Historic Alleys

A Discussion on genetic deciphering to understand human migration

I have been getting into this subject and out of it so many times, so I finally decided to put down what I gleaned and be done with it, till more definitive answers were available. It was indeed a complicated subject and one which was very subjective. As you may have noticed it started with comments that one can get to our roots easily by studying the genetic makeup and divide it by castes and tribes. Easier said and done and that I agree with after so many forays into the subject. Ethiran kathiravan an eminent blogger and one who like me, loves movies and music had previously written a great article on this subject. I will refer to it often and augment it with inputs from a few other books, papers and a text book my ‘medical student’ son gifted me in exasperation (did not want me to come up with half-baked theories, as he said)after some arguments on migration.

Anthropology is an exacting study exemplified by eminent persons like the late LA Anathakrishna Iyer of Palghat, one of the first to venture into it. However, nowadays the methods have drifted more towards genetic studies and involve microscopes and computers. That such studies provide much insight to migration is amply clear and the methods used are quite interesting. Let us first see what is done from a very superficial level, and please note here that I am neither an expert nor a recurring student of this topic, but just somebody who tried to glean through some of these studies with interest.

Armed with all that I got into a brief study of what they term Proto Dravidians, in an area where much mingling of people occurred, both aborigines, invaders as well as visitors, to create thirty four or so groups. When a man belonging to one such group bonds with a girl of another, the resulting offspring carried properties of both. As time goes by and as generations of people are created by the offspring of this union the genetic sequence that one studies, exhibits what one could term a secret diary of the years and what happened. A genetic Sherlock Holmes puts meat into the study and comes up with startling results by unraveling the gene sequences and structure. How would that be possible? Well, as we note, a child carries chromosomes from both parents in a standard genetic structure or sequence. But then again, there are slight variations and these are called polymorphisms which can sometimes be observed over a wider population.

If parents have differing polymorphisms, the child carries both (John Tainer explains scientifically - For genetics, a polymorphism refers to genetic variants within the population that allow evolution by natural selection. A mutation may create a polymorphism in the population if the resulting variant form is transmitted to subsequent generations without causing major defects in biological functions). There is one other term one has to understand to get going and that is a term called Allele. An allele is defined an alternative form of a gene (one member of a pair) which is located at a certain position on a chromosome. This kind of genetic coding determines very distinct traits which are passed on from parents to their children. Gregor Mendel was the first to study this and formulated what is known as the Mendel's law of segregation (It is also to be noted here that organisms have two alleles defining each trait). Typically alleles of a heterozygous pair have one which is dominant and another, recessive. A study of distinct alleles can help one study migration or events in a specified population over time. These are the signatures or unique codes which a genetic detective studies to get to the point of singular origin.

Perhaps this is all quite confusing to the lay person, so a paragraph on the fundamentals would be useful. As we all know our body comprises zillions of cells. Some cells are somatic which compose the body structure and others are gamate or reproductive i.e. comprising of sperms or eggs. Every cell has 23 chromosome pairs (a genome) and each of these chromosome pairs have some 25,000 genes. The nucleus of a somatic cell thus comprises of 46 chromosomes, 23 from each parent whereas the gamate comprises only 23. Of the 23 pairs, 22 are termed autosomes and one sex chromosome. Alternative versions of genes account for variations and are based on inherited characteristics - termed alleles. Getting a little deeper, each gene comprises four different arrangement of atoms called bases or nucleotides. These are termed as G, A, T & C, each being a unique arrangement. So when one goes on to decipher a genome, he ends up writing a very long sequence using these 4 alphabets (In addition to the 25000 or so of these genes, there is also a lot of junk DNA).To summarize, genes are made of DNA, a genome is made up of genes and the genome has some 3 million bases or bits of information in them. This field is quite interesting and produces many pointers to where we are headed. As some of you may be aware, males have an X and a Y chromosome and females have 2 X chromosomes. The Y chromosome is gene poor and deteriorating, so will be gone in another 125,000 years, so you never know, males may become extinct!!!

And so looking back into our own history thus far, you will realize that it becomes a story of the wandering Y. But well, a study of alleles (certain specific ones like the HLA or Human leucocyte antigen) and their distribution frequency over a certain area can establish certain conclusions. In general this kind of study is a study of haplotypes. Put in simple words, haplotype is the group of genes that a progeny inherits from one parent. As time goes by you will see many more of these statistical studies to determine community migration paths and family history, triggered by for example Nairs who want to determine their ancestry, Ezhavas who want to determine theirs, each caste tired of the old myths and legends which talk about gods and kings having determined their fate.

Reference paper 1: One of the first analyses were tabulated in reference paper by Thomas, Nair and Banerjee in 2006. This analysis of HLA-A & C alleles in Pulayas, Nambuthiris, Malabar Muslims, Syrian Christians, Ezhavas and Nairs was conducted using a number of genetic samples. Some very general conclusions on genetic drifts were arrived at by these experts after comparing the HLA alleles. They were

The tribal Dravidians of Kerala stood somewhat pure and isolated compared to a veritable mix in N India. The Pulaya and Kurichiyars seem to the original aborigines or ancestral stock.
Malabar Muslims and Syrian Christians, based on the B35 and CW04 alleles show a characteristic Mediterranean influence showing a migratory pattern more consistent with history.
Nairs show an influence of the European B07 and CW07 more often seen in Belgium Germany and Scottish populations. They also have the highest mix of alleles and corroborate North Indian influence, with connections to the Newars of Nepal.
Ezhavas and Nambuthiri’s also exhibited influence from European as well as central and East Asian genetic pools.
The Ezhava shows an eastern and Mongoloid influence, signifying a possible Buddhist past.

Reference paper 2: But that was one study, let us look at the study by Seema, Ashwathy and Chippy done in 2011 which focused on the Ezhava population after analyzing the 8Y STR markers on the Y chromosome. They focused on the Y chromosome and its genetic markers. It took a direction that the Ezhava’s were influenced by the East European (60%) and East Asian (40%) genetic pools and pointed to a genotypic resemblance with the Jat Sikhs of Punjab and the Turkish population thus concluding a parental lineage of European origins. However for some strange reason, the paper linked the conclusion relating to the Nairs from the previous study, erroneously to Ezhavas.

Reference paper 3: Now we look at a third study by the same group, this one focused on the 17 YSTR marker over 168 males which showed a peculiar connection to the males of Vasterbotten in Sweden as well as East Asian (Taiwan, China, Thailand) countries. Some connections were also seen to Afridi’s, Pathan’s and so on.

Reference paper 8: Ethiran Kathiravan also dwelt on some of these studies and agrees that no definitive pattern could be identified while it becomes clear that Pulayas and other hill tribes were the original aborigines of Kerala whereas all other non-Dravidian groups had much of intermixing, with significant contributions from other wanderers.

Reference paper 9: Andrew J Bohonak, San Diego State University, San Diego, California, USA states provides an interesting explanation - Genetic drift consists of changes in allele frequencies due to sampling error. Even if all individuals in a population have the same opportunities to mate, their reproductive contributions to the next generation will vary due to random chance alone. In any population of finite size, this sampling error will cause gene frequencies to fluctuate from generation to generation. Genetic changes due to drift are neither directional nor predictable in any deterministic way. Nonetheless, genetic drift leads to evolutionary change even in the absence of mutation, natural selection or gene flow.

Reference paper 4: While all this was going on, a team of Indian scientists got working on the popular folktale related to Parayi Petta panthirukalam (we will get to it another day - for a detailed account read Dr Rajan Chungath’s book or the Aithihyamala). Ethiran Kathiravan also focuses on this tale and its impact. But for those who do not know, there is an ancient legend in Kerala titled ‘Parayi petta panthirukulam’ and deals with the twelve offspring of a low caste woman and their lineage. As the story goes, Vararuchi, one of the nine wise men in Emperor Chandragupta Vikramaditya’s (375 – 415 AD) court married a Paraya girl (an orphan who came with the raging waters of Bharatapuzha and was raised at the Naripatta mana). As he married a lower caste woman, he excommunicated himself and the couple then set out on a long trip or pilgrimage in the course of which they were blessed with 12 children – 11 boys and a girl. As each child was born, Varuchi would enquire if the child had a mouth and if the answer was in the affirmative, Varuchi would say ‘good, God will take care of him’ and they would abandon him on the way. Each of these children ended up being cared by families of various castes, high, medium or low. It is said that the families which adopted these children were Mezhathol Agnihothri (Brahmin), Pakkanar (Parayan), Rajakan (Dhobi), Naranathu Bhranthan (Elayathu), Karakkal Matha (Nair adopting the girl child), Akavoor Chathan (Vaishya), Vaduthala Nair (Nair), Vallon (Pulaya), Uppukuttan (Moplah), Pananar (Panan, country musician) and Perunthachan (Carpenter). Interestingly the last and 12^th child was born without a mouth. Vararuchi sadly buried this child near a hill. This location is supposedly near Kadampazhipuram in Palakkad and known as “Vaayillaakkunnilappan” (Hill Lord without mouth).

The descendants of these children live at Shornur, Pattambi and Thrithala of Palakkad district of Kerala state and despite the differences in their caste and social status, these families are bound together by various rituals and religious customs. These were the subjects of the next study, but when the group headed by Suresh collected genetic samples from these families to study the patterns, they actually found that the results were contrary to the folktale and common haplotypes were not detected across the tested families with the result that co-ancestry could not be proven.

Why mention this? Well it is to prove that genetic sampling and studies are not always conclusive when you span many generations and so hype about genetic studies is not a good thing.The authors concluded thus - Considering that the survival of a lineage from a single founder through 20 generations (approximately 700 years) is only 9.6%, the chance of survival of Vararuchi’s lineage, which is believed to have originated 1600 years ago (45 generations) is meagre. On the other hand, it is also possible that the haplogroups of different families, who adopted Vararuchi’s children, were different and had multiple own men at the time of adoption. The true descendants of Vararuchi’s sons may have been either extinct through time due to different genetical or social reasons or severely declined in relation to the descendants of the own men of a family lineage. Alternatively, the Vararuchi episode may be a pure myth.

Reference paper 5: In the next paper covering directional migration, we come across another interesting conclusion - Migrants leaving the high status castes showed a greater probability of entering the middle-status castes than entering the low-status castes. Migrants leaving the middle-status castes showed a greater probability of entering the low-status castes than the high-status castes. Why so? The Hindu concept of anuloma, for instance, occasionally permits men to marry women of lower caste, while women are rarely permitted to marry men of lower caste. This mechanism of movement implies that females should be more “upwardly mobile” than males, and it has been suggested that anuloma is the source of greater female inter-caste mixing inferred from genetic data.

Reference paper 6: The next paper on genetic affinities covers a wider study and concludes that - No significant difference was observed in the mitochondrial DNA between Indian tribal and caste populations, except for the presence of a higher frequency of west Eurasian-specific haplogroups in the higher castes, mostly in the north western part of India. On the other hand, the study of the Indian Y lineages revealed distinct distribution patterns among caste and tribal populations. The paternal lineages of Indian lower castes showed significantly closer affinity to the tribal populations than to the upper castes. The frequencies of deep-rooted Y haplogroups compared to the upper castes. However, Y-SNP data provides compelling genetic evidence for a tribal origin of the lower caste populations in the subcontinent. Lower caste groups might have originated with the hierarchical divisions that arose within the tribal groups with the spread of Neolithic agriculturalists, much earlier than the arrival of Aryan speakers. The Indo-Europeans established themselves as upper castes among this already developed caste-like class structure within the tribes.

Reference paper 7: But one has to look at the Tamil areas to compare conclusions. So we look at yet another study where the conclusion is that Genetic data from Y-chromosome, mtDNA, and autosomal STRs are in accord with historical accounts of northwest to southeast population movements in India. The influence of ancient and historical population movements and caste social structure can be detected.

Times Of India article: But CCMB scientist Kumarasamy Thangarajan states - There is no truth to the Aryan-Dravidian theory as they came hundreds or thousands of years after the ancestral north and South Indians had settled in India. The genetics proves that castes grew directly out of tribe-like organizations during the formation of the Indian society. The study provides an interesting conclusion

Between 135,000 and 75,000 years ago, the East-African droughts shrunk the water volume of the Lake Malawi by at least 95%, causing migration out of Africa. ``The initial settlement took place 65,000 years ago in the Andamans and in ancient south India around the same time, which led to population growth in this part,'' said Thangarajan. He added, ``At a later stage, 40,000 years ago, the ancient north Indians emerged which in turn led to rise in numbers here. But at some point of time, the ancient north and the ancient south mixed, giving birth to a different set of population. And that is the population which exists now and there is a genetic relationship between the population within India.''

Reference paper 11: And the last paper emphasizes European connections - Our results show the presence of west-Eurasian typical mtDNA haplogroups in Indian tribes, presumably resulting from admixture with Indo-Europeans (i.e. who probably introduced the caste system in India). This interpretation would suggest that caste people initially possessed west-Eurasian mtDNAs rather than Asian mtDNAs. This view is reinforced by the fact that caste groups are more similar to west Eurasians than are the tribals .In summary, although the data support a recent India–Australia connection, we could not find in Indian tribals any unquestionable genetic signature of the approx. 60 000 year-old migration from Africa to Sahul following the postulated southern route. A possible explanation would be that such migration never occurred along that route. Alternatively, the early migrants from Africa may have made their way to Sahul following the southern route without settling in India. Another possibility, which is probably the most reasonable one, is that in India the genetic traces of early migrations along the southern route were erased by the subsequent migrations which shaped the present-day mtDNA gene pool of India

Reference paper 8: This is all in line with Ethiran Kathiravan’s conclusions that you will find connections to lower caste tribes even in the progeny of the highest classes and there is always certain amount of intermixing in populations. So the notion of purity in races and classes or castes is a bigger myth.

But then again to detect migratory patterns, the study of genetics will help, only that you need access to a large amount of samples coupled with well-funded and dedicated research using proper tools. Presently it is sporadic, based on small amounts of samples and hardly conclusive.

While my own reading of all this was very stimulating, the potential for misunderstanding (If I have already done that please forgive me, for all I wanted to do was make some general summaries on the subject to show its general complexity, but also explaining the general methods adopted) was too much considering my relative lack of in-depth knowledge in the subject. So let us wait and watch as we leave the leg work to the experts….

References

Papers

A crypto-Dravidian origin for the non tribal communities of South India based on human leukocyte antigen class I diversity R. Thomas, S. B. Nair & M. Banerjee
Haplotype analysis of the polymorphic 17 YSTR markers in Kerala nontribal populations - Seema Nair Parvathy, Aswathy Geetha, Chippy Jagannath
Y-short tandem repeat haplotype and paternal lineage of the Ezhava population of Kerala, South India- Seema Nair, Parvathy, Aswathy Geetha, Chippy Jagannath
Co-Inheritance of Y-Chromosome Haplogroups And Lineages In ‘Parayi Petta Panthirukulam’: An Evaluation Of Human Motifs In A Popular Folktale In Kerala, India. Kumar U Suresh, R. V. Ratheesh, Rajan Chungath, George Thomas, George Sanil
Directional migration in the Hindu castes: inferences from mitochondrial, autosomal and Y-chromosomal data - Stephen Wooding, Christopher Ostler, B. V. Ravi Prasad, W. Scott Watkins, Sandy Sung, Mike Bamshad, Lynn B. Jorde
Genetic affinities among the lower castes and tribal groups of India: inference from Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA Ismail Thanseem1, Kumarasamy Thangaraj, Gyaneshwer Chaubey, Vijay Kumar Singh, Lakkakula VKS Bhaskar, B Mohan Reddy, Alla G Reddy and Lalji Singh
Genetic variation in South Indian castes: evidence from Y-chromosome, mitochondrial, and autosomal polymorphisms WS Watkins, R Thara, BJ Mowry, Y Zhang, DJ Witherspoon, W Tolpinrud, MJ Bamshad, S Tirupati, R Padmavati, H Smith, D Nancarrow, C Filippich and LB Jorde
Kerala Kaumudi – Ethiran Kathiravan – Pulayar – The great grandfathers of Namboothiris, Christians and Muslims
Genetic Drift in Human Populations Andrew J Bohonak,
Reconstructing Indian population history David Reich, Kumarasamy Thangaraj, Nick Patterson, Alkes L. Price & Lalji Singh
Mitochondrial DNA analysis reveals diverse histories of tribal populations from India - Richard Cordaux, Nilmani Saha, Gillian R Bentley, Robert Aunger, S M Sirajuddin and Mark Stoneking

Times of India article

Panthirukulathinte Pingamikal – Dr Rajan Chungath

Human Origins – Rob Desalle & Ian Tattersall

The Journey of Man – Spencer Wells

Deep Ancestry – Spencer Wells

Recently there has been some uproar concerning camels and the Bible and JK covered it at his nice blog Varnam. According to the report by Dr. Erez Ben-Yosef and Dr. Lidar Sapir-Hen of Tel Aviv University's Department of Archaeology mentioned in Varnam, - The origin of the domesticated camel is probably the Arabian Peninsula, which borders the Aravah Valley and would have been a logical entry point for domesticated camels into the southern Levant. The arrival of domesticated camels promoted trade between Israel and exotic locations unreachable before, according to the researchers; the camels can travel over much longer distances than the donkeys and mules that preceded them. By the seventh century BCE, trade routes like the Incense Road stretched all the way from Africa through Israel to India. Camels opened Israel up to the world beyond the vast deserts, researchers say, profoundly altering its economic and social history.

NY Times counters - There are too many camels in the Bible, out of time and out of place. Camels probably had little or no role in the lives of such early Jewish patriarchs as Abraham, Jacob and Joseph, who lived in the first half of the second millennium B.C., and yet stories about them mention these domesticated pack animals more than 20 times. Genesis 24, for example, tells of Abraham’s servant going by camel on a mission to find a wife for Isaac. These anachronisms are telling evidence that the Bible was written or edited long after the events it narrates and is not always reliable as verifiable history.

But this article is not going to be anything to do with such theological and mythological accounts however historic or authentic they may be. Look at our own Keralolpathi or Kerala Mahatmyam, all written with specific purposes, nevertheless offering only tidbits of historical value. So this note will hover around how important the animal was to further trade with India, the very aspect the TAU article has concluded with.

Another important discussion these days is about the battery used for hybrid and electric cars. They say rightly - If only it could be made more reliable and higher capacity, these vehicles could then become popular and run long distances, reducing our dependence on fossil fuel! Well it was the same many millennia ago when the horse and the donkey were the vehicles for transport. They too just could not be used for long distance travel without regular supplication and refueling. Interesting, right? That was about the juncture when a super-efficient camel and its saddle design saved the day and stated long distance trade. Let us see how.

One could start here looking at prehistoric animals like the Protylopus (40 million years ago) which roamed the North Americas and which perhaps in the centuries which followed, crossed the Beringia land bridge to move to the Eastern hemisphere. The ones which remained in the Americas perhaps fell prey to carnivorous animals and the ones which crossed over to the Asian regions failed to fare better, at least initially. But evolution helps in such matters and their ability to store large amounts of fluids allowed them to migrate to inhospitable arid deserts where they multiplied and thrived, by being far away from the carnivorous lions and other beings which preferred to live near the wetter areas. As time went by, they found an ally which would help this slow moving animal to survive, that being the human.

The human being evolved to become a complex creature, for not only did it want to survive, multiply and do well, it also wanted to congregate and make its life better by eating a variety of things, wearing brighter and cooler or warmer clothes, learn all kinds of social and survival skills and so on. Man was also very inquisitive and selfish in all its endeavors. In those early forays, especially in the Middle Eastern regions, the silent companion which aided and abetted the human was the camel, as the conduit for long distance land trade by becoming the ship of the desert as it came to be known. Today it is connected sarcastically with the Arab Bedouin, but it was very prevalent in the Western parts of India and many other places too.

While the first types were the double humped long haired Bactrian camels of Asia, the Middle Eastern evolution figured the modern single humped Dromedary camel. More knowledgeable people opine that this evolution was to reduce surface area and thus reduce evaporation of moisture - by increasing the body temperature to reduce perspiration. Anyway the docile and hardy dromedary (dromados – Greek for running) animal became a friend of the Arab and Asian nomad, to join goats, donkeys, sheep, dogs, chicken, cattle and so on in his stable as well as becoming an animal producing food and milk for some others. It is said that at the outset they were milk producers rather than objects of transport in Arabia, but eventually they took over from the donkey by about 1500 BC. As Bernstein explains, a single driver herding six animals transported about two tons of cargo for about 30-60 miles per day, drinking once in three days, and this gradually increased as saddle technology improved. The Asian camel became domesticated even earlier, perhaps by 2500BC, but soon its territory was overtaken by the hardy dromedary cousin and soon the hybrid variety, supremely capable of trekking long distances and took over the silk road trade route thriving in the region between Morocco and India, and up all the way to Western China. In fact its survivability was high and it could even survive on brackish water.

And this brought about what we know as the caravanserai or rest stations roughly every 100 miles over the 4,000 mile long Silk Road, during the hey days of the land trade route. As wiki explains - Most typically a caravanseai was a building with a square or rectangular walled exterior, with a single portal wide enough to permit large or heavily laden beasts such as camels to enter. The courtyard was almost always open to the sky, and the inside walls of the enclosure were outfitted with a number of identical stalls, bays, niches, or chambers to accommodate merchants and their servants, animals, and merchandise. Caravanserais provided water for human and animal consumption, washing, and ritual ablutions. Sometimes they had elaborate baths.

The main item that traveled westward was of course silk, while the easterly route had incenses (frankincense and myrrh) from these arid areas. The objects of trade changed with time and demand as well as development. Palestine for example produced the prized opobalsam (Myrrh, balm of Gilead – a sap or oleo resin). That was of course the biggest material of trade for the people of Arabia and much prized by the people in the west as well as the east. As a small load was enough to provide a decent profit, it was easily transportable by the royal road to Rome and also down by the side to the Red Sea to Aden where it went on ships to India.

So now you know how caravans, convoys or camel trains traversed these ancient trade routes not as early as 3500 years ago, but somewhere between 3000-3500 years. As this trade developed,

kingdoms came into being, people along the route flourished and got militarized, theft became commonplace, raiders became bolder and wars were fought between those with vested interests.

The Trans Saharan trade became an important one at the turn of the anno domini or somewhat earlier. The general contention shared by Ilse Kohler and Paula Wapnish is that the 12-15^th century BC is when the camel got domesticated. However considering Mason’s theory that it evolved in Arabia around 3,000BC, the period in between needs further analysis. It is also clear that there were three broad classifications of the dromedary, the beast of burden or the baggager, the riding camel and the milking camel. It is also clear that those North African Muslim traders usually set out with their camels well laden, in a fat and vigorous condition; and brought them back in a bad state, that they commonly sold them at a low rate to be later fattened by the Arabs of the Desert (Consider the analogy with second hand cars!).

But let us get back to trade. Everything you see today in day to day life and take for granted originated step by step, due to a desire for change, be it food, clothing or life partners. Let us take a look how. It was as you can see, the desire for exchange of goods and traditions that led to development of currencies and currency rates. The difference between such rates resulted in profit and this resulted in the concept of risk, where a trader decided whether it was worth travelling 4000 miles with a load of expensive trading goods from one end of the world to the other, braving robbers who developed the concept of theft, weather and natural calamities (forecasting and cartography, travelogues). Managers managed the caravans, the procurement and disbursement of goods and policing came about for the protection of the caravan routes. Armies and armed personnel were the prerogative of the king and so the power of the king evolved with the size of the army or quantity of armaments. The concept of luxury evolved. Agriculture and production of raw material primarily for trade and not just for own consumption evolved and became a business, creating the producer and the trader. And as trade volumes and portability improved, agreements between diverse rulers created alliances to share the spoils and concentrate power.

In previous articles, we went over a number of subjects set around the ocean trade, especially the Red Sea and Indian Ocean trade. This will also look at another kind of ocean trade, the sand ocean trade where the transport was across the vast Sahara desert (3 million square miles of it), then the Gobi desert and finally the central Asian Mongol desert. Fittingly the ship was the camel, when the organized trade started around the 2^ndcentury AD. It had the Han china on one end, Parthian Persia in the middle - the westerly connections to the Romans and the Egyptians. The establishment of the Silk Road made the travel organized and the movement of gold, silk and spices smooth. As time passed, it became a vehicle for the passage of yet another commodity – that being religion. I call it a commodity because it was regulated in its spread and consumption.

The trade groups which were formed were a result of religious and family associations, just like the Islamic merchant sea associations or the smaller land trade associations around the south of India.

During those periods it also became a war animal, and the N Arabian saddle invented around 500BC helped. Even though it was slow compared to a horse, it was dependable, a specialized breed of riding dromedary could maintain a speed of 8-10mph for up to 18 hours. During the winter, the camel can travel fifty days without being watered, while in the hot summer it can traverse roughly five days without water. A thirsty camel can drink up to eighty liters of water in one session, and at the rate of twenty liters in one minute.

Alistair Boddy-Evans in his article Trade across Sahara mentions - The sands of the Sahara Desert could've been a major obstacle to trade between Africa, Europe, and the East, but it was more like a sandy sea with ports of trade on either side. In the south were cities such as Timbuktu and Gao; in the north, cities such as Ghadames (in present-day Libya). From there goods traveled onto Europe, Arabia, India, and China. Muslim traders from North Africa shipped goods across the Sahara using large camel caravans -- on average around a thousand camels, although there's a record which mentions caravans travelling between Egypt and Sudan that had 12,000 camels. They brought in mainly luxury goods such as textiles, silks, beads, ceramics, ornamental weapons, and utensils. These were traded for gold, ivory, woods such as ebony, and agricultural products such as kola nuts (which act as a stimulant as they contain caffeine). They also brought their religion, Islam, which spread along the trade routes.Until the discovery of the Americas, Mali was the principal producer of gold. African ivory was also sought after (over Indian) because it's softer.

So the real link up was when the Trans Saharan network linked up with the silk route, mainly due to the Akan gold mining efforts. And that brings us to Timbuktu. Strange that this place in Africa got connected to English usage as a place in the middle of nowhere! It was someplace in those days, an important place, perhaps not today. Its long history as a trading outpost that linked west Africa with Berber, Arab, and Jewish traders throughout north Africa, and thereby indirectly with traders from Europe, has given it a fabled status, and in the West it was for long a metaphor for exotic, distant lands: "from here to Timbuktu."It was also a place where rock salt was mined. Gold, sought from the western and central Sudan, was the main commodity of the trans-Saharan trade. The traffic in gold was spurred by the demand for and supply of coinage.

Gold Road

According to the Heilbrun timeline, From the seventh to the eleventh century, trans-Saharan trade linked the Mediterranean economies that demanded gold—and could supply salt—to the sub-Saharan economies, where gold was abundant. Increased demand for gold in the North Islamic states, which sought the raw metal for minting, prompted scholarly attention to Mali and Ghana, the latter referred to as the "Land of Gold."By the end of the twelfth century, however, Ghana had lost its domination of the western Sudan gold trade. (Check Timothy Insoll’s work for details). But it was the Portuguese discovery of new sailing routes and trade routes that started the demise of the trans-saharan trade and decrease dthe importance of African ports and trading locations. The battle of Tondibi in 1591 destroyed much of the western locales like Timbuktu and Gao.

Nevertheless, the incense route where Arabian frankincense and Myrrh which were in high demand, were transported by camels from Hadhramaut to Mediterranean ports like Ghaza together with shipments from India, was the most lucrative of all trades. Frankincense and myrrh, highly prized in antiquity as fragrances, could only be obtained from trees growing in southern Arabia, Ethiopia, and Somalia. The incense land trade from South Arabia to the Mediterranean flourished between roughly the 7th century BCE to the 2nd century CE and involved transport of Indian goods northwards and Arabian goods southwards to Arabian ports. As Nabataea states - At its height, the Incense Route moved over 3000 tons of incense each year. Thousands of camels and camel drivers were used. The profits were high, but so were the risks from thieves, sandstorms, and other threats. The Incense Route ran along the western edge of Arabia’s central desert about 100 miles inland from the Red Sea coast; Pliny the Elder stated that the journey consisted of sixty-five stages divided by halts for the camels.

For those who are curious, Frankincense the balsamic resin is Benzoin or the Sambrani we use in Pujas and Myrrh is used even today in Ayurvedic medicines (a.k.a polam).

And so friends, that was a bit about Camels, without whom we would not developed. The Trans Saharan road will take over the desert camel routes, the Silk Road is still there and the sea routes have developed though fraught with piracy. But the Camel can still be seen and is used in Northwest India and Arabia, and various other places, though taken over by the four wheeler when it comes to land trade…

Incidentally there is a tradition (Food Culture in the Near East, Middle East, and North Africa - By Peter Heine) that Prophet Muhammad said – who does not eat from my camels is not my people, signifying a religious connotation to eating camel meat unlike the Jews where both camel milk and meat are taboo! The reasoning behind this is perhaps evident in the tale narrated in Nabatean history site about the theft of the Jewish camels by the Arabs.

And to end this let us revisit the But there is also this Sufi saying, 'Trust in God, but tie your camel first.'You can see that in the days when religion evolved, the motto sounded right and pragmatic and it does even today, except that some people have forgotten it and still continue to forget it.

References

A splendid exchange – William J Bernstein

The Camel and the Wheel Richard W. Bulliet

Nabataean history http://nabataea.net/camel.html

Cross Cultural trade in world history – Philip D Curtin

World History: Journeys from Past to Present - Candice Goucher, Linda Walton

Pics

Wikiimages

His observations about Malabar circa 1668-1672

In Part 1 we covered his travels around the South of India, his misfortune, the connections with the Goa Governor’s mistress and the inquisition.

Just to get a little perspective, Charles Dellon (a.k.a. Gabriel Dellon/Dillon and Claude Dellon in various books) was a French Catholic physician and traveler to the East Indies., A physician by training, Dellon sailed to India in 1668 with the French Compagnie des Indes (q.v.).Dellon, spent some time in North Malabar and was operating out of the French factory in Tellicherry for five years after which he left the French services. Six months later, he was in jail In Daman, labeled a heretic by the Inquisition of Goa.

Dellon is always specific and precise in his observations and that is why they are so important to a student of history. He starts off by defining the region termed Malabar (malavar). Stating that most people have this impression that it stretches from Surat to the southern tip at Cape Comorin, he clarifies that it is actually South of Mount Eli (under the 12^thdegree of the North latitude) where the people assume the name Malabars or Malavars. This two hundred leagues (each league is roughly 3 miles) long tract of land had many petty kingdoms according to him and each of those king/lords administered his land independently and were not tributaries of any other prince. Note also that his writing is somewhat confined to the customs of Kolathunad, between Balipatanam and the northern borders of the Zamorin’s territory.

We have in the past read so much about the wars and the difficulties faced by the people of Malabar from the Portuguese, Dutch and the English. Few wrote about the land, though many detailed the customs they felt curious or wrongful. Some like Van Rheede, helped by local experts documented the flora and fauna in great detail in the Hortus Malabaricus, but Dellon wrote freely about what he saw.

Considering that he lived in Tellichery, we can understand it when he stated that the most powerful of them all is the king of Cannanore or Cotitri, the most respected and dreaded of them all. The Samorin who has more territories is considered to be inferior in strength. He goes on to say that it is a very healthy place with clean air, reaps rice twice a year and has a lot of different fruits. Spending a number of paragraphs to the coconut or ‘tencar’, he errs when stating that the tree dies after the coconuts are harvested but spends a while explaining the tapping of its liquor ‘Tary’ collected by Tieves (Tiyyas) who are responsible for coconut husbandry.

Interestingly he observes that the toddy which is sweet to drink, becomes sour by the day, tuning to an equivalent of cooking vinegar and used as such (for cooking) and also further distilled to make a kind of local brandy! The toddy with a little lime tastes as sweet as honey and is boiled to make cane sugar called jagara (chakkara) or the Portuguese jagerry. He observes that the young coconut provides Eliner, the tender coconut water (observe that they are all the very same words we still use..). And of course, he does not forget coir or hemp, used to make ropes used for ship building and also notes that the husk is used for cooking and by goldsmiths. The oil from the tree is used for cooking meats and burning lamps, and the waste kernel is used to feed cattle and hogs (thenga punnak). In essence, he concludes that it is a magnificent tree, providing so much to mankind…Oh! So true…

Other trees are mentioned, but I will skip the details and mention that he then spends a para on the jackfruit and another on the mango which was even in those days pickled (Achar) or eaten ripe. In fact he says that there is a green pepper pickle based in vinegar, and pepper is sometimes preserved in sugar. He does not fail to mention the pepper and cardamom plants of Malabar and the resulting trade. The cinnamon of Malabar is inferior to that from Ceylon and he notes that the Cardamom is mainly added to rice by the people of Arabia and Persia (Foodies take note - perhaps the talassery biryani had not arrived!!). Chewing betel with lime and areque (adekka) was popular, and something new to our friend Dellon but something he liked and recommended to his friends. He even notes that most Europeans living there enjoyed chewing betel like the natives who always offer betel if you visit them.

He observes that Malabar people are not too fond or gardens or flowers unlike the Mughals of the North. He also makes it clear that the women of Malabar are not vain, all they use is a little coconut oil on their hair and persona and not any kind of perfumes, unlike the women of the North. Parrots could be found in plenty and Indians do not bother training them to speak unlike the people of Europe and there are plenty of wild fowls and peacocks roaming round.

He is fascinated by the elephant, whom he accords the first rank among the beasts of the world. Considering them intelligent, he explains that they can drench a person they bear a grudge against in a mighty sprout of water from their trunks and he notices that they have a great memory (which he professes to explain with a small and interesting story of a sweeper boy who insulted the elephant and how the elephant taught him a lesson after several days when it came back to that place).

Interestingly he also mentions the story of the elephant that was sent to Lisbon and how the mahout scared the elephant about its being sent to a life of slavery. The elephant would not board the ship and the viceroy threatened to kill the mahout after which the mahout told the elephant that it was going to live a life of great happiness with the king of Portugal. Hearing the changed version the elephant finally boarded the ship to cross the seas. The mahout is termed ‘cornac’ by the locals. He also mentions that if a Malabar king is angry with somebody he lets his elephants loose on his grounds and the resulting destruction of property a just retaliation. He then observes that they are used in temples and in all kinds of hard labor situations.

But what astounded me was that he observed that there were plenty of Tigers in Malabar and notices three distinct types. The first is cunning and not bigger than a large cat (they had one in the French quarters), the second is the size of a calf (here is where I learned that mutton meant the meat of a slender calf). Anybody who killed the second type got a gold bracelet from the prince as reward and observes that people could wear a gold bracelet only after getting it or after being permitted to wear one by the prince. The third is the royal tiger, as big as a horse, but actually found only in parts north of Goa. And of course he mentions oxen, civet cats, jackals and plenty of apes. He is surprised that the men worship these monkeys and observes monkeys robbing wares laden on the heads of women who are headed alone to the market. The monkeys also try to drink the toddy from the tapping containers on coconut trees. Then he notices that there are plenty of boars in Malabar and the Nairs or gentlemen of Malabar hunt them often (panni vetta) and eat pork. The Nairs do not eat rabbits and they sell them to the Europeans. And of course there were snakes, plenty of them (called bambou – pampu) and he considers the natives stupid to worship them in temples and records some of the superstitions concerning snakes in vogue those days and is surprised they never kill a snake.

