Historic Alleys

The Chetty or Nair, the Paravas, and the Paniyaram

The other day, my wife made some nice Paniyaram - a type of fried savory rice cakes. As I was munching away happily, a tidbit from history rose up to my conscious mind, creeping out from some dark and cavernous storage spaces in my brain, reminding me that my study of Da Cruz, the Chetty or Nair from Malabar was not complete ( my earlier article had too many errors, as I found out following this recent study) . It was an event that started a number of events that rapidly cascaded to result in the reformation of a clan. But through this all, one person remained in obscurity, interestingly the very first knight from Kerala. There were perhaps a few others as time went by, at the tail end there was Sir C Sankaran Nair and in between, close on the heels of the first, there was possibly one Manuel Nair, a Portuguese scribe at the Cochin palace.

Let us dwell upon the person I wrote about some years back, Joao Da Cruz or John of the Cross. I thought we must shed some more light on his story, and as I am in possession of some more documents, the article by UB Nair and some of the papers of Rev Schurhammer which I did not, when I first wrote about the torn earlobe and the horse trader. I do not think very many other than an odd Parava here and there know about Joao Da Cruz, and most of them would have anyway confused his name with their first Jati Talavan. So let us go about the task of rousing his self from centuries of hiding in the anals of history.

For that we have to go back some 500 years, to the times when a breed of lighter skinned people hit the shores of Calicut and made it an unhappy period for the darker. They did not come in peace, as Vasco Da Gama and Cabral made it clear, they came to monopolize the spice trade and eventually colonize these faraway lands. Almeida later opened the routes and created a base in Cochin, enabling stability with the arrival of Alfonso Albuquerque. Much happened after the latter came, we read about Coutinho’s attack on Calicut, the miraculous escape and maiming of Albuquerque, and his subsequent patch up with the Zamorin in 1510. By 1510, the capital of the Portuguese had moved to Goa from its first location of Cochin after much irritation created by the Moplahs and the Zamorin, but Cochin was still key to the sourcing of pepper and other spices for the needy in Europe. Back in Calicut, a Portuguese fort had been built and a factory was just starting to function.

One of the results from that peaceful interlude was the deputation of an emissary by the Zamorin to Lisbon (It is also interesting to note that while the emissary was on his way, Joseph the Indian was already in Europe, talking to anybody who listened about the ways of Malabar). The Zamorin for some strange reasons chose a lad aged just 15 for this purpose. Various mentions careen from Nair to Chetty when mentioning this boy’s caste, for it was a period where caste was taking a firmer grip, where the Zamorin’s Samanthan status itself was being questioned by the Cochin king, acting in spite. Did the Zamorin send out a favored and trusted relative or did he select somebody else? Deputing an upper class Hindu to cross the tabooed oceans would not have helped the Zamorin’s fight with the priests. So he perhaps chose somebody who was not a Nair, but from some family of good standing known to his court. Probably the Moplah would not go (actually one did - Koya Pakki, but only after Da Cruz), perhaps the Gujarati was on the fringes of the court; so the choice rested among the others who were important in trade, the Chetti’s of Calicut. Nevertheless, there is still a chance that it was a relative of his, a Nair boy.

While UB Nair believed strongly when he wrote his paper in 1928, that the envoy was a Nair, related to the Zamorin, a mention many others agreed with for a while due to oblique references from Portuguese sources including St Xavier, it was disproven by orientalist Rev G Schurhammer, an authority on matters related to St Xavier, with access to the archives in Lisbon and various other documents. I will come to it soon, but the confusion arose from St Xavier’s letters which mention that the envoy was a Nair, a Malabar prince and a nobleman. Could it be so, could there have been any subterfuge in this? We do not know, for the envoy, his real name or face not known to this date, the lad of 15, stated in a letter to King Manuel that he belonged to the Chetti class.





King Manuel as you will recall, reigned at Lisbon until his son Joao (John) III took over in 1521. His reign was characterized by many a discovery, the colonization of India, enrichment of the Portuguese coffers, alliances with China and Persia, an increased stature in Europe and great popularity in Rome & Vatican, in spite of the fact that it was also a period of inquisitions and Jewish persecution.

Chetti’s on the other hand, owned many trading ventures in most trading town and cities of S India since historic times. They were the links to the produce, artifacts and trading goods from the South East parts of India and themselves originated from the Sivaganga - Karekudi parts of Tamil Nadu, today famous for their Chettinad cuisine, based very much, again interestingly, on the black pepper from Malabar. Using road (through the Palakkad gap) and sea routes, the grains, textiles, gems and stones, were brought to the trade emporia on the west coast, and readied for export to China and Arab ports. Now that the Europeans were there, the sourcing of such material ‘in time’ was even more important. The Chettis posed no issues to the local populace, lived by their own culture, and did well. They were very important to the local nobility as a source of finance if and when required and were favored in the courts. The situation was no different in Calicut, in the Zamorin’s court. It is possible that one such family volunteered a bright lad for the voyage to Lisbon.

Perhaps it was a boy from a favored Nair family, perhaps not, but the fact that he was a relative of the Zamorin is borne in the Lendas Da India written by Gaspar Correa. TK Joseph in his Kerala Society papers states that Gaspar mixed up things and he was an old person when he wrote Lendas Da India, but that is not right, for he was only 30 years old when he wrote Lendas. Correa came to India when he was 16, around 1520 as a secretary of Albuquerque and not much after Da Cruz returned from Lisbon. In fact Correa would definitely have come across Da Cruz at Lisbon, where he was very much a show piece, seen walking about the street wearing Indian clothes, perhaps a dhoti and a tunic!

The young Chetti or Nair departed sometime around 1513 from Calicut, based on a decision taken by the Zamorin to send this representative to Lisbon in 1512. He was to stay in Portugal for three years before his return to Calicut in 1516. As we see from Schurhammer’s papers, this boy became popular with King Manuel and decided after a couple of years living in Lisbon to convert to Christianity. Accordingly he was baptized a Catholic, and renamed as Joao Da Cruz or John of the Cross. He also learned to read and write Portuguese was later (around 1515) knighted, made a fidalgo (noble) of the house, receiving the habit of the Order of Christ and a life grant that went with it.

It is at this juncture that the first of his letters (some 8 of them still exist at the national archives of Lisbon – I have attached one of the letters to show you his cursive writing in Old Portuguese) peeks out from historic archives, this one from the Cartas de Affonso de Albequerque. In this letter, written after his baptism, he applies for/seeks from King Manuel, higher honors and graces such as the ones he received in 1515. The plan was for Joao to return to Calicut and build the first Catholic Church there and this return date is evidenced by Diogo De Morais ( a priest who came back with him and one who proved to be an absolute disaster) writing to King Manuel from Calicut. This is actually a very interesting point to note, for we see here that the situation in Calicut (in 1516) is not bad for the Portuguese as yet, and that Da Cruz and his friends did establish themselves in Calicut, possessed a factory there and built a chapel attached to the factory.

We note the following from the Matri Dei Cathedral Calicut site - In 1513 A.D, a treaty was concluded between the Portuguese and the Zamorin of Calicut by which the Raja allowed the Portuguese to erect a Factory (Feitoria) at Calicut. A Chapel dedicated to Matre de Deo was attached to this Factory. It is believed to have housed a stone Cross struck in bas relief on granite with a Portuguese inscription. This stone Cross, worshiped by the thousands every day, was installed in the Holy Cross Chapel, attached to the Matre de Deo's Church, established more than hundred years ago. It is perhaps not known to them as yet, that a Malayali was responsible for this.

Two years later, Da Cruz’s fortunes do not seem to have taken off, and his natural leanings towards trade seem to have asserted themselves. It is seen that he writes another letter to King Manuel in 1518 asking for an Alvara or rights and privileges to become a supplier of pepper to the Portuguese. In fact he also asks for a monetary advance and receives one, of 7,400 pardaos. It is even more interesting to note here that he was so much in the good books of King Manuel that he becomes one of the earlier private traders attempting to ship pepper to Lisbon, a venture that unfortunately did not work out, as we shall soon see, perhaps due to intrigues with the other Portuguese gentry in Cochin and Goa (Albuquerque forbade the entry of private citizens into the lucrative spice trade). After Albuquerque’s death, the man in power was Lopos Soares, one from the Almeida clique, one who slightly relaxed trade rules. This was the time when the Marakkars shifted from Cochin to the Zamorin and the Casados entered the trade domains. But Lopos was very ineffective and could not control the seas like Albuquerque and soon, in spite of the Cartaz system, there was much chaos in the western seas. Piracy was on the rise and captains including Portuguese tried to enrich themselves instead of serving ‘only’ their King. Those final years of King Manuel until Joao III his son took over, were days of bad governance, and Lisbon was fortunate to cling to superiority.

