.......Continued
Arrival of Protestant missions
St. Paul's Cathedral, Calcutta - seat of the Anglican Diocese of Calcutta, Church of North India
William Carey translated the Bible intoBengali, Sanskrit, Marathi and numerous other languages and dialects. The first Protestant missionaries to set foot in India were two Lutherans from Germany,Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau, who began work in 1705 in the Danish settlement of Tranquebar. They translated the Bible into the localTamil language, and afterwards intoHindustani. They made little progress at first, but gradually the mission spread toMadras, Cuddalore and Tanjore. Today the Bishop of Tranquebar is the official title of the bishop of the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tamil Nadu which was founded in 1919 as a result of the German Lutheran Leipzig Mission and Church of Sweden Mission, the successors of Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau. The seat of the bishop, the cathedral and its Church House the Tranquebar House are in Tiruchirappalli.[68]
Beginning in the 18th century, Protestant missionaries began working throughout India, leading to the establishment of different Christian communities across the Indian Subcontinent. In 1793,William Carey, an English BaptistMinister came to India as a Missionary. He worked in Serampore, Calcutta, and other places as a missionary. He started the Serampore College. He translated the Bible into Bengali, Sanskrit, and numerous other languages and dialects.[69] He worked in India until his death in 1834. Many upper-class Bengalis converted to Christianity during the Bengali renaissance under British Rule, including Krishna Mohan Banerjee,Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Anil Kumar Gain, and Gnanendramohan Tagore.
The Medak Cathedral of Church of South India is the largest Cathedral Church in India
The London Missionary Society was the first Protestant mission in Andhra Pradesh which established its station atVisakhapatnam in 1805.[70] Anthony Norris Groves, a Plymouth Brethrenmissionary came to India in 1833. He worked in the Godavari delta area until his death in 1852. John Christian Frederick Heyer was the first Lutheranmissionary in the region of Andhra Pradesh. He founded the Guntur Mission in 1842. He studied Sanskrit and medicine in Baltimore, and set sail for India from Boston in 1841 with three other missionary couples on the shipBrenda. He travelled to India a second time in 1847, spending a decade, mainly in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradeshstate, in southern India, where he ministered and performed yeoman service to the people there. Supported initially by the Pennsylvania Ministerium, and later by the Foreign Mission Board of the General Synod, Heyer was also encouraged and assisted by British government officials. He established a number of hospitals and a network of schools throughout the Guntur region.[71]
During the 19th century, several American Baptist missionaries evangelised in the northeastern parts of India. In 1876, Dr. E. W. Clark first went to live in a Naga village, four years after his Assamese helper, Godhula, baptised the first Naga converts. Rev. and Mrs. A.F. Merrill arrived in India in 1928 and worked in the southeast section of theGaro Hills.[72] Rev. and Mrs. M.J. Chance spent most of the years between 1950–1956 at Golaghat working with the Naga and Garo tribes.[73] Even today the heaviest concentrations of Christians in India continue to be in the Northeast among the Nagas, Khasis, Kukis, andMizos.[74] Jehovah's Witnesses began their activity in India in the year 1905 when an Indian returned home after spending some time in Bible study withCharles Taze Russell.[75]
Arrival of the Mormon Missionaries
Mormon missionaries, or missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) including Hugh Findlay and Joseph Richards, arrived in Bombay and Pune in the early 1850s, but did not meet with much success. As of 2013 there are about 10,000 members of the LDS Church in India.[76]
Jesus in India hoaxes
Trade routes in the 1st century AD.
