Was Zheng He a Colonialist?

Early this year, I was invited to participate in a lively discussion at the Nalanda Srivijaya Centre of the Institute of South  East Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore. Key speakers were Prof. Geoff Wade and Prof. Tansen Sen, both eminent Ming/Zheng He scholars. The theme of the talks was that the Ming expeditions to the Western Ocean were part of the regime's imperialistic designs.

Geoff Wade repeated his known position - these expeditions were part of Ming colonial ambitions. Tansen Sen's argument was more subtle : Ming court seems to have been more interested in advancing the rhetoric of a Chinese world order rather than colonizing or just profiting from maritime commerce.

When pointed out that they were speaking of a pre-imperialist era, they amended their description and preferred to describe the Ming conquest as 'Mingism' rather than imperialism.

Prof Wade described the voyages of Zheng He as 'proto-colonialistic', and mentioned the incidents of his conquest of Palembang, Sumatra. Further, the Chinese admiral's forces fought a bitter battle in North Java and invaded the royal city in Sri Lanka and took away the ruler and his family back to the Ming Court at Nanjing.

 The Ming aim, according to the Professors, was not in grabbing territories, as European colonists would attempt later; they were only interested in controlling ports and maritime trade routes on the Western Ocean. Wade's interpretation of the 'tributory-trade system' was that these Asian powers who paid tribute were doing so in exchange for military protection and trade benefits.

This view was vehemently opposed by Dr.Tan Ta Sen, the President of the International Zheng He Society, Singapore and some others. They argued that there was no proof either in the Ming annals or in the writings of co-travellers like Ma Huan to suggest an expansionary agenda for the voyages. It is true that Zheng He had established guan changs (military and trade depots) at places like Malacca, but then Chinese had already established themselves in these locations and this was testified by Ma Huan when the fleet visited Malacca. Dr. Sen repeated his well-known position that Zheng He was the greatest maritime voyager in history and that the voyages had the following five specific objectives:
1. The voyages sought to establish the political legitimacy of  Emperor Yongle who was, in fact, an usurper to begin with;
2. The diplomatic objective of the voyages was to reinforce the Confucian world view of overlord-vassal state relationship by ensuring that the vassal states pay tributes with their local produce in return for China's recognition of their sovereignty. The peace-keeping role of the fleet - as in suppressing piracy in Palembang or arbitrating in inter-state disputes between Siam and Malacca or Malacca and Palembang - should be seen as part of the fleet's objective of keeping the trade routes safe.
3. Yongle had banned private trade and all trade was state-conducted. He also allowed foreign tribute missions to bring and sell duty-free trade goods for private trade in China. The voyages were meant to promote foreign trade which had been flagging during the early Ming period.
4. Zheng He disseminated Chinese culture and promoted cultural exchange between China and the states visited by the fleet.
5. Conducting scientific maritime exploration was the final objective of Zheng He's voyages, according to Dr. Tan Ta Sen.

Where do we stand on this issue? Calicut was the principal destination of many of Zheng He's seven voyages. In fact, Zamorin had been sending envoys to China even before the Ming voyages commenced. The very first voyage had one of Calicut's envoys who was returning from his mission. The following translation from the Ming annals testifies to the importance of diplomatic relations between Calicut and China :
The envoy Ha-bei-nai-na and others who had been sent by Sha-mi-di, the king of the country of Calicut, offered tribute of local products. Paper money and silks were conferred upon them. In addition, silk gauzes, fine silks, gold brocade drapes, porcelain and other goods were conferred upon Sha-mi-di.
(Geoff Wade, translator, Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu: an open access resource, Singapore: Asia Research Institute and the Singapore E-Press, National University of Singapore, http://epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/entry/1475, accessed October 25, 2012.)

The identity of Habeinaina (Nayanar?) need not detain us here. But the fact that there were frequent visits by Calicut's envoys to China shows the vigorous diplomatic and trade relations which the two states had been developing. In fact, according to Geoff Wade's monumental effort of translating Ming Shi-lu (http://www.epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/search/?q=calicut&b=Search) there are at least 27 references to envoys from Calicut being banqueted by the Ming Court. These references were spread over 31 years, between 1405 and 1436.