So much happened in those days, the attempt by the Mamuluk Egyptians to free themselves from the Portuguese yoke, the voyage of the sea fleet of Suleiman Reis, the attack of Aden followed by and attack at Jeddah and the attempts of Adil Shah against them. In fact the turning point in Malabar was when Sequeira instigated the Cochin Raja to fight the Zamorin and the attack failed. Life soon became precarious for the Portuguese in Calicut. But let us get back to our friend Da Cruz.

By 1520, Da Cruz had settled down in Calicut. Da Cruz had already been dismissed by the Zamorin from his services as he had changed caste (this indicates that Da Cruz was not just from a trading family but perhaps a relative for the Zamorin to take this action) and it also appears that some of his property, worth quite a bit had been appropriated by the Zamorin or someone else close to him. His next efforts are aimed at securing a source for the pepper which he planned to send to Lisbon via Cambay. He soon locates a Moplah (Koya pakki) Cojabequi who would provide him the necessary goods and had identified the people in the Zamorin’s court who would help him with the effort. He reports all this in a letter to King Manuel in 1520. As you can see, he is trying to work outside the known channels, in defiance to the Zamorin and the Portuguese governor/Viceroy. But it is obvious that he has the confidence of the King of Portugal. How funny, that these so called petty aspects had to be cleared by somebody as high as the King!! Well, perhaps such was the importance of spice and the height of the stakes involved!! Soon he has a companion Lopo Diaz who lives with him at his house in Calicut and he has also married (a Portuguese Christian according to UB Nair. Is that likely as Portuguese Christian children would have hardly been 13-15 or less in age at that time? Perhaps so, since the marriage age in those days was in the teens). Da Cruz writes again in Nov 1521, to his benefactor (King Manuel, who however dies in Dec 1521) providing a recommendation for Lopo Diaz.

In 1525, he moved to Cochin on account of ‘ill health’. But from Scurhammer’s notes, it comes to light that he was injured during the siege of the Portuguese fort in 1524/1525 by the Zamorin and had lost his ships and investments worth about 60,000 cruzados (some 35,000 worth was earlier confiscated by the Zamorin). The ships were presumably scuttled by Henrique Menezes to avoid them being taken over by the Zamorin. Da Cruz sailed away in a row boat to Cochin with his wife and children, but then again fate intervened, and the ship sank with all his belongings, leaving him and his fate floundering in the waters. The penniless Da Cruz reached Cochin and was promptly jailed by the Portuguese for not paying up his debts to the crown. The fights between the Portuguese and the Zamorin continue and the Portuguese finally erect another fort named Santa Maria De Castello, at Chaliyam after allying with the Tanore raja by 1532.

Da Cruz next writes to his benefactor in Lisbon in 1533, explaining his sad state, he even complains of being imprisoned and put into chains together with the black heathen. It appears that he then fled to Quilon to escape the authorities in Cochin. Quilon then was supplying pepper to the state of Vijayanagara and Bengal, and Da Cruz seizing the opportunity, offers to stop this and requests that he be made the factor at Quilon (did not happen). He also requests permission to take up the horse trade (the Portuguese Crown had the monopoly then). In 1535, he gets a reply extending his loan repayment by two more years and permission to trade horses. Accordingly he gets a hold of some 12 horses, goes to the southern kingdoms, sells them to the Sultan of Ma’abar, but never gets paid. What took place between then and 1537 is interesting. In 1537, he writes his last letter, accounting for the conversions of the Paravas, to the king and stressing his involvement in it.

Back at Tuticorin, things were not going well for the Paravas. They had been used to fishing for oysters and pearls and paid a small subsidy to the kings of Quilon/Travancore, Kayattar and Tumbichi Nayak. In 1516 it appears that Muslims took over the whole pearl fishery on a lease from Udaya Marthanda Varma. The Portuguese wanting a share of the profits managed to wrest out a share of the by way of a tribute from the local kings against threats of attack. Joao Froles was sent to take control of the area and with that what followed was a long 14 year war on the pearl fishery coast between the Muslims and the Portuguese. In 1528, following a defeat of the Moors by De Mello, retribution had to be paid to the Portuguese. The Moors forced the Paravas to pay additional tributes from the pearl fishing. The Paravas were soon reduced to virtual slavery, and the situation had become very tense indeed, for it was after centuries and for first time in history that the Paravars had lost their right over the pearl fishery.

It was on such a tense day in Tuticorin during 1534, when as usual, a Parava woman went out to sell her home made Paniyarams. As it appears from the texts of Teixeira, a Muslim insulted her and the lady promptly went home and complained to her husband. The enraged man went out and a fight ensured with the Muslim, during which the Muslim cut off an earlobe of the Parava, a great insult indeed for they wore large ornaments on their ears which extended down to their shoulders. So the honor of the entire community was compromised, as Schurhammer reports. The two groups went at each other’s throats and a great many were killed. The Muslims of neighboring towns joined the fracas and the Paravas were systematically decimated (in fact a bounty of 5 fanams per head were initially paid to the mercenaries, but as the heads piled up, this was reduced to one fanam). The Paravas had nowhere to go and were in a dire situation with no hope (A little exaggeration can be seen in these accounts - since the Muslims needed the Parava to eventually go out to sea and continue with their business and pay them the taxes).

It was into this mess that the indebted Joa Da Cruz strayed. The Paravas talked to him and explained their desperate plight. Seeing an opportunity to redeem himself, Da Cruz suggested that they convert and get allied to the Portuguese to save themselves. The Paravas, seeing no other alternative, agreed.

As the Portuguese patrol boats returned to Cochin, Cruz and 15 Parava patangatins (3 prominent chiefs and other seniors) sailed with them. Meeting Pedro Vaz the captain at Cochin, they requested for protection, agreeing to conversion and asked for more priests to effect the conversion of their people back home. Pedro Vaz was leery about the whole thing, perhaps considering Da Cruz’s precarious relationship with the Cochin bureaucracy and agrees only after the Paravas returned with another 70 of their people. Miguel Vaz, the friar from Goa was at Cochin at that time and quickly did the baptisms. Many of the people who converted including the chief took the name of their savior the Chetti/Nair Joao Da Cruz (resulting in confusion for historians who thought Joao da Crus went and settled among the Paravas as their headman).

The Moors getting wind of what was going on tried to prevent the conversions. They sent two of their heads to Cochin with eight expensive pearls, cotton goods and 20000 fanam to bribe the captain against it, through Cherina Marakkar who was a popular moor in the Portuguese good books. Pedro Vaz would not budge, and obtained further support from his boss Nuno Da Cunha at Diu. In Feb 1536, two ships sailed back to Tuticorin with Da Cruz, Miguel Vaz, the converted paravas and other priests. During the course of the next year, the entire caste of Paravas of many thousands had been converted, mainly by Miguel Vaz and his helpers Pedro Goncalves and some others from Cochin (Not St Xavier who came years later). The Paravas contributed 75000 fanams per annum to the Portuguese for protection; a figure considered exorbitant by Miguel Vaz, who complained and got it reduced to 60000.

As Teixiera was to write – And that is how our lord saved so many souls by means of one torn earlobe!!

Joao returned back to Cochin around 1537, stopping at Travancore on the way offering the King of Travancore horses if he would consent allowing fisher folk in his area also to convert like the Paravars. As you may recall the Travancore kingdom was soon going into war against the Vijayanagar king and desperately needed horses.

The Marakkars were not happy about the situation and their final desperate retaliation involved all three Pate, Kunhali and Ali Ibrahim. The resulting sea and land fight off Cape Comorin was an interesting one and best recounted another day, for that is not today’s topic. The Zamorin involved at the tail end died a broken man, in 1540.

Francis Xavier came to the Paravars in 1542-44, to work amongst them and go on to become a saint.

Whatever happened to Joao da Cruz? Did he live the rest of his life in Cochin with his family? Did he go and settle down in Portugal? He was not too old, just under middle age in 1537. What became of his children? Of course in his letter to the King of Portugal, he asked for some compensation, but we do not hear of him or see any more correspondence, anymore. All we know is that before setting out to the land of the Paravas, he had discharged his loan to the King by selling a piece of his land in Cochin to the Persian Khwaja Shamsuddin, treasurer of Asad Khan. So perhaps one of you is living on that land, the last known belonging of Joao Da Cruz, the first envoy to Portugal. Joao was not popular with the establishment, and perhaps that was due to his direct links with the monarchy, but that did not help him either in later life. Portuguese accounts of Da Cruz are not very respectful and Joao is called a Clergio – a secular priest, getting hardly any credit for all his missionary work while Friars like Miguel Vaz gets some mention compared to a lot that St Xavier did after his later work amongst the Paravas.

