Knanaya folk songs are considered ancient in origins and were first written down in the 17th century on palm leaf manuscripts recorded by Knanaya families. The texts of the palm leaves were compiled and published in 1910 by the Knanaya scholar P.U. Luke with the aide of Knanaya Catholic priest Fr. Mathew Vattakalm in the text Puratana Pattukal: Ancient Songs of the Syrian Christians of Malabar. The songs were written in Old Malayalam but contain diction and lexemes from Sanskrit, Syriac, and Tamil. Analytically, these ancient songs contain folklore about the faith, customs and practices of the community, narratives of historical events (such as the mission of St. Thomas the Apostle and the immigration of the Knanaya to India), biblical stories, songs of churches, and the lives of saints. Scholars have also found that the songs of the Knanaya are of a similar composure, linguistics, and characteristic to that of the Cochin Jews and that some songs even have almost the same lyrics with the exception of a few words or stanzas. According to the Cochin Jewish scholar P. M. Jussay, "these similarities are not accidental and cannot be easily explained".
