Know Your Bhārat

Christianity’s first encounter with Hindū Religion

Christian historians will have us believe that Hinduism first came in contact with
Christianity in AD 52 when St. Thomas, an apostle of Jesus Christ, landed in
Malabar. He is supposed to have travelled in South India and founded seven churches
before he was “murdered” by the “malicious” Brahmanas. The old Christians in
Kerala, who knew as well as introduced themselves as Syrian Christians till the
other day, now take pride in calling themselves ‘St. Thomas Christians’. Scrupulous
Christian Historians have however found the story too fanciful to be taken
seriously.

Coming to facts of history, the first encounter between Hinduism and Christianity
took place not in India but in those parts of West Asia, North Africa and Southern
Europe which comprised the Roman Empire at the dawn of the Christian era. There is
evidence, archaeological as well as literary, that Hinduism had made its presence
felt in Graeco Roman religions and philosophies long before Jesus was born. The
imprint of Samkhya, Yoga and Vedanta on early western philosophies (like Eleatic,
Eleusinian, Orphic, Pythagorean, Platonist, Stoic, Gnostic and Neo-Platonist
philosophies) is too manifest to be missed easily.

It was widely believed in the ancient Western world that the Greeks had learnt
their wisdom from the Brahmanas of India. Evidence of Hindu colonies in some
leading cities of the Roman Empire is also available. Hindu temples had come up
wherever Hindu merchants and traders had established their colonies. Hindu saints,
sages and savants could not have lagged behind.

Christianity did not fail to notice this Hindu presence as soon as it became a
force in the Roman Empire. It was, from its very birth, wide awake towards all
currents and crosscurrents of thought and culture. We find St. Hippolytus attacking
the Brahmanas as a source of heresy as early as the first quarter of the third
country (Ref. 2). It was not long after that Hinduism faced a determined assault
from Christianity as did other ancient religions of the Roman Empire.

Hindu temples were the most visible symbols of the Hindu religion. They became
targets of Christian attack like all other Pagan temples. “According to the Syrian
writer Zenob,” writes Dr. R. C. Majumdar, “there was an Indian colony in the canton
of Taron on the upper Euphrates [today’s Iraq-Syria region], to the west of Lake
Van, as early as the second century B.C. The Indians had built there two temples
containing images of gods about 18 and 22 feet high. When, about AD 304, St.
Gregory came to destroy these images, he was strongly opposed by the Hindus. But he
defeated them and smashed the images, thus anticipating the iconoclastic zeal of
Mahmud of Ghazni.” (Ref.3)

Historians of the Roman Empire have documented the large-scale destruction of Pagan
temples by Christianity from the fourth century onwards (Ref.4). It is more than
likely that some of these were places of Hindu worship. The word “pagan” is a
comprehensive term in Christian parlance and covers a large variety of religious
and cultural expressions.

Source: Chapter 1 - ‘Encounter on the Euphrates’ in the book ’History of Hindu-

Christian Encounters (AD 304 to 1996) by Sita Ram Goel

References:
(1) The St. Thomas story has since been examined in great detail in ‘The Myth of
Saint Thomas and the Mylapore Shiva Temple’ by Ishwar Sharan, Voice of India, New
Delhi, 1991, reprinted in a revised and enlarged second edition in 1995.
(2) D. P. Singhal, ‘India and World Civilization’ , Calcutta, 1972, Volume I, p. 85

(3) The History and Culture of the Indian People, Volume II, ‘The Age of Imperial
Unity’, Fourth Edition, Bombay, 1968, pp. 633-634

(4) Pierre Chuvin, A Chronicle of the Last Pagans, Harvard University Press,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, 1990

Suggested reading: Sita Ram Goel, ‘Papacy: Its Doctrine and History’, Voice of
India, 1986, pp. 55-58

https://www.catholic.com/qa/no-proof-st-thomas-went-to-india