As you can see, Dellon has by now settled down famously, observing and penning his diary with good accuracy. If you read his accounts, you would be amazed at the seriousness with which he went about the task of understanding his new world. His study of the flora, the fauna, the people, the animals were outstanding, be they the Tiyas or the Nairs, or the coconut tree, which he rightly termed the greatest tree of the universe. He observes that pickles are called achar and toddy called exactly as it is today, but sees so many parrots, peacocks and wild boars and so on in Malabar, now all gone. Having observed the animals, the flora, the fauna and the region he gets to the people of Malabar.

The working class is well shaped, brown or black, but not as ugly as Africans, they wear their hair long. Dellon considers them treacherous, and the Mohametans even more perfidious and notes that breach of faith is commonplace. The working class serves the upper echelons of society which is four in number, the first being princes, the second being Namboothiris or chief priests, the third being normal Brahmins or assistant priests and finally the Nairs or the gentlemen. Only the Nairs have a birthright to bear arms and bear that responsibility without obstructing normal activities. The Tiyas take care of coconut trees and are allowed to bear arms with prior permission. The mukkuvas of course take care of fishing and live near the seashore and are not allowed to take on any other employment. The weaver tribes are called mainats. The pulayas are the despised accursed, and best avoided.

He also notes poignantly – It is a fundamental law amongst the Malabars, as well as most other nations of the Indies, which they look upon as unalterable and never to be neglected to wit, that nobody can rise beyond the degree of his tribe, wherein he is born, and let his riches be never so great, neither he nor his posterity can exclude themselves from that tribe or change their condition.

He spends a full chapter on the Nairs, that they are always the travel guards for anybody and escorts for any group. If they were not part of an entourage, no prince will accept any claims or complaints. As they moved from region to region, Nairs of that particular place took over from the previous escort. The daily going rate was 8 silver tares per diem ( ½ panam). When a nair is guarding your house, he gets only 4 tare as salary. They are most courageous and if a person in their care gets killed on travel, the Nair escort also kills himself instead of surviving him as a coward. He also notes that in case a traveller is escorted by a nair child, the child is never accosted by robebrs as it is a custom never to harm a child. In these cases the Nair boy carried a sharp 1 ½ foot long stick and not arms. Poor travelers used this method and paid only a small amount to the child.

He notes that different castes did not intermingle, especially in respect to eating and drinking, and details the caste rigors which we already know about. He notes that if a Namboodiri or Brahman girl are seen to transgress at this point, then the prince takes the ultimate decision of excommunication (the older version of smarta vicharam) by selling the girl to the highest bidder, especially foreigners who consider them the fairest of the Malabars. He then goes onto narrate a firsthand account of meeting one such lady who later converts to Christianity.

He notices that there are no jails, but that convicted persons do get chained in fetters till they are discharged or executed. Larger cases are tried by the prince and here he talks about a special type of ‘kaimukkal’ ordeal, different from the usual oil version. The person who pleads not guilty is asked to stretch his hand upon which a banana leaf is laid and on it a red hot iron is placed till it becomes cold. The hand is then covered with a piece of cloth dipped in gruel water (kanji vellam) by the prince’s washer man and sealed by the prince. After three days the seal is broken and the hand checked. If there are no marks, he is excused and if there are any, he is punished accordingly. There is never any appeal to any prince’s decision. Executions are conducted by Nairs, wherein a lance is run through the accused’s person after which they are cut into quarters and hung on trees.

He then explains the method of succession in the princely families of Malabar where the oldest prince succeeds the dead. The next is the most important aspect, the choice of a chief lieutenant/minister or the highest dignitary of the state who is always chosen by the ruler and is a person of outstanding quality, a Nair or a chetti!!! This was a bit surprising to me, for usually these are also from the ruling family in most cases. Did Dellon err? He notes that all matters of importance are recorded on palm leafs with iron quills. The chief minister then takes over the management as the old titular ruler retires to a life of comfort.

He notes that the Kolattiri king always wore a huge gold crown weighing 200 guineas and later gets into the details of the matrilineal kinship in Malabar. He rightfully observes that the daughters of princesses are wedded to Nambuthiris, and notes that the Nairs and others can marry one level below theirs, in caste. He also notes with some surprise that the women can have multiple husbands, and that there is no jealousy in this regard with the norm that the man leaves his arms at the door when he is with a lady. He affirms that this is the reason why children owe their pedigree to only their mothers and that is the reason why sister’s sons or nephews become the next heirs. He also makes it clear that the Mohametans observe the same (marumakkathayam) system of inheritance in Malabar and that 12 is typically the marriageable age for girls and that there are hardly any midwives and delivery is usually very easy compared to Europe. He explains that Malabar women are generally well shaped and not ill featured, that the little ones are more popular than taller girls and that Sati is not practiced in Malabar unlike the rest of the country. Both men and women wear their hair long and are naked to the waist, and he is surprised that the women do not try to wear finery, but are satisfied with just pure calico cloth. The richest wear girdles of gold and silver, even horn, but women wear just a ring. They, both men and women do have pierced earlobes which hang down to their shoulders, and wear heavy two ounce earrings in them. Only men favored by the king wear gold chains and all mean are clean shaven, though some are mustachioed.

Houses are typically mud based with thatched (coconut leaves) roofs, use mud pots for cooking and some baskets, even kings do not use gold or silver vessels and at night just use coconut oil lamps for light. They always eat with their backs to the lamp, and mainly based on rice. Since sauces are not used for cooking the food is bland and very basic in taste. They sleep on boards, and mattresses are not used even by the rich, though the upper classes sometimes use tapestry bed sheets. Every house has its own well and each is self-contained, with village life with shared facilities quite rare.

The temples are rich, coated with copper or silver and a tank in front, and have in addition places for travelers to stay as well as large tracts of land under their control ( more about that concept another day!) for yearly revenues. These grounds are holy and any act of bloodshed in this land sacrilege. Mentioning that the sun and the moon are revered, he notes that eclipses are greatly feared. But what surprises him the most was the ardent respect for elders, and that even the fiercest Nairs stand up before their elders. The calendar was based on the moon cycles, and he describes the temple festivals with good accuracy. He sees many training schools or kalari’s and he mentions that the Nairs of 1670, were sharp shooters carrying both muskets and the ball making molds, firing them with the rifle butt on the cheek, unlike Europeans who kept the butt on the shoulder. They had other arms too like the six foot bow and arrows, scimitars and lances. But then again, according to Dellon, even though courageous, the Nair’s never maintained order while marching, and were not structured or disciplined during combat. There are frequent exhibitions of skill attended by many people and he details the ankham or duels to settle a quarrel. Unlike the Malayali Nairs of today the Nairs then were patient and not too jumpy or over passionate. What surprises him the most was that after a battle most of the spoils are returned to the original owners!

In matters of commerce, Nairs are never involved and bazars are always full of foreigners and strangers conducting the trade. He spends a few paragraphs on the Moplah’s and notes that many of them are involved in piracy. He also explains that a tenth of the proceeds of their piratical endeavors were submitted to the prince of the land. Their paros carry 500 men and sail as far as the red sea, but they stay away from European ships. Even though sailing is somewhat unsafe due to these corsairs, traveling by land is safe, with the conduct overseen by Nair escorts. The Mohametans live near the town center and market.

The French factory is permitted by the prince Onotri (Kolatri) and the place given to them in Cannanore is called Tatichery, renamed Tellicherry by the French. Dellon and Flacour set about getting things started up. The Zamorin facing problems with the Dutch decided to approach Falcour to discuss an alliance. The French agreed and were provided a place at Aticote near Cochin to conduct their business from the Zamorin’s kingdom. But as it happened, the Zamorin lost the battle with the Dutch and the French ended up going back to where they were before, to Tellicherry. Dellon was then deputed together with Flacour to Srinipatanam (Srirangapatnam in Mysore) though it was the monsoon season and not ideal for travel, with a palm tree leaf umbrella common in Malabar. The trip was not very nice, with bad weather, leeches, and all kinds of other issues. It was a difficult ordeal and Dellon decided to return taking the support of Kunhali the most famous corsair of the time, at Badagara. He then visits Calicut and Tanore and makes the usual observations, some quite interesting.

Eventually Dellon goes back to Tellichery, but by then he was weary and bored and asked to be relived from Malabar duty. The following January he left Tellichery bound for Mangalore and later for Goa…

References

A voyage to the East Indies – M Dellon

Historic alleys – Dellon in Malabar part 1

Historic alleys – Ankhams of Malabar

Maddy’s ramblings – Pope and the elephant

The complete account of the little ‘French Loge’ at Calicut and its impact on the mighty British establishment is a lengthy topic which I will not cover in detail here. Nevertheless, one can conclude that the Calicut loge was a thorn in the British flesh. This small area of Calicut created many an administrative issue for the British bureaucracy (I guess it was the French idea of fun, during their mundane stay at Malabar, sans wine, women and gaiety) some quite silly and it was only later and closer to Indian independence that affirmative action was finally taken, to close the loge once and for all. This 6-7 acre plot thus lasted as French property for all of 246 years after its establishment in 1701.

TB Seluraj in his fine book recollects - Look Westwards from the French bakery to the beach and Northwards until today’s RC road. That was the boundary of the Loge. Today’s AIR radio station, the Baby marines and so on were part of this and once upon a time, there existed a fine bungalow later called the beach bungalow in those Baby marine grounds.

Before all that, in that fishing area where the French loge was situated, the perimeter contained a small factory and some private houses as you can see from the French maps posted here. The name of Loge was given to ‘factories or isolated establishments comprehending one house with the adjacent grounds where some commercial activity was undertaken’, especially storage and processing of pepper for shipping to Westerly locations. Not many are too sure about when it was established and some of the earliest comments about it, oft repeated by others, were provided by our esteemed collector Logan, in his manual. He states, with that English tilt stamped purposefully, thus….

The French have a Loge -Occupée par un gardien (Loge or Comptoir is an isolated factory or establishment where France had the right to fly its flag and to form factories)in Calicut. The loge consists of 6 acres on the sea shore about a half mile north of the light house and adjoins the old district Jail site. The exact facts connected with the foundation of the French factory are involved in doubt. It was apparently obtained by the French from the Zamorin, but there is nothing to lead to the supposition that the Zamorin had ever conceded to them anything more than mere commercial privileges within the limits of the Loge. The Zamorin appeared to have exercised fiscal and judicial authority within its limits – an authority which neither Hyder Ali nor Tipu Sultan ever bestowed on the French after the Zamorin’s power ceased.

Beyond the fact that the landed property and the house are untaxed, there is nothing to distinguish the Loge from the rest of Calicut. It is doubtful what rights the French government has in it. As it has been altogether omitted from the treaty of Versailles, dated the 3^rd Sept 1783, it has been held that the French has no sovereign rights in it. The Loge was restored to the French on 1^stFeb 1819. In the first capitulation of Mahe made by Monsieur Louet, Commander in Chief of the Garrison at Mahe, and signed on 10^th Feb 1761, it was agreed in Article 9 that ‘the French factory at Calicut shall be suffered quietly to enjoy the privileges of neutrality observed there’.

MO Koshy (Dutch power in Kerala p144) points out that the Loge was first built in 1701. By 1722, the French had moved major operations to Mahe. Anyway it went on to do its business, albeit quietly in a small scale until their newfound friends the Mysore Sultans decided to venture south. That was when the French equations with the English in Malabar started to change.

The Calcutta Review (1903) article on Imperial Calicut provides the next tidbit as follows - Meanwhile, we find that in 169S the French also had managed to establish a factory in the place (Calicut), though at this time they were apparently not doing much, for Hamilton tells us they neither had money nor credit and were "not in a condition to carry on trade. The French quarter or loge, as it is called, still exists as one of the foreign dependencies of the Republic, but it yields absolutely no material return to France, and the wonder is that France should cling to it so tenaciously when she might any day obtain a fairly good price for the land from the British Government.” W Francis in his South India gazetteer also opines that it was started in 1698. He states that it went to British hands thrice during the wars and was reinstated to the French in 1819 and was located south of the pier. So we can perhaps infer that a pier (perhaps the Calicut landing) existed well before the British built one in the mid1800’s. Murkot Ramunny in his book Ezhimala states that the French Calicut factory of 1698 was started after their unsuccessful experiments at Tellicherry. However Shantini in her doctoral thesis re- confirms that 1701 was the year when it was established.

I recounted some events related to the French in Malabarduring the Mysorean interludes in an earlier article, but therein, you would have noted that decisions came from Pondicherry and Mahe, in spite of a factor residing at Calicut. This was around 1773-1774 and the person involved was Duprat (In summary, the power of the Zamorin was snuffed when Hyder walked over the territories in 1764/66 and the events recounted, happened when a new Zamorin came back to take his place at Calicut in 1768. He then requested French assistance against the Mysore Sultans and it did not quite work out). But as we see it, the Loge at Calicut had little to do during all these events and is hardly mentioned. So we have little information about the loge during the period between 1701 and 1774.

During the Hyder - Tipu Interlude, an interesting event involving the Zamorin and the French Loge took place, and is recounted by Maistre de La Tour. It appears that the English had destroyed the French estate and buildings at Pondicherry and the French were looking for good wood to rebuild their property. As it happened, a Moplah trader of Calicut who owed a lot of money to the French got a consignment of wood released by Hyder Ali. The French requested the trader to provide the wood in order to pay off the monetary debt. As the wood was on its way, the English hearing of the deal pressured the Rajah of Coimbatore (Satyamangalam palayakar??) to seize it. The French complained to Hyder who opined that the Dutch, Portuguese and Danish factors should meet, discuss and decide on the next course of action. They did so and decided in favor of the French. The English not in agreement, and taking matters into their own hands (with the connivance of the Coimbatore raja), sawed up the wood into small pieces and made it useless for any rebuilding work. Now it was fit for use only as firewood. The French again complained to Hyder and the Coimbatore Raja seeing immense trouble looming, offered monetary compensation to the wood trader who then paid back the French, whatever money he owed them. Hyder observing this smelt a rat and saw that the raja had paid the French money that was actually due to him as some kind of tax and that the compensation to the French did not actually originate from the English. The enraged Hyder imposed a penalty of 4 lakhs on the raja for the deceit and applied further pressure by ensuring that water was not delivered to his palace. The raja who was a Brahmin (perhaps Kshatriya), could not take his mandatory baths and so finally dug into his secret treasure trove (apparently under the very seat of Hyder – i.e. in the house where Hyder was then residing) and paid Hyder the penalty. That was the first salvo fired by the French from the Calicut Loge against the British.

Following the transfer back to French hands, the Loge was a source of continuous irritation to the British and many an argument rested on Abkari or spirit sale rights as well as commerce undertaken from the French premises. The British had a spirit monopoly in Calicut and when the French opened shop, it was an affront to both the meager profits from Calicut but also to their sovereignty. They took offence and a number of missives were launched at each other. Let us take a look at some of those amusing episodes, but note here that the Calicut Loge was administered from Mahe and the Adhikari or man responsible for the outfit at Calicut was referred in French terms as the concierge. By mutual agreement no taxes were collected by the French or the English.

The most alarming was when the French planned to open a French port in front of the loge in 1865. Even though it was not a real possibility, the British were overly worried of competition, with the threat of the French sponsored opening of the Suez Canal as a backdrop (already the biggest global challenge to British supremacy over the ocean trade). This was when the British decided that from then on, sovereign rights would not be accorded to the Loge’s. The British argument was that the British inherited the rights from the Mysore sultans and the Zamorin and that the French only had commercial rights.
But by and far, the incident that provides most amusement is the one recounted by Akhila in her absorbing paper titled L’Inde retrouvee, Loss and sovereignty in French Calicut 1867-1868. I will provide an overview with all acknowledgements to her and many thanks for telling us the story.

As you can see, this takes us to French Loge in Calicut during 1867 with people of all types involved. There is D’Souza and D’Mello of Portuguese heritage, a Saldanha also of Portuguese extract, a Mr Bass of unknown (perhaps Portuguese) heritage, the Volkart brothers a Swiss company, the English bureaucracy and the residents of Calicut. As the story goes, Mr Bass lent some money to Mr R D’Souza, his brother in law. In lieu of the money, D’Souza gave Bass a horse, a carriage and some furniture as a payoff. These were sizeable objects and Bass did not have a place to put them in, nor as it appears, did he want to sell it. Let us not try to get to their motives (to me they were ulterior as you will soon agree), but Bass parked the carriage in the compound of a house belonging to one D’Mello and the furniture and horse in the house of one Saldanha (both these people being residents in the premises of the French Loge at Calicut). The horse ate its grass in a new location, munching away happily I suppose, the carriage rusted in the sea air in D’Mello’s shed and the furniture gathered dust. But events otherwise kicked into the next gear quickly.
Now comes along the Volkart brothers (agents and exporters), who if you will recall had a warehouse along the beach, perhaps adjoining the French. They were owed money by this D’Souza (It looks like he made a habit of borrowing money and not returning it) and as Volkart did not get it back, filed suit. D’Souza rushed to Cochin and Madras to argue and settle the case during this messy period.

Volkart’s attorney, Mr Ansell also sued M/s Bass, D’Mello and D’Mello’s father (hmm…wonder why!!) for having evaded the course of justice by acquiring the horse and carriage. The horse and carriage were seized and brought to the magistrate in Calicut. The furniture seizure did not take place because by then the Ameen pointed out that the property was in French territory. Ansell taking matters into his own hands moved the furniture from Saldanha’s (and with his connivance) house to Andre& Co’s house a mile away, in British territory. Now you know why Ansell did not sue Saldanha amongst the parties.

The court decided that what Ansell did was wrong and stated that the property attachment was illegal as they were located in French boundaries where British law was not exercisable. However even though Bass was able to provide evidence that he acquired this property from D’Souza legally, he was sentenced to 6 months simple imprisonment. Soon D’Souza returned and he was also caught and dumped in the nearby jail on similar charges. D’Mello and his father however, had to be released soon, as they were residents within French boundaries.

The D’Mello case came up again in appeal in Jan 1868. This time the court did not support the

French territory ruling on the grounds that it did not matter since the property was actually conveyed to a part of Calicut where Bass, a British Indian territory resident, did not ordinarily live, and so the property seizure as such was still pursuant under British law.

D’Mello was indignant as he was being tried by the British and repeatedly asked the authorities in Mahe & Pondicherry to intervene and provide proof that the Loge residents indeed had French rights. It does not appear he got any real support. But he also quietly tried to use the declining situation to his own advantage. He told the people in Mahe that the problems were due to a weak and powerless Adhikari the French had appointed to oversee French rights and that he D’Mello, would be a better candidate instead, for the future, perhaps in an elevated role as a resident.

Bontemps in Pondicherry then took up the case in Madras as another instance of British disregard for international treaties. He also specifically complained about the British disregard for proprietorship in the case of Calicut.
Anyway as the authorities argued on, we come to the end of this interesting event, so what would have happened to D’Mello case? After the sentence was passed, the horse and the carriage were returned to him. D’Mello knew what odds were stacked against him. He refused to take them back and insisted that since the British had unlawfully seized them, they themselves had to return it to him. Think about it, the property was still up for seizure in British territory, but not from French territory. The court was in British territory, and so if D’Mello sat on the carriage himself, he would set himself up for re-arrest. The magistrate refused to deliver them back to him and D’Mello had no choice but to take possession of the horse and the carriage. As soon as he did it, the police seized the carriage and this time promptly sold it off. What happened to the horse is not known; perhaps it languished in eth Zamorin’s stable sin Kuthiravattom. Nothing more is known about the people involved. Maybe they or their descendants eventually moved on to Goa ort Bombay….

What is interesting is that D’Souza and Bass got sentenced rightfully, for knowingly relocating their property after facing imminent seizure, to the French loge. Perhaps D’Mello’s got financially compensated for renting their space out, but Saldanha quietly colluded with the British when faced with trouble. The D’Mello’s saw opportunity in the face of justice at courts and tried to further their personal advancement.
The problems continued…….

A report in the Pondicherry Progress of 1893 implored that the French flag had to be flown at the Loge as the practice had been discontinued and the British were not allowing the Loge’s existence to be a profitable one. In fact the British also did not provide proper police security t Calicut and also refused repair of the French premises. In the past (in 1859-1860)it seems that the French Governor Mr Boutemps had to put pressure on the British by putting up the Abkarai rights at French Calicut (together with the Mahe bidding)for auction and got bids for it. The British who had a good and profitable sales (they had 5 canteens and a shop selling liquor in Calicut in 1860) inebriating the people of Malabar (yes, it was indeed the case even then!!) were alarmed and apologized for the delay. But of course, they delayed it again and nothing came out of the nullified threat and so the writer was reminding the public again of the issue. The other idea was to sell the Loge to the British but the French had a nostalgic attachment to the plot of land.

Next to be reported was the continuation of the above dispute in 1906, this time reported in the Straits Times of 18th July. The French finally got fed up and granted a native of Mahe permission to open a Beer shop on the French Loge premises. The other beer sellers of Calicut protested to the British Collector and the AC of Salt & Abkari. The British maintained that the French did not have Sovereign rights, but only Landlord rights (but if that were so, commercial rights were then admissible and wanting to sell beer is a commercial right). The Madras mail first reporting this story opined that it would be best if the French sold off the land to the British and stopped this never ending cause of friction between the two countries.

And we have the interesting story recounted by TB Seluraj in his fascinating book ‘Kozhikodinte Paithrukam’. This takes us to 1924 or so, when a Mahe resident, a poor fisherwoman named Kappiriparambil Kotha decided to sell fish near the municipality office. She was promptly arrested by E Achythan the inspector, on grounds that a French national could not sell fish in English territory. She was sentenced by the court, fined Rs 5/- and big sum for a fisherwoman. The indignant Kotha returned to Mahe pledging never to come back to Calicut. But her place was soon taken up by another Mahe resident, one Kanaran, who actually built a shed to conduct his business. The police demolished the shed, and the legal wars soon began, now between the French Mahe administrator and the British Malabar collector. The Mahe man pointed out that both the fisher folk had been within French boundaries, and not in British land, so the entire episode was without merit. He also threatened escalation if this continued and demanded Rs 24/- compensation. The matter went to Madras and maps were compared. The British established that according to the 1895 map, Kanaran’s shed was within British territory. The decision thus rested in favor of the British.

In 1933, we had the Matticolly issue, nicely written about by P Anima in the Hindu issue of Dec 28, 2012. The French Government ordered in November 1932 from Pondicherry “forbidding the use in French waters on the Malabar coast of a fishing instrument called ‘matticolly’.” The English had no idea what the French were talking about and frantically went about trying to find out what a matticolly was. They alerted the Malabar district magistrate and informed him that the French also were insisting that the Loge was their western boundary in India, so a careful eye had to be kept of the French goings on in Calicut. After a while the French governor himself is asked by the British to provide a description of the said matticolly with an illustration, which he does. “A matticolly consists of small mesh nets from 25 to 30 meters long, made of cotton or hemp threads…with nets of cord.” The practice of sardine fishing involves using the matticolly net (maybe mathi vala) and making a lot of noise to get the scared fish rush into the said nets. This noise scared away other fish and so the other affected fishermen were complaining as their revenues declined. Whether the practice was stopped or the fishermen went elsewhere, I do not know… but the matter appears to have reached an amicable solution and was closed.

Later, there were attempts by the Madras authorities to demarcate the seaward boundary of the French loge as the high water mark together with a number of other complaints about improper taxation and nonpayment of taxes. Records where the Madras authorities had levied distress warrants against residents of the Calicut loge for nonpayment of municipal taxes can also be encountered. Petty cases of fines against tea sellers in the French compound were also recorded in 1939.

Finally things came to a close. The independence of India in August 1947 gave impetus to the union of France's Indian possessions with former British India. The lodges in Machilipatnam, Kozhikode and Surat were ceded to India in October 1947.

The declaration read - The French Government sincerely wishing to tighten the bonds of friendship already existing between India and France, have decided, as a token of their will to settle all questions pending between the two countries in the most friendly and comprehensive manner, to hand over to India the existing French "loges"

Volkart who became Carrier AC agents, went on to create Voltas together with the Tatas. The British left in 1947 and the Calicut AIR radio station started its broadcast from where the French once traded, broadcasting in MW in May 1950. The French Loge together with all the intrigues was soon gone, and the only remnant is the French bakery at its periphery, which now serves nothing French to my knowledge. I do not know how long it will last, and I still remember how they would deliver mutton cutlets and coffee to your car window – the only place of its kind in the Calicut of the 70’s and 80’s.
References
Pondicherry Progress Dec 24^th 1893 – retold in Jan 27, 1894 Colonies and India news
Straits times 18^th July 1906, Page 9, French India
HinduArticle P Anima
French maps – From and this
Anglo-French sovereignty disputes in India, 1918-1947: Attempts at peaceful settlement - Geoffrey Marston
France's Lost Empires: Fragmentation, Nostalgia, and la Fracture Coloniale - edited by Kate Marsh, Nicola Frith, (L’Inde retrouvee - Article by Akhila Yechuri)
Kozhikodinte Paithrukam – TB Seluraj (Meenkari Kothayum Antharashtra Athirthiyum)
The history of Ayder Ali Khan, Nabob-Bahader: By Maistre de La Tour (M.)

Accession to India

The administrative declaration by the Government of India

Under Section 290, Government of India Act, as amended, to clear all doubts the Government of India issued a notification which is styled the Madras (Enlargement of Area and Alteration of Boundaries) Order, 1948. It reads: Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by the said section and of all other powers enabling him in that behalf, the Governor-General is pleased to make that following order: 1. This order may be cited as the Madras (Enlargement of Area and Alteration of Boundaries) Order, 1948. 2. The areas specified in the schedule to this order, which were known as the French Loges at Masulipatam and Calicut, are hereby declared to be included in the territories of the Dominion of India and shall be deemed always to have been included in the said territories. 3. The said areas shall form part of the Province of Madras and shall be deemed always to have formed part of the said Province and the boundaries of the said Province shall be deemed always to have been so altered as to comprise within them the said areas. 4. (i) The area comprised in the loge at Masulipatam shall form part of Bandar town in Kistna district and the area comprised in the loge at Calicut shall form part of Calicut town in Malabar district and the said areas shall be administered accordingly.

Mario, the great cartoonist and Goan resident got me started on this, with his chapter (in his book ‘Legends of Goa’) ‘An unsolved mystery’ which ended in a question about some ancient relics. Time passed since I read it and in the meanwhile, matters of the relics had come to a head, with the question being answered once and for all, earlier this year. The story which started and ‘kind of’ ended far away in Georgia in the mid 1620’s, moved later to Persia and finally trickled down to Goa in India. Fittingly a closure was applied by an Indian scientist, but with a ghoulish price tag – a million dollars (as stated in news articles, but not substantiated!). Two things triggered the story in my mind recently, one was the chance meeting of an American of Iranian descent from Shiraz at a Persian restaurant (while eating some succulent Kobide kebabs) and the other being a completion of my study of migration and how genetic analysis helped in determining some conclusions about it. Time is I suppose right to get back to this marvelous story. It is important to get some background on the order of Augustine and the church itself, for we are going to Goa at the end of the story, once again…

From Augnet - Augustine incidentally was a saint who lived in Italy and Africa between 383-430AD. In his spiritual tradition all good things come back to the one thing: love, the very center of Christian existence. The heart, which artists have often portrayed Augustine holding, is a key to this spiritual tradition. For Augustine the heart is a metaphor for all that is deepest, truest and personal in every individual person. Around 1535, two friars Villa Franca and Montoya with Dom Joao’s support preached the virtues of this particular order and brought about the golden age of the Portuguese Augustinians 1569-1630. The Order of Saint Augustine began to send men from Portugal to Goa in 1572 and this became the center for members of the Order until its decline around 1834. The Augustinians initiated the construction of the Convent and Church of St. Augustine on the Holy Hill soon after. This new Augustinian monastery, became the richest monastery in Goa, and next to it was the massive Church - the largest church in Goa. This tall church was a great sight and the Italian architect ensured that it was solid by firing cannon balls at it. The Augustinians are soon busy with conversions and rescue of child slaves being shipped to Persia and Arabia.

The Church of St. Augustine, was a very spacious building, with its facade looking to the west. A

long and beautiful staircase led up to it. It had two towers which were very high, and contained bells of enormous size. It had a nave, with a vault which was the best constructed in Goa, and was therefore admired by strangers. Captain Franklin says that the building of the choir belonged to the Gothic style. The edifice had eleven altars, all richly adorned, but the main altar is said to have been a masterpiece of workmanship. This beautiful church was erected almost at the same time as the convent; and there is a curious tradition about it. An Italian architect, who was entrusted with the construction of its vault, twice built it, but his labors were on both occasions rendered fruitless by its fall. Being reduced to despair, he rebuilt it a third time, and to try its stability placed himself and his only son directly under it and ordered a heavy cannon to be fired near the building, choosing rather to lose his life in the event of the vault falling through than to undergo a fresh disappointment. Fortunately the vault resisted the shock; he was satisfied as to the durability of the work, and received a suitable remuneration for his pains.

An important event occurred towards the end of the 16^thcentury in Persia for Hamza Mirza, the heir to the throne fell critically ill and recovered after his Christian wife from Georgia brought him back to normalcy with Christian prayers. His promise was that he and his nation would convert and this message reached Goa through an Armenian who was living in Persia. Recall also that Cappadocia in Turkey was home for many Christian monks and Georgia had adopted it as a stage region early on. Priests reporting to Rome could be seen until early 16^th century after which internal strife resulted in the local post at Georgian Tibilisi becoming vacant. The events which followed come from the religiously colored eyewitness account of an Augustinian missionary present at Shiraz and published as recently as 1982.

Shah Abbas, the Shehenshah of Iran came to the throne during a troubled time when the neighbors the Ottomans and Uzbeks were busy taking over parts of the country after a weak rule by his father. In 1588, Murshid Qli Khan a Qizilbash leader, overthrew Shah Mohammed in a coup and placed the 16-year-old Abbas on the throne, but the wily kid took over control quickly. To get rid of the Qizilbash prevalent powerbase, he used Georgians, Armenians and other Ghulams who were brought in and placed in court employment, after due conversion to Islam. As you can imagine, these Georgians and other new groups were already heavily vying with the Qizilbash for power and were often involved in complex court intrigues.

In Georgia meanwhile, Queen Ketevan gets married to Prince David of Kakheti. David’s father, King Alexander II had two other sons, George and Constantine. Constantine was converted to Islam and was raised in the court of the Shah Abbas I. However, the young king David who has risen to the throne, dies suddenly, survived by Ketevan, and two children, Teimuraz, and Elene. At this point Constantine is asked by Shah Abbas to get rid of Alexander. He goes on to kill his father and brother and decides to take Queen Ketevan as his wife. The people finally revolt and kill Constantine. Teimuraz grows up, he and Shah Abbas become friends, Teimuraz’s wife Ana dies of throat cancer, and eventually he and the Persian Monarch are no longer friends, but Teimuraz takes over the throne. In 1614 Shah Abbas informs Georgian King Teimuraz that his son would be taken hostage, and Teimuraz is forced to send his sons and mother Ketevan to Persia.

Now those who have studied the history of that region will remember that the Shah was aligned to the British and had expelled the Portuguese from Bahrain and Kisijhne. By 1622 the Portuguese had relinquished Homruz to the British who gave it back to the Persians. When the Portuguese requested the Shah’s help to restart their relations afresh, the Shah asked for Portuguese for forces to fight the Turks, but the Portuguese then under Spanish yoke could not provide it.

We now head to Fars, one of Iran’s 30 provinces; its capital city is Shiraz. As the story goes, the queen is finally on her way back to Georgia, and while at Shiraz, demanded the release of her compatriots imprisoned by the Shah. Various other reasons are attributed to the subsequent imprisonment of the queen (such as spying, support for Russians etc) and the castration and conversion of her grandsons, but eventually we see queen Ketevan in prison in Shiraz, and there she remained behind bars for a long period of 11 years. After five years of exile, the princes Alexander and Levan are separated from Ketevan and castrated. Alexander who could not endure the suffering died, while Levan went mad.

After some time Shah Abbas decided to convert Ketevan to Islam, and he also announced his intention to marry her. In case she agreed, she was to be honored as a queen, and case she refused, she was to be subjected to public torture.

What happened is narrated by the eyewitness, an Augustinian friar Ambrosio dos Anjos who had in 1623 been given permission to start a small hospice and church in Shiraz. Interestingly accounts mention that there were many Indians also living in Shiraz, even Brahmins!

What was Anjos doing in Shiraz? It seems a good number of Christians had moved to Shiraz after Hormuz was captured by the Shah in 1622. To take care of these Christians, the prior of Isfahan’s Augustinian convent, Sebastiao de Jesus, sent two clergymen to Shiraz, Ambrósio dos Anjos and Manuel da Madre de Deus. The contended Anjos states – “In Esfahan, Basrah and this one in Shiraz, the divine offices are celebrated with as much tranquility as in Goa”.

Ketevan clung on to her faith and exhorted everybody else to do so, refusing to convert or marry the Shah, infuriating the governor of Shiraz and also the Shah headquartered in Isfahan. Whether it due to Teimuraz’s affinity or involvement with Russians vying for territory or some other petty reason is not clear but the Shah had enough of Ketavan and her meddling in his affairs. Matters came to a head when the Russians sent an emissary on behalf of her son Teimuraz asking for her release.

The Persians tried hard to convince Ketevan that she could name her price to convert, but she would not. Finally the two torturers who were waiting in the courtyard were summoned. The rest of the graphic description is difficult to stomach these days, but I presume it was common stuff in Persia and up north.Bringing in two braziers filled with burning coals, they tied her hands, placed a heated copper bowl on her head and slowly tore off flesh from her with red hot tongs working their way down from her face. She is then horribly mutilated, killed and finally her dead body is bound up in a sack and buried in a deep pit nearby without any headstones.

Anjos, three Portuguese captives and Pedros dos Santos recovered the body some months later in Jan 1625. Anjos faithfully recorded the queen’s devotion with a plan to get her beatified. They brought the relics to the church and placed the bones in a small urn. Of the body itself, only the right hand and left foot remained, with flesh as white and beautiful as if the person was alive! They decided that it was not safe to keep this treasure in Shiraz (as the Carmelites wanted it for themselves) and moved it to the Augustinian convent at Isfahan in the care of Manuel da Madre de Deus.

In 1626, the Augustinians faced the latest wrath of the volatile Shah and had to flee. Anjos fled to Goa, but Deus could travel to Goa only ten months later. The right hand and a bone from the dead queen’s arm were carried to Goa with an intention to hand them over to Pietro Della Valle in Rome.

Remember Pietro Della Valle? He was a traveler who ended up marrying a Persian woman and lived for a while serving at Abbas’s court. He then went on to tour India, and was at Calicut as well. But why was he the consignee? Because he understood the region, the politics and because he was a gentleman of the bedchamber, appointed by Pope Urban VIII. As it occurred, the friars in Goa decided to retain the relics in Goa and sent only the lower mandible of the Queen to Della Valle who was happy with it. It is presumed that this is interred in the crypt in St Peter’s basilica.