References

Francis Xavier, His life and times, Volumes 1,2 Rev Schurhammer
A history of Christianity in India – GM Moraes
Saints, Goddesses and Kings: Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society By Susan Bayly
The Portuguese Indian Ocean and European bridgeheads Ed Pius Malekandathil
The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama By Sanjay Subrahmanyam
A Nair Envoy to Portugual – U B Nair Indian Antiquary Sept 1928
Jesuits in Malabar – D Ferroli

Da Cruz letter image - Courtesy Lisbon Archives

Pearl fishing

Extracted from The British colonies: their history, extent, condition and resources By Robert Montgomery Martin

The crew of a boat consists of a Tindal or master, ten divers, and thirteen other men, who manage the boat and attend the divers when fishing. Each boat has five diving-stones (the ten divers relieving each other); five divers are constantly at work during the hours of fishing. The weight of the diving stone varies from 15 to 25 lb., according to the size of the diver; some stout men find it necessary to have from 4 to 8 lb. of stone in a waist-belt, to enable them to keep at the bottom of the sea, to fill their net with oysters. The form of a diving stone resembles the cone of a pine; it is suspended by a double cord.

The net is of coir-rope yarns, eighteen inches deep, fastened to a hoop eighteen inches wide, fairly slung to a single cord. On preparing to commence fishing, the diver divests himself of all his clothes, except a small piece of cloth; after offering up his devotions, he plunges into the sea and swims to his diving-stone, which his attendants have slung over the side of the boat; he places his right foot or toes between the double cord on the diving-stone— the bight of the cord being passed over a stick projecting from the side of the boat; by grasping all parts of the rope he is enabled to support himself and the stone, and raise or lower the latter for his own convenience while he remains at the surface; he then puts his left foot on the hoop of the net and presses it against the diving-stone, retaining the cord in his hand. The attendants take care that the cords are clear for running out of the boat.

The diver being thus prepared, he raises his body as much as he is able; drawing a full breath, he presses his nostrils between his thumb and finger, slips his hold of the bight of the diving-stone, and descends as rapidly as the stone will sink him. On reaching the bottom he abandons the stone, which is hauled up by the attendants ready to take him down again, clings to the ground, and commences filling his net. To accomplish this, he will sometimes creep over a space of eight or ten fathoms, and remain under water a minute; when he wishes to ascend he checks the cord of the net, which is instantly felt by the attendants, who commence pulling up as fast as they are able. The diver remains with the net until it is so far clear of the bottom as to be in no danger of upsetting, and then begins to haul himself up by the cord hand over hand, which the attendants are likewise pulling. When, by these means, his body has acquired an impetus upwards, he forsakes the cord, places his hands to his thighs, rapidly ascends to the surface, swims to his diving-stone and by the time the contents of his net have been emptied into the boat he is ready to go down again.

A single diver will take up in a day from one to four thousand oysters. They seldom exceed a minute under water; the more common time is from fifty-three to fifty seven seconds; but when requested to remain as long as possible, they can prolong their stay to something more than eighty seconds. They are warned to ascend by a singing noise in the ears, and finally by a sensation similar to hiccup."

The divers have much faith in a person called the shark-charmer, and many of them will not descend unless he be present: he is therefore paid by government.

One-fourth of the oysters taken up belong to the divers, the remainder are disposed of by public sale. The number of large pearls found is very limited compared with the mass of seed and defective gems, which are frequently pounded and used as an ingredient in a highly-prized electuary. They are also burnt into chunam or lime, and masticated by the wealthy with betel-leaf and areka-nut.

Taxation - The regulation of this fishing was with diving stones and taxes thereupon. Paravas had an allocation of 185 diving stones. They were classified Hindu, Muslim and Christian. The 185 were Christian stones! Another 166 were in circulation, of which 106 were Muslim stones. The Muslim stones had the highest tax rate.

Beypore (Chaliyam) and thence Calicut

I have written fondly about trains and the railways on a few occasions and I usually take the opportunity to ride one, each time I go to India. This time I could not manage it but was gently prodded into thoughts on that direction by an invitation to attend the 125th anniversary of the Calicut Railway station. I certainly would have loved to attend it, but I was already back in the US by then. Nevertheless I got thinking about the history of the Southern Railway and got started. I wish I could meet Mr KR Vaidyanathan who has written many an interesting article on his times in the railway, and he hails from the village next to ours in Palghat, K standing for Kunisseri. My late Engine Driver uncle whom I had mentioned a few times in the past when writing about the railway, is no more, or I could have obtained even more firsthand information.

Bypasses have come, the old bridges over Kallayi and Feroke rivers stand forlorn and rusted, and the days of the Raj’s rail have been forgotten, though it was the life line of Malabar at one time. The new lines and stations are equally important, but require much facelift both to the facilities and equipment. As you can imagine, the Calicut - Beypore connection to the Southern railway has a very interesting history, so read on….

Henry Valentine Conolly had reached Calicut in 1841 and soon got involved in the discussions about a rail connection to Calicut. As we understand from records, the concept came into being as early as 1832. But first a little perspective on the inception of railway traffic in India would be a better way to start.

Railways started at the Red Hills in Chindradipet where a short line was laid to transport granite in 1835. By 1837 it was in operation with wagons pulled by locomotives and animals. While the first commercial railway traffic was established between Royapuram (Madras) terminus and Arconam, the major project they undertook was to link one coast to the other, i.e. Madras to Malabar. The question was which location in Malabar.There were detractors too who said - The line proposed can be described as beginning nowhere at Royapuram, touching nowhere en route, and ending absolutely nowhere at Beypore, where it went, not because trade wanted or warranted it, but because there nature had provided a route through the western ghats.


Calicut got into the minds of the English and the administration in Madras for various reasons, mainly due to the difficulties in reaching the cities of Malabar which were still providing ample raw material and trade material to the English. But as you can imagine, the administration was not in possession of the required finances and private funding and involvement was a must, to get the project started. Thus came about the incorporation of the Madras Railway Company. Later the Gold boom (Refer my article on the Malabar gold rush ) brought even more attention to the region and then again the other reason, sadly was the Moplah revolt that took much of Connolly’s time. The British had to marshal resources quickly to the Eranad regions when required, so it was an administrational need too.
Calicut as you will realize did not have a good harbor and the closest was at Beypore or Vaypura as it was known then. The British had very ambitious ideas about the harbor and wanted to use it not only as a link point to send out material to Bombay or Arabian ports but also as a link point for mail and passengers. It was to become their Southwestern terminus for sea traffic to the Arab lands and rail traffic eastwards.

As mentioned earlier, in 1850, when the gold-boom drew more attention to the lack of good communications with the Wynaad, and it was proposed by the planters and gold companies that a line should be run from Beypore, to Gudalur and from there to Mysore. A company for the purpose was planned, but the project fell through since the Government declined to guarantee it. An alternative proposal to continue the Mysore Railway from Mysore was similarly suggested and eventually dropped. But the need for a western terminus was clear.

Beypore figured again as the terminus. Ships carrying people from Bombay to Madras or Calcutta had to stop at Beypore. The routes of bureaucracy sometimes took even stranger turns. In fact one person took this route from Bombay to Lahore – Bombay to Beypore by ship, Beypore to Madras by rail, Madras to Calcutta by Ship and from Calcutta to Lahore by road!!!


Royapuram station Madras

Major Cotton writing in 1851 states - And that such an error is not always to be corrected in the course of years, we have the case of Calicut, which is circumstanced somewhat similarly with reference to the Beypoor river. Whatever led originally to its present position being chosen, was a great misfortune to the country, and so clearly was it seen, in former times, that such had been the case, that Hyder made an effort to correct it by obliging all the leading merchants of the town to change their place of residence; but, although the Beypoor river affords a sheltered harbour for the coasting craft,—timber is to be had for ship-building, and vessels of 800 tons can there be launched and floated out to sea: in short, that there is, only 8 miles distant from Calicut, a noble site for a commercial town to rise upon,—no sooner was the restraint removed than the inhabitants returned to where they first located, preferring their former homes to all that Beypoor offered; and, while Calicut is every day increasing, Beypoor remains almost as much deserted as it was in Hyder's days.

Here is when the Ponnani proposition came, experts stating that it would save about 20 miles of rail construction and emphasizing the fact that it had calmer waters during the monsoons (but necessitated some expensive sand bar removal). Another point mooted was that it was easier to construct the breakwaters at Ponnani.

Around this time, Collector Connolly weighed in. He advocated Ponnani initially but changed his mind (Was it because of the riots and the problems with the Ponnani Thangal? I would infer so) in proposing Calicut instead.

In my letter of the 7th November last, I recommended Ponany as the natural Terminus for the Eailway.* But before anything is finally determined on I think it not amiss to attract your attention to the advantages which (in some respects) Calicut has over Ponany from being the capital of the province, and the long established seat of trade. From being exposed to the full brunt of the wind which blows, with great violence through the Palghaut gap in December, January, and February, it is not so well suited for shipping as any of the parts to the Northward, and especially Calicut, which are screened by the Komdah mountains from the severity of the wind. This might be a point of considerable moment." "A road through the heart of Malabar from Palghaut to Calicut would open a finer country, than that from Palghaut to Ponany."

