PARIKSHIT THE LAST KING AND THE OTHER PARIKSHIT

He Abdicated the Throne for a Panchangam

The last King of Cochin was known as Parikshit Thampuran (1876-1964). Though his real name was Rama Varma (Kunjunni) Thampuran, he was known as Parikshit because of the travails he had to undergo before his birth. He went through the kind of experiments the Pandava king, Parikshit of Mahabharatha had to undergo before his birth.

Parikshit Thampuran

Thampuran's mother, Amba/Manku Thampuran was not able to deliver the child even after two days after she started having labour pain. When the Ayurvedic medication by Thycaut Moos and Elamana Krishna Menon, was found fruitless, the family members decided to bring Dr D Gunther, Medical Officer, and father of Robert Gunther, from Ernakulam, and other doctors from the Cochin Fort, to do an operation. Dr Gunther said that they would be able to save either the mother or the child. The family began praying to the presiding deity, Sree Poornathrayeesa. Then, a Kshatriya lady (Nambishtathiri)servant in the Palace who was an expert in the ottamooli (treating with one wonder drug)treatment, came forward and said she would make a try. Dr Gunther grinned; he went to a room and sat there waiting for the tragic end.

Young Parikshit

The servant searched the Palace compound, made a juice with some medicinal plants, carried it on a wooden plank and entered the Queen's room. Within minutes, the cry of the newborn made the Palace jubilant-the mother had a sudden, easy delivery. Only Dr Gunther was unhappy. T M Chummar, who knew the King very well, records that, it was the famous Vaidya Madom Nambudiri, who experimented with a wonder drug, and it was before the arrival of, the doctors.

Parikshit, ChithiraThirunal, Airport/1949

The Royal family remembered the birth of the mythical King Parikshit and appended it to the name, Rama Varma.

The mythical Parikshit had succeeded Yudishtira as the Kuru King of Hastinapur. He was the grandson of Arjuna and Subhadra and the son of Abhimanyu and Uthara. Uthara was carrying her son in her womb when Abhimanyu was slain in the war by Kauravas. Ashwathama tried to kill the unborn child and the mother directed Bhrama-sheer asthra towards her tent. He had done it to avenge the killing of his father, Drona by the Pandavas. He even wanted to kill the unborn to finish off the whole race. Though he succeeded in his aim, Krishna appeared and gave life to the dead embryo. The child, Parikshit was born after the war. Krishna was a maternal uncle of Abhimanyu.

Coronation of Parikshit, Aug 1948, Durbar Hall/Cochin

Though it is well known that Thakshaka, the serpent King of Taxila caused the death of Parikshit due to a curse of a Brahmin, I read an alternate account while researching the story. The official wife of Parikshit was Madravati and her son, Janamejaya. But he had an unofficial Puthrika (lower caste) wife, Samika and a son, Sringin.It was Sringin who murdrerd Parikshit!

So there was a cover-up even during the mythical times. The Royal family decided that people should never know that the King had his death at the hands of a Dalit. Manusamhitha had denied equal rights to a puthrika wife and a puthrika son.

The first attempt to introduce modern medicine was made in Cochin in 1818 by a missionary, Rev J Dawson, who opened a dispensary in Mattancherry. It received a monthly grant from the government, but it was closed after a couple of years. In 1823, the Civil Surgeon of British Cochin was made ex officio Darbar physician, and a Dresser was attached to the jail at Ernakulam, while the Trichur jail was placed in the charge of the Dresser attached to the British Military detachment there. These three people began to show the advantages of modern medicine and surgery. In 1848, Dewan Sankara Warrier opened the first Government Hospital, the Charity Hospital in Ernakulam, which was developed into the present General Hospital. Just a year before the birth of Parikshit Thampuran, in 1875, a hospital was opened at Thrissur. 

People who do not know history see the swearing-in of upstart politicians on grounds like Ramlila Maidan, a revolution.What about the Coronation of Parikshit on the ground of the Durbar Hall in Ernakulam in August 1948?

Ariyittu Vazhcha Kovilakam 

Till Parikshit Thampuran, the Coronation or ariyittu vazhcha was held in Mattancherry in a very small cottage, called the Ariyittu Vazhcha Kovilakam. It was opened only for the coronation. There was a cot in the locked room in the cottage, only used during the coronation. The Zamorin of Calicut sent troops to seize it but was defeated by the Portuguese troops in 1557. In gratitude, the Cochin King gave them permission to build the Immanuel Fort; in reciprocation, they built the Mattancherry Palace. From then on, the coronation procession began from the Mattancherry Palace to the ariyittuvazhcha kovilakam. Then the King would take a dip in the pond. The locked room will be opened and he he would sit on the cot with an olakkuda (umbrella made of farm frond). History has it that one of the Cochin Kings, Rama Varma (1701-1721) had taken a vow not to wear the crown till he had reclaimed Vanneri, the land he lost to the Zamorin. So during the coronation, the Crown was placed on his cap. The priests performed the Vedic rituals, and rice was showered on the King as a blessing.

