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  • Private: Detailed study on Muziris- the Muziris Heritage Project

    MUZIRIS or K O D U N G A L L U R – THE CRADLE OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA

    Chapter. I

    Now it so happened, so the story goes (Strabo/Poscidonius), that a certain Indian was brought to the king by the coast guards of the Red Sea who said that they had found him half dead and alone on a stranded ship, but that they did not know who he was or where he came from, since they did not understand his language; and the king gave the Indian into the charge of men who would teach him Greek, and when the Indian had learnt Greek, he related that on his voyage from India he by a strange mischance mistook his course and reached Egypt in safety, but only after having lost all his companions by starvation; and when his story was doubted, he promised to act as guide on the trip to India for the men who had been previously selected by the king; and of this party Eudoxus, also, became a member.

    “So Eudoxus sailed away with presents; and he returned with a cargo of perfumes and precious stones………… But Eudoxus was badly disappointed, for Euergetes took from him his entire cargo”.

    Hippalus : Today it is believed 33 that Hippalus the pilot accompanied Eudoxus on his voyage to India, and that the route, which the Indian pilot showed them in gratitude for their saving his life, was the monsoon route. The Arabians and Indians must, of course, have known and made use of the monsoon winds for centuries. These winds blow over the Indian Ocean from the north-east in winter and from the south-west in summer; if a man knows the right season to choose, they will carry him straight across the sea in reasonable comfort. When direct passage from India to Egypt became more common, it was these winds that were used, and they came to be called the Hippalus Winds.

    After the records of the early Greek authorities mentioned earlier, there appears a break in the western accounts of Malabar and India, perhaps due to the rise of a new Parthian Empire which formed a sort of barrier between the Greeks and the Indians.

    Then Rome started to absorb the remnants of the Empire of Alexander. Syria had fallen; Egypt became a Roman province in 30 B.C. 34 After Actium Augustus settled down to organise and regulate his vast possessions. Already at the time of Augustus, about 5 A.D., Strabo speaks of noticing about 120 ships sailing from Myos-Hormos to India 35. These ships must have gone to the coast of North India along the coastal waters of Arabia and the Indus mouth. The Romans were not satisfied with such a circuitous route to South India. We read in Strabo (15-1-4) of the South Indian king, Pandion sending an embassy to Augustus; and in Pliny, 6.22 (24), of the king of Ceylon, impressed by the unheard of justice of the Romans whose denari were all of equal weight, despatching to Nero’s Rome 4 ambassadors of whom the chief was Rachis (Raja). It was in Nero’s reign that the Arabs first came under Roman dominion, and Aden and Socotra became Roman colonies. By this time not even the routes to China were unknown. When the Romans sacked Jerusalem in 70 A.D. many Jews emigrated and many arrived in India, and even to China according to Hebrew and Chinese inscriptions.

    When, as seen earlier, the Romans finally established a direct searoute to India, Muziris was the chief port they touched, not only because it was the nearest and most accessible port, but also because Muziris and Porakkad could provide them with the commodities which they most valued.

    About Europe in general and England in particular which was the last western power involved with India it has been said, “the history of Modern Europe and emphatically of England, is the history of the quest of the aromatic gum, resins and balsams, and condiments and spices, of India etc. 36″

    “it should not escape notice that gold and silver, after circulating in every other quarter of the globe, come at length to be absorbed in Hindustan.37″ When Persia and Egypt fell beneath the power of the Arabs one of the spoils of their victory was the Indian Trade. 38 Herodotus tells us that India is the wealthiest and most populous country on earth. As Sir George Birdwood has remarked. “The entire record of the intercourse between countries of the west and India from the very earliest times to the present day may be said to be the story of the struggle for the Indian trade”. 39

    PEPPER : YAVANA PRIYA

    The chief commodity exported from Cranganore was pepper and the fair reputation of Malabar pepper had already reached the four corners of the known world from the earliest centuries B.C. So much so it is called Yavana Priya (beloved of the Romans). We have already seen the description of the hillocks of pepper bags at Muchiri (Puram 343). In addition to what the periplus has to say on the area where pepper is produced in Malabar (56. Vide infra note 26), we also have there a list of ports(viz. Thundis, Muziris, Nelcynda and Barace) from which pepper was exported. Cosmas Indicopleustes in the 6th century speaks of ‘Male where pepper grows’ and of ‘Male which has fine marts that export pepper’ (b.3).

    Pepper was in great demand in Rome at the time of Pliny. “It is quite surprising that the use of pepper has come so much into fashion, seeing that in other substances which we use, it is sometimes their sweetness, and sometimes their appearance that has attracted our notice; whereas, pepper has nothing in it that can plead as a recommendation to either fruit or berry, its only desirable quality being in certain pungency; and yet it is for this that we import it all the way from India. Who was the first to make trial of it as an article of food? And who, I wonder, was the man that was not content to prepare himself by hunger only for the satisfying of a greedy appetite?”40.

    Yet, in spite of Pliny’s complaints this demand for pepper continued in Roman circles. The continued use of it in cooking raised its price to 15 denarii a pound for long pepper, 7 for the white, and 4 for the black pepper. 41.

