Story Behind Cochin Postage Stamp . By 0. K. NAMBIAR Emeritus Professor, Bangalore University On Dec. 15, 1968, Indian govern- ment issued a 20 cent postage stamp to commemorate the quarter centenary of the building of Jew Town at Cochin begun in 1561 and completed in 1568. Prime Minister Indir a Gandhi n-lTrff INDIA . cereonially m re- leased -the stamp forside at a col- orful festival which recalled poignant histori- eal i memories. The issue of the stamp and the festivial were at ":Tiiaritigu.E once a tribute and a farewell to an industrious, intelligent and friendly eommunity. Once settled in these part4 in considerable strength, the Malabar are fast dwindl- ►! ing in,numbers almost to the van- ishing point. Their largest concen- tration in India is at Jew Town where they number hardly a hun- dred. The building of Jew Town at Cochin in 1568 is relatively a recent event When we consider the twenty centuries of their checkered history on these shores. The Cochin Jews have a tradition that their ances- tors came to Malabar following the destruction of the Temple of Jeru- salem in 68 CE, 20 years after the arrival of St. Thomas. Succeeding centuries brought fresh waves of ietniigrants. Enterprising sailors had crossed the.lIndian Ocean and linked the West with the East in the centuries before'the beginning of the Chris- tian Era till the discovery of the seasonal nature of the monsoon winds by a Greek sailor Hippalus (56 CE) made regular sailing pos- sible across the Arabian Sea. There .41 : a Nasser Backs New Palestine Executive Group (Confirmed from Page 1) with , Jordanian Premier Bahjat Ai-Talhouni. The Jordanian official was re- portedly in Cairo to confer with Egyptian leaders on announced plans to transfer some 4,000 PLO regulars now in Egypt to Jordan. The move was announced in Cairo apparently without King Hussein's assent. President Nasser has thrown full support behind the Palestine exec- utive committee established last week at a meeting of the Pales- tine National Council with the aim of unifying terrorist activities. The Palestine Liberation Army and the Popular Front for the Lib- eration of Palestine boycotted the meeting. The army is one of the most important and strongest ter- rorist groups and is the military arm of the PLO, a political body which attended the Cairo sessions, and whose ruling body is the Pal- estine Executive Committee. The Palestine National Council claims to represent the various Palestin- ian Arab terrorist and political groups and has 105 members, headed by Yehia Hammouda. Hammouda announced after the council meeting that a five-mem- ber team would try to bring the WO dissident groups back into the executive committee. LED A OWN? OM NI sy With.* lens. shed Slims 4 to iod Sit to SHAN is historical and biblical evidence to show that the special products of Malabar, notably pepper, spices, ivory and peacocks, were known to ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks and Romans. The Greek name for cinnamon is Karpion derived from the Malabar word Karuppe. King Solomon, we know, dispatched a fleet to the ports of Malabar, and ships of Tarshish and Hiram are said to have sailed to Muzuris (Muyuri) on the Malabar Coast for a variety of Malabar produce. The Romans had a cohort stationed at the port of Kodungallur to protect their warehouses and Roman coins have been unearthed in treasure troves in Malabar. A copper plate deed (740 CE) safely- preserved -in -Cochin Syna- gogue records the grant of certain privileges and assignment of land given to one-Joseph Rebhan, leader of the Jewish settlers, by King Bhaskara Ravi Varma. When re- corded history begins in the 8th Century, the Jews had already es- tablished themselves as a pros- perous community.- Their chief en- joyed rights of "overlordship" over a territory called Anjuvannam close to the chief port of the king at Kodungallur. The Jews followed their religious way of life. The greater part took to agriculture and trade. Some served in the King's army and a few adopted the learned professions of medicine and astrology. The Jews formed themselves into a corporate body or guild the more conveniently to fit into the social system of Malabar — a system which was built up of numerous service guilds. The rights and priv- ileges given are described as "over- lordship" over the territory and en- tailed the responsibility of protect- ing the custom and usage of the people and preventing their rights from falling into abeyance. Their status was highest after the King. Only the king's title to be the over- all superior and the chief executive of the land was, according to a strange but statutory custom, sub- ject to reconsideration once in 12 years. The Jewish rights suffer- ed no such interruption. There were disastrous wars and the most prolonged was the war between the Raja of Cochin and the Zamorin of Callan. The two dynas- ties carried on their struggle inter- mittently for 600 years, late into the 17th Century. In these wars, the Jews of Anju- vannam fought on the side of the people and Raja of Cochin. In spite of these wars the Anju- vannam prospered. Jewish enter- prise helped Kodungallur sea port to regain some of its original im- portance as an international center of trade in pepper and spices. As the Jewish settlement lay close to the Kodungallur port it was one of the targets of Zamorin's attack. The Jews were in serious trouble. In the year 1498 Vasco da Gama came to Malabar after a historic voyage and a new factor entered in Indian political and trade rivalries —the Portugese. The ding-dong fighting between the untiring dynastic enemies con- tinued. The Jews appeared to have fought vigorously for the Cochin Raja for we find the Zamorin or- dering a massacre of the Jews and Moslems of Anjuvannam when vic- tory came to him again in 1524. Again the Nayar soldiers, satis- fied with plunder which the rules of war permitted, refused to obey. The Zamorin had to desist as the custom of the people was stronger than the king. The Jews had had enough. Anju- vannam was too close to the center of strife and a constant target of attack. In 1565 the Zamorin attack- ed again and reduced Anjuvannam to a heap of smoking ruins. The Jews decided to abandon this an- cient settlement and the King gave his permission. He granted them land within the precincts of Cochin port and material to build a new town. The Jew Town was com- pleted in 1568 and the Jews moved into it. With the arrival of the Dutch on the Malabar Coast in the 17th Cen- tury new patterns of alliances and rivalries developed. It is tedious to follow the fortunes of this new series of wars in which Dutch and the Portugese took sides with the contending Rajas. The final event as far as the Jews were concerned was the Portuguese siege of the Dutch fort near Cochin city. Jew Town was plundered by the Portu- gese and its treasures and relics taken away. The relics which in- cluded the old copy of the Penta- teuch were returned safe in 1668. Soon after the Portuguese and the Dutch disappeared from the scene, the British gained supremacy over India. The Jews were left in peace. With the establishment of Israel the Jews of Cochin began to leave Jew Town. Soon the last remnants will leave, and Jew Town will be a historical memory. The Jews have gone back home, but they have a home still in the hearts of every Malayali. 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