Bacteria – Friend or Foe?

Many years ago, when we were working in the Middle East, we had a friend of ours who would lug a case of bottled water on his trips to Kerala for holidays. We would pull his legs about this with great mirth telling him how fickle his gut had become and he would counter with a grand argument that the flora and fauna in his NRI stomach could no longer handle the Indian toxins, unhealthy water and the heavy oily food etc and so as an added insurance he was taking these bottles along. Well, we continued to make fun of him and we still remark about this even today. Imagine, a guy who would eat from the roadside eating places with gusto, suddenly becoming sensitive, but then he was quite right, for one does lose the resistance and as you move, start cultivating different families of microbes in your body. Anyway that was the first time somebody brought focus to the flora & fauna in one’s innards.

The next time bacteria came to focus was when I read a fascinating (I think it was in Fortune) account of the miserable way the medical community and the drug industry treated the great Australian doctor Barry Marshall for some 20 years. He kept saying that H Pylori was the main cause for peptic ulcer while the learned medical fraternity and as it appears, the antacid lobby went against him and prevented his rise to fame for a full two decades, before everybody finally accepted his views. Well, that by itself is an interesting story which I will not get into (I had briefly covered it earlier in another blog), as it has been widely covered in press since then. When he first came to speak in US about his ideas, the doctors or their spouses were heard remarking "They were talking about this terrible person that they imported from Australia to speak- How could they put such rubbish in the conference?" Eventually he went on to win the Nobel Prize and he can be seen in PA these days. Marshall, along with his colleague and fellow Nobel winner Robin Warren, proved that up to 90 percent of peptic ulcers are caused by a bacterium called Helicobacter pylori. At a point of time, he had to swallow the bacterial concoction himself to prove the point.

But back to the point, did you know that there are some 300-1600 species of friendly bacteria in ones stomach? Have you thought about where they live actually? In the acid lining, in folds here & there? Or some other place? Or that they are needed to break the food down and keep you healthy? Or that, they help you keep your immune system healthy? But then, what exactly do they do living in your gut? Did you ever consider that when you take antibiotics unnecessarily or even eat antibiotic fed meat or poultry, you end up killing even the friendly bacteria and create even more problems in your own body?

To answer all these questions, let me first take you to the world of home aquariums. Most of them today have an aeration section where the water falls on a bio-wheel spinning it in pleasing fashion. As the Bio-Wheel rotates, beneficial bacteria grow and thrive on its surface. Nourished by oxygen, the bacteria eliminate more ammonia and nitrite with every turn. In addition, when you change the water or clean the gravel and get rid of all the healthy bacteria in there, the stored bacteria in the bio-wheel helps out create new colonies to break down all the waste..

Well, we humans have a similar mechanism, not that it was meant to be that, but over eons it evolved that way, for you will read here, if you don’t know it already, it is the useless appendage called appendix which is the store for large colonies of bacteria. An AP story in msnbc states - The function of the appendix seems related to the massive amount of bacteria populating the human digestive system, according to the study in the Journal of Theoretical Biology. There are more bacteria than human cells in the typical body. Most of it is good and helps digest food. But sometimes the flora of bacteria in the intestines die or are purged. Diseases such as cholera or amoebic dysentery (in old times) would clear the gut of useful bacteria. The appendix’s job is to reboot the digestive system in that case. The appendix “acts as a good safe house for bacteria,” said Duke Surgery professor Bill Parker, a study co-author. The location of the appendix - just below the normal one-way flow of food and germs in the large intestine in a sort of gut cul-de-sac - helps support the theory, he said. Also, the worm-shaped organ outgrowth acts like a bacteria factory, cultivating the good germs, Parker said.

The gut bacteria life story is another of those interesting mysteries that was cleared up recently, for the gut has an effective immune mechanism against unfriendly bacteria, but at the same time tolerates friendly bacteria. The controller gene in this fight is what is known as the ‘pims’ gene. And thus the 100 trillion microbes in our body live happily…They help in many ways by promoting production of various antibodies, hormones, acids, peroxides, nutrients like vitamins B12 and K, food digestion. And interestingly infants acquire their basic colonies from their mothers.

Now that you have a slightly better idea about these bacteria and what they do to you, I have to take you to a radically different word of a particular type of unfriendly bacteria and a brilliant and fascinating individual who worked with them for a cure, fighting fire with fire so to say, using toxins against toxins. Strangely not much of this story can be found in mainstream media and in many ways was a complete surprise to me, as it was discovered over 100 years ago and quickly vanished from limelight. Not much is written about this doctor or his techniques though I found them fascinating to say the least. Let me now go on to tell you a bit about this very interesting gentleman.

Parmenides Greek physician (about 540-480 BC) said: “Give me the power to induce fever, and I cure all diseases.”

William Bradley Coley


And Dr Coley took notice…but not from his perusal of literature

Sometime around 1888 Dr Coley began his career as a bone surgeon at New York Cancer Hospital (which later became part of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center) but became more interested in cancer treatment. Elizabeth Dasheill, a patient was admitted with malignant bone cancer, but even after a forearm amputation, she died, affecting Dr Coley deeply. The girl happened to be a childhood friend of John D Rockefeller who decided to fund in a small way further cancer research by Dr Coley. Coley set to studying old cases and one concerning a patient named Fred Stein, whose tumor disappeared following a high fever from an erysipelas infection (Streptococcus pyogenes) grabbed his attention. Coley searched for the patient trudging through New York and found him finally, living cancer free. This sparked Coley’s interest. Coley thus developed the theory that it was the infections which had helped patients in the past to recover from their cancer. So he began to treat patients by injecting a brew of Streptococcus directly into inoperable tumors. Coley’s first intentional erysipelas infection was performed on a patient named Mr. Zola on May 3, 1891, who had tonsils and throat cancer. Mr. Zola came down with erysipelas and his condition improved tremendously. Mr. Zola lived for another eight and a half years. Coley was convinced that he could effectively use bacteria to treat cancer and created a mixture of killed bacterial infusions called Coley's Toxins. The infusion was administered by injection in increasing doses to induce a fever. Once stimulated, he observed, the immune system could be capable of tackling cancerous cells along with the infection. Coley declared, “Nature often gives us hints to her profoundest secrets and it is possible that she has given us a hint which, if we will but follow, may lead us on to the solution of this difficult problem.”

Parke-Davis, the pharmaceutical company, produced the toxins commercially for many years, but they heated the formula, which reduced its effectiveness. Despite that, even this weakened form of toxins, Parke-Davis formula #IX, showed 37 percent cure rate for inoperable patients. Some 270 people had their cancers cured from a lot of roughly 1000 patients passing through Coley’s toxin care.

But as life goes, the treatment with toxins soon became unfashionable, and Coley’s regimen was too strict for others to emulate. Best results were always evidenced when Dr. Coley or his colleague supervised the production of toxins. There were other problems like frequent fevers being quite trying on the patient. The preparations were of differing potency. This led to much confusion and disappointment for other doctors who ordered them. Some doctors, initially enthusiastic about the treatment, naturally became disillusioned when they used less effective preparations. In many cases, other doctors did not use the toxins aggressively enough. There were some 13 types of mixtures and post treatment follow-up, administration and documentation was never done properly. So new doctors found reasons to criticize the various undocumented methods and unable to replicate Coley’s success took to ridiculing him a charlatan and a quack, even though he was still respected and held big & respectable positions in various institutions until late in his life. By 1894 the JAMA officially criticized the toxin potion and declared it a failure in the face of successes in radiation and chemotherapy which were coming into vogue. On top of all that Dr Ewing a big supporter of radiation, was Coley’s director and boss and his biggest critic. Soon Ewing banned the use of the Coley toxins in the Memorial hospital, thereby denying a place for Coley to practice his development and also ensured that Coley had stiff resistance at the Bone Sarcoma registry.