    This vigorous trade in pepper and other spices of India began to drain the Roman Empire of its wealth. Pliny is stupefied at the thought of this drainage. He says; “The subject (of setting forth the whole route from Egypt to India) is one well worthy of our notice, seeing that in no year does India drain our empire of less than five hundred and fifty millions of sesterces, giving back her own wares in exchange, which are sold among us at fully one hundred times their prime cost”. and elsewhere: “At the very lowest computation, India, the Seres, nd the Arabian peninsula drain from our empire yearly one hundred million sesterces; so dearly do we pay for our luxury and our women”. What infuriates him further is that, “Both pepper and ginger grow wild in their respective countries, and yet here we buy them by weight like gold and silver”. 42

    [Some 300 years later pepper was still valued highly in Rome, Alaric the Goth we find, asking for 3000 pounds of pepper as an important part of the ransom to raise the siege against Rome. (Gibbon, Decline and Fall, XXXI)] Pliny minces no words when speaking out against that inordinate and costly fondness of Roman women for the luxury goods from Muziris:

    “Our ladies glory in having pearls suspended from their fingers, one, two or three of them dangling from their ears, delighted even with the rattling of pearls as they knock against each other; and now, at the present day, the poorer classes are even affecting them as people are in the habit of saying that ‘ a pearl worn by a woman in public is as good as a lictor walking before her: Nay even more than this, they put them on their feet, and that not only on the laces of their sandals, but all over the shoes; it is not enough to wear pearls, but they must tread upon them, and walk with them under foot as well”. Again, “I once saw Lollia Paulina, the wife of the Emperor Caius – it was not any solemn ceremonial, but only at an ordinary betrothal entertainment – covered with emeralds and pearls, which shone in alternate layers upon her head, in her hair, in her wreaths, in her ears, upon her neck, in her bracelets and on her fingers, and the value of which amounted in all to 40,000,000 sesterces; indeed she was prepared at once to prove the fact by showing the receipts and acquittances”.

    ROMAN COINS

    Large numbers of Roman coins have been discovered on the Malabar coast (e.g. from Eyyal between Cranganore and Palayur, and from Kottayam in North Kerala). Just two years back more than a thousand Roman gold coins were found buried in Parur, also not very distant from Cranganore. What is interesting is that the majority of these coins belong to a period of some 80 years from Augustus to Nero (B.C. 27 to A.D. 68).

    The Periplus has this remark, “There are imported here (the Malabar Ports), in the first place a great quantity of coin, ….” The Roman could, it is believed make a profit on the sale of gold coins in India, perhaps because these were not only used as currency but also for ornament as is evidenced by the fact that many gold coins found in Kerala have been pierced through. 43

    Roman silver coins of 1st Century B.C / A.D from Eyyal between Kodungallur and Palayur.

    Exports from Muziris included, according to various authors, Pearl in considerable quantity and of superior quality; Pepper in large quantities; Gems in every variety, Diamonds, Amethyst or ruby and a variety of other commodities.44

    Other aspects of Cranganore, especially as the capital of the Chera Emperors have already been dealt with.

    Thus we can see from the foregoing accounts that Muziris or Cranganore was the most important city of South India, at least for considerable periods of time, that it was the capital of the Cheras, that it was prosperous on account of its trade relations with the East and the West.

    It was to this city that St. Thomas the Apostle is believed to have come at the beginning of the second half of the first century A.D.

    Notes :

    1. Cranganore was variously called Muziris, Muchiri, Mahodayapuram, Mahadevapattanam, Makotaipattam, Muyiri Kodu, Tiiruvanchikulam etc. in the early periods.

    Mediaeval travellers refer to the place under various forms (Cfr. K.P. Padmanabha Menon, History of Kerala, I, p.313. Also Hobson – Jobson: Glossary of Anglo-Indian Colloquial Words and Phrases by Yule-Burnell, 1886, P. 627):

    Al Biruni… 970 A.D. …Jangli

    Benjamin of Tudela 1167 …Gingaleh

    Friar Odoric 1287 …Cyngilin

    Roman gold and silver coins unearthed around the Palayur-Kodungallur-Parur belt at Eyyal (1945) and Valuvally (1984) Shown above are some gold coins of Tiberius Caesar, Nero and from these collections.

    Chinese Annals 1286 …Shinkali

    Rashiduddin 1300 …Chinkli/Jinkali

    Shemseddin Dimishqui 1320 …Shinkli

    Friar Jordanus 1328 …Singuyli

    Abulfeda 1330 …Shenkala

    Marignolli 1349 ….Cynkali

    Nicolo Conti 1444 …Columguria

    Barbosa 1505 …Cranganore

    Assemani 1510 …Chrongalor

    Colonel Yule thinks that the name Shinkalai or Shigala was probably formed from Tiruvanchikulam. He points out that the data to identify Cranganore with the Gingaleh of Rabbi Benjamin are too vague, though the position of that place seems to be in the vicinity of Malabar.

