What happened to Kottapparamba after the 1766 suicide?

Hyder Ali marched into Malabar from the north in 1766, leading to general panic in the area. Soon he was knocking at the gates of the Zamorin territory. There are several versions of what took place between Hyder and the Zamorin before the unfortunate event of self-immolation. The version relied on by Logan and Krishna Ayyar suggests that Hyder had sent Ali Rajah by sea to Calicut as advance party and it was he and his forces which had initiated the siege of the fort.

Logan states further that the Zamorin himself met Hyder Ali at Kurumbranad and offered to deliver the whole of his treasury and all his property but this did not satisfy Hyder who demanded a crore of gold mohur as compensation. Hyder, it seems, had even seized and imprisoned the Zamorin after break down of the talks. He was sent under the guard of 500 horse and 2000 infantry to the fort of Calicut; the Raja was confined in his own house without food, and was strictly prohibited from performing the ceremonies of his religion; and as he thought that Hyder might inflict some further disgrace upon him, either by causing him to be hanged, or blown from a gun, the Raja set fire to the house with his own hand, and was consumed by it.' (Logan, page 463)

What followed was bedlam. The Eralpad who had accompanied the women from the Calicut fort to the safety of the Ponnani kovilakam, took over as the new Zamorin and lost no time in exhorting the Nairs loyal to the Zamorin to wage a guerrilla war against the Mysore forces and their aliies from Cannanore. This was followed by the valiant revolt led by Prince Ravi Varma of Padinjare Kovilakam.

When at last Tipu attacked Travancore, the English woke up to the threat and appealed to all the rulers of Malabar to join hands in facing the common enemy. A cowlnama (agreement) was signed between General Meadows, the Commander-in chief of the East India Company forces and the Eralpad which recognised the right of the Zamorin to collect revenue etc.

It was perhaps in pursuance of this authority that the members of the ruling family started selling off bits and pieces of the great Palace and Fort of the Zamorin. Thus it was that Aiysumma of Koilandy bought a piece of the Kottapparambu and consequently the present Moideen Palli came up on that plot. Thus it was too that Kandan and Beeran got proprietary rights over plots of land where Abdul Razzak and Vasco da Gama had been received and feted.

The fascinating story of how the transfer of this prime real estate took place was revealed with the help of polichezhuthu documents by the eminent historian Prof. M.R. Raghava Warrier at the Febuary 2010 meeting of the Calicut Heritage Forum. Please read the full report at

http://calicutheritageforum.googlepages.com/meeting9232

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Father Finicio of Calicut

Father Giacomo Finicio was an Italian priest of the Order of Society of Jesus who lived and died in Calicut in the 16th Century. Born in Capua, Italy in 1588, he joined the Order and, after training, was deputed to Calicut where the Jesuits had established themselves firmly with Portuguese support.

Although the Portuguese had long given up their efforts to locate the mythical King Prester John, a local version of the same chase was being enacted when Finicio reached Calicut. The Syrian Catholic Bishop of Angamaly diocese had received reliable information that some Christians who had strayed from the path were leading a life of neglect and isolation in the Nilgiri Hills. They knew 'nothing of Christianity except the bare name', the report said. Curious about this lost Christian tribe, the Bishop sent in 1602 a team to find out facts and report to him.

The team had a strange composition. Apart from a priest and a deacon, the team also consisted of a cousin of the ruling Zamorin of Calicut. The mission was, however, a failure as it could not locate any such community.

It was then that the Bishop turned to Father Finicio of Calicut for help. A team under the Father set out in 1603, consisting of six Nairs, four Christians and the Zamorin's cousin who had been on the previous mission.

Finicio and party travelled from Calicut to Tanur and then to Mannarkkad. From there they trekked to Chavadiyur. After three days of strenuous trekking through the Attappadi and Sundappatti hills they reached Melur, a Badaga village in the Nilgiris.

At the end of the trip all that Father Finicio and his team could find was a tribe of innocent Badagas and Todas who worshipped the buffalo. The pious priest stayed among the Todas for two months braving the biting cold, trying to convince the Todas on how they could be saved by becoming Christians. In return, the head priest of the Todas extolled on the virtues of the Bufalo God!

Fr. Finicio might have failed in converting the Todas, but he contributed greatly by telling the world outside about the existence of such a tribe. More important, his report dissuaded further attempts at their conversion till at least for the next 200 years when the Basel Mission went up the Blue Mountain.

Fr. Finicio was the first westerner to locate the Todas and to provide a satisfactory ethnographic account of the community. Anthropologists have acknowledged his pioneering contribution. Finicio died in Calicut in 1632.

400 years after the Finicio Expedition, a group of some 20 adventurers under the auspices of an environmental NGO, Save Nilgiris Campaign, retraced the 'Finicio Trail' in 2004. Their account can be read athttp://hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mag/2004/02/22/stories/2004022200130200.htm

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