Ikkanda Warrier

After the coronation, the King would go to the Palliyarakadavu temple, opposite the Palace. Then he would proceed to the houses of the Tamil Brahmins to pay obeisance. The ceremony ended in the Coronation Hall of the Dutch Palace(the former Palace built by the Portuguese)where the King would hold the first Durbar. All this was changed by  Parikshit in one go.

We have scant regard for history. Part of the Ariyittuvazcha kovilakam, six cents, was used for the village office till 1995 when the activist Purushothama Mallya interfered. Now it is going to be a monument.

Parikshit Museum

Parikshit Thampuran was the son of Ottur Raman Nambudiripad and Amba/Manku Thampuran.The scholarly mother taught him initially and Nyaya was taught to him by his uncle, the abdicated King(1914) Rama Varma, he was the second prince to pass B A from the Presidency College, Madras, after the reigning King, Uthradam Thirunal Kerala Varma. They had, in fact, gone to the College together, but he could pass only two years later, in 1904, because he fell ill, after accompanying his uncle on a North Indian trip. They had gone to attend the Durbar in Delhi, in honour of the visiting Prince of Wales, Edward VII. After the Durbar, they went on a pilgrimage to Kasi and Rameswaram. His uncle delivered a speech in Sanskrit at Benares. He married the daughter of his uncle and Ittyanath Valiya Parukutty Nethyaramma, Ammukutty/Madhavi Amma. They had no children.

Among his works, Subodhini, the Logic text is prominent. He along with his classmate, K Rama Pisharody, wrote a commentary to Kalidasa's Sakuntakam, titled, Sarartha Deepika. Among his poems, Prahlada Charitam is famous. His articles in Malayalam were compiled by A D Hari Sharma, as, Dhalangal.

Parikshit Thampuran with the Jews/Painting at Synagogue

He took leadership in conducting the Scholars Assembly, every year at the Sanskrit College, in Tripunithura, from 1926. In 1960, the Chief Justice and Sanskrit scholar, M Pathanjali Sastri presided over the final session. In 1962, an Akshara Sloka festival was held in the palace, and eminent scholars such as A V Krishna Warrier, P C Vasudevan Elayath and K Achyutha Poduval, participated in the competition, G Sankara Kurup, A D Hari Sharma and P C Devasia sat among the audience. Kanchi Sankaracharya, during the Raja's brief tenure, gave him the title, Dharsana Kalanidhi. 

He ruled for only a year,1948-1949. The first election to the Cochin legislature coincided with his coronation. It was the first election in India on the basis of a unified adult franchise. Cochin Rajya Praja Mandalam got a majority in the elections. It merged with the Indian National Congress; E. Ikkanda Warrier assumed office as the first Chief Minister on September 20,1948. So, Parikshit Thampuran had no role to play and he saw the writing on the wall. On July 1,1949, Travancore and Cochin were integrated to become Thiru-Kochi and Parikshit ceased to be the King. The ruler of Travancore was offered the post, of Rajpramukh, the Governor. Parikshit politely declined the post of Uprajyapramukh. He asked only two things: the official panchangam of the government should be sent to him annually; the eldest member of the royal family should be called the Valiyathampuran. He gave up royal powers unconditionally. He died in Tripunithura, on November 12, 1964.

The Hill Palace Museum is named after Parikshit. 

The story of Swati Thirunal was the reverse; he was declared a ruler while he was in the womb of Rani Lakshmi Bai. Hence he was known as Garbha Sriman(glorified while in the womb).

Reference:
1.Sadara Smarankal/T M Chummar 
2.Raja Vamsam/Tripunithura Smaranakal/R T Ravi Varma 

© Ramachandran

See my post,KRISHNA MENON AS A HEADLOAD WORKER

JOSEPH THE INDIAN AND THE FIRST WORLD MAP

A Malayali gave inputs to the first world map

I had been discussing a person called Joseph from Cranganore(See my post,The First Malayali Traveller from India).He went in 1490 to Europe;Vasco da Gama came only in 1498.You need a stamp on Gama the Unscrupulous?Why there is no demand for a stamp on Josephus  who is even related to the first world map,Cantino Planisphere?
I don't want to repeat what I have written in that post.He went abroad with Arab traders in 1490;He went  with Bishop Thomas in 1492/1498.He sailed again with the Portuguese Captain of the second Armada ,Pedro Alvarez Cabral on January 10,1501,from Cranganore.
In the third journey he spent a lot of time,perhaps two years in Lisbon.He met the Pope Alexander VI in 1503.Meeting the Pope was no big deal-he was a scoundrel.In the beginning of the 16th century,Lisbon was a buzzing metropolis where people from different countries went in search of work,glory or fortune.There were also agents/spies looking for secrets brought by Portuguese voyages.

