[6] Sreekumar & Eldhose (2024) suggest that the story of Villarvattom is an "invented and imagined tradition necessitated and facilitated by the unique socio-political structures" the Christians were participating in.
[1] The oldest known record discussing Villarvattom is from 1606, when Antonio de Gouvea (who personally did not visit Kerala) wrote that in return for favors provided to other rulers, Syriac Christians were allowed to elect a king of their own, independent from the rulers of the region these Christians resided in.
These claims were repeated by Claudius Buchanan, Charles Swanston, and Hermann Gundert, followed by L. K. Ananthakrishna Iyer , thus becoming reputable.
C.V. Cherian records the founding of the dynasty by Thomas of Cana, and then repeats the legend of Immanuel, citing an inscription that dates the death of the last king by 1450 AD.
Mohammed, George Vargheese, Joseph Cheeran, and Velayudhan Panickassery provide similar narratives.