Travails of Trading in Malabar

   

Travails of  Trading in Malabar

Vasco da Gama was supposed to have made his agenda clear to the first person he had met on Calicut coast. The story goes that in reply to a question from the Genoese trader (who was the first person encountered by da Gama), why in the name of the Devil had he come here, da Gama calmly replied: ‘For Pepper and Christ’.  Obviously he wanted to please both his masters – Prince Manuel I of Portugal and the Pope who had blessed the voyage and whom Manuel I wanted to placate.

Pepper indeed formed the main item of export from the Malabar Coast, but as the Portuguese established themselves in Goa and Cochin, the trade also got complex.  During the initial days of conquest, there was a virtual state monopoly imposed by the Portuguese on Malabar spices and this meant that ship after Portuguese ship would be loaded with pepper and other spices and would sail from the western coast of India, escorted by the powerful armada.

But, as Portuguese trade stabilized, private players also got involved which included non-Portuguese players as well. The Venetians, who had been uprooted from their monopoly of the Mediterranean trade soon after Vasco da Gama had discovered the Calicut route, did not waste time to capitalize on the new opportunity.

We have a fascinating account of the complex coastal trade practised by one such Venetian, Cesar Fredrici who had traded in the Indies for 18 years between 1560 and 1580 and maintained a journal of his adventures. The journal was almost immediately translated from Italian into English by Thomas Hickock under the title, The Voyages and Travaile: Of M. Caesar Frederick, Merchant of Venice, Into the East India, the Indies, and Beyond… ( Was Shakespeare influenced by Frederici’s account when he wrote The Merchant of Venice around the time the translation had appeared in England?)

Frederick set out on his long and eventful voyage in 1563 from Venice, travels to Cyprus and  finally lands up in Portuguese Goa in 1566. He proceeds from Goa to Malacca in a Portuguese ship which was en route to Banda to pick up a cargo of nutmegs and mace. The ship passed through Ceylon and Nicobar before reaching Pegu in present day Myanmar. His description of the cannibal tribes of Andamans is graphic.

After selling his cargo of nutmeg and sandal, he decides to proceed to Venice via Chittagong, Cochin and Lisbon. But a severe cyclone (touffon) hits the ship which drifts to the Sondiva (Sunderbans) islands. He eventually makes it to Cochin only to realize that the Portuguese vessels had all departed and he would have to wait for a year to catch the next sailing. He decides to proceed to Goa for the wait and to transact some business.

Frederici falls ill in Goa and has to sell some of his rubies (which he had purchased from Pegu) to meet his medical expenses. He had, however, taken care not to sell the most valuable rubies which he preserved for sale back home in Venice. Once he recovers from the illness, he decides to proceed to Cambay where he invests a large sum (2100 ducats, to be precise) in buying opium which fetched a good price in Burma. He again travels east via Cochin and reaches Pegu only to realize that just a day before his cargo had landed, a large shipload of opium from Cambay had arrived crashing the price of his commodity from 50 to 2½ Bize. On an investment of 2100 ducats he could recover only 1000 ducats after two years!  Such was the uncertainty of coastal trading in those days.

We have another account of a private trader, more than a hundred years after Frederici which gives a fascinating account of the diversity of coastal trade. Charles Lockyer, an English trader boarded the East India Compay ship Streetham in February 1703 and reached Batavia in October of the same year.  As the monsoon winds had changed, he could not proceed to China which was his ultimate destination and used the interval by trading between Malacca and India. The ship managed to sell its cargo in China only in September 1704 with the resumption of favourable winds.

On the way back  the ship, laden with goods originating in China, Malacca and the eastern coast of India reached Calicut by which time again the season for sailing westward had ended. So the ship shuttles between Colombo and Surat in the north, hugging the coast to avoid the rough seas and making good money selling various surplus European goods and buying Indian spices for the return cargo.

