Historic Alleys

Let me start with a brief introduction to a soldier and botanist named Hendrik Adriaan van Reede tot Drakenstein (1636-1691). Van Reede as he is popularly referred to, wrote a 12 volume set of books under the title Hortus Malabaricus (Gardens of Malabar), still considered a magnum opus in Botanical circles. Van Reede also figured in the conducting of the conquests of the VOC Dutch and the administration of Dutch Malabar and the Cochin Kingdom.

What has Hortus Malabaricus got to do with these history discussions? It was incidentally the listings from this compendium that I referred to in order to answer a question put forward by a reader interested in Varthema’s comments about roses in Malabar. Varthema had stated that he saw a large number of red, white & yellow roses in Malabar. I was mystified. Yes, there are some roses in Malabar, but to see many in the markets would have been a strange occurrence indeed, unless the flowers came from somewhere else, e.g. The Deccan plateaus or Vijayanagara. In the course of investigations, I found that the Chola traders used to carry Malabar rose essence to trade in China as early as 1077. I learnt that the sweet Gulkhand was originally made using Malabar roses….all new to me. I even saw mentions of the possibility that Yellow roses of Europe reached there via Turkish traders from Malabar/Calicut. However I found nothing else to corroborate Varthema’s statement on Calicut roses which has been quoted far & wide by others interested in horticulture. I will get to the horticultural history of Malabar some other time, but let us go back to Van Reede now that he has entered the picture. I cannot think of any other person, Logan maybe, but not anybody else who spent so much of their life administering problems and overseeing happenings of Malabar.

While checking about Van Reede and reading Dutch history in Malabar, I gleaned about their involvement in the affairs at the Kingdom of Cochin, where the Dutch traders and VOC focused their actions. They had just managed to loosen the Portuguese grip on Malabar spice trade, in Quilon. The Cochin royal family seemed to have the accession situation still out of control. Alert readers would recall that in the Portuguese times, the viceroys had manipulated this aspect and the enmity of the Cochin Raja with the Zamorin, cleverly. In Cochin, when the ruler reached a ripe old age, he was superannuated, sent into retirement & study of godly scriptures and the next in line – the heir apparent took over.

The Portuguese were brought in by Rama Varma and reigning king Varma decided to stay on (a stand supported by the Portuguese) in power even after crossing the age. This resulted in animosity between the heir apparent (from Chazhur and Mutta Tavazhi) & the king and it continued to simmer as time went by.

Let’s get back to the Dutch. Rijkolf Van Goens had finished mopping up Portuguese resistance at Ceylon (Jaffna) and Tuticorin and had now reached Malabar (1658-1663). It took five expeditions (1658, 1660, 1661, 1662 and 1663) to subdue the Portuguese. His assistant, who later became the governor of Malabar, was Van reed, son of a prominent Dutch forester.

Heninger now takes up the story here – In that period of the 17th century, the principal rulers of greater Malabar were the Kings of Cochin, & Travancore, The Zamorin of Calicut and the Kolathiri rulers. The key position in the colonial concept was held by the Cochin Raja. Van Goens and Van reed formed a good relationship with the heir apparent, Ravi Varma of Cochin (and his brother of the same name – a hostage to the alliance). During a key battle, Goda Varma, a prince also defected to the Dutch side and informed them of the palace fortifications.

Van Goens offered Van reed the first vacant captaincy position if he could save the ageing Rani Ganghadhara Maha Lakshmi in the battle melee during early 1662 and the siege of the palace of Rama Varma. The Raja Rama varma and two of his brothers are killed in the battle. Van Reede rescued the Rani who was hiding in the temple attic and has her carried away on a Namboothiri’s shoulder. This was a key and well thought out requirement for the next step of enthroning & empowering the heir apparent, her nephew, a task left to the Rani. Until a decision was taken, the Rani is treated well by the Dutch due to specific entreaties by Ravi varma.

The notes left by the Dutch are revealing in purpose but undignified & callous in content.
Surgeon Wouter Schouten wrote – Only the old queen was taken prisoner by the ensign ‘Jonkheer’ Henderik Van Rhede, because she had favored the Portuguese as much as she had been hostile to us. But the general kept her alive and she was treated well, the more so because of the intercession of the king, our friend whose aunt she was. However she was taken into custody, because she was not trusted rather than for her beauty, for she was an ugly old woman, but adorned with gold chains and trinkets which stood out wonderfully against her black skin.

However in March 1662, Van Goens was driven out of Cochin and Van Reed, the captain retreated to Cranganore. The two brothers (both Vira Kerala Varma’s) fled to Munnar in Ceylon. Van Goens went to Batavia (Jakarta -Indonesia) for reinforcements and returned in the fall on 1662 to take back Cochin.

What about the Rani? She died at a ripe old age in 1678.

The brothers (princes) traveled to Quilon to meet Nieuhof (who himself wrote some interesting accounts of Malabar) to negotiate the return of the throne. Unfortunately the heir apparent died during the journey and the brother of the same name is proposed instead. The rani accepts his nomination. Note here that the heir apparent and his brother are actually not from Cochin, but the highlands.

The final battle in 1663 was led by Van reede. The Goda Varama claimants (supporters of the Portuguese) were expelled later by Van Reede and his friend Isac De Saint Martin. Van Reede then occupied the Bolghati Island. All the Roman Catholics and Portuguese were expelled by the Dutch (I believe they scattered around or went to Goa or back to Europe). In February the Dutch took over Cannanore from the Portuguese. The Dutch then signed a treaty with the Zamorin of Calicut and finally, on 6th March 1663, Vira Kerala Varma was crowned as the Raja by Van Goens who returned for the event. Around the 20th of March, the Dutch led by Van Goens signed a treaty of eternal alliance with the Cochin Raja.

Van Goens left Cochin & India on 22nd March, leaving behind Van Reede as Councilor of Malabar, President of the Town Council of Cochin and Dutch envoy. For three years thereafter, Van Reede served also the position of ‘Regedore Meior’ in the kings council, was treated on par with Namboothiri’s and held in high esteem by the people for his saving the queen, fighting for the king, and sticking to the king’s side during the palace intrigues & politics. Some time around March 1665, he left Cochin and John Vax, his friend in the previous battles took over.

He was thence involved in the imprisonment & eviction of compatriot Nieuhof for his corrupt activities (some say due to personal rivalry between the two) in Tuticorin and Quilon. Eventually he moved through Quilon & Tuticorin to settle down briefly in Ceylon and write his reports to his boss Van Goens.

During this tenure between 1662 and 1665 he had started to get tired of the constant rivalry between the Rajas and people of Malabar, not really understanding the reasons for these ‘false people’s’ quarrels. Nieuhof is meanwhile sent to Batavia where he gets acquitted, but is fired from the VOC services.

Opium trade had picked up in the meantime in Quilon. Van Rheede did not have a great time there and had an unsatisfactory relationship with the merchants of Quilon. Jan Van Almonde an experienced trader was asked to serve under Van reed which he refused to do considering his larger experience. The building of the Quilon fort was not progressing smoothly and finally things came to a head with Van reed resigning from the VOC. John Vax also submitted his resignation.

Van Goens stationed as VOC commander in Ceylon was embarrassed, In addition to the worsening situation in Malabar, the Anglo Dutch war was in full effect in Europe and the English were sniffing around in Malabar. Eventually Van Rheede was appointed as Commander of Ceylon and transferred to Jaffna as #2 to Van Goens.

Based in Ceylon, he undertook further disciplinary actions against other high ranking officers of the VOC in Malabar, got involved in many skirmishes and later full fledged wars against the feuding Madhura Nayaks (curiously at one time even got his diamond ring (worth 200 guilders) pinched by the Madhura Nayak!!). After the wars with the Nayak was won, he held an exalted status in the VOC and Van Goens now happy with his sergeant major, started planning possible excursions against the Zamorin & Calicut, the only untouched part of Malabar.

By now it was April 1669 and Van Reed got waylaid not by more wars but by botany. This started with requests for medicinal plants & herbs from headquarters. All this period you may be astonished to note that the entire territory of Malabar was actually administered by the VOC not from Cochin, but from Ceylon! It was thus that Reed formed a team of botanical specialists (e.g. Paul Hermann) headed by him to track down the flora & fauna of Malabar. However as we have seen before Van Goens was a very vocal person and soon interfered in the relationship between Van reed and Paul Hermann (the latter specialized in Ceylon flora). Van Goens did not want Malabar to get any prominence and tried his best to block all the Van reede efforts. The first open fighting between the two started at this time.

By 1676 Van Goens managed to get Van Rheede transferred to Batavia. It was here that the book Hortus Malabaricus took concept and the first two volumes were completed for publishing in 1678 (without Van Goens knowing it). Van Rheede then returned to Holland. By 1684 Reede was pulled out of retirement and sent back – again to root out corruption in the VOC of Asia. In 1685 Van Goens relinquished his governorship of Ceylon to his son. He was then made governor general and eventually returned to Amsterdam in 1680.

Rheede settled down in Ceylon and then came out the next 10 volumes, without any Goens to block his efforts. For Goens, Colombo was supreme and Malabar distasteful. It was on his final trip from Ceylon that Reed died onboard the ship ‘Drechterland’ that was taking him to Surat, apparently poisoned.