Main article: Jesus in India
There are also two sets of distinct accounts of Jesus travelling through India.[77] According to the first set of accounts, Jesus travelled and studied in India between the ages of twelve and thirty. The origin of the first set of accounts is attributed to Russian authorNicolas Notovitch who published the book La vie Inconnue du Jesus Christ (The Unknown life of Jesus Christ) in 1894.[77][78] Once his story had been re-examined by historians, Notovitch confessed to having fabricated the evidence.[79] Bart D. Ehrman states that "Today there is not a single recognized scholar on the planet who has any doubts about the matter. The entire story was invented by Notovitch, who earned a good deal of money and a substantial amount of notoriety for his hoax".[80]
According the second set of accounts, Jesus did not die on the cross, but after his apparent death and resurrection he journeyed to Kashmir to teach the gospel, and then remained there for the rest of his life.[77][81] The origin of the second set of accounts is attributed to Indian author Mirza Ghulam Ahmed who published the book Masih Hindustan Mein (Jesus in India) in 1899.[82] These two accounts are generally not presented in combination. While travel between Middle-East and India was common during those times, these accounts are not given serious thought and treated as speculation since there is no historical account, either in early Christian writings or Indian historical accounts, to confirm Jesus travelling to India, according to James Lewis.[77]However, in modern scholarship, the death by crucifixion of Jesus is considered to be a historically certain fact about Jesus.[83][84]
Art and architecture
The Nasrani Menorah of the St. Thomas Christians
Main article: List of cathedrals in India
There are a large number of items of artistic and architectural significance in the religious and domestic life of Indian Christians.[85] Altars, statues, pulpits,crosses, bells and belfries of churches along with other household items are among the many things that form part of the sacred art of the Indian Christians.[85] Church art and architecture of Kerala from the beginning of Christian presence in the region have been greatly influenced by those of other nations and religions as they have been influenced by Kerala's wealth of artistic and architectural traditions.[86]
Altar of the St. Mary's Church in Kottayam; also can be seen are two Saint Thomas Crosses from 7th century on either side; The church was originally built in 1550
A traditional Malankara Church - Vadayaparambu Mar Bahanans Church
Christian art and architecture in Keralain pre-European periods has not only developed from contact with the countries that had trading posts there but also from indigenous forms and techniques of art and architecture. The advent of the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French, and the English has had a great deal of influence on the art and architecture of the church in Kerala.[86]The description of the visits of a Portuguese Archbishop Dom Menezes to various churches before the arrival of western powers in India throws some light on the structures and arrangements of the churches before western elements and types were introduced into Kerala. There were three striking objects of significance in front of the typical Malabar churches, either inside the courtyard or just outside it:
- The open-air granite (rock) cross called the Nasrani Sthamba
- Kodimaram (Dwajasthamba) or flag-staff made of Kerala's famed teak wood and often enclosed in copper hoses or paras
- The rock Deepasthamba or lampstand.[85]
The ornate monumentality of the European churches was introduced toIndia when parts of Malabar Coast came under the jurisdiction of the Portuguese in the 16th century. They introduced the Romano-Portuguese style, which was assimilated with such artistic and structural finesse by the artists ofKerala, that it created some of the finest pieces of artistry. This laid the foundations for Indian Baroque.[85] After the arrival of Vasco da Gama and more especially after the commencement of Portuguese rule in India, distinct patterns of Christian art developed within the areas of Portuguese influence, mostly along the coasts of the peninsula. The Portuguese were great builders and promoted architecture more than any other form of fine art. St. Francis Church, Kochi is the first European place of worship in India and incidentally also the place where Vasco da Gama was first buried. The Christian art of Goa reached its climax in church building.[85]
Indian Christian art and architecture during the British Raj has expanded into several different styles as a result of extensive church building in different parts of the country. The style that was most patronised is generally referred to as the British Regency style which included Neo-Gothic and Gothic Revival architecture.[87] Most Protestant cathedrals and churches in India conform to this style. St. Paul's Cathedral, Kolkata is a typical example of the Gothic Revival style. St. Mary's church, Chennai, the first Anglican Church built east of the Suez is one of the first examples of British colonial architecture in India.[88] French andDanish influences on Christian art and architecture in India can be seen in their respective colonies.[89] Today one can see a harmonious blending of the East and the West in the Christian art and architecture of India.[86]
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