Cantino planisphere

What was he doing in the meantime,before he met the Pope?
You have my story about the Monastery of Saint Awgin,where he was spending time with his colleague George, in the last post.Upon arrival in Lisbon,he spent a couple of years interviewed by the Portuguese Court and the Casa da India,the Indian Office or clearly,the Amazem da Guinea Indias(Repository of the Guinea and Indias).It was where the Portuguese nautical charts were kept.The Portuguese had a master map,Pedrao Real.It is believed that a Portuguese cartographer copied it,for Cantino Planisphere.It is also believed that the unknown cartographer had inputs from Joseph.It is considered  a classic in cartography.
The map now is in the name of Alberto Cantino.He was an Italian spy in Lisbon at the end of the 15th century/beginning of 16th century.He was amazing in his job-he even became the private secretary to King Manuel I.

Manuel I

Cantino was sent to Lisbon by the Duke of Ferrara,Hercule d' Este or Ercole de Este(1431-1505),to spy on the Portuguese discoveries.Ferrara is a place known to the rich or who know the controversy of Sachin Tendulkar importing a Ferrari.It is a city in Modena,North of Bologna in Italy,where the cars Ferrari and Maserati are produced.Cantino went from Ferrara in the guise to buy Portuguese horses to Lisbon(remember Manikka Vacagar who came to Kerala from Madurai to buy horses),bribed a cartographer with 12 golden Ducats,which was huge at that time.Ducat was the trading coin in gold and silver.This cartographer definitely knew the secrets of Pedrao Real.Or he was a cartographer there.

Lucretia by Bartalemoeo Veneta

The map is 4x 8 feet.It is drawn on three pieces of Vellum ,six glued parchment sheets,which were glued on to a large piece of Cloth.Cantino sent it from Genoa to the Duke of Ferrara,as stated by him in a letter to the Duke on November 19,1502.Cantino had sent two letters earlier,on 17th and 18th of October,1501 where he described hearing Gaspar Corte-Real detailing his latest voyage to Newfoundland(Terra Nova),to King Manuel I.The Duke of Ferrara was one of the most significant art patrons of the Renaissance;poet Bojardo was his minister.The Duke reluctantly agreed to the marriage of his son,Alfonso to the daughter of the Pope Alexander VI(yes,he was married),Lucrezia Borgia(1480-1519).It brought notable territorial donations.Lucrezia was a sexual toy in the hands of her father the Pope and her brothers;a toy of the corruption of the Renaissance Papacy.They had arranged several marriages for her.She was married to Giovanni Sforza ,Lord of Pesano and Alfonso of Aragon before.Alfonso of Aragon was an illegitimate son of the King of Naples.He was killed by Lucrezia's brother,Cezare.Lucrezia was the daughter of one of the mistresses of the Pope(Rodrigo Borgia,Pope's real name),Vannozza de Cattenel.

Duke of Ferrara

On the map ,on the left inferior corner,it is recorded:Owner Alberto Cantino,to Duke of Hercule(of Ferrara).There lies the catch.
The map was there for 90 years in the Duke's library until Pope Clement VIII decided to transfer it to another place in Modena.Due to riots in 1859,the map disappeared and was found nine years later at the entrance of a sausage shop as a folding screen.Meaning,it was hung in a butcher's shop as a screen,until it was informed and recovered in 1868 by Guiseppe Bonne,Director of the Biblioteca Estense in Modena.It is a masterpiece of Portuguese cartography.It is the first map which shows the largest area of the world showing Europe,North,Central and South Americas,all Africa and Asia to the Orient.

Duke of Ferrara's Coins

There are several lies in the map-first is the line on Cantino sending it to the Duke.The line itself divulges that it is not a copy;but it maybe of a copy of the Pedrao Real.the biggest lie in the map is the region,Antilhas.The area shown is the Indies Islands.The real Antilles is the Newfoundland,Novascotia and the Prince Edward Island in Canada ,about 2000 miles to the North!The Line of the Tordesillas treaty of 1494,that divided the world between Portugal and Spain is shown in the map.This imaginary line was drawn 370 leagues West of the most Western Island of Cape Verde Archipelago as demanded by King John II of Portugal.Tordesillas is located in Spain between Valladolis and Salamanca.The Catholic Spanish Monarchs,King Don Fernando and Queen Isabella wanted the line of Tordesillas to be drawn only 100 leagues in accordance with the Pope Alexander VI,who was Spanish-but King John II imposed 370 and he won.On the map,Newfoundland and Brazil are included in the Oriental hemisphere that belonged to Portugal.John II thus fooled the Spaniards because they didn't know of the existence of Newfoundland,nor of Brazil.

Florida in the Cantino map

It was the first mapping of America's East coast,from Florida to New york.It mapped Florida 11 years before Ponce de Leo'n got credit for discovering Florida in 1513!It was the earliest nautical chart where places are depicted according to their astronomically observed latitudes.
The map provided the Italians information on the Brazil coastline,much of Atlantic coast,South America and Indian Ocean.It became the primary source for the wall map prepared by Martin Waldseemuller in 1507,under the auspices of Rene,the Duke of Lorraine.