Strangely Van Rheede never picked up Malayalam or Sanskrit after all these years in Malabar. His main interpreter was Vinayaka Pandit and a number of Tupasses (earlier introduced as Portuguese Indian or Lusad Indians) and other Brahmins. Interestingly the King of nearby Tekkumkur had ensured to send many Brahmins to the Dutch school started in Kottayam by Van reed. It is thus that the Brahmins learnt both languages.

The Hortus Malabaricus describing some 740 Malabar plants was finally completed by 1703. The intervening period covers much more Malabar history, to be recounted on another day. What was left was Van Reed’s legacy to Malabar - the voluminous (12 vols) Hortus Malabarica – A treatise about the plants & flowers of Malabar. The fine drawings were made by Missionary Mathews; the plants were collected and sorted, described for their medicinal properties by Vaidyars, namboothiris and Ezhavas. It is truly a joint effort. The team had a total of 25 members including Itty Achutan, Appu Bhatt, Ranga Bhatt & Vinayaka Bhatt. Itty Achutan was the main contributor in the effort.

The book was in some measure the product of political rivalry between Van Reede and General Ryklof van Goens, who was bent on establishing the Dutch colonial capital at Colombo rather than Cochin. Van Reede wanted to prove Malabar's superiority in terms of ready supply of valuable spices, cotton and timber. More importantly he was able to show that many valuable drugs purchased in European cities, including those used for the treatment of Dutch officers in the Indies, were actually made from medicinal plants originating in Malabar and exported through Arabian and other trade routes. This worked. The Dutch government sided with the Cochin governor, even as his publication created a stir in Europe's scientific and political circles, further stimulating rivalry for colonies in India.

Strangely the book’s first English translation done by KS Manilal, appeared only in 2003. Can you believe that? From 1687 when the first two volumes were completed, to the next ten by 1693 (apparently not 1703 as popularly mentioned & in the title page of Vol 12 – clarification from - The botany of the Commelins - D. O. Wijnands) and now the English version in 2003, three hundred years or more had passed. This was the first European documentation of Kerala’s Ayurveda.

On Reede’s personal life, it is stated that he led an expansive lifestyle, hailing from the aristocratic Mijdrecht family; he was called Lord of Myjdrecht, that he was married and that he had a daughter Francine van Reede who lived in Ceylon and a son who died in South Africa.

Van Reede spent a while in South Africa (The Draakenstein region is named after him) and he was involved in promoting better treatment for VOC slaves. While visiting Africa he had made notes with an intention of wiring a Hortus Africus, but it never materialized. Van reed did not rest in peace in Surat – many years later the common Dutch English Burial ground sent a bill for 6000/- to repair his elaborate decagon shaped tomb with dual cupolas. Even after his death he was considered a heretic Lutheran who viciously whipped and chased the Portuguese missionaries away from Malabar.

How interesting the story is, if you think about it carefully. The fortunes of Van reede were dictated by the safety of the Rani of Cochin. The warrior turns into a botanist, mainly to prove that Malabar plants were superior to Ceylonese and to ensure that Malabar was not ruled out of Ceylon or ceded to it while at the same time preferring the uncomplicated people of Ceylon over the difficult ones in Malabar. Ironically, for 300-335 years the fine book he wrote based on age old Ayurvedic secrets (credit had been given by him to all the people who helped him) has never been translated and only in 2003 was the English translation finally completed by a KS Manilal of Cochin.How ironic that Van reede who spent a lifetime in Malabar hated the region and was entombed in Surat after being poisoned by his own people.

And finally how ironic that the man who spent a lifetime to botany, KS Manilal after all his hard work had to bequeath the rights of his work to a university and not even have his name mentioned in the Malayalam translation of his English version.

Most of us have heard and read about the famous Kunhali Marakkar and his exploits, but one question remains, where did they come from? There have been many questions about their real origins, were they Moplahs of Arab extract from Pantalayani Kollam (South of Calicut); were they of Sri Lankan origin, were they Tamil Marakkars or were they from Tulunad? The research was quite interesting and the result obtained cannot be termed fully conclusive but was quite revealing. For those here, and only interested in Kunjali’s story, this does not cover the life and times of any of the famous Kunhali’s but hovers only around theories of their possible origin.

The Name and title

Let us first look at the name Marakkar. Note that this is different from Marakkayar though we will observe the connections after a while (Marikkar and Maricar are other spellings used in history books). According to many other historians, Moppila or Moplah is Maha Pillai (great son) and Marakkar means (Marakkalam is a wooden boat) ‘boatmen’. Thurston in his Tribes of S India, states the following - The word Marakkar is usually derived from the Arabic ‘Markab’, a boat. The story goes that, when the first immigrants of this class (they were apparently driven from their own country by persecutions) landed on the Indian shores, they were naturally asked who they were, and where they came from. In answer they pointed to their boats, and pronounced the word Markab, and they became in consequence Marakkars, or the people of Markab.

Was it also a titular name for seaborne traders? KVK Iyer clarifies in his history of Kerala that Marakkar was a prized title given by the Zamorin of Calicut. Derived from Marakka Rayar it signifies the captain of a ship Rayar (Captain) of Marakkalam (ship). According to him Kunjali after the destruction of Ponnani by Almeida approached the Zamorin and asked to fight the Portuguese. Impressed by his courage he was given this title by the Zamorin. It appears that the people who carried the title used a special silk turban on their heads. Don Lach & Ed Levy quoting Laval in the book ‘Asia in the making of Europe’ states that Marakkar means ‘viceroy’.

NM Nampoothiri quoting the Granthavaris of Calicut - Zamorin confirms the honorific title - In 1687 the Kuliyoti Kottakal Marakkayar was given the title Marakkayar. Another man, Kunnikkalathor was given the title Kunnali Marakkayar in the same year.

The period

P Kunhabdulla in an article opines that the Marakkars came from Arabia in the 7th Century. This poses a question, where on the Malabar coastline did they settle down? Assuming for a moment that they came around the 11-13th century, the trade links with the Arab lands was in the Cranganore region, with Muziris (A tantalizing question – could all this connect up to Vavar Swami?). However another scenario is more probable. If one were to study the history of Quilon, it will be evident that the trade between Arabia and wealthy Quilon was controlled by the Chinese with their vessels. But by the turn of the 12th century we read that the Chinese were forced out and the Moplahs take their place. This is possibly where the Marakkars first settled, thence moving to Cranganore & Cochin. Here they would have settled to provide the trade support to the new entrants of the Portuguese. A group of them had migrated to Tuticorn earlier and settled down to conduct trade with Ceylon, Java & Malay. They also controlled the lucrative pearl fishery subjugating the Paravas for that purpose. Finally they took the reins of the horse trade with Arabia, supplying the horses to the Muslim rulers in the Tamil Nadu & Vijaynagar.

When the Portuguese encroached on their supplier base in Malacca in 1524 or so, the fighting between these two communities started in right earnest. The Marakkars of Cochin had to leave their base in Cochin and move to Ponnani & Kottakkal, with the support of the Calicut Zamorin. According to Logan in Malabar Manual, the Marakkars moved to Thikkodi following Henry Menzez’s destruction of the Moorish colony in Cochin and then to Kottakal where they became prominent. They then became the admirals of the Zamorin, leading the wars against the Franks, but by the turn of the 17th century had been subdued by the determined Portuguese with their bigger & better armed ships. Mayimama Marakkar was once an ambassador of the Zamorin.

Logan feels they were originally from P Kollam. Krishna Iyer states that they originated from Ponnani and spread to Tanur, Agalapula etc. Pyrard Laval and DeCouto state that Kunhali was from Pantalayalni Kollam, moving to Tikkodi later in 1525.

Pius provides a detailed account and three theories. One was the increase in prominence of the Casados or Portuguese married to Indians and the support for private trade conducted by them around 1515. Then it occurred that Albuquerque died and the passes/permits or ‘cartazas’ for trade stopped being given to the Muslim traders. The marakkars, especially Kunhali who had started a joint trade with Gov Diogos Lopes suddenly found that Lopez simply appropriated his own laden vessel and goods bound for the Red sea ports. It was this act in 1522 that turned Kunhali against the Portuguese. By 1524, Kunjali, Mohammad Ali and Ahmed Ali, all Marakkars moved to Ponnani. Pate Marakkar, Kunjali’s cousin was another Marakkar who went against the Portuguese. This action is a long way from the days of 1513 when Dom Manuel bestowed special privileges for Cherina & Mamale Marakkar. The second reason was the take over of Malacca trade by the Casados. The third reason was a drop in customs duties for Casados in the Cohin port that enabled the Kings family to broker deals between Casados and non Muslim traders.

Some prominent Marakkars and their trade

The Marakkars were the leading business group of the region when the Portuguese arrived in Kerala. They had settled at Cochin and were believed to be the descendants of the Arabs who migrated to Kerala. If they were Arabs, are they Yemeni Hadhramites or Egyptians? Mecca – By Francis Peters (P173) & Logan (P308) mention a wealthy Egyptian trader named Khoja Mehmed Marakkar, who was ill treated by Vincent Sodre at Cannanore, thus signifying a possible but lone Egyptian connection (I understood that Sreedhara Menon also makes such a Cairo connection but I could not find it). As we saw they were driven out of Cochin by the heavy handed actions of the Portuguese.

