there existed in India the St. Thomas Christians who had come to Kerala from Mylapore the shrine of St. Thomas the Apostle in India. Ros more clearly explains the ethnic division of the Christians of Kerala by stating that the Southist (Knanaya) are also St. Thomas Christians but are a minority known as the "Thomas Cananeo Party" and the Northist are descended from the older native St. Thomas Christians. Ros states that the Knanaya avoided marriage with other St. Thomas Christians and had their own churches at Udiamperor, Carturte (Kaduthuruthy), Cotete (Kottayam), and Turigure (Thodpuzha/Chunkom): "So that, already long before the coming of Thomas Cananeo, there were St. Thomas Christians in this Malavar, who had come from Mailapur, the town of St. Thomas. And the chief families are four in number: Cotur, Catanal, Onamturte, Narimaten, which are known among all these Christians, who became multiplied and extended through the whole of this Malavar, also adding to themselves some of the gentios who would convert themselves. However, the descendants of Thomas Cananeo always remained above them without wishing to marry or to mix with these other Christians...Whence there arose between the St. Thomas Christians and the others great discord, and there were anciently among them great disputes: wherefore at Carturte and Cotete it was necessary to make different Churches, each party keeping aloof from the other. And those of the Thomas Caneneo party went in one Church, and the others in the other. And last year, 1603, the same was the cause of the quarrels between those of Udiamper and Candanada, each one holding out for his party. And it is wonderful to see the aversion which one party has for the other, without being able to forget their antiquities and the fables they have in this matter. The St. Thomas Christians descending from Thomas Caneneo are few. They are at Udiamper, and at the great Church of Carturte and at the great Church of Cotete, and at Turigure. Additionally, Ros states that "Thomas Cananeo" arrived in 345 A.D. and received a copper plate grant along with 264 elephant cubits of land from the Chera Perumal who reigned "more than one thousand two hundred years ago". Ros notes that seventy-two houses, a church dedicated to St. Thomas, and a bazaar were built on the land Thoma acquired from the Perumal. Furthermore, Ros expresses that the manner of reckoning (calendar system) used