A COUNTRY OF MANY GODSSERIES ON PRE- MODERN VISUAL CULTURE OF KERALA (1) Mapping the Land (Published in New Indian Express on 15/ June/2021)

 

A COUNTRY OF MANY GODS

SERIES ON PRE- MODERN VISUAL CULTURE OF KERALA

 (Published in New Indian Express on 15/ June/2021)

1

Mapping the Land

 

To highlight the natural beauty of the region the promotional campaigns of Kerala Tourism call Kerala “God’s own country”. Another reason can be, though not realized by the strategists of the Kerala Tourism campaign, the sheer number of temples, Churches, Mosques and even Synagogues in the state which would qualify Kerala as “Gods’ own country”. Almost all villages and towns in Kerala do have religious structures from medieval period to contemporary times, of different religious and cultic affiliations and sizes depending on the economic and political importance of the village/town. In Kerala one can see the cave Temples at Vizhinjam, carved out by the Pandyan rulers in 8^th century, one of the earliest mosques in India at Kodungallur and the Church at Niranam which is considered to be established by Apostle St. Thomas himself. Kerala was the destination for many indigenous and foreign religions including Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism along with Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all travelling through the well-established trade routes thanks to the monopoly of Pepper, Cardamom and Ginger. Kalidasa writes in his Raghuvamsa Mahakavya about the pepper plants and the rising smell of cardamom as Raghu’s horses trampled through the Kerala forest.

 

I have been travelling through the length and breadth of Kerala since my childhood and have noticed something unique of the region. The fact that, standing anywhere in Kerala you are never far away from a temple, mosque or a church. Kerala can actually boast about 10 times a greater number of religious structures than the number of villages in the state. According to the 2011 Census there are 1018 villages [1364 in 2001 Census] in Kerala along with 87 Municipalities and 6 Municipal corporations sharing 1,01,140 places of worship along with 29,565 Hospitals and 70,435 Educational institutions. This is not the number of places of worship used by the Hindus only but includes the Mosques and Churches belonging to various Christian sects. The number of the places of worship in Kerala is almost 3.5 times higher than the hospitals [29,565]. An interesting aspect revealed through the analysis of the data provided by 2001 Census of India is that Kerala is in the fifth position as far as density of Religious structures coming after Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa and Assam.  In Kerala 1000 people share 3.1 Religious structures while in Himachal Pradesh it is the highest at 4.3; Delhi has the least with 0.5. Neighboring state of Tamil Nadu is much below than Kerala regarding the ratio of population and religious structures. Gujarat which has more villages compared to Kerala but has only 142,135 buildings categorized as places of worship. If one inverse the data we get an observation that every 315 people in Kerala has one religious structure much higher than Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. The balance which is achieved in the health and education sector is manifested only in the 20^th century due to the western influence and the resultant social and education movements. In other words, in the pre modern period the ratio between the religious structures and health and education buildings in Kerala would have been much more contrasting. 

 

In Kerala the village economy and social fabric was woven in and around the places of worship, majority among them are temples quite akin to that of Tamil Nadu. Even the legend like KERALA MAHATMYAM and KERALOLPATTI attempts to build the social structure keeping the temple as the center. The Chola and Vijayanagara models too successfully put the same structure in practice. Development of cities around the temples like Kumbhakonam, Thanjavur, and Gangai Konda Cholapuram under the Colas and Hampi and Tirumala under the Vijayanagara rule are excellent illustrations of this theory.