On April 15, 1936, William B. Coley suffered a recurrent attack of diverticulitis, was operated on by Dr. Eugene H. Pool under local anesthesia, and died the next day.

After his death, the use of Coley's toxins began to decline further. By 1952 Parke Davis stopped manufacturing the toxins and by 1962 the Food and Drug Agency declared that Coley's toxins were ineffective in the treatment of cancer even with the positive statistics. As a result of the FDA's decision it became illegal to use and produce the vaccine in America since then. By the 1940s researchers discovered that a chemical warfare agent, nitrogen mustard, suppressed cancer and then chemotherapy with nitrogen mustard and other agents, along with radiation therapy and surgery, began to supplant Coley’s toxins.

But then, life is life, Coley lived and faced a hostile world during all of his career while enduring to find answers to reduce human suffering and is today considered the father of immunotherapy and even in certain forms of hernia surgeries. As is stated in his eulogy, English literature was his greatest hobby; to him the great masterpieces of the world, apart from their solace and charm, were the master instruments of a solid education.

The subsequent history of Coley's toxins is rather sad. His son, Bradley Coley, MD, continued to use the vaccine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering into the 1950s, but in an increasingly hostile environment. Coley's daughter, Helen Coley Nauts, founded the Cancer Research Institute of New York to save and promote his work. But although she got her father removed from the American Cancer Society "quack list" in the mid-1970s, she was never able to get his treatment used widely.

In 1975, a protein responsible for the immunity boost was identified and called tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha). Eventually the cytokine family and TNF were isolated and are finally in use today in the fight against cancer. That was the beginning of immunology and for that reason Coley is considered the father of immunology, though scientists are still working on his theories and creating what is known as MBV’s (mixed bacterial vaccines).

Why did Coley’s toxin fail in the market? Despite outstanding successes, they were opposed by the medical establishment. The (then) new technology of X-Rays and Radium was superior for hierarchical control and profits from cancer patients than the low-tech produced Coley's Toxins. Individuals with Radium mining interests made large donations in return for the promotion of radium in the treatment of cancer….

Have we heard all these arguments before? Somewhat like the antacid story, right??

Notes:

1. The role of bacteria as anticancer agents was recognized almost a hundred years back. The German physicians W.Busch and F. Fehleisen separately observed that certain types of cancers regressed following accidental erysipelas (Streptococcus pyogenes) infections that occurred whilst patients were hospitalized. Fehleisen, in 1882, identified Streptococcus as the pathogen leading to erysipelas, and he achieved three remissions by injecting cultured living bacteria into seven cancer patients. William Coley (1862-1936) was not the inventor of the treatment of cancer using bacterial infections. However, he was the first to do it systematically on a large number of patients.

2. With the current widespread use of antibiotics to treat infections and antipyretics to ‘‘manage’’ symptoms of an infection, the critical part played by fever in the human body is often overlooked. Fever is frequently suppressed as a matter of routine. Historically, fevers were not only considered beneficial, but were actively encouraged. For example, Native Americans were known to treat acute febrile diseases with sweat baths

3. Both radiotherapy and chemotherapy have an immune-suppressing side-effect. Since both treatments kill the rapidly dividing cells of the immune system along with the rapidly dividing cancer cells, both can be used together if care is taken. On the other hand immune-stimulating Coley’s Toxins work entirely differently, and their effect would be cancelled out if used at the same time as high-dose immunosuppressant chemo- or radiotherapy. It became an either/or situation– and in the end, the fashionable new treatments won out over Coley’s fiddly reworking of an ancient ‘natural’ remedy.

References

Bacteria in cancer therapy: a novel experimental Strategy -S Patyar1, R Joshi1, DS Prasad Byrav, A Prakash, B Medhiand BK Das

A Medical Application of Matzinger’s Danger Model-Coley’s Cancer Vaccine -Gar Hildenbrand

The toxins of Edward Coley – Edward Mc Carthy

Dr William Coley and tumour regression: a place in history or in the future - S A Hoption Cann, J P van Netten, C van Netten

William Bradley Euology – Carl G Burdick

Time article

The Body Can Beat Terminal Cancer - Sometimes - Jeanne Lenzer (Discover magazine)

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Malabar Hill and the Pirates of Malabar

A cursory look at the name of one of the costliest bits of real estate in Bombay (nowadays called Mumbai) signifies its relationship to the South West coastal area of Malabar. There is a reason to that, and I thought I would cover that interesting bit of history for the benefit of all, mainly to erase the typical distorted description provided in many a book and website.

They state thus - Bombay became the target of the sea pirates that also included the ones from Kerala’s Malabar Coast. So, in order to ensure the protection from any type of pirates attack near the hill, a lookout tower was founded. It was meant for keeping an eye on the pirates and the sea as well. Later this hill came to be known as ‘Malabar Hill’, which is very popular today.

The Raj Bhavan site says - In times past, the azure skies would forecast plunder as the sails of marauders appeared, the dreaded pirates of Malabar. They would ascend the pinnacle to plan their pillage. This summit by the shores heralded a view of the emerging city. Prophesying their recurring piracy, the peak came to be known as Malabar Point.

Was that right? To figure it out let us go back to the 16^th century when the Portuguese attempts at colonizing India were at its peak. It was a period signified by systematic attempts at subduing the traders and trade that had been conducted from Malabar. Starting with Vasco Da Gama’s arrival at Calicut in 1498, the Portuguese strengthened their presence in Cochin, Goa, Surat and Bombay on the west coasts. The only resistance they faced initially was the sea based forays from the Kunhali Marakkar and his able seamen of South Malabar. The Marakkars had until then been running the Malabar trade (mainly food grains) with the blessings of the King of Cochin and the Zamorin of Calicut, but once their livelihood was threatened, they rose up in arms. I must hasten to add here that piracy indeed existed on the Malabar Coast and has many a time been attributed to moors, but it was sporadic, and not organized. Details of such old acts of piracy can be found in the accounts of many a travel writer, including Ibn Batuta and others.

Then again it is said that Malabar hill was where they conducted a pilgrimage to the Banaganga tank and Walkeshwar temple. Now that is an oddity by itself, the Moplah pirates praying to a heathen idol? That would not be quite right, isn’t it? A detailed study was needed, though the answer was apparent, that the term Malabar pirates was far-flung and widespread and applied to a wide variety of armed seafarers not quite pleased with the foreign usurpers making merry in the west coast towns, people who conducted much trade over sea routes and plying ships laden to the brim with the riches of India. Indeed the opportunist cum pirate decided to attack these slow moving and lightly armed ships. Who were they? Were they from Malabar-Kerala in the fist place?

While the Zamorin took on the Portuguese armies on land, the Kunhalis and their men engaged in sea based skirmishes with the Portuguese ships. The method of using many organized small boats to attack a flotilla soon became very effective and went on for a period of 70 years 1530 – 1600 till the Dutch came by and the Kunhale family was gone. The ships used by Kunhali’s men, the war-paroe, was a small craft manned by just 30-40 men each, and could be rowed through lagoons and narrow waters. Several of these crafts were deployed at strategic points in the Malabar coast and they would emerge from small creeks and inconspicuous estuaries, attack the Portuguese ships at will, inflict heavy damage and casualties by setting fire to their sails and get back into the safety of shallow waters. And thus people who were traders soon became attackers. So were they pirates, corsairs or privateers?  If you look at history books, the moors of Malabar, the Kunhali led seamen have been called Corsairs and pirates. Check out the definition towards the end of this article, and based on that I would take the direction towards privateers in this case for they had the blessings of the Zamorin in fighting the Portuguese.

So as you can see, they were an armed force at the command of the Zamorin’s admiral and thus were more privateers or corsairs, but not pirates. Now that the first point has been established, they were the earliest form of an Indian ‘regional’ navy fighting against the invading Portuguese, in hindsight. Later there were others involved in the fray notably Tanoji Angre, his son Kanhoji Angre (early 18^th century) or Conajee Angria and his ships, which were included collectively in the term Malabar pirates.

