The Kummatti at Kunisseri
Nestling between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea is
the rice bowl of Malabar, todays Palakkad. Its strategic location and rich agricultural
tradition was a cause for many a battle. Primary was its produce being important
for expanding populations and secondly because it was the entry point of the
Tamilakam trade route, i.e. the Palakkad gap. Carts and animals of trade
carried produce back and forth through a domestic highway of sorts. As time
went by and the kingdoms in North Malabar became more and more affluent and
populated, and as import of rice from the Konkan and Coromandel rice traders
came under threat, the southern rice producing areas became even more important.The
Palghat rajas, whom we talked about in the past, were not always the overlords
of the entire district as we know it today, since some parts of it were either
under the suzerainty of either the Zamorin or the Kochi raja.
Napoleon, India and the Russian intrigues – Part 1
Posted by Maddy Labels: French conquest India, French India, Napolean
The Oriental conquest for the Golden
Sparrow 1801
We are all so used to speaking English
these days, but can you imagine a prospect of a French speaking India? Well it
could have happened if Napoleon had followed on with his oriental dreams of
acquiring the golden sparrow and won the battles with the British. Napoleon was
quite vocal about his desire to conquer the East from the very beginning, as he
remarked after his first Italian Campaign: ''My
glory is already at an end; there is not enough of it in this little Europe. I
must go to the East; all great glory comes from there." While his loss
at the battle of Waterloo is apparent to most, the Indian aspirations of
Napoleon are not so well known.
The Mystery of the Zamorin’s Coronation Stone
Posted by Maddy Labels: Zamorin, Zamorin coronation stone
And its Chinese connections
Some years ago, Nidheesh introduced this story to history
enthusiasts. It was certainly a sad tale, and a classic case where bigotry and
fanaticism were at a peak in Eranad. The exact details are still shrouded in a
bit of mystery but I thought it would be interesting to revisit the area and
retell the events leading up to the macabre incident, consolidating details
gleaned from Abdurahiman KP’s thesis (for which I extend my thanks to him)
covering Mappila heritage and the court ruling.
The Renegade Portuguese Moplah Corsair - Dom Pedro Rodrigues
Posted by Maddy Labels: Ali Marakkar, Dom Pedro Rodrigues, Kunjali cousin, Marakkars of Malabar
A story of Revenge, Ali
Marakkar
March 1600 – The Kunjali IV had just surrendered to the
Zamorin. Andre Furtado reneging on his agreement, dragged Kunjali away, while
the Zamorin’s Nair cohorts tried to fight off the Portuguese, but failed.
Kunjali and 40 of his people were spirited away to Goa and put into a tronquo,
a trial was speedily conducted and Kunjali was sentenced to death in spite of
the terms of his surrender which were that his life would be spared. The
padre’s at Goa tried hard to have him converted before his killing, but they
failed. Finally he was executed in a French style guillotine and his body was
later quartered and exhibited in the beaches of Panjim and Badrez. His salted head
was sent off to Cannanore for exhibition.
Robert Adams - Governor of EIC Malabar
Posted by Maddy Labels: British Malabar, country trader, Robert adams
The ‘Notorious’ country
trader Robert Adams
April 8th 1738 , an obscure epitaph for a British
gentleman came to the notice of observant readers - At his House in Cavendish-Square, aged 64, Robert Adams, Esq; one of
the Directors of the East-India Company, and formerly Governor of Tellicherry
in India for the said Company. The above Gentleman, when in India, being once a
Hunting, and separated from his Company in the Woods, was attack'd by a Tyger,
who seized him by the Shoulder, but he at the fame pierced the Tyger with a
lance through the Body, and they both fell together; but happily disengaging
himself, he kill'd the Creature on the Spot, and hath ever since born a Tyger
rampant in his Coat of Arms. He is said to have dy'd worth £100,000/- which he has left to his two
only Daughters, both unmarry'd.
Maryam Zamani – Still an enigma
Posted by Maddy Labels: Akbar, mariam zamani, maryam zamani, Mughal India
Jahangir’s mother and
Guardian
This is a mystery that had endured for many a decade and
every historian working on Moghul history and Agra has come up with their own
twist to it. When I started on this topic some years ago, I believed I could
get to the crux of the matter with some effort, but it proved to be so
difficult to peel the onion, as they say.
I spent so much time and effort in this study, perusing countless
articles and sources, finally reaching nowhere conclusively. Were Maryam Zamani and
Jahangir’s mother the same person? Or was it that there were two people in the picture?
