Calicut Heritage

Muchunti Mosque in Kuttichira is one of the most ancient mosques in Calicut. It is of particular importance to historians of Calicut’s heritage for several reasons: Firstly, it bears a stone inscription of circa 13^th Century, itself a rare occurrence. The only other stone inscription of the Zamorin era is the one in Guruvayur Temple. Secondly, the inscription provides interesting clues to the linguistic evolution of Malayalam in the 13^th Century. Thirdly, the contents of the bilingual inscription (in Malayalam and Arabic) records the grant of land for the up-keep of the Mosque, evidencing the continuation by the Zamorin of the secular tradition of the earlier Chera period grants of Sthanu Ravi to the Christian Church (Tarisappalli) and Bhaskara Ravi’s grant to the Jewish guild (Anchuvannam). According to historian Pius Malekandathil, however, this grant represented a reward to the Muslims by the Zamorin for supporting his state-building efforts. (Coastal Polity and the Changing Port- Hierarchy of Kerala)

Why is this Mosque called the ‘Muchunti Mosque’? Prof. MGS Narayanan explains: “Perhaps the name is a corruption of ‘Muchiyanre palli’ meaning the mosque founded by a person called ‘Muchiyan’. The term ‘Muchiyan’ itself appears to have contracted into ‘Muchin’ in course of time. There is an old aristocratic Muslim house called ‘Muchinrakam’ or the ‘house of Muchin’ close to the mosque. A Jaram or burial monument is also found there. It is likely that a certain Arab merchant prince called ‘Muchiyan’ came and settled down here and built a mosque which was endowed with landed property by the Zamorin also.” (Cultural Symbiosis in Kerala , 1972)

This is admittedly a conjecture. Could there be an alternative explanation, we wondered?. Sure enough we found an alternative possibility on the streets of faraway Penang in Malyasia. On Pitt Street to be exact, named by the British after the Prime Minister, William Pitt, the Younger. The street is now called Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling, after a mosque built by a South Indian Captain of a ship. Down the street one finds the Tamil area of Chulia Street, formerly called Muchanti (junction). A little away from this junction on the Penang Road, we come across a notable Malabar monument, in Kampung Malabar (the Malabar colony), named after a faith healer from Calicut named Syed Mustafa Idris Koya. The entire Penang Road is known in Tamil locally as Ezhu Muchanti (the junction of seven roads). Muchanti in Tamil means a junction and perhaps meant the same in 13^th century Malayalam, too. Muchunti Palli in Calicut is also situated on a junction where three paths meet. Did Muchanti Palli become Muchunti Palli in due course?

This could have been an idle guess, unless we had a more tangible evidence to support it. And we stumbled upon a piece of evidence in the form of a judgement of the Madras High Court delivered exactly a hundred years ago ( dated 16^th July 1912). The learned Judges, Justice Sundara Aiyar and Justice Sadasiva Aiyer were adjudicating a dispute relating to this Mosque between Muthalakkandi Kattori Koya Molla and Palliveettil Abubacker regarding their respective rights to perform religious ceremonies in the Mosque. (http://www.indiankanoon.org/doc/759892/) Lo and behold, the learned Judges called this Mosque Muchanti Mosque, not once but throughout the judgement. We, therefore, conclude that the Mosque was called Muchanti palli (and not Muchunti palli as now) till a century ago. Linguists may be able to enlighten us as to how the transformation took place over the last hundred years.

We announce with deep regret the passing away of Mr.P.K.S. Raja, the Zamorin of Calicut and the patron of Calicut Heritage Forum. He was 101 years old and breathed his last after a brief illness.

He had his education in Calicut and Chennai from where he graduated with honours in Mathematics. He worked in the Telecommunications department as an engineer and served all over the country from Guwahati (Assam) to Sukkur (now in Pakistan) to Chittagong (now in Bangladesh). He retired as Deputy General Manager of the department in 1971 and preferred to stay on in Chennai till 2003 when he shifted to Calicut.

He was anointed the Zamorin of Calicut on August 17, 2003 and soon won the hearts and minds of the citizens of Calicut with his humility and his cosmopolitan outlook. He represented the composite culture of Calicut where people from all communities lived in peace and prospered. In a touching tribute, the Chief Qazi of Calicut, Imbichammad Haji, termed him an icon of communal harmony of Calicut. ‘He respected and stood for the welfare of Mishkal Mosque, Kuttichira with the same integrity with which he stood for the development and protection of Tali Temple’, he said.

He was a great scholar who carried his learning lightly. We recall our meeting with him at his residence a couple of years ago, in the company of Roy Moxham, the British author (http://www.roymoxham.com/) and a great friend of Malabar. The Zamorin narrated to us excitedly of his visit to the room in the Cambridge University where Hardy and Ramanujam had worked together for some years. He also referred to the unsolved equations of Ramanujam, and when Roy mentioned about some recent book which had unravelled the mystery, he was keen to get a copy.

His knowledge of history of the world, as well as of Calicut was stupendous. He would recall minute details of the Second World War during which time he was involved in war-time communications. He was certain that Calicut prospered under the Zamorins only because of its open door policy which welcomed every visitor with open arms and never discriminated on grounds of race, religion or caste. Trade was the engine of growth for the port city and anyone who desired to trade and prosper in peace was welcome. It was only when the Portuguese wanted monopoly rights and when they tried to import the crusade spirit by demanding the expulsion of the Arab traders that the water was muddied.

We also welcome the successor Zamorin, Mr. Sri Manavikraman Raja (P.K.S. Raja) who being the eldest male member of all the three palaces, will take over as the next Zamorin on the conclusion of the 12-day mourning. The new Zamorin is equally learned and cosmopolitan. He was in the Indian Foreign Service as a middle level officer and retired in 1980 as Third Secretary from the Indian Embassy in the erstwhile Czechoslovakia. We look forward to his patronage and guidance of the Calicut Heritage Forum.

We are proud to announce the publishing of Calicut Heritage Forum's President, Prof. MGS Narayanan's classic work, Perumals of Kerala. This was originally his doctoral dissertation submitted almost 40 years ago. A few copies of this were published by his students and circulated among the researchers but no effort was made to reach this remarkable work to the general public all these years.

Remarkable because he virtually reconstructed the Chera history of the 9th-11th Century which was largely based on myths and legends, unsupported by historical evidence. He took off from where his mentor Professor Elamkulam Kunhan Pillai had left off. But he transformed current scholarship on Chera history in Kerala through his meticulous re-reading of available inscriptions and discovering new ones in the course of his investigations. How extensive was his investigation is evidenced by the fact that he has used inscriptions from Pullur in Kasaragod district in the north to Tirunandikkara beyond the extreme southern border of Kerala.

Even as a thesis, his research was trail-blazing, as testified by the great Indologist Prof. A. L. Basham, author of the classic Wonder that was India, who was one of the external examiners. His comments on the dissertation by MGS are worth quoting:

'...one of the ablest and most thorough Indian theses that I have examined,...the thesis forms a very thorough survey of the subject... All ... sections are excellent, but the candidate deserves special credit for his detailed study of the political history of the period, for which he has utilised all the available material including a great collection of inscriptions, many of them unpublished.

(This work) should certainly be published, and I look forward to seeing it in print. I would ask that the candidate be warmly congratulated on my behalf'. -A.L. Basham

He marshals arguments based on sound epigraphical evidence to disprove the existing accounts of a hundred years' war between Cheras and Cholas which led to the disintegration of the Chera dynasty and the rise of smaller principalities. He re-examines and re-interprets the Keralolpatti chronicle which was once accepted as history and then rejected as nonsense. He discovers sufficient epigraphical and other evidence to support "the Keralolpatti legend about the last Perumal's partition of Kerala and conversion to Islam. However, there is a vital change regarding the date of this event - the popularly accepted date was 825 AD but the new date is 1122-24 AD. The 'Partition of Kerala' is found to be the transformation of districts of the Chera kingdom into independent principalities". (page 20)

This new finding explains the so-called dark age in Kerala's early medieval history between 9th and 11th Centuries. As MGS explains in this book, far from being a dark age, this period was one of vibrant social and cultural transformation brought about by the rising trend of Brahmin settlements which he finds to be a post-Sangam phenomenon. This gave rise to a unique system of governance which he describes as 'Brahmin oligarchy and ritual monarchy'.

While most of what MGS argued in his work four decades ago stands unchallenged, more recent scholarship has added new details, particularly to the section 'West Asian colonists' (pages 277-284). The discovery and deciphering of the Genizah documents has revolutionized our knowledge about trade relations between the West Coast of India and West Asia/Middle East and the Levant. We had in one of our earlier posts referred to the vibrant community of Jewish traders in Malabar during the 11th-12th Centuries, and their networks based on evidence from Genizah fragments. We hope the next edition of this book will update the current research on this and other topics.

We wish to compliment the publishers Cosmo Books (email: cosmobooks@asianetindia.com) for the quality of the publication. (pages 512, price Rs. 1395)

The Hindu had covered the release of the book by Sri M.T. Vasudevan Nair at a function held on 15 July 2013 at Calicut.

We have two posts on Calicut Soap Factory: the first one about how the Viceroy of India was being supplied with soaps made in Calicut and another one on Raja Ravi Varma and the soap factory.

While commenting on the second post, our friend and benefactor Jaypee wrote about the founder and managing Director of the Kerala Soaps Institute : MD Mr A K Menon was referred as "soap menon" by people of Calicut.

