THE GATEWAY TO BAROQUE
Jayaram Poduval
Published in : Marg Publication, Mumbai, 2001, India & Portugal- Cultural Interations, Ed. Jose Periera & Pradapaditya Pal
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"Thus to the Eastern wealth through storm we go;
But now, the cape once doubled, fear no more:
A constant Trade wind will securely blow,
And gently lay us on the spicy shore”
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"Thus to the Eastern wealth through storm we go;
But now, the cape once doubled, fear no more:
A constant Trade wind will securely blow,
And gently lay us on the spicy shore”
Vondel.
In praise of Navigation[1]
Beyond the Eastern Darkness lay the sands of the black gold and spices, a land of milk and honey, of abundance, of the legendary Prester John, of the Three Wise Kings of the East. The land, to which the 15th century enlightened Europe, looked forward to. They ended their anticipation with a sigh of relief when Vasco Da Gama set his foot on the sands of Kappattu, near Calicut on 27 of May 1498.
Unlike the other port towns on the Kerala coast like Vilinjam, Musiris, Pantalayini and Nura, Kochi does not figure in the early navigation maps. In fact the central and south Kerala trade was controlled at Musiris, which was part of the erstwhile Princely State of Kochi. It was at Musiris the legendary Apostle St.Thomas reputedly landed way back in 52 AD. Musiris remained the gateway to welcome the Christian immigrants from Edessa under the leadership of Thomas of Kanai in 485 AD. The legendary ruler of unified Kerala, Ceraman Perumal left for Macca from Musiris itself. Ceraman Perumal prior to his departure is said to have divided his domain among three vassals. Venad region [Southern Kerala], bequeathed to the Tiruvitancore [Travancore] Kings, Kochi region [Central Kerala], to the Perumpadappu Kings and the remaining portion of north to Kunnalakonatiri [Skt.Samutiri] Kings. Probably after the disintegration of the Cera Kingdom of Mahodayapuram the commercial strategic position of Musiris was taken over by Calicut [Kozhikkode] under the patronage of the Samutiris. The indigenous Muslim traders in partnership with the pardesi Muslims controlled the spice trade at Calicut. There were other communities too; who participated in the trade like the vaniyas [baniya], Parsis and Borah Muslims of Gujarat, Tamil and Telugu Chettis, Syrian Christians of Kerala and the Chinese. However, the West bound trade was dominated by the Mappilas [Kerala Muslim traders] along with the Muslim traders of Hurmuz, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The sea route from Kerala in the pre Carreira da India [Cape route] was laborious and expensive as it had to pass through ports and toll points as Hurmuz, Jidda, Cairo, Alexandria and Venice, as the local informant Gasper Da Gama would explain[2]. The intention of the Portuguese endeavour was precisely against this Moor-Egyptian and Venetian network.
As Adam Smith establishes, "The discovery of America and that of a Passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope are the two greatest and most important events recorded in the History of mankind"[3]. Both Gama and Columbus discovered the Indies, one the West and the other the East. If Gama's discovery was significant then, the journey of Columbus was pivotal to the development of the Western World. Both these sailors wished to reach One land; one believed that he did and the other really did land. This was the land as Gaspar da Gama[4] would state as the “land from which there originates the spice that is eaten in the west, and in the Levent, and in Portugal and equally so in all provinces of the world”. The land where “the half naked monarchs” held the monopoly over the "Black Gold” assisted by the Moorish traders who exclaimed to the first Portuguese sailors in Calicut, "Devil take you, what the hell are you doing here?”[5]
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The land of immense fertility Kerala could provide the stage for the production of the spices for the traders whose land was lacking the suitable climatic conditions. Of all the spices the most important was the "Black gold" or Pepper. Along with Pepper the spices traded were Cardamom, turmeric, Ginger and Cinnamon. The Pre-Christian notes of Pliny [1st Century. AD], and Ptolemy [2nd Century. AD] mentions the "Land of Pepper". The anonymous author of the "Periplus of the Erythrian Sea" gives a first hand information of the land of Kerala referring to few ports as Musiris [or Kodungallur Port was destroyed in a massive flood in 1345 which incidently created the Kochi harbor], Tindi [identified as Pantalayini] , Barake [may be Purakkad in South Kerala] and Nura [Cannanore][6]. The Roman intelligentsia laments in 2nd century AD of the gold reserve flowing to east in exchange to Pepper and other spices. When the Alaric I, a Visigoth ruler invaded Rome in 410 AD, he asked for a ransom of 3000 Pounds of Pepper to spare the city[7]. The final word on the importance of Pepper can be that of Stephen Neill who wrote, “The History of Europe can almost be written in terms of Pepper... In a world which as yet knew neither the potato nor the turnip, the winter diet of salt meat and hard bread must have been almost unendurable, unless eastern spices were available to disguise in some measure the unpleasant flavour of what without them would have been almost uneatable[8]”
The Chinese were the allies of the Kerala traders for a long time. They gave way for the Arab traders who in turn controlled the western trade in the sea till the arrival of the European powers. This pre Islamic Arabs from Oman coast were the main suppliers of spices to Europe. They never revealed the source of these spices and even spread the stories of great birds protecting these spices in their nests in the unapproachable mountains of Arabia and Ethiopia[9].
The early European travellers to the Pepper land include Marco Polo [13th century], John of Monti Corvino [13th century], Friar Jordanus [14th century], and Nicolo Conti [15th century]. M.N. Pearson[10] summarise the pre-Gama or endeavour of the Europeans to east thus, "For centuries European traders and travellers had adventured through the middle East to the Indian Ocean. We know of several European Visitors to India in the fifteenth century. One of them was Pero de Covilham, sent out by the Portuguese sovereign D. Joao II in 1487 to investigate the conditions in the Indian Ocean. He visited Cannanore, Calicut, Goa, Hurmuz and also East African ports as far south as Sofala".
Pearson put forward another incident, that "In September 1498 Gama came across [in Calicut] a Polish Jew who spoke, reputedly, Hebrew, Venetian, Arabic, German and a little Spanish". This Alexandrian born Jew [who later, on board of Vasco da Gama’s ship near Malindi, converted to Christianity and was given the name Gasper da Gama] was a treasure of information on the political and commercial matters of the Indian Ocean. Dom Manuel, the Portuguese monarch admits in a letter the indebtedness to him thus “for had he not come, it would have taken many years to know what had been found, in as great length, and as deeply, as we know now. May god be praised. This man knows how to speak Hebrew, Chaldean, Arabic, and German; he also speaks Italian mixed with Spanish so clearly that one can follow him like a Portuguese, and he can understand our people no less[11].” Gasper da Gama came board on the Portuguese ship as a spy of one of the “Moorish” [Islamic] ruler of Western India, probably the Adil Shahi Sultans of Bijapur who tried to chase away the Portuguese explorers to eliminate the threat to the Moorish trade on the Arabian Sea. Later Gasper became the key informer of the Portuguese on the political and maritime affairs of the Indian Ocean. He is the key figure in the history of Portuguese settlement at Kochi, as it was on his advise that Cabral sought alliance with the King of Kochi when the Samutiri continued his hostility to the Portuguese.
Portuguese for Spice and Christians
The intentions of the first voyage were quite simple, find a sea route to east and establish commercial links to the East. Gama was not happy with the receptions he got in Calicut as the pressure from the Arab merchants forced the Samutiri of Calicut to act hostile to the Portuguese. The Moorish/Arabian traders did not want any of the European powers enter directly into the spice trade, that was exactly the intention of the Portuguese. The Egyptian rulers who benefited from the spice trade to West even tried to pressurise the Portuguese through Pope himself. The Papal authority at this juncture supported the Portuguese may be reasoning on the religious fervour shared by them. The treatment Gama received from these traders at Calicut was enough to unveil their intentions. “The anonymous account assures us when any Portuguese went ashore, the Muslim merchants would spit on the ground near them, and say `Portugal, Portugal’ in an insulting fashion; besides, we are told that `from the beginning they sought means to capture us and kill us.’[12] The sole European trading community trusted by the Muslim merchants at Calicut was that of the Venetian and the only language interpreter whom Gama trusted was a non-Muslim.