The chief items bought by the ship are Cardamom and Coconut kernels at Calicut, coir, hubble-bubble cane (for making the hooka) from Maldives, cardamom and rice from Tellicherry, arrack from Goa (one of the most lucrative trade for, according to Lockyer, it was available for Rs. 13½ per hogshead in Goa and could fetch Rs.25-30 in Bombay and Surat.)  He was prudent enough to mention: the smuggling trade with the Dutch, I leave to the Persons concerned – emphasizing that he indulged in only legal trade!

Lockyer’s description of Tellicherry (which had just acquired the status of a fort) is interesting. Among the important items mentioned by him is opium ‘of a deep purple, the best in India’, ‘…it bears double the price of Bengal opium’. He next lands in Calicut and after a pleasant stay moves down to Cochin, then a Dutch stronghold. The ship is replenished with essential supply in Cochin – 60 pigs, a thousand fowls, one small heifer (‘but beef is not usually so cheap’) and water casks. The ship then proceeds to Europe, crossing the Cape of Good Hope in July 1706.

This was an era of ‘pure trade’ when the Europeans were contended with making money out of trade and had no territorial ambitions. Trade was not conducted only by the East India Company, but by small enterprising traders who saw opportunities in a delayed sailing and pursued profitable coastal trade between Malacca and Malabar and Malabar and Hormuz. They competed with the Arab, Moplah and Chetty traders . Some like Frederici lost hugely and others like Lockyer made windfall profits!

Men Who Ruled Malabar

Malabar came under British rule in 1792, although it was only in 1800 that a proper administrative structure was put in place, after a prolonged period of turbulence. It constituted an important district under the Madras Presidency and covered the area of the present districts of Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikkode, Malappuram and Palakkad.

Malabar under the British enjoyed a long line of able and benevolent administrators who tried to introduce many social reforms long before these were sought to be implemented in their home country.  An instance is the abolition of slavery. The abolitionist movement under William Wilberforce was facing opposition in Britain and his bill had been defeated in the British Parliament in 1791. But the anti-slavery movement had influenced the British civil servants in Malabar considerably and the Joint Commissioners, Duncan and Botham who were deputed to establish British administration in Malabar had ordered the abolition of all forms of slave trade here. It took another 40 years for Britain to abolish slavery.

The sentiment affected not just civil servants of the Company. Captain Lachlan Macquarie had just moved into Calicut in 1794 as part of the Regiment which was fighting Tipu and later Pazhassi. He had settled down with his young bride, Jane in the beautiful bungalow which he had named Staffa Lodge. (There is no trace of this bungalow now in Calicut). He had picked up two slaves from Cochin to help his new bride set up home in Calicut. But, Jane persuaded him to set them free and even enrolled the two slaves in a parish school in Bombay.  Macquarie later on rose to become the first Governor of Australia and is remembered as the ‘Father of Australia’ for his measures to rehabilitate convicts.

Another British administrator who worked to abolish slavery in Malabar was Thomas H Baber, the Sub Collector of Tellicherry, better known for his success in eliminating Pazhassi Raja and his loyal soldiers. Baber’s fight against domestic and agrestic slavery in Malabar saw him give evidence before a Parliamentary Committee. He had serious differences with his superiors on many matters of policy and did not mince words.  He had the welfare of the people at heart and had repeatedly protested against the unjust revenue assessments made by East India Company against poor farmers. It was more than a 100 years later, in 1907, that the British Government officially acknowledged that its land revenue policy in Malabar was flawed!

William Logan (Courtesy Wikipedia)

Conolly who was the Collector in the 1840s was another administrator with vision and commitment to the welfare of the people. His strategy to deal with the communal disturbance might have cost him his life, but he will be remembered for his pioneering effort to cultivate teak and for planning a waterway from Payyoli to Mathilakam in Trissur District – what is known today as the Conolly Canal. The introduction of railways around the time the canal was being completed had eclipsed its importance. But with the increasing fuel price and the eco-friendly nature of water transport, Conolly’s plans are bound to be re-visited.

