diluted the Torah's clean and unclean doctrine. He diluted jewish customs like circumcision only to admit the Genetiles. He wrote letters to the jews and Genetiles to keep hope on the promise of arrival of God's kingdom. Paul has vetoed the laws of Torah or jesus. He didn't meet jesus, but created a fake story of his meeting with jesus. Pauls strategy worked well with Genetiles to admit them in to the jewish cult as they were fond of jews and it was utterly failed with jews and the jews were struck with the Torah and discarded jesus and Paul's teachings even today. This new strategy of paul had attracted Genetiles ,slaves and women and the result was, the majority population in the Roman empire became Christians and Constantine had to declare the christianity as the official religion in 312 ce , though he died as a mithrist. Gospel of Thomas is in the coptic greek language which Thomas didn't know. The trade relations between Babylonian or Sumerian with The Ivc has been proved with Archeological evidence. The trade relations of Assyrians and pharaohs with India can be proved with historical ans textual evidence. pl remember the mittani Hindu kings who ruled the land between Assyrians land and Babylonian empire from 16th century bce to 14th century bce proves the cultural relations with india. There were matrimonial relations between the Mittanis and the pharaohs. mittanis used Hindu gods names as per their Horse manual and their agreements with other kings. The attrbution of martyrdom to the disciples was started once the christianity was declared as the official religion in the early 4th century ce. The west had been a dependent on us for the spices to preserve their food . They never used sea route until Constantinople was occupied by the Arabs in 1453.ce. The jews had left Jerusalem in 135 ce to various parts of the world and some left after 73 ce . Their migration was for survival, not to propagate their faith and Judaism like Hinduism no body can become a jew by convertion. Anglo-Saxon migration to the Britain was done after 4 th century ce by that time their empire became a Christian empire and the Eastern Roman empire disintegrated in 476 ce. Friend , I am not writing these posts to hurt you as I am a hindu and i think you are a Christian. My request is to appreciate the evidence impartially as we are reading only victors narrations. Let us read and appreciate impartially . It is a fact that the gospel of mark which was written after 70 ce ,after the demolition of the Temple in which jesus said God why have you forsaken me. His distress call indicates what type of relation he had with god Mark didn't write resurrection story and stopped at 16: .8 when it comes to mathew it was meant for jewish Christians. jesus 5 sermons on thr hills are synonym of the Torah's five books. He wrote genealogy from Abraham only. Luke gospel is for Genetiles as he was being a Genetile. His Gospel was for people on the western side of Jerusalem upto Rome where Genetiles used to reside. pl see the Gospel of jhon which was written 80 years after the crucifiction in which jhon attributed divinity to jesus from the first verse to last in his Gospel and death on the cross to only to fulfil the prophecies in the OT and jhons gospel shows every thing under jesus control even on the cross , contrary to the mark's gospel . Jesus was crucified on the allegation of self proclaimation as the king of the jews .It was written as the allegation. Romans had tolerance to other religions, but challenge to the crown was a heinous crime. jhon also sowed the deviation of jewish dietary habits by comparing the wine as blood and mosaic law does not accept eating of the blood. It was also synonym of cannibalism as eating of body and blood You may say why I am telling all these details about Thomas's visit to india. 1) The early christianity was in confusion about the jesus word to be taught to the Genetile or not. It was paul who took initiative to spread the word to Genetiles, though initially he was not with full conviction. Acts 21 verse 21to 23 proves he was not outright man to discard jewish customs. Pauls claim at acts 9 and 22 gives suspicion about his character. Acts was written by Luke ,a doctor and his writings were not like illiterate Jewish disciples Pauls apocalyptic movement to get support from the Genetiles became as the largest religion on this world ie The christianity. . Preaching of Jesus word to Genetiles got movementum only after pauls death in 64 ce and after the demolition of the temple in 70 ce as the jews lost hopes on apocalyptic writings of jesus' followers. pl examine could imagine the arrival of Thomas in 52 ce when no one started preaching of Jesus word to the Genetiles. Had paul not started this movement of admitting Genetiles, this religion wouldn't have come to us .. Gospel of luke was written between 70 to 85 ce or jhons gospel was written between 90 ce to 110 ce and thus they took this task of taking jesus word to the Genetiles.after Paul's death. Martyrdom to the disciples only to prove the christianity was monotheistic religion and superior religion and for the sake of this religion all the disciples had sacrificed their lives and such sacrifices were not known to The Pagans.