The Marakkars of Cochin as we saw earlier, had ships & factories in the Cochin & Coromandel area according to Portuguese sources as early as 1504 and supplied the Portuguese with spices from Malaysia (Malacca) before the Portuguese themselves established themselves in Malacca (KS Mathew). They also had a monopoly over the Maldives trade.The interaction between the Ceylon, Ramanad and Kayalpatanam Marakkars is often quoted by historians and writers of the times such as Sheikh Zainuddin and Barbosa. It does appear that they also conducted commodities trade, especially rice. Ismail marakkar for example handled rice trade in Calicut, and there were the famous Pachachi marakkar, Pattu (Pate) marakkar etc. Varthema mentions Mamale Marakkar of Cannanore, the richest merchant of Malabar. In later days, i.e. Tipu’s times, the Dewan of Travancore was supported at sea by Pokku Moosa Marakkar.

Pate Marakar of Cochin approached Zamorin after they are troubled at Cochin and received no support from the local Cochin king (Starthern). Until then Mamale marakar (Lord of Maladives) was the one fighting the Portuguese, he was killed by Sodre in 1525.

KS Mathew an Indo Portugues specialist identified Mamale Marakkar in Cochin during the 1504 period. Between him and Genieve Bouchon, they list the following Marakkars of Cochin in the 16th century. Cheria naina, Naina (note here that the Naina marakkars were later prominent in Burma & Malacca), Mitos, Chilary (Cheria ali), Mohammed, Mamali, Pate, Icimale & Belina. Sheikh Zainuddin mentions the four admirals or Kunji Ali, Ali Ibrahim, Kutti Ibrahim and Mohammed Ali Marakkars. Mathew also confirms that these Marakkar’s of Cochin had their own factories in the Coromandel Coast and traded with the Portuguese until 1511 when the latter conquered Malacca. Zainuddin confirms that these Marakkars had sailed often to Kayal but that they also fought with the Portuguese when attacked. The King of Kayalpatanam, a Marakkayar who was a subject of the queen of Quilon had his Kayal kingdom with many other Malabar settlers. These people according to JBP More eventually became the Marakayars (note now the change of spelling) of Tamil Nadu. Pius Malekandathil states that it was the Marakkar traders, especially Mitos Marakkar who were the chief suppliers of Cinnamon to the Portuguese in Cochin. One interesting fact also comes up that the boat of Cherianaina or Mamaly Marakkar was attacked by Cabral at the behest of the Zamorin (Sanjay Subramaniam Pg 180) due to a complaint that his war elephants were on board that ship.

Marakkars and Marakkayars

JBP More points out to spoken words, marriage customs etc which strongly connect the Marakkayars of Tamil to the Malabar Marakkars. It is also pointed out in his book that Malabar Marakkars had relations with the communities in the Kayalpatanam (Tuticorin) region, a group which conducted trade with Burma, Malacca and Indonesia.

To determine the origins of the Marakkars, JB More used another yardstick, their family system. Both the Tamil Marakkayars and Malabar Marakkars practice marumakkathayam (matrilinear system of inheritance) and settle in the bride’s house. More thus believes that the Tamil Marakkayars came from Malabar.

It was only towards the 17th century that the Tamil Labbais came to the fore, as the boatmen & the fishermen. In another wave of migration, many Muslims left the Tamil country during the late 14th century in Marak Kalams (Wooden Boats) and landed on the coasts of Ceylon. Because they came in Marak Kalams the Sinhala people called them Marakkala Minissu.

Summarizing, the elite Chuliah (Kling to Malays) Muslims constituted the Maraikkayar caste in the early 14th century. This Tamil group were Sunni’s and maintained ships and had strong relations with their Arab brethren as well as the holy cities of Arabia (The Labbias were the lower Sunni strata comprising fishermen, pearl divers etc). The Kayalpatanam Marakkars controlled the Indian Ocean pearl trade. The Labbias and Rowthers conducted inland trade.

However, Arthur Coke Burnell states that the Mopilah and Labbai are of the same descent, it is just that Labbais settled in the Tamil areas. Though they kept apart from each other in South India, elsewhere they had links - Let us look at this Malay name to define such a connection- Sheikh Labbai nainar Marakkar ibnu ahmad labbai. These Labbai Marakkars have been living in places like Malaysia since the 10th century. Did they come from the Labbai Iraqi stock? Or is it a rare case of intermingling?

Susan Bayly states in her book ‘Saints Goddesses and Kings’ (pg80) that Tamil Marakkayars have always looked down upon converted Muslims and had a higher social standing, being directly linked to Arabs. She states the Sunni Shafi Madhab connection to Arabia as proof of their identity. They (marakkars) maintained the sect by intermarriage between the Marakkayars of Malabar & Tamil Nadu strictly. She states that Labbais are Hanafi sect followers are follow rules like marrying father’s sister’s daughter (Murapennu- a popular south Indian ‘kalyana murai’). Nagore, Kayalpattanam, Kilakkarai, Adiramapattanam are the main centers with old mosques and remains of ancient Sahabi saint.

Bayly mentions Patattu marakkayar signifies a title or Pattam having been granted to one of these families. Could that be the Pattu marakkar that we know from Cochin? The Kayal Patanam Quadiri Sufis had connections with the Calicut Sufi families. This sort of confirms the connection between the Calicut, Cochin & Kayal Marakjkayar families and the Arabic links. The Marakkayar port of Porto Novo (Mahmud Bandar) was a popular and busy port in the later years. In Ramnad however, the Marikkars mainly handled trade for the Setupati royal family.

Labbai are one of the four Muslim groups in Tamil Nadu State. The Ravuttan, Marakkayar, and Kayalan form the rest of the Islamic community. Labbais and Ravuttans follow the Hanafi School, a branch of the Sunni sect. Marakkayars & Kayalars belong to the Sunni Shaafi branch of Islam which spread from the coasts of southern Yemen. Kayalar seems to be a subdivision of Marakkayar. Kayalars and Marakkayars are found primarily along the Coramandel coast. Labbais and Ravuthars predominate in the interior, Ravuthars mainly in the south and Labbais mainly in the north of the state

Marakkars of Kotakkal

Let us start with the first major Maraikars of Cochin. They were the two families, namely Cherian Marakkar and Mamally marakkar. Cherian was an agent of Malik Ayaz of Gujarat, whereas Mamally (strangely he is also called Mamally Mappila) excelled in trade based from Cannanore. As the Portuguese tightened trade controls, these Muslim traders moved to take residence near Calicut. Lakshmi Subramaniam opines that this is when (1524) Ahmed Marakkar, Uncle Mohammad and his brother Ibrahim moved up towards Ponnani and Kottakkal. Mohammed Marakkar was accorded the title Kunjali by the ruling Zamorin thus cementing the families relationship with the Zamorins until the reign of the 4th Kunjali by when a wedge was driven into this relationship by spite, jealousy and cleaver manipulation of the Zamorin by the Portuguese. Between 1500 and 1600 the Zamorin’s naval operations were overseen by the Kunjalis.

The Kunjali IV (Kunhali is more modern. The older historians call him Kuttiali) was executed by the Portuguese in March1600 and with that ended the Malabar Marakkar clan. The study of the collapse of the family also signifies that they were Marakkars for they did not marry from the local Muslim clans, apparently the last Kunjali adopted a Nair girl (this Nair woman relationship, an elephant’s tail hair and a purported castration of a Nair were the main tools the Portuguese used to drive the wedge between the Zamorin and the Kunjali) and got her married to a senior Muslim sea captain.

Back to origins

So the question still remains. If the Marakkar traders originated from Cochin, where did they come from? According to SV Muhammed, in his book ‘Charithrathile Marakkar Sannidhyam’, the Marakkar family (Kunhali) originated from the Konkan and they were rice merchants. According to him Marakkar was the family name and Kunhali was the titular name given by the Zamorin. PPM Koya believed that the family line originated from Tunisia and reached Kerala in the 12th century. Moplahs have been in Kerala since the 9th century according to others, though not the Marakkars (PP Mohammed Koya – history of Calicut Muslims). Mammu master believes that they are ‘margakkar’ or converts. The Margakkar became marakkar over time.

But if the Marakkars are Arab, how are they different from the Moplah of Malabar? The Moplas in general had forefathers from Arabia and mothers of local descent. They comprise both the Sunni and the Shiah groups and include converts. The Arabs are believed to come from many regions notably from the Red Sea coastal areas and the Hadhramaut region of present day Yemen. Many present day Mappilla Muslims are Shafi however it could have been so that they claimed a direct lineage to an Arab trading group without converts. Some scholars opine that the migration to Tuticorin came about only in the 15th or 16th century after Portuguese persecution, though trade documentation indicates that many existed in those ports even earlier. Many of the present-day Tirunelveli Muslims claim to be descended from the Kerala Mappilas and follow Malabari religious teachers and social culture. To summarize, the Marakkars are Moplas, though probably differing in exact origin and sub sect. They were always conductors of trade and migrated also to Tuticorin, Ceylon, Indonesia, Philippines and Mayasia.

