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The Early Christians of India (mainly on he Southern coast) were known as Thomas Christians and indeed by no other name until the advent of the Portuguese in the 16th century followed closely by the British.
That the Church in India was founded by St. Thomas the Apostle is attested by West Asian writings since the 2nd century (the ''Doctrine of the Apostles'' and ''Acta Thomae'' both of which were written at or near Edessa ca 200-250 AD- ); St. Ephraim, St. [[John Chrysostom]] and St. [[Gregory the Theologian|Gregorios Nazianzen]], in the 4th century; St. [[Jerome]], ca 400 AD, ; and historians Eusebius ca 338 and Theodore, of the 5th century.
Against the background of trade between India and West Asia since ancient times, travel close to the coast of Arabia was feasible and not uncommon, reaching Malabar, the Tamil country, Sidh (Scythia) and western India (Kalyan), around the time St. Thomas came to India.
There is a wealth of corroborative evidence to support, and no good reason to doubt the living tradition of Thomas Christians that the Apostle arrived in Kodungalloor (Muziris) in Kerala in 52 AD preached the gospel[[Gospel]], established seven churches, and moved on to other kingdom, returning to Madras (Mylapore) in 72 AD where he was martyred that year. Writers of the 4th century, St. Ephraim and St. John Chrysostom knew also about the relics of St. Thomas resting at that time in Edessa, having been brought there from India by West Asian merchants.
The Church founded by St. Thomas must have been rather spread out in the subcontinent including the North-West, the Western and Eastern coasts of the peninsula, probably also reaching Sri Lanka. Tradition associates the ministry of St. Thomas with the Indo-Parthian king, Gondophares in the north and with King Vasudeva (Mazdeo) of the Kushan dynasty in the South. It was the latter who condemned the Apostle to death.
==Among the early Churches==
The Orthodox Church in India is one of the 37 Apostolic Churches, dating from the time of the disciples of [[Christ]]. Nine of these were in Europe and 28 in Asia and Africa. Today, it belongs to the family of the five Oriental Orthodox Churches, which include Syria, [[Coptic|Egypt]], Ethiopia, and Armenia, and to the wider stream of the world's Orthodox churches, comprising in all over 150 million Eastern Christians. It has a strength of over 2 million members in about 1500 parishes mainly in Kerala and increasingly spread all over India and in many parts of the globe. Eastern in original and Asian in its moorings, the Indian Church is, a distinctive and respected part of the rich religious mosaic that is India.
Until the 16th century, there was only one Church in India, concentrated mainly in the south-west. The seven original churches were located at Malankara (MalayattturMalayattur?), Palayur (near Chavakkad), Koovakaayal (near North Paravur), Kokkamangalam (South Pallippuram?), Kollam, Niranam and Nilackel (Chayal). Of the same pattern adopted by the other Apostles, each local church was administered, guided by a group of Presbyters and presided over by the elder priest or bishop.
The Indian Church was autonomous then, and is now, like all Orthodox Churches. This is clear from the fact that no name of any church in India is seen in the now available list of bishoprics of the church in Persia from the fifth to the seventh century.
==Links with Persia==
The Persian connection of the Indian churches has to bee seen in the context of the internal dissensions and state persecution of Christians in Persia from the 5th century. A Synod of the Persian Church (410 AD) affirmed the faith of [[First Ecumenical Council|Nicea]] and acknowledged the Metropolitan of Selucia-Ctesiphon as the Catholicose of East. Not long after, the Christological controversies of [[Fourth Ecumenical Council|ChaldeonChalcedon]], fuelled by the strains between the Persian and Byzantine empires, swayed the Persian church to declare itself "[[Nestorianism|Nestorian]]" and its head to assume the title of Patriarch of the East (Babylon). From their base in then flourishing theological school of Nisibis, Nestorian missionaries began moving to India, Central Asia, China and Ethiopia to teach their doctrines- probably associating the churches in these countries with the work of St. Thomas the Apostle, whom the Persians must have venerated as the founder of their own church.
By the 7th Century, specific references of the Indian church began to appear in Persian records. The Metropolitan of India and the Metropolitan of China are mentioned in the consecration records of Patriarchs of the East. At one stage, however, the Indian church was claimed to be in the [[jurisdiction]] of the Metropolitan of Fars but this issue was settled by Patriarch Sliba Zoha (714-728 AD) who recognized the traditional dignity of the autonomous Metropolitan of India.