[@vislamansa2822]

Syrian Christians of Kerala are in no way to be compared to the missionary sects like Roman Catholicism or like the Protestants, they're more like the Jews or the Parsis of India. According to them Thomas the Apostle came to Kerala and converted several upper caste families and jews (Now that's racism)...that is just their belief which that they've carried for centuries, I'm no one to comment on that, but one thing is sure many Assyrian Christian merchants (Assyrians are an ethnic group which occupied a portion of middle east called assyria) migrated to kerala and intermarried the former native christians of kerala. Which is not quite surprising as Kerala being a spice haven had frequent foriegn trade with arabs, jews, africans, chinese etc from very old times...the native rulers gave them many privileges and grants owing to their trade capacity which alongside their elite origins gave them some kind of superiority complex that they would never accept anyone... like literally nobody into their community fearing that they would lose their upper caste status, this is the reason that they never convert people and even when the europeans converted many the Syrian Christians didnt let them join the community, The Latin Catholics of Kerala (converted by european missonaries) are an example, they are completely kept seperated for the Syrian Xians...Still racism is quite prevalent among these people...Me being a Nair was not allowed by my gf's parents who were Syrian to marry her, they say that my family is not as aristocratic as their's...I had to learn it the hard way...we're all human, we all have a single origin..still people create stupid things like cast and ethnicity to divide us....

[@bladey_0_10]

What's the origin of the Roman Catholics of Kerala? Are they also converted by the Europeans?

[@goodomen5801]

@@bladey_0_10 catholics can be Roman catholics and syrian catholic. The roman catholics method of service was brought by foreigners

[@vislamansa2822]

@Bladey1_0_ , basically the syrian catholics are wrongly referred to as roman catholicsnthey should be called syrian catholics itself...what you might have asked is about the latin catholics of kerala they are a community which were fully converted by the portuguese and they follow the traditions of the portuguese unline the syrians...the syrian christians and latin catholics are poles apart as the latin catholics are mostly oppressed by the so called upper caste and privileged syrian christians...its sad...

[@bladey_0_10]

@@vislamansa2822 I live in Kerala myself and I've found Roman Catholics to be the majority in Christians and was referring to them. So they're the same as Syrian Christians? And yes I know of the fact that Latin Christians are discriminated by other sects.

[@krishnashilpa7]

Was she knanaya or Syrian catholic

[@lukejams]

While being a northern indian roman catholic christian, I can say the same for most christians here, we're christian by religion and hindu/indian by culture.

[@GirishVenkatachalam]

@ahmed gamer Well, I am always confused if Xtians are worse or Communists or Muslims, conversion does lead to identity crisis and this leads to several impossible situations and people react unpredictably to such existential threats.

[@arkadipmondal5402]

@@GirishVenkatachalam well I am hindi who loves to eat beef... Even hindu gods are said to eat meat here... So yeah... Keep your shri ram to yourself... We have lied godama

[@lukejams]

@ahmed gamer most conversions today are either due to monetary issues or an attempt to escape social opression by elites. Also, despite the religion, the problem is lack of education that eventually screws with a person's national identity and distorts their view. Most Roman catholic are still essentially pagan in culture without them even realizing.

[@andreamessiasgomes7118]

@@arkadipmondal5402 yes i was surprised that south Indian Hindus especially keralites eat beef , howcome?? Are there no Krishna devotees there? And then they blame Muslims and Christians for killing cows , actually it's not cows they kill but buffalo but for these people both are same, ignorant people. They don't know that their own Hindu parties tell these small fellows to kill the buffalo so they can send abroad to the beef eating countries.

[@sickman930]

Thankyou 🚬🙏

[@dograkhalsa1098]

Mappila is a term used to refer to Jews,Muslims and Christians. Jews were Juda Mappila,Christians were Nasrani mappila, idk about Muslims they were just Mappila ig. Muslims were also called "Mohammediyar" in the past, its an old term that is out of usage in modern Malayalam. I've had couple of Christian friends in school, some of them were Catholics much to my surprise since my knowledge was that Kerala was full of Orthodox Christians, now i know who made them Catholics.

[@dhruv3185]

I can only say that stay away from your friends religion (not from your friends) as it just teach genocide of other religion people.

