A country of many Gods: Visitor's book

It may be noted here that black pepper was the monopoly of Kerala till the 17th century when the Portuguese started the pepper plantations in Southeast Asia.
The spice trade kept Kerala in the annals of history of the civilisations of the world like China, Egypt and Rome.
The spice trade kept Kerala in the annals of history of the civilisations of the world like China, Egypt and Rome.

Imagine a visitor’s book: old, a compilation of palm leaf manuscripts, soiled by the sand from Egypt and Arabia, slightly dampened by the Mediterranean winds, perfumed by the spices; that will be the visitor’s book of Kerala. The visitors to Kerala came from far-off regions of the known world. The geographical discoveries of the enlightenment days of Europe did get initiated to find suitable and unhindered channels to reach Kerala. When Christopher Columbus returned to Spain laden with gold and claiming that he found the route to the East, his claim was refuted purely on the basis that he did not have black gold or pepper. “The discovery of America and that of a passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope are the two greatest and most important events recorded in the history of mankind,” says Adam Smith. The Portuguese, initiated by Prince Henry the Navigator, sent various expeditions to the East just to break the Arab-Venetian nexus in the spice trade, the most successful being the travel of Vasco Da Gama.

The spice trade kept Kerala in the annals of history of the civilisations of the world like China, Egypt and Rome. They were aware of the distant land where you got luxury goods like ivory, cotton textiles and spices. Though we don’t get any reference to Kerala in the Vedas, we do have ancient Indian texts that provide ample references to the region, the Aitareya Aranyaka being the first that mentions the land of Kerala—Cherapada in this text is likely a reference to Kerala [P K Gopalakrishnan, 1974]. Epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata give clear instructions to the geographical location of Kerala. In the former, Sugriva maps the regions of South India to his army placing Kerala near the Pandyan and Chola countries (present Tamil Nadu). In the Mahabharata, it was Sahadeva’s responsibility to conquer Kerala as part of the Asvamedha campaign.

Megasthenes, Greek ambassador to Chandragupta Maurya, refers to the Pandyan kingdom of the south and the neighbouring population of Chermoe, probably a garbled version of the word Chera, in his book Indica. Kautilya mentions the pearls of the River Churni, the ancient name of the River Periyar, one of Kerala’s major rivers. The second rock-cut edict of Asoka at Girnar cites Keralaputras as bordering the Mauryan Empire in the south. Kalidasa, in his own unique style, mentions the southern military campaign of Raghu (great grandfather of Sri Rama) where he refers to the pepper plants and the rising smell of cardamom as Raghu’s horses trampled through the forests of Kerala. Kalidasa also did not fail to refer to the jewellery-cladded Kerala women who removed them in fear of Raghu’s army.

One can be sure that during the period of Kalidasa, which is mostly accepted as 5th century CE, Kerala women must have been wearing the jewellery made from the shiploads of gold that came from Rome in exchange for pepper and other spices exported. No wonder the Roman writer Pliny the Elder (1st century CE) complained about the draining of gold to Kerala through the spice trade. He estimated that India took 55,000,000 sesterces ($800,000) annually due to spending on spices, ivory and woven wind-like exposing clothes. Among these, the wind-like exposing clothes were exported from Barigaza (Bharuch, Gujarat) and the rest from Muziris (near Kodungallur in Thrissur district). According to the Roman geographer Strabo, the early Empire sent a fleet of around 120 ships on an annual one-year trip to India and back. William Logan, who wrote the Malabar Manual (the first official Western-style history of Kerala), does bring in another reference from Rome where Alaric I (circa 370-410 CE), the Visigoth conqueror, asked for a huge ransom of pepper to free Rome from his siege.

Kerala had connections with Egypt and Arabia from ancient times as we find black peppercorns stuffed in the nostrils of Ramses II, placed there as part of the mummification rituals in 1213 BCE. It may be noted here that black pepper was the monopoly of Kerala till the 17th century when the Portuguese started the pepper plantations in Southeast Asia. Pre-Quran references to black pepper and teak from India in Arab poetry indicate trade connections to Kerala. William Logan traces the trade connection between Kerala and the West thus, “Perhaps as early as the time of Moses, the great Jewish law-giver, this commerce existed, for cinnamon and cassia played a part in the temple services of the Jews (Exodus xxx. 23,24) and at any rate the commerce existed in the time of King Solomon (c. 1000 BCE), for the Bible narrative records ... ‘For the King had fleet of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram; once every three years the fleet of Tarshish, bringing gold and silver, ivory and apes and peacocks.” (I Kings x. 22)’. With the exception perhaps of silver, these are all productions of the Malabar coast.” 

West-bound trade was dominated by the Mappilas (Kerala Muslims) along with the Muslim traders of Hormuz, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The sea route from Kerala in the pre-Carreira da India (Cape route) was laborious and expensive as it had to pass through ports and toll points at Hormuz, Jeddah, Cairo, Alexandria and Venice, as the local informant Gasper Da Gama would explain to Vasco Da Gama [S Subrahmanyam,1998]. The intention of the Portuguese endeavour was precisely against this Moor-Egyptian and Venetian network. Adrian Fortescue provides us with further information about these aims: “King Alfred sent Singhelm, the Bishop of Shireburn, with gifts. Singhelm came to Rome and then went on to the Malabar Coast. He made his offerings here and brought back from his long journey jewels and spices; strange to see an English Bishop in India in 883!” [Nicol Macnicol 1934].

Apart from this English Bishop, there were many Europeans travellers who visited the land of pepper through the ages such as Marco Polo, John of Montecorvino (both in the 13th century), Friar Jordanus (14th century), Nicolo Conti (15th century) and Pero de Covilham, who was sent by Portuguese king D Joao II in 1487 to investigate the conditions in the Indian Ocean. He visited Cannanore (Kannur) and Calicut (Kozhikode). So was Vasco Da Gama the first European who set foot in India? Definitely not. Or is he the Great Explorer who found the sea route to India, as taught in history books? Well, it is a matter of dispute, which we will discuss in the next section of this series on the pre-modern visual culture of Kerala.

Jayaram Poduval, Head, Department of Art History, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (jpoduval@gmail.com)

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