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Christians in India
Roman and Jewish merchant settlements in India are documented in the first century CE, so it is entirely plausible that the legend of St. Thomas arriving in India in 52 CE to evangelize has a basis in historical fact. Jewish tradition has settlements in the west coast of India by 68.
The earliest Christians to reach the Malabar Coast of South India (now the state of Kerala) were probably Syriac-speaking merchants from Persia and the Arabian Gulf. An otherwise unknown author from Alexandria, known as Cosmas Indicopleustes, “the sailor to India,” composed a work called the Christian Topography in the sixth century, in which he mentions Christians in India and Sri Lanka.
The ports of Cochin, Calicut, and Quilon in Kerala were international trading centers on the maritime route between China and the Middle East, visited by Franciscan missionaries to the Mongol Court and mentioned by Marco Polo in the account of his travels. Marco Polo and other medieval travelers report that the pepper trade was in the hands of local Christians in Kerala. Europeans returning home from China, including Marco, made a detour to visit the tomb of St. Thomas at Mylapore near Chennai (Madras) before continuing their journey.
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