KERALA HAD A CHRISTIAN KING

King Thomas Died in 1450

Kerala had a Christian royal family, probably the only such in the entire Indian subcontinent. It had only one King, Thomas.

It was a royal family that ruled for a brief period of 60 years between 1400–1460. The family was called Villarvattam Pana Swaroopam which ruled originally from Chendamangalam in the Kodungallur region near Kochi and then shifted to Udayamperur, a suburb of Kochi. The ruler was called Thoma Valiya Raja (the Great King- Thomas).

Kerala’s tryst with Christianity started in 52 AD (1st century AD) even before it went to Europe when St.Thomas the Apostle visited Kerala, which has been proven just a myth. St Thomas was never in Kerala. As per Jewish accounts, Chera Emperor Bhaskara Ravi Varman issued a right to their leader Joseph Rabban and their community an elevated social status in the Kingdom. Jewish accounts claim this happened around the 4th century AD, but the accepted date is 1000 CE. Rabban was a Jewish merchant magnate of Kodungallur.The charter shows the status and importance of the Jewish colony in Kodungallur (Cranganore) near Cochin.

This imperial charter as popularly known as the Jewish copper plates of Cochin gave a very high social status to Jews, much similar to Nair Princes and lords. This gave them permanent settlement rights in Kerala forever, rights equal to a feudal prince with all 72 privileges as fit for kings/princes, rights over a guild (Anjuvannam), rights over a village (presumed to be Chendamangalam near Kodungalloor) and other social benefits.

There is documented history available in Kerala about the Villarvattam family from 1400 to 1460. As per Kochi Granthavari (State Archives),

Udayamperur region was ruled by a vassal of the Kochi King for a brief time and he was addressed by Kochi Kings as Thoma Raja (King Thomas). The elder one of the family- Moopil Thoma (Senior Thomas) died without any children in 1410 AD. Thus his brother- Yakoba (Jacob) became the Moopil Thoma. Yakoba was married to a Hindu lady from the Paliam Family (the hereditary Prime Minister dynasty of Kochi who was a cousin of Villarvattam). In this relationship, he had a daughter called Mariyam.As per Granthavari, her Hindu name was Krpavathi.Nairs consider the mother’s lineage as their own. Mariyam was formally baptized, so essentially for Villarvattom, she was a Nasrani.

Mariyam met Prince Rama Varma of the Karoor branch of Kochi Royal house when she was visiting her mother’s house, Paliyam. Prince Rama Varma fell in love with her and gave a mundu to her, in accordance with the Hindu custom of Sambandham. This was not acceptable for Yakoba as he believed his daughter was a Christian and Sambandham rules were not applicable. So for them, Rama Varma got baptized as Ittimani (Immanuel) and married as per Nasrani customs.

The news of the conversion was a huge shock for Kochi Royal House. Kochi King ordered his arrest and he was dragged to Mattancherry and thrown into prison. He died as per folk stories. It is also said he escaped to the North. Mariyam didn’t marry again and waited for the return of Ittimani. Yakoba died in 1460 without any male in succession as he had only Mariam.

The plight of Mariam was brought to the notice of the Kochi King by Paliath Achan. The Kochi king felt sorry for her and decided to marry her in her Hindu identity, Krpavathi (in Sambandam ) and brought her as a concubine to Kochi. She was adopted by Paliam. From then onwards Paliyam family began to wield huge power in Cochin, becoming traditional Prime Ministers during 1632-1809. By the 1590s their fortunes began to spiral: the ruler gave them the seat of a dead chieftain and in 1622 a portion of Vypin Island. Nearly 12,000 tenants tilled Paliam lands, added to which was the ownership of 41 temples.

As she was brought to Kochi Royal house, Villarvattam ceased to exist and the estate fully got under the control of the Kochi Kingdom.

This created tensions between other members of the Villarvattam family and the Kochi royal house, though the former weren’t powerful enough to take Kochi Royals.

