The Raja in Ravi Varma

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Raja Ravi Varma - The painter’s ancestry and Calicut, a brief study

Some years ago, Calicut Heritage Forum wrote about theinvolvement of Raja Ravi Varma in the Calicut soap factory. CHF stated - Calicut has another legitimate claim on the works of Raja Ravi Varma - but thereby hangs a tale! In 1904, the Viceroy, Lord Curzon conferred on the great artist the title Kaiser-i-Hind on behalf of His Majesty the King Emperor. The citation mentioned the title, 'Raja' for the first time against the name of Ravi Varma. The Maharaja of Travancore, Sri Moolam Thirunal objected to this 'usurpation'. Ravi Varma, however, defended the title by claiming that his ancestors belonged to the royal family of Beypore, near Calicut.

Anyhow, he continued to use the title 'Raja', since then and both the grand daughters of Raja Ravi Varma were later adopted by the Travancore palace with one of them becoming the mother of the next Maharaja, Chitira Thirunal Balarama Varma!

Ravi Varma, also a businessman knew that the title of Raja would help him when hobnobbing the gentry in North India and Europe, as well as his eventual patron the Gaekwads of Baroda and he found a way to get that with some amount of legitimacy. Let’s first try to figure out how he defended the claim. He told the detractors that his ancestors of the Beypore house of Malabar had the title of Raja, and if that were not sufficient, he could adopt part of his uncle’s (who was also his traveling partner and secretary) name which was Raja Raja Varma.

Ravi Varma actually has yet another interesting relation to the environs around Calicut, that of stopping by in 1870 to execute his first paid commission at Chalappuram, a place I grew up in - the portrait of Sub Judge KP Krishna Menon’s family (a not so flattering piece according to art critics - pictured here), the father in law of Congressman Sir C Sankaran Nair. But that was not the discussion, let us get back to the ancestry of Ravi Varma and for that you to have get a working knowledge of the ancient area called Parappanad and the Parappanad kovilakoms.

The Keralolpatti mentions the seventeen nadu’s and lists them as Tulunad, Kolattunad, Polanad, Kurumbranad, Puravalinad, Eranad, Parappanad, Valluvanad, Ravananad, Vettattunad, Tirumanasserinad, Perumpatappunad, Neduganad, Venganad. In the writings of the Portuguese and Dutch the kovilakoms are called Pappukoil and Repoecoil, in other words, Parppucoil ruling over Beypore and Pappucoil ruling over Parapanangady.  Parapannangadi was termed at times as Purparangari in English accounts. 

Nerumkaitakkotta, near Kadalundi, is incidentally, the ancestral abode of the Parappanad Raja and their family deity (called Paradevata) was the deity of this temple. Another interesting fact is that the Mahadeva Kovil temple of Beypore, south of Calicut, in both design and construction is said to be a copy of a double-roofed Nepalese temple. The various references below point to the connections between the Kolathu Swarupam and the Venad families at Kilimanoor and Anathapuram and their main points of connection from the Parappanad Kovilakom.

In 1425 or thereabout, the areas below, divided broadly into Northern Parappanad (Beypore kingdom) and Southern Parappanad (Parappur Swarupam). Northern Parappanad (Beypore kingdom or Karippa Kovilakam) included Panniyankara, Beypore and Cheruvannur of Kozhikkode Taluk. Southern Parappanad included parts of Tirur Taluk and the town Parappanangadi. Parappanad Kingdom went on to become dependents of the Zamorins of Calicut. During the Portuguese conflicts the Parappanad raja’s nairs fought for the Zamorin. In fact when the Portuguese fort at Chaliyam was captured by the Zamorin, it was turned over to the Parappanad Raja. But during Tipu’s charge, the reigning Raja was forcibly converted by Tipu and circumcised. In the middle of 18th century, the royal families of these kingdoms found refuge Travancore during to the invasion of the Mysore Sultans. The Haripad family in the Travancore region, to which the famous scholar and poet Kerala Varma Valia Koil Tampuran belonged, was originally set up by the members of the Parappanad family who migrated there. The palace remnants were as I understand, located in the Naduva desom of Parappanangadi village.

Ravi Varma the painter, actually claimed lineage to the Tattari Kovilakom of Parappanad. Now I had mentioned the Zamorin’s vassals at Parappanad while talking about the Sha-mi-ti mystery some months ago. So before the Zamorin acquired suzerainty of the Beypore and Parappanagadi region, who were the regional feudal lords or Thampurans? Originally there was just the Parappanad Raja, and later there came into existence two main branches of this family, one settled at Beypore near Calicut and another at Parappanadu near Tirur (the present Parappanangadi). As the Gazetteers explain, the Beypore amsam itself had four Kovilakams called - Manayatt kovilakam, Nediyal kovilakom, Puthiya kovilakom and the Panangat kovilakom belonging to the family of the Beypore branch of the Parappanad family. So we have North and South Parappanad factions to start with, branching off the Parappur lordship. The North faction was further split into Beypore, Cheruvannor and Panniyankara Kovilakoms. Considering that Ravi Varma and his brother mentioned Beypore and the specific Manayyat location, let us for a moment assume he hailed from the forerunners of the present Manayyat kovilakom.

The Manayam rajas were from the erstwhile Thattari or Tattari kovilakom which was deserted when Tipu Sultan and his not so merry crew were making hay while the sun set and shone. We also note from historic renderings that the Parappanad branch known also as Aliyakot line was attacked by Hyder Ali during his invasion of Malabar in the latter half of the 18th century and Kunjikkutty Tampuratti, a female member of the branch, fled from Malabar to Travancore. Keralavarma Valiya Koyil Tampuran, or Kerala-Kalidasa as he is popularly known because of his translating the Sakuntala into Malayalam, belonged to the Parappanad royal family, and was born in Lakshmipuram palace at Carinanasseri. The famous Pazhassi Raja a member of the western branch of the Kottayam royal clan is also connected to the Parappanad Kovilakom and his lineage can be traced back to the Parappanad dynasty.

Raja Raja Varma in his diary states - Near this ‘Beypore’ Kovilakam or house is a temple of Vettakaruman or the Hunter God which it is said and acknowledged by its present owners, the Manayam Rajahs, once belonged to us of the Tattari Kovilakam house, by which our family was known.Based on all the above, I would assume that the original Parappanad rajas named their home the Tattari Kovilakom. It is from this home, which incidentally is further linked to the Kolathunad Rajas (Kolathiris) that various rulers (such as Marthanda Varma) and consorts as well as adoptees to the Travancore kingdom originated. Of course as we see, the ruling kind usually reserved the right on the name raja and took affront to another cousin using the title while a raja was in power and complained, but then again, Ravi Varma in reality had some self-projection in mind, as we note.Now let us study the relations between the Parappanad Kovilakoms and the Travancore royal family to see where and how Ravi Varma fits in.

TSM Vol 2 Nagam Aiya provides the following inputs - The Koil Tampurans, also known as Koil Pandalas form a small community made up of the descendants of the immigrant Kshatriya families from certain parts of Malabar lying north of Travancore and Cochin. There are now ten such families of Koil Tampurans in Travancore, viz., those of Kilimanur, Changanachery, Anantapuram, Pallam, Chemprol, Gramam, Paliyakkara, Karama and Vadakkematom. Of these, the Kilimanur Koil Tampurans were the earliest settlers in Travancore. It is not known definitely when they immigrated into the country. As already stated in the History chapter, four children, two princes and two Princesses, were adopted into the Royal Family in the reign of Umayamma Rani. These were the children of a Koil Tampuran of Tattari Kovilagam and belonged to the Futiapally (puthupalli) Kovilagam house, a branch of the Kolattunad Royal family. The elder of the two princesses having died soon after, the younger was married to a nephew of the same Koil Tampuran, her father, and as a result of this union Martanda Varma the Great was born in 881 M. e. (1705 A. D.,). Again in the reign of Unni Kerala Varma the elder of the two adopted princes, another lady was adopted and was given in marriage to one Ravi Varma Koil Tampuran, another member of the Tattari Kovilagam family. The issue of this marriage was Rama Varma the Kilavan Rajah who was born in 890m. E. (1723 A. D.) and ruled for 40 years. It was while this prince and his mother the elder Rani were being conveyed to Attingal from Trivandrum, under the escort of the Koil Tampuran that a strong party of the rebels who lay in ambush near Kazhakoottam rushed to attack the Royal party. The brave Koil Tampuran who got scent of the plot contrived to send the Rani and the prince in safety to Attingal, himself staying behind to give fight to the enemy. When the insurgents whose main object was the assassination of the Rani and the Prince found that their foul plot had been frustrated they fought furiously but were entirely routed by the Koil Tampuran and his followers. The success, however, was a dearly bought one, for the hero (the Koil Tampuran) received a deep sword-cut across his abdomen and succumbed to it. This was in the month of December 1727 A. D. (903 M. E.)In recognition of this act of heroism and self-sacrifice the estate of Kilimanur was granted as a free-hold to the descendants of the Koil Tampuran. The grant is enjoyed to this day. It was from this time that Kilimanur became the permanent residence of the Koil Tampurans of that name. All the sovereigns of Travancore from Unni Kerala Varma to Parvathi Bayi (Regent) who ruled for a period of more than one hundred years were the offspring of the Kilimanur Koil Tampurans—a fact of which they are so proud to this day.

