MANIKKAVACAGAR AND CHRISTIANS IN KERALA

The poet of Madurai's tryst with Christianity

I began  listening to Tiruvacakam after I bought an audio cassette  of it from a shop infront of the temple at Sucheendram.It was in symphony,an oratorio composed and orchestrated by Ilaiya Raja(2005).Tiruvacagam is a garland of Siva hymns written by Tamil poet,Manikka Vacagar.Even a Malayali would have definitely heard of him:his name appears in a line in the famous song,written by Bichu Thirumala,Oru Murai Vanthu Parthaya,in the path breaking movie,Manichithrathazhu(1993),directed by Fazil.The line of course,is,Manikkavacagar Mozhikal Nalkee Devi,Ilngovadikal Chilambu Nalkee....

That Manikka Vacagar is a poet is known to all.He is one of the main authors of Saivite Tirumurai,the key religious text of Tamil Saiva literature.What I want to recount here is another important facet of him:he reconverted lot of native early Syrian Christans of Kerala back to Hinduism,or more accurately,Saivism.They still carry his name-maniyani nairs(we had a judge,K A Nair).Mani is Manica Vacagar.His festival is celebrated in Tamilnadu in Aani or Aavani,June-July,the month of his reconversion to Saivism.

Sambandhar,Appar,Sundarar,Manikkavasagar

Before going  into his proselytism,let us do a pilgrimage through his tormenting life.
He was born in Vadhavoor or Thiruvadhavoor,near Melur,ten kilometres from Madurai,on the banks of river Vaigai.He belonged to a Brahmin Siva fold which wore a top tilted knot to show servitorship to Siva.A statue of him with this knot is seen in Tirupperunthurai,near Pudukkottai.But he was a Vaishnavite in the beginning of the story.

In his teens,seeing his exemplary talents,Pandyan King of Madurai,Varagunavarman II(Circa 862 CE-885CE),also known as Arimarthana Pandyan made him Prime Minister.The King entrusted a lot of money with Manikka Vacagar and sent him to Tiruperunthurai to buy horses for his cavalry.

Once in Tiruperunthurai, Vacagar heard a divine music and found a sage under a kuruntha (trichilia or forest Mahogany tree;Karuvilangam in malayalam).He realized that it is the Guru he was searching for.Vacagar parted with all the treasure he had and became a disciple.He was converted to Saivism.His assistants went back to Madurai and informed the King. King sent his army and made Vacagar,captive.The sage who was Siva himself,told Vacagar that the horses will arrive on 19th of Aavani.

When Vacagar was imprisoned,  darkness engulfed Madurai and information came to the King that the horses are on their way.Arabs came with horses for eight times the money Vacagar had carried.In the night,the new horses were transformed to foxes and they pounced on the existing horses in the stables and killed them.The King,who became furious,decided to kill Vacagar.He was made to stand below the scorching sun,on the banks of Vaigai;soldiers placed a huge stone on his back.The sky exploded and floods erupted.Once it was evident that Vaigai would swallow his capital,the King freed Vacagar.The foxes became horses again.Vacagar became an ascetic and the King abdicated.Vacagar went on a pilgrimage starting from Uttarakosa Magai,10 kilometres away from Ramnad,finally settling down in Chidambaram.Thiruvacagam is placed near the idol there(I had been to Chidambaram;From there I called Shaji N Karun,Cinematographer of Chidambaram the movie of Aravindan,asking him where did they shoot Chidambaram.He told me it was not shot in Chidambaram!).He travelled through Thanjavur,North Arcot,Chengalpet,Tirunelveli and Madurai.He had traveled to Ceylon,invited the King to Chidambaram and defeated his scholars in intellectual discourse and converted the King and his dumb daughter.

Avudayarkoil

There is a war of words between scholars as to the identification of Tiruperunthurai.T A Gopinatha Rao said it is Avudayarkoil,which is same as Tiruperunthurai of Pudukottai.The Siva temple there has no Sivalingam;only pedestal or avudayar.The temple is near Aranthangi.Tradition says Thiruvacagam originated there;Vacagar built the temple with the money intended for the war horses and converted the King of the region to Saivism.The temple has six sabhas,covered with 21600 copper plates.The temple is administered by Nambiar brahmins.