Church politics was of course at play here and the Augustinians wanted to expand and establish a church in Georgia. To ensure that this went smoothly Anjos would be deputed to Georgia with the precious bones of the martyred queen. Eventually Anjos, Pedro and party reached Teimuraz in May 1628 and handed over Ketevans foot to Teimuraz. Teimuraz gladly gave the consent to the Augustinians to build a church in Gori. After the holy mission was accomplished, Pedro returned to Goa. Now the remaining task was only the canonization of the martyred queen, but that got stalled for a while as a question about her Catholicism and obedience to the pope was not quickly clarified. Even though records (Silva Regos works) stated – Guativanda Deadapoli has been instructed in the Christian faith by Friar Ambrosio dod Anjos and swearing obedience to the Roman Church encouraged by other religions, she renounced her marriage with the king of Persia (was she married briefly to Shah Abbas?) and for this reason she was tortured and finally put to death by her executioners on Sept 22 1624. Queen Ketevan was finally canonized by Patriarch Zachary of Georgia (1613–1630)

Sometime in the 18^th century, the tiled scenes depicting the martyrdom of the queen were exhibited

in Lisbon, where you can still see them. At Gori things went well until 1634 when an attack of plague killed most of the mission except for our friend Anjos, who survived. Pedro had earlier gone back to Goa in 1633 did not return to Gori but stopped in Isfahan and later in 1639 had to sell off the convent after seeing the condition it was in. Anjos traveled again to Goa, returned to Rome but died in a shipwreck while going home to Lisbon.

Now we come to the relics themselves. The fragments provided to Teimuraz by Anjos were lost when his horse fell into a river. Those buried in Ispahan were never found. Those which landed up in a Russian monastery were returned to the Georgians. But the bits that were still left in Goa were still there until the archeologists hit a black box. The Goans friars, had preserved the bones in a black stone box which was displayed near the window in the church of Nossa Senhora da Graca.

The church of St Augustine in the meantime was on its decline. The end of Portuguese government funding to religious orders in 1832 meant that these things had to be closed or consolidated. As it happened, the buildings fell into neglect, and gradually became dilapidated, their ruin being precipitated by the fall of the sumptuous vault of the church, on the 8th September 1842, which buried under its debris the colossal image of St. Augustine, founder of the order, and that of Nossa Senhora da Grafa, patroness of the church. The Council of the Public Treasury ordered the sale of the materials in the following year. This church was closed along with the convent; the valuable articles belonging to both were sold or lost, and the principal bell, which weighed 4,800 lbs., was removed to the fortress of Agoada.

When it was completed in the 16th century, the grand Nossa Senhora da Graca Church was recognized as one of the three great Augustinian churches in the Iberian world, the other two being the Basilica of the Escorial in Spain, St. Vincente de Fora in Lisbon. But the church did not stand the test of time though it withstood the cannon barrage by the Italian architect who built it. Only a lone tower and parts of the faced remained.

Goatourism states -The tower is one of the four towers of St. Augustine Church that once stood at the

site. Initially built of laterite and colossal in size, almost forty-six meters high, it had four stories. The Tower was meant to serve as a belfry and the Church had eight richly adorned chapels and four altars and a convent with numerous cells attached to it. This remnant, the renowned St. Augustine's tower is all that remains of what was once one of the largest buildings in Goa -- The Augustinian Monastery

And as all that happened, the bones of Queen Ketavan rested near it…undisturbed…until now…

The importance of Queen Ketevan for the Georgian people led to hunt for this relic during the last decade, notably in Goa. Since 1989, various delegations coming from Georgia worked with M Taher of the Archaeological Survey of India to try to locate Ketevan's grave within the ruins of the Augustinian convent. In 2000-2001 Dr Kenchoshville of Georgia obtained permission from the Indian government and spent weeks excavating somewhere near the second window, but reached nowhere. In May 2004, the Chapter Chapel and window mentioned in the sources were finally discovered. Although the stone urn itself was missing, it’s coping stone and a number of bone fragments were found close to the window mentioned in the Portuguese sources.

Dr. Niraj Rai of the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India carried out DNA analysis on these human bone remains excavated from the St. Augustine convent by sequencing and genotyping of the Mitochondrial DNA. The investigations of the remains revealed an unusual mtDNA haplogroup U1b, which is absent in India, but present in Georgia and surrounding regions. Since the genetic analysis corroborates archaeological and literary evidence, it is likely that the excavated bone belongs to Queen Ketevan of Georgia.

However as the scientific paper on the DNA analysis states - it is important to keep in mind that Ketevan's palm and arm bone fragments were kept in the same urn as the complete remains of two European missionaries, Friar Jerónimo da Cruz and Friar Guilherme de Santo Agostinho. Therefore, it would be crucial to determine the sex and the kind of bone of the fragments tested in order to have conclusive results.

The Huffungton post article concludes with a geneticist’s views -The study is well done and honest, Jean-Jacques Cassiman, a geneticist at the University of Leuven in Belgium who was not involved in the study, wrote in an email.”It is a bone presumed to be of the queen and will remain so until its DNA can be compared to that of preferably living relatives and if not available dead relatives," Cassiman said, referring to nuclear DNA that is in all the body's cells. But until that point, the conclusion is based on statistics. Those statistics strengthen the idea that the bone belongs to St. Ketevan, but aren't strong enough to positively identify the remnant, Cassiman said. The Georgia news article puts a million dollar price tag, but it does not corroborate it.

I do not know if the relics finally found their way back to Georgia.

References

The mission of the Portuguese Augustinians to Persia and beyond (1602-1747) – John M Flannery

The martyrdom of Queen Ketevan in seventeenth century Iran: an episode in relations between the Georgian Church and Rome – John Flannery

A Historical and Archaeological Sketch of the City of Goa: By José Nicolau da Fonseca

Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia - Donald Rayfield

More details of the church & photos

Augustinian order

Tailnote

1. It seems the movie Gunnam – the suspense thriller was shot near this church! Strange isn’t it, also to note that a singer of Goan origin (from the Mangeshi village) Lata Mangeshkar is singing the spooky song - Gunam hai koyi remember ti?? You can even see the ruins of this very church in the movie

See Tarun bose’s article & pictures

2. Gori incidentally is also popular for being Stalin’s birth place!

When the Tanur king converted to Christianity

The scene - After Vasco da Gama’s unsuccessful attempts in obtaining a foothold in Malabar to increase the pepper shipments to Lisbon and after Cabral’s show of force failed to shake the Zamorin, the Portuguese settled down around 1500 with their newfound ally the Cochin raja. The furious Zamorin had decided then to teach the Cochin king a good lesson. Intrigues and battles followed, with one or the other ascending the ladder of supremacy. But the Raid on Cranganore (October, 1504) and the defection of the Tanur king to the Portuguese were serious setbacks for the Zamorin. These events pushed the front-line of battles north and effectively placed the Vembanad lagoon out of reach. Any hopes the Zamorin had of quickly resuming his attempts to capture Cochin via the backwaters were effectively dashed.

Chaliyam’s (the nearby locales of Parappanad, Beypore, Tirur, Tanur are all known in history from ancient times and form part of this locale) history is certainly checkered after that, and the events in that region were to determine the futures of many a king, namely the Zamorin, the Portuguese, the Chinese, the Arabs and Moplahs. One can think a bit and easily figure out why the place was important. One was the access to the river Bharatapuzha, trade connected to it and secondly the geography of the vicinity. As you will note the serene Puzha flows over the Nila valley and empties the waters from the mountains into the Arabian Sea at Ponnani, so it was an important sea port that connected though a major river to inland centers where material for trade arrived. This locale in early Malabar history was called Vettathnaad, Vattathunad, Vattathukovil, Prakasha Rajya or land of light. Today the family that ruled these areas is extinct, and their story is not very easy to piece together, but we do know that at one time, one of the chieftains for the sake of survival even changed religion to side with the Portuguese. Rivalry with the neighboring Zamorin of Calicut determined the future of that place.

Readers should note that there were two chieftains, one being the Tanur king or Vettath raja, the other being the vassal of the Zamorin called the (N) Parappanad raja. Vettatnad (Vettam) or Tanur Swarupam comprised of parts of Ponnani and Tirur Taluks. It included within itself such places as Tanur, Trikkantiyur, Chaliyam, Triprangode etc. Chalium on the other hand was controlled by the Parappanad raja called UrinamaThe Tanur kingdom was in those days very learned, and produced many famous people, mathematicians and artists. Tanur was thus a swaroopam. Somewhere during the 1350 period the wars between the upcoming Zamorin and the Vettah raja intensified and the dynasty were defeated by the Zamorin. The Ponnani port was very important for Arab trade and thus the strategic importance meant that the Zamorin had to have a long term relationship with the raja. Following this the Tirunavaya wars took place and in the uneasy truce that followed the Vettam raja was given a significant position in the ceremonious Mamankham where he stood to the right of the Zamorin and the Shahbandar koya of Calicut to his right.

The local kings of Vetathunaad, Beypore and Chaliyam did not quite like the policy adopted by the Zamorin (recall that they were connected family wise to the Cochin king already, not to the Zamorin) to conquer Cochin. The Vettath raja was the first to decide that he should align himself to the Portuguese and obtain an insurance against a Zamorin overture.

Initial forays in 1504 by the Portuguese to firmly ally with Tanur and find other allies in the region were not conclusive but the Tanur Raja helped some shipwrecked Portuguese in 1528 by giving them shelter & support. Da Cunha who succeeded Lopez finally sued for peace with the Zamorin towards 1529, after a tumultuous period where fortunes seesawed. Da Cunha seizing the opportunity sought support from him to build a fort in Tanur. However the building materials shipped for that purpose were lost in a shipwreck. Tanur continued to be in the Portuguese eyes for they not only had rice, coconuts and tradesmen. But also a number of ships. But the Portuguese had established a fort in Calicut instead and this lasted during 1513-1525 before being destroyed.

At Calicut a new Zamorin had come to the sthanam in 1531. Da Cunha, hell bent on securing that strong foothold in Malabar, enticed the Chaliyam Raja - Unni Rama by offering 2000 pardaus and 50% of the customs revenue, and requested permission to build a fort, which he agreed to after persuasion by his neighbor the Raja of Tanur. Using stones from the tombs and the old mosque (quoting Zainuddin Mukkadam) at Chaliyam or Pappu kovil, the Franks finally started building their base much to the annoyance of the local Muslims. With the help of the Chaliyam raja, a fort and a chapel ‘Santa maria de Castello’ were built at Chalium in 1532, together with a house for the commander, barracks for the soldiers, and store-houses for trade. The thoroughly incensed Moplahs and Arab moors appealed to the new suzerain at Calicut (Note that Tanur, Chaliyam and beypore were always under the Zamroin’s suzerainty). As you will realize, the fort at Chalium was strategic for it controlled the entrance to the sea and the waterways providing much control over trade in the region.

When the Zamorin remonstrated, the Chaliyam raja immediately agreed to stop support for the Portuguese, but the Tanur (Vettath) Raja decided to formally side the Portuguese and even take a step further by converting to Christianity to get the full support of the Franks (the Cochin king had meanwhile, refused to convert) and protect himself in future endeavors. The dates go a little awry here, for Krishna Ayyar mentions that these events took place in 1531, however Jesuit documents reconfirm 1545 as the date when the conversion of the king was planned to be carried out in secret.

It was sometime in 1545 that Francis Xavier came to Malabar. He left Lisbon in 1541 and by fall 1542, he had reached the fishery coast to tend to the Paravas (Read my articles listed under references for further details of his work and the persona of Joao da Cruz). While Xavier did succeed in getting many conversions done, his work was considered to be very unsystematic. This was the time when a new iron handed rector named Antonio Gomes entered the scene and soon locked horns with Xavier, but Xavier was on his way to Japan already after being disappointed by the Indians (barbarians, inconstant, and liars according to him) compared to the Japanese whom he found likeable. Xavier who was in theory Gomes’s superior, also found the Portuguese bureaucracy stifling. Gomes using his stronger connections in Lisbon, decided to start a number of Jesuit colleges and Chale or Claliyam was one of the locations he chose. Gaspar Barzaeus was to take care of this college. Xavier complained that António Gomes had no qualifications “to be in charge of the brothers in India and of the college”. But while the Jesuit college proposal for Chale never took off, Gomes did end up in Tanur.

Quoting Zupanov - From April until September 1549, he resided in part in Tanur, close to the Portuguese fortress in Chale, and in part traveled down the Malabar Coast. Officially, he had been sent by Bishop Juan de Albuquerque to instruct the king, who had been secretly converted to Christianity the previous year and who, in Gomes’s words, was “a man of good prudence and knowledge and, in what he shows he does not aspire to anything more than his salvation. In fact, more than or in addition to his spiritual salvation, the king of Tanur banked on Portuguese temporal, that is, military, support.

So we see that the king converted in 1548. Stepping back in time and looking into Jesuit records, we see that the Tanur King expressed his desire to convert in 1545, but as the whole idea of making a grand spectacle of baptism very risky, and since other matters were more pressing, delayed the event and then again, Xavier was away in Malacca. Another reason was that the King actually wanted the conversion to be done privately “in order to preserve the external signs of his caste and religion, such as the (sacred Brahman) thread and other pagan rites” (Note here that unlike the Zamorin who was a regular Nair, the rest of the Tamburans including the Tanur king were considered to be Samanthan Kshatriyas who could wear a poonool). This was not acceptable to Goa in 1545, but the resistance decreased in the next two years (It also appears that Diogo de Borba who was sent to Chaly on a fact finding mission felt that the Tanur king was just trying to use this ruse to get concessions from the Zamorin). But following Gomes’s intervention and involvement, the king allowed himself to be secretly converted following a concerted effort by João Soares, the vicar in Chale, and the Franciscan Frey Vicente de Lagos, who gave the neophyte a metal crucifix to hang onto his thread, “hidden on his chest.”

Now you see Gomes, entering the scene, having had a bigger win at converting a noble man compared to the lower classes Xavier had converted. Gomes spent five months at Tanur educating the new Christian Dom Joao, into Christian ways. He also converted the wife of the king, christening her as Donna Maria later in 1549.

In Goa, Albuquerque grandly stated: “It is the same in our case of Dom João de Tanur, who on the outside is dressed like others and in his heart wears the Catholic faith (en seu coração traz vestida a fé catoliqua), for the goal of converting many grandees and Nayars in his kingdom. . . . And when the time comes . . . he will break the Brahman thread, and will tear his old clothes and will be dressed in Christian clothes, which are Portuguese, just as the knight St. Sebastian did.

Perhaps the Tanur King felt a little insecure now, for he expressed his desire to travel to Goa. His relatives and the people of Malabar dissuaded him, so also the authorities at Goa. They wanted their pepper economics to be stable and to keep the game in play. The Zamorin also refused permission, and even offered additional territory near Ponnani to prevent him from going, but he left anyway. He is accosted, and imprisoned in a temple in Cannanore, but he escaped and reached Goa.

As the story goes, the Tanur King was warmly received in Goa in Oct 1549

It was yet another reason for Goa to celebrate it like a carnival. According to Juan de Albuquerque, Dom João received all the honors due a king, marked by three types of sounds: musical instruments such as trombetas, atabales (kettledrums), and charamellas (shawms); artillery discharges; and church bells. In this way, he was symbolically, or rather acoustically, co-opted into (or captured by) the Portuguese social, military, and religious orbit. At least for a short period of his stay in Goa, the king went “native”; he became a Portuguese because that was still the undisputed goal of conversion to Christianity. Thus, before entering the town, Dom João was “dressed in a Portuguese manner in honorable and rich clothes, with a very rich sword fastened [around the waist], with a rich dagger, one golden chain, black velvet slippers, a black velvet hat with a printed design (com uma estampa).”Fittingly caparisoned, he was paraded through the equally bedecked streets animated by dances, mimes, and gypsies performing along the Rua Direita and led in a solemn procession from the palace to the cathedral for the Mass. The next day he visited the monasteries and, at the invitation of António Gomes, spent the night in the College of St. Paul. He was then confirmed by the bishop and, on October 27, Dom João embarked the fusta, loaded with honors and gifts, and returned home to Tanur. Also his mother and son were converted and baptized.

The Goan Governor paid a return visit to Tanur, following which more conversions occurred and a new church was built. This was all to affect the people of Malabar for in 1598 one of the Zamrin’s nephews converted. We will get to that story soon.

Now why did the Tanur king feel so insecure to adopt this huge risk? As he admitted to the bishop of Goa, his position vis-à-vis the neighboring kings might be weakened by his conversion, and his younger brother who had fled Tanur was only waiting for a chance to snatch his kingly title. Moreover, he was a substitute king for his older, feebleminded (não capaz de siso) brother.

But all this wonderful stuff came to naught in the politics of the pepper trade. The Casa da India in Lisbon wanted Malabar pepper and this came from the Zamorin’s lands or from Cochin. If somebody was reason enough to reduce this regular outflow of pepper, Christian or not, the reason had to be snuffed out.

More wars and tussles took place, the Cochin king and the Zamorin had bones of contention with the Portuguese. The Tanur king tried to mediate unsuccessfully, and the fourth pepper war took place in 1550 over the territory of Bardela (Vaduthala?). The Goan establishment had also started to sense some disenchantment with the Tanur king who they now believed to be insincere. A rebellion of sorts took place against Gomes and Henriques who was appointed as confessor to the king, refused to listen to this pagan. Perhaps realizing the impractical nature of the situation and the complex relationship with the Portuguese, the Tanur raja soon returned to Hindu beliefs and deserted the Portuguese and instead allied with the Zamorin in the pepper war.

Pepper cargo to Lisbon was delayed until 1551 and soon enough Governor Jorge Cabral left for home and Gomes lost his political support in Goa. According to Gaspar Correa, whose Lendas da Índia ends with the Pepper War of 1551, it became obvious to everybody that the conversion of the King of Tanur was a fraud. His only reason for conversion was to renegotiate with the Zamorin certain territorial possessions along the river Ponnani.

We also hear a small story of the Tanur kings treachery and support for the Portuguese, in his papers about the two Dutchmen who were first invited by this king from Achen and Maladives and who were later handed over through the Cochin king and hanged by the Portuguese.

But the region would soon become the scene for more bloodshed, and for details of what happened, and how the Chalium fort was demolished in 1571 and eventually how the marakkars lost out, see the story of Kunhali marakkar narrated earlier. It appears also that when the fort of Chalyam fell, the residents were taken to the king of tanur. It could of course be said that this alignment was commercially better for the merchants of Tanur and the king himself, for they stopped paying the dues to the Zamorin.

The Tanur principality was to play a continuing role in regional politics. This became a base for Jesuit fathers trying to make forays into the Malabar towns. This was also where Father Fenizio started his work about which we will be discussing soon. We see that the descendants of the king also supported the Portuguese and they built more churches there in the early 17^th century. But troubles continued when one of them was destroyed and then a plague hit Tanur and the Jesuits left for Calicut.

They not only supplied princes for adoption to the Cochin kingdom, but also Travancore. In 1658 when the Cochin crown fell vacant, five princes from the Tanur and Aroor royal families were taken into the palace by the regent. What followed was a war where the Portuguese, the Dutch and the Zamorin were involved with a lot of intrigues. Later the Tanur royal family lost a lot when the Mysore sultans attacked. Eventually, the EIC took over and finally with no natural or adoptive heirs to succeed the last king of Tanur, the kingdom was declared forfeit to the EIC and the temple was transferred to the Zamorin in 1842. For details on the relations with Travancore and ravi Varma, see the article Raja in Ravi Varma..

Tanur was instrumental for some important events though, for the Vettath sampardayam in Ramanattam (which later became Kathakali) originated from Vettah nadu and is attributed to a later raja of Tanur (1630-1640). During British times, Tanur Sardine oil was popular.

References

Journal of Kerala Studies, Volume 10 – The king of Tanur on the Malabar coast and the Indo Portuguese trade in the 16^th century – KS Mathew

One civility but multiple religions – Ines Zupanov

Missionary topics – Ines Zupanov

Jesuits in Malabar – D Ferroli

The Kunhali marakkars

St John of the Cross

Shamiti mystery

The raja in Ravi Varma

We talked about the salt fields and the salt march at Calicut in a previous post and the research naturally led to Gandhiji and his visits to Kerala and particularly Calicut. He came twice to the Malabar headquarters in those days, at first in 1920 in connection with the Khilafat movement. Let’s take a look at those days.

First a few words about the Khilafat movement. Following the defeat of Turkey in WWI, the british decided to abolish the office of the Kahlifa or the highest religious institution for Muslims in 1918, and break up the Ottoman empire by 1920. The Caliphate as you may know, is an Islamic system of governance in which Islamic law is used for state rule. The Muslims of SE Asia joined hands in the protest against this, and India was foremost in the campaign. With Gandhiji’s exhortation, the Hindus slowly joined hands with the Muslims in this regard and presented a combined face against the British. The non-cooperation campaign was initially quite successful as protests, strikes and various acts of civil disobedience spread across India. Hindus and Muslims joined up to offer peaceful resistance. To spread the word, Gandhiji and Shaukat Ali decided to travel around India.

Gandhi and Shaukat Ali traveling from Trichy, arrived at Calicut on the 18th August 1920. They arrived around 2.30 p.m. and alighted at the Kozhikode railway station and were garlanded by Khan Bahadur Mootha Koya Thangal. Their host was Shyamji Sunderdas (Crocin sole selling agent) at the Gujarati Street in Calicut, and this was where Gandhi stayed during this and later visits. The meeting for the public was organized at the Vellayil beach and lawyer VV Rama Ayer (father of VR Krisha Iyer) presented the welcome address on behalf of the taluk board. Popular accounts point out that some 20,000 people turned up at the Kozhikode beach that evening at 630PM to hear Gandhiji talk. K. Madhavan Nair translated and at the end of the speech, KP Raman Unni Menon handed over a check of Rs.2,500/- as a contribution to the Khilafat fund. Later, his Gujarati host entertained the members of his party and others with a sumptuous dinner.

Peeking into “the Source material for a history of the freedom movement in India” Volume 3, Part 1,pages 318-319, we find the following report

Generally speaking there is little sympathy with the non-co-operation movement at Calicut, and were it not for a few fanatical Mappilla youths headed by P. Moideen Kutty and brief-less vakils led by K. Madhavan Nayar, Gopala Menon and P. Achutan, no notice would be taken of it.

In the afternoon there was a private conference at Gandhi's residence. Nearly all the vakils and a few Mahommadans attended. Gandhi advised the vakils to suspend their practice and withdraw the children from Government aided schools; but apparently he failed to convince his audience, most of whom thought his scheme unworkable. At the evening meeting Rs. 2,500 was presented to Shaukat Ali; but he was disappointed and expected more. The Seths (Bombay Merchants) were responsible for the reception; the local leading Mahommadans took very little interest in the visit. The money was chiefly collected on Gandhi's behalf, more as a personal matter than anything else. The result of the visit generally may be regarded as a failure.
PGHS - Photo provided by Premnath Murkoth

Extract from speeches delivered by Gandhi and Shaukat Ali at Calicut on the 18th August.

Subject — Non-co-operation. Audience- ten to fifteen thousand.

Mr. Gandhi said, "I am here to declare for the tenth time before this great audience that in the Khilafat matter the British Government have wounded the Moslem sentiment as they have never done before, and I say without fear of contradiction that if the Mussalmans of India had not exercised exemplary self-restraint and if they had not accepted the gospel of non-co-operation preached to them, and if they had not accepted the spirit of that gospel, there would have been blood-shed in India by this time

A more complete text of the speech can be found in Appendix 2 of Moplah Rebellion 1921 by C Gopalan Nair. He explains that following this visit, Khilafat committees were formed in Malabar and the swaraj idea began to take root. We also see the following text in the speech.

If the Mussalmans of India offer non-cooperation to Government in order to secure justice on the Khilafat, it is the duty of every Hindu to co-operate with their Moslem brethren. I consider the eternal friendship between Hindus and Mussalmans as infinitely more important than the British connection. I therefore venture to suggest that if they like to live with unity with Mussalmans, it is now that they have got the best opportunity and that such an opportunity would not come for a century.

Continuing with the source material documents we now see something different.

Gandhi and Shaukat Ali passed through North Malabar District enroute to Mangalore on the 19th August and returned on the 20th August. Train stopped at most stations. On the 19th there was great enthusiasm at Tellicherry and Cannanore and to a lesser degree at Badagara and Tallparamba Road. A large crowd had assembled at the first two places; some people were evidently full of zeal, but the majority were curious sight-seers. Of course there were garlands, flowers, etc., flung about, and at both places the usual speeches by Gandhi at Tellichery and Shaukat Ali at Cannanore were received with cheers. The crowds were good humored and rather enjoyed the squash at the railway stations. The people were curious to see what the leaders were like, and treated them as a huge joke—at least this was the conclusion drawn from their faces, demeanor and conversation. The interpreter did what he could to exaggerate every sentence uttered. Every caste and tribe in Malabar was represented at the stations on the journey to Mangalore.

On the return hardly anybody came to see Gandhi at the many stations stopped at. A more unsatisfactory tour so far as North Malabar District is concerned from their point of view could hardly be described. The Khilafat agitators have failed miserably to carry the public with them along the road to non-co-operation, and Gandhi has broken or will break the spirit of these very agitators by his unswerving devotion to the full spirit of the idea. He cannot carry these people along the straight way he had laid down for their guidance. He may be a semi lunatic, but these people are not.

At Cannanore they got Rs. 500 and Shaukat Ali said it was not enough. A rumor went round in Tellichery that the Government has forbidden the Mahommadens of Baghadad to perform "Mowlood" i.e. to sing poems regarding the Prophet's life. This worries the Mappilah, and that is about all.

As Gopalan Nair explains the aftermath - In the beginning it was not a very serious affair, the Moplah felt it an honor to be called upon to take part in meetings presided over by the Saintly Mahatma, by the Great Moulana, by barristers, High Court Vakils and other prominent men; he did not well understand the lengthy speeches delivered at meetings; but he felt himself elevated: he, grew in importance, as a Khilafat member; his Musaliar was the secretary; his Thangal graced the position of chairman of the Khilifat Committee; he rose higher and higher until he found himself a prominent member of the Hindu-Moslem Brotherhood; working for the attainment of Swaraj, for the salvation of the Khilafat; and of his own country, in which, under the British regime, the Indians were treated as 'coolis' and 'slaves’………

The movement collapsed by late 1922 when Turkey gained a more favorable diplomatic position and moved toward secularism, led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. By 1924 Turkey simply abolished the roles of Sultan and Caliph. In India, the alliance between the Congress and the Khialaft leaders petered out as each felt the other had cross purposes, and due to the lack of support from the core groups viz Muslim league and the Hindu mahasabha. Critics of the Khilafat started to see its alliance with the Congress as a marriage of convenience and various proponents of the Khilafat saw it as the spark that led to the non-cooperation movement in India and as a major milestone in improving Hindu-Muslim relations, while advocates of Pakistan and Muslim separatism saw it as a major step towards establishing the separate Muslim state.

So we can see that while initially the Khilafat movement in Malabar was taken up enthusiastically, it petered off and culminated in the 1921 revolts. I had covered those aspects in some detail in previous posts.

In total Gandhiji visited Kerala 5 times, and always considered the state a true experimental ground. In fact the atrocities of the 1921 revolt so depressed him that he decided to visit Calicut again, but he was stopped by the British at Waltair station and eventually he went to Madurai. The white worn by the people of Malabar and their simplicity was in his mind. That was when (Sept 1921) he decided to discard his clothes and wear only the loin cloth which became his trademark.See the following article

This Malabar visit in 1920 and another in 1925 to Travancore did make a huge impact on Gandhiji, for he was as always a keen observer of the common man and his ways. Gandhiji later wrote about this latter visit thus…..

And as I travelled, I seemed to go from one end of a beautifully laid out garden to the other. Travancore is not a country containing a few towns and many villages. It looks like one vast city containing a population of over 400,000 males and females almost equally divided and distributed in small farms studded with pleasant looking cottages. There was, therefore, here none of the ugliness of so many Indian villages in which human beings and cattle live together in an overcrowded state in spite of the open air and open space surrounding them. How the Malabaris are able to live thus in isolated cottages and to feel, as they evidently do, safe from the robber and the beast I do not know. Those of whom I inquired about the cause could not say anything beyond corroborating my inference that both men and women must be brave.

Following a meeting with the Sethu Lakshmi Bayi of Travancore, he wrote

Instead of my being ushered into the presence of an over-decorated woman, sporting costly diamond pendants and necklaces, I found myself in the presence of a modest young woman who relied not upon jewels or gaudy dress for beauty but on her own naturally well-formed features and exactness of manners. Her room was as plainly furnished as she was plainly dressed. Her severe simplicity became the object of my envy. She seemed to me an object lesson for many a prince and many a millionaire whose loud ornamentation, ugly looking diamonds, rings and studs and still more loud and almost vulgar furniture offend the taste and present a terrible and sad contrast between them and the masses from whom they derive their wealth. I had the honour too of waiting on the young Maharaja and the junior Maharani.

I found the same simplicity pervading the palace. His Highness was dressed in a spotlessly white dhoti worn in the form of a lungi, and vest reaching just below the waist. I do not think he had even a finger-ring for an ornament. The junior Maharani was as simply dressed as the senior Maharani the Regent. It was with difficulty that I could see on her person a thin delicate mangala mala. Both the ladies had on their persons spotlessly white cotton hand-woven saris and half-sleeved jackets of similar stuff without any lace or embroidery.

I must own that I have fallen in love with the women of Malabar. Barring Assam I have not seen the women of India so simply yet elegantly dressed as the women of Malabar. But let the Assamese sisters know that the women of Malabar are, if possible, simpler still. They do not require even borders to their saris. The length needed is under four yards, a sharp contrast to the Tamil sisters on the east coast who need nearly ten yards heavily coloured saris. The Malabari women reminded me of Sita as she must have been dressed when she hallowed with her beautiful bare feet the fields and forests of India along the route she traversed. To me their white dress has meant the emblem of purity within. I was told that in spite of the utmost freedom they enjoyed, the women of Malabar were exceptionally chaste. The eyes of the most educated and advanced girls I met betokened the same modesty and gentleness with which God has perhaps endowed the women of India in an exceptional degree. Neither their freedom nor their education seemed to have robbed them of this inimitable grace of theirs. The men of Malabar in general are also just as simple in their taste as the women. But, sad to say, their so-called high education has affected the men for the worse and many have added to the simple articles of their original dress and in so doing have purchased discomfort in the bargain. For, in the melting climate of this country the fewest white garments are the proper thing. In making unnatural unbecoming additions they violate the laws of both art and health.

His second visit to Kerala was in 1925 to lend support to the Vaikkom satyagraha and he passed through Calicut in 1927. His next visit to Calicut was in 1934 and his final visit in 1937. When you read accounts of this visit, you will find the calculated congress planning in the official records and the more passionate aspects from the public in their own accounts. The 'Beach Road' was renamed Gandhi Road from Evan's Road after Mahatma Gandhi's visit in January 1934

References

Source Material for a History of the Freedom Movement in India: Mahatma Gandhi. pt. 1. 1915-1922

Gandhiji’s account on Travancore

Moplah Rebellion 1921 by C Gopalan Nair

Wishing you all a happy new year

Settlement of unpaid debts – an old tradition in Malabar

Today you have enforcers who are wandering round, looking for debtors on the run. There are collection agents who come and seize cars which are not being paid for with agreed regularity, and we see musclemen on the prowl these days, as depicted in the movies, to provide some firm persuasion. You also see ad’s like the one below in newspapers for debt collection executives, promising a handsome salary.

Needed – executive to help collect over-dues and discuss with customers on best possible payment plans, should possess strong and firm verbal communication and negotiation Skills, a good amount of Intelligence, be persistent and Firm, and persuasive in reasoning. Unsaid requirement – be of muscular build and capable of depicting an aggressive demeanor

But things were a little different some 500 -900 years ago and this peculiar custom in Malabar was first brought to light by Al Idrisi in 1154AD. He explained – If one man owes another some money and the creditor locates him, he draws a circle around him. The creditor also enters the ring and the debtor cannot go outside the ring till the creditor is satisfied or forgives him.

From this arose an old Malayalam idiom ‘vattathil akkuka’ (being put into a circle) which is somewhat colloquial for harassment. Whether ‘vattam chutti’ (going in circles) also falls in the same category is not clear, but I hope you get the idea.

Varthema wrote of a custom he found in the Malabar ports by which the administration of civil justice was considerably simplified. The king had 100 scribes, and in case of debts evidenced by deeds in the handwriting of these scribes, the law provided a summary remedy. "If the debtor promising many times, fails to pay, the creditor not willing to wait any longer nor give him any indulgence, takes a green branch (of a palm) in his hand, goes softly behind the debtor, and with the said branch draws a circle on the ground surrounding him, and if he encloses the debtor within the circle, says to him these words three times ' Brahmananane rajavinane purath pokalle, i.e., I command you in the name of the Brahmins and in the name of the king, not to leave the circle (until you have paid the debt). If the debtor left the circle without paying the debt, he was liable to the penalty of death."

Archibald Williams adds a twist in his memoir - In order to secure payment from a persistent debtor, the creditor tries to draw a circle round him on the ground, saying three times, “ By the head of the Brahmins and of the King, you shall pay me what you owe before you quit the circle.” The debtor thus encircled must either pay or die of starvation; for nobody may give him food; and death is the penalty for crossing the line without payment.

The green branch of a palm, says Ibn Batuta, was also used by the officers of the king to help the collection of the royal dues from the merchants. If the merchants did not pay the royal dues, an officer of the king came with the green branch of a palm and suspended it in front of the shop. No person could buy or sell from the merchant until the branch was removed.

The rule was applicable both to nobility as well as to the common man and Marco Polo visiting Ma’abar emphatically claims he was an eye witness where the king was harassed so. Marco Polo states (Cordier -Yule)- They have the following rule about debts. If a debtor shall have been several times asked by his creditor for payment, and shall have put him off from day to day with promises, then if the creditor can once meet the debtor and succeed in drawing a circle round him, the latter must not pass out of this circle until he shall have satisfied the claim, or given security for its discharge. If he in any other case presume to pass the circle he is punished with death as a transgressor against right and justice. And the said Messer Marco, when in this kingdom on his return home, did himself witness a case of this. It was the King, who owed a foreign merchant a certain sum of money, and though the claim had often been presented, he always put it off with promises. Now, one day when the King was riding through the city, the merchant found his opportunity, and drew a circle round both King and horse. The King, on seeing this, halted, and would ride no further; nor did he stir from the spot until the merchant was satisfied. And when the bystanders saw this they marveled greatly, saying that the King was a most just King indeed, having thus submitted to justice

Yule adds as a foot note - This custom is described in much the same way by the Arabo-Persian Zakariah Kazwini, by Ludovico Varthema, and by Alexander Hamilton. Kazwini ascribes it to Ceylon. "If a debtor does not pay, the King sends to him a person who draws a line round him, wheresoever he chance to be; and beyond that circle he dares not to move until he shall have paid what he owes, or come to an agreement with his creditor. For if he should pass the circle the King fines him three times the amount of his debt; one-third of this tine goes to the creditor and two-thirds to the King." Pere Bouchet describes the strict regard paid to the arrest, but does not notice the symbolic circle. (Gildem. 197; Varthema, 147; Ham. I. 318; Lett. Edif. XIV. 370.)

