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When Buddha, Kristu, Krishna, and St. Thomas met, an amalgamation of stories and history.

Wanderers of history had many stories, and each narration had its flavor and regional influences. Here, not saying one epic story is from another, but just saying there are many stories, and a few of those stories are relatively new can be influenced by many events from history. Stories evolved and were enriched by many flavors added by the storytellers from time to time. These stories were shaped over centuries and handed over through kingdoms and travelers. Here we examine such few stories and wonder if we can create a new fiction where all these characters give and take from each other.

Traditional accounts of the Saint Thomas Christians of modern-day Kerala in India narrate a story. Thomas believed to have traveled outside the Roman Empire to preach the Gospel. He traveled as far as the Malabar coast in modern-day Kerala State, India. In this story, Thomas reached Muziris (modern-day North Paravur and Kodungalloor in Kerala State, India) in AD 52. Ancient oral tradition retained by the Guaraní tribes of Paraguay claims in another story that the Apostle Thomas was in Paraguay and preached to them. During his visit to India in 2006, Pope Benedict XVI said that Thomas had landed in western India, somewhere in modern-day Pakistan, and Christianity had come to South India through this route. It is contrary to the popular legend of Thomas' direct visit to Kerala and had kicked off a debate among Christians in Kerala. According to Eusebius' record, Thomas and Bartholomew were assigned to Parthia and India.

Now, let us talk about Parthia and Kushan. Parthian kingdom borders current northwest Pakistan. The Yuezhi Kushan Empire in northern India guaranteed the security of Parthia's eastern border. Kushan empire spread to encompass much of Afghanistan and then the parts of the north of the Indian subcontinent at least as far as Saketa and Sarnath near Varanasi (Benares), where inscriptions have been found dating to the era of the Kushan Emperor Kanishka the Great. In general, Emperor Kanishka and the Kushans were great patrons of Buddhism and Zoroastrianism. They played an essential role in establishing Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent and its spread to Central Asia and China.

The movement of nomadic Yuezhi Aryans throughout the steppe of Central Asia had been both from east to west and from west to east. Yuezhi Aryans, in many ways, connected to the Kushan empire and Yadavas. Ancient Chinese sources refer to these tribes collectively as the Da Yuezhi ("Greater Yuezhi"). In subsequent centuries the Tukhara and other tribes founded the Kushan Empire, which dominated Central and South Asia. The account in Mahabharata (Mbh) 1:85 depicts king Yayati, and Yayati's eldest son Yadu gave rise to the Yadavas. Krishna is said to be a Yadav and from the Kushan empire.

Vāsudeva I (Kushano Bactrian: ΒΑΖΟΔΗΟ "Bazodeo";) was a Kushan emperor, last of the "Great Kushans." Named inscriptions dating from the year 64 to 98 of Kanishka's era suggest his reign extended from at least 191 to 232 CE. His name "Vāsudeva" is that of the famous Hindu God Vāsudeva, later assimilated with Krishna, and he was the first Kushan king to be named after the Indian God. He converted to 'Hinduism' during his reign. His name reinforces the notion that his center of power was in Mathura. In the Chinese historical chronicle Sanguozhi (三國志), he is recorded to have sent tribute to the Chinese emperor Cao Rui of the Wei in 229 CE; "The king of the Da Yuezhi, Bodiao (波調) (Vāsudeva), sent his envoy to present tribute and His Majesty granted him a title of "King of the Da Yuezhi Intimate with Wei (魏)".

The relatively peaceful reign of Vasudeva is marked by artistic production, particularly in sculpture. Several Buddhist statues are dated to the rule of Vasudeva and are important markers for the chronology of Buddhist art. On the base of the Buddha statue of 'Vasudeva I,' also known from the Mathura Museum, inscribed: "In the 93rd year of Maharaja Devaputra Vasudeva...". They probably correspond to circa 171 CE or 220 CE, with the more recent definition of the Kanishka era starting in 127 CE. A partially preserved Sakyamuni statue, also from Mathura, has the date "Year 94", although without mentioning Vasudeva specifically. Dedications in the name of Vasudeva, with dates, also appear on Jain statuary discovered in Mathura.

The tradition of Krishna appears to be an amalgamation of several independent deities of ancient India, the earliest to be attested being Vāsudeva. Vāsudeva was a hero-god of the tribe of the Vrishnis, belonging to the Vrishni/Yadava. At one point in time, the tribe of the Vrishnis fused with the tribe of the Yadavas, whose own hero-god was named Krishna. Vāsudeva and Krishna fused to become a single deity. Another tradition, the cult of Gopala-Krishna, the protector of cattle, was also absorbed into the Krishna tradition. The first known depiction of the life of Krishna himself comes relatively late with a relief found in Mathura and dated to the 1st-2nd century CE. This fragment shows Vasudeva, Krishna's father, carrying baby Krishna in a basket across the Yamuna.

