The apostle Thomas (according to legend which can be neither confirmed nor denied) arrives in India’s Malabar Coast circa 72, and establishes the church of the Malabar Christians (verifiable records, however, connect early Indian Christianity with the fifth-century missionary activity of the Nestorian church in Persia).

Saint Thomas' Mount in Madras is the traditional site of his martyrdom.

One Gondophares is connected to St. Thomas in early Christian traditions embodied in the Acts of Thomas.

In it, Thomas was sold in Syria to Habban, an envoy of Gondophares, and traveled in slavery by sea to India, was presented to Gondophares to undertake the erection of the building the king required.

Thomas instead spent all the king's money on alms, and as a consequence was imprisoned by him.

Allegedly, Gondophares ultimately rehabilitated Thomas and recognized the validity of Christianity.

Passing on to the realm of another king, named in the Syrian versions as "Mazdai,” he allegedly suffered martyrdom before being redeemed.

Saint Thomas thereafter went to Kerala and baptized the natives, whose descendants form the Saint Thomas Christians.