The death of Villarvattam King Thoma (Thoma raja) on 2 January 1450 is mentioned in the book, ‘Malabar and Portuguese’ by Sardar K M Panikkar and in ‘Jesuits in Malabar vol-1. Historians have different opinions with regard to the origin of the name of this dynasty. One suggestion is that the river flowing around Chendamangalam was shaped like a villu (bow) and the name ‘Villaruvattom’ (which means the place within this area of villu) was its first name, later it became Villarvattom by usage.

And it is in this context, Europeans actually entered Kerala.

There is a folklore about an attack on Jews and Nasrani Christians by Arab merchants who reached Muziris Port for trade over the price of certain goods which ended up in a civil war and these Christian communities fled the place for safety. They ended up in a faraway place called Udayamperur where they set their new base. So as by the 8th century, two Syriac monks came to Kerala to preach the gospel. They were  Mar Sabor and Mar Proth and they founded a large church in Udayamperur, thanks to funding from Villarvattam Family.

In these oral traditions, this family ruled this area as a sort of estate vassal of the Chera Emperor. It was much like a feudal fiefdom based in Chendamangalam. It is through their accounts that we actually understand they were Nasaranis and their head called Moopil Thoman (Senior Thomas or Lord Thomas), was some sort of ruler.

As per folklore, the original name of this family was Valeyadattu and some say it was originally called Chenna Managalathu Mana (normally Manas were residences of Nampoothiris ). Though they lived in the Udayamperoor area, their ancestral base was Chendamangalam and essentially had relations back there. Over a period of time later, it came to know as Villarvattom. Valeyadattu could be Valiyedath-a mana that still exists at Udayamperoor, from which, a myth says, a girl merged with the idol of Poornathrayeesa, at the Tripunithura temple.

By the 11th century, the Chola-Chera war started and Chera Empire was on the brink of its collapse. Cholas at one instance won and ransacked the imperial capital of Mahodayapuram and the dynasty almost ended.

With the collapse of the Chera Empire, Kerala almost ended up in 587 principalities and essentially every Royal family which we know today started its origin in this period.

In this period, Villarvattam also became a principality of its own right by declaring independence. But being part of the erstwhile Chera Capital, most of these principalities owe an allegiance to the successor of the Chera Empire and it's here, the Kochi Kingdom arose. The Kochi Kingdom or Perumpadappu Swaroopam was in direct succession line of the Chera dynasty, hence the founders of this dynasty enjoyed instant vassalage of numerous principalities in central Kerala.

Cochin State Manual states that Villarvattam originally was a Kshatriya vassal of the Kochi King under whom Paliyath Achan was a landlord. K P Padmanabha Menon in Travancore State Manual quotes Asseman to record that as the power of Christians grew, the Cochin, Kollam nasranis decided to consecrate a King of their own and did it by selecting Beliarte ( Villarvattam).

“They chose from among their own number a king, who was called Beliarte, who was obliged to engage that he would defend them from the Mahometans as well as the Pagans,” wrote Fra Paolino da san Bartolomeo, the 18th-century orientalist in his work, Voyage to the East Indies.

Mappa Mundi (the Catalan Atlas) of 1375, the first-ever portrayal of India in its peninsular form, shows two Christian kingdoms in South India – one on the Kerala coast. 

Kottayil Kovilakam Jesuit Church

Historian N M Namboodiri cites Kozhikode Granthavari (Zamorin’s Archives), the presence of a Christian/outsider community as one of the blood-related vassals of Perumpadappu swaroopam. This could be referring to the legends of Villarvattam, the Christian royal family’s presence in that era. Probably such references were made in that era to discredit the Kochi Royal house as having blood relations with so-called Mlchhas (foreigners). It could be purposefully done due to the Zamorin-Perumpadappu rivalry. The Granthavari reveals that Villarvattam attacked and looted Adoor village in 1713, they destroyed the temple, harassed the brahmins and seized the boat of the temple. They removed Nedunganatt Nambidi Achans from their position, at an event in Perumundamukk. It also describes a consecration of a King in 1558-59.