In 1853 Lord Dalhousie sated - "Another European Regiment is stationed at Cannanore and one is likely to be placed at the Sanatarium on the Hills. The proposed line of rail would touch all these points"

The final reasons then for selecting Beypoor were stated as:—

1st. It was as near as the Railway could be cheaply and conveniently carried to Calicut (the provincial capital)—to the large Town of Tellicherry, and to the important Military station of Cannanore, being nearer by 20 miles to those places than Ponany would be.

2ndly. It is at the mouth of the most beautiful and most navigable river in that part of the coast, the highway, through a forest abounding with excellent timber, to the important district—colony it may be termed—of Wynaad.

3rdly. Though possessing no claim to the name of harbour, and there is none such (but the miniature port of Cochin) south of Sedashegar, it has the advantage of much safer anchorage than Ponany; while the passage of ship's boats into the river is rendered easy and secure, the greater part of the year, by a natural breakwater presented by a reef of rocks parallel to the shore and in front of the river's mouth. Considered with reference to its geographical position, it is as convenient a spot as could have been selected for the construction of a harbour of refuge, by means of a detached breakwater, a work that will doubtless be some day undertaken, and would prove of immense advantage in maintaining our communication with the Red sea, at all seasons of the year, in time of war.

4thly. Beypore has all the appearance and promise of being one of the most inviting places of residence for Europeans, while Ponany is without exception, the most filthy and repulsive spot on the whole line of coast.

However a recommendation that Ponnany be connected eventually to the rail network was also mooted.

The engineers Pearce and Bruce reports are also interesting, as to how they leisurely walked the western coast starting from Coimbatore to Calicut surveying various locations. Another key intention was of course to get the mail to madras 2 days earlier.. They dropped Calicut as being not worthy of consideration, but stated that Beypore met all the needs and not only that, but also was a port capable of building 600 ton ships. Beypore was also seconded by the Indian Iron company situated on the Chaliyar banks. Discussions then took place on the supply of iron for rails, furniture etc. and the companies that weighed in as suppliers were the Beypore iron works, Porto Novo Iron Co and Parry & Co.

As the report states - The first sod of this railway was turned on the 9th June 1853, the intention being to construct an experimental' line from Madras to Menil, a distance of 50 miles, but before this length was completed it was decided to extend the railway to the western coast, and the final contract was accordingly signed in 1855. The Government of Madras have resolved to take immediate steps for the construction of a harbor at Beypoor, the proposed terminus of the Madras Railway on the Malabar Coast, sufficient to secure the safe landing and shipment of the overland mails and passengers






By 1860 the buildings and facilities at Beypore were completed. However the experiment did not seem to go well commercially and Beypore continued to remain the place it was. In March 1861, the first locomotive chugged into the station. The Madras Railway Company opened the Madras-Coimbatore-Beypoor (Calicut) railway line for traffic in 1862. And reported that the experiment of expediting the transit of the mails for Madras, by dispatching them by steamer from Bombay to Beypoor, and thence to the Presidency by rail, has proved to be very successful.

The next step was to try and make a great harbor at the place and levy tolls to cover the financing, provided the railway was given a subsidy by the government. But it does not seem to have found great interest even though the government had initially supported the idea. But even with all this text, you do not get a feel of the Beypore in the 1860’s. Don’t you want to know how the station felt to people? For that we have to study the arrival of Lord Mayo at Beypore in 1868.

Lord Mayo left Bombay per steamer Coromandel for Beypore en route to Madras. The following are the particulars of the arrival at Beypore of His Lordship and his suite, and their reception by Lord Napier, and their transit thence to- Madras. Beypore, the once obscure fishing village of Malabar, now the Western Terminus of the Madras Railway, was the focus of interest and attraction on New Year's Day, 1869. The special train arrived at the Beypore Terminus at eight minutes past 7 A. M., having, among the passengers, Lord Napier, his son, the Hon'ble Mr.Napier, Colonel Fordyce, the Military Secretary, and Lieutenant deRobeck, A. D. 0., with some of the leading Railway officials (Messrs. Blwin, Church, Anderson and Collinson) There were also the Honorable R. S. Ellis, c. S. the Chief Secretary, the Honorable Mr. Justice Wells, Captain Ellis, Doctors Busted and James, Mr. Ballard the Collector of Malabar, Major Shaw Stewart the Consulting Engineer for Railways, and several other gentlemen already in waiting at Beypore for the Viceroy. All eyes at Beypore were anxiously directed towards the wide sea, Every one apparently vying with each other as to who should" catch the first glimpse of the steamer Coromandel which was bringing in the Noble Lord and his party Half past 10 A. M having arrived and the steamer not having been signaled the whole party of gentlemen in waiting at the Hotel including Lord Napier and his suite, numbering about 30 gentlemen sat down to breakfast not a little disappointed at the non-arrival of Lord Mayo. During the course of the day, a stream of the inhabitants of Calicut and the adjacent places were seen running into Beypore, so that by the evening, what with the triumphal arches across the road all along from the landing place to Framjee's hotel, with festoons of evergreens, the decorations and preparations at the hotel, with mottoes, in large characters, of " Welcome," and flags of all colors waving, Beypore was in a state of great excitement. At last, the Coromandel was sighted at 6 P. M., having the following party on board : the Earl and Countess of Mayo, Major and the Hon'ble Mrs. Barne, Captain the Hon'ble E. Bourke, and Captain Scott, A. D. c. Boats gaily decorated and made comfortable for the accommodation of the passengers, were at once, with a right good will, started oft in one of which a deputation consisting Lord Napier-'s Military Secretary (Colonel Fordyce), Lieutenant deRobeck, A. D. c., and Mr. Ballard the Collector of Malabar, greeted the noble Earl in the name and on behalf of Lord Napier, and, in a barge specially fitted out for the Vice-regal party, brought ashore the illustrious company, where they were received with all the military and civic honors that, under the circumstances, modest Beypore, the once secluded fishermen's village of Malabar, could possibly afford to give. The party landed upon a temporary pier erected for the occasion under the superintendence of Mr. Ballard, the Collector, Lord Napier receiving them and leading the Countess of Mayo and the Earl of Mayo to the entrance of the hotel. Here the Guard of Honour; with the Band saluted the Viceroy Designate, and the whole party entered the hotel and sat down to dinner. While the parties were discussing the good things of this life the Band of the Guard of Honor was discoursing sweet music and at 10 P. M. the party entered the special train, and started off amid much 'cheering.

Interestingly the Prince of Wales also transited Beypore during Dec 1875.

Nevertheless, as stated in later press and government reports, Beypore was a very unsatisfactory terminus. It remained a small unhealthy village. People were not too keen about it and continued to grumble that a mistake had been made in not choosing Calicut instead.
By 1883 it became obvious that an error had been made in not choosing to go for Calicut. During the board meeting of the Madras railway in 1883, the chairman stated thus:

Our Beypoor terminus has been subject to reference at this meeting. It has been acknowledged to be greatly to be regretted that the railway was not carried on to Calicut, to the north of the Beypoor River. It ends at Beypoor, on the south side of the river, and at times the river is a great impediment to traffic. It comes down in great floods and is a very violent stream, and for years past efforts have been made to overcome the difficulty and get the line into Calicut Recently, I am glad to say, the Government so far took up the matter seriously, that they sanctioned an amount for a survey of the territory round there, and one of our own engineers was deputed to conduct the survey—Mr. Hanna. In a recent letter I learn that the survey has been completed. The agent writes that he is thoroughly satisfied with the line as suggested, and he has been all over the ground, and promises that a plan for the extension, with estimates, will be ready about the end of this month. The present suggestion is to carry the line higher up the Beypoor River, and cross it at a narrower point, and thus get into Calicut. Where the line now is, the river is very wide, and probably the foundations of the bridge would be difficult. The suggestion is to carry it higher up the river, where a good embankment could be found. When these estimates come before us, I hope they will be of that practical character that we may obtain the sanction of the Government to the expenditure.

