Tellicherry, The British Influence
The spices of Malabar, virgin beaches, a variety of folk arts, the forts and majestic monuments in both Kannur and Tellicherry make this an attractive destination for all foreigners centuries ago. The northernmost part of Kolathnadu was called so - Thalakkathe Later to be known as Tellicherry by the British and then
named Thalaserry recently.
Then I was working at Tellicherry General Hospital about 5 years ago and astonished the British influence there is every aspect of life. To me, there is a treasure of historic activities which lead eventually Indian colonization as well as modernization I would say. I was sitting the very near or some same building that itself have a lot of stories, the Fort of Tellicherry. In the evening I explored the surrounding areas and town and found more and more evidence and remains of the above-said colonisation. I have regularly visited this School near to my Hospital, in the evenings., only to enjoy the beautiful creativity.
The British settled in 1682 and set their strongholds here by the Arabain
sea. They built a seaport to transport the famous Tellicherry peppers and built a fort by the sea to protect the trade (1708). An unsuccessful attack was carried out by Hyder Ali in 1781.
SPICE of Malabar Was the Attraction
Thalassery was the northernmost settlement and in British Era referred to as "Thalakkathe", which literally meant "head" (Thalak) and “direction” (kathe) in the Malayalam.(തലക്കത്തെ ചേരി) Tellicherry was known for its spices. Even today Tellicherry pepper, ground from locally grown black peppercorns, is famous around the globe. There are pieces of evidence of trade with Romans, Greeks and Arabians in ancient times. The rulers of Kolathunad were known as Kolathiris and had political and commercial rivalry with the Zamorins in the South. The Zamorin had gained wealth and power with the help of trade with the Arabs.
ODATHIL PALLI
It is located in the centre of the Thalassery city in Kerala. It was constructed in the year 1806 and it is believed that this mosque is 208 years old mosque. It is believed that it was constructed by the Arab merchant.
History
The place of the Odathil Palli was used as the sugarcane garden of the Dutch.( And later it went into the hands of the British East Indian company. Chowakkaran Moosa, a local trader of Thalassery, one of the earliest to source and supply spices from Malabar to the British, was later made in charge of the upkeep of Odathil Palli.Moosakaka a Muslim person worked under the British East India Company . Due to his loyalty and truthfulness the British East Indian company presented the sugarcane garden to Moosakaka. Then he built the attractive and charming mosque in Karimbin-odam കരിമ്പിൻ ഓടം which belongs to the Dutch. The word in Malayalam refers as garden and Palli means mosque. As the mosque was constructed in the garden it is called Odathil Palli. It is also called as Garden mosque.
Architecture
It was constructed in the traditional Kerala style of Architecture in the year 1806. This mosque is the unusual combination of both Hindu and Muslim traditional architecture. The mosque is covered with wooden walls and copper plated roofs and along with golden doom. Brahmins opposed to keeping this doom in the mosque as it is their customs.It has neither a central dome nor minarets, instead, there is a roof covered in copper sheets and wooden walls and pillars with intricate carvings. Then the Zamorin ruler granted to keep the golden doom in the mosque. And it is again reconstructed with the assistance of Portuguese Fundaceo Oriente organization in Lisbon. Only Muslim peoples are allowed inside the mosque. The graveyard is located opposite to the mosque belongs to the Moosa family and CP Moosa, the great-great-grandson of the founder of the Moosa clan, runs the boutique homestay Ayisha Manzil in Thalassery
Note the only modification done is a small minaret constructed in modern times. I don't know when it modified. It is believed that Zamorin granted to keep the golden doom.
Title: "Panoramic view of Tellicherry seen from a rock in the sea." Creator: Richter, Christian Georg (Mr) Date: 05.07.1855-31.05.1860 |
Tellicherry is the name given by the British.
Records show its original name to
be Thalassery. Even this is a distortion of the original references made to this area. After the reign of the Chera dynasty (9th to 12th century), Kerala was broken into smaller regions under chieftains. One of such regions was
Kolathunadu of which In 1498, they had a Portuguese visitor, Vasco Da Gamma. The Kolathiri extended their offer of
trade with the Portuguese with the hope that the Portuguese would help them to
acquire wealth and power the same way as Zamorins had with the help of the
Arabs.
Even today, the rivalry between Kolathiris and Zamorins are stored
and relived in the form of folk dance or songs called vadakkanpattu (ballads of
North Kerala). Songs and stories about the legendary Kolathunad hero, Thacholi
Othenan, who lived in the 16th century, are abounding. Thacholi Othenan is short
for Thacholi Meppayil Kunjhu Othenan, i.e. Othenan was born in the family of
Manikoth in Thacholi (near present day Vatakara). However, Othenan original name
was Udayana. He was an extraordinarily skilled warrior and an exponent of
Kalarippayattu (ancient martial art form of Kerala). Even the powerful Zamorin
respected him. The Kolathiri’s relations with the Portuguese traders however,
soured very quickly due to the Portuguese policy of religious persecution and
forcible conversion. Loyalties shifted quickly and an alliance between the
Kolathiri and the Zamorin was established and in 1558 against the Portuguese.