    2. A factor that led to the ascendancy of Cochin over Cranganore is thus narrated by K.P.P. Menon (History of Kerala, Vol. I, p. 161):

    The town of Cochin is situated on the southern side of a natural harbour. It was formerly the capital of the Native State which took its name after it. Previous to the year 1341 A.D., a small river flowed by Cochin having a narrow opening into the sea, the main outlet for the discharge of the waters that came in torrents down the Ghats, being at the well known opening at Cranganore, some twenty miles to the north of it. In the year 1341, an extraordinary flood occurred which brought down from the Ghats such a large volume of water that it converted the land-locked harbour of Cochin into one of the finest and safest ports in India.

    A local era called the “Putu Vaipu Era” was commenced in commemoration of this event in 1341 A.D.

    3 . A clear idea of the most important trade routes touching Muziris (modern Cranganore) can be gathered from the map given by Bjorn Landstrom. The Quest For India, Stockholm, 1964(Doubleday’s English Edition pp.52,53) Also see the Atlas section by G.M., in Menachery, George (Ed.) STCEI, I especially the maps dealing with the “Journeys of Apostle Thomas”, “Marco Polo’s Voyages,” “Journeys of Francis Xavier,” and “India in the 17th & 18th centuries”.

    4. A. Sreedhara Menon (Ed.), Kerala Gazetteer for Trichur District, 1962, p7.

    5. Id., Ibid.

    6. Pliny describes it as “primum emporium Indiae”

    7. Census of India 1971, Series 9, Kerala, Part X-A and X-B

    8 . Ptolemy has E. Long. 117.00 and N. Lat. 14.00 for Muciris Emporium and 117.20 and 14.00 for the Azhimukham (Pseudostomas) See K.V. K Ayyar, A Short History of Kerala, Ernakulam, 1966, Appendix II, pp. 193, 194, 195 for some two score and ten places in the area mentioned by Greek and Roman authors of the century between c. 50 and 150 A.D.

    9 . K. P. Padmanabha Menon, History of Kerala, vol.I, Ernakulam, 1924, p.297.

    10. V.Nagam Aiya, The Travancore State Manual (in 3 volumes), Vol I, Trivandrum,1906, pp 231-232.

    11 . T.K Velu Pillai, The Travancore State Manual (in 4 volumes), Vol. II, Trivandrum, 1940, p.10.

    12 . K.M. Panikkar, A History of Kerala, Annamalai Nagar, 1959, p.3.

    13 . Galletti, The Dutch in Malabar, Madras 1911, p.9 (Introduction v)

    14 . Yule-Cordier, Cathay and the Way Thither, London.

    15 . Akam, 148. Quoted in K.P. Padmanabha Menon , op.cit., p.307

    16 . Puram, 343. Quoted Id., Ibid. The following note by Menachery, George, appears in one of the papers presented by him at the First World Malayalam Conference, Trivandrum,
    1977: ” The passage in 343 which says that the gold (gold ornaments) brought by ships arrive on the shore in boats, (thonis) corroborates what Pliny mentions in 6.23 (26): ‘besides, the road-stead for shipping is a considerable distance from the shore, and the cargoes have to be conveyed in boats, either for loading or discharging’. A better rendering of the Puram passage would appear to be, “The heaps of paddy procured in exchange for fish make the boats ( carrying the paddy) and the houses indistinguishable from each other. further, spectators would be put to hardship to distinguish the pepper bags piled up in the houses ( which thus mislead the onlookers ) from the land that is noisily busy’. The prosperity and commercial bustle of the thriving seaport of Muchiri could hardly be better described or in fewer lines”.

    17. Vincent Smith quoted in T.K. Velu Pillai, op-cit., vol.II. p.10

    18 . Bjorn Landstrom , The Quest for India , Stockholm, 1964, (Double day English Edition). p.48

    19. K.V. Krishna Iyer, Kerala’s Relations with the Outside World, pp. 70, 71 in “The Cochin Synagogue Quatercentenary Celebrations Commemoration Volume” , Kerala History Association, Cochin, 1971.

    For a discussion of a Roman harbour and its arrangements see ‘Caesarea Maritima”, The National Geographic, 171/2, February, 1987.

    Roman coins discovered in Kerala c. 1942 are discussed in Coins of Kerala, Archaeology Dept., Trivandrum.

    For Megalithic remains of Kerala visit the Archaeological Museuem, Trichur and cf. Ancient India,1952(8) and other issues.

    20 . Nagam Aiya, op.cit, p.43

    21 . Krishna Iyer, op.cit. p.65

    22 . M. G. S. Narayanan, Cultural Symbiosis in Kerala, 1972, p. vii

    23 . Nagam Aiya, op. cit. and T. K. Velu Pillai, op. cit.

    24 . Krishna Iyer, op. cit., p.67

    25 . For a scientific but short discussion and proofs of early Greek and Roman knowledge of India and Kerala nothing better can be suggested than “The Apostles in India, Fact or Fiction ?” by A. C. Perumalil S. J. first published in 1952 (Patna). The quotations there from the Greeks and Romans are often in the original languages, fully corroborated by competent translators. Perumalil appears to have been at great pains to clearly and accurately bring out what the Greek and the Latin writers have said.