Ever since, we have been looking for information on this 'soap Menon'. At last, we found him almost hiding behind many illustrious names of the famous Chittoor Ambat family. The following information is from the blog http://manojambat.tripod.com/ambat.htm and we acknowledge our gratitude to the blogger:

A.K. Menon
from http://manojambat.tripod.com/ambat.htm

A.K Menon is the fifth child of Kurumba Amma and Thachat Chathappa Menon was born on December 16’th, 1889. After graduating from The Presidency College, Madras, he went to UK in 1909 on Government Scholarship for higher studies in oil and soap manufacturing. While in UK, he along with K.P Kesava Menon ( who later became the editor of Mathrubhumi) were staying together. He worked with Lever Brothers ( Later Unilever Ltd) in UK and Dralle in Germany. After visiting many European countries, he returned to India in 1913 and started working for the fisheries department, Madras Government. Subsequently he was appointed as the oil chemist by the Madras Government and headed the research team on fish oil at Thanur. One of the products of the research is the shark liver oil now popularly used as a tonic for children. He moved to Calicut and established the Kerala Soap Institute as a Department of the Madras Government. The institute produced quality toilet and washing soap which was popular through out the country. The soap which was the favorite of the wife of the Viceroy, Lady Willington was named after her. He served a s a member of the Central Coconut Committee and oil and oil seeds committee where his contribution was significant. He was the president of the South India Soap manufacturers Association and has published many papers of great scientific significance. Most well known brands of soaps in India were made in the companies run by the students of the Kerala Soap Institute. A.K Menon is considered as the father of soap manufacturing in India . He was conferred the title of “Rao Bahadur” in recognition of his services to the country. He retired from services in 1948. He was married to Lakshmikutty Amma daughter of Kottiazeth Puthiya Veetil Kavukutty Amma and Ambat Velukutty Menon. They have four daughters and two sons.

Can Calicut forget the contributions made by this great man? Apart from Kerala Soaps, he was apparently the brain behind the shark liver oil which was once being produced and exported from the KSI. The unit was then known as the Kerala Soaps and Oils. Those who grew up in the early 1950s would remember the tangy taste of the shark liver oil from KSOL which was a compulsory item for the growing kids, called (somewhat crudely in Malayalam) meenenna (fish oil). Subsequently, the company introduced sophistication by making capsules and even a tonic to compete with Alembic's Sharkoferrol. Apart from this, the factory also produced vanaspatis named Vimala and Sudha.

We do hope the new management of Kerala Soaps will honour the contributions of this self-effacing soul who gave so much not only for KSI but for the sandal based soap making which was his invention. They should join hands with companies like Wipro (who make sandal based soap and talc) to commemorate this pioneer who successfully showed that sandal wood oil can be used in soap manufacturing - a technology that Mysore learnt from Calicut.

This blog usually tries to put at least one picture of its subject. But today we are breaking that tradition because, sadly, there is no photograph our subject, the young poet V.C. Balakrishna Panicker (1889 - 1912) who died this day, a hundred and one years ago at the very young age of 23. Yet during this brief life he produced numerous poems, slokas, plays, articles and translations, some of which like An Elegy and Viswaroopam have made him immortal among lovers of Malayalam poetry.

VC belonged to the erstwhile Calicut district, parts of which are now in Malappuram district. He was born on 1st March 1889 at Oorakam-Keezhmuri near Vengara. His family name was Vellaatt Chembalancheri. He would have lived (perhaps a little longer) and died incognito as a farmer or a school teacher but for the literary patronage provided by a member of the Zamorin family of Calicut during those days - the legendary Vidwan Ettan Raja.

It was a fortuitous meeting during a train journey with the leading literary figure, Kavikulaguru P.V. Krishna Warrier that led the 12 year old village boy to Calicut and to the patronage of Vidwan Ettan Raja. Krishna Warrier saw potential in the precocious child and advised his father to take the boy to Calicut and seek to get into the inner circle presided over by the Kerala Bhoja, as Vidwan Ettan Raja was described for his generous support and encouragement of men of letters. (More on Vidwan Ettan Raja and the literary world around him in another post.)

It was the period of four years spent in the heady company of literary giants in the Mankavu Palace in Calicut that moulded the young VC into a romantic poet and a self-confident person. He honed his skill in classical versifying with the a translation of Ettan Thampuran's Sookhtimukhtamanimala and a hagiographical work entitled Manavikrameeyam. He also contributed articles to periodicals like Manorama (Calicut), Rasikaranjini and Bhashaposhini. He was introduced to the best of English pre-romantic and romantic poets and became an ardent admirer of Wordsworth and Thomas Gray.

V.C. is now remembered mainly for his two long poems, Oru Vilapam (A Lament) and Viswaroopam. The influence of Gray's Elegy is evident in V.C.'s Oru Vilapam. The description of nature in Viswaroopam is more mature and restrained.

In his A Lament he draws heavily on Gray's Elegy as in the following stanza:
Many are the priceless splendid jewels /that lie deep down in the dark caverns of the sea; /Many, the flowers too that waste/ Their fragrance in the whirlwind /arising in the intractable forests; /Of these, one and only one perchance /ever becomes known once on a blue moon.

Similarly, his other famous poem, Viswaroopam is suffused with Wordworthian pantheism as when, standing on the seashore at dusk, the poet becomes one with the natural phenomena- the waves, the stars and the moon.

Mystery surrounds the sudden disappearance of V.C. from Mankavu Palace after a stay of four years. He just disappeared without any clue. The generally accepted explanation is that he fell for the charms of a young princess of the Palace and when the liaison was detected he was advised by an elderly well-wisher to flee to safety to avoid danger to his person. Unfortunately, there are no records in the Zamorin archives about the stay of V.C. or even the reasons for his flight. This is understandable as the episode happened long before Vidwan Ettan Raja had become the ruling Zamorin. It was not the usual practice to keep the chronicles of junior Princes, as the records were kept centrally at Thirvachira where the Zamorin's office was located.

There was no news of V.C. for the next one year. However, during this period he had written the long poem Meenakshi which is a conventional description of the heroine in the Venmani School style of soft eroticism. It is said that the poem was written by the 16 year old adolescent describing his love for the young princess which had led to his running away from Mankavu.

V.C. was also an accomplished prose writer. He was editor of journals such as Kerala Chinthamani (Trichur), Malabari (Tirur) and Chakravarthi (Kochi). He is today remembered for his bold editorial which he wrote on 26th October 1910 against the externment of Swadeshabhimani editor Sri K. Ramakrishna Pillai from Travancore. He accuses the courtiers of the Travancore palace, Saravana and Sankaran Thampi of having conspired to charge Pillai with treason after he had attacked their rapacity. The 21-something Editor makes a prophetic statement : ' Posterity will acclaim Mr. Pillai as a great hero of Travancore'. He argued convincingly that Travancore had externed not Mr. Pillai the individual, but the Editor of Swadeshabhimani. The Editor is a representative of the public and therefore, externing him without notice or a trial is against public interest.

V.C. showed remarkable understanding of the political undercurrents in Travancore and Cochin and expressed his views boldly through his editorial. He would have matured into a powerful political commentator at a time when India's freedom struggle was about to be unfolded with Gandhi's return to India from South Africa in 1915. But that was not to be. V.C. who was 20 years junior to Gandhi passed away three years before the Gandhi era was to begin.

On the occasion of his 101st death anniversary (he died on 20th October 1912) Calicut Heritage salutes this great son of Calicut who died of tuberculosis at the age of 23.

We had raised the issue of the deliberate destruction of one of the most beautiful heritage buildings in the heart of Calicut city ( see our post of March 2009). Although we had been lending our feeble voice to those who were opposed to the closure of the factory and the sale of the real estate, we noticed that it did not come to much, as the parties on the opposite side were not only more powerful but were smarter than us.
But as we had not lost hope in the rule of law, we petitioned the Chief Secretary, Government of Kerala requesting his intervention in preventing the demolition of this heritage structure which is a living monument to a unique experiment in social engineering through industrialization at a time when the Industrial Revolution was unfolding in England.
The Chief Secretary was extremely prompt in asking for a report from the Director Archaeology. We facilitated the Director's visit to the factory premises in September 2013. What we found inside was heart-rending. It is difficult to describe the deliberate neglect of machinery and facilities by those whose only aim is to see that the factory is closed down and the land sold for real estate development.
We thought our feelings would be best expressed in the following pictures which we took with the permission of the staff in the office. Where possible, we have juxtaposed these with pictures of how these looked when these were installed more than a century ago. We hope the State Government and the Archaeology Department will wake up to the heritage value of the factory and the building!

The building today

The building more than a 100 years ago

The new weaving hall at its inauguration in 1897

weaving hall today

Reeling room in 1897

Embriodery hall in 1910

Embroidery hall as converted today

A poignant reminder of the day the factory was closed in 2008- a calendar in the weaving hall which shows the next instalment due for a chit with the KSFE!

Some workers protesting outside the main building. We heard stories that the majority of the workers (or their leaders, at least) have been bought over by the real estate lobby which has planned to grab the prized land!)

Courtesy: NDTV.com

It is customary for all states to participate in the Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi with colourful floats and tableaux. The best float is awarded a prize by the President. Usually, this is a tame affair with babus from the states supervising the making of the floats which cover such exciting themes like the Indira Awas Yojana, Rajiv Drinking Water Mission and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme!

