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Syrian Malabar Nasrani

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Syrian Malabar Nasrani people

Varghese Palakkappillil · K.M Mani · Asin Joseph Augusty · Nayantara · A. K. Antony Kunchako Boban · Sheela · Anna Chandy
Total population
Kerala: 6,000,000 (18% of Pop.)[1]
Regions with significant populations
India
Languages
Malayalam
Religion
Roman Catholicism, Oriental Orthodoxy, Reformed Orthodox, Protestantism (minority)
Related ethnic groups
Cochin Jews, Paradesi Jews, Knanaya, Malayalis

The Syrian Malabar Nasrani people, also known as Saint Thomas Christians and Nasranis are an ethnoreligious group from Kerala, India, adhering to the various churches of the Saint Thomas Christian tradition.They are also known as Syrian-Malabar Christians, Suriyani Christiaanikal, Mar Thoma Nasrani, or more popularly as Syrian Christians in view that they use Syriac liturgy since the early days of Christianity in India.
The Syrian Malabar Nasranis are the descendants of the natives and those of the Jewish diaspora in Kerala ^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]} who became Christians in the Malabar Coast in the earliest days of Christianity.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The community also comprises several ancient Christian settlements in Kerala. It has been suggested that the term Nasrani derives from the name Nazarenes used by ancient Jewish Christians in the Near-East who believed in the divinity of Jesus but clung to many of the Mosaic ceremonies.^{[11][citation needed]} They follow a unique Hebrew-Syriac Christian tradition which includes several Jewish elements although they have absorbed some Hindu customs^{[citation needed]}. Their heritage is Syriac-Keralite, their culture South Indian with semitic and local influences, their faith St. Thomas Christian, and their language Malayalam.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} Much of their Jewish tradition has been forgotten, especially after the Portuguese invasion of Kerala in the early 1500s.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]}

Contents 1 Terminology 1.1 Portuguese period 1.2 Nasrani Mapilla 2 History 2.1 Origins 2.2 Epigraphy 2.3 Christian Jewish tradition 2.4 Persecution by Portuguese 2.5 Division and defiance 2.5.1 Further divisions 3 Nasrani people today 3.1 Demographics 4 Nasrani symbol 5 Traditions, rituals and social life among Syrian Christians 6 Caste status 7 Notables 8 See also 9 Notes 10 External references 10.1 Hardcopy 10.2 External links

Terminology

Portuguese period

During the Dutch power in Malabar (1679-1728) there were four distinctive sections of Christians in Kerala.^[12][13]

1. Roman Catholic Syrian Christians.
2. Jacobite Syrian Christians.
3. The non-Syrian Roman Catholics Known as Inland Christians by the Van Rheede ^[14] and New Christians by Moens.^[15].They were grouped into seven parish churches under the bishop of Cochin.
4. Topass Christians. (Thuppai). They were the descendents of Indian mothers or fathers belonging to the diverse European nations.

Only the first two are Syrian Malabar Nasranis. Others are not. So, all Christians in Kerala are not included in this article.

Nasrani Mapilla

Syrian Malabar Nasranis are also called Nasrani Mapillas.^[16] According to Hermann Gundert (who wrote the first Malayalam dictionary), the term 'mapilla' was a title used to denote semitic immigrants from West Asia.^[16] Thus the term Mapilla was used to denote both Arab and Christian-Jewish descendants and followers in Kerala.^[16] The descendants of Arabs are called Muslim Mappila the descendants of Syrian-Jewish Christians are called Nasrani Mappilas.^[16] and the descendants of the Cochin Jews who have traditionally followed Halakhic Judaism are known as Juda Mappila^[17]

History

Main article: History of the Saint Thomas Christian tradition

Origins

Muziris, near the tip of India, in the Peutinger Table.

On the south western side of the Indian peninsula; between the mountains and the Erythraean Sea (now Arabian Sea); stretching from Kannoor to Kanyakumari was the land called Cherarajyam, which was ruled by local chieftains. Later this land came to be known as Malabar and (now) Kerala. Muziris (now known as Pattanam near Cochin) was the important entry port. After the discovery of Hippalus, every year 100 ships arrived there from various parts of the then known world, including Red Sea ports ^[18].

During the time of Moses and King Solomon, the Malabar coast traded spices and luxury articles with Israel.^[19] Excavations carried out at Pattanam in 2008 provided evidence that the maritime trade between Kerala and the Mediterranean ports existed back in 500 BC or earlier ^[20]. It is possible that some of those traders who arrived from the west, including Jews, remained in Kerala.^[21]

While Augustus Caesar (31 BC- 14 AD) was the Emperor of Rome and Herod the Great (37-4 BC) was King of Judea, ambassadors from Malabar visited the Emperor Augustus. ^[22][23] Nasranis believe that these ambassadors were The Wise Men From the East, of the Bible.^[24][25] Thus the Malabar Nasranis are some of the earliest people who joined Christianity in India.
In the first century map Tabula Peutingeriana (see the map) a temple of Augustus is clearly visible near Muziris shows the close relation between Rome and Malabar in the first century BC.

File:Italy to India Route.PNG

The ancient navigation route from the Judeo-Roman world to the Malabar coast

The community also comprises several ancient Aramaic Christian settlements in Kerala. The Knanaya Nasranis claim to be the descendants of one such group of 4th century immigrants.^{[2][3][4][6][26][27]} while Christianity in India originated in the first century AD, after St Thomas landed in Kerala in 52 AD^[28].Thus the community consists of people from many ethnic groups of Kerala including different trading diaspora of Jews and Christian settlers of successive centuries like Knanaya people.^{[2][4][6][7][26][29][27]}
Thus the community consists of people from many ethnic groups of Kerala including the pre-Christian era, different trading diaspora of Jews ^{[2][4][6][7][26][29][27]}