    Also cf. Pliny, 6.23 (26); Schoff, H. Wilfred, The periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Longmans, 1912, p. 232; McCrindle J. W, Ancient India as described in Classical Literature, Westminister, 1901, p.111.

    26 . However Pliny appears to confuse certain other ports with Muziris when he condemns it as “not a very desirable place for disembarkation.” Because, the author of the Periplus, who had been to Muziris in the same year (A. D. 77) in which Pliny published his book says: “Muziris, of the same kingdom, abounds in ships sent there with cargoes from Arabia, and by the Greeks” (Periplus, 54) and again he adds that Muziris and Nelcynda are now of leading importance (Id. 53). Actually Nitrias was the town situated quite some distance from Muziris on the Netravati river in South Kannara and the pirate coast lies north of Mangalore and south of Bombay. The port of Barace, thus spelt both in the Periplus and by Pliny, is Bakare or Porakadu, some 10 miles south of Alleppey. Cottonara is the present Kuttanadu. Ullur, “Which was the Chera Capital?” article published in 1939 in the journal of the Pan Kerala Literary Academy.

    27. Periplus, 56

    28 . A. C. Perumalil, S. J., The Apostles in India.

    29 . Arrian: 2nd Century A. D. Greek author; Anabasis-Famed Greek prose history by Xenophon of “Retreat of the Ten Thousand from Persia” (c. 399 B. C.).

    Strabo : (Born around ) 63 B.C. and died after A. D. 21). The only extant work of this Greek geographer and historian, a geography in 17 books, is a rich source of ancient knowledge of the world.

    Plutarch : Greek biographer and essayist (c. A. D. 46-120): “The Lives” have charm and historical value. There are 46 paired Greek and Roman biographies and 4 single biographies in it.

    Herodotus : (484? – 425? B. C.) Greek historian, called ‘Father of history’. The rich diversity of his contemporary secular narrative history makes it an important source book on ancient Greece.

    Diodorus Siculus : Died after 21 B. C., Sicilian historian. Author of world history in Greek, ending with Gallic Wars; of its 40 books I – IV and XI-XX are fully preserved.

    Ptolemy : Greco-Egyptian astronomer, mathematician and geographer born around 100 A. D., fl. 127 to 147or 151- Geographike Hyfegesis.

    Megasthenes : He was sent in 302 B. C. by Selukos, king of Syria as ambassador to Chandragupta and remained for some time with the Indian kings, and wrote a history of Indian affairs, that he might hand down to posterity a faithful account of all that he had witnessed.

    Deimachos : Sent to Bindusara by Antiochus Soter, the successor of Selukos. He also wrote a book about India.

    Dionysios : Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt sent him to Pataliputra as ambassador “to put the truth to the test by personal inspection”. He also wrote a book on India.

    30. Maggy G. Menachery, Roads to India, STCEI, II, 1973, pp. 14, 15.

    31 . Rawlinson, “Intercourse Between India and the Western World”; Maggy G. Menachery. “Roads to India”, STCEI, Vol. II, p. 14.

    32 . See T. K. Velu Pillai, op. cit., p.9: “According to Mr. Howitt the Assyriologist, teak-wood which was found in the ruins of Ur must have been imported by sea from the Malabar Coast. This takes back Malabar commerce by sea to so early a date as 3,000 B. C. About 2,000 B. C. cotton cloth from Malabar appears to have found its way to Egypt. The Phoenicians visited the coast of Malabar about 1,000 B. C. in search of ivory, sandalwood and spices. About the same period king Solomon sent his commercial fleet to Tarshish and Ophir.”

    For these ships of Solomon see II Kings, X, 22. The Hebrew Bible mentions apes, peacocks, and ivory by names derived (?) from the South Indian words for these: Kapi, Tokei, Habh. For the extensive use of other Malabar products by Hebrews see Exodus XXXV, 1-24. Also cfr.STCEI II, 26, 27. Also see M. J. Koshy’s article in the Journal of Kerala Studies on the Religious Policy of the Portuguese…(II, Part III, Sept. 1975, p.407-9).

    33. Bjorn Landstrom, op. cit., gives this possibility although most writers give A. D. 44, 45, or 47 as the date of the Hippalus discovery. If Landstrom’s view is correct, then the Malabar trade with the west must have been even more considerable than is usually supposed, and from a much earlier date.

    34. Rawlinson, op. cit., p. 101.

    35 . Strabo, 2.5.12

    36 Prof. Jevonns’s letter in the London Times (April 19, 1879) quoted at length by Sir George Birdwood, The Modern Quest and Invention of the Indies, 1891. We must not lose sight of the thriving Chinese trade also. For Kerala’s foreign trade see also: Panikkassery, Velayudhan, Sancharikalum Charithrakaranmarum, Kottayam, 1971.

    37. Francis Bormer, Tr. Rock, 1826. This appears to be the case even today, to look at the heaps of gold biscuits captured by the customs departments of Indian ports almost everyday. The price of gold also appears to be comparatively higher in the Indian Market.