But the main objective of the Madras railway was met – As Sir Roney put it, “The object of the company was to construct a railway from Madras to the western coast. The difficulties of construction of this railway have not been great, the only ones that presented themselves being the way in which several rivers should be crossed. By means of this line, railway communication with the important military station of Bangalore is obtained. It also passes through the cotton fields of Coimbatore, and it finds its way through a passage in the Ghauts to the Port of Beypoor, on the coast of Malabar. From Madras to Beypoor, the distance is 406 miles. Beypoor has for some time been felt as an unsuitable terminus, on the western coast, for the Madras Railway. It provides the conveniences neither of a harbour nor of a port, and the advantages of the railway to the western side of India are, in consequence, greatly diminished. Proposals have, accordingly, been made to extend it northwards to Calicut, or southwards to Cochin, sixty miles from Beypoor. The former would hardly be much better than Beypoor, but Cochin appears to offer considerable advantages. Independently of possessing a fine harbour, there is close by, the remarkable roadstead of Narrakal, accessible to ships at all seasons. The only drawback is, that the line would pass through a foreign territory; but this would be slight if the Rajah of Cochin would support the project. The matter is now under the consideration of both the Supreme and the Madras Governments.

In 1880 a public meeting was held in Calicut and a memorial was made up asking for the station to be moved to Calicut. The extension was finally taken up in 1884 and the Calicut station opened on January 1888 which resulted in 19 lakhs additional expenses, out of which 1.5 lakhs were provided by local authorities.

Linkage to Calicut

The extension of the South- West line from Beypore to Calicut, which was sanctioned in August 1884, was finally being constructed as an integral part of the Madras Railway Company's system.

The person appointed to supervise the task was Engineer Francis Baker Hanna who had previously spent two years at Beypore. But this project did not help him personally as his life came to a cruel end shortly after he concluded his task meritoriously, and his obituary states - He was next appointed, in September 1884, to carry out the survey of the extension from Beypore to Calicut, and then acted as Resident Engineer on the construction of the work. This branch, although short, involved the erection of three large bridges, that over the Beypore River consisting of eight spans of 130 feet on wrought-iron cylinder-piers, one of which had to be sunk in 40 feet of water with a rapid tideway. This work was carried out with much ability, and, shortly before its conclusion, Mr. Hanna was appointed, on the 27th of October, 1887, to the vacant post of Agent and Manager. His administration was marked with success. In the autumn of 1891 he was attacked by fever from which he suffered for some weeks; typhoid supervened, the illness took a sudden turn for the worse, and he died on the 23rd of November.

The remnant portions removed from the condemned Beypore railway station were brought to Kozhikode and used in constructing an engine shed. The construction of bridges at Feroke and Kallayi were completed only after the Calicut railway station was thrown open.

As the report said - The Calicut extension, which involved the construction of 9 miles of line and the Calicut abandonment of 2 miles, including the terminal station at Beypore, was opened for tension, public traffic on the 2nd January 1888. The Feroke and Kallai bridges not being completed on that date, passengers were transhipped at the Feroke Bridge and the train crossed the Kallai River on a diversion. The Feroke bridge, six 130-feet spans, was opened for public traffic on 5th March 1888, and the Kallai bridge, three 130-feet spans, the work on which was delayed on account of its having been decided to carry the cylinders down to rock, is still in progress, the line in the meanwhile being worked over a diversion with a temporary bridge. Meanwhile the Palakkad extension was also completed.

By 1888 Madras Railway trunk route from Madras thus extended along the west coast to Calicut, the same year when Bombay’s VT was completed at a cost of Rs1.6 Lakhs. The river was finally bridged in 1890 for the railway to reach Calicut The train which left Madras at 1800 hrs was the forerunner to #1 Madras-Mangalore Mail. That trip cost Rs 15/- for a second class ticket (Rs 38/- for 1st class) in those times. Meanwhile the Catholic colony in Beypore and the orphanage shut down and moved to Calicut. The Luthernans did likewise and soon Beypore was abandoned.

Nevertheless, the situation in Malabar was not good commercially looking at it with British eyes. The Moplah rebellion did not help, large amounts had to be spent quelling it, the Calico production at Chalium had died out, attempts to manufacture Canvas at Beypore failed and likewise silk production at Palghat too failed. The Moplahs who were involved in the departure of the Chinese and later the Portuguese and the Dutch were becoming bigger thorns in the British flesh. Larger numbers of Europeans bereft of opportunities, were soon to leave the area, though retaining Malabar as part of the Madras presidency.

Economics and other reasons necessitated the merger of the Madras railway and the Southern Maratha railway. The Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway was founded on 1 January 1908 by this merger. Much later, the Southern Railway was formed in April 1951 year by the amalgamation of the former Madras & Southern Mahratta, South Indian, and Mysore State Railway systems.

How did the railway journey feel like in those days? A click on this link will give you more details.

References

Our Indian railways – Their present condition and future prospects - A discussion
Madras - Report of the railway department 1953
Rambles on railways... By Sir Cusack Patrick Roney
Malabar Manual – William Logan
Speeches in England and India By Richard Southwell Bourke Mayo
Calicut Heritage article

Tail note

Beypore Iron Company – Interestingly this was the first factory to employ the Swedish style Bessemer process in 1861, in India. They made saws, jungle knives, railway material etc. It later became the Indian iron & steel company. Shortly thereafter it was renamed the East India Iron Company. The company failed despite the high quality of its products due to lack of capital and as it could not get the furnace fuel easily from the forests, so much so that ships carried firewood from Ceylon for its upkeep. I presume this is one of the reasons why the Connolly’s Canal was later built.

We have spent a lot of time on the Portuguese presence in Calicut in previous articles. It was possible mainly due to the wealth of text written by those people about the new lands they discovered. In those passages, we came to know of the conditions in Malabar from Correa, Barros, Gaspar Gama, Barbosa, Varthema and so on. But we missed mention of one person who was one of the important ones, none other than Girolamo Sernigi (1453-1510). While not many people know about him, he was responsible not only in projecting Calicut’s name to the European public, but also in financing many a voyage to India and Melacca, as an interested trader. Sernigi was of Italian extract and readers of the Portuguese voyages and trade would of course remember that the Florentine merchants were the main financiers of these voyages. After Marchionni, Sernigi was perhaps one of the most prominent merchants of Florentine origin residing in Lisbon and financing trade voyages to Malabar and Malacca.

As we read before, not only was he involved with the many ships of Cabral and the voyage of Gama previous to that, but also the spread of news after the voyagers returned, even before the chroniclers had written out their more detailed accounts. So it is important to note that he recorded and transmitted the first accounts, which possibly had more truth than most and before the spins were added. Sadly early mentions attributed his letters to Amerigo Vespucci even (who was actually away sailing towards W Indies in 1499 when Gama’s ships returned to Lisbon). The first letter dated July 10th 1499 (published 1507) was written after Nicalau Coelho’s ship touched Lisbon, the second after Gaspar Gama had arrived. Interestingly his letters have the first and only mention of Chinese in Calicut (though the author initially ascribes them to be German or Russians) and the fact that the Zamorin welcomed the Portuguese thinking them to be the White Chinese!!

Sernigi’s father, Cipriano di Chimenti, was a member of the Clothiers' Guild, and was held in high respect by his fellow citizens, but by 1680 the Sernigi family had become extinct. Girolamo lived in Lisbon, where he had settled down as a merchant, even before the time Vasco da Gama's expedition set out for India. He remained in Lisbon for many years afterwards, and in 1510 commanded a vessel which went out to Malacca with the fleet of Diogo Mendez de Vasconcellos.

His accounts are certainly interesting. Some excerpts from his three letters are recounted below for those interested.

Calicut - In this city are churches with bells, but there are no priests, and the divine offices are not performed nor sacrificial [masses] celebrated, but in each church there is a pillar holding water, in the manner of the fonts holding our holy water, and a second pillar with balm. They bathe once every 3 years in a river which is near the city. The houses in this city are of stone and mortar, in the Moorish style, and the roads laid out and straight. Gaspar Gama provided this information to Sernigi - At Calichut there is a temple and whoever enters it before noon on a seventh Wednesday dies because of diabolical apparitions. The Jewish pilot affirms that this is most certainly true, and that on a certain day of the year some lamps in this same temple begin to burn spontaneously and cause many deformities of nature to appear.

Zamorin’s palace - And the king of this city is waited upon in grand style and keeps regal state, having his chamberlains, doorkeepers, and barons, as also a very sumptuous palace. When the captain of the said vessel arrived at the city the king was away at a castle at a distance of about 6 leagues, and having been informed that Christians had arrived he at once came to the city attended by about 5000 persons. Having entered, he (Gama) proceeded to a chamber where the king reposed upon a low couch. The whole of the floor was covered with green velvet, whilst around it was drapery of variously coloured damask. The couch had a very fine white coverlet, all worked with gold thread, and above it was a canopy, very white, delicate and sumptuous.

Moors - In this city there reside many very wealthy Moorish merchants, and all the trade is in their hands. They have a fine mosque in the square of the town. The king is, as it were, governed by these Moors because of the presents which they give him; and owing to their industry the government is wholly in their hands, for these Christians (Hindu’s) are coarse people.