T Ponnambalam Pillai says Thiruperunthurai is Tripunithura,my place.I am happy about it.He doesn't accept Thiruperunthurai of Pudukkottai because it is not a port town.According to the available sources,Vacagar went to a port town and had initiation there.Thiruvacagam says the town is in the western land.It was girt with coconut groves.In Paranjothi it is stated that he crossed endless forests and mountain lands.The Vathavurar Puranam,a hagiography of Vacagar mentions a western harbor.Such a country according to Chilappathikaram lies between Madurai and the West coast.So,Ponnambalam Pillai anchors in Tripunithura.I know  Tripunithura was a flourishing port till the great flood of 1314.The ancestors of Poonjar and Pandalam palaces had migrated from Madurai via Palakkad to the transit point of  Tripunithura before moving on to their destinations.

But Gopinatha Rao refutes this saying Tripunithura is outside the Pandian kingdom.K G Sesha Aiyar identifies it with Vaikam.It is not outside Pandian kingdom.Vemban in Vembanad lake that surrounds Vaikam,means Pandian.Vaikam Sivan is known as Perumthurai Koil Appan.The Ashtami festival there is a commemoration of Siva's manifestation to a sage at the foot of a tree in the outer quadrangles of the temple.Tradition says the sage was Vyagrapadar.According to Aiyar,it could be Vacagar.Thewords,achan,enthuve,Ninnalai,parai etc that appear in Thiruvacagam are Malayalam.

Both Aiyar and Ponnambalam Pillai mentions the reconversion of the early Syrian Christians of Kerala by Vacagar.

Aiyar states:Pandian kingdom was there centuries before Christian era.Strabo speaks of an ambassador from Pandyan king to Augustus.At the time of Periplus(80AC),Pandyan kingdom included Kerala.


Ponnambalam Pillai quotes one  Ittoop who wrote on the reconversion Vacagar did:"In the Year about 270 AD a certain Manes who hailed from Persia, and who travelled allover China and other places in the far east,went to Malabar(Malabar refers to Kerala:Ramachandran)and tried to influence the Christians there with his own peculiar views,a mixture of Christianity and Budhism....

"About the same time,a man who was named Manikka Vacagar,came from the Chola country,practiced sorcery,healed diseases of man and beast by means of his incantations,instructed people in the use and efficacy of the sacred ashes,the five letters or panchaksharam(Namasivaya)and panchagavyam-the five products of the cow,and thus established a separate community called the Manigramakars which was acknowledged by the then reigning sovereige of Malabar-Veera Raghava Perumal by dubbing the leader of them "the Loga Perum Chetty" or the greatest merchant of
the World".

Rev.Thomas Whitehouse in his Lingerings of Light in a Dark Land quotes historian Mosheim thus:"Eight families were perverted by Manikka Vacagar and these so far increased as to form at length a community of 96 houses whose members had renounced the worship of the true God.The reigning Rajah or Perumal Prince having granted to their headman,Iravi Corttan,ground whereupon a settlement was formed called Manigramam,they were called Manigramakars or(as we should say) the people of the village Manes and the remnant of their descendants still bear the same name among the Syrian Christians".

G T Mackenzie,British Resident of Travancore-Cochin,who wrote Christianity in Travancore extracts two passages confirming this,but quotes Dr Rae of Madras Christian College to dispel the story connected with Manechians,a myth.Manechians were heretic Christians.Thus Manigramam finds its founder in Manikka Vacagar.

The incident mentioned in the above quotes is granting of the charter which is known in history as Tharisappally Sasanam.

Tharisappally copper plates (AD 849)is a grant issued by King of Venadu(Kollam),Ayyan Adikal Thiruvadikal to Manigramakars , christians(not to the Christians only, as they say) ,Jews and others in the 5th regular of the Chera ruler Sthanu Ravi Varma.Inscription describes the gift of land to to the Teresa Church near Kollam,to the Christians led by Mar Sapir Iso.He was a Nestorian priest.Teresa Church was an existing Church.In relation to this Sasanam,Whitehouse mentions 30 families of manigramakars of Kollam and their Priest,Naimar.He had a subordinate called Veera Udayan with a weapon,Yamadhudha.He used to collect the duty from low caste artisans.He mentions Manigramakars maintained only a remote connection with the Christians.The signatories of the available(it is incomplete) sasanam have signed in Hebrew,Pahlavi and Kufic.Jews,Persians and Arabs.Language denotes politics.On the cross on which Jesus was hanged,INRI was written in three languages:Hebrew,Latin and Aramaic.The last was the language Jesus spoke.