    38. Edward Farley Oaten, European Travellers in India, 1909, introduction, p.14. Oaten continues, “And so between Cosmos indicopleustes and Marco Polo all the well known travellers in India were Mohummedan.”

    39. Sir George Birdwood, op. cit. p. 101; E. F. Oaten, op. cit., p.8. P. Thomas, Christians and Christianity in India and Pakistan, George Allen and Unwin, London 1954, pp. 6,7 (notes): “It is interesting to speculate on the part the humble pepper creeper of Malabar has played in shaping world history. As is well known Columbus was on the look-out for pepper when he stumbled on America. it was pepper that brought Vasco da Gama to Malabar; the subsequent interest the nations of Western Europe took in Indian affairs and its far reaching effects on world civilisation are too well known to deserve mention here.”

    40 . Pliny, 12.7 (14).

    41 . Id. Ibid.

    42 . Pliny, 6.23 (26); 12.18 (41); 12.7 (14).

    43. Further details could be obtained from the records of the Archaeological Museum of Trichur, the Trichur Museum, the Trivandrum Museum and the Archeaeological publications of the erstwhile Cochin and Travancore States. The kerala Archaeological Department’s monograph “Early coins of Kerala” throws a good deal of light on the numismatic evidences for Kerala’s Roman connections. Also see Thomas P. J., Roman Trade Centres in Malabar, Kerala Society Papers, II, p. 260; and James Hough, The History of Christianity in India, I, p. 28.

    44. K. P. Padmanabha Menon, op. cit., I,305.

    CHAPTER II

    ST: Thomas And Cranganore- Special Problems of Indian History

    Every scholar who essays an historical topic related to the pre-Portuguese or pre-Mughal India is seen expressing from time to time a complete sense of helplessness in the face of the paucity, often tending to non-existence, of reliable indigenous documentary or even other sources, apart from fables or legends, to base their studies on or to test their conclusions by. Even after the latest developments in the various branches of philology, geography, numismatics, and archaeology, and the accessibility today of the writings of travellers, historians and others in many languages and from many countries, many periods, persons and events in Indian history and in the histories of the different regions of India still remain shrouded in darkness. Although this is a condition common to all ancient civilisations and countries, in the case of India much fault has been attributed to the so-called lack of interest in history supposed to characterise India.

  • St.George- Geevarghese Sahada traditions and rituals among Nasranis

    THOMAS Vs. GEORGE

    With regard to St. George Sahada, the following may be interesting. i hope I have not already shared this info.!

    George is the most popular or common christian baptismal name in Kerala. George includes, of course, Varghese, Verghese, Geevarghese, Varu, Varuthunny, Varappan, Varachan, Kunjuvareed, Kunjivaru, ….

    It is funny that just because the Vatican took a negative view on St. George’s history – although George is an Eastern Saint of high repute down the centuries- some Churches and persons are reluctant to give this most reputed and renowned name to their adherents or children!!!

    Pl. remember that there are so many Georges in Kerala not because it is the name of the Patron Saint of England. The other popular names in Kerala before the west arrived here were Kuriakose or Cyriac or Kurien, Kuriakku, Kuriappan, Kuriachan and perhaps Thomas – Thoma, Thomman, Thommy.

    It might appear strange but is true that while the English patron saint’s name is the most popular in Kerala, in England itself the most popular and most common baptismal or christian name is that of the father of Kerala Christianity viz. Thomas. Of course we have all heard about the Thomas Cromwells, Thomas Beckets, Thomas Carlyles, the Thomas Mores…. All because King Alfred the Great of England, by the way the only English king designated “THE GREAT” was able to win his war only after he promised to St. Thomas that if he won the war he would send offerings to Peter in Rome and to Thomas in India. and this is well documented in the Anglosaxon Chronicles. After he won the war he probably encouraged devotion to this most helpful saint – Thomas, and today it is the most popular name in England.

    Even the phrase Every TOM, Dick, and Harry begins with the name of Thomas.

    The popularity of “THOMAS” in England was verifified by Prof. George Menachery in 1975 from the British Census Reportsa of Various years in the British Museum Library – now the British Library.

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enarsea INDIA
Nov 28, 2009 18:33


Post : 20024

ELECTING A NEW POPE — The Vatican October 1978

Prof. George Menachery had read and written much about PAPAL ELECTIONS. When he went to Rome as a free lancer for the October 1978 election where the conclave of Cardinals chose the present Pontiff His Holiness Pope John Paul II, he had merely wanted to experience at first hand the joy and excitement of a papal election as described in classics he had read many times over such as Morris West’s ‘SHOES OF THE FISHERMAN’, Irving Stone’s ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy’, and Henry Morton Robinson’s ‘The Cardinal’. But his Roman holidays turned into a memorable adventure. Read about it here.

The Cardinals were arriving one by one for the ‘Mass for the Election of the Pope’. They entered the cobbled courtyard behind St.Peter’s Basilica in huge cars and walked towards the special back-door of the Basilica quite close to the main altar.After the Mass they would enter the Conclave (‘with key’) and proceed to elect behind locked doors the next spiritual leader of the crores-strong Catholic community of the world and the temporal head of the State of Vatican.

