THE NARRATIVES OF JOSEPH THE INDIANIntroduction: In the famous collection "Asian Educational Services" we find a book, Church History ofTravancore, printed in 1990 (a reprint of an 1903 book). Speaking about Joseph the Indian, the author, C.M.Agur, says as follows: "When the Portuguese arrived in Malabar in 1498 they were quite surprised to find anumerous body of Christians, Nestorians in belief, ignorant alike of the Latin tongue and the Roman Pontiff.The Christians received the great Portuguese navigator Vasco de Gama with all courtesy and submissivenessand presented him the scepter of their extinct Royal House, in token of their allegiance to him... Seeing thatthe Syrians had thus done obeisance and implored support, Vasco de Gama and his followers not onlygranted formal protection, but they, at once, formed a firm resolution to bring this strange Native Churchunder the authority of the See of Rome. Three years subsequent to this, after the first meeting of the Syrianswith Padro Cabral at Cranganore in 1501 he took two Syrian youths, brothers, with him to Portugal. Withgreat foresight and policy he trained these youths. The elder, Matthias, died at Lisbon; whilst the younger,Joseph, visited Rome and Venice, and after years his experiences were embodied in a book entitled "Thetravels of Joseph the Indian".A study of the canonical and historical sources of our Church not only gives us an idea of the development ofher life and organization; It also enables us to correct mistakes, which we can find commonly in bookstreating of the history of the St. Thomas' Christians. Real history cannot be written without an adequateknowledge of the sources. The forenamed author should better have kept silence about subjects for which hewas not able, or for which he had no time to get in touch with the sources. In this short study we will try toenumerate the information we get from Joseph the Indian, and we will compare it with witnesses,contemporary to him.1. SourcesMany times we ...