 

The best example from Kerala, where the cities developing around the temple can be Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala, which developed around the Temple of Padmanabhasvami after Martanda Varma, dedicated the land of Tiruvitankur to the cardinal deity of the temple through his Trippadi Danam in 1749, a ritual through which Martanda Varma; the Raja of Tiruvitankur surrendered the whole region to Lord Sri Padmanabha [Vishnu] of Thiruvananthapuram. Ever since Trippadi Danam, the Travancore kings ruled the country as a servant/ representative of Sri Padmanabha and their records always mentioned the king as Sri Padmanabha dasa. Similar example can be seen at Thrissur [or Thrisshivaperoor], the city which is literally built around the Vadakkumnatha temple.  The circular road around the temple maidan constitutes the prime market street of Thrissur town. Developed during the rule Saktan Tampuran in the early 19^th century Thrissur became the center for the Pooram festival, where all the gods of the neighboring shrines would congregate at Thrissur to pay respect to Shiva the cardinal deity of Vadakkunnatha Temple. It is worth mentioning here that the Pooram at Thrissur was introduced by Saktan Tampuran, ruler of Nediyirippu Svaroopam of Kochi to assert his authority amongst the small Naduvazhis around. At Payyanur in North Kerala the cardinal deity, Subramanya/Kartikeya is considered as the ruler of the region. He is addressed as ‘Perumal’, which is the common name for the rulers used in Kerala [for example Kulasekhara Perumal for Ravi Varma Kulasekhara]. Local myths state that some of the gods and goddesses had to seek permission of Payyanur Perumal [Subramanya/Kartikeya of Payyanur Temple] for ‘residing’ in the Payyanur region. In Talipparamba [Kannur District] the presiding deity, Siva, is considered as the Raja [King of Kings]. Devotees are expected to behave in the precinct of the temple as if they are in front of the emperor.

 

There are many such interesting myths and fascinating legends along with fantastically carved wooden sculptures and architecture attached to these religious structures through which the political, social and cultural life of a region can be comprehended. In this series, titled A Country of Many Gods, we will travel through the pre modern visual culture of Kerala.  

 

Dr. Jayaram Poduval

Department of Art History

The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda

Gujarat

jpoduval@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

A COUNTRY OF MANY GODS SERIES ON PRE- MODERN VISUAL CULTURE OF KERALA ( 2 ) Visitor's Book (Published in New Indian Express on 27/July/2021)

A COUNTRY OF MANY GODS

SERIES ON PRE- MODERN VISUAL CULTURE OF KERALA

 Published in New Indian Express 27/July/2021

2

Visitor's Book

 

Imagine a visitor’s book, old, a compilation of palm leaf manuscripts, soiled by the sand from Egypt and Arabia, slightly dampened by the Mediterranean winds, perfumed by the spices; that will be the visitor’s book of Kerala. The visitors to Kerala came from far off regions of the known world. The geographical discoveries of the enlightenment days of Europe did get initiated to find the suitable and unhindered channels to reach Kerala. When Christopher Columbus returned to Spain laden with gold and   claiming that he found the route to East, his claim was refuted purely on the basis that he did not have the Black Gold or Pepper. "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" says Adam Smith.  The Portuguese, initiated by Prince Henry the Navigator sent various expedition to the East just break the Arab- Venetian nexus of the Spice Trade the most successful being the travel of Vasco Da Gama.

The Spice trade kept Kerala in the annals of history of the civilizations of the world like China, Egypt and Rome. The civilizations around the world were aware of the distant land where you get the luxury goods like Ivory, Cotton Textiles and Spices. Though we don’t get reference of Kerala in the Vedas we do have the ancient Indian texts provide ample references to Kerala, Aitereya Aranyaka being the first, which mentions the land of Kerala; the reference of Cherapada in this text may be referring Kerala [PK Gopalakrishnan, 1974]. Epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata give clear instructions to the geographical location of Kerala. As Sugriva maps the regions of South India to his army placing Kerala near the Pandyan and Chola countries [present Tamil Nadu]. In Mahabharata it was Sahadeva’s responsibility to conquer Kerala as part of the Asvamedha campaign.

Megasthenes, Greek ambassador to Chandragupta Maurya refers to the Pandyan kingdom of the south and the neighbouring population of Chermoe, probably a polluted version of the word Cera in his book INDICA. Kautilya mentions about the pearls of the River Churni, the ancient name of the River Periyar one of the major rivers of Kerala. The Second rock cut edict of Asoka at Girnar cites Keralaputras as bordering the Mauryan Empire in south. Kalidasa in his own unique style mentions the southern military campaign of Raghu [Great Grandfather of Sri Rama] where the about the pepper plants and the rising smell of cardamom as Raghu’s horses trampled through the forests of Kerala. Kalidasa also did not fail to refer to the jewellery cladded Kerala women who removed them in fear of the Raghu’s army.