Gama landing on 27th of May lingered in Calicut port without making much progress on the trade agreement. He was growing nervous and annoyed with the treatment of Samutiri and took some drastic steps as capturing few Calicut merchants as hostages to retrieve his people ashore. At last some agreement and a letter of acceptance was received and without much delay they decided to leave. Portuguese were unhappy that they “could not manage to leave the land in peace and as friends of the people”[13]. These developments at Calicut would bear its impact on the relation of the Portuguese with Calicut all through the history of Estado da India.
It may be an amusing fact of history that the discoverer of Brazil [in 1500] was the first Portuguese to reach Kochi. It was Pedro Alvarez de Gouveia, later knows as Cabral. Starting his journey from Lisbon he reached Brazil and then travelled on to Malabar Coast through Carriera da India. Cabral was well received at Calicut, may be because of the new Samutiri at the helm. The Portuguese did establish a factory at Calicut this time under the factor Aires Correia. Samutiri even asked the help of Cabral to capture a ship from Kochi which allegedly was carrying an elephant, which belonged to Calicut. But matters turned for worse after the Portuguese captured a Muslim ship leaving for Jeddah. The Muslim merchants reacted violently killing around 40 Portuguese including the factor Aires Correia. Cabral retaliated by bombarding Calicut and Pantalayini. To avoid further skirmishes he left for Kochi following the advice of Gasper da Gama. Thus on 24th December 1500 Cabral landed at Kochi.
The adversaries of the Calicut-Moorish trade on the Indian Ocean joined to support the Portuguese, which included the kingdoms of Kochi and Cannanore. Trading communities like the Baniyas of Gujarat, Konkanis and Syrian Christians of Kerala also aided the Portuguese in this tussle. The Syrian Christians who dominated the production and trade of Spices in South Kerala found the shifting of Portuguese to Kochi quite befitting their trade interests. Sanjay Subrahmanyam[14] notes thus about the stand of Kochi King thus, “the Kochi ruler, Unni Goda Varma, appears to have grasped directly the political advantages that would acquire to him by diverting the Portuguese away from Calicut.” Cabral established a factory at Kochi under the factor Goncalo Gil Barbosa, which would remain in the Portuguese hands, despite some interruptions, till 1663.
Cabral on his journey back in January 1501 took three Indians on board. Two of them were from the service of the King of Kochi namely Idikkela Menon and Parangoda [n {?] Menon. The third was a Christian called Joseph of Cranganore. Joseph belonging to the Syrian Church was no novice in foreign travel as we were informed as he had travelled to Antioch in connection with the appointment of the Bishop of Malabar.
Soon after Cabral a Portuguese fleet under Joao da Nova landed at Kochi. Joao da Nova had the ritualistic pleasure of bombarding Calicut en route to Kochi. This fleet reportedly found the factory at Kochi in bad shape. It was now the turn of Vasco da Gama, now elevated in his political and social position to return Malabar. The second voyage of Gama was crucial in forging an alliance between the Portuguese and the Kerala Christians. In November 1502 some of the community members of Syrian Christians met Gama and offered an alliance and even presented a ceremonial offering of a red staff with silver bells on it. This network helped the Portuguese to have an access to the Spice trade in South Kerala. But soon after Gama returned Samutiri put pressure on Raja of Kochi to hand over the Portuguese factor at Kochi. The refusal to which ensued in a War between the Kingdoms. In this war of 1503 the King of Kochi Unni Goda Varma had lost his life. The arrival of Alfonso de Albuquerque eased the tension mounting on the Arabian Sea not because of Albuquerque’s diplomatic abilities but his reputation as ruthless conqueror. In 1503 Albuquerque obtained permission to build fortification to the factory. The building materials for the fortifications were mainly stems of Coconut trees bound with iron bands. Within the fort, which was named as Manuel Kotta [Fort of Manuel, after the King of Portugal], they also built a Church dedicated St.Bartholomew, another patron saint of India along with St.Thomas. Raja of Cochin Unnirama Koyikkal II pleased by the Golden crown presented by Dom Francisco Almeida in 1506, permitted the Portuguese to build a new city of mortar and stone. Apart from the fortifications, a new Church, was built in 1516 and dedicated to St. Anthony. The fortification and the settlement would remain with the Portuguese for all most 150 years, though from the time of Albuquerque itself the focus of Estado da India was gradually shifting from Kochi to Goa. It also marked the shift from trade to that of territorial interest.
Portuguese and Christians Jesuits in Kerala
The second intention of the Portuguese was to propagate Christianity in the new- world, but this was not as easy as they thought. To his amazement of Gama found that Christianity did exist in the region. The Kerala Christians were quite helpful to the new traders, not because they found fraternity with the Portuguese but they themselves were traders dealing with spices. An Italian letter of 1505 [probably from the Portuguese sources to the Papal authority] quoted by Rogers explain the stupefaction the Early European traders had of the Kerala Church. "In this kingdom [Kochi] there are many Christians converted by St. Thomas, whose apostolic life their priests follow with great devotion and strictness. They have churches where there is only the cross and celebrate mass with unleavened bread and wine, which is made from raisins and water as nothing else, is available to them. All Christians go with their hair uncut and beard unshaved”[15]
From the above description along with that of Jordanus would give us a vivid picture of the Eastern Christians, prior to the arrival of the Europeans. The areas where there were no Christians as Goa in the early 16th century, the soldiers themselves took in their hands the conversion affair. As a missionary would lament in 1550 from Goa, “These ... soldiers began to baptise ... people whom they enslaved without any respect and reverence for the sacrament and without catechising or indoctrination”[16]. In the areas as Kerala where Christianity did exist, the Portuguese tried to “re-Christianise” them, of course with the help of the Jesuits. Jesuits came to Kochi in 1524. Famous among these Jesuits missionaries was St. Francis Xavier who came to India, “as an emissary not only of Christ but of John III of Portugal”[17]. St. Francis travelled in Travancore and converted many that mainly belonged to the fishing community who lovingly called him as Great Father. He seemed to have built 45 churches in Travancore before he left India in 1552. In 1577 the Jesuits established the first Printing press of South India at Kochi under a Spanish Missionary named Joannes Gonzalvez. In 1603 this press was shifted from Kochi to Kodungallur.
Apart from initiating the colonial trade and exchange of Flora from Kerala to the New World and back the Portuguese introduced to the Indian shores Christian Iconography. The Christian art of Kerala has a great indebtedness to the Portuguese art and to the other styles as that of Dutch, ironically through the Portuguese and the Jesuits under them. Even under the Dutch and the English domination Christian art remained in the style as introduced by the Portuguese. The difference of course is visible, however between the Colonial art of the Portuguese [as seen in Goa, Daman and Diu] to that of the Church art of Kerala. Prior to the discussion regarding Christian art of Kerala it will be pertinent to look at the history Kerala Christianity.