And yet, there is no statement indicating that the Ming Empire sought to subjugate Calicut. In fact, a fleet of more than 200 ships and 27000 sailors could walk all over Calicut which did not have a maritime fleet. There is a reference to a Chinese fort  in Calicut and a Chinese compound (guan chang?) in Panthalayini  -Kollam, but no evidence of any cultural domination.

We feel that there was a subtle difference in the way the fleet treated the states of South East Asia and Calicut. The SEA states already had Chinese enclaves and it was easy for Zheng He to enforce their diktat. We should not gloss over the atrocities committed by the fleet in SE Asia. For instance, Zheng He and the Ming fleet behaved like International Policemen in fighting Sekander, the usurper of the Semudera throne and in taking him and the family back to Nanjing to be executed there.

But, with Calicut, the approach appears to have been different. We find that during the first of the seven voyages, Zamorin had presented his visitors with sashes made of gold and studded with precious stones.During the four months that the fleet stayed waiting for favourable monsoons winds, the Chinese were entertained with song and music. Records show that, unlike many other Indian Ocean states, the Chinese treated Calicut with respect and on an equal footing : Though the journey from this country to the Middle Kingdom is more than a hundred thousand li, yet the people are very similar, happy and prosperous, with very identical customs.

Then, there is the vexed issue of Chini Bachagan  (the children of Chinese), presumed to be a snide reference by the Persians to the mixed population as a result of the Chinese stay in Calicut. Another interpretation of the appellation is that the sailors of Calicut on the eastern route (after the decline of the Ming expeditions) were derisively called by the Persians as Chini-bachagan. (The Cambridge Economic History of India, Vol I, 1200-1700).

We need to conduct a DNA test of the population of Calicut (as politely suggested to me by Dr. Wong Ah Long, Deputy Chairman, Board of Trustees, ISEAS) to ascertain whether they carry any Chinese genes. But, unlike many South Eastern nations where the influence is obvious from physical appearance, the people of Calicut do not show evidence of such liaison!

We also read about the strict injunction by the Ming Emperor against the fleet mixing with the local population. The ban, however, could not have affected the Chinese traders who used to frequent Calicut before and after the Ming era. The policy of the first imperialists to visit the Calicut shores - the Portuguese - was vastly different; they encouraged marriage with locals resulting in a large army of Topazes who continued to aid and abet imperialism as interpreters and foot soldiers.

In sum, Calicut cannot subscribe to the theory that the Zheng He fleet was out to conquer and colonise. That was not the experience of medieval Calicut, at least. They did nothing to dominate or control the ports or maritime trade routes of either Quilon or Calicut. Perhaps, as in the case of Vasco da Gama ( who thought that the ruler and people of Calicut were Christian because he mistook the temple of Devi in Puthoor for a Church of Mother Mary), the Chinese mistook the polite exchange of gifts by the Calicut ruler for a tacit recognition of Chinese sovereignty! But, proto-colonialism - sorry, we do  not share the view point.

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Did a tsunami hit Calicut coast in 1847?

 After the disastrous tsunami of 2004, researchers have been digging into the past to document all cases of possible tsunamis which happened in the past. We were alerted to the possibility of a tsunami after reading the description of 'the great storm of the 16th, 17th and 18th April, 1847' as described by William Logan in his Malabar Manual. 

'The storm originated somewhere beyond the southern islands of the Laccadive group. It swept over islands of Kalpeni and Androth, and did some damage to Kavarathi, but Agathi was apparently beyond the circle of its violence'. ... Kalpeni was also partially submerged by a wave, and the drinking water of the people in wells was spoilt and their stores of food and their houses destroyed. ...it was estimated that from three hundred to four hundred people only had perished in the storm or of famine afterwards and that the others had left the island'.

Of a population of over two thousand five hundred in Androth, nine hundred only remained, the rest having either perished in the storm or dispersed. Two boats with ninety-six males and a number of females belonging to Agatti were caught in the storm and heard of no more.

