Man Slaving to Divine: A Socio-religious Custom Gleaned from the Nineteenth Century Palm Leaves
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12724/ajss.23.1Keywords:
Syrian Christians, Slavery, Palm leave records, Adima, Adimappanam, Slave offeringAbstract
This paper is an attempt to explore and analyse the practice of the institution of slavery observed by the Syrian Christian communities in Kerala. There are eighteenth and nineteenth century palm leaf (manuscript) records in the Syrian Christian churches in Kerala establishing the same which needs to be understood in its secular and spiritual senses since these records are evidence of both the secular practice of slavery as a social custom and a religious practice of adima (slave) offering as a spiritual activity. So also, this paper is an attempt to explore and analyse the origin of adimappanam or adimakasu found in the Church records.
References
Palm leaf Manuscript. (1828). St. Mary's Forane Church, Muttam, Cherthala, Palm leave bundle I/1/leaf 36
Palm leaf Manuscript. (1843). St. Thomas's Jacobite Church, Parur, Palm Leave Bundle 26/ leaf 24
Palm leaf Manuscript. (1859). St. Thomas's Jacobite Church, Parur, Palm Leave Bundle 7/ leaf 14
Palm leaf Manuscript. (1869). St. Mary's Forane Church, Muttam, Cherthala, Palm leave bundle 1/1/leaf /21
Palm leaf Manuscript. (1871). St. Mary's Forane Church, Muttam, Cherthala, Palm leave bundle 1/1/leaf 51
Udayamperoor Synod Canons. (Manuscript of 1768, Serial No 1299). Mannanam, St. Joseph's Monastery.
Bloch, M. (2004). Growth of ties of dependence in L. A. Manyon (Ed.), Feudal society (2 ed., Vol. 1): ebooksfreedownload.org/2011/08/feudal-society-vol-1-2.html
Dalit, B. (N K Jose). (2011). Diwan munroe (2nd ed.). Vaikom: Hobby Publishers
Dubois, J. A., (1906). Hindu manners, customs and ceremonies. (3Ed.). Oxford: Clarendron.
Forrestes, D. B. (1980). Caste and Christianity: Attitudes and Policies on Caste of Anglo Saxon Protestant Missions in India. London: Curzon Press.
Fuller, C. J. (1992). Kerala christians and the caste system. Dipankar Gupta (Ed.), Social stratification (pp. 195-212). Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Gita. (1901) (2 ed.). Tran: A Mahadeva Sastri, Mysore, Government Oriental Library.
Gundert, H. (1844). Translation and Analysis of Ancient Documents Engraved on Copper in Possession of Syrian Christians and Jews of Malabar. In The Madras Journal of Literature and Science, XIII (Part 1), pp. 115-146. Retrieved from http://books.google.co.in/books/reader?id=bspKAAAAcAAJ&printsex=frontcover&output = reader & source=gbs_atb_hover&pg=GBS.PR2.
Gurukkal, R., & Varrier, R. (1999). Cultural history of Kerala. (Vol. I). Thiruvananthapuram: Department of Cultural Publications Government of Kerala.
Hunt, W. S. (1997). Slavery in Kerala. In State Editor. Kerala Society Papers, (Vol. I, pp. 275-285). Trivandrum: Kerala Gazetteers.
Iyer, L. A. K. (1939). The Travancore tribes and castes (Vol. 2). Trivandrum: The Superintend of Govt. press.
Koshy, N. (1968). Caste in Kerala churches. Bangalore: CISRS.
Kusuman, K. K. (1973). Slavery in Travancore. Trivandrum: Kerala Historical Soceity.
Logan, W. (2010). Malabar Manual (Vol. 1 & 2, 5th reprint). New Delhi: Asian Educational Services.
Mateer, S. (2006). Native life in Travancore (2nd reprint). New Delhi: Asian Educational Services.
Menon, K. P. & Padmanabha. (1929). History of Kerala (Vol. 2). Ernakulam: Cochin Govt. Press.
Menon, P. S. (1983). A History of Travancore. Trivandrum: Government of Kerala.
Nair, A. & K. K. Ramachandran. (1974). Adimatham. In P. S. Velayudhan (Ed.). Kerala Charithram (Vol. 2, Pp. 47-82). Ernakulam: Kerala History Association.
Nair, A. & K. K. Ramachandran. (1986). Slavery in Kerala, Delhi: Mittal Publications.
Philip, G. (2005). A historical anatomy of the evolution of social revolution in Travancore (Unpublished PhD Thesis). Kottayam: Mahatma Gandhi University.
Pillai, T. K. & Velu. (1996). The Travancore State manual (Vol. 3). Thiruvananthapuram: Govt. of Kerala, Kerala Gazetteers Dept.
Sharma, R. S. (2007). Material culture and social formations in ancient India (2nd ed.). Delhi: Macmillan India Limited.
Smith, G. W., & Clarence (2006). Religions and the abolition of slavery- a comparative approach. Retrieved from http://www.2.lse.ac.uk/economicHistory/Research/GEHN/GEHNPDF/Conf10_ClarenceSmith.pdf
Viswanathan, S. (1995). The Christianity of Kerala, history, belief, and rituals among the yakoba. Madras: Oxford University Press.
Worth, J. H. (2005) Questions by a Missionary and Answers by a Travancore Slave Taught in a School of the Church Mission Society, C12/07/24 CMSAUB (Manuscript), quoted by P. Sanal Mohan. (2005). Imagining Equality: Modernity and Social Transformation of Lower Castes in Colonial Kerala (Unpublished PhD Thesis). Kottayam: Mahatma Gandhi University.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2016 Artha - Journal of Social Sciences
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.