Malankara Church of India is the Christian church believed to be started by St.Thomas (Malayalam: വി. തോമാശ്ലീഹാ), the apostle of Jesus Christ. Maliankara, a place near Muziris, (now known as Pattanam, near Cochin on the Malabar Coast), where Thomas the Apostle first landed in Kerala in 52 AD. It was the headquarters of the Indian Christian Church from the 1st century AD. (Malankara is cognate of this name Maliankara) and hence the name Malankara (Malayalam: മലങ്കര) Church. It is also known as Church of Malabar or Malabar Church. Hence the Christians here are known as Malankara Nasranis , Saint Thomas Christians, Malabar Christians and Malankara Christians. The history of Christianity in India reportedly started 15 centuries before the arrival of European missionaries in India.