M Radha Devi, a history professor who belongs to the Paliyam family, in her book, Paliyam Charithram also mentions Villarvattam. According to her, the Kochi royal family, when they lost Vanneri, Ponnani and the Valluvanad as a whole to the Zamorin, fled and reached Thiruvanchikulam near Kodungallur. Around 1400, Zanorin seized Thiruvanchikulam and the family shifted to Kochi,20 km away, on the southeastern side. In the floods in 1341, Kodungallur port disappeared and Kochi had become a port. At that time, Radha Devi states, Chendamangalam and the surrounding places belonged to Villarvattam. He was a vassal of the Kochi King. His palace was on the Villarvattam hill at Chendamangalam. He gave Jews and Christians lands generously for building places of worship. Before Paliyath Achans settled there, Villarvattam King was very much there.

S N Sadasivan in A Social History of India writes: "The Paliyam copper plates of Vikramaditya Varaguna, an Ay King, categorically state that he has made a liberal grant of extensive land to the Buddhist University of Sreemoolavasam together with the pulayas (serfs) attached t it. The copper plates on which the edict was inscribed, are lost except two, but what is written on the two plates is adequate to have a complete understanding of the nature of the transfer of land and the persons associated with it. The house Paliyam, which means (Pali+Ayam ) storehouse of Pali was once the seat of Buddhist studies and later on its ownership was taken over by a prominent family of Cochin."

Francis Day, L K Ananthakrishna Iyer, Puthezhath Raman Menon, Kodungallur Kunjikuttan Thampuran, M Sankara Menon, and P Sankunni Menon have also mentioned Villarvattam Kings. An inscription in Pahlavi in the Udayamperoor Church reads: "The Villarvattam King Thoma who resided at Chendamangalam died, in 1500."

As long as Villarvattam was in Chendamangalam, they were Hindus. It has to be assumed that they got converted at Udayamperur. There was a royal branch called Vettath. Records show that the only queen of Cochin, Rani Gangadhara Lakshmi adopted five princes during 1656-58 from Aroor and Vettath branches. Some Christian scholars seem to confuse Vettath with Villarvattam, to make the Christian fiefdom look archaic.

Renowned anthropologist K Ananthakrishna Iyer (1861-1937)  records in The Anthropology of the Syrian Christians:

"One other interesting point connected with the early history of Syrian Christians is that they still cherish the tradition of having attained the dignity of possessing a king of their own at Villarvattam, near Udayamperoor and that at the death of the last king without issue, the kingdom lapsed to the Cochin royal family. Ever since that time, the Christians of St Thomas have been loyal subjects to the rulers of Cochin and Travancore. Who the rulers are and how long the kingdom lasted, is not possible to say. When the Portuguese landed in India, the Syrians, seeing their conquests and their zeal for the propagation of their faith, desired to make an alliance with them with many of the demonstrations of their fidelity, the red -staff mounted in gold and three silver bells of their last Christian ruler, as marks of submission to them. But as they received from them no compensation, they continued the old form of government and lived in a great union, scattered as they lived in distant communities all over the land."

The actual documented history of this family appears initially not from Kerala historical works, but rather from European historical works, particularly Papal documents of the Vatican.

The news of the existence of a Christian royal family in Kerala somehow reached European shores It was the period of the rise of Papal Kingdoms in Europe and the assertation of the Pope’s authority over European territories. The news of a Christian royal family was likely to be interpreted (or misinterpreted) as Catholic Rule and Pope even believed that the fabled lands of the Indies were ruled by a Christian Emperor.