However, this year the tableau presented by Karnataka Government drew flak. It showed Tipu Sultan with a drawn sword. There were strong protests from some who consider Tipu a communalist who tried to destroy Hinduism and Christianity in parts of Mysore and Malabar. There were equally strident voices describing Tipu as a patriot who dared to take on the might of the East India Company and had even struck up an alliance with the French government.

The Mysore invasion had seen the beginning of the end of the Zamorins of Calicut. Arguably, the Zamorin was himself responsible for his plight, as Palghat Raja had to invite Haider Ali in 1756 to protect his kingdom from the expansionist ambitions of the Zamorin. The Zamorin had to retreat and promise to pay the Mysore army a sum of Rs.12 lakhs as reparation.

Hyder ascended the Mysore throne in 1761 and one of his first acts was to march to Malabar where he was assisted by the Ali Raja of Kannur to subjugate the local rulers of Neeleswaram and Kadathanad before marching to Calicut. The Zamorin who had promised the war reparation of Rs.12 lakhs had passed away and the new ruler was not a particularly strong person and enjoyed little local support among the royal family (as he had been adopted from Neeleswaram and was looked upon as an 'outsider'). Nevertheless, he tried to ward off Haider's invasion by negotiating peace in the Eralpad's palace at Ananthapuram (Panthalayini-Kollam). He even offered all his treasures and property, but Haider would not settle for less than a crore of Rupees as penalty for the default in payment of war reparation. When negotiations failed, the Zamorin had to set fire to his arsenal in Kottapparamba Palace and commit suicide, after sending off the family to Travancore.

Haider felt cheated and decided to recover his ransom by looting temples in Malabar between Calicut and Ponnani. He then retreated to Mysore after appointing Madanna, one of his experienced revenue officers as the civil administrator with headquarters at Calicut.

Many a Malabar temple was destroyed by Haider and his forces, ably supported by the forces of Arakkal Raja. Traditional accounts of this rampage attributes religious motives; in fact Tipu's campaigns would clearly show that he behaved as a religious fanatic in his mission of converting as many Hindus to Islam as his army could lay their hands on. But, was Haider Ali also a fanatic?

Many historians of Malabar would affirm that all the temple destruction could only mean one thing - that he wanted to destroy Hinduism systematically.
The period between 1755 and 1780 was one of extreme disturbance and mayhem as far as Malabar was concerned. It had not seen peace ever since the Zamorin's ill-advised march against the Palghat Raja. It culminated in the suicide of the most powerful ruler of the region. While opinions - often coloured by caste/religious/ ideological prejudice - can differ, eye witness accounts seldom deviate from the facts.
Fortunately, we have such an eye witness account in the manuscript now known as 'Vella's History'. Vella Namboodiri was born in 1709 on the southern bank of the Bharathappuzha. His illam finds mention in the Keralolpathi and must have been one of the ancient Namboodiri families. He was one of the ooralars of the Panniyur Varahamoorthy Temple. He witnessed Hyder's first invasion when he was around 55 years, although he committed his story in writing later when he was around 70 or so. However, he records the events graphically and with the objectivity of a historian.
Zamorin had presided over the Mamankam which was held in 1765 Dec-1766 January. This was conducted under the shadow of foreign invasion, as the Calicut ruler and his advisers knew of the impending attack by Haider. Zamorin appointed one Kaalatt Gopala Pisharoti as the Thalachennavar of Ponnani and got ready for the inevitable showdown with the Paradeshi.
We get a pen portrait of Hyder from Vella namboodiri who called on the 'Nabhav' (as he described Hyder) when the invader was camping at Trikkavu Temple. He gives a graphic account of his first meeting: the Nabhav was standing near the well inside the quadrangle of the Trikkav Temple facing east, his one leg resting on a stone. He was wearing a headdress, coat and trousers of superior cloth. A stone-studded ring shone on the little finger of his right hand. When Vella approaches him and salutes, he returns the greetings. Nabhav leads Vella to the southern courtyard of the temple where a place has been decorated with clothes and cushions. Nabhav asks Vella to be seated with him on the dais. Then they converse on various topics, with Hyder asking searching questions on how much wealth the neighbouring temples had and where the wealth was hidden.
After the conversation which lasted for more than an hour (three nazhikas, according to Vella), Hyder sends him off with a gift of clothes, a bundle of betel leaves and an arecanut. He also arranges for the escort of Vella to his illam in Thirunavaya.
According to Vella, what irked Hyder was the revolt which some Nairs and the young princes of the Zamorin palaces had engineered as soon as Hyder had departed from Ponnani. On Hyder's return trip, he was ruthless with the men who had led the revolt and their properties. He also pillaged the temples, including the Thirunavaya temple, although Panniyur temple was spared.
What is striking in Vella's account is that he clearly states that on his first visit, Hyder's objective was only to recover the amount of reparations that the Zamorin had promised him. He had been cheated out of this by the Zamorin ending his life. He was left with no alternative but to plunder the temple wealth to make good the promised amount. But the foolish acts of Zamorin's descendants in attcking Mysore army when Hyder had left the territory in the care of Madanna, had incensed Hyder no end. His second trip was, thus, to wreak vengeance on the rebels. In a striking statement displaying the objectivity of a historian, Vella comments: One does not know who is to be blamed for all this disaster! He does not rush to judge events and people.
Vella's History is a landmark not only in Kerala's historical records but also of Malayalam prose. Traditionally, the origin of Malayalam prose is attributed to the Christian missionaries who had published extensive evangelical literature. However, all this was at least 70 years after Vella's History. The quality of the prose and directness of his style set apart Vella's work not only from the early evangelical literature with its strained translation of English into Malayalam, but of some of the later prose writings of Kerala writers.
We owe this discovery of Kerala's pioneering historian to Sri M.T. Narayanan Nair (the elder brother of writer M.T. Vasudevan Nair who had retained a manuscript copy of Vella's History. The credit for compiling and publishing this work goes to the eminent toponymist and Malayalam professor, Dr. N.M. Namboodiri. Regrettably, no English translation of the work has been attempted so far. We sincerely hope that the publishers (Vallathol Vidya Peetham) will make available an English translation for the benefit of wider national and international audience.

Tipu Sultan from outlookindia.com

We had, in the previous post, written about the invasion of Hyder and Tipu and the testimony of Vella Namboodiri. From the responses received we notice that many of our esteemed readers have accused Tipu for his various violent acts in Malabar. We realise that it was a mistake to club together Hyder and Tipu while discussing Vella's History as the latter dealt with only the author's encounter with Hyder.

We seek to remedy this by quoting another testament which has come to light only recently and sheds some new light on Tipu's acts in Calicut. Outlookindia.com has, in its issue dated 25 April, 2013, published an article by Francois Gautier ( the author of Rewriting Indian History) titled 'The Tyrant Diaries'.

According to the author, an old trunk kept in the attic of a flat in Paris contained the diary of Francois Fidele Ripaud de Montaudevert, who was part of Tipu's army which had invaded Calicut in 1797-99. The trunk belonged to a descendant of Ripaud and was discovered in December 1988 after her death.

Ripaud had faithfully recorded his experience as an adventurer and of the times he served Tipu's army. He had enrolled as a sailor at age 11 and, after many adventures, had reached Mauritius where he got married and settled down. When he heard of Tipu and his expeditions, he sailed from Mauritius to Mangalore and met the Mysore ruler to offer assistance. Tipu who had already been trained by French officers in the employ of his father, jumped at the idea and gave Ripaud credentials to recruit a French force to assist him.

Following the return of Ripaud to Mauritius with the credentials, Malartic, who was the Governor of Mauritius put up on 29 January 1798 a public proclamation asking for volunteers to join an expedition to travel to Mysore to assist Tipu in his resistance to British encroachment in South India. Approximately 100 men were recruited, and they left for India on the French frigate La Preneuseon 7 March 1798.

Although the French mercenaries were warmly welcomed by Tipu and were treated very well, disillusionment soon set in. As Ripaud wrote in his diary dated 14 January 1799, “I’m disturbed by Tipu Sultan’s treatment of these most gentle souls, the Hindus. During the siege of Mangalore, Tipu’s soldiers daily exposed the heads of many innocent Brahmins within sight from the fort for the Zamorin and his Hindu followers to see.”

Ripaud was particularly shocked by the treatment meted out to the people of Calicut during Tipu's invasion. This was what he recorded in his diary: “Most of the Hindu men and women were hanged...first mothers were hanged with their children tied to their necks. That barbarian Tipu Sultan tied the naked Christians and Hindus to the legs of elephants and made the elephants move around till the bodies of the helpless victims were torn to pieces. Temples and churches were ordered to be burned down, desecrated and destroyed. Christian and Hindu women were forced to marry Mohammedans, and similarly, their men (after conversion to Islam) were forced to marry Mohammedan women. Christians who refused to be honoured with Islam were ordered to be killed by hanging immediately. "

Another entry of Ripaud relating to Calicut, reads: “To show his ardent devotion and steadfast faith in the Mohammedan religion, Tipu Sultan found Kozhikode to be the most suitable place. Kozhikode was then a centre of Brahmins and had over 7,000 Brahmin families living there. Over 2,000 Brahmin families perished as a result of Tipu Sultan’s Islamic cruelties. He did not spare even women and children.”

