Muziris an Enigma

‘’ Flowing waters have their truth and untruths. In the great flow of waters, new shores are formed. This is the rhythm of nature where new shores are formed and old ones vanish. When maps are tempered by water, new shores break out, new pieces of land new contours and new settlements are born “
                         

 Excerpts from the ‘’Saga of MUZIRIS’’ by SETHU

History is akin to the flow of the waters; it traverses its path. We only look back and assume, the contours of evidence left by those flow of events. Somewhere before or maybe a few decades after the Christian era, Greek vessels set sail to coastal India taking advantage of the monsoonal winds that flow towards the southern coast. A secret, hitherto held by the Arabs but revealed to the Greeks by Hippalus. (Hippalus did not discover the monsoon winds as claimed by many Western literature. He just got hold of an Arab Secret) Monsoonal winds helped the masted vessels flow fast. As a result, hordes of high-mast wooden ships with multiple oars flowed with the wind with gold on board searching for the black gold and ivory traded by southern kingdoms.

On one of those vessels traveled an unknown sailor who wrote about the circumnavigation of the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf, which was then called the Erythrean Sea. His work was later known as the ‘’Periplus of Erythrean Sea and it described ports and sea routes starting from Berenike (Egypt) to Taprobane (Sri Lanka), He wrote about the markets of Damirica (konkan) and after reaching the kingdom of Tyndis the land ruled by the Cerobothra (Cheras) they berthed at a riverine port called Muziris beyond which is Colchi (Cochin) and Komori (Kanyakumari). During the same period Pliny, the elder was writing his Natural History at Rome lamenting at the women at Rome for their desire for muslin from India and the consequent flow of Roman gold to India. He too wrote about a riverine port called Muziris. Decades later perhaps even a century ago, Claudius Ptolemy was writing “Geography” of the region vividly mentioning the ports, kingdoms, and markets of Southern India and mentioning a Port called Muziris. Long before that Megasthenes, the great ambassador in the court of Chandragupta Maurya wrote about an emporium of trade ruled by the charmae (read chera) inferred as  Muziris. But before all that Sugreeva and his team is said to have passed a town called Murachipattanam on their journey to Lanka in search of Sita (Ramayana)

Soon later the travelling minstrels of the Sangam Era were singing melodies on the beautiful ships of yavanas (Greeks )embarking at muciri (Muziris), coming with gold and going away with pepper.

                                                                

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Sitting in front of the Marthoma Church at Azhikode near my hometown of Kodungalore in the Thrisoor District of Kerala  ( St Thomas is believed to have arrived here which led to the emergence of Christianity in Kerala ) and looking at the fishermen and women in the vicinity cleaning their woven fishing nets in their hamlets, I was imagining about merchants and sailors unloading gold sacks and loading sacks of pepper into roman ships while waiting for the retreating monsoonal winds to sail back. Not that far away from my location at an estuary called Pattanam archaeologists from the Kerala Historical Society were digging hard in search of a port from a bygone era remnant of which they think lies somewhere beneath. Where was this port exactly?

The anecdote of the Muziris saga was first documented in a historical context by none other than Nilkanda Shastri in his magnum opus ‘’ History of South India" where Muziris was identified as a port in the Chera kingdom which traded with the Western world. Cheras had their capital in Mahodayapuram or present-day Kodungalore during a period named the Sangam period, referring to a time when the then eminent Tamil scholars assembled and prepared their choicest literature which was rendered like anthologies. The trinity of the Sangam period were the kingdoms of  Chera, Chola, and Pandyas who ruled -both with matrimonial alliances and with mutual wars- in an area south of the Krishna River. Commerce in these kingdoms depended on fishing and sea-borne trade and thrived over what we today call a Blue Ocean Economy. Merchandise was carted through the Palghat pass of the Western Ghats to Muziris port in Malanadu (Kerala) for onward shipments which included ivory, rice, and woodwork. Spices abundant on the hill slopes prominent among them being the black pepper was the most demanded due to its culinary and curative use.  As barter for this  black gold, the yellow metal flowed  into the coffers of merchants and kings 

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All prominent historians in Kerala like Shri K P Padmanabha Menon, Rajan Gurukal, MGS Narayanan, and KM Panikker to name a few, have all written about the genesis of this port in the annals of Kerala’s ancient maritime history with consensus about the location of the port being somewhere near the present Kodungalore where the Periyar River flows into the Arabian Sea. There is also folklore in Kodungalore about a tsunami or flood that destroyed the city and its trade center sometime in the 13th century. However, excavations have only revealed materials like potteries from the 13^th century in addition to a  Portuguese trade Centre. Kerala Historical Society through the Pattanam archaeological research project is excavating the Pattanam area south of the present kodungalore for clues on where the port was. This has also not prevented authorities from planning for the Musiris heritage project with the firm assumption that the port is indeed in and around Kodungalore

