FATHER OF ANTHROPOLGY IN INDIA WAS A MALAYALI

Three Generations of Anthropologists in a Family

Dr L K Ananthakrishna Iyer was a great pioneer in the younger branches of biological sciences, namely, Anthropology and Ethnology, and his indefatigable industry and remarkable activity in fieldwork and his study have been the admiration of all who knew him intimately. The results of his labours, besides diffusing general knowledge of the customs and manners of the different groups and communities of South Indian people have created a general interest in the science itself, which has made rapid progress under his inspiring example and guidance. His life comprehended well-nigh forty years of ethnographical research.

We stand too near the period during which Dr Iyer laboured to be able to assess the real value of his accomplished work. But there is no doubt that as Anthropological studies progress in India, his contributions will be regarded as the great foundation on which the superstructure has to be built.

Ananthakrishna Iyer is best known for his books Castes and Tribes of Mysore, and Castes and Tribes of Cochin. Both are pioneering works on the tribes inhabiting India's west coast.

Dr Iyer was born in Lakshminarayanapuram, one of the Brahmin villages in Palakkad, in the Malabar district of British India, in 1861. His father L N Krishna Iyer was a Vedic scholar. Ananthan was the eldest son of Krishna Iyer's family of four sons and two daughters.

Ananthakrishna Iyer

Iyer's educational career was synonymous with the development of English education in Palakkad. He completed Matriculation from the High school, which was the forerunner of Victoria CollegeHe went to Kerala Vidyasala in Kozhikode for higher studies-now Zamorin's College. At Kerala Vidyasala, he came under the notice of Barrow, the Principal of the College, with whom he was later destined to work as a colleague in the Palghat College. After FA here, he studied at Madras Christian College. He came under the influence of its Principal, Dr William Miller. He took Natural Science, but under the curriculum then in force, he had also a grounding in Psychology, Philosophy and History. Due to adverse family circumstances, he could not complete his degree then. He joined the Revenue Settlement office in Ooty as a clerk in 1888 but left in 1890 to become a teacher at Victoria College School. He worked there doing 1890-97, took his degree and also the diploma of licentiate in teaching.

Dr Iyer's official career ranged over a very wide field and although he shifted from one appointment to another he had the power and capacity to enrich his experience. I-Ie had, therefore, opportunities of coming into intimate contact with numerous people who were his colleagues or superior officers and from his early days he developed habits of close and critical observation of men and manners. This experience formed the foundation of his later interest in anthropological research. Dr Iyer was a man slow in forming his opinions and had a very large measure of scientific scepticism which accounts for the great rigour with which he applied the scientific methods to his studies and for the great precision and clearness of his descriptions.

John Beddoe

In 1897 he was headmaster of the S B High School, Changanassery for a brief period. The logbook kept at St Berchmans H S Changanacherry states, "He took charge of the school as Headmaster on 22 February 1897 He was there till May that year. Then the Cochin state offered the job of an assistant master of Science at Ernakulam Maharajas College and he settled there. For the next 23 years, he was in the Cochin service.

The turning point came in 1902 when he was appointed Superintendent of Ethnography in addition to his job at the college. His educational service ended in 1914 when his organizing capacity and scientific training were sought to create the State Museum, the Zoological Gardens in Thrissur and the Industrial Bureau. When he retired in 1920, the state issued an extraordinary gazette, which said:

"The Government desire to please on record their high appreciation of the valuable services rendered by Mr Ananthakrishna Iyer during his twenty-three years of service. His work in the field of Indian ethnology is known throughout India and Europe and has brought honour not only to himself but also to the State under which he has been employed."

The Government of India soon conferred on him the Rao Bahadur title ( 1921).

His activities after retirement, as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology, Calcutta University and officer in charge of Ethnography, Mysore for 17 years were tremendous. They form a logical continuation of the work in Anthropology he started at Cochin.

Soon after the Census of 1901, Sir Herbert H Risley inaugurated a comprehensive ethnographic survey of India. It embraced British India and the States. It was in response to this, the Cochin state agreed to take a survey of its people and appointed Iyer as the Superintendent of Ethnography. He held during 1902-1924 and carried out his work even after his retirement from the state. The results of this investigation were published from time to time in brief monographs n each caste or tribe which were later incorporated in his work, Cochin Tribes and Castes, published in two volumes (1908-1912.)

The publication of this evoked massive interest in the anthropological fraternity. Dr John Beddoe, in the preface, testified "to the importance and interest and to the great desirability of it being read and pondered by students of Ethnology and Sociology in England and the West generally."A H Keane, who had invited special attention in Man in March 1907 to the earlier monographs by 'this enthusiastic student of primitive peoples' wrote an introduction to this volume.