Rev. Dr. Caldwell adds a footnote "The custom undoubtedly prevailed in this part of India at a former time. It is said that it still survives amongst the poorer classes in out-of-the-way parts of the country, but it is kept up by schoolboys in a serio-comic spirit as vigorously as ever. Marco does not mention a very essential part of the ceremony. The person who draws a circle round another imprecates upon him the name of a particular divinity, whose curse is to fall upon him if he breaks through the circle without satisfying the claim."

Forbes wiring his oriental memoirs provides details of a version that has become stringent as times went by - For debts, and non-payment of fines, inflicted as a punishment, they are confined by the caricar (Kariakar), or-chief of the district; who draws a circle round the prisoner, from which he dare not move; then, gently laying a sharp stone on the crown of his head, demands payment of the sum required: on a refusal, he places a large flat stone over the other, and ties it firmly on; additional weights are gradually accumulated, with a repetition of the demand, until the sharp stone-penetrating the head, either insures payment, or causes a painful death.

Vissicher provides details of differing methods from Dutch Cochin - For laying the property of another in arrest, the warrant of a magistrate is not required ; any private individual may do it ; so that a man of low caste has it in his power to harass and annoy a Brahmin or a Caimal, through his lands and properties. The Rajahs possess the same power over each other. However, although license is not required for the performance of this embargo, the Rajah’s authority is necessary to settle the affair; both parties must appear before him, and after duly weighing the merits of the case, and receiving a sum of money, he gives judgment. When Rajahs thus arrest each other’s property, it is a fruitful ground for wars and dissensions: mediators are sometimes called in to arrange the matter.

The token of this embargo or arrest, is the leaf of a cashew nut or other tree which is tied on the article thus arrested, or if it be land, it is stuck up on a stick, the party exercising this privilege announcing, “this is the Rama, or arrest of the Rajah.” After this no one may gather the fruits off the lands or remove the token; such act would be considered crimes of lese majesty. The East India Company exercises the same right, and on such occasions they plant their flag on the spot: but this is only done by order of the Commandant or the proper authorities. In the lands subject to the Company, the Commandant may remove any rama, placed by a native. The residents in the small outlying stations, are obliged to suffer the ramas of the Malabars, and are allowed to exercise the same privilege on their side.

The Resident of Porcad told me an entertaining anecdote on this subject. He had once caused a rafter to be brought to the station for the repair of the factory; when it was close to the building, a Nair came and fastened a rama, to it, upon which the coolies who were carrying it, ran away, as it was illegal for them to touch it any longer. The Resident being informed of what had occurred immediately planted the Company’s rama on the spot, so that the parties who were so ready with their arrest, were themselves arrested; and compelled to stand without stirring a foot in the heat of the sun, until such time as the first rama was removed by order of the Rajah, then the Resident released them.

In a similar manner, when the Rajah owes money to a Brahmin who can adduce satisfactory proof of the debt, the creditor can demand the money of the Rajah, three distinct times, and if the Rajah still delays payment, the Brahmin brings a rama from a pagoda, when the Rajah may neither eat, sleep or bathe till the dispute is settled and the rama removed. Such cases however do not often happen, for the people know that monarchs have long arms.

I am however not sure what this ‘rama’ is – perhaps some kind of flag…

Hamilton writing in 1723 continues in the previous vein…They have a good way of arresting people for Debt, viz. There is a proper person with small stick from the Judge, who is generally a Brahman and when that person finds the debtor, he draws a circle round him with that stick, and charges him, in the King and Judge's Name, not to stir out of it till the creditor is satisfied either by Payment or Surety; and it is no less than death for the debtor to break Prison by going out of the circle.

Now that we have talked about the Debtor’s circle, let us take a look at another system that is still practiced by protesters in India, called the Dharna. What was that? We hear about the Dharna method as early as 1615 from Roger Hawkes. In fact he says he had to use the method himself to get his debt with the Zamorin settled.

The 20th December, a Malabar captain brought in a prize he had taken from the Portuguese, and would have traded with us; but we could not get in any of our money, due long before. We also heard that day of four English ships being at Surat. The governor and people continued their wonted perfidiousness; the former being more careful in taking and the latter in giving bribes, than in paying our debts. We used a strange contrivance of policy to get in some of these; for, when we went to their houses, demanding payment, and could get none, we threatened not to leave their house till they paid us. We had heard it reported, that, according to their customs, they could neither eat nor wash while we were in their houses; and by this device we sometimes got fifty fanos from one, and an hundred from another. They would on no account permit us to sleep in their houses, except one person, with whom we remained three days and nights, with three or four nayres.

So as we can generalize, it is the medieval and modern practice of sitting in dharna, once used against debtors, by literally 'holding up' a defaulting debtor with a threat to commit suicide at his door by starvation. This ‘door sitting’ practice has its origins from the laws of Manu and we also note a looser form of dharna, called takaza, which permits the creditor to institute by proxy, a regular siege of the debtor's house.

Westlky details it - The creditor would sit dharna at the debtor's door or gate, until some arrangement or instalment was extorted by his importunity. Lord Teignmouth gives us an interesting description of the process of sitting dharna, and the principle involved. The Brahmin creditor proceeds to the door of his debtor and there squats himself, holding in his hand some poison, a dagger, or other instrument of suicide, which he threatens to use if his debtor should attempt to molest him or pass by him; and as the inviolability of a Brahmin is a fixed principle with the Hindoos, and to deprive him of life, either by direct violence or by causing his death in any way, is a crime which admits of no expiation, it will readily be seen that the debtor is practically under arrest in his own house. "In this situation," concludes Lord Teignmouth, "the Brahmin fasts, and by the rigor of etiquette the unfortunate object of his arrest ought to fast also, and thus they both remain till the institutor of the dharna obtains satisfaction. In this, as he seldom makes the attempt without the resolution to persevere, he rarely fails; for if the party thus arrested wereto suffer the Brahmin sitting in dharna to perish by hunger, the sin would forever lie upon his head." It became a popular tool for Gandhi during the independence movement and is sadly used to date in India for various protests.

To lend much higher gravity, a Brahmin was employed as proxy to execute the dharna at the debtor’s house.

Fink summarizes - A faint trace of the origin of the practice will be found in the fact that the creditor who resorted to dharna, often found it necessary to hire a Brahmin to starve himself vicariously… At this juncture, it is more than probable that the creditor arrested the arm of the debtor by hiring a Brahmin whose person was always held sacred, and who could not be resisted with violence. The Brahmin thus retained, adopted his own peculiar method of fasting at the door, and even put the debtor under immediate fear by providing himself with some instrument of suicide…To permit a man to starve or fast at your door without relieving his wants, was always looked upon as an act which, in the next world, placed the beggar in enjoyment of heaven, and reversed the condition of the rich man to that of deplorable misery. It was a dread of this supernatural retribution which, in India, made fasting at the door such a powerful instrument in extorting charitable donations to the Brahminical priesthood. And it will be observed that sitting dharna was always undertaken where the debtor was a man of wealth or of superior caste to the creditor.

Was this kind of circle drawing noticed elsewhere in the world? William Ian Miller explains - The Talmud tells of a certain Honi HaMe'aggel (Honi the Circle Drawer) 1st century CE who was asked to pray for rain to relieve the community from drought. In an incident that could have been lifted from an Irish saint's life or from Hindu debt-collection rituals, he drew a circle around himself.

The Chinese practiced a much more sensible variety of dharna than the Hindoos. Instead of starving themselves to death, and broiling in the sun or shivering in the rain, creditors simply quartered themselves and their families upon their debtors, and the latter were generally glad to get rid of their unwelcome guests by scraping together and paying off the amount due. A debtor who was unable to meet his obligations could be compelled to wear a yoke round his neck in public, the hope of the creditors being that the man's friends or relatives would pay off his debt in order to save him from a prolongation of this terrible disgrace.

Sitting dharna was said to be practiced in Persia as well in those days. A man intending to enforce payment of a demand by fasting, begins by sowing some barley at his debtor's door, and sitting down in the middle. The idea that the creditor means to convey to his debtor by this is, that he will stay where he is without food, either until he is paid, or until the barley-seed grows up and gives him bread to eat. Something similar to this dharna was known in ancient Ireland. One of the Brehon laws enacted that a notice of five days was to be served on a debtor of inferior grade, and then distress was to be taken from him. But if the defendant was a chieftain, a flaith, a bard, or a bishop, the plaintiff was obliged to "fast upon him" in addition. The Troscead, or fasting upon one, consisted in going to the debtor's house and waiting at his door a certain time without food. The law ran: "He who refuses to cede what should be accorded to fasting, the judgment on him is that he pay double the thing for which he was fasted upon." If, however, the debtor offered a pledge or security for his debt, and the creditor stubbornly refused to accept it, he, the creditor, forfeited his entire claim.

But well, these kind of things are no longer workable methods to collect debt, life has changed, crooks care not a hoot, though Dharna is still a popular method of protest in India. Humorous scenes of the starving politician sipping lemonade under cover can be seen in movies. So also can be seen movies where the Chinese method of moving into the debtors home are practiced in Kerala, exemplified by Mohanlal’s and Priyadarshan’s great movie of yesteryears – Sanmanassulavarkku Samadhanam.

References

Essays from Travancore – Ulloor S Parameswara Iyer

The Travels of Marco Polo: The Complete Yule-Cordier Edition: By Marco Polo

Oriental Memoirs – James Forbes

OLD LAWS CONCERNING DEBT. By Georgk H. Westlky.

The Romance of Early Exploration - Archibald Williams

A New Account of the East Indies – Alexander Hamilton

THE HINDU CUSTOM OF 'SITTING DHARNA.' By H. R. Fink. (THE CALCUTTA REVIEW)

Letters from Malabar - Jacob Canter Visscher, Heber Drur

pics – Person in circle

Revisiting the topic….

Some years ago I wrote briefly about this interesting bloke who appears often in Kerala History. Most of the discussions from readers focus around his retirement actions where he distributes his kingdom and goes off on a pilgrimage. I touched upon the topic a few times after that and more recently JK at Varnam penned an interesting article about the event.

We see that in general the popular versions cover the travails of a Chera king who leaves the West Coast of Malabar, bound for another location which is purported to be variously Mecca in Saudi Arabia, Kailas in North India and the abode of St Thomas in Mylapore (there are many other versions too, but too obscure). We see the possibilities of three or even four conversions in these stories, one to Islam, the second to Buddhism, third Jainism and finally to Christianity. The timelines vary widely, from the 9^th to the 12^th century. But each of these myths found takers and were promptly spread by both the Portuguese and the Dutch as well as Muslim scholars creating much confusion as to which was most probable.

Armed with a fascinating and thorough study done well before Indian independence by the doyen of Malabar history, Mr KV Krishna Ayyar, I decided to revisit the topic. Ayyar starts by confirming that it is an unsolved puzzle and after a thorough analysis, concludes with the Bhuvibhaga or Chera empire partition. It is a very difficult 25 page treatise, especially for those uninitiated to what is known as the Periyapuranam. It also requires you to have a working knowledge of the Keralolpatti, at least the version authored presumably by Tunjath Sankaran Ezhutachan in the 16^th century. So without much ado let us get to the points raised by KVK and more specifically get introduced to the Tamil epic PeriyaPuranam (a.k.a Tiruttontarpuranam - the life stories of the sixty-three Shaiva Nayanars) penned by Sekkizhar in the early 12^thcentury.

Set during the period of the Chola king Kulothunga II, the story goes that Sekkizhar a poet chief minister of his decided to wean the king away from his fascination of the 10^th century Jain erotic epic Civaka Chintamani. Now you can imagine that it is a difficult task, but then again Sekkizhar wrote about the 63 Saivite saints, sitting in the thousand pillared hall of the Chidambaram temple. Interestingly, all of the saints mentioned in this epic are actual persons. Therefore, this is a recorded history of the 63 Saiva saints called as Nayanmars (devotees of Lord Siva), who incidentally belonged to different castes, different occupations and lived in different times.

As you may guess, one of these saints was none other than our Cheraman Perumal. KVK first of all establishes that the Malayalam sources like Keralolpatti are all proto-history works which are somewhat haphazard and purely inconsistent attempts at making a record of their history. As he himself explains, with a little patience, one can remove the legendary encrustations to reach the nucleus by reading through both works in detail. The entire work of Ayyar’s painstaking detection and deduction is best left where it has originally been published, so I will get to the crux of the matter, only briefly touching on the meticulous work starting with the establishment of the fact that the Tamil Cheraman is exactly the same person and the Malayalam Cheraman after carefully analyzing the dates seen in the documents. KVK establishes Cheraman’s date of birth as 742 AD, then his parentage, later his peculiar accession to the throne, his progeny, internal and external events to Tiruvanjikulam (Kodungallur), periods of strife, his division or partition of Malabar and finally pilgrimage and ascension to the heavens in 826 AD, following which the Kollam era was sanctioned.

In summary therefore, Cheraman was born in 742 AD at the Chera capital Tiruvanjikulam or Cranganore. He was the son of the sister of King Sengorporiayan. Interestingly his father was a Chola prince, who had strayed to the Chera court, and in those days the powerbases at Tamilakam were actually with the Pallavas and the Pandyas. Cheraman grew up in his uncle’s palace, but was mostly found in the Mahadeva temple of Tiruvanjikulam, interested mainly in the service of Siva. As times go by, he married a lady from the Nediviruppu kovilakom and had a son through her. His sister incidentally married the Perumbadappu Namboothiri. Cheraman’s son was Manavikiraman (the first Zamorin of Calicut) the Nedivirippu Thamburan, while his nephew became the Perumbadappu Thamburan (later known as the Cochin king). The fact that the Cochin and Kolattiri kings were higher born Kshatriyas while the Zamorin was a Nair born of the Sambandham with the Eradi lady has been the biggest bone of contention since in all the acrimonious issues between the three of them, for hundreds of years.

One thing bothered me though in this analysis. KVK is clear that there was just one son named Manaivicraman, not two boys as all other myths mention. He also details that the Cheraman sword is given to this one boy, (not two boys Manavan and Vikraman) following the battle at Palghat. He also states that this is the Manavikraman who becomes the first Zamorin. I wondered for a moment at how Palghat comes up in all critical points of passage in Malabar history! Later it comes to the fore again, when the Mysore Sultans attacked.

Life seems to have been going well, till Rajasimha Pandya decided to invade Kerala in 765AD. The powerful Pandya was not something the Chera ruler could contend with, so he decided to abdicate and retire to the forests, as the tale goes. The ministers of the palace were greatly perturbed, and agitated. By conjecture, the only male who could be persuaded to take over was young Cheraman as was the custom of Malanad (being the nephew and not the son) or for some other good reason such as a recommendation by the invader Rajasimha, who might have perceived that the ascetic ruler would be a good proxy, a man without heroic and kingly ambitions or inclinations.

Nevertheless Cheraman Perumal was an able king who rebuilt the 16 ports and temples, and built a fort Cheramankotta as well at the Northern border town of Valarpattanam near Talipparamba. Around this time, the great Sankaracharya was born in 788AD, adding luster to the King’s reign. However there was further strife at the Eastern borders and we see Pandyan attacks near Palghat, the establishment of the fort at Taravur (Tarur) and the takeover of Vizinjam. As the war continues, Manavikraman his son (in other stories we hear of two youngsters Manavan and Vikraman) rushes to his support and defeats the Pandyan king Varaguna in 782AD.

From here on, KVK observes Cheraman’s disinterest in worldly pursuits and in 810AD, he leaves on a pilgrimage after dividing up the land among his feudatories. He goes on to Chidambaram and then to Tiruvalur where he becomes a friend and disciple of Sundaramurti. They move on to tour various temples and places in Tamilakam, and after all this Cheraman and Sundara turn back to Malabar in 820AD. After a sojourn in Cranganore for another 6 years, both of them depart from this world (or leave for Kailas) in 826AD. The day is called Cheraman day which is an annual event since then, celebrated with pomp and splendor.

So as you see, KVK links up filtered events from Kerala proto-historians to the little bits of history he could dredge out from Periyapuranam in order to create a coherent account on the life of Cheraman Perumal. Of course he debunks the events leading to Perumal becoming a Muslim or a Christian.

But we can’t close the topic just like that, for there would be many unanswered questions hovering around the conversions, the division of land and so on. What could be the possible directions? Let’s check.

Quoting the words from the Census - The world knows nothing of its greatest men, and so it is with Cheraman Perumal, for while he is the most familiar and famous of the Viceroys of Kerala, while his name is in everybody's mouth from the most cultured Brahman down to the most ignorant Paraiyan, there are no reliable materials affording any definite information about his life and times. Cheraman Perumal's rule, from the important events it contained and from the little direct knowledge we have on the subject, has naturally attracted the attention of many diligent scholars, and many are the traditions that have gathered round his name. The Jains, Buddhists, Christians and Mahommedans all claim him as a convert to their religion. There is the tradition of a Perumal having become a Buddhist, or as others would have it, a Jain. It must be observed in this connection that Buddha Matam or Buddhism has often been confounded with any religion other than Hinduism, for in the days of the conflict between Hinduism and Buddhism, to a Hindu all non-Hindus were Bouddhas or followers of Budha, which term acquiring a general significance was indifferently applied in later times to the followers of Mahomed, Christ, etc. To a Hindu in Kerala, any one professing any religion other than Hinduism has been a Bouddha, a term which is even applied to a low caste Hindu. One of the Perumals is said to have renounced his faith, and become a Jain, and not a Mahommedan. His name is supposed to have been Pallibana Perumal.

First we go to the Tuhfat Al Mujahideen. Sheik Zainuddin admits that even during his period, the Hindus had stated that the king ascended to the sky. They also believe that he will come down one day and that is the reason why they keep a pitcher of water and a pair of sandals with lit lamps and decorations at a place near Kodungallur on certain nights. So there is a good amount of backing to the Periyapuranam story. Nevertheless, Zainuddin does not provide any factual support to the story of this perumal going to Makkah. Also there is confusion about the dates with Zainuddin stating this happened in the 9^th century while others state it was during the reign of the Prophet Mohammed. Zainuddin is clear anyway that this person could not have been the Cheraman Perumal. Ibn Batuta writing in 1342 mentions the king of Balipatanam as the convert, dating it to the 13^th century and Abdul Razak visiting Calicut in 1442 does not mention these stories at all (for him it would have held great propaganda value!). Ferishta, the Mohammedan historian, is positive that the Malabar king who embraced the Moslem faith and went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, at the end of the 9th century, is a Zamorin of Calicut.

Cheraman becoming a St Thomas Christian is alluded by Decouto and Faria Souza, and here again there is confusion about the dates, and there is also mention of the Cheraman being one of the three wise magi’s visiting the infant Jesus. The problem is that the dates fluctuate between the birth of Christ and the 4^th or 6^th century and so it seems difficult to lend the stories too much credence.

So in all the conversions of Cheraman Perumal to Christianity and Islam seem to be backed with little by way of fact or conjuncture. Buddhism on the other hand was in the decline already by 850AD, and Jainism in Malabar predated it by many centuries, so it is very probable that the Periyapuranam account borders the truth that the Perumal eventually passes away while on his pilgrimage. But there is another twist in the analysis of legends, for it is stated in the Census of India as follows relating to the Jain link.

As far as the handing over of the kingdom is concerned, KVK clarifies that this was how it always was and these local feudatories were under the suzerainty of the Perumal at Cranganore. When the king left on his trip, all he did was release them from that symbolic connection. He could have asked his son Manavikraman to take over but that was not permitted in those days as he was not a Kshatriya.

But when he left, he authorized the Zamorin to annex what he could wisely, with his sword. As the Zamorin had no areas in profitable regions or ports he could only annex them by might.

PC Alexander in his ‘Dutch in Malabar’ concurs by stating that the Perumal died a Saivite and never converted. And he indicates that the mural in the Brahadeeswara temple in Tanjore depicts the Perumal proceeding to Kailas with his friend. MGS Narayanan agrees with KVK’s theories and connects the first Cheraman Perumal to the Periyapuranam and names him the Rama Rajashekara – Rajadhiraja Parameswara Bhattaraka of Makotai. Sadasivan says that the king of Maldives was the person who converted to Islam.

I am sure the myth will remain for more decades, but the above is a summary of the studies of KVK Ayyar, which I believe makes a lot of sense.

References

Bharata Kaumudi Pt 1, 1945 - Cheraman Perumal – A New study – KV Krishna Ayyar

Perumals of Kerala – MGS Narayanan

Census of India, 1901, Parts 1-2

An interesting man, a crusty old bureaucrat and a friend of Malabar

Sir JA Thorne (1888-1964), was a person who spent a large part of his life in India, a diminutive man in stature, who rose on to become a powerful administrator during the pre-independence days. The ICS was his life and career and when he came to India aged 24, especially to Malabar (Tellicherry and Calicut), I am sure he must have been, if not anything else, bewildered. Born to JC Thorne, he was educated at Blundell’s School, continued on as an open scholar in Balliol College, passed the ICS examinations in 1912 and was deputed to Malabar shortly thereafter to work as an assistant collector with the Madras presidency under Sir Charles Innes,.

The next few years were to get him into the thick of things, he became the administrator of the Zamorin’s estates, toeing a tough line with his masters the British and a people he came to love, the people of Malabar. Very soon he garnered much information on the history, the culture, the practices and the age old law of the land, and so was asked to contribute to the ML Dames version of the Durate Barbosa travelogue edited by the Hakluyt society, around the 1920 time period. Even today you will see that his original comments are oft quoted by present day writers and historians. The land tenure rules which flummoxed many a foreigner were patiently mastered by Thorne over discussions with the Zamorin and his advisors. Sometimes I wonder if he ever made a detailed account of the short association Thorne had with my great grandfather, for those were the Zamorin’s last years, a period when he was deeply worried of the debts racked up by the family and the passage of the estates to the court of wards, the British (What vexed him, a deeply religious Sanskrit scholar, most was the loss of the Guruvayoor temple). Nevertheless the old Indian and the young Englishman forged a friendship of sorts. Thorne would always remember his days in Calicut and when he retired to Sedlescombe, it is stated that he planned to take up farming like the people of Malabar. We also see him involved with interesting disputes such as the misuse of the Zamorin’s Mankavu pond by non-caste people and his handling of the complaint. If you recall from my Manjeri Rama Iyer article, similar issues had cropped up about the Tali temple and Thorne was involved in issuing prohibitory orders with Manjeri Rama Ayyar later taking it up legally.

KVK Ayyar remembers him in his book on Guruvayoor – he says “In the Estate Collector, Mr. (afterwards Sir) J.A.Thorne I.C.S., it appeared that the Lord had had an officer, entirely to his liking. He scrupulously refrained from entering the Gopuram but made his obeisance from outside and even used to make offerings. This helped in creating an impression among the public that the interests of the temple would be safe in his hands and that he would enforce the rules (Note that the temple management was reverted back to the Zamorin in 1927) without fear or favor. He continued with his predecessor Konthi Menon’s public works and built a Satram (now remodeled and called the old Satram) at Guruvayoor.

Some 10 years later, after a good teething period in Malabar, he was transferred to Madurai and though he briefly held a two year tenure as a secretary to the board of revenue, he returned to district work, but went back to the board in 1931. In the midst of it all, he was deeply involved in three important events, the 1921 Moplah Rebellion in Malabar, the 1924 Malabar floods, and the 1930 Tanjore Rajaji incident.

The 1924 Malabar floods were devastating and something which was taken up by Gandhiji himself. This was also known as the 99 flood (1099 Malayalam calendar) when large tracts between Trichur and Travancore were severely devastated by rains and flood waters and Munnar was isolated. But the worst was the aftermath of the 1921 Moplah revolt in the Malabar districts which resulted in large human losses and property destruction as well as an organized rebellion against the British. Throne’s involvement was mainly behind the scenes (as a person who well understood the people of Malabar), providing analysis and advice resulting in the brokering of peace between the warring communities.

As a bureaucrat, Thorne was a stickler for the law. He was clear that as an administrator, he held firm to the rule of law and strictly administered the same. One event that catapulted him to infamy amongst the Indians and put him firmly back on the side of the British rulers was the Rajaji incident, otherwise known as the Vedaranyam Salt Satyagraha. The pitting of C Rajagopalachari against Collector Thorne and the end results were soon to become a jolly David and Goliath style tale that came to be told and retold by friends to friends and parents to children.

In summary it went thus. In March 1930, Rajaji after consultations with Gandhiji who had started his Dandi march, decided to enact a similar scenario at Vedaranyam, a salt manufacturing area chosen for specific reasons (Cape Comorin was originally chosen, but as it was part of Travancore, an independent state not directly under the British, got dropped) by marching 100 volunteers for 240 KM from Trichy to the site, starting on the 5^thApril. At first Throne, the district collector of Tanjore, planned preemptive arrest, but this was turned down by Madras due to the fear of making a martyr out of Rajaji, though they allowed Thorne to arrest ‘harbourers’.

Quoting Hindu (Article by R Varadarajan April 22, 2001) As Rajaji led the Sathyagraha into Tanjore district, the "astute and energetic" Collector by name J. A. Thorne, ICS ordered the people not to receive the Sathyagrahis or entertain them with food and accommodation, under the threat of penal punishment. Thorne's warning against the "harbouring" - punishable by a six months sentence and a fine - were carried on Tamil leaflets, by the beat of drum and in the press. Rajaji was shown this challenge appearing in the papers as he stepped out at the head of the marching column of Sathygrahis. The order, CR predicted would enlarge the public's welcome. With a twinkle he added "Thorns (Thornes) and thistles cannot stem this tide of freedom."

The somewhat arrogant retort from Thorne to Madras was – ‘I apprehend no great difficulty dealing with the sheep once the shepherd is gone’. He also added that he would take pains to see that the marchers meet with increasing difficulties and discomforts, adding – if at all they reach Vedaranyam, he would prevent them from getting accommodation. The strong willedRajaji retorted that the Satyagrahis were prepared to lie under the open sky and starve on Tanjore soil.

The first open defiance of Mr. Thorne's orders was made by Sri Pantulu Iyer at Kumbakonam. Pantulu Iyer arranged a royal feast for the sathyagrahis and for this he was promptly put in prison. Pantulu Iyer's case stimulated the thinking of the people and produced novel ideas of entertaining the civil resisters and yet escaping Thorne. Wayside trees, besides protecting the sathyagrahis from the scorching summer heat, bent low to offer them food packets that had been tied to the branches. In some places where the marchers had camped on the Cauvery river bed, were found indicators showing where huge containers carrying food lay buried. The roads were sprinkled with water in many places. There were welcome arches in some places and green leaf festoon everywhere. In the bargain, the police personnel were starved. The village people did not give them even a morsel of food or a cup of water to drink. The "menial staff" refused to carry out their routine duties of cleaning the latrines and sweeping the roads; barbers and washermen declined to render their services to the British establishment. The government offices and their families were in a lurch without these basic services of everyday life. Though a toe infection obliged him to walk barefoot for two or three days, Rajaji stood the journey well.

Throne as the Salt commissioner tried again to arrest Rajaji enroute, but did not get permission from Madras. Eventually Rajaji and team reached the location on 28^th and declared that they will break the salt law on 30^th, Rajaji formally notifying Thorne in writing that he intended to do it.

The anticlimax of arresting and convicting Rajaji (on the 30^th April by Police Supdt Govindan Nair and 50 constables) subdued the overconfident Thorne. Rajaji was not taken to the Vedaranyam Town Police Station or to the Magistrate Court. The salt office itself became the venue of the court and prison cell, to honor Rajaji's stature and righteousness in defying the salt law. Magistrate Ponnusamy came all the way to the salt office "to hear the case" where a small room was made into a prison cell to detain Rajaji for a few hours until he was escorted on the train to Tiruchirapalli jail ( 6 months imprisonment and Rs 200 fine + additional 3 months for refusing to pay the fine)

The protagonists eventually met in the train which was taking Rajajji to prison and the honorable gentlemen he was, Thorne ordered tea and refreshment for Rajaji. Rajaji said “Your plan was bold, but you forgot that we are in our own country". Thorne smiled and replied "Yes, we have each tried to do our best and worst. Many years later, he was to remark about the role of a post-independence Madras Chief minister Rajaji thus - Above all, the old warrior, C. Rajagopalachari ("Rajaji" for short, throughout India) emerged once more from retirement-the Cincinnatus of lndia-and as Chief Minister of Madras has made his presence felt in every department of the administration. He very soon swept away most of the apparatus of food-controls. This was not in accord with the policy of the Central Government, and it appeared that he was taking a risk: but the soundness of his judgment has been proved, and the supply and distribution of food-grains in South India is no longer a cause of bitter complaint against the administration.

People continued to gather salt and some 375 people had to be arrested by Thorne’s police. Even though CR triumphed, Throne maintained peace in Tanjore when compared to other places which revolted. Throne ended his report to the Madras Government thus – CR’s actions were something of a triumph, even Mohammedans and Adi Dravidans (untouchables) took part in the receptions, CR maintained excellent discipline amongst his followers, always adhering to nonviolence, refraining from the acts of demagogy. He concluded, if there ever existed a fervid sense of devotion to the government, it is now defunct. In turn, the Madras secretariat informed Delhi that the movement had "left in its wake a growing spirit of bias against government."

What was next for Thorne? After a successful tenure at Malabar, and despite the turn of events at Tanjore, he rose up in the esteem of his masters due to his clear lines of thought and action, coupled with a bit of fearlessness. In 1933 he was involved in the Budget debates and by 1935 he was bound to Delhi, as a joint secretary to the government of India and the Home department.

But I think it is a good idea to digress a little bit and understand Thorne the person and in order to get to some of those tidbits, we have to read the account of his protégé SK Chettur who fondly talks of Thorne, his boss at Tanjore, after he joined the ICS in 1929. Thorne comes across as a good man and at the outset ensured that the young assistant Chettur was signed up to the officers club and that there was no discrimination even though Chettur was a native.

Chettur describes his boss’s day thus - Thorne awoke at 6AM, and started with a ½ hour of bird watching session until 730. After breakfast at 8, he started work at 830 and briskly moved files until 1PM, after which he took lunch and had a short ½ hour nap. Two more hours in the office, tea at 415PM and local inspection tours followed until 630PM. To end the day, he would settle under a petromax lamp to read. In between and during trips or weekends, he found the time to swim and do some snipe shooting, taking his new protégé along. Etiquette was very important to him. He would address a senior officer Sir at work, but after work, he would call him by name, since according to him, outside the office, one ICS man is as good as another!

Thorne was a smalltime poet in his spare time. One of his verses goes thus, showing that his heart was with the people, not his masters who stuck only to the rules and procedures and cared little for the populace they were governing.

The services thanks their friends

A thousand thanks, yet some of us recall

Such hackneyed words such as duty, right, tradition

Believe our India is built on these

Shall we foreswear our heritage and brawl like hucksters

For the ear of a commission

Weighing our honor gravely in rupees?

Chettur adds- Both Thorne and I were equally fond of reading and both of us shared a common interest in doing a bit of writing in our spare moments. I wrote serious verse and he wrote light verse. That was the only difference. In fact, along with Mr. Justice Jackson, Thorne was one of the original contributors to Madras Occasional Verse which contained very snappy light verse about the Indian scene. One poem made fun of the resounding vernacular names for various offices and places, and concluded with the remarkable lines, that one hears, ‘beyond the bar, The Surge of the thundering Tahsildar (Tahsildar is the name for a revenue officer in charge of a taluk roughly one-ninth or one tenth of the whole district).

In his memoirs, Chettur covers a lot of Thorne’s interesting personality, his excellent grasp of law, his quick wit, his adventures at snipe shooting and above all his absolute honesty in handling cases and issues.

Later he was the first to state – Congressmen in Madras presidency (siding mostly with Zamindars) have shown little tenderness for the genuine peasant. And he added later, in a number of provinces, the poachers are becoming gamekeepers (pointed reference to some congress ministers). However, one should also note that later day writers like Conrad Wood accused Thorne to be on the side of the Zamindars and an anti Moplah when it came to Malabar.

His work in Delhi in the home ministry traversed a number of difficult periods, starting with the World War II, the Indian involvement in it, the difficult participation of the home ministry in post war negotiations and eventually in the handover and Indian Independence. During the war the Throne report was widely used as a basis for information control, censorship and INA monitoring. The notes, minutes, letters and jottings of Thorne can be found in a great number of deliberations of that period and are still quoted by historians. His involvement in the arrest and detainment of Jayaprakash Narayan, Lohia, Krishnan Nair etc. as political prisoners and his ensuring their eventual release is mentioned here and there.

But then again, JA Thorne was responsible in many ways for the rigid stance held by the British during WW II. He stuck to the hardline and did not spare a thought for the common man, while at the same time agreeing to pardons when bigwigs like Gandhi took up the case (e.g. Mitra). He stood by the Enemy Agents Ordnance of 1943 which by 1945, was seen as untenable, after which adhoc judgments and hangings ceased in the case of Indian nationalists termed as enemy agents. In my opinion the role of JA Throne during his home secretary days, especially WW II was a blight to his otherwise stellar career.

As his obituary states - In 1938 Thome was selected to be Secretary to the Governor-General (Public) and great responsibilities related upon him in the war years. On two occasions he acted for brief periods as a temporary member of the Governor General’s Council and in 1945 he became Home member, a post he held until his retirement in 1946. He had been made C.l.E. in 1931, C.S.I. in 1938 and advanced to K.C.l.E. in 1942.

In retirement, he moved back to England and dabbled in archaeological researches as well as farming

and bird watching. He settled down in Sedlescombe, in Sussex with his sister Jane. His wife Dorothy Horton, had passed away in 1944 and he was survived by a son and a daughter. Robin Horton John Thorne, his son passed away in 2004 after a career similar to his father. Sedlescombe must have provided him avenues for historical research for it was the close to Beauport Park - the HQ of the Roman Navy in Britain. During his retirement days, the village boasted two pubs, a butcher, a bakery, a newsagent, a blacksmith, a garage, two eateries and two general stores. Today only the village store and garage remain, and well, in many ways it would have reminded him of his West Hill lodgings, in Calicut.

He also generated some income as a part time director of Pierce Leslie.

Thorne always had a soft corner for Malabar. He wrote the forward for Zamorins of Calicut and jotted thus “The story of the Zamorins of peculiar interest to all Europeans who have known Malabar: both because of the part those rulers played for centuries in that impact of the west on the east which has developed in to the politics of our own day, and also for a more personal reason. We foreigners who have lived and worked in Kerala hold ourselves to be singularly fortunate: whatever else India may come to mean for us, we remember with gratitude and affection the country and people whose civilization is bound up with the dynasty of the Zamorins.”

