Revealations-P.J.Cherian and Links With Knanaya Church

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Accession Date and Time-29-10-2011; 11.40 AM

My Quest to unravel the Antiquity of the Knanaya Community

In my quest to uncover the truth behind the legacy of the Knanaya heritage while
recognizing the sad truth that we are not in possession of any original source evidence
to put forth the proof of the legacy, I began by identifying important milestones of the
legacy since AD 345 and have been engaged in understanding the circumstances of the
period since AD 345 which ought to have influenced the migration of our ancestors and
their immediate environment which shaped their lifestyles as well as their heritage over
the last 16 and more centuries.
To understand the circumstances that influenced the culture and the important turning
points during the history of Knanaya community since ancient times, one must study
ancient source records which have been documented during the contemporaneous
period by recognized historians and other authors. These sources are to be found
documented in Greek, Latin, Syriac, Aramaic and Hebrew texts. I began my studies in
the year 1996 studying the English sources beginning with a very brief construction of
the general history of the Middle East in the late ancient period beginning from the 4th
century onwards. After analysing the broad outline of the chronology of historical
events, I began studying each historical event in detail which were relevant to the
migrationary legacy held by our ancestors and codified in our ancient songs. Since
2005, I have been engaging myself in discussions with scholars regarding the historical
milestones of the Middle East and I was encouraged to study the affairs of the nation of
Israel since ancient times and also to analyse the migrationary pattern of the 12 tribes of
Israel. By coincidence, Dr.P J Cherian of the Kerala Council of Historical Research and his

team comprising of Dr. K P Shajanand Dr.Selvakumar had hit upon an archaeological site near Kodungallur atavillage called Pattanam. On a detailed analysis from the archaeological dig commenced from the year 2007, theydiscovered that this site was an ancient port and that it was a part of the ancient port of
Muziris which has been talked of at length in the ancient Roman period beginning from
the middle of the 1st century BC till the 4th century AD. Three successive years of
archaeological excavations from that site has thrown up much evidence of remains of
that trading period. I have visited that site in 2008 and 2009.
The existence of the site reveals to us that there was a strong trading activity in this part
of Kerala since the 1st century BC and the trade was mainly between Egypt and Kerala.
While Kerala exported pepper and other products from the Gangetic region, Sri Lanka,
China and South East Asia, it imported wine and Roman Gold coins or Cestaes and
Dinarii. While big Roman ships visited Muziris during September each year by cruising
with the Monsoon trade winds, they departed from Muziris before the 13th of January so
as to catch the North East monsoon winds which blows them towards South Arabia.
Cana was a port in South Arabia from where the ships embarked on the oceanic voyage
to Muziris. Cana was a mercantile haven which provided ships with drinking water,
Frankincense, and Myrrh and also, it was like a tavern where one could hire navigators
and other skilled mariners who have expertise handling the Monsoon winds as well as
the pirates near Muziris. Besides, there were also local translators and other
intermediaries who were available for hire as this port had a rich blend of Indian, Semitic
and Greek mariners and traders as evidenced from all the household vessels
discovered from archaeological sites. It may have been a trader/mariner’s mercantile
cosmopolitan city as it lay in the cross roads of the land route between India and the
Mediterranean Sea and Egypt as well as the two sea routes – the Egypt - Barygaza
(Indus/Broach) trade route and the Egypt - Muziris pepper trade route.

I began my seriousresearch studies by first trying to define the word Knanaya from historical sources beginning with the description of the zealots as per the ancient works of Flavius Josephus. I began engaging myself in discussions with International scholars regarding interpretation of these ancient source texts. First I had discussions in the year 2005 with Dr. Shalva Weil a renouned Anthropologist of the Hebrew University who has done a comparative study between the Knanaya community and the Cochin Jews in 1982. I continue to have discussions withher. The following year, I engaged in discussions with Dr. Robert Eisenman, an archaeologist and historian who has done extensive research on the Dead Sea scrolls
as well as the Zealots. He has done a thorough study regarding the migration of the zealots out of the nation of Judea and their flight to Edessa and has hypothesized that they would have reached South India and merged within the Syrian Christians of Keralabesides the remaining being converted into Islam. Though he was scheduled to address the Knanaya youth during the KnaZeal 2007 Conference, he was not able to make it due to certain personal commitments back home on the occasion of the birth of his
grandson. But eventually, he did make the trip in early April of 2008 thanks to voluntary
contributions from committed members of the Knanaya community such as Thomas
Elias Paarel, Abe Abraham Vazhayil (Kunjavarachayan), Monsy Chemmachan, Joe
Thomas Vadasserikunnel, Celia Vazhayil who supported my endeavor and shared with
me the cost of making arrangements for the commutation of this scholar. I must also
thank Mr. Jose Dominic of CGH Earth who has taken great interest in my activities
beginning with the tour of Dr. Shalva Weil and has supported me on every occasion to
engage scholars in meaningful discussions in the pursuit of unravelling the ancient
history of the founding of Christianity in Kerala. I met Dr. P J Cherian for the first time
during the visit of Dr. Eisenman at KCHR at Vyloppilly Samskrithi Bhavan in
Thiruvananthapuram and we had a meaningful discussion then. Later in November that
same year, Dr. Cherian hosted a Seminar on the Muziris Heritage Project which was
addressed by atleast four ministers as well as historians. I had meaningful discussions
with Dr. Steve Sidebotham (in the picture below) who is an archaeologist currently
exploring the ancient Egyptian port of Berenike and is tipped to do an excavation in
Cana of South Arabia (presently Yemen). I also met Dr. Federico De Romanis of the
University of Rome and Dr. Roberta Tomber of the British Museum.