What were the Kunhali’s of Malabar doing in the Bombay area? Logically, where they not restricted to the Malabar Coast by language, and the large distance of some 700-800 miles? Consider that the Marakkars used small pattemars or Malabar paros (small boats 10 paces long, rowed with oars of cane and had a mast of cane) for their warfare and sailing them to such distances was not routinely possible. Bigger dhows were indeed used for piracy, but the Marakkar ship would be too far from the home base and would never venture more than 70 miles of their Ponnani towns, from earlier descriptions. So one can safely assume that the Malabar pirates, termed so by the British, were closer in origin to Bombay.

Now with the Marakkar & Malabar seamen mostly out of the equation, let us get back to Bombay to find out who these pirates actually were, starting from the 1600’s. By 1600, the last of the Kunhali Marakkars were gone from Malabar. With it organized navies of Calicut virtually became defunct though some Moplah’s continued on, as locally based pirates sporadically attacking slow merchant ships.

Between 1534 and 1661, Bombay was under Portuguese occupation. By the middle of the 17th century the growing power of the Dutch Empire forced the British to acquire a station in western India. On 11 May 1661, the marriage treaty of Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza, daughter of King John IV of Portugal, placed Bombay in possession of the British Empire, as part of dowry of Catherine to Charles. In 1661, Bombay was finally ceded to the British.

By the time Shivaji came on the scene against the British occupation, Bombay was already in the hands of the British. His navies came into picture by 1670 and were part of the collective called the Malabar pirates. Kanhoji Angre came a little later, towards 1700-1723 and his attacks or forays against British and Portuguese ships were directed all the way South to Cochin as well as Northwards to Bombay. Collectively there two and their navies were the major constituent’s of the so called ‘Malabar pirates’. Both these families are well covered in history texts, so I will let them lie in peace there for the time being, and get back to the high seas, back to when Kunhali the 4^th was killed and Dom Pedro a.k.a Ali Marakkar took over until 1620. Thana was infested with pirates according to Marco Polo as early as 1290. In the 15^th century it is mentioned in Nikitin’s travels that the pirates were mainly Hindu signifying the Marathas from Junnar. One such pirate chief was Shankar Rao of Vishalgarh. The main lot was a ragtag group of Guajarati corsairs, Moghul Seedees and Dutch sea thieves, until the 1600 period

 

But between 1600 and 1670, there were a number of attacks around Bombay, so who were these so called pirates? Upon perusing Salvatore’s Indian pirates, one is led to believe that the pirates termed Malabari pirates comprising various sorts (Guajarati – Cambay, Malabar and European) seized rich booty near Diu & Goa as well as Cochin in the 1600-1610 periods. This is perhaps Ali Marakkar’s doing. By this time English pirates had also entered the scene and Chaul in Konkan was their HQ. Pyrard Della Valle was the first to collectively call them Malabar pirates for according to him Malabar encompassed the coast line between Bombay to Cape Comorin. Later accounts by Mandelso also document that the Paroes of Malabar mainly attacked ships around the Cochin area and Cannanore. This signifies that Panthalayani kollam or Calicut port was by now dead. The rest of the period comprised only some rag tag piracy.

Polo, in the 13th century, said however that the pirates were a brotherhood ‘From this kingdom of Malabar, from the kingdom of Thana, and from another near it called Guzerat, there go forth every year more than a hundred corsair vessels on cruise. These pirates take with them their wives and children, and stay out the whole summer. Their method is to join in fleets of twenty or thirty of these pirate vessels together, and they then form what they call a sea cordon - that is, they drop off till there is an interval of five or six miles between ship and ship, so that they cover something like 100 miles of sea, and no merchant ships can escape them. For when any one corsair sights a vessel a signal is made by fire or smoke, and then the whole of them make for this, and seize the merchants and plunder them. But now the merchants are aware of this, and go so well manned and armed, and with such great ships, that they don't fear the corsairs. Still mishaps do befall them at times." "The people of Guzerat," says the same traveller, "are the most desperate pirates in existence, and one of their atrocious practices is this: when they have taken a merchant vessel they force the merchants to swallow a stuff called tamarind, mixed in sea-water, which produces a violent purging. This is done in case the merchants, on seeing their danger, should have swallowed their most valuable stones and pearls, and in this way they secure the whole." The sacred island of Beyt, in the Gulf of Cutch, off the north-west corner of the peninsula of Kattywar, was better known as "the Pirates' Isle," and the inhabitants of the Land's End of the peninsula were noted for their audacity as sea-rovers.

But by 1670 we see the Sajanian pirates of Kathiawar Gujarat followed by the Marathas. The leaders Shivaji and his progeny were organized in their fight against the Portuguese. But to lord them all later came the Maratha commodore of Shivaji’s fleet named Kanhoji Angre. He had a control over the seashore some 240 miles long between Bombay & Vengurla. By 1710-1729 he controlled the shores effectively ad humiliated the British at every given chance. He was succeeded by his son Sambhaji who continued in the same vein until 1734 and then it was Toolaji Angre. The British finally retaliated with might and by 1756; had finally destroyed most of the Angre holdings. It was thus Angre and his seamen who were the so called ‘Malabar pirates’ of the 18^th century, while the British ruled Bombay.

So we saw the various types of Guajarati and Maratha privateers or pirates, whatever one may term them were harassing the British on the seas. But why did they venture onto the land? What is the connection with Malabar hill? It is said that they came to that side of the rocks, sheltered from the winds, waiting for commercial shipping to pass by after ascending the pinnacle to scan, watch the skyline and plan their pillage. This peak came to be known as Malabar Point and the hillock, Malabar hill. William hunter was another one to generalize the Malabar pirates into one group holding the sea coast from Bombay to Cape Comorin. He mentions about their plunders on shore while Pyrard mentions they would never attack anybody on shore.

As legends go, both Shivaji and Angre used to visit Banaganga for a holy dip and Walkeshwar for the festivals and prayers. But there were also Europeans amongst the Malabar pirates. As it is written “If the pirates were but Arabs or Malabars, matters had not been so bad; but European pirates were abroad, indulging in unheard-of excesses, seizing Mughal pilgrim ships (the Gunsway or Ganjasawai), and leading to the incarceration of our leaders and servants at Surat.”

The original name of the Malabar hill, point area was Shrigundi. The story is described thus: Shri-Gundi is called Malabar Point after the pirates of Dharmapatan (That is near Tellichery – Curious!), Kotta, and Porka on the Malabar Coast, who, at the beginning of British rule in Bombay, used to lie in wait for the northern fleet in the still water in the sea of the north end of Back Bay. The name Shri-Gundi apparently means the Lucky Stone. At the very extremity of Malabar Point is a cleft rock, a fancied yoni, to which numerous pilgrims resort for the purpose of regeneration by the efficacy of a passage through this sacred emblem. The yoni or hole is of considerable elevation among rocks of no easy access in the stormy season incessantly surf-buffeted. Women as well as men pass through the opening. You descend some steps on rugged rocks. Then thrusting your hands in front you ascend head first up the hole.

The Banaganga tank story has Lord Rama, after a long and thirsty trek in search of Sita, stopped at Sri Gundi and supposedly fired an arrow into ground to get water (somehow connected to Ganaga as well) , and so it ended up a sacred tank, after which he built a sand idol (Walk eashwar) to worship. The original temple built around this idol was destroyed by the Portuguese, but the temple was rebuilt again in 1715 by Rama Kamath.

Shivaji Maharaj when close to death is said to have landed at Malabar Point and passed through the rock, probably to free him from the haunting presence of the murdered Afzulkhan. Kanhoji Angria (1690-1730) is said to have visited Bombay by stealth to go through the hole at the Malabar Point. By 1670, the English built a government house in Malabar point, but the place was so poorly fortified that (it is said) the Malabar pirates often plundered the native villages and carried off the inhabitants as slaves. The English soon loaded the terraces with cannon and built ramparts over the bowers. There they housed two great guns to get the pirate ships.

