St John's Church Cannanore & Jacob Joseph

St John's Church Cannanore

Much of the credit for founding the Anglican church in Cannanore should rightly go to Jacob Joseph, an Indian Christian. Originally from Trichinopoly, both his Grandfather and Father had been Christians. On a visit to his brother in Cannanore at some point in time before 1817, Jacob Joseph decided to stay on in Cannanore to set up a school and to start teaching local Indians Christianity. He founded a small school in his house, in which he taught seven children for between three and four rupees a month, which was sufficient for him to live on. Eventually he came to the notice of the local East India Company officials, who introduced him to the Revd. Spring, a chaplain who was serving at Tellicherry.

The European Regiments stationed in the garrison at Cannanore brought their own chaplains, who ran services, but as these regiments came and went fairly frequently, and had little to do with the local Indian's, these fluctuations gave difficulties with continuation of the Indian congregation.

                                                    The Front Door to the Church, sadly locked on the day I visited

"The Committee are happy to begin their report of the state of the Society's concerns under the Rev Mr Spring at this Station by mentioning that the Catechist Jacob Joseph of whom an account was given from a Letter Mr Spring's in their First Report has returned to Cannanore." "He had been detained from his Station by a long illness but had resumed his labours there among the Native Christians and his Heathen Neighbours in the month of March last when Mr. Spring again heard of him. His further acquaintance with this pious and humble man having confirmed the favourable impression formerly produced in Mr Spring's mind he has been taken by his recommendation into the service of the Society as their Catechist at Cannanore and continues steadily pursuing Society as their Catechist at Cannanore and continues steadily his successful endeavours, to build a few obscure Members of flock in their holy faith and conduct and in gathering from time to time fresh converts into the same fold pleasing testimony has been borne, different European Gentlemen at Cannanore to the good conduct of such of Jacob's Congregation as are in their service or come under their observation." “Last week, I went to visit the little flock at Cannanore, under Jacob Joseph and enjoyed a pleasure which was very reviving in this dry and barren land -- dry and barren from want labourers and culture. Pray, therefore, the Lord of the Harvest that He will lend forth more labourers In the month of August Mr Spring made a visit to Cannanore and reported as follows of Jacob's Church The day on which I went over was Wednesday -- the day on which the little flock meet at the Church in the afternoon for the purpose of devotion." "I attended in company with Lieut. В., and another young Officer. When they were performing the Service, which is selected from our Liturgy alternately reading praying and singing, in the most devout manner, both they and their wives and little ones, I cannot describe to you the sensation which I felt. So much real devotion so much warmth of heart seemed to reign among them --I had not seen the like in India before. After the Service was over, I spoke to them and encouraged them and exhorted them to be faithful to the Lord; and could scarcely restrain the tear from falling, at beholding the excellent spirit which seemed to pervade the whole body. “The chief man among them is by all report a most excellent man; conscientious, exemplary, and modest: he is looked up to by them all. Mr B informed me that his butler who is a chief man in the flock considers Jacob Joseph as a very able man. He certainly performed the Service a most admirable manner. I gave him his allowance; viz. five rupees for the month of July being the first payment on behalf of the Church Missionary Society.”

I believe that the "Mr B" mentioned above, is Mr. Baber, a Judge from nearby Tellicherry. Thomas Baber had bought the two children in 1803 who had been offered to him for use as slaves by a man who he had encountered by the side of the road. Shocked and appalled Thomas had bought them to rescue them.[2] He recorded in 1832 that they were both given their freedom and were brought up in his house in Tellicherry.

The boy became his butler, and the girl an ayah. I believe that it is this butler who is referred to as "his butler who is a chief man in the flock considers Jacob Joseph as a very able man." At a later date Mr. Spring continued to make the optimistic reports of the progress of Jacob and his congregation.

On the 9th of September of he wrote: - “Last week I went over again to Cannanore I found all things well. Jacob Joseph is proceeding in his labours ,just as I would wish. I have every reason to believe that he is instant in season and out of season. I went to his house, and saw his Mother, Sister, and little School. Every thing was so clean and so orderly, that I was quite delighted; and what is matter of much rejoicing industry is not wanting The Mother and Sister earn a small pittance by knitting stockings. The Children were all reading their Tamul Books. What a ground of praise to God, and of thanks to you it will be when I send over your supply of Tamul Books! Their hearts will leap for joy. “Before you wrote any thing to me concerning an addition to his monthly allowance, I had determined to solicit an increase I trust therefore that you will approve of my having given him, for the month of August seven rupees and of my still continuing to give him the same." “At the present moment, however we are going to incur some extraordinary expense, for which a little money is already provided. The house, where Jacob Joseph at present lives and keeps his School, is very small indeed. There is no room at all for his present Congregation, to meet together for prayer and reading, of an evening, which they do: and he is besides, obliged to pay half-a-rupee a month for it. Being close to other houses it is also inconvenient for the purposes of devotion, in consequence of occasional noise. Hence be solicited me to get him allowed to build a small house on a waste piece of ground which he pointed out. I waited upon the Colonel, who immediately promised to let him have either the piece which he wanted ,or some other, if that were found to interfere with a road to a hospital at no great distance. He spoke well of Jacob Joseph, as a quiet and inoffensive man: and very highly of the chief man of his congregation, who has been his lascar for many years; and who, the Colonel says first sent for Jacob Joseph. Jacob Joseph continues to instruct the new Converts; and I am daily labouring at the Baptismal Service to be ready at the call of duty. Let us pray that the Lord may add daily to the Church such as shall be saved." “The Committee have since learnt that a suitable piece of ground has been finally appropriated for the erection of a Church and School for the Congregation, and a House for Jacob Joseph, and that the requisite funds would be raised by a few Gentlemen on the spot, -- an instance of liberality to be noticed, with the many others of the same kind which the Committee have had the gratification to record at other Stations." "A Tamul School, which contained at the end of the year twenty Children of the Congregation and of neighbouring Heathens, is attached to the Church at Cannanore; and another School there, under the care of a Protestant Schoolmaster of European descent and a Native Teacher, has been taken by Mr Spring's advice under the charge of the Society, in which English and Teloogoo are taught conjointly; the instruction being, like that of all the Society's Schools, of a decidedly Christian Character In this School which is frequently visited by Mr Spring, there were in the month of December, 41 Hindoo Children 5 Mussulmans 15 Roman Catholics Total 61 Much of Mr Spring's time has been occupied in perfecting his knowledge of the Malayalim Language, and in preparing translations of the Church Catechism, and parts of the Scriptures and the Liturgy of the Church." [1]