Thurston provides additional insight of the relation with the Kolathunad and how successive families migrated to Travancore- The first family of Kolasvarupam Rajas immigrated into Travancore in the fifth century M.E. As the Travancore royal house then stood in need of adoption, arrangements were made through a Koil Tampuran of the Tattari Kovilakam to bring two princesses for adoption from Kolattunad, and the first family of Rajas, known as the Putupalli Kovilakam, settled at Kartikapalli. The family is now extinct, as the last member died in 1033 M.E. The next family that migrated was Cheriyakovilakam between 920 and 930, also invited for purposes of adoption. These latter lived at Aranmula. The third series of migrations were during the invasion of Malabar by Tipu Sultan in 964 M.E., when all the Rajas living at the time went over to Travancore, though, after the disturbance was over, many returned home. The Rajas of the Kolasvarupam began to settle permanently in the country, as they could claim relationship with the reigning sovereigns, and were treated by them with brotherly affection. There were only two branches at the beginning, namely, Pallikovilakam and Udayamangalam.

TSM Vol1 Nagam Aiya also provides this information - The Kilimanur Koil Tampurans are the natives of Parappanad in Malabar. Their northern home is known as "Tattari-kovilakam". The great Martanda Varma Maharajah, the founder of Travancore, and his illustrious nephew Rama Varma, were the issue of the alliance with Kilimanur—a circumstance of which the members of that family always speak with just pride, as the writer himself heard from the lips of one of its senior members, a venerable old gentleman of eighty summers.

To summarize, the lineage of Raja Ravi Varma can be traced to the Tattari Kovilagom of Parappanad. But all male members of such families cannot usually assume the title of Raja, nevertheless Ravi Varma did, like many others do these days. Not much of an issue, though at that time, it was a big matter, considered an affront to the reigning Raja.

References
Travancore State Manual – Nagam Aiya
Edgar Thurston. Castes and tribes of Southern India (Volume 4)
The Diaries of Raja Raja Varma
The Locale


Raja Raja Varma Diaries – The Varma’s visit to Calicut (Acknowledged with thanks -Phalke factory)
Monday 12TH Jan 1903- We are the guests of the Raja of Puthya-Kovilakom one of the branches of the Beypure House. We are all relatives though we had separated from each other long long ago. The title of Koil Thampuran is peculiar to Travancore, here we are all Rajas. Beside Puthiya Kovilakom there are three other houses closely related to it, Manayam and Nadial and Panangad. The last house is unoccupied, its members having emigrated and settled in Travancore, Malabar being taken by Tipu. 

Tuesday - We breakfasted at Manayam this morning where there are two male members left now. Near this Kovilakam or house is a temple of Vettakaruman or the Hunter God which it is said and acknowledged by its present owners, the Manayam Rajahs, once belonged to us of the Tattari Kovilakam house, by which our family was known before we settled at Kilimanur in Travancore. We drove to Calicut this evening and are the guests of Ms KC. Shrivirasayan Raja at Chalapuram. 

Wednesday- This morning at 11 we paid a visit to Ms Pinhey the Collector and his wife. Mrs Pinhey is an amateur painter and she showed us many of her paintings and sketches. Some of them were very good indeed. At 4 p.m. Mr T.G. Vargese the Deputy Collector called on us and we requested him to help us in getting on the old accounts in the Huzur office and trace some of our lost property in the Ernand Taluq. He has promised us every help. At 6 p.m. we visited the Cosmopolitan club at the invitation of its members. The secretary of the Calicut Native Society were present to welcome us. We visited next the Putiya Kovilakom and the Railway Station and returned to our lodging.

Thursday - We left Calicut this morning and drove to Nadial where we were to breakfast with our relatives. In the afternoon we started on foot to Nerumkaith Kotta where there is an ancient temple of Sastha, our tutelary deity. The distance is about five or six miles and the way extremely bad. We had to cross two ferries and pass over a rugged hill. We reached the place at sunset. The temple stands on the side of a barren hill and has the appearance from below of a castle with stone walls.

Friday - On the top of the Hill stands another temple dedicated to Bhagavati or Goddess Kali with a solitary mango tree now in bloom to the north west of it. From this point there is a commanding view of the country around and the sea to which the river that winds round the hill empties its waters. When we finally settled at Kilimanur nearly a century and half ago our ancestors took care to build their temples both to Sastha and Kali. It is said that at one period when we all lived in one family we had our palace on the top of this hill near Kali's temple.

Saturday - Early this morning walked two miles to the south west of the temple to the site where our Kovilakam (Tattari) stood before our migration to Travancore. There is no doubt that we owned extensive estates here once, but 'most of them have now passed into other hands. The object of our present visit is to trace and recover the lost property if possible since the settlement is now going on. The greater portion of our property is in the Vallikunnu Amshom.

Sunday - Yesterday was a festive day in the temple of Sastha and at night in the small hours when fireworks [were] being let off a rocket fell on a house close to where we were staying. The house was in flames and we were roused by the screams of the inmates for help. People came for help and put out the fire.We gave the sufferers Rs 10. Left the place.


Monday - We received the arrears of rent from some of our tenants. After breakfast we left Puthiya Kovilakam for Feroke to catch the train. We went in boats. Brother stepped into the sub-registrar's office to register a power of attorney to authorize Purnam Pillay whom we leave behind and another to manage the property in this place.

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The Kollam Calendar Mystery – A discussion

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Kolla varsham- that is what we call the Malayalam calendar. The interesting aspect is that here again we have two versions, the Malabar version and the Travancore version, the former centered on Pantalayani Kollam near Calicut and the latter around Kurkeni Kollam or todays Quilon. In some old records they are mentioned by experts like Kielhorn and Sundarama Pillai as the Trivandrum calendar and the Calicut calendar. The two calendars are separated by a month with the year starting in August in Calicut and September in Quilon. But getting to the well accepted Kurkeni Kollam calendar, how would one explain the origins of this calendar, so different from some of the others of the region, like the Tamil calendar? Let’s take a look at the various legends, theories and stories. None may provide a clinching answer, and as usual, various communities and groups are satisfied by the one they empathise with!

To get to the obscure origins of the Kollavarsham, you have to go to the Gregorian months August or September of 824 AD. Typically anthropologists and historians contend that these things start by commemorating an event. What could it be? Here is where multiple stories and legends get cited, the construction of a Siva temple, the opening of a new port town, the departure of Cheraman Perumal to Mecca or Mount Kailasam, the death of Sanakaracharya and so on. We will get to them one by one after noting that while most calendars are Lunar or Luni-Solar (note that adjustments needed to be made in these calendars for the extra month), the Kollam era is entirely Solar. While most others start with Aries, the Kollam era starts with Leo. Also peculiar is that while other calendars are expired years calendars, the Kollam era is a current system (Note that the year zero does not exist in the Anno Domini system of the Gregorian calendar and the Julian calendar where the year 1 BC is followed by AD 1 and the 20th century for example begins on January 1, 1901. However, all eras used with Hindu and Buddhist calendars, such as the Saka era or the Kali Yuga, begin with the year 0. All these calendars use elapsed, expired, or complete years, in contrast with most other calendars which use current years). The months are named after the rashis in the North of India whereas they are given lunar names named after nakshatras in the South.
One of the popular stories mentioned in oral accounts is that of the departure of the Cheraman Perumal to Mecca. If you for a moment assume that to be the case, then the question comes up about the one month difference between the two calendars. Does it signify the time he took to sail from Quilon to North Malabar from where he eventually veered westwards to the Red Sea? But why would he go to Quilon to sail off when he was possibly based in Kodungallur which was an active and popular port where many vessels bound towards the Arab ports embarked? Then again why would a predominantly Hindu Malabar celebrate an event such as his conversion to Islam? That too after an event which in addition disintegrated the Chera country into petty warring kingdoms! Why would these Hindu kingdoms celebrate such an event? Not quite a justifiable explanation.