[@dograkhalsa1098]

@@dhruv3185 Christians in Kerala aren't that hostile towards Hindus and Hinduism as Muslims are, tho there a lot of extremists in Kerala Christians as well. I've seen Christians celebrating Onam and sometimes even sporting the chandana tilak. I've also had a Christian teacher berating me for not doing my homework but finding time to carefully draw an ornamental tilak in my forehead.

[@vinthsouza]

@Gordon Freeman bu ba

[@vinthsouza]

@brahmastra brahmastra oh ricebag obsessed

[@vinthsouza]

@Gordon Freeman Iam not converted dude, I will say my ancestors probably converted roughly around 300 years back.

[@shineon808]

I respect Abhijit Chavda because of many unknown things about Indian history but for this particular topic I think..the man feels reluctant to accept facts. Btw Mappila means sisters husband..idk where he got those crap.

[@EngPheniks]

"We came here to preach only the Love of Christ and not seek converts" - I forgot the person who said this.

[@rakeshningala833]

Yes you are right. The term “mapila” from mapila muslim means son-in-law. It means the muslims who came from middle east married indian women and settled here in india. So the descendants of those community is called mapila muslims.

[@rakeshningala833]

In tamil and malayalam son-in-law is called as mapla. So that pronounciation became ad mapila

[@hamhamak]

Mapila Or Mophla means Son in Law, The Arab traders married local girls thus arising the term Mapila

[@sreeragm.s4323]

To the best of my knowledge, Mappilla in malayalam means "Maargam koodiya pilla" which means a guy who have convert. And in Tamil it have different name.

[@elixer679]

Nobody Depicts Indians as barbaric, yes its unfortunate that ST Thomas was killed by some people. It doesnt make all of us Bad. We should also notice that out of 12 Apostels of Jesus Christ , Except Mathew was matryred

[@suryansh.1]

#AskAbhijit🤚Sir I want to learn Real Indian History from which book i should start?

[@pramithcmannadiyar]

#AskAbhijit sir I want to know about your view on Nair community are they kshatriya or shudras and can I know their origin

[@pramithcmannadiyar]

@@neosokretes I partially disagree with you because from my knowledge as a Nair I was told that my ancisters used to be mostly vegetarian and they even workshiped god and most of us have some temples in our ancestors house and even there are some temples in Kerala who have Nair poojari from long time also these temples are dedicated to war gods like kali , shiva ,etc and palakkad Chittor temple is the best example for this and they are very much similar to naga vanshi kshatriya

[@adarshanand682]

@@pramithcmannadiyar then you are Brahmin

[@pramithcmannadiyar]

Nop

[@krishnashilpa7]

@@neosokretesur bum

[@krishnashilpa7]

@@adarshanand682don’t talk about stuff u have no clue about

[@Cherry-sg4zg]

There are many evidence for the existence of jesus .

[@thedescanteer]

LOL

[@ShSh-xi4rd]

Please provide

[@ganjaya97]

yeah like empty grave not decomposed cross a even the blood below the cross

[@andreamessiasgomes7118]

Jesus is seperate from Christianity please don't mix. The Romans took his story n twisted it and used it as tool to cause plunder around the world. But Jesus does exist he was crucified but he did not die like how the Romans narrated , proof is there in Rozabel line in Kashmir. And for people asking how and all , ask the people who have had apparitions of him and who got stigmata and all. I would also like to say another thing just because after Judaism things got ugly and political in their faith and then the Jesus story got twisted all which comes from Sumerian family branch if y'all read those dead sea scrolls and book let's just call it the original Bible it is also very dharmic in nature many think Annunaki is Egyptian no is not and just like how in Hinduism Krishna is star child same is Jesus but we were told differently so we could be controlled by these Romans and y'all will see Annunaki even in ancient India. Temples even Praveen mohan found it. Y'all think only your gods were alien?? It was of all ancient cultures not only India and giants were there everywhere maybe go educate yourself or better go to Mesopotamia and look instead of saying it's fake and all just because of Colonisers don't blame the entire ancient culture or the people's. The colonisers twisted the story this is a fact many of the historian found proof watch this 5th dimension on KZbin they show evidence. It's sad that the twist happened and colonising happened but then again they have the power of reset from those times , understand that the Roman Germanic tribe are reptilian brain and their decendants are the present day Rothschild , rockerfeller , Bush and Ford family. The Illuminati are them only , their ancestors started this bullshit and still they are the elites that have power over the government and politics all over the world. Who you think gave Hitler the power to start , they only , otherwise he would just be a puppet, we have been deceived alot in many ways not only about religion but the many resets and how even the many continents that are not shown on our maps, the moon is it a satellite cause the Dogon tribe of Africa claims before it was not there and the moon reflects the map of earth , look properly one day when it's full n bright. So we are living a big lie anyways.

