Thursday, April 26, 2007

st thomas

i went to a place in chennai called st thomas mount.i had a view of the mount when i was crossing the railway overbridge.ive been there once earlier.it s a small hillock on th eoutskirts of chennai overlooking the airport.it is where thomas,one of the twelve disciples(apostles)of jesus lived in his last days after being exiled by the local chieftain from the adjoining town.eventually,he was killed by the chieftain s soldiers.i cant surely say that it was a chieftain,it could have been a king.
the most incredible part was thomas reaching here from palestine.he s supposed to have landed in india in kerala from where he made his way to chennai.that journey was once recreated by a historian on b.b.c ,i think it was william dalrymple.the zeal that thomas should have possessed to come all the way down to the south of the peninsula must have been divine.alexander made his way to india through the mountain passes in the northwest.arabs have been chronicled as having traded in these parts around 1000 ad.the first muslim(arab) in india itself is supposed to be mohammed bin kasim in the 700 s.this journey by st thomas is a mystical one.the city has expanded all around and afar.

2 comments:

samurai said...

thomas seems to have been a bit of a naive person,but it was touching with him taking his price and leaving his native land.i ll try to get the book.it ll be a great adventure.

Shagufta said...

two historians speaking!