Now we get to the other account related to the Perumal (we will talk about this Perumal and his departure in greater detail in the next article), namely the Periya Puranam which is much older than the oral tradition or the medieval Keralolpatti where it says that when it was time for the perumal’s friend and Saivite saint Sundaramurti to leave Tiruvanjikulam (Cranganore), the Perumal also followed him to Kailasa. While it is somewhat farfetched, it does establish that the Perumal disappeared mysteriously, but again provides no reasoning for a new calendar to be established in Quilon or Calicut. Nevertheless, it is a fact that this event is dated pretty close to the start of the Kollam era.
The next legend is connected to the Sankaracharya who died around 820 AD. Now you can see that he died a full 4 years before the Calendar started. Why would one celebrate his death? So it could not have been his death. Keralolpatti mentions that Sankaracharya established the Kerala anacharam or irregular customs on Aug 25th, 825 AD or the new Kollavarsham at both Kollams’s. To lend weight to this is the chronogram A car ya va ga bhed ya (which literally means that the acharya’s word is unalterable) which stands for 0 6 1 4 3 4 1, to be read backwards. If you do that it becomes the Sept 25, 824 which is the first day of Malabar’s Kollam era in the Kali era. Sankaracharya perhaps died in 820 or some time earlier, so we see a 4-5 year difference. The details of the anacharams are mentioned in the Sankarasmriti and this itself was written only after the 12th century or perhaps even later (as it lays down rules for the Portuguese, Dutch, French and the English!). And then again, after considering the 11 day Gregorian calendar adjustment by the British, the Kollam era in reality, started on July 25th 825 AD. And then again, after considering the 10/11 day Gregorian calendar adjustment by the British in 1752, the Kollam era in reality, started on August 15th 825 AD. But why start a new calendar because new rules are being laid?

The only event of some importance in 824 was the appearance of a comet over China, hardly the reason for a New Year establishment unless the Chinese were in control of Quilon at that time or this had something to do with Chinese New Year. Again we see no points of commonality here. There is also a general issue that the Kollam era is mentioned in written records only dated after the 12th Century AD! Why did it take so many years for its acceptance? We do not have a real answer for this as yet.
Consider for a moment that the Nambuthiris and Nairs came from somewhere in North India as legends put it. Would the Kollam year have anything to do with the older era current in places like Jammu and Kashmir, i.e. the Saptarshi era or the Sastra Samvatsara? This was the era where the first two digits had been removed from a 4 digit running calendar, i.e. 4292 would become 92 in writings. But then what happened after 99? Sundaram Pillai explains that the two calendars were the same until the year 99 of the Saptarshi calendar. But even that does not run to a conclusion for the Saptarshi calendar starts in Mesah and the Kollam era started in Simha. Then again the Saptarshi era was Luni-solar while the Kollam calendar is solar. Was the difference a correction to make the former to a solar calendar (Then again the Saptarshi calendar runs with a 25 year difference with the kali yuga)? How would one calculate and drop out a few months? Did the mathematicians of Malabar and Travancore differ about the formula which explains the one month anomaly Simha and Kanya?

Perhaps the answer comes with the next account which is narrated by Shangoony Menon in his History of Travancore – “In the Kali year 3296 when King Udaya Marthanda Varma who was residing in Quilon, convened a council of learned men in Kerala with the object of introducing a new era, and after making some astronomical researches, and calculating the solar movements throughout the twelve signs of the zodiac, and counting scientifically the number of days occupied in this revolution in every month, it was resolved to adopt the new era from the first of Chingam of that year, 15th August 825, as Kollam year one and to call it the solar year." But this was found to be wrong when the source date he used from the Padmanabha Swami temple inscription proved to be 801 years later than originally thought and secondly due to the fact that there was no Udaya Marthanda Varma in the Kollam era origin period.
Pillai goes on to state that this also sounds a little obscure for it was perhaps better to use the Saptarshi year in that case, rather than create a new calendar. But then again, the Kollam era seems to have been devised by somebody who understood the difficulties of adjustments in lunar calendars.

 Herman Gundart however was of the opinion that the “Kolla Varsham” started with the erection of a ‘Siva’ temple at Kollam. But this does not make sense as there is no such temple and the establishment of a temple cannot be the reason to create a new calendar. Others mention that its origination was strictly local and religious, and “Kolla Varsham” was not accepted by the people living in other regions, but, when Kollam or Quilon became a major trade center trading with the east and the West, the traders and the people of other countries began to follow “Kolla Varsham”. But then how do you explain the Northern Quilon? Now could it be to commemorate the establishment of both Pantalayani and Kurkeni Kollam port towns? Unlikely since both of them were popular centuries before the Kollam calendar was formed. But a usage Kollam Tontri allows us to conclude literally that it was after the establishment of a port of Kollam, or perhaps more correctly after the establishment of the Kollam era. Sanskrit texts incidentally mention the Kollam era as the Kolamba era. Tamil texts name the area around Quilon as Kolamaba so it was perhaps associated with Quilon in the South.

The next theory is that it was started by Christian settlers in Quilon. Since it took a month for news to travel to North, the start in Pantalayani differs by a month! But according to Sreedhara Menon, this is not acceptable as the Christian community was insignificant and did not have the weight to create a new system in both Travancore and Malabar.
M.G.S.Narayan in his paper on Cera Pandya conflict in the 8th – 9th centuries which led to the birth of Venad writes, “It is not surprising that the Chera king who was contemplating the development of the new harbor town at Kurakeni Kollam welcomed the foreigner and permitted him to settle down at the new harbor site. This was the period when the Cera-Pandya conflict was developing in the south. Subsequently Vilinjam was retained in the Pandyan sphere of influence while the Vel country with new headquarters at Kurakkeni Kollam became a division of Cera kingdom. The foundation of Kollam in 825A.D. must have coincided with this victory of Cera in the Vel province. Therefore it is easy to understand the anxiety of the Chera king to please foreign merchants and settle them at Kollam so that the harbor might grow quickly and compete effectively with Vilinjam further south which had passed under the control of the Pandya. This incident reveals the practical wisdom of the rulers and throws light on the economic –political motivations of men who promoted ideas of religion and culture. The Syrian Christian merchants who took advantage of the situation were equally clever and resourceful .In the absence of materials for a detailed history, it is difficult to ascertain whether Mar Sapir Iso was a merchant or a (priest) missionary. Perhaps he was both at the same time and there was no inherent contradiction between the two roles.

Logan however opines also that the Kollam era was perhaps established by the Kolathiri rajas, of which two factions existed, one at Malabar and one at Quilon to commemorate events at both places. This again is refuted by astronomers who maintain that it was not a political announcement or change which started the new calendar. This line of thought is also untenable since the Kolathiris rose to the fore only around the 12th century.
Others like Col Warren connected it wrongly to the Parasurama cycles. The era of Parasurama or Parasurama Sacam is a cycle of 1000 years, which is said to have begun in B.C. 1175 ¾ complete, or 1176 B.C. current. It is also mentioned that the Nambuthiris travelling southwards brought it with them and made the necessary adjustments to start the third thousands of the Saptarshi eara which originally started in 1176BC.

Even more theories follow with people trying to exercise their brains to create reasons. One such theory states that Onam celebrations started with the Kollam era, but Onam hardly starts on the first of Chingam and then again this is also not correct since Onam was celebrated even in the Sangam era. Sreedhara Menon concludes his discussion by agreeing with Sundaram Pillai that it was the continuation of the Saptarshi era after it counted down to 100. He adds that it took a few hundred years to be accepted and became popular only by the 10-11th centuries after the Namboothiris gained ascendancy in Kerala and that the month difference between the Malabar and Travancore calendars is accounted for due to the calculation methods used by the North and South astronomers!

Other theories hover around the lost Jewish tribes, with the Namboothiris being actually the Nampthali Jews and so on, but all of them fall on the wayside. Prof Jayaprakash’s theory, the newest is perhaps the closest to reality and has some grounding, but requires more study to reach conclusions. According to him, the Buddhist culture appeared in Cheranad or Cheralam during 3 B.C. and it had an influence on all religions which were later introduced in this land. According to him, after the brutal annihilation of the Buddhist culture by the Brahmins from the North, Cheralam was christened Keralam. Through the annihilation, many of the important Buddhist shrines were converted into Hindu temples. He opined that the biggest influence Buddhism had in the Subcontinent was in Kerala and it was Kollam which was the citadel of Buddhism and that it was after destroying the Buddhist culture that the Brahmin enforced caste system got established in Kerala. Kollam was earlier called Kolam, and when it came under the rule of Jayashimhan Perumal, the land came to be called Deshinganad. He also had specific comments about the establishment of the Kollavarsham.