As noted by Gautier, these events had been corroborated by Father Bartholomew, the Portuguese traveller, in his Voyages to East Indies.( We concede that there is a serious problem with the dates of Gautier's narrative. Tipu had surrendered Malabar to the British after the treaty of 1792, and there was no way that he could persecute the Hindus of Calicut in 1798-99. However, we have left the dates as such, hoping that either Gautier will re-check the dates or someone may challenge the dates and maybe even the authenticity of the diary)

Disgusted by these barbaric acts, Ripaud left Srirangapatnam and left for France where he enrolled in the navy and fought the war against the British. He was killed on 23 rd February, 1814. According to Gautier, 'Even the British, his arch enemies, gave a 21-cannon salute to this brave adventurer, once Tipu Sultan’s ‘Great White Hope’.

Much of the narrative defending Tipu against charges of fanatic barbarism was that these stories were invented by the British historians to defame the patriotic Mysore ruler and to drive a wedge between two communities. But, here we have the testimony of an ally who has faithfully recorded his sense of revolt at the atrocities as these were being committed by forces he was fighting along with. There is apparently no reason to disbelieve this account.

Calicut City today

After the defeat of Tipu Sultan, East India Company became the undisputed rulers of Malabar province (barring Wayanad for which they had to wage another war). However, the establishment of undisputed sovereignty over the new land took a while. The British had only the Bengal model to follow and decided to adopt the permanent settlement pattern, although the Zamindari system was alien to the Malabar psyche. The fact that Malabar was initially under the Bombay province and was later transferred to the Madras Presidency also delayed the setting up of a regular administrative structure. This led to multiple roles for the limited number of civil servants who were put in charge of bringing the new province under the Company rule.

Understandably, this had led to some anomalous situations when Company officials also doubled up as private traders (much after the Company had forbidden private trade by its employees). We bring to light a decree of the Calicut Court in Original Suit No.9 of 1826 which had to deal with such a situation.

Calicut Court was then called the Court of Sadar Adaulat (Provincial Court in the Western Division). Mr. A.D. Campbell, the Registrar and Judge was called upon to decide a dispute between Kallingal Rarichan (perhaps the descendant of K. Kunhikoru) and one Mr. John Fell Esq., late Conservator of Forests and Commercial Agent in Malabar of the Bombay Government.

Mr. Fell had been appointed by the Bombay Government on the 3rd of June 1814 to be "Conservator of the Forests and occasional Commercial Agent in Malabar". It appeared that the late Kallingal 'Kunhiakoroo' owed a sum of Rs. 11, 44, 300 on account of advance paid for supply of pepper to the Bombay Government.

The lower court had upheld part of the claim and had ordered the recovery of Rs. 1, 21, 658. The case itself was a routine civil dispute which would not have merited attention but for the 'obiter dicta' by the learned Judge which throws light on the practical issues in setting up a new administration in Malabar. The Judge observed thus:

A few remarks are necessary before entering on the items of account, upon which the parties are at issue. ...the judges cannot in silence pass over the obvious incongruity of a public officer, on behalf of the Bombay Government founding a formal complaint in a public suit instituted on their account on the fact of the late Kallingal Kunhia Koroo having ' engaged to the supply the quantity of pepper required by the Government', when his Vakeel expressly admits that it was two distinct persons named Poker and Bapu respectively who entered into those engagements and that the said deceased was merely the surety for them.

... besides the pepper transactions on account of the Bombay Government into which Mr. Fell entered with the late Kallingal Kunhia Koroo and which alone forms the subject of the present suit, it is evident both from the pleadings of Mr. Fell and the testimony on record that he entered into extensive private dealings with that person and even traded privately with the deceased in pepper at the very period the engagements to the Bombay Government whom Mr. Fell represented, were in operation.
It is possible that the learned Judge was emboldened by the fact that by the time of the judgment, the administrative control of Malabar had passed from Bombay Government to Fort St. George Government at Madras.

( We are grateful to the District Judge, Calicut for providing access to the court archives).

Nedunganad is a patch of land which once extended from Kalladikkode hills in the east to Kunnamkulam/Chavakkad in the west between the Bharathappuzha and Toothappuzha rivers. It had only a brief existence as an independent principality - perhaps from 11th to 13th centuries. It was conquered first by Valluvakkonathiri and in the 14th century by Zamorin. Nedungadis ruled the place with Cherpulasseri as their capital. As with many other principalities, internecine conflicts led to its disnintegration. It was particularly poignant in the case of the Nedungathiri of Nedunganad, as he had sought the help of the Zamorin primarily to contain the growing might and arrogance of the four Nayar families. Instead, the Eralppad overran the province through his triumphant march (Kottichezhunnallaththu) which was celebrated annually as a commemorative event.

We knew only bits and pieces of these legends till an avid cultural historian, Mr. S. Rajendu has recently presented a cogent history of Nedunganad in his pioneering effort Nedunganad Charitram - pracheenakaalam muthal A.D. 1860 vare (A History of Nedunganad - from the earliest times to 1860 A.D.)

Rajendu has mixed historical documents (some of them published for the first time) with local legends as supportive evidence and has cleverly woven a cultural history of the area which had a rich tradition centred around temples and a few Nayar swaroopams.

The earliest document which mentions Nedunganad is the Nedumpurayurnattu Tali inscription which has been dated at 900 A.D. This is an original discovery by the author and testifies to the antiquity of not only Nedunganad, but other neighbouring areas like Palakkattucheri, Pallippuram, Eashanamangalam and Vengannur.
Some of his observations make interesting reading. For instance, it is a matter of record that the Zamorin invaded Valluvanad primarily to gain access to the rich paddy lands, as Calicut was chronically deficit in rice. But, the Zamorins' weakness for the broken rice of Chunangad is an interesting aside. It appears that even today, the palppayasam offering at Guruvayur Temple uses this particular rice.
Again, when the Nedungathiri approached the Zamorin for his help in suppressing the Nayar chieftains of his province (Kavalappara Nayar, Thrikkiteeri Nayar, Vattakkavil perumpada Nayar and Veettikkadu Kannambra Nayar), Zamorin was not very keen, as his forces had been over-committed. Nedungathiri then noticed the Eralppad who was standing nearby and pointing out to him suggested that this fellow (iyaal) could be sent instead. It was obvious that the Eralpad did not like the form of address and he showed his displeasure as soon as he had reached Thootha river, heading a small army. He was incensed that Nedungathiri had not made proper arrangements for lunch for his army. Meanwhile, the Nayar chieftains saw this as an opportunity to deflect the invasion and had arranged a sumptuous lunch. All the three Nayar chieftains (except Kavalappara who had a standing army and was in some way connected to the Cochin dynasty) surrendered to the Eralpad. Ultimately, Zamorin's forces overran Nedunganad and established Eralpad's headquarters in Karimpuzha.
The book is an invaluable collection of old records including memoirs of persons like Vidwan Kovunni Nedungadi, recollections of family history handed down from generation to generation, a description of a Kottichezhunnallaththu which took place more than a hundred years ago (the description of how the Eralpad boards a train from Calicut to Pattambi and alighting there, proceeds to head the procession of the army lends an air of incongruity), Nedunganadan versions of Keralolpathi and Kerala Mahatmyam and some original inscriptions which the author has discovered through patient research.
We strongly commend this book as a pioneering effort to record the history of Nedunganad.
(Nedunganad Carithram by S. Rajendu, pp. 616+64; published by Sri K Sankaranarayanan, Madhavam, Kayinikad Temple, Perintalmanna 679322) Price Rs. 475/- The author can be contacted at rajendu@gmail.com

Get set, ready, go!

Guruvayur temple was being managed by the Zamorin of Calicut ( in association with Mallisseri illam) till the State Government took over the management of the temple in 1971. The temple is known for its strict adherence for the tantric rites as much as for its unique rituals. One of the interesting rituals is the elephant race on the first day of the temple festival which falls on pushya star in the Malayalam month of Kumbha (falling in the 3rd or 4th week of February).

How did the elephant race begin? There is a story which relates this ritual to the rivalry between Zamorin and the King of Cochin. It seems Guruvayur was once under the Trikkanamathilakam temple and did not own any elephants. The practice was for the elephants which were paraded in the Trikkanamathilakam temple festival to be loaned to the Guruvayur temple where the festival was usually held a couple of days later.

There was once some misunderstanding between the authorities of the two temples and Trikkanamathilakam temple authorities wanted to teach the smaller Guruvayur temple a lesson by not sending the elephants for the festival. The elephants were tethered at the Trikkanamathilakam temple after the festival there.