John Beddoe (1826 – 1911) was one of Victorian Britain's most prominent English ethnologists. Educated at University College, London (BA ) and Edinburgh University (M.D. 1853). He served in the Crimean War and was a physician at Bristol Royal Infirmary from 1862 to 1873. He and his wife were both friends with Mary Carpenter and they hosted what was said to be the first women's suffrage meeting in 1868. Invitees included a young Annie Leigh Browne. Beddoe retired from practice in Bristol in 1891.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1873. In 1887 he was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society. He was a founder of the Ethnological Society and president of the Anthropological Institute from 1889 to 1891.

He died at Bradford-on-Avon on 19 July 1911.

Augustus Henry Keane (1833–1912) was an Irish Roman Catholic journalist and linguist, known for his ethnological writings. He was born in Cork, Ireland. He was educated in Cork, Dublin and Jersey, and graduated from the Roman Catholic College, in Dublin. Keane was editor of the Glasgow Free Press from 1862. He and his deputy Peter McCorry turned the first Scottish Catholic newspaper into a campaigning sheet, setting the Irish priests against the Scottish priests, and in particular the vicars-apostolic. He studied in Germany and taught at Hameln and became a linguist. He taught languages including Hindustani at the Hartley Institute, Southampton; a chair of Hindustani was created for him at University College, London, in 1883, but he left it in 1885. He then spent a period lecturing on ethnology at the University of Virginia in Charlotteville. His first important book was “History of the English Language” (1878).

Keane belonged to the "philological" group of British linguists, with Richard Garnett, Thomas Hewitt Key, Isaac Taylor, John Horne Tooke and Hensleigh Wedgwood. He began attending meetings of the Royal Anthropological Institute in 1879, read papers there, and became a Fellow, serving as vice president. He was granted a Civil List pension in 1897. Keane was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Keane's racial theories were published first in Nature in 1879–81. He affirmed the specific unity of human beings in his 1896 text Ethnology, even if his views had some other implications. He produced racial typologies, in his expository writings; they were more systematic than those of John George Wood and Robert Brown and were intended for rote learning. Keane was out of step with the anthropology of the time, preferring linguistic data to that of physical anthropology and came to occupy a marginal position in the emerging scientific discipline. On the other hand, his efforts at popularising anthropology were praised by Sir Harry Johnston.

Iyer's eminence as an anthropologist had been established by 1913. He was elected as President of Anthropology in the foundation session of the India Science Congress at Calcutta in 1914 with Asuthosh Mukherjee as General President. At the University of Madras in 1916 appointed Iyer as a Reader in Indian Ethnology to deliver 10 lectures.

During the eight years 1912-20, Iyer was engaged in further studies of the peoples of Cochin. The original plan was to complete the Cochin survey in three volumes, the last one being devoted to an Anthropamatic enquiry. This was interrupted by an independent enquiry on the Syrian Christians of Malabar, Cochin and Travancore. The same monograph was published by the Cochin Government Press in 1924.

The University of Calcutta invited him in 1920 to deliver a course of university readership lectures in Anthropology, after which he was appointed a lecturer in anthropology there. He remained Head of the Department and Chairman of the Board for Anthropology till his retirement in 1932. In 1924 he was appointed to complete the ethnographic survey of Mysore started by the late Dewan H V Nanjudaiya. Every year, after the University sessions in Calcutta, he proceeded to Mysore and toured the villages. After his retirement from Calcutta, he continued in Mysore as an Officer of ethnographic Survey. The work was completed in 1936 with the publication of four volumes and an appendix. He retired only by his death.

His work in Mysore comprehended a critical survey of 104 tribes and castes published in four superb volumes, most beautifully edited and illustrated. These four volumes to which prefaces and introductions were contributed by European savants such as Baron yon Eickstedt, Dr Marett and others, will always remain a monumental contribution to the descriptive science of South Indian Anthropology and should provide the basis for future anthropologists for further investigations. In the first volume which was curiously published last, he adopted a more extended canvas and discussed in great detail the ethnology of Mysore in the South Indian setting. It might be regarded as one of the finest and most exhaustive treatises on South Indian Ethnology.

Early in 1934, he was invited by European universities for lectures. At 72, the vegetarian began his voyage. His youngest son L A Natesan accompanied. He sailed on 23 April 1934 and spent about five months in Europe. Disembarking at Brindisi, he proceeded to Rome and Naples. He addressed the Department of Indian Culture of the Royal University of Rome, on 'Black Magic in India."In Florence on 14 May, he spoke on 'Primitive Culture in Southern India', at the Institute of Anthropology at the University of Florence. Towards the end of May, he arrived in Paris and spoke at the Anthropology Institute and the School of Indology under Dr Sylvain Levy. Early in June, he lectured on South Indian Culture at Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. He then went to Austria and Germany. In Vienna, he addressed the Asiatic Society and Anthropological Society.