 Eventually, however with the wars moving inland and north into the Mahratta territory, and the coastal strip becoming a relative backwater, the garrisons were drawn down at Cannanore. The congregations dwindled away with the Christian soldiers departed for other cantonments. It was decided that Jacob Joseph would be more beneficially used under the care of John Sullivan at Coimbatoor, so he moved there. Unfortunately within a year he caught a disease and died there. It was not until the 1850's that the church became busy once more.

Side entrance; it would appear that these older Classical Greek style column bases mark the original church entrance. At a later date, an new larger entrance was built to provide the current front entrance to the building. The new front has much more utilitarian columns, possibly the product of the garrison engineer.

[1] "Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society for Africa and the East...” published 1819 page 177 & 178. by the Church Missionary Society

[2] Thomas Hervey Baber “An Account of the Slaves Population in the Western Peninsula of India”, page 36.

 Copyright Nick Balmer December 2007 & August 2020

You can contact me on balmer.nicholas@gmail.com

 

Day 7 & 8, Kannur, Cannanore, the great church hunt

Early burial ground with mainly Catholic Anglo Indian burials, but possibly also those of Protestants and Lutherians. It is thought that a Lutherian church existed for a while in the early 19th century, immediately to the south of this cemetry building.

Following the interview at the Fort, we decided to try to track down the church where we believed Thomas Baber had been buried following his death at Cannanore in August 1843.

This search turned out to be a bigger task than we had at first expected. This was because it turns out that there are at least five Christian churches and at least two large Christian grave yards in Kannur.

When asked at the Fort about the location of churches in Kannur, the tourist policeman, who was a most helpful and intelligent guy, who had demonstrated a keen interest in the fort under his care, told us confidently that the church was at "Barnacherry", a place not far away to the north east. It was he said, near the hospital.

As we had already seen this hospital on our way to the Fort, this appeared to be a relatively easy task. Assuming that the church would have a steeple or at the very least a tower we set off to the north west, on a steeple chase.

However when we got to where we thought Barnacherry was, there was no sign to be seen of a church, although there was an old dispensary and another very large and old, and most probably East India Company period building standing behind the concrete 1950's or 60's hospital block.

I wondered if this old building had been the garrison hospital in 1843, and had perhaps been where Thomas had died, perhaps brought here in his final illness.

We asked again at the hospital, and were directed yet further to the north up the plateau. The trouble was that when after several false hopes, we found that church, Holy Trinity, it was obviously much too modern, and was Catholic, which made it unlikely that this was the church where Thomas would have been buried.

This northern Catholic church would appear to be a modern replacement for the church described in Lieutenants Ward and Conner's "A Descriptive Memoir of Malabar." [1]

Ward and Conner wrote that the cantonment had had at least two churches in 1824,

"the church a modern building is situated N. of the Fort on a elevated plain, there is here also a Roman Catholic Church at the back of the Cantonment Bazar."


The church we found was a new one, built out of reinforced concrete. Asking at the Catholic Church if there were any more churches nearby, we were directed towards another one nearby, which however turned out to be a Syriac church, which was also too modern.

Evening was beginning to descend, with that startling suddenness which catches out people like me, used to our much longer dusks in northern latitudes. We decided to have one last try.

As we had come into town along the main road, we had seen a Church of South India graveyard on the Thalassery side of Kannur. Perhaps the church was also there. So braving the traffic once again, we stopped the car, and crossed the road and arrived at its overgrown gates. Sadly these were locked and the was wall so high, and the grass so long that we didn't really fancy our chances of finding any graves, without deploying an army of grass cutters. It also looked ideal habitat for snakes as well, judging by the pair of mongoose who scuttled away as I peered in.

A small building stood in sight in the middle of the graveyard. It was dated 1938, so that it was obviously all too modern, to be the one that we were looking for.

At this point a really nice elderly Indian man, pushing his bicycle came up to us, and asked in very halting English where we were from. Having explained this, and why we were searching around his neighbourhood, he became very interested, and most helpful. He told us that we were in completely the wrong place, and that the church was located much nearer to the fort, back where we had been earlier in the afternoon.

By now we were really tired and night was fast approaching. So we decided to call it a day, it was just not worth going any further.

This was a bit upsetting, but oddly enough it was Ramesh our driver who seemed to be the most upset. He had become really involved in the hunt, and seemed to take it as a personal disgrace that we had not found it.

On the following day and with a great deal of assistance from the detailed local knowledge provided by our unexpected host in Kannur, we found this church.

