Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c8.s4.69

v1.c8.s4.69

The good feeling that existed between the different communities in the times of Barbosa is very well illustrated in the following story told by him in connection with Mailāpūr and St. Thomas, the Apostle. "In this city is buried the body of the Apostle St. Thomas, in a small church near the sea. And the Christians of Coulam, who are of his doctrine, say that when St. Thomas left Coulam, on being persecuted by the Gentiles, he met with a few companions going to that country, and settled in this city of Maylepur, which at that period was twelve leagues distant from the sea, which later eat away the land, and came in upon it. And there he began to preach the faith of Christ, to which he converted some, whilst others persecuted and wished to kill him, and he separated himself from the people, and went about frequently among the mountains. And one day as he wandered about in that manner, a gentile hunter, with a bow, saw many peacocks together upon the ground in that mountain, and in the midst of them one very large and very handsome standing upon a stone slab; this hunter shot at it, and sent an arrow through its body, and they rose up flying, and in the air it turned into the body of a man. And this hunter stood looking until he saw the body of the said apostle fall. And he went to the city where he related that miracle to the governors, who came to see it, and they found that it was indeed the body of St. Thomas, and then they went to see the place where he had been wounded, and they saw the impression of human feet marked on the slab, which he left impressed when he rose wounded. And when the governors of the country saw so great a miracle, they said that this man was holy, and we did not believe him; and they took him and buried him in the church where he now is, and they brought the stone upon which he left the said foot-marks, and they placed it close to his grave; and they say that on burying him they could never put his right arm in the tomb, and it always remained outside; and if they buried him entirely, next day they found the arm above the earth, and so they let it be. The Christians, his disciples and companions who built the said church, and the Gentiles already held him for a saint, and honoured him greatly. He remained thus with his arm outside of the grave for a long time, and they say that many people came there from many parts in pilgrimage, and that some Chinese came also, who wished to cut off his arm and carry it away as a relic, and that when they were about to strike at it with a sword, he withdrew his arm inside, and it was never seen again. So he remains still in that hermitage, very humbly, and lighted up by the grave of God, because the Moors and Gentiles light him up, each one saying that he is something belonging to them. And the house and church are ordered in our fashion, with crosses on the altar, and at the top of the vault a great wooden cross, and peacocks for a device. . . ¹