Thorne did come back to India, in fact his trip in 1949 is ample evidence of his love for the country where he lived for close to four decades and admitted that he found a welcome as warm as ever. You can sense a trace of irony when he ends his article on his trip for he says “The Finance Minister who balances his budget after the country has weathered the storms of partition, provision for millions of refugees, the Kashmir " war," and an unprecedented shortage of food, has a right to claim that the finances of India are intrinsically sound”.

He was also critical about the way the bureaucracy ballooned after 1935. He says - When I was translated from my Province to a department of the Government of India in 1935, the number of officers therein was six i.e. one Member of Council, one Secretary, one Joint Secretary (myself), two Deputy Secretaries and one Under-Secretary. The other day, looking at the Delhi telephone directory I found that the staff in that department now is-one Minister, one Deputy-Minister, one secretary, one Additional Secretary, four Joint Secretaries, fourteen Deputy Secretaries, and twenty-three Under-Secretaries. Moreover, 20 years ago the world had direct access by telephone to all officials, not excluding the Member of Council. Now everyone down to Deputy Secretaries (inclusive) has at least one private secretary or personal assistant, sitting in ante-rooms and protecting their masters from interruption by telephone or otherwise. As regards "otherwise" the procedure introduced during the war for preventing invasion of the Secretariat by visitors is still in force: and, unless one makes previous arrangement with the official one wants to see, it is not easy to get at him. So the change is complete from the pre-war days when Congress Ministers in some Provinces proclaimed that they would be accessible all the time-and work became impossible. From these facts various deductions might be drawn, including the following -that work in the Secretariat has greatly increased ; that officials are more bureaucratic than they were ; that the cure for unemployment among the educated has already begun in the Central Government ; above all, that the planning era is in full swing.

In a later visit he observed the rise of communism in Malabar and in his analysis it was a direct effect of the increase in poverty following the decline in the common man’s income resulting from the fall in coconut prices after the WW1 and other causes for discontentment.

After making the usual comments about problems and opportunities in Young independent India, he does not forget to mention the people he loved. He added “The record Of the South Indian in his own country contrasts with the contribution he is making to the strength of the center. Witness, for instance, the Governor-General, two of the principal Ministers, and those sons of Kerala whose prominence has inspired the jest about Menon-gitis at New Delhi”.Poignant last words…

References

Rajaji: A Life - Raj Mohan Gandhi

An Epic march - Hindu report

Manjeri Rama Iyer

Steel Frame and I – Life in the ICS – SK Chettur

A People's Collector in the British Raj: Arthur Galletti - Brian Stoddart

Spectator article

Asiatic review July 1949 – India, Pakistan & Burma Today - Lecture

Towards freedom Part 1 – Sumit Sarkar

India problems and the Plan – Sir JA Thorne (Bankers Magazine #175 -1953)

The republic of India – Planning & administration – JA Thorne (Bankers Magazine #181 -1956)

Times Obituary & WKML response – JA Thorne

Note – I could not find a single picture of Sir JA Thorne in any of the many sources I perused. If anybody can provide one, I would be pleased to upload it…

For a while there were so many Keralite bureaucrats with the surname Menon in the various ministries and so it was a standing joke that the Government of India was suffering from an attack of Menon-gitis.

Portuguese and Malabar Pepper

Two things triggered this article. One was a recipe for picked eggs from Sharaboji 2’s Tanjore kitchen, dating back to the 18^thcentury which I tried recently. A very interesting but alien tasting dish made of ingredients which we still use regularly, but in differing proportions. As I was munching the eggs, I wondered how this really spicy dish was a favorite of that king with 3 wives and 24 concubines (as you can imagine another article is on the way). Then again, the other day Ramu Ramakesavan, a history enthusiast and blogger asked a question about the commercial aspects of the trade between the Portuguese and Malabar and posed a question about the fairness of it, i.e. if not the people of Malabar had been amply compensated and if so how. He was also wondering why I had stated that the Portuguese had plundered Malabar for over 250 years. As it was a very interesting question (Unfortunately a number of anglicized school text books emphasize the glory of Vasco Da Gama’s landing at Kappad) I thought that I should provide an elaborate answer. As I do so, let me also refer the reader to my article in Pragati on globalization which will provide a better perspective. The paragraphs which follow provide a general overview of a couple of hundred years in a few pages, so it was quite challenging. So here goes…

Until Pero Da Covilha (See my article linked) reached the shores of Calicut, a full eight years before the Vasco De Gama and his ships reached Calicut to change history, the Portuguese did not really have firsthand information on the wealth of spices in Calicut. What they knew was bits and pieces from earlier traders and travelers to the Indies and the Orient. Perhaps, it was Covilha who laid the very keel for the ships journey; however like most spies, for he was one, Covilha received no public credit for his work. Pero Da Covilha and Alfonso de Paiva, great friends themselves, were dispatched by King John II, to record the routes and happenings at various places in the Malabar area and primarily to find the mythical land of Prestor John. As Peter Koch notes - Calicut at that time was one of the richest ports of the world. It was the commercial hub for Arab Muslim and Asian traders. Fleets of junks from China and the Indies sailed to its crowded ports, and once docked, unloaded their abundant cargoes of precious gems, silks and spices that were to be sold at destined local markets. Anxiously awaiting their arrival were numerous Arab traders willing to pay a handsome price for just about any goods shipped from the orient. Once purchased, these were shipped through the Persian Gulf or Gulf of Aden, and from there, they were distributed to markets in Africa, Middle East and Europe. Pêro da Covilhã, while in Africa, noted and informed Paul II that if the extreme south tip were rounded by Portuguese mariners they could easily reach Calicut from Sofala or Malindi and take possession of the spice trade. In ten years’ time, this observation by Pêro da Covilhã would convince Vasco da Gama to sail from the east coast of Africa directly to Calicut. Covilha concludes his report to Dom John 2 thus - “The majority of the spices leave Calicut for Cairo, crossing the Red Sea. From Cairo they go on to Venice. If one day we want to take on this trade for ourselves, we simply have to block the Moorish ships’ access to the Red Sea.”

Then came Vasco Da Gama and his policy of using violence and force to usurp the trade from the Muslim Arab traders. It was not a question of peaceful coexistence or fair trade which Calicut was famed for, but forcefully obtaining a monopoly. The Zamorin refused and the Portuguese were never to create an amicable settlement with the Zamorin, though some periods of peace can be found during studies. He was followed by an even crueler Cabral and later the slightly better statesman viceroy Albuquerque. The initial period was full of battles between the Zamorin and the Portuguese with the latter asserting their might with heavy guns on their ships and with the cavalry they carried. The rivalry between the Zamorin and the Cochin King was cleverly manipulated by the Portuguese with the latter providing resources and facilities for the Portuguese to settle down in Cochin (also partly in Northern Kolathunadu) and conduct their trades. However even these periods are characterized by continued battles between them and other kings (as well as the Zamorin) in an effort to consolidate their hold on the resources that the people of Malabar possessed, that being spices, especially pepper. After they had conquered Goa, the Portuguese entrenched themselves there, but laid an iron fence on the western seas with their Cartaz – permit system and fighting vessels, disallowing any private ocean trade between the Malabar shores and the red sea ports, which trade which had been in vogue since time immemorial. Using force to effectively control the trade and the sea trade routes also helped the Portuguese determine and fix the purchase prices for the pepper and other articles. Their naval armadas were of course disrupted with some regularity by the Kunjali marakkar led paros (unfairly termed corsairs by the west) who were supported by the Zamorin, but in the large picture, they were nothing more than a nuisance to the Portuguese.

In the years that followed the age of discovery, the Portuguese amassed fortunes with the sales of the produce from Malabar and enriched Lisbon and the royalty as well as the Fidalgos of Portugual (Of course others also profited, be they the Danes, the early English and Fuggers of Germany). The peaceful coexistence in Calicut was not a given anymore and the prospect of justice even more difficult to enforce. While we will come to the specifics later, one must note that the purchases were made at a price which in theory was unacceptable, not in practice enough to cover the large expenses by the Zamorin in holding fort and keeping a military balance with the Portuguese as well as the rivals in the South and the North. Also it must be borne in mind that the many wars meant forceful removal of a lot of wealth, personnel, costs of reparation as well as destruction of infrastructure and cultivation. After a while when things became difficult, the traders simply moved out of Calicut and moved up north to Mangalore and Goa, where the masters were. (Many of those aspects are covered in the large number of articles in Historic alleys, tabulated under the Category – Malabar Portuguese).

As the spice trade progressed, the colonies of Portugal increased and became richer commercially. As is evident, by 1511, the Portuguese had wrested away control of the spice trade of the Malabar Coast from the Muslims and Arabs and as it continued, on until the end of the 16th century, the Portuguese monopoly on the spice trade to India was exceptionally profitable for them. Did Malabar prosper? No it continued to be what it was, though not suffering from poverty and while the social structure remained mostly in place, with each war that transpired, the suzerain’s debts increased and finally the feuding Malabar North, Center and South parts including Cochin, fell prey to the Mysore Sultans when the social fabric and economic strength were ripped apart and thrown into utter disarray. Those shreds never came together, ever again. Was it so destined, would it have happened even otherwise? I do not know – perhaps…

Let us go back to the early days, the period April – August is when the monsoon winds brought sailing ships to Malabar. That was when the markets of Calicut bustled with wares, be they spices or textiles, be they copper or iron ingots. The ships would dock and the traders speaking many a language came in to discuss and finalize (or pick up pre-agreed quantities) deals to fill their dhows and ships. Some were bound (later in the year actually) eastwards; some westwards to the Gulf ports or the Red sea ports. Those would disgorge their contents in the Arab ports where much of the produce would make their way overland on camels to Alexandria to be again laden into ships bound for the European ports. Each step meant multiplication of the cost and eventually the lowly pepper corn, cultivated as a parasite plant on Malabar trees would be equivalent to its weight in Gold – thus getting the name black Gold. When the Portuguese saw the difference between the cost and the Venetian price and later discovered the sea route around the Cape of Good Hope, they saw the easy pickings. Initially Gama expected that the Zamorin would side with them (because they believed initially that he was a Christian) and expel the Arabs from the lucrative trade, but as we know he did not. They also actively encouraged and developed Cochin as a rival to Calicut. Here you must keep in mind that Calicut by itself was not the producer of the articles for trade (except perhaps pepper from the interior, coconuts, coir & arecanuts); it was a major port where fair trade was promoted and a place where security was assured by the Zamorin’s forces. The port was well connected overland and water to the interior parts of Kongnadu and other parts of Vijayanagara. What was exported out in the 15^th century? Pepper of course, but also ginger, coconuts, cloth, arecanut, coir, cardamom, sandalwood, rice (from Orissa) and in return imported or bartered Gold, silver, copper, silk, horses, aromatics and so on. To get an idea, the most expensive import was a horse which cost as much as 800 cruzado, i.e 9,000 Calicut panams, a lot of money.

The rest is history. Let us now turn those pages ….

When threatened from the sea, the rulers of Malabar had no idea how to confront it, nor did they recognize the far reaching consequences. In all of previous history threats had come only by land and wars were fought honorably. This was a different enemy and only the Moplahs and Arabs recognized the threat. It took a while for them to convince their Hindu counterparts, but by then it was too late, not that they had a solution anyway. By 1550 Cochin had surpassed Calicut in terms of port trade. The Chinese had stopped coming to Calicut, and the Arab ships had no more opportunities to play their trade. Cochin on the other hand was flourishing. The city was bustling with many a trader, Portuguese married casados as well as mixed blood mesticos. Private traders were trying to get into the Portuguese state monopolized trade networks and their Portuguese parentage as well as a two decade experience with the locals was coming of use. With the Portuguese forming their base in Goa, Cochin or Cochim De Baxio became a center for Casado commerce. These Portuguese descendants had started direct trade after taking care of the spice sourcing themselves and paying a small rate of duty (3 ½ -6 %) to the Cochin Raja as compared to that levied by the Eastado da India. The Zamorin tried to retaliate and bring a balance by fighting Cochin for supremacy, but the Portuguese came to the support of Cochin many a time, with small forces but superior firepower. Also by then the method of blocking Calicut with flotillas enforcing the need for cartazes was starting to work. As days went by, the Kunhali supported guerrilla warfare in the seas became effective and Arab ships started to filter in and out, but a larger effort to marshal Turkish and Egyptian support to rout out the Portuguese failed, with the result that the position of Calicut at the fore of ocean trade finally declined with rapidity. Cochin was to follow quickly for they were then just a feeble royal power propped up by the Portuguese and surrounded by enemies.

But by 1600 the fortunes of Cochin also declined and Kanara pepper exports had doubled those of Malabar pepper. The compensation of being to send a ship of their own to Lisbon also did not quite work out for Cochin, for their link with Bengal (Cotton and other goods) had also been broken by then. Many of the Casados and mesticos started to move out and back to places like Bombay and Goa. The trade centers had thus moved from Calicut to Cochin to Goa and Bombay.

The sourcing - Ma Huan was the first to document a system in which ‘big pepper-collectors’ toured the countryside to purchase the spice and gather it into interior Nair storehouses. The foreign merchant’s resident in Malabar’s port cities mostly purchased the pepper from these middlemen. This system continued on till the sixteenth century, despite Portuguese efforts to establish direct trade relations with the cultivators. These pepper collectors perhaps moplahs, gathered to themselves all the pepper and ginger from the Nayres and husbandmen, and ofttimes they purchased/contracted the new crops beforehand in exchange for rice, barterable material such as clothes which they stored at the go downs near the sea.

The economics - To put it simply, pepper was purchased at 2.5 cruzados per quintal. This same quintal of pepper in Europe fetched 50-80 cruzados or more at times, which meant a great profit even after considering shipping and infrastructure costs. In 1500 the Calicut price per bahar was 360 panams and so the sale at the new fixed cost meant a loss of 200 panams per bahar to the local traders. This was obviously the reason why the local rulers and the Arab traders retaliated fiercely, for their livelihood was at stake.

One of the interesting inputs we get to look at is that the Portuguese income in 1506 was about 350,000 ducats out of which 300,000 were spent on internal expenses. That left about 50,000 for the eastern explorations. The cost per ship was about 12,000 and considering about 10 ships per annum, it works out to 120,000. Thus the annual outlay was 170,000-200,000 ducats out of which a fourth was advanced from the royal treasury while the rest came from Florentine or German financiers.

Nevertheless, it was called the spice alchemy whether they acquired the spices by force (initial forays) or as in later days by a monopolistic purchase at fixed prices, unaffected by demand and sold it at gold prices. Later when the trade became more private run, the financiers had to pay 30% of the sales price to the Casa Da India.

But what were the average annual volumes? Kieniewicz ‘s paper provides a good summary. Starting at 1.5million kilograms or 1500 tons, it averages to 2,000 tons per annum until 1600. Out of this about a third reached Lisbon and the rest to other ports. By 1515 Lisbon was getting close to 1400 tons. Malabar production was fluctuating around 5000 tons, and Lisbon’s consumption was thus only a third of what was produced, with the other parts going to China, the east coast and various other inland destinations, bypassing the Portuguese controls.

But as we saw in previous discussions, Antwerp cartels came into play, the royal house of Lisbon racked up large debts and by 1543 the debt rose to the tune of 2 million cruzados. They got around it by changing the rules. Also the budgeting system was set up in such a way that the expenses were to be offset by the income from duties, cartazes and so on in India while the trade profits were booked by the Lisbon royalty. This system failed mainly because of the rising costs of maintaining their presence in India and extreme corruption in Cochin and Goa. By 1570 the royal monopoly was disbanded and it was redrafted in such a way that all ships had to stop at Lisbon and pay an 18-50 cruzados duty per quintal of spices.

By 1607, as the Portuguese grip weakened, the Malabar costs had gone upto 7-9 cruzados per quintal. Some 5,000-10,000 people migrated from Portugal per annum to Indian shores in the years 1500 -1700, and each profited personally as well, with at least two thirds returning back. Nevertheless, the net profits declined due to increasing costs and corruption. From 250,000 or more cruzados per annum of royal profit, it declined to under 90,000 cruzados towards the end of the 16^th century. However the national incomes rose and the Portuguese creditworthiness in the markets remained high. In hindsight, one could argue that their profits would have improved had they practiced a more peaceful coexistence in Malabar and Goa and this might have resulted in reduced costs of infrastructure. As it happened, the expatriate Portuguese in Goa whiled away most of that money, but that story of decadence is best narrated another day.

The toiler who tended to the pepper vines in Malabar did not prosper in the succeeding years, decades and centuries, nor did the Nair and Namboothiri land holders. The Moplahs were affected severely as their livelihood was under threat and after their relationship with the Zamorin and the Hindus were affected following the Kunjali debacle, their turmoil increased further. The Zamorin’s owing to his continued warring with Cochin racked up large debts and his power in this fragmented city declined steadily till he was virtually bankrupt and eventually his domains were gobbled up by the marauding Mysore sultans. Malabar never prospered after the 16^thcentury whereas the Portuguese as we saw improved their per capita incomes.

Interestingly, around 1500, India's economic output was around 40% and larger than all of Western Europe and 100 times larger than the economic output of Portugal. But by 1600, the gap with Western Europe was only around 10% and the gap with Portugal was still huge. An interesting though approximated and empirical graph created from a research letter by JP Morgan’s Michael Cembalest (with due acknowledgements and thanks) and shows contextual GDP growth since the time of Jesus. Take a look at the passage of time and India’s fortunes.

Now we can go back to the starting para of my article on the Casa da India and understand my vexation.

It was as if fate decreed it in return for the plunder of Malabar for 250 years. A deeply religious Lisbon, locked in rituals like the inquisition, then Europe’s 4th largest city, was planning a merry start of the All Saints day on Saturday 1st, Nov 1755. As the sleepy city woke up, a massive earthquake (9.0R) shook Lisbon for all of 10 minutes, bringing it down to dust and then proceeded to light it with fires which burned for a whole week destroying much of what she had made with the trade money. The city which was defined thus – “He who has not seen Lisbon has seen nothing”, was not visible any more. Many tens of thousands of people were killed and their fortunes destroyed, bringing the once proud country rapidly to its knees with a thud, for perhaps it was the wrath of God!

But that was another era. The cultivators if there are any left, and traders of Malabar never learnt the economics of trade if you look at the situation today. According to Indian Spices Board, as the country shipped 26,700 tons of pepper in 2011-12, exports fell to 16,000 tons in 2012-13 with pepper selling at a rough cost per kilogram of 4US $ in the world market. Global pepper production peaked in 2003 with over 355,000 tons and Vietnam today is the world's largest producer and exporter of pepper, producing 34% of the world's pepper. Other major producers include India (19%), Brazil (13%), Indonesia (9%), Malaysia (8%), Sri Lanka (6%), China (6%), and Thailand (4%). Even that second place is under threat. But then again, everything has changed, like the taste of food. Today in developed countries, taste is dictated by large companies like America’s McCormick. Their spice chambers and technological innovation centers decide how much of spices go into flavor mixes used in the food industry. The easy to cook, easy to eat and easy to buy dishes or mixes eventually decide the taste of food you eat. And in this humdrum world, the spicy pepper is no longer king; I read that dried Capsicum has finally taken over the perch in that 600 year race and so, one day, not so far in the future, my friend, Malabar pepper chicken may end up as a memory from the past..

References
The political Economy of Commerce Southern India – 1560-1650 - Sanjay Subrahmanyam
Malabar and the Portuguese- KM Panikkar
The pepper wreck – Filipe Vieira de Castro
Twilight on the pepper empire – AR Disney
Foundations of the Portuguese empire – Baily W Diffie & George D Winius
Profits from Power- Frederic Chapin Lane
The Taste of Conquest: The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice - Michael Krondl

Pragati Article – Hubs of medieval trade

Note: this is a superficial study and I have deliberately skimmed the surface to keep the lay reader’s interest. If I got into the price fluctuations and so many other cost factors, the reader would be induced into a deep slumber.

For more details on that interesting world chart, read this three part article

Some Currency rates for better understanding

Calicut panam = 26 reis, Cochin panam 22 reis
Parados or Xerafim = 300 reis, Cruzado 360-400 reis
Cruzado = 0.86 ducat – 11 gm gold = 15 panam

We went through events that transpired with the capture of some INA agents a few months ago and learnt of the sad fate that befell TP Kumaran Nair. In fact following those events and the wars fought in Burma, Malaya and Assam, many INA agents were arrested and treated badly. The INA movement did not quite take the Indian populace by storm and the British bureaucracy were careful in ensuring that much of that information remained behind closed doors or in sealed files. Some of them remain sealed even today.

The details of one such loosely connected event which resulted in 1946 saw the light of the day, many years after the fact. Even today it is not talked about or well known, though we did see a curious mention of it in an recent Malayalam movie ‘Iyobinte pusthakam’ where Fahad Fazil playing the protagonist Aloshi, is Iyob’s son and a RIN rating, who returns to Kerala after the Royal Indian Naval mutiny on February 18, 1946.

Preceding the RIN mutiny was the RIAF strike where some 1200 airmen at Delhi and Calcutta went on strike on 15^th Feb 1946 protesting against racial discrimination and demanding gratuity, pay, bonus and pension. The RIN mutiny which happened shortly thereafter was more complex, involved rioting and largescale involvement of the naval top brass and the Indian political units as well as the bureaucracy in London. Later Salil Chowdhury composed his famous Dheu uthchhe, kara tutchhe song in its memory. Many books followed, written both by major participators in the revolt as well as one by a British officer, caught in the melee. The event was first termed a mutiny (a mutiny is defined in the armed forces as an event when two or more men present the same grievance at the same time!), then a revolt and finally revised in historic annals as a leftist supported strike. I presume there were legal minds at work during those renaming occasions, but whatever said and done, it was a revolt of sorts and violent at times, involving arms and armaments. A number of Malayali’s were also involved who after the event suffered in silence for the rest of their lives, forgotten and discarded from the mainstream. Their fight for rights and equality later flared out in support of Indian freedom, though originating from a multitude of localized causes and some of the participants are still alive, perhaps in the small group of nonagenarians. But to get to their story, we have to travel northwest, to Colaba in Bombay where HMIS Talwar, the signals training school was located. The people who revolted were mainly ratings, and you must note here that this name rating applied to the so called non-commissioned class such as seaman, petty officer etc. working below the officer category. Talwar incidentally was opened in late 1943 as a Signals School and trained officers and ratings of the RIN in communications and radar.

On September 2nd 1945 the Japanese formally surrendered in Tokyo Bay. Demobilization issues were the reasons which made the people who served the British army nervous. Some were worried about loss of livelihood (Indians), some (the Brits who were unhappy and many qualified Indians) on the other hand were worried about the slow rate of demobilization resulting in overcrowded and horrible living conditions and the fact that being stuck in the forces could mean that the plum civilian jobs were lost and so they wanted to get out quickly.

As Collins explains - Unfortunately there was a strong tendency, amongst officers and ratings alike, to believe that a man was only to sit back and wait for the Government to find a job. Steps were taken to inculcate into all ranks the correct outlook on resettlement, which was that every man was expected to do everything possible himself to resettle, and that the function of the Government was to advice and to assist. In one direction the R.I.N. suffered a severe disappointment. It was hoped that many released ratings would be given official preference when seeking employment in India's Mercantile Marine. When the matter was mooted, however, the Seamen's Union refused unconditionally to agree, the reason given being that the number of jobs available was not sufficient even for the non-Service members of the Unions.

What followed in Jan 1946 was the first of the demobilization strikes at Karachi, rapidly spreading to a number of units all around, including Kanpur. Interestingly, this involved British airmen, not Indians and shook up the top brass. But it quickly influenced on to the Navy and influenced many affected ratings who took up the example, as Lord Wavell himself admitted later. What followed was the infamous 1946 naval mutiny and the ransacking of Bombay.

A number of articles written since then detail the events at Bombay starting from the 18^th Feb and lasting 5 torrid days. While the reasons range from bad food, discrimination and pay differences and transfer of officers from Royal navy to RIN, abuse by the senior officer FW King, officer King’s wolf whistling of the ladies in a WRIN parade, BC Dutt’s solitary confinement and so on, other aspects such as INA solidarity and patriotism were also mentioned. The INA trials, general discontent against the British etc further augmented the matter. What followed was a largely leaderless revolt which at first shook Bombay, but later on spread all over India and invited the attention of the rulers at Delhi. The revolt however found little support from the Muslim League and the INC, while the leftists lent a proverbial shoulder for the rioters to cry. In fact none of them was prepared for this event which came out of the blues and Indian politicians were not too quick on the take.

Atlee speaking at the House of Commons on 22^ndexplained it thus - On Monday, 18th February, all ratings except chief petty officers and petty officers in h. M.I.S. Talwar, R.I.N. Signal School, Bombay, refused duty. The ratings demanded that a political leader be allowed to address them and shouted political slogans. On Tuesday, the trouble spread to the Royal Indian Navy Depot (Castle Barracks) Bombay, and to ships in Bombay harbor. Ratings in the streets became rowdy and civil police made arrests of ratings involved in acts of violence. The flag officer, Bombay, received 14 delegates from the mutineers and was presented with a list of demands, including the following: Speedy demobilization according to age and service groups; disciplinary action against the commanding officer of H.M.I.S. Talwar for alleged improper treatment of ratings; best class of Indian food; Royal Navy scales of pay and family allowance; retention of kit on release; higher gratuity and Treasury pay on release; all demands to be decided in conjunction with a national leader whose name would be communicated.

Many years later, when asked about the extent to which the British decision to quit India was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi’s 1942 movement, Attlee’s lips widened in smile of disdain and he uttered, slowly, ‘Minimal’." But as they say, it was the RIN Mutiny of 1946 which made the British realize that the Indian armed forces could no longer be trusted to prop up the British and thus proved to be the proverbial straw which broke the camel’s back.

As it is oft stated, the mutiny involved the whole navy covering some 78 ships at Bombay, Karachi, Madras, Calcutta, Vizagapatnam, Mandapam, Jamnagar, Andaman’s and almost all the naval shore establishments in the country joined in, including that at Southerly Cochin (Venduruthy). Some 10 ships and 2 establishments remained unaffected, but even ships at Bahrain and far off Aden were briefly affected. Members of the air force and army had sympathizers for the strike, which made the authorities quite nervous indeed.

Things were not looking up at Talwar prior to the event, as one can imagine. The unit housed 1500 officers and men out of which 700 were communications ratings. In addition there were another 300 draft reserve ratings around. The pay scales were vastly different, so also the food served to the Indians as compared to the British. While the Indians had watery dal, two chapattis, rice with lots of stones and some smelly meat, the British had bread, eggs, butter and all kinds of other items. Complaints about the food fell on deaf ears. Lt Commander Cole, a fairly benevolent officer, had just been replaced by a nasty replacement named FW King who had little exposure to India and possessed a definite racial bent. BC Dutt was arrested for writing slogans on the wall and somebody went on to deflate King’s car tires and paint slogans on his car. This broke his resolve, and he went on to publically abuse the ratings as sons of coolies and bitches. A written complaint submitted after this verbal abuse was ordered to be withdrawn while the petty officer in the mess grandly stated that beggars (Indians) can’t be choosers. All this was behind the start of the revolt which was waiting to erupt from years of pent up frustration. Thus on Feb 18^th 1946, the ratings went on strike. Officers brought in new ratings from HMS Braganza, but that did not help. Soon the news was broadcast on the AIR and by 19^th the ratings decided to meet and make plans for the next steps.

By 19^th most of the shore units and ships had joined the strike and some 20,000 ratings were united. Soon the ratings hit the streets and marched, sparing no whites in sight. They were trashed and stores burnt and looted. The US flag at the USIS was burnt, and Bombay was a mess. Three new flags were hoisted, Red, Muslim league, and Congress. Formal demands included release of INA prisoners, action against FW King, quicker demobilization, same pay and allowances as for the Royal Navy ratings, better food and canteen access, retention of kit after demobilization, and finally withdrawal of Indian troops in Indonesia.

On 20^th MS Khan was elected strike president and the ratings had started to prepare their own food as the systems and routines broke down. Some 3000 ratings from HMIS Akbar marched down to Bombay from Thane, and the British were by now alarmed and planning a quick offensive to stop the mutiny.

On 21^st shooting as resorted to at Castle barracks as the Maratha forces were found to be siding with the strikers. It is said that among the signal men, many were Malayali’s and the first to die was perhaps one, a sick berth attendant named Krishnan. Other ships from British fleet moved in and all out shelling was expected in Colaba.

The situation was changing fast and rumors went around that Australian and Canadian armed battalions were arriving to encircle the dockyard where most ships were berthed. The Royal Air Force flew bombers over Bombay harbor in a show of force, and Arthur Rattray, Flag Officer issued an ultimatum asking the ratings to raise black flags and surrender unconditionally. Things were going from bad to worse in Karachi with shelling of ships and by now 7 ratings and some 240 civilians were dead.

Negotiations moved fast, keeping in view the extreme sensitivity of the situation and most of the demands of the strikers regarding welfare measures were conceded in principle. The mutiny was called off following a meeting between the President of the Naval Central Strike Committee (NCSC), M. S. Khan, and Vallabhai Patel of the Congress, who had been sent to Bombay to settle the crisis. Sardar Patel and Jinnah advised the strikers to surrender and promised that there would be no victimization, while Gandhiji deplored the event and Nehru avoided it. Aruna Asaf Ali was the only supportive politician initially.

Immediate steps were taken to improve the quality of food served in the ratings’ kitchen and their living conditions. But the promises about victimization were never kept (Patel himself said later that there should be no questions about discipline in the armed forces) and these were followed up by court-martials and large-scale dismissals from the service. None of those dismissed were reinstated. Some 500-600 of these strikers were rounded up and interned at Mulund prison camp in inhuman conditions. They had to go on a hunger strike before being released and dismissed from service.

As one could infer, the naval mutiny was easily suppressed by the use of force with minimal casualties. But it made its mark, for as is repeatedly uttered - it led to the realization that Britain could no longer depend on Indian soldiers, sailors and airmen to uphold her authority over her colonies in the East. This perhaps contributed in the advancement of the date of Indian independence from June 1948 to August 1947.

FW King was apparently reprimanded and dismissed from Talwar after the trial in July. Arthur King another officer was sympathetic and we see from a recent ‘Telegraph’ report - Afterwards suspected ring-leaders were placed in a camp at Mulund outside Bombay and King was put in charge with a guard drawn from the Mahratta regiment. He was pained that among the sailors were many he knew personally, though it was some consolation that a few weeks later he was allowed to drive his prisoners to the railway station at Thane where they were given tickets and allowed to go home.

The Nehru Government also held on to the British military policy that service personnel, once removed on account of ‘mutinous’ acts, should never be taken back. As the Indian government let the ratings rot in the prisons other jobless ex-ratings wandered around the streets in search of jobs. Many of these brave men thence led a life of misery for choosing the path of armed struggle for the liberation of India. One of the people who left the navy following the rebellion is the famous Malayalam writer Kovilan (Kandanisseri Vattomparambil Velappan Ayyappan).

The Commission produced a 600-page report, which has not been made public. A short summary, was published in January 1947 and it exonerated most British officers who were responsible for the revolt. The 600 page report which has never been aired did not make pretty reading according to Wavell – he said that it showed that men were treated badly by a ‘not very good lot’ of officers.

Some of those who were thrown out were lucky as an article by Bharadwaj at Purpleberets reveals - Post partition, the newly formed Pakistan Navy absorbed the 27-year-old, Mohammed Shariff Khan as an officer. He expanded and tweaked his name from MS Khan to read as Mohammed Sharif. Surely, MS Khan was smart and intelligent; he was quickly promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral. During the 1971 war, he commanded the Eastern Naval Command. Immediately after signing the ‘Instrument of Surrender’ he was taken as Prisoner of War (POW) by the Indians. On his return to Pakistan, Mohammed Sharif was promoted to Vice Admiral’s rank and in March 1975, was catapulted to be the chief of Pakistan navy as a four star Admiral.

Politically the timing was wrong for the negotiating congress and league who were close to a handover solution, they wanted the officers around after transfer and did not want a disintegration in the naval ranks. So I presume a decision was taken to mothball the mutiny, and that was what happened. In addition the new rulers did not want leftists to gain any mileage from all this.

Cdr SG Karmarkar who was in INS Shivaji at Lonavala, doing routine work was rushed to INS Talwar to mediate as the mutiny was diffused. He was promoted later as Rear Admiral and Flag Officer Bombay in the Indian navy.

A bright person who read this painstakingly would ask – why was Indonesia mentioned in the demands? Therein lies another interesting tale. By the end of August 1945, a central Republican government had been established in Jakarta, and adopted a constitution drafted during the Japanese occupation. The British Indian army participated in this campaign against the Republicans, but many of the soldiers started to wonder why they should fight somebody trying to move out of the imperialistic yoke. Anyway while they were there, the event took a religious turn and some 600 Indian Muslim soldiers inspired by the republican religious war cry, defected to the republic with their weapons. 75 of these soldiers survived the war; some decided to stay in Indonesia when others returned to India or Pakistan. This news of course reached India and the Muslim league possibly wanted to show their brotherhood, hence their timely demand during the revolt.

References

The royal Indian Navy 1939-1945 DJE Collins

Purpleberets article

The Indian naval revolt of 1946 – Percy S Gourgey

The RIN Strike Subrata Banerjee

RIN mutiny 1946 Biswanath Bose

A sudy in the royal indian uprising of February 1946 Dipak Kumar das

Telegraph article

Most people will veer off in different directions seeing this title. In fact one of the possible linkages that I will introduce is somewhat new and requires to be studied in depth by those interested. As you will see, stars crossed for some in different parts of the world, they proved to be better aligned for Calicut and its people.

The year 1258 was to prove to be of great significance to Calicut. In fact as the Mongol descendants of Genghis Khan roared into Baghdad on their horsebacks, the city of Calicut was perhaps not even well formed. The city was yet to be completed on well understood Vasthu principles. But as you all know, it would soon imprint its name on the world map, thanks to a number of enterprising Karimi traders and the need for spices around the world, not to forget many other lasting contributions by way of the spice trade with the East and the West.

Trade in Malabar and the areas south of Malabar, focusing on ports such as Muziris, Quilon and many others were originally controlled by some guilds notably Anjuvannam and Manigram. The former was composed mainly of Jewish and Christian traders whereas the latter was run by the Chettys of the Coromandel. The western traders had yet to make a large impact, but they were already established at Quilon and Muziris. Soon enough it had moved upwards to Calicut and a number of surrounding satellite ports following the move of the Nediyirippu swaroopam out of inland Ernad and their settling down at Calicut after a tussle with the Porlathiri’s (a story which I recounted earlier). The Zamorin rule quickly stabilized and he soon became the suzerain of the mid Malabar region. Why did the traders flock to the new port city during that time?

Interested readers might come up with questions about the Kulashekara’s of Mahodayapuram. Whatever happened to the famed Muziris and other related ports? How did the Kulashekara Empire disintegrate? Some years back, we looked at the story of the Cheraman Perumal and his leaving for Mecca. Whether he did that or move elsewhere like the mythical Kailasam is mired in historic myths and is not clear in anyway, but we will embark on collecting more details eventually, but before all that, let us stay on the topic of the formation of mercantile Calicut.

