Ananya Chakravarti, The Empire of Apostles

See the list of KP MSS consulted: the Pilar MS (which she dates at 1609 and calls the earliest extant MS); two copies of the MS at the TSKK; and the "printed edition" (the 3rd, of 1654) held at the Central Library, Panjim. (201n87) Strange that she calls the last "the printed edition", when it is an MS copy of the third edition. The others that she calls MSS are also copies of the printed editions. 

She does not mention Nelson Falcao's Marathi and English translations of the KP at all, though she does mention his book (the one coming from his PhD thesis) in the bibliography. Her decision is to make use of the Saldanha edition - perhaps because it is completely in Roman script? 

Neither does she mention Tadkodkar. 

Her remarks on yema loca and agnicondd are interesting. 

She discusses some "confusion" in the economic affairs handled by Stephens in Salcette.

The material she has accessed for the chapter is interesting. It bears comparison with that accessed by Velinkar.  

Yemaloka, agnikund, yamkond - translations of "hell" in Konkani

In the Khristapurana, "hell" is translated as "yema loca" but also as "agnicondd" or "agni kund" (see Adi Purana ch. 8, verse 58; A. Chakravarti, The Empire of Apostles 210-11)

Yemaloka is straight enough, but agnikund, according to Chakravarti, is bold: hellfire is now identified with the sacred sacrificial fire.

I remember now the word "yemkondd" in our prayers at home. Here is one occurrence in a common enough prayer, rendered here as "yamkond". A combination of yamaloka and agnikund. 

Ie mhojea Jesu (Fatima Prayer)

Ie mhojea Jesu amchi patkam amkam bogsi. Yamkondantlia ujiantlem amkam nivar. Samest atmiank, sargar tuji kakutichi adhi garz asleank sargar von tu pavay.

Cecilia Carvalho, three books on Thomas Stephens, SJ

Cecilia Carvalho. Olivelā lagadalī tulshīchī pane. Phādar Thomas Stiphans caritra [Biography of Fr. Thomas Stephens]. Maharashtra Rajya Sahitya ani Sanskrti Mandal, Mumbai, 2013. 

Cecilia Carvalho. Fr. Thomas Stephans: A Monograph. Sahitya Akademi, 2017. 

Cecilia Carvalho. Fr Thomas Stephensachi Sanskrutik Bhavponnachi Ruzvonn [Fr Thomas Stephens' Cultural Brotherhood]. Translated into Konkani by Dr Pandurang Phaldesai. Porvorim: Thomas Stephens Konknni Kendr, 2024.

MS of the Khristapurana in Mangalore

According to Farias Kranti, cited by Velinkar 178, the "Falnir" Coelho family in Mangalore has a well-preserved MS of the Khristapurana. 

Joseph Velinkar, Fr Thomas Stephens: The First Englishman in India (Margao - Goa: CinnamonTeal, 2021).

New search for MSS of Thomas Stephens' Khristapurana

 We are mounting a new search for MSS of the Khristapurana in Mangalore and Goa. 

In Mangalore, we need to find out what happened to the 5 MSS used by Joseph L. Saldanha in his 1907 edition, The Christian Puranna (see list below). Any information will be most welcome. Part of the information we need is about the families of the people mentioned below. It is possible that the MSS are still in their possession, or at least that they might know what happened to these. For example, if Mr Marian Saldanha is Prof. Mariano Saldanha of Ucassaim, Goa, we know that his holdings were donated to the Thomas Stephens Konknni Kendra, Porvorim. In that case, perhaps one of the two MSS there is the one used by Joseph L. Saldanha. 

1. Messrs. Dunbar Brothers of Parel, Bombay. (See Joseph L. Saldanha, The ChristianPuranna, Mangalore 1907). Roman script. 
2. Mr Marian Saldanha (probably Dr Mariano Saldanha of Ucassaim, Goa). (See Joseph
3. L. Saldanha, The Christian Puranna, Mangalore 1907). Roman script. 
4. Mr Julian Coelho. (See Joseph L. Saldanha, The Christian Puranna, Mangalore 1907) Roman script. 
5. Rev. S.B.C. Luis. (See Joseph L. Saldanha, The Christian Puranna, Mangalore 1907) Roman script. 
6. Mr Jerome A. Saldanha, Sub-Judge of Alibagh, Bombay Presidency. Devanagari script. (See Joseph L. Saldanha, The Christian Puranna, Mangalore 1907). 

In Goa, we have identified the following MSS. It is possible that there might be some more, lying with some families. 

