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Via Kappad to the Spice Garden of India: Finding the Truth of the Pillar at the Kappad Beach and Its Inscription

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Via Kappad to the Spice Garden of India: Finding the Truth of the Pillar at the Kappad Beach and Its Inscription Via Kappad to the Spice Garden of India: Finding the Truth of the Pillar at the Kappad Beach and its Inscription Parthasarathi P. T.1 1. Department of Islamic History, Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam, Kerala, India (Email: [email protected]) Received: 30July 2017; Revised: 24September 2017; Accepted: 19November 2017 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 5 (2017): 479‐485 Abstract: When we think of Kerala history we usually think of Kappad beach and its monument. This monument in our country is connected with landing of Vasco da Gama in AD 1498. It is an established fact that the early Portuguese navigators erected numerous stone pillars in new coastal regions in commemorative of their landing and such pillars that declared their hegemony. It is a historically acknowledged fact that the existing pillar was not constituted by the Portuguese authorities but the British opened this original pillar that held their language which has influenced so many tales across Kerala. As a result of it, historians have varied opinions about the name of the place of Gama’s landing. The pity is that the Kerala historiography tradition either omits the true history of the landing of the Europeans and it is the historians themselves who falsify history to such an extent. Keywords: Kappad, Spice Garden, Navigation, Monument, Pillar, Commerce, Mud‐ banks Introduction Kappad finds mention in history texts as the gateway to the Kerala Coast; a strip of coastal land along the southwestern coast of the subcontinent, lying between the Western Ghats or Sahyadri Ranges and the Arabian Sea and stretching from Kanyakumari at the tip of India northward for about 360 miles (Robert Eric2003). History stipulated that from time immemorial Kerala was a centre of trade in spices and was known as the ‘Spice Garden of India’. Here, the humid air, fertile soil and tropical rain forests nurtures over 500 species of rare medicinal herbs, and in May 1498, the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama sailed across and set foot here to begin a new chapter in the history of the world. However, like many other facts in Kerala history, the existing story about Gama’s arrival has also lost its historical value. There is no reason to think that a sea route had been discovered. When Gama waded ashore the sea route had not long been discovered by the Catholic institutions of the Europe. They called it “an important discovery” and said to have been a ‘miracle’ because prior to it the Portuguese had never been indirect connection for so many centuries in a given period of the history of the spice trade. Indeed, various waves of people crossed the sea 479 ISSN 2347 – 5463 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 5: 2017 and moved down the west coast of Kerala; so far as they knew‐ they were just doing their normal day’s work, as they were making it a visitor’s paradise. For the foreign visitor, Kerala provides one surprise after another. The surprises multiply as one finds Kerala more warmhearted, more fascinating, indeed, more of everything than one had expected. At the same time it was one of those unique places where nearly everybody feels at home immediately. But in recent years the memorial or monument of Gama’s arrival has become a focus of attention among historians of South India, because they believe each monument has, of course, its own history and such histories playa very significant role in the shaping of the existing Kerala history. In that sense, Gama’s landing at Kappad is a subject of overwhelming importance for us. However, the study about the landing of Gama is still in its infancy and its history has given rise to numerous debates amongst historians of Kerala. as a matter of fact, the place, date or even the number of ships that arrived is yet to be decided amongst specialists ( or scholars). Today a little of the stone monument is left at the Kappad beach or Kappakkadavu; ferry for the ships in the literal sense, to speak of the arrival of the Europeans with the inscription, ʺVasco da Gama landed here, Kappakadavu, in the year 1498ʺ, and eventually propagating the notion that this is where the Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama landed on 20 May 1498. It is a baseless argumentation of the early historians who depict the arrival of the Europeans as the harbinger of modernity as well. Yes, the arrival of Gama was a landmark in the history of the world itself and Gama has always been special. However, the