Sunday Feature: The Kristapurana

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The Kristapurana

BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Feature, The Kristapurana

The travels of the first Englishman in India, and the hunt for a lost poetic masterpiece.

50 years before Milton's Paradise Lost, another Englishman composed his own poetic retelling of the Bible, in an Indian language, Marathi.  Professor Nandini Das investigates.

A full 50 years before John Milton wrote Paradise Lost, an Englishman called Thomas Stephens composed an epic based on the story of the Bible, and he wrote it in Goa, India - that lush, monsoon soaked region so beloved of hippies and holidaymakers. 

And he wrote it, not in English, or any European language, but in a regional Indian language, Marathi. 11,000 verses in a classical Indian verse form, rich with images of India - jasmine and coconuts, palm trees and gurus. 

'The Kristapurana' is the great, forgotten jewel of Anglo-Indian contact, and the story of its making is as complex as the man who wrote it. Once read and recited in every Christian household in Goa, now barely a memory… why has it disappeared? 

And who was this man, this Thomas Stephens? How did he find himself on the other side of the world? 

Professor Nandini Das, scholar of early travels and voyages of exploration, is fascinated by Thomas Stephens, and 'The Kristapurana'. She brings the epic poem, and it's writer to life, tracking the scattered traces of his life, from the Tower of London to a remote parish church in south Goa, in an evocative monsoon soaked adventure, reaching back almost 500 years. 

With the help of architectural historian Noah Fernandez, archivist Sally Dixon-Smith from the Tower of London, Father Peter Davidson of Campion Hall, Father Vijay D'Souza, Dr Suresh Amonkar, Professor Gil Harris, Dr Liesbeth Corens, Joao Vicente De Melo,  Dr Carlos Fernandes of the Goa State Library, Dr Menezes, Rector of Rachol Seminary and Father Victor, archivist, Father Glen D'Silva and the children of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, Vaddem, Sanguem

Producer: Sara Jane Hall

Singing bell music by kind permission of Longplayer - Jem Finer's composition for a thousand years.

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