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DECEMBER, 1874.] SETTLEMENT-DEED OF THE COCHIN JEWS.
THE ORIGINAL SETTLEMENT-DEED OF THE JEWISH COLONY AT COCHIN.
BY A. C. BURNELL, PH.D. M.C.S.
ΤΗ
THE existence of a considerable Jewish colony in Cochin and neighbouring towns has long been known, and has excited much interest among very different classes. Of the speculations of people like Buchanan the least said is best; and the prejudiced remarks of the fanatical Portuguese are as unsatisfactory in spirit as worthless in matter.
It is beyond doubt that Jewish colonies were established many centuries ago on the south west coast of India. Arab travellers in the 10th century mention them as numerous in Ceylon. Vasco de Gama in his first voyage found a Polish Jew at the Anjedives,† and the early Portuguese appear to have called the king of Cochin king of the Jews on account of the number in his territory, just as the king of Calicut was called king of the Moors (or Muhammadans). The great original settlement in South India was at Cranganore, but when that place fell under the Portuguese, the Jews met with such injustice that they left it and settled near Cochin, § which has always been the chief settlement since then, though there are several at Chêntamangalam and other inland towns. These colonies generally consist of prosperous and even wealthy families, and are held in much esteem by their neighbours of all classes and sects. They are mostly Sephardim; but there are at Cochin also a few Ashkenazim families: except that they wear the dress used by the people of Bagdad and the Levant, and mostly talk Malayalam as their vernacular language, they do not in the least differ from their coreligionists elsewhere, either in rites, features, or in customs. Since Prof. Max Müller's lecture on Missions (in Westminster Abbey) has excited some discussion as to missionary religions, it may be worth while to point out that the Jews
Christian Researches, pp. 204-221.
De Barros, Asia, Dec. I. Liv. iv. cap. xii. (p. 364 of pt. i. vol. I. of the edition of 1777).
Ib. Dec. III. Liv. vii. cap. xi. (p. 234 of pt. ii. of vol. III. of the edition of 1777).
§ According to the Noticias dos Judæos de Cochin, Amsterdam, 1681 (which I have not seen for myself), the migration to Cochin was in 1565. [Conf. Wilson, Lands of the Bible, vol. II. p. 680.-ED.]
Several rambling accounts of supposed customs of the Cochin Jews have been printed, but they all rest on misunderstandings and errors.
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in South-Western India have been in past ages most successful missionaries; the number of "Black Jews" or proselytes probably amounts to several thousands even now.
The accompanying plate represents the grant by which the Jews originally settled at Cranganore, and is still in possession of one of the elders at Cochin. This grant is in Tamil as used on the west coast before the development of Malayalam, and is written in the Vatte luttu, the original character which once prevailed over nearly all the Tamil country and south-west coast, but which has long ceased to be used in the former place, and in the latter is now only known in a later form, used for drawing up documents by Hindu Rajas.+ The existence of this grant has long been known. A. Moens (a Dutch Governor of Cochin) first gave an account of it (in Busching's Magazine) in the last century. Anquetil Duperron gave an account a little later. At the beginning of this century F. W. Ellis (a Madras Civilian and the real founder of Dravidian Comparative Philology) translated the text in a most scholarlike manner; but his sudden death in 1819 prevented the publication of his essay, which remained unknown till 1844, when Sir W. Elliot discovered and printed it with an excellent facsimile in vol. XIII. part ii. of the Madras Literary Society's Journal. Meanwhile another Madras Civilian, C. M. Whish, had attempted to explain it, and his translation was published in 1839 (after his death) in the Oriental Christian Spectator. Lastly, the chief of Dravidian philologists, Dr. H. Gundert, translated it, and his version was published in the Madras Journal (vol. XIII. part i. pp. 135-142). The oldest version of all is, however, one in Hebrew that exists at Cochin ;§ the age of this is uncertain, but it is certainly more than two
Buchanan tried to get possession of these plates, but failed; he was given a copy, which he sent to Cambridge.
For the peculiarities of the language, see p. 14 of No. ii. of my Specimens of S. India Dialects.
I have already given an account of this alphabet in the Ind. Ant. (I. p. 229); a fuller description will be found in my Elements of 8. Ind. Palæography (which will be shortly published), pp. 38-42.
Vol. X. pp. 433-5. Also reprinted in Dr. J. Wilson's Lands of the Bible, vol. II. p. 679.-ED.
§ Printed in the Madras Journal, XIII. pt. ii. pp. 11, 12, and translated by Dr. Gundert.