Christianity in Kerala prior to Portuguese
The legend of St. Thomas maintains that the Apostle landed near Musiris in 52 AD and converted few families and established seven churches. To quote Nicol Macnicol[18] "If it were possible to accept as historical the legend that is recorded in the apocryphal Acts of Judas Thomas (dated by Harnack in the 3rd Century AD), the Christian religion was first preached in India by the Apostle Thomas about A.D.50. Similarly the Tradition preserved by the Syrian Christian Church in Travancore claims St. Thomas as its founder and dates arrival in India in the year 52 [AD]" This legend is acceptable only to few believers and historians. When one consider the trade connection with East and West that might have passed through Jerusalem, it is not impossible for an Apostle or Evangelist to travel to East. Jerome who wrote in 4th Century observes “The Son of God was present to all places, with Thomas in India, with Peter in Rome, with Paul in Illyria...”[19]. Another literary reference from Briton points towards the acceptance of St. Thomas as the Apostle of India. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reads thus. "The Year 883, in the same year Singhlem and Aethalstan conveyed to Rome the alms, which the King [King Alfred] had vowed to send hither, and also to India to St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew, when they sat down against the [Danish] army at London: and there, God be thanked, their prayer was very successful after that vow"[20]. Andrian Fortescue provide us with further information about these alms as, "He [King Alfred] sent Singhelm, the Bishop of Shireburn with gifts. Singhelm came to Rome and then went on to the Malabar Coast. He made his offerings here and brought back from his long journey jewels and spices. Strange to see an English Bishop in India in 883"[21]
It is still a mystery whether the Apostle Thomas himself or the descendants of the Church he established in the Near Eastern City of Edessa had come to India. Another tradition proposes that 400 Christians belonging to seven clans from Baghdad, Ninevah and Jerusalem migrated to Kerala in 345 AD to escape the persecution of the Sassanid Emperor of Persia. "A merchant called Thomas Cannaneo or Thomas of Jerusalem drew the attention of the Edessan Church to this neglected outpost and caused to succour to be sent to it in the year 345[22]”. In 6th century an Alexandrian merchant namely Cosmos Indicopleustes mentions about a Christian Church in the port town of Kollam in south Kerala. When Sthanu Ravi Varma of the Second Chera Dynasty [12th Century AD] was ruling, a local chieftain Ayyanadigal Thiruvadigal issues the copper plate of Tarisa palli giving concessions to the Christian merchant of Kollam. The Dominican Friar Jordanus states in 1330 "In this India, there is a scattered people, one here, another there, who calls themselves Christians, but are not so, nor have any baptism, nor do they know anything else about the faith. Nay, they believe St. Thomas the Great to be Christ"[23].
Conversion of Kerala Christians and the Koonan Kurisu Episode
It is for sure that though the Portuguese was happy to see Christians in India, but they were least pleased to realise that these Christians believed in what the Roman Church considered as heresy. For the Portuguese and the Jesuits the true Christian was the one who accepted a True incarnation for Christ, the term “theotokos” for the Virgin Mother and who used the Roman doctrine of the mass; not to mention the authority of the Pope. Under the Portuguese, the Eastern Christians were “made to renounce Nestorianism and all connections with the Katholikos in Mesopotamia, accept the Catholic faith and the Pope’s authority”[24].
The Latinisation of the Kerala church was administered by Alexio de Menezies, the Bishop of Goa with due support by the Pope and the Portuguese monarch in 1599. Menezies organised the synod of Diamper few Kilometres south of Kochi [Udayamperoor in Malayalam] on 20th June 1599. The aim of the Synod was as stated in the statement including; “[25]{1} Submission of all Syrian books in the Archdiocese for correction or burning as the Archbishop thought fit; {2} Rejection of the authority of the Patriarch of Babylon and severing all connections from him; {3} Recognition of the Pope as Supreme Head of the Church of Christ; {4} Rejection of all Bishops not approved by Goa and {5} Acknowledgement of Archbishop of Goa as the ecclesiastical superior”. The Portuguese offered protection to the new Roman Catholics though officially it meant the protection of the spiritual matters as Menezies would clarify in a letter to the Rajah of Kochi.
This attempt for the union of the Eastern Church to that of Rome never endured. The breach in the New Roman Catholic community was soon erupted through the revolt of the 1653 when Syrian Christians sworn on the Koonan Cross at Mattancherry in Kochi that they will never obey the Bishop of Goa and refuted whatever the Synod of Diamper stood for. In 1665 Gregory, Monophysite Bishop of Jerusalem came to India and ordained a Metropolitan for India, thus creating the Jacobite Syrian Christians named thus after the Jacob Baradai, a Edessan Monophysite monk of 6th century.
As part of the Christianisation and education of the Kerala Christians, the missionaries surely must have imported the icons from Europe. Even the sailors carried the images, predominantly wooden, on board of ship as a talisman. The Marhina Musuem at Belam [Portugal] has an image of St.Raphael [Santo Raffello] reputedly travelled to Kerala and back along with Vasco da Gama in all his three expeditions. Sanjay Sbrahmanyam mentions another incident where Samutiri mentions to Gama that, “he had heard that the Portuguese had an icon of the virgin made of gold, to which Gama replied that, first, it was not made of gold, and second, that he could not part with it in any case, since it was a talisman which he had kept him safe on his voyage”. A few among the icons, which were imported from Europe are still preserved in few churches of Kerala. The St. Thomas Church at Tumboli, Alappuzha District has an image of Virgin Mary that the local people call as the “Kappalkkarattiyamma” [Trans.: The mother who came by ship]. The image St. Sebastian [locally known as Veluttacchan] in the Church of St Andrews at Arthungal was transported from France[26]. One could never propose that the Christian icons in Kerala were imports from Europe. The few imported icons definitely acted as the role models. The role model to a different art tradition, divergent in theme and form, from the indigenous Hindu tradition in wood.
The facades and retables in the altars of the Kerala churches, regardless of the patronage and cultic difference, follow the Portuguese style. The facades with curving Dutch gables have fan like curving members on the sides like the one at St.Mary’s Church at Tripunittura. The niches at times appear in the triangle format occupied by the figures of saints. The nave doors have curved portals with slender pilasters reminding of the Romanesque tradition. The interior avoids any decoration on the nave ceiling that remains open to the roof. The Altar region would have a lower ceiling occasionally having paintings or a coffered pattern. The pioneer Church builders in the Portuguese time used wood as the prime material for construction. The Church of St.Francis at Kochi has a wooden chapel, which built in 1503, which was rebuilt in masonary in 1506-1516.
The ground plans of the churches present again an unwritten treaty between the indigenous and European traditions. The columns inside the churches never show their affinity with the religious architecture, as they remain as austere as in any other traditions. In Kerala these oblong halls with columns were common in the Hindu temples and Mosques. An agrasala [the ceremonial feast hall] or koothambalam [ritual performance hall] in a Hindu temple complex would have the similar architecture plan. Thus the colonial builders had no hesitation in appropriating the style. Anyhow the shape of a temple and that of church was not that different in 16th century, which lead Vasco Da Gama to mistake a Kali temple [probably Pishari Kavu Bhagavati temple at Pantalayini Kollam] for a church. Some of the pre Colonial churches followed the existing religious architecture tradition of Kerala. The church in Chegannur has a roof, gable and front hall similar to the Narasimha Temple at Chengannur itself. The Churches in Kaduthuruthi, Muttachira and Kuruvilangad has the Cross mounted on a pedestal strikingly akin to the balikkals of Kerala temples. This spirit of appropriation that occur in architecture is absent in the case of sculpture.
Finding the source of this imported architecture would take one to the doors of many European nations. The popular gable style of the Kerala Churches was the Dutch gables. The retables on the altars are very similar to the Portuguese Baroque style. The contemporary Churches in Goa, Lisbon and Brazil are more majestic and decorative compared to the churches of Kerala. The only reason for this disparity may be that Kerala, except Kochi, was never under the direct control of the Portuguese.
