The torn earlobe and the horse trader

A friend of mine recently changed names from Jayan to John, after five decades of existence on this planet…There was some talk amongst us classmates as to why, how etc especially since it involved just that, a change of name…and that reminded me of a fascinating character from the old times, one who hobnobbed with the gentry of Portugal, Malabar, the Vatican and what not…A boy from Calicut who later changed his name…

Here my friends is another pearl from Malabar history – the story of how a scorned Malayali changed the course of history, starting from a lowly position as the son of a trader Chetty in Calicut, then to a lofty position as the Zamorin’s envoy to Lisbon, a drop to becoming a lowly horse trader in Travancore, to involvement in an incident of a torn earlobe, then providing salvation for the pearl collecting Paravas of Tuthukudi, lending a big hand in the attainment of sainthood for St Xavier, and speeding the decline of the suzerainty of the once powerful Zamorin of Calicut..

When I first read 20000 leagues by Jules Verne, I stopped for a while at the description of the fisher folk south of India, fishing for pearls. Verne tells us of the way Capt Nemo saves the poor chap from a shark attack and that part stuck in my mind. Later on, while reading MGS Narayan’s book Calicut Revisited, I read briefly about Da Cruz, a very interesting but rather unpopular guy in Malabar history. Only later did I get more details about how this guy’s path crossed with these fishermen that Verne talked about. Later I read that Dimitri Mascarenhas a Brit cricketer, whom I used to enjoy watching, is of Parava extract.
In Chapter 6, Verne tells us - It was a man, a living man, a black Indian fisherman, a poor devil who no doubt had come to gather what he could before harvest time. I saw the bottom of his dinghy, moored a few feet above his head. He would dive and go back up in quick succession. A stone cut in the shape of a sugar loaf, which he gripped between his feet while a rope connected it to his boat, served to lower him more quickly to the ocean floor. This was the extent of his equipment. Arriving on the seafloor at a depth of about five meters, he fell to his knees and stuffed his sack with shellfish gathered at random. Then he went back up, emptied his sack, pulled up his stone, and started all over again, the whole process lasting only thirty seconds.

So who are these fishermen? They are the Bharatar or the
Paravas. Parava pearl (incidentally pearl fishing was done only for 20-30 days in March, every year) fishermen inhabited the sandy coast from Kanyakumari to Rameswaram in South India, concentrating around Thoothukudi - Tuticorin. Early in the 16th century, they were virtually reduced to slavery by Muslim rulers who took over the pearl fishing rights, and the Hindu rulers who did not quite support their cause, till finally the Portuguese came to their salvation. They were the first to embrace Christianity in the 16th century, and the path to their conversion by St Xavier was laid by a horse trader John (Joao) Da Cruz. The story is interesting.

It was in the year 1534 that an incident occurred which threatened to throw the coastal people into the throes of a violent religious conflict. In a scuffle between a Muslim and a Parava at Tuticorin, the Parava had his ear torn out by his adversary, who out of sheer greed for the earring it bore, carried it away with him. The incident sparked off a civil war between the Paravas and the Muslims, and it was soon apparent that the Paravas would be beaten in the struggle. The local Muslims, rich and mighty, now swore to exterminate the Paravars. The distraught Parava leaders chanced on a person called John Da Cruz, who was waiting to get paid for the horses he had sold, at Cape Comorin. Da Cruz, considered a local due to his ancestry, but important due to his Portuguese connections, convinced them that they could get Portuguese aid should they convert to Christianity, which the Parava leaders agreed to do as they had no other resort.

About 80 Paravas were initially baptized by the clergy in 1535-36 at Cochin. They also had to pay out 60,000 Panams to Portuguese as protection money. The Portuguese moved their ships to the Cape & Tirunelveli, the matters came to head with the Muslim army soon retreating, fearing fierce punishment by the Portuguese.

Dom Joao Da Cruz then went to Goa to convince St Xaveir (it was 6-8 years later that St Xavier arrived - in 1542 – to carry out the mass conversions) who traveled on to the south coasts and began the conversion of some 20,000 Paravas, some days baptizing so many (over a period of 15 months) that he could not raise his arm from fatigue. The Paravas later became known as the Fernando’s.

