Indo-Parthian Kingdom

Gondophares

Gondophares appears in the second decade of the first century CE, ruling from Taxila, in ancient India (modern-day Pakistan), over a territory reaching west into Sistan and Arachosia. The Takht-i-Bahi inscription, dated in his twenty-sixth regnal year, is one of the few firmly dated documents of the period and an anchor for the chronology of the northwest.

The dynasty's power was brief. Its territories were progressively taken by the Kushans under Kujula Kadphises during the first century CE, though Indo-Parthian rulers persisted in Sistan considerably longer.

Thomas at the court

The Acts of Thomas, a Syriac work of about the third century, describes the apostle Thomas being sold as a carpenter to an Indian king named Gundaphar, undertaking to build him a palace, distributing the money to the poor, and telling the king the palace has been built in heaven. The name is recognisably Gondophares, which shows that the story's setting was drawn from real knowledge of the northwest.

This is not evidence that the encounter took place. The Acts is a romance, and it concerns the northwest, whereas the Indian Christian communities that claim Thomas as founder are on the Malabar coast, two thousand kilometres away. The traditions are distinct and the connection between them is a matter of belief rather than of demonstration.