Well originally, the trade routed stretched from the Persian Gulf to Quilon and the key control was exerted from Baghdad. Once Baghdad fell to the Mongols in 1258, the route heads changed to the Red Sea ports and were controlled out of Mamluk ruled Egypt. The Karimi merchants of Egypt (including the Genizah Jews) gained ascendance and they favored the Malabar ports, paramount among them being Calicut due to the strong and just rule of the Calicut Zamorin and the open trade facilities provided in the region by him. Equally important was the military strength the Zamorin could marshal to keep any usurpers at bay and the resulting stability to business this produced. Calicut as I mentioned in my Pragati article on medieval trade, was a medieval trade hub and soon the trading communities comprised the Karimis, Maghribhis, Bohras, Chettis and Vanias to name a few. Thus the importance of Calicut started with the decline of international trade emanating from the Persian Gulf after the Mongol conquest of Abbassid Baghdad (1258) and the concentration of the Al-Karimi at the port of Calicut.

Now let us move southwards and go to the events centered on the formation of the Cochin harbor, the island of Vypeen and what is called the Puthu Vaippu era. Vypeen (the Portuguese form of writing Vaippu) itself lying between Cochin and Kodungallur (Cranganore) is sixteen miles in length, three miles broad and was known as Puthu Vaippu. The various geographical changes which affected Cochin, Vypeen and Cranganore were apparently commemorated by what is called the Puthu Vaippu Era. Vypeen, also known as Puthu Vaippu (Puthu Vaipu, i.e. new formation or new deposit) and the people there commence an era from the date of its formation A.D. 1341. This phenomenon was responsible for opening a new harbor which is what we know as today's Kochi (Cochin) harbor loosely meaning Kochazhi or ‘small harbor’ (Kochangadi of the Jews is the place where the Jews first resided - clarified by Thoufeek). As events played out, this new harbor would soon outdo Calicut, but it would take all of 500 plus years and the support of many a foreign nation, notable the Portuguese, the Dutch and the English, not to mention the internal rivalries between the Zamorin and the Cochin king which as we saw, these nation cleverly manipulated for their own good.

Back to 1341. How did this event take place? The north bank of the Cochin River is formed by the island of Vypeen, which is said to have been created in 1341 A.D. by a cyclone or earthquake. It is said that the island was formed by the deposits of silt brought down by the rivers discharging into the backwaters and sea. Elsewhere, it is said that the Periyar river mouth silted destroying the access from the sea and thus finishing off the trade which the port of Muziris conducted with many a country for eons. The Cochin royal family or the Perumbadapu swaroopm moved from Vanneri to Cochin with the support and permission of the Paliyath family, the real landlords of the region. Perhaps they to saw the opportunity of increasing seaborne trade, spilling out of Muziris and now suffering from the recent events. Some accounts even mention that there occurred a severe earthquake along the Kerala coast in 1341 due to which the Vypeen Island was raised above the sea level, and the Cochin bar mouth was formed. What could have been a more supportable fact?

Let me now veer away to some 100 years before the 1341 event and talk about a massive tropical volcanic eruption which shook the world in 1258. In fact, I was discussing the 1258 eruption and the British mass graves with esteemed blogger Nick Balmer and he asked a simple question as to what would have happened in Malabar at that very same time. This will perhaps be an attempted answer.

January 1258 – One of the largest volcanic eruptions of the Holocene epoch occurred, possibly from a

tropical location such as Mount Rinjani, Indonesia, El Chichón, Mexico; or Quilotoa, Ecuador. Observed effects of the eruption include the following anecdotal accounts: dry fog in France; lunar eclipses in England; severe winter in Europe; a "harsh" spring in Northern Iceland; famine in England, Western Germany, France, and Northern Italy; and pestilence in London, parts of France, Austria, Iraq, Syria, and South-East Turkey. This event is still being studied and the previous locations as well as locations in Saudi Arabia were finally discounted and the present focus is at the Rinjani Volcano of Indonesia.The eruption was so big that it injected somewhere between 190-270 megatons of ash and other material into the atmosphere (or 300 and 600 megatons of sulfuric acid). This was one of the possible triggers to the little ice age.

The Muziris port reportedly silted up as the result of unusual flooding by the Periyar River in 1341 AD. What if the Tsunami of 1258 started the issue of the silting?? To check the veracity of all this we have to see how the mention of the 1341 flooding get substantiated.

A non-academic account mentions that geographical layout Cochin City as we know it today traces back to the great flood of 1341 CE, caused by a tsunami triggered by a gigantic undersea volcanic eruption (but is not referenced to any source). During this year the river Periyar flooded like never before (or after), and changed its course. The hitherto flourishing port of Cranganore silted up from the mud up-stream. Only that no such recorded volcanic eruption event took place in 1341. Perhaps there was a strong Pacific Rim earthquake and we will get to that soon.

How did 1341 become important in the annals of history? We know that the first synagogue was built by Jospeh Azar in 1344 after the Jews from Shingly arrived at Kochangadi. Many a book mentions the great Periyar flood of 1341. WW Hunter is the first to detail the connection between the flood and the Puthu vaippu era. He states ‘The date at which this island was formed by the action of the sea and river, a. d. 134 1, is sometimes used in deeds as the commencement of an era styled Puttuveppu (new deposit)’. Others mentioned ‘the floods in the river Periyar in 1341 choked the mouth of the Cranganore harbor and rendered it useless for purposes of trade’. Padmanabha Menon mentions this as an extraordinary flood which opened up an estuary. As you delve into the usual Malabar history sources you see mentions that the 1341 year had record monsoons resulting in the Periyar flood and the silting up of the harbor mouth.

The following extract is from Dr. Thomson's paper on the Geology of Bombay (Mad. Lit. Trans.) It bears directly on the subject, and carries us three centuries further back: I have not considered the description specific enough for the text, but fee no reason to doubt the authenticity of the fact:—"The Island of Vaypi, on the north side of Cochin, rose from out the sea in the year 1341: the date of its appearance is determined by its having given rise to a new era amongst the Hindoos, called Puduvepa, or the new introduction. Contemporaneously with the appearance of Vaypi the waters, which during the rainy season were discharged from the ghaut, broke through the banks of the channel which usually confined them, overwhelmed a village, and formed a lake and harbour so spacious that light ships could anchor where dry land formerly prevailed."—Bartolome's Voyage to the East Indies. Borne 1796 ; Translation 1800.

The geographic Survey of India Vol 132 mentions a severe earthquake in 1341 resulting in the floods. Bilhm’s paper on Earthquakes in India mentions thus - A storm near Cochin in 1341 caused an island to emerge, but inspection suggests this to be a common accretional feature of storms along the Malabar Coast (Bendick and Bilham, 1999).

Rajendran, Biju, Sreekumari and Kusala in their fine paper on Malabar earthquakes studies this in more detail and discounts the earthquake – Quoting them

Another glaring example is the oft-quoted Malabar Coast earthquake of A.D. 1341. The report by Ballore (1900), one of the earliest studies on seismic phenomenon in British India treats this event as “a severe earthquake” as a consequence of which Vypin ‘Island’, (referred in Newbold’s report as Waypi), was raised above the sea level. Newbold (1846) considers the 1341 catastrophe as a large storm, which brought about remarkable changes in the vicinity of Cochin,including the emergence of the new sand bar known by the name Vypin (see also Bendick and Bilham, 1999, for details),and consequently a new harbour. The critical evaluation of the available data suggests that the 1341 event was not an earthquake but a storm.

We have obtained independent evidence of flooding in the Bharathapuzha River basin that occurred sometime between A.D. 1269 and 1396. This probably represents the 1341 flood – a severe event that probably affected many river basins of Kerala.

Now we move eastwards to the 1258 Indonesian volcanic eruption suspect. We do know that there is a connection between earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. What if the 1258 eruption followed a massive undersea earthquake in the Pacific Rim? An earthquake which created the eruption could create a bad tsunami as we witnessed recently, the effects of which were felt with some severity on the South Malabar coastline. We know that such massive eruptions, especially near the sea level produce large Tsunamis. The question is if the Rinjani eruption produced a cataclysmic tsunami. Quite doubtful and occurring a hundred years before the recorded facts in Cochin. So let us move to Cochin and discount any effect of the eruption on the formation of Cochin

While we see some mention of a massive earthquake off Japan in 1341 we have no real details at hand. Perhaps that caused the tsunami which resulted in the silting events at Muziris and the formation of Vypeen, but then again we can conclude that there was no direct impact of the 1258 volcanic event on Malabar.

VKR Menon (History of medieval Kerala) is a person who studied the Putu vaipu Era and wrote about it. He believes that the start of an era in 1341 has nothing to do with the purported overnight formation of an island, but is related to the founding of the Vijayanagar dynasty instead. He concludes that in 1341, the Cochin raja entered into a treaty with Harihara of Vijayanagar (to keep away the Tughlaqs) and in order to pay the tribute imposed taxes for this purpose on his subjects, all for the first time in 1341. Therefore Pudu Viapu means ‘New foundation’, supporting this theory. What this alludes to is that the island was formed over time, that the silting occurred over time, and that the cause is not necessarily one severe event in 1341. He also makes it clear that such a disastrous calamity was never explicitly mentioned in temple records, or by Ibn Batuta or Feristah and so did not possibly occur.

Nevertheless, let us get back to 1258, the year without a summer. What impact did it have in Europe and the rest of the world? RB Stothers provides a summary of general effects as follows in his interesting paper, He explains - Tropical eruptions in modern times generate globe-girdling stratospheric aerosol veils (dry fogs) that persist for several years, slowly settling out. The aerosols block some of the incoming sunlight and alter atmospheric circulation patterns, and by these means cool much of the Earth’s surface. This temporary disturbance of the world’s climate, often involving increased precipitation, can adversely affect agriculture. Consequences may be a greater human susceptibility to famine and disease, leading ultimately to social and political unrest.

As an example in Britain - During the four-year period 1258–1261, only the year 1258 ﬁts this criterion of universality. The heavy summer and autumn rains in 1257 and 1258 ruined crops throughout England, western Germany, France, and northern Italy. Severe famine is explicitly attested in many localities, and can also be inferred elsewhere from the high prices of staple agricultural commodities. England was especially hard hit. Famine in the countryside drove thousands of villagers into London, where many of them perished from hunger. Richard of Cornwall, the king of Germany, was able to ship some grain from Germany and Holland into London to alleviate the distress of the poor who could afford to buy (Matthew Paris, 1259). The price of food throughout England rose, nonetheless, and eventually specie itself became in short supply, having been already depleted by heavy tax exactions at the hands of both the church and state. France had a similar situation. In England, the cold winter and spring of 1258 produced outbreaks of murrain in sheep, as well as various famine diseases within the human population, especially among the numerous urban paupers.

Soon the mass burials that were resorted to became the norm and until the 1258 eruption mystery was solved, historians accounted it to a plague epidemic, calling these burial pits as the plague pits which numbered upto some 18000 skeletons at Spitalfields.

But interestingly, the problem was equally severe in the Middle East. Stothers explains - Finally, in the Middle East the historian Bar-Hebraeus (1286) reports a famine during 1258 in the general region of Iraq, Syria, and southeastern Turkey. Nevertheless, this disaster may have been just one of the side effects of the Mongol conquest of Baghdad in that year, which brought about the end of the Abbasid caliphate. But what else other than the 1258 eruption could explain the arrival of pestilence in the Middle east. In the Middle East, there was also reported a great pestilence in 1258, affecting Iraq, Syria, and southeastern Turkey (Bar-Hebraeus, 1286). It was called ‘plague’ by the 14th century Syrian chronicler Abu l-Fid ¯ a’ (Dols, 1977), and was said to have been especially severe in Damascus; it is also mentioned by the 15th century Egyptian historian al-Maqrızı (von Kremer, 1880). Because the Middle East has been historically prone to epidemics of bubonic plague, possibly that is what it was.

Anyway the habitants of Baghdad were soon to see the ‘scourge of god’ or the khans of the Mongol. At around the same time as the eruption occurred in Indonesia, the Mongols led by Hulagu Khan swooped down astride their swift horses into Baghdad, sacking the city and pillaging it, to bring to an end the Islamic golden age. That Mongke, Hulagu’s brother planned this siege carefully since 1257 is clear, and the resulting massacre was so macabre that Hulagu himself moved his camp upwind of the city, due to the stench of decay from the ruined Baghdad. Tigris waters were red from the blood of the massacre, and the city of the Arabian nights was no more one.

"They swept through the city like hungry falcons attacking a flight of doves, or like raging wolves attacking sheep, with loose reins and shameless faces, murdering and spreading terror...beds and cushions made of gold and encrusted with jewels were cut to pieces with knives and torn to shreds. Those hiding behind the veils of the great Harem were dragged...through the streets and alleys, each of them becoming a plaything...as the population died at the hands of the invaders." (Abdullah Wassaf as cited by David Morgan)

The Ayyubid head An-Nasir Yusuf at Damascus then sent a delegation to Hulegu asking for peace. Hulegu refused to accept the terms and so An-Nasir Yusuf called upon Cairo for aid. As it happened, this plea coincided with a successful coup by the Cairo-based Mamluks against the remaining symbolic Ayyubid leadership in Egypt. The Bahriyya Mamluks were soon in power in Cairo which became more prominent as a result and Cairo remained a Mamluk capital thereafter. As KM Mathew explains - Eventually the entrepreneurial activities of the Arab/Al-Karimi traders of Cairo, who were commercial allies of the Mamluk Egypt and gradually settled down in the city for the furtherance of their trade, favored the rise of Calicut as a prominent exchange center in the Indian Ocean region.

In summary, the events in the Middle East of course was a reason for the emergence and resulting maintenance of the trade links with Calicut. The Periyar floods that occurred around the same time resulted in the necessity of the move of trading ports northward from Muziris to a more stable area geographically and politically, thus resulting in the choice of Calicut. As this was happening, I would come to the conjecture that the worrisome situation in Europe and the Middle East owing to the 1258 volcanic eruption, resulted in increased export volumes and profitability, speeding up the maritime passages and numbers, which at one time were forays by smaller groups of Jewish traders like Abraham ben Yiju.

As you can imagine, Europe was in recovery mode - coming out of the horrible effects of the 1258 dry fog. This recovery needed larger amounts of spices, not just as a possible cure for pestilence but also to enhance preservation of smaller supplies of meat.

Soon larger convoys of merchant ships sailed the oceans, men and states became all the more richer, wars were fought and soon enough after Europe had recovered, brought in even bigger and greedier players like the Chinese, Portuguese, Danes and the English to the equation. It was as if nature itself had deemed that trade had to be conducted where the winds stopped and as we know, the monsoon winds stop at Malabar. The little spot on the world map named Calicut thus became the spice capital of the world. Soon the city and its trade areas were teeming with Tamil Chettiars, Gujarati Vanias, Tunisian Jews, Karimi traders, Maghrabhi Arabs and Jews, Italians, Turks, Persians, African slaves, Chinese, various half castes, Malabar Moplahs, black Jews and Syrian Christians.

Interesting eh? How events from a particular year had so much to do with the people of a distant land- a place somewhat equidistant between the location of the catastrophic event and the locales teeming with sufferers, diametrically across! Mt Rinjani on Lombak Island these days is a picturesque site, and some adventurous visitors do climb up the mountain to take a look at this sleeping dragon. What next??

But then again these are perhaps the curious ways of the world or the mysterious ways by which it works…

References

Maritime Malabar and the Europeans 1500-1962 - edited by K. S. Mathew

Climatic and Demographic consequences of the massive volcanic eruption of 1258 – Richard B Stothers

Reassessing the Earthquake Hazard in Kerala Based on the Historical and Current Seismicity - C.P. Rajendran, Biju John, K.Sreekumari and Kusala Rajendran

History of Medieval Kerala – VKR Menon

The D’Mello case came up again in appeal in Jan 1868. This time the court did not support the

Accession to India

The administrative declaration by the Government of India

A number of publications cover available information on the Kunjali’s of Malabar and many other books allude to them, some with more detail than the other. However, the versions vary greatly, some picturing the Kunjali’s as brave soldiers who led the uprising against the Portuguese. Some others picture them as pirates and corsairs, going about unjustly attacking the Portuguese who had valid agreements to do what they did with respect to Malabar trade. Then again there are many myths and ballads about their times and some depict them, especially Kunjali IV as an arrogant or even cruel person, who wrongly believed in his own supremacy without any merit, and this led to his downfall.

However, I will try here to combine a bit of both and present here a summary of events and the eventual basis for the deterioration of the relationship between the Marakkars and Moplahs with the Zamorin and the Nairs of Malabar. This sadly culminated in the capture and execution of the Kunjali IV and many an author wrote that the relationship between the Moplahs and the rest of the populace of Malabar was at best strained till it deteriorated during the Mysore Sultans reign and finally erupted with the rebellions of the 19^th and early 20^th century. In order to keep the article reasonably compact, I have no choice to gloss over some of the events. It is a summary of a period that declined from the motto of ‘let us profit jointly from all this trade’ to ‘to each unto his own’ situation where there were no winners. The dog as the proverb goes, ran away with the bone.

Before you start going off into different directions, take a minute to figure out where the marakkars came from. I had previously written about the marakkars (somebody who calls himself Tippu Sulthan has copied all of it, word to word, into a Wikipedia article on Marakkars, without any attribution to my efforts) To summarize, the Marakkars are originally Moplas of Malabar, though probably differing in exact origin and sub sect. They were always conductors of trade and migrated also to Tuticorin, Ceylon, Indonesia, Philippines & Malaysia. Perhaps they originated from the Konkan region who drifted southwards, and went about conducting business, mainly rice and other grains as well as silk and some of those families moved back to Malabar, and we see this in the case of the Kunjali’s.

The Portuguese as you will recall had been trying hard to find a foothold in Zamorin’s Malabar. They did establish a base in Cochin, but knowing that their needs would be better served from some port near Calicut (it would also help them exert much military pressure on the Zamorin and the Muslim traders who still controlled the Red Sea trade) or around the Nila river mouth, went about trying to find a foothold there. No entreaty with the Zamorin would yield any result, and their relations were always on a downhill route due to their demands for monopoly and expulsion of the Muslim traders from Malabar.

With this short background, let us start with the first major Marakkars. They were the two trading families of repute, namely Cherian Marakkar and Mamally marakkar. Cherian was an agent of Malik Ayaz of Gujarat, whereas Mamally (a.k.a Mamally Mappila) excelled in trade originating from Cannanore.

Move out of Cochin

As the Portuguese tightened trade controls, some of these Muslim traders moved to take residence near Calicut. Historians opines that this is when Ahmed Marakkar, his uncle Mohammad and brother Ibrahim moved up towards Ponnani. Pius Malekandathil explains that all this started when a trade deal between Kutti Ali (Mohammed) and Diogo Lopes failed. It seems that Kutti Ali loaded the ship of Lopez and others as per an agreement in 1522 and after his part was completed, the very same Lopes confiscated the whole ship as contraband and appropriated the same. This was what enraged the Marakkar trader and turned him against the Portuguese. By 1524, they had moved to Malabar.

Pius M in his superb paper Criminality and Legitimization in Seawaters adds – The developments of 1513, when paradesi and al-Karimi merchants fled en masse from Calicut to the ports of Gujarat, Vijayanagara, Hormuz and the Red Sea, following the establishment of a Portuguese base in that city after having poisoned the reigning Zamorin and installed in Calicut a pro-Lusitanian ruler in his stead, favored the commercial activities of the Marakkars who eventually started appropriating the trade of the al-Karimis and began to transship spices from Kerala to the ports of the Red Sea. The Ottomans, who occupied Egypt in 1516/7 displacing Mamluks and their commercial allies, the al-Karimis, began to increasingly bank upon Marakkar traders for obtaining Indian spices.

Soon they approached the Zamorin for trading rights and permissions, thus obtaining the title Kunjali, cementing the Marakkar family’s seven decade long relationship with the Zamorin’s until the reign of the 4th Kunjali. That was when a wedge was driven into this relationship by spite, jealousy and clever manipulation of the Zamorin by the Portuguese. So we see that during the period between the first decade of the 16^th century (Sreedhara Menon states that Mohammed was titled Kunjali in 1507) and 1600 the Zamorin’s naval operations against the Portuguese were overseen by the Kunjalis. The Zamorin also gave permission to the Kunhali’s to defend themselves on the seas and fight any aggressors such as the Portuguese. Starting with the first Kunjali, there was no dearth of defensive and sometimes offensive tactics against larger Portuguese war ships and merchant ships, from their manned fleet of paros.

Kunjali 1

The Kunjali I was the first to use subversive tactics against the Portuguese, supervising a fleet of some hundred swift paros or pattermars, each manned by 30-40 rowers. These small boats which could operate in shallow or deep water could be swiftly deployed upon sight of a larger Portuguese ship and then the attack was on once near the target with small guns sling shots, javelins and bows & arrows, and sometimes fire. This hit and run tactic proved very successful and the Portuguese losses were heavy, not only to trade but also the Portuguese prestige as self-proclaimed lords of the western seas. Now the Zamorin not very happy with the Portuguese relations, decided to sever his ties with the Portuguese in 1525 and began to depend upon the newly arrived Marakkar merchants for reviving the trade of Calicut.

Chaliyam fort

It was around this time that the Raja of Vettathunad/Tanur (Parappanad had already become a vassal of the Zamorin but also supported the Portuguese) due to friction with the reigning Zamorin decided to break away and ally with the Portuguese. History books go on to say the Parappanad raja eventually sold an area near Chaliyam – Beypore ( where the Beypore railway station is located) to the Portuguese for around 400 pounds. With great haste (26 days) and secrecy the Portuguese started construction of a fort there, much to the Zamorin’s consternation for it was a strategic location at the mouth of the Nila River. KM Mathew (History of Portuguese navigation) writes that it took a year to complete the fort. This resulted in a peace treaty between the Portuguese and the Zamorin. It was 1531. But that was not to last and arguments about the income from the fort and trade and duties owed to the Zamorin’s became a bone of contention.

With the scene in some semblance of tranquility at Calicut, the Marakkars led by Kunjali shifted their focus to Ceylon and the eastern shores, working with other Cochin Moplah commodity traders in the Gulf of Mannar and the Coromandel as well as the pearl traders in Tuticorn. So much so that many a Cochin Casado sided with the now wealthy Marakkars and even made arms and ammunition for them. But there was a purpose behind it which was to bypass the Portuguese controls as Pius explains – The marakkars used to transship cargo first to Maldives, from where it was further sent along with the wares coming from South East Asia through the straits of Karaidu and Haddumati to the ports of Red Sea, controlled by the Ottomans.

They soon got embroiled in the succession issues between the contesting lords Bhuvaneka Vijaya bahu and Mayadunne at Ceylon, with Kunjali supporting the latter’s cause, for close to 7 years. In the wars between the Marakkars and the Portuguese in the waters around Ceylon, the Portuguese lost close to 50 ships. Attacks at Nagapatnam later resulted in even higher problems for the strong Portuguese, aided by the Paravas. Mohammed Kunjali I and his ally Pattu Marakakr were killed/beheaded in 1534 at Kanyimedu by Antonio da Silva during a Portuguese attack

Kunjali II

His successor, also inheriting the title of Kunjali Marakkar took over, and later known as Kunjali II. The Zamorin tried to dislodge the Portuguese from Chaliyam in 1537, but failed. In the meantime the Tanur king had been converted and was renamed Dom Joao. The Vettathu raja was also to convert soon, together with his wife (and revert back soon after). In wars around Cochin also, losses followed the Zamorin even though they were supported by the Marakkars who had come back from Ceylon. At the same time, expected support from Egypt did not materialize. Eventually a disappointed and defeated Zamorin sued for peace with the Portuguese and a peace treaty was signed with the Portuguese, at Ponnani. This was to last all but 10 years and many a war followed.

However, in 1550 the Portuguese attacked and plundered Ponnani, and with an aim to irritate the Zamorin even further the Portuguese decided to construct a fort on the left bank of the Vaikkal river mouth in Ponnani. The Zamorin’s alliance with Portuguese as we saw, was an alliance borne out of desperation. Hostilities were resumed. The Kunjali II with his famed supporters such as Patu marakker continued the hit and run naval strategy inflicting much damage on the Portuguese trade in spite of the Cartaz system in force. But he was to pass away in 1569 and the Patu marakkar then took over as Kunhali III who according to Grey and Bell hailed from Kurichi, close to Thikkodi.

Kunjali III

The struggles against the Portuguese continued, now led by Pattu Marakkar and Kutti pokker. The war-paroe force would as usual come out and attack the Portuguese ships at will, inflicting heavy damage and causalities before returning to the safety of shallow waters. But Patu marakkar brought more order to the counterattacks. It was during his period that light signaling by lookouts from higher vantage points, to signal Portuguese ships, came into vogue. He foreseeing a long struggle, convinced the Zamorin’s that dependence on foreign powers was not and answer, but to build his own naval forces. Calicut also became the location where ships and cannons were made under the marakkar supervision.

This went on for many years until in 1571 when Kunjali III attained a famous victory as he crushed the Portuguese at Chaliyam and demolished the Portuguese fort there after encircling it and starving the inmates. With this the Portuguese efforts to maintain a base in Malabar failed again and they decided to move to Goa. A number of gifts were given to this Kunjali and one of them apparently was land near the Angalapuzha renamed Puthpattanam (the area was thence known as Kottakkal – across the famous Velliyam kallu). He was also allowed to build his own fort in that location in 1573, and that came to be known and the Kunjali fort (Marakkar Kota) from then on. The naval strength of the Zamorin was greatly increased following this and but naturally the Portuguese were under even higher pressure. They had no choice but to again approach the Zamorin for a peace treaty. Just around this time, the Kunjali III died and was succeeded by his nephew, the 40 year old Mohammed Marakkar or Kunjali IV (Some confusion abounds – some say this death happened only in 1595 after a protracted bout of disability following a fall)

Kunjali IV

Kunjali IV continued in the same vein and many a skirmish between his forces and the Portuguese have been reported, some won by the Portuguese, some by the Kunjali’s forces now called Malabar pirates or Malabar Corsairs. The Portuguese Calicut treaty then came into force in 1582-1587 and a new factory was allowed to be constructed in Ponnani (this was in 1585). It was here that the estrangement between the Zamorin and the Kunjali IV started. Kunjali was in the meantime, in the process of fortifying his location even further with more cannons and trees.

The fortress, as described by De Couto, was square, each side being of 500 paces, ending with the usual bastions at the corners. The walls were four paces thick. In the middle was the citadel, with its dungeon, where Portuguese captives were immured, and which, as De Couto sadly adds, "for our sins was seldom vacant." The fort walls had their parapets, port-holes, and loop-holes, with much good artillery; but the strongest bastion was that which guarded the bar of the river on the north-west of the town.

What followed is not substantiated and are mentions of many a cause for estrangement between him and a young Zamorin. The first of which was the case of the Iringal Nair girl who lost her caste after Kunjali’s soldiers seized her. Apparently Kunjali then converted her, adopted her as his sister and got her married off, but other accounts (eagerly promoted by the Portuguese and other local detractors) mention that she became his own partner of sorts (her progeny are the present Marakkar family name holders). The second was Kunjali’s cutting off the tail of an elephant belonging to the Zamorin in contempt. The third was his cutting off the hair (some say the Nair was castrated) of a Nair nobleman who went to enquire these issues, the fourth was his cutting off the hair and breasts of another Nair woman and finally the fifth his announcement as the defender of Islam and the Lord of the seas.

The last line is well substantiated by Pius M- These titles were woven not out of void but out of substance of power, which Kunjali accumulated by way of maritime trade and corsair activities. With increasing statelyp owers being added to the person of Kunjali, ‘ambassadors from the Mecca and from the powerful Muslim royal houses of India including that of the Mughals’ were sent to his court and these wider diplomatic and political tie-ups were used by Kunjali for securing for himself the legitimacy and sanction needed for his political claims and for erasing the stigma of piracy being inscribed into his identity. He continues - The Zamorin suspected that the Kunjali’s incipient state-building ventures with a pan-Islamic connections would in course of time dwarf the actual ruler, as it happened in Cannanore, where a full-fledged state was eventually created by the trader-cum-ruler Ali Raja at the expense of the Kolathiris.

Decouto continues – On the death of the elder Kunhali he was succeeded by his nephew, Mahomet Kunhali Marakkar, who proved himself the most active and enterprising enemy the Portuguese had yet met with in India. "All these great defences", says De Couto, "served not only to make him secure, but also to make him so proud as to forget that he was but a vassal, and to hold himself out for a king. He created offices agreeable to that dignity, with pageantry of arms, and rode upon a white elephant, which is part of the insignia of the chief sovereigns of Asia. He also bore himself toward the Portuguese as his uncle had, only with far greater success, for besides taking many of our fustas and other small craft, he also seized a ship on her way from China, and afterwards a galeot. He also assisted with captains and soldiers the Queen of Olala (Ullal), when she rebelled against us, and also the Melique at Chanl. And not only against us, but against the Malabars he acted in like manner, in such wise that, by reason of the great wealth which he thus accumulated, he deemed himself invincible."

Luiz da Gama (Vasco’s grandson) did not leave Goa till the 13th November 1597, and then with a fleet diminished to the extent of the above-mentioned squadrons. He proceeded to Calicut, and there held a conference with the Samorin. The raja had to decide between supporting the Portuguese arms against his own vassels and race, a course which would probably lead to his own subjection to Portugal, or to witness the further growth of Kunhali's power, which along the whole coast was already overshadowing his own. He accordingly tried to better the terms previously made; in consideration of his assistance he demanded of Luiz da Gama a sum of 30,000 patagoes, some companies of Portuguese soldiers, and half the spoil.

As this was going on, the Zamorin signed a treaty with the Portuguese in 1597 and allowed them to build churches in Calicut and Ponnani, infuriating the Kunjali even further.

But there was yet another reason not mentioned by earlier historians and this was perhaps the real reason, so far mentioned only in a foot note by Pius, in his book on Portuguese Cochin. Citing Dutch sources he records that the merchants of Cochin who had been allied to Kunjali IV now asked the Cochin king Keshava Rama Varma to support the Kunjali IV against the Zamorin. Correspondence followed between the Cochin king and the Kunjali and perhaps the Portuguese used this information also to make the new Zamporin nervous. The events at Puthupattanam coupled with a potential for the Cochin king on one side and the Kunjali on the other side sandwiching him in a war, unsettled the Zamorin and made it clear that he had to uproot one of the problems once and for all.

As it appears, this Zamorin was befriended by a Portuguese padre Antonio (or was it Francis costa) in the meantime and Antonio was apparently behind many of the rumor mongering. After discussions with the Portuguese a plan was made by the Zamorin to capture the Kunhali fort and an attack was formulated in 1598, which failed miserably resulting in a lot of losses for the Portuguese. Kunhali tried to escape for the Nayak of Madurai had promised him asylum and a fort near Rameswaram, but he could not manage an escape. The next was carried out in 1599 under the leadership of Furtado and per the agreement, half of the loot was to be handed over to the Zamorin.

The Kunjali IV was finally cornered by the Zamorin and his troops attacking from land and the Portuguese led by Furtado from the seaside.

Decouto explains - In his extremity of want Kunhali sent envoys to the Samorin, heartily beseechiug him to have mercy upon him, and inquiring whether, if he should deliver himself up, the Samorin would promise to spare the lives of him and his followers : this the Samorin conceded, and the agreement was ratified by the olas of the parties. This negotiation the Samorin communicated to the chief captain (Furtado), begging him to confirm it, in which case he (the Samorin) would promise to give over to him Kunhali and some of his captains. Furtado made answer that His Highness should act as he proposed, and that he was quite satisfied." Some days now elapsed during which the Samorin seems to have been seeking means of avoiding the emeute of his own troops which he expected would accompany the surrender of the brave man to whom he had made a worthless promise of life. At length, Furtado having threatened an assault, the Samorin and Kunhali arranged for the surrender to take place on the 16th of March.

The events are explained in great detail in many a book and as it appears the Kunjali who surrendered to the Zamorin was seized, clapped in irons and taken away by the Portuguese.

"First came 400 Moors, many of them wounded, with their children and wives, in such an impoverished condition that they seemed as dead. These the Samorin bade go where they pleased. Last of all came Kunhali with a black kerchief on his head, and a sword in his hand with the point lowered. He was at that time a man of fifty, of middle height, muscular and broad-shouldered. He walked between three of his chief Moors. One of these was Chinale, a Chinese, who had been a servant at Malacca, and said to have been the captive of a Portuguese, taken as a boy from a fusta, and afterwards brought to Kunhali, who conceived such an affection for him that he trusted him with everything”.

Furtado's last act was to utterly destroy the fort, not leaving one stone upon another, and to burn the town, bazaars, and mosques to ashes. mob tearing down all the decorations and erections that had been set up.

Kunhali was taken to Goa, sentenced without trial and not in line with his surrender conditions. A last ditch attempt to convert him was also attempted, but it failed and he was executed in a French style guillotine, his limbs quartered and his salted head paraded around Cannanore.

The captives remained some time in Goa prison. The delay in the proceedings against them was caused by a sudden illness of the viceroy. His first act on his convalescence was to send word to the judges to sentence Kunhali off-hand, but though a fair trial was never contemplated, the judges preferred to mask the perfidy of the State with the semblance of a legal process. A formal indictment was prepared, upon which Kunhali was sentenced to be beheaded, his body to be quartered and exhibited on the beach at Bardes and Pangim, and his head to be salted and conveyed to Cannanor, there to be stuck on a standard for a terror to the Moors. Before his end, he "was many times invited and entreated to seek entrance within the fold of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by many of the Religious of all the Orders, who laboured heartily to gain that soul, and add it to the flock of the Lord. Kunhali, however, refused to yield." At the execution, which was carried out on a scaffold raised in the large square in front of the viceregal palace, and in view of an immense crowd of citizens, Kunhali bore himself with a dignity and courage which won the respect of his pitiless foes.

After some days Chinale was brought forth to share the fate of his leader. As the pious historian puts it, "a better lot awaited him," inasmuch as, before his execution, he yielded to the persuasion of the Fathers and became a Christian, and was baptised by the name of Bartholomew. After this ceremony, at which he "shewed pleasure and good will, he was conveyed to the scaffold, accompanied by the Holy Misericordia, and by the orphan children who were praying to God for him; and his body was buried in consecrated ground." Kunhali's nephew, and all the rest of the forty prisoners given over by the Samorin, some others of whom became Christians, were likewise put to death, "and not one that was taken escaped."

Kunjali IV’s place was taken by his nephew as we recounted earlier, that was the story of the erstwhile Dom

Pedro. There are also instances of many others in following years taking the title of Kunjali after making the usual submissions to the Zamorins, perhaps they were the progenies of the Irringal Nair woman we talked about earlier. Furtado got a lot of gifts for his efforts, captainship of either the fort of Safola or Ormuz for three years, then the fort of Malacca and an expedition to China.