So, let us now get to Da Cruz. John Cruz was a fair skinned Malayali Chetty according to Damiao Da Gois a Portuguese historian (it is mentioned by the Portuguese historian Gaspar Correa however, that Cruz was a relative of the Zamorin and a Nair) from Calicut, whom the Zamorin deputed to Portugal in 1512-1513 as his envoy and emissary to sign a treaty with Albuquerque. He was 15 years old then. At Portugal, he decided to become a Christian, changed his name to Joao Da Cruz and by 1515 he was raised to the Knighthood with the insignia and privileges of a Chevalier of the Order of Christ, becoming the first of the ordained ‘fidalgos’. He learnt Portuguese, married in Portugal and returned to Calicut in 1515-16. The Zamorin was furious about the whole affair, especially Da Cruz’s conversion and disowned the newly ordained Cruz and banished him from Malabar. Da Cruz moved his field of operations to Cochin and the south coast of Travancore, far away from the powers of the Zamorin, vowing revenge in his mind.

After a series of misfortunes thenceforth at Cochin and Chaliyam, where he lost his trading stock, boats and his family, Cruz got arrested by the Portuguese authorities themselves owing to nonpayment of heavy debts. King John III of Portugal pardoned him and he then became a horse trader who went to Cape Comorin with 12 horses to trade. There it was that he met the Paravas who told him their tale of woe…Cruz brought the first batch of 15 people to Cochin for conversion, and another 70 later since the initial group and Da Cruz himself were not taken seriously at first. Da Cruz pleaded the case of the Paravas before Nuno da Cunha, the Governor, and it was decided that they be helped against their Muslim opponents. Accordingly a Portuguese squadron appeared before Cape Comorin (Kanya Kumari).

Following all this a fierce naval battle was fought on 27th June 1538 (A History of Christianity in India: The Beginnings to AD 1707 By Stephen Neill) between the Zamorins, his moor supporters and the Portuguese at Vedali in which the Zamorin and the Kunjali moors were defeated. With that defeat the final vestiges of power that the Zamorin held, receded like the tides from those shores….The king of the seas, the Zamorin, never wielded the immense power he once had, ever again. After this event, the Zamorin’s position was largely ceremonial and secondary to the Dutch and the English rule that followed in Malabar..

What became of Dom Joao Da Cruz? Having used every opportunity from 1515 onwards to get back at the Zamorins who had once ridiculed him, he had finally obtained his revenge. Da Cruz had in the meantime persuaded St Xavier of Goa to go in 1542 to Tuticorin for the mass conversions (some 20,000) and thus recorded his name in history books and Christian folklore. Xavier went on to attain sainthood for the efforts over 15 months in converting the Parava lot and others in Asia & SE Asia.

But was Da Cruz the eventual Jati Thalaivan of the Paravas (1543-1553) according to Susan Bayly? If so, he headed the long line of Thalavar descendants that the Paravars had after this him. It is stated in the book ‘A History of Christianity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, 1450-1990’ that the Paravas actually borrowed his family name in gratitude and used it thenceforth for their leaders and nobles.

Just like his early childhood days (even his real name is unknown), no reliable information is available about Cruz’s days after the events at Tuticorin and Goa. The problems faced by the fishermen and the eventual conversion of the pagan Paravas by St Xavier was big news in Europe and this was how Jules Verne knew about them.

But well, the wheel turned again - Curiously it was a Malayali from Calicut who finally erased the last vestiges of Portuguese rule and heavy handedness in South India. It was VK Krishna Menon who moved his army to liberate Goa from the Portuguese in 1961 thus closing the Portuguese chapter in Indian history. Krishna Menon was however, not related to the Zamorin’s.


Notes:

1. The one person who studied Da Cruz the most was VB Nair when he presented his article ‘A Nair envoy to Portugal’ (Indian Antiquary 1928) and there was Georg Schurhammer – Letters of D Joao Da Cruz (Kerala Society papers). The original Da Cruz letters are available at Goan or Lisbon archives. I have not seen these letters or VB Nair’s article. If somebody can help me obtain copies of these I would be obliged.


2. The Zamorin is a title. Roughly 139 Zamorins ruled between the 826AD and 1940. The Zamorin during 1513- 1522, Elankoor Nambiathiri Thirumalpad who was supported by the Portuguese, after he (disputed fact) poisoned his predecessor, sought peace with the Portuguese and deputed the said Da Cruz as his envoy to Portugal.

3. Joao Da Cruz is considered to be a Chetty. What is a Chetty? Is it Seth, Shettu, Shetty, one of the Waynad castes or the Chettiar community? Who were those that existed in Malabar in those days? Was he of North Indian Vaisya extract? Could very well have been. Could also have been a trader Tamil Chetty, but well, he mastered Tamil, Malayalam and Portuguese, looked very South Indian, and was of fair complexion. His original name and ancestry are unknown.
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27 comments:

Anonymous said...

