Under the blazing sun of Punjab, amidst the rolling plains and the whispers of history, the ruins of Taxila rise like a stone-etched chronicle of civilisations long past. Stupas, monasteries, and crumbling city walls speak of a thriving Buddhist world. Yet hidden among the dust and wild grasses is a story less told: one of apostles, miracles, and enduring faith.
Here, in this ancient city, Pakistan’s Christian communities trace their spiritual roots to the footsteps of Saint Thomas, connecting devotion with archaeology, legend with lived experience, and faith with the material echoes of a civilisation that once straddled empires.
Taxila’s archaeological landscape is celebrated worldwide for its Buddhist monasteries and stupas. Yet hidden within its ancient ruins lies another, lesser-known spiritual connection: one that links Pakistan’s Christian communities to the city of Sirkap. This connection springs from the enduring legend of Saint Thomas the Apostle, who, according to early Christian tradition, travelled to India to spread the teachings of Jesus Christ.
The third-century Syriac text The Acts of Thomas recounts the apostle’s journey to India, placing him in Gandhara during the reign of King Gondaphorous — the same king attested by coins and inscriptions unearthed in the region. This convergence of textual and archaeological evidence has, for generations of believers, lent a tangible aura of historical authenticity to the idea that Taxila served as a stage for this apostolic story.
In The Acts of Thomas, the apostle, called Judas Thomas, travels to India with a merchant named Abbanes. Upon meeting King Gondaphorous, Thomas is commissioned to build a royal palace. Yet the apostle unexpectedly spends the king’s funds, distributing them to the poor. Furious upon discovering that no palace has been constructed, the king confronts him.
But the story takes a miraculous turn: the king’s brother, Gad, falls ill and dies, only to behold a magnificent heavenly palace built through the apostle’s good deeds. Revived and enlightened, Gad urges his brother to seek forgiveness. The king repents, and together they are baptised by Thomas.
The narrative weaves moral instruction with theological symbolism: faith over material wealth, generosity over possession, and eternal reward over earthly grandeur. Through this story, Gandhara and, by extension, Taxila become an imagined frontier of early Christianity, a meeting point of divine revelation and worldly authority.
Although the Feast of Saint Thomas has featured on Christian liturgical calendars since at least the tenth century, its vibrant expression in Pakistan has been shaped by modern reinterpretations of this ancient legend. Sir John Marshall’s monumental three-volume Taxila (1951) included references to Saint Thomas’s sojourn in the region, reinforcing the association between Sirkap and the apostle’s story.
Today, on 3 July each year, thousands of Christian pilgrims gather at Sirkap to commemorate Saint Thomas. The Department of Archaeology has designated a specific area within the ruins as the “Palace of Saint Thomas”. Here, rituals such as baptism and candle-lighting infuse the archaeological site with renewed spiritual energy. For participants, these ceremonies bridge the gap between material culture and faith, transforming ancient ruins into living sacred space.
The truth of Saint Thomas in Taxila transcends archaeological verification. It lives in the ongoing rituals, the annual pilgrimages, and the stories passed down through families and congregations
Perhaps the most enduring symbol of this spiritual connection is the Taxila Cross. With its four perfectly equal arms — a design echoed at early Christian sites throughout India and Sri Lanka — the cross was discovered by a local farmer while ploughing near Sirkap. He brought the remarkable find directly to Mrs Cuthbert King, the wife of the Commissioner of Rawalpindi, President of the Red Cross Society Rawalpindi, and a committed patron of children’s education in Taxila.
Recognising its historical and spiritual significance, she proclaimed it tangible proof of an early Christian presence in north-west India. In 1935, the cross was carefully transferred to the Cathedral Church of the Resurrection in Lahore, where it was revered as a cherished Christian relic, bridging centuries of faith and heritage.
When the Church of Pakistan was formed in 1970 through the union of Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian congregations, the Taxila Cross was adopted as its official emblem — affirming the belief that Christianity’s roots in the region predated European colonialism. For many Pakistani Christians, the Cross of Taxila remains a testament to their indigenous spiritual lineage.
The colonial archive of Ahmad Din Siddiqi, a local scholar and excavation assistant at Taxila during the early twentieth century, preserves fascinating evidence of how the apostolic legend was celebrated during British rule. Among his papers is an invitation card to a site-specific performance titled The Drama of Taxila in 37 A.D., staged in the King’s Audience Chamber within the ancient city of Sirkap.
The play, performed on 18 December 1937, just days before the Feast of Saint Thomas, dramatised the encounter between Saint Thomas and King Gondaphorous. Organised under the patronage of Mrs Cuthbert King and supported by the district administration, the performance mobilised local actors and artisans, with Siddiqi playing a pivotal role in coordinating the enactment.
The spectacle symbolised more than theatrical homage: it represented a reclamation of sacred history, weaving together colonial administrators, local converts, and archaeologists in a shared narrative of origins. One can imagine the profound impact of such a performance amid the ruins of Sirkap, shaping community identity and affirming Christian belonging in an otherwise Buddhist landscape.
In 1988, the Christian Study Centre in Rawalpindi hosted a symposium titled Saint Thomas in Taxila, convening leading archaeologists and theologians to examine the historical and material evidence surrounding the apostle’s purported visit. Scholars noted that the trade networks linking the Roman Empire with the Indian subcontinent in the first century CE made such a journey plausible.
The discovery of coins inscribed with King Gondaphorous’s name by Charles Masson in 1834 further grounded The Acts of Thomas in a historical context. Yet, no direct material evidence — whether inscriptional, numismatic, or architectural — has conclusively verified the apostle’s physical presence in Taxila. Nevertheless, the debate has had lasting cultural resonance.
For Pakistan’s Christian communities, the legend provides a sense of historical continuity, countering perceptions that Christianity was a colonial import. Instead, the story of Saint Thomas positions their faith as an ancient and integral thread in the subcontinent’s religious fabric.
Over time, this sense of rootedness has inspired calls by Christian leaders to reclaim Sirkap as part of Saint Thomas’s spiritual heritage. The Pakistan Catholic Bishops’ Conference has repeatedly proposed restoring the site and adapting it for pilgrimage and prayer. Suggestions include building a chapel or meditation park within the archaeological zone — preserving its integrity while accommodating its living spiritual significance.
These aspirations sit within a broader tension between “universal” heritage and local, faith-based claims. While UNESCO-style frameworks prioritise scientific management and archaeological neutrality, local Christian communities view Sirkap as a living landscape of faith. Their claims, grounded in devotion rather than empirical proof, challenge the conventional boundaries of what constitutes legitimate heritage.
Not all historians or archaeologists accept the Saint Thomas tradition. Many consider it a pious legend retroactively projected onto Gandhara’s cosmopolitan past. Some argue that the narrative was shaped by theological and colonial agendas aiming to inscribe Christian presence into South Asia’s antiquity.
Yet, such contestation only underscores the richness of Taxila’s layered identities, where Buddhist stupas, Zoroastrian fire altars, and Christian symbols coexist in historical imagination. For believers, the truth of Saint Thomas in Taxila transcends archaeological verification. It lives in the ongoing rituals, the annual pilgrimages, and the stories passed down through families and congregations.
In this way, Taxila continues to serve as a site where material history and spiritual memory converge: where the ruins of Sirkap are reanimated by faith, and where the distant echo of an apostle’s footsteps still shapes the devotion of a living community.