Early History, Early Prelates, Medieval History, Nasrani History, Persian Church, Thomas the Apostle

Anoop: Perhaps. However, if we were canonical Christians, then …

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Comment posted Prelates of Nasranis till the Synod of Udayamperoor- List of early Bishops till 1599 AD by John Mathew.

Anoop:

Perhaps. However, if we were canonical Christians, then I don’t think cremation or any other form other than burial would have been permitted by our religious clerics.

It seems — at least from the English translations of letters from the various Patriarchs of the Church of the East from a thousand years ago, or so, that I’ve read — that our community was a mixture of ethnic Persian Christians (who were definitely canonical Christians) and Indians. E.g., there are letters that authorize the intermarriage of Persian Christians and Indians (… another example of how “endogamy” was definitely not one of our community’s characteristics … unlike the narrow-minded attitudes of some of our people!); our reverence for Pahlavi crosses, etc. So, I don’t see it as likely that a community with such composition (i.e., inclusive of canonical Persian Christians) would resort to non-Christian burial techniques.

It is true that there are accounts of various Christian communities (even Persian Christian ones) embracing the local religions. Perhaps *they* may have engaged in cremation. But at the very least the Archdeacons must have been canonical Christians in close contact with their canonical fathers in West Asia. So I doubt they Archdeacons would have been cremated.