The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c26.s1.58

c26.s1.58

Special interest attaches to the Indo-Parthian king Gondopharēs because his name is associated in very ancient Christian tradition with that of St. Thomas, the apostle of the Parthians. The belief that the Parthians were allotted as the peculiar sphere of the missionary labours of St. Thomas goes back to the time of Origen, who died in the middle of the third century. The *Acts of St. Thomas*, nearly contemporary with Origen, as well as later tradition, generally associate the Indians, rather than the Parthians, with the name of the apostle, but the terms 'India' and 'Indians' had such vague signification in ancient times that the discrepancy is not great. The earliest form of the tradition clearly deserves the greater credit, and there is no apparent reason for discrediting the statement handed down by Origen that Thomas received Parthia as his allotted region.