I was the only Indian among the 1300 press reporters from all over the world in Rome that October accredited by Archbishop Pancharoli’s Vatican Press Office.Of these 300 belonged to the English-speaking group. The Italian group was 320-strong, the French were 200 odd, and the Spanish/Portuguese 140. In addition there were more than 300 TV crewmembers. Apart from two or three selected TV teams only fourteen of the 1300 reporters who had arrived to report the papal elections were permitted to enter the Basilica for the function to report and to take exclusive photographs.
Vatican accreditation given to George Menachery by the Vatican Press Office

These were selected by lot during the briefing sessions and I was extremely lucky to get one of those fourteen coveted cards. Some well-known magazines and papers from the United States and France were willing to pay huge amounts for this card. In fact some of the fourteen photographers present now at the Basilica door represented the most famous magazines and newspapers of the world, having procured the cards from the original lucky winners paying quite hefty sums.

One of the very first to arrive to attend that crucial function before the all-important Conclave locked its doors against the outside world was Lawrence Cardinal Picachy of Calcutta. As he got down from the huge car on to the vast brick-paved yard and proceeded towards the Basilica my Minolta flashed twice or thrice. One or two other pressmen also photographed the Cardinal from India, I noticed with pleasure.

It was with a huge coterie of admirers and followers that Cardinal Siri arrived. So also Cardinal Benelli. Both were front-runners in the first ballots in the previous election and one of these two was expected to come out of the Conclave as the new Pope. Hence the photographers vied with each other in taking their pictures. I also took one each. But I was now mainly waiting for the arrival of Cardinal Parecattil of Ernakulam, ‘my Cardinal’. Then came Cardinal Rossi of Propaganda in the company of Archbishop Lourdusamy (now a Cardinal). They talked serious business for a while before the Cardinal entered the Basilica and Lourdusamy went back. I didn’t forget to snap the duo.

But now the sound of music from inside the Basilica was growing louder and louder. Like the Wedding-guest in Coleridge’s ‘Ancient Mariner’ I had to still reluctantly tarry waiting for my Cardinal to arrive. There was still no sign of his car. Most of my fellow photographers were preparing to enter the church to cover the Mass and the decisive guide-line speech to the Cardinals. It was then that I noticed a solitary figure in red approaching from the huge gateway. This Cardinal looked lonely, tired, and crestfallen, yet somehow upholding the dignity of a prince of the Church. He alone among all the Cardinals arrived on foot, walking hurriedly towards the Basilica. No camera aimed to take his picture coming as he was without benefit of admirers and supporters. One or two of the big-time photgraphers from the US were looking at this pitiable figure almost it seemed contemptously. “There are lots of unused frames in my Minolta. I need only a few more to cover Cardinal Parecattil. So why not snap him, whom nobody appears to care for?”, I thought. And so I took a photo of this lonely man. He raised his head in some surprise, and went in silently. Soon afterwards Cardinal Parecattil came from the gianicolo hospital where he was staying, smiled at me, and went in, the very last Cardinal to enter the Basilica.

With thousands I stood in the Piazza San Petro between the colossal columns of Bernini near his fountain and the huge obelisk in the Vatican looking at the thin pipe raising its head to the left of Michaelangelo’s mammoth dome from the famous fresco-adorned Sistine Chapel to see whether it would spit white smoke this time, fifty-six long hours and seven ballots after the Cardinals had been locked up inside to elect one, most probably from among themselves, as the new successor of St. Peter. Two days back I had the rarest of privileges to study the arrangements in the conclave area as the goddess of fortune had given me one of the sixty cards distributed by lot among the 1300 journalists to inspect the secrets of the Conclave . I was especially attracted to the pepper containers on the table of each cardinal who will be attending the Conclave. I told fellow journalists how two millennia back 100s of 1000s of gold coins minted by Caesar Augustus who forced pregnant Mary to travel all the way to Bethlehem, Tiberius Caesar the master of Pontius Pilate, and the ‘fiddling’ Nero had found their way into distant Kerala in exchange for Kerala’s pepper and pearls and how Alaric the Goth had asked for 3000 pounds of Indian pepper. as ransom to free the Senate Fathers of Rome. From the stoves arranged to burn straw and chemicals to produce the white and black smoke I put some coal pieces into my coat pocket as mementos of this historic visit to the Conclave area.