Farrukhi – A capital shortlived
Posted by Maddy Labels: Calicut capital, Farokhi, Feroke - Tipu, Ferokhabad, Mysore SultansTipu Sultan’s new Malabar Capital and the Farrukhi mint
There is some mystery involved
in the town of Feroke, and its antiquity boasts of it being the capital of Tipu’s
Malabar, though quite short lived. The first hint of the town’s name comes from
Tipu’s own writings about his dreams, where he mentions of a particular dream
involving white elephants (and later, a second one dealing with a bear) from
China while returning from Farrukhi (near Calicut) and camped near Salamabad
(Satyamangalam near Coimbatore). More precisely, in history it is named as
Paramukku, a desam in Beypore amsham about 6 miles distant from Calicut town
wherein 1788 Tipu apparently built a fort and projected the founding of a new
capital. It is indeed cryptic and we have only very little information on the
establishment of Feroke and its instilment as a Malabar capital in the amsam of
Nelluru. Let’s take a look at what we have.
The many mysteries behind the Cheng Ho Voyages
Posted by Maddy Labels: Cheng Ho Calicut, Malabar - Chinese trade, Zhenge He calicut
Much is written about the voyages of Cheng Ho. In fact there
is even a voluminous book just listing bibliography of published works detailing
Cheng Ho’s life and time. But how much of all that is conjecture, myth, lore
and legend and how much of it is fact? That seems to be the biggest problem,
because the scribes of the Ming period rewrote history and fudged fact with
fiction with impunity, so much so that filtering truth from them is an art in
itself. The importance of the voyages, the treasure ships themselves which awed
and terrified onlookers from any shore, the expenses in making them, the
reasons for these voyages and the reasons which ended the voyages are still
steeped in mystery. The man behind it all, the seven foot tall Muslim eunuch, is
who they say brought Islam to Melacca, defeated pirates, established relations
and leaders, fought a war with a Lankan Monarch and took away Buddha’s tooth to
Nanking. But Zheng He or Cheng Ho, who suddenly found himself adrift when his
patron Chu Ti (Zhu Di - the Yong Le, Yung Lo monarch) passed away mysteriously,
also met a mysterious end.
On the origins and history of the Rowther Muslims
Ravuttar, Rowther, Ravuther
Most people from Palghat would recognize this community
name, for a number of them are settled in various parts of the district. As a
child, I would hear stories of them being remnants of Hyder’s and Tipu’s
cavalry forces. If you recall these forces were camped around Coimbatore,
Pollachi, Dindigul and thereabouts during their many forays into Malabar.
Growing up in Koduvayur, I came across many Rowthers, mainly traders in and
around Palghat. The Palghat community spoke a kind of Tamil signifying that
they once belonged to Tamil regions and were not connected with the Malayali
Moplah communities. OV Vijayan frequently mentioned them in his books, and even
had a few characters in his famous Khasakinte Ithihasam (legends of Khasak).
That reminds me, it is time for a reread of that great book, I have forgotten
most of it.
The Kalikavu incident - 1915
Posted by Maddy Labels: 1915 Moplah, Innes attempt, Kalikavu, Moplah rebellion
An attempt on Collector
CA Innes’s life
Some articles ago, we studied the impact of the Turkish
Khalifa, the Khilafat movement and its effects on the Malabar populace,
culminating in the violence of 1921 and a terrible aftermath. We also studied
about the discontentment amongst the Malabar Mappilas and the attempts of
earlier British administration, especially HV Conolly in countering what was
termed as the Mappila outrages resulting in the attempt at disarming the
disaffected Mappila. As all these were progressing from phase to phase, many a foreign
cleric entered the area to whip up the emotions of the relatively illiterate
Eranad Mappilas. These have been well studied and recorded by various
historians, forming three categories of texts, one by left leaning scribes
attributing everything to land tenures and as the outburst of have nots, the
British stories calling them revolts against the crown, to be dealt with a firm hand and thirdly the events as seen by
the Hindu aristocracy of Malabar. Two lesser known events from the earlier days
are not quite well reported in any of these collections, one being an attempt
to kill a British collector and secondly the British attempt at mainstreaming
the Mappila’s desire to fight. I will detail the first now and then in a later
article provide information on the second.
A famine and the cholera epidemic....1943
Everybody talked about the Great War as the summer months of 1942 scorched the southern regions of India. The eastern allied bastions fell one after
another, by February 42 Singapore had capitulated and in March 1942, Rangoon
had fallen and Port Blair in the Andamans had been taken. The overjoyed INA
factions in Malaya and Burma were waiting for directions from their new leader
Subhas Chandra Bose ensconced in Rangoon, while at the same time, hundreds of thousands of panic
stricken Indian refugees (Burmese workers) were in full flight across the seas and borders
into India, their ancestral home. Their belief was total that the British Raj
would do nothing to help them, for their brethren had not received any great support
either at Malaya or Singapore. One could hear the refrain – that
invasion was imminent, the Japanese were coming, and that the British are set
to flee India. With censor controlled war news channels focused on the action
in Europe, rumor machines in India took over and wild tales were told and retold.
The Japanese soldier, though smaller than a Burmese elephant, evoked a bigger
fear, rivaling a dragon.
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