The tsunami did not spare the Malabar coast either. As Logan reports, The storm wave dashed on the coast in a very unexpected manner and its effects were felt from Cannanore to Chetwai. The wave destroyed the Cannanore Custom house, it came in so suddenly that the officials had hardly time to escape by the rear as the sea swept in at the front. Graphic description of a typical tsunami wave, as those who have watched on TV the visuals of the waves hitting Phuket on 26th December 2004 would recall.

Giant tsunami waves hitting Phuket, 26 December, 2004

Further south the waves damaged the mouth of the Kotta (Moorad, Vatakara) river and destroyed the Palliyad dam and the cultivation above it over two miles from the mouth of the river. The floods from inland breached the new work on the Conolly canal at Calicut. At Parappanangadi and Tanur private persons suffered much loss from the sudden rise of the sea.

The tsunami altered the topography permanently in Chavakkad, where, Logan records, the sea forced a new and deep opening into the Chavakkad backwater and broke with much strength on the Ennamakkal dam....

The description leaves no room to doubt that it was indeed a tsunami . Considering the lack of proper communication those days, it is likely that the damage - particularly in terms of loss of lives and destruction of property - was much more widespread but was not properly documented. 

But is there a record of this tsunami in the annals of tsunami research? We find that there indeed was an earthquake of an estimated magnitude of 7.5 – 7.9 on the Richter scale in 1847 which was followed by a tsunami in the Indian Ocean, but its impact is not known. But the date recorded was 31 October 1847 and the destruction was centred around Great Nicobar Island. An earthquake is also recorded in Zennkoji, Japan on the 8^th May 1847, killing nearly 10,000 people. But, no event has been recorded on the dates mentioned by Logan - 16th, 17th and 18th April. Most probably, this event escaped the notice of the researchers, although it is also possible that Logan, writing 30 years after the event, got his dates wrong. As the 2004 tsunami showed us, Calicut is not totally tsunami-proof. It was explained that in 2004, Malabar coast was saved by the protection offered by the Lakshadweep Islands. But, what if these islands are also hit, as seems to have happened in 1847?

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Calicut's Contribution to Sanskrit Scholarship

Medieval Calicut was known as a prosperous entrepot, often described as the Emporium of the World. People of several nationalities speaking a variety of languages used to visit this busy trading centre and enjoy the peaceful trading ambiance which the rulers had provided them. But, a centre for scholarship - that too, Sanskrit? Not many would readily agree.

Even those who are familiar with the Revati Pattathanam at Tali Temple would recall Uddhanda Shastri and how he was snubbed by the diminutive Kakkasseri Bhattathiri in the famous exchange - aakaro hrusva.  Naughtier persons would recall the obscene sloka attributed to Uddhanda (Bhaginee.....bhagyabhavo vibhava).

But, the range of contribution and the role of the ruling Zamorins (more particularly two of them) is vaster, as was explained to CHF audience the other day by the renowned Sanskrit scholar and Professor and Head of the Sanskrit Department of Calicut University, Dr. C. Rajendran.

The story behind Revati Pattathanam as an annual assembly of scholars in the four areas of knowledge – Tarka, Vyakarana, Mimamsa and Vedanta – is well-known and is being re-created even now every year to commemorate the great event. But the wealth of output by these scholars – many of them like Uddhanda Shastri came with the limited aim of a literary conquest but decided to stay on as court scholars of the Zamorins – has not received sufficient notice from scholars and historians of this golden age of Calicut.

Zamorin Raja leading the Revati Pattathanam procession in front of  Tali   Temple

Zamorins of Calicut were known in history for their skilful governance and their ability to weld together different communities and nationalities in pursuit of the common interest of trade and commerce. Among them at least two were also known as patrons of learning. The annual assembly of scholars in Tali temple may have started in the 13^th Century, but it was with Manavikrama the Great (1466-1471) that royal patronage managed to attract the talents from far and wide. 

Undoubtedly, the star among them was Uddhanda Shastri who set off from Natapuram in Chengalpattu (Tamil Nadu), was disappointed with the cold reception that he got from the Karnataka ruler and stormed into Calicut, announcing his arrival by a sloka in which he warned the poetic elephants of Calicut that he, the literary lion was in town and they better take cover.