Dr Ochanthuruth of Calicut University questions claims that Marikkars were Mappila Muslims, and contends there is no evidence to support the belief that Marikkars lived in Pantalayani - Kollam, then in Tikkodi and then in Kottakkal, which was their last headquarters. “Available evidence suggests Marikkars were of Tamil origin and many of them were Parathava converts from Coramandel,” Dr. Ochanthuruth claimed.

The rigors of the caste system in Kerala during the medieval times was horrendous and many a silly thing was practiced in the name of adhering to and maintaining one’s caste. People would not touch or look at people of inferior castes; people could not eat food touched by cooks of lower caste etc, you lost caste if polluted by a lower caste and so on... But the worst happened if a woman was to have sexual relations (or were polluted otherwise) with a man below their caste. In those times if a Nair woman was convicted she would be sold away as a slave to Pardesi’s or given away as a wife to a Moplah or a Coromandel Chetti. In extreme cases, they were even killed.

However if a Namboothiri woman were implicated for infidelity, loss of chastity, violation of pollution rules etc, the case took a formal route. She is then hauled up in front of Vedic scholars called Smarthans who conducted a highly ritualistic trial called Smartha Vicharam after being ordered to by the king. If she is implicated, she together with the man or men are stripped of their case and excommunicated. The girl is then considered dead & inanimate by the Namboothiri family and cast away (Brashtu kalpikkal). In an upcoming blog, I will narrate to you the sad, notorious and immensely popular story of a brave woman named Kuriyedath Thathri.

Ever wondered what happened to these wretched girl’s who were sent away? Some wandered away or killed themselves; some were taken away by Paradesi’s, Chetty’s or Moplah’s and some drifted away looking for asylum. Curiously there was a solution to their sad plight; there was an asylum giver, but only in certain cases and sometimes upon recommendation. The asylum provider was the Mannanar of the Varakat Illam.

But first an introduction to the Mannanar family in the Chirakkal region of Tellichery is needed. Close to the old Coorg border, on the banks of the Thoniyar River ( Is it the present day Kooveri?) is a place called Eruvasi or Eruvasseri (NE of Thaliparamba). From historic times, it was home to the Varakat Illam from where a Thiyya king of Buddhist origins ruled. The Thiyyas of Varakat illam far from having any disability arising from untouchability, were permitted to enjoy all privileges of the higher castes and moved about in palanquins, carrying their swords and shields. They also had a retinue of 200 Nair soldiers (Logan). The only requirement was that these Thiyyans hung their leg out of the palanquin if they saw a Nair or a Rajah, in token of submission. Some others say that the Mannanars are the descendants of an outcasted member of the Chirakkal ruling family of north Malabar or even a Nambuthiri woman.

They were also permitted to provide asylum to outcaste Nambuthiri women.

This family were called the Izhathu Mannanars. The 200 Nairs who fought for the Mannanar were from the Edavakutti Kulam. The Mannanar ascended to the throne after a ritual ‘Ariyittuvazcha’ like the Zamorin of Calicut did. He lorded over four manas, the Mothedathu, the Elayedathu, Puthan, Puythiyedathu & Mundaya. The last Mannanar sthani who passed away in 1902 was named Kunji Kelappan. The Mannanar’s followed a matrilineal system like the Nairs. The main palace was the Mothedathu Aramana.

In some cases the Mannanar Sthani’s were proactive, they heard of a Smarta Vicharam in session and went to the location to take away the sentenced and excommunicated girl. In the old times, the system worked thus – The couriers took the girl away and left her at a pair of crossroads at the Mannanar palace in Taliparamba. The girl then took one or the other route to her future. If she took the eastern gate, she became the Mannanar’s wife, if she took the road to the North gate, she became his adopted sister. After this, her birth ceremonies were performed and she started a new life.

Thurston in his ‘castes & tribes of S India” states- The Varaka Tiyans were further allowed to wear gold jewels on the neck, to don silken cloths, to fasten a sword round the waist, and to carry a shield. The sword was made of thin pliable steel, and worn round the waist like a belt, the point being fastened to the hilt through a small hole near the point. A man, intending to damage another, might make an apparently friendly call on him, his body loosely covered with a cloth, and to all appearances unarmed. In less than a second, he could unfasten the sword round his waist, and cut the other down. This for those who do not know, is the weapon called ‘Urumi’ of the warriors of Malabar.

Logan adds that if the Nambuthiri girl is convicted of illicit liaison with a man of caste lower than a Thiyya, then the girl was sent to Kuthira Mala deep in the jungles of the Western Ghats.

Interestingly, should the Mannanar family have no offspring they were provided one by the Namboothiris – Thurston states - It is said that, when their chief, Mannanar of the Aramana, is destitute of heirs, the Tiyans of Kolattanad go in procession to the Kurumattur Nambutiri (the chief of the Peringallur Brahmans) and demand a Brahman virgin to be adopted as sister of Mannanar, who follows the ‘marumakkatayam’ rule of succession. This demand, it is said, used to be granted by the Nambutiris assembling at a meeting, and selecting a maiden to be given to the Tiyans.

References
A social history of India - S. N. Sadasivan ( Pgs 352, 353, 382, 383, 416, 705)
Castes & tribes of Southern India – Thurston, Rangachari ( Pgs 224, 225 - Vol 5 Nambutiri Brahmins, Pg 44 Tiyan Vol 7)
Namboothirs – F Fawcett, F Evans (Pg 76)
Malabar Manual – W Logan (Pg 125)The ethnographical survey of the Cochin state - L. Krishna Anantha Krishna Iyer (Pg 5)

ThomasBaber was an official of the East India Company, who is generally remembered today, as the man who tracked down the Pazhassi Raja Kerala Varma on the 30th of November 1805 (Thomas Hervey Baber (1777 to 1843) is also Blogger Nick Balmer’s great great great great uncle and Nick has introduced him in detail in his early blogs).

Thomas Baber after joining the EIC, sailed from England to Bombay, arriving in the New Year 1797. It appears that within months of his arrival in Bombay, Thomas was sent to Tellicherry where some of the EIC factories were located. From 1798 to 1808 he served in the EIC revenue department. In 1804 he was sub collector of Malabar under Thomas Warden. He then held a position as Zillah Judge (District judge) 1808-1816 in Tellicherry after which he was transferred to Mangalore as the third judge of the Western provincial court during 1816-1824. After those years, he moved to Bombay on account of health problems and then back to Dharwar as Principal Collector & political agent 1824-1827. Later he was appointed as the first Judges of the Western provincial court. In 1838, he retired and moved back to Telicherry. In all he spent over 30 years in the western Konkan, Maratha & Malabar regions.

It was in 1830 that he was summoned to provide evidence at the House of Lords on various EIC matters. Let us take a look at what happened. These responses will tell you quite a bit about the historical settings of the early 19th century Malabar and TH Baber himself.

Affairs of the East India Company Minutes of evidence: 2nd April 1830, House of Lords - England

Thomas Harvey Baber Esquire is called in

What follows are a few extracts from the statement. The complete document is available in various books and public domain websites

Had you any opportunity of becoming acquainted with the inhabitants of any other Part of Hindostan besides the District of Malabar?

Yes; the Southern Mahratta Country, lying between the Kisna and the Toongbudra Rivers.

Do you think that the natives of the Malabar Coast were more strict observers of truth than the other inhabitants of Hindostan whom you had an opportunity of observing?

Certainly; decidedly so.

To what Cause do you attribute that?

To their keen sense of honour, and high notions, and spirit of independence.

An extraordinary instance of the former occurred in a trial which came before me. A female of the Nair caste had cohabited with a relation within what they call the prohibited degrees. The circumstance coming to the knowledge of their family, an application was made to me to punish the offending parties, (both the Man and the Woman.)

I observed that the case was not provided for in the regulations as a matter of criminal cognizance; that perhaps an action for damages might lie against the man, but that I saw no advantage that would result there from to the family; I therefore recommended to them to refer the matter to their own caste; observing that they had the power to expel the delinquents from their caste; that this was the only remedy I knew of or could suggest.

They then petitioned me to have the parties taken up, and banished the country; they particularly requested that I would send them to His Highness The Rajah of Coorg, whose district adjoined that country. This I told them also was not in my power. The two seniors of the family, who had waited upon me, went away, evidently much dissatisfied.

A few days afterwards a report reached me, from one of my police officers, that this man and woman had disappeared. I immediately set on foot an inquiry of what had become of them; and in my instructions to the police officers directed them to call before them particularly the two persons who had come before me as above. As soon as the two individuals in question heard of the inquiry the police officers were making, they went and delivered themselves up, acknowledging they had put them to death, and not therefore to annoy any other person on that account; that if there was any guilt they were the guilty persons. The bodies of the man and woman were found horribly mangled.

The Proceedings of the Inquest, together with the two Prisoners, were forwarded to my Court, when they acknowledged that they were the perpetrators of the murder; and then reminded me that they had appealed to my authority before to redress the family grievance, and thereby vindicate the family's honour; that I had not complied with their request, and therefore they had taken the law into their own hands.

