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 5th
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 [1st 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 17th 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
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