THE MALAYALAM BIBLE WAS MADE BY HINDUS

In the end, Menon became a Christian

In an era when the Christians in Kerala lacked literary scholarship, two Hindus, with the help of a Jewish scholar, did the first translation of the Bible into Malayalam. The Hindus were Palakad Ottappalam Chunangat Chathu Menon, a Malayalam scholar and Vaidyanatha Iyer, a Tamil/Sanskrit scholar. The Jew was Hebrew scholar Moses ben David Sarphati.

Even the first incomplete translation of the Bible into Malayalam, which is called the Ramban Bible, was done by a Hindu Tamil scholar, Thimmappa Pillai, which had a heavy dose of Tamil.

The details of the translation have been described in my Malayalam novel, Papasananam, based on the life of Rev Jacob Ramavarma, an associate of Herman Gundert, who got converted to Christianity.Ramavarma was the son of the Kochi King,Veera Keralavarma.Chathu Menon, after the translation, became a Christian, like Joseph Fenn. He took the name from Rev Joseph Fenn, the first principal of the  Syrian College (old seminary), Kottayam.

Ramban Bible

During an identity crisis in his life, Jacob Ramavarma met Chathu Menon, who had become Joseph Fenn by that time, working as a Munsif at Kochi. Till then, Jacob Ramavarma records in his autobiography, that he had never known praying with heart. Since he was not satisfied with rendering the prayers in the ordinary books, he spoke to his friend  Joseph Fenn, seeking a better book. He told Jacob that God looks not at the book but at a person's heart." only a man is responsible for his own actions", Joseph Fenn told Jacob Ramavarma. He began following this advice, seeking happiness.

This Joseph Fenn should not be confused with Joseph Fenn (1790-1878)  a lawyer turned missionary who resigned from Lincon's Inn, London to reach Kottayam in Travancore, in 1818. Travancore Dewan John Munro had asked him and Rev Thomas Norton to work in Travancore. Benjamin Bailey too came the same year.

Jacob's friend Joseph Fenn was Ottapalam Chunangat Chathu Menon, who had joined Benjamin Bailey, with Moses and Vaidyanatha Iyer in the translation of the Bible into Malayalam in 1817. During translation, Chathu Menon and his sons, Padmanabha Menon and Govindan Kutty Menon embraced Christianity, and Menon got acres of land in Vazhoor, Kottayam, and the home he built is still there at Kodungoor junction. Padmanabhan became Bailey Fenn and Govindankutty, Baker Fenn. Those names were a combination of the three missionary names, Benjamin Bailey, Henry Baker and Joseph Fenn.

Page from Book of Psalms, printed in 1938, Kottayam

Chathu Menon (1778-1837)  was born in Chunangat (a known Hindu family) in the Ottapalam village of British Malabar. He lost his mother when he was very young and was brought up by his Uncle who taught him martial arts. At age 15, he quarrelled with his uncle, left home, joined a survey team at Ottapalam and moved to Madras. The leader of the team helped him to continue his education and became an employee of the Madras Revenue Department, in 1800. Later, he became a tutor of the Travancore Dewan Ottapalam Ankarath Raman Menon, with whose help, he became the Tahsildar of Chengannur. He was a tutor of two princes too. Menon married Parvathiamma of Pulivelil House in Aala, a village near Chengannur Town.

Menon was an expert in Malayalam, English and Sanskrit. He was appointed as Tahsildar of Kottayam in 1816-1817. While he was working in this capacity, he became a friend of the Church Mission Society (CMS) missionary, Rev. Benjamin Bailey. Bailey was in need of a person like Menon to help him translate the Bible from English to Malayalam. Moved by Bailey’s request, Menon took leave from the Travancore Government Service and joined back after two years, completing the translation work in 1819. Dewan Munro gave Menon leave to do the work.

Transformation

The Bible translation transformed his life. He continued to stay in Kottayam for a few years. In 1830 he had confidential discussions with Archdeacon Robinson When he visited Kottayam Syrian College (old seminary) and he accepted Jesus as his personal Saviour. He gave his wife, two sons and four daughters the freedom to choose their religion. He offered them all the wealth he had acquired by then. Joseph Fenn, Principal of the College was the main stimulus for this conversion. On 2 November 1831, he was baptized in the Anglican Church in Calicut by Arch Deacon Robinson and was given the name Joseph Fenn. 

Later members of his family were also baptized. Menon had to resign from his government job as Travancore Rules dictated that “non-Hindus were not allowed to hold the post of Tahsildar.” However, he joined the British Government Service and worked as a Salt Peshkar in Ponnani, Record Keeper in Calicut; and later  District Munsif in Cochin. He passed away in 1837, at the age of 57, and was buried in St. Francis Anglican Church, Cochin. 

His descendants live on in Kerala today as Fenns.

Original Joseph Fenn

Both Rev. Joseph Fenn - the principal of the College at Kottayam - and Benjamin Bailey of the CMS Mission School next door, were in need of a Malayalam translator and Menon's talents were well known. Fenn wanted him to translate Latin Grammar into Malayalam and Bailey needed him to help him translate the Bible from English to Malayalam.

Several attempts at a Malayalam version of the Bible had already been made by Syrian Catanars when Scottish theologian Dr Claudius Buchannan - the chaplain of the East India Company - visited in the early 1800s. He suggested to Syrian bishop Mar Dionysius that another concerted attempt be made and upon his return in 1807 was delighted to find that new translations had been made of the four Gospels and the book of Acts. The translations were done by Tamil scholar Thimmappa Pillai and Philipose Ramban, a scholar from Kayamkulam, assisted by eight Tamil pandits and eight Suriyani pundits using the Tamul version of Fabricius.

It was then printed at Courier Press in Bombay in 1811. [The Bible of Every Land. London, 1848, page 124-5]. The Bombay Courier was an English-language newspaper, first printed in 1790 in Bombay, by William Ashburner. It followed the Bombay Herald, founded in 1789, and succeeded the Bombay Gazette, founded in 1791. In 1847, it merged with the Bombay Telegraph to form the Telegraph and Courier. Timmappah Pillai went to Bombay, where a font of Malayalam type had been cast, and he supervised the printing.