Pope John XXII

Believing in this myth, Pope John XXII wrote a letter and gave it to a travelling Catholic priest, Jordans Kattalani on 8 April 1328. Pope even assumed that he has Papal rights over the so-called Christian Emperor of Indies and appointed Jordans as the new Bishop of Kolllon-Kollam or Quilon which was the newly formed capital of Later Cheras. Due to the Crusades happening between Catholics and Muslims in the Middle East, it was almost impossible for any Catholic priest to make a move to the east over Muslim regions. Thus Jordans never reached Kerala.

The second time, Pope Eugene IV wrote an Apostolic Charter in Latin on 28 August 1439 appointing Villarvattam King as Emperor of India, assuming the absolute Papal rights to ordinate a Christian King:

”To my most beloved son in Christ, Thomas, the Illustrious Emperor of the Indians, Health and the Apostolic benediction. There often has reached us a constant rumour that Your Serenity and also all who are the subjects of your Kingdom are true Christians”.

This order also never reached Kerala, so none of the Villarvattom rulers ever had an idea of some Pope living in Rome was addressing him as Emperor of India. In fact, he was just a feudal lord of the area, not a King as such.

In this period, Europeans had not discovered a sea route to India; they had knowledge of exaggerated rumours and fabled tales from many places in the East, including Kerala.

In 1498, when Vasco da Gama finally succeeded in discovering a sea route between Europe and India and landed in Kozhikode. he was searching for a mythical character called Prester John whom Europeans believed to be a living Christian King of India. He found the Nasrani community in Kerala, but not what he expected. They were not Catholics which he couldn’t comprehend as Christians. When Vasco da Gama came to Kochi in 1502, members of the Villarvattom family and local Christians met him and presented the preserved royal sceptre, which was a red rod probably made of wood, tipped with silver, having three small bells at the upper end. There has been no trace of this sceptre since then. They sought his assistance in ensuring the return of the estates of Villarvattom from Kochi. Kochi had become the key ally of the Portuguese. It was then da Gama realized, the much exaggerated Villarvattom Kings of the Malabar coast as heard in Europe, were nothing but petty feudal lords in reality. da Gama promised to look into the matter, but he never cared much about it, as he was involved with a larger political game in Malabar.

“They sent his majesty [king of Portugal] a rod tipped at both ends with silver, with three bells at the head of it, which had been the sceptre of their Christian Kings,” writes Michael Geddes in his 1694 translation of the Portuguese work “The History of the Church of Malabar”. The representatives of the Christian population in Kodungallur, which was estimated to be 30,000 by one of the chroniclers of Gama’s time, had handed over the sceptre on December 7, 1502, during Gama’s second visit to India.

Years passed and the Villarvattam family were reduced to ordinary fief lords of the area, unlike the larger position and power they once held.

Their memorandum to Vasco da Gama remained in Portuguese records and since the 1550s Portuguese were actively involved in Catholicizing these so-called Nasranis In this period. Portuguese were actively involved in evangelical activities and the Goan Inquisition was in place. The Jesuits were not successful in Kerala. They could convert only the Tanur King.

Pope Eugene IV

They thought, if they could convert Kochi King to Christianity, the entire Nasranis and other Hindus in Kochi would automatically be converted. Kochi King had become a subordinate ally of the Portuguese and the throne had a cross as insignia. Goan Arch-Bishop Aleixo de Menezes sailed to Kochi and met Kochi King and presented him with the idea of converting him, which horrified the King. At the same time, he wasn’t in a position to displease the Portuguese who were protecting his kingdom from Zamorins.

When Archibishop Alex de Menezes sailed to Cochin in 1599, he deplored the inability of the catholic clergy to baptize at least one of the Rajas of Cochin to Christianity in spite of the might of the Portuguese over the local Rajas for over a century. He also visited Udayamperur, Chennamangalam and the Syrian seminary at Vypicotta.

On his way to Udayamperur, he was jeered at by a few Nasranis who obviously took offence to the Portuguese interference in their lives. Enraged at this, Archbishop Menezes stopped at the Cochin fort and visited the Cochin Raja who was in his palace at Calvetti adjacent to the fort. He held the Raja responsible for instigating this incident and also discussed religion with him while urging him to be a Christian.

