A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c20.s3.1

c20.s3.1

A persistent but doubtful tradition ascribes the introduction of Christianity in South India to St Thomas, in the first century A.D. Cosmas, the Alexandrian merchant who travelled in South India in 522, found a church at Quilon and another in Ceylon, both Nestorian. Copper-plate grants to Malabar Christians, the earliest of which is dated 774, show that they had then gathered native converts, though they were not yet very numerous. The strength of the community was increased by a number of immigrations of Christians from western countries, from Baghdad, Nineveh, Jerusalem and other places.