Tomas Cana

Thomas Cana was an Armenian merchant and skilled diplomat who in 780 came on the south India Malabar Coast, and eventually built a huge fortune. He was dealing chiefly in spices and muslins. He was also instrumental in obtaining a decree from the rulers of Malabar which conferred several commercial, social and religious privileges for the Christians of that region.

Thomas Cana, an enterprising Armenian merchant, landed on Kodungallur coast in the year 780, when one Sheo Ram was the native ruler and in whose eyes he found great favor, which resulted in his amassing considerable riches by trading in muslin and spices, his main object in seeking the Indian shores. As a trader, he was shrewd and active, as a diplomat, he was tactful and cunning. Soon he became a prosperous merchant at Kodungallur and afterwards at Angamaly, further inwards the Southern Peninsula. According to the traditions of the St. Thomas Christians of Malabar, Thomas Cana founded a commercial town near Kodungallur and obtained, by a copper-plate document, from the Emperor of Malabar, several commercial, social and religious privileges for the Christians of that country.