Coins - The coins most in circulation in this city are serafins of fine gold, coined by the Sultan of Babylonia, which weigh 2 or 3 grains less than a ducat, and are called serafins. There also circulate some Venetian and Genoese ducats, as also small silver coins, which must likewise be of the coinage of said sultan.

Chinese at Calicut - It is now about 80 years since there arrived in this city of Chalicut certain vessels of white Christians, who wore their hair long like Germans, and had no beards except around the mouth, such as are worn at Constantinople by cavaliers and courtiers. They landed, wearing a cuirass, helmet, and vizor, and carrying a certain weapon [sword] attached to a spear. Their vessels are armed with bombards, shorter than those in use with us. Once every two years they return with 20 or 25 vessels. They are unable to tell what people they are, nor what merchandise they bring to this city, save that it includes very fine linen-cloth and brass-ware. They load spices. Their vessels have four masts like those of Spain. If they were Germans it seems to me that we should have had some notice about them; possibly they may be Russians if they have a port there.

The commentator adds - This information was apparently never asked for. The "strangers" were undoubtedly Chinese. Marco Polo (Yule, I, p. lxvi, and 11, pp. 197, 327) already mentions their four-masted vessels. In his time, Chinese vessels regularly visited the west coast of India. The vizor in the guise of a mask, distinctly points to the Chinese, and the sword attached to a spear is a Chinese weapon. Up to the introduction of pig-tails by the Manju, in 1644, the Chinese wore their hair long. A punitive fleet of sixty-two Chinese vessels was sent to Ceylon in 1401. In 1417 an embassy was sent from Mu-ku-tu-su (Magadoxo) to China (Bretschneider, On the Knowledge possessed by the Ancient Chinese of the Arabs, London, 1871), and in 1431 Chinese junks might be seen at Jedda (Hirth, Verhandlungen, Berlin Geographical Society, 1889, p. 46).

Clothing - All or most of these people are clothed in cotton-cloths from the waist down to the knee, but from the waist upwards they go naked. Courtiers and men of condition dress in the same manner, but make use of silk-stuffs, reddish or scarlet or of other colours, as seems good to them. The wives (ladies) of men of condition are clothed above the girdle in very white and delicate linen; but the wives of lower degree are naked above the waist. The Moors dress according to their custom in jubbi and balandrau.

Law and order- Justice is strictly administered in this city. Robbers, murderers, and other malefactors are incontinently impaled in the Turkish fashion; and whoever defrauds the king's excise (customs) is punished by having his merchandise confiscated.

Food - Corn in abundance is found in this city of Chalichut, it being brought thither by the Moors. For 3 reals, which are smaller than ours, bread sufficient for the daily sustenance of a man can be purchased. Their bread is unleavened, resembling small cakes, which are baked daily in the ashes. Rice, likewise, is found in abundance. There are cows and oxen. They are small, but yield much milk and butter. Oranges of indifferent flavour are plentiful, as also lemons, citrons and limes, very good melons, dates, fresh and dried, and great variety of other kinds of fruit.

The king of this city of Chalichut eats neither of meat nor fish nor anything that has been killed, nor do his barons, courtiers, or other persons of quality, for they say that Jesus Christ said in his law that he who kills shall die. For this reason they refuse to eat anything that has been killed, and it is a great thing that they should be able to support themselves without eating meat or fish. The common people eat meat and fish, but they do not eat oxen or cows, for they hold these animals to be blessed, and when they meet an ox on the highway they touch him, and afterwards kiss their hand, as a sign of great humility. The king lives on rice, milk and butter, and so do his barons

Trade - In payment they only take gold and silver; coral and other merchandise of our parts they esteem but little, linen-cloth excepted, which I believe would find a ready market, as the sailors bartered some of their shirts very profitably for spices, although very fine white linen cloth, probably imported from Cairo, is found there. There is a custom-house in this city as elsewhere, and merchandise pays a duty of 5 percent.

Moorish ships - The Portuguese remained three months at that town, namely, from May 21 to August 25, and during that time there arrived about 1,500 Moorish vessels in search of spices. The largest of these vessels did not exceed 800 tons.They are of all sorts, large and small. Having only one mast they can make headway only with the wind astern, and sometimes are obliged to wait from four to six months for fair weather [the monsoon or season]. Many of these vessels are lost. They are badly built, and very frail. They carry neither arms nor artillery. The vessels which visit the islands (Ceylon, Lacadives) to carry spices to this city of Chalichut are flat-bottomed, so as to draw little water, for there are many dry places (shoals). Some of these vessels are built without any nails or iron, for they have to pass over the loadstone. All the vessels, as long as they remain at this city, are drawn up on the beach, for there is no port where they would be safe otherwise

Kasavu Broacaded clothes - There is abundance of silken stuffs, namely, velvets of various colours, satins, damask, taffetas, brocades worked in gold, scarlet cloth, brass and tin ware. In fine, all these things are to be found in abundance, and it is my opinion that the cloths worked in gold and the silks are brought thither from Cairo.

Some of the observations are pretty interesting. The comment about two pillars in the temple and the temple with apparitions is to be studied. Was the temple the very same temple that is mentioned in other Vasco’s accounts?

The fact that the reception hall of the Zamorin is covered in green velvet is also interesting. That is a color hardly used by the rulers of that time, red would have been preferred. Strange! Was it something the Zamorin got as a gift from the Persian or Egyptian rulers?

As we know from previous discussions, the confusion was that the world to the South East of Europe was Christian, with Prestor John as a leader. This of course led to the conclusion that the Hindus of Calicut were Christians practicing different ways. We will howver not dwell further on this.

The fact that fanams and other local currency were missing in the report is strange. Perhaps foreign traders by default used other acceptable currency or Gold and Silver. It is interesting also to note that customs duty was declared as 5%, whereas previous mentions stated 15%. How did this reduce during 1498?

Meting out justice by impalement is not really mentioned elsewhere, and it was always dipping one’s hand in boiling oil as stated by other historians.

Corn cake for food is also something that is not quite clear. What could it have been?

The fact that gold brocaded cloth was being traded is interesting, and the mention that it perhaps originated from Cairo is also curious. Was the idea borrowed from the clothes of the Egyptian gentry or the Pharaoh’s? Perhaps they came from the weavers of the Coromandel anyway.

The other item of interest is the Chinese trade in Calicut. That they kept to themselves and that they were seen during the visit of the Gama is in some contradiction to what Joseph stated. Joseph mentioned that they ceased to come to Calicut by 1500, however Sernigi mentions it as a regular practice, though a practice purely of trade and matter of fact. Nevertheless, there are no mentions of Chinese after this, so perhaps they finally ceased to live in and trade with Calicut after the arrival of the Portuguese. This is also the first time a color differentiation was made with respect to the Chinese in any kind of writing, where Sernigi projected the color differences between the moors, Indians and others, after noticing the pale skinned Chinese.

Sernigi also lays the foundation to the later observed fact that Gama amassed a fortune for himself and quietly diverted his ship to his town instead of Lisbon, with Gama stating that he was taking his sick brother to his village. He came back to Lisbon only after Coleho had arrived, and without any plunder to declare…

So much for Sernigi’s letters. The full texts of those can be found online, in the first reference. What became of Sernigi? If you recall, the entry of the Florentine associations with the Portuguese broke the Venetian control of the spice trade. In fact most ships had their representatives in the ships that travelled to the Indies. Their notes of the trade and the locales as we saw from the example above provided much insight to the benign culture and conditions in Malabar, to the people of Europe and encouraged their forced entry into Malabar. According to Moacyr Scares Pereira, the first nau to return to Lisbon, Nossa Senhora Anunciada, belonged to D. Alvaro de Braganca and his associates, Italian merchants Bartolomeo Marchioni, Girolamo Sernigi and possibly Antonio Salvago. So had it not been for people like Sernigi, Gama might never have landed in Calicut.

Andrea Strozzi, another prominent trader was Sernigi’s first cousin. As mentioned previously, Sernigi commanded Joao Da Nova’s fleet under the name Fernando Vinete. He then got involved in financing the 1503 expedition. His major involvement howver, was with the 1510 fleet as one of its financiers and as factor under the name Vinet Cerniche destined towards Malacca. However this fleet encountered problems after reaching the Malabar Coast when the governor Albuquerque marshaled the services of all of the Europeans and ships in an attack to capture Goa.

We note from Strozzi’s letters that they were all attacked by the locals with poisoned arrows and had some problem with them, but had much admiration for the local merchant’s knowledge of numbers and their ability to do large mental calculations.