A brief look into the Portuguese art History would give us another dimension. What was the official architecture of Portugal in the 16th and 17th Centuries? The Portuguese monarchs like D.Manuel and Dom Joao V looked to Italy for the inspiration. They even imported artists and architects from Italy. The dependence Portugal to Rome in matters of religion would rationalise the acceptance of Italian art by the Portuguese. Among all the imported architecture styles during Renaissance, the Fillippo Terzi style found great recognition. Terzi initiated the Portuguese style of architecture by late 16th century. Terzi’s style was acceptable for the Jesuits all over the New World, who were primarily responsible for the building of the churches. It was acceptable for them as it based on the Italian principles, approved by the papal authority. Writes James Lees-Milne, “Terzi himself an Italian, indoctrinated Portuguese architects with contemporary Italian principles, introduced the Jesuit Style of Church decoration and indirectly paved the way for Portuguese Baroque. The Terzi facade is found not only in mother country, but in Brazil, Goa and Macao.”[27]
One architecture feature that appears distinctly Portuguese is the retables, appearing on the extreme end of the altar. This highly decorated, gilded mostly wooden, backdrops of the altar was the decorative focus of church interior. They have niches flanked with twisted pilasters toped with Corinthian foliage capitals. The niches, usually in three tiers, have curved arches and in many occasions they are styled as decorated shells, as one would observe in the Romanesque and Baroque period. The top portions of the retables are curved similar to the facades outside. The whole architecture composition is decorated with creepers, foliage, supported by cherubs and soldier figures. Surprisingly even there are many disparities between the Goan and Kerala churches, the retables remain more or less the same in both the regions. The description of Portuguese Baroque retables given by Milne would fit well on the retables of Kerala and Goa. To quote him, “The 17th Baroque was marked by a peculiar simplicity of structure, and an extreme complexity of decoration. It is chiefly found in the interiors of small churches. Notably in retables, and, what is unique Portugal, in the curious decorative pelmets over the entrance to shrines, suggesting rows of the massive curtain boxes. These strange adjuncts are of heavily carved wood, gilded and occasionally multi-coloured. The retables are architectural compositions, frames in alternating salomonicas and pilaster, and usually stepped back to a considerable depth to convey a sense of distance and mystery.”[28]
The retables at Kerala betray their Portuguese lineage. Even the motifs remain unaltered. The retables in Kerala would have twisted wine creepers, corn, wheat and acanthus leaf, similar to that of Goa and Portugal. None of these produced in Kerala even now. So the decorative flora seems to have imported, say along with the architecture. The 16-17th Century indigenous architecture decorative patterns were achieved through palm, lotuses, makara and vyali motifs, which are conspicuously, absent in the church decorations. Both these traditions never seem to be aware of the other or fail to acknowledge the existence of the other.
This position is operative in the sculpture tradition too. As mentioned elsewhere in the paper, we see that the Jesuits brought in or imported sculptures from Europe. The question that ensues here is that from which country in Europe. They were not indispensably from Portugal as evident from the figure of St.Sebastion at Arthungal, which was reputedly brought from France. Then there is a possibility of Portuguese nobles or Jesuits, commissioning someone from Italy, as it was the case of St. Francis Xavior’s Mausoleum in Goa, patronised by an Italian noble, Grand Duke Cosimo III and executed by an Italian artist Placido Francesco Rampani in 1698. Obviously Kerala was not in the European noble man’s itinerary. The sculptures that came to Kerala were mainly woodcarvings with features strikingly similar to the wooden sculptures of Germany or painted figures of Netherlands. They lacked the grandeur of the Italian Baroque. They still had a medieval gloom on their face. The compositions were rather rigid with no attempts for figura Serpentinata.
Ever since the Manoeline time the Portuguese rulers invited artists from Italy and send selected artists to the workshops in Italy to boost the art activity in Portugal. This tradition continued even in 18th Century during the reign of Joao V [1706-50] when he established a sculpture gallery and workshop at Mafra for the development of Italia-Portuguese Art. This does not seem have effected the ingenuous tradition of Portugal, which still persisted in the northern districts[29]. Among the non-Mafra artists one Jacinto Viera’s works are quite similar to the figures in Kerala. The figures of Veira are “touchingly unsophisticated, earnest, and intensely Portuguese”.[30] Milne tries to trace the non-sophistication of these figures and the ingenuous tradition to the Renaissance connection between the Flemish and Portuguese. Nuno de Goncalvez, called the “father of the nation’s [Portugal] painters” of the mid-15th Century has derived his style from masters like his contemporary, Dieric Bouts and his predecessor Jan Van Eyck. The spirit of the indigenous tradition in painting probably had influenced the sculptures too. The figures that came to Kerala might have been from this indigenous school, while Goa, a part of the Portuguese Empire inherited the works of the ’Italio-Portuguese’ school.
In case of Kerala, the wood carving tradition that was active at the time of the Portuguese arrival and the Jesuits continued without acknowledging the new tradition. The wood carving tradition had idealised and stylised forms, tracing the roots to the Pan-South Indian Dravidian style. Interestingly the many temples went under renovation in 16 and 17th centuries, thanks to the financial augmentation the rulers and nobles achieved through the European spice trade. Still nowhere would one observe an approach to naturalism as in the Christian figures. The naturalistic figures of Vishnu and Siva started appearing only after the English Company School of Painting and the acceptance of paintings and oleographs by Ravi Varma in the late 19th century.
The other facet of the query however is why the Sculptor of Christian icons did not carve any image in the indigenous idealised form. He seems to be adhering to the naturalist tradition. He would not even try to ethnically appropriate the form of Christ. To indigenous sculptor, the Christian icons had to posses certain features, the knowledge of which he presumably acquired through the study of the imported images. For the sculptor it was the identity of the images. The formal aspects of the imported images happened to be European Naturalism. The sculptor never tried to decode the complexity of form and symbol. The artists of both the Hindu and Christian tradition clung to their tradition shying away from any modulation.
Like the Chillies, Tomato and Tapioca which is very much part of the Kerala diet, the art tradition brought by the Portuguese entered so deeply in to culture of Kerala it is difficult to distinguish between indigenous and the foreign. It was so much rooted in the art tradition of Kerala Christian art, even the successors of Portuguese in Kerala did not venture to change it. Dutch and the British might have replaced the Portuguese political base of Kochi in 1663 and 1795 respectively, but they could not replace the Portuguese legacy on art in Kerala with Kochi as its fountainhead.
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Endnotes
[1]Vondel [Dutch]. In Praise of Navigation [Het lof der zeevaart] 1623.
Quoted by PETER N.SKRINE. The Baroque.London.1978. pp.77
[2] Sanjay Subrahmanyam. THE CARRER AND LEGEND OF VASCO DA GAMA, New Delhi, 1998.
[3]Field House. COLONIAL EMPIRES.
Though Field House would not completely agree with Adam Smith.
"Smith was of course, taking a narrowly Eurocentric view. Europe had no monopoly of distant trading or overseas empire. ...[sic].. Hence the importance of the first expansion of Europe lay in its effects on Europe rather than its uniqueness as a world phenomenon.
[4] Sanjay Subrahmanyam. THE CARRER AND LEGEND OF VASCO DA GAMA, New Delhi, 1998.
[5]Livermore, HV. PORTUGAL, A SHORT HISTORY, Edinburgh, 1973
[6]. Sreedhara Menon. The Culture of Kerala [Malayalam]
[7]. Sreedhara Menon. The Culture of Kerala [Malayalam]
[8]Stephen Neill. COLONIALISM AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. London. pp.35
[9]Sreedhara Menon...History of Kerala.
[10] M.N.Pearson: The Portuguese in India, THE NEW CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF INDIA, Gen.Ed.Gordon Johnson 1987. Cambridge. pp.11
[11] As quoted by Sanjay Subrahmanyam. THE CARRER AND LEGEND OF VASCO DA GAMA, New Delhi, 1998
[12] As quoted by Sanjay Subrahmanyam. THE CARRER AND LEGEND OF VASCO DA GAMA, New Delhi, 1998
[13] As quoted by Sanjay Subrahmanyam. THE CARRER AND LEGEND OF VASCO DA GAMA, New Delhi, 1998
[14] Sanjay Subrahmanyam. THE CARRER AND LEGEND OF VASCO DA GAMA, New Delhi, 1998
[15]As quoted by Rogers
[16]Stephen Neill. COLONIALISM AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. pp72
[17]Nicol Macnicol. THE LIVING RELIGION OF INDIAN PEOPLE. PP. 276
[18]Nicol Macnicol. THE LIVING RELIGIONS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE [WILDE LECTURES, OXFORD, 1932-34]. pp.269
[19]As quoted by P.Thomas. CHRISTIANS AND CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA AND PAKISTAN.London.1954.pp19
[20]As quoted by J.N.Ogilvie in THE APOSTLES OF INDIA,1915
[21]As quoted by Nicol Macnicol. LIVING RELIGIONS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. London
[22] Nicol Macnicol. LIVING RELIGIONS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. London
[23]As quoted by Nicol Macnicol LIVING RELIGIONS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. London
[24]Nicol Macnicoll LIVING RELIGIONS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. London
[25]P.Thomas. CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA AND PAKISTAN.London.pp.92
[26] Sreedhara Menon. The Culture of Kerala [Malayalam], Kottayam, 1992
[27]James Lees Milne. BAROQUE IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, London pp.161-162
[28]James Lees Milne. BAROQUE IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, London pp. 164
[29]James Lees-Milne BAROQUE IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, London. pp.179
[30]James Lees-Milne BAROQUE IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, London. pp.179
In praise of Navigation[1]
Beyond the Eastern Darkness lay the sands of the black gold and spices, a land of milk and honey, of abundance, of the legendary Prester John, of the Three Wise Kings of the East. The land, to which the 15th century enlightened Europe, looked forward to. They ended their anticipation with a sigh of relief when Vasco Da Gama set his foot on the sands of Kappattu, near Calicut on 27 of May 1498.
