A Kochi Girl in the Mughal Court - 1707-1732

                                           Cochin -1656      courtesy:www.farelli.info

Portuguese had ruled Cochin for nearly 160 years between 1503 and 1663 before the Dutch invasion. Although the capital of Portuguese India was shifted from Cochin to Goa in 1510, Cochin continued a favourite destination for the Portuguese and many Portuguese families chose to stay on in Cochin, soaking in the sun and sand, gossiping and leading their exclusive fidalgo life. (Fidalgo literally means 'son of somebody' and refers to nobility.)

Juliana was born in 1658 in Cochin to Agostino Diaz da Costa and his wife. She grew up as a frolicsome young girl, playing on 'the sandy beaches, where my sister and I could run with the waves lapping our feet'. When she was five, fate struck in the form of the Dutch who invaded Cochin in 1663. Just before the Dutch attack started, the da Costa family managed to flee to Goa, although they lost all their baggage in a ship wreck. The family then decided to try their luck in another Portuguese enclave, Calcutta, but by the time they reached there, Portuguese there had earned such a bad name through their indulgence in piracy and slave trade that  the conditions were not considered favourable for their relocation to Calcutta.

It was then that the da Costas decided to move down to Agra where the father had been invited to attend on the Emperor. It was here that Juliana got to know the doctor who attended to the Mughal emperors whom she married later. Juliana herself was adept at home remedies, having picked up some from her stay in Goa and from Garcia de Orta's book Colloquios published in 1563. (We in Kerala know much more about Hortus Malabaricus which was published more than a hundred years later in 1678. Garcia was himself a medical doctor - unlike Van Rheede who depended on local vaidyans like Itty Achuthan)

Juliana got to know the royals closely through her husband and even had an audience with Aurungzeb, thanks to the influential Jesuit priest Fr. Magalhaes (a colourful character who worked assiduously for promoting Society of Jesus in India and China). Juliana recorded faithfully the experience of an audience with the Alamgir who had a reputation for being brusque and curt. 'The old emperor was sharp, but I was amazed at the amount of time he spent talking with me. He asked me a great deal about the Malabar region, of the Portuguese interests, and of the Deccan interaction with the Portuguese'.

Juliana was soon appointed as Superintendent of the Zenana, looking after the women in the Palace and teaching the young princes and princesses. Juliana soon came to be known for her piety and her ability to work miracles - putting out fires with consecrated palm fronds and curing illness through prayers. She was particularly close to Prince Muazzam who carried the title Shah Alam and was later to be crowned as Bahadur Shah in 1709, after killing his brother. 

 Juliana continued in the Mughal Court even after the death of Bahadur Shah in 1712 and continued to serve the Mughal household with her advice, prayers and cures. Farukhsiyar ascended the throne in 1713 after another bout of internecine blood-letting, but Juliana not only survived the intrigues of the powerful Sayyid brothers who had the Emperor under their control, but even had powers to get the Emperor to issue firmans. 

British colonial historians have been asserting that it was the English surgeon, William Hamilton who had cured Farukhsiyar of a painful carbuncle and obtained a firman  for trading without duties. But, apparently, it was Juliana who had cured the Emperor with her herbal concoctions (and a liberal dose of Christian prayers). She records that she had got firmans out of Farukhsiyar not only for the Portuguese, but even for the English traders!

Mohammed Shah
courtesy: wikipedia

The crowning glory of Juliana's days in the Mughal Empire was in 1719 when she was asked to physically crown the new Emperor, Mohammed Shah (Rangila)! The day she chose for this was, of course, the day of St.John the Baptist, her Patron Saint. She wrote: 'At mid-morning today, I , Juliana Diaz da Costa, actually crowned the emperor! I carried the crown and placed it on the head of Prince Mohammed Shah'.

Donna Juliana (she had been conferred the title for her services to the Church and the Jesuits) continued in the service of the Mughals. A letter written in 1727 testifies: 'The Chief Surgeon of Bacaim is in the Court, who has been called to look after the mother of the king. The treatment is pending the arrival of Donna Juliana to the palace, to touch and give medicines to the patient with the help of the Surgeon mentioned'.

Juliana passed away in 1732 and was buried in Agra in an unnamed grave! Thus ended the saga of the girl from Fort Cochin who wielded great influence in the Mughal Court during an era when heads around her were rolling in the relentless wars of succession.
Source : Forgotten (2010) by Bilkees I. Latif, Penguin Books

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A Jews Street in Calicut?

