Over 3,000 years ago, a little port on the Malabar coast of India thrived off the strong trade links it had with the West. Ships from Alexandria, as many as 120, travelled to the western coast, including Muziris (or Muchiri as it was called locally), in search of spice. And a prosperous civilisation flourished on the shores along with it.
Muchiri welcomed the traders or ‘Yavanas’ with warmth, sprucing up the town for their arrival and packing shiploads of pepper for them to take back home, until the collapse of the Roman Empire spelled the end of that glorious period. Weaned off the ships, the wasted port was swallowed by the rage of the flooding Periyar in 1341, leaving no traces.
While recent excavations at nearby Pattanam unravelled remnants of the port’s illustrious past, claims and counter arguments rage on many things like its exact location.
But the creative mind that he is, writer Sethu is unruffled by these debates. He feels that when historians fail to fill the void, poets and writers step in. And, this longing to reminisce about the past forms the pivot of his book The Saga of Muziris.
“Historians have unearthed enough material to establish the existence of such a port. Even in the Tamil Sangam literature, there is mention of the Muziris, including the food, clothing and ornaments the people used. The presence of the Jewish population was itself a hint that Muziris was a vibrant area. The Jewish community, on the run after the collapse of the second temple in Jerusalem, must have known through the traders who had visited earlier the presence of this rich port. Whatsoever, the debate itself is a platform for us to probe into the bygone era,” he says.
Naturally, Sethu sees himself in the protagonist Aravindan. Born and raised in the quaint hamlet of Chendamangalam, like the writer himself, Aravindan gets back to his birthplace from Mumbai.
The short stay there opens up to him the sprawling history of the place. And Aravindan cannot resist the pull to pen it down.
Aravindan’s decision to turn a writer gives The Saga of Muziris a unique form, that of a novel within a novel. He creates Kichan, Vadakkoth women Thanka, Ponnu, and the Greek trader Adrian, transporting us through the rich alleys of Muchiri, where pepper begets gold. Vendors and merchants thronged the port to partake in the festivities.
The narrative, laced with elements of magical realism, stirs up one’s imagination and the author’s penchant for intricate detailing only helps. And for Sethu, this is a byproduct of research spanning almost five years.
“I referred to a huge amount of literature, translations of the Sangam poems, and consulted historians like MGS Narayanan. It took years for the birth of the book. But then, The Saga of Muziris is a mix of history, fiction, folklore, and legend,” says the author.
The finesse of the book evidently, is its unconventional narrative style. Sethu exercises his creative liberty, by taking us from Aravindan’s Muziris to the New Age Kunkamma and Kichan. In Part IV, they are reborn into the modern world where Muziris gets a rebirth as the Vallarpadam Container Terminal.
The book also doubles up as a historical account of the bygone era. It tactfully weaves in the important incidents in Kerala’s history, like the Paliyam struggle, thereby serving up as a must-read guide.