They were committed for trial, and sentenced by the Court of Quarter Sessions to be hanged. As usual, the trial was referred to the Foujdarry Adawlut (Faujdari Adalat – Military tribunal), which court confirmed the sentence of death, and the warrant was returned shortly afterwards for carrying the same into execution. It was my province, as Magistrate of that part of the country, to attend at the execution, in order to make those observations which would naturally occur to a magistrate on those awful sentences of the law.

Both at the time that the prisoners were brought before me to have their sentence read, and afterwards at the gallows, the younger of the two brothers fainted away; when the elder encouraged him, by saying, "Be a man. Recollect by this act, for which we are now going to suffer, we have saved the honour of our family."

This is one out of many instances I could mention of the extent to which the natives of Malabar carry their nice, though mistaken, Notions of Honour and of Family Pride.

While answering other questions he adds

Your Lordships will, I trust, pardon a little enthusiasm, while pleading the cause of the Inhabitants of Malabar. I have been placed in a variety of situations of very considerable peril during times of trouble. Often have I been opposed to persons in open rebellion, with no other defenders but Nairs, and invariably have I found them faithful, nay, devoted to me; and even have been killed and wounded by my side; and in order to shield my person from danger, they have surrounded me; and forced me behind a tree. From a principle of gratitude, therefore, I am bound to speak with more than ordinary feeling of them.

Were those occasions where you were subject to attack from other Nairs?

Yes, and Mopillas. At times I have had no other defenders but the Nair’s themselves.

Notes

The case presented above does sound a bit on the extreme side. As such, it may have occurred in the North Malabar regions where tempers can be a bit shorter and the family honor aspect is taken very seriously. The medieval times had some traditional laws and practices to take care of such situations. Usually the couple is excommunicated (see my blog on Revathi Pattathanam) or the girl is expelled from society. However death sentences are rarely administered by anybody (though they have been reported) and the family never had the right to take law into their hands. Such being the case, this story is a testament of an event and the mood of those troubled times signifying the decline of Nair authority over Malabar.

Certain unclear aspects were if the relationship was between willing parties and if they belonged to the same family line (matrilineal). If they belonged to the same matrilineal line, it was definitely against the law of the land.

In the third Para of Mr Baber’s statement, he alludes to expulsion of the offending parties to a location adjoining the district belonging to the Raja or Coorg. This matter will be clarified in detail by me in my next article which will covers the Mannanar’s of Chirakkal.

References
Nick Balmers blog – Tom’s early years
Where Tom Baber would have conducted the above court session – Pallikunnu house
British History online, Journal of the House of Lords, Vol 62
Asiatic journal & Monthly miscellany – Vol2, Series 3, Nov 1843

Some years ago, you may have come across those huge hoardings in Calicut advertising a company’s wares, the company named as Malabar Gold and the model being Sania Mirza, the teen tennis sensation. That was the period when we had a Sania Mania in India. What most people may not be aware of is that once upon a time Malabar’s Gold (the mineral itself and not the company) started a mania of sorts which found its way into history books as the Malabar gold rush of 1879-82.

The temple of Solomon at Jerusalem and the land of the Ophir – Once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes & peacocks. They sailed to Ophir and brought back 420 talents of gold, which they delivered to King Solomon. (1 Kings 9:26-28). Since historic times, this sentence has made many a treasure seeker set out for the land of the Ophir. While historians point out a few candidates in Africa, one strong contender for this locale was Malabar and the main reason was the presumption that no other location in the world but Malabar can provide all 5 articles above (Francis Ford – The planting industry in S India).

So where were the gold mines of ancient Malabar as alluded to later by Pliny & Megasthenes located? They were actually hidden in the jungles and hill regions of Wynad, where gold was laboriously dug from the bowels of the earth, some 70 ft below, by the Korumbers (a hill tribe) or panned from rivers downstream by the Paniyas (another tribe) of Waynad. (Well, it may seem that the wood at Solomon’s temple i.e. Rosewood or teak for the temple also came from the forests of nearby Nilambur – see my earlier blog on Connolly’s teak).

So this article takes you to the Wynad area, a region lush with vegetation, left largely to natures own methods save for the tribal population and the estates with planters and support staff. You will not hear much more than noises of birds and insects; you will hardly see any traffic but you may even chance on wild life amidst the tea and coffee estates. This incidentally was also the area I spent my vacations months as a child. My father used to work in the estates at Mango Range, Annamalai’s, Ripon, Talapuzha, Murugali and so on…

A few decades before the turn to the 20th century these densely wooded areas were also home to all kinds of nefarious people on the run such as those who went against the EIC, the Moplah rebels, Opium cultivators, tobacco planters etc. Later it became a center for tea and coffee plantations (Coffee plantations started in 1840, tea planting in Wynad started in 1854 after some tea plants were brought in from China!! These were supplanted next with tea seedlings from Assam & Manipur)

That is until the whole area, the scattered populace and people from many other parts of the world came in to be involved in a mania of sorts. That was the gold mania of Malabar or the Malabar gold rush during 1879-1882. Like the tulip mania that I wrote about some days ago, this came to be known as the Malabar mania and like the Tulip mania, immense sums were spent by foolish people till the scam imploded as suddenly as it started.

Today, you will see accounts that conclude with the fact that it was nothing, but for a brief distraction for the planters, who were until this time toiling first for black gold or pepper, then the cash crops of spices and later tea &coffee during the EIC (East India Company) times. The distraction was unfortunately also the reason for a good amount of destruction of vast tracts of coffee plantations.

Let us now move to the hilly Nilgiris - Wynad region and find out what happened.

It was the 1849 time frame that all kinds of problems started in Malabar. The period 1849-1885 witnessed the bloody Moplah revolts. The garrisons of the British EIC and the officers were tied up in bringing the revolt under control. SE Wynad was being administered by the Malabar district. Between Sutan’s Battery and Nilambur – Gudalur area lies a place called Devala. Nearby are the towns of Pandalur (about 70 miles from Calicut) & Nelliyalam. The plateau where Nellialam is located lies roughly 3000’ above sea level. The previous rulers Ummatur Araus of Badaga extract had disappeared from the scene and the hilly tract was being leased and administered by the Nilambur Thamburan.

Since the turn of the 18th century, it was common knowledge that gold reefs were present in the hills and that the tribals had their own laborious methods of extracting small amounts of gold. However the finds were never analyzed in greater detail till the EIC got involved.

Discovery
The joint commission of Bombay and Bengal in 1792 brought attention of British administrative eyes to this fact. By 1807, the fact was confirmed by Dr Buchanan. Mr Young in 1827 attested to fine specimens of gold particles in the Nilgiris streams. In 1813, Dr Aimslie confirms the SE Wynad regions as auriferous quartz reef locations. Later in 1830, Mr TH Baber attested to the fact that gold is obtained not only in the Coimbatore region but also around the Nilgiris and Kunda mountains during a deposition at the House of Lords. He estimated that about 2000 square miles of area was impregnated with gold deposits. Sheffield the Malabar district collector and British gold buyer also formed a strong impression about the availability of gold. Further credence was provided by the claim by the Rajah of Nilambur of 10% royalty for all gold found in his region.

Prospecting
Accordingly Lt Woodly Nicolson was deputed in 1831 to carry out prospecting. As his progress was not satisfactory, by 1833 it was decided by a commission that the whole thing was ‘inexpedient’.

Early pioneers
By 1857, attention was again drawn to the deposits by the Malabar Collector, and two Australian miners Stern & Withers (1865-1868) working in Wynad applied for leave to prospect for gold forming a company Alpha Gold Company . Stern had 8 years experience in gold mining. While Stern was not very successful, Withers working with Minchin hit some success and their company Wynad prospecting company was established. Work commenced in the Skull reef (an old Korumbar mining location – called so since a skull was found in the diggings) in 1874. By 1878, two more companies came into being, the Wynad prospecting company and later, the Prince of Wales Co. However all three companies suffered from digging at wrong locations, using wrong methods, mismanagement and plying defective or wrongly specified machinery. They all shut their doors within a year of starting.

In 1875 Dr W King of the Geological Survey department was deputed to the area to form a report. He did so in great detail and added to it a detailed map. King followed it up with a second edition giving a factual update in 1878, by which time the area was annexed to the Nilgiris district.

The next to report on the area’s gold was by the Australian expert and reputed Brough Smyth in Oct 1879 (he reached Malabar after being fired for despotic behavior in Australia). It was correct in parts and wrong in others. Without getting into too much boring detail, this was the report that was picked up by various speculators in England and used cleverly to create the necessary ‘hype’. The returns on UK government stocks were low, trade was flourishing and gold was in shortage. Coffee sales were down and the estate owners were looking for a way out (Nilgiris Gazeteer – Francis). In Dec 1879, the mania started. By 1880 Wynad was the hub of the wildest, maddest and grossest speculation. (Wynad - Gopalan nair)

The mania
41 companies were started in England with a capital of over 5 million pounds (another 6 were formed in India). Land was sold to these companies and their promoters at exorbitant amounts in Wynad and more local companies formed (B Smyth was a manager of two of these companies and he retired in 1882 when the tide turned). The shares of the said companies were sold at high premiums and a boom was awaited from all the gold that was to be mined. A number of mining experts landed up in Wynad (some were even bakers & clowns masquerading as miners).