In January of this year, I attended a two day seminar on Indo-Portuguese era trade
history organized by the Vasco Da Gama Research Institue at Cochin.This seminar
was inaugrated by the Portuguese Ambassador in India and the keynote address was
by the Portuguese Architect and Art historian Paulo Varela Gomes. In the keynote
address, the influence of Portuguese architecture in the design of Syrian Christian
Churches were explained. It was a well organized seminar and many aspects of Indo-
Portuguese heritage were deliberated. I have made a suggestion that the VGRI must
explore the influence of the Portuguese on the Syrian Christians as well as the glorious
period of trade and goodwill between these two people during the major part of the 16th
century until the advent of Dom Alexis Menezis. It must be said in favor of Menezis that
he tried to work for the benefit of the Knanaya community until the Inquisition was
initated during his governorship. He had infact demanded the King of Kodungallur to
restore the land of the Thekkumbhagakkar which was gifted to them by Cheraman
Perumal since ancient times. He also intended to have that site turned into the center of
Indian Christianity and that is why the Vicarate of Kodungallur situated very close to the
Portuguese Fort was given high importance till the 17th century. Unfortunately, events
turned for the worse and the relations between the Syrian Christians and the
Portuguese Governor turned very bad and hence these promises where not followed
up. The evidence of this incident is provided in the Journal of Alexis Menezis. I
interacted with Dr. Varela Gomes regarding the dating and restoration of the Portrait of
Mother Mary and Infant Jesus which is today at the Sanctum Sanctorium of the St.
Mary’s Knanaya Valiyappally at Kallissery. I sent him a picture of the portrait and
looking at the picture, he explained that the portrait did not appear to be more than 80
years old. But he did admit that he could not say whether there was an even earlier
picture behind the present painting and that that would have to be ascertained using Xray
and laser technologies. His assessment is correct as the Portrait was last painted by
therenouned artist K M Varghese in the 1930s. He has also explained to me that if an
Indian organization such as INTACH were to certify that the painting is to be dated and
restored and a cost estimate could be prepared, he would try and arrange for the funds
to meet this expenses. I have informed our Bishops and priests about this offer and I
await their decision.