[@anilwanjara2410]

Whilst doing Venue Marketing job I became friendly with a Kerala Christian . He told me that our names are Thomas , George , Joseph ..whereas Goa Christian names D' Silva, Michale D'Mello .. These Goa Christian called as Black Germans cuz we give more importance to our Malyali Language than English or for that matter any language of the world AND the best part is when Goa Christians called us BLACK GERMANS then we take it as a COMPLIMENT. I also came across a Kerala Christian working in Advertising Art Department and he knew only Malyali Language and yhe best part is he didn't have any inferiority complex for not being able to talk in English.

[@sonurajan4511]

@Abhijit Chavda Sir with all due respect there is evidence that St Thomas came to India. It is the St Thomas Basilica, where his remains were laid up whole until it was transported to Ortona, Italy and the remains were split for the process of transportation and are preserved half and half on two separate geographical locations. But the account of the transport of the body is detailed and mentions the Basilica in Chennai as the original holder of the remains. It is the oldest Basilica in the world, with the present one renovated by the British or the Portuguese at their arrival. It is also only one of the three Basilica's holding (or having held the remains) of Jesus' disciples apart from St James's in Spain and St Peter's at the Vatican itself. Unlike the Syrian Christians the Kerala Muslims also received their faith much before the perceived reality of our beloved politicians and historians. The greatest proof being the direction of worship in the first mosque in India Cheraman Juma Masjid in Kerala built in 629 BCE. It was built when the Prophet Muhammed was still alive, and further the first mosque is contested to be built and existing in Gujrat, which was before the prophet took the hijra to Medina and it's order of worship was in the direction of Jerusalem and not Kaaba, Mecca i.e. as per the first Qibla. Our country had a rich tradition of Coastal trade, we were a proud group of hardworking and extremely skilful individuals regardless of our distinct faiths. This is probably the reason why God chose our country to be the cradle, and us as the guardians of human civilisation and flag bearers of our national value of peace via discourse, dialogue and consensus. Let's be respectful of our differences and proud of our unity as Indians. JAI HIND, JAI BHARAT!!!!

[@Morpheusdarkson]

I’m pretty sure there’s a temple in Japan where it’s said Jesus’ body is buried. We can’t verify either unfortunately

[@tanopanyang6194]

How can one absolutely prove that Thomas,the disciple of Jesus didn't come to South India???

[@Cherry-sg4zg]

I my self a Syrian Christian from Kerala , and I am 101% sure that st Thomas came to kerala and i have read many books on it .

[@virenbhalla4001]

Me as well

[@naiyayika]

Could be bruh. It can't be proven simply means it's a belief. Much like all missionary prophets across the board. You are free to believe in your own epistemology.

[@Cherry-sg4zg]

@mirage act of Judas Thomas .

[@Cherry-sg4zg]

@@naiyayika you too

[@trollarasan]

No, he didn't come to Kerela which your own pope denied it. later was included to use to convert the natives. If he were so they wouldn't be called Syrian Christians. He came to Syria and Syrian Christians escaped to India due to persecution.

[@heisenbergs9415]

They are mostly dalits converted followed by nadars, biggest joke is that they claim Namboothiri Brahmin ancestry....

[@thomasmathew5361]

@AbhijitChavda please refer Dr Sarah Knight's PhD thesis(Cambridge University)

[@tinoyviolakkomben8255]

It is true that many Syriac Christians of Kerala has some middle eastern DNA in them. This is because a large number of people from the Cochin Jewish community converted to Syriac Christianity and became absorbed into the native Christian community in Kerala.Syriac Christians of Kerala follows certain Jewish traditions.But they all are now highly mixed and they only have little middle eastern proportion of genes in their DNA now. Another interesting thing about the community is that they are not only hindu in their culture but are also some kind of Sanatanik-Brahminical kind of hindus.They were given Vaishya status in Kerala and were used as pollution nuetralisers by the Brahmins when they(Brahmins) were polluted by low caste untouchables. kzbin.info/www/bejne/eaK6gXWEbdafipI

[@tinoyviolakkomben8255]

@brahmastra brahmastra Their dna is mainly Indian.