Unlike the other port towns on the Kerala coast like Vilinjam, Musiris, Pantalayini and Nura, Kochi does not figure in the early navigation maps. In fact the central and south Kerala trade was controlled at Musiris, which was part of the erstwhile Princely State of Kochi. It was at Musiris the legendary Apostle St.Thomas reputedly landed way back in 52 AD. Musiris remained the gateway to welcome the Christian immigrants from Edessa under the leadership of Thomas of Kanai in 485 AD. The legendary ruler of unified Kerala, Ceraman Perumal left for Macca from Musiris itself. Ceraman Perumal prior to his departure is said to have divided his domain among three vassals. Venad region [Southern Kerala], bequeathed to the Tiruvitancore [Travancore] Kings, Kochi region [Central Kerala], to the Perumpadappu Kings and the remaining portion of north to Kunnalakonatiri [Skt.Samutiri] Kings. Probably after the disintegration of the Cera Kingdom of Mahodayapuram the commercial strategic position of Musiris was taken over by Calicut [Kozhikkode] under the patronage of the Samutiris. The indigenous Muslim traders in partnership with the pardesi Muslims controlled the spice trade at Calicut. There were other communities too; who participated in the trade like the vaniyas [baniya], Parsis and Borah Muslims of Gujarat, Tamil and Telugu Chettis, Syrian Christians of Kerala and the Chinese. However, the West bound trade was dominated by the Mappilas [Kerala Muslim traders] along with the Muslim traders of Hurmuz, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The sea route from Kerala in the pre Carreira da India [Cape route] was laborious and expensive as it had to pass through ports and toll points as Hurmuz, Jidda, Cairo, Alexandria and Venice, as the local informant Gasper Da Gama would explain[2]. The intention of the Portuguese endeavour was precisely against this Moor-Egyptian and Venetian network.
As Adam Smith establishes, "The discovery of America and that of a Passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope are the two greatest and most important events recorded in the History of mankind"[3]. Both Gama and Columbus discovered the Indies, one the West and the other the East. If Gama's discovery was significant then, the journey of Columbus was pivotal to the development of the Western World. Both these sailors wished to reach One land; one believed that he did and the other really did land. This was the land as Gaspar da Gama[4] would state as the “land from which there originates the spice that is eaten in the west, and in the Levent, and in Portugal and equally so in all provinces of the world”. The land where “the half naked monarchs” held the monopoly over the "Black Gold” assisted by the Moorish traders who exclaimed to the first Portuguese sailors in Calicut, "Devil take you, what the hell are you doing here?”[5]
* *
The land of immense fertility Kerala could provide the stage for the production of the spices for the traders whose land was lacking the suitable climatic conditions. Of all the spices the most important was the "Black gold" or Pepper. Along with Pepper the spices traded were Cardamom, turmeric, Ginger and Cinnamon. The Pre-Christian notes of Pliny [1st Century. AD], and Ptolemy [2nd Century. AD] mentions the "Land of Pepper". The anonymous author of the "Periplus of the Erythrian Sea" gives a first hand information of the land of Kerala referring to few ports as Musiris [or Kodungallur Port was destroyed in a massive flood in 1345 which incidently created the Kochi harbor], Tindi [identified as Pantalayini] , Barake [may be Purakkad in South Kerala] and Nura [Cannanore][6]. The Roman intelligentsia laments in 2nd century AD of the gold reserve flowing to east in exchange to Pepper and other spices. When the Alaric I, a Visigoth ruler invaded Rome in 410 AD, he asked for a ransom of 3000 Pounds of Pepper to spare the city[7]. The final word on the importance of Pepper can be that of Stephen Neill who wrote, “The History of Europe can almost be written in terms of Pepper... In a world which as yet knew neither the potato nor the turnip, the winter diet of salt meat and hard bread must have been almost unendurable, unless eastern spices were available to disguise in some measure the unpleasant flavour of what without them would have been almost uneatable[8]”
The Chinese were the allies of the Kerala traders for a long time. They gave way for the Arab traders who in turn controlled the western trade in the sea till the arrival of the European powers. This pre Islamic Arabs from Oman coast were the main suppliers of spices to Europe. They never revealed the source of these spices and even spread the stories of great birds protecting these spices in their nests in the unapproachable mountains of Arabia and Ethiopia[9].
The early European travellers to the Pepper land include Marco Polo [13th century], John of Monti Corvino [13th century], Friar Jordanus [14th century], and Nicolo Conti [15th century]. M.N. Pearson[10] summarise the pre-Gama or endeavour of the Europeans to east thus, "For centuries European traders and travellers had adventured through the middle East to the Indian Ocean. We know of several European Visitors to India in the fifteenth century. One of them was Pero de Covilham, sent out by the Portuguese sovereign D. Joao II in 1487 to investigate the conditions in the Indian Ocean. He visited Cannanore, Calicut, Goa, Hurmuz and also East African ports as far south as Sofala".
Pearson put forward another incident, that "In September 1498 Gama came across [in Calicut] a Polish Jew who spoke, reputedly, Hebrew, Venetian, Arabic, German and a little Spanish". This Alexandrian born Jew [who later, on board of Vasco da Gama’s ship near Malindi, converted to Christianity and was given the name Gasper da Gama] was a treasure of information on the political and commercial matters of the Indian Ocean. Dom Manuel, the Portuguese monarch admits in a letter the indebtedness to him thus “for had he not come, it would have taken many years to know what had been found, in as great length, and as deeply, as we know now. May god be praised. This man knows how to speak Hebrew, Chaldean, Arabic, and German; he also speaks Italian mixed with Spanish so clearly that one can follow him like a Portuguese, and he can understand our people no less[11].” Gasper da Gama came board on the Portuguese ship as a spy of one of the “Moorish” [Islamic] ruler of Western India, probably the Adil Shahi Sultans of Bijapur who tried to chase away the Portuguese explorers to eliminate the threat to the Moorish trade on the Arabian Sea. Later Gasper became the key informer of the Portuguese on the political and maritime affairs of the Indian Ocean. He is the key figure in the history of Portuguese settlement at Kochi, as it was on his advise that Cabral sought alliance with the King of Kochi when the Samutiri continued his hostility to the Portuguese.
Portuguese for Spice and Christians
The intentions of the first voyage were quite simple, find a sea route to east and establish commercial links to the East. Gama was not happy with the receptions he got in Calicut as the pressure from the Arab merchants forced the Samutiri of Calicut to act hostile to the Portuguese. The Moorish/Arabian traders did not want any of the European powers enter directly into the spice trade, that was exactly the intention of the Portuguese. The Egyptian rulers who benefited from the spice trade to West even tried to pressurise the Portuguese through Pope himself. The Papal authority at this juncture supported the Portuguese may be reasoning on the religious fervour shared by them. The treatment Gama received from these traders at Calicut was enough to unveil their intentions. “The anonymous account assures us when any Portuguese went ashore, the Muslim merchants would spit on the ground near them, and say `Portugal, Portugal’ in an insulting fashion; besides, we are told that `from the beginning they sought means to capture us and kill us.’[12] The sole European trading community trusted by the Muslim merchants at Calicut was that of the Venetian and the only language interpreter whom Gama trusted was a non-Muslim.
