When did Christianity come in India?
Daniel Moore
Published Jan 10, 2026
It is commonly believed that Christianity came to India with St Thomas as early as 52 CE. He is said to have landed in Kerala and the religion took root there. He then walked across to Mylapore in present day Chennai, spoke of a new God in a new land, and left his footprints on the sands of time.
Who brought Christianity in India?
The Saint Thomas Christians have also been nicknamed such due to their reverence for Saint Thomas the Apostle, who is said to have brought Christianity to India. The name dates back to the period of Portuguese colonisation. They are also known, especially locally, as Nasrani or Nasrani Mappila.
Who brought Christianity to India and in which year?
Then, in 1498, the famous Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama sailed to Kerala to open up the first Europe-India sea route. Imagine his surprise when he found Christians. Two years later, Captain Pedro Álvares Cabral followed, bringing eight Franciscan priests, eight chaplains and a chaplain major.
Why did Christianity fail in India?
Since proselytising and conversions are not part of Hindu tradition, or that of any religion that originated in India, the playing field is tilted against Hinduism, and this is causing serious societal friction.
Where did Christianity start in India?
Written records have it that Christianity was introduced to the Indian subcontinent by Thomas the Apostle, who sailed to the Malabar region in 52 AD, the present-day Kerala state.
22 related questions foundDid Jesus came to India?
Rejection by modern mainstream New Testament scholarship
Marcus Borg states that the suggestions that an adult Jesus traveled to Egypt or India and came into contact with Buddhism are "without historical foundation".
How did Christianity begin?
Christianity originated with the ministry of Jesus, a Jewish teacher and healer who proclaimed the imminent Kingdom of God and was crucified c. AD 30–33 in Jerusalem in the Roman province of Judea.
Which is the oldest religion in the world?
The word Hindu is an exonym, and while Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, many practitioners refer to their religion as Sanātana Dharma (Sanskrit: सनातन धर्म, lit.
What was before Hinduism?
The early Dravidian religion was a polytheistic, non-Vedic, religion that were either historically or are at present Āgamic. The Agamas are non-Vedic in origin, and have been dated either as post-Vedic texts, or as pre-Vedic compositions.
When was Islam founded?
The start of Islam is marked in the year 610, following the first revelation to the prophet Muhammad at the age of 40. Muhammad and his followers spread the teachings of Islam throughout the Arabian peninsula.
When did Islam came to India?
Islam arrived in the inland of Indian subcontinent in the 7th century when the Arabs conquered Sindh and later arrived in North India in the 12th century via the Ghurids conquest and has since become a part of India's religious and cultural heritage.
What country started Christianity?
How did Christianity originate and spread? Christianity began in Judea in the present-day Middle East. Jews there told prophecies about a Messiah who would remove the Romans and restore the kingdom of David. What we know about Jesus's life and his birth around 6 B.C.E., comes from the four Gospels.
Who is the founder of Hinduism?
Unlike other religions, Hinduism has no one founder but is instead a fusion of various beliefs. Around 1500 B.C., the Indo-Aryan people migrated to the Indus Valley, and their language and culture blended with that of the indigenous people living in the region.
Who Wrote the Bible?
That single author was believed to be Moses, the Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt and guided them across the Red Sea toward the Promised Land.
Is India mentioned in the Bible?
India is mentioned in Esther 1:1 and 8:9 as the eastern boundary of the Persian Empire under Ahasuerus (c. fifth century B.C.) and in 1 Maccabees 6:37 in a reference to the Indian mahouts of Antiochus's war elephants (second century B.C.). Otherwise there are no explicit references to India in the Old Testament.
Why did Jesus came to India?
"Jesus is said to have visited our land and Kashmir to study Buddhism. He was inspired by the laws and wisdom of Buddha," a senior lama of the Hemis monastery told IANS. The head of the Drukpa Buddhist sect, Gwalyang Drukpa, who heads the Hemis monastery, also believes in the legend.
When did Jesus go to India?
According to this text, which Notovitch had translated into French, Jesus had spent his missing years – the years between his childhood and the beginning of his ministry – studying Buddhism in India. At the age of about 30, he'd returned to the Middle East and the life that is familiar to us from the New Testament.
Is there a Hindu Bible?
Though less studied than later texts, the Veda is the central scripture of Hinduism.
Which is older Islam or Christianity?
According to religious historians, Islam was founded by Muhammad the Prophet around 622CE (Common Era), or about 1,382 years ago in Mecca. Christianity was founded by Jesus Christ approximately 1,971 (33CE) years ago.
Is Judaism older than Hinduism?
Hinduism and Judaism are among the oldest existing religions in the world, although Judaism came much later. The two share some similarities and interactions throughout both the ancient and modern worlds.
Where did the Hinduism religion start?
Hinduism, major world religion originating on the Indian subcontinent and comprising several and varied systems of philosophy, belief, and ritual.
Which country did Islam begin?
Islam started in Mecca, in modern-day Saudi Arabia, during the time of the prophet Muhammad's life.
What was before Christianity?
Zoroastrianism is the world's oldest surviving monotheistic religion and, many scholars think, the original source of religious conceptions of heaven, hell, Satan and Judgment Day in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Who Ruled India first?
The Mauryan Empire, which formed around 321 B.C.E. and ended in 185 B.C.E., was the first pan-Indian empire, an empire that covered most of the Indian region.
Who attacked India first?
The first group to invade India were the Aryans, who came out of the north in about 1500 BC. The Aryans brought with them strong cultural traditions that, miraculously, still remain in force today. They spoke and wrote in a language called Sanskrit, which was later used in the first documentation of the Vedas.