Apparently, the elephants managed to break the iron chains at night and ran all the way to Guruvayur temple, with their bells clanging and reached the temple well before the time for the ezhunnallathu (the ceremonial procession of the deity). In order to commemorate this event, an elephant race is conducted on the first day of the annual festival in Guruvayur. Further, the morning ezhunnallathu on the first day is conducted without elephants - the only day when the priest carries the idol and walks around the temple, unlike the usual ritual of the priest riding an elephant with the idol.

the race in progress

Trikkanamathilakam temple was destroyed by the Dutch in 1755 and it was no longer a rival to Guruvayur which prospered by the day and has now more than 50 elphants housed in the majestic Punnathoor Kotta. However, only about half a dozen selected elephants are allowed to participate in the race (for reasons of safety) which starts from the Manjulal banyan tree and ends inside the temple after taking a round of the main shrine. The winning elephant is treated royally and has the privilege of carrying the idol for that year.
When did this strange custom begin? Is there any truth in the legend that it was started due to the denial of elephants to Guruvayur by Trikkanamathilakam management? There are no records available.
However, in a recent issue of Bhakthapriya (March 2014), some historical documents have been reproduced. (These documents belonged to the Zamorin's palace in Thiruvachira, Calicut and have now been recovered and preserved thanks to the perseverance of Dr. N.M Namboodiri, the renowned toponymist).
There is an entry dated 7th January 1928 which is a letter, detailing the preparations needed for the annual festival, from the Manager of Guruvayur Temple to the Zamorin: "... the temple elephant Padmanabhan having dead, we have no elephant for the ezhunnallath. We do not usually hire elephants for this purpose and it is difficult to get big elephants without payment. There are four fairly grown up elephants in this neighbourhood under the ownership of Punnathur and Ullanatt Panicker. We hope these elephants will be made available. We have written to some others including Kothachira mana. However, these elephants coming from outside need to be fed and their mahouts paid salaries. The estimate sent herewith includes these additional costs also."
Notice that there is no mention of either the Anayottam or the ritual of an ezhunnallathu without an elephant. More significantly, some 86 years ago, Guruvayur temple had only a solitary elephant and the temple authorities were reluctant to get elephants from outside, as they had to be paid for.
It is clear that the ritual of Anayottam was not there even as late as the second decade of the 20th Century.

T.M. Appu Nedungadi (courtesy: wikipedia)

Calicut can take legitimate pride as the city that gave birth to the first private sector commercial bank to be set up in South India - the Nedungadi Bank. The versatile genius of Rao Bahadur T.M. Appu Nedungadi could recognise the future of Calicut as the commercial centre of Malabar at a time when its importance as an export hub had all but vanished. Thus Nedungadi Bank came to be established in 1899. However, the Bank came to be incorporated only in 1913.
The claim of being the first bank to be incorporated goes to the Calicut Bank Limited which was registered in Calicut in 1908. The Bank prospered and had at one time 13 branches in British India, one branch in Cranganore (which was in the Cochin State) and an overseas branch in Colombo. Its issued capital was Rs. 2,77,280 divided into 27,728 fully paid shares of Rs. 10 each. After 30 years of successful functioning as a commercial bank, disaster struck in the form of a run on the bank forcing it to draw its shutters on 16th August 1938. (It was around the same time that the Travancore National and Quilon Bank also suffered a run and had to be liquidated, although there were political reasons also for the failure of that bank.)

The Directors of the Bank filed before the court a scheme of voluntary liquidation on 19th August 1938. The proposal meant that depositors would get only two annas to the rupee of deposit at maturity; another eight annas to the rupees would be payable in the next 4 years; two annas would be converted to shares of the bank and the remaining four annas would be written off.

This was opposed by one Devani Ammal and others who filed a petition for compulsory winding up. Mr (Justice) Gentle of the Madras High Court appointed M/s Fraser and Ross as provisional liquidator. The picture brought out by the liquidator was alarming : the company's liabilities amounted to Rs. 15,58,830 and its realizable assets to Rs. 10,52,955 leaving a deficit of Rupees 5,05,874.

The report further revealed the culpability of certain directors, their friends and relations who had obtained advances from the bank to the extent of Rs. 5,19,372 of which Rs. 4,54,611 was considered to be irrecoverable. The figures reported did not include the details of two branches at Cranganore and Colombo which did not send any statements. Inquiries by the liquidator brought out another shocking fact - a sum of Rs. 17,000 had been withdrawn by the manager of the bank from the funds at Cranganore and Colombo even after the liquidator had been appointed.

The Court also found that the directors and their friends had received large advances from the company and most of these advances are considered to be irrecoverable. Another factor which weighed with the Court was that the management had not placed all the facts before the depositors and there was also a possible attempt by some directors to mislead the shareholders and other interested parties. Considering all these factors, the Court concluded that only a compulsory winding up would bring out the culpability of the directors and officers and protect the interest of the customers.

Note: The above details have been culled from various reported court cases published in the Indiakanoon website. There are several gaps in the story ( who were the promoters, directors etc.) which readers may be able to fill in.)

The city of Kollam ( Quilon,'Ku-lin' in Chinese history) witnessed history being made on its shore recently. Now a minor cargo port, efforts were being made to deepen the waters to allow ships with larger draught to berth in the Kollam port. The suction dredger was bringing up muck from the bottom of the channel and depositing it on shore, to be removed to some landfill. Then, suddenly, someone noticed in January 2014 that the muddy slurry contained priceless artefacts including Chinese potsherds and coins. There was a virtual 'gold rush' on the Kollam coast for several days, until the district administration intervened and brought some order. The suction dredger did not disappoint; it continued to disgorge hoards of Chinese coins.

Mrs. Beena Sarasan, an authority on South Indian numismatics has studied the Chinese coins unearthed in Kollam and has produced an attractive monograph, entitled 'Chinese Cash in "Ku-lin"- Vestiges of Kollam's maritime history'. She has studied the particular features of each type of coin which extends from Tang dynasty (618-907 AD) through Southern Tang kingdom, Northern Song dynasty, Southern Song synasty, Jin dynasty and Yuan dynasty. She has also described in detail the significance of the indigenous Chola coins (kasu) found along with the Chinese hoard and analysed the details of the Chinese coins discovered a year before from the nearby Sasthamcotta Lake, consisting again a mix of Tang and north and south Song era.

Viewed from the broader canvas of relations between India and China, we notice a break in the 11th Century, according to Buddhist traditions. It seems the last Indian monk ( named Che-ki-siang) went to China in 1053. The last Chinese monk to have arrived in Bodhgaya was recorded to be in 1033. However, relations between China and south India followed a different trajectory. Commercial relations which started during the Tang period continued uninterrupted throughout the Song period.
We find evidence of this in one of the largest hoards of Chinese coins discovered in Thalikettai village of Mannargudi taluk, Tanjavur district in Tamil Nadu, in 1944. It brought to light 1818 coins which represented an unbroken series of coins from Sui period (585 AD) to the end of Song period (1275 AD).
Much of the evidence relating to Chinese trade in the west coast of India is obtained from Chinese sources, like Mahuan's account and the transcription of Ming stelae. Researchers like Prof. Karashima have unearthed some evidence from extensive collection of potsherds gathered from the sandy coast. The importance of the present Kollam finding should be considered in the light of this. It is for the first time that a hoard similar to the 1944 Thalikettai hoard of the eastern coast has now been found in the western coast which was dominated by the Ku-lin port.
Chinese records of the 12th Century, like Zhou Qufei's Lingwai daida ( 'Information on What is Beyond the Passes') described how Chinese sea-faring traders who were planning to go to Dashi ( the Persian Gulf) had to change to smaller boats in Kollam.
Another interesting fact relates to the determination of Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan dynasty to conquer and subdue Ku-lin. His attempts present a contrast to the subsequent voyages of Zheng He under the Mings. Yang Tingbi, as the emissary of Kublai Khan visited Kollam in 1280 and sought its submission. Having failed in the mission, Kublai again sent Yang Tingbi to Kollam, this time accompanied by Hasaerhaiya (Qasar Qaya) who had been given the grandiose title of 'Commissioner of the Pacification Office (in charge of) Kollam'. Bad weather forced this second expedition to land in Kayalpattanam. The Chinese enquired there about the land route to Kollam, but the local officials refused to reveal it to the Yuan entourage. The disappointed emissaries returned to China, yet again.
Kublai Khan refused to give up. Yang Tingbi was himself appointed the Commissioner of the Pacification Office and sent on a third mission to Kollam which reached in 1285.( The monograph gives a slightly different version, quoting from Yuan shish).
The author of this monograph has described the features of each of the coins, beginning with the Kai Yuans which belonged to the inaugural series of Tang dynasty (618-907). The crescent shaped mark on the reverse of the Kai Yuan coins is attributed to the finger nail mark of Empress Wende who had inadvertently stuck one of her nails into the wax model of the coin which was first presented to her. As a mark of reverence, the crescent mark was reproduced in all the Kai Yuan coins!

Of all the dynasties, the Kollam collection has the least number of coins belonging to the Yuan period, represented only by one large 10 cash coin in Mongol script. This may look anomalous, as we saw above that there was hectic activity during Kublai Khan's regime. But, as explained by the author, paper money printed on cotton or mulberry bark was made popular during this period and this probably accounted for the scarcity of Yuan coins.

The author has catalogued all the available coins and given a scholarly analysis of the significance of the coin hoard and the detail of each of the coins. As Prof. M.G.S. Narayanan has said in the foreword, 'Mrs. Beena Sarasan is to be congratulated for making such a detailed study of the excavated materials in such a short time in the light of available historical literature....I am sure that the present monograph will provide a solid foundation for other volumes to come.'
We are sure that the recent revival of interest in studies about Malabar- China relations among Indian and Chinese scholars will find the present volume of great interest in reconstructing the glorious era of cooperation for mutual interest which marked the maritime trade during the early medieval period.
In the end, we would request the author to catalogue and study the collection of 15 Chinese coins (tentatively identified as belonging to the later Manchu Qing dynasty 1711-1850) which are with the manuscript library of Calicut University. These coins were discovered in 2007 by Dr. Liu Yinghua, a Chinese scholar of Sanskrit and Ayurveda who was then studying under Prof. C Rajendran of the Sanskrit Department of Calicut University. Dr. Liu noticed that the metal pieces used to tie the manuscripts were in fact Chinese coins. How these coins came to British Malabar and to the Namboodiri illam from where most of the palm leaf manuscripts were procured, should make a fascinating study.