Gama landing on 27th of May lingered in Calicut port without making much progress on the trade agreement. He was growing nervous and annoyed with the treatment of Samutiri and took some drastic steps as capturing few Calicut merchants as hostages to retrieve his people ashore. At last some agreement and a letter of acceptance was received and without much delay they decided to leave. Portuguese were unhappy that they “could not manage to leave the land in peace and as friends of the people”[13]. These developments at Calicut would bear its impact on the relation of the Portuguese with Calicut all through the history of Estado da India.
It may be an amusing fact of history that the discoverer of Brazil [in 1500] was the first Portuguese to reach Kochi. It was Pedro Alvarez de Gouveia, later knows as Cabral. Starting his journey from Lisbon he reached Brazil and then travelled on to Malabar Coast through Carriera da India. Cabral was well received at Calicut, may be because of the new Samutiri at the helm. The Portuguese did establish a factory at Calicut this time under the factor Aires Correia. Samutiri even asked the help of Cabral to capture a ship from Kochi which allegedly was carrying an elephant, which belonged to Calicut. But matters turned for worse after the Portuguese captured a Muslim ship leaving for Jeddah. The Muslim merchants reacted violently killing around 40 Portuguese including the factor Aires Correia. Cabral retaliated by bombarding Calicut and Pantalayini. To avoid further skirmishes he left for Kochi following the advice of Gasper da Gama. Thus on 24th December 1500 Cabral landed at Kochi.
The adversaries of the Calicut-Moorish trade on the Indian Ocean joined to support the Portuguese, which included the kingdoms of Kochi and Cannanore. Trading communities like the Baniyas of Gujarat, Konkanis and Syrian Christians of Kerala also aided the Portuguese in this tussle. The Syrian Christians who dominated the production and trade of Spices in South Kerala found the shifting of Portuguese to Kochi quite befitting their trade interests. Sanjay Subrahmanyam[14] notes thus about the stand of Kochi King thus, “the Kochi ruler, Unni Goda Varma, appears to have grasped directly the political advantages that would acquire to him by diverting the Portuguese away from Calicut.” Cabral established a factory at Kochi under the factor Goncalo Gil Barbosa, which would remain in the Portuguese hands, despite some interruptions, till 1663.
Cabral on his journey back in January 1501 took three Indians on board. Two of them were from the service of the King of Kochi namely Idikkela Menon and Parangoda [n {?] Menon. The third was a Christian called Joseph of Cranganore. Joseph belonging to the Syrian Church was no novice in foreign travel as we were informed as he had travelled to Antioch in connection with the appointment of the Bishop of Malabar.
Soon after Cabral a Portuguese fleet under Joao da Nova landed at Kochi. Joao da Nova had the ritualistic pleasure of bombarding Calicut en route to Kochi. This fleet reportedly found the factory at Kochi in bad shape. It was now the turn of Vasco da Gama, now elevated in his political and social position to return Malabar. The second voyage of Gama was crucial in forging an alliance between the Portuguese and the Kerala Christians. In November 1502 some of the community members of Syrian Christians met Gama and offered an alliance and even presented a ceremonial offering of a red staff with silver bells on it. This network helped the Portuguese to have an access to the Spice trade in South Kerala. But soon after Gama returned Samutiri put pressure on Raja of Kochi to hand over the Portuguese factor at Kochi. The refusal to which ensued in a War between the Kingdoms. In this war of 1503 the King of Kochi Unni Goda Varma had lost his life. The arrival of Alfonso de Albuquerque eased the tension mounting on the Arabian Sea not because of Albuquerque’s diplomatic abilities but his reputation as ruthless conqueror. In 1503 Albuquerque obtained permission to build fortification to the factory. The building materials for the fortifications were mainly stems of Coconut trees bound with iron bands. Within the fort, which was named as Manuel Kotta [Fort of Manuel, after the King of Portugal], they also built a Church dedicated St.Bartholomew, another patron saint of India along with St.Thomas. Raja of Cochin Unnirama Koyikkal II pleased by the Golden crown presented by Dom Francisco Almeida in 1506, permitted the Portuguese to build a new city of mortar and stone. Apart from the fortifications, a new Church, was built in 1516 and dedicated to St. Anthony. The fortification and the settlement would remain with the Portuguese for all most 150 years, though from the time of Albuquerque itself the focus of Estado da India was gradually shifting from Kochi to Goa. It also marked the shift from trade to that of territorial interest.
Portuguese and Christians Jesuits in Kerala
The second intention of the Portuguese was to propagate Christianity in the new- world, but this was not as easy as they thought. To his amazement of Gama found that Christianity did exist in the region. The Kerala Christians were quite helpful to the new traders, not because they found fraternity with the Portuguese but they themselves were traders dealing with spices. An Italian letter of 1505 [probably from the Portuguese sources to the Papal authority] quoted by Rogers explain the stupefaction the Early European traders had of the Kerala Church. "In this kingdom [Kochi] there are many Christians converted by St. Thomas, whose apostolic life their priests follow with great devotion and strictness. They have churches where there is only the cross and celebrate mass with unleavened bread and wine, which is made from raisins and water as nothing else, is available to them. All Christians go with their hair uncut and beard unshaved”[15]
From the above description along with that of Jordanus would give us a vivid picture of the Eastern Christians, prior to the arrival of the Europeans. The areas where there were no Christians as Goa in the early 16th century, the soldiers themselves took in their hands the conversion affair. As a missionary would lament in 1550 from Goa, “These ... soldiers began to baptise ... people whom they enslaved without any respect and reverence for the sacrament and without catechising or indoctrination”[16]. In the areas as Kerala where Christianity did exist, the Portuguese tried to “re-Christianise” them, of course with the help of the Jesuits. Jesuits came to Kochi in 1524. Famous among these Jesuits missionaries was St. Francis Xavier who came to India, “as an emissary not only of Christ but of John III of Portugal”[17]. St. Francis travelled in Travancore and converted many that mainly belonged to the fishing community who lovingly called him as Great Father. He seemed to have built 45 churches in Travancore before he left India in 1552. In 1577 the Jesuits established the first Printing press of South India at Kochi under a Spanish Missionary named Joannes Gonzalvez. In 1603 this press was shifted from Kochi to Kodungallur.
Apart from initiating the colonial trade and exchange of Flora from Kerala to the New World and back the Portuguese introduced to the Indian shores Christian Iconography. The Christian art of Kerala has a great indebtedness to the Portuguese art and to the other styles as that of Dutch, ironically through the Portuguese and the Jesuits under them. Even under the Dutch and the English domination Christian art remained in the style as introduced by the Portuguese. The difference of course is visible, however between the Colonial art of the Portuguese [as seen in Goa, Daman and Diu] to that of the Church art of Kerala. Prior to the discussion regarding Christian art of Kerala it will be pertinent to look at the history Kerala Christianity.
Christianity in Kerala prior to Portuguese
The legend of St. Thomas maintains that the Apostle landed near Musiris in 52 AD and converted few families and established seven churches. To quote Nicol Macnicol[18] "If it were possible to accept as historical the legend that is recorded in the apocryphal Acts of Judas Thomas (dated by Harnack in the 3rd Century AD), the Christian religion was first preached in India by the Apostle Thomas about A.D.50. Similarly the Tradition preserved by the Syrian Christian Church in Travancore claims St. Thomas as its founder and dates arrival in India in the year 52 [AD]" This legend is acceptable only to few believers and historians. When one consider the trade connection with East and West that might have passed through Jerusalem, it is not impossible for an Apostle or Evangelist to travel to East. Jerome who wrote in 4th Century observes “The Son of God was present to all places, with Thomas in India, with Peter in Rome, with Paul in Illyria...”[19]. Another literary reference from Briton points towards the acceptance of St. Thomas as the Apostle of India. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reads thus. "The Year 883, in the same year Singhlem and Aethalstan conveyed to Rome the alms, which the King [King Alfred] had vowed to send hither, and also to India to St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew, when they sat down against the [Danish] army at London: and there, God be thanked, their prayer was very successful after that vow"[20]. Andrian Fortescue provide us with further information about these alms as, "He [King Alfred] sent Singhelm, the Bishop of Shireburn with gifts. Singhelm came to Rome and then went on to the Malabar Coast. He made his offerings here and brought back from his long journey jewels and spices. Strange to see an English Bishop in India in 883"[21]
It is still a mystery whether the Apostle Thomas himself or the descendants of the Church he established in the Near Eastern City of Edessa had come to India. Another tradition proposes that 400 Christians belonging to seven clans from Baghdad, Ninevah and Jerusalem migrated to Kerala in 345 AD to escape the persecution of the Sassanid Emperor of Persia. "A merchant called Thomas Cannaneo or Thomas of Jerusalem drew the attention of the Edessan Church to this neglected outpost and caused to succour to be sent to it in the year 345[22]”. In 6th century an Alexandrian merchant namely Cosmos Indicopleustes mentions about a Christian Church in the port town of Kollam in south Kerala. When Sthanu Ravi Varma of the Second Chera Dynasty [12th Century AD] was ruling, a local chieftain Ayyanadigal Thiruvadigal issues the copper plate of Tarisa palli giving concessions to the Christian merchant of Kollam. The Dominican Friar Jordanus states in 1330 "In this India, there is a scattered people, one here, another there, who calls themselves Christians, but are not so, nor have any baptism, nor do they know anything else about the faith. Nay, they believe St. Thomas the Great to be Christ"[23].