It turned out that the one I had been looking for did not in fact look like a church at all from a distance. We had been within a couple of hundred feet of it.

To the north of the Fort there is a large open area of rough ground, that has been the site of various buildings, on what was the glacis of the fort. The original fort had proved to be in defensible against early 19th century cannon with improved gun powder. The British appear to have built advanced works, possibly a Hornwork.

The outer edge of the beaten zone, was delineated by surviving buildings, and a cemetery. One of these buildings was the church we had been seeking.



St John's CSI Church turned out to be a Classical church in the Greek style. This in itself was very interesting, because we believed that it was quite possible that Thomas had played a significant part in it's construction.

Classical styled churches are quite rare in Britain and are confined to relatively few places and to a comparitively short building period between about 1635 when Inigo Jones first popularised the style by building St Paul's church at Covent Garden in London, and the Gothic Revival of the 1830's, when Medieval styles reasserted themselves. They Classical style had been a phenomenon of the "long 18th Century."

St Pauls, Covent Garden had been Thomas Baber's family church from 1652 to about 1720 and mauseoleum until about 1740, and so it is quite possible that this fact had influenced Thomas Baber.

The style was also proving popular with other Classically educated colonial officials, who were building many other Classical churches at this time between 1811 and 1820 across India and other colonies like Penang.

This interest in Classical building styles was a common theme amongst many young educated men at the head of the East India Company, and especially its civil servants at this period. As in so many things, Roman and Greek texts and artifacts were used for inspiration by East India officials like Thomas who had had a Classical education.




Sign outside the church.



Map from Google Earth marked up to show the locations of the churches in Kannur. Click on the map for a larger version.


[1] originally published in 1906 from a 1824 survey.

Copyright Nick Balmer 9th December 2007.

Cannanore, Kannur, day 7

The entrance to Kannur Fort

The pass of eleven bends turned out to be, if anything even more spectacular, and interesting even than the one that we had climbed up into the Wayanad on our way from Kozhikode.

At the top we met a tremendous gale of wind coming in from the sea, and being forced up as it climbed up and over the ghats. The trees growing at the summit were bent over in the wind, much like those along the coasts of the South West of England.

Indeed there was something almost alpine, about the views we could see, quite like the scenes one might expect to see when crossing one of Englands high moors, especially in the form of the plants and trees.



Soon however the road drops down through dense bush, formed or verdant palms, and tall trees, deeply furrowed by waterfalls and streams plunging down the slope. These slopes must be most spectacular during the monsoon, judging by the sheer size of the boulders that the streams are obvious capable of moving.

Small monkeys sat along the verge, and from time to time we passed workmen toiling away to keep the road open, in the face of landslides and monsoon water damage.

Soon we were dropping down through the bends into the coastal plain. I could not help wondering if this had been the Coteaddy Pass that Thomas Baber had fought his way up in 1812.

Colonel James Welsh had written about the part played by Thomas in 1812 with Colonel Webber in fighting up the ghats.

“by a force under Colonel Webber from Cannanore, accompanied by Mr. Baber, the Judge of Tellicherry, whose authority also extended to Wynaud. They had been opposed in the Coteaddy Pass, coming up from Cannanore, and had Captain Hunter and Lieutenant Inverarity severely wounded, with seventeen or eighteen men.”

The pass I was travelling was definitely not the Periya Pass, which I was travelling down, and I knew from discussions with local people that the Periya was a few miles to the north of the pass I was currently travelling down. However, I could not find out whats name was.

Can anybody identify what this pass is called today? Was it the Coteaddy Pass?

I believe that I have been able to pick its approximate location out on the following map.



Click on the map for a larger version.

When we got to the bottom of the pass, we were soon entering small towns and villages strung out along the sides of the road.

It soon became apparent that this area is just as fiercely contested today by the various political parties who's slogans and initials adorned virtually every available wall, and even appeared on the road itself. As it was when the Pazhassi Rajah and the Mappilas fought it out in the early 19th Century.

In one town, our driver told us that this particular area was known to be strongly Muslim, and that it was therefore potentially quite dangerous for him, and indeed any Hindu driver. In the event of an accident, it would be quite likely that he would be pulled from the car and badly beaten, if not worse.

That he was not exaggerating was confirmed by a report in the local paper only a few days later, of a bus driver to whom this had just happened.



We had arranged to meet a local journalist at Kannur Fort, so we passed through the outskirts of Thalasserry, and onto Kannur. We would be returning to Thalasserry in the evening.

Kannur would turn out to be a particularly fascinating place, and well worth a visit.

Located at a point where a large promontory projects out into the ocean, it provides a sheltered anchorage on the coast, as well as an ideal location for a fort of some kind.

Traders moving along the coast had recognised this for centuries. Most traders had however passed on to Calicut and Cochin. The best locations for trade had altered over the centuries. Cochin had been the preferred location for the Chinese fleets in the early 1400's, whilst Calicut had been the point where Muslim traders had tended to congregate.

Generally these traders came in quite small numbers, and although they could swing the balance of power, and often did, between the various local Rajah's, the effects were often short lived.

However, the arrival of the Portuguese was to change all that.

Leaving Melinde on the African coast on the 6th of August 1498, and making use of the south-west monsoon, Vasco da Gama's fleet, was being guided by a local pilot who was familar with the route. As the pilot had fortold, the first land to be sighted was Mount Deli.

This hill which is 286 metres high stands out over the otherwise low lying coast. It is also called Ezhimala. Many of the earlier voyagers like Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo record it when passing along this course.

