Christians who form 2.5% of India’s population have often been erroneously viewed by many mainstream historians as by product of colonialism. This misperception emerged out of the over-emphasis on the roles played by different European powers as introducers of Christianity in India and the conspicuous silence they tried to maintain regarding the nature of Christianity that had existed in different parts of coastal India before their arrival, for which there are lot of literary and archaeological evidences. The different European powers tried to ensure legitimization and sanction from their mother countries for their colonization ventures in India by arguing that they were the pioneers of Christianization in India, which necessitated them to keep as much information as possible about the pre-Europeans Christians of India in oblivion or in periphery. But now many scholars have come forward to prove that India, which the Europeans entered into in the beginning of sixteenth century, was not devoid of Christians; on the contrary it had a considerable number of vibrant Christian settlements in different parts of India, out of which at least some could be traced back to the same first century AD, when Christianity took shape and spread to different parts of Asia.

That Christianity entered India in the first century AD and that there were Christian settlers in different numerical size in various parts of coastal India were attested to not only by the living tradition of St. Thomas Christians of Kerala alone but also by several literary evidences as well as recent archeological discoveries from different parts of India. Besides the living traditions of St. Thomas Christians and their written evidences, many of which were later incorporated into the Portuguese documents of the sixteenth century, several scholars after the council of Nicea (325), in which even the representative of the Christians of Persia and India participated and which also informed the world of the scattered presence of Christians on various parts of the world, began to attribute Christianization of India to St. Thomas.

Price Rs. 150/-

Pages -100

Xaverian Publication

Society, Pillar Goa

The author, Fr. Cosme J. Costa, has looked into the historical processes of Konkan in general and Goa in particular as to see how the two apostles – St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew - were instrumental in introducing Christianity in Goa in the first century AD itself. The discovery of a Pahlavi-inscribed cross from Agassaim, from the lower banks of Zuari river, by Fr. Cosme J. Costa in April 2001, had already revolutionized the notion of Christianization in Goa, dating back the appearance of Christianity in the erstwhile Portuguese colony to a time-span of fifth and sixth centuries, when Pahlavi (the archaic form of modern Persian) was the language of the Persian Christian merchants settled down on the coastal rim of India. Till its discovery from Goa, Pahlavi-inscribed crosses (often known as St. Thomas crosses) were obtained mainly from Kerala, and that too from the settlements of St. Thomas Christians, who eventually made it a cultic object of their own. They eventually called it ‘St. Thomas Cross’. The discovery of Pahlavi cross from Goa made Fr. Cosme J. Costa to link Christian roots of Goa with the apostolic tradition, as they are based on historical evidences.

I find the book quite interesting, lucidly written and above all informative. As a scholar, who has devoted his entire life for the promotion of historical knowledge, Fr. Cosme J. Costa has synthesized his deep knowledge in synoptic form in this book which, I am sure, will give a different perception altogether to the history of Christianity of Goa. I hope this book will be widely read and discussed. (From the Foreword by Dr. Pius Malekandathil)