He next travelled to Breslau, Berlin, Konigsberg, Halle, Munchen, Heidelberg, Bonn and Cologne. His lectures were illustrated with lantern slides.

Sylvain Lévi (1863 – 1935) was an influential orientalist and indologist who taught Sanskrit and Indian religion at the École pratique des hautes études.

Lévi's book Théâtre Indien is an important work on the subject of Indian performance art, and Lévi also conducted some of the earliest analyses of Tokharian fragments discovered in Western China. Lévi exerted a significant influence on the life and thought of Marcel Mauss, the nephew of Émile Durkheim.

Dr Iyer attended the International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences in London on 30 July. It was the first international gathering of its kind. His contributions were recognised and he was elected unanimously to the Comite D'Honneur. He presented a paper,' The Agricultural Basis of Religion in India' and was Vice President of the sessions on General Ethnology and Sociology. He was back in India at the end of August 1934.

The Director of the Anthropological Institute and Ethnographical Museum of Breslau, Baron yon Eickstedt, in a communication dated September 23rd, 1930, expressed the general opinion of the European Anthropologists on Dr Iyer's works thus: " All are unanimous in that India possesses in you one of the most careful, active, and assiduous scholars of which Ethnology can boast of in any culture or country. Accordingly one finds your name mentioned with appreciation in English, German, Austrian and Italian works. The great textbook of Father W. Schmidt--who first started the connections between the Mundari and Monkhmer peoples--is full of the results of your research work and full of your instructive pictures from Southern India.  This is the recognition of the fact that your works are considered to be a real storehouse of cultural and historical knowledge and are highly appreciated. We, therefore, not only honour you but venerate you as the father of Indian Ethnology... Should there be any scholar really interested in the civilisation, history and cultural future of his country, who should not know and respect your name, the name of the father of Indian Ethnology? Your admirable assiduity, your useful activity, your sound judgment and extensive knowledge are rendering you an ornament to every university, which may be so lucky as to have you in the ranks of her Professors."

After returning from Europe, He desired to take up the ethnographic survey of Coorg, which he felt was the only blank in the literature on South Indian Ethnography. He conducted this survey in the cold weather of 1934 and the summer of 1935 with Prof Lidio Cipriani, whom he had invited from the University of Florence. The manuscripts were ready for publication by February last, when he was cut off unexpectedly and without warning.

France honoured him in 1935 by electing him to the distinction of Officer D' Academie. The University of Braslau awarded him an honorary doctorate of Medicine and Surgery. In continental universities, the Department of Anthropology comes under the Faculties of Medicine.

He was five times President of Anthropology of the Indian Science Congress. On 13 February 1937, he breathed his last. To the last moment, he was apparently in the enjoyment of excellent health and spirit and those that met him at the Indian Science Congress Session in Hyderabad could hardly have imagined that his end was so near.

The vast output of his scientific investigations and reports was all during the last thirty-six years of his life, and a large part of it was done after his retirement from the full term of official service in the Cochin State, a year or two before he attained his sixtieth year. So great a capacity and zeal for a type of work which necessitated frequent travel mostly in out-of-the-way places and a dislocation of his ordinary habits of life are not easily matched. Dr Iyer's efforts to popularise the subject of Anthropology in Indian Universities is an important contribution to the progress of scientific education in this country. 

He was simple in his habits; did Pujas every morning, and was a man of genial temperament and unfailing courtesy. Dr. Iyer will always be remembered by his numerous friends for his great geniality, stern rectitude of character, simple habits of life, and unostentatious and unassuming manners. His scholarship was as wide as his powers of exposition were remarkable. He was happy in his domestic life, and his sons have already earnt a great reputation in the respective fields of their activity. Dr Iyer had the most lovable gift of making friends and retaining them. He never offended anyone nor made a single enemy in his long and honourable life.

His wife stood by him for 45 years. He had four sons and four daughters. Eldest son L A Krishna Iyer was an Anthropologist in Travancore. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1972. His second son Dr L A Narayanan was with the Geological Survey of India.Third Dr L A Ramdas in the Indian Meteorological Service and the youngest L A Natesan Professor of Economics at the Scottish Churches College, Calcutta.'