K Sivasankaran Nair in Venadinte Parinamam has rightly pointed out that the charter was granted not only to Christians and Jews.According to him,Anchuvannam and Manigramam were two merchant guilds who were entrusted with the implementation of the provisions of the Sasanam. Gundert and Logan viewed Manigramam as  Christian and Anchuvannam as Jew. It is a missionary position!Sivasankaran Nair in his book,Vanijyathilude Parathantryam views Manigramam as a guild of Jains,Vaishnavites and others.He considers Manigramam of Tulunadu as their capital.If we are to accept Vacagar as the founder,this theory will have to be recast with the inclusion of neo saivites,the maniyani nairs.

Manickavacagar was nicknamed Mani,which meant a Brahmin youth.Mani in Tamil,Canarese and Tulu  refers to an unmarried Brahmin,a Brahmachari.Mani bacame Manikkam or ruby after he became a sage.Manigramam,which was founded in Cochin spread to Kollam,Kottayam,Kayamkulam and Mannar.If it was founded in Cochin as some historians say,the theory that Vacagar came to Tripunithura gains currency.To my view, Manigramam of Tulunadu need not be considered the capital.There is a village called Manigramam in Nagapattinam,25 kilometers from Mayiladuthurai.Manigramam founded in Kerala coast in 9th century spread to Tamilnadu and flourished there during Pallava and Chola periods.In the Tiruppatur Sivapuri temple wall of Ramanthapuram,there is an inscription related to Manigramam.They funded the temple.

Ancient Cochin

We find vysyas or chettis allover Tamilnadu.It is a mystery why only few vysyas are there in Kerala.The vysyas of Kerala are definitely christians,the traders.K M Mathew,who was my Chief Editor,  told me once that they,the Kandathil family were enna(oil)chettis before conversion.With the help of Vacagar,another historical mystery is getting solved.
Though there is a debate as to which century does Vacagar belong,Some Christian texts suggest to him to be in the second century.The texts say that alarmed by Vacagar's feat,Kerala Christians sent a deputation to Demetrius,Bishop of Alexandria,requesting him to send a learned scholar to refute the arguments of  Vacagar.Pantaenus,Professor at the Seminary of Alexandria came to Kerala in AD 190.He,the texts say,defeated Vacagar in the debate and brought back the apostatized to Christianity.

There is another mystery about Vacagar-such a powerful advocate of saivism is not counted  among 63 Nayanars.Is  proselytism the reason?If the story Pantaenus is true,the defeat maybe the reason.It is a fact that Hinduism of Aryans doesnt accept reconversion.Only Aryasamajam does it.But Saivism of Dravidians is known for reconversion.The famous Thirunavukkarasu or Appar who was brought in Saivism went to Pataliputram,became a Jain and a chief priest.He was reconverted later.Jnanasambandhar  defeated Jains in Madurai in intellectual discourse.Several Jains were reconverted.What did you learn from the symbolic horse myth of Vacagar?It is the story of reconversion of foxes to horses!

The Christians converted by Vacagar as Nairs didn't become full fledged Nairs.I quote Whitehouse:"If a Nair makes a feat,the males of the Manigramakar maybe invited,but not the females;and if they make a feast in return,the Nair guests will not eat the food if cooked by anyone of the same caste as their host.When the Nairs and they fall out,it is very common thing for the former to upbraid them with their mongrel origin."
It is an inhuman area I don't want to tread.

There is a claim that Maniyani Nairs are temple architects who worked with Mani(bell) and Aani(nail) and are descendants of Agasthya.Again,an area of myth I don't want to tread.The horse myth was exotic:it spoke about metamorphosis.

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Reference:
Manikkavacagar and His Date/K G Sesha Aiyar
Manikka Vacagar and the Early Christians of Malabar/T Ponnambalam Pillai
The Syrian Christians In India/G T Mackenzie
Lingerings of Light in A Dark Land/Rev Thomas Whitehouse
A Survey of Kerala History/A Sreedhara Menon
History of Christianity in India:Source Materials/M K Kuriakose
The Dance of Siva:Religion,Art and Poetry in South India/David Smith
Footprint India/Roma Bradnock
A History of Indian Literature/Sisir KumarDas
Venadinte Parinamam/K Sivasankaran Nair
Vanijyathiloode Parathantryam/K Sivasankaran Nair. 

See my Post,A CHRISTIAN IN THE ZAMORIN FAMILY