The prime hypothesis is that Musiris is indeed at the present Kodungalore, historians both amateurs and professionals did come up with alternate locations as well. As per SW Hunter, the Musiris could be anywhere from the current port of Goa to areas in central Kerala. Though a wild assumption. based on this, some historians have claimed that Muziris is the present Old Mangalore Port. Citing the unknown sailor’s account called the ’Periplus of Erythrean Sea about the location Tyndis (northern Kerala) they argue that Muziris is Mangalore. Some historians and academics argued this port was never on the western coast but on the eastern sea near the Kaveri River. However, a document discovered in 1985 called Muziris papyrus something like today's charter party agreement, proves beyond doubt that the place was factually on the western coast only.

 

In this context, a new argumentative assumption is now brought forward by Anto George a Kerala-based amateur historian through his book ‘’ Discovery of Muziris’ where he tries to establish a new antiquity to the ancient port. His book is based on the hypothesis that Munchirai near the banks of the west Tamraparni River near Kanyakumari is the real Muziris. Taking inference from Ptolemy’s Geography the book makes a convincing argument of this new hypothesis.  He refers to an ancient text Tamraparni Mahatmyam devotional literature in Sanskrit, which mentions the flow of five rivers from Gupta Sringa - Potigai malai in the Kerala Tamil Nadu border- from where Tamraparni river flows to the southeastern coast. He claims that the Culli River of the Sangam literature and the river named by Ptolemy as Pseudostomos may be the same. Through that inference, he points out that Munchirai near the banks of this river may be the original Muziris. However, he humbly admits that his hypothesis needs more research to be proven right or wrong.

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As we ponder the enigma of where and how we lost MUZIRIS, maybe oceanographic archaeology could find an answer.

Sethu concludes in his novel “An artist is somebody who sees something not easily visible…. In a moment a new  Mucheri will fill him... 

Well Muziris is not artistry but history, till then let's believe that Muziris was Kodungalore 

Why the Leftist Ideology is Antithetic to Nationalist Aspiration in a Neo-Globalised World

The '50s of the twentieth century was the romantic period of the communist movement. The reasons were many.  In geopolitics, the Soviet Union with the communist bloc held sway. For the first time in India, a communist government came to power in a tiny state in southern India -Kerala under EMS Namboodhirpad. The Kerala Agrarian Relation Bill which the first communist State in India enacted took away ownership rights from landlords having excess land and transferred the same to the tenants and agriculture labourers.  In the same period, the communists got the West Bengal Land Reforms Act 1955 passed with a similar ceiling on landholding. Both these Acts were enacted based on contemporary Marxist narratives to give land to the land less a good intention. However, history proved that land reforms did not create an inclusive industrial development in both states but only trade unionism and lack of capital formation. In Kerala, land reforms had a retributive reaction in the form of '' Vimochana Samaram'' a larger movement led by the Nair/Menon community in Kerala under the able leadership of their leader, Sri Mannath Padmanabha Menon and duly supported by the Congress Party and the influential church. The outcome- The Nehru government dismissed the EMS Govt in Kerala in 1959. However, the communists held themselves as a National Political party since then running governments in West Bengal, Tripura, and intermittently in Kerala, much propelled by the proximity of the Indian State to the Soviet Union in the Cold War era. 

The 21st Century was a period of nemesis to the Marxian narratives. Dismantling of the communist bloc and the emergence of a globalized world order, the triumph of the free market economy, and communists in China leading a market-led growth, among many, progressively resulted in a situation where the communist party was disqualified from the label of a National Party in 2023 by the Election Commission of India. Currently, the leftist doesn’t have any double-digit representation in the Lok Sabha

After the first decade of the twenty-first century, a new form of nationalist aspirations started sweeping the world marked by nativism, protectionism, and right-wing narratives began sweeping the world with its reflection in India under the leadership of Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party. Interestingly western intelligentsia and press, tacitly observing nationalist re-assertions in Western democracies were the first to cry foul on nationalist reassertion in India which echoed with the slogan Sabke Saat Sab Ka Vishwas and sab ka Prayas, an inclusive political narrative albeit centered around the Hindu cultural and civilization pride. Sensing this the Economist wrote “All societies draw on nationalism of one sort or another to define relations between the state, the citizen, and the outside world, and new nationalists are riding high on promises to close borders and restore societies to a past homogeneity. The Western press laments this so-called ‘'de-democratization of India'' and the essence of this rhetoric is only due to the loss of a soft power that they enjoyed by creating convenient narratives piggybacked over the so-called intellectual left in India. This was well articulated by India's foreign minister to the Western press when he said "The West has a bad habit of commenting on others and they somehow think that it is their right".