As James Douglas rambles about the pilgrimage of the pirates

In the pre-Portuguese days the pilgrims, i.e., "the Malabars," would land at Mazagon, or at a small haven near our Castle which the English on their arrival called Sandy Bay, or, in the fair season, at what is our present Wood Wharf in Back Bay, convenient enough and right opposite the steep ascent.

Here buggalow and pattamar would discharge their cargo of "live lumber" or faithful devotees, as you are disposed to view them. Now they proceed to breast the “ Siri," halting, no doubt, at the Halfway House, where the Jogi would give them a drink from his holy well. Here they would have time to draw their breath, chew betelnut, or say their prayers. Thence, refreshed, to the summit, and now along a footpath studded with palmyra palms, sentinels by sea and land on the ridge, and very much on the track of the present carriage road, they make their way to those old pipal trees at our "Reversing Station," old enough in all conscience to have sheltered Gerald Aungier and the conscript fathers of the city from the heat of the noonday sun, and how much older we know not.

And now they descend the brow of the hill, pass the site of the present Walkeshwar temple, past the twisted trees in the Government House compound,—of the existence of which we have indubitable evidence as far back at least as 1750.

And here we may remark that the Malabar Hill of these days was much more wooded than at present. When land is left to itself, everything grows to wood. It is so in Europe, and it is so here, as we can see with our eyes in that magnificent belt of natural jungle which clothes the slopes down to the water's edge of Back Bay (and which reminds one of the Trossachs on an exceedingly small scale), where, among crags and huge boulders, the leafy mango and the feathery palm assert themselves out of a wild luxuriance of thick-set creepers glowing with flowers of many colours. The hare, the jungle fowl, and the monkey were doubtless no strangers to these bosky retreats. At length the temple, ornate with many a frieze and statue, bursts upon the view amid a mass of greenery. Black it is, for the Bombay trap becomes by exposure to innumerable monsoons like the Hindu pagodas among the orange groves of Poona. And now, the journey ended, the white-robed pilgrims, and some forsooth sky-clad in the garb of nature, bow their faces to the earth, amid jessamine flowers, in the old temple of Walkeshwar, on its storm-beaten promontory, with no sound on the ear save the cry of the sea-eagle, or the thud of the waves as they dash eternally on the beach.

Keyi’s and the ownership of Malabar Hill

Wikipedia makes an interesting mention of the Keyi’s of Malabar and connects it to Malabar hill. It is said that the Keyis had to sell Malabar Hill to the EIC to safeguard their business holdings. Quoting the entry - The well known and prominent Keyi family of North Malabar in Kerala was founded by Chovvakkaran Moosa in the early 18th Century. He was a strong force in trade and commerce during that time, having powerful links with rulers, kings and countries. He started off his business with the Portuguese, the French, and the British. He owned a large part of Bombay including the area currently known as Malabar Hill and many parts in Chowpatti Beach area. Even today the family has some old shops and buildings in that area. When the British East India Company started creating problems for their business, they had to call a truce with them in order to survive. The Keyis tried everything from funding Tipu Sultan and Pazhassi Raja in their war with the British at the time. When everything failed, they donated the entire area now known as Malabar Hill to the East India Company to maintain the Keyis' trading rights in the North Malabar area . Hence the name, Malabar Hill for this Western India prime property.

I certainly could not find any corroborating evidence for the above claim even after extensive research and after reading KKN Kurup’s complete work on the Keyi family. While they may have held land space around Malabar hill in the 18^th century, the name Malabar hill goes back to 1673 when Fryer wrote first mentioned the place. Aluppi’s nephew Moosa kakka who built a bigger fortune and may have perhaps possessed land in Bombay, came to fame only by the early 18^th century. So by conjuncture, Keyi’s do not appear to be the reason for the naming of Malabar Hill after Malabar.

In conclusion one could call this a somewhat indiscriminate use of the term Malabar as we know it today, though another who likes arguments would retort saying that Malabar itself is nebulous, it was first coined in antiquity by some Arab sailor for the coastal area of Western India between Surat and Cape Comorin. But then again we saw how the name of the hill eventually came about, even if by mistake and remained so, for it was finally a locale where the pirates stopped for a lookout or for good luck and to pray obeisance.

References

Indian Pirates RJ Salvatore

The pirates of Malabar   John Biddulph

Bombay and western India: a series of stray papers, Volume 2  James Douglas

The Great Pioneer in India, Ceylon, Bhutan & Tibet

Stirring stories of peace and war, by sea and land James Macaulay

A handbook for travelers in India, Burma and Ceylon   John Murray

Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Volume 26, Part 3

Guide to Bombay: historical, statistical, and descriptive James Mackenzie Maclean

The Missionary herald, Volume 89 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions

Keyis of Malabar – KKN Kurup

Definitions:

Corsaire is the term used by the French for what in English is a privateer. A Privateer was an armed ship under papers to a government or a company to perform specific tasks. The men who sailed on a privateer were also called privateers. Most importantly, the famous "Articles of Piracy" often did not apply to a ship of privateers. Often privateers were simple merchant marines who were engaged in acts of war for profit. Other time they were hired mercenaries. Privateers, unlike pirates were quite open about what they did and were typically considered heroes by their host nations. In the loosest terms, any of the above can be a pirate. If a privateer is fighting for another country, you would probably consider him a pirate. Anyone who robs at sea is and was a pirate. When privateers exceeded the bounds of their commission, they became pirates. By definition, a pirate is any person committing criminal acts against public authority, on the high seas outside the normal jurisdiction and laws of any state (country). By law, they can be arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced by any state that captures them. Also, by definition, the criminal act is of a private nature, that is personal gain, and not for political reasons.

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The Adventures of Orlando Mazzotta

Everybody enjoys reading a tale of intrigue and if it is one that figures a classic chase and escape caper with spies, counter spies, double agents, assassination plots, people like Hitler and spymasters like Peter Fleming (the brother of the 007 creator Ian), your senses can tingle in juicy anticipation. So here goes, let me try and take you on a trip, through a trail set up during the WWII 40’s time frame.

I cannot help but remember Bad Gastein in Austria. For it was here that I was once feted for a particular business triumph, many years ago. A beautiful mineral bath location, famous from the Roman times, I still recall the many hours we walked on the mountains and the final hour spent in the warm radioactive waters which just washed the weariness and pain away. It was a fascinating week that I spent there, but at that time I knew nothing of the people of this story. A couple of One of the characters in this story once lived there. and as you will all see, this tale will possibly end at Bad Gastein.

The tale starts with a courier working in the Italian legion in NWFP located at Kabul, in today’s Afghanistan. This low level employee in the Italian legion was not to know (or maybe he did) that in his life time, another man, an Indian at that, would use his name publicly for a period of some 2-3 years, since he bore a vague Sicilian resemblance to him. One day the Italian legion in Kabul formally issued a diplomatic passport after lifting out the Sicilian’s photo, but with the Indian’s picture in its place. Well, until that day, this Indian lived in Kabul under yet another false name, this one given to a heavily bearded Pathan named Ziauddin. But for now we have to go back a little while before all that, to start the story in right earnest.

The 2^nd world war clouds were hanging dark and low over Europe. The Nazis had invaded Poland in 1939. By September the Allies had declared war on Germany and by the end of the year, Russia had invaded Finland and by 1940 the war was in its second year in Europe. Russia had carved up the Baltic States, the battle of Britain had started and the wars in the Mediterranean and Africa were heating up. In India, the British were very afraid that the desire for independence would possibly alienate the Indians from providing support for the allied war effort. Such a division would mean a disaster, for much of the funds as well as war provisions were being supplied to the British from India. Talks of possible independence were underway but there were some leaders, wanting it quickly. The Japanese were considering what to do, and the Axis powers were in the meanwhile arrogantly decimating those who stood against them in Europe.