But, according to Dr. Rajendran, Uddhanda’s real contribution is not in the histrionics at the Pattathanam but the valuable glimpses of Calicut history that is revealed in his poems, particularly in his Kokilasandesam . He describes the vibrant urban life of Calicut where every house was white-washed and shining and where young men and women frolicked in the streets. 

Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth lived in Calicut and the proof of this could be seen in the ships laden with riches from around the world, anchored in Calicut harbor  which the poet describes as the dowry sent to Zamorin by his father-in-law, the Ocean whose daughter Lakshmi was!  The reference could have been to the Treasure Ships of the Ming Chinese which had frequented Calicut for well over three decades in the first half of the 15^th Century.

His description of Onam – when the young girls would sing to the accompaniment of villu, and young men would be found running around worrying about how to manage to buy the traditional Onappudava for their women – has a contemporary tone. So is his description of Conjee (of Chinese origin?) with coconut scrapings, green gram curry and ginger chutney!

Uddhanda had also written a short drama called Mallikamarutha which he had staged at the Tali temple. The Zamorin Raja himself was no less a scholar and had produced a commentary on Murari’s Anargharaghavam called Vikramiya.  Another great scholar who adorned the Zamorin’s assembly was Chennas Narayanan Namboodiri who transformed temple worship in Kerala with his treatise called Tantrasamuchaya.  

The other great patron of learning in Calicut was the Zamorin named Manaveda (1658-1662) who is more popularly known as Manaveda Kavi for his  Krishna Geethi on which the dance drama of Krishnanattam is based. According to some western writers, Krishnanattam can be said to be the first opera in Sanskrit. One of his courtiers, Narayana Pandita wrote the second part of  Manameyodaya, a philosophical work. There were many Sanskrit writers in and around Calicut those days like Anantanarayana and Sambashiva. We have little information about their contribution, other than stray references to their writings by contemporaries.

Dr. Rajendran concluded his talk with a reference to the only woman scholar in the male-dominated galaxy, Manorama Thampuratti who was so learned in the annotation of Siddhantakaumudi (called Manorama) that she started being called after this annotation. Her lament at the plight of having been forced to be the life partner of an illiterate Namboodiri is matched only by her romantic epistles addressed to Prince Karthika Tirunal, the Dharma Raja of Travancore !

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Travails of Trading in Malabar

   

Travails of  Trading in Malabar

Vasco da Gama was supposed to have made his agenda clear to the first person he had met on Calicut coast. The story goes that in reply to a question from the Genoese trader (who was the first person encountered by da Gama), why in the name of the Devil had he come here, da Gama calmly replied: ‘For Pepper and Christ’.  Obviously he wanted to please both his masters – Prince Manuel I of Portugal and the Pope who had blessed the voyage and whom Manuel I wanted to placate.

Pepper indeed formed the main item of export from the Malabar Coast, but as the Portuguese established themselves in Goa and Cochin, the trade also got complex.  During the initial days of conquest, there was a virtual state monopoly imposed by the Portuguese on Malabar spices and this meant that ship after Portuguese ship would be loaded with pepper and other spices and would sail from the western coast of India, escorted by the powerful armada.

But, as Portuguese trade stabilized, private players also got involved which included non-Portuguese players as well. The Venetians, who had been uprooted from their monopoly of the Mediterranean trade soon after Vasco da Gama had discovered the Calicut route, did not waste time to capitalize on the new opportunity.

We have a fascinating account of the complex coastal trade practised by one such Venetian, Cesar Fredrici who had traded in the Indies for 18 years between 1560 and 1580 and maintained a journal of his adventures. The journal was almost immediately translated from Italian into English by Thomas Hickock under the title, The Voyages and Travaile: Of M. Caesar Frederick, Merchant of Venice, Into the East India, the Indies, and Beyond… ( Was Shakespeare influenced by Frederici’s account when he wrote The Merchant of Venice around the time the translation had appeared in England?)

Frederick set out on his long and eventful voyage in 1563 from Venice, travels to Cyprus and  finally lands up in Portuguese Goa in 1566. He proceeds from Goa to Malacca in a Portuguese ship which was en route to Banda to pick up a cargo of nutmegs and mace. The ship passed through Ceylon and Nicobar before reaching Pegu in present day Myanmar. His description of the cannibal tribes of Andamans is graphic.

