The Kerala traditions do not have a system of recording and handing over the details of historical incidents and records.
Hence we have to depend on the Church history, social history, oral traditions and legends handed down the generations to distill history out of them. Payapilly Palakkappilly family was one of the Jewish - Brahmin families believed to be baptized by St. Thomas the Apostle who arrived in Kerala in 52. The shape of the ancestral homes and the vessels found there gives more weight to the supposition that the ancestors of this Nasrani family were Brahmins. The ancient Syrian Christians of Kerala who were baptized in the first century were called Nasranis. The Payapilly Palakkappilly family members had the tradition of using the word Nasrani along with their names which confirms their belief of conversion to Christianity by St. Thomas. There exists several documents mostly in the form of palm leaves which provide valuable information about the history of this noble family.