Da Gama was well informed about the coast and its ports, and was making for Calicut, home of the Zamorins. They looked into the bay, and recorded that there was "a large town of thatched houses inside a bay."

It wasn't until Da Gama had fallen foul of the Arab and Indian merchants at Calicut, and had had to flee to Pantalayini Kollam, that the Portuguese first visited Kannur.

The Kolattiri Rajah was a bitter rival of the Zamorin, and they welcomed the opportunity to trade with the Portuguese, at the expense of their competitors in Calicut. The Portuguese stayed at Cannanore from the 4th of November 1498 until the 20th of November 1498 when they moved off to Angediva and eventually Portugal.

Over the following years further Portuguese fleets explored the coasts seeking out the best options for trade. Cochin, and Quilon as well as Calicut and Cannanore were tried. In November 1502 after fighting a fierce naval battle with a Moorish fleet, whilst voyaging from Cochin towards Cannanore, during which many Moorish vessels were sunk, or sent burning onto the coast around Calicut, Da Gama put into Cannanore.

He appears to have needed to lighten his ships, and to redistribute his cargoes. To do this he unloaded much of his artillery at Cannanore and buried it. He got permission from the Kolattiri to build a stockage and wall around the site.

Da Gama arranged to leave two hunfred of his men behind at Cannanore, and this appears to have led to the founding of the fort. [1]

Overtime this stockade developed into the current fort. This fort was named Fort St. Angelo by the Portuguese. The fort changed hands several times, being controlled by the Dutch, the Beebee of Arrakal,and Tipu Sultan before being captured by the British on the 16th of December 1790, following a battle to the south east of the town.



[1] From Logan's Malabar Manual

Copyright Nick Balmer November 2007

The 40 Foot Road, Day 7.

At Mananthavady we had made enquiries of the people in our hotel to see if they could recognise the location of the following painting supposedly of the Periya Pass by Thomas Cussans.



Click on the picture for a larger view, or visit the following url for an even larger and a zoomable view. http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personalisation/object.cfm?uid=019WDZ000000484U00017VR0

This powerful watercolour had been drawn by Thomas Cussans,(1796 to 1870) and is one of nineteen by this Madras Artillery Officer preserved in the British Library showing Cannanore [Kannur] and the surrounding area. I had found it on the Library's fantastic Collect Britain website, which can be accessed at http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/ and its strong draughtsmanship had caught my imagination.

Collect Britain has over two thousand five hundred similar paintings and drawings dating from the East India Company period in its collection. One particular section Svadesh Videsh which can be found at http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/collections/svadesh/ is devoted entirely to images of India and Indians images.

The hotel owner and several guests had joined in an animated discussion at breakfast over the print I had shown them, and a consensus had developed on its being down one particular road. It was not however the Periya Pass Road which was the main road towards our destination Thalasserry. I couldn't really understand which road it was however, but Ramesh our by now trusted driver, thought he knew the correct one, and assured us that it was a very beautiful one, and so it turned out to be in ways which we hadn't quite expected.

Leaving Mananthavady by the bridge to the south east we were soon motoring along a country road full of people going about their daily business. As I watched out of the windscreen, a curious thought suddenly struck me. The road was behaving in just the same way as the 18th and 19th century enclosure roads in my native Rutland did as they passed across the countryside. They seemed to be the same width as well, forty feet.

As the road passed through the villages, it curved around the very oldest properties, before plunging off in a straight line directly towards the next bridge or settlement.

The road looked as if it had to have been laid out by a British surveyor, or one working in a 19th Century way.

But how to test this theory?

Calling on Ramesh to stop the car, I jumped out and started to pace across the road from the boundary to the crown. It was exactly 40 foot, just as an enclosure road would have been in England. Next step, to try a side turning to an accommodation road. This should be twenty feet wide between boundaries, and ten feet in carriageway width exactly if my theory was correct.

As always in India, within moments of our stopping a small crowd had formed of puzzled farmers, besides the nearest side turning. Walking up towards them, I could only imagine with what puzzlement they must be viewing my antics, as I paced foot by foot across the road.

Trying "hello", it was obvious that they either had no understanding of English, or they were temporarily struck dumb by my appearance. So sadly leaving them to their puzzlement, I turned and paced out the side turning directly in front of them. It was exactly 20 feet wide.

It fitted exactly.

I do hope that they were not to alarmed by my measuring up their front lane. Did they think me some property developer?

What must it have been like being that English surveyor in the 1820's?



At regular intervals along this road were small farms laid out in exactly the same way that one might to have expected to have seen at Whittlesey Mere or similarly recovered land dating from the 1770 to 1820 period in Britain.



These cottages even looked as if they were designed in a fairly regular manner, and were not unlike Regency farmer's cottages in England, with just an added touch of an Indian style. Yet they still retained a hint of a Regency cottage orné adapted for India's sun and monsoon.



As we drove further along the road it began to become steeper and and to climb, and eventually a range of mountains began to come into view towards the south west. Was this this range going to hold the peak shown in the picture? One certainly had the distinctive twin peaked notch in its crest.




By now the trees in the plantations were becoming higher with tall canopies of palm oil trees, often festooned with pepper vines or under planted with coffee bushes.



A pepper vine running up a tree

Tantilisingly the mountain peaks kept coming into sight, before once again disappearing again behind yet another ridge or belt of trees.



Eventually as we crossed a small river, the mountain came back into view, very clearly and immediately to our south.