Now, standing in the St. Peter’s square or piazza I looked at the balcony of the Basilica to test my newly bought binoculars. Some days back I had gone up to the roof of the basilica to examine the marvels of its architecture. As a student and teacher of art and architecture this exercise has always given me immense pleasure. On this occasion however I had another motive also. I had always wanted to touch the thin white pipe that would inform the world the election or non-election of a Pope. So with the intention of touching the pipe I approached it. But many wooden barricades had been erected to prevent just such an attempt. While I proceeded towards the pipe disregarding the barricades I could see from the corner of my eye a policeman coming towards me to prevent my proceeding further. Pretending not to see the arm of the law coming nearer and nearer and now shouting something very loud, I walked quickly to the pipe and touched it. Turning around I saw the furious policeman who immediately caught hold of my arms. I innocently asked him in Malayalam what the matter was. He shouted again. I repeated my question in Malayalam again. Then in broken – very broken – English I told him I could not understand what he was saying. In despair he brought me out beyond the mobile barricades and pushed me in the direction of the staircase and shouted something like GOOOO! That was a week ago

Now I was standing in the square or piazza looking at the balcony of the Basilica and the Sistine roof. Suddenly the tip of the pipe began to spit white smoke. The crowd began a deafening non-stop shout “Bianca! Bianca!” It’s white, it’s white. “We Have a New Pope! We Have a New Pope!” Tens of thousands were soon concentrating their attention on the balcony where the new Pope’s name would be announced and where the Pope himself would eventually appear. But within twenty-four minutes of the election of the Pope Osservatore Romano the official organ of the Vatican came out at 6.43 p.m. carrying a half-page picture of the new Pope. I bought a copy from the boy selling the paper like hot cakes among the crowd to see who had been finally elected. To my surprise I saw the lonely hero of my photograph keenly looking at me from the front page. He was the new Pope. But I didn’t know until then the name or country of Karol Joseph Woyitila. Even when Cardinal Felici announced the name in sonorous Latin very few in the crowd could recognize it. Once again the Italian adage was proved true: “He who goes into the Conclave Pope comes out Cardinal” – and the last and very least became the first, a Polaco, a non-Italian in 400 years, that too from the underground of a communist country – from the fourth world, so to say – as had happened to Anthony Quinn as Kiril Cardinal Lakota in the Holywood version of The Shoes of the Fisherman.

The huge lamps of the Vatican Palace and the Propaganda College started to flood the St. Peter’s Square, together with the huge Roman moon lighting up the whole area and converting night into day. By this time the crowd had swelled to some two hundred thousand souls filling the whole square and the Via De La Conciliazione up to river Tiber. It was another half an hour before the Pope appeared on the balcony to give his blessing Urbi et Orbi – to the City and to the World. Before giving that Latin blessing he talked to the people in simple Italian – to their great delight and to the displeasure of the Curia officials. ‘Viva il Papa’ Long Live the Pope, the crowd shouted again and again. ‘ Polonnia! Polonnia!’ Poland, Poland. Bearing witness to the birth of a new era the bells in the four hundred churches of Rome began to ring, led by the eleven ton Kanchenone of the St. Peter’s Basilica.

Morning. When I came to see Cardinal Parecattil once again at the hospital Gianicolo where he used to stay when in Rome I showed him the pictures I had taken. Of himself, Lourdsamy, Picachy and the new Pope as they were arriving at the courtyard entrance of the basilica. He couldn’t believe that I had taken a picture of the Pope before the election, because nobody thought he would be elected.

It was in a way my visit to Cardinal Parecattil at Ernakulam to bid him bon voyage that was the occasion for my deciding to go to Rome. Bishop Sebastian Mankuzhikkary who knew the Cardinal’s affection for me jokingly said to me then, ‘Are you not going with the Cardinal to Rome?’ I replied, ‘ I will go if he takes me with him.’ Of course the picture of many cardinals during previous elections taking an assistant with them came to my mind – that was not possible now after Pope Paul the Sixth had forbidden the custom in his directions for the papal election. After the departure of the Cardinal to the airport on his way to Rome for the election I brooded over the possibility of going to Rome for the election. I had read up so much on the election for many, many years that my desire to be in Rome during an election had become something of an obsession with me. This was my last chance, I thought.

Fortunately for me the largest circulated daily of Kerala and India agreed to part finance my expenses and what is more to publish my reports from the Vatican – if in fact they reached India in time – chances for which were quite nonexistent in those days. When I told Bishop Kundukulam of Trichur and others the same day about my desire they all encouraged me very much in this matter. And so I arrived in Rome just two days after the Cardinal’s arrival, which itself was a miracle – what with visa regulations, reservation hitches and what not. He was very glad to see me there. I was able to meet him there often and learn about the discussions among the Cardinals about the forthcoming election. Cardinal Picachy and Archbishop Lourdusamy also talked to me often. It all helped me to send relevant reports to India.