According to late Historian M.S. Jayaprakash the launch of Kollavarsham marked the complete transition of Kerala from the Dravidian-Buddhist tradition to the Aryan-Vedic system. According to him, Kollavarsham also marked the political transition of the land from the reign of Perumals to a caste-based rule. The commencement of Kollavarsham was in fact the declaration of a political and cultural change in Kerala. He also opines that the Kollavarsham declaration was made by two separate sessions of almanac experts and mathematicians held simultaneously at two places known by the same name Kollam – one the present headquarters of the southern district and the other one near Kozhikode in the north. So that is another train of thinking about the reasons for a new system, we need to get into. The implementation still follows the earlier theories.
In conclusion, one can assume that the rather unique solar, current calendar was developed by the immigrants moving in from the North, perhaps the Namboothiri’s who settled down in Malabar and later in Quilon, and then the calendar got a little bit adjusted to what we know as the Kollam calendar. This has some traction due to the fact the calendar was first established in Malabar and a month later in Quilon, though it does not explain it satisfactorily. Nevertheless, due to the fact that it is also called Kolamba era, it is somehow more associated with Kurakkeni Kollam. But these are all assumptions based on obscure documents and you can perhaps imagine that with more research on the Buddhist – Jainist past of Kerala more facts will slowly come to light including the Sankaracharya aspects and you may even see the conclusions of Dr Jayaprakash gaining more credence.

New input - Please refer linked paper Malayalam Year alias Kollavaṟṣaṃ by Joseph Don Bosco which gives a mathematical explanation and another reason.

References
Dates of the Kollam or Kolamba era – Kielhorn
Miscellaneous Travancore inscriptions – P Sundaram Pillai
Kollam era - KV Sarma
Survey of Kerala History – Sreedhara Menon
HinduArticle
Cera- Pandya conflict in the 8th – 9th centuries which led to the birth of Venad- Narayan,MGS,
Notes – Just to establish some perspective, why did the Buddhists and Brahmins start this big quarrel? Interesting legends and perhaps lots of caste politics – It seems that King Pasenadi (Prasenajit) of Kosala admired the Sakyan clan as Buddha was from that clan and decided to marry into it (second marriage) and strengthen the alliance by asking for the hand of a Shakyan bride. But then, he was sent Naga-Mtinda the daughter of the Sakyan chief whose paramour was actually a naga worshipping slave! Not knowing this, Pasenadi married her; and had a son, Vidudabha and a daughter Vajira.  When the truth came to light, both mother and child lost their royal honors but were reinstated after Buddha pacified Pasenadi. However after Pasenadi’s death and Vidudabha’s accession to the throne, mayhem occurred resulting in the massacre of the Shakyan clan who fled Kapilavastu to various places like Nepal and we also hear mentions of Lanka and the South of India, perhaps Quilon and other locales.
 The Vedic revival during the 8th century A.D. was referred to as the revival of Hinduism by the Western Scholars. This was initiated by Adi Shankaracharya in the Gangetic plains of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. During this time, devotion to the Buddha was sought to be replaced by devotion to Hindu gods such as Rama and Krishna.

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The East India House - Casa da India

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The offices that controlled the Estado da India

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

Well, if one had done a trip to medieval Lisbon and got through to the commercial and political heart of the city on the banks of the Tagus, or the Palace square - Terreiro de Paco, you would have noticed the large palace or Paco da Riberia to the left of the square, a handsome building designed by architect Terzi, remarkable for its grandeur, tapestries and riches therein. An extension of the original building actually housed the Casa da India where all the goods from Malabar were destined to and which the king standing on his balcony could watch being loaded or unloaded, with a lot of reassurance. The pepper that came from the vines near the hills, dried and blackened in the sun, carried over to Calicut, fought over by the many people eager to trade it to the white man, passed hands finally and found its way to the hulls of the ocean going ships belonging to the Portuguese and vying for valuable space with other spices, articles of plunder and sometimes even slaves. These articles were the ones being unloaded and taken to the building they called Casa Da India.

We have all heard and read so much about the East India company, but how many of you know about the much powerful office that existed even earlier called the India house of Lisbon? That is the Casa da India that decided the futures of Goa and Malabar, let alone many other acquisitions of the Portuguese in India, between the 1500-1800 timeframe. The bureaucrats of the building decided and guided the kings in what was to be done and what was not though actually in existence even before Vasco Da Gama set out to Calicut. Let’s take a look at the organization which started out as the Casa de Guine, Mina e India.

Business representation in overseas locations became a necessity when the trade links grew and that was how the Portuguese factor or feitor came into existence. If you recall we saw this usage many a time in books covering the medieval periods in Malabar when it came to the Portuguese, Dutch French or the English. The concept is hardly new; in fact we saw the same in our studies of early Jewish traders in India and the Arabs. The factor or Feitor was slightly different, for he was not only the Portuguese ambassador, but also the person who had a ruling command over the Portuguese community in such far flung locales. Such a community was called the feitoria and this term morphed sometimes to the word factory and as you can see, it did not mean the building was a manufacturing unit. They usually had their own chapel and burying place and in the case of the Portuguese, not only decided quarrels between merchants but also represented the Crown.

As Portugal’s King Joao II came into power after Henry, he inherited the lucrative African trade and the first feitoria was established in Arguim Island. The second was at Sao Jorge da mina (Elmina) on the Gold Coast. The third was at Wadan. As trade increased, new feitoria’s were established on the African east coast. The next step of course was to establish them at the Malabar Coast and Cabral was entrusted with the responsibility after Gama had discovered the route to the wealthy Indian West Coast. We read about the story of the first Portuguese factory in Calicut in the previous article covering Koya Pakki where Ayres Correa and the others were killed. Eventually, Cabral settled an agreement in Cochin and Gama established the first formal working fetoria there. Later many more were established, to formalize Portuguese representation in India.

But the organization back home in Portugal which implemented the crown’s capitalism as Diffie and Winus explain, was the Casa de Guine, Mina e India or as it came to be called the Casa da India. Basically it started out as the warehouse, storage sheds and the customs post, serving to outfit and receive the many ships that were sent out in the name of trade. They also served to collect the percentages of royal duties from authorized merchants. Interestingly there was another separate organization, the Casa dos escravos to handle buying and selling of slaves. Henry’s early organization in Lagos was moved by Joao II to Lisbon in 1481-82 to serve as the home office, clearing and accounting house of the Feitoria’s. Not only did it do that but also the powerful function of setting prices for purchase and sale as well as issuing licenses and certificates for personnel. Interestingly it also handled postal services for the outposts. The most important position in the Casa was that of the treasurer or the provedor, the king’s most trusted.

In 1508, King Manuel I started expansion works on the palace, which ended in 1510, and appointed Diogo de Arruda as head architect of the project. The King was an absolutist in all manners, and sought to concentrate all his powers in Ribeira Palace, by holding the Portuguese Cortes and installing the Casa da Índia, the imperial administration, in the palace's walls. The hallmark of the palace, not just in the Manueline era but in all it's history, was its Tower of the King, in the southern wing. During the Manueline era, the Casa da Índia was installed in the tower, which hoisted a large sculpture of the Royal Coat of Arms of Portugal on the exterior of the tower, facing the river.

Joao was not too savvy a merchant, and had his own problems dealing with the system of financing fleets. Initially he had private companies from other countries of Italy, Spain and Germany as partners, paying a 30% duty, but all this ended up in quarrels on prices till the Fugger’s became a major player in what was to become a formal monopoly during Manuel’s reign. As all this was going on in the 1520’s the hub of business slowly moved to Antwerp where the goods supplied from Lisbon were sold at very high retail price levels. An Antwerp merchant syndicate was formed and as major purchasers from the Casa da India, wielded immense power over Lisbon, taking over from the German banking houses. Trade in Antwerp was routed through the local feitoria there. Portugal soon found itself in a state of indebtedness as the syndicate increased its grip on King Joao III’s neck. Anyway let us not ramble on about the business sense or ethics of the Portuguese monarchs, but concentrate on the Casa da India which as you saw was essentially the market for Indian spices, and as some opine, slaves as well. Suffices to note that in a hundred years the Portuguese fortunes were going downhill, so to say but still large enough to be prominent in medieval Europe.


The Casa da India also facilitated the flow of goods from Europe to India, items such as copper and silver ingots, and also tried a hand at controlling the saltpeter trade. As we see, it grew from the Casa da Cueta (1434) to Mine e Guine and finally to Casa Da India. The Casa da India was popularly known as the India house and started receiving formal orders from Joa II in 1509.All imports and exports were stored there for registration, customs, freight expenses were met, sales were arranged, ships were chartered, loaded and unloaded at the Armazem da India or the India dockyard in Lisbon, inspection for contraband was carried out and crew payments were made. All registers were held there for safekeeping, so also all routes and maps, in strict secrecy. In addition, it was also a premier center for cosmography and cartography (Barros whom we came across in our studies was the factor in 1532). Just imagine what the records from 1490-1755 would have revealed, for the records were voluminous and meticulous.

