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Fiction in history


One of the histories of my family, written by a cousin of mine, traces the roots of the Matheikals to one Namboothiri family that was converted to Christianity by none other than Saint Thomas, disciple of Jesus. When I pointed out to the writer that there was no clear historical evidence of Namboothiri presence in Kerala until about the 8th century CE, his answer was that available family legends formed the basis of his claim.

There are many Christians in Kerala who make similar claims: that their ancient ancestors were Namboothiris (Brahmins) converted by Thomas. There is a faint possibility of Thomas, disciple of Jesus, having come to Kerala. There was active trade between Kerala and Rome in those days. Pliny the Elder (1st century CE), Roman historian, mentions Kerala’s spices, pearls, and ivory, in his work Natural History. He was actually complaining about Rome’s loss of wealth due to its imports from India.

There are travelogues that describe trade routes between Europe and India. Periplus, for instance, highlights Muziris (today’s Kodungallur, Kerala) as a major trading port and archaeological excavations in Kodungallur prove him right. Sangam literature of Tamil dating between 300 BCE and 300 CE describe the presence of Greeks and Romans (‘Yavanas’) in South Indian ports and their trade in gold, wine, glassware, and ceramics. It is possible that Saint Thomas embarked on one of those trade ships and landed in Kerala. A possibility, of course.

But, in all probability, he didn’t convert any Namboothiri to Christianity for the simple reason that Namboothiris are thought to have landed in Kerala much later. [Please read my recent post, The irresistible mating of languages, for some linguistic sidelights on that.]

Recently, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M K Stalin, offered a prize of $1 million to anyone who can decode the available Harappan script. Stalin’s contention is that the Indus Valley civilisation of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro was Dravidian and that the Dravidians were forced to flee to the South by the arrival of Aryans.

The Outlook magazine (and earlier The Caravan too) has brought out an issue dedicated to this theme. There is much evidence that justifies Stalin’s claim, as shown the magazines’ articles written by eminent scholars and academicians. It won’t be possible for me to summarise all those arguments in a short blog post.

The issue seems to have caught the fancy of a lot of publications as well as others. Today’s The New Indian Express carries a catchy headline: ‘A Reminder of the Indus Valley civilisation in Thiruvananthapuram city’. A temple in Peyad, Thiruvananthapuram, carries remnants of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, it seems.

Let there be more excavations on this instead of only digging up Muslim mosques to find Hindu relics in North India. Stalin’s ire was aroused particularly because the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is highly biased in its studies. For example, when the ASI, under the leadership of Amarnath Ramakrishna, discovered evidence of the Harappans having fled to Keezhadi in Tamil Nadu, the Modi government ordered a stop to the research and transferred Ramakrishna from the place. Stalin got the court to allow his state archaeology department to take over the research.

Let the research go on. After all, it’s not fair to let fiction dominate history though, more often than not, fiction is truer than history.


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  1. Yamini MacLeanFebruary 5, 2025 at 6:07 AM

    Hari OM
    How often has history been rewritten, one wonders... perhaps we must take all that has gone before as a form of fiction, and know that looking forward can only be fiction... it is but the moment in which we exist that has any reality. The moment in which we can strup upon our stage... YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 5, 2025 at 9:40 AM

      There's much fictionality when we look back. The present keeps reshaping the past. How my memory of my childhood has evolved over the years is astounding. But when governments try to fabricate new histories using archaeologists and academics, it can be a menace

      Delete
  2. Liz A.February 5, 2025 at 7:29 AM

    It's funny how people hang their whole identities on family stories. Sometimes these turn out to be true. But often, not.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousFebruary 5, 2025 at 11:01 AM

    Maybe it is time to leave the past behind and look ahead...It is going to be techie's and non-techies rather than brahmins and non-brahmins.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Daniel Charles K JFebruary 9, 2025 at 8:17 PM

    Oh, I truly believed that was the case. The way people emphasize caste hasn’t spared Christianity either. But I once visited St. Mary’s Church in Kuravilangad, one of the oldest Christian pilgrimage centers in Kerala. Thechurch claims to have been built as early as 105 AD. It is said that Kuravilangad was the site of the first apparition of Mother Mary in India. and According to legend, she appeared before a group of children and instructed them to build a church at the spot where a miraculous spring emerged, Well i guess the story went on to classify the children as BRAHMIN children

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 9, 2025 at 9:49 PM

      Kuravilangad and a lot of other churches in Kerala, like Malayattoor, have dubious histories. We can't touch religious sentiments in this country. So any history becomes holy.

      Delete

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