Conversion of Kerala Christians and the Koonan Kurisu Episode
It is for sure that though the Portuguese was happy to see Christians in India, but they were least pleased to realise that these Christians believed in what the Roman Church considered as heresy. For the Portuguese and the Jesuits the true Christian was the one who accepted a True incarnation for Christ, the term “theotokos” for the Virgin Mother and who used the Roman doctrine of the mass; not to mention the authority of the Pope. Under the Portuguese, the Eastern Christians were “made to renounce Nestorianism and all connections with the Katholikos in Mesopotamia, accept the Catholic faith and the Pope’s authority”[24].
The Latinisation of the Kerala church was administered by Alexio de Menezies, the Bishop of Goa with due support by the Pope and the Portuguese monarch in 1599. Menezies organised the synod of Diamper few Kilometres south of Kochi [Udayamperoor in Malayalam] on 20th June 1599. The aim of the Synod was as stated in the statement including; “[25]{1} Submission of all Syrian books in the Archdiocese for correction or burning as the Archbishop thought fit; {2} Rejection of the authority of the Patriarch of Babylon and severing all connections from him; {3} Recognition of the Pope as Supreme Head of the Church of Christ; {4} Rejection of all Bishops not approved by Goa and {5} Acknowledgement of Archbishop of Goa as the ecclesiastical superior”. The Portuguese offered protection to the new Roman Catholics though officially it meant the protection of the spiritual matters as Menezies would clarify in a letter to the Rajah of Kochi.
This attempt for the union of the Eastern Church to that of Rome never endured. The breach in the New Roman Catholic community was soon erupted through the revolt of the 1653 when Syrian Christians sworn on the Koonan Cross at Mattancherry in Kochi that they will never obey the Bishop of Goa and refuted whatever the Synod of Diamper stood for. In 1665 Gregory, Monophysite Bishop of Jerusalem came to India and ordained a Metropolitan for India, thus creating the Jacobite Syrian Christians named thus after the Jacob Baradai, a Edessan Monophysite monk of 6th century.
As part of the Christianisation and education of the Kerala Christians, the missionaries surely must have imported the icons from Europe. Even the sailors carried the images, predominantly wooden, on board of ship as a talisman. The Marhina Musuem at Belam [Portugal] has an image of St.Raphael [Santo Raffello] reputedly travelled to Kerala and back along with Vasco da Gama in all his three expeditions. Sanjay Sbrahmanyam mentions another incident where Samutiri mentions to Gama that, “he had heard that the Portuguese had an icon of the virgin made of gold, to which Gama replied that, first, it was not made of gold, and second, that he could not part with it in any case, since it was a talisman which he had kept him safe on his voyage”. A few among the icons, which were imported from Europe are still preserved in few churches of Kerala. The St. Thomas Church at Tumboli, Alappuzha District has an image of Virgin Mary that the local people call as the “Kappalkkarattiyamma” [Trans.: The mother who came by ship]. The image St. Sebastian [locally known as Veluttacchan] in the Church of St Andrews at Arthungal was transported from France[26]. One could never propose that the Christian icons in Kerala were imports from Europe. The few imported icons definitely acted as the role models. The role model to a different art tradition, divergent in theme and form, from the indigenous Hindu tradition in wood.
The facades and retables in the altars of the Kerala churches, regardless of the patronage and cultic difference, follow the Portuguese style. The facades with curving Dutch gables have fan like curving members on the sides like the one at St.Mary’s Church at Tripunittura. The niches at times appear in the triangle format occupied by the figures of saints. The nave doors have curved portals with slender pilasters reminding of the Romanesque tradition. The interior avoids any decoration on the nave ceiling that remains open to the roof. The Altar region would have a lower ceiling occasionally having paintings or a coffered pattern. The pioneer Church builders in the Portuguese time used wood as the prime material for construction. The Church of St.Francis at Kochi has a wooden chapel, which built in 1503, which was rebuilt in masonary in 1506-1516.
The ground plans of the churches present again an unwritten treaty between the indigenous and European traditions. The columns inside the churches never show their affinity with the religious architecture, as they remain as austere as in any other traditions. In Kerala these oblong halls with columns were common in the Hindu temples and Mosques. An agrasala [the ceremonial feast hall] or koothambalam [ritual performance hall] in a Hindu temple complex would have the similar architecture plan. Thus the colonial builders had no hesitation in appropriating the style. Anyhow the shape of a temple and that of church was not that different in 16th century, which lead Vasco Da Gama to mistake a Kali temple [probably Pishari Kavu Bhagavati temple at Pantalayini Kollam] for a church. Some of the pre Colonial churches followed the existing religious architecture tradition of Kerala. The church in Chegannur has a roof, gable and front hall similar to the Narasimha Temple at Chengannur itself. The Churches in Kaduthuruthi, Muttachira and Kuruvilangad has the Cross mounted on a pedestal strikingly akin to the balikkals of Kerala temples. This spirit of appropriation that occur in architecture is absent in the case of sculpture.
Finding the source of this imported architecture would take one to the doors of many European nations. The popular gable style of the Kerala Churches was the Dutch gables. The retables on the altars are very similar to the Portuguese Baroque style. The contemporary Churches in Goa, Lisbon and Brazil are more majestic and decorative compared to the churches of Kerala. The only reason for this disparity may be that Kerala, except Kochi, was never under the direct control of the Portuguese.
A brief look into the Portuguese art History would give us another dimension. What was the official architecture of Portugal in the 16th and 17th Centuries? The Portuguese monarchs like D.Manuel and Dom Joao V looked to Italy for the inspiration. They even imported artists and architects from Italy. The dependence Portugal to Rome in matters of religion would rationalise the acceptance of Italian art by the Portuguese. Among all the imported architecture styles during Renaissance, the Fillippo Terzi style found great recognition. Terzi initiated the Portuguese style of architecture by late 16th century. Terzi’s style was acceptable for the Jesuits all over the New World, who were primarily responsible for the building of the churches. It was acceptable for them as it based on the Italian principles, approved by the papal authority. Writes James Lees-Milne, “Terzi himself an Italian, indoctrinated Portuguese architects with contemporary Italian principles, introduced the Jesuit Style of Church decoration and indirectly paved the way for Portuguese Baroque. The Terzi facade is found not only in mother country, but in Brazil, Goa and Macao.”[27]
One architecture feature that appears distinctly Portuguese is the retables, appearing on the extreme end of the altar. This highly decorated, gilded mostly wooden, backdrops of the altar was the decorative focus of church interior. They have niches flanked with twisted pilasters toped with Corinthian foliage capitals. The niches, usually in three tiers, have curved arches and in many occasions they are styled as decorated shells, as one would observe in the Romanesque and Baroque period. The top portions of the retables are curved similar to the facades outside. The whole architecture composition is decorated with creepers, foliage, supported by cherubs and soldier figures. Surprisingly even there are many disparities between the Goan and Kerala churches, the retables remain more or less the same in both the regions. The description of Portuguese Baroque retables given by Milne would fit well on the retables of Kerala and Goa. To quote him, “The 17th Baroque was marked by a peculiar simplicity of structure, and an extreme complexity of decoration. It is chiefly found in the interiors of small churches. Notably in retables, and, what is unique Portugal, in the curious decorative pelmets over the entrance to shrines, suggesting rows of the massive curtain boxes. These strange adjuncts are of heavily carved wood, gilded and occasionally multi-coloured. The retables are architectural compositions, frames in alternating salomonicas and pilaster, and usually stepped back to a considerable depth to convey a sense of distance and mystery.”[28]
The retables at Kerala betray their Portuguese lineage. Even the motifs remain unaltered. The retables in Kerala would have twisted wine creepers, corn, wheat and acanthus leaf, similar to that of Goa and Portugal. None of these produced in Kerala even now. So the decorative flora seems to have imported, say along with the architecture. The 16-17th Century indigenous architecture decorative patterns were achieved through palm, lotuses, makara and vyali motifs, which are conspicuously, absent in the church decorations. Both these traditions never seem to be aware of the other or fail to acknowledge the existence of the other.