It was found to abound with words familiar to the Syrian Christians but almost unintelligible to other classes of the Malayalam population. Timapah Pillay was asked to make an entirely new translation without delay, however, it too was an unreliable mixture of Malayalam and Tamil - and was also unsuitable for the missionaries. It was - in the words of the British Resident Colonel Munro - "to be so very bad in every respect; in fidelity, meaning and language as to be unfit for use" [Proceedings of the CMS, V20, 1820, p170]. Munro also said that "Mr Bailey is obliged to make a complete version of the whole" [op cit].

Faced with this request, Fenn and Bailey approached Chathu in 1819 and he took two-year's leave from the Travancore Government Service to assist with translation. Bailey also sought the help of Moses Sarphati, a Hebrew scholar, and Vaidyanatha Iyer, a Sanskrit pandit. 

Ramban Bible Copy

Historian and Biblical scholar Stephen Neill says of the process that neither a Malayalam grammar nor dictionary was available to the translators and they were unaware of the contributions of the Roman Catholics in this area [Neill, 2002, History of Christianity in India: 1707-1858, p243]. As well there was no standard prose so the question of what sort of Malayalam should the Bible script be translated into was hard to resolve. Nevertheless, The Gospel of Mathew was printed at CMS press in 1819, Â New Testament in 1825 and the full Bible in 1841. 

Neill criticised the text for being too close to the original Greek" thus distorting the Malayalam idiom"; and "an excess of Sanskrit words made it difficult for the less learned Christian to read" [op cit]. Criticisms aside, it was a major achievement for the missionaries of Travancore. Menon's translation of the Bible was well received. Rev Francis Spring - chaplain at Tellicherry - had also made a complete revision of the Bible using the Sanscrit New Testament supplemented by the Greek text and various critical works. It was designed to be acceptable to the people of Malabar (to the north of Travancore). Fenn said (in a letter to Rev. Josiah Pratt of the CMS - dated 20 January 1825) regarding the Spring translation of the Bible "I greatly prefer Mr Bailey's", and "Mr Bailey's translation seems to be much more correct and faithful version".

Menon translated “Town Clerk" as  “Pattana Menavan” (Malayalam Bible Acts 19:35). Menon is a sub-sect of Nairs-they were doing clerical jobs.

It is often wondered why Chathu Menon adopted Joseph Fenn's name when it is believed that his major task was working with Rev. Bailey on the Bible translation. He worked equally hard helping Rev. Fenn and it would seem that Fenn inspired him. For example, on November 30, 1821, in a letter to the Secretary of the CMS in London, Rev. Fenn wrote that "after tea, translated with Chattoo Menon some of the Latin rules of Syntax".

                Fenn's diary for February 13, 1821, shows that he was helped by "Chattoo" Menon

Fenn also commented in his Annual Report on the College, (Cotyam, Sept 23, 1822) that "In translating, Chathu Menon is my mainstay, indeed, I ought to say that he is the translator". But not only did Chathu translate English medium texts into Malayalam, but also Sanskrit: in 1821, at the request of  Bailey, he translated the Hindu Upanishad scriptures Ishapanishad and Kena Upanishad.

The Bible translation transformed Menon's life and he accepted Christianity [Neill, 2002, History of Christianity in India: 1707-1858, p 243, note 27]. In Malayalam poetical works, he became well known through a controversial poem, Ajnana Kudaram ( "An Axe to Cut Down Ignorance" ) wherein he severely criticised some of the social superstitions that prevailed in those days. It was in the Malayalam poetical form of Kilippat. The author's name in the book was യൗസെഫ ഫെൻ, Yousefa Fenn.

He passed away in 1837, at the age of 57, and was buried in St. Andrews Anglican Church, Cochin. His descendants live in Kerala. One of them, Rev. Baker Ninan Fenn was consecrated as the eighth bishop of the North Kerala Diocese of the Church of South India in June 2013.

The children of Chathu Menon were: Govindankutty (Bailey Fenn), Born 1825, Died 1864; Kalyani (Elizabeth Fenn), Born 1829, Died 1901 married to Mathai, Konnayil, Pallam, Kottayam, Karthyayani C. (Sarah Fenn), Born 1823, Died 1877; Lekshmi (Maria Fenn), Born 1821, Died 1899, married Modayil Koipurath Oommen; Padmanabhan (Baker Fenn Sr.), Born 1818, Died 1846; Parvathy (Teresa Fenn), Born 1827, Died 1868.

Literary works

His poem, Ajnaana Kudaram written in 1835, is based on his religious search for salvation. It describes the socio-cultural background that inspired his conversion. The hero compares various religions and finds solace in Christianity. Literary critics like M Leelavathy, who wrote The History of Malayalam Poetry, have totally ignored this poetical work. But Ullur S Prameswara Iyer who wrote the History of Malayalam Literature and P Govinda Pillai, a linguistic historian were generous enough to mention it. Ponjikara Rafi wrote an article on the poem, titled, Anjana Kudaram Enna Kavithayum Balakar Enna Sankalpavum. He has pointed out that the imagery of the axe of folly is the axe of Parasurama. The caste system is the axe of ignorance in Kerala. But this interpretation seems to be incorrect since the title of the poem, as written in Fenn's book is,

Ajnana Kutharam
or
An Axe to cut down Ignorance
by
The Late Joseph Fenn
Munsiff - British Cochin

It is evident that the imagery is not of an axe of folly, but an axe to cut down ignorance. Syrian College Published it in 1876 and Malayalam Religious Tract Society in 1905 from Kottayam. Ullur has pointed out that the poem does criticise Hindu superstitions. Joseph Fenn laments:

"മൂശാരി വാര്‍ത്ത തിടമ്പമ്പലം തന്നില്‍
ഘോഷിച്ചുവച്ചു പൂജിക്കുന്നതു നേരം
ദോഷമുണ്ടാം വിപ്രനെന്നിയേ തൊട്ടീടില്‍
ദോഷമില്ലായതുടഞ്ഞിതെന്നാകിലോ
മൂശാരി തൊട്ടു കുറകള്‍ തീര്‍ത്തീടുന്നു;
മൂശയ്ക്കകത്തിട്ട് വാര്‍പ്പതവനല്ലോ.."

