Fort Kochi, home to a Jewish synagogue, a Jain temple, a Dutch palace, a Shiva temple, a mosque, and a church, signals its historic diversity
By Suman Bajpai
A Perfect Blend of Colonial and Local Culture
Kochi (formerly known as Cochin), an iconic port city on Kerala’s Malabar Coast, has played home to multiple communities and cultures that have lived in harmony for centuries. This unique setting is home to a Jewish synagogue, a Jain temple, a Dutch palace, a Shiva temple, a mosque, and a church all of which dot the cityscape in homage to its diversity and history.
For years, Fort Kochi was familiar to visitors for its famous Chinese fishing nets, spice trade, and historic Jew Town, the heart of a once-thriving Cochin Jewish community.
Today the Kochi Muziris Biennale has made Fort Kochi the art capital of India, changing the landscape of contemporary Indian art and helping to revitalize the port town’s lost glory.
I had a chance to explore Fort Kochi located in the district of Ernakulum, during the Kerala Travel Mart, and discover the dreamy lanes of Fort Kochi – a pilgrimage to art aficionados and foodies alike.
Chinese Fishing Nets
The first view of Fort Kochi is its dramatic shoreline – the cantilevered Chinese fishing nets soaring high against a crimson skyline by the waters of the Arabian Sea. The nearly 10-meter-high fishing nets, known as ‘cheena vala” were established between 1350 and 1450 AD, first introduced to the Kochi shores by Chinese explorer Zhang He, a trader from the court of Kublai Khan. Scattered across the shoreline, the nets made with teak and bamboo require at least five men to operate their suspension mechanism.
Vasco da Gama Square is the best place to watch the nets being lowered into the sea and the fish being brought in. The square is also an ideal place for street food at stalls serving fresh, delicious seafood, tender coconut, and more. Sunset is the ideal time to take in the breathtaking sight of fading sunlight disappearing through the nets.
The Spirit of Fort Kochi
The Muziris heritage project, the largest heritage conservation project in India, attempted to fill a void in history by documenting the cultural diversity of Kochi’s port city and reviving the splendor of a bygone era. It was however, the Muziris Biennale that resuscitated the crumbling colonial buildings, moss-clad roofs, and termite-infested spice warehouses in Mattancherry to create avenues for staging and appreciating art.
The spirit of Fort Kochi lies in its pretty lanes, languages and flavors. Princess Street, Rose Street, and Petercelli Street are dotted with whitewashed churches, colonial cemeteries, art galleries, and cafes. The eateries offer a wide range of cuisines, from traditional to continental and include French cafes, German bakeries, and roadside food stalls are replete with local delicacies.
The Dutch Palace
Around 1555 A.D. the Portuguese built a palace in the oriental style, and presented to Vira Kerala Varma to compensate for having plundered a temple in the vicinity of his palace. This unique historical and architectural edifice underwent a major repair at the hands of the Dutch – hence the palace which houses the museum – is also known as the Dutch Palace.
Some of the best murals depicting scenes from the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, as well as some of the Puranic Hindu legends, are displayed here. The paintings reflect the arts, literature, and social mores of Kerala’s past. Different galleries contain royal palanquins, coronation robes of former Maharajas of Kochi, period furniture, coins, and maps as well as wood crafts carvings, facial masks, and other traditional crafts.
Mattanchery Spice Street
Nearby Mattancherry is sprinkled with spice stores reflecting the era when the Malabar Coast was a major Indian spice trade center luring travelers from across the world to Kochi. To this day, the air in Mattancherry is replete with the delicious flavors of ginger, cinnamon cardamom, cloves, and more. Street marts offer visitors an array of assorted flavors in spice boxes to take home. The district houses the India Pepper and Spice Trade Association, the only pepper exchange in India and the only online commodity exchange in the state.
A 45-foot giant of a clock tower welcomes visitors to Mattancherry. Built in 1930, the numbers displayed on the clock tower are inscribed in three languages—Latin, Hebrew, and Malayalam—for the king, locals, Jews, and traders.
The Jewish Trail
Leaning on the whitewashed entrance of the 175-year-old Chennamangalam Synagogue (place of worship) is a granite gravestone inscribed in Hebrew reads ‘Sarah, 1268’. Arguably the oldest Hebrew text unearthed in Kerala, this headstone is a testimony to the Jewish association with Kerala.
Seven existing Jewish worship centers have since been restored to re-establish the historical and cultural significance of the legendary port of Muziris. In 175 BCE, a handful of Jews came to the Konkan coast because of a shipwreck. They settled along the Malabar coastline forming communities and places of worship over decades.
The old-standing synagogue of Chennamangalam, torched in 1939, was revived by the Government of Kerala into a Jewish lifestyle museum. The museum documents the Jews who made Kerala their home and exhibits their attire, cuisine, prayers, and customs. The Paravur Synagogue has also been remodeled into a Jewish history museum spotlighting the Jewish communities who settled in Kerala over different periods for trade, with narrative histories of their synagogues built along the Malabar Coast.
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Although built much later in 1568, the Paradesi Synagogue situated in Mattancherry is the only functioning synagogue. Adorned with glass chandeliers, rare antiques, and stunning blue and white hand-painted floor tiles, this colonial-style building hidden in Fort Kochi’s bylanes now houses spice shops, Kashmiri artifacts, and antique stores. The glass chandeliers hanging from the ceiling are 19th century and imported from Belgium.
The hand-painted, blue willow-patterned ceramic tiles that pave the synagogue’s floor were brought from Canton in the 18th century by Ezekiel Rahabi, a renowned Jewish businessman. Each tile has a different design.
The synagogue, which faces east towards Jerusalem is built according to Sephardic traditions. In the main prayer hall, two brass pillars at the entrance are emblematic of pillars in the temple of Solomon. A raised pulpit, or ‘Bimah’ sits at the center where the Hazzan (leader) conducts prayers. At the center, right in front of the Arc, is the ‘Tamid’, the perpetual lamp in every Jewish synagogue since the days of Solomon.
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Suman Bajpai is a freelance writer, journalist, editor, translator, traveler, and storyteller based in Delhi. She has written more than 17 books on different subjects and translated around 160 books from English to Hindi.
Courtesy: India Currents (Posted on Oct 28, 2024)