Moments later we entered a village, [11 degs 44' 42.28" N 75 degs 55' 30.31" E] and crossed a bridge over a stream. Here the view opened out to the south over the stream clearly opening a vista to the peak. It had to be, and was clearly the mountain in the painting.



Soon another group of villagers had formed around us, but this time ably helped by Ramesh translating we were soon getting lots of advice and help from the men.

We were clearly looking at the mountain in the middle of the picture, which I learnt was called Banasura. [11 dgs 42' 02.86"N 75 degs 51' 35.87"E]

What was a bit puzzling was that some of the villagers were however also pointing south east and south back down the road and where suggesting that the village in the picture was another village to the south, whilst one man was arguing just as strongly, and very insistently that it was not here at all, but further along the road.

Something in the man's demeanour made me think that perhaps he was right. So thanking the others we climbed back into the car, with our new found guide. Soon we had driven perhaps three miles, and I was just beginning to doubt our guides knowledge, when he waved to the left up a side road to a steep little conical hill with a large building on its summit.

As we drove up the hill the road narrowed to a steep bendy track, which was not at all unlike the bends at the right hand end of the picture by Cussans in alignment.

The building at the summit turned out to be St. Joseph's Benedictine Monastery at the village of Makkiyad. It is a modern building probably only twenty or thirty years old, but occupying a very commanding site.

As we set off back down the hill I walked in front of the car, and looking up towards the twin peaked mountain, I suddenly realised that the image nearly matched. I just needed to move back a bit. As I moved backwards, my feet suddenly struck a large smooth topped boulder, and I realised that I had literally stumbled over the artists seat. He had used the boulder as a perch as he drew the scene.



My son sat on the boulder that Thomas Cussans used to draw part of the image. The larger stone behind has only been bulldozed up in the last year or so



The scene looking south from Cussans boulder



The modern view, but with the road widened out and surfaced

What Cussans had done was to merge a series of sketches together. The first sketch was probably made from a hill to the north of the road about one mile east of the first village in which we stopped. It looks due south, into the large valley shown.



He had then stopped further along near the river crossing, probably also on a hill directly north of the actual crossing, and had drawn Banasura, over the top of the intervening trees around the village, before moving on to the west to stop at Makkiyad.

Since my return research suggests that the site of St. Joseph's Monastery may have been one of the fortified posts that East India Company troops had garrisoned in the Wayanad during the struggle with Pyche Rajah, and it may be the track leading to this camp that is shown in Cussans drawing. Perhaps Cussans had stayed in the fort on the summit of this rise.



One last puzzle remained, where is the cliff in the picture?

It doesn't appear to be visible from any of the view points.



I believe it was an invention by Thomas Cussans to fill in a gap between the separate drawings on the page of his sketch book, in order to provide a unified design for the finished watercolour.

From Mayyid we descended the Pass of the Eleven Bends, as Ramesh described it to us. This is not actually the Periya Pass, which is some miles to the north, but a subsidary pass up the ghats. It is a much more pleasant route, than the main Periya Pass road or the Kozhikode to Kalpetta road, because these carry heavy trucks on their way inland. Both roads are hopelessly inadequate for the sheer volume of commerce that daily needs to cross the Ghats, and are therefore not for the faint hearted.

Our approximate route to Thalasserry is shown on the map below.



Click on the map for a larger version.

Manantoddy or Manathavady

An old shop at the bottom of the old bazaar in the lower part of the town, built in the vernacular style, quite possibly dating from the 19th century.

Abandoning our search for the forest guest house, we returned to Mananthavady Bazaar where we found ourselves a basic but clean local hotel. By this stage we were all tired, however I couldn't resist going out into the town to see if I could locate the site of the old fort.

The centre of the modern town is a ramshackle bazaar mainly built of shoddy concrete and consisting of shops with first floor flats. It is very run down, and the streets are filthy.

The whole place was rather depressing. A situation not helped by the presence on this Sunday night of two opposing political factions.

One party had set up a podium at a cross roads at the top of the bazaar and had installed some very loud and tinny loudspeakers, over which an angry little man was shouting out his speech at the top of his voice. His audience seemed to consist of about half a dozen slightly embarrassed looking men. On the pavements nearby were other townspeople looking on with scarcely concealed boredom and bemusement.

Setting off back down into the bazaar I then encountered the opposition. This consisted of a phalanx of people about four wide and perhaps ten or twelve deep marching more or less in step up the hill. One man taller than the rest was calling out slogans which were answered with shouted replies by all of the others. The further down the column one looked the more concerned and self conscious were the faces of the marchers, and the less loud the responses.

A few police stood in small groups on the street corner, and I waited to see what would happen next.

The marching column having set off up the high street appeared to be headed directly for the other group at the podium, but at the last side turning before the podium, they suddenly broke up and disbursed into the back lane.

It all seemed very noisy and pointless. The other people in the street seemed more concerned with buying their supper, than gaining any political insight.

At this point a man stopped me and asked me where I was from. He turned out to be a Christian from Aleppey visiting his local relatives, who was about to set off to a carol service in a nearby village. To my regret I could see no way of letting my son, who had remained at the hotel, know where I was proposing to go off to, so I had to decline his kind invitation.

The two sides of the town, the squalor and the kindness, left me a bit mixed in my opinion of the place. Having totally failed to find the fort, in the rapidly arriving dusk I beat a retreat to the sanctuary of my hotel.

Unwittingly as I subsequently found out, I had been within yards of the fort, hidden behind some modern buildings on top of the hill below the modern bazaar.