(The idol in the temple is made by an untouchable 

If it breaks by the touch of the Brahmin 

The untouchable will have  to repair

The untouchable is the creator...)

The poem in five parts definitely shows Fenn's scholarship in Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. It has everything from Dasavathara myth, Puri Jagannatha, and Vedanta to Nabi and Tipu Sultan.

A philosophical verse from it:

'ചിത്തമേകാഗ്രമായ് നിന്നിതെന്നാകിലോ
സത്വരം ജ്ഞാനാഗ്‌നി തന്നില്‍ ദുരിതങ്ങള്‍
കത്തിയെരിഞ്ഞുപോം, കൈത്തിരികൊണ്ടൊരു
പത്തനമെല്ലാം ദഹിക്കുന്നതുപോലെ..'

(If your mind is steady and 

If you have the inner fire of wisdom
The agony will get destroyed
Like a town in flames)

It ends in the spiritual vaccum of the untouchables:

പണ്ടൊരു ശൂദ്രന്‍ തന്നുടെ പാപം 

കണ്ടു ഭയം പൂണ്ടങ്ങകതണ്ടില്‍
തെണ്ടിനശോകാന്‍ അന്തണമേകം 

കണ്ടു വണങ്ങിക്കൊണ്ടുര ചെയ്താന്‍
'ഇണ്ടലകരുവതിന്‍ വഴിയെന്യേ 

കുണ്ഠിതരായതി പാപസമേതം
മണ്ടിയുഴന്ന് നടപ്പിതു ശൂദ്രര്‍ 

കണ്ടീലവര്‍കള്‍ക്കില്ലുപദേശം
വേദവുമില്ല ശാസ്ത്രവുമില്ല 

വേദിയരെന്യേ ശരണം നാസ്തി.
പൂജ പുനസ്കാരങ്ങളുമില്ലാ 

പൂതതയില്ലാമനസ്സിന്നേതും
മന്ത്രവുമില്ലാ തന്ത്രവുമില്ലാ 

സന്ധ്യയിലൂക്കയുമില്ലാ ശൂദ്രന്‍
ഹന്ത! നിനച്ചാലെന്തവനുള്ളു 

അന്തകനെത്തുമ്പോള്‍ ഹാഹാഹാ

(The Sudras have neither Veda, Sasthra
Nor Poojas,Mantra and Tantra
They don't have Lukose at twilight and salvation
Who will rescue them at the hour of death?)

There is a tinge of Kunchan Nambiar here. Rev Henry Baker in a letter in 1840 has recorded that this poem was very popular then. But since it had a missionary zeal, Chattampi Swamikal (1853-1924) attacked the poem vehemently in his Christhu Mathachedhanam (A Critique of Christianity). He remarked:

"By publishing heretical books like Anjanakudaram, the missionaries are trying to convert ignorant Hindus like Pulayas, Channars, and Parayas by offering them cap and dress and thereby leading them to hell."

Story of the Jew

Now, the untold story of the Cochin Jew, who assisted in the Bible translation-Moses ben David Sarphati, the Hebrew professor of Kottayam Syrian College.

The surname Sarphati is believed to have its origin in France as the word SARPAT is the Hebrew word for France. According to history, this family came to Cochin in the 17th century. They are professional writers and are seen in communal agreements of the Cochin Jewish community.

Moses ben David Sarphati was a liberally-minded Jew, who is mentioned in many missionary records for his kindness and generosity. He was one of the linguists who helped Benjamin Bailey with the Hebrew language in his complete translations of the Old Testament Bible.

He was the Hebrew Professor of the Kottayam CMS, and many of the Malpans (the Syriac word "Malpan" means teacher. Elderly Christian priests who used to teach and train candidates for the priesthood were usually referred to as Malpans) were practising Hebrew lessons under him. Thus he was a teacher to the teachers. Sarphati was a skilled Sofer (Hebrew scribe) and he is also considered a local historian. His Hebrew history record of Cochin Jews dated 1874, (which is a collection containing various records/data of an early date of 1663 to his time) is mentioned by David Solomon, in his Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscript catalogue book "Ohel David".

Sarphati's influence is seen in the different stages of publishing Bailey's Malayalam bible, as the primary stage was started by publishing Psalms, followed by the 5 Books of Moses which are of high importance in Judaism. Finally, the entire book was published in 1841-42.

Cochin Jews held many translated biblical manuscripts owned by different people. These clusters of Malayalam translations would have been an aid for Bailey's translations, few among the recorded Malayalam translations are mentioned in Ohel David, some with the name of the scribes and owners too.

Buchanan enters

The visit of Dr Claudius Buchanan, who was the vice-principal and chaplain of Fort William College, Calcutta in 1806, was the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the Christian community. On reaching Kandanad, he held discussions with the Bishop there and sought his opinion on translating the Bible to Malayalam and also on opening regional schools. With the permission of the Bishop, Buchanan apprised the British Resident Col.Colin Macaulay of the details of his interaction with the Bishop and they together visited the northern parts of Travancore and Kochi. A copy of the Bible written on parchment in Syriac was presented to Buchanan by Mar Dionysius, who was the sixth Mar Thoma at Angamaly. This was printed by the Bible Society and its copies were distributed in the churches in Malabar (Logan, William, Malabar Manual). The copy presented to Buchanan is now kept at the Cambridge Library.

 The Church in Kerala is indebted to these great Hindus who translated the Bible.

Buchanan

The translated Bible contains the Old Testament and the New Testament. A collection of the works existing in Israel before the arrival of Christ constitutes the Old Testament. The collection of holy books that originated after the arrival of Christ and was written by the Apostles and his other disciples is known as the New Testament. From time immemorial, all such works were translated into different languages. Buchanan, who took up the translation initiative, translated New Testament from Syriac to Malayalam under the tutelage of Philipose Ramban, a native of Kayamkulam, with the help of Pulikkottil Thomas Ramban and Thimmappa Pillai. This is the first Bible in Malayalam and it was distributed in churches in 1815. 