The palace was remodeled later - The highlight of the Philipine renovations was the reconstruction and enlargement of the Tower of the King, which transformed a three-story Manueline tower, which housed the Casa da Índia, into a five-story Mannerist tower, complete with an observatory and one of the largest royal libraries in all of Europe.

What a powerful organization it must have been, not that such organizations do not exist today, but to imagine this amount of discipline and controlled from Lisbon, was unimaginable in the minds of one in mediaeval Malabar. Every scrap of valuable history the building housed was consigned to the roaring flames, obliterating the stories of voyages, pioneering, trade, adventure and avarice, as well as destroying a valuable resource on the history of Malabar. But some accounts of how the house looked and functioned exist as secondary sources, so let us take a trip to Lisbon in the 17th century, even though it was a time of decline for the once famous Casa da India.

 As we saw, when it was first established on the river bank of the Terrario do Paco, it was housed at the ground floor of the royal palace so that the king himself could see the loading and unloading of the ships. The Casa da India collected duty and tolls on all merchandise from overseas and sold the pepper on the king's account; while its officials supervised the loading and unloading of the ships, inspected them for contraband, and paid the crews. The East India House (Casa da India), as it was also known, was thus responsible for fitting out sails and the trade in monopoly products of the crown. While at the Lisbon end, trade and to a certain extent administration of it was supervised by Casa da India, at the Indian end, the Estado da India with its headquarters at Goa was the principal seat of power. Later the king established a general royal monopoly over the spice trade, and had it regulated by the official Casa da India, but after a couple of hundred years of existence, the India House’s fortunes took a trip south when parts of the building had to be sold to pay dues to the royal army. But during the heydays, the India house incomes were used to maintain the Fidalgo’s of Portugual, just imagine amounts to the tune of 18 million reis, which incidentally was just a fifth of the income of the India house!!

Borrowing the words from ‘Lisbon before the earthquake – Panoramic view’ –

Following in the same direction as the sea current, starting at the new customs house and store house, there is a wide open space, closed on the northwest by beautiful constructions and to the south by a colonnade that is worth seeing, the oriental side opens out into the sea. In the western corner of this space is the Casa de Seuta. Not far from this building in a sequence of adjoined buildings stands the sixth monument, a magnificent and marvelous work. In this building known as Casa da India, there are abundant collections of combat bounty, spoils of war with many peoples and where, thus the name matters about India are dealt with. I am of the opinion that it should be called the emporium of aromas. Pearls, rubies, emeralds and other precious stones are brought here every year from India. Perhaps it would be truer to call it a warehouse of silver and gold, stored both in bars and artifacts. There exhibited for whoever want to see, divided into numerous compartments, distributed in an ordered and artful manner is all the precious stuff – and mark my word, it has to be seen and touched to be believed, this accumulation of marvels.

Early in the 17th century, the Casa Da India had been moved under the Conselho da Fazenda (council of finance) which had responsibility for fiscal, juridical and administrative aspects of royal government. During the times of Spanish authority, the Casa da India was supervised by Spanish officials as well. Can you imagine how much the monarch made from all this business with the Eastern lands? In 1510, the figure almost a million cruzados per annum from the spice trade alone. This was how King Manuel I of Portugal got to be called "le roi épicier", that is, “the grocer king”.

Royal monopolies were also leased out sometimes by Casa da Índia to private traders for a certain period. As we see - After 1570, the monopolies were abolished, except for the purchase of spices and the trade in copper and silver. By about 1560 the income of the Casa da Índia was not able to cover its expenses. The Portuguese monarchy had become, in Garrett Mattingly's phrase, the owner of "a bankrupt wholesale grocery business." But it was also the time when pepper ruled.

But interesting things which benefitted the world also took place in the Casa da India, such as the first versions of the nautical map of the world called the Padrão Real, and in 1709 the Jesuit priest Father Bartolomeu de Gusmão demonstrated the principles of hot air ballooning by levitating a ball indoors at the Casa da Índia in Lisbon. He narrates - His Majesty invited us to the Casa da India for a royal dinner. The reception was held in the grand saloon, where shafts of the last remaining sunlight shone through its tall narrow windows then I made a second balloon which landed on the palace roof, and finally I made a third balloon, which went out through a window of the Casa da India, never to be seen again. He later fled from Portugal to Spain, for fear of being accused of performing magic by the Inquisition. This was also the location where the famous Elephant Rhino fight took place in 1515, one that I will detail some other day the event when the two animals confronted each other in a courtyard enclosed by high walls between the Paço da Ribeira and the Casa da India.

Quoting David Bressan wiring in Scientific American - At 9:40 all the bells of the city began to ring simultaneously and only seconds later the first buildings collapsed. Three major shakes followed in the next 10 minutes, most people were killed by the collapse of the churches, full of believers attending the second mass of the day. People fled in the direction of the seaport where the large squares of the royal palace promised shelter from the debris of the collapsing buildings. It was there that they witnessed a strange phenomenon: The Sea had vanished and the riverbed of the Tejo was dry. At 10:10 a 12 meter high tsunami-wave reached the city and destroyed the entire harbour, thousands of people standing along the shores were swept away and killed. After the earthquake and the tsunami a terrible fire broke out; raging for five days, it destroyed what earth and water had left over.
What actually happened after the Earthquake hit Lisbon? Did the buildings catch fire or did they get inundated by the Tsunami that followed?  To get to that story which is not usually told, one has to take a look at a number of private letters that were sent and published in England – in magazines such as the Gentlemen’s. One such letter testifies that the Casa da India was actually set afire by a French deserter. The letter goes thus -

Several villains have been apprehended and executed, mostly foreigners, and to our reproach, among other nations, some English sailors, for robbing and plundering the palace. The others were French and Spanish deserters, and some from the common prisons, which, in the general havoc (except those under the ruins) let forth their contents in common with other edifices. A Moor, who got out with the rest from the Calleas, where the galley slaves were confined, confessed, before he was hung up, that he set fire to the city in seven places, after the cessation of the first shock. A French deserter confessed he did the like in three places, one of which was to the India-house adjoining to the palace.

So that was how the India house, perhaps the most powerful gate keeping institution of the world, met its end, consigned to smoke by an irate Frenchman.

The Prime Minister, the Marquis of Pombal, coordinated a massive rebuilding effort. The Royal Palace was not to be rebuilt, and the square was given a regular, rational arrangement in line with the reconstruction of the new Pombaline Downtown, the Baixa.

The royal family abandoned the Ribeira area and moved to palaces in the areas of Ajuda and Belém. The old Palace Square (Terreiro do Paço) gave rise to a new square, the Pombaline Commerce Square (Praça do Comércio). The two towers at the corners of the square are still reminiscent of the old tower of the Ribeira Palace. The Alfandega Grande on the S. side of the Rua da Alfandega, became the new fire proof custom-house of Lisbon built on the very site of the Casa da India. Fittingly it maintained its high bureaucratic past, they say it took no less than 16 signatures (1874)to clear something through it!!

But Portugal had by then become a minor player in the world arena. The renaissance glory had faded away and the last vestiges were lost with the Earthquake. Brazil left its clutches in 1822 and the Industrial revolution overtook the vastly illiterate Portugual which was still trying to get a firm foothold in Africa. Finally in 1961, Goa was liberated under VK Krishna Menon’s orders and Lt Gen Candeth’s actions, to end the 460 odd years of Portuguese presence in India, ironically under the leadership of these two people from erstwhile Malabar!

References

Wrath of God – Edward Paice
A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion 1400–1668 - Malyn Newitt
Gentleman’s magazine Vol 83, part 1
History of Portugal: vol. 2, António Henrique R. de Oliveira Marques
Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume I: The Century of Discovery- Donald F. Lach

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The Iyers of Palghat

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Legends of the PI (Palghat Iyer)

The arrival of Tamil Brahmins to Kerala is shrouded in some amount of mystery. No specific details are available and only general conjectures can be made. While the migrations to Palakkad or Palghat can be summarized to be from Kumbakonam or Trichy, the arrival of Brahmins to the Tali area of Calicut was for other reasons and happened much later. This article will then go on to spend some time on the stone inscription at Kalpatti.

The commonly accepted reasons for the westerly migration follows the events at Madurai and its environs as explained in my article about Malikkafur

Let me once again borrow words from Tamil Tribune. King Maravarman Kulasekhara Pandyan (1268 - 1310) had two sons Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan and Jatavarman Veera Pandyan. The elder son, Sundara Pandyan, was by the king's wife and the younger, Veera Pandyan, was by a mistress. Contrary to tradition, the king proclaimed that the younger son would succeed him. This enraged Sundara Pandyan. He killed the father and became king in 1310. Some local chieftains in the kingdom swore allegiance to the younger brother Veera Pandian and a civil war broke out. Sundara Pandyan was defeated and he fled the country. He sought help from the far off northern ruler Sultan Ala-ud-din Khilji who was ruling much of northern India from Delhi. At that time, his army under General Malik Kafur was in the south at Dvarasamudra (far to the north of Tamil Nadu). Khilji agreed to help Sundara Pandyan and ordered Malik Kafur's army to march to Tamil Nadu. With Sundara Pandyan's assistance, this Muslim army from the north entered Tamil Nadu in 1311. Kafur and his troops created mayhem in the area for a full year, looting and pillaging, finally carrying an immense treasure on 312 elephants, 20,000 horses and 10 crore gold coins.