At breakfast with Ramesh we asked if anybody could recognise the location of a pass on a shown on a pen and ink drawing that I had found from the 1820's in the British Library Asia Pacific collection. They said that it was near the Periya Pass, and explained to our driver how to leave the town on the correct road.

This turned out to be a very lucky discussion, for unwittingly we had been in the "modern" 20th century part of the town.

The older part is on the south, on the lower slopes of the hill. Here we found some really nice old buildings including the one at the head of this post. Whilst I don't suppose that they were there in Thomas Baber's time they may well have been there when Ernest Logan Baber, his grandson was born in the settlement in 1840's.



A aerial photo from Google Earth marked up to show my interpretation of the towns development. A word of caution needs to be exercised here, as it has not been possible to find maps from the period to confirm the locations shown. [Click on the map for an enlarged version.]

Manantoddy placed an important role in both the Pyche Rajah's insurgency and also the later outbreak during 1812.

In October 1802 Edachenna Kungan had moved his forces from the Pulpalli Pagoda to Vallur Kava, the Fish Pagoda near Manantoddy. The First Battalion, 8th Madras Native Infantry, some pioneers and 200 Mysore Horse under Captain Gurnell, fought their way into the settlement against Kungan's men who had ambushed them along the road. On the 12 th of November a further skirmish took place, with the East India Company losing 9 killed and 18 wounded.[1]

A garrison was established at the settlement that was used throughout the rest of the rebellion to support a series of eleven posts, which were relieved from the town's garrison. The soldiers suffered grievously during the monsoon periods, in the camp from diseases, and in the later years of the rebellion, most were withdrawn to the coast prior to the break in the weather. This had given the Pyche Rajah a chance to regroup each monsoon.

In November 1805, the Pyche Rajah's body was brought through the camp on its final journey to his burial place nearby.

During early April 1812 a rebellion broke out at Wynaad. It had been caused by East India Company taxation, where Land Revenue arrangements took little account of the varying outputs of land under shifting agriculture. The collectors were trying to collect revenues based on outdated and extortionate assessments, and where foreclosing on farmers goods and chattels, including slaves.

The rebel insurgents attacked the small-fortified post at Manantoddy commanded by Captain James Tagg.

As can be seen from the aerial photo Tagg’s Sepoys who were living in the bazaar were some way away from the fort. They only just managed to rescue their families, and to collect a small amount of grain before the bazaar was burnt down, and the party were besieged in the redoubt on the hill.

Captain Tagg sent messages off to Mysore and Cannanore, where presumably Thomas Baber first heard of the outbreak. Later the Governor's Secretary acknowledged Thomas Baber’s letters of the 30th March, 3rd and 6th of April.

The local military garrison was mobilised under Colonel Webber in Tellicherry, who together with Thomas rapidly set off for the affected region. On the 8th April Thomas Baber’s earlier letters were replied to as follows: -

Extract of a letter from the Chief Sect to Govern’t dated 8th April 1812 to Mr Baber Judge & Magistrate.

“I am directed to state that the Hon’ble the Governor in Council highly approves of the Promptitude with which a force has been despatched to suppress the disturbances in Wynaad.

I am also directed to inform you that the Governor in Council highly approves of your proceeding you-self to Wynaad & to desire that you will report the cause of the discontent which appears to have led to the disturbance.”

The army units at Seringapatam and further afield began to be mobilised to send columns to go to the relief of the post.

Major James Welsh commanded the troops from Seringapatam. He consequently met Thomas Baber and his family with whom he became great friends. Much later in 1832 Welsh wrote his memoirs, which offer some fascinating glimpses of the campaign, including Baber’s part in it.

By the 7th April the column of troops commanded by James Welsh was marching down from Seringapatam. His force was comprised of the Light Company of the 80th Regiment, and four Native Flank Companies with some supporting artillery field pieces. This force had 14 British Officers.

On the first day they marched the nine miles to Mysore. At Mysore the local ruler who was still nominally independent of the East India Company rule gave Welsh an additional 5000 men from the Mysore Army under Himmutear Cawn, the Bucksee of Mysore.

The next march of 11 miles took the force to Chattenhully. Whilst Welsh was there he received news that the situation for the trapped garrison at Manantoddy was becoming critical. On the next day he made an extraordinarily long forced march of 48 miles to the Bowanly Nullah, which separated the two countries. Here he found that the rebels had destroyed the bridge over the nullah.

However the rebels themselves were not encountered, although the enemy camp near Manatoddy was found, it was already empty because it had been abandoned by the rebels.

While Welsh waited for the rest of his men to catch up, news came that through that the garrison at Manantoddy had been relieved earlier that day, by the forces fighting up the ghats from the coastal plain.


“by a force under Colonel Webber from Cannanore, accompanied by Mr. Baber, the Judge of Tellicherry, whose authority also extended to Wynaud. They had been opposed in the Coteaddy Pass, coming up from Cannanore, and had Captain Hunter and Lieutenant Inverarity severely wounded, with seventeen or eighteen men.”


Operations continued on the following day. Welsh recorded events as they unfolded: -



We set out the next morning, leaving our guns with Buchshee’s force, but carrying on supplies in carts, &c. After a very tedious and labourious march of twelve miles, in which the line was suddenly assailed by a flight of arrows from both sides of the road, by which two soldiers and one Sepoy were wounded, and an English dog killed, we reached Manantoddy at eight, P.M., with a part of our force only; and such was the thickness of the jungle, that I was totally ignorant how the rear were coming up. Applying, therefore, to Colonel Webber, for some fresh men and officers, I returned with Captain Pepper and this reinforcement, and reached our rear guard, which had taken post six miles off, at midnight; where we remained with them till day light, suffering much from cold, hunger, and thirst, not being able to get even a little water all night. As day broke, we found ourselves entirely masters of the field, with broken and upset carts and baggage strewn in every direction. Some rest, though not of sleep, had prepared our men for fresh exertions, and all snug at Manantoddy in the course of a few hours.




