[1] The account of David's mission comes from an originally Syriac-language source that appears in the Arabic-language Chronicle of Seert, a history of the Nestorian Church.
[8] It states that, during the patriarchate of Shahlupa and Papa, David visited and travelled throughout India, rather than settling there, and that he won converts to the Christian church.
[8][9] Alphonse Mingana quotes from the Chronicles of Seert in his book, Hand Book of Source Materials for Student of Church History: During the Patriarchate of Shahlufa and Papa, Dudi (David), Bishop of Basra, Persia (291 - 325) and an eminent physician, renounced his bishopric and came to India and preached to many people.Historians have suggested that David's mission may have targeted communities in Southern India, on the assumption that an existing church there - either descended from the missionary work of the apostle Thomas, or founded by migrant Christians from elsewhere in the region - was in difficulties and required support.
[1] Later in the 4th century, Byzantine sources attest to the dispatch, under Emperor Constantius, of one Theophilus as a missionary to India after 354.
[1] David's mission was, though, an early sign of the nascent role of the diocese of Basra as a hub of missionary activity extending into southern Asia.