Original sentence: " Finally, the Syrian Christians are also known to be endogamous, often marrying only within the Syrian Christian community and excluding the Knanaya from such unions (with equal rigor)---endogamy in and of itself points to nothing other than the caste-based exclusion which both the Nasranis and the Knanaya have practiced for centuries., the non-Knanaya Syrian Christians) have verifiable genetic claims of Cohen and Jewish/Semitic ancestry.Germann in 1872) report a community of Manichaeans living alongside the Nasrani community as far back as the 15th century.Hence, the presence of Jewish customs among the Knanaya only points to their religious integration within the larger Nasrani community, and not to a genetic Jewish origin.Initially, the Nasranis disputed such legendary accounts (since the Nasranis also claim descent from Thomas of Kana); however, in the last century, this resistance has waned as the Syrian Christians focussed on a variety of other internal disputes.It should be noted that the Jewish-origin claims of the Knanaya have very little justification in fact: the Syrian Christian community, in general, follows similar customs that originate from the ancient Jewish communities in Malabar.Legendary accounts aside, genetic evidence seems to indicate a non-Jewish origin for the Knanaya.Moreover the mainstream Nasranis (i.Often, the adherence to old Jewish customs among the Syrian Christians in Kerala is a function of geographical location and not membership to either the Nasrani or the Knanaya communities; Syrian Christians from more conservative areas (both Knanaya and Nasrani) tend to follow the customs more rigorously than Syrian Christians from more cosmopolitan areas.Reports from historians (e.The Knanaya have thus far failed to demonstrate any positive genetic evidence to support their claim as being an "endogamous Jewish community.These Manichaeans were kept outside of the community by the Nasranis (the non-Knanaya Christians).This community of outsiders were the ancestors of the Knanaya.Under Nestorians and Portuguese influence, the Manichaean side-community were slowly converted to mainstream Christianity; however, they were still kept outside of the Nasrani community by the caste-conscious conservative Nasranis.With time, the Knanaya slowly developed new mythological accounts to explain their origins (in more positive terms), including descent from Thomas of Kana