due to ethnic and or socio-economic tension between the St. Thomas Christians and the Knanaya. Scholar Dr. Mathias Mundadan expresses the following about the two-wives legend: “Other details of each version and the reciprocal imputations as legitimate and illegitimate children of Thomas Cana might have been invented to express the odium and hatred each community bore against the other” - Sixteenth Century Traditions of St. Thomas Christians (Mundadan, 1970) 16th century Written accounts of Knai Thoma date to the India's Portuguese period. Alvarado Penteado: In 1518, the Portuguese missionary Alvaro Penteado wrote a letter to the King of Portugal describing the traditions and origins of the Christians of Kerala. After giving an account of the arrival of St. Thomas the Apostle to India, Penteado notes that the Christians of Kodungallur descend from two quarrelling sons of an "Armenian" merchant, hinting at the ethnic division of the Christian community as Northist and Southist. Penteado notes that Knai Thoma made his first son the "patron and inheritor" of his lands and incomes while he made his second son the "administrator of justice" to the pagan men and women whom he had converted to Christianity. Furthermore Penteado expresses that the Christians of Quilon (Kollam) do not descend from the merchant. Penteado's account is archived as CVR. No. 164. at Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo , Lisbon. Mar Jacob Abuna: In 1525, Mar Jacob Abuna, a Chaldean bishop in Kerala, wrote a letter to the King of Portugal requesting his aid after Kodungallur had been destroyed during a battle between the Kingdom of Kochi and the Kingdom of Kozhikode in 1524. Mar Jacob notes that the Christians were in an impoverished position and that there churches and homes had been burnt down. Abuna states that the Christians have a copper plate grant (the Thomas of Cana copper plates) which gave them "power to pronounce sentence of death and all other rights". Abuna's letter is archived as ANTT -CVR. No. 99, later published by Fr. Silva Rego in the text Documentao India II (1949). Abuna: In 1533 Portuguese King John III ordered thirteen witnesses to give testimony on the tomb of St. Thomas the Apostle in Mylapore, India. Among the witnesses was a Chaldean bishop known by his title of Abuna. After giving an account on the arrival and martyrdom of St. Thomas in India, Abuna mentions the arrival of the merchant "Thomas Canane".