It was apparently during this period that the Brahmins of Madurai and the surrounding area started to feel insecure about their existence and livelihood. Fearing persecution, these people started to migrate to the Chera country through the well-traveled Palakkad Pass and the routes through Dindigul and Pollachi. The southern route from Karur passes through Dharapuram and Udumalpet to Pollachi and Palghat. This route is remarkable as the line of migration of the Tanjore Brahmin to Palghat through Pollachi. Normally they would have congregated around temples. Nevertheless, the systems of Cheranaad were different since only Nambuthiris were allowed to perform religious rites in temples. Being learned and lettered, these Brahmins settled to perform other duties in the temples sometimes competing with Ambalavasis and also moved on to support the bureaucracies of smaller regional kings as astrologers, accountants, scribes, advisers etc. It is also stated that continuous drought over many years in the Kaveri Delta area also triggered migration of Tanjore Brahmins to Kerala. In some cases, as you will see, they went on to build and conduct their vedic rites in their own temples. However there are also other accounts which point to earlier migrations around the 8th century. Most of these migrants settled close to the Nila river banks around Palghat.

Narayan Murthi on his website states the following - Our own Josier family came from Kandramanickam Village, in Trichy District, and we are identified as Kandramanickam Brahacharanam. Yes, people also came in groups from Madurai, Erode areas, Tiruvannamalai (the whole of Nurani is from there and all are Brahacharanam). Pallipuram and Tirunallayi people came from around Conjeevaram and Sreerangam and brought with them the Vaishnavaite influence on their rituals and practices. They wear the Namam, have mostly Vaishnavaite names and pay obeisance to the Jeer at Srirangam and not to the Sankaracharyas.

 As is commonly understood, Kerala Iyers, like the Iyers of Tamil Nadu and the Namboothiris of Kerala, belonged to the Pancha Dravida classification of India's Brahmin community and mostly belonged to the Vadama and Brahacharanam sub-sects. Iyers were usually employed as cooks, musicians and temple assistants, since they were not allowed to conduct pooja as the priest (shanthi) in Kerala temples which followed Tantric rituals. So Kerala Iyers built their own temples in their Agraharams to conduct their poojas and rites. In Kerala, these migrant Brahmins are commonly referred to as Bhattars. This was one of the earlier surnames used by the Tamil Brahmins and later on got corrupted to Pattar by the Englishman who coined the usage in English.

But let us also look at the story of the Palghat Raja’s which I recounted some years earlier. and the account of Stuart Blackburn quoting an old man whom he met - Sometime in the 1500s when Palghat was a small principality under the Cochin Raja, only Nambudiris lived here. Then a young prince of the Palghat ruling family, I think he was named Sekhari Varma, fell in love with a tribal girl. The Cochin Raja opposed this marriage, but the prince refused to budge and married the girl. Suddenly all the Nambudiris left and the prince sent to Tamil Nadu for Brahmins to conduct temple rites. These Pattars [Tamil Brahmins] had been coming to an annual Vedic scholar’s convention at Tirunavaya [near Pattambi] and so they knew the area. So they decided to settle in Palghat. Then the tribal queen turned all the Bhagavatis into tribal goddesses—Emur Bhagavati, Min Bhagavati, Manapully Bhagavati. The Pattars came from Tanjore, Madurai, and Kancipuram, and even now you can see this history in the names of their agraharams [settlements], for instance Chokanathapuram, after Siva's name at Madurai. He also explains that Tamil Brahmins in Palghat, for example, celebrate Rama's birthday in association with Valmiki's Sanskrit epic or Ezhuttachan's Malayalam text but not Kampan's.

Madhava Menon in his Handbook of Kerala cites the instance of the boycott of the Palghat Raja by the Nambutiris of Palghat in support of the Zamorin when the Palghat Raja asked Hyder Ali help in getting the Zamorin off his back. The Palghat Raja in retaliation brought in Tamil Brahmins and settled them in 64 settlements around Palghat, granting them lands and privileges and allowing them to perform rights in Palghat temples. But Logan goes on to explain further the connection established even earlier between the Palghat Raja and the Pattars - One account states that they (Palghat Rajas or Achans) are descendants of one of the Pandyan Kings of Madura, However this may be, the family has for some reason or other lost caste. There are various stories current as to how this happened, and a mis-alliance with a woman of the Malabar caste on the part of the reigning chief is the generally credited origin of the fact. It appears to have taken place previously to the first influx of East Coast Brahmins (Pattar) into Palghat, for water, which, from the hands of the polluted Raja, would have conveyed pollution to the recipient, was not used in conferring grants of land to the Pattar and flour, a non-polluting substance, it is said, was used instead. Land grants were thus made; it is said, to 96 Pattar villages or agraharams in Palghat.  

 According to the Shashibhooshan's, the word agraharam has various etymological meanings. It indicates the conglomeration (haram) of the first among the four varnas (castes). Agraharam also indicates a cluster of houses with a temple of Shiva on the agram (extreme tip) of the street. Agraharams are inherently inhabited by the Brahmins.

 Logan in his Malabar Manual, lists the 19 gramam’s of Palghat being Kalpathi, Pazhaya Kalpati, Chatapuram, Govindarajapuram, Vaidyanathapuram, Kumarapurama, Lakshminarayanapuram, Mukka, Chokkanathapuram, Puttamkurichi, Sekharipuram, Ramanathapuram, Tarekad, Vadakkanthara, Noorni, Nellisheri, Thondikulam, Pallipuram, Tirunellayi. Mukkai is where the rivers of Palayar, Walayar and Malayar unite to form the Kalpathy River. Out of the 18-19 gramams in Palakkad, Thirunellai and Pallipuram are settled by Vaishnavites, whereas the rest by Saivaites. It is also said that migrants from Madurai established themselves first near Chokkanathapuram, and those from Pollachi and Dindigul established the villages of Kollengode, Koduvayur, Chittoor, and Thattamangalam which were nearer to their travel route. Sekharipuram, was perhaps founded by migrants originating from the village of the same name near Tanjore (It is also possible for Sekharipuram to have been named after Rajashekara Varma of Palghat). Those from Vaitheeswaran Koil called their village as Vaidyanatha puram, those from Madurai called their village as Chokkanathapuram , those from Champa called their village as Chempai and so on. But then, Pallipuram as the name itself indicated, the existence of either a Moslem mosque or a Jain temple in the past, perhaps the latter, and Noorni as a word is also considered to be non-Hindu.

Nevertheless, the lands where they settled in became their Karma bhumi as against the east coast which they consider their Punya bhumi or Gnana bhumi. Interestingly, in a Karma bhumi you attain salvation only by good deeds whereas in a Gnanabhumi you attain it by the mere fact that you were born in it, irrespective of their actions. Nagam Aiyya in his TSM explains that this is the reason why they prefer to die in the Punya bhumi and not in Kerala lest they be born an ass in their next birth!! (That finally explained to me why second and third generation PI’s or Pattars still try to maintain that they are Tamilians and not Malayalis – I always used to think the insistence was due to linguistic ties).

So much for the migration theories, but the Palghat Brahmin community produced many a great bereaucrat, many a great cook, many a great film personality and many famous administrators and secretaries, not to mention musical stalwarts, be it film music or Carnatic music!! So they did take their karma very seriously, as you can see. I admire them a lot.

Now let us get to the Kalpathi stone inscription and Prof SV Venkateshwara’s conclusions. I have not been to this temple myself for a long tinme and I understand most of the inscription is gone, but for those interested, it will be reproduced here again from Prof Venkateshwara’s essay.

 Kalpathi or Kalpathy also known as Dakshin Kasi or the 'Varanasi of the South is an early Tamil Brahmin settlement (agraharam) is close to the Olavakkot ( Now called Palghat) railway station. Like before we will start with a legend. Until the turn of the last century, an Iyer widow was never allowed to remarry. Once her husband dies, an Iyer woman had to tonsure her head. She had to remove the kunkumam or the vermilion mark on her forehead, and was required to smear her forehead with the sacred ashes. Well one such widow tracing the route of Kannagi, ventured out to Cheranad around the early decades of the 15th century. She was obviously wealthy, for she carried with her some 1,400 panams – presumably in gold and naturally did not want to have anything to do with her punya bhumi. Legend has it that this Lakshmi Ammal, a widow of Sekharipuram (Ammal, brought the Shiva Lingam from Kasi (Varanasi) during her visit to that holy place.) and gave the prince Ittikombi Achan, 1320 of those gold coins in 1424-25 AD and requested him to consecrate the Siva Lingam and construct a temple on the banks of Nila River. Legends also say that Lakshmi Ammal handed over the responsibility of managing the temple affairs. While the involvement of the king is confirmed, the donor is still a legend.