[@tinoyviolakkomben8255]

@brahmastra brahmastra A lot of DNA tests has been done in the community. kzbin.info/www/bejne/eaK6gXWEbdafipI

[@abinash5084]

many have middle eastern DNA because they were trade and cultural exchanges with middle east due to spice trade.

[@user-fc8vv3vu2b]

@brahmastra brahmastra no bro I am also a Syrian orthodox christain in my family it is every clear that our ancestry came from Brahmin family even now people use that name an not only that Syrian christains still use big diyas in their homes and chruches syrian christain celebrate onam so onam is an hundu festival but we all celebrate it and also follow many Indian cultural practices as a community from generations

[@milesapart]

Syrian Christians or the Assyrian Christians? you need to be clear

[@bibharani1285]

Excellent history narration!

[@harikrishnavarma1766]

@05:04 mapplia in tamil and malayalam means son in law. Mophla is corrupted word of mappila. Here, we have the arab merchants have a good trading network in malabar around 7th century. Those merchants used to have marital relationship with local Hindu families where the daughters were married to them and got them converted to islam. From then those Muslims got a name of mappilas by this reason of marrying Hindu daughters.

[@marcelalhind]

I'm a Keralite Christian. Idk what he wrote there are soo many non-christian sources which talks about Jesus Christ. Indeed Jesus did existed well documented. Hindu is nothing but an ethnicity all Indian subcontinent people have hindu ethnic.

[@subhajitrouth5379]

#AskAbhijit sir who are funding these convertion in india and is gov doing anything cuz at this rate whole demographics will change within next 50yrs....

[@aggarwalkaoor9002]

Much less

[@st.mephisto8564]

90 % conversion is done by Protestant and evangelicals

[@iguyblr]

myth of st thomas and mylapore shiva. temple is a good place to start with , another good reference is portuguese and malabar and Sita ram goels of Hindu and christian encounters , might open your eyes for lot of things .. its all available read it, They are also called thomas christians who are people who came with a trader thomas who came to india around 345AD when Romans were running amok due to recently acquired christianity

[@Varghese09]

there are two faction within the community, the trader thomas brought up the knanays which are different from other syrian chirstians

[@testing___]

That is not Syrian Christians, they are the knanaya Christian community in Kerala

[@chackotharayil4843]

#AskAbhijit In Syrian Christians there is a small group called Knanaya Christians who believe there ancestors migrated to Kerala from Iraq Israel region. Knanaya Christians practise endogamy

[@joeljosephj8247]

Hello chaaramketty....njngal ivde oladatholam kaalaam ninte ppd ibde nadakkillaa .....kalla chaaramketty...ennit valya konavadhikaaram parayunnu ....nee okke chaaram ketti nadannavan alle ...angne thanne nadanna mathi

[@kaceobrwa7039]

mapilla or mophla means brother in law in Malyaalam , i am not malyali , i'm hindi speaker . i've read they were called mapilla because we had great trade relation with arabs ofcourse before islam

[@indique3477]

@kaceobrwa7039 The term “ mapillai” and “Marumakam” are terms for son-in-law in Tamil. It is also used in Malayalam but that does not make it originally Malayalam . Malayalam descends from early Middle Tamil and separated afterwards.

[@johnstaciocardozo7117]

Abhijit considers name is the only part of culture which Christians have and I don’t even have a Indian name what about language, food, arrange marriages, dowry, caste system, Goan Christians even have Haldi ceremony before marriage, Vasai Christians marriages are very similar to Hindu marriages. I HAD great respect for Abhijit not anymore.

[@v.hariharasubramoney7346]

This is the problem of a religion that depends entirely on a prophet ,a human, and some borrowed principles. No effort has ever been made by any of these great men to search for the ultimate power, realise, experience it and define it . Only Sanathan Dharma has done it , and that is why it has borne the onslaught of all the Semitic religions and still flourishes despite the barbarous onslaught of Islam and money power of the Whites........Will wisdom ever come ? No, it will not. because it is a matter of PRIDE ... .