The Kolathiris came openly into the field against the Portuguese.
European’s settling
Clive of India
Nirad Choudhuray in his book “Clive of India”, mentions
Thalassery to be the first place that British established a settlement in India.
The settlement came up in 1682, after obtainning permission from the
Vadakkilamkur, The Prince of Kolattunad. The Keyi family was instrumental in
helping the British to establish their settlement in Tellicherry. The Keyi
Family procured spices from native farmers and supplied it to the British
traders. To carry out trade of a variety of spices such as pepper and cardamom
from Thalassery, they built a seaport in Tellicherry. The “Kadalpallam” (Pier)
stands as an evidence of trade that took place from Tellicherry. Typical of the
British-French rivalry, the French also around this period established a
settlement (present day Mahé), south of Thalassery. The two settlements were
separated by the river Mahé and suitably nicknamed the English Channel.
A
question that comes to mind is whether the coincidence of Vasco Da Gamma lead to
these European’s settling in Thalaserry with it’s proximity to the sea or there
were any other compelling reasons. A possible answer to this is obtained from
various travellers’ diaries which have vividly described Thalaserry of those
days. Conrad Malte-Brun in his book “Universal Geography: Or A Description of
All Parts of the World“ describes the villages in the region as the neatest in
India where the houses were built of mud that was well smoothed and painted with
roofs thatched with palm leaves to prevent the mud from being washed away by the
rains. Also, the Europeans found the climatic conditions amiable.
East India Company
The
natives of this area however, did not approve the British presence and in 1704
they organised a revolt against them. In due course of time (1708), the East
India Company fortified their position and built a fort by the sea to protect
and control their spice trade. The square fort, with its massive walls, secret
tunnels to the sea was an imposing structure. The disintegration of the
Kolathiri's dominion had started and with the death of Prince Udaya Varman in
1746, the English fanned dissensions in the royal family. The British started
taking control of more and more area by purchasing land through consorts of the
royal family. Tellicherry fort also witnessed attacks by Haider Ali (Mysore) in
1781. Repelling these attacks and to protect their commercial interest both
personnel and that of the East India Company, such wars convinced Clive and
Hasting the need to take administrations directly into the companies hand.
British administration
Finally Tellicherry, Kolathunad and large areas of North Kerala was
for the administrative purpose given the status of a district, the district of
Malabar. Malabar was made a part of the Madras Presidency in 1800. Major Macleod
took charge as the first principal collector of Malabar on October 1,1801. The
British administration was to evolve a judicial system for Malabar. In fact they had already promulgated a code for the administration of civil and criminal
justice in 1793. Malabar district was divided into the District Judgeships of
North and South Malabar, with headquarters at Tellicherry and Calicut
respectively. Communication saw improvement in the district under the British administration. The coming of the plantation industry in Wynad and Coorg gave a
spurt to road building activities in this region. A road from Cannanore to Coorg was constructed in 1848-1851. The construction of the Tellicherry Lighthouse in
1835 as an aid to navigation furthers the importance the Bristish attached to
Tellicherry. Lord Murdoch Brown arrived in ‘Ancharakkandy’ (Tellicherry) around
1850 with the East India Company. Gradually, he acquired a lot of landed
property in the region. He then started to document the acquired property by systematically measuring the property’s length and breadth. Soon he started maintaining records of demarcating boundaries of properties belonging to the locals. Thus, he created history and gave a new model of administration. This was the modest beginning of the Registration Department. The Madras Presidency
recognized the importance of this process of Registration and officially made
this Department a part of its administration from 1-1-1865 in Malabar, at
Thalassery District Office.
Educational institutes
The British also promoted modern education
and their missionaries established schools and colleges in Tellicherry. These
institutes stand even today. Foremost among them are B.E.M.P High school and
Brennen College. B.E.M.P High school (Barsel Evangelic Mission Parsy) is the
first English Medium school set up in Thalassery.This was the first school set
up at Thalassery founded in the 1851. Brennen College, one of the oldest
educational institutions in the region. The college evolved from a school
established by English philanthropist Edward Brennen, who had made Thalassery
his home. Another important educational institute of Tellicherry is St Joseph’s
School which was established as apart of the Holy Rosary Church. The Church
itself was established in the early years of 16th century. Herman Gundert, a
German missionary who lived in Thalassery, wrote the first Malayalam dictionary
(Malayalam-English) in 1872. Even in early 1900’s Tellicherry’s educational
institutes retained a reputation and V. K. Krishna Menon was sent to completed
his school education from Thalassery Municipal School, even though his father
was a very rich man and the family lived in Calicut, nearly 100km south of
Tellicherry.