After meeting every Cardinal individually and after meeting the heads and representatives of the various countries who had arrived to congratulate the new Pope His Holiness gave an audience to the Press on the eve of the “Coronation”, to which not only the 1300 journalists with Vatican’s accreditation but many more were invited. While waiting at the bottom of the Great Staircase leading to the hall in the Vatican Palace where the audience was to take place somebody who appeared to know me told me from behind to proceed. I didn’t know why I should try to go before the others. Any way I tried. But the two Swiss Guards stopped me with their extended spears. Picp& +caption Dejected, I climbed down the steps. Then somebody from the Oriental Congregation appeared from behind the Swiss Guards from near the audience hall and beckoned me. Though the guards protested at first finally they allowed me to go up, also possibly because they were amused at my timidity. When I entered the hall many seats were already taken by officials and so on. The bearded official from the Congregation was leading me in when a Rev. Sr. took me under her charge and led me to the benches. She sat at the aisle end of one bench. When I tried to take the seat by her side she asked me to take the seat behind her. At that time I took it as an insult. (My 1972 experiences of segregationist attitude in the New York Sub-Way were only too strong in my mind.) But she only smiled. She was the official on Radio Vatican who was in charge of all the Polish programmes, and as such was very familiar with the new Pope as he used to give many talks to his people in communist Poland over Radio Vatican. She was a close friend and room-mate or something of the Rev. Sister in charge of the Indian programmes and hence had seen me often at the Radio Station. That was why she took me under her charge. When the Pope finally came into the hall and was proceeding to the rostrum he looked in our direction, and seeing the Polish nun came towards us. He came and stood in front of us and began to talk to the Rev. Sr. Although the well-built ecclesiastic who was the Pope’s body guard tried to prevent it I shook hands with the Pontiff. The Sr. whispered to me, “Say something to the Pope, you may never get such a chance in your whole life.” I gathered all my courage, and in spite of the tough body guard’s piercing looks, asked the Pope:” Your predecessor Pope Paul the Sixth did not come to Kerala when he came to India, though there is an Apostolic Church there. Will Your Holiness visit Kerala?” I completed the question somehow. I do not know whether the Holy Father heard or understood me fully. But he replied in perfect English, “Why Not?” That was quite enough for me, and for the body-guard too I suppose because he whisked the Pope away towards the rostrum with all his might.

After that the next day’s Mass for the Commencement of the Ministry and “Coronation” – the term is no more used and the three tiered crown is no more seen – was not such a great treat though it was pleasant to watch the whole function on the steps of the Basilica’s facade from the vantage point of the balconies over the Bernini columns in the company of great journalists from the world over.

Why was Cardinal Woitila so late that day on which the Conclave began? Why was he so tired-looking? These questions troubled my mind often in the next several years whenever I looked at the rare Photo that I had published in some papers and at the Vatican accreditation card and all those other rare and wonderful press cards I was lucky to draw.

Then I went to Rome once again in 1985. I had an appointment with the chief of the Vatican Museums. I had persuaded him to allow me to take the photographs of the hundred odd statues of almost all the popular Hindu Gods and Goddesses that the ethnological museum possessed for my Indology volume (i.e. of the St. Thomas Christian Encyclopaedia of India). Such an exhaustive collection I hadn’t seen in India even. But when I arrived in the museum for the final sanction the director was absent. However he had made arrangements for me to meet his assistant Msgr. Pankowiski, who was from Poland. To curry favor with him I told him that I had organised much of the Malankara Golden Jubilee Exhibition at Kottayam in 1980 that was inaugurated by the Polish Cardinal Rubin, and a large picture of the Polish Cardinal had been displayed by us in the exhibition hall which is today the home of the St. Ephraem Ecumenical Research Institute. Then I told him jokingly that I was the only journalist who knew a Polaco would be elected to the Holy See, and I told him the story of the late-coming Cardinal Woitiva and my taking his photo. The asst. director jumped up from his seat and told me the following interesting story breathlessly gesticulating and standing all the time.

“Do you know why he was late that day?” I said I did not know. Then he said: “ You know he is a great devotee of the blessed Virgin Mary, like most of us Poles.”

That was quite true. Most Poles gift you pictures of our lady of Chestochowa, as the Rev. Sr. from radio Vatican had done when we met during the Papal audience for journalists.” Almost the whole weekend before the commencement of the Conclave ( the Msgr. continued) the cardinal was away at the Mountain Shrine of Mary at Mentorella, praying for the Church to get a Good Shepherd at the election. On the morning of the Conclave after the prayers he stood talking to a Polish monk there for a few minutes. So when he came to the valley climbing down two miles the only bus to Rome had already gone. Rome was far away and he had to reach Rome before the doors of the Conclave were locked. Then he got a bus but it broke down some thirty miles away from Rome. (Cardinal Woitiva travelled only by bus, and always wore only tattered old black clothes.) There was no other bus. As directed by a sympathetic villager he approached the driver of an unused bus who was on holiday and told him his plight. The driver felt pity for the Cardinal and took him to the Vatican, the Msgr. concluded. Now I understood why he was late that morning and also why he looked so tired and depressed. Only then did I understand the reason why the Pope soon after his election flew to Mentorella in a helicopter (not in a bus this time!) to venerate the little wooden statue of Mary there.

That journey was the prologue to the new Pope’s many journeys to destinations beyond the Vatican and Rome, even to the ends of the world.

Contact me if necessary: kunjethy@yahoo.com or kunjethy@gmail.com
OR Browse: http://www.indianchristianity.com
My profile: http://www.indianchristianity.com/html/profile.htm
My parish: http://www.ollurchurch.com
My Church: http://www.smcim.org
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India: http://www.cbci.org/
The Holy See: http://www.vatican.va/

Prof. George Menachery INDIA
May 25, 2010 18:57


Post : 22332

You can now have FULL DETAILS on the St. Thomas Christian Encyclopaedia of india, now complete in 3 vols. at: http://www.indianchristianity.com/html/Brochure.pdf


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