The son, Lakshminarayanapuram Ananthakrishna Krishna Iyer was an Indian Anthropologist and a writer of several books on the subject. He was the head of the department of Anthropology at the University of Madras and was credited with studies on the tribal and scheduled caste people of Kerala, a work initiated by his father, L. K. Ananthakrishna Iyer. Anthropology in India, Social History of Kerala, a two-volume historical study and The Travancore Tribes and Castes, a three-volume account of the tribal people of southern Kerala are some of his notable works. His son, L. K. Balaratnam, is also a known anthropologist. His daughter, L.K. Ganga Bhagirathy married K.A.Seetharaman, Chief Engineer of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board.

_________________

The review of Iyer's book, Anthropology of Syrian Christians in, American Anthropologist,1930 by H D Griswold:

Anthropology of the Syrian Christians. RAO BAHADUR L. K. ANANTAKRISHNA AYYAR. (Ernakulam: Cochin Government Press, 1926. Pp. XVII, 338.) 

The appearance of this book from the pen of an Indian lecturer on Anthropology, Ancient History and Culture, Calcutta University, is more evidence of the interest which Indian scholars are taking in the history and antiquities of their own country. The author is already well known for his two volumes on the Cochin Tribes and Castes.

The Syrian community in South India is the oldest Christian community in India, going back certainly to a date as early as A.D 547 when Cosmas Indicopleustes wrote, and probably much earlier. In fact, it is now fully known that there was a large commercial intercourse during the first and second centuries A D between the Roman Empire and India, or more exactly between Alexandria and the western coast of India next to Ceylon. The Periplus (A D 75) bears ample testimony for the first Christian century. Hence, as the Apostle, Paul journeyed westward to Rome, so it is quite possible that the Apostle Thomas, as tradition asserts, journeyed eastward to India, first to the capital of King Gondophares (at Taxila?) who reigned circa A.D., 20-48, and later to South India. This view is admitted as possible by S. M. Edwardes, editor of the 4th edition of Vincent Smith’s Early History of India (p. 249). Dr J. N. Farquhar in his exhaustive monograph on The Apostle Thomas in India (1916) has turned this possibility into a probability and (in the opinion of the reviewer) almost into a certainty.

The existence of Christians in South India, at least by A D 547, raises the interesting question of whether the Bhakti cult in Hinduism was influenced in any way by Christianity. Chronologically, such an influence was quite possible. Bhakti, “loving devotion,” however, has its roots in the ancient literature of India, the Bhagavadgita and the Varuna hymns of the Rigveda. Hence, if there was any Christian influence, it consisted probably only in strengthening a movement already underway long before the time of Ramanuja (11th century, A D). The case of the Madonna and Child in Christianity is somewhat similar. There was ample legendary material for a parallel Hindu development, without borrowing anything from Christianity. The presence, however, of the Christian cult of the infant Christ may have stimulated the development in the 6th century A D of the corresponding Hindu cult of the infant Krishna.

The Syrian Christians of South India have had a long and involved history. The immemorial connection between the coast of southwestern India and the Euphrates valley continued and Nestorian migrations to South India took place in the 9th century. The arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century resulted in the winning over to Rome of a large number of Syrians and the annihilation of most of the old Nestorian influence. The division into Chaldean, Jacobite, Roman and Reformed Syrians has been a fruitful cause of controversy. The religious practices of each group are carefully described by the author.

We come now to the more strictly anthropological material contained in the book. William Crooke, the great authority on Indian folklore, has furnished a valuable introduction, stressing points of special anthropological interest.

The Syrian community has sprung almost entirely from converts recruited from the lower and middle classes, and according to the census of 1921 (as interpreted by the author) numbers about 2,62,000. The Hindu origin and environment of the Syrian community show itself in the existence of many Hindu customs, especially those connected with domestic rites. The tendency of most of the different sections into which the old Syrian community has been broken up has been to crystallize into what practically may be called “castes,” intermarriage being forbidden, though interdining is allowed. Caste prejudices still persist, including a strong feeling against low-caste people, even though they may be Christians. Marriage arrangements are made by parents, and child marriage in the past and to some extent in the present is not uncommon. Widow remarriage, however, is allowed among all sects of Syrian Christians. Childbirth takes place, as a rule, at the home of the wife’s parents. Children receive the names of maternal grandparents rather than those of the paternal line, possibly a survival of the matriarchal system which has long been in evidence on the Malabar coast.

In earlier days the Syrian Christians were not free from the practice of magic and witchcraft. Hindu astrologers were called in to fix auspicious times for domestic ceremonies. Magic circles were made on wedding days and books containing charms were used. Many of these practices were banned by the Synod of Diamper (A.D., 1599).

Appendix E contains a brief statement on the physical anthropology of the Syrian Christians, which will be supplemented shortly by volume 3 of the author’s Cochin Tribes and Castes.

© Ramachandran 

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 

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