historical notes‐ Roteiro‐ obtained later from Alvaro Velho; a diarist or the log book writer of the flag ship ‐Sao Raphael‐of Gama (Castenheda1824), is a valuable source of information and the period’s authoritative work, which tells with an insight the story of the arrival of Europeans in a different manner. The existing pillar nursed the history of Kerala and it was widely used as symbolic to the landing of Gama. It is five feet high, one square feet wide on the top and two square feet wide at the bottom. It was not the first monument in the area to commemorate the effort of Gama. initially there was a pillar erected by the East Indian Company which was washed away by the sea. Later the Madras Govt. built this pillar in the memory of Vasco da Gama, in 1939 (Sreedhara Menon 1965). This pillar, we believe to be an archaeological object and it is natural for an archaeological object to have tangible links to the real facts. In this sense the story related to the pillar is ahandicapped one and the scholars have not paid proper attention to find out any other archeological remains prior to it. Many believed that there was something special about Kappad beach and many were eager to spread the tale about Kappad amongst people in our country. At the same time all authorities agree that nature has rendered intercourse with Kappad beach and landing at Kappad was exceedingly difficult at that time. This is strange when we consider the historic landing and the prevailing evidence seems to contradict the notion. In that sense this is the story of what history reveals and what history hides. Voyage through the Known Route There is a most prevalent misconception in the history of the voyage of Gama that they 480 Parthasarathi2017: 479‐485 reached India through the unknown waters. It is not true. The first part of Gama’s voyage was made along coasts most of which had already been explored and mapped in detail in at that age. In short, Gama’s voyage was entirely with precedent; it really was a venture in to the known. There were Pedro de Alenquer, who had already steered Bartholomew Diaz’s flagship in the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope in May, 1488, and Nicolas Coelho, a close friend of Vasco da Gama and perhaps the best seamen in the fleet (Crone 1972). It would be of great interest to note that when Vasco da Gama sailed to India, another of Bartholomew Diaz’s brother was purser on the flag ship. It is a historically acknowledged fact that their ships had to often halt again and again. They stopped at Sao Thiagio in the Cape Verde archipelago on the 27th July, there took in wood, provisions and water and bade farewell to Bartholomew Diaz, who had accompanied him to show the way. The next halting place was at St. Helena Bay, on the 7th November. On November 18 they sighted the Cape of Good Hope, which they rounded after three attempts. Because the ocean currents flowing west around southern Africa clash with storm waves moving east, building up colossal “rogue waves” up to 20 m. high, such waves may be dangerous (Francesca 2010). The expedition at last succeeded on 22 November (Crone 1972), then sailed closely along the coast east of Africa. Three days later they decided to break journey again and the ships dropped anchor in the Bay of S. Braz; now called Mosal Bay (Madan 1998). They anchored at the estuary of the Limpopo and on the 24th January they halted in the estuary of the Kiliman or Quilimane River (Jayne 1997). The next halting place Mozambique was reach on 2 March (Edward 2007), and the Sheikh or the ruler of the region received them amicably. Now, very quickly, relations developed between them, and having secured two Arab pilots (Sunjay 1997), they departed from Mozambique and on 7th April they reached the out skirts of Mombasa. The Portuguese anchored close to the shore, however, owing to a mishap at the entrance of Mombasa the native pilots escaped by jumping overboard (Crone 1972). On 15th August, they cast anchor at the port of Melindi, now situated in Kenya on the east coast of Africa. We have seen that the pilots from Mozambique had been lost at Mombasa and the Portuguese thus cast about for other pilots, because Vasco da Gama had a specific task in this voyage, namely to make contact with not a region but a commercial city, that of Kozhikode. So he wanted to find a pilot, Basically, he needed to have the service of someone to advise him of where the fleet lay when landfall was made on the Indian west coast. They spent nine days in Melindi; from 15th to 23rd of April 1498, on the 24th they departed for Kozhikode under the guidance of local pilot, given by the king of Melindi. Ravenstein certifies that from Melindi to Kozhikode is about 2340 miles, or 682 leagues (Ravenstein 1898).
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