By Bala Menon
One of the tiniest and most ancient of all Jewish
communities in the Diaspora is the Cochinim or the Cochin Jews in the
southwestern Indian state of Kerala. They trace their history on the Malabar
coast 2,000 years ago, first landing on those pristine shores as sailors in the
fleets of King Solomon to purchase spices, apes, peacocks and precious metals.
Songs and
oral traditions of this community give us a glimpse of their early settlements in
Malabar in places like Paloor, Madai and the port of Cranganore (today’s city
of Kodungalloor), soon after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.
They call this the ‘First Diaspora’. One of the stories suggests they are
descendants of Jews taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar in the 6th century BCE and
came to India after being freed by Persian king Cyrus the Great.
The
community is today disappearing quickly with only about 40 left in Kerala
state, seven in the town of Mattancherry in Kochi and the rest spread around
the city of Ernakulam and surrounding areas. There are no services or prayers
although one of the most famous of the synagogues, the Paradesi in
Mattancherry, is still open and functional during festival days when Israeli tourists
gather or when a Chabbad Rabbi visits from Mumbai. Most members of the seven
Jewish congregations left en masse for Israel during the 1950 with the
stragglers following them in the ensuring decades.
Recorded
history shows that Jews were present in Kerala in 849 CE. Hebrew names were
engraved on copper plates granted by a Kerala Hindu King Ayyan Adikal
Thiruvadikal of Venad (near modern-day Kollam or old Quilon) to Syrian
Christian settlers, led by one Mar Sapir Iso, who were part of a trade guild
called Manigramam. The Jews signed these Tharissapalli plates as witnesses,
along with others who signed in the Pahlavi and Kufic languages. The plates
were given on behalf of the Chera ruler Sthanu Ravi Varman.*
In 1000
CE, the legendary Kerala emperor Cheraman Perumal Kulashekhara Bhaskara
Ravi Varman, from his palace at Mahodayapuram in the Cranganore area, issued
two copper plates to a Jewish merchant Issappu Irrappan ( Joseph Rabban),
believed to be of Yemeni descent. The plates conferred on the Jewish community
72 proprietary rights equivalent to those held by the Nairs, the then nobles of
Malabar.** This was during the 100-year war between the Kerala Cheras and the Imperial
Cholas of the Tamil kingdoms and it is believed that the Jewish community
contributed men and material (especially naval forces) to help the Chera
emperor in the war efforts.***
Replicas of these plates were presented to a delighted then-Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres on September 09, 1992, when he visited India6 - a heart-warming piece of evidence that there was a safe haven for Jews in this little corner of India, centuries before the dream of Israel became a reality.•
Replicas of these plates were presented to a delighted then-Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres on September 09, 1992, when he visited India6 - a heart-warming piece of evidence that there was a safe haven for Jews in this little corner of India, centuries before the dream of Israel became a reality.•
The
original copper plates are preserved in the magnificent 460-year old Paradesi Synagogue in Cochin, the oldest
functioning synagogue in the Commonwealth. (Israeli president Eizer Weizman
visited the synagogue in January 1997, hailing Cochin as a “symbol of the
persistence of Judaism and of aliyah ... I pay tribute to India for
taking care of the Jews and their places of worship ...”).••
The
copper plate inscriptions mention that several land rights and other honours
were being given to the Jews in perpetuity “as long as the earth and the moon
remain”. Rabban was also made chief of a powerful trade guild called
Anjuvannam. (Many early Western writers believed Anjuvannam to be a princely
state.) Thus began the privileged existence of the
Jews in Kerala. For almost five centuries, they thrived in their major settlement of Cranganore as
traders and artisans.
By the
17th century, there were 11 congregations with their own synagogues – three
in Mattancherry (Kadavumbhagam, Thekkumbhagam and Paradesi), two in Ernakulam
(Kadavumbhagam and Thekkumbhagam- yes, same names!), one each in Chennamangalam,
Mala, Paloor, Muttam and Tirutur, and a
splendid one in Paravur (at that time under the control of the King of
Travancore). Cochin Jewish songs also tell of a
synagogue in a place called Southi (this has not yet been identified!)†
In his 1920 book Jews of Asia, Sidney Mendelssohn tellingly wrote: “While the Jews of Europe, from the 10th to the 16th centuries, were living under conditions, which, for a portion of the period, were stigmatized by Milman14 as the ‘Iron Age of Judaism’, and while persecutions drove the scattered race in turn out of England, France, Spain, Portugal, Holland and Germany, as well as other less important regions, their brethren in the Far East, in the lands of the ... potentates of India, were living a life of peace and plenty, far away from the bigots, the robber kings, the conversionists, the Inquisitors, and the Crusaders."††
In his 1920 book Jews of Asia, Sidney Mendelssohn tellingly wrote: “While the Jews of Europe, from the 10th to the 16th centuries, were living under conditions, which, for a portion of the period, were stigmatized by Milman14 as the ‘Iron Age of Judaism’, and while persecutions drove the scattered race in turn out of England, France, Spain, Portugal, Holland and Germany, as well as other less important regions, their brethren in the Far East, in the lands of the ... potentates of India, were living a life of peace and plenty, far away from the bigots, the robber kings, the conversionists, the Inquisitors, and the Crusaders."††
It is of interest to note here that in the late 18th century, Cochin was more important to the Jews than New York.Walter Fischel, a scholar of Oriental Jewry, wrote: “Cochin, one of the oldest Jewish settlements on Asian soil, had a much larger Jewish community than New York and surpassedit not only numerically, but also culturally. The Cochin Jewish community in 1792 had about 2000 Jews ... and 9 synagogues of considerable antiquity, while New York had only 72 Jewish families and only one synagogue."†††
** Menon, Sreedhara A., A Survey of Kerala History, p. 45.
*** M.G.S. Narayanan, Cultural Symbiosis in Kerala, Kerala
Historical Society, Trivandrum, p .34.
• http://www.hindu.com/2003/09/11stories/2003091108060400.htm
†† Mendelssohn, Sidney, The Jews of Asia, Chapter VIII, p. 99.
• http://www.hindu.com/2003/09/11stories/2003091108060400.htm
•• From video of Weizman’s visit to the Paradesi Synagogue. In
possession of Bala Menon
† This was documented by a delegation of Jews from Amsterdam,
led by Moses Pereyra de Paiva, that visited Cochin in 1685. Pereyra wrote about
this visit in his Nostesias os Judeos de Cochin in 1687. (The
synagogues of Paloor, Muttam and Tirutur
have disappeared - believed to have been abandoned or destroyed.)†† Mendelssohn, Sidney, The Jews of Asia, Chapter VIII, p. 99.
††† Walter Fischel - From Cochin, India, to New York, pp.
265-67, cited by Katz on page 102. Harry Austrynn Wolfson Jubilee Volume.
Jerusalem: American Academy for Jewish Research, pp. 255-75.