Buchanan, a friend of William Carrey persuaded church leaders to translate biblical manuscripts into Malayalam and guided local scholars. At that time, Syriac was the liturgical language of Christians in Kerala. By 1807, Ittoop and Ramban—both Malankara Syrian Christian monks—had translated the four gospels from Syriac into Malayalam, assisted by Thimmappa Pillai. They then translated the Tamil version by Johann Philipp Fabricius into Malayalam. The Bible Society of India paid for 500 copies to be printed in Bombay in 1811. Timmappa completed the translation of the New Testament in 1813, but this edition too was found to include vocabulary known only to the Syriac Christian community and not to the general Malayalee population. This translation is now known as the Ramban Bible.

Bailey, who learnt Malayalam, Sanskrit, and Syriac, set up the CMS Press at Kottayam in 1821. He himself carved out wooden Malayalam scripts for the first time to print the Bible. Both the Malayalam-English Dictionary and the English-Malayalam Dictionary were published in 1846 and were printed at the CMS Press.

It was in 1817, that the Church Missionary Society of India provided Benjamin Bailey to translate the Bible into Malayalam. He completed his translation of the New Testament in 1829 and the Old Testament in 1841. Hermann Gundert updated Bailey's version and produced the first Malayalam-English dictionary in 1872. 

Benjamin Bailey

Rev Francis Spring, a Chaplain of the British East India Company, who was based at Thalasserry, had translated the Bible from Sanskrit to Malayalam with the help of regional language scholars by 1822. The Sanskrit translation of the Bible had already partially taken shape as far as 1808 and the full version appeared ten years later. But Spring’s translation into Malayalam never saw the light of day. 

Spring was part of the team that established the first school in Pallikkunnu, Thalassery on 25 June 1817, along with Parson John Laverock Oakes, Edbert (Canara), and the Magistrate Thomas Harvey Baber. The first schoolmaster was a Portuguese called John Baptist or Baptiste, a “native catechist,” who had four native assistants. Spring left for England in 1824. It was taken over by the CMS that year. In 1824, it contained 59 children of various castes and classes. Spring was able to take over control of the school to a greater extent in the years after 1820; it began to try to convert pupils to Christianity. John L. Oakes who was Master Attendant at Thalassery, died in about 1819, leaving 20,000 Rupees of his own fortune for the relief of the poor of Thalassery.

Spring wrote about Thalassery:

“Something is almost daily occurring to animate us in our course. Here, flashes of heavenly light are continually gleaming through the darkening atmosphere. I hear that there is, on every side, a readiness amongst great numbers to receive the tidings of the Gospel.”

A hospital in Thalassery was opened in 1819, which grew out of Oakes' work.

It was again Bailey whose Malayalam translation of the New Testament was officially published by the Madras Auxiliary of the Bible Society in 1835. The revised version of this Bible was published in 1859. It is also said that the first CMS Missionary named Thomas Norton prepared a translation of the Book of Psalms in 1837 but nothing further is known about it. The Basal Evangelical Lutheran Mission published a new translation of the New Testament from Thalasserry. Hermann Gundert, the renowned grammarian and polyglot, was the translator of this version.

Bailey's Press at CMS Press, Kottayam

 In 1871, the Madras Auxiliary of the Bible Society appointed a committee to prepare a translation which could be used in Travancore as well as in Kochi and Malabar. The committee was formed having representatives from CMS, LMS, Basal Mission and the Syrian Church. The committee first prepared the translation of the New Testament. It was based on a Greek source. The committee referred German translation of Luther and Sterrin, the new Tamil translation, Bailey’s Malayalam translation and Samuel Lee’s Syriac Bible. Dr Gundert’s translation was taken as the model translation. Gospels and other parts of the Bible were revised occasionally. The New Testament was launched in 1880. 

Dr Gundert once settled down in Germany after retiring from the service in India in 1859 and translated poetry (Wisdom Literature) and Books of Prophets. Poetry was published in 1881 and Books of Prophets in 1888. Besides the above translations, however, the committee appointed by the Bible Society in 1871, published in 1910, the complete Bible in Malayalam known as “Sathyavedapusthakam” which was generally acceptable to the Malayalam-speaking world. This translation is similar in style to the new testament of the Bible Society and also includes the revisions made by Bailey in his translation in the light of the English revised version. 

However, the Satyavedapusthakam cannot be claimed as a complete translation of the Bible since some portions found elsewhere are not to be found in it. For instance, the portion of Apocrypha though included in the other translations of the Bible is not found in this Bible. It could not gain popularity as other translations. One of the main reasons for this may be the language used in the translation. It was mainly used by the laity of some of the Christian denominations such as the Jacobites, even now. So it could not gain popularity as the other translations of the Bible. Even now its use is limited and confined to a small segment of the Christian community More contemporary translations of the Bible, found to be very popular among Malayalis are those brought out by Oshana and Pastoral Orientation Centre. 

Destruction

Now the story of the destruction of a library in Kerala.

Buchanan Bible at Cambridge

In the vaults of the Cambridge University library in England lies one of the most important relics of Christianity in India. It is the only surviving copy of the Buchanan Bible. The first-ever book to be translated and printed in Malayalam. Sometime between the 9th and 12th centuries, in the remote region of Tur Abdin, on the border of Turkey and Syria, someone prepared a copy of the Syriac Bible and dispatched it to India. It came into the possession of the Jacobite Church. The Portuguese were determined to convert them, and it would make a sinister turn when Aleixo de Menezes became Arch Bishop of Goa in 1559. In June 1599 he convened the Diamper Synod (Udayamperur) in Cochin.

The clerics of the Syrian Church were advised to bring their religious texts to correct the errors in their Bible. All the copies of the Syrian  Bible were declared heretical and ordered to be burnt. Before the Church had time to react, they were destroyed. This was followed by the destruction of the huge library of the Syrian Church at Angamaly. Only a single copy of the Syriac Bible survived in a remote church in central Malabar. In 1807 when Buchanan was in Kerala, Mar Dionysius showed this copy to him. The Church gifted it to Buchanan. He donated it to the University of Cambridge in 1809.

Codex Vaticanus

Syrian Orthodox Church, which follows the Patriarch of Antioch in Syria, follows its own version of the Bible known as the Peshitta Bible which was compiled at the end of the 3rd century CE. Peshitta means, straight or simple. It was written in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic. Aramaic was the language of Jesus.