Nestorius

It is a surmise in the West/Europe that a lot of information came from Josephus to the map on the East.The map obviously came after his travel with Cabral in 1501.Joseph had gone to Lisbon in 1490,eight years before the advent of Vasco da Gama.It would be intelligent to assume that Gama came to Calicut depending on the information provided by Josephus.So the first Malayali spy.No doubt,he was never made a Bishop.

Pope Alexander VI

He could have been easily beatified and made a Saint by the Vatican or the Eastern Church.But there was a catch:Joseph was a Nestorian priest.
Nestorianism was a Christographical doctrine advanced by Nestorius,Patriarch of Constantinople(428-431).He studied under Theodore of Mopsuestia at the School of Antioch.His theory emphasized disunion between the human and divine natures of Jesus.It brought him into conflict with Cyril of Alexandria,who criticized the rejection by Nestorius of the title,Theotokos(Bringer forth of God),for the Virgin Mary.He was declared a heretic at the First Council of Ephesus in AD431 and the Council of Chaldeon in 451,leading to Nestorian schism in which the Church supporting Nestorius broke with the rest of the Christian Church.Afterward,supporters of Nestorius relocated to Sassanid Persia,leading the Church of the East.
By the end of the 14th Century,Nestorian Church got uprooted.Isolated pockets survived only in India.The field left by the Nestorians were filled by Buddhism and Islam.
Joseph of Cranganore was a great man;but he is nowhere.A rediscovery is definitely needed.
THE FIRST MAP:
Though the first detailed map is Cantino Planisphere,it is not the first existing map-in that sense the first map is the Mappa Mundi of 1500,prepared by the Spanish Cartographer,Juan de la Cosa.He was also an explorer.He owned and was master of the flagship of Columbus' first voyage in 1492.The vessel shipwrecked on the night of December 24-25 at the Bay of the streets on the North Coast of present day Andover.On Columbus' second voyage,in 1493,la Cosa was mariner and cartographer on the ship,Colina.On Columbus' third voyage,in 1498,he was on ship,La Nina.On fourth,in 1499,la Cosa was first pilot on the expedition of Alonso de Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci and with them was the first to set foot on the South American main land on the Gulf of Paria.He made several maps,only one survived.
Apart from Cantino and Mappa Mundi,there are two other notable earliest maps:one by Martin Waldseemuller (1507)and the other by the Flemish cartographer Gerhard Mercater(1538).

Map of la Cosa

Note:The portrait of Lucretia here is  the Portrait of a Woman painted by Bartalomeo Veneto.Art historians assume the model was Lucretia.
Reference:
The Biggest Lie of the Cantino Map/Dr Manuel Luciano da Silva/2003
Blunders,Errors and Entanglements:Scrutinizing the Cantino Planisphere with a Cartometric Eye/Joaqim A Gasper in Imago Mundi,Vol 84,Part 2,2012.

See my post,THE FIRST MALAYALI TRAVELLER

 


 

THE FIRST MALAYALI (MALE) TRAVELLER

Theophilus came to Kerala in 354 AD

Who was the first Malayali traveller to go abroad? It is commonly believed that it was Joseph Kathanar or Josephus the Indian. It is a blunder because Joseph was part of a three-member delegation. But why can't it be Theophilus the Indian? The problem seems to be that Theophilus is considered (not confirmed) a man from Maldives by Western historians. When we look at him from Kerala, there is every chance that he was a Keralite; Of course, he was in Kerala in AD 354. Even if Theophilus is ruled out, Josephus will not be promoted because there is Daniel the Indian.

Constantine

Cabral

The story of Joseph Kathanar, the Nestorian priest of Cranganore, begins in the 15th century, before the Portuguese arrival when he was a layman. He was born in 1461; he was part of a three-member delegation which went to meet the Patriarch of Babylon, Mar Simeon(1437-1497) seeking native Bishops, in 1490, eight years before the arrival of Vasco da Gama. Till then, the Bishop of Persia was in charge of India, or a foreigner was sent. One delegate died en route. Joseph and George reached safely. Both were ordained priests by Simeon at the Holy Church of St George at Gazarta. Gazarta is modern Cizre, the town founded by Noah at the foot of Mount Judi, where the Ark came to rest. It is located on river Tigris; the historical Jazirat Ibn Umar, which connected Upper Mesopotamia to Armenia. It is known in Syriac as Gazarta d' Beth Zabdai town in the Anatolia region of Turkey, bordering Syria. It was the seat of the East Syrian Bishops of Beth Sabdai as early as the fourth century. Chaldean Bishops of Gazarta were there till the early 20th century.