After selling his cargo of nutmeg and sandal, he decides to proceed to Venice via Chittagong, Cochin and Lisbon. But a severe cyclone (touffon) hits the ship which drifts to the Sondiva (Sunderbans) islands. He eventually makes it to Cochin only to realize that the Portuguese vessels had all departed and he would have to wait for a year to catch the next sailing. He decides to proceed to Goa for the wait and to transact some business.

Frederici falls ill in Goa and has to sell some of his rubies (which he had purchased from Pegu) to meet his medical expenses. He had, however, taken care not to sell the most valuable rubies which he preserved for sale back home in Venice. Once he recovers from the illness, he decides to proceed to Cambay where he invests a large sum (2100 ducats, to be precise) in buying opium which fetched a good price in Burma. He again travels east via Cochin and reaches Pegu only to realize that just a day before his cargo had landed, a large shipload of opium from Cambay had arrived crashing the price of his commodity from 50 to 2½ Bize. On an investment of 2100 ducats he could recover only 1000 ducats after two years!  Such was the uncertainty of coastal trading in those days.

We have another account of a private trader, more than a hundred years after Frederici which gives a fascinating account of the diversity of coastal trade. Charles Lockyer, an English trader boarded the East India Compay ship Streetham in February 1703 and reached Batavia in October of the same year.  As the monsoon winds had changed, he could not proceed to China which was his ultimate destination and used the interval by trading between Malacca and India. The ship managed to sell its cargo in China only in September 1704 with the resumption of favourable winds.

On the way back  the ship, laden with goods originating in China, Malacca and the eastern coast of India reached Calicut by which time again the season for sailing westward had ended. So the ship shuttles between Colombo and Surat in the north, hugging the coast to avoid the rough seas and making good money selling various surplus European goods and buying Indian spices for the return cargo.

The chief items bought by the ship are Cardamom and Coconut kernels at Calicut, coir, hubble-bubble cane (for making the hooka) from Maldives, cardamom and rice from Tellicherry, arrack from Goa (one of the most lucrative trade for, according to Lockyer, it was available for Rs. 13½ per hogshead in Goa and could fetch Rs.25-30 in Bombay and Surat.)  He was prudent enough to mention: the smuggling trade with the Dutch, I leave to the Persons concerned – emphasizing that he indulged in only legal trade!

Lockyer’s description of Tellicherry (which had just acquired the status of a fort) is interesting. Among the important items mentioned by him is opium ‘of a deep purple, the best in India’, ‘…it bears double the price of Bengal opium’. He next lands in Calicut and after a pleasant stay moves down to Cochin, then a Dutch stronghold. The ship is replenished with essential supply in Cochin – 60 pigs, a thousand fowls, one small heifer (‘but beef is not usually so cheap’) and water casks. The ship then proceeds to Europe, crossing the Cape of Good Hope in July 1706.

This was an era of ‘pure trade’ when the Europeans were contended with making money out of trade and had no territorial ambitions. Trade was not conducted only by the East India Company, but by small enterprising traders who saw opportunities in a delayed sailing and pursued profitable coastal trade between Malacca and Malabar and Malabar and Hormuz. They competed with the Arab, Moplah and Chetty traders . Some like Frederici lost hugely and others like Lockyer made windfall profits!

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Men Who Ruled Malabar

Malabar came under British rule in 1792, although it was only in 1800 that a proper administrative structure was put in place, after a prolonged period of turbulence. It constituted an important district under the Madras Presidency and covered the area of the present districts of Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikkode, Malappuram and Palakkad.

Malabar under the British enjoyed a long line of able and benevolent administrators who tried to introduce many social reforms long before these were sought to be implemented in their home country.  An instance is the abolition of slavery. The abolitionist movement under William Wilberforce was facing opposition in Britain and his bill had been defeated in the British Parliament in 1791. But the anti-slavery movement had influenced the British civil servants in Malabar considerably and the Joint Commissioners, Duncan and Botham who were deputed to establish British administration in Malabar had ordered the abolition of all forms of slave trade here. It took another 40 years for Britain to abolish slavery.