One can be sure that during period of Kalidasa, which is mostly accepted as 5^th century CE, Kerala women must have been wearing the jewellery made from the shiploads of gold came from Rome in exchange of Pepper and other Spices exported. No wonder the Roman writer Pliny the elder [1^st Century CE] complained about the draining of gold to Kerala through spice trade. He estimated that India took 55,000,000 sesterces [$800,000] annually spending on spices, ivory and ‘woven wind like exposing clothes. Among these the wind like exposing clothes were exported from Barigaza [Bharuch, Gujarat] rest from Muziris [near Kodungallur in Trissur District, Kerala] According to the Roman geographer Strabo, the early Empire sent a fleet of around 120 ships on an annual one-year trip to India and back. William Logan who wrote Malabar Manuel [First official western style History of Kerala] do bring in another reference from Rome where the Alaric I [circa 370-410 CE] the Visigoth conqueror asked for a huge ransom of Pepper to free Rome from his siege.

Kerala had connections with Egypt and Arabia from ancient times as we find Black peppercorns stuffed in the nostrils of Ramses II, placed there as part of the mummification rituals in 1213 BCE. It may be noted here that Black Pepper was the monopoly of Kerala till 17^th Century when the Portuguese started the Pepper plantation to South East Asia. Pre Quran references to black pepper and teak from India in Arab poetry indicate trade connection to Kerala. William Logan traces the trade connection between Kerala and the west thus, “Perhaps as early as the time of Moses, the great Jewish law-giver, this commerce existed, for cinnamon and cassia played a part in the temple services of the Jews [Exodus xxx. 23,24] and at any rate the commerce existed in the time of King Solomon [C. 1000 BCE] for the Bible narrative records that “For the King had fleet of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram; once every three years the fleet of Tarshish, bringing gold and silver, ivory and apes and peacocks” [I Kings x. 22] [Logan William, 2000]. With the exception perhaps of silver, these are all productions of the Malabar Coast.

West bound trade was dominated by the Mappilas [Kerala Muslims] along with the Muslim traders of Hormuz, 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 Hormuz, Jeddah, Cairo, Alexandria and Venice, as the local informant Gasper Da Gama would explain to Vasco Da Gama [S Subrahmanyam,1998]. The intention of the Portuguese endeavour was precisely against this Moor-Egyptian and Venetian network. Andrian Fortescue provide us with further information about these alms as, " 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!!" [Nicol Macnicol 1934].

Apart from this English Bishop there were many Europeans travellers who visited the Pepper land through the ages like Marco Polo, John of Monti Corvino [ both in 13th century], Friar Jordanus [14th century], Nicolo Conti [15th century] and Pero de Covilham who was sent by the Portuguese King D. Joao II in 1487 to investigate the conditions in the Indian Ocean. He visited Cannanore [Kannur], and Calicut [Kozhikode].  So, was it Vasco Da Gama the first European who set foot in India?? Definitely not. Or is he the Great Explorer, as taught in history who found the sea route to India? Well, it is a matter of dispute, which we will discuss in the next section of this series. 

 

Further Reading

 

[Logan William, MALABAR MANUEL, Edited by PJ Cheriyan, Thiruvananthapuram, 2000]

[PK Gopalakrishnan, KERALTHINTE SAMSKARIKA CHARITRAM [Malayalam] Thiruvananthapuram, 1974

[Sanjay Subrahmanyam. THE CAREER AND LEGEND OF VASCO DA GAMA, New Delhi, 1998]

[Nicol Macnicol. LIVING RELIGIONS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. London, 1934]

 

Dr. Jayaram Poduval

Department of Art History

The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda

Gujarat

jpoduval@gmail.com