The shares started to climb. Pandalur soon had its own race course and other amenities to boot. Machinery started to arrive from Australia & other places. The big mania money meanwhile, circulated amongst the UK share holders and never found its way to India.

Much of the coffee estates around the area were dug up. No mining had yet started by then though the hype went on and the bubble got bigger and bigger. By 1881 crushing started and slowly the situation started to become clear, that there was not much gold on the surface. At first based on erroneous information that one mine made 4 oz of gold per tonne, prices had jumped sky high. A telegram a few months later stating that the 4 oz came from only the first tone threw cold water on all the speculations. The prices bombed and the bubble burst. Many of the fraudulent promoters had by then sailed off to claim their ill gotten gains and were protected by clever contracts that could not be refuted. The only other gainers were the land sellers and the machinery vendors. The wealthy Bombay traders and Madras Chettys cleverly stayed away from this ‘unknown’ speculation on something invisible.

The mine workersInterestingly the mine workers were mainly Moplahs and Canarese. But the boom brought in a lot of other castes and workers from Tamil Nadu as well into the fray. Kunjalikutty Haji of Pandalur was one of the leading manpower suppliers for the British. He brought a large number of people from Malabar to work on the estates, and became very close to the British administration, being recognized as Khan Bahadur Kunajalikutty.

ConclusionThat there was and that there is gold in the area is proven. How much and how economical it is to mine it out has always been the issue. If the mining work was done systematically without an eye on quick gain, the outcome may have been different. However, the mania passed. The only advantage gained was the slight drop in malaria due to the clearing of all the wild bushes and the reduction of mosquitoes. Many of the gold prospectors, realizing that there was no gold boom, retired to the normal estate life of growing coffee & tea. The hustle and bustle died away to be replaced again by the hum of birds and insects and the occasional growl of a wild animal.

Nobody really remembers the Malabar mania anymore…

But then avarice has no limits. People never learn do they? Close behind the heels of the 1882 end to the Malabar Mania came the Bengal gold mania of 1890.

References
Journal of the Statistical Society of London By Statistical Society (Great Britain)page 541,
Minutes of evidence taken before the Select Committee of the House of Lords, Pg 399-429,
Records of the Geological Survey of India By Geological Survey of India – king 1875, 1878)
The planting industry of S India – F Ford
The Rise of Business Corporations in India, 1851-1900 - Shyam Rungta
Pandalur website (thanks for the pictures)
Gold Image courtesy of the California Geological Survey.
Glenrock mines brochure - Google books

For those interested
How is a gold deposit formed? Simply explained, water from rains seep into the earths crust and once heated by the magma, shoots up through the various fractures in the crust. As it goes up it takes with it dissolved minerals such as gold. As the steam reaches cooler rocks above, the minerals separate to form veins near the earth’s surface. These are the gold deposits in gold reefs. See an example of a quartz vein in the picture beside.

As you delve deep into history, you go past the myriad dates, the armies, the fights, the philosophers, the adventurers, the lucky ones, the unlucky ones, the destined ones and all other kinds of human forms. Among these many distinguished & not so distinguished persons who created a past for us, are some who are more known for the wrongs they committed, the wrongs that sometimes changed the destiny of a nation or as in this case, that of Malabar.

The rulers of Malabar in medieval times were the Zamorins of Calicut. They ruled the upper districts of Malabar between 700 and 1800 AD and administered the ocean trade, for some thousand years. Having been ably supported by the Moppila’s of Malabar, they finally succumbed to continuous onslaught by overseas invaders, starting with the Portuguese whom they eventually drove out; the Dutch whom they kept away, the Mysore Sultans who routed Malabar and finally to the very clever ruses by the very forces they thought would help them regain lost glory. The final bastion was the English, who took away the reins of Malabar and from then on laid claim to the whole Indian subcontinent.

If you refer to the many Malabar history books, the reasons were many. The Zamorin’s had been battered by the two hundred years of fighting the Portuguese and the Mysore Sultans. Many internal fights with the Kolathiri’s in the North and the Cochin kings in the south had reduced the wealth and might of the great Zamorin. The coffers of the Calicut treasury were empty, the mint produced little coinage. The morale was low and the Nair’s were not expert in the modern fighting techniques, though they were on the other hand good at guerilla warfare. Smaller chiefdoms were continuing with petty rebellions. The Moppilas were directing their own operations, after the Maraikar fiasco & tax revenues had crashed.

If you ask the Zamorins, they would say that the final (legal) nail in the coffin was driven in by a noble Brahmin, the Dewan (finance minister) of Calicut. The story proved an interesting read though devoid of detail. In history books, including in the glorious Malabar manual by Logan, this man is referred to as Shamnath.

Let us first look at the broad scenario - The Zamorin and family had fled Calicut to escape Tippu’s armies and taken refuge in Travancore. Ravivarma the Eralpad, 2nd in line led the fight against Tippu, after collaborating with the British. The agreement between the Zamorin and the EIC was that after defeating Tippu, the Zamorin’s powers would be restored. However after Fullerton’s attack on the Palakkad fort, the fort was returned to Tippu and Fullerton transferred. The powers of the Zamorin were never restored. The Muslims under Manjeri Hassan had in the meantime captured Arshad Beg Khan, Tippu’s army chief. Tippu offered Zamorin’s their powers back if they would release Arshad Khan and also help Tippu defeat the Travancore kings. The Zamorin refused.

Shamnath appears in history pages during January 1789 when as the Zamorin’s chief minister, he is deputed to Mysore to negotiate a return of the Zamorin’s powers from the Mysore Sultans, namely Tippu.

Shamnath, later during the1790 period gets involved with handing over Velu Tampi Dalawa’s (Dewan of Travancore) appeals to the British. The Zamorin had returned from Travancore learning that it could be wise to channel all trade through himself, like the Varma’s of Travancore did successfully against the Dutch. There is also a record of Shamnath’s arguments with trader Choucara Moosa at Tellichery where he gets snubbed (and threatened) and lodges a complaint with the EIC. Moosa had apparently agreed to supply twenty Candys of Cardamom to the EIC (in addition to the usual timber), but failed to do so though maintaining amicable terms with the company.

Then he appears on 18th August 1792 during the agreement discussions between WG Farmer & Manavikrama Raja, the Zamorin. In the legal agreement his name is stated as Shamnath (The Zamorin yielded only after 2-3 months of negotiations and after Shamnath convinced him finally to do it). In books, he is referred to as Sarvad Karridar (Karyakkaran or Karyasthan) or principal minister. In this agreement Shamnath on behalf of the Zamorin cedes the administration of part of Malabar (the Kolathiris’ the Bibi of Cannanore etc had done likewise but much earlier in 1790, for their part of the territories) to the British (Note that Tippu’s hold on Malabar were broadly ceded to the British after his defeat & death, but this agreement was the legal transfer of administration).

Shamnath is then authorized as an agent by the EIC to collect pepper on behalf of the company. The Zamorin fires Shamnath who withheld pepper revenue for himself (page 488 MM – Page & Boddam sent to enquire into this matter, also confirmed by John Agnew in his report), and he is now jobless. By 1793, Shamnath had become an administrator of the East India Company, formally changing sides. Shamnath also at this stage managed to negotiate away from the Zamorin the very lucrative revenue from export & customs duties for the port of Calicut. For his esteemed services he was paid one percent of the Zamorin’s land revenue collections!! However all this manipulation meant that the Zamorin eventually lost all control of the trade revenues, the minister profited and the EIC continued business with individual suppliers as before.

This last step infuriated the upstarts in the Padinjare Kovilakom who had by then seen through the ruse. Shamnath had promised the family that he would get the land in Nedunganad (Palghat) restored to the Kovilakom and the trade ties tightened. Instead he had given away the only remaining revenue of the Zamorins, that too while working as a legal attorney of the Zamorin.

According to PCM Raja, as enumerated in his book ‘Samuthirimaar’, all the agreements were made to the benefit of the English due to the cunning manipulations of Shamnath. Between 1795 and 1797, the feeble and old Zamorin had hardly any powers left. Shamnath assisted the English in taking over all the family property and lands. The grand Maharajah had thus been systematically reduced to the role of a common citizen.

The young upstarts in the Zamorin family had in the meantime been collaborating with Pazhassi Raja Kerala Varma in the first organized revolt against the English. Shamnath started to get nervous. He requested his new masters for support and protection. Accordingly Ravivarma was formally warned by Stevenson and this enraged both the uncle and nephew of the Zamorin family.

Roughly a year later, the nephews of the Zamorin decide to cork the hole in the leaky boat by planning an assassination of Shamnath for his treachery after luring him to the ancestral Zamorin house or the Mankavu Padinjare kovilakom. One can imagine the extreme state of agitation in their minds, for a Nair to harm a Brahmin in those days was unthinkable. The Kovilakom itself is a huge courtyard with the Bhagavathy temple in the middle and the men’s quarters on the left and the Women’s lodge on the right. Between the temple and the women’s quarters is the Thampuran’s dwelling. Behind the temple is located the Ayappan Kavu and the Kalari where martial arts are practiced.

