Thomas: A novel - Softcover

Stafford Betty

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140278540 ISBN 13: 9780140278545

Publisher: Penguin Books, 1998

Synopsis

            The queen of the great Chola Empire has taken the tall, light-skinned saint from the mysterious West for her guru and, as if predestined by some primordial karma that must play itself out, she falls in love with him.  But Thomas--or  "Doubting Thomas," as he is known to his fellow Christians half a world away--is in love with God.  Or is he?  Cut off for seven years from everything that nourishes his inner vision, he sees his old world of solid certainties wobble.  The Doubter doubts again.  In the meantime Kumaran, a low-caste Tamil-speaking poet who has accompanied Thomas on his missionary travels, succumbs to a different kind of karma.  As a result, Thomas confronts, not martyrdom for preaching the new faith, but "execution for adultery."  Torn between his love for God and the queen, he tries to bring order to his soul.  Meanwhile, in the breast of the queen, a plan so momentous takes shape that it will determine the course of an empire.  Behind the scenes, as always, is Kumaran.  He too loves Thomas, but loves jealously; he too plays a part in the evolution of empire.  But unlike Thomas and the queen, he must live with the appalling consequences of his deeds.  What begins as Thomas' story ends as Kumaran's.
            Stafford Betty unforgettably evokes ancient South India's villages, cities, palaces, wars,  famines, suttees, tribes, castes, gods, beasts, her mountainous jungles and fishing coasts and rich rice plains, her steamy climate, and her traditions about St. Thomas that are still a vital part of Christian life in Kerala today.  He recreates the opulent life of the court in fabled Puhar, long ago swallowed by the sea, and describes the historic Battle of Venni in horrifying detail.  He imaginatively presents through flashbacks the critical events in the story of Jesus and Thomas in faraway Judaea.  He gives valuable insight into Hinduism's historic resistance to Christianity.  He even sets the table for a reconciliation of sorts between the two faiths.  Though an American, he is intimately acquainted with South Indian history and culture.  He has created a modern Indian epic.

About this title

From the Author

 

            Did St. Thomas the Apostle reach Tamilakam (South India) in the first century?  Scholars dispute this. To begin with, there is no reason he shouldn't have:  Scores of ships sailed across the Indian Ocean from Socotra, off Africa's northeast shore, to Tamilakam every year, and just as many back.  A great number of gold Roman coins bearing the face of the Roman Emperor Tiberius (14-37 A.D.) have been dug up in South India, and we know that the Roman Empire was addicted to the Indian pepper.  Furthermore, many early Christian legends and documents speak of Thomas' going to India.  Indeed, what is alleged to be his crypt can be found this very day in Madras' Cathedral San Thome.  It would be all but settled if the ancient Tamil literature mentioned him, but it does not.  In the final analysis, our best evidences are an ancient, persistent legend and a living church that traces its ancestry back to Thomas.
            If Thomas did get to India--and I think it likely he did--his success seems to have been limited to small pockets of the population.  Today, despite centuries of zealous evangelization, only three percent of India is Christian.  The reasons for this are arguable.  Most of them applied during the first century, when Thomas would have been there, as much as they apply today.
            The personality I have chosen to give Thomas is entirely fictitious.  I might have borrowed heavily from the Acts of Thomas, a second- or third-century Gnostic Christian tract that purports to describe Thomas' mission to India; but the characterization of him is unappealing, and most of the action takes place in Parthia and northwest India (today's Afghanistan and Pakistan).  Moreover, most scholars regard his characterization and the many miracles he performed as a Christian romance.
            Thomas means "twin."  Thomas' real name was Judas--Judas "the twin."  Whose twin was he?  The ancient traditions disagree.  At least one says he was Jesus' twin.  I have used this legend but adapted it to my own use.
             Thomas, on the basis of the well-known story in John's Gospel, is universally regarded today as "Doubting Thomas."  I have adopted this characterization and in the process made him resonate with the modern reader.  Whether or not he really had a congenital doubter's disposition is anybody's guess, although Christians have always taken the legend seriously:  There have been twenty-four Pope Johns (including an antipope), but not one Pope Thomas.  So much for doubting!
            I have made good use of the Kerala and Tamil traditions about St. Thomas, and the experts will enjoy picking them out as they appear.  It should not be assumed, though, that anything I have Thomas say or do in this book is historical.  And on many occasions I knowingly deviate from the traditions.  Some of my Christian readers will be shocked because my Thomas is a complex, struggling, sometimes sinful man.  If they will stay with me to the end, they will see him change--whether into a saint or not, the readers must decide for themselves
            With India we are on firmer ground.  The Tamils have a voluminous ancient literature that blends poetry, much of it superb, with liberal doses of history.  The Tamil classics tell us a great deal about South India in the first centuries of the Christian era.  The Tamil capital of Puhar, for example, is described in detail.  So are some of the exploits of the famous King Karikal.  But the literature is most remarkable for its portrayal of the customs of the people and for its delight in nature.  When working on the settings for the events of this novel, I had to depend very little on my unaided imagination.  India really was the way it appears here.  To some degree it still is in the countryside.
            The bloody event described near the climax of the novel might seem preposterous to many a reader.  But not to a Tamil.  The tragic but ultimately triumphant story of Kannaki, as told in the most celebrated Tamil classic of them all, the Cilappatikaram, has Kannaki doing the same thing that Queen Adimanti does here.
            The experts on early Tamil history dispute the dates of events and personalities.  Often they disagree by centuries.  When did King Karikal rule?  As early as the first century, or as late as the fifth?  We are told a great deal about him, but we don't know when he lived--or when anyone else lived.  And the great Battle of Venni which I've described here in detail is certainly historical.  But when it happened we simply cannot say.  As a result, I have not worried overmuch about dating.  Many of the people, places, and events in this novel are historically based, but my pulling them all together into one historical space and time is fanciful.  

About the Author

Stafford Betty grew up Catholic and has a Ph.D. in Asian religion and thought from Fordham.  He teaches courses on India at California State University, Bakersfield, where he is a professor.  Many of his students have been young Indians whose parents wanted them to learn more about their culture from the "tall white man."  For several years he volunteered his time to coach children in various American sports and once taught an Indian 10-year-old how to play baseball.  He has made four trips to India and for a few weeks worked in West Bengal with Mother Teresa's Missionary Order of Brothers.  He is married and has four sons and a daughter.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0140278540
• ISBN 13: 9780140278545
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 430