It is in these contours that we need to understand the antitheism of the left narratives against nationalism and understand its genesis. The origin of the disinterest of the Left in national aspirations through cultural revival starts with Antonio Gramsci who developed the concept of ‘’cultural hegemony’’ as a derivative of the Marxian theory of ‘’dominant ideology of society’’ which reflects the beliefs and interests of the ruling class. The hegemony of a singular culture as a ‘’ superstructure’’ above that, is according to Gramsci the greatest impediment to establishing the rule of the proletariat. Hence unless cultural hegemony is challenged there is no loophole for a revolution in the society. In India, the earlier communists had realized India’s long-connected history. They knew that it is the soul of the nation that acts like a superstructure of its existence. Later years Deen Dayal Upadhyay a nationalist ideologue in India called this wholeness CHITI which forms the essence of our nationhood, Chitti is nontangible and is indeed the personality of the nation, and destroying this superstructure is indeed the first step to be taken for a revolution of the proletariat in India.

The superstructure named CHITTI being nonphysical and composed of beliefs attitudes emotions and feelings can be dismembered only through an ideological narrative of redefinition of whatever contributes to CHITI. Here comes the Marxian view of India of defining our society culture and history through a dismantling narrative which was first attempted by Marx himself but later carried on by his comrades in India. It is this strategy of dismantling the superstructure through newer narratives is the genetic code of all leftist analysis be it sociological historical or political.

On the political side, it has two objectives. Firstly, it was through affiliation with a movement of Islamists in the early 20s of the centuries called mujahirs who believed in creating the Islamic State of India and fighting colonial rule. MN Roy the earliest communist ideologue was instrumental in assimilating disgruntled mujahirs who left India and formed the communist party. Since then a global unholy alliance of leftists with Islamists is now well-researched and documented which was started by MN Roy in India and the Bolsheviks in Russia. The best alliance that can happen in a country like India, is an alliance with a counterforce that successfully ruled the Indian subcontinent for 500 years. 

The communist support for the division of India where PC Joshi declared that an anti-imperialist organization like the muslim league expressing the freedom urge of the Muslim people that its demand for Pakistan was a demand for self-determination is another example. This unholy alliance was very much reflected in the later writings of communist ideologues when they were caricaturing Maplah's Violence of the genocide of Hindus in Kerala into a freedom movement of Muslim peasant struggle against the British. Sir C Shankaran Nair in his book Gandhi and Anarchy systematically explains the atrocities committed against Hindus, particularly from Nair /Namboothiri communities. I also recall the oral testimony of my paternal grandfather whose family history traces forced migration from Malabar to Kochi. This unholy alliance continues even today and the central government's banning of the PFI and the tacit communist backing for them is well known through the media

The second political narrative is in dismantling the idea of a singular nation. In 1942 the communist party while supporting the two-nation theory of the Muslim League,  declared that India couldn’t claim to be a single nation. Later published by its general secretary G Adhikari the narrative goes that every section of the Indian society has the right to self-declaration ‘’ based on common language culture and psychological makeup”

Creating a history that emphasizes India’s underbelly to be hollow, with the systemic glorification of invasion and negation of local resistance is one aspect. Defining Indian feudalism through the prism of Marxian definitions, and undermining the developments of science and philosophy in India was another. Securing positions in academic institutions and self-proclaiming itself as Liberal left and ensuring those narratives be part of the national curriculum was indeed part of this counter to the hegemony of the culture

Since this is not a research paper, covering enormous such cases of dismantling the hegemony systematically asserted by the left is beyond the purpose of this essay. However, what is significant is in the era of neo-globalization and as we have seen in the COVID times enhancing the CHITI and converting that energy to national development and reasserting our nationhood is paramount as human existence is under threat from pandemics and climate change.  A strong nation with hard and soft power and a civilizational history of amalgamation of cultures and considering the world as one as Vasudaiva kudumbakam is the need of the hour. Political and Social movements irrespective of the party in power should be singular in protecting our national oneness and ensure we move away from the left narrative of our culture religion and ethos. Dismantling the leftist ecosystem in India is hence should be the priority of each citizen

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Rajesh Menon is an educationalist, infrastructure professional, and author