Chinese Cash in "Ku-lin": Vestiges of Kollam's maritime history, Ms. Beena Sarasan, (2014) Published by the author. Price: Rs. 1000 (USD 30). Author can be contacted at beenasarasan@gmail.com

References:
1. India and China - A Collection of Essays by Prof. Prabodh Chandra Bagchi; compiled by Bangwei Wang and Tansen Sen (2011), Anthem Press, India
2. The Formation of Chinese Maritime networks to Southern Asia, 1200-1450, Prof. Tansen Sen
https://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/resources/education/asdp_pdfs/Sen_Jesho_49.4_1_.pdf

Sri Rairu Nair, aged 92, has been a witness to history at the local and national level. He has been associated with Gandhi, Nehru, Subhas Bose and other stalwarts at the national level and with AKG, EMS, Pinarayi Vijayan, Nayanar, CH Kanaran and others at the local level. His reminiscences, titled 'Aa Pazhayakaalam' (Those Olden Days) makes interesting reading about the history of freedom struggle in a provincial town like Calicut.
Born in a well-to-do family in Pinarayi, Kannur district, Sri Rairu Nair was inspired by the freedom struggle and abandoned his studies at the age of 15. He left home and landed up in Allahabad at the Anand Bhavan to meet Nehru. He was directed from there to Wardha where he met Gandhi at the Sevagram. Gandhi enrolled him at the Maganwadi vocational centre for boys being run by J C Kumarappa. He continued there and even attended as a volunteer the Tripuri Congress and witnessed the election and subsequent humiliation of Subhash Bose.
Returning home in 1939, he resumed his studies at Tellicherry and later at the Malabar Christian College, Calicut. He got appointed as the Secretary of the Nallalam P C C Society which was responsible for procurement of rice and other controlled commodities.
The rest of the book is occupied by narration of his friendship with several Communist leaders of Kerala and his reflections on life. Mr. Nair comes out as a brilliant raconteur, particularly while recording minute changes in the day-to-day life of ordinary persons. Some examples from the book:
- He observes that the caste system was more rigid in his native Kannur district and this extended to attire and even the provision of services. For instance, both upper caste and lower caste persons would normally use mundu, woven by Chaliyars;but there is a distinction between them in the length of the mundu. Those who belonged to lower castes wore what was called aararakkaal mundu while the upper caste wore ezharakkaal mundu. Upper caste women would wear amundu called iratta which had a red border woven into the centre of the cloth. Lower caste women wore what was known as kaachi.
- Laundry of upper castes was done by the veluthedan community, while that of lower castes was attended to by the vannaan community. There were three different community of barbers: the naasiyans who served the upper castes, the kaavuthiyans who catered to the lower castes and ossans for the Muslims. It is difficult to imagine the severity of the obnoxious social hierarchy which existed less than a hundred years ago!
- Similarly, he speaks of the humble tender coconut shell which used to be a multi-purpose vessel during his childhood: it used to be a receptacle for neighbours who borrow buttermilk from his mother; it was used to carry sand by students who used to study in schools in the pre-slate era; it was even used to carry toddy by the local tipplers.
The book is a fabulous collection of his reminiscences about great leaders of the Communist Party and every incident is peppered with his comments on the contrast between the simple style of those leaders and the ostentation of the present generation of politicians. Some examples:
- He had known A K Gopalan since 1936. AKG was once admitted to a Calicut hospital and the author visited him there in the company of a friend. While leaving, the friend offered some money to AKG for his treatment. An angry AKG told him to take it back and said to Rairu Nair: I gladly accept hospitality of anyone without distinction of caste or political affiliation. But I accept money only for the Party. Illness is my personal affair and I cannot accept any financial help for this.
- C H Kanaran was a stalwart of the Communist Party in Malabar who served the party with dedication and without any expectation of position or power. Rairu Nair had been invited for the wedding of Kanaran's daughter and while visiting the house offered a gold sovereign (8 grams) to the bride. Kanaran got angry and told Rairu Nair to take back the present, have a cup of tea and clear out. He sternly said: I had not invited you for such mischief.
- He paints a picture of KPR Gopalan as a bold and sincere loyalist of the party (unfortunately, he had to leave the party later due to ideological differences). He recalls how KPR and some others including Rairu Nair himself, stormed into the office of Deshabhimani, drove away the CPI workers there and forcibly occupied the press. When the editor Induchoodan, P R Nambiar and K Kanaran ( who belonged to the CPI after the split) returned from their lunch break, they saw KPR Gopalan in the editor's seat and had no option but to scoot. Thus, Deshabhimani became the mouthpiece of CPM.
- Capt. Krishnan Nair was facing some labour problems in his textile unit in Kannur. N E Balaram, the CPI leader help to resolve the issue. Later, when Capt. Krishnan Nair met Balaram at the Kannur Guest House, he thought of presenting Balaram with a costly Montblanc pen. Balaram politely refused to accept the luxury gift.
- The most interesting observation is about Jenab M. Abdurahman Saheb, the charismatic leader of the Congress Party. Rairu Nair narrates how the Chalappuram Congressmen ( Kozhippurath Madhava Menon, U Gopala Menon, K A Damodara Menon, Ambalakkat Karunakara Menon and A V Kuttimalu Amma) were jealous of Mohammed Abdurahman's charismatic leadership and his oratory. They conspired to keep him away from the limelight. Like Abdurahman, his protege P P Ummar Koya was also a straight forward and honest leader, and like his mentor he also faded away from public life into oblivion!

One hopes others like Rairu Nair who have watched public life of Calicut from the grandstand come forward and record their reminiscences which will be a great contribution to the history and culture of our city.

The year 1938-39. Calicut was in the grip of fever. My sister who was all of 5 years was also down with fever. The usual home remedies and ayurvedic treatment did not have any effect. Meanwhile, adults and children all around were dying of fever. My father then took the ultimate step of bringing home Dr. Mugaseth, the civil surgeon of Calicut and the last word on modern medicine in Calicut. The good Parsi doctor also could not save my sister. But according to the Medical History of British India, Dr. K D Mugaseth had effected a cure of Bronchitis and fever with pneumococcus vaccine in Calicut. Dr. Mugaseth's visit to our house was part of the family folklore. That was my first encounter with the name of Mugaseth.

Our website page on Parsees of Calicut (http://calicutheritage.com/parsees_calicut.aspx) contributed by friend Maddy gives a detailed account of their chequered history, including that of Dr. Kobad Mugaseth. But this post, inspired by the publication of an extract from Raghu Karnad's book in yesterday's (20th June 2015) LiveMint: :(http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/bmXVh4EAFeIR44f4Z6y04M/War-and-teenage-in-Calicut.html) is more about Kobad's brother and his progeny.
The extract takes us through the story of how Dhanjibhoy Mugaseth arrived in Malabar in the 1850s to set up business. 'On the broad Beypore he had built Malabar’s first steam-powered sawmill, turning its estuary into one of the busiest timber yards in the world, and himself into the patron of Calicut’s industrial and civic life.'
He was an entrepreneur if ever there was one. He realised that the rich coffee planters of Wynad had difficulty of transport between the plantation and the coast. 'Dhanjibhoy had an inspired solution: a camel caravan. He purchased a herd from the Rann of Kutch, had it transported by boat and equipped in Calicut. But there his animals perished, unable to tolerate the tropical climate'.Dhanjibhoy had two sons - Kobad Mugaseth, the successful doctor who had a large practice among the European families and was also President of the Cosmopolitan Club (Incidentally, the Cosmopolitan Club is located in Valappukadavu paramba which was then in the possession of another scion of the Mugaseth family, Mr. Maneck D Mugaseth who agreed to sell it to the club. The design of the club was got prepared by Rarichan Mooppan, another leading public figure of Calicut)Dhanjibhoy's other son, Khodadad, was less illustrious and ran his father's business empire. He had three daughters and a son. The son Bobby (Godrej Khodadad Mugaseth), third in the line, joined the defence forces and fought the Japanese. But it is the daughters who concern us here. At least the elder two who distinguished themselves in ways not fully approved by father Khodadad. We have no information of the youngest Khorshed, yet.
Subur the eldest child was a regular bluestocking and went on to join Oxford University in 1932. She returned four years later with not only a Masters and B. Litt, but a brilliant young Iyengar boy who studied with her at Oxford. The Mugaseth family and the Parsi community of Calicut were scandalised. A Parsi woman who married a non-Parsi lost her religion and her community. There was no way the pious Khodadad could accept an Iyengar boy into their fold, forget his credentials. This was no ordinary Iyengar - Gopalaswami Parthasarathy, the son of N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar, who had served with distinction in the Provincial Civil Service in the Madras Presidency and later as Dewan of Kashmir, as a member of the Constituent Assembly and then as a Minister in the first Cabinet of Jawaharlal Nehru. G Parthasarathy distinguished himself as a diplomat, India's ambassador to Indonesia, China, Pakistan and as the Permanent Representative to UN. He was best known as the quintessential trouble shooter, responsible

G.Parthasarathy coutesy: The Hindu

for brokering peace in Kashmir where his father had once served as Dewan to the Maharaja, and in interceding in the Sri Lanka talks where his sane advice was rejected and India went on to intervene, leading to Rajiv Gandhi's assassination. GP was also the first Vice Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Chairman of ICSSR. He passed away in 1995.Subur Mugaseth taught in colleges in Tamil Nadu till she was elected to the Rajya Sabha between 1960 and 1966. The illustrious daughter of Calicut passed away in 1966, leaving behind GP and a son.The second daughter Nargis Mugaseth studied to become a doctor. She too fell in love and married a class mate, Kodandera Ganapathy, a Kodava. Dr. Ganapathy joined the army in 1942 and died in action. The young Nargis was in the family way and gave birth to a daughter, Saraswathi Ganapathy.