In the background the intelligence machines were all working overtime, and they were never trained on anything this massive and spread out. The British MI6 was somewhat entrenched in India and more worried about a possible ‘great game’ play where the Russians could move into India. The NKVD of Russia were playing their agents well and true in the NWFP, the Abwehr of Germany playing its games here and there, and in the background, some members of the MI6 knowing some of what was going on, and manipulating at will, after the breaking of the Enigma code.

The young man under house arrest after his starvation satyagraha in jail was considered very sick, but the police stationed outside his house were very confident that nothing untoward would happen. The man however had other plans. He had two courts cases against him and the hearing dates were nearing. He had no intentions of dying in a British jail or spending his remaining years with regrets. He had decided to break free and get the support of others like the Russians, in his larger cause. For that he had been trying hard the preceding year, but of no avail, but now there was no time to spare. So he decided to depart for Moscow and plead for support in overthrowing the British colonial anvil. And thus he decided to slip out of the country from under the very noses of the guards. The first step was disguise. Under the guise of Pathan garb and a beard, a new name was taken, that of Mohammed Ziauddin, Travelling Inspector, Empire of India Life Insurance Ltd. The man had his nephew drive him stealthily on Jan 16th 1941, to the Gomoh railway station in Dhanbad. From there he would continue on North West to the frontiers, destined for Kabul. It was thus that Ziauddin reached Peshawar around the 19th. There he was taken over by the Kirti party agent named Bhagat Ram Talwar for onward transfer to Kabul. Bhagat Ram (code name Silver) was to turn out to be the biggest double or triple agent and henchman of both the Soviets and British spymaster Peter Fleming, but all of that is another story for another day

Die hard Indian history buffs would have already recognized the identity of Ziauddin by now, for it was none other than Subash Chandra Bose. As we now know, Bose was stuck at first in Peshawar, but the date of the court hearing was near and it was imperative that he was out of India to be on the side of the law. A guide was needed to take him across the difficult terrains and incognito to Kabul. And that is how the Afridi guide finally turned up in his beat-up Chevrolet to guide him out on the 21^st Jan 1941. In theory they were on a pilgrimage, he was a deaf-mute and traveling with Bhagat Ram Talwar’s nephew. After a stop at Pishkin Maina, they were briefly on mule back and later hitching rides on trucks to Kabul. The route was infested with spies and nosy government men. Anyway as providence would have it they reached Kabul soon.

But even though Bose had tried to contact the soviets for support for well over a year with little success, he chose to work with Talwar and the Punjabi Kirti communist party to get closer to the Russians. Now the plan was to somehow gatecrash the Soviet embassy in Kabul and explain his ideas. Talwar could not really help for this was alien territory and he was not conversant in Persian, the official language in those times at Kabul. Bose was frustrated. The attempt was useless, for the Soviet embassy would just not let them in even after knowing the illustrious bearded man’s identity. It was Feb 2^nd when the most unlikely thing happened. By this time Bose had decided to contact the Germans for help, seeing no response from the Russians. As he was on his way to the German embassy with Talwar, he saw the Russians ambassadors’ car stuck in mud. Talwar walked up to him and offered Bose to the ambassador stating that Bose wanted asylum in Russia. The ambassador was suspicious; he took one long look at the heavily bearded Bose and walked away imagining a trap or deceit. That was the end of the direct Russian plan.

Kabul in the 1940's

By this time the escape from Calcutta was reported in the press and the Germans knew that Bose was on the loose in Kabul (probably the British, the soviets and the Italians knew as well, but they had no clue what to do with him, as yet). He was finally let into the German embassy and provided an audience with the ambassador Hans Pilger. Bose was instructed by Pilger to be wary of the network of spies in every nook and cranny of Kabul and asked to contact the embassy through one Thomas who worked for Siemens in Afghanistan. Soon after Bose left, Pilger contacted the Russian and Italian ambassador’s and told them that he smelt a British infiltration plot through this man claiming to be Bose. They decided to watch Bose for a while.

In the truckers stop where they lived, suspicion was high, for these two men though acting and living like devout Muslims, were not actually looking for work, but wandering about the whole day. Were they smugglers or spies? An Afghan spy interrogated them, and had to be bribed away by Talwar. In the meantime Thomas at Siemens set up a meeting with Bose every 3rd day for updates, but no updates were forthcoming from the Germans. Bose’s pleas were becoming more & more urgent, and hope was lost. The bribes kept getting bigger and finally Bose had to give his gold watch to escape from the Afghan government agent (This was a period when hefty bribes were gold Rolex watches).

For some days, Bose was quartered in the home of Uttam Chand, an associate of Talwar, as Bose’s sensitive stomach revolted to the rich Afghan food, but soon he was out on the street again when Uttam Chand’s neighbor recognized him. Then he lived with a Haji Sahib for awhile.

Pilger and the Siemens (Sommer) Thomas had no replies from the high command in Berlin however Bose was planning steps of his own. Uttam Chand organized help from a ruffian Yakub to help Bose cross into the Soviet border, across the river Oxus. Bose was definite that the Soviets would help him once he was in the country though he was by now very upset with the inability of Talwar and the Kirti party in finding right contacts in the upper echelons of Moscow. It was already 45 days since he had reached Kabul, living as a deaf and dumb mendicant with no knowledge of Pashto and struggling.

At this moment, Pilger finally asked Bose to contact Alberto Pietro Quaroni in the Italian embassy. Quaroni wanted to help Bose and warned him against attempting an overtly risky overland trek on his own. As it turned out they became good friends after a while, discussing even the future and direction of Bose’s plans. Bose was quickly recommended to Rome by Quaroni who was impressed with his ideas, and preparations for his travel were being made in anticipation, new suits stitched. The Italians and Germans persuaded the Soviets to issue a transit visa, which they agreed to do, but not in Bose’s name. Now who could that be? It had to be somebody who looked like Bose, a darker man. Quaroni knew that a diplomatic courier was expected in Kabul soon and so one possibility was for Bose to take the courier’s identity and return to Europe.

The MI6 and the British knew by now (Feb 27^th) where Bose was and what he was upto. But Peel at London MI6 stated that no action was to be taken for they did not want their own sources compromised and of course it was better to have Bose in Europe where he could be watched more closely. Bose, unaware of details, but aware that he was being watched, had no real choice, but to move through Moscow to Berlin. By now he had given up on Soviet support, though he did not tell Talwar that. Nevertheless, as the British discovered that Bose was on his way to Germany, they decided to take him out in Istanbul. As Prof O’Halpin discovered from British documents, two SOE operatives in Turkey were instructed by their headquarters in London to intercept Bose and kill him before he reached Germany. SOE operatives in Turkey failed to because Bose reached Germany through Central Asia and the Soviet Union. "Every time [the operatives] checked back, headquarters told them the orders were intact and Bose must be killed if found. Interestingly Bose always wanted to meet Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, his ideal, and if he had gone to meet him in Ankara (permission was never granted by the British in the past), he would have met an early demise.

Back to Kabul - On 3^rd March, the Soviets agreed to grant a transit visa to Bose. Talwar who was in the guise of Rahmat khan, was to remain as Bose’s link man in Kabul (And that was how the Soviets and MI6 knew at all times what Bose was upto, in Germany). 3 days later, he was provided the passport of Orlando Mazotta, the Sicilian courier. So after six-week long wait in Kabul, a visa granted in the name of Orlando Mazzotta and this enabled Bose to travel, escorted by Dr. Wenger, formerly of the Todt organization, across the border into Russia, then a train to Moscow via Bokhara and Samarkand, finally reaching Berlin by air towards the first week of April 1941. There he was joined by Emilie Schenkel his secretary & wife.