Gazarta (Cizre) and Mosul

To Hormuz

Joseph went there via the island of Hormuz on a ship with Arab traders. Joseph and George were sent to the Monastery of Mar Awgin in Merda, Nusaybin or Nisibis in modern Turkey. Mar Awgin of Clysma or Saint Eugenius (died in 363) founded the first Cenobitic Monastery of Asia and is regarded as the father of monasticism in Mesopotamia. He was a pearl fisher on the island of Clysma near Suez in Egypt. After working for 25 years, he joined the monastery of Pachomius in Upper Egypt, where he worked as a baker. He, it is said, had the power to do miracles; when he left Egypt for Mesopotamia, about 70 monks followed him. He founded the monastery in Mount Izla above the city of Nisibis, in the Mardine province of Turkey. Nisibis was on the Eastern edge of the Roman Empire, where Christianity was the official religion.

Ruins of Mar Awgin's monastery

It was where Josephus had the sojourn. Two priests in the monastery, foreigners, Thomas and John were ordained as Bishops and were sent to Malabar with Josephus. After return, Josephus accompanied Bishop Mar Thomas in 1492 (or 1498), when he returned, to submit offerings of the Saint Thomas Christians to the Patriarch. In 1502, Mar Elias, successor to Mar Simeon, sent again the same Thomas along with three other Bishops: Mar Juballa, Mar Denha and Mar Jacob. Josephus had travelled thus to Aramea and Syria. On 10, January 1501, Joseph and his elder brother Mathias boarded the 12-fleet Armada of Pedro Alvarez Cabral from Cranganore. 

Cabral (C.1467/1468-C.1520), the Portuguese Commander had reached Calicut on September 13,1500 following the first expedition of Vasco da Gama in 1498. He was forced to leave a smouldering Calicut after a massacre on December 24(a Christmas in a bloodbath!) to Cochin and Cranganore.In Cranganore the Joseph brothers approached him. They boarded the armada on January 10. Fine. History tells us that Alvarez had to leave Cranganore on January 16, after he got intelligence that the Zamorin had sent 80 ships against him. It was a practice then to have a few noble hostages reciprocally when you reach a new land. When the Zamorin ships were on their way, the exhausted Cabral disanchored his ship with the two noblemen of Cochin, Idikkala Menon and Parangode Menon. Another act of cruelty which he inherited from Vasco da Gama. Cabral's mission was to cement the trade relations by bypassing Arab, Turkish and Italian merchants. He was the first Captain to touch four continents, Europe, Africa, America and Asia and is credited with the discovery of Brazil, though Brazil was actually discovered by Vincente Pinzon in 1499. He fell out with the King Manuel of Portugal on his return and led a private life. We do not know whether it had anything to do with the death of Mathias, Joseph's brother, en route. The Kerala clergy was part of the trade and intelligence network. The book, Itinerarium Portugallensium (1508) has recorded Cabral's trip to Malabar.

The plan of Josephus and his brother was to go to Portugal, Rome, Venice and return via Armenia and reach Babylon to meet the Patriarch at Mosul. Mathias died en route.Their final destination in the pilgrimage was Sao Tome. The very idea of visiting Sao Tome was brilliant because it was a newly discovered country. Sao Tome Principe is an African island, northeast of Trinidad, founded by Alvaro Caminha in 1493 (Caminha was later Secretary to King Manuel; maybe he fell out with Cabral). The Portuguese had gone to the uninhabited island in search of a place to grow sugar, in 1470. Sao Tome was right on the equator, wet enough to grow sugar cane in abundance. Its proximity to the Kingdom of Kongo guaranteed slave labour. Sao Tome is Portuguese for St Thomas. It has a Presidential palace, a cathedral and a cinema. Maybe Josephus wanted to see Sao Tome, with the idea of having his own sugar cane plantation. That is the Syrian Christian psyche. In his travels, Josephus met  Pope Alexander VI. He was interviewed in Venice, Lisbon and Rome and we have those accounts as a book, Josephi Indi/Navigationes, published in 1555, making him the first Malayali travel writer.

 Upon his arrival in Lisbon, Joseph the Indian spent a couple of years intensely interviewed by the Portuguese Court and the Casa da India, the India House that managed all overseas territories in the 16th Century. It is likely that the detailed depiction of the East Indian Coast and the Bay of Bengal in the Cantino Planisphere of 1502 owed in large part to Joseph. Cantino Planisphere (Cantino World Map) is the earliest surviving map showing the Portuguese geographic discoveries in the East and the West. It is named after Alberto Cantino, an Agent for the Duke of Ferrara who smuggled it from  Portugal to Italy in 1502.

Cantino Planisphere, 1502. Bibliotheca Estense, Modena, Italy

Joseph went to meet the Pope around 1503 and reported on the Malabar Syrian Church. It was on this trip he dictated his narrative on India to an Italian scribe which was published in 1507 in Italian as part of a collection, Paesi Novamente Retrovarti, edited by Francanzano da Montalboddo (I take this Italian as correct; he is mentioned as Frananzio/Fracanzono/Facanzio/Fracanzano etc). Montalboddo is the present Ostram in the Central province of Ancona in Italy. It includes Joseph's own account of the Cabral expedition. The copy of the German translation of Paesi (1508) was sold at $ 1,10,500 at Christie's. The feat of Joseph is amazing.

