Coverage of KTalk2 held on 11 July 2020 by
Haripriya EP
Ariya Suresh
Rakhi Mariyam Johnson is a conservation architect and an academic researcher. She acquired her masters degree from School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. Her growing number of research publications in architecture, heritage, historic Church Architecture of Kerala and so on are proof for her dedicated interest towards research based practice. She is a partner at City Futures Design collaborative and has been associated with KMEA College of Architecture for the past 2 years. She is also a member of ICOMOS-India and is part of its many activities and projects related to the shared heritage of India and cultural roots
Rakhi Mariyam Johnson started the lecture with historic waterways of Kerala, with an emphasis on the southern portion of Kerala, which was the Kingdom of Travancore. She started with the basic concept of food and how it is representative of different cultures of the world but the one thing that is common across all different cuisines is; Spices. She highlighted the importance of spice, from a global consumerism point of view, for thousands of years and how India had been the largest producer, consumer and the exporter of spices. The scarcity of spice production in the western world made it precious, a factor which drove merchants and traders across the globe in search of the spice producing regions.
Kerala has a geography and a climate conducive to spice production. She cited various legends and stories pertaining to trade with Kerala that included King Solomon, Megasthenes, Pliny and the book Periplus of the Erythraean. These stories mentioned ports of Muziris and Nylcanda, discovery of Hippalus wind i.e. Monsoon wind. She gave multiple examples of pepper being found and traded in different parts of the world. However there is no historical evidence which mentions that pepper was cultivated anywhere else in the world other than in Kerala, back in 3000 BCE. She shared slides of several ancient maps which showed trade routes that connected Kerala to Greece and Rome. She further reiterated the point by citing Sangam literature like Purananuru and Akananuru that speak about the Roman vessels that came with gold and went back with spices and more such details.
After the third century AD, the Roman empire declined after which Muziris disappeared and other ports emerged, such as Quilon which became the most prominent port around the 8th century. This port is mentioned in different travelogues by Fa-Hien and Hsuan Tsang from China, the Arab geographer Al Kazwini, Italian Marco Polo, Moroccan Ibn Battuta and Arab traveller Suleiman. It was also used as a halting point between China and Arabia.
She proceeded to explain how world religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam came to Kerala through the Sea. An interesting example given was that of the excavation of Tarisappalli copper plates from the coast of Quilon that mentions a set of Christian traders from West Asia, who came and settled in Quilon. Like this many such ports developed, also world religions like Judaism, Islamism, Christianity also came to Kerala coast through trade. She concurred that unlike the rest of India, where religion came through colonial invasion, etc here it is through trade. The architecture of the synagogue, church or mosque were built based on the, then evolving, traditional architecture in Kerala. This was further reiterated by a manuscript that mentions Jewish and Christian colonies in Quilon and the trade they carried.
EUROPEAN ENTRY INTO THE MARITIME TRADE OF INDIAN OCEAN
In 1498, Vasco da Gama, who travels from Portugal, goes around south of Africa and he reaches the Kerala coast which becomes the turning point in world history. Until then Europeans had to depend upon the Arabs for spices. They did have direct access to Kerala coast and only after finding this route did they start travelling, so this became a triumphant victory for them. That is also because the spices are very important due to its high cost and only the rich could afford it. His tombstone in Fort Cochin, his landing mark in Calicut and the St.Francis church in Fort Cochin, which is the first church built by the European in Asia, all the significance of these are that all these memories are passed down the generations. The Portugese are soon followed by The Dutch, The British and they brought their own cultures, took over the ports and started trading as well.
This map is of the port city Thangassery, the fort city of Portuguese, they established their fort cities which was given on lease by the locals kings in exchange for protection. They also brought their architecture with them, we can see Renaissance façade, Baroque architecture that had been added to the indigenous architecture of kerala. Later as the British comes, we can see the Gothic revival architecture that is also brought in. Not only architecture, even cultural festivals, art forms, religion, cuisines, etc were brought along with them.
GEOGRAPHY OF KERALA
When you talk about maritime trade or trade exchange, what comes to mind are the port cities and how traders came to the port cities but one question that arises is where did the spice come from. Interestingly Kerala had a trade route that went beyond these port cities and connected them to the spice producing hinterlands, so it is important to understand the geography of kerala. The physiography is divided into highlands, midlands and lowlands and the highlands are part of the western ghats and also the parts of midlands. The lowlands are near to the coast and the blue patches are back waters and they are very unique to Kerala and they are running almost parallel to the ocean line. These backwaters are connected to the ocean Estuarine System and the estuaries are either permanent or temporary. The permanent ones are always connected to the ocean line and the temporary ones are only connected when there’s a monsoon. There are as many as 44 rivers in Kerala and all of them except 3 originate from the western ghats and then go to the ocean. All the spices are produced in the highland parts and the midlands, then we have rivers originating from the highlands and we have the backwater system that the rivers flow into the backwaters are connected to the estuarine System where they meet and then and then we have the long stretch of coast line. Kerala had a system of waterways that is both natural as well as man made that ensured the supply of spices from hinterlands to the ports. This waterway became a cultural route because it was part of the geography with intervention from mankind and it became interlaced with market towns, port towns, warehouses, festivals, etc.
Kollam as a town gained much importance as a trading centre. Various market towns emerged along the canals – Kollam canal which was captured in the 1900’s, the market region with godowns and warehouses in the town of Alleppey, and Vallakadavu region. This painting by Raja Ravi Varma in the late 19th century depicts how the ruler of Travancore welcomes the Duke of Buckingham and in the background of the painting we can the Vallakadavu boathouse. This depicts the importance of boathouses. Today, the Vallakadavu boathouse functions as a maritime museum and all that remains of Alleppey which was once a port town are warehouses and godowns.
The waterways not only influenced architecture but also the lives of people – their religious customs and festivals. Champakulam St. Mary’s church overlooking the waterways, Saukar Masjid standing right by the canal in Alleppey, Attuvela Mahotsav where a replica of a temple is put up on a boat. She mentions that Kerala is famous for its boat races – the Champakulam boat race held on river Pampa every year which takes place on the same day as the installation of the deity in the temple, the Aranmula boat race which is a competition between different ‘karas’ (lands) where they perceive each boat as a vessel of residing deities from their respective ‘karas’. With the support of these examples, she explains festivals often revolve around waterways.
A picture of present-day Kollam canal indicates how it exists in the background merely acting as a drainage. A depiction of how waterways are no longer recognised as a cultural route that once acted as the lifeline of a city. She says that when we address this issue, it’s not just limited to the heritage structures but also the significance of rituals and festivals. Kettukuthira – a tower-like structure adorned with brilliant colours which is put up on two country boats that are tied together. It symbolises an offering to the deity. Gajamela is another festival where elephants are taken across the Ashtamudi backwaters to a temple. Pullichira Marian Church Annual Feast is a festival that occurs on a temporary backwater that is connected to the ocean only during the monsoon. The locality is mainly a fisherman community region and the event takes place around the time the sand bath breaks open to bring in fishes – an occurrence they believe is a blessing of Virgin Mary.
Rakhi Mariam Johnson ended the seminar on a note that even though water and cultural heritage are interlinked with complex interrelationships each is approached through silo perspectives. Water is often examined through the disciplinary lives of governance, engineering, and science whereas cultural heritage is seen as comprising isolated structures rather than a system comprising a larger structure. Altogether, water’s potential to connect different timelines, sites of heritage and its role in spatial planning and urban development is often underestimated and underexplored. She concluded by stating that it is here that architects, conservation professionals and urban designers should fit in and intervene to respond to our cultural roots which is also inherent to the natural geography of the region.