[@TM-ym5wi]

Sir, Syrian Christians are themselves divided into two communities; the northerners and the southerners (the Knanayas). The Knanayas are endogamous and consider themselves to be descendants of Christians from Syria (one of the first Christian communities in the world) while that's not the case with the northerners. I think that some Thomas from the Middle East (not Thomas, the apostle) came to India and converted some of the population and later in the wake of islamic invasions, some Christians communities from present day Syria took refuge in Kerala and later on married and mixed with the local malayali communities, especially the already thriving christian communities. The fact that Syriac was the lingua franca of Middle East at least upto 700 AD can be sought as a reason as to why the already thriving communities used Syriac liturgy while the Syrian Christian communities who later took refuge in India in the wake of eviction were using the Syriac liturgy is pretty obvious. And maybe that's why these two communities, despite having different origins, followed the same liturgies and came to be known as the same people, which there're not.

[@trollarasan]

syrian merchant Thomas Cananeus escaped to India due to persecution.

[@thedescanteer]

Sounds about right.

[@abs6875]

@@trollarasan There was no persecution in AD 345. It was under constantine...They came to protect the syrian christians that were already in kerala(Jewish converts) which were facing issues here

[@trollarasan]

@@abs6875 Syrian Christians weren't persecuted in India. What a shameless lie ask any Syrian Christians, ask any Jews if they were persecuted in India. How shamelessly Christians blame their crimes on others. How shameless are you people? In fact the Jews and Syrian Christians were persecuted by european christians.

[@abs6875]

@@trollarasan Did I say they were persecuted?. We had even our own kingdom,check vilarvattom.Jews existence here in Kerala is estimated from the time of solomon, much before vedic hindhuism reached Kerala shore. St. Thomas came to preach arrival of messiah to these jews. And they became syrian christians. You must understand that kerala was under attack from pandya and chola. It was not the one India. But the church became weak during 4th century AD,reaon is not very clear . Knanayas came and strengthened it.However, Cochin kingdom supported portugese for persecution as they were under threat. Like how India is keeping silent now in ukraine .

[@sonusamuel9175]

Hi brother Abhijit, I am proud of the fact that we malayalis have contributed a lot to religion to our great nation. Let's take the great example of Shri aadhi shankaracharya, who converted the majority of North Indian Jain's and Buddhist back to the Hindu mainfold and thus protecting Hinduism from declining in North India. Maybe our right wing brothers won't accept this fact. Anyways it doesn't matter. Forget about whether St Thomas was real or did he come to Kerala, the fact is that a majority of fair skin keralites and their North Indian fair skin brothers are generally from the Aryan community which is central asian. And our majority Dravidian brothers have africanoid genes. But after centuries we as Indians are a brotherhood of mix races due to intercaste marriages and modern urban marriages. Regarding the term mappipah or moppilah, it was used for Turkish or Arab Muslims settled in Malabar and we the majority travancorians, when started purchasing lands in North Kerala were also identified by the same name by the local land owners. In ancient travancore, the monarchy had given Syrian Christians the title of upper class equal to a Brahmin. Since independence of India, we as a community has been contributing to our defence forces and other various departments of our country. And just imagine, we are just two percent of the entire country's population. Let us live in peace. Jai Hind.

[@krishnashilpa7]

Please tell me how u know the king gave Syrian Christian’s upper caste status , was the king so impressed with this they looked ?? He was just flabbergasted by their appearance that he said “ok guys ur equal to Brahmins “ even though Brahmins had to know all the Hindu holy scriptures off by heart and perform the rituals But the king gave the Syrians a free pass at being the highest caste equavalent .

[@Hoshiana123]

Sorry Sir I strongly disagree with you about Jesus not existing . I hope you have visited Israel, All the places mentioned in Bible is there..Jesus tomb is there . My church sister who's in Israel..I can send her blog for proof.. Please dont lead people astray by your logical assumptions..

[@ajitattasseril2818]

Coming of St Thomas to India is not true due to several factors. 1. From Palestine it is nearly impossible to travel all the way to a port in yemen from where most ships sailed into India. The year when he came to India Christianity as it is today did not exist. The religion that exist today is based on a meeting in Nicea in 325AD which he definitely had no idea about. 3. The ancestry of Syrian Christians probably trace back to another migration which is of Thomas of Cana(Kanai Thomman) who came in the 4th century or most likely to the Jews who lived in Kerala. or a combination of both. There is a christian sect called kananayites who claim to be descendants of Kanai Thomman and they claim Jewish Ancestry. So the Kerala Syrian Christians may be descendants of Palestinian Jews. The port which used to have ships coming from was Hadr Al Mauth which is in Yemen close to Ethiopia on the African side. From Islamic history there is reference of Jews living in Yemen and they definitely had access to this route and may have came and settled. God Knows