Looking downstream at the river from the west bank of Manantoddy .



The Washing Ghat, near the site of the old ford.



The old camping ground.

[1] William Logan's Malabar Manual, volume I, page 537.

On to Manantoddy

Leaving Sultan Bathory, we were soon retracing our steps west towards Kalpetta, before turning off north west towards Manantoddy.

We were hoping to try to find the forest guest house which we understood to be beyond the town.

The drive proved to be along some very beautiful valleys lined with paddy fields, which were in the course of being harvested.




The farmers seemed genuinely pleased and somewhat surprised to see us, and waved friendly at us as we passed by.




Passing through Mananthavadi we headed out towards Thirunelly. Stopping several times to ask the way, we passed a Forest Headquarters before heading up into an increasingly dense and beautiful forest.

This high forest must be the nearest thing to the forest that Thomas must have experienced, and which he so obviously enjoyed. I would have loved to have had the chance to explore it, but my driver was horrified at the thought of going into the trees. It was full of snakes and very dangerous animals in his opinion. Quite possibly he is right.

Eventually as the track grew narrower and narrower we eventually reached a remote village, where monkeys appeared to out number people, and beyond it a forest camp.



On enquiring of a group of workers we were told that the camp was closed and the forest bungalow was not available. I couldn't help wondering, if this was not selective translation, as I think our driver didn't really fancy a night out in the wilds. Reluctantly turning around and returning to Manantoddy, our journey was rewarded however, because we spotted a tribal village complete with the same types of high watch towns built up against trees, that Thomas Baber describes in his 1833 paper "An Account of the Slave Population in the Western Peninsula of India, especially on the coast of Malabar... As contained in the Replies of T. H. Baber, Esq. to the Questions referred to him by the Right Honourable, the Commissioners for the Affairs of India.” on the conditions of the natives on the Malabar Coast.



Later in 1830 Thomas Baber gave evidence to a committee of the House of Lords in which he described the terrible state of these slaves. Answering questions put by the members of the committee he stated: -

What is the Character of Slavery in Malabar?

They are absolute Property, as much as the Cattle upon a Man's Estate; they are bought and sold in the same Way. A Slave generally sells from Five Rupees to about Twenty, or about Ten Shillings to Forty Shillings; when leased out the usual Patom or Rent is Four Fanams, which is about Two Shillings a Year. I could give a List of the several Castes comprising the whole of the Slave Population. There are upwards of 100,000 of them in Malabar alone, and they are in that abject degraded State that it is Matter of Astonishment that no Legislative Provisions have been enacted to improve their Condition. The very Appearance of them, particularly those in the Eastern and Southeast Parts, bespeaks their Wretchedness. Small in Stature, spare Arms and Legs, with large Stomachs, in fact more like Baboons than Men. Perhaps there is no Person who has had the Opportunity I have had of seeing and knowing these unhappy Creatures.

How are they dressed?

In the most retired Parts of the Country, with nothing but a Plaintain Leaf tied round their Waists; in the more open and cultivated Parts, a Waist Cloth, perhaps about Three Feet in Length and about a Foot broad, secured by a Knot in Front.

In what Kind of Labour are they more generally employed?

Agriculture; never as Domestic Servants. They are not allowed to come within a certain Distance of several of the Hindoo Tribes, or their Houses. Mopillas employ them occasionally in Domestic Labour.

But the Hindoos never?

Never.

Are they all Natives of the Soil, or are any imported?

There are none imported now, I believe. There were some imported from Travancore and Cochin, or rather kidnapped; many of them free-born Children, stolen during the Night-time. Many of them I discovered on the Plantation of a Native-born British Subject.

Was he convicted of having kidnapped those Slaves?

No, though he ought to have been. His Agents, that is, Persons in his Employ, were brought to Trial, and I think discharged in consequence of some Scruples on the Part of the Mohamedan Law Officer.

Did it appear that he was cognizant of their having been kidnapped?

The Resident of Travancore, Colonel Munro, sent me a Letter, which this same British Subject had written to him, soliciting his (the Resident's) Protection of his (the Writer's) Agent, who had been taken up in Travancore for this very Act, and requesting he would obtain his Release on whatever Terms might appear to him reasonable. This Letter, and all the Correspondence it gave rise to, I can produce, if it is their Lordships Pleasure.

What became of the Children?

I sent the whole of them back to their Parents, for which I received, through the British Resident, the Thanks of the Government of Travancore.

Can you speak as to the Character of Slavery in any other Part of the District?

In Canara, Malabar, Coorg, Wynând, Cochin and Travancore, it is of the same Description, and perhaps the whole Slave Population amounts to 400,000 Souls.

Is their Condition, as far as you have had Occasion to observe, much the same throughout all that Range of Country?

I think in Canara the Landholders treat their Slaves better than they do in Malabar, from the Circumstance of the Landholders being better Farmers and in better Circumstances.

In fact the Effect of the very heavy Demands of the Government from the Landholders falls on the Slaves?

To a certain Extent, certainly; as far, that is, as impoverishing their Proprietors.

That causes them to exact more severe Labour?