In the month of May of 2009, I took my family to the Pattanam archaeological site when
Dr. Cherian and his team where doing their 3rd season of dig at the site. It was a great
experience visiting this site and seeing for oneself the environment in which people of
the 1st to 4th century AD had lived while engaging themselves in Maritime trade.We saw
pottery items and jewelry used during that period, besides, the layout of dwelling units,
wells etc. The ropes of that period were apparantly made from the fibres of Aloe Vora
and these ropes are used even today to handle elephants. We also saw iron nails of
that period and it is said that ironsmiths of Muziris had a very advanced technology in
metallurgy. It was a good experience for my family. There is another project involving Muziris heritage. The
second project is a tourism project by the Tourism department and is the brainchild of Dr. Thomas Isaac,
our Finance Minister. The project is intended to highlight the heritage of the ancient port city of Muziris and covers the region from Chettuva to Paravur. This project is being coordinated by Mr. Benny
Kuriakose, a well reputed Conservative Architect who is based at Chennai and
he has prepared a very detailed heritage conservation oriented tourism project with a
budget of Rs. 140 Crores meeting International standards of conservation as well as
tourism promotion. A two day camp was held at Kodungallur on the 27th and 28th of June
2009 under the watchful eye of Dr. Thomas Isaac and the project was explained to the
members of the Panchayats which came under this conservation project. I attended the
Seminar and was very impressed to see the commitment of the State to promote
Kodungallur and it’s surrounding areas as part of a new wave of Kerala tourism initiative
as a Heritage Tourism model.
Dr. Cherian organized a Greek and Latin training program under Dr. Federico De
Romanis of the University of Rome from 27th of July till the 31st of August. There were
two batches consisting of 30 students. The students constituted historians, Engineers,
Linguists, and even a Dentist with a passion for history. I attended this program and we
covered the grammar and syntax of ancient Greek and Latin used between the 1st
Century BC till the 4th Century AD. We read ancient texts of Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis
Historia, Strabo’s Geography, Arrian’s Anabasis and History of Alexander’s Expedition,
Costas Indicopleustes, Periplus Maris Erythraei, Tabula Peutingeria, Ptolemy’s
Geographia VIII, the Vienna Papyrus, Charition (an ancient drama involving a language
once spoken in ancient Kerala). We did nearly 100 hours of reading and our Professor
empowered us with the necessary skills and tools required to read ancient documents
on our own even after the course was completed. During our course, we realised that all
translations of these ancient documents are done by European scholars who are not
aware of the ground realities that existed in Kerala during the period when these texts
were composed. Hence, the Professor, Dr. Athiyamman, a marine archaeologist and
myself embarked on a discovery tour to identify the places in the ancient Venad region
mentioned in these texts which were connected with ancient spice trade. The Professor
and the archaeologist came to Kallissery on 22nd of August. We visited the ancient
Syrian Church at Chengannur, our Kallissery Valiyappally, and did a boating expedition
across the Vembanad lake upto the St. Thomas Church at Kokkamangalam beyond the
Thaneermukham bund which is believed to be the site of one of the seven churches
reportedly founded by St. Thomas. We feel that this region could be the location of an
ancient port recorded as Bacare which is still elusive. I have hypothesized that Bacare
is a corruption of ‘Ba Akkare’. This hypothesis is based on an ancient narration where in
it is stated that Roman ships unloaded the goods that were imported to the ancient port
of the Kingdom of Nelkynda on the Eastern bank of the back waters and berthed there
till the end of Autumn. For loading spices into these large ships, the ships had to be
ferried empty to the Western bank of the river from where the spices would be loaded.
This was necessitated because, if these ships were loaded at the port on the Eastern
bank, then the weight of the spices would cause the ships to be submerged more into
the waters and if they were to cross the backwaters, the bottom of the ship would get
stuck in the clayey bottom of the back waters which was so hard that the ships could not
be wrenched free. This phenomenon can be experienced even today. Hence, the ships
had to be as light as possible so that the major portion of the ship would be above water
while crossing the shallow mid region of the backwater lake. The local traders those
days would have used the expression Ba Akkare to inform the Roman ship captain to
take the ship to the port on the opposite bank of the Vembanad so as to load spices into
the ships. Also, these ports are reported to be nearly 22.2 Km upriver from the sea.
Besides, Vembanad is fed with water by the rivers – Muvattupuzha river, Manimala river
and Pampa besides Achenkoil until it was redirected in the 19th century by the
Tranvancore ruler. These rivers formed the channels through which spices was
transported from the hilly regions of the Western Ghats to the sea ports. The Periyar
and the Pampa are the main source of spice transportation as they originate at the heart
of pepper growing regions of Idukki and Pathanamthitta rain forests. The region from
Kottarakkara to Kothamangalam could have been part of an ancient principality namedKottonara where pepper and elephants are reported to grow. We reached Thekkady on
the night of 22nd from Coconut lagoon at Kumarakom and stayed at Spice Village. On
the 23rd morning, the naturalist at Spice village explained to us how pepper is harvested
and also took us through the spice garden of the resort owned by CGH Earth. We were
also given a walking tour through the vast expanse of the vegetation being maintained
by this eco-friendly resort which includes a bio-decomposition plant for generating
organic fertilizer, a waste paper conversion plant for manufacturing recycled paper, an
organic kitchen garden where all the vegetables required by the resort kitchen are
grown besides the natural spice museum cum botanical garden. From Thekkady, we
drove to Ranni via Kanjirappally, Manimala. We stopped at Aythala to have a view of
the Pampa. The Professor was shocked to know that river which appears very calm
rises during the monsoon season to scale the banks and encroach into the houses
located at the Banks and considering how high the Thamarappally Aapeesil house is
located from the river bed, he could not believe that the river water has entered into the
house many a times. After being entertained by the lady of the house, Pennamma
Thomas, with juice and information, we travelled further eastwards towards Nilakkal
forest. By the time we crossed the Lahai Estate and entered into the Rajampara forest,
we accosted an accident site and the traffic was blocked during an attempt to recover a
tractor that had skidded off the road and fell into a ravine. As it was getting dark with the
sun setting fast and the Italian Professor not being comfortable at the thought of
confronting a wild elephant in the forest, we decided to turn back and headed for
Thiruvananthapuram via Pathanamthitta – Kottarakkara route. It was a memorable
weekend for us and the Professor admitted that all the ancient works regarding Kerala
will have to be retranslated keeping in mind the ground realities of Kerala which have
not been taken into consideration thus far by European scholars. In short, there is much
work to be done regarding studying the ancient trade with Muziris and other ports of
Kerala.
Besides this expedition, we travelled together again the following weekend to meet Mr.
Benny Kuriakose and also during the Onam break to visit the Athirappally water falls
and the Sholayar forest from where the spices could have been transported to Muziris
via the Chalakkudy river. We stayed at Hotel Brunton Boatyard this time which is based
on a historical theme of the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British influence in Fort
Kochi. We look forward to explore the possibility of having regular cruises from this hotel
to Kodungallur to relive the ancient trade between Fort Kochi and Kodungallur which
was engaged by the Syrian Christians until they migrated southward to Kottayam and
Kallissery. We also studied the varies events which influenced the spice trade from the
1st Century BC to the 4th Century AD. We read the evidence regarding the presence of
Christianity in Kerala in the 5th Century which I quote below from Cosmas Indicopleustes
in Greek original
ÆEn Taprobavnh/ nhvsw/ ejn th'/ ejswtevra/ ÆIndiva/, e[nqa to;
ÆIndiko;n pevlagov" ejsti, kai; ÆEkklhsiva cristianw'n ejstin ejkei'
kai; klhrikoi; kai; pistoiv, oujk oi\da de; eij kai; peraitevrw.
ïOmoivw" kai; eij" th;n legomevnhn Malev, e[nqa to; pevperi givnetai,
kai; ejn th'/ Kalliavna/ de; th'/ kaloumevnh/, kai; ejpivskopov" ejstin
ajpo; Persivdo" ceirotonouvmeno".