The King made a tactical move by asking the Bishop to meet members of the Villarvattam family and convert them. Kochi King issued a decree elevating the senior member of the family as a Thampuran (Lord/Raja), thus keeping the family happy as well as Portuguese too as they could evangelize a Raja at least. When Bishop Menezes met the senior head of the Villarvattom family, he realized how deeply religious Christians they are, even though they didn't follow Catholic rites.

Villarvattam’s Valiya Thampuran was ready to accept Catholicism contrary to general opposition among the Nasrani community primarily because they felt they could gain a lot from the Portuguese and have an upper hand over Kochi King. Within a few days, in March 1599, the Raja was baptized at the Chennamangalam Seminary by Archibishop Menezes himself and christened ‘Thomas’. He was henceforth known as Villarvattom Thoma Rajavu.

Thus they converted to Catholicism and Udayaperur became one of the biggest Catholic hubs shortly. Under the support of Vallarvattom Thampurans, Menezes organized the celebrated Synod of Diamper in 1599 which led to the foundation of Kerala’s Catholic traditions. During the synod, Syrian religious texts were burnt. Later the huge library in Angamaly itself was burnt by Menezes.

Thomas Raja had no heir to succeed him and did not or could not adopt a nephew from his family. He adopted his vassal, the Paliath Achan with the sanction of the Cochin Raja. Very soon Paliath Achan became the overlord of the whole of Vypeen and became the Prime Minister of the Cochin Raja. However, the Paliath Achan remained a Hindu Kshatriya and did not accept Christianity.

King Thoma breathed his last on 9th February 1701 and was interred at his request in the ‘Pazhe Palli’ built by his ancestors at Udayamperur. With him ended the line of the last Christian kings in Kerala.

The ancestral property of Villarvattom Kings in Chendamangalam became a Catholic Seminary, the Vypeekotta Seminary which became the site of the third printing press in India after Goa and Kollam.

The senior member of this family remained a titular Thoma Raja as no other powers or independent authority was given by Kochi Kings. In 1665 Dutch overthrew the Portuguese from Kerala and without Portuguese support, Villarvattom once again became dormant.

On 9th February 1701, the last Thoma Raja passed away without any direct and indirect heirs and the Kochi Kingdom nationalized the properties of the family citing a lack of successors. Some of the key properties were handed over to the Archdiocese of Verapoly while the majority were taken over by the state. By the time of nationalization, the family got disintegrated and new branches of the family with different family names, emerged mostly in the Travancore Kingdom side, thus the formal Villarvattom family ended in oblivion.

Joseph Simonius Assemanus says in his Bibliotheca Orientalis (1728) that the Villarvattam dynasty died out as the last king was issueless. “…and when after some of his [Beliarte’s] sons had reigned, at last by adoption, the dynasty passed from the Christians to the Heathen Kings of Diamper [Udayamperur]. When Portuguese first came to the shores, the Malabar Christians were the Kings of Cochin.”

However, there are multiple versions of who inherited the dynasty. Julius Valentijn Stein Van Gollenesse, the former Dutch commander of Malabar, writes in his 1743 administration report that Paliyath Achan possessed the right to the old state of ‘Villar Vattatta’.

There is a third version, from a local historian, which says that the last king Yakob Svarupi’s daughter was married to a prince of the Perumpadappu royal family, who was converted to Christianity. A few years later, the princess died and the prince reverted to Hinduism as Svarupi was already dead, the territories of the kingdom were distributed among neighbouring rulers.

 KP Padmanabha Menon in his ‘History of Kerala’ says that the Cochin royal family came into possession of the estates of the ‘influential house’ of Villarvattam through adoption. Historians have quoted Giraud’s Bibliotheca Sacra to claim that the dynasty lasted from the fourth to the fourteenth century AD.

