Book review

“Unmasking the Syriacs: The Hidden Origin of Indian Christianity—An Archaeo-linguistic Approach”  by Jeevan Philip

A book that triggers controversy over origins of Christianity in India.

The narrative concerning Apostle Thomas's martyrdom at Mylapore, Chennai, is categorically rejected by the author based on the semiotic and linguistic analysis of the Pahlavi crosses of South India. Surprisingly, it has been corroborated by the Chinese Manichaean hymn scroll 19, which is presently kept in the British Museum. The oldest archaeological remnant of Indian Christianity, the Pahlavi crosses of South India, and their semiotic and linguistic explanations using Manichaean ontological principles are quite convincing enough to reject Christian claims. The book proposes a post-10th century origin of Indian Christianity through the trade network based on archaeo-linguistic evidence against the usual stories of the Apostle Thomas’s evangelization in the first century or the migration of Persian Christianity during the fourth century as claimed by Syriac churches of South India.

Author: Jeevan Philip

Publisher: Associated Books & Publishers

International edition: Ingram Spark Indian edition: Notion Press Available: Amazon, Notion Press, Barnes & Noble, Walmart & many more leading booksellers around the world.

Download the review  pdf History of Christianity in India (259 KB)