The temple, regarded as one of the oldest in Malabar is also known as Kundukovil and of course as mentioned previously, Dakshina Kashi. The temple houses the deities of Lord Shiva and his consort, Parvati, who is worshipped as Visalakshi. The temple as such is built on the banks of the Kalpathy River a tributary of the NIla or Bharathapuzha, and surrounded by New Kalpathy, Old Kalpathy, Chathapuram and Govindarajapuram. The Kalpathy temple is linked to the Kasi Viswanatha Swami Temple, because the main deity here is Lord Siva and the temple is on the banks of river Kalpathy, like Kasi on the banks of river Ganges. This is the reason for the saying, Kasiyil Pathi Kalpathy, that is, half of Kasi is Kalpathy. Towards the end of the year, the PI’s come back on vacation with trainloads of relatives to partake in the Ratholsavam or the chariot festival. The Kalpathy car festival is one of the biggest festivals of Malabar and a week-long Carnatic music festival, in which leading musicians perform, precedes the car festival.

Kalpathy and the other 18 Agraharams in the town are usually spruced up for the festivities. The temples and the houses in the Agraharams are all decked up and it is usually an occasion for family reunion. People who have continued their modern day migrations, in search of jobs and livelihood return for the Kalpathy Ratholsavam, which marks the beginning of the six-month-long car festivals in the temples of the 98 Agraharams in the district.

Kalpathy also got into the news for wrong reasons during the self-respect movement period 1924-26 when caste rivalries took place in South India. An Ezhava police office was supposedly deputed in 1924 to oversee the chariot festival, and the Brahmins of the agraharam took offence. They contended that the Kalpathi streets are not the King's highway but private property. The Arya Samajists got riled up and tried to march through the streets. Arthur Knapp the home member was asked to enquire into the matter. The arya samajists complained that if Christians and Moslems could enter such villages, they as Hindus could.Soon Swami Shraddanand arrived. When a breach of peace was anticipated, the Madras government served prohibitory orders on the Samajists during the event. In 1925, some violence occurred when another attempt was made, but eventually the Samaj movement seems to have fizzled out. But then again, look at the history - The community itself came to Palghat thanks in part to the event when the king married a lower caste person! Interesting turn of events right?

Anyway let’s get back to the historic front and the stone inscription. The stone inscription in front of the Kalpathy Shiva Temple tells the connection between the temple, its upkeep by the local king lttikombi Achan. Now we will spend some time on the inscription itself and its importance in history. Fortunately the Archeological society took an impression of the inscription in 1895 and later around 1914, so we have it here, as posted. The writing itself is made on one side and extends to the other. The stone was placed between the Nandi and the flag staff. The inscriptions are made in vattezhuttu, in Malayalam. It is dated to 1424 or 1464.


As Prof Venkateshwara explains –

The subject-matter of the inscription is the grant to the temple (of Visvanitha-Svamin) of land, income, and precious metal and utensils, and the constitution of ‘marumakan" Ittikombi and (his) younger brother (anantiravan) as trustees thereof. The inscription seems to have been cut at the bidding of Rayiran Kandatt Pangi under orders from his master, who was apparently the then Raja of Palghat (Rayiran perhaps denotes the position or title of a scribe). The name of the donor is not given in the inscription. He may have been an elderly member of the Palghat Raja's family, judging from the references to Ittikombi as marumaka and to mele karanavar. The latter epithet may refer to the Raja himself.

The inscription represents the manas receiving 1320 panams (coins) and bound to give 132 panams every year as interest to the temple. The context here shows that a rate of 10 per cent was charged at interest payable every year on the 10 panams given to each of the Brahman house. We have here a very interesting instance of the way in which endowments to temples were made and worked, a lumpsum was invested with every householder, who was bound by the terms of the contract to pay the interest on that sum every year to the authorities of the temple on whose behalf the investment was made. The contract held good in perpetuity; but the obligation implied in was not personal, but territorial.



Thus, the subject matter of the inscription is the grant to the deity Viswanatha Swamin of the Kalpatti temple of so much property real and moveable and the constitution of members of the Ittikombi section of the Palghat Raja’s family as trustees thereof.

When you study the essay in more detail or try to understand the exemplary study done by Prof Venkateshwara of Kumbhakonam, you wonder at the way these experts get to the bottom of the story by the study of words and script. I have deliberately not gone into those details for fear that such aspects would scare away the interested readers I still have in the study of Malabar’s history. But if somebody is seriously interested, you know whom to contact.

A few words on the Pattars of Calicut and Travancore are also added for completeness. According to Narayana Murthy, some migrants did climb up the Cumbum Hills crossing over Munnar, Peermede etc. and settled in Kottayam, Haripad, Vaikom, Ambalapuzha etc. The Agraharams south of Trivandrum such as Nagerkoil, Vadiveswaram, Sucheendram etc, already existed in the past, as Chola territory.

But how can I forget the Pattars of Tali and the fantastic Lakshmi store which I always visit while in Calicut? The mixture, the sweets and pickles, not to mention, the vadakams and so on are delicious. Well, perhaps they migrated during the periods when the Zamorins had issues with the Nambuthiris over the Tali Siva temple which I wrote earlier (refer the Revathi Pattathanam article) and the Kolathiri prince. Banning Nambuthiri’s from his court, he had invited Brahmin scholars from Tamil Nadu to take their place. These Tamil Brahmins settled around the Tali Siva temple. According to eminent historians, they arrived in Kozhikode as dependents of the chieftains, working as cooks, cloth merchants and moneylenders. Some other day, when I have collected more information on them, I will narrate their story too, perhaps while introducing the stalwart Manjeri Rama Iyer.

References

Epigraphica Indica. v.15 1919-1920, The Kalpatti Stone Inscription – Prof SV Venkateshwara MA, Kumbhakonam
Malabar Manual Volume 2 - Logan
Historic alleys – Malik Kafur in Malabar
Historic alleys – Revathi Pattathanam
Historic alleys – Royalty of Palghat
A video on kalpathy
Inside the drama house- Stuart Blackburn

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Charles (Claude) Gabriel Dellon, the Frenchman in Malabar

Posted by Maddy Labels: , ,

On his travails and misfortune – Also the governor’s mistress and the inquisition

Dellon was certainly an interesting person, one who was subjected to much misfortune because he was rumored to have seduced another’s wife, a lady who was at the same time the mistress of the Governor of Goa and lusted after by a Goan priest. There lies the story of the person and the only one who recorded to paper his personal experiences related to the dark days of the Goan inquisition, after he finally got back to his hometown in France around 1677 (10 years after he set out to Malabar)and got his mind set to the task.

But nothing is as simple as it looks, for the intrigue behind it covered the rivalry between the Estadoa Da India and the French East India Company and the race for supremacy in the Oceans and the Spice trade. And above all, if Dellon is to be believed, all this was mainly was due to the Governor Furtado’s (and perhaps his) ‘sangue nas guelras’, or super active libido……….

Charles Dellon (a.k.a. Gabriel Dellon/Dillon and Claude Dellon in various books) was a French Catholic physician and traveler to the East Indies. As his bio goes, he was a physician by training, and in 1668 Dellon sailed to India with the Compagnie des Indes (q.v.), travelling by way of Madagascar and the Seychelles. But let us go back a little and see how the French came to Malabar. The Compagnie Française des Indes Orientales was established by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, finance minister to King Louis XIV. It had difficulty gaining the financial support of French merchants, and by 1668 the King himself was the biggest investor, and the company was to remain under his control.

The company sent expeditions to the Indes which were often harassed and seized by the Dutch. The French East India Company flourished briefly from 1670 to 1675; nevertheless was not very profitable and by 1680 did not look very healthy, even the ships were in need of big repair. Our friend Dellon was with them during those hey days, the days when they were the biggest threat to the Dutch and the Portuguese.

