One of the relatively ancient ingenious christian traditions and a community existed in Kerala much before Christianity became a prominent religion in most of the western world. The community, traditionally known as 'Nazranies' ,probably emerged from the second century onward. Various folklore traditions the claim that St Thomas, one of the disciples of Jesus ,visited Kerala coast in AD/CE 52 and baptized the upper-caste brhamins. However this seems to be a myth emerged much later and there is no clear historical or textual evidence to prove the visit of St Thomas in the first century and there is no evidence of any brhamin community in Kerala during the first century. In fact, Buddhism might have been the prevailing organized religion in the early centuries in most of South India, particularly in the coastal region. It is true that there has been a Marthoma tradition in Kerala for at least fifteen centuries. But such a Marthoma tradition was also elsewhere in parts of the then Persia (Iraq, Iran -region) and many other places- and the chances are that the legacy of Marthoma is a wider legacy in the east and there is a chance that Marthoma cult also got established early in Kerala through trade links - and it is this stream of Eastern Christianity must have took root in Kerala in the 3rd or 4th century.
In any case, even the tradition of using cross as a symbol of Christianity emerged only in the 4th century as the symbol that was used by early Christian community was the images of fish. Christianity itself became an official religion of Roman Empire only in 380 AD/CE when Emperor Theodosius declared it as official religion and use of cross became more prevalent afterwards. After Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in 313 CE/AD through Edict of Milan, the very first council of Nicaea was in 325 AD. The first formal Christian Kingdom was in Armenia in 301
As Kerala coast had trade links with Alexandria where there were a strong presence of early Jewish Christian tradition and that of Nasraene tradition of early Jewish community, there is a chance that the early Jewish trade settlements might have bought these ideas during the Apostolic age ( in the first century). Within Armenia( which I visited few times), there is historical evidence of Armenian Jews doing business in Kodungallore , Kochi and also Chennai. However, there is less material evidence of early Christian communities till the 3rd century. So the proto-christian communities might have emerged here too mostly in the 4th century onward after Christianity became legalized in the Roman Empire. It seems more of a slow socio-religious transition rather than a quick conversion to Christianity.
The Kerala 'Nasrani' Christian communities probably emerged out of the coastal diaspora trading community of Jews who followed the Nazranes ( closely linked to Essene sect within Judaism ) and through a process of acculturation there emerged an indigenous proto-christian community that slowly got affiliated to the Eastern Church prevalent in Persia( present day Iran-Iraq) and the community emerged through various process of acculturation and amalgamation over a period of hundreds of years. The Act of Thoma which described the work of St Thomas was reportedly written in 3-4 th century and even that work there is no clear evidence of St Thomas traveling to the Malabar coast. There are also so few other allusions to the possible visit of St Thomas to India, though there is no conclusive textual evidence . Ambros of Milan, Ephreme from Syria , Pantaneous from Alexandria and several others reportedly visited India in the early centuries . In any case, there are ample textual evidences for the existence of an ancient Christian community from 4th - and 5th century onward. And there are clear material evidence ( shasanam, Therasapally Copper plates etc) of an active and thriving community from 7th century onward. Various copper plates ( 774 AD, 823 AD) give clear evidence of privileges given to these communities who were mostly in to trade .
The later Thomma Parvam , dated to 1601, reportedly is the compilation of old folklore and oral traditions. It is from the 17 century onward the prevailing myths of St Thomas converting Namboodthiri brhamin and establishing seven and half a church etc emerged, though the folklore traditions might have existed much before that. In many ways this also could be a counter discourse to the hegemonic overtures by the Portuguese colonialists to merge the indigenous community to their own Catholic framework.
It is this Thoma Parvam that described the Ezharapllikal ( seven and half churches ) that included Kodungallur, Kollam, Niranam , Nilackal ( Chayal),Kokkamangalam,, Kottakkavu( paravur), Paloor and Thiruvathamcode Arappally( half church) . All these seem to be ancient community settlements. There are also such settlements in Karthigapally, Chengannoor , Kottayam , Kadampanad, Kanjirappally etc. The indigenous Nasrani Communities emerged in the area between the Periyar in North and Kalladayar in the South or between Kodungallore and Kollam coastal area. In many ways the arrival of Portuguese seem to have revitalized the community both in terms of negotiating with them as well as resisting by developing a counter discourse. The revitalization as a well as the new 'status' seem to have developed during a period of 16-18 century and further evolving in the 19th century , particularly in alignment with the CMS mission and early access to modern education and access to land ownership etc. The caste mindset seem to have developed as the Church got more well established in the 8 to 9th century - and with the establishment of Namboothiri hegemony. So it seems to be an effort to renegotiate the economic status in relation to the social hierarchy by adapting some of the customs of upper caste Hindus .
In fact the Udaimperur Sunnhados, ( 20-26 June 1599 ) called by Bishop Dom Alexis Menezes of Goa , was an effort to 'reform' the church more in alignment with Portuguese plan . In this historic meeting 130 clergymen and 660 laymen participated. This Synod is an important milestone in the history of Church in Kerala as there were around 200 decrees imposed to the church and community and also to purge of so many ingrained local Hindu customs, practices and rituals prevalent within the community, including caste mindset . These synod also burned many of the holy books in the Syrian and Nestorian traditions as they were considered to be heretical( and more in the inquisition tradition of the Roman Catholic church) . This later on created a counter discourse and resistance in the form of Koonan Kurishu Sathyam( pledge) on 3 January 1653 asserting the independence of the Kerala Nasrani church and its traditions. In a way this was also one of the first counter discourse and resistance against the Colonial power from the indigenous christian community of Kerala.
There are evidence of an early christian community emerging over the last 1800 years or even more. There are few valid indicators to this : )Indo -Roman Trade with South India before 2000 years. Arikkamadu excavations and Pattanam excavations b) Arrival of Kanai Thomman as refugees when there was persecution of Jewish Christians c) The use of Syriac Language, derivative of Aramaic language spoken during the time of Jesus by his speech community . The language dramatically declined in the 14 century after the ascent of Ottoman Empire and spread of Arabic. The language is the liturgical language of few ancient churches and the prevalence of this ancient language and suriyani malayalam etc point to the existence of early church links in Kerala .
The term Syrian Christian was only used by the Dutch in 18 century only. The nazrani community largely consisted of small traders and marginal farmers, though there were few e rich merchants/traders and those who held lots of land . The transformation of the community began only from the 19 century where they got more opportunity to modern education and happened to be a community negotiated with modern professional options , largely due to early acculturation with missionaries, largely CMS .
The term syrian christian today is more of proxy caste signifier of those who don't belong to castes eligible for reservation .They spread across various denominations across the spectrum from Catholics to Evangelical and Pentecostal churches .Because of their relatively socio economic status largely due to early access to land and modern education and self perceptions of caste hierarchy , they were not included in OBC list and hence considered along with 'forward cast/upper caste '
While there is a long history of the Nasrani community that emerged over centuries negotiating with the traders as well as the social hierarchies that emerged in Kerala, many of the myths related to Brhamin lineage and St Thomas heritage etc seem to be more of an effort to assert the social hegemony in the larger political economy and social hierarchy of Kerala.
The real challenge is that most of the so called family history of Syrian Christian are simply story telling based on constructed or perceived or received myths based less on any evidence and more on enthusiasm to construct family tree to claim a heritage of great , aristocratic and upper caste lineage . The family history writing as a cottage industry will be of interest to social anthropologist , though none of these family folklore got anything with evidence based history before few generations.
No comments:
Post a Comment