Why did the Soviets not help Bose? Acchhar Singh of the Kirti party had assured Bose he would get support from Russia. Primarily because Bose did not have communist leanings and secondly because of the changing political scenario and equations. In the pre-winter months of 1940, Germany was courting Russia in joining the axis powers, but by winter Hitler had already drawn up plans to attack Russia by summer. The British quickly informed the Soviets once they picked it up from their spies and the coded transmissions. Soviet Russia found themselves now in urgent discussions with the allies. Not wanting to upset their new friends the British, the soviets dragged their feet while trying to figure out what to do with Bose. The MI6 probably decided that it was easier to keep tabs on Bose in Europe than elsewhere and gave their nod. The Soviets finally decided to help Bose who was as we saw cooling his heels in Kabul. And thus Orlando Mazotta got his name written in history books as the alias used by Bose for the next 3 years, in Europe. The fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942, provided the occasion for Subhash Chandra Bose to finally discard his identity as Orlando Mazzotta and make his first open broadcast to India on 19 February 1942.

Peter Fleming the spymaster and MI6 deceiver was not on the scene in 1941, but by 1942, he had stationed himself in Delhi and worked out his relationship with Talwar a.k.a Rahmat Khan– code name Silver. Fleming was a suave ladies man, always smoking a pipe which people said smelt like ‘motor tires burning in syrup’, a well spoken world traveler, and a good friend of Wavell in Delhi. Silver’s misinformation to the Abwher (he was even awarded an Iron Cross by the Nazi’s) and Subash were very well manipulated by the NKVD and MI6 and the end result was an eventual disbandment of the Indian Legion in Germany according to James Aldrich.

Originally this story was told as Bose’s ‘great escape’ from Calcutta to Berlin, via Kabul and Moscow. But a detailed study of later documents and books from the 70’s reveal that all along the way the poor man and his plans were compromised, starting with his relatives and then his associates and friends. The key to all this was not the masterly operation of the MI6 or other intelligence agencies, but the fortuitous breaking of the Wehrmacht Abwher’s G Enigma code (Enigma machines were used not only by the Germans, but also the Japanese). The breakthrough was effected by Polish cipher breakers in 1932 and the details were passed to the British and others in 1939, just before the war commenced and this ensured a busy period for the men and women of Bletchley park, off London.

But then again, the period Bose spent in Germany was wasteful on one hand (and from Bose’s viewpoint) with no significant interest shown by Hitler and his deputies, as they were largely unconcerned with the plight of India. On the other hand, Bose was highly disillusioned with the Nazi plans to attack Russia. It was thus that he moved all his chips to the Japanese side. As he lived in Berlin with Emilie, creating the Indian Legion’s Azad Hind corps and broadcast his messages, the MI6 as well as the Abwehr kept regular tabs and as we now know, regular details of happenings in Berlin were also being provided by Admiral Canaris and his group to the MI6.

And it was thus that early in 1943, the British intercepted the full details of the plan to send Bose to Japan. He was to travel by submarine from Kiel in Northern Germany to few miles off the coast of the Portuguese held Madagascar, where a Japanese submarine would take Netaji into its holds and take him to Sabang in Indonesia for onward journey to Japan after traveling underwater for a total journey of some 10,000 miles. It required just one battleship to attack the German submarine on the way and send it to the sea bottom, thus killing the troublesome Indian Leader, but they did not do it, as the British Secret Service warned Churchill, that if the Germans found out, that even if such highly confidential messages were being monitored and acted upon, they would suspect that the British had the Enigma and would change all their codes, thus making it impossible for the British to spy on them. And so Bose went to Japan. The next part of his life until his apparent death was very well recorded and is not covered in this article.

I for one am not a Bose aficionado, though I found his notion of implementing a Kemal Ataturk method (of change) interesting, but like anyone studying his story I saw how meticulous he was, even in full flight, like how studied holding or drinking from a earthen Afghan cup, a Brahmin sharing water from the same cup as a Muslim, learning how to pray properly in a mosque while in Afghanistan (even if to avoid detection), eating anything he could find and traveling on mule back or walking miles and miles or being patient underwater cooped in a submarine, like Capt Nemo going from one end of the world to the other, and meeting psychopaths like Hitler & Goering because he had no other choice.

As we know, Bose was not destined to shine in Delhi, but he was a patriot nevertheless, chasing a dream he considered holy, choosing means he believed right, while treading a path others would not consider or dare, never admitting defeat or considering any attempt futile, as we see from the story of the above flight. And some may recall what he once said ‘I do not want to waste my life in a British jail, I prefer dying trying to do something meaningful’. So this was the story of Orlando Mazzotta, the adventure of a freedom fighter from Calcutta.

And maybe there is one or two of you out there who would like to know what happened to the real Orlando Mazzotta. 

Well, he continued with the Italian diplomatic service and when last heard of, was the Assistant secretary in the Italian consulate at Vienna Austria in 1963…

but I cannot resist adding a final twist to the tale……….

Unless of course somebody else wants to assume it was perhaps Bose himself living in Austria, for as all of us know, Emilie Schenkl, Bose’s better half lived in Bad Gastein Austria and some of Bose’s fondest moments were spent with her. Would Bose want to live with Emilie, the person who believed in him or live as people still think, in remote places like Siberia or some hermitage in North India wearing sanyasi garb? You decide…

Ah! Well, who knows???

A new article detailing the story of the 'Real Orlando Mazzotta' and the involvement of the Italian Legation follows- Click this link

References

The Great Escape – Sisir Bose

Raj, secrets, revolution- A life of Subhas Chandra Bose - Mihir Bose

The Deceivers – Thaddeus Holt

Sign of the Tiger – Rudolph Hartog

Subhas -A political biography – Sitanshu Das

Back from the dead – Anuj Dhar

Letters to Emile – SC Bose

Pics – Kabul rooftops 1940’s – Peter Pinney

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Omana Thingal Kidavo

തമ്പിമാമന്‍ടെ താരാട്ട് - Uncle Iravivarman Thampi’s Royal Lullaby

One could go north or south in Kerala, through the various regions, where they talk different dialects, think somewhat differently even, where the Malabar aristocrat sometimes subtly expresses his mistrust of the Travancore person or vice versa, where even the food habits and spoken dialects change with the terrain, but there is one thing they will all agree to, that the ‘Malayalee standard’ lullaby is Omana Thinkal Kidavo penned by the illustrious Irayimman Thampi for his young nephew Swati Tirunal Rama Varma. Most children would have grown up listening to someone in the house humming this song, for it is a dear memory in many a Malayalees childhood. It was a desire to sing it for our recent Samaroha that made us check the background in detail.

As I checked, I came across quite a few versions and at least 12 or so recordings, done in the raga’s Hindolam, Arabhi, Nellambari, Kurinji, Kanada, Sankarabharam or even the Hindustani Desh by Bombay Jayashree. While the most apt version in my mind is Janaki’s short one in Kurinji, the smoothest and complete ones are by Omana Kutty and Chitra. The version by Yesudas is quite a change from the normal.

But to understand the significance of the song and its impact, one must go back in times, to the period slightly before Swati Tirunal’s birth in 1813. The kingdom of Travancore was in a troubled state, for there was no male heir to the throne and there was a chance of the kingdom being taken over by the British under the so called Dalhousie doctrine of lapse. According to the Doctrine explained in Wikipedia, any princely state or territory under the direct influence of the British East India Company, as a vassal state under the British Subsidiary System, would automatically be annexed if the ruler was either "manifestly incompetent or died without a direct heir". The latter supplanted the long-established right of an Indian sovereign without an heir to choose a successor. In addition, the British decided whether potential rulers were competent enough.