This position is operative in the sculpture tradition too. As mentioned elsewhere in the paper, we see that the Jesuits brought in or imported sculptures from Europe. The question that ensues here is that from which country in Europe. They were not indispensably from Portugal as evident from the figure of St.Sebastion at Arthungal, which was reputedly brought from France. Then there is a possibility of Portuguese nobles or Jesuits, commissioning someone from Italy, as it was the case of St. Francis Xavior’s Mausoleum in Goa, patronised by an Italian noble, Grand Duke Cosimo III and executed by an Italian artist Placido Francesco Rampani in 1698. Obviously Kerala was not in the European noble man’s itinerary. The sculptures that came to Kerala were mainly woodcarvings with features strikingly similar to the wooden sculptures of Germany or painted figures of Netherlands. They lacked the grandeur of the Italian Baroque. They still had a medieval gloom on their face. The compositions were rather rigid with no attempts for figura Serpentinata.
Ever since the Manoeline time the Portuguese rulers invited artists from Italy and send selected artists to the workshops in Italy to boost the art activity in Portugal. This tradition continued even in 18th Century during the reign of Joao V [1706-50] when he established a sculpture gallery and workshop at Mafra for the development of Italia-Portuguese Art. This does not seem have effected the ingenuous tradition of Portugal, which still persisted in the northern districts[29]. Among the non-Mafra artists one Jacinto Viera’s works are quite similar to the figures in Kerala. The figures of Veira are “touchingly unsophisticated, earnest, and intensely Portuguese”.[30] Milne tries to trace the non-sophistication of these figures and the ingenuous tradition to the Renaissance connection between the Flemish and Portuguese. Nuno de Goncalvez, called the “father of the nation’s [Portugal] painters” of the mid-15th Century has derived his style from masters like his contemporary, Dieric Bouts and his predecessor Jan Van Eyck. The spirit of the indigenous tradition in painting probably had influenced the sculptures too. The figures that came to Kerala might have been from this indigenous school, while Goa, a part of the Portuguese Empire inherited the works of the ’Italio-Portuguese’ school.
In case of Kerala, the wood carving tradition that was active at the time of the Portuguese arrival and the Jesuits continued without acknowledging the new tradition. The wood carving tradition had idealised and stylised forms, tracing the roots to the Pan-South Indian Dravidian style. Interestingly the many temples went under renovation in 16 and 17th centuries, thanks to the financial augmentation the rulers and nobles achieved through the European spice trade. Still nowhere would one observe an approach to naturalism as in the Christian figures. The naturalistic figures of Vishnu and Siva started appearing only after the English Company School of Painting and the acceptance of paintings and oleographs by Ravi Varma in the late 19th century.
The other facet of the query however is why the Sculptor of Christian icons did not carve any image in the indigenous idealised form. He seems to be adhering to the naturalist tradition. He would not even try to ethnically appropriate the form of Christ. To indigenous sculptor, the Christian icons had to posses certain features, the knowledge of which he presumably acquired through the study of the imported images. For the sculptor it was the identity of the images. The formal aspects of the imported images happened to be European Naturalism. The sculptor never tried to decode the complexity of form and symbol. The artists of both the Hindu and Christian tradition clung to their tradition shying away from any modulation.
Like the Chillies, Tomato and Tapioca which is very much part of the Kerala diet, the art tradition brought by the Portuguese entered so deeply in to culture of Kerala it is difficult to distinguish between indigenous and the foreign. It was so much rooted in the art tradition of Kerala Christian art, even the successors of Portuguese in Kerala did not venture to change it. Dutch and the British might have replaced the Portuguese political base of Kochi in 1663 and 1795 respectively, but they could not replace the Portuguese legacy on art in Kerala with Kochi as its fountainhead.
· *
Endnotes
[1]Vondel [Dutch]. In Praise of Navigation [Het lof der zeevaart] 1623.
Quoted by PETER N.SKRINE. The Baroque.London.1978. pp.77
[2] Sanjay Subrahmanyam. THE CARRER AND LEGEND OF VASCO DA GAMA, New Delhi, 1998.
[3]Field House. COLONIAL EMPIRES.
Though Field House would not completely agree with Adam Smith.
"Smith was of course, taking a narrowly Eurocentric view. Europe had no monopoly of distant trading or overseas empire. ...[sic].. Hence the importance of the first expansion of Europe lay in its effects on Europe rather than its uniqueness as a world phenomenon.
[4] Sanjay Subrahmanyam. THE CARRER AND LEGEND OF VASCO DA GAMA, New Delhi, 1998.
[5]Livermore, HV. PORTUGAL, A SHORT HISTORY, Edinburgh, 1973
[6]. Sreedhara Menon. The Culture of Kerala [Malayalam]
[7]. Sreedhara Menon. The Culture of Kerala [Malayalam]
[8]Stephen Neill. COLONIALISM AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. London. pp.35
[9]Sreedhara Menon...History of Kerala.
[10] M.N.Pearson: The Portuguese in India, THE NEW CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF INDIA, Gen.Ed.Gordon Johnson 1987. Cambridge. pp.11
[11] As quoted by Sanjay Subrahmanyam. THE CARRER AND LEGEND OF VASCO DA GAMA, New Delhi, 1998
[12] As quoted by Sanjay Subrahmanyam. THE CARRER AND LEGEND OF VASCO DA GAMA, New Delhi, 1998
[13] As quoted by Sanjay Subrahmanyam. THE CARRER AND LEGEND OF VASCO DA GAMA, New Delhi, 1998
[14] Sanjay Subrahmanyam. THE CARRER AND LEGEND OF VASCO DA GAMA, New Delhi, 1998
[15]As quoted by Rogers
[16]Stephen Neill. COLONIALISM AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. pp72
[17]Nicol Macnicol. THE LIVING RELIGION OF INDIAN PEOPLE. PP. 276
[18]Nicol Macnicol. THE LIVING RELIGIONS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE [WILDE LECTURES, OXFORD, 1932-34]. pp.269
[19]As quoted by P.Thomas. CHRISTIANS AND CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA AND PAKISTAN.London.1954.pp19
[20]As quoted by J.N.Ogilvie in THE APOSTLES OF INDIA,1915
[21]As quoted by Nicol Macnicol. LIVING RELIGIONS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. London
[22] Nicol Macnicol. LIVING RELIGIONS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. London
[23]As quoted by Nicol Macnicol LIVING RELIGIONS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. London
[24]Nicol Macnicoll LIVING RELIGIONS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. London
[25]P.Thomas. CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA AND PAKISTAN.London.pp.92
[26] Sreedhara Menon. The Culture of Kerala [Malayalam], Kottayam, 1992
[27]James Lees Milne. BAROQUE IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, London pp.161-162
[28]James Lees Milne. BAROQUE IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, London pp. 164
[29]James Lees-Milne BAROQUE IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, London. pp.179
[30]James Lees-Milne BAROQUE IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, London. pp.179
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