With that ended the organized and well reported Kunjali Marakkar counter attacks, but if you assume like many other historians, that the anti-Portuguese attacks started and ended with the Kunjali’s, you are wrong. The so called Zamorin sponsored corsair activities continued without any interruption with other smaller leaders and this resulted in reported Portuguese trade losses of a million xerafins or more every year. Even armada assisted or convoy based fleet travel did not help and the attacks on Portuguese ships continued till 1650. This shows that the enmity between the Kunjali and the Zamorin was personal and not communal as previously felt.

Grey and Bell conclude - Kotta river long continued to be the principal nest of the corsairs, who, friendly to the Dutch and English, continued to work havoc upon the waning commerce of Goa. The Malabar pirates were not finally extirpated until far on in the British period, when they had become pests indeed; but in their long struggle with the Portuguese it is impossible not to regard them as, to some extent, fighting the battle of free trade against monopoly, the battle of the whole coast against the Portuguese marts, and from this point of view to deny a certain measure of consideration, and even of sympathy. This sympathy may more freely be extended to Kunhali himself, notwithstanding his cruelties, which are probably much exaggerated by the Portuguese, as to one who, after a prolonged siege, the first stage of which closed with his conspicuous victory, was, at length, treacherously murdered in defiance of a well-understood capitulation.

Pyrard laval visiting the location seven years later, has something interesting to add and again this concerns the Nair woman. P Laval stayed with this Marakkar family for over 12 days and states that the Marakkar Kotta still existed, but in ruins. Their cordial relationship was due to the fact that the Marakkar wanted to visit the Maladives and since Pyrard had information about the Maladives, wanted to get educated about the place. He says “This Kunjali has left a son, also called a marakkar. I have often seen him, and have eaten and drunk in his house. He resides mostly at coste (Kotta) and Chombaye with one or two of his wives and although since the death of his father, the king has not appointed no one in his stead, and has not recognized the son as his successor, yet he is treated with great respect than anyone else and the title is preserved to him for his father’s sake only”.

The Kunjali IV is mentioned as a contemporary of the famous Tatcholi othenan and a ballad apparently (I have not heard it – it is mentioned so in the natotipattu section of the encyclopedia of Puranas) explains how Othenan made Kunjali (a philanderer) wear female clothes to teach him a good lesson in life.

Sanjay Subramaniyam and G Bouchon analyze the relations between the Zamorins and the popular Kunjalis during these hundred years and mention that the Zamorin alignment with the Portuguese was perhaps to counter balance the situation.

So did the dog really run away with the bone? I am not so sure. It was of course an account of the times and how fortunes oscillated between the various stake holders. Some rose to fame and profited, some perished, but trade went on under different managers. We see the same even today, and instead of kings and corsairs, it is a story of the corporations and the wars they launch, against each other with an intent to profit.

And of course, there is the story of Dom Pedro Rodriguez, which I wrote many years earlier and needs some augmentation. It is actually a continuationof the Kunhali story.

References

The history of Kunhali – Grey & Ball (Pyrad Laval voyages)

Pyrad Laval – Voyages

India’s naval traditions – Ed KKN Kurup

The Kunjalis, Admirals of Calicut – OK Nambiar

Charithratile Marakkar Sannidhyam – SV Mohammed

Essays in Goan History – Teotonio R de Souza

Portuguese Cochin and the Maritime trade of India – Pius Malekandathil

Kerala Charitra shilpikal – A Sreedhara Menon

Kerala Muslim history – PK Syed Muhammed

Kozhikode – Charithrathil ninnu chila edu – MGS Narayanan

Zamorins of Calicut – KV Krishna Iyer

Criminality and Legitimization in Seawaters: A Study on the Pirates of Malabar during the Age of European Commercial Expansion (1500-1800) - Pius Malekandathil

Note- When the Kunhali II was slain at Ceylon a ‘Christian Nair’ Francisco de Sequiera was involved, whose story I will recount another day.

Photos – Google images, with due acknowledgments to any owners/uploaders

The Ilaya Thampi’s and Marthanda Varma– Part 1

I was led to this topic some months ago when Calicut heritage forum posted an interesting article on the Black hole of Attingal . In the discussions that ensued, there was some talk about the Ettuvettil Pillamar after which I read more about it at Sharat Sundar’s interesting blog and perused the comments therein. Were the eight baronial Pillamar just part of a legend created by CV Raman Pillai or did they really exist before being exterminated by the Yuvaraja during his powerful rule? The story was interesting and somewhat difficult to factualize, but still like with the Keralolpatti, one could after digging deep into some sources get a glimmer of a fact or two.

This will form the first part of a three part article covering the role of the Pillamar and Marthanda Varma (who actually connects up to the Malabar Kolattiri lineage through his mother from and his father from the Kilimanoor Kovialkom) and how perhaps a North Indian or Tanjavur lady came into play, for she was the cause of it all. The final part will cover the tale of VMV’s friend Ramayyan who became a Dalawa.

But first some background on Venad (Vel-nad) and the South eastern area of Nancinad in those days, to lend a proper perspective and here I take the help of narrative by KV Krishna Iyer, referring to his History of Kerala covering the so called Venatiri’s (whom he couples with Kolatiri’s as birds of the same feather). The days of the last part of the 17^thcentury and the early parts of the 18^th were beset by all kinds of feuds related to succession, Vanad – Madurai rivalry, temple related demands, settlement of dues, embezzlement and so on. For a period the famous Umayamma Rani brought order to the region, but with her passing in the early part of the 18th century, the problem from the past began to reassert themselves and the feudal barons started to get belligerent. Marthanada Varma as it turned out, was the rani’s grandson, even though by adoption and in the end proved to be efficient, ruthless and was able to tighten the reins of the Trippappur swaroopam at Trivuvitamkode (Trivandrum).

In 1697, Mangammal Rani of Madurai sent an expedition to Travancore to punish its ruler, Ravi Varma, who had attacked and destroyed an army sent from Madurai to Travancore to collect an overdue annual tribute. Defeated in this Nayak raid the king was compelled to submit and remit taxes and in order to do that he subjected Najinad to heavy taxes with more than an iron hand. The subjects were not too happy, nor were their village and Desam heads and a sort of anarchy prevailed. To subdue them this king used mercenaries and armies as well as support from Madurai and much of this activity was spearheaded and / or supported by his nephew, the young lad in his late teens (born 1705-1706), Marthanda Varma. Around this period the1721 Attingal revolt took place against the English, a story which CHF had written about, and this resulted in the English factory getting a monopoly on pepper and giving a secret promise to support Marthanda Varma in his future endeavors.

In 1726, Rama Varma who succeeded Ravi Varma, offered his allegiance to the Nayak of Madurai and requested his help in subduing the anarchy that prevailed. Various mercenaries and English support were drummed up, including English weapons and a battle was fought with the rebelling Pillamar. The situation went on in an unsatisfactory manner until the king Rama Varma passed away in 1729. As matriarchal tradition decreed, the young Marthanda Varma who had all the qualities required to rule the region with an iron hand was to take over from his uncle. But a problem cropped up, when two of his cousins claimed the throne under the earlier patriarchal succession system (which had been followed in Venad through the end of the 13^th century - the matriarchal system came into being later). They were the two sons (Ilaya thampis) of Rama Varma, named Raman (Valiya Thampi a.k.a Padmanabhan or Pappu Thami) and Adityan (Kunju) Tampi.

Those who have read the CV Raman Pilla’s novel would recognize the brothers mainly from the drug infused villainous character of Padmanabhan Thampi, but who were they and how did they come to the fore? For that you gave to look at the family of Rama Varma, especially Abhirami and her brother Kochukumaran Pilla. As we know from many other cases, the identities of these people have been shrouded in derogatory legends especially when they have been on the losing side. Writers supporting the winner usually cast them off quickly in their accounts or make negative remarks about them while hovering long around the incumbent’s glory. Such is the case of these two people. To bring them and their characters out to light proved to be quite difficult, but let me present to you what I obtained.

Christopher Buyers supported by a few of his Travancore contributor’s record the following in his website on Indian rulers.

He introduces Abhirami as the consort of King Rama Varma and lists her three children in the following words

Ammachi Panapillai Amma Srimathi Abiramapilla Kochamma, née Abhirami, a former devadasi or temple dancer ennobled just prior to her marriage, daughter (I think sister) of Krishnan Kochu Kumara Pillai, a Bengali or Tamil gentleman from outside Travancore. He (I think the smallpox death relates to Rama Varma) died from smallpox, at Kalkulam, 30th August 1729, having had issue, two sons and a daughter:

1) Sri Padmanabhan Tampi [Pappu Tampi] [Valiya Tampi] [Raman Raman]. Conspired with his brother and the eight Nair chiefs to oust the Heir Apparent and later Maharaja Martanda Varma. He was killed by his uncle, Maharaja Martanda Varma at the Kalkulam Palace, 28th October 1730.

2) Sri Raman Tampi [Kunju Tampi] [Raman Adichen]. Conspired with his elder brother and the eight Nair chiefs to oust the Heir Apparent and later Maharaja Martanda Varma. He was killed by his uncle, Maharaja Martanda Varma at the Kalkulam Palace, 28th October 1730.

3) Kittinathal Ammaveetil Srimathi Ummini Thankachi [Kochumadathamma]. Courted by Martanda Varma, but her refusal of him, providing the stem cause of enmity between Martanda and her brothers. She died (by suicide) after the death of her brothers, at Padmanabhapuram Palace, 28th October 1730.

The story concerning the two sons of Rama Varma, is covered in the ballad called Tampi Katha (another ballad called Tampunarkata covers the same story with slight differences) and I will get to the details shortly. Manu writing at inorite adds that Tampimar Katai mentions that Abhirami and her brother were given titles and estates and she was called “Kittanathil Ammachi”

Another version comes to light from S Sundars blog, where Abhiramai turns out to have a royal link - Rama Varma was married to a Rajput Princess Abhirami of the Kosala Royal House (present day Ayodhya). He had two sons (Sri Padmanabhan Thampi and Sri Raman Thampi) and one daughter. The princess held the Royal title of Vempadi Valiammachi. Princess Abhirami had problems in her horoscope and therefore the Royal astrologers of Ayodhya sent her on a pilgrimage for 14 years to various holy places. A number of her relatives and bodyguards accompanied her during her journey. King Rama Varma met her in Suchindram and married her. He promised the Royal family of Kosala that Abhirami's children would succeed the throne, although as per the Travancore custom, it was Prince Marthanda Varma (Rama Varma's nephew), who held the right to succeed him.

Sharat in his blog on Travancore ( One and Two ) states that the late Krishna Singh (of Rajput extract himself) told him the tale of Princess Sandhya (a.k.a Abhirami) and pointed out her Rajput lineage. As the story goes, Sandhya left Ayodya and travelled southwards to end up at Suchindram. Raja Rama Varma hears her singing there, and proposes to her. In my mind the Rajput connection seemed a little tenuous, but before we decide let us look at a few semi historical resources, as well as the conclusions made by Prof Ibrahim Kunju in his study of Marthanda Varma.

In the Sri Marthanda Mahatmyam by an anonymous author, a contemporary, it is said that an astrologer had predicted the rise of Marthanda Varma and that even in his childhood, Pappu Thampi had attempted to murder him. This cause for the feud which ensued for the rest of their lives can perhaps be quickly dismissed as both children were of the same age.

We start by referring to Manickavasagom Pillai’s paper based on the Thampimaar Kathai by R Natarajan and P Sarveswaran- Accordingly, Rama Varma sees a dancing girl during the car festival at Suchindram. While Pillai agrees that the poem mentions her native place as Ayodhya, he goes by other accounts which mention her hometown as Tanjore. Abhirami bore three children, Pappu, Raman and Mani and the king had promised her that one of her sons would be the future king. Right from childhood, the two tampis were not on friendly terms with Marthanda Varma. As they grew up, Martanda fell in love with their sister. The feud continues on, more ferociously after Varma takes over the throne and eventually the two brothers are killed by him or upon his instructions. The girl commits suicide and becomes a yakshi.

The Travancore Matilakom records which I have not seen, apparently remain silent and pass off the entire account in just one cryptic sentence according to Ibrahim Kunju. It is concluded by him that the poem is perhaps right because the records were in this instance, suppressing a truth unpleasant to the incumbent royalty. While I will get to the details in the forthcoming article on the feud that followed and the pillamar, let us stick to Avirami for now.

Abhirami would certainly have demanded patrilineal inheritance, in line with the custom in her native N Indian lands. But then again was she a Rajput? Or was she a Tamil noble, a Tamil devadasi or a Bengali lady, perhaps a singer or dancer at Suchindram?

To continue with the analysis, one has to check out the work published later named ‘Vasulakshmi Kalyanam’ detailing the marriage of King Rama Varma with a Rajput princess called Sandhya. When you analyze the dateline, you will find that this Rama Varma was not the predecessor, but the successor of Marthanda Varma.

There are two versions, the first by a poet Sadasiva and the second by a later author named Venkata.

Sadasiva’s version goes thus - The king of distant Sindhu had a daughter named Vasulakshmi and had set his heart on marrying her to the king of Travancore, Ramavarma-Kulasekhara, whose accomplishments were much noised abroad. But the queen who had another bridegroom in view in the person of her nephew, the prince of Simhala, started her daughter on a voyage ostensibly with the intention of visiting a famous temple while the proposed destination was in reality Ceylon. Providence however upset the queen’s calculations and the royal barge was stranded on that part of the Travancore shore which was in the jurisdiction of the frontier-captain (antardurya pala) Vasumadraja, the brother of the Travancore kings consort Vasumati. The shipwrecked princess was then sent by this captain to his sister at the capital where her beauty at once captivated the pliable heart of king Ramavarman, the hero of the drama. The usual love intrigue culminates in a ‘clandestine’ meeting of the lover’s in the palace garden and the jealous senior rani then attempts to dispose her rival by marriage to her cousin, the Pandya king. But this scheme is frustrated by the king and his accomplice, the inevitable Vidushaka, who in the disguise of the Pandya king and his friend receive the bride. In the meantime, the Sindhu raja learns of the whereabouts of his missing daughter through Nitisagara, the Travancore minister, and coming to Travancore with a large escort confirms the betrothal of king Ramavarman with Vasulakshmi, which happily coincides with his own inclinations.

Vasulakshmi Kalyanam is also the subject of a play by Venkata Subramanya, a descendant of Appayya Dikshit. This work also deals with the same marriage of his patron king Rama Varma of Travancore (1758-1798) with Vasulakshmi, the Sindhu princess, but for securing a political alliance. Let us take a look at that, quoting from Travancore Archeological series I. Venkata’s version is pretty much the same as Sadasiva’s. However it clarifies that the alliance was for diplomatic reasons, calculated to raise his status to Sarvabhauma (emperor), in order to obtain a better relationship with the Hunaraja (East India Company or perhaps the Dutch?)

The minister Buddhisagara who has seen the portrait of Vasulakshmi, the princess, is anxious that the king of Travancore should marry her, so that the latter's political influence may extend northwards and his friendship with the Hunaraja may also be strengthened. When news is received that the Sindhu princes is voyaging to Ceylon, the minister manages to waylay this ship in the Travancore waters with the active cooperation of the Huna fleet, and Vasuman, the officer in command of the sea-coast- who was also the brother of the Travancore king’s consort, sends the captive-princess to the royal Palace. There the king falls in love with her and manages to meet her in the royal pleasure gardens to the intense chagrin of Vasumati who tries to marry her rival to the Chera prince Vasuvarman and thus remove the unwelcome competitor out of the way. This plot fails, as in the other drama, by the counter machinations of the king and his Vidushaka who successfully personate the Chera prince and his boon-companion. By the artful scheming of the minister coupled with the influence of her brother, Vasumati is however, finally won over to consent to the marriage of Vasulakshmi with her own husband and the Sindhu prince Vasurasi, instructed by Buddhisagara comes posthaste from his country to celebrate his sister's marriage with the Travancore king. By this alliance, it is stated, the friendship of both the parties with the Hunaraja was strengthened and the influence of the Travancore was visibly enhanced.

Let us study this second King Rama Varma and his consorts in order to check if he indeed married a Sindhu princess. Buyer’s page states - m. (first) a lady from the Arumana House. m. (second) Vadasseri Ammachi Panapilla Srimathi Kali Amma Nagamani Amma. m. (third) a lady from the Nagercoil House. m. (fourth) a lady from the Thiruvattar House. You see no mention of a Vasulakshmi from Sindh.

So, I might not be wrong in concluding that the Sindhu (place or name) angle came about from the successor of Marthanda Varma and not the predecessor. Nevertheless, we should take note that the former supposedly married a princess from Ayodhya according to the Thampimar kathai. The only links are Krishna Singh’s testimony and the presence of the Meenachil village near Palai in Kottayam.

The Meenachil Karthas were supposedly Rajputs belonging to royal lineage who migrated to Madurai in the 14th century. As is said, they later migrated to Kerala and settled in "Meenachil" near Palai. Their capital was named Mevada (after Mewar). Perhaps Abhirami was from this village, but it is just a guess. (See inorite blogs one and two)

According to Krishna Singh, the Rajput relatives and attendants of Princess Abhirami initially settled down near Nagarcoil. After the revolt by the Kunju Thampis, the surviving Rajputs were brought to Trivandrum. Many of them were recruited into the Travancore Armed Forces, mainly in the cavalry division. Although their population was quite significant during the 18th century, this declined and many were assimilated into the Royal Nair clans of Travancore.

After ascending to the throne, King Rama Varma apportioned the southern portion of Venad (Northern portion was governed by the Attingal Rani) into three parts. The areas surrounding Kalkulam and Nagercoil palaces were given to his two sons - Pappu and Raman Tampi (Ilaya Thampi’s) and the Neyyattinkara area was given to his nephew Marthanda Varma.

Now that we have looked at it from a few angles, there is only one left, that pertaining to the legend of the girl Marthanda Varma was besotted with, i.e. the sister of the two thampi’s and the daughter of Abirami. As one account goes, when the Thampis rose against their cousin for the throne with the support of the eight lords, Marthanda Varma imprisoned their mother and sister, Ummini Thanka, in the Nagercoil palace. As the Thampis were rallying troops around themselves, Abhirami died and Ummini Thanka zealously guarded her body for five days. The story of this wronged and vengeful Ummini Thanka or Kochu Manithanka has a continued presence in popular memory.

As we continue to search for clues, we come across yet another story, this one being the story of the Kochu Manithankai recounted by Ramesan Nair. The few additional additions to the legend can be seen below.

He describes the Kalkulam (Padmanabhapuram) palace, the Charottu palace, the tunnel between them, and of the previously narrated meeting between the king and Abhirami at Suchindram. Howver he goes on to explain that he started living with her at the Nagercoil palace. The locals not happy with the confinement, request the king to legalize the union, which he does and promises the new queen as well as the locals that one of her sons would be king. He then moves her to his Iraniyal palace and renames her as Krishnathalamma. When Pappu was 20 years old, Rama Varma died of Small pox following which Marthanda Varma took the throne after promising the dying king that he would take care of them. Abhirami and her children then move to the Charottu palace. The king then gets besotted with the sister Thanka and his feeling is soon reciprocated. But then the quarrels with her brothers intensified and resulted in their deaths, and soon Thanka in painful retaliation commits suicide in front of M Varma by stabbing herself with a dagger (in other stories she pulled her tongue out and died). She then wanders around for a few years as a Yakshi till she is finally consecrated in a small shrine at Chembakavalli near Melankode (hence the name Melankode Yakshi).

So Abhirami was erased from the annals of history by the Marthanda Varma factions though she remains in the minds of the people of Venad, as a mysterious wronged mother, who lost all her children to the violent retaliation of the new Yuvaraja. Perhaps she was indeed a princess from an area between Kutch and Sindh or Ayodhya, and was later degraded to a Devadasi in the legends to legitimize the actions of Marthanda Varma. Perhaps she was a person from the village of Meenachil who went to pray at Suchindram when the king met her, or even a Tamil dancer from Madurai, but in almost all tales, she was the wronged one.

As the analyst in the TAR 1 states, the stories in Vasulakshmi kalyanam do not connect up with any real people expect for the king Rama Varma. As was a practice in those days, this kind of poetry pleasing the king and connecting him up to imaginary stories was common. Maybe there was no fact behind Thambi katha as well, though Ibrahim Kunju does not believe so. In fact there are even opinions that Varma was originally married to Ummithanka, and that she killed herself after her husband killed her own brothers. But the legend still lives on, and Marthanda Varma remained celibate for the rest of her life, finding solace and friendship with his man Friday and friend Ramayyah, about whom we will talk about in the concluding article.

In the next article we cover the scheming between Marthanda Varma, the madampis and the pillamar, the death of the thampis and the settlement of VMV on the throne. We will not cover the rule of Marthanda Varma, for that is well documented and it suffices to conclude that his rule took Travancore to new heights, the size of his empire multiplied and finally the king in a surprising and magnanimous act laid all his gains at the feet of Lord Padmanabha.

References

Rise of Travancore: a study of the life and times of Marthanda Varma / A. P. Ibrahim Kunju.

Travancore at the accession of Marthanda Varma – ME Manickavasagom Pillai

Eighteenth century India: papers in honor of Prof. A.P. Ibrahim Kunju

History of Kerala – KV Krishna Iyer

Travancore Archeological series Part 1

Venad Yakshigal – K Ramesan Nair

Travancore state manual- Nagam Aiya

History of Travancore. P. Shungoony Menon

Marthanda Varma – CV Raman Pillay

Photos – Painting covering all the named people thanks to Debpratim De

The eight barons or the Ettuveetar

In the previous article, we talked about Abhirami and her children. We read very briefly about the succession struggles between her sons and Marthanda Varma. This one will hover above the succession struggle and cover the role of the Madampies and the baronial Pillas and the usage Ettuveetil Pillamar. Reading through various sources and accounts, one could assume that there were two opinions about the matter regarding the Pillamar - that they became a legend starting with the fictional story about Marthanda Varma by CV Raman Pillai and the second being that they were real and existed even before CV Raman Pillai alluded to them in his novel.

It was particularly interesting for me because I lived in Kazhakootam, an area supposedly controlled by one of these 8 barons, for over a decade but at that time I had little interest in such matters. And since I get involved with Travancore history only rarely, I had quite a bit of reading to do before I could make some conclusions. Thus, armed with the two versions of Travancore history, by Aiyya and Shungoony Menon (I could not access Velu Pillai’s version), KVK Iyer’s history of Kerala, Shreedhara Menon’s Survey, KM Panikkar’s and Alexander’s accounts of the Dutch and so on, I got down to the task. I then read Marthanda Varma, the novel by Pillai, Leena More’s studies around Attingal & Travancore and Ibrahim Kunju’s detailed study on Varma. All this could be dizzying for the uninitiated, but it was incredible fun for me.

At the outset I have a suggestion to make, if you have not read Raman Pillai’s book, read it, and if you cannot get the Malayalam version or do not read Malayalam, then check for the translation by BK Menon. BKM’s translation is fantastic and I could only marvel at his choice of words (his daughter Prema is a well know translator these days and the great grandniece of K Karaunakara Menon, whom we talked about during our Pazhassi Raja accounts). So with that bit of acknowledgment and with the background explained, let us now head down south to Travancore, not the Trivandrum we know today, but Kalkulam (Padmanabhapuram) and the Nagercoil areas, to begin the story.

As we saw in the previous article, King Rama Varma died and according to the matrilineal succession in vogue, Marthanda Varma, his nephew rose to the throne. We also saw that the Ilaya Thampi’s Pappu and Raman Thampi were not amused by the turn of events since their father had promised Abhirami, their mother that one of them would get the title. Marthanda Varma would not budge and the dispute started to ratchet up to higher levels.

However, an anarchical situation in the region had started even before Rama Varma allied with the Madura ruler but was not able to find resources to pay the annual tribute. But as Nagam Aiyya put it,

At the time of his accession the state of the country was far from happy. There were no organized departments for the transaction of State business. The finances were in an extremely unsatisfactory condition. The country was honeycombed with petty chieftains, who collecting around themselves bands of brigands, subsisted on pillage and plunder and harassed the Rajah and his people by frustrating all attempts to establish order or any settled form of government. The Rajah's following was small and his authority so nominal that the Ettuvittil Pillamars and the Madampimars were more or less independent rulers of their own estates. Anarchy prevailed in South Travancore to a sad extent which was further intensified by the regicidal proclivities of these petty chieftains and the Yogakkars — a body of managers of the temple of Sri Padmanabhaswamy owning enormous landed wealth and commanding the influence and power which go with it.

We also see from the Travancore manuals that Varma even while serving as a deputy to his uncle had a number of issues with the barons on varying occasions resulting in his being on the run and even sleeping on tree tops (I see a bit of CV Raman Pillai’s novel here). Nagam Aiyya continues

Even as First Prince and Elaya Rajah of tender years, he set himself to put down with a strong hand the lawlessness of these disloyal chiefs. In consequence, he had earned their undying hatred and his life was more than once attempted. He sought the aid of the English and the Dutch and would have completely quelled the rebels but for the timidity and weakness of his uncle the King who compelled him to desist. He had fled from place to place and on several occasions slept on the tops of trees in far off jungles.

Now that we have established some background, let us try to get to the specifics. Shungoonny Menon mentions them as being a problem as early as 1594 when Eravi Varma himself had issues collecting dues from the Pillamar. He describes them thus

A society was formed consisting of eight and a "half members" of whom eight were Potty Brahmans, each of whom pretended to have the privilege of a casting vote, and the sovereign who was considered half member, had no vote in the transactions of the Devaswam affairs. By such an arrangement, the affairs of the Devaswam , became virtually vested in the hands of the eight Potty Brahmans, and they began to work the institution through their attaché’s the Ettu Veetil Pillamar, who were the representatives of eight noble families. The sovereign had little or no influence over the Devaswam, and was simply required to be present at the usual periodical ceremonies. The power of this Yogakkar and the association become so great, that records show that they even imposed heavy fines upon the sovereign for wrongs done to the Devaswam institution.

This Devaswam possessed extensive landed property, which was then called Sree Pundara Vaka (belonging to the holy treasury). Its sole managers were the Yogakkar, who had all the powers of despotic rulers over the Devaswam property, and over every one of the tenants and holders of the Devaswam lands. The Ettu Veetil Pillamar were entrusted with the collection of the Devaswam revenue, and the villages, where the Devaswam lands lay, were divided into eight Adhikarems. Each of the Ettu Veetil Pillamar was appointed a collector over the Adhikarem, with the powers of a petty chief.

The king having little or no authority over these men, they rose in power and importance, and gradually became supreme lords in their villages, and in time the Madampimar (nobles and petty chiefs,) who were not loyally attached to the crown, were also influenced by the Ettu Veetil Pillamar and the combination became a powerful one.

Shungoony Menon continues to explain the atrocities carried out by the confederates against the king, especially the burning of the royal palace and the poisoning of the mild mannered Aditya Varma, the killing (kalippaan kulam drowning) of the brothers of Ummayamma Rani, and how during her reign, the eight Pillamar dissented and how each of them became a sole master of his possessions, thus signaling a situation of anarchy. Around this time, a Moghul soldier attacks and subdues Travancore following which the Rani brings in the Kerala Varma raja from Malabar (Kottayam)to help, which he does and soon the Rani is in absolute power. But the Pillamar and the Yogakkar conspire and kill the rescuer from Malabar. Eventually the previously mentioned Rama Varma becomes king and Marthanda Varma (son of a Kolathunad princess & Rama Varma’s nephew) enters the scene to continue the royal tussle against the confederates.

According to Alexander the Pillamar belonged to the eight Nair houses of Marthandam, Ramanamatam, Kulathoor, Kazhakootam, Venganoor, Chempazhanthil, Kodamana and Pallichal (CVRPillai introduces one other named Thirumadhom). He concludes that their ambition was to extirpate the royal family and establish a republic of their own. According to him, maintaining the Pandyan forces which his father had brought in in order to control the confederates was too expensive and so he sent them back. But this encouraged the Pillamar who rose in rebellion against the new king Marthanda Varma. This is the situation that prompted the Ilaya thampi’s, who were also upset with the king over succession aspects, to join the confederates, and then to go to the Trichy Nayak for support.

KM Panikkar opines that it was a settlement in 1050 that accorded the land around Padmanabha temple to the Yogakkar. He goes along with the accounts of Shungoony Menon and Alexander. He narrates the story of the fugitive Yuvaraja and how he realizes that the common man always supported his feudal lord and not a monarch. So if a monarchy had to prevail, he had to get the barons out of power. With that in mind, he seeks the Trichy Nayaks’ support in return for an annual tribute of Rs 3000/-. In return he gets an army of 2000 under the Tripathay Naiker and a cavalry of 1000 under Vankatapathy Naiker. But when he tried to use them against the nobles, these forces refused to take his orders and thus he starts to create his own imported army comprising Maravas, Pathans and so on. That is when Pappu Thampi goes to the Nawab of Arcot with his complaints.

Marthanda Varma according to Panikkar is found to be lacking scruples and virtues such as clemency, once he had entered the fray. He was the first to strike down the age old systems in Malabar politics where a Nair noble could never be punished, even in case of treason. With MV’s annihilation of the 42 nobles and their families, he destroyed the feudal system of Travancore. His use of Marava mercenaries, his wish to create an autocratic state in the lines of those at Trichy and Tanjore, was alien to the people of the region. PKS Raja also concurs in concluding that Varma was as ruthless and unscrupulous as the recalcitrant Ettuvetill Pillamar.

Let us now get back to the Ilaya thampimaar. They went to the Nayak and requested support complaining that they were following natural succession methods and that he should help them reach their just position. The Nayak deputed the powerful Alagappa Mudaliar to check. Mudaliar went to Travancore and was met by the able Dalawa Ramayya, who explained to him the principles of matrilineal practices in Malabar and Travancore and as is mentioned in a number of other accounts, Mudaliar was well taken care of (well bribed). The Mudaliar then calls the Ilaya Thampis and reprimands them, following which he returns home. Thus the Thampimaar ended up having no external support. The rebellion now became an open one and the skirmishes more regular. In the meantime, the Padmanabha temple renovation work was completed.

This unstable situation continued on till 1733, when on a fateful day the two Thampis were killed by or on the orders of Marthanda Varma, having decided that there was no other course open to him. Books mention that the younger Raman Thampi was first killed by the guards at the Nagercoil palace following an altercation and later the elder Pappu Thampi got hacked down by Varma himself. Manickavasagom Pillai concludes in his paper after due analysis, that all this was pre planned, so also the fate of the eight Pillais. Kochukumaran Pillai was also taken care of in the same manner, according to Velu Pillai’s TSM.

After this was done, the 42 chiefs (Pillais and Madampies) were rounded up, and hung at a place called Mukhamandapam near Kalkulam. They properties were seized and the women and children sold off to fishermen. The Brahmin potties (as they could not be killed according to the Manusmriti) were apparently excommunicated with a dog picture branded on their foreheads.

Now we come to the central question. Did these Pillais, Madapmies and Yogakkar exist? Yes, most definitely, and this is borne in other works such as Sreedhara Menon’s Survey of KH. But we can perhaps get corroboration from the accounts of neighboring kingdom of Attingal and English records, so let us check there.

In the case of Attingal, it is recorded that there were four great Pillas, namely Vanjamutta, Cuddamon, Barreba and Mandacca. This is well documented in Leena More’s book and even established as the Nattunadappu, so it is likely that such a system did exist in the case of neighboring Travancore. Continuing on, we also note that there were twelve madampis and two pottis. The Pillas were a level higher than the madampi and the Attingal queen would take one of her two husbands from among the Pillas.

We note that the first tussle between Ravi Varma (the king before Rama Varma) and the 8 Veetil pillar took

place close to 1695 when some of those lords were executed and others had to ransom their own lives. This was what started to bring matters to a head. In 1681, the British abandoned a project to settle in Attingal due to the problems they faced with the local pillas. As time went by they had lots of problems with the Vanjmoota pillai and the Kochu madan pillai who would not allow them to build a fort, but eventually they built it at Anjengo. The two pillas then had a tussle after which the Cuddamon sided with the rani against the Vanjamutta who got Travancore support. It is here that we find that Vanjamutta was also backed by the Madampis of Travancore. We also note in the Attingal deliberations that the pillaas were the ones who decided on the election of a queen. As we go along with Leena’s account we observe the rising power of the Pillas and the declining power of the Attingal Rani, a testament of the times.

Marthanda Varma seeing what was happening with his relatives in Attingal, ensured that whatever counsel he gave to his uncle Rama Varma (and previously to Ravi Varma) were against the pillamar of Travancore, the said ettuveettar. Perhaps he was goaded to do this by his new friends the English headed by Alexander Orme and that was how a treaty was concluded between the English and MV, then the prince of Neyyatinkara. The Travancoreans in return, promised support to punish those behind the Attingal revolt. By 1724, the English had even obtained permission to mint coins and a monopoly to establish settlements in Travancore. With that concluded, their intention to profit was made clear, and that they would support a certain amount of despotism by providing superior military equipment & technology, just what MV wanted. The sakuni Orme had arrived, and the English thus went about laying the foundation towards the rise of Travancore & VMV. Varma forced Cudammon Pillai to tender a written apology.

Vanjamutta according to English records was apparently the brain behind the pillas getting together and throwing off their allegiance to the king of Travancore. In fact he was the one who wanted to take the Yuvaraja’s life resulting in his being on the run for quite some time (CVR Pillai mentions the kazhakootam Pillai being the ring leader in his novel, but it was actually the Vanjamuttil). It was Orme who brought MV to Attingal to fight the pillas, by personally lending him large sums of money without authorization from his superiors. The queen of Attingal joined MV in his efforts resulting in a retaliatory attack on herself, which she survived. After this a formal war was declared on the pillas by the queen of Attingal and the king of Travancore. The Cudamonpilla chose to side with the queen. MV apparently burnt Vanjamutta’s palace and burned his fort at Pallichal, together with 500 houses. MV who was still on the run now sought refuge in Attaingal, close to his English friends. Vanjamutta retaliated by burning the queens palace in Capi. The English stayed away from the fracas as they were afraid that the powerful Vanjamutta might attack and destroy Anjengo next.

Meanwhile Vanjamutta had defeated MV in a skirmish and his enemy Cuddamon now chose to take the side of the pillamar. MV retreated to Travancore, fleeing from Attingal. This was the period when Ravi Varma died and Rama Varma took over with MV now guiding him to seek support from the nayak of Madurai. With the help of the two naickers, their infantry and cavalry, MV attacked the Pilla bastions and made them flee Travancore. He wrote to Orme that he himself had killed 15 of the pillas. But Vanjamutta did not die. Many of the remaining madampis paid money to MV and sued for peace. Soon after this, MV visited the Anjengo fort and was welcomed by the English with a 7 gun salute. The French and the Dutch rushed to meet Rama Varma and establish forts in Travancore, whose fortunes were now on the rise. MV refused all these overtures and ensured that the British alone prevailed.

The English now pushed MV for a reparation for the Attingal revolt. MV’s dalawa Ramayya and the queen refused stating that the war with the pillas was fought only on this count i.e. to help the English after the Attingal revolt and that they themselves had incurred huge expenses. Perhaps that is when Orme learned that his personal investment had gone sour. Soon he was replaced by John Wallis. However, the queen and MV conferred and eventually decided to gift the Cotadalli and Palatady gardens to the English as compensation for the Attingal revolt.

