KEY WORDS: Jewish Heritage, Bene Israel, Baghdadi Jew, Bombay, Konkan, Social History Architecture as Social History: Jewish Built Heritage in Bombay and the Konkan Smita Dalvi Tekton Volume 5, Issue 2, September 2018 pp. 50 - 69 ABSTRACT Two distinct Jewish communities flourished in Bombay and the Konkan separated by their time of arrival and their social status- the Bene Israel and the Baghdadi Jews. Both built places of worship and in case of the latter many public buildings. Much of this built heritage survives today Smita Dalvi is a founding faculty of even though the population has dwindled due to outward MES Pillai College of Architecture, Navi migration. This paper attempts to examine the Jewish Mumbai and the editor of Tekton. She architectural heritage in Bombay and the Konkan with has been teaching architecture and an aim to recreate their social and economic history and aesthetics in Navi Mumbai and Mumbai. contribution to public life. In that, two attributes emerge which mark their presence in the social milieu of their times- Her research areas are in Architecture, syncretism and philanthropy. These are indicative of the History of Art & Culture, Urban Heritage architecture’s ability to communicate social characteristics. and has read and published papers and essays in conferences and several In the present time, how the same is perceived and sometime architectural and cultural journals. Her area transformed by the community is also indicative of the of special interest is Islamic architecture changed social scenario. and aesthetics. In 2007, she was awarded the fellowship of ‘Fulbright Visiting Specialist: Direct Access to the Muslim world’. Presently, she is pursuing her doctoral studies at IIT- Bombay. [email protected] 50 TEKTON: Volume 5, Issue 2, September 2018 Introduction unverifiable time while the Baghdadi Jews were Amongst the Jewish communities in India, the the Arabic speaking migrants who first arrived three most predominant are the Bene Israel, in the 18th century for trade purposes. The the Baghdadi Jews and the Cochin Jews. The latter two communities and their built heritage Bene Israel and the Baghdadi Jews were mainly form the focus of this paper. based in Bombay.1 They also inhabited Poona All three, Bene Israel, Baghdadi and Cochin All three, Bene Israel, Baghdadi Jews developed their distinct religious and and Cochin Jews developed social customs, while co-existing with and their distinct religious and social being influenced by other local communities. customs, while co-existing with They also built a number of places of worship and being influenced by other local and other public buildings, many of which communities. They also built a survive today, even though their population number of places of worship and has declined due to emigration. This paper other public buildings, many of attempts to examine the architecture of the which survive today, even though Beni Israel and the Baghdadi Jews in and their population has declined due around Bombay with an aim to recreate their to emigration. social and economic history and contribution and Calcutta in small pockets, and, in the to public life. What emerges when we view case of the Bene Israel, in many small towns built heritage of a community with a social lens along the Konkan Coast in Maharashtra. The is that it indicates certain attributes of their third community, the Cochin Jews were based communal and public life, showing that not further south on the Malabar Coast in Kerala. only architecture has a social purpose but also that it is shaped by people and their values. Romila Thapar (2003, p.368) writes about 10th-11th century copper-plate charters of the The Religious Built Heritage of the Jews Cheras (a kingdom in Kerala) that granted land in Bombay and the Konkan to Jewish traders such as Joseph Rabban, as Both, the Bene Israel and the Baghdadi Jews the earliest evidence of a Jewish community built several synagogues, prayer halls and settling in India. The Jews of Cochin came to cemeteries in and around Bombay. Most of India seeking trade. Thapar recounts Cairo the examples that remain are from the 19th Geniza records of around 1000 AD, where many century. Their places of worship and burial letters pertaining to business were written by are fairly generic, with common features and Jewish traders active in commerce with India. iconography related to ritual, devotion and Indians were partners or representatives of the tradition. Thus, a synagogue is a prayer hall Jewish merchants, and some of the latter spent normally located in fairly dense parts of the time in India and married locally (pp. 368-369). city or towns, usually close to Jewish mohallahs The Bene Israel is the Marathi speaking native or quarters. Here, the Torah is read every community in Bombay and surrounding region week round the year. The word ‘Torah’ usually believed to have landed here in a shipwreck at translates as ‘law’ or ‘teaching’ and consists of TEKTON: Volume 5, Issue 2, September 2018 51 Smita Dalvi Figure 1: Inside a Synagogue- A typical interior space with Hechal and Bimah. Magen Hassidim at Agripada and Shaar Harahamim at Mandvi, Bombay. the five books of the Hebrew Bible (Sherratt & Hechal is an arched niche directed towards Hawkin, 1972, p. 24). The essence of the Torah Jerusalem and Bimah is a platform. In the is encapsulated in the Ten Commandments, Hechal is placed the Ark – the holiest of objects which according to belief were delivered to in a synagogue – a container of handwritten parchment scrolls of the Torah. Each scroll In general, Baghdadi synagogues are is carefully dressed in protective textile and larger and monumental in scale, richly decorated with silver. Thus, the Hechal is a constructed in European Revival styles synagogue’s sacred space and the niche is and display grand interiors of rich usually draped over with a curtain above which materials. Bene Israel synagogues, on a burning oil lamp is suspended. During the the other hand, are usually modest, Sabbath prayer, the Ark is opened, the scrolls non-monumental, constructed are removed and ceremonially taken to the largely in timber frame with a tiled Bimah, where they are unrolled and read from. timber roof not unlike the domestic architecture of the locality. The Bimah is a platform from which the Moses in the form of two stone tablets. These Chazan or a minister leads the prayer and reads texts are explained to the faithful by scholars from Torah. The Rabbi, known as Kazi in the who apply its stories and instructions to Konkan, gives the sermon or teaches from contemporary Jewish living. the Torah. The Bimah is often situated in the middle of the prayer hall, in a free-standing As are commonly observed, the two essential manner and is edged by a carved wooden architectural features inside a synagogue are the railing. Seating is arranged on either side of Hechal and the Bimah (van Voolen, 2004, p. 12). the Bimah so that the whole congregation 52 TEKTON: Volume 5, Issue 2, September 2018 Architecture as Social History: Jewish Built Heritage in Bombay and the Konkan may see the Ark. On a mezzanine, there is the erstwhile Kolaba (now Raigad) District, south usually a separate gallery for women, which of Bombay.2 This group then settled around the may run on one or three sides of the hall area of their misfortune, and over time, their and is supported on pillars. This makes the descendants flourished, adopting the profession central space of the prayer hall twice as high of oil pressing and farming. sometimes soaring to the roof, and more commonly ending at a boarded, ornamented According to Edwardes (1909) the Bene Israel ceiling of timber (Figure 1). “multiplied and spread themselves throughout the coast-hamlets of the Kolaba District, forgetting Most synagogues in and around Bombay follow in the process of years most of their traditional these basic norms. What changes from place customs, excepting the hereditary observance to place are the size, scale, style and manner of of the Sabbath, the rite of circumcision, and the construction. In general, Baghdadi synagogues memory of the prophet Elijah and the Day of are larger and monumental in scale, richly Atonement.” (pp. 247-248). They practiced their constructed in European Revival styles and religion in isolation from the developments in display grand interiors of rich materials. Bene Judaism in the rest of the world, not having a Israel synagogues, on the other hand, are copy of the five holy books of Pentateuch and usually modest, non-monumental, constructed only much later receiving “the Hebrew liturgy largely in timber frame with a tiled timber from the Arabian Jews visiting Bombay.” (Wilson, roof not unlike the domestic architecture of 1874, p. 322). Thus, as Jews, the Bene Israel the locality. Their interiors have carved timber are distinct in terms of practices, rituals and details and coloured glass lamps, and these traditions; adapting into the community life of create a sacred environment. The Bene Israel the Konkan and adopting several traditions of and Baghdadi synagogues not only indicate other religions around them as their own. These two distinct architectural traditions but distinguishing features were seen in contrast also highlight the social distinctions (and much later by the Jews of Cochin. “…they found histories) of the two Jewish communities the Bene Israel at Rajapuri when they first came predominant in Bombay. to India, and their distinct position among the various native races taken with their partial The Bene Israel: Origins adoption of Hindu usages points to a very ancient The Bene Israel (Children of Israel) have, even occupation.” (Nairne, 1894, p. 7). According to before the the rise of Bombay, been integral to John Wilson (1874), the Bene Israel “till lately community life on the west coast of the Konkan, viewed the designation of Yehudi or Jew, as one of mingling with Muslims and Hindus, with Parsees reproach.” (p.