Swaminatha Pattar was lured to the temple and stabbed by the young Ravivarma Unni Nambi and his uncle Ravivarma. Shamnath does not die though and the Ravi Varma’s flee to the Wayanad hills. The Rani or Amma Thamburatti is deeply troubled by the terrible act committed on a Brahmin and orders that a special puja be conducted. Accordingly a Brahmarakshassu is installed between the Ayyappan temple and the Kalari at the Kovialkom.

The young upstarts take to the hills. They are joined there by Unni Moota Mooppan, some Coimbatore Gownders, Kunhi Achan from Palakkd etc. Capt Burchall pursues them through the Anamalai’s in Waynad, but they escape to Travancore. The East India Company offers a reward of Rs 5000/- for their capture.

Later on the RaviVarma’s join Pazhassi raja in the second organized revolt against the British. However Ravivarma who had been injured earlier succumbed to the infection. The nephew Ravi Varma was later captured and he commits suicide in the temporary jail.

The Ravi Varma’s started the revolt against the British, joined and spearheaded later by the Pazhassi raja. This was the first but unheralded revolt against the British, not the well known Rani Jhansi revolt as stated in history books. However, one must admit that it was a revolt against the EIC, not the British.

If you read the other contemporary books written on Malabar history, you will find that Brahmins had unfettered access across individual domains & territories of Malabar and had access to nobility. For that reason they were the spies, the go betweens and negotiators in many cases. Secondly they were well lettered, not only in Sanskrit, but also in other languages over time. Loren Howard Michael (Land Control in Indian History: A Case Study of Malabar, 1766-1835) sums it as follows – Men like Shamnath Pattar and a variety of other Brahmins were actually double agents working for the Zamorin at first and then for the British.

However on this general implication I must disagree, for there were many wonderful bureaucrats and administrators amongst the Brahmin’s from historic times and also after the advent of government in India. They were by and far hard working and honest, guided very much by their stringent religious principles. TN Sheshan, the famous Palakkad Iyer who was the home secretary and the election commissioner, once stated rightly, though in jest, ‘Palakkad has always produced the best bureaucrats and cooks’.

Shamnath the Brahmin from Chatapuram (Kalpathy) Palakkad had a proper Indian name, which by the way was Swaminatha Iyer. More details of his life are unfortunately not available.

References
A survey of Kerala History – A Sreedhara Menon Page 259
Samoothirimaar PCM Raja – Pages 150-160
Malabar Manual – Logan – Pages 495-500
A collection of treaties – Logan Page 201
Zamorins of Calicut – KV Krishna Ayyar Pages 234-250
India and the Indian Ocean world – Ashin Das Gupta - Pages 128-131

We go back to the days when the Zamorins ruled the North Malabar areas and were the suzerain of the Nayars, a proud race of Kerala. Among the gentry were also the well trained foot soldiers and warriors. Many tales of their valor can be found in books and poems etc. However, the ‘kalari’ trained warriors who were experts in martial arts, honorable close quarter fighting and the use of bows and arrows, swords, daggers and lances were typically geared to fight for and defend the Zamorin, the Cochin Raja and other nobles in their fights. Of course it was also so that one Nadu Vazhi or Sthanai went against his neighbor and used these soldiers to fight duels to settle his claims. This was their profession and these men frequently went away on long campaigns.

Among the Malabar Nairs were one special class of fighters. They were the suicide squads of Chavers. They were the cause of much curiosity to the western travelers who recorded their bravery, sometimes terming it stupidity, and curiously this kind of valor never seen outside of the Japan’s Samurai class and the Kerala Chavers(the Chavers incidentally predated the Samurai).

Let us start with the English phrase that is often used these days – RUNNING AMOK. Ever wondered what it meant? You read and glean easily – the riot started and everybody ran amok. The word Amok is stated to have originated from a Malay word Amuk which meant ‘mad of uncontrollable rage bordering on homicidal and suicidal intent’. But what connection does Malay have to all these?

Towards the late seventeenth century Reverend Phillip Baldeus, the Dutch chaplain of Ceylon, describes the following practice among an elite of the Nair clan: ‘among the Nairos (Nairs) those who call themselves amok are the worst, being a company of desperadoes, who engage themselves and their families by oaths to revenge such injuries as are done them’.
The Chisholm Britannica encyclopedia & Hobson Jobson encyclopedia states - In Malabar there were certain professional assassins known to old travelers as Amouchi Amuki or Amuco. The nearest modern equivalent to these words would seem to be the Malayalam Amar-khan, "a warrior" (from amar, "fight"). The Malayalam term chaver applied to these ruffians meant literally those "who devote themselves to death." In Malabar was a custom by which the Zamorin or king of Calicut had to cut his throat in public (this incidentally was all rubbish) when he had reigned twelve years. In the 17th century a variation in his fate was made. He had to take his seat, after a great feast lasting twelve days, at a national assembly, surrounded by his armed suite, and it was lawful for anyone to attack him, and if he succeeded in killing him the murderer himself became Zamorin (see Alex. Hamilton, "A new Account of the East Indies," in Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, viii. 374). In 1600, thirty would-be assassins were killed in such attempts. These men were called Amar-khan, and it has been suggested that their action was "running amok" in the true Malay sense. Another proposed derivation for amouchi is Sanskrit amokshya, "that cannot be loosed," suggesting that the murderer was bound by a vow, an explanation more than once advanced for the Malay amok; but amokshya in such a sense is unknown in Malayalam.

Hobson Jobson even goes on to add a snippet that amoukis also defended the Syrian Catholics in Quilon. In any case very many travelers have stated that Amouki was a class in Malabar.

But all this confused me – Well these are Amoucos. If you think like a Malayali, trying to roll the word around in your mind, you are reminded of only one close cousin. That is the word ‘hamukka’ used by Mappilas to signify cunning fellow…or was it to signify Amouki?? In reality all this boils down to a group called the Chaver and they are what we will talk about. Towards the end, we will try to figure out the reasoning behind equating Chavers to amarkhan and hamukaa.

The Chaver find their first reference in the writings of Abu Zayd (915 A.D) who explains the mode of recruitment of the Chaver soldiers as follows:

'Among the kings of Hind and some who observe a special right upon their accession to the throne, rice is cooked for the new monarch and is served in a plantain leaf He invites from his companions, three or four hundred men and those who are willing, presents themselves to the king without any compulsion on his part. After the king hath eaten some of the cooked rice, he gives the remainder to those men who approach him one after another and receive from him a small quantity of rice which they eat. It is incumbent upon all those who partake this to burn themselves to the last man when the king dies or is slain."

Marco Polo also mentions of a protector or body guard class called Amuki’s for both Hindu nobles and Christians.

The Portuguese mention of Chavers comes up in the description of the Mamankom (Maha Maghom) at Tirunnavaya between the Valluvanad Konathiri and the Zamorin. They existed between the 11th and 12th centuries and served not only as troops, body guards and specialists in battle, but also as local police, volunteer troops, mercenaries and guards. The mamankam festival and the background is well explained in Wikipedia, so I will just provide an overview

In olden days, Mamankam was a grand assembly of the Malabar rulers held once in 12 years, in which one among them was selected as the emperor of Kerala. . It was an enormous trade fair also. The Mamankam festival was celebrated for 28 days with great pomp and pageantry where traders from outside came on ships and barges to Thirunavaya through Ponnani port. Thus the economical importance of Mamankam was high and hence the right to conduct and control it was important. At the end of the rule of Perumals, the right of Mamankam was with Vellattiri, the ruler of Valluvanad. Later the Zamorin of Kozhikode took this right by force and this resulted in dispute and bloodshed between these two Rajas. Valluvanad Raja used to send Chaver warriors to flight until death, to recapture the right from the Zamorin, who would stand poised at Nilapadu thara in Thriunavaya, surrounded by a large contingent of soldiers, in every 12th year. The last of such Mamankam, was believed to be held in 1755, when Zamorin had a hair-breath escape from a chaver aged 16.

We go back today to the balmy days of autumn 1503. The palace intrigues at the Zamorins palace in Kottaparamba (today’s mananchira area) were running wild. The relationship between the Kolathiri’s in the north were improving but the relationship with the ageing Cochin king Unni Goda Varma was as bad as it could be. The Zamorin Manavikaram (1500-1513) was fighting the Portuguese who had increased their attempts at gaining monopoly of pepper & spice trade. The Mopilahs were troubled, the Arabs and other Pardesi merchant groups livid at the possibility of their trade being taken over by the Parangi. An astute reader will note here that we are talking about two groups of Muslims in Malabar, the Moplah & the Paradesi (even though other foreigners were also called pardesi’s, I am referring here to the Muslim pardesi). In the course of the study of history of Malabar, you will see that the second group was the one with more to lose and did their bit to manipulate the former in the name of brotherhood, religion & ancestry.

