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
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