Cover of Paesi, German

This anthology, published on November 3,1507 became a huge success because it was for the first time an account of Cabral's discovery of Brazil was published. The book documented the journeys undertaken by the Portuguese, Spaniards and Italians at the service of the Iberian Monarchs. It described Alvise Cadamosto's (Italian slave trader and explorer, C.1432-1483. He was hired by the Portugal Prince Henry the Navigator to explore west Africa in 1455 and '56) voyage to Cape Verde and Senegal, the pioneering voyage from Lisbon to Calicut, Pedro de Sinta's expedition to Senegal, Gama's Voyage, Columbus' three voyages, Alonso Nino, Pinzon travels, Giocondo's version, Vespucci's letter to Lorenzo de Medici about his third voyage, documents of peace treaty between Kings of Portugal and Calicut and and Cabral's voyage to India and Brazil. Josephus is here mentioned as Jose' Indico.

Paesi Novamente Retrovarti, First Edition, 1507

Daniel the Indian was a priest sent from Kerala (?) to Syria for Ecclesiastical training, around 425. He translated the Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans from Greek to Syriac while at Edessa. He signed it as Daniel the priest, Indian. The Ecclesiastical language of the Indian Church then was Greek and Syriac. The travels of Theophilus (who died in AD 364) are recorded by Philostorgius, an Arian Greek Church historian. Theophilus, it is recorded, was taken hostage by the Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great, so that the people of Male would not plunder the Roman ships that passed by. This means that Theophilus, whose original name we do not know, was a pirate in Male. In Rome, he became a Christian and a Bishop. He was ordained first as a Deacon by the Arian Bishop, Eusebius of Nicomedia. Eusebius was distantly related to Constantine the Great and he was the one who baptised Constantine on May 22, AD 337. During his time at the Imperial court, major positions in the Eastern Church were held by Arians. He was a tutor of Emperor Julian. When he signed the confession in the First Council of Nicaea in 325, he said, he"subscribe with hand only, not with heart." He died in 341, at the peak of glory.

Gallus Coin

Theophilus, also called the "Ethiopian," was alternately in and out of favour with the Roman Emperor Constantius II, who succeeded Constantine. He was exiled because Constantius believed him to be a supporter of his rebellious cousin, Gallus. Since Theophilus was famed as a healer, he was later recalled to heal the wife of Constantius, Empress Eusebia. She was cured and Theophilus was in favor again. He was once again exiled for supporting the disfavored Theologian, Aetius, whose Anomoean doctrine was an offshoot of Arianism.

Eusebius

Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius(CA AD 250/256-336), a Christian presbyter in Alexandria, Egypt concerning the relationship of God the Father to the Son of God, Jesus. Arius asserted that the Son of God was a subordinate entity to God the Father. He was born in Libya and became a priest in Alexandria of the Church of Baucalis. His opposition to Trinitarian Christianity and his theory of the Father's divinity over the Son made him the cynosure at the Ecumenical first Council of Nicaea of 325. Deemed a heretic by that Council (The Indian Church was represented in it by the Persian Bishop Johannes), Arian was later exonerated in 325 at the regional First Synod of Ture; after his death, he was pronounced a heretic again at the Ecumenical First Council of Constantinople of 381. Emperors Constantius II (337-361) and Valens(364-378) were Arians or Semi-Arians.

Arius

Arian concept of Christ is that the Son of God didn't always exist, but was created by -and is therefore distinct from the Father. It is grounded in the Gospel of John(14:28): You heard me say, "I am going away and I am coming back to you".If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
When they were friendly, around 354 AD, Constantius sent Theophilus on a mission to Asia via Arabia where he is said to have converted the Himyarites and built three churches in Southwest Arabia. It was on this trip he reached Kerala, maybe his own country (Thomas of Cana had arrived in Cranganore, just nine years back, in AD 345). A very interesting period: the seat of the Patriarch was vacant during 346-363. It was also vacant during 317-329. In simple terms, the Cana trip and the Theophilus trip were free; they had nothing to do with the Patriarch. The Patriarch Papa Bar Aggai died in 317; The Patriarch Darba'sh min(343-346)was there for three years; The Patriarch Tomasa was there during 363-371.

Himyarite Kingdom (110BC-520s), also referred to as Homeric Kingdom was in ancient Yemen. Its capital was the modern city of Sana'a, after the ancient city of Zafar. It fell to Christian invaders in 525 AD. The Kingdom was the major intermediary linking East Africa and the Mediterranean world. The export of ivory from Africa was taking place there to be sold in the Roman Empire. Ships from Himyar travelled regularly to the East African Coast. Periplus has described the trading Empire of Himyar and its ruler Charibael (KarabII Watar Yuhna'em II), who was friendly with Rome. Himyar was the dominant polity in Arabia until 525. Foreign trade centred on the export of frankincense and myrrh. It conquered the Kingdoms of Saba' and Qataban during 115 BCE-300 AD and took Raydan/Zafar as its capital instead of Ma'rib. Saba' was finally conquered by Himayar in the late third century AD. Zafar's ruins are still there on Mudawwar mountain near Yarim. Their trade failed because of the reasons being the Roman superiority over the naval trade route after the Roman conquest of Egypt, Syria and Northern Hijaz. Aksumites invaded Tihmah and Najran in 340 AD. The occupation lasted till 378.