The sentiment affected not just civil servants of the Company. Captain Lachlan Macquarie had just moved into Calicut in 1794 as part of the Regiment which was fighting Tipu and later Pazhassi. He had settled down with his young bride, Jane in the beautiful bungalow which he had named Staffa Lodge. (There is no trace of this bungalow now in Calicut). He had picked up two slaves from Cochin to help his new bride set up home in Calicut. But, Jane persuaded him to set them free and even enrolled the two slaves in a parish school in Bombay.  Macquarie later on rose to become the first Governor of Australia and is remembered as the ‘Father of Australia’ for his measures to rehabilitate convicts.

Another British administrator who worked to abolish slavery in Malabar was Thomas H Baber, the Sub Collector of Tellicherry, better known for his success in eliminating Pazhassi Raja and his loyal soldiers. Baber’s fight against domestic and agrestic slavery in Malabar saw him give evidence before a Parliamentary Committee. He had serious differences with his superiors on many matters of policy and did not mince words.  He had the welfare of the people at heart and had repeatedly protested against the unjust revenue assessments made by East India Company against poor farmers. It was more than a 100 years later, in 1907, that the British Government officially acknowledged that its land revenue policy in Malabar was flawed!

William Logan (Courtesy Wikipedia)

Conolly who was the Collector in the 1840s was another administrator with vision and commitment to the welfare of the people. His strategy to deal with the communal disturbance might have cost him his life, but he will be remembered for his pioneering effort to cultivate teak and for planning a waterway from Payyoli to Mathilakam in Trissur District – what is known today as the Conolly Canal. The introduction of railways around the time the canal was being completed had eclipsed its importance. But with the increasing fuel price and the eco-friendly nature of water transport, Conolly’s plans are bound to be re-visited.

William Logan was not only a brilliant administrator but a painstaking chronicler of Malabar’s history. His contribution to bringing about peace in strife-torn Malabar is as valuable as his effort in compiling important papers relating to British affairs in Malabar (1879) and his monumental Malabar Manual ( 1887).

Logan’s successor in office Evans was also a chronicler as well as a hard-working administrator. To him is attributed the statement: ‘Give me a car and no wife, I shall manage two districts!’ Innes, his collaborator in writing the Malabar Gazetteer, was another illustrious administrator of Malabar.

Sri P.K.Govindan who worked in the Malabar Collectorate for many years has narrated his experience with ICS Collectors of Malabar in his delightful book of the same name.  He describes the kind and generous disposition of H.H.Carleston, ICS Sub Collector who would fine a poor rustic accused of boot-legging and would pay the fine from his own pocket to avoid the poor man being sent to jail for 3 months.  Once Carleston was travelling from Malappuram to Calicut when his car knocked down a pedestrian near the Kallai bridge. He not only ensured that the victim got prompt medical attention, but kept sending him some money regularly for his period of disability, even after Carleston had been posted out of Malabar.

The last of the British Collectors of Malabar was Bouchier, ICS, CIE, a person of high integrity. Govindan quotes an instance: while proceeding home on leave, the Collector wanted to take some local handicrafts. He visited Quilandy and wanted to purchase the beautiful finger bowls made of coconut shells which is still a popular item among tourists. Bouchier insisted that the entire transaction take place in the presence of the local Tahsildar and that he be charged the full price. Bouchier was on leave on the day India won Independence and did not return. Govindan concludes, quoting Gandhiji, ‘You may hate British imperialism, but not the Britishers’.

(Originally published in the Hindu, Calicut Edition on 30 January 2012. The original can be accessed here)

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A New Look at Calicut's China Ties

Dr.Liu Yinghua examining the manuscripts at the Calicut University

 Historians of Calicut deal with the Chinese period in its history as a brief interlude of about a quarter of a century between 1400and 1425 AD highlighted by the seven voyages by Zheng He (Chengo Ho), the Three Jeweled Eunuch Admiral of the Ming fleet.

  Chinese had been arriving in India since time immemorial, but mostly through the land routes of Central Asia and North West India, and through Burma to lesser extent.  The rise of the Mongols and the strife among the Central Asian principalities led to the virtual closure of the Silk Route in the 14^th Century. Thus it was that as the ambassador of Mohammed bin Tuglaq,the Delhi Sultan,  Ibn Batutta had to travel all the way to Calicut to catch a ship to take him to China. This was, incidentally, 60 years before the first of the seven voyages of Cheng Ho reaching Calicut.