Nobody in Travancore, including the then British resident Col. Munroe (apparently) wanted the kingdom to be annexed to British India. It was with great relief that the news of Rani Lakshmi Bayi’s pregnancy was announced. It appears that Col Munroe himself prayed at the Padmanabha Swami temple for a boy to be born and even announced the boy’s birth to his superiors even before he was born.  And so, while he was still unborn, Swati Tirunal was declared to be the next ruler. This special circumstance earned him the title of ‘Garbha Sriman’ (glorified even when he was in the womb). When he was barely four months old, the Maharani proclaimed him the Maharaja, and dedicated him as the obedient dasa of Lord Padmanabha, on whose behalf; he was destined to rule the State of Travancore. Which he did as we all know for but a short span of 33 years.

Uncle Irayimman Thampi, the learned poet of the family was entrusted the task of creating a royal lullaby which he did in inimitable fashion, in the tradition at that time, being Manipravalam (mixture of Sanskrit and Malayalam) the Malayalam poetic fashion, rather than pure Sanskrit. Paravathi Bayi could hum this song for her son, unfortunately, only for two years for she passed away in 1815. But the song left its mark on the young boy who rose to become a musical prodigy.  The people of Kerala agree that it is the most beautiful and melodious composition of the times to date and is more a peoples lullaby rather than just the royal lullaby. As you hear it today, it continues to strike the same tender chord in ones mind and the feelings are testimony to the clarity, purity and brilliance of the composition. Avid listeners would have noted that the lullaby does not ever mention anything about sleep! Unlike other poems which simply provide superlatives of the human, this composition compares the young regent to various lovely aspects of nature and goodness.

Swati Tirunal as a child

As Fox Strangways aptly put it in his Music of Hindostan (or was it really some other Englishman, I am not sure for I could not trace this quotation in the book) - Generations of children have been lulled asleep by its soothing notes. Sung by generations over centuries the strains of this lullaby have been dyed into the warp and woof of the Malayalee’s cultural repertoire. Evoking intense nostalgia for a bygone phase of one’s life filled with tender affections and motherly care, the lullaby also thrills one with a sense of dejavu.

Omana Thingal', to put it simply is a lullaby which depicts the different feelings going through the mothers mind as she puts her baby to sleep. Music lovers also believe that the flowering of Swathi Thirunal's musical creativity owes a lot to Thampi's great lullaby. Anyone who has listened to the lullaby and also to Swathi's music will find it easy to agree. It is said by experts that this is possibly the first composition in the language which has attributes to a modern poem with many upamas or comparisons.

Irayimman Thampi (1783-1863), Swati Tirunal’s maternal uncle, who contributed three other masterpieces, Keechaka Vadha, Daksha Yagam and Uttara Swayamvaram and many hundred other compositions was the composer of Omana Thinkal Kidavo. Irayiman Thampi and his wife Kalli Pillai Thankachi were blessed with seven children including a daughter Kutty Kunju Thankachi (1820-1914) who continued her father's artistic and poetic legacy. Thankachi inherited the literary talents of her father and wrote three Kathakali plays: Srimathi Swayamvaram, Parvathi Swayamvaram and Mitrasaha Moksham. There is so much more to write about the poet but suffice to say that he was a great composer and very close to Swati Tirunal. In fact they both had the same Mudra or signature, being Padmanabha, resulting in many of his compositions even being wrongly attributed to Swati Tirunal, according to some experts.

Sadly Thampi who gave us this marvelous and ecstatic lullaby also had to endure the agony of composing Swati Tirunal’s death chant or Charama sloka. Thampi is also the author of the melodious Karuna cheyvan enthu and many others…

References

Please click the following links for a detailed write-up’s of Thampi

Carnatica article

Swati tirunal website article # 1

Swati tirunal website article # 2

Wikipedia

 

Pics

Swati as child – Swatitirunal website

Thampi – B&W image

The song sung by the maestros

Chitra version

Janaki Version

Yesudas version

Other versions

Lyrics & meaning

Click image to enlarge

This is a light article on Iryimman Thampi’s and his music as related to Swati Tirunal. The next one will cover a very interesting story of how the uncle created a poem for Swati Tirunal’s favorite courtesan Sugandhavalli, after her lovers tiff with the king.

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The Vale of Arjootz

A Hindu colony in ancient Armenia

Many years ago, an article in the TDN (Turkish Daily News – our English newspaper in Istanbul) mentioned a village in Turkey where some Indians had once lived. I faintly recollect that it had something to do with people from Malabar and possibly Khilafat, but I have since then failed to find any detail or a link to that article to corroborate. However some months ago, when fellow blogger and friend Nick Balmer tipped me to this story, I was not sure what to expect. But when I finished reading a few articles and Dr.Mesrob Jacob Seth’s article as well as his book Hindoos in Armenina, I was, so to say, stumped.

Since historic times, there have been all kinds of people visiting and living in what they called mystic and rich India, for in the old times, information and trade flow was quite free and we did not ask for visas and passports as others demand from Indians these days. But well, that was another time, I guess, and Armenians used to come to India as they did since the time of Semiramis and Indians used to go there, if they had to. Many a troubled person or ostracized tribe found their way to India like the troubled Syrians, Jews, Armeninas, the Parsis and so on and so forth. We accepted all, asked nothing in return. They lived their times in their chosen areas, and some like the Jews decided to leave back to Israel. The Armenians who thrived in India, especially Calcutta, Madras and Bombay vanished slowly, also leaving for other flourishing cities, after the British left. As Dr Seth Stated: They were hardly interested in politics, and rarely took part in intrigues, their field of action lay, rather, in the bazaars, the commercial marts, and the emporiums of India, over which they exercised vast influence, in the absence of any foreign commercial element, and thereby monopolized the greater portion of the export trade, which they carried on for a considerable period.

However I will just detail here an interesting account of the Hindus who once lived in a region in ancient Armenia, now part of Turkey. Having lived in Turkey, I had heard quite a bit about Armenia, though I had no clue about this until recently (Was this the village the TDN reporter mentioned? Perhaps it was and my memory is on the decline!). Further reading of the original article and work of Johannes Advall and Naira Mkrtchyan helped me understand the legend better.

To get to the bottom of this story or as many put it, legend, I have to take you to a remote place called Taron or Tarawn. Taron was a canton of the Turuberan province of Greater Armenia, now part of the Muş Province, Turkey. Mus (pronounced Mush) situated on a large plain in Eastern Anatolia, is a small city on the road from Bingöl to the Van Lake, near the Murat and Karasu rivers. Set amidst high mountains on all sides, lakes and lush green plains, it offers a weary traveler serene surroundings and a rarified air. The surrounding hills are covered with vineyards and oak scrub. Called Tarun by the Arabs, the town came under Ottoman domination in 1515 and was mostly destroyed by an earthquake in 1966. Sorry that all this sounds like a tourist brochure, but well, as you will soon see, the history of this small city starts in curious fashion. The story is known to us through the records of King Mamikonian and cleric Zenobius (Zenob Glak) titled History of Taron.

Interestingly the history of Taron began with the arrival of two Hindu princes from India, fleeing some 1500 miles from their home kingdom. This is the story of the Hindu colonies they established, and we will explore a bit of their life and times and the final decline after they and their priests were decimated and the reminder converted to Christianity by St Gregory the Illuminator. The final remenants can probably be found under the remains of the famed Saint Karapet monastery at Mus.

I have to take you back many centuries, this time to 149BC - Two princes named Gissaneh and Demeter after a failed conspiracy against King Dinaks pal (Pushyamitra?), the King of Kanauj, flee to Armenia, some 1500 miles away (must have been a mighty long and tiring journey through the mountain terrain) and request asylum from King Valarsaces (a brother of Arsaces the Great) and the founder of the Arsacidae dynasty which ruled Armenia as the story happened.