1. The Goa Central Library MS, bearing the date 1731 / 1761 (GCL). The KrishnadasShama Goa Central Library, Post Box 22, Patto, Panjim, Goa 403 001, India. E-mail:lib-cent.goa@nic.in. Tel: +91-832-2425730 / 2436327. Website:http://www.goacentrallibrary.gov.in/
2. The Pilar MS (P). Monastery of Pilar, Pilar Hill, NH-17, Velha Goa, Goa 403 108, India.(Contact: Fr Cosme José Costa, SFX)
3. The M.C. Saldanha MS at the Thomas Stephens Konknni Kendra (TSKK-1). ThomasStephens Konknni Kendr, B.B. Borkar Road, Alto Porvorim, Bardez, Goa - 403 521,India. E-mail: tskkgoa@gmail.com. Tel: +91-832-2415857 / 2415864. Website:www.tskk.org
4. Another MS at the Thomas Stephens Konknni Kendra (TSKK-2).
5. The Bhaugun Kamat Vagh MS in the Pissurlencar Collection at the Goa UniversityLibrary (BKV). Goa University Library, Goa University, Taleigao Plateau, Goa 403 206,India. Tel: +91-832-6519048. Website: http://library.unigoa.ac.in/

Besides these, there is of course the Devanagari script MSS found in London. 

1. The Marsden MS. School of Oriental Studies, London. 

Please feel free to contact me at ivo.coelho@gmail.com (Ivo Coelho).

Thomas Stephens' Khristapurana

 

A photo of the first page of the Marsden MS of Thomas Stephens' Khristapurana (from a photocopy, Pilar Museum, Pilar Goa) (photo credit: Hendry Selvaraj, SDB) Whether the KP was first composed in Roman script and then rendered into Devanagari is still disputed.

One of the pages of the "Pilar MS" of the Khristapurana in Roman script. 

Another page of the "Pilar MS".  The date, however, is wrong in my estimation - we know that the first print edition was in 1616, and that the above is a handwritten copy of one of the print editions... However, this is the only place where I've seen the affirmation that Stephens dictated to 12 Brahmin scribes...

We hope the Pilar Museum will find the funds to restore this MS! It is precious but falling to pieces...

Joseph Velinkar, Fr Thomas Stephens: The First Englishman in India

It's good to finally have a little biography of the great Fr Thomas Stephens, SJ, author of the Khristapurana. Our gratitude to Fr Joseph Velinkar, SJ for this gift. Our congratulations also to Leonard and Queenie Fernandes of CinnamonTeal Publications (Margao, 2021) for a beautifully brought out volume. 

Fr Velinkar has done primary research in the UK, France and Italy, besides of course in the archives in Goa and in Mumbai, and has unearthed precious details about the life of Stephens. (But a great deal of matter seems to have been taken from Clifford J. Pereira, "Thomas Stephens - An English Jesuit in Goa", a paper he cites as found at goa-research-net, and which I found at  https://groups.google.com/g/soc.culture.portuguese/c/NT2hVqbmS4E .)

My suspicion that Stephens had done his novitiate at Sant'Andrea al Quirinale seems to be confirmed - though Velinkar just says "St Andrew" in Rome. There are even the names of some of Stephens fellow novices: "eight fellow Englishmen (of whom seven were former Oxford students), one Irish man, and the future martyr Pietro Berno" (Velinkar 53; the source is G. Schurhammer, New Documents, Thomas Stephens, p. 1)

I had no idea Stephens and Thomas Pound had been so closely associated. Velinkar dedicates a whole chapter to Thomas Pound (chapter 2). Instead, I am delighted to have confirmation that Bushton and Clyffe Pypard are near Swindon of the Anglo-Indian Mangalorean Keralite Goan Christian diaspora (23, 193).

An official painting of Thomas Stephens has been placed in the Mumbai University Convocation Hall on the occasion of the 4th Centenary of Stephens' death. (191) (Stephens died in 1619, so the 4th centenary must have been in 2019)

And this gem: "One of the best preserved manuscripts of the Krista Purana is to be found in the possession of the Falnir Coelho family in Mangalore." (178. The reference: Kranti K. Farias, The Christian Impact in South Kanara, p. 198) (Church History Association of India, 1999)

In his final chapter Velinkar takes pains to mention the Thomas Stephens Konknni Kendr, Porvorim and the Father Stephens Academy School, Vasai, but for whatever reason, he fails to mention the two massive volumes of Nelson Falcao which render the Khristapurana in current Marathi and in English, the Konkani translation by Amonkar, the studies by Tadkodkar, the republication of the Arte da Lingoa Canarim by CinnamonTeal Publications, and other such initiatives, which are, to my mind, milestones in the diffusion of the work of Stephens. 

A good editor might have made this precious text even more readable, avoiding, for example, unnecessary repetitions and a certain lack of linearity in the narrative. But perhaps it is a new, circular way of narrating.