The Christian identity begins with the sacrament of baptism and it stands as a door to the other sacraments, and therefore we can say that it is the cradie of the Christian life. In the sacrament of baptism a person, through the immersion in the baptismal water with the invocation of the name of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is made free from sin, reborn to new life, puts on Christ and is included in the Church which is His Body. We notice a growing interest in the theological and liturgical traditions of the Syriac Orient. The modern theological quest lacks the rich and profound theological significance of the East Syrian bap­tismal celebration, and it is a field yet to be fully investigated and brought out to the light. Each particular Church has its own patrimony of special traditions in the liturgical rites. It is this diversity of traditions and practices that gives beauty, meaning and richness to the Universal Church. This thesis makes the attempt to investigate the sacramentality of baptism in the East Syrian Church. Accordingly, the chosen theme centers on the essential elements of the sacrament of baptism. This study consists of four interrelated chapters, using three different methodolo­gies.

          The first two chapters use the historico-theological method and attempt to explore the beautiful development of the East Syrian baptismal theology as it blooms into being. The expository-analytical and evaluative-prognostic methods are used for the last two chapters. They were chosen in order to comment, in a per­fect and logical manner, on the key texts relating to the sacramentality of baptism in the East Syrian baptismal rite. The opening chapter of this study describes in brief the general notions of the principle of sacramentality, the Jewish back­ground of the sacrament of baptism and the sacrament of baptism in three early East Syrian literary works. Since it has been observed that the Syriac term ràzà is a fundamental theological expression encompassing a variety of important as­pects which influence many dimensions of Eastern sacramental theology in the liturgical tradition of the Eastern Church, we have tried to analyse the signifi­cance of the term. The second chapter of the thesis is constructed chronologically, and is composed of the works of three eminent figures of the early Church who developed the core of the baptismal theology of the East Syrian tradition, namely, Aphrahat, Ephrem and Narsai.

          In order to arrive at a better understanding of the baptismal rite of East Sy­rian Church, in our third chapter we have made an endeavour to study the compo­sition of the liturgical text used for the rite of baptism in the East Syrian Church. Here, in the general structure of the baptismal rite, we have seen four major divi­sions: introductory rites, liturgy of the Word, liturgy of the mystery and the con­cluding rites. In this chapter we have also made reference to The Rites of Chris­tian Initiation (Baptism, Chrismation, Holy Communion) of the Syro-Malabar Church, approved by the Synod of Bishops and which received approval (recogni­tio) from the Holy See in 2004.

          The final chapter of our dissertation is devoted to summing up the visible and the invisible character of the sacrament of baptism. We have divided this chapter under three sub-sections based on the three essential elements of the sac­rament of baptism.

          Finally it is with pride that we note that the bishops of the Syro-Malabar church have initiated a very positive and challenging process, especially in the case of the sacrament of Initiation and its liturgical reformation, which enables us to get back to her proper tradition. In the new ritual, the unity of the sacrament of Initiation is kept together as in the East Syrian tradition, which is rich in its theological meaning. Now it is the task of ours to bring into limelight the visions of Eastern baptismal theology and to adapt it to our own situations for the good of the universal Church and for the good of the Syro-Malabar Church.