[There are Christian priests and believers in Taprobane (ancient Sri lanka) and India,
There is a Christian Bishop at Male (ancient name of Kerala which became Malabar
during Arab times) where the pepper grows and the Bishop who is elected and sent
from Persia has jurisdiction over Kalliana (Kalyan), interior India or mainland India and
Taprobane (ancient Sri lanka).]
We also read the works of Zosimus, Socrates as well as Codex Theodosiani where the
circumstances during the reign of Constantinople, the Roman Emperor in the early part
of the 4th century is explained and which narrates events which would have borne a
strong influence on the Knanaya ancestors during the period that influenced their
migration to Kerala. Many a hypothesis is possible regarding the Knanaya origins. The
fact that Cana was the port from where the ships sailed for Muziris, there was a very
strong Jewish and Christian settlement in the towns of Cana from the 1st century AD till
the time of Muhammad and their subsequent conversion into Islam, there was a tribe in
that region known as Kinaidokolpitas (or people of the Gulf of Kinai), there is the
possibility of a Zealot migration to Cana of Yemen from Cana of Galilee during the
period of Herod the Great and Augustus Caesar. The Ethiopian King conquered this
place towards the end of the 3rd century or early 4th century, there was a major
recession during this period and the Roman economy was revived in the 1st quarter of
the 4th century by Emperor Constantine, there was a very high inflation and the prices of
pepper reached phenomenal levels during this period making it extremely profitable for
those merchants who could secure an assured quantity of pepper per year so as to reap
the benefits of the revival in Roman economy. These circumstances and many more
and their related hypothesis have to be explored in the future.
After a three day stay at Cochin, we returned back to Kallissery and he returned to
Thiruvananthapuram from where he flew back to Italy. During my course at KCHR, I
also met Dr. Shinu Abraham, an Anthropologist from the University of St. Lawrence in
New York who was here to study the glass beads discovered at the site of the dig. She
is specialising on the society that habitated at Muziris and also their interactions with
other cultures by way of trade in commodities of that period and influences of these
interactions. Her parents were originally from Kollakadavu near Chengannur and
migrated to the US in the 1970s. They are good family friends of Dr. A C Thomas and
Mariamma, Elamkulam currently settled at Long Island. She had come to Kallissery and
we spent a day in discussion regarding the Knanaya and Syrian Christian culture and
ancient society. I am hoping that during her next visit to Kerala we could explore the
possibility of enlarging the study of ancient society to the gatherers of pepper from the
ghats, the intermediaries who conveyed the pepper from the ghats to the plains through
the river channels as well as the influence of the Western traders in Muziris during theirfour month stay in Muziris from September to January. But these matters are to be
decided by Dr. Cherian who is coordinating the activities of the scholars associated with
the Muziris Archaeological research.
I intend to study the ancient records and also study semitic languages such as Hebrew,
Aramaic and Syriac over the next one year so that I can go as deep as possible while
exploring the evidences that seem to be propping up at various archaeological sites at
Cana, Berenike and Muziris. I also hope to be involved in discovering the elusive ports
of Bacare, Nelkynda and the ancient pepper growing region of Kottonara. I also want to
involve as many Knanaya youth from all parts of the globe who are interested in joining
me in this historical study and also those who will be interested to learn Archaeology
under Dr. P J Cherian.


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