Saint Thomas' Christians: The Story of How One Skeptical Apostle Brought the Gospel to India in the First Century
History first recorded the existence of the Indian state of Kerala in the third century BCE. The name originally appeared, chiseled in stone, on an inscription left to posterity by the great Mauryan emperor Ashoka. Ashoka reigned for more than two decades and in his lifetime he presided over an empire that encompassed nearly the entire Indian subcontinent. Before the birth of Christ in the last century BCE the Roman historian Pliny the Elder as well as many other ancient travelers made note of Kerala as the Roman world’s leading exporter of spices. Located on the west coast of India, Kerala or the place that westerners once referred to as the Malabar Coast after it was “discovered” by Portuguese explorers looking for a quicker passage to the Spice Islands of the east in the late 15th century CE is today one of India’s wealthiest provinces. It is a province that contains lush verdant tropical jungles, as well as some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. And with a popula