A view of the Jews Street with shops at the far end

It was young Thoufeek Zakriya, a history enthusiast, avid blogger (http://jewsofmalabar.blogspot.com/) and an accomplished calligrapher (http://thoufeekzak.blogspot.com) who alerted us on the possible existence of a Jews Street in Calicut. He got the lead from an advertisement of an electrical shop on the net. Phone calls to the listed number got the response that the number did not exist.

Our team led by Advocate Madhusoodan started looking for clues on the ground. Local historians did not know (or in one case belittled the importance of the finding, which made us more curious). 

At the end of the week, we got information that there does indeed exist a small locality called Jootha Bazar in the heart of legendary Thekkepuram (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thekkepuram) between Kuttichira and Idiyangara. 

We know that of all the communities which had once strong presence in Calicut, there is no evidence of only two - Chinese and Jews. 


This is true of not only Calicut, but even of other centres of trade like Panthalayini-Kollam. It is only recently when the Geniza papers are being deciphered that we get to know that a Jewish trader, Abraham Yiju had once made purchase of spices from Panthalayini-Kollam (Fandaraina) around 1120 AD. He records in one of his letters (232 T-S 

A Jaaram (tomb) at the entrance to the street

20 quoted by Amitav Ghosh at page 227 of his The Imam and the Indian:

'...I bought for (al Basara?) from Fandaraina two bahars (of cardamom) as a substitute for 17 mithqals.' Please click here for details.


 Almost 200 years later, the Franciscan Friar, Odoric of Pordenone had visited Panthalayini and had this to say about the Jews there and their conflict with the Christians :In Flandrina both Iewes and Christians doe inhabite, betweene whom there is often contention and warre: howbeit the Christians ouercome the Iewes at all times. 

As Prof. A. Sreedhara Menon observes, 'There are no traces of Jewish colonies in these places except that there is a 'Jew's Hill' at Chowghat and a 'Jew's Tank' at Madayi'. (A Survey of Kerala History, p.95) Could this Jews Street in Calicut be a remnant of a forgotten past ? We decided to verify.

As we walked down from the Miskal Mosque heading south, one road leads east and turns south again towards Idiyangara. There are a few shops on this street and this place is now called Jootha Bazar or Jews Street. Local people had different explanations for the origin of the name. An elderly person said that perhaps the origin could be traced to mothers calling their naughty offsprings children of Jews as a curse. But, why should the name called stick to a place, unless only children of that locality were mischievous. Another ingenious explanation given was that naughty young people of that locality would gather in the Jootha Bazar and gamble and, therefore, the name stuck. 

A third person, who appeared to be more knowledgeable about the history and culture of the place explained that it was just possible that the location of the present Jews Street was once a flourishing market run by the Jews, like the Silk Street, Gujarati Street etc.

We do not yet know whether the Jews Street has any historical significance. But, considering the irrefutable evidence of both Jews and the Chinese having once been a strong presence in Calicut and are now obliterated without any trace, we wonder whether there was some similarity in the sudden disappearance of the two communities.

Zheng He, the Chinese Admiral made his last voyage to Calicut in 1433 and died during this voyage. The date is significant from the point of view of direction of Calicut's trade. For, Abdul Razzak who visited Calicut just 9 years after the death of Zheng He noted that the trade had already shifted from the east to west. Recent research has revealed that Emperor Yong-le who had deputed Zheng He had already decided to shift his trade relations from Calicut to the newly emerging Cochin, prompted perhaps by the pressure on Chinese traders from the Arab trading monopoly. The Chinese Emperor's overtures to Cochin in the form of a poetic epistle (click here)dated 28th December 1416 was carried by Zheng He. (The Chinese had unwittingly shown the Portuguese how to pit Calicut against Cochin!)

The massacre of the Chinese which took place soon after the last voyage of Zheng He could have encompassed all foreign traders, including the Jews. For, there is not much record of the Jewish presence in Calicut after the 15th Century.

Pereira de Paiva, a Dutch Jew of Portuguese origin who visited Cochin in 1686 on behalf of the Amsterdam Jewry reported that there were only 465 Malabar Jewish families, all in and around Cochin. It is likely that along with the Chinese traders, the Jewish traders of Calicut also migrated to Cochin. 

It is most likely that the Jewish traders in Calicut belonged to the Black Jews (the original tribes who had been trading from the days of Solomon). The White Jews , descendants of Spanish, Portuguese and Iraqi arrived on the Malabar coast much later in the 16th Century.

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