A Syrian Christian Family Portrait – Circa 1620 A.D.

The below folio is from a manuscript at the Casanatense Library in Italy. It is called the ‘Portuguese Codice’ and is from a collection of manuscripts donated by Cardinal Casanata ( 1620 A.D. -1698 A.D.) to an Italian Public library which was to be run by Dominican monks.

The codice is composed of 76 folios, containing as many aquarelles, with images of various people the author found in Asia and also Africa. In Asia, only Japan is not represented, which suggests that this Album most probably dates from the XVI century. The legends, in lettering of such period, were in all probability inserted by the author.

The author whose name is lost to us seems to have roamed the length and breadth of Portuguese territories in India and the Middle East. Though he does not impress us as a painter, his work is still an excellent primary source of understanding various facets of that period namely cultures, clothing, flora and fauna, weaponry, etc.

Folio LXIV (64) is of particular interest to us as the narration on it which is in old Portuguese reads – ‘Malabar Christians, developed by the well ventured Saint Thomas’. The leaf on examination shows a man and a woman, in all probability a couple, standing standing in a field of flowers, the lady holding a flower in her hand with a Cross in the foreground.

Now, let us study each of the elements of this portrait and see how we could relate them to contemporary Syrian Christian society and tradition. The flower garden chosen as the background goes in hand with contemporary portraits of that era common to both the West and the Orient. Compare this with many Mughal and Rajasthani Miniatures of that era. The theme is similar – (Courting) Couple in a garden.

The lady is seen wearing a costume which is the traditional Kerala Christian ‘Chatta and Mundu’. This can be ascertained from the jacket worn by the lady which has the striking ‘V’ shape neck. Around the waist we see he wearing the traditional mundu which is seen hanging down to the ankles. The characteristic fan or ‘nyori’ that is tucked in at the back is not to be seen possibly as a result of the lady’s position in the portrait. However, what is uncharacteristic of her attire are it’s delightful colors. The traditional Chatta and Mundu combination is a typically ‘White only’ colored attire. Perhaps the lady in the portrait was far ahead of her times when it came to fashion or maybe, we can assign this ‘flaw’ to the author’s artistic license.

Her hair is seen packed tight in a bun and and covered by Lace. Now, Lace was not new to Kerala and was incidentally introduced there towards the 6th Century A.D. by Syrian immigrants to Quilon.

Her ears are also pierced and she is shown wearing a necklace too. In the 16th century down to the last generation, Syrian Christian women wore a heavy pendant consisting of a gold rod with a circular disc at one end which was engraved on one side with a Ruby set in the Center. The weight had a tendency to disfigure the wearer’s ear, as can be confirmed from the folio. She is also wearing shoes, definitely a luxury in that time, attesting to her high birth and prosperity.

Now coming to the Man depicted in the folio, he is a striking example of a rich Syrian Christian Merchant of that time. He cannot be a Syrian landlord or farmer of that period as he would then have to be wearing a simple mundu with a kavani thrown round the neck. The elements of his attire show clear European elements with the trousers, waistcoat and Jacket. The cap he is shown wearing was worn by most well to do traders in kerala at that time, Moplahs and Jews included. Note that the cap, in form similar to the middle eastern fez is distinctly different from the European ‘Hats’ of that time, namely the hood and the chaperone. Most Syrian Christians around that time as today, were engaged in trade, the foreign trade being almost exclusively in their hands, export of the black gold ‘pepper’ included. He would have been interacting with European traders most of the time and seems to have adapted their dress. He has his ears pierced and a large necklace around his neck.

He is shown with a sword on him. The blade of the sword and also the waistband or sword belt can be distinctly seen here. The sword on him may surprise not a few readers. But then, what has been forgotten is that the Syrian Christian community always had among them a large population of men who were adept in the way of the sword. Several European travelers to kerala are testimony to this fact.

The Jacobite Syrian Seminary in Kottayam has the famed ‘Iravi Corttan’ copper plates which were granted by King Vira Raghava Chakravarti to Iravi Corttan, a representative of the Kodangallur christian community in the 4th century A.D. The 2nd paragraph of the copper 1st copper plate makes interesting reading which says….”We have also given him(Iravi Corttan) the right of feast cloth, pictured rooms, all the revenue, the curved sword and with the sword, the sovereign merchantship, the right of proclamation, …”.

So, the right to carry the sword was a right inherited by the Syrian Christians way back in history. Even Edward Gibbon in his The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol II says of the Syrian Christians “….In arms, in arts, and possibly in virtue they excelled the natives of Hindostan;…the merchants were enriched by the pepper trade, the sodiers preceded the Nairs or nobles of Malabar, and their hereditary privileges were respected by the gratitude or the fear of the King of Cochin and the Zamorin himself”. Haidar Ali after invading Cochin had to disarm the Syrian Christians and actually received an embassy from the Archbishop of Cochin pleading against the same.

Both the man and the lady are shown holding rosaries in their hands. We must pause here to reflect here that by this time (Late 16th and early 17th Century A.D.) the Roman Catholic faith had penetrated deep into Kerala. The Synod of Diamper(Udayamperur) was held in 1599 and several customs in the Syrian Christian community in Kerala were effectively Latinized. Though the rosary was also an integral part of the Churches of the East, nowhere was it and still is more emphasized than in the Roman Catholic church. The couple depicted here seems to have taken to the Latin stream quite wholeheartedly.

In the foreground is a Cross notably Latin and not what we think should be Persian; again this could be on account of the Roman Catholic bent of the Syrian Christian couple depicted here or merely because the author, in all probability Portuguese and Catholic, was comfortable painting the Latin cross. The cross with Christ’s blood on the 3 ends where he was nailed is a good example of contemporary Catholic iconography.

All in all, Folio number 64 pf the Portuguese Codice is a valuable document that can help our community to understand contemporary Syrian Christian attire and society in the Malabar of the 16th-17th Century.

References: Imagens Do Oriente, Biblioteca Casanatense di Roma

With Special Thanks to my good friend, Fernando Viana who pointed me to this manuscript and translated the legend from old Portuguese to English.
__________________________________________________________________________
Author Nidhin Olikara can be reached on olikara at gmail dot com
__________________________________________________________________________