Himyar Coins

Constantius

After fulfilling his mission in Himayar, Theophilus sailed to his Island home. Then he visited Other parts of India, reforming many things. They sang songs, read the Gospel, and heard liturgy sitting. He found this outrageous. Perhaps the worship in the church's standing became a rule from that period onwards.

The Catholic Encyclopedia suggests the place he visited as Malabar(Kerala). The reference of Theophilus in India is to a place where a body of Christians had the church, priest, and liturgy near Maldives can only apply to a Christian church on the adjacent coast of India, not Ceylon because Ceylon was known by the name Taprobane at that time. The people referred to have their liturgy in the Syriac language and they inhabited the west coast of India, Malabar.

Sao Tome Cathedral

The area in India where Theophilus worked finds a mention later in history in Universal Christian Topography written by Cosmas Indicopleustes who visited India around AD 522. He wrote: "We have found the church not destroyed, but very widely diffused and the whole world filled with the doctrine of Christ, which is being day by day propagated and the gospel preached over the whole earth. This I have seen with my own eyes in many places and have heard narrated by others. I as a witness of truth relate: In the land of Taprobane (Srilanka), inner India, where the Indian sea is, there is a church of Christians, with clergy and congregation of believers, though I know not if there be any Christians further in this direction. And such also is the case in the land called Male(Malabar), where the pepper grows. And in the place called Kallia (Kollam), there is a Bishop appointed from Persia, as well as in the island called Dioscores(Socotra) in the same Indian sea. The inhabitants of that island speak Greek, having been originally settled there by Ptolemies, who ruled after Alexander of Macedonia. There are clergy there also ordained and sent from Persia to minister among the people of the island and the multitude of Christians..."

Catholic Encyclopedia finds Kallia is Kalyan in Mumbai, whereas authentic interpretations say it is Kollam. Kalyan seems to be utter nonsense. I have seen a few texts where Male is spoken of as Kollam or Quilon.

If it is agreed that Male in the account of Cosmas is Malabar, why Male in the case of Theophilus is Maldives?Only because, Westerners connect it with Male, the capital of modern Maldives.A case of mixing past with present.My suspicion that Theophilus was a Malayali has roots in this regard. It is only a suspicion, I reiterate. I don't have the equipment of a historian.

Cosmas was a rich Christian merchant from Alexandria, Egypt.

Now we have to answer an important question: Since there were many Indias in that period, were the visits of Theophilus and Cosmas actually to subcontinent India?
In a brilliant article, A Confusion of Indias: Asian India and African India in the Byzantine Sources, Philip Mayerson of New York University refutes the claim that both of them had been to subcontinent India.

World picture of Cosmas

It is not well known that after the fourth century, the region called India varied in Byzantine texts. It was subcontinental India, Ethiopia/Axum or South Arabia. I had written earlier that Theophilus the Indian was also called "Ethiopian", reinforcing this confusion. Mayerson points out that in the dictionaries, there is only one India. But historians dealing in trade between Rome and the East knew several Indias. E H Warmington in The Commerce between the Roman Empire and India writes: "It was in reality trade with the Ethiopians and even under Justinian in the 6th century Byzantine subjects visited not India so much as Arabia and Axumite realms(particularly Adulis) and the ignorance now shown about India was truly prodigious".

Though Warmington opines thus, confusion is still there as to what India meant-Ethiopian, Arabian or subcontinental. Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium states that Theophilus was sent to India, "where he found some Christian followers of the Apostle Bartholomew".Mayerson categorically dismisses it and says that Theophilus was sent to work among Homerites in Arabia Felix. He questions the veracity of the account of Philostorgius; he is of the view that several writers like Ammianus Marcellinus(c.330-395), Procopius of Caesaria (c.500-post 565) had a perception of the geographical India in South Asia. But Procopius in Buildings has reverted to the conventional wisdom of his age in connecting India with Ethiopia when he states, "the Nile river, flowing out of India into Egypt, divides that land into two parts as far as the sea".Mayerson states that subcontinental India receives more than a digression in A Christian Topography, a work of an unknown Alexandrian merchant and aspiring Theologian who was later given the name Cosmas and the sobriquet of Indicopleustes.' Mayerson says Cosmas knew the Red Sea region and there is consensus among historians that he didn't visit India.