Dellon, a physician spent some time in North Malabar and was operating out of the French factory in Tellicherry for five years after which he left the French services. Six months later, he was in jail In Daman, labeled a heretic by the Inquisition of Goa. How did that happen? Let us take a detailed look

Dellon though complaining of sea sickness and a troubled voyage followed by a brief stay in Madagascar, had no difficulties at Malabar. He settled down famously, observing and penning his diary with good accuracy. If you read his accounts, you would be amazed at the seriousness with which he went about the task of understanding his new world. His study of the flora, the fauna, the people, the animals were outstanding, be they the Tiyas or the Nairs, or the coconut tree, which he rightly termed the greatest tree of the universe. He observes that pickles are called achar and toddy called exactly as it is today, but sees so many parrots, peacocks and wild boars and so on in Malabar, now all gone.

He is surprised that the Malabar Nair lady does not use perfumes and uses just coconut oil for the hair, not even adorning flowers unlike the women of Surat. He is mystified that North Malabar men eat animals like boar, but never a rabbit. The elephant amazes him, with its intelligence and he testifies to the same with a couple of interesting stories. Some of the aspects of his account especially the guard/escort systems provided by the Nairs, excommunication and outcastes, the Zamorin’s chief lieutenant etc. have been hardly mentioned in such detail by other writers so I will perhaps cover them later in a more factual essay. In fact he mentions that the Nairs of 1670, were sharp shooters carrying both muskets and the ball making molds, firing them with the rifle butt on the cheek, unlike Europeans who kept the butt on the shoulder. They had other arms too like the six foot bow and arrows, scimitars and lances. But then again, according to Dellon, even though courageous, the Nair’s never maintained order while marching, and were not structured or disciplined during combat. He spends a few paragraphs on the Moplah’s and states clearly that a tenth of the proceeds of their piratical endeavors were submitted to the prince of the land.

An interesting story of his stay pops up in an article (SG Goodrich) about tigers - It appears that Dellon kept a tiger for several months, which was secured by a strong chain. This animal was cunning enough to scatter a portion of the rice that was set before him, as far round the front of his den as possible. This enticed the poultry to come and pick it up. The tiger pretended to be asleep, in order to induce them to approach nearer, when he suddenly sprang upon them, and seldom failed to make several of them his prey.

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

As he passes Goa, he mentions ‘Just opposite to the Cathedral in a great square stands that famous house, whose very name makes many thousands tremble in those parts; this is the Court of Inquisition, called by the Portuguese, Santa Casaou Casa d’osanto Officio’. Little was he to know what was in store for him or what his stars foretold..

As is reported - In January 1672, Dellon sailed from Tellicherry on his return to Surat: the ships stopped at Mangalore, at Mirzeou, from whence they withdrew the factory, at Goa, Atchara, and Rajapore, and arrived at Surat in the middle of March. From hence he sailed in November in a ship of force, sent to convoy home another of value from Gombroon. The two were met in their return, off Diu, by four which were cruizing for them, and all together put into Bombay in January 1673, from whence they arrived at Surat in the beginning of February.

He arrived at Daman (Damao) a Portuguese colony in 1674, where his future was to change. His first days were very pleasing, spent in the company of many a woman. Dellon says – ‘I must confess that I never passed three weeks more pleasantly than these, in all my life time’. So much so that he decided to find himself a house and settle down there, finding good medical practice and many patients. As Abbe Carre puts it, Young, good looking, intelligent and knowledgeable in Latin, he soon won local prestige, but all of Dellon's science consisted in knowing how to bleed. On the first of January 1674 he sailed from Daman, and having touched at Bassein, arrived at Goa on the 14th. In this city he continued two years, and sailed for Lisbon and France in January 1676. Soon thereafter, he was arrested by the Inquisition and taken to Goa, where he was imprisoned for two years.

So why did he get into trouble with the inquisition?

"The jealousy of the Captain ( Furtado) was motivated by my frequent and innocent visits that I made to a lady that he coveted:; I was equally greatly loved by her, a circumstance which until then I ignored; and as he judged things by light appearances, he learnt soon that I was his most beloved rival"

"An ecclesiastic, a native, secretary of the Holy Office, who lived in front of the house of the said lady, also nurtured a strong passion, like that of the captain-governor, citing her infamously even in the tribunal of penitence, as was revealed to me by herself. This priest, observing my visits, had become as jealous as the captain, and even though until then he was one of my best friends, grateful for the important services rendered by me, nevertheless he made a common cause with Captain Manoel Furtado to provoke my ruin".

As the story is told by Abbe Carre --------------

M. Vidal had been married in Daman for 15 years and had amassed great riches and honour by the annual voyages which he made to Eastern kingdoms as commander of both Moor and Portuguese ships. Nevertheless he was not better off on this account as his wealth, wife and family were at Daman and he could never remove any of them from Portuguese territory. By this wife he had only a small son, now 8 years old and his chief consolation next to his wife, who was very handsome. Until now he had always thought her virtuous because she had so well hidden her love affairs, of which he had only slight suspicions. But this year, on his return from a 10 months voyage to Mozambique, as captain of a vessel belonging to Manuel Furtado de Mendoza, governor of Daman, he was much astonished to find his wife seven months gone with child. He learnt with extreme displeasure that she had led an immoral and disgraceful life, both in her own house and also that of the governor, where she went every night. The governor, who was a near relation of the viceroy, thus set a fine example. Not only had he a wife and a twenty-years-old son with him but also a troop of concubines and besides he now debauched the wife of an honourable man...

About this time there was a young Parisian Frenchman, a M. Dellon, who in 1668 had left France for India in the ship La Force as surgeon's mate. .. He was considered to be the cleverest doctor in India... Being French, he freely visited the family of M. Vidal, where he became like the son of the house. The Portuguese governor, madly jealous of him, resolved to do something unexpected to prevent his visits to this house where the governor's own affections were deeply involved...

So knowing the habit of this young surgeon to argue about our religion, he asked him civilly to bleed his son and laid a trap for our young doctor by attaching an ivory figure of St. Antony to the boy's arm. This Portuguese plot succeeded as they had hoped, for before the doctor began to put a ligature on the arm of the governor's son he asked the boy to take off his St. Antony as it hindered the operation. Thereupon the boy replied that he would not do so as St. Antony would prevent any mistakes or accidents that might happen during bleeding. The young doctor did not fail to say that it was an absurd superstition to imagine that St. Antony had any effect on the operation. So from these and other words there arose a sharp quarrel on the merits of St. Antony and M. Dellon spoke a little carelessly, though without malice. The witnesses, who had been placed there for the purpose, went at once, on behalf of the governor, to the Father Rector of the Paulists, who was also the local Commissary of the Inquisition at Goa. They accused the French doctor of heresy and uttering words against the Holy Faith..." Dellon was imprisoned, transferred to Goa where the Inquisition imprisoned him for a further two years and then condemned him to a further five years on Portuguese galleys.

Archbishop of Evora while providing a statement later in Lisbon confirms that this was commonplace – “The Inquisitors even attained the infamy of sending to their prisons women who resisted them, there satisfying their beastly instincts and then burning them as heretics."

I will not write about Dellon’s accounts of the inquisition, and they are available freely on Google books. It is somewhat chilling when looked at with the medieval timeline, but in today’s world, even more terrible state sponsored activities do take place.

In the account, we read about his terror of being picked up for death for burning at the stake, of his immense relief in escaping it, his excommunication and later pardon, confiscation of goods, five years solitary confinement. He was also sworn to secrecy and to keep silent about all he had seen and heard at the court. Eventually he is allowed to leave Goa (1677) and he goes to France via Brazil and Lisbon. At Lisbon, he applies for mercy and finally gets a release towards autumn 1677 and sails off to France for good.

Upon returning to France he continued medical practice and accompanied Prince Conti on his trip to Hungary in 1685. The description of Dellon’s misfortunes, first published in 1685 in Paris (under title "Relation de l’Inquisition de Goa" in 1688, Leyden and Paris) "proved a considerable success, particularly in Protestant Europe, where it ran to numerous editions. Although long regarded as a work of propaganda, recent research has testified to its accuracy". When asked why he remained silent so long, Dellon remarked that he took his secrecy oath seriously until it weighted down his mind and he decided to tell all. The book was however banned for a number of years in the catholic world, including India.

The Portuguese and their descendants unfortunately continued to be metidos em saias – entangled in skirts, and of course in religion, even in defeat. As Mario puts it, their cause in the name of religion eventually became their undoing.

References

A voyage to the East Indies – M Dellon
Dellon’s account of the inquisition at Goa - Dellon
Legends of Goa – Mario Cabral E Sa
Distant lands and diverse cultures - Dellon and the Goa Inqusition – Glen Ames
Medicine in Goa, a former Portuguese territory SK Pandya
Memoirs of Claudius Buchanan
Inquisition in Goa – Alfredo DeMello http://www.colaco.net/1/inquisition2.htm
Land of the Great Image: Being Experiences of Faiar Manrique in Arakan - Angel Manrique



This was a light introduction. Part 2 will cover the details of his observations of Malabar and its people.

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