Blended Sabha Blended Architecture

Mosque? Church? Temple? Western or Eastern? Roman or Antiochene?

 

Some call the St. John's Cathedral in Thiruvalla as Puttukuttipally but I am in all praise for it ever since I decided to take a closer look at it recently. Unlike Perumthachan's temple pond this is not just an illusion; it is a good blend of all the characteristics of sabha onto one structure. If one go a little closer the outsides resembles typical Keralite temple architecture. But once inside it is Roman Catholic in its cathedral-styled grandiosity but at the same time Antiochene-Syrian in the settings.

 

Much of the beauty in any Syrian church is in the characteristic bright red veils hiding the Sanctum Sanctorum (Madbaha); here the reddishness goes great with the reddish-brown woodwork that make up the whole of the madbaha.

And BTW this church enshrines has some 5 Holy Relics.

 

Considering the atrocities committed on some of the ancient churches of this region (a few of them being as old as Christianity) this one stands out, in my view, as a very well thought of design especially considering that this is very new construction. The Syro-Malankara Catholic church authorities and/or the architects took pains to include all the elements the sabha stands for while not in any way reducing it's modernity and flambouyancy. When most of the old churches are losing their originality and beauty this new one tries to bring them back.

 

 

Catholic, Antiochene and Keralite. Great work Brethren! For this, the loads of church funds didn't go to waste.

The Suriyanis Ignoramus

Here are some facts and figures thats you will NOT get from your Sunday schools:
 

 

§           First of all, know that Syriac like Sanskrit is more ecclesial; rarely spoken. Broadly classified into two types : West-Syriac (Serto) and East-Syriac (Chaldean). Aramaic is a language using the the Syriac script. Aramaic, and NOT hebrew, is said to be the mother tongue of Jesus.

 

§           The landing and the martyrdom, of Saint 'the doubting' Thomas in Mylapore-Madras is not fully agreed by many historians and Christians. The Vatican Shepherd recently informed his flocks that the farthest Thomas could have come is Pakistan and NOT Kerala

§           But if the Thomas legend (of South India) can be proven true, then the SyrChrs community in Kerala would be as old as Christianity itself. To highlight this fact: There were churches in Kerala, India, and Christians living peacefully here then when Europeans were still barbaric and when the Americas weren't even discovered!!

 

§           Ethnically, most SyrChrs maybe composed of a dash of Jewish, Babylonian and Persian genes in a bowl of Keralite chromosomes. The Namboothiri connections maybe true but it is not the only truth; there were converts from most other castes too. Refer the various origin stories and the DNA project.  

§           True, most SyrChrs must have enjoyed very high status and royal privileges in the past but this had more to do with them being enterprising, learned and affluent than for caste-ic reasons.

§           SyrChrs are sometimes called Nazaranis (Nazarenes?). They are in some places also called Mapillas because of their honorary titles and maybe because of their Middle Eastern (Jewish) connection. They maybe who were referred to as Issanis (Essenes) in one of the oldest literature: the Manimekalai.

§           As per some historians, in the early first millennium there was 'Mani' flow in SyrChr history accounts; the words Manimekalai, Mani, Manigrammam, and Manivachakkar littering the still surviving pointers. Some say that many SyrChr were influenced back into paganism during this time. This so-called 'paganism' could be some sort of Buddhism, maybe.

§           Many of the original seven and a half churches established by Saint Thomas are disputed and some do not exist today. The Kodungalloor church was probably washed off in the floods of 1341; Pandian bandits and elephants may have destroyed the Nilackal church; the Quilon church is said to be now somewhere 2 km into the sea; Arthattu church, at Kunnumkulam, which claims to be the site of the real Palayoor church was razed to the ground by Tipu's padayottom 

§           NOTE: For at least 50 years (between 1599 and 1653) almost ALL churches in Kerala were (forcibly) latinized' by the Portuguese!

§           The Portuguese ordered the burning of all the SyrChr 'heretical' texts, so we are left with blanks and confusions about SyrChr history prior to 1599.

§           The coonen cross satyam of 1653 held by the SyrChrs at Mattancherry maybe the very first show of Indian-ness in India. And maybe even the first revolt against foreign rule in India. Here, it was against the Parankees (Portuguese). BTW, The coonen (bent) cross is actually straight now! :-)

§           The chain reaction of the many splits to happen in the Malankara/Malabar sabha was triggered from this point in time onwards. Also migrations southwards after many churches were lost in the Malabar (North) region to Catholic loyalists.

§           What represents the Syrian-ness in Kerala today is the following using one form of Syriac in their respective liturgies:

• One Nestorian ( Assyrian Church of the East) group,
• One Reformed or Protestant-equivalent (Marthoma church) group,
• Three Catholic (Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankara and Knanaya Catholic) groups, and
• Four Orthodoxy (Jacobite, Indian Orthodox, Knanaya Jacobite and Independent) groups

§           Each of the above factions believes they are the original and the others broke off from them! In fact NO faction today is like the pre-Portuguese period. Too complex to explain here which church did the SyrChrs ancestors belonged to; that's another post.

§           In 1784, our hero Tippu Sultan went on a trip into the Malabar region, destroying many ancient temples and churches and forcibly converting many Christians and Hindus to Muslims. This led to another wave of large migrations to the mid and south Kerala. This why we have more concentrations of SyrChrs starting Thrissur southwards.

 

§           There are more Orthodoxes southwards and Syro-Malabar Catholics Northwards. So it's also easy to understand why there are only 2 orthodox seven-and-a-half churches, Niranam and Thiruvancode, and both of these in the south.