It is not on account of the Labour they exact, but that they do not subsist them as they ought to do. Often may they be seen in the wildest Part of the Forests and Mountains, digging for wild Yams for their very Subsistence.

They are quite a different Race from the other Inhabitants of the Country?

Quite different.

Is there not some Idea that they were the Aborigines of the Country?

They are supposed to have been the Aborigines of the Country. Their History, which, like all the other Indian Stories, is wrapped up in Fable, is as follows; Srb Parasu Rama was incarnated to destroy the Rajahs (Kheterees) then oppressing the Earth. After Twenty-one different Battles, he slew them all. To expiate which, it being a great Sin to slay Heroes, called Virahatirju dosham, he went to Gokernum, and having there performed Sacrifices, and prostrated himself to Varuna, he made the Ocean retire, and thus created 160 Kadums of Land. (Footnote *) He then went and brought the Arya Brahmins of the Sixty-four Grams, and to induce them to remain he went in Search of the wild People who inhabited the Forests and Mountains, collected them, and presented them to the Brahmins as Adiars, or Slaves, since which Period they have been considered as Jelm Property equally with the Soil itself.



These towers had been manned by slaves in the 1820's when Thomas travelled the area. The slaves had been tied to the land and were bought and sold together with the land.



It is hard to imagine the events he described taking place in such a beautiful area. These farms must look very much as they had done in his day. The buildings still match his descriptions.

Pulpally Day 6

Leaving the site of the Rajah's last battle we followed very much the same route that down which the Rajah's body had been carried in Thomas Baber's palanquin, on it's way to the Rajah's final resting place near Manantoddy.

Entering the small town of Pulpally, I got the sense that it is still in many ways a frontier town, full of new settlers who have arrived in the last fifty years to break in this new land in the Wayanad as plantations. It stuck me, in it's buildings and layout as being more akin to the towns that I visited in Australia or New Zealand, than to the older Indian towns that I have been to.



The cross roads at Pulpally.

I was looking for the spot that Thomas had used to pursuade the local inhabitants to inform him of the wherabouts of the Rajah and his supporters.

I before said that one of my objects by getting in the inhabitants of Pulpilly (Pulpalli) was to obtain accurate information of the rebels. This I did not think prudent to commence upon too early lest they should take alarm. I preferred trying all my persuasive means to gain their confidence and to wean them from their connections. For this purpose I had them before me and took every opportunity of representing the folly of countenancing a body of men so truly contemptible, and who had no other end than to involve them in one common ruin. I pointed to them in the strongest colours the power and lenity of the British Government, and at last, what with exhortation and occasional presents, had succeeded in inducing several of these, who had been of most essential service to the Raja’s party, to send their Paniyars (Paniyar – agricultural labourers) out in quest of information. I took the precaution of swearing all whom I employed to secrecy.
With many agents, I could not fail of success in some of them. On the 30th ultimo, three of them at last brought me intelligence of the Pyche Raja and all the rebel leaders with the exception of Palora Jamen (Pallur Eman) being then in the opposite side of the Kangara river, a short distance in Mysore, and this so unequivocally that I determined to act upon it...

Had this been an open area at the crossing of two tracks in the old village?

I don't suppose it will ever be possible to know for sure.

It is difficult to determine where the old centre of the town was. There is however a temple of considerable antiquity just outside the town, which Mr. Johnny believed to be the site of the original temple.



Mr. Johnny was anxious that I should not approach the temple too closely, as apparently it still has a reputation for militancy. Not wanting to upset the locals, I was more than happy to remain at a little distance.

This temple had been called the Pulpalli Pagoda in the correspondance of the period, and was where Edachenna Kungan had first assembled 3,000 men to resist the East India Company in late 1802. In October 1805, the troops under Sub-Collector Pearson had reported that the rebels were using the temple once again as a rallying point.

Shortly afterwards, Pearson had fallen ill and had had to return to the coast, and Thomas Baber was moved up from the coast to take over operations in the Wayanad.

Mr. Johnny told me that he thought that the East India Company troops had camped in the field between the temple and the cross roads. I was unable to find out why this should be believed, but it is quite possible that this was so.

Knowing that the East India Company troops often made camps, I later looked up the area on Google Earth, only to be presented with a very real puzzle.




In the aerial photo, the temple complex can be seen at the bottom of the photo. Like so many temples, this one has a tank for ritual washing and water storage.

Look however at the tank more closely.

What are the light green lines in the water contained in the tank?

Do they not look very like the drowned footings of a previous temple or structure.

Was this perhaps a Jain Temple on the same site?

Many Jain temples remain abandoned or in ruins in the area.

At this point, Mr. Johnny asked if we should have lunch, and took us into a restaurant up a flight of stairs just off the cross roads. On entering the building my heart sank, for I knew it would be extremely rude to refuse to eat there, but I dreaded the state my sons and my stomachs afterwards, for it looked very unhygenic.

However, I really should have known better, for we had one of the very best of meals that we experienced during our stay in Kerala. My hosts made sure that we had a really authentic, no holds barred Wayand meal. It was fun to observe the way they ate the meal mixing in curds into the curry, rice and chilli sauces, to a point where they were not nearly as ferocious as they would have been eaten as they had appeared in their little dishes.

Both Richard and I really enjoyed our Pulpilly lunch, and our tummies remained completely unaffected by the experience, except for the pleasure of having eaten a memorable meal in good company.

It was with a great deal of regret that we dropped Mr. Johnny back at Sultan Bathory, before motoring on to Manantoddy.