Soon Rama Varma died and MV took over. He set up a new system of administration and bypassed the old feudal system consisting of the madampies and the pillas. Now he had to take care of the remaining pillas who had in the meantime found support from the ilaya thampies, who in turn felt they had been shortchanged after the death of their father. They then went to Trichy to seek assistance and Alagappa Mudaliar was dispatched. Ramayya and Narayanayya convinced Alagappa (or bribed him) to go back. After this MV reorganized his forces to include Maravars, Pathans and Channars and created a network of spies around the country to report on the pillas. This paid off and a report is received that the pillas are ganging together (secret meeting at Vennanur temple) to kill MV.

In one swoop they are rounded up during the arattu procession of 1736 by MV and MV going against all tradition that a Nair noble is never held accountable for such matters, tries and hangs them all, over 42 pillas and madampies, after which their families are sold to fisher folk and the others excommunicated. Golleness the Dutch commander also records these actions stating emphatically that MV did all this with English support, who had provided arms and ammunition and other kinds of indirect support.

The ring leader Vanjumutta pilla seems to have escaped and was waiting for his revenge from Quilon, after allying himself with the Dutch who brought in forces from Ceylon. But this attempt failed. After this, MV went on to annex Quilon and remaining areas to create an enlarged Travancore. As time went by, the cruelty that he had practiced took its toll. The priests told him that he must repent and that is how he celebrated the Trippadam, Murajapam and Hiranyagarbhadanam ceremonies (to go from samanthan to Kshatriya status) and finally dedicated his kingdom to Lord Padmanabha. Interestingly, MV who acceded to the throne claiming nattunadappu was the one who went against all of it eventually by destroying the feudal system for his own benefit…

According to English records this Vanjamutta (Vanchimuttam) pillai was the ring leader in the insurrection against MV. Who was he? We read that his Pallichal fort was destroyed by MV, so it was obviously the Pallichal pilla. Pallichal Pillai and Kodumon Pillai were the most powerful domains among the eight in Travancore. In the 17th century the Karanavar of the family of Pallichal Pillai moved from Pallichal to Vanchimuttam near Attingal, though his family members remained in Pallichal. A part of his holdings fell under Travancore and so this relocation to Vanchimuttam was actually to avoid allegations of sedition on him, by the Travancore royal family.

Krishna Iyer states that prominent among the Travancore nobles were the Pillamars of Marthandathu Madom, Ramana Madom, Kulathur, Kazhakuttam, Kudamon, Venganur, Chempazanthy and Pallichal, collectively known as the Ettuveettil Pillamars.

But was CV Raman Pilla who wrote the book MV in 1891, the first to coin the usage ettu veettar? Not really. You can find mentions in English dispatches and more formally, Samuel Mateer writing his land of charity in 1870 writes - Veera Rama Martanda Vurmah was the first of this line, and commenced his reign in 1335. He founded the Trevandrum fort and palace, which he made his principal residence. He was succeeded by twenty-two princes, of whom little besides the names and dates is recorded. Their rule occupied a period of 350 years. They were continually engaged in contending with the "Eight Chiefs," and had therefore little time to enter upon schemes of foreign conquest. In the early part of this reign a contention arose between the Rajah and his sons on the subject of the succession to the kingdom. According to the Malabar law, nephews were the heirs and successors to all property and honors; but the sons of the Rajah sought to alter the law of succession in their own favor. They were aided in their ambitious schemes by several of the "eight chieftains," and by other adherents. Becoming aware of the conspiracy, the Rajah watched his opportunity, and ordered the execution of his two sons, one of whom he put to death with his own hand. Several of the minor chiefs were slain at the same time, their families sold into slavery, and their estates confiscated.

Robert Caldwell writing his ‘A Political and General History of the District of Tinnevelly’ in 1890 and Shungoony Menon in 1878 provides all the details which others then used. So it is clear that the usage was commonplace even before Pillai wrote his novel.

There are other mentions as well, some say that the Kulathoor and Chempazhanthi families were not nairs but ezhavas. In some cases they are termed as ettu madampimaar, but suffices to note that it was a gang of eight. Some other mentions can be found that a few of these pillas fled to neighboring states, that some converted to Christianity and there are even rumors that a few landed up at Pantalayani Kollam near Calicut.

The Padmanabha vaults are now home to immense treasures, brought in during these MV ventures and perhaps later by the fleeing (from Hyder & Tipu) Malabar princes. Kulathoor is home to the engineering college and Kazhakootam home to both the Sainik School as well as the Technopark. The VSSC space center can be found in the vicinity. People carry on as they do in Anantapuram, with talk about the state government and the scheming politicians. As usual, the topsy turvy turn of local politics remain the main focus to people of the region. Thampi and Pillai are still common surnames in Travancore, however they are no longer major landlords.

In the concluding article, we will talk about Ramayya, the man who guided MV through all these years and was perhaps the one who formulated his actions and ideology.

References

The Dutch in Malabar – PC Alexander

Travancore state manual – Nagam Aiyya

A History of Travancore from the Earliest Times - P. Shungoonny Menon

Malabar and the Dutch – KM Panikkar

Medieval Kerala – PKS Raja

English east India Company and the rulers of Travancore – Leena More

That crafty minister

If you were to study the successful reign of Marthanda Varma, you will quickly notice that there was one person who faithfully tended to him and guided him through those hectic days. In fact that person had been around even before MV took the throne, rightly or wrongly, from his uncle Rama Varma. The shrewd man was not only a Shakuni and Chanakya rolled in one, but also a very able administrator. Krishnan Raman or Ramayyan, that was his name, of Tamil Brahmin stock, was a good cook and a person of stern behavior, great logical outlook and acute intellect. Well, if you were to look at his story, you would be surprised at the involvement he had with the illustrious king, and not only that but you will also come across a large number of anecdotes attributed to him and retold even today. He is also considered to be the inventor of the Malayali dish Aviyal or what is sometimes termed as Ramayyar kootu in Travancore.

For a Sanketi Brahmin, travel and resettlement is nothing new, as they were Smarta Brahmins who originated from Tirunelveli and moved to all the nearby regions in search for work and patronage. One such person was Rama Iyen or Ramayyan who came to Travancore from Irunkanti, near Rajamannarkoil in Tirunelveli. He was born in 1713 in nearby Valliyur which was part of the Venad kingdom. From there the family moved to Aruvikkara closer to Kalkulam where prospects of employment with the royal palace was bright. Rama Varma, whom we talked about earlier was the king and the young boy was introduced to the palace by his uncle’s father in law Rama Sastrikal who incidentally was a court Pundit.

Many stories abound about the manner in which the young man or kuttipattar was introduced to royalty. The first is about his using care in trimming a flickering lamp wick after ensuring that a second wick was first lit and held as standby. The king who was observing all this noted the careful method adopted and asked Sastri to leave the boy in the palace and thereafter appointed him into royal service as a petty clerk (pakatasala rayasam). A second version states that he was employed as a boy servant at the Vanchiyoor Attiyara Potti’s (one of the ettara yogam) house where the king once went for dinner. The flickering wick story comes into play again and as there was no brass wick trimmer at hand, and since it is a sin to trim a wick with one’s hand, Ramayyan pulled out his gold ring and did the needful. The king noticing this had the boy transferred to the palace. A third version is related to a clerk writing a nittu (writ). The clerk after finishing his nittu read it to the king and obtained his signature. Ramayyan who had been observing the clerk told his uncle that what the scribe wrote & subsequently read out were not the same and that some falsification had been done. The writ was reexamined and the king seeing the error dismissed the clerk and questioned Ramayyan how he knew as the boy himself had not the occasion to read or study the finished writ. Ramayyan explained that he was following the movement of the clerks hand and figured out the text in his mind. Following this exhibition of mental clarity, he was absorbed into palace service.

Ramayyan proved himself to be a great asset to the palace. There is a mention of his brilliant redrafting of a reply to the Nawab of Carnatic and subsequent promotion to the post of Samprati and the gift of a house at Kalkulam in 1726. During this period he cemented his friendship with the young Marthanda Varma and curiously distanced himself from his family, ensuring singular attention to the young Yuvaraj. His family (wife and brother) continued living at Aruvikkara and it appears that he was miffed with his brother as he had refused to give one of his two sons to Ramayyan for adoption. That was reason enough to cut himself off from his family or so it is stated. But this was good for the royals, for his unstinted support and brilliance ensured victories for MV. He rose through the ranks, to Kottaram Rayasam and after Tanu Pillai’s death in 1737, to the post of Dalava (Dewan in later days) or Sarvadhikar. Not only was he the prime minister, but he also held the defense portfolio. The 19 years he spent in this position were full of problems, not only with respect to the accession of MV to the throne, but also with respect to negotiations with the European powers, wars with neighboring states, expansion of the Travancore kingdom and continuous threat to his own life from the Ettara yogam members, the Ettuveetar and many other petty chiefs of the locality.

He was certainly different, for in his steadfast support for his patron king, he employed every bit of trickery, treachery, cruelty and guile and when it came to scheming, planning and execution, he was supreme. Many of the acts he carried out can be questioned now, but at that point of time, he had just one aim, to keep his king’s needs and desire above all, not even bothering about his own caste or its strict Smartan requirements as well as what is termed as local tradition or nattunadappu.

One of the accounts details how he hit back at the Suchindram (recall our Abhirami and the Ilaya Thampi story) Brahmin trustees who were supportive of the Abhirami family. He had no qualms in destroying their houses and driving them away and ensured that a large amount of land controlled by the Suchindram trustees was reallocated to Marthanda Varma.

In those troubled days when MV was on the run, he was always accompanied by Ramayyan. Ramayyan helped organize the irregular army comprising the maravers and pathans, as well as a group of Nairs who supported the yuvaraja. He was instrumental in forcing many of the recalcitrant chiefs (madampies, temple trustees and pillas) to pay up any tax arrears due to the new king. Later when the treasury had a surplus he ensured in return, a number of development projects in Nanjenad. He was also very much involved in the struggle with the ettuveetar and the various intrigues which we talked about in earlier articles. Careful planning and scheming by Ramayyan ensured victory and solidification of MV’s seat at the palace. His role as military chief between 1730 and 1755 is much talked about, and that was the period when the Travancore kingdom expanded.

In 1731, the Quilon rajah allied himself with the Kayamkulam raja, in opposition to the wishes of Marthanda

Varma, signaling the opening of a new frontier in opposition to the Yuvaraja. The opposition was quickly snuffed, the Quilon rajah displaced and his kingdom taken over by a show of force, thereafter alarming the neighboring Kayamkulam king. He quickly sought assistance from the Cochin raja and their combined forces fought the Travancore army stationed at Quilon. MV rushed reinforcements from his capital, but the Quilon-Kayamkulam forces were in the meantime fortified with Dutch support and this stopped the Travancore king in his tracks, but only for a while. The Quilon king, now emboldened took over Mavelikkara, a property of the Travancore king, enraging the latter. With arms supplied by the British, the Travancore army led by Ramayyan went into attack mode again. The Cochin Raja quietly withdrew from the main fray, providing only support from the background, but the courage of the Kayamkulam forces ensured a protracted battle which was not going too well for the Travancoreans. It was Ramayyan who now came up with the idea of bringing in his Maraven and Tamil Palayakkar mercenaries, after promising ample compensation and titles. He also assumed the title of chief commander of the Travancore forces. Soon, decisive battles headed by Ramayyan met with success leaving Quilon and Kayamkulam still independent. Following this Ramayyan was promoted to the Dalawa post in 1737.

As a Dalawa, he did much in the renovation of the Padmanabha temple and Padmatheertham as well as many other improvements and the architecture of the Trivandrum as we know today. He also ensured that the Travancore king was vested with supreme powers and all kinds of monopolies.

In fact, the Kerala state records mentions that the first land survey was carried out by Ramayyan. He was instrumental in levying taxes, though one might say that much of it was excessive and only meant to fund the wars fought by MV. The expenses were huge as MV had to bring in a lot of mercenary soldiers with promises of good compensation as well as elevation to Nair status. As we saw, even traditional marava robbers were brought in to staff the new army. He was instrumental in developing mavelikkara and kayamkulam and today you can see the Krishnapuram palace built by him. Also the concept of state monopoly of trade was brought in by him, but we will get to the details later.

Next came the standoff with the Dutch who feared that the combination of the British and the Travancore sovereign would threaten their commercial activities. Van Imhoff tried threatening the king with an invasion, but it had no effect(Interestingly according to Shungoony Menon, Marthanda Varma made a counter threat that he would then be forced invade Europe with his vanchis (country boats) and fishermen!). A war resulted and while the Travancore forces were initially successful in routing the Dutch, Dutch reinforcements from Ceylon wreathed havoc when they landed. They then proceeded to Kalkulam to take over the palace. Marthanda Varma quickly contacted the French in Pondicherry and signed a treaty with them for support. The full-fledged confrontation with the Dutch happened soon after, headed by the king and Ramayyan and success followed at Colachel. That was how and when the king met De Lannoy who was to become one of his trusted lieutenants and get known as the Valiya kapitan. I had provided more details of the affair in the article Tipu’s waterloo and will in the culminating article cover De Lannoy in more detail.

Eustachius De Lannoy was soon appointed as Ramayyan’s assistant and was involved in wars that followed with Kayamkulam, Quilon and Kilimanoor. The Kayamkulam Raja sued for peace in 1742 following which Varma and Ramayyan set upon Kottayam and Vadakenkoor. Finally the Dutch also agreed to discuss a peace treaty which was brokered and headed by Ramayyan. This did not work out even after three meetings and efforts as the Dutch were able to continue keeping the supply line open with Kayamkulam for the articles of trade such as pepper. In the meantime the Kayamkulam Raja again rebelled and Ramayyan was sent to quell it, but the Kayamkulam king finally seeing no means to win a war, quietly escaped to Trichur after moving all his treasures out of the palace. The Dutch finally forced into a corner, signed and ratified the Ramayyan peace treaty in 1753. Next in Ramayyan’s trove of victories was the one involving the Ambalapuzha raja and his poison arrow wielding archers. Soon to follow was Changanaseery (thekankoor) but here Ramayyan was faced with a group of Telugu Brahmin mercenaries working for this king. It was expected that Ramayyan would stop as killing of Brahmins was not the said thing. The unflinching Ramayyan directed De lannoy to drive them out and that was done without any further qualms. With that, all land upto the Cochin territory had been annexed by Marthanda Varma with Ramayyan’s help and leadership.

The Cochin raja was now in a quandary for he was sandwiched between two aspiring chieftains, Marthanda Varma in the south and the Zamorin to the north. The Paliyath Menon now conspired with all the petty kings who were against the Travancore king and planned to wage a final battle, again this was foiled by Ramayyan and De lannoy. Ramayyan was now camped in Cochin and as he was planning to make his final surge, the Cochin king sent his abject apology to Marthanda Varma which was formally accepted. Nevertheless as accounts show the people in the Kayamkulam area had no plans to accept the sovereignty of the Travancore king. Both Marthanda Varma and Ramayyan were now a bit troubled as it appears that the resurgent Zamorin had entered the fray in support of those kings. And here is where Marthanda Varma makes the terminal mistake of writing to Hyder Ali for help. Hyder agreed and deputed forces down south, but soon after the Travancore king wrote to him stating that help was no longer needed, as the situation had been sorted out, thus irritating the Mysore Sultan.

There were many other incidents following that, like the Tinnavelly affair, the fight against the Zamorin at Cochin, but during a period of peaceful sojourn, Ramayyan together with De Lannoy proceeded to fortify the Travancore border. In addition, Ramayyan started to build up the commercial infrastructure following a land survey and establishment of godowns as well as a royal monopoly on pepper and such spices for trade. Chowkies for levying duties on transport of material for trade were established along the way. Pandakasalas for salt manufacture were constructed, and finally a system of budgets and balances instituted. For the first time in the history of Travancore, a decision was made to control expenditure in proportion to income and a budgeting system called Pathivu Kanakku was established. The fort at Trivandrum, the sheevelipura as well as the royal palace within the fort were constructed under his supervision. As we see today, many of his edicts (termed Ramayya sattams) related with commerce, excise, budgets and taxes later became so woven into the fabric of the history of Travancore, but there were also many a decision that could be called wrong such as imposition of taxes on lower castes such as the poll tax.

Since the end of 1745, Martanda Varma was apparently suffering from some illness, which made him more and more reliant on Ramayyan Dalawa, who as explained previously reformed taxation and successfully introduced several monopolies. With all the needed completed, Marthanda Varma dedicated the kingdom to the lord and Ramayyan moved to the commercial headquarters, that being Mavelikkara where all the natural produce was concentrated. By now it was 1750 and the king had become more of a religious person for presumably the past actions had caught up with him. Another six years passed, and we find that the able Dalawa Ramayyan has taken ill and is sinking with death looming close. Marthanda Varma is devastated and deputes his nephew Rama Varma to check what he could do, but Ramayyan only expresses his one lasting regret, asking for nothing else.

When the Prince Rama Varma reached Mavelikara, he found the Dalawa sinking and on being informed of the Maharajah's wishes to perpetuate his name, Rama lyen said with his characteristic modesty: "I disclaim any personal right to the proposed honour. I was merely the instrument in my Royal master's hands. Although I have accomplished all my aims I am only sorry that I was not permitted to conquer and annex Cochin."

Ramayyan passed away at the comparatively young age of 43. The Anjengo Factors recorded in their Diary that Ramayyan breathed his last at Mavelikkara on 1st January, 1756. After the death of his wife, it appears that Ramayyan consorted with a Nair lady. Upon his death people found that he has amassed no wealth and had expressed no death wishes. The only departing request he made to the king was to take care of this Nair lady’s wellbeing. Ramayyan Dalawa's family of 2 sons and 1 daughter moved back to Pudukotta after his death. Author Sethu Ramaswamy incidentally claims some ancestral connections.

The Maharajah Marthanda Varma and Ramayyan Dalawa were more than just King and minister to each other. King Marthanda Varma, his Diwan Ramayya Pillai Dalawa, along with De Lannoy's military skill, together were a force to reckon with in the South. Tara Sankar banarjee hints that the so-called greatness attributed to Martanda Varma by other historians, who always depicted the king as invincible, is silently challenged by Madhava Rao who hints that it was the Machiavellian strategy of Ramayyan, the General of Marthanda Varma, who saved the honor and greatness of the master in his wars with Kayamkulam. As is reported, they were intimate friends (like Chandragupta Maurya and Chanakya), so much that after the death of Ramayyan the Maharajah went into a deep depression and started losing health himself. It is recorded that he pined for his minister, friend and companion and died within two years after Ramayyan’s death, in 1758.

The Ramayyan curry that he is credited with was apparently made for MV when he was suffering from a stomach upset. It comprised ground coconut, curry leaves, curds, some jaggery (normally not a part of Avial), green chillies, other vegetables and yam. Today it is known as the avail which is almost a state dish.

Many legends are attributed to Ramayyan, it is rumored that the king once offered half of his kingdom to this trusted deputy, making him a king of that part. Ramayyan refused stating that he was a Brahmin and it’s the duty of Kshatriyas to rule (a little clarification is needed here – even Marthanda Varma was a Samanthan Kshatriya and did a Hiranya Garbha ceremony to attain the Kshatriya caste position towards the end of his career). He is also credited to providing shelter to poor Brahmins in the fort area where the temple provided them with means of livelihood. But his enmity with the local Nampoothiris is also well known, especially those in Kayamkulam, who were replaced later with Kolathunad potties. Ramayyan is also credited with the removal of the Sree chakkara bhagavathy idol from Kayamkulam and reinstation at Trivandrum (This was done to remove the powers that protected Kayamkulam kings).

For two years following his death, Travancore had no Dalawa. Ayappan Pillai acted in that position and received the appointment only after the death of Marthanda Varma. Ramayyan’s younger brother Goplayyan did become a dalawa though, some years later.

The simple but crafty self-cooking Brahmin had done enough for the kingdom of Travancore and it was many years later that another decided to emulate him, Sir CP Ramaswamy Iyer…

References

A History of Travancore from the Earliest Times - P. Shungoonny Menon

Rise of Travancore: a study of the life and times of Marthanda Varma - A. P. Ibrahim Kunju.

Portuguese and Malabar Pepper

Now we can go back to the starting para of my article on the Casa da India and understand my vexation.

Pragati Article – Hubs of medieval trade

For more details on that interesting world chart, read this three part article

Some Currency rates for better understanding

Calicut panam = 26 reis, Cochin panam 22 reis
Parados or Xerafim = 300 reis, Cruzado 360-400 reis
Cruzado = 0.86 ducat – 11 gm gold = 15 panam

From the reminiscences of an Englishmen….

Let me start by outlining a charming study of Calicut in the 1880’s, extracted from a chapter on Edwin Lester Linden Arnold’s capital two volume book on coffee plantation in South India. Lester was the son of the illustrious Indophile Sir Edwin Arnold, the founder of the Mahabodhi society and author of ‘Light of Asia’. Lester was born in India and after education at Cheltenham in England, first tried his hand at cattle breeding and then came to Cochin to work as an assistant coffee planter (chik-doree) for the Cochin Raja who had acquired a large tract in the hills. It was during this period that he wrote the books about coffee cultivation after spending a year setting up a coffee estate at Nelliyampati or Anamalai hills, after passing through Calicut. Later he went back to Britain after contracting malaria and settled into a career in journalism but later took to writing romance and mystery books as it was a time when Conan Doyle and others were making hay, with those genres.

Like my last article, this obliquely touches the topic of coffee, coffee plantations of Malabar and is set in May 1881, just a few years after Edward Lear had passed through Calicut and made his accounts, a subject which I had written about earlier.

So here goes.

We are looking at a period when there was famine and rice shortage in Malabar and rice was being delivered from Ceylon. Lester’s ship ‘Africa’ laden with rice passes through Cochin where the waters are infested with crocodiles which the British used for shooting practice. Calicut then from the sea was not much, but just a line of open shanties on the beach, a white lighthouse, and the usual flagstaff, from which the Union Jack flutters gaily. The palm trees hide all the rest of the town, and fringe the coast northward and southward as far as the eye can reach. The author is surprised by the hat palm (toppi kuda) umbrella worn by people, and is told that what was once a great emporia for trade and a source for Calico cloth has gone down sadly in worldly prosperity, and is now nothing but a police station and the residence of some European coffee and mercantile agencies. He concludes that it once was a great place since it still had a Jewish colony southwards of the town comprising pale skinned Jews who are supposed to be the direct descendants of those Solomon the Magnificent sent to the "gorgeous East "to collect ivory and peacocks for his palaces.

The strand (shoreline – beach road) was a very animated scene : in the background long low lines of sheds for storing rice and merchandise, and a towering hedge of palm trees rising behind them, with the tall white lighthouse overtopping even the palms ; coolies were hurrying to and fro between the cargo-boats and storehouses, bending under the weight of great rice-sacks ; half-caste writers in white European garments, with white helmets on their heads, were standing at the doors, entering each bag in their day-books ; native women, some gaily dressed in white calicoes with green or red sarees, and some not dressed at all, were running about with loads on their heads nearly as heavy as those carried by the men ; scores of naked brown children, reveling and rioting in unlimited dirt and sand, were fighting with dozens of mangy dogs for bones and scraps of melon peel ; while above the busy crowd the cawing crows occupied every coign of advantage, and the kites swept round and in and out among the masts and palm trees in easy circles, every now and then coming down like meteors, and flapping away triumphantly with part of a dead dog, a fish's head, or some such tempting morsel.

He makes way to the club house (we talked about it before – near the previous French Loge and was a planters club) which he describes thus. This club house is a very comfortable place, and much frequented by the English residents and stray planters, who come down from the hills, when fever-stricken, to see the doctor here, and imbibe the invigorating ozone of the sea-breezes. It boasts a capital reading-room, with a wide verandah, well stocked with the peculiar long-armed easy-chairs of the country, and opening directly on to the beach. Behind is a billiard-room, and across the courtyard there is a row of half a dozen comfortable bedrooms under a low thatched roof, with the inevitable verandah and punkah ropes hanging by every door-post. Then one passes down a long passage under a shady grove of palm trees, where the ripe nuts hang in great clusters at the top of the tapering stems, until the feeding department is reached, where I " tiffined " with two or three other Englishmen, one of whom subsequently turned out to be bound for the same part of the jungles as myself.

A trip to the town in a bullock cart (buggy) is described beautifully, and he concludes thus - In this gilded pill-box I meandered down the various village streets and into the open country beyond, at a pace little above a walk. I did not understand then that, if you are in a buggy and want the bullocks to go faster, you have to beat the driver, who will then transmit the "walloping" to his "cattle." We soon pick up these things; but in my innocence, on that first day, after a couple of miles of dawdling, my usually serene temper was ruffled, and I got out and belabored the sleepy white oxen with my big white umbrella a proceeding which seemed to afford the "mild Hindoo " who was driving some gentle amusement, but did not take us on a hit faster. So I got inside again, and, lighting a cheroot, resigned myself to fate with the reflection that we must do at Rome as the Romans do.

He lodges at the bungalow of a British businessman, and is taken for dinner to the Bungalow of the local Police Supdt (another brit) on foot by his hostess and led by two torch bearers in front to light the path and scare the snakes away. After dinner they puffed at their long "Trichinopolies" (also called Trichies or Tritchies, is a type of cheroot associated with the town of Tiruchirappalli) and sipping iced brandy-pawnee (brandy, ice and water (pani)), with a white-clad servant behind each chair waving a peacock-feather fan over their heads to keep away the mosquitoes. We note from the conversation that Calicut was very poor then, for the town and all the neighborhood was inundated with famine-stricken coolies at the last extremity for a meal, and so the amount of crime was wonderfully small.

Next day he has hazri (refreshments before breakfast), a tub bath and observes a rain drenched morning and the flight of many small chattering finches. He details the habitat and movements all kinds of animals, snakes, butterflies in forthcoming paragraphs, comparing them to their counterparts in the blighty, if any.

Finally we get a description of the town, the Mananchira tank and the streets. Let’s see what it looked like then. The road is something like a Devonshire lane, with high red banks on either side, but the clumps of bamboos and palms spoil the comparison. Occasionally there are European bungalows standing back from the track in their-compounds, where little white children are often to be seen playing about, attended by ayahs and men-servants. Further on there was a native street, with little open shops on either side: one shop devoted to sugar-cane hung up in bunches, and seeds and pulses exposed for sale in open vessels; another to earthenware chatties, and another to tinware. Once the different trades used to keep separate, but now they seem to be losing their exclusiveness, and take up their quarters where they can fix them.

Every now and then a string of women passed me, carrying enormous loads of grass on their heads and going at a quick trot. They are not particularly prepossessing according to our standard of female comeliness, and the hard work they do and the life they lead spoil them very early. They wear only one garment a long strip of cloth called a saree, which they wind round and round their waists so as to form a short petticoat reaching to the knees, of which they bring the spare end up over their left shoulder, and let it hang down behind. The old women do not stand on ceremony in the matter of dress, and wear clothes only according to their means. Generally they are very poor.

Occasionally a native country gentleman was met going along in a private bullock cart at the usual snail's pace, but looking perfectly contented. The native writers or clerks have absorbed some English energy, and are brisker in their movements. I actually saw one in a buggy urging the driver to go faster in very good English, which he seemed to understand perfectly. The policemen also seem conscious of their official position, and proud of their semi-European dress and broad scarlet shoulder-strap with its brass plate and number.

There is a fine tank in the centre of the town, enclosing about four acres of water, with flights of stone steps all round, and four carved archways, which have been partially destroyed by some Goths, and the material carried away to build houses. These Indian tanks are the great institutions of the towns and villages. Here everybody comes down to wash, and also to get drinking water, horrible to say. But it has been so for the last few thousand years, so nobody minds; and one may any day see groups of chattering girls and gossiping housewives dipping their brass chatties close to where a fat old gentleman, with nothing on but a towel, is splashing the water over his skin, and rubbing it in as if it were some precious ointment not to be used carelessly. The frogs also inhabit these tanks, and their heads and bright eyes are to be seen all along the margins until someone comes and disturbs their reflections, when they at once retire to the deeper parts under the broad green leaves of the lotuses in the centre of the pond. Nobody seems to mind them, or fancy they give a peculiar taste to the water, and they and the cattle and village dogs use the tank contentedly with all the villagers.

Round the tank the official bungalows and Government offices form a wide amphitheater, with graceful palms scattered everywhere, and filling up the background of the picture with a waving sea of plumes.

He hastens to conclude -Calicut seems to have a very miscellaneous trade, and the courtyard of the custom-house was piled up with merchandise of every sort and variety, waiting to be cleared, and meanwhile protected from the merciless beaks and claws of the crows and kites, with which the roof swarmed, by strong netting spread from one side of the courtyard to the other. It is a great pity, I repeat, no proper harbor can be made here; if there were one, it would be of immense importance to the "country side," and double the wealthy population of Mysore and Travancore. Probably someday the railway which now ends at Beypore (you may recall my article about the terminus completed in 1860 and was connected to Calicut in 1888) will be brought on, and a breakwater erected to shelter the shipping when the south-west monsoon blows. At present the vessels lie in the open roads, and when a storm is seen to be coming on they have to up anchor and make for the open sea, for woe to the craft which puts off sailing too long, as she speedily comes under the palm trees fringing the beach

Lester Arnold moves on to Beypore after making a good study of the people he met, remarking especially that Moplah women were merry ladies with a twinkle in their eyes, and then to Palghat. From where he proceeds to Anamallai or Nelliyampati and goes about setting up an estate, a topic we will get to another day.

A review of his books in ‘The Nation Feb 1882’ summarizes Arnold’s stay at Wayanad - The estate to which he was sent was a new one, so that we have a very clear account of the various processes by which the well-nigh impenetrable jungle is converted into a coffee plantation. The life of the planter on a new estate is a very hard one. His house is a flimsy hut, with a roof of grass and walls of a single thickness of matting, through which both wind and rain have free access. He must toil from early morning till night in the broiling sun, the terrible rain, and the yet more frightful mist which lurks in the valleys. Add to all this his solitude, the wretched food which he is often compelled to cook for himself, and the inevitable fever, and it will be seen that the planter’s lot is exceptionally trying. His amusements are few, consisting mainly of occasional Sunday visits to a neighboring planter, and a holiday excursion now and then to the plains. Hunting is almost out of the question from want of time, though elephants, tigers, and bisons, to say nothing of smaller game, abound in the forests about him. After a year principally spent in cutting roads, felling and burning trees, and making holes for the coffee-bushes, Mr. Arnold was utterly vanquished by the fever, and compelled to return to England to recruit.

That done and dusted, let us move back to the Calicut shore, straddling the Arabian Sea. Now if I told you that there were places called Conolly’s hill, Gillham rock, Coote Reef, Anchorage reef, Reliance Shoal, Camel’s Hump, Dolphins Head etc, in those days, most people will think that I am under the influence of something. In fact some of these terms are still used by mariners, charting their journey through the western seas, or the Arabian Sea towards Cochin or Trivandrum.

Connolly’s hill

Mr. Connolly’s house, is nearly three miles north of the town of Calicut, being placed on an isolated hill. Steam vessels usually anchor in 4 fathoms, mud, with the highest tree on Connolly Hill bearing 43°. Henry Valentine Connolly, who lived in the then Collector’s Bungalow in what was later called West Hill, Calicut, is also remembered there with a garden called ‘Connolly’s Garden.’ The bungalow now houses the Pazhassi Raja Museum and on the campus is the V.K. Krishna Menon Museum

Gillham Rock

Named after Captain Gilham, Port Officer and lodge member - Gillham Rock, on which the sea breaks occasionally, has a least depth of 1.8mts, and is the southernmost danger in the vicinity of Calicut; lies 2 miles southward from the old lighthouse, with its outer edge 1,400 yards from the shore.

Coote Reef

This place near Kallayi river mouth was named the Coote reef after the late East India Company sloop-of-war Coote which was lost there. This was the original Calicut harbor and extended westwards and southwards of the grain godowns and lighthouse. This is also the location where Hamilton saw the sunken ruins of Calicut and an Old Portuguese fort ruins. Coote Reef with a 0.9 mt depth, lies with its outer edge 1.1 miles south-southwestward from Calicut Old Lighthouse and 1,500 yards from the shore. To the south and east of the reef the bottom is soft mud, and small coasting craft anchor in about 2 fathoms at low water, partially protected from northwest winds by the reef.

The Coote story - This fine sloop-of-war sailed from Bombay under the command of Lieutenant J. S. Grieve, who had only joined her on the 15th of the Nov 1846, and, on the morning of the 1st of December, grounded on a reef near Calicut, to which port she was bound. Every exertion was made by the officers and men to get her off, but without avail, and, on the 3rd of December, she was abandoned, after all her guns and a great portion of her stores and ammunition had been safely landed. The crew were accommodated on shore until the arrival of the 'Medusa,' which took them to Bombay. The hull of the 'Coote' was sold for 10,000 rupees, but her purchaser sustained a total loss, owing to her having grounded, while being towed ashore, on a mud bank, from which it was impossible to remove her. Her unfortunate commander, Lieutenant J. S. Grieve, brother to the late Commander Albany Grieve,both smart officers and eminent surveyors, did not long survive the loss of his ship, but died at Calicut on the following 7th of April.

Anchorage Reef

Anchorage Reef, with a 3.7 mts depth, lies with its northwest edge 1.5 miles westward from Calicut Old Lighthouse, and about 800 yards (4 cables) inside the anchorage buoy. About 160 yards inshore of this reef, and 1,100 yards westward from the old lighthouse, is a rocky patch of 1J fathoms, northward of the small craft anchorage abreast the town.

Reliance Shoal

Reliance Shoal, rocky ground with 5.6mts depth, 0.5 mile wide, and 2.5 miles in length, lies parallel to the shore, its southern extremity being situated 3.5 miles west-northwestward from Calicut Old Lighthouse. The bottom around consists of soft mud.

The Camels hump (Vavulmala near Tanur)

The Camel's Hump, about 7,677 feet above high water, lies 26 miles northeastward from Calicut Lighthouse; it may be seen in clear weather as soon as a vessel is on the bank of soundings; but in the hazy weather of March and April it is frequently indistinct from the anchorage off Calicut. The southern extremity of the Kunda Range is rather abrupt, the mountains thence receding far eastward.

At 12 miles northwestward of Camel's Hump and 20 miles eastward from Kadalur Point lies the mountain named Tanote Mullay, between 4,000 and 5,000 feet in height. Dolphins Head, lying southeastward 17 miles from Calicut, shows well to a vessel coming from the north.

Dolphins head – Urotmala

Lying south-east wards 17 miles off Calicut this is a wooded hill, 900 ft above sea level can be seen by a vessel coming from the North.

References

On the Indian Hills – Edwin Lester Arnold

West Coast of India Pilot - H.O. Pub, Issue 159 US Government 1920

Manual of the Administration of the Madras Presidency: Chapters 1-9

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