Thomas of Cana

Thomas of Cana (Malayalam: Knāi Thoma, Syriac: Knā'nāya Thoma) is a figure in the history and traditions of the Saint Thomas Christian communities of Kerala, India. He is said to have been a Syrian merchant who led a migration of Syriac Christians of Jewish origin (Jewish Christians) from Mesopotamia to India sometime between the 4th and the 9th century. This may reflect a historical migration that strengthened the ties between the Indian church and the Church of the East. The arrival of Thomas of Cana also factors into traditions of the divide of the community into Northist and Southist factions; the Southists or Knanaya claim descent from Thomas of Cana and his followers.
Epithet of Thomas.
The meaning of the "Cana" epithet is unclear; it may refer to the town of Cana or the land of Canaan in the Bible, or it may be a corruption of a Syriac term for merchant ("Knāyil" in Malayam). However, scholar Richard M. Swiderski states that none of these etymologies are entirely sound. Scholar and Knanaya priest Dr. Jacob Kollaparambil argues that the "Cana" form is a corruption introduced by European scholars in the 18th century based on the Malayalam form Knāy and its variants (Kynāi, Knai, Kinān) found in the folk tradition of the Knanaya and the common parlance and literature of the people of Malabar. This may be a reference to the Christian community of Kynai, in Bét Aramayé in Persia.
History.
Written accounts of Knai Thoma date to the India's Portuguese period. The native tradition places Thomas’ arrival in 345 C.E. ; Reports by colonial officials give varying dates from 345 to 811 C.E. Thomas is said to have been a Syrian merchant, distinct from Thomas the Apostle, who preceded him in evangelizing in India. According to the traditions, Thomas of Cana led a group of 72 families, as well as clergymen, to the port city of Kodungallur in the Malabar coast. There they met and supplemented the Saint Thomas Christians, who had been evangelized by Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. 
Thomas was granted a copper-plate grant by the Chera Dynasty which gave his party and all native Christians socio-economic privileges. The Thomas of Cana copper plates are noted to have existed in Kerala until the 17th century, after which point they were lost. The Kollam Syrian plates of the 9th century historically mentioned a brief of the arrival of Knai Thoma. This is believed to have been a notation of the previous rights given to the Kerala Syrian Christians. 
Scholars state the arrival of Thomas of Cana may reflect a historical migration of East Syriac Christians to India. This may have been the era in which the region's relationship with the Church of the East developed. Stephen Neill suggests that East Syriac Christians may have come to India specifically because there was already an established Christian community, to whom they imparted East Syriac traditions.
In the 17th century, Historian of Portuguese India Diogo Do Couto and Archbishop Francis Ros of Angamaly-Cranganore both note that the Christians of Kerala chanted the name of Knai Thoma among their saints during their liturgies . 
In the 18th century (1782), Mar Ousep Cariattil, Northist priest and leader of the Kerala Syrian Catholics, wrote a short history of the Malabar Church in which he included the arrival of Knai Thoma. Cariattil notes the importance given to the migration of Knai Thoma and his party by the Native Christians of St. Thomas in their traditions:
Those known as the Christians of St. Thomas in Malabar had preserved from the year 52 of the popular era for seven entire centuries. After that failing the succession of Bishops, began a decadence of Religion. However this defect was remedied by a rich and liberal merchant and Zealous catholic, Knai Thoma, who returning in haste to Babylonia, his native country, brought with him a bishop and two priests of laudable behavior and great learning in Syriac and Chaldean, which are the languages of the Rite of the people of Malabar, They worked with great zeal, and very soon they made the ancient virtues and fervor of Christian religion reflourish. These (as the first apostles) helped the nation in everything pertaining to ecclesiastical discipline and sciences. And therefore the Nation always considered the Babylonians as their benefactors. In these circumstances due to the want of natives, during the following centuries the Bishops from Babylonia governed the churches with no vested interest, they being, as we said, of the same Rite"
Thomas of Cana the “Bishop”.
In the native traditions of Kerala as well as the early 16/17th recordings during the Portuguese era, Thomas of Cana is always noted as a merchant. 
In the 18th century, the Lebanese scholar J.S. Assemani argued that Thomas of Cana was a 9th-century bishop, published in his text “Bibliotecha Orientalis” (1719-1728). In an attempt to trace Thomas’ origins, Assemani labeled Thomas of Cana as Bishop Thomas of Hadud, a 9th-century Nestorian bishop.
Northists and Southists.
The arrival of Thomas of Cana figures into traditions concerning the division of the Saint Thomas Christians into "Northist" and "Southist" factions. In these versions, the Southists or Knanaya are the direct descendants of Thomas of Cana and his followers, while the Northists descend from the pre-existing local Christian body converted by Thomas the Apostle. In some versions, Thomas of Cana had two wives or partners, one the ancestor to the endogamous Southists, and the other (generally described as a Kerala native) the ancestor to the Northists.