It is interesting to note that Malikayal' speaks of St. Thomas arrival by sea. The commercial history of the times lends support to this assumption. He must have either sailed from Kalyan in north India or from the island of 'Socotra'. St. Francis Xavier, who landed at Socotra on his way to India about AD 1545, declared that the natives of these islands render special honors to the apostle St. Thomas, claiming they to be the descendents of Christians begotten to Jesus Christ through that Apostle in these countries.

Ka. Naa Subrahmanyam quotes D'Orsay, who consolidating all the available records states that, after forming, on the west coast, several congregations out of Jews and Dravidi people, "Apostle St. Thomas reached Meliapore (Mylapore-Madras). The fame of his miracles had preceded him. The Raja (King Mahadevan) received baptism and a part of his subjects embraced the Gospel……. This excited the hatred and jealousy of the Brahmins (The super class people & Priests)and Apostle St. Thomas was pierced with a lance."

T.N Gopal in the Vivekananda Prakashan commenting on this record, states "the legend also has it that he suffered a cruel death at the hands of the irate Brahmins. In so far as it points to the hostility that St. Thomas should have provoked among the guardians of Hinduism, the legend has validity.