After the success at Goa, the ships tried to sail off to Melacca as contracted with King Manual, but Albuquerque would have none of that as he wanted to get to Malacca first. In the meantime the friction with the Sernigis (both brothers were present in this voyage) increased and the Sernigi’s were branded as profit seekers. Nevertheless, the ships tried to leave without the governor’s approval upon which Sernigi was arrested, clapped in irons and sentenced to perpetual exile at the island of Sao Tome in the Atlantic. All others were sentenced to exile in Brazil. It is not clear if Sernigi ever had to serve his sentence and apparently returned to Portugal, where his large influence on the king perhaps led to the substitution of Albuquerque by Lopo Soares. The ships of Sernigi however returned with large fortunes and laded with riches and the voyages were very profitable for the Florentine merchant.

So that friends was a ready reckoner on a merchant who was instrumental to the Portuguese voyages to India and Melacca and one who played behind the scenes with the the Portuguese royals. Strangely he never visited Calicut…

References

A journal of the first voyage of Vasco da Gama – A Velho, Joao de Sa, EG Ravenstein
The economy of renaissance Florence – Richard A Goldthwaite
Becoming Yellow: A Short History of Racial Thinking - Michael Keevak
The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama - Sanjay Subrahmanyam
The Portuguese Empire in Asia, 1500-1700: A Political and Economic History - Sanjay Subrahmanyam
Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4 - Joseph Needham
War at Sea in the middle Ages and Renaissance - John B. Hattendorf, Richard W. Unger

The final act at Calicut – 1790 - Hussein Ali’s defeat at British hands

Not much is written about the events that transpired in Calicut in 1790. Much misery afflicted the people of Calicut and Malabar in general during that time. If you recall, the Mysore Sultans were on their padayottam (troop movements) phase in Malabar and were now aiming for Travancore. On one hand they needed money to finance their operations against the British; on the other hand, cash hordes were not easy to come by even after steamrolling through Malabar. Travancore was still resisting and Tipu was vexed. The British were proving impossible to beat and the French were being fickle in their support. Events that followed exactly 30 years in the Tirur area after they set foot in Malabar, eventually forced them out, once and for all.

Looking back one can say that the Mysore rule brought some order to the state, but what it also did was upset the delicate social balance in the region. Their departure resulted in bringing to a boil the frustrations and ire of the landlords and the nobility versus the Moplah populace. Violence was to follow, sporadically and later in an organized fashion, as we saw in previous articles.

I will not get deep into this topic and a paper has been readied by our esteemed Dr Noone, a founding member of the Calicut heritage forum. He has spent years of research on this very topic, so I will eagerly wait to read his paper. However I will provide some details if only to establish a perspective and to get to the story of a very interesting person, who was a member of the British forces at that time. I can only wonder, if we will ever have such people these days and if we did at the sheer dedication of those people living and fighting for the King in such far away lands.

I had set the scene in my article about the Ravi Varma princes of the Padinjare Kovilakom.
1790 - Tipu takes the last misstep and invades Travancore by himself. The British, whose successes have so far been mainly owing to the ground support received in the wars from the Varmas, now play the end game to perfection when Lord Cornwallis invites the Varma princes for discussions, agreeing to restore the Zamorin all his lands and commercial powers should the rebels render long term cooperation to them. Accordingly Ravi Varma meets Gen Meadows at Trichy and conducts negotiations. A Cowlnama is drawn up between Kishen Varma and the British. With the help of the Varma’s and their Nairs, the Mysore armies are routed by the British in Malabar. In 1791, the Cochin king after having been at first under the Portuguese and later the Dutch, agree to the suzerainty of the British and to pay an annual tribute. With Mysore under simultaneous attack by the British, Tipu sues for peace in 1792 and cedes Malabar to the British in compensation. The Varma princes were in the meantime busy restoring order in Malabar and fighting and taming the Muslim leaders who were persecuting them under Tipu’s reign. It was to prove a mistake. What followed was a mixture of misused opportunity and undue faith in the legality of the 1790 cowl nama. A meeting called by Cornwallis was not attended by the Malabar princes. The old Zamorin, more interested in celebrating his ‘ariyittuvazcha’ or coronation in Chavakkad possibly missed the significance of the British call for a meeting in Cannanore to discuss the rights. The British decided against reinstating the Zamorin and other Malabar princes, with all their powers using the argument that they would continue wars with the Moplahs who had been against them in the Hyder - Tipu reign and that the British will have to spend time, money and maintain an army to keep peace.

Reference is also made to the Travancore lines story posted earlier, which provides another backdrop to this event.

The Battle of Calicut (a.k.a Battle of Tervanagary or Thiroorangadi) took place between 7 and 12 December, during the Third Anglo-Mysore War. A force of three regiments from the British East India Company, comprising some 1,500 men, led by Lieutenant Colonel James Hartley, defeated a 9,000 man Mysorean army, killing or wounding about 1,000, and taking a large number of prisoners, including their commander, Hussein Ali Khan Sahib of Mysore. Hartley himself had been soldiering on in India since 1764 and did very well in his engagements. During a campaign in 1779, he excelled in his work and had been promoted as Lt Colonel. However the promotion was cancelled due to complaints from some seniors who were superseded by the younger Hartley. He promptly resigned from his services and fought his case all the way to the King George III, who finally reinstated his promotion.

To summarize the battle of Calicut, on the 1790 outbreak of war (3rd Mysore war) with Tipu Sultan of Mysore, Hartley received command of a detachment sent to the coast of Cochin to aid the EIC’s ally, the Rajah of Travancore. In May Hartley received orders to take the Palghat fort. By the time he got near, it had already surrendered. He, however, continued his march, and occupied himself partly in collecting supplies for the main army, and partly in watching any movement of Tippoo's troops to the south-west. On 10 Dec. he inflicted a crushing defeat on vastly superior forces under Hussein Ali, Tippu's general, at Calicut. The remnants of the beaten army were pursued to Feroke, where it surrendered, and that fortress was later occupied by the British. Martab Khan fled on elephants via the Tamarassery pass taking much of the amassed treasure to Mysore. Hartley died much later, at Cannanore in 1799. But then this story is not about Hartley.

I was actually studying the movements of Arthur Wellesly and had come across Messer’s Hartley and Stuart in his dispatches. I was also compiling information on the Ferokhabad based Tipu administration, in more detail. It was around then that a gentleman living in Canada, a direct descendant of a Colonel involved in this battle, contacted me asking for information about Tervanagary. While checking out the details of the person and his curious injury, I got further and deeper into the story of the battle that took place in 1790. Coincidentally, I saw a mention of the presentation that Dr Noone did at the School of Management in Calicut on the very subject. Perhaps it is time, I guess, for it is close to December and hence the time to talk about the events of a December week some 222 years ago, events that finally released Calicut from Mysore Bondage and delivered it to another power, albeit milder.

Quoting from ‘Life of a regiment’ – Another summary of the battle provides some perspective - Early in 1790, the 75th, commanded by Colonel Hartley, who had also two battalions of Bombay Sepoys under his orders, proceeded to assist our ally, the Rajah of Travancore, whose country was at that time invaded by Tippoo, the Sultan of Mysore. The quarrel was about two towns on the Malabar Coast, which Travancore had purchased from the Dutch, but which Tippoo affirmed belonged to his tributary the Kwajah of Cochin. The 75th was at Travancore from April to September, when, along with the Bombay troops, they were ordered, under Colonel Hartley, to the relief of some Madras battalions at Pallyghautcherry; on the march Hartley found the enemy in possession of the Fort of Chowghat, which he instantly attacked and carried. He afterwards, with his brigade, marched to the Malabar Coast, from which Tippoo intended to cut off the British communications. As he approached Calicut, Hartley received information on the 10th December that 14,000 of the enemy under Martab Khan and Hussein Ali Khan were strongly posted in a jungle at Tervangherry, ten miles distant. He at once advanced, with the 75th and two native battalions, towards the enemy, who, trusting to superior numbers, did not decline the battle. After a warm engagement, they were driven to the village of Teronkibeel, where they made an obstinate defence, but were compelled to fly to Trincalore (Trikulam) Fort, which the Bombay Grenadiers entered with the fugitives. Hussein Ali Khan was taken, but Mahab Khan escaped with his cavalry. The victory was gained without much loss; I find no complete list of casualties, but among the wounded were Captains Lawson and Blackford, and Lieutenants Powell and Stewart of the 75th.

Look at some related reports - As Buchanan puts it, in 1790, a British force of 2,000 men under Colonel Hartley landed in South Malabar to deal with Mysore army of 9,000 Sepoys and 4,000 Moplays. He forgot the local support. Ravi Varma rushed to aid with 5,000 of his best Nairs (termed Nair irregulars by Abercrombie) and that helped to turn tide in favor of British. Most history books fail to mention Varma and his 5,000 men support, but just state that the smaller Hartley force defeated the bigger Mysore army. Historian Dale also mentions it to be the most important of the battles and he says - It is worth mentioning, though, that after the British became militarily involved in Kerala in 1781 two of the most important battles in which they defeated Mysorean armies, including the climactic one of 1790, occurred at Tirurangadi. LD Campbell’s book even mentions the Nair irregulars were supplied to Hartley by the King of Travancore.