Roman Catholic Church uses the Vulgate Bible, translated by St Jerome in 382 CE, from Hebrew to Latin. Vulgate means common. The oldest surviving copies of the Bible are the Codus Vaticanus (300-325 CE) in the Vatican Library and Codex Sinaiticus (300-360 CE) in the British Museum.

The Codex is named after its place of conservation in the Vatican Library, where it has been kept since at least the 15th century. It is written on 759 leaves of vellum in uncial letters and has been dated palaeographically to the 4th century.

The manuscript became known to Western scholars as a result of correspondence between Erasmus and the prefects of the Vatican Library. Portions of the codex were collated by several scholars, but numerous errors were made during this process. The codex's relationship to the Latin Vulgate was unclear and scholars were initially unaware of its value. This changed in the 19th century when transcriptions of the full codex were completed. It was at that point that scholars realised the text differed significantly from the Textus Receptus.

Most current scholars consider the Codex Vaticanus to be one of the best Greek texts of the New Testament, with the Codex Sinaiticus as its only competitor. Until the discovery by Tischendorf of Sinaiticus, Vaticanus was unrivalled. It was extensively used by Westcott and Hort in their edition of The New Testament in the Original Greek in 1881. The most widely sold editions of the Greek New Testament are largely based on the text of the Codex Vaticanus. Codex Vaticanus is regarded as "the oldest extant copy of the Bible".

The Textus Receptus (Latin: "received text") is an edition of the Greek texts of the New Testament established by Erasmus in the 16th century. It was the most commonly used text type for Protestant denominations.

The biblical Textus Receptus constituted the translation base for the original German Luther Bible, the translation of the New Testament into English by William Tyndale, the King James Version, the Spanish Reina-Valera translation, the Czech Bible of Kralice, and most Reformation-era New Testament translations throughout Western and Central Europe. The text originated with the first printed Greek New Testament, published in 1516, a work undertaken in Basel by the Dutch Catholic scholar, priest and monk Desiderius Erasmus.

© Ramachandran 

 

THE FIRST MALAYALI ICS OFFICER

It Was Not K P S Menon

It is a mystery that why Kerala still believes K P S Menon was the first Malayali to be selected to the Indian Civil Service ( ICS).It is not true-Justice A P S Ayyar was the first Malayali to get into the ICS.

Ayyar ,born in 1899,was selected to the ICS in 1921 at age 22.K P S Menon,who was born in 1898,was selected to the ICS in 1922,at age 24.Menon secured the first rank in the combined Civil Services Examination.Ayyar was from Madras province,while Menon was from Travancore.Ayyar was in the same batch as Subhas Chandra Bose,but Bose resigned,feeling I C S is not good for public life.

N R Pillai and M C Balachandra Koman belonged to the 1923 batch.

The biography of Justice V R Krishna Iyer,written by P Krishnaswamy,Says:

"Ayilam S Panchapakeasa Ayyar was the first candidate from the Madras province to be selected as an ICS officer.In the year when A S P Ayyar was selected as ICS officer,13 out of 17 were Indians and the majority of them were from Madras province.

"To Krishna Iyer,A S P Iyer was a friend,philosopher and guide throughout his life as a lodestar and source of inspiration.

"Incidentally,A S P Iyer was the father in law of V R Lakshmi Narayanan,younger brother of Krishna Iyer.

"Krishna Iyer never failed to consult A S P Iyer during crucial times.A S P Iyer was foremost among those who convinced Krishna Iyer to become a member in the first communist ministry in Kerala.

It then a quotes a part,PURITY of Tagore's Gitanjali as the prayer of A S P Ayyar ( this was the Iyer spelling he used in his writings ) when he joined the ICS:

I shall ever try to keep my body pure, knowing

that thy living touch is upon all my limbs.

I shall ever try to keep all untruths out from my thoughts, knowing

that thou art that truth which has kindled the light of reason in my mind.

I shall ever try to drive all evils away from my heart and keep my

love in flower, knowing that thou hast thy seat in the inmost shrine of my heart.

And it shall be my endeavour to reveal thee in my actions, knowing it

is thy power gives me strength to act.

A S P Ayyar

V R Lakshminarayanan,  one of the most distinguished IPS officers in the countrywas Tamil Nadu Police Director General.A 1951 batch IPS officer, he had started his career as Assistant Superintendent of Police in Madurai.As Joint Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), soon after the Emergency had ended, on the orders of the Morarji Desai government, Lakshminarayanan had arrested former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Lakshminarayanan’s nephew A. Ranganathan pointed out that recalling the event in his memoirs ‘Appointments and Disappointments’, the IPS officer had said upon going to her house, he had requested Rajiv Gandhi to urge his mother to surrender. “I don’t want the rude hands of a policeman to be laid on the sacred person of a lady who was a former Prime Minister and who also happens to be Nehru’s daughter,” he told Rajiv Gandhi.

After a while Indira Gandhi emerged from her room and asked, “Where are the handcuffs”. “I had served you loyally and well and got two medals from your hands for meritorious and distinguished service,” he told Indira Gandhi and added that he had since become lazy and forgotten to bring the handcuffs.

After the Emergency period, Indira Gandhi wanted to make him Director of CBI, but MGR (former Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran) wanted him back in Tamil Nadu and appointed him as Director General of Police.

He was known for his charity. When he retired his pension was more than the salary he earned during his service. He felt this was not right. Hence he donated to different causes. He even donated during the Kerala floods.He died on 23 June,2019.

Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran former Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner for the County of Los Angeles.is the grand son of A S P Ayyar.He was the medical examiner during the O. J. Simpson murder case and testified during the criminal and civil trials. Sathyavagiswaran also testified in the trials of Dean Carter and Phil Spector,as well as in the wrongful death suit brought against the Los Angeles Police Department by the family of Emil Matasareanu.

Sathyavagiswaran supervised the autopsy on the body of Michael Jackson on 26 June 2009.

Following the unexpected resignation of Sathyavagiswaran′s successor Dr. Mark Fajardo in March 2016, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to appoint Sathyavagiswaran as interim coroner even though he retired 3 years earlier.

Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran

I C S had a judicial branch-It is generally acknowledged that the ICS men in the Judicial Branch contributed significantly to both sustaining and enriching the Indian legal system, pre and post-1947. While only one, Kailas NathWanchoo (ICS, UP, 1926) headed the Supreme Court of India (1967– 68), several other ICS Judges have adorned that Court; the names of Justices SK Das, KC Dasgupta, Raghubar Dayal, V Ramaswami and Vashistha Bhargava come to mind. In Punjab, the first four Chief Justices, post-Independence, were from the ICS, namely Eric Weston, a European ICS, AN Bhandari, GD Khosla and Donald Falshaw, another European ICS, who left in 1966. In 1958, Justice H.K. Chainani (ICS, 1927) – approximately the same seniority as Justice KT Mangalmurti, ICS – succeeded MC Chagla as Chief Justice, Bombay High Court. Other ICS Chief Justices, RL Narasimhan in Cuttack, DE Reuben in Patna, MC Desai, VG Oak and Dhatri Saran Mathur (an engineering graduate from Roorkee) in Allahabad, NDK Rao in Hyderabad, Jagat Narain in Jodhpur, PT Raman Nair in Kochi and VB Raju in Ahmedabad have added lustre to the status and dignity of the judiciary in independent India.

M Anantanarayanan (ICS, Madras, 1929) retired as Chief Justice of the Madras High Court in 1969.Another contemporary, Justice V Ramaswami (ICS, Bihar & Orissa, 1929) was elevated to the Supreme Court in January, 1965.

Satyendranath Tagore, elder brother of the poet, the first Indian to win his way into the ICS, served in the judiciary in the then Bombay Presidency which covered parts of present-day Maharashtra, Gujarat and Sindh. The third Indian to join the ICS (in 1869), Behari Lal Gupta, became the first Indian Chief Presidency Magistrate of Calcutta in 1872, an appointment that sparked off a serious debate in regard to an Indian being appointed to this position in the colonial State, leading to the Ilbert Bill controversy of 1883; he retired as an Officiating Judge of the Calcutta High Court in 1907. 

The Ilbert Bill was a bill introduced in 1883 during the Viceroyship of the Marquess of Ripon, which was written by Sir Courtenay Peregine Ilbert,the law member of the Viceroy's Council. According to this act, Indian judges could try Europeans.It was named after Courtenay Ilbert, the recently appointed legal adviser to the Council of India, who had proposed it as a compromise between two previously suggested bills. However, the introduction of the bill led to intense opposition in Britain and from British settlers in India that ultimately played on racial tension before it was enacted in 1884 in a severely compromised state. The bitter controversy deepened antagonism between the British and Indians and was a prelude to the formation of the Indian National Congress in the next two years. There was also a strong protest among Europeans.

Behari Lal Gupta

The first two Indians to enter the ICS in the Madras Presidency became Judges – AC Dutt (District Judge, Cuddalore) and V Venugopal Chetti (District Judge, Nagapattinam).

In 1938-39, Ronald Francis Lodge (ICS, Bengal, 1910) was on a three-member Bench of the Calcutta High Court hearing the appeal in the sensational Bhawal Sanyasi case in which the majority view upheld the identity of the second Kumar, Romendra Narayan Roy; Lodge, who gave a dissenting judgment, went on to become Chief Justice of the Assam High Court in April, 1948 and, briefly, Acting Governor upon the demise of Sir Akbar Hydari. 

Till India’s Independence in 1947, around one-fourth of the ICS officers served in the judiciary becoming, in time, District and Sessions and High Court Judges. The rationale of transferring an ICS officer after about ten years of service to the judicial cadre was to ensure that those entrusted with the responsibility of resolving disputes and dispensing justice had direct knowledge (having been Assistant Collectors and Sub-Collectors) of the ground realities and of matters of tradition and custom. Post – 1947, a few Indian ICS officers like Kerala Christian A L Fletcher (Punjab, 1933) who had been the District Judge, Gujranwala (now in Pakistan) moved from the Judicial Branch to the Executive, worked as Commissioner, Jullundur Division and had a long stint as Financial Commissioner at Chandigarh.

Anthony Leocadia Fletcher, son of Peter Fletcher and Helen Fletcher, was born on 9 December 1909 in a Christian family of Kerala. He completed his school education from St. Joseph's Higher Secondary School, Trivandrum. He did his B.Sc. from University of Madras and M.Sc. from University of Nagpur. Then he went to School of Oriental Studies for further education and joined as Indian Civil Servant in London,in 1933.

Fletcher was appointed the first Vice-chancellor of Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University on 29 March 1970 and served until his death on 14 December 1974. He was also the founder of Campus School CCS HAU, Hisar present inside the university premises, a school that caters to the children of university employees. The administrative block of the University is named after him as Fletcher Bhawan.Nomenee Robinson, Michelle Obama's uncle has worked under him in 1961.Fletcher was married to Patricia Fletcher and had one son and two daughters.

Of the small number of European ICS officers who opted to serve on the Indian side of the Radcliffe Line, a few were in the High Courts, such as Basil Reginald James (1954 – 60) and William Broome (1958 – 72), son-in-law of Sir Hari Singh Gour (eminent jurist and founder of Saugor University) at Allahabad. When a vacancy of Chief Justice occurred in the Nagpur High Court in the early fifties, a replacement was brought in from Patna, since the senior most puisne judge, CR Hemeon, a European ‘nominated’ to the ICS (in recognition of ‘war service’) was found to be “not good enough to be promoted as Chief Justice and not bad enough to be superseded in his own Court”.

The image of the ICS officer as ‘ruler’ runs through many accounts of British Raj in India. While the Executive and Judicial branches of the Service had a clear demarcation of functions, they maintained, in broad terms, a common identity; the ICS origins were always important. On the judicial side, there were distinguished personalities like Sir BN Rau (ICS, Bengal, 1910) who served in the Calcutta High Court and, later, as Constitutional Adviser to the Constituent Assembly, Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir State,as also Judge of the International Court of Justice at The Hague.