Although the Tang Treasure Ship evidence (Belitung Shipwreck) shows that Chinese had trade contacts with Arabia and possibly Africa even in the 9^th century, no concrete evidence has been discovered of their having touched Quilon (which existed then as a prosperous port) or what was the predecessor-port of Calicut. Our knowledge of Chinese contacts with Calicut begins with references in the 14^th Century.

Ibn Batutta had in February, 1342, arranged a berth in a Chinese junk starting from Calicut and had loaded his baggage in a smaller vessel (kokum); but, according to Ross Dunn in the book The Adventures of Ibn Battuta, he had to cancel his trip at the last moment when he found out that all the good cabins had been booked by rich Chinese merchants and he was being offered a cabin without a lavatory – an insult to the Plenipotentiary of the great Delhi Sultan!  Thus, not only were Chinese vessels frequenting Calicut port almost a century before Cheng Ho had come, the Chinese merchants were flaunting their wealth on Calicut shores and Chinese trade was predominantly controlled by the private sector.  Who were these Chinese traders and what was their route? We do not know for certain, although we know that Yuan Empire had been pursuing foreign trade vigorously, and had an ambitious maritime policy.

Again, while we know much about Cheng Ho’s adventure (mostly from Chinese records, like Ma Huan’s accounts), we do not know why the Ming trade stopped so suddenly in 1423 after the death in Calicut of Cheng Ho, or if the trade at all ended abruptly, as historians claim. The traditional explanation is that the Ming bureaucracy wedded to Confucian ideals of insularity succeeded in convincing the successor of Emperor Yongle to terminate all voyages and even destroy much of the records. Economic historians advance an argument that after 1450 China, like all major economies, had suffered from a prolonged period of economic depression and this might have led to the reduced volume of international trade.

Detail of a manuscript with the Chinese coin used to tie it

These and many other emerging issues on China-Calicut relations came up for discussions in a seminar held in Beijing in September, 2011.    The seminar saw participation from leading historians of Ming History like Prof. (Mrs.) Wan Ming, Professor of History of Social Sciences and Vice President and Secretary General, Chinese Society for Historians of China’s Foreign Relations, Prof. (Mrs.) Zhao Tong, Professor of Linguistics at Beijing Normal University and Mrs. May Yang, a candidate for Oh.D in Sanskrit from Gottingen University. C.K.Ramachandran, Convenor of Calicut Heritage Forum also participated. The seminar was organized by Dr.Liu Yinghua, a friend of Calicut, who has been visiting Calicut for many years now as a researcher in  Sanskrit and Ayurveda at the University of Calicut.

16 manuscripts with Chinese coins

The seminar emphasised that trade and cultural relations between Calicut and China existed even before the Zheng He visit, as documented in Chinese chronicles. It did not stop with the death of Zheng He in 1433. In 2007, Liu Yinghua had, while working with the manuscript section of Calicut University under the guidance of Dr. C. Rajendran, Professor of Sanskrit, discovered 15 Chinese coins being used to tie together the palm leaves manuscripts. These coins belonged to much later period.  Liu identified these as belonging to the periods of Emperors Qianlong (1736-1795), Jiaqing (1796-1820) and Daoguang (1821-1850). This probably showed that trade relations between Calicut and China continued well into the second half of the 19^th Century when the Opium Wars soured the Sino-British relations.

Pro. Wan Ming emphasized the need to discover local evidence of Chinese presence in Calicut during the Ming expeditions.

The seminar concluded on the note that much more research requires to be done in Calicut on the new findings to trace back the manuscripts to their sources to explore if further evidence of transactions with China existed. In the light of the Pattanam experience, it was also felt that archaeological excavations could be a useful source for more detailed information. In view of the importance of Panthalayini –Kollam (Fandaraina) as a haven during the inter-monsoon interval during the medieval times, it was suggested that further investigation could also be conducted there to seek information on the existence of Chinese communities there.