Efforts of the Missionaries
Another contribution of missionaries is even felt today. The high rate of literacy in Kerala and especially in Malabar
region has been due to the early efforts of the Missionaries. The missionary
Christian Mullar brought a hand press, which printed ‘Malayalam Almanac’, to
Illikunnu from Mangalore on 23, October 1945. Muller established the press known
as “Tellicherry Mission Press” at Illikkunnu because it was the headquarters of
Basal Mission in Thalassery and an Englishman who was a judge of Thalassery had
donated a bungalow there for Basal Mission. It was in this bungalow that the
hand press was established. It was known in Malayalam as ‘Thalassery
Chhapitham’. The books brought out from here also had the inscription as
‘Thalassery Chhapitham’. This press was working till 1864. The Basal Mission
brought out the first newspaper in Malayalam, which started publishing from
Thalassery in June 1847. It was named “Rajyasamacharam“. Basal Mission
activities in North Kerala flourished under Dr. Herman Gundert. Along with the
British, came their way of life. As stated in “Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine” of
1892, `The Englishmen carries his cricket bat with him as naturally as his gun
case or his India rubber bath.
The 3 C's: Cricket,Cake,Circus
Colonel Arthur Wellesley (Waterloo fame)
is believed to have brought the game to this Malabar region town in the late
1790s. For a long time Tellicherry was the only Ranji Tropy playing centre of
Kerala. It was here that the British also introduced cakes and the Mambally
Bakery established in 1880 still stands, a testimony of history. Along with
cultural influences, the British traders also took female companions from the
local population. This resulted in a small population whose features were distinctly different from the natives of the region.
Population
However, such influences
were not just after the advent of the British in 1640’s. Migratory population
and traders/visitors from abroad mingled with the local population. The Arab
influence on the local population is distinct. Also, around 1360 AD families of
Saraswats Brahmins, from North settled in Tellicherry. Even today, descendents
of these Saraswats Brahmins live as a small community near Mukunda Talkies in
Tellicherry. Most of them were engaged in trade of selling flowers for marriages
and temple offerings. Today there is much scientific interest in studying how
far and how much genetic mixing might have taken place.
Today’s Tellicherry
Diasporas of
Tellicherry are now all over the world, achieving a name for themselves and
contributing to their new home. A notable mention is Singapore’s third
president, C. V. Devan Nair, who hailed from Thalassery. Today’s Tellicherry is
just another crowded city bursting at its seams and lost in the crowd of
urbanisation fast losing its identity. Also, the present generation is unaware of its history. The unfortunate title comes from these sentiments.
I am not able to complete the influence of the British in this post as it seems broader and broader. I will try them in a separate post.
കൊള്ളാം തലശ്ശേരി ബ്ലോഗ് തുടങ്ങിയാൽ ഇത്ര മനോഹരം ആവില്ല
ReplyDeleteനന്നായി sketches
Excellent .. Really appreciable work.. Thanks,,,
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot.It is helpful for my project titled 'Thalassery Muslims: a study on education development in last two centuries.'
ReplyDeleteCan you please give more details about education of Muslims and persons who gave contribution?
The Arakkal records show that the Muslim
Deleteprincipality established in the Muslim era. The seat of the family was
Dharmatam in Malabar, where Sridevi, the sister of Perumal who according to
legend embraced Islam, resided was a port, the place in Dharmatam called
Arasarkulanzara, came gradually to be known as Arakkal
Thalassery muslim charithrathiloode oru yathra a book written by vk kuttu... pls go through
DeleteThank you thanks a lot,Would be more happy if you could include some details about Sreeramaswami temple thiruvangadu,Even now we can se some English texts on the walls of these temple..
ReplyDeleteExcellent 👍
ReplyDeleteTHALASSERY MY FAVORITE PLACE . HISTORY SLEEPS HERE.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this history. My great great great grandfather Lt Col John Edwards was stationed at Tellicherry and Cannanore with the 80th foot regiment between 1801-1817. He had two houses one in each place and 'married' a native woman whose name inscribed in the Will was Moodovaitah Coppagee (heavily anglicised no doubt). I am yet to locate her origins and any help appreciated. They had 7 children, my great grandfather George must have been fluent in Malayalam as he later in 1844 joined government service Madras as a Malayalam translator in the Sadder and Foujdareee Udalat (civil and criminal) Courts. Some family lived in Bangalore, Madras and eventually moved to Hyderabad in the Nizam's service as it attracted employment. Have not visited Kerala yet, and its on the bucket list.
ReplyDeleteAslo George married Julia Brown in Tellicherry she was the step niece of the infamous merchant Murdock Brown.
ReplyDeleteDo you know where VK Krishna’s boyhood residence in Tellicherry was?
ReplyDelete