KVK (Kalyana) Sundaram (ICS, CP & Berar, 1927) displayed such legal ability at an early stage that the Judicial Commissioner, Sir Robert McNair, later commented that “Sundaram was one of the few junior legal officers whose recommendations he would take in disposing of a case without appraising it himself”. Sundaram was appointed as Union Law Secretary in 1948 and was, thereafter, the second Chief Election Commissioner of India.

V R Lakshminarayanan

The High Courts had an array of ICS officers. Among them were Justices Sir Barjor Jamshedjee Dalal (1925-31), Harish Chandra, SB Chandiramani, Atma Charan (he was the Special Judge in the Mahatma Gandhi murder trial), BN Nigam at Allahabad, Justices ASP Ayyar (Ayilam Subramania Panchapakesa Iyer-an eminent literary figure and father of former Foreign Secretary, AP Venkateswaran), K Srinivasan Iyer at Madras, HR Krishnan in Bihar (and Indore in Madhya Pradesh) and SS Dulat in Punjab. Justice AK Mukherjea (Judge, Supreme Court, 1972-73) who joined the ICS in 1937 and worked in the Ministry of Transport, Government of India, and as Secretary, Radcliffe Commission, opted for premature retirement in 1951; later, he returned to judicial service as a puisne judge of the Calcutta High Court.

While the ICS members of the higher judiciary in the subcontinent did not exactly set the Thames on fire, their integrity and sincerity were unchallengeable. Some of the very highly regarded personalities at the Supreme Court of India – Justices Patanjali Sastri, BK Mukherjea, Vivian Bose, Gajendra Gadkar, Hidayatullah, JR Mudholkar, SM Sikri and VR Krishna Iyer, illustratively speaking – had no links with the ICS.

One ICS District Judge (IM Lall) faced compulsory retirement; Justice SB Capoor of the Punjab & Haryana High Court was among the last ICS members to leave in the late sixties.

Like Fletcher,the legendary A S P Ayyar is never identified as a Malayali,but his son A P Venkateswaran,was referred to as a Malayali.A S P Ayyar ( 1899-1963 ) was born at Ayilam,a Palakkad hamlet.K P K Menon has written a biography of him.He himself wrote his service story-Twenty five Years as a Civilian.M C Balachandra Koman was the first Malayali ICS judge in the Madras Highcourt ( 1945-1946).

Of the only five Indians of the I.C.S. cadre who sat on the Bench of the Madras High Court , the order of precedence would be as follows: Justice V.Pandurang Row I.C.S. (1933) ,Justice M.Shahabuddin I.C.S. (1943), Justice M.C. Balachandra Koman I.C.S.(1945-1946 ),  and Justice P.V. Balakrishna Aiyar; I.C.S. (1949),Justice A.S.Panchapakesa Aiyar I.C.S.(1950-1959 ).

Muthuswamy Iyer

T ( Thiruvarur ) Muthuswamy Iyer ( 1832-1895 ) was the first native Indian to be appointed as judge of the Madras High Court. He also acted as the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court in 1893.Iyer served as a judge of the Madras High Court from 1877 till his death in 1895.Muthuswamy's appointment was vehemently condemned by a Madras newspaper called The Native Public Opinion.This prompted a strong reaction from Indian nationalists who founded The Hindu newspaper to voice public opinion against the outrage.

During his early career, Iyer also served as the President of the Malabar Marriage Commission. During his tenure as President of the Commission, he campaigned for the legal recognition of Sambandham and other forms of marriage practised in Malabar. In 1872, Iyer established the Widow Remarriage Association in Madras and advocated remarriage of Brahmin widows.

A Palakkad brahmin,T S ( Tarakat Subramania ) Narayana Iyer ( born 1898 ),was Chief Justice of Cochin.After that he became dewan during 1925-1930.As Diwan, Narayana Iyer presided over the first session of the Cochin Legislative Council. He was also responsible for the construction of water pipelines to Trichur, Mattancheri, Nemmara and Ayalore.

T S Narayana Iyer

A S P Ayyar was born on 26 January,1899 at Ayilam village,Palghat Taluk,Malabar district.He was the son of A S Subramanya Ayyar and akhilandeswri Ammal.In May 1919 he married Vedanayaki Ammal went to England in October of the same year.Passed the I C S Open competitive exam in 1921 and took his MA degree at Oxford University.He became a member of the Inner Temple;took a Certificate of Honour at the Bar examinations and won the Langdon medal.He returned to India in December 1922.

Joining the Judicial branch of ICS,he became District and Sessions Judge,Visakhapatanam.He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature of the UK in 1933.He authored several books:Indian After-Dinner Stories,In the Clutch of the Devil,An Indian in western Europe,Baladitya:A Historical Romance of Ancient India,Sense in Sex and Other Stories of Indian Women,The Finger of Destiny and Other Stories,Panchatantra and Hitopadesa Stories,Sita's Choice and Other Plays,A Mother's Sacrifice,Three Men of Destiny-Alexander,Chandragupta and Chanakya,Layman's Bhagavad Gita.

A S P Ayyar presided over  the sensational  Alavandar murder case.M C B Koman was the single sessions judge who pronounced the verdict in the Alavandar case-the appeal was heard by the bench presided over by Ayilam Subramania Panchapakesa Ayyar.

Alavandar  case is a murder trial which was conducted in the Madras State in the early 1950s. The cause of the trial was the murder of a businessman and ex-serviceman named Alavandar whose headless body was found in one of the coaches of the Indo-Ceylon Express. After a trial which became a cause célèbre, Alavandar's ex-lover and her husband were found guilty of the murder and had been sentenced to brief terms of imprisonment.

C. Alavandar, 42,a pen salesman from Chennai was reported missing on August 28, 1952, by his employer Cunnan Chetty (the owner of Gem and Co). The next day a headless body was discovered in a third-class compartment of the Chennai-Dhanushkodi (Indo-Ceylon boatmail) express. It was found after passengers complained about a foul-smelling trunk when the train was nearing Manamadurai. Police investigating the complaint, opened the trunk and found the headless body. An autopsy done at Manamadurai concluded that the body belonged to a 25-year-old male. Since it was circumcised, the investigating police officer K.Khaja Syed Mohideen decided that the murder victim was a Muslim based on Circumcision. After a few days, police discovered a severed head in Royapuram beach, Chennai. It had been buried in the beach sand but was exposed due to tidal action. The head and body were sent to Madras Medical College for forensic examination. Dr. C. P. Gopalakrishnan who performed the examination concluded that both belonged to the same 42-year-old male. Alavandar's wife later identified them as her husband. Alavandar had served in the British Indian army and his fingerprints were on file there. They were used to conclusively prove that the murdered man was Alavandar.

