Nestorian Period
India's maritime trade began to revive in the 9th century. The Nestorian Christian merchants from Persia, finding that there were Christians in India, brought out their own priests and subsequently bishops to minister to them, whom the Indian Christians for want of instruction did not know to be in heresy. A new Nestorian town began to rise on the sand dune that covered old Mylapur, the most prominent feature of which was a chapel over the site of the Apostle's tomb. Hence the Persian and Arabian traders called the town Betumah, i.e. house, church or town of Thomas. Neither Syrian Christians or Nestorian Christians were not known to rulers of Chola Dynasty who ruled Mylapore or the Pallava dynasty or Pandyan Kingdom. While most of the Europeans knew the Syrian Malabar Nasranis and Nestorian pepper traders of Mylapore Dravidian Tamils were not aware of them.
Local people called it Tirumailapur (i.e. Holy Mylapur). It is this chapel that the ambassadors of king Alfred the Great of England are supposed to have visited (AD 883), and which John of Monte Corvino (1200), Marco Polo (1220), Blessed Oderic di Perdone (1318) and Conti (1400) certainly visited this area. Later Betumah declined, and about 1500 was only a heap of ruins. Locals knew by a more popular name Parangi Mala, the hill of Portuguese.
Read more about this topic: Dioceses Of Saint Thomas Of Mylapore
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