17

Kerala :  God’s Own Country

 Thus we can see that the History of Kerala differed considerably from the rest of India.  Here I try to summarize the history of Kerala as best as we can solve the puzzle.  The Christians of Kerala – the Nasranis – the followers of Nazarene remained within the Historical Christianity,  even when the rest of India went Gnostic and eventually to Hinduism.  This was essentially because it was open to the world through the sea and were always in total communion with the rest of the Universal Christian Churches in Rome, Antiochia, Alexandria and others.

During the second visit of Apostle Thomas to Kerala, all the existing Brahminic communities (which were few) embraced Christianity along with large number of  others.  Budhism and Jainim coexisted with Christians for a long long time.  As a result there were no Brahminic tradition in Kerala before the sixth century AD.   On the otherhand there is a group of Christians who trace their origin from these original Brahmin families.

The history of Kerala from first century to the sixth century is shrouded in mystery and is available only in myths and legends.  This part of the  history was deliberately wiped out by the Brahminic  vested interest of later period and is known as the Kalabhrah Interregnum – the Dark Age of the Kerala Sons.  However, the communal memory of the period presents itself as myths and festivals.  Two such myths  – The Vamana and Mahabali myth and the Parasurama myth are of importance  Vamana’s defeat of Mahabali is historically placed earlier than the Parasurama story of creation of Kerala from the sea. On the first look, they seem to contradict each other since Kerala would not have been in existence before it was created by Parasu. So evidently we need to look at them from the point of view of Vaishnavite conquest of South India.  

By the end of the first century,  Kerala along with most of Dravidia became a Christian country  probably by forming a communal system based on theocratic principles, where every one shared whatever they had.  The Onam songs indicates that a golden age ensued.  Several such communes are mentioned in the reports of foreign traders.  Each had an Elder as the head each person serving the other. This is remniscent of the early Christian Communes of Jersusalem and of the period of Judges when God was the King of Israel.  Unlike Jerusalem, these continued for several years.  The Asuras – the people of the Word became very powerful in the region and was led by a Maha Bali – a Prestor John.  “Maha Bali”  may have been a  title rather than a name or a  generic epithet to denote “Christians” 

As the Northern Vaishnavism ( gnosticism which removed the historical Jesus)  pushed downward into Dravidia the Pandya and Chola regions began to fall under the heresy.  Thus Kerala became the Christian refuge  When persecution of Christians by the Gnostics broke out in southern India,  the Puhur Christians - we are told - took  the sea route to Kollam and found refuge.   When persecution of Christians under the Zorastrians took place in Syria, the Syrian Christians fled to Kerala and found their refuge.  Some of the Northern Christians who fled from India to Syria under persecutions also came with the Syrian immigrants.

Providing refuge for persecuted also opened up immigration of Gnostics, because the Zorastrians persecuted both the Christians and the Gnostics.  This brought  in the Gnostic groups along with the Christian groups into Kerala. The Pallava Kingdom which became powerful  in South India being of Syrian origin encouraged more gnostic immigrations into that part of India.  They came in as traders and settlers. 

Mani himself  was evangelizing out of Kancheepuram and Mylapore in Madras.   It is known that Mani travelled widely in Kerala.  The place called Ranni was one of  his favorite place of meeting simply because there were many Syrian immigrants who came with Knai Thoma there.  It was in this place Mani was confronted by Bardesanes the Syrian Philospher Poet.  Though we are not sure what transpired there, Mani did not make much head way in Kerala.  Bardesanes was a powerful defender of faith by that time.

Apparently the Christian Churches were not defeated totally by the Vamana deceit. The last bastion of Maha Bali was Kerala.  Kerala Christendom lasted until the seventh or eighth century AD.   A second conquest under Parasu Rama completed the process. This was when the Brahmins were migrated into Kerala.  All Brahminic families of today  can trace their orign only later than the sixth century AD, which we can assume to be the period of invasion of Parsu Rama.  By the seventh century A.D., with the founding of the first Kerala Brahmin settlements, they subtly transformed the socio-religious heritage of the area.  This was accelerated by the formation of Brahminic terrorist military training camps centered around the temples.  It was this that eventually created the Kingdoms of Kerala, with Brahmins as Kingmakers.  Hinduism came to Kerala  only by the eighth century AD  with its temples and  idols.  Sankara, the Advaita Philosopher was born in Kerala around the same time as the culmination of the Hindu School of thought.  Hinduism came to its own only with Sankara. (The official date of Sankara accepted currently is 788-820 AD, and the Government of India celebrated the 1200th anniversary of Sankara's birth in 1988 AD.) Other philosophers followed.  Thus by the eighth century the domination of Maha Pillai – the Sons of the King – came to an end and other Hindu castes took over the ruling of  Kerala. 

Parashurama is believed to have rooted 64 Brahmin families and divided the land equally amongst them. But they could never agree among themselves, and brought a ruler from outside. These rulers were the Perumals.  Each Perumal was appointed for a 12 year term. One of the kings became a Buddhist monk, another, Kulasekara Alwar  was a Vaishnavite poet, and the last Perumal, Cheraman converted to Islam divided his Kingdom between his nephews and went to Mecca.   He died on the way back, at the port of Zafar, Yemen and his grave is still found in Yemen.

The coming of the colonisers, western missions and western Christian theology and practices have drastically changed the Churches of Kerala.  The Portugese, the Dutch, the French and the British discovered the sea routes which allowed them to enter India from the sea, initially as traders and later as colonisers.  They brought with them their version of Christianity.  Because of their ignorance, they destroyed the local form of Christianity and substituted their own version.

We do not even know the liturgies or the form of original worship of Kerala Christians of the first century. This may be partially because of the burning of all Christian documents by the Portugese when they colonised India.  All Indian Christian forms of worship, liturgy and theology were heresy from the point of view of these foreigners.  They just destroyed all documents in an attempt to wipe out heresy – but not always without a fight.  It was followed by the Syrians, Dutch and the English who then instilled their forms of Christianity in India.  The original containers were broken, and new containers took its place, but the contents remained.  Even today, a powerful Christian presence continues in Kerala. 

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All have one content.
 

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