Nargis followed her sister and join

Girish Karnad courtesy Google

ed the Madras government medical service. Saraswati met and fell in love with Girish Karnad who was then an editor of Oxford University Press, Chennai. They have a daughter Shalmalee Radha and a son Raghu Amay. Raghu Karnad is the author of the book 'Farthest Field : An Indian Story of the Second World War' , the excerpts from which we quoted above.

Quite an illustrious family, the Mugaseths of Calicut!

courtesy:metrovarta

It was a proud moment for Calicut Heritage Forum when our member Dr. Oliver Noone - our resident expert on the history warfare and weaponry - was invited to present a paper at the annual 'Dilli' series INA Seminar on Naval Weaponry through the Ages held at the Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala on 16-17 October 2015.. (The INA christened the Annual Seminar as the "Dilli" series in tune with the Mt Dilli Lighthouse at Ezhimala which has been a witness to the developments of maritime history of the region.)

Dr. Noone's paper dealt with the historic Battle of Calicut 1503 which, according to him, was the first battle where ships were used to target the rivals, rather than as a means of transporting warriors. In naval history it is the first recorded sea battle fought to a prearranged pattern as a stand-off artillery action by squadrons sailing in close-hauled line ahead. It was fought between Vasco da Gama and an Indo-Arab fleet of Zamorin of Calicut.

Historians are yet to recognise the significance of the Battle of Calicut, 1503. Vasco da Gama's first voyage was one of pure exploration, seeking to find pepper and the mythical Prestor John and his fleet. In many ways it ws part of

'The Last Crusade', as described by Nigel Cliff in his book of that title. The Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494 had given Portugal the rights to all lands to the east of the line passing roughly between the Cape Verde Islands and West Indies which Columbus had already discovered. This had the blessings of the Papal envoy who was present at the signing. Thus, the world had been divided between Spain and Portugal and it was the religious duty of Portugal to`usher in a new global age of Christianity'.

Thus, the first voyage of da Gama was more of a religious expedition in the tradition of the Crusades. This is reflected even in such minor details as the naming of the two new ships built for the expedition - Sao Gabriel and Sao Rafael - after saints. Before embarking, the sailors assembled at the small chapel in the village of Belem from where the great armada had once sailed for Ceuta. The 'priest received a general confession and absolved the departing Crusaders of penance for their sins, and the full company rowed out to the ships'. The anonymous chronicler on board Paulo da Gama made his first entry on July 8, 1497 : 'May God our Lord permit us to accomplish this voyage in his service.Amen!'
In contrast, the second voyage of da Gama which sailed out of Lisbon on February 10, 1502 was designed to instil terror with a fleet of twenty ships, financed and manned by English, French, German, Genoese, Venetian, Spanish, Flemish and Florentine crew. The instructions were very clear : apart from shoring up Portuguese factories, force more African and Indian cities to agree to trade monopolies, it was 'deal with the truculent Zamorin of Calicut'. The strongly armed sub fleet of Vincente Sodre was to stay behind and escalate the war against Islam.
Thus, the battle of Calicut was the first battle which displayed the superior strategy and fire power of the European for which the Indo-Arab defence was no match.

Professor M R Raghava Varier gave an interesting talk on Tharisappally Copper Plates and its re-reading by him and Professor Kesavan Veluthat. The video of the speech can be accessed here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VhQk_U7C3o&feature=youtu.be

Those interested in more details of the recent research being conducted by De Montfort University U K ( referred to by Professor Varier in his speech) may please see the web site : http://849ce.org.uk/

We deeply regret to inform about the sad demise of one of the pillars of Calicut Heritage Forum, Mr. Premnath T Murkoth. He passed away quietly in the night of 6th-7th July in his residence at Calicut. He was 79.

Calicut Heritage Forum owes a great deal to the support and encouragement of Mr. Premnath. Our website, the digital library and our efforts to stop vandalism against heritage monuments by land sharks through successive court cases - all these and more would not have been accomplished but for his solid support. When we were short of resources, it was he who persuaded us to approach many corporates with whom he was familiar due to his long stint as a senior executive with Unilever and other companies. He placed our case before Mr. R.K Krishna Kumar which led to a grant from Tata Coffee. This financed most of our initial expenses.

Mr. Premnath was a gentleman to the core, uncompromising on his values, but endowed with a natural flair for putting across his views in an amiable manner. He did not project himself, always choosing to be in the background.

His knowledge of Malabar's heritage, particularly that of Tellicherry was unrivalled. It is a pity that much of it could not be documented. He wanted to create a similar forum for Tellicherry, but our approach to the local administration was not very fruitful.

Despite the brief illness which restricted his movements during his last days, he was active and alert till the end. In fact, we received his last Whatsapp forward just a day before his passing - it was a joke on the Kerala political scene! That was quintessential Premnath - looking out for humour in everyday life and sharing it with people around him.

Thank you and good bye, Mr. Premnath ... and Rest in Peace!

We had occasion to mention about this house in Chalappuram in connection with various incidents in the history of freedom struggle, in which Chalappuram was in the forefront. In fact, ‘Chalappuram Congress Committee’ was even better known than KPCC. The house was the hotbed of all defiance and protest, conspiracy and sabotage.

(See http://blog.calicutheritage.com/2010/08/terrorist-acts-in-calicut.html)

A scion of the family Ms. Manjula had commented on her own remembrances of staying in the house as a child. This post is to stimulate such people to share their memories of anecdotes and experiences connected with the house, to help us build the story further.

Our reference to this house was in connection with the Bomb Case of 1942. But the house has a richer past. It was built in the 19^thcentury by Bambalassery Kammaran Nair, (who was a sub judge under the British Indian Government) for his wife Lakshmikutty Amma. Raghava Kurup who had been mentioned in our earlier post was the grand son of Kammaran Nair and the son of Narayani Amma. The bombs manufactured under the able technical assistance of Dr. K B Menon, were hidden in a cupboard underneath the clothes in this house. The Police could not detect it, despite conducting a thorough search. Apparently, when the Police left, Raghava Kurup’s brother Sankunny Kurup carried the explosive stuff and dumped it the the Tali temple tank nearby!

Mahatma Gandhi had visited this house in 1927 when he was on a tour of Kerala to propagate khadi. A young and dashing Nehru had also come here and addressed the women volunteers of Balika Bharata Sangham, which functioned from Verkot. “I still remember listening to him in sheer admiration”, recalled Swarnakumari Menon, one of the young volunteers. Nehru also apparently carried pleasant memories of that meeting, for when he came to Calicut in 1956, he remembered his previous visit and insisted on dropping by at Verkot House.

The house was a prominent launch pad for freedom fighters (and young girl students, too, who followed the example of their male elders, as the following long extract would testify). The following extracts are being reproduced from a paper on women and freedom struggle in Malabar authored by Dr. T K Anandi and available here.

The Verkot House, Tali was the centre of action for women of Calicut. Protesting against the cruel treatment of the satyagrahis of Bombay, women gathered at Verkot house and planned a procession in the morning in the Calicut city. But by then, the District Magistrate gave notices under section 144 Cr. P., by which no procession or meetings were allowed, to Mrs. AV.Kuttimalu Amma, Miss. M. Karthyayani Amma, Mrs. K. Madhavan nair, Miss. K.E. Sarada, Smt. T. Narayani amma, Smt. P.G. Narayani Amma, Miss. E. Narayanikutty Amma, Mrs.T.V. Sundara Iyer and Mrs. Gracy Aaron and two or three men . But early in the morning they gathered in the Verkot house and conducted the procession, singing songs dressed in spotless khadi . Mrs. Narayani Amma and her elderly mother and other elderly women were present blessed the young girls to defy the law and court arrest.

The ladies when stepped out, were stopped by the Sub-divisional magistrate, but they were determined to march forward. “The Inspector tried to snatch away the tri-colour flag from the hands of Jayalakshmi the spirited daughter of Mr. T.V. Sundaram Iyer. But the fearless girl looking steadily at the Inspector and said “I will not part with this” The Inspector tried his hand on others also but every one

remained stiff. Full-throated and spirited shouts of jais reverberated in the air. Orders were then given to the police for the arrest of the women. The arrested women were M. Karthyayani amma, Smt. E. Narayanikutty Amma, Mrs. Gracy Aron, Smt. Kunhikkavu amma, Smt. T. Ammukutty Amma, and the school girl Jayalakshmi and among the thunderous cries among the thousands assembled to witness the scene. On reaching the jail Jayalakshmi was let off since she was minor. This was the first time that women courted arrest in Kerala in the cause of freedom movement.