An apocryphal book called the Acts of Thomas, written around the second or third century AD makes references to St Thomas in three different places in the Indian subcontinent. In the kingdom of King Gudnaphar or Gondophares. In the territory of another ruler, King Misdai. And in South India, in a kingdom ruled by King Mahadeva in the 1st-century AD. “Gondophares” was a title held by many kings of an ancient Indo-Parthian Kingdom that ruled over areas including Gandhara. That suggests that St Thomas could have visited northwest India. Some experts suggest the names Misdai / Mazdai in Syriac, Misdeos in Greek, Misdeus in Latin, or even Bazdeo in the Kushan language – could be a corruption of the Indian name Vasudeva. Historically, Vasudeva 1 was a Kushan emperor – a dynasty that came to power after the Indo-Parthians. Their territory covered everything King Gondopharaes ruled but extended right up to Mathura in India.

If we fictionalize it, this becomes the meeting point and a melting point in these various stories and historical periods, where narrations of Vasudeva, Thomas, Krishna, Budha, and Kristu could meet.

Now, let us go back a bit more before Kristu and Krishna. Let us hear the story of Budha. The Buddha (also known as Siddhartha Gotama or Siddhārtha Gautama or Buddha Shakyamuni) was a philosopher, mendicant, meditator, spiritual teacher, and religious leader who lived in Ancient India (c. 5th to 4th century BCE). Budha was a Shakya prince. The Shakyas were an eastern sub-Himalayan ethnic group on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the eastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BCE. Vedic culture or brahminic dominance was not there during that time. The Shakyas were by tradition sun worshippers, who called themselves Ādicca nāma gottena ("kinsmen of the sun") and descendants of the sun. As Buddha states in the Sutta-Nipāta, "They are of the sun-lineage (adiccagotta), Sakiyans by birth."

In the Buddhist tradition, the Buddha-to-be was residing as a bodhisattva in the Tuṣita heaven and decided to take the shape of a white elephant to be reborn on Earth for the last time. Māyā gave birth to Siddharta. The pregnancy lasted ten lunar months. Following custom, the Queen returned to her own home for the delivery. But legend has it that devas caused it to rain to wash the newborn baby. He was later named Siddhārtha, "who has accomplished his goals." Scholars generally agree that most Buddhist literature holds that Maya died seven days after the birth of Buddha and was then reborn in the Tusita Heaven. Seven years after the Buddha's enlightenment, she came down to visit Tavatimsa Heaven.

Z. P. Thundy has surveyed the similarities and differences between the birth stories of Buddha by Maya and Jesus by Mary and notes that while there may have been similarities, there are also differences, e.g., that Mary outlives Jesus after raising him. Maya dies soon after the birth of Buddha, as all mothers of Buddhas do in the Buddhist tradition. Thundy does not assert that there is any historical evidence that the Christian birth stories of Jesus were derived from the Buddhist traditions but suggests that "maybe it is time that Christian scholars looked in the Buddhist tradition for the sources of the idea ."The virgin birth is the doctrine that Jesus was conceived and born by his mother Mary(Maryam) through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Yaśodharā (Pali: Yasodharā ยโสธรา) was the wife of Prince Siddhartha —till he left his home to become a śramaṇa. In Hindu legends, Yashoda (Yaśodā; संस्कृत: यशोदा), also spelled as Yasodha, is the foster-mother of Lord Krishna. In the Krishna Charitas, Krishna is born to Devaki and her husband, Vasudeva, of the Yadava clan in Mathura. Devaki's brother is a tyrant named Kamsa. According to Puranic legends, at Devaki's wedding, Kamsa is told by fortune tellers that a child of Devaki would kill him. It is depicted as an 'akashwani(voice from the sky)' announcing Kamsa's death. Kamsa arranges to kill all of Devaki's children. When Krishna is born, Vasudeva secretly carries the infant Krishna away across the Yamuna and exchanges him.

Herod I, also known as Herod the Great, was a Roman client king of Judea, referred to as the Herodian kingdom. Herod also appears in the Christian Gospel of Matthew as the ruler of Judea who orders the Massacre of the Innocents at the time of the birth of Jesus. He has still garnered criticism from various historians. His reign polarizes opinion amongst scholars and historians, some viewing his legacy as evidence of success, and some as a reminder of his tyrannical rule. The Massacre of the Innocents is the incident in the nativity narrative of the Gospel of Matthew (2:16–18) in which Herod the Great, king of Judea, orders the execution of all male children two years old and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem. The Bible says he initiated a murder of all the infants in Bethlehem in an attempt to get rid of the baby Jesus.