Let’s look at North India circa 149-148BC –Kannauj was an ancient city in UP, in earlier times the capital of Emperor Harsha. It was the tail end of the Mauryan dynasty’s rule. The Sungha dynasty was coming up after emperor Ashoka’s death and Pushyamitra was the king around 151BC (assuming that the brothers travelled for a couple of years to reach Armenia) and there were many wars afoot a period when apparently Buddhists were being persecuted (perhaps these two were actually Buddhist princes, but that theory does not hold forte for they raised statues and idols of worship at Taron). This was a time when the remaining Mauryans were conspiring against the new king Pushyamitra. It is surprising that the princes travelled westward instead of south or east where Buddhism was more prevalent, and which would have been more conducive, but the Sunga empire was vast and the borders far and wide. The name Gissaneh gives you a feeling that it was probably Yajnasena of the erstwhile Maurya dynasty, who according to historians later enters into a truce with Agnimitra (Kalidasa’s Malavikagnimitra), but as Dr Seth will explain later, may turn out to be somebody else, entirely.

Zenob, describes the Hindus whom he sees for the first time on his arrival in Armenia, with St.Gregory, the Illuminator, in the year 301 A.D thus – “These people have a most extraordinary appearance for they were black, long-haired and unpleasant to the sight, as they were Hindus by race”.

Gissaneh and Demeter settled down at the province of Taron where they built a nice city called Veeshap (which in Armenian means a Dragon) and a snake temple. They then moved to Ashtishat there they set up the gods which they had worshipped in India. But sadly, they were destined to die in this far away place, for they were, 15 years after their arrival, put to death by the king for which no reasons or motives are assigned by Zenob. These two were succeeded by three sons whose names were Kuars, Meghtes and Horean, and the Armenian king (I wonder why for the king had put their fathers to death in the first place, maybe he realized his folly later and repented by gifting to the sons), bestowed on them the colony and the principality of the province of Taron. Kuars built a small town and called it Kuar after his own name. Meghtes similarly built his town and named it Meghti after himself, whilst Horean built his town in the province of Poloonean and called it Horeans. They then went to a mountain called Karki (Ararat province aka Tigranashen in Azerbaijan) where they built their big temple and put up two gods named as Gisaneh and Demeter, after their murdered fathers.

These idols were apparently made of brass, the former, according to Zenob, was twelve cubits high, and the latter fifteen cubits and the priests appointed for the service of these gods were all Hindus. The Hindu colony thus flourished for a considerable time in Taron.

As Naira explains - Within a short period of time, the Indians built 20 towns, and in each of them they erected temples. Some of these towns, mentioned by Zenob, retained their names and existed till the middle of the nineteenth century. Until the early twentieth century, one of the villages in Taron was called Hindkastan (Armenian name for India). The names Hindubek, Hindu, Hindukhanuln, Hindumelik were often used by the Armenians of Taron. The Armenians of those districts, where the Indians were settled, used to enact the dance of Demeter and sing Indian melodies. Some scholars argue that the cult of Vahagen (the Armenian god of fire, as well as the conqueror of dragons) was introduced to the Armenians from the Indians, through the Indian god Agni. The Hindu population comprised over 15,000 members.

But it was not to last, for St.Gregory the Illuminator arrived with his troops, and had the many famous temples of Gisaneh and Demeter razed to the ground, the images broken to pieces whilst the Hindu priests who offered resistance were murdered on the spot, as faithfully chronicled by Zenob who was an eye-witness of the destruction of the Hindu temples and the gods. The Christians believed that the temple of Kissaneh was the "Gate of Hell and Sandaramet, the seat of a multitude of demons. On the site of these two temples at Taron, St.Gregory had a monastery erected where he deposited the relics of St John the Baptist and Athanagineh the martyr which he had brought with him from Ceaseria, and that sacred edifice, which was erected in the year 301 A.D., exists to this day and is known as St.Carapet of Moosh (Mus). This monastery was a place of pilgrimage for Armenians from all parts of the world, but that too was not to last for it was destroyed soon.

The story of the massacre can be read in detail in the e-links provided under references and I will not go into the gory details. The survivors in many thousands were converted to Christianity. Some of these converted Hindus adhered tenaciously to their old customs and religious practices. They went even further and taunted the Armenian princes by telling them that if they lived they would retaliate for the harsh treatment they had received at their hands, but if they died, the gods would wreak their vengeance on the Armenians on their behalf.

As Seth puts it, ‘Upon hearing this, the prince of the house of Angegh ordered them to be taken immediately to the city of Phaitakaran where they were incarcerated and their heads shaved as an insult and a sign of degradation. These prisoners numbered four hundred’. With that all rebellion stopped and these Hindus, who up to the advent of Christianity in Armenia had remained a distinct community gradually merged into the native Christian population, as no reference is made to them by any of the Armenian historians who came after Zenob.

Anyway, many would ask what happened to the many thousand of those Hindu setters in the region of Taron. Naira has some theories - There are some hypotheses on the fate of these Indians. These are: (i) they moved to the north and founded the city of Kyiv (or. Kiev, now the capital of Ukraine); (ii) they were absorbed into the Armenian population;(iii) they returned to India; and (iv) Armenian priests with their followers headed by the head priest Mamgoon joined the Hindus, taking with them ancient Armenian books. This last is a crucial fact for Armenia, as there are no books of the pre-Christian period in Armenia. Recently, it has been stated by some scholars that these Armenians came to India and settled in the Punjab and Kashmir. This statement could be true, given that Punjabis and Kashmiris look like, Armenians in their appearance and are similar in their habits and character. The people of the region believe that some remnants joined the gypsies or the Kurds, and that many of them spoke Sanskrit.

As for the Armenians, I wonder if the curse of the priests is still on their head. The monastery is gone, Taron was razed by an earthquake and the people of the region underwent much sorrow through the centuries. But one temple may have remained, as a chapel, as explained by Romesh Bhattacharji in his Frontline article.

References

Indian Settlement in Armenia and Armenian Settlements in India and South Asia - Naira Mkrtchyan

Armenians in India: from the earliest times to the present day - Mesrovb Jacob Seth

Memoir of a Hindu Colony in Ancient Armenia. - Johannes Avdall

Turkish Armenia and Eastern Asia Minor  - Henry Fanshawe Tozer

The Heritage of Armenian Literature: From the sixth to the eighteenth century - Agop Jack Hacikyan, Gabriel Basmajian, Edward S. Franchuk, Nourhan Ouzounian

History of Taron – John Mamikonean 

Check here for photos & videos of Mus

Link 1

Link 2

Link3

Pics

Google pics & Wikipeida– thanks

Mus pics – Adem Sonmez

Notes

1. Now what did Demeter and Gissaneh mean in the first place? Dr Seth believes that Gisaneh may have been the corrupt form of Krishna, and Demeter possibly Ganesh. As for the sons, Kuars according to him may be identified with Kailash, Meghtes with Mukti, Horean with Harendra and Artzan with Arjun, all of which are Hindu names of Ancient India. Arjootz was the term used for Hindus (Possibly people under the leadership of Arjun – Ajuwn mentioned in the Hindu article)

2. John Mamikonean (Hovhannes Mamikonean) is the author of the 7th century History of Taron, a continuation of the account of Zenob Glak (Zenobius). Zenob Glak was a 4th century Syrian who became the first abbot of the Glak monastery (also known as Surb Karapet Monastery) in the Taron region of Greater Armenia. He began the chronology that would become the History of Taron. The editors of the Heritage of Armenian Literature feel that both Zenobious and Mamikonean are pseudonyms of a court writer.

3. The St. Karapet Church of Mush doesn't exist anymore. The Kurdish village of Changly is there now. The village has sprung up right where the church used to be. And the church has disintegrated in the village – over the decades the church stones have been used to build new Kurdish houses. The Mayor of Changly says, “I feel very sorry. What fools our fathers were to destroy this church. If the church were still standing our villagers would make their living selling tan to tourists. If you can give us old pictures and drawings of the church we could rebuild it even partly to attract tourists to the village.” The Varagavank, partly destroyed, has become a very important source of profit for the Kurdish village. They sell needlework in the chapel. The church has turned into a kind of art gallery.

4. Check out this Frontline article on Romesh Bhattacharji’s trip to those regions.

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