Title page, Itinerarium Portugallensium

Grant Parker who wrote The Making of Roman India doesn't dismiss the visit of Cosmas to India. He admits there is an eastern Indian Ocean paradigm where there is an overlap in elements associated with India and Africa. The Indian Ocean then was considered a connected zone; North Eastern Africa and Ethiopia were considered within the same geographical unit as the subcontinent. Parker requests us to make a virtue of the conflation/confusion of India and Africa. So, according to Parker, Cosmas gives India a sense of specificity, lacking in other writers. For Cosmas, like that in the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, India was part of a trading zone that stretched all the way to the Red Sea and the African coast. Cosmas himself was a trader who travelled to the subcontinent as well as along the east coast of Africa. His India is not the marvellous India.

Cosmas

We have seen Theophilus was out of favour with Constantius for two reasons: his support to the cousin of Constantius, Gallus and the Theologian, Aetius.

Aetius of Antioch was born into a poor family in Coele-Syria and worked as a vine-dresser and goldsmith in Antioch to support his widowed mother and family. He was a slave of a woman called Ampelis. Having obtained his freedom in some disgraceful manner, he became a travelling tinker and a goldsmith. He was convicted for substituting copper for gold in an ornament entrusted to him for repair. He gave up the trade, attached himself to an itinerant quack, and picked up some knowledge of medicine. Still, his interest in Theology made him study under Paulinus, Bishop of Antioch, Athanasius, Bishop of Anazarbus and Presbyter Antonius of Tarsus. He was ordained a Deacon in 350 and exiled for propagating Arianism. Banished by Constantius, he went to Alexandria in 356. He died as a Bishop, living in private, in 367.

Flavius Claudius Constantius Gallus(ca 325/326-354), commonly known as Constantius Gallus was paternal half-brother of Constantine I, so half-first cousin of Constantius. The elder sister, whose name is not known, was the wife of Constantius and he married the sister of Constantius, Constantina. He was raised to the rank of Caesar on March 15, AD 351 and was made a Consul of the East at Antioch in 352. Antioch was one of the four cities of the Syrian metropolis. There he had to face a Jewish revolt at first and then a famine. He turned the mob fury against the Consularis Syriae, Theophilus. The mob killed Theophilus. Maybe this Theophilus is different because Gallus was brought to Croatia in 354 and was sentenced to death. In that year we know, Theophilus was in Kerala. But if the dates are not correct, Theophilus is one and the same as the characters were at Antioch. The history of Maldives too mentions Theophilus. From Himyar/Arabia, he went to his homeland; then he returned to Arabia, visited Axum and settled in Antioch.

During his time or afterwards, Christianity was never the religion in Maldives. Of Course, he got converted in Rome. Maldives is the smallest nation in Asia.

Maldives was never the name of the island. It got that name when it was a British Protectorate from 1887-1965. So it was not Maldives during the time of Theophilus.

What was it before? In the mid-16th century, it was with the Portuguese for 15 years. It was with the Dutch(Malabar) for just four months in the middle of the 17th century. For natives, it was never the Maldives. Still not. Ibnu Batuta called it Mahal Dibiyat, which is there in the state emblem. For us, it was always Male.

The first settlers of Male (Maldives!) were Dravidian people from Kerala in the Sangam Period(377 BC-300 AD. The substratum of the language of Maldives, Dhivehi is Malayalam. The ancient Srilankan chronicle, Mahawamsa calls Maldives Mahiladiva in Pali. But during the period under discussion, Maldives didn't have that name as part of Lakshadweep.

World map of Cosmas

After people from Kerala, Male history says, the inhabitants were the Sinhalese descendants of the exiled Magadha prince Vijaya from an ancient city known as Sinhapura (543-483 BC). There is a legend that Vijaya went to Male from Western India. The story says Vijaya visited Bharukachha/ Bharuch in Gujarat on his ship down the voyage south. Philostorgius speaks of a hostage from the island called Diva.

We think Westerners are wise; I have quoted Mayerson here who dismisses the theory that Theophilus and Cosmas have come to India. Has he been to all these areas? Isn't he on the same ship as Theophilus?

In ancient texts, Malabar was called Male; in the story I recounted, Theophilus was definitely an Ayurvedic. Male still has no Ayurvedic/Christian tradition. It will do some good if we believe Theophilus started his journey from Kerala. I do not know why the church, which has invented several stories is not trying to place Theophilus in a positive time and space. Finally, I have read Christography a lot; Arius seems to be an original mind.

Reference:
Ecclesiastical History/Philostorgius/Alexander Kazhdan & Leslie Mac Coull/Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
A Timeline for Eastern Church/Catherine Tsai
A Confusion of Indias: Asian India and African India in the Byzantine Sources/Philip Mayerson, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol 113
The Commerce Between the Roman Empire and India/E H Warmington
The Making of Roman India/Grant Parker 
India in 1500 AD: The Narratives of Joseph the Indian/Anthony Vallavanthara/Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press,2001
Syro Malabar Catholic Diocese of Kanjrapally/Rev Dr Antony Nirappel
The Kerala Church: Changanacherry, Kerala, India 

© Ramachandran


See my post, WITH JASWANT SINGH IN ISRAEL & PALESTINE