The English name Jesus is derived from the Latin Iesus, a transliteration of the Greek Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs). The Greek form is a rendering of the Hebrew ישוע‎ (Yeshua). The apocryphal Acts of Thomas, sometimes called by its full name The Acts of Judas Thomas, was written circa 180–230 AD/CE. These are generally regarded by various Christian religions as apocryphal, or even heretical. The two centuries that elapsed between the life of the apostle and the recording of this work cast doubt on their authenticity. The king, Misdeus (or Mizdeos)(Vasudeva), was infuriated when Thomas converted the queen Tertia, the king's son Juzanes, sister-in-law princess Mygdonia, and her friend Markia. Misdeus led Thomas outside the city and ordered four soldiers to take him to the nearby hill, where the soldiers speared Thomas and killed him. After Thomas' death, Syphorus was elected the first presbyter of Mazdai by the surviving converts, while Juzanes was the first deacon. (The names Misdeus, Tertia, Juzanes, Syphorus, Markia and Mygdonia (c.f. Mygdonia, a province of Mesopotamia) may suggest Greek descent or cultural influences. Greek traders had long visited Muziris. Greek kingdoms in northern India and Bactria, founded by Alexander the Great, were vassals of the Indo-Parthians.

The Indo-Parthian Kingdom was a Parthian kingdom founded by Gondophares and active from 19 to c. 226 CE. At their zenith, they ruled an area covering parts of eastern Iran, regions of Afghanistan, and the northwest regions of the Indian subcontinent (most of modern Pakistan and parts of northwestern India). The rulers may have been members of the House of Suren. The kingdom was founded when the Surenid governor of Drangiana (Sakastan) Gondophares declared independence from the Parthian Empire. He would later make expeditions into the west, conquering territory from the Indo-Scythians and Indo-Greeks, thus transforming his kingdom into an empire. Domains of Indo-Parthians were greatly reduced following the invasions of the Kushans in the second half of the 1st century. 

The city of Taxila is thought to have been the capital of the Indo-Parthians. Sir John Marshall excavated large strata with a quantity of Parthian-style artifacts. The nearby temple of Jandial is usually interpreted as a Zoroastrian fire temple from the period of the Indo-Parthians. Some ancient writings describe the presence of the Indo-Parthians in the area, such as the story of Saint Thomas the Apostle. He was recruited as a carpenter to serve at the court of king "Gudnaphar" (thought to be Gondophares) in India. The Acts of Thomas describes in chapter 17 Thomas' visit to king Gudnaphar in northern India; chapters 2 and 3 depict him as embarking on a sea voyage to India, thus connecting Thomas to the west coast of India.

At the top of the Hindu pantheon, we see three primary gods: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. These are the forces of creator, sustainer, and destroyer, and appear in various incarnations in mythologies around the world. The Persian gods Tiamat, Enkil, and Marduk take on similar roles in their pantheon. The Indo-Greeks practiced numerous religions when they ruled in present-day northwestern India from the 2nd century BCE to the beginning of the 1st century CE. In addition to the worship of the Classical pantheon of the Greek deities found on their coins (e.g., Zeus, Herakles, Athena, Apollo), the Indo-Greeks were involved with local faiths, particularly with Buddhism, but also with Hinduism and Zoroastrianism. There are many studies on how the teaching of Buddhism and Judaism intermingled. The similarities between bodhisattvas and prophets are particularly appealing for Messianic Jews who respect Jesus Christ as a prophet and teacher but reject the Christian representation as a deity. Inspired by the widespread belief that John the Baptist was the reincarnation of Elijah, some scholars of the Bible have speculated that Christ lived through several past lives, including as the pre-Israelite king Melchizedek and the Asian monk Amitabha.

Before the significant contemporary religions formed the current political/religious identity, when these religions were not yet born or so vague in their definitions, they shared many stories. Sometimes we try to retrofit stories and historical events based on the existing idea of boundaries - geographic, political, and religious. When these stories took place or were told many centuries back, such boundaries or definitions may not be there, and these stories may have been the early seeds of those definitions. A principal narrator or a king could alter these stories, and many identities of the current world could be different. In many ways, we are all the droplets from the melting pot where many such stories intermingled.




A few links to explore :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_the_Apostle
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