Among its
proudest displays, the Cathedral of Lahore exhibits a small cross in a glass
case. Known as the Taxila Cross, it was found in 1935 just outside the ruins of
Sirkap, the second city of Taxila, and is commonly believed to signify that
Christianity had taken root in the subcontinent shortly after the crucifixion
of Christ. The ‘proof’ supporting this theory is a manuscript titled The
Acts of St Thomas that was discovered in 1822 in Syria. According to this
document, St Thomas having been assigned by Jesus to teach the gospel in India
(now it is the part of Pakistan), arrived by boat at the seaside capital of
King Gondophares. Working miracles, he successfully converted the king and all
his subjects to Christianity.
Now, whenever the Acts was compiled and even in 1822 when it
surfaced in Syria, Taxila had not yet been discovered. Only serious historians
well-acquainted with the history of Alexander knew that it lay somewhere to the
east of the Indus River in Punjab. When the cross was discovered in 1935,
Cuthbert King the British deputy commissioner of Rawalpindi (twin city of
Islamabad, Pakistan), evidently knew of The Acts of St Thomas and seized upon
this find as ‘proof’ of the existence of Christianity in Punjab as early as the
1st century CE. His belief was strengthened by the fact that newly-excavated
Sirkap did indeed date back to t
he 1st century. Along with the cross, they also
found some coins marked with the cross.
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