A Church and some History

St Mary's is always spick and span

Maggie and I had to travel pretty much today for various reasons. Holidays are reserved for such travels and fulfilment of certain obligations to ourselves as well as others. Sometimes the fatiguing demands of a regular working day seem far more accommodatable than these holiday trips.

It was a long day, in short, and I needed to take a washroom break. Years of drives in Kerala have taught me that the easily available as well as clean toilets are in the Christian church compounds. So, as we approached the St Mary’s Church in Manarcad (near Kottayam), I asked Maggie, “Don’t you want to pray at this famous pilgrimage centre?” I knew what the answer would be. That is how Maggie and I found ourselves in the sacred precincts of St Mary’s Cathedral church whose history goes back to a thousand years. I don’t want to bore you with the history. If you’re interested, please go to the official website of the church here and read the history.

The church’s history claims that St Thomas, disciple of Jesus, came to Kerala in the year 52 CE. That is not impossible given the trade links between Kerala and the Roman Empire of those days. Pliny the Elder wondered why pepper, which was the most precious commodity exported from Kerala’s coasts in those days, elicited so much interest from the Romans though pepper had “nothing to recommend it in either fruit or berry” [Natural History, written in 77 CE].

The history of St Mary’s Church on whose holy ground I stood this afternoon goes on to claim that St Thomas baptised the Brahmins (called Namboothiris) and that the priests were chosen from those Brahmin families.

That’s funny. As funny as my family’s history written by my cousin which begins with the claim that our family was originally Namboothiris who were converted by St Thomas into Christianity.

Anyone can check the history of Kerala and find out that there were no Namboothiris in Kerala before the 6^th century CE. It is possible that there were some people who called themselves Brahmins in Kerala before the arrival of this particular class called Namboothiris from the North of India. But those Brahmins probably had no significant role in the region’s sociopolitical life. What role could they play anyway in a place where people didn’t even have proper food to eat and clothes to cover their nakedness?

History is a dangerous stuff, I tell myself as I zip up my fly and return to Maggie with a relieved smile. I find her standing before a Chethi plant, admiring it. I had noticed that plant as I entered the church complex, particularly because I bought ten of those plants for my flower pots a month back and none of them gave me any flowers so far. 

Maggie admiring St Mary's Chethi 

My Chethi

I entered the church with Maggie. I prayed for some flowers on my Chethi plants. I hope St Mary will answer my prayers. But now I’m wondering: should I have prayed for better historical sense among my country people? My Chethis could wait.