He was romantically involved with many women. One of them was Devaki Menon,22, from Kerala,whom he met in 1951,in the shop.She used to take Hindi tuition to students. In 1952, Devaki broke off her relationship with Alavandar and married  Prabhakara Menon,a clerk in Premier Insurance Company,who began editing a paper called Freedom. But Alavandar continued to haunt her and Prabhakaran found out. To stop Alavandar, Devaki and Prabhakaran decided to murder Alavandar. Devaki called Alavandar to her house at the cemetery road on August 28, 1952. There the couple murdered Alavandar, cut his head off and buried it at Royapuram beach in Chennai. They put the body in a trunk and left it in the Indo-Ceylon Express. Then they left Chennai for Bombay.

The couple was arrested in Bombay and brought to Chennai for trial. The trial caused a sensation and large crowds thronged the hearings.

The trial came up for hearing at the Madras High Court Original Criminal Sessions before the renowned Judge,  Justice A. S. P. Ayyar.

The eminent lawyer S. Govind Swaminadhan was the State Prosecutor. Advocates B.T. Soundararajan and S. Krishnamurthy appeared for the two accused.Govind was the son of lawyer Subbarama Swaminathan, an Iyer Brahmin, and his Nair wife Ammu Swaminathan. He was the oldest of three siblings, the others being Lakshmi Sehgal or Captain Lakshmi and Mrinalini Sarabhai .He had his education at Madras and Oxford and qualified as a barrister from the Inner Temple in 1935.

The trial by jury was then in force in Madras High Court. A panel of nine jurors, some of whom were noted citizens of Madras, was sworn in.

Large crowds thronged at the hearings of this sensational trial. On March 13, 1953, according to the Indian Express, “… the crowd in the courtroom became unmanageable, delaying the proceedings.”

The next day was no different. The veranda, leading to the court hall, was so crowded it made entry into the court hall difficult. The police bundobusts (arrangements) were meagre, and reserve police were called in.

The prosecutor Govind Swaminathan built up a strong case of a planned murder of Alavandar by the couple. He stated that the servant boy of the Menons told the police that he heard Menon and Devaki discuss the ways to get rid of Alavandar and that Prabhakara Menon had pressurized his wife to bring Alavandar to their house so that he could give the devil his due. It was a case of killing the snake that strayed into one’s home.

Lawyer B. T. Soundararajan, appearing for the defense, argued that it was a homicide and not murder as there had been "grave provocation". He argued that the killing was not pre-meditated as suggested by the prosecution. Prabhakara Menon was provoked to murderous fury by the playboy who assailed his wife Devaki in their own house, with the intention of having sex with her against her will. The defence lawyer stated: “It was done out of grave provocation and in self-defence. It is a homicide and not murder.”

Justice A. S. P. Ayyar, a person ingrained in the ancient Hindu tradition opined that the victim, Alavandar, the scallywag, was a disgrace to humanity and deserved to be eliminated. He considered the killing as a “justifiable execution of an unwanted rascal.”

After the lengthy trial, Justice A. S. P Ayyar’s summing-up to the jury swerved in favour of the two accused. He accepted and supported the sudden and grave provocation theory put forward by the defence, taking into consideration the interests of the society and its morals. However, some people felt that his indulgence towards the accused couple from Kerala prejudiced because he too hailed from Kerala, from the agraharam in Ayilam Gramam, 320 km from Palakkad. However, the jury returned a unanimous verdict of ‘guilty’ against both the accused.

On August 13, 1953, Justice A. S. P Ayyar , awarded a seven-year rigorous imprisonment sentence to Prabhakaran for culpable homicide and sentenced Devaki to three years in prison.They ran Devi hotel in Palakkad after the case.

Menon wanted to appeal against the sentence. But his lawyer, B.T. Soundararajan, advised him not to, now that he had escaped with a light sentence thanks to the judge. Menon accepted his lawyer’s advice and did not appeal.

The Menons were released early due to their good conduct in prison, and they shifted back to their native state, Kerala. In their prayer room, the couple placed a photo of Justice A.S.P. Ayyar along with the gods and goddesses venerated by them.

On Alavandar, film historian and writer Randor Guy, said, “Whenever I went to YMCA Esplanade to play table tennis, I would see him there. He would walk in, wearing a bowtie, and with a girl in tow. He sold plastic goods from a portion at Gem and Company. He was not interested in business, only in women. He also sold sarees on instalments, just to connect with them."

A S P Ayyar was never popular with the British,often derided them and hence was denied promotions.He was kept a district judge for long;otherwise he would have preceded Koman,who became a Judge of the Highcourt in 1945.Ayyar became one only in 1948.After independence Ayyar became the first permanent Indian Chief Justice of Madras High Court-the first Malayali ICS Chief Justice.Both Ayyar and P T Raman Nair were denied a position in the Supreme Court.

Ayyar was President of the Music Academy of Madras.For the annual day of the Academy,B V Keskar,the then Minister for Information and Broadcasting ( 1952-1962 ),was invited to preside.The minister came full one hour behind schedule and began with profuse apologies for being late.He bagan," You must be all waiting for me..."

Said Ayyar, "please do not worry,Sir,we were waiting for our coffee."

A S P Ayyar's assessment that Alavandar was a disgrace to humanity,was based on his convicton founded on Hindu texts,on which he has written a lot. Justice Ayyar in his book, ‘Sri Krishna – The Darling of Humanity’, says: “Alexander the Great once asked a Brahmin scholar in the 4th century BC. “How can we know a man to be God?” and the scholar replied “When he does what no man can ever do.”

He then adds,"To illustrate this divine point, I would refer to how Krishna saved the chastity, dignity and honour of Draupadi at the Royal Court of Hastinapura."

© Ramachandran