 

§           The Mar-Thoma cross or Sleeba (jokingly called Klaver-kurish) maybe a Manichean cross. The SyrChrs would have adopted it when the Mani followers merged with them in order to avoid Portuguese persecution. Some say it's Nestorian in origin. Both Manicheanism and Nestorianism are considered to be heretical by the mainstream Christianity; however this cross is currently the only linking identity among the SyrChr factions.

 

§           Kadamattom Kathanar was not a Capuchin monk as portrayed in that Chandrakanda styled serial on Asianet channel :)

 

§           There are in Kerala 20 times the Syrian Christian population in Antioch and its surrounding regions. There is almost zero Syrian Christian population in Persia (Iran) now. In fact Kerala is the one of the very few places in the world where the dying language, Syriac-Aramaic, is still being used in liturgies and taught at Universities here.

 

§            The places Antioch, Edessa, Mardin and Tur-Abdin are not in present day Syria but in Turkey! FYI, Antioch is where the first converts called themselves Christians. Tur-Abdin is supposedly the ancestral native place of Parumala Thirumeni .

 

§           Kerala also has a unique place in the Catholic world for accomodating 4 different types of the sharbtho: Latin, Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankara and the Knanaya. 

 

§           And MANY of the above facts are un-known to 99% of the current SyrChr population!

The Malsabha of yore

Malayali SyrChr freshmen like me are drawn to the history of Syrian Christians of Kerala (SyrChrs) mainly to find answers to two particular questions:

1. What sort of Christianity prevailed here originally? That is before the arrival of the Portuguese. Were we originally Orthodox or Catholic?
2. What does it mean to be a SyrChr? 

Lets consider the historical facts and come to a conclusion ... rather a concensus. Many SyrChrs will have difficulty accepting this given the kind of conditioning we have had all through our formative years.

 

So what was the Malsabha: the sabha (church/community) of Malabar or Malankara?

 

Was it Syro-Malabar Catholic?

No. The Syro-Malabars were labeled 'Pazhayakoor' (old party) only because they had retained the previously-prevelant Chaldean liturgy, which was then later sadly discontinued. Moreover, there are no proper evidence of "Catholicism" gaining any proper foothold in Kerala prior to the Portuguese.

 

Was it the Jacobite?

Not either, a large-scale formal association with this sect occurred only after the 1653 coonen cross oath. These associates are labeled 'Puthenkoor' because this section of the Malsabha after the 1653 schism changed their earlier liturgical language from Chaldean (East-Syriac) to West-Syriac. 

However most Oriental churches were supposed to be within the larger umbrella of influence under the Patriarch of Antioch, which is hard-core Syrian Orthodox (i.e Jacobite). But the reality was that these churches were left to fend for themselves most of the time. 

 

Was it the Latin Catholic?

Again, since there is little proof of Latin Catholic presence prior to the Portuguese the answer tends to be negative. However there is a record of at least one such station in Kerala since 13th century but little knowledge of the size of the crowd. There just might have been just a handful of Latin Catholics since then.

 

Was it any of these: Indian Orthodox Church, Syro-Malankara Catholic, Marthoma or the Thozhiyoor sabha?

No, all of these are new splinter groups from the Jacobite stream.

 

Was it Assyrian or what is otherwise called Nestorian?

Not exactly. Since the Malsabha was a kind-of disillusioned lot they accepted spiritual-leadership from whoever came in 'Syriac' (Middle-Eastern) vestments.

The Assyrian church of the East had managed to seep much into hinterland Asia (India, China etc) prior to the Portuguese. It is suspected that from 5th century most of the Malsabha were Nestorian. One research points out that the Malsabha mass, pre-Portuguese, had some oddities of both Antiochian and Assyrian rituals. Anyways, the Nestorian foothold slipped when the majority of the Malsabha discarded them in the Portuguese finger-points at heresy.

 

 

From my gatherings so far, at least from the 3rd century to the coming of the Portuguese, the Malsabha was a bunch of estranged parishes segregated across kingdom lines. It seems it was meant to be part of the Chaldean Orthodoxy and to be governed from Babylon. But since this centre positioned Nestorianism very early, the Malsabha was also infected soon (not in negative sense)

And IF there was a Malsabha before the 3rd century it should have been bunch of neo-Christian groups, led by a community pastor, paralleling the Judeo-Christian groups of early christianity.

Yeastier Easter

Today in the break between yeasty breads and drinks, I decided it's time to launch this blog. Easter Sunday is wonderful for the palette and therefore for the mind :)

Many of the disillusioned-us do not know what it means to be Suriyani Kristhiyani (Syrian Christian): confused by what one sees and hears, distrustful ofwhat we were taught and with no knowledgeable to ask to. When asked, instead of the truth one gets only twisted history, pomposity, rhetoric and misdirection. There is very little unbiased written source … that is if there is any. The long and complicated Qurbana (mass) and that too some in an alien language offer no spirituality for the ignorant masses except misery on a free Sunday. For want of peace, many have actually turned extreme. One can see many transforming into rationalists, atheists or born-again(s), which in my view is nothing but an escape. Only knowledge and confrontation of the Truth delivers; it liberates and brings us back in unity and possibly towards the Divine too.

This blog is an attempt on articles on the SyrChr(s) traditions, views and history from confirmed neutrals! So what is presented is what we know, minus the bias ... as much as we can. When each of us started out with our individual researches into Malayali Syrian Christianity we realized that centuries of schisms, rivalry and internal politics have left the common man in utter ignorance and disregard. Much of the written history is lost, damaged or purposefully destroyed; the traditions fast disappearing to 'reformed' new-age minds and heritage unheard by the new; many of the surviving relics of the past are either unkempt or masked by new concrete. In short, most part of the truth is still elusive and yet to be discovered.

And interestingly, while in the endeavour to find answers we agnostics found beauty and pride in what was previously detestable to us. The SyrChr antiquity and uniqueness is worth continuing with our treasure hunt.