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Portrait of a Young Zamorin

The image that comes to mind of the Zamorin is usually that of an old patriarch presiding over the destinies of his territory from the Calicut palace. The formula for succession - the eldest male member from the various branches of the family - confirms this impression that any member of the family gets to become the ruler only during the fag end of his life. Castaneda, for instance, who chronicled the meeting between the Zamorin and Vasco da Gama describes the former as 'well advanced in years'. 

However, there have been exceptions. Conflicts and diseases used to claim several royal lives and adoption of young boys and girls was a regular practice to ensure the continuance of the lineage. This often led to younger members of the family being called upon to take the reins.

Pietro Della Valle

Pietro meeting Queen Abbakka

 We have the portrait of one such young Zamorin in the travelogue of the Italian traveller Pietro Della Valle who visited Calicut in December 1623. Born in a rich and noble family in Rome in 1586, Pietro took to travel primarily to get over his disappointments in love. He travelled in style and kept a meticulous record of his travels in the form of letters addressed to Mario Schipano, the doctor who had suggested that he take up travel to overcome his suicidal tendencies. (Readers may recall having encountered Pietro in an earlier post when he describes his meeting with the brave Queen of Ullal.)

Pietro and his entourage reached Calicut by ship from Mangalore in the evening of December 21, 1623. He was travelling with a Portuguese Captain who was on a delicate mission of not only concluding peace with the Zamorin but also of brokering peace between the Zamorin and the Raja of Cochin. Malabar had witnessed a rather turbulent era (as described in detail by Maddy) and the new Zamorin had assumed the throne only in 1617.

Pietro's description of Calicut's Bazar and its inhabitants is fascinating in its detail : the Market was full of all sorts of Provisions and other things necessary to the livelihood of that people.  He found the hair style of the Calicut women the gallantest that I have seen in any other nation.  He noticed that the residents were mostly Nairs, but the sea coasts are full of Malabari ( referring to the Moplahs). 

Pietro gives a body blow to Calicut's reputation as 'The City of Truth' when he describes Malabar as 'famous in India for the continual Robberies committed at Sea by the Malabar thieves; whence in the Bazar of Calicut, besides the things abovementioned, we saw sold good store of the Portugal's commodities, as Swords, Arms, Books, Clothes of Goa and the like Merchandise, taken from Portugal vessels at Sea; which things, because they are stolen and in regard of the excommunication which lies upon us in that case, are not bought by our Christians.(He glosses over the fact that Calicut was then at war with the Portuguese and the Portuguese were committing extreme atrocities against the Moplah and Arab vessels at sea. Just two years before Pietro's visit, a joint expedition had been launched against the Portuguese by the Dutch and the English which had effectively blockaded the Portuguese possessions in Malabar)


Pietro had no difficulty in walking into Zamorin's Palace where he and his Captain were almost forced to have an audience with the Zamorin. His description of the Zamorin as he walked into the hall to meet the visitors is graphic: After a short space the King came in at the same door, accompanied by many others. He was a young Man of thirty, or five and thirty, years of age, to my thinking; of a large bulk of body, sufficiently fair for an Indian and of a handsome presence. ... His beard was somewhat long and worn equally round about his Face; he was naked, having only a piece of fine changeable cotton cloth, blue and white, hanging from the girdle to the middle of the Leg.


How hands-on the Zamorin was is clear from the curiosity he displayed on seeing in the hands of a soldier, who had accompanied Pietro, a short firearm with a large bore, which he was seeing for the first time, perhaps. He asked the firearm to be brought to him, emptied the gun power on the ground, and looked through the sight, shewing thereby that he was a good marksman, as they told us afterwards he was.
Although Pietro mentions that the Zamorin kept talking about peace, no one was taken in by his words. The Portuguese knew that he was buying time for a large fleet to reach Calicut unmolested by the Portuguese at sea. For, this was the Manavikrama Zamorin who continued the war in Cranganore with greater vigour. The envoy who came in the ship which brought Pietro was indeed on a mission to conclude a treaty of peace, but on condition not acceptable to the Zamorin. The Portuguese had pleaded that the Zamorin spare the King of Cochin who was their ally.

The talks broke down and the war continued for another forty  years, although the dashing young Zamorin died at the young age of around 40, on 10th April, 1627 at Calicut.

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