But we will look at the story of two unlikely candidates who had strayed into the maelstrom of the bitter politics that was underway, they were two Milanese gem cutters, who had run away from the Portuguese at Cochin and found sanctuary of the Zamorin’s employ at Calicut. They were in the course of history to get termed as siege engineers, gunsmiths, lapidaries, bombardeiros, armorers, renegados and so on… The two persons bore the names Joao Maria (John or Giovanni Mario) and Piero Antonio (Peter Anthony) respectively. While many people had alluded to their presence in Cochin and Calicut, Varthema the Milanese spy in Moorish disguise visiting Calicut who eventually left his famous travelogue, came across them and documented their sad state of affairs.

They had originally come with Vasco Da Gama on his second voyage of 1502 and were based in Cochin. Their relations with the Portuguese soured in 1503 and they absconded to Calicut. One thing surprising is that they took this chance to break away from the Portuguese knowing fully that it becomes far more difficult to get back to Italy without the Portuguese ships offering transit. Did they leave for monetary reasons? Yes, it could be as the Portuguese solados were paid only on return to Lisbon, usually. Or was it something else? Yes, they did make money from the Zamorin. But history is mum in those areas.

Nevertheless, they found their way up to Calicut and quickly found employment with the Zamorin. He had learnt from previous skirmishes with the Gama and Cabral that without guns, their cause was lost. Soon the gem cutters were put to work at casting field guns (many books also mention small cannons) and shells for the same. Until then all that the Zamorin had were two cannons that nobody knew how to load, aim or fire (Whiteway citing Thomas Lopas an eye witness). During their stay at Calicut the Italian craftsmen cast 400-500 ‘brass’ field guns & cannons. Some of these guns were mounted in Moplah ships that sailed the waters.

KV Krishna Iyer in his book “Zamorins of Calicut’ (page 160) mentions that the two married Moplah women (this is indeed surprising, I somehow feel it could be outcaste Hindu Women) and eventually trained the Moplah’s under command of the Zamorin (I believe that the head of these could have been the chief armorer Mamally Marakkar) to load, aim and fire the guns in a disciplined and quick fashion.

C Achyutha Menon in his ‘Cochin state manual’ mentions that the guns made by these stone cutters only fired stones as fast as one could throw them and these were no match for the Portuguese artillery.

In the meantime the Portuguese keep on asking the Zamorin for the return of the two Italian deserters. The Zamorin did not budge.

Let us see the most exhaustive of the accounts by Varthema – Adventurer Varthema is now back at Calicut after traveling the Coromandel and the SE Asia, sometime around 27th August 1505 (aged 35 years or so). He is all this time disguised as an Arab Fakir named Yunus. Here he goes around clad only in a dhothi, bare-chested, around the streets of Calicut. And he eventually meets the two gunners and become friends. The gunners state that they meet the Zamorin every day & that they were his chief men. However they were stuck in Calicut since they had no way of going back across the seas. Varthema tells them that the only way is to go back with the Franks (Portuguese) after getting a pardon more so as they were now outlaws but also that he Varthema would discuss the pardon with the Voceroy. The Gunners confirm that they had trained 15 people of the Zamorin on how to fire the ‘Spingarde’. Varthema tells them that they are committing terrible acts against the Christians, hearing which the Antonio weeps and Mario states that it does not matter where he dies, Rome or Calicut.

Later, when Varthema hears that Portuguese are ships were on the way to Cochin, he forgets his one year traveling relationship with the moors and proceeds to Cannanore, meets Lourenco & travels thence to Cochin to explain to the Portuguese about the Zamorin’s armaments and massive preparations (with Turkish support) against them. He then requests that the viceroy Albuqurque pardon the two Italian gunners promising him to bring them over and thus weaken the Zamorin. He then proceeds to communicate the next plans with the Italians through a spy, after moving to Cannanore. The spy goes back & forth 5 times.

As we found earlier, both were married locally and Mario has a son and a slave at home whereas Antonio has no issues. Varthema cautions them not to speak about the escape to their wives or child and to come on an appointed day with only their money & jewels. The Italians planned to pack & take with them a 32 carat diamond, a 24 carat pearl, 2000 rubies of 1 to 1.5 carats weight, 64 rings, assorted jewelry, jewelers wheels & animals ( 7 birds, 3 apes & 2 cats) etc. Mario’s slave who saw these preparations knew immediately that they were trying to escape and went to the Zamorin with the news. The king did not believe him and instead sent 5 Nair’s to guard the Italians quarters. The slave is frustrated and then goes to the Calicut Kadi and tells him about the flight and that the Italians had betrayed the Zamorin by telling the Portuguese about the preparations for war. The Kadi and the merchants of Calicut Valiangadi decided to take preemptive action.

At that time, March 1506, in Calicut there were a band of traveling Gioghi’s (I guess Gypsies) and their king. The Muslims go to the head of the Gioghi and contract him to kill the Italians. The man sends 200 of his men to take care of the matter. A fight ensues, 40 of the Gioghis are injured, and six killed, finally they manage to murder the two Italians with their trademark weapon, the swinging iron bit cast from a sling.

Thus ended the life of the two Italian mercenaries who laid their lives for the battles of Malabar, albeit unwillingly.

Joao Maria’s wife and child escape. Varthema buys the boy for 8 gold ducats and christens him as Lorenzo, but the boy dies soon after in 1506 of ‘French disease’ – VD, ulcer or cancer (something that Varthema concludes was introduced after the Portuguese arrival). Varthema then goes to Cochin and remains there until Dec 1507.

Richard Burton, not otherwise known for his accuracy states - For correctness of observation and readiness of with, Varthema stands in the foremost rank of the old Oriental travelers.

Many other historians have remarked about a lack of consistency in Varthema’s writings and missing parts as though he had something to hide or that he had lifted certain parts from other sources. Some contend it was due to his life as a Muslim spy. Now I wonder after all this, what a stone/gem finisher has to do with casting cannon, just like Varthema’s wild claims that he himself could cast cannon, maybe the tradesmen learnt different trades in those times.

If you look at Varthema’s notes, they do sound a bit silly today; especially the Malayalam lines & their translation about a trader who wanted this Italian and his friend to deflower his wife (a Chetty wanting that? Unbelievable!). One wonders how the text is taken for granted by so many over the many generations that have gone by. So to extract out the fact in these volumes compiled by mere travelers and not historians, takes much cross reading. On the other hand, it does lend great brevity to those troubled times.

Pearson the eminent historian confirms that these two Milanese did make 500 cannon out of which 200 were fitted on the Zamorin’s ships.

Castenheda confirms the Gunners skill and leadership qualities - There were at this time in Cochin two Milanese lapidaries belonging to the factory, named John Maria and Pedro Antonio, who had been brought to India by Vasco de Gama. These men deserted to the Zamorin, to whom they conveyed intelligence of the consternation which reigned among the inhabitants of Cochin, and of the small number of men that remained with the rajah. These men also made offer to the Zamorin to make ordnance for him resembling those of the Portuguese, which they afterwards did, as will appear in the sequel of this history, and for which service they were highly rewarded.

In the course of the night, by the advice of the Italian lapidaries who had deserted to the enemy, the Zamorin caused a sconce or battery to be erected directly over against the place where Pacheco was stationed, on which five pieces of ordnance were placed, from which great service was expected in the ensuing battle, owing to the narrowness of the pass. Before day, the van of this prodigious army arrived at the sconce of the Italians, and began immediately to play off their ordnance against the caravel, which was so near that it was an absolute miracle that not a single shot did any harm. But our cannon were better served, and every shot did execution among the enemy: and so well did they ply their guns, that before sunrise above thirty discharges were made from our caravel. Sixty-six of these were paraws, having their sides defended with bags of cotton by advice of the Italians, to ward off our shot; and each of these had twenty-five men and two pieces of ordnance, five of the men in each paraw being armed with calivers or matchlocks.

The two Italian deserters, while they acknowledged the valor of the Portuguese in the late action, represented that it would be impossible for them to continue to bear up long against such vast odds without reinforcements, and recommended the frequent reiteration of assaults, under which they must necessarily be at last overthrown. All those rajahs and chiefs who were for continuing the war, joined in opinion with the Italians.
Later on, the Zamorin’s desire to make even more guns for defense increased. Varthema also recounts of a Jew in Calicut who had built (for the Zamorin) a beautiful galley in which were four large iron cannon, who according to him, by an act of providence drowned while taking a bath in the pond. Around 1505 - 1507 four Venetians are seen to settle down in Calicut making cannons for the Zamorin and finally it is recorded by Gaspar Luis De Viega (1546) that a number of corrupt ‘casados’ had started to supply artillery & gun powder to the Zamorin’s armies. The Venetians in 1508 contributed carpenters, caulkers, artillery and two whole galleys to a fleet sent out in support of the Zamorin.

References
History of the Discovery and Conquest of India 1497 and 1505- Hernan Lopez de Castaneda.
The travels of…. Ludvico Di Varthema
Zamorins of Calicut – KV Krishna Iyer
Malabar & the Portuguese – K M Panikkar
The Cochin State Manual – C Achyutha Menon
Portuguese in India – F C Danvers
Malabar Manual – W Logan
Rise of Portuguese power in India – RS Whiteway
Portuguese in Malabar – K Ramunni Nair

Pics - Web sources, ack with thanks