A few years ago, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, the Portuguese national archives and various archaeological museums in Lisbon went online and many documents that shed light on the history of Kerala are now searchable, but there is nowhere a mention of the stature of that red sceptre of Beliarte, which was handed over to Gama for safekeeping.

Aleixo de Menezes 

A considerable number of Syrian Christians began to be recruited as fighting forces for the local rulers, particularly with the disintegration of the Cheras and the consequent fragmentation of central authority in the 12th century. Most of the Christian settlements had their own kalaris (schools for training in martial arts and fencing) run mostly by Christian panikkars and in places where there was no Christian Kalari they had to join the kalaris run by Nairs. 

Jornada says that some Christian Panikars had eight to nine thousand disciples, both Christians and Nairs, getting trained as fighting forces for the local rulers. One of the most famous Christian Panikkars of this period was Vallikkada Panikkar who had his Kalari at Peringuzha on the banks of river Muvattupuzha, one of whose descendants was Mar Ivanios, who later got reunited with the Catholic Church in 1930, laying a foundation for the Syro-Malankara church in India.

The rulers of Vadakkenkur and Cochin banked very much upon the Christian fighting force for their wars of defence and expansion. In 1546 the king of Vadakkenkur offered the Portuguese about 2000 soldiers for the purpose of helping them to lift the Ottoman siege on Diu. Later in 1600 the king of Cochin also offered St.Thomas Christian soldiers to the Portuguese for the project of conquering Ceylon, though the project was not materialized for other reasons. 

The military tradition of the St.Thomas Christians was preserved by this community as something integral to it and they even resorted to the usual practice of the fighting force to form chaverpada (suicidal squad) to protect their bishop Mar Joseph from being arrested by the Portuguese by the end of 1550s. About 2000 Christian soldiers organized themselves into suicidal squads to prevent the Portuguese from arresting their Bishop.

The Syrian Christians used to go to their churches along with their swords, shields, and lances in their hands, as Antonio de Gouvea mentions in Jornada. Eventually, weapon houses (Ayudhapura)were constructed in front of the churches for the purpose of keeping swords, guns, and lances during the time of church service, whose remnants are now visible in front of the churches of Ramapuram, Pala and Cherpunkal. 

Later when all the smaller principalities of central Kerala were amalgamated into the Travancorean state during the period between 1742 and 1752 and with the creation of a standing army under Marthanda Varma, the importance of Christians as a fighting force for the regional political players declined.

Once the seat of the Kshatriya chieftains of Villarvattom, Kottayil Kovilakom of Chendamangalam has a strong link with the Paliyathachans or the prime ministers of the erstwhile Cochin maharajas. In 1663, the Dutch built Paliyam Kotta (fort), as a gesture of gratitude to the Paliyathachans, for helping them defeat the Portuguese. Inside the fort, a kovilakom (palace) was built especially for women, hence the name Kottayil Kovilakam.

In 1790, when Tipu Sultan’s marauding army reached this place one of the caretakers of the Paliyam family, named in records as Koya Muhammed was killed and his last rites performed by the Paliyam men. The mosque at Kottayil Kovilakom that stands close to the Sree Krishna temple is testimony to this amity. The narrow road that runs close to the mosque leads to the rundown Jewish cemetery. The Jews were supposed to have settled here in the 15th Century. A synagogue they built still stands but the Jews have all migrated.

Close to the synagogue stands the church built by the Jesuit missionaries in 1577 and the Vaipikkotta Seminary. Both structures were severely damaged during Tipu Sultan’s attack. Although the church was restored, the ruins of the seminary can be still seen. Stone inscriptions in ancient Malayalam script provide valuable information about a long-lost culture.

A well in the churchyard, now closed, is believed to have led to Tipu’s fort. A printing press, started here by the Jesuits that was completely destroyed by Tipu’s men, also stood in this compound.

© Ramachandran