Ms. Swarnakumari Menon, the daughter of Sri U Gopala Menon, who we quoted above, was one of the young volunteers. In the paper quoted above, she recounts her experience:

There was a Brahmin girl called Jayalakshmi. Her father was very active in Congress. See, all of us had somebody active in politics from the tarawad or house. That was the passport for us to enter. We were together. We had a Balika Bharatha Sangham. Jaya lakshmi was very active in it. We were all girls aged 10-14 years. There was a programme called “Prabhatha Bheri” Early morning we used to walk through the streets taking a flag in hand and go in procession singing songs. We were some ten to fifteen girls. We sing Pora..Pora naalil naalil ….. and Jhanda Oonja Rahe hamara……. etc. and walk through the road in the early morning. Each day we were given some specific area. Say for example, Chalapuram. We cover all the streets of Chalappuram till afternoon. We also work for the “Harijan” fund. Carrying a small box in hand we collect money. People accepted all these very well. My father was arrested then. All people were with us. There was no other leader other than Gandhiji. No violence or terror at all. What we wanted was only freedom. That was the first and the only demand. As students our work was basically through the Balika Bharath Sangham. In fact, Indira Priyadarshini started this at Delhi. It was in 1930. Apart from students women also participated in abundance. Kunjikkavamma, Lakshmikutty amma etc. were the leaders here.

There was a house which was a centre for this activity known as Verkot House. There was one Narayanai Amma who used to fix the route and direct us. We all meet here in the morning, and the flag and route etc. will be read. We collect the songs and flag and leave. By afternoon, we meet again at this house and disperse off. Jayalakshmi and her sister Kamalam also used to be with us throughout.

Other than Verkot Narayani Amma, there was Kunjikkavamma, Mrs. Prabhu, Lakshmikuttyamma, etc. who were all very active and keen on getting freedom. Mrs. Prabhu has stayed with us. There used to be review at night regarding the Prabhathabheri. There are days when we sit throughout night discuss and write what happened during the day. We give one copy to the press in the morning. A sincere Bala Bharath Sangh-activist comes and takes the writings from our hand and distributes to houses. But one day a van came and arrested all of us. They did not say anything. But took all of us; but left us within minutes. We followed non-violence throughout. There was no shouting, beatings, killing. There was absolutely no violence.

The author points out that during 1931, at Verkot House, a Sangh was formed, with Mrs. Margaret Pavamani, as the President, Smt. Kunhikkavu Amma, as Vice president, Smt. A.V. Kuttimalu Amma as Treasurer and Smt. P.M. Kamalavathi and Smt. K. Kunhilakshmi Amma as Secretaries. Thus, this house at the southern edge of Samooham Road, (which connects Tali with Chalappuram), was the headquarters of not only Congressmen and extremist rebels, but of the women’s movement in Calicut.

Indeed, a House with a Story!

-->

One has heard of the Kerala School of Mathematics and its lone stellar performer, Madhava of Sangramagrama. He and his disciples and grand disciples( if one may say so, to refer to the lineage of disciples) , Parameswara, Neelakantha Somayaji, Jyeshthadeva, Sankara Varier, Achyutha Pisharoti and others worked on trigonometry, calculus and geometry centuries before these branches were known to the western world.

But, Nila School? This was the topic of a stimulating lecture by Dr. N K Sundareswaran, Professor, Department of Sanskrit, Calicut University. Hailing from Palakkad, he was initiated into Sanskrit and Yajurveda by his father in the traditional manner. Later he graduated in Mathematics and obtained his Master’s and Doctorate in Sanskrit from Calicut University. He has been teaching and guiding research for more than a quarter of a century. His doctoral thesis is on Nilakantha Somayaji’s contributions to astronomy.

He took us through the main dramatis personae of the Nila School, which in effect, comprised all the above worthies, excluding Madhava of Sangramagramam. How did this happen? A lone genius from Irinjalakkuda and all his disciples and successors from a remote group of villages more than 50 kms. north of the place?

We know about Madhava (c.1340-c1425) mostly from the work of later mathematicians. Traditionally, he was believed to have been an Embranthiri ( a Tuluva Brahmin) from Aloor, near Irinjalakkuda in Trissur district. Most earlier writers had given a convoluted interpretation of the name ‘Sangramagramam’ to mean Irinjalakkuda/Koodalmanikyam.

But, Prof. Sundareswaran, following Prof. P P Divakaran (formerly of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research) would prefer to interpret Sangamagramam to mean Kootallur, a village close to Ponnani. The literal translation of Sangamagramam is Kootallur. Also, the village and more particularly, the Namboodiri Illam ( Kutalloor Mana) has a long tradition of learning even to the present century. It is situated at the confluence of the rivers Nila and Tootha, which suggest the name Kootallur, a village at the confluence.

If it is accepted that Madhava of Sangamagrama belonged to Kootallur, then everything falls into place, as all the other mathematicians were from neighbouring villages such as Tripparangodu, Trikkandiyur, Alathiyur etc. (Incidentally, Prof. PPD suggests that Tirunavaya also used to be and is sometimes still referred to a Trimurtisangamam on account of the presence, on either bank of the river, of temples dedicated to the Hindu trinity.)

Madhava’s chief contribution was the discovery of the infinite series for the trigonometric functions of sine, cosine, tangent and arctangent. The same series were developed in Europe for the first time by James Gregory in 1667, more than two hundred years after Madhava. The world of mathematics has acknowledged this and the series is now known as Madhava-Gregory-Lleibniz series.( Leibniz only re-obtained the formula for pi which had already been obtained by Madhava.)

Vatasseri Parameswara ( c.1380-1460) hailed from Alathiyur, near Tirur and was the direct disciple of Madhava. He was an astrologer as well and suggested improvements to the findings of Aryabhata, Bhaskara, Govindasvami and others through his copious commentaries. He was also known as the father of the Drig ganita system which is a system of astronomical computations considered more accurate that the then existing Parahita system. His contribution was in proving theories through observation. Damodara was the son and pupil of Parameswara and was also a notable mathematician and astronomer.

Nilakantha Somayaji ( 1444-1520?) was Damodara’s disciple. Born in Kelalloor mana in Trikkandiyur, Nilakantha was closely associated with the Sree Rama Temple in Alathiyur, (which is more famous for its upa devata, Hanuman.

Nilakantha’s major work was the Tantrasangraha written in 1500 which was principally an astronomical treatise. His theories are, however, without proofs or explanations of the logic. For this, we have to turn to his disciple, Jyesthadeva.

Jyesthadeva (c1500-c1575), the disciple of both Damodara and Nilakantha was the next great mathematician. He was also from Tripparangodu, another nearby temple-village. His biggest contribution was the Yuktibhasha, written in Malayalam. It offers detailed analytical commentary on Nilakantha’s Tantrasangraha. His contribution was in providing the process and the derivations for arriving at many of his guru’s theorems.

Sankara Varier, who was a contemporary of Jyeshtadeva, was the sole non-Brahmin mathematician whose works included Yuktideepika and Kriyakarmakari.

The question came up – did this knowledge travel from Kerala to the West, or were the scholarships parallel and unconnected?. Calicut Heritage Forum had the privilege of hosting, a few years ago, Dr. George Gheverghese Joseph of Manchester University who was posed the same question. His reply was equivocal, to put it rather bluntly. But his own writing about there being plenty of opportunities for the Jesuits, who swarmed the area in the sixteenth century, to carry the new knowledge to the West, betrays his views. According to him, there was a strong motivation for this transmission: Pope Gregory XIII had set up a committee to look into modernising the Julian calendar. The German Jesuit, Clavius was on this committee and he had been repeatedly requesting his brethren spread over the world for information on how people constructed calendars in other parts of the world. The Jesuits who were in numbers in Vettathu kingdom ( they had even managed to convert the Vettath King to Christianity, and Antonio Gomez who replaced Francis Xavier in India was a frequent visitor to Tanur) could hardly have missed the opportunity to pick up the astronomically accurate calculations made popular by the Nila school of mathematicians.

Prof. Sundareswaran, however, preferred not to comment on this. Instead, he focused on how knowledge was being transmitted from generation to generation in an unbroken chain of succession. His concluding statement - that only around 7 per cent of this fund of knowledge had been deciphered, the rest waiting in numerous cadjan leaf manuscripts to be unravelled - reminded one of the poet A K Ramanujam's perceptive observation : Even one's own tradition is not one's birthright; it has to be earned, repossessed.

Muchunti Mosque – Could it be Muchanti ?

The Zamorin is dead; Long live the Zamorin!

A Source book on early medieval Kerala History

The Mysterious 'Soap Menon' of Calicut

V.C. - Calicut's own Keats

Saving the Comtrust from sharks!

Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan: Tyrants or Heroes? A Testimony from Vella Namboodiri

Hyder and Tipu - Part 2

Founding the empire in Malabar - some early hiccups

A Breakthrough History of Nedunganad

The Elephant Race in Guruvayur - where myth intersects history

The Calicut Bank Limited

Exciting new find of Chinese coins in Kollam - Numismatic Study by Beena Sarasan

Subaltern Reminiscences of Calicut's recent history - as told by Sri C Rairu Nair

The Mugaseths of Calicut

Maritime history of Calicut - the Annual Dilli Conference

An interesting talk on Tharisappally Copper Plates

In Memoriam - Premnath

The Legendary Verkot House in Calicut

Nila School of Mathematics