What became of Dom Joao Da Cruz? Having used every opportunity from 1915 onwards to get back at the Zamorins who had once ridiculed him, he had finally obtained his revenge. Da Cruz had in the meantime persuaded St Xavier of Goa to go in 1942 to

I think the dates are incorrect here. You probably meant 1515 and 1542.

Maddy said...

thanks JK for picking up the error - corrected...wow that made him one who lived very long indeed!!

Anonymous said...

No problem. Also thanks for providing the references. I have been looking for a comprehensive book on Kerala history and the only one I have right now is by Sreedhara Menon. I am mainly interested in very early history (around 1 CE) as well as from the 15th - 19th century.

What would you recommend?

Maddy said...

Not very many books that can be termed complete & covering that period. Some recos are
Malabar manual - Logan
Keralolpathi - Gundert edition
Travancore manual
Kerala History - KM Panickkar

RAJI MUTHUKRISHNAN said...

Extremely interesting. Till I went to live in Calicut soon after I got married, I used to think Zamorin, like Sultan, was a Muslim title. :)

Narendra shenoy said...

Great post! Interesting bit of history, and so little known, considering how important it in deciding the course of the nation's destiny!

Indrani said...

Great post as usual.

I have tagged you, please fill the questionaire at http://isharethese.blogspot.com/2008/04/tagged.html

Nanditha Prabhu said...

each time i read your post , i return realizing how much there is to know and how little i know. Interesting post as always...
tagged you:)check out

Happy Kitten said...

Wow! that was some history!

day before we were at the Kuwait Heritage Museum.. I realized that History is much simpler in these places!

Maddy said...

thanks nanditha & HK..it was the same situation with me as well till i started getting interested and reading history..there is so much more coming..

Maddy said...

thanks indrani, narendra, raji...i will check out the tag...
raji - well the samuthiri was a nair by caste...but the trading community in calicut were mainly moppliah's..

Anonymous said...

Hi Maddy,

Samuthiris are Kshatriyas, like Kochin and Travancore Kings. The only King in Kerala who was a brahmin was Chempakasseri. ( Ambalapuzha and Kudamaloor).
History books by Prof. Kurup, and MGS Narayan can also show some light. (though I have not yet read or have any keen interest in history)

A very good and intersting post , Maddy.

Hari

harimohan said...

dear maddy
i think you should start working on a book ,ur research faculties are xlnt .
very intresting post
pl tell me where i get all info on zamorins

Maddy said...

hari - good recos...maybe padmanabha menon's book as well

harimohan - try to find the book Zamorins of calicut by Krishna Iyer. that is the only book other than malabar manual, which covers them.alternatively go to the vallathol library where they are now transcribing the zamorin granthavaris..

Anonymous said...

Hi Maddy,
It all started with A-Bomb-Vedic Connections that led to your site and for past three months,i have been an avid reader of all you blogs.Sometimes i get astonised by the depth of Knowledge you posses on various subjects.

Maddy said...

thanks aravind - it is not really knowledge, but the drive to get to the end of something, trying to find out more & more on something that strikes you, even the mundane...that keeps me from doing this.

Indian Madder said...

Hi Maddy

A friend sent me the link to this post...very nicely written and interesting too!!

Maddy said...

thanks zahra - for dropping by

Unknown said...

Great article. I am a direct descendant of the Zamorins. In fact, my ancestoral grandfather's picture hangs in my living room, with the jewel given to him by Vasco De Gama in the 1400s/1500s.

Maddy said...

thanks nisha - are you from PC or PK? I was at PC last week...am Vidwan Ettan raja's great grandson myself..

Anonymous said...

Wonderful article. I was wondereing what last names the paravas had before they were given the last name "Fernando".

Maddy said...

Thanks for the comment - I doubt if they had any last names in those days. Typically Bharathar castes would not have had any and if at all they had, they would say 'son of', I guess. But let me check once again

Anonymous said...

Well written post! Very interesting! I thought it was General K.P Candeth (also a Nair) who led the army to liberate Goa from the Portugese.

Maddy said...

Thanks anonymous.. yes, Gen Candeth another Malayali was the man on the field, leading the forces into Goa and Menon was the defense Minister at that time...

Unknown said...

Bharathar,
Had many hindu last names before conversion to christianity and some of the families still use it.
PatanKattiyar, Adappanar, VillavaRayan, Kalingarayan and Pandya or Pandiya
today Pandiya is used by other castes. historiyans say Patankatti was the title given by St.Xavier but this title was held by parava leaders even before St.Xavier arrived.

Unknown said...

http://www.heritagevembaru.org/2017/01/conversion-of-paravars.html

Unknown said...

http://www.heritagevembaru.org/2017/01/conversion-of-paravars.html