It is interesting to note that the Moplahs sided with Tipu. About 4,000 of them fought with Tipu while the British were aided by the Nairs, showing the religious divide at that time. To continue, the fort of Ferokabad was soon evacuated; 1,500 men laid down their arms. Beypore, and all the vessels in the harbour, submitted, as did 6,000 inhabitants. As is summarized in history - Shortly after the above, advices were received that Maj.Gen. Abercrombie had arrived at Cannanore; that the fort bad surrendered at discretion; and that all the troops in the neighborhood had laid down their arms; by which means, and in consequence of the brilliant success of Col. Hartley, the Ponnani River had been opened, and the Malabar coast; completely cleared. They got the guns Tipu had captured from the Travancore lines.

Now I will quote from The East India Military Calendar…

Introducing MAJOR-GENERAL William henry BLACHFORD (Bombay Establishment)

This officer arrived in Bombay in Aug. 1777; the 7th March 1779 he was appointed a cadet in the engineers, Bombay establishment; the 1st Jan. 1780 he was promoted to an ensigncy, and served at the siege of Bassien, with the army commanded by Gen. Goddard. After the storm of that fortress, he was one of the sub-engineers employed to survey that territory, and to establish a chain of field-works for the security of the environs against Mahratta horse. On the 20th Feb. 1783 he was promoted to lieut. He served in the memorable campaign commanded by the unfortunate Gen. Matthews, from the first landing of the army on taking of Rajamundroog on the Canara coast, to the conclusion of peace that followed in 1785. During this long and trying campaign, Lieut. B. served at the siege and storm of Onore. He was entrusted with repairing the breaches, and making other improvements in that fortress; and ultimately he had the honour of being the only engineer officer belonging to that garrison during the successful defence it made under the command of Maj. Torriano. The siege and blockade of Onore lasted eight months under the most pressing events, arising from famine, sickness, and desertion; the garrisons were at length relieved by a peace, which returned them to Bombay, reduced from their original strength of 1200 to about 250, for embarkation to the Presidency. The want of provisions was at one time so seriously felt, that a number of horses were killed and salted as a last resource rather than surrender to Tippoo's forces- After this service Lieut. B. was appointed senior engineer to the garrison of Surat.


Now consider the situation. Tipu’s forces perhaps used the Bukmar flintlock blunderbuss musket. Hyder had decided on the flintlock against the matchlock muskets earlier (much later matchlocks were again made by Tipu). Strangely they got the muskets from the British sources as well as French and many were made in Mysore factories. The inscriptions include, on the barrel 'asad allah al-ghalib' (The victorious lion of God), a reference to 'Ali, the son-in-low of the Prophet and the first Shiite Imam.

The simplicity of the musket design allowed it to fire a variety of ammunition. While various old accounts list the blunderbuss as being loaded with scrap iron, rocks, or wood this would result in damage to the bore of the gun; it was typically loaded with a number of lead balls smaller than the bore diameter. The choice ammunition for musket was the round ball, which was literally just a round ball of lead. Round balls were loaded loose into the barrel even after the barrel had been fouled by previous shots. This loose fitting ammunition, and the poor aerodynamics of the round ball led to the musket's inaccuracy beyond 46 to 69 m distance. The package of gunpowder and ammunition was intrpoduced into the barrel using a cartridge.

Quotin from “Military medicine from the 18th century” - It is generally thought that at up to a range of 30 yards the ball would go straight through a man. At a greater range it would still be enough to cause very significant injuries. The primary problem was infection. Almost all gunshot wounds became infected either due to the injury itself (clothing, dirt, and other contamination was often forced into the wound by the musket ball), or from unsanitary conditions following injury, for example with the surgeon probing for the musket ball or shrapnel with his unwashed fingers, or even from being deliberately introduced by the surgeon in an effort to promote healing. Death from infection rather than from the injury itself was the primary danger to the soldier on the battlefield. The blunt-force trauma generated by musket balls produced shattered bones, resulting in the need to amputate the injured limb. Amputation often resulted in death from shock or infection.

But was not an option in the case of Capt B, you can’t cut off his head, right?

In Jan. 1791 Gen. Hartley's detachment formed a junction with the Bombay army assembled at Cananore, under Sir Robert Abercromby. Capt. B- joined it, and was attached to the van with some pioneers to clear the road for its march up the Ghauts. In the execution of this fatiguing duty, with an impaired state of health (his wound not having healed,) he was attacked on reaching the head of the Ghauts, with a violent fever and delirium that threatened his existence. In this despairing condition he remained a long time too ill to be moved: the surgeon at length laid open his wound, conceiving some splintry adhesion of the skull prevented its healing, when a piece of Capt. B-'s hat was found buried in it. This discovery effected a favourable change for removing him to Tellichery, where he arrived with total loss of memory; and from thence embarked, and arrived in Bombay in May 1791. On recovering from that illness, he rejoined the army at Cananore in Oct- 1791, and resumed his duties in the field during that service, and siege of Seringapatam by Lord Cornwallis, which campaign terminated in a peace with Tippoo. From this period (20th May 1792) he returned to the ordinary duties of his department at the presidency, and was employed on a particular survey of the town of Bombay, to ascertain the superficial measurement each house occupied within the garrison.

In 1794-5 he succeeded to the appointment of superintending engineer at Bombay, which he held until he was compelled to seek a furlough to Europe for the benefit of his health. Capt. B. quitted India 17th Jan. 1796, and arrived in England 4th Aug. following. He returned to India 17th Feb. 1798, and arrived in Bombay-4th June following. He was then ordered to Cananore, as superintending engineer to the works carrying on to a great extent. About this period the Bombay army, under Gen. James Stuart, assembled at Cananore, to proceed a third time up the Ghauts, to co-operate against Tippoo's capital. On the army quitting Cananore, Capt. B. was appointed to the command of the garrison. The duties of it became important to exercise, as the place formed a centrical dept for forwarding and receiving supplies for the armies besieging Seringapatam. He held the command of Cananore until the conclusion of that campaign, and then returned to Bombay.

He was promoted to the rank of maj. 11th Dec. 1801, and resumed the duties of superintending engineer at the presidency, which he continued to discharge until Sept- 1803; when finding the state of his health on the decline, he yielded to the necessity of proceeding to Europe on furlough. He quitted India 14th Sept. 1803, and arrived in England 2nd Feb. 1804. He succeeded to the rank of lieut-col. 1st May 1804; and on the 6th March 1805 he obtained, by succession, the rank of full col. of engineers.

Previous to M.-Gen. Blachford's leaving Bombay he had passed more than twenty-two years in actual service in India, independent of his furlough. He addressed the court of directors, representing the impaired state of his health, arising from a bad wound, and various trying duties he had undergone in India, requesting their permission to remain in England as a full colonel, with the advantage of sharing in the offreckoning fund as chief engineer of Bombay; which request they were pleased to accede to.

He passed away on July 8th 1841 aged 82 at Ham, Surrey. His family took up a Blachford coat of arms…..

I was looking at the picture of Hartley’s soldiers and wondering how they would have managed in the heat and humidity of Malabar. Anyway these events took place after the monsoon season when it would have been somewhat bearable!!

Ironically Tipu himself died from a musket ball…in April 1799

References
The East India military calendar: containing the services of general and field officers of the Indian Army, Volume 1 By John Philippart
The Scots Magazine, Volume 53- By James Boswell
Historical records of the 8th Regiment, Bombay Infantry - By John Robert Sandwith
The life of a regiment: the history of the Gordon Highlanders... By Charles Greenhill Gardyne
The military history of the Madras engineers and pioneers, from 1743 up to the present time - Volume 1
Malabar manual Logan page 473
The Gentleman's Magazine, Volume 69 - By John Nichols

Pics – courtesy

Scottish soldier - from page 224 – The life of a regiment

Blunderbass pic http://www.thomasdelmar.com/Catalogues/as071211/lot0116-0.jpg

Tipu’s soldier – Charles Gold – Printing inscription provides some detail .The dress of the regular infantry is generally of purple woolen stuff, with white diamond formed spots on it, which is called the tyger jacket. On the head is worn a muslin turban, of a red colour, and round the waist a cumberband, or sash, of the same. Their legs and feet are entirely naked, excepting a kind of sandal slipper, worn to protect their soles from the roughness of the march. They are accoutred with black leather cross belts, and commonly armed with musquets of French manufacture; though some are made in their own country; over the lock is a leather covering, to defend it from dampness

Locations – Calicut, Palghat (Palghautcherry, Palighaut), Around Tirurangadi (Tervannengurry, Taravangerry), Feroke (Ferokebad, Firakabad), Tricalore (Tirukkallur - Thrikkulam) is where the battle actually took place.