William Logan was not only a brilliant administrator but a painstaking chronicler of Malabar’s history. His contribution to bringing about peace in strife-torn Malabar is as valuable as his effort in compiling important papers relating to British affairs in Malabar (1879) and his monumental Malabar Manual ( 1887).

Logan’s successor in office Evans was also a chronicler as well as a hard-working administrator. To him is attributed the statement: ‘Give me a car and no wife, I shall manage two districts!’ Innes, his collaborator in writing the Malabar Gazetteer, was another illustrious administrator of Malabar.

Sri P.K.Govindan who worked in the Malabar Collectorate for many years has narrated his experience with ICS Collectors of Malabar in his delightful book of the same name.  He describes the kind and generous disposition of H.H.Carleston, ICS Sub Collector who would fine a poor rustic accused of boot-legging and would pay the fine from his own pocket to avoid the poor man being sent to jail for 3 months.  Once Carleston was travelling from Malappuram to Calicut when his car knocked down a pedestrian near the Kallai bridge. He not only ensured that the victim got prompt medical attention, but kept sending him some money regularly for his period of disability, even after Carleston had been posted out of Malabar.

The last of the British Collectors of Malabar was Bouchier, ICS, CIE, a person of high integrity. Govindan quotes an instance: while proceeding home on leave, the Collector wanted to take some local handicrafts. He visited Quilandy and wanted to purchase the beautiful finger bowls made of coconut shells which is still a popular item among tourists. Bouchier insisted that the entire transaction take place in the presence of the local Tahsildar and that he be charged the full price. Bouchier was on leave on the day India won Independence and did not return. Govindan concludes, quoting Gandhiji, ‘You may hate British imperialism, but not the Britishers’.

(Originally published in the Hindu, Calicut Edition on 30 January 2012. The original can be accessed here)

A New Look at Calicut's China Ties

Dr.Liu Yinghua examining the manuscripts at the Calicut University

 Historians of Calicut deal with the Chinese period in its history as a brief interlude of about a quarter of a century between 1400and 1425 AD highlighted by the seven voyages by Zheng He (Chengo Ho), the Three Jeweled Eunuch Admiral of the Ming fleet.

  Chinese had been arriving in India since time immemorial, but mostly through the land routes of Central Asia and North West India, and through Burma to lesser extent.  The rise of the Mongols and the strife among the Central Asian principalities led to the virtual closure of the Silk Route in the 14^th Century. Thus it was that as the ambassador of Mohammed bin Tuglaq,the Delhi Sultan,  Ibn Batutta had to travel all the way to Calicut to catch a ship to take him to China. This was, incidentally, 60 years before the first of the seven voyages of Cheng Ho reaching Calicut.

Although the Tang Treasure Ship evidence (Belitung Shipwreck) shows that Chinese had trade contacts with Arabia and possibly Africa even in the 9^th century, no concrete evidence has been discovered of their having touched Quilon (which existed then as a prosperous port) or what was the predecessor-port of Calicut. Our knowledge of Chinese contacts with Calicut begins with references in the 14^th Century.

Ibn Batutta had in February, 1342, arranged a berth in a Chinese junk starting from Calicut and had loaded his baggage in a smaller vessel (kokum); but, according to Ross Dunn in the book The Adventures of Ibn Battuta, he had to cancel his trip at the last moment when he found out that all the good cabins had been booked by rich Chinese merchants and he was being offered a cabin without a lavatory – an insult to the Plenipotentiary of the great Delhi Sultan!  Thus, not only were Chinese vessels frequenting Calicut port almost a century before Cheng Ho had come, the Chinese merchants were flaunting their wealth on Calicut shores and Chinese trade was predominantly controlled by the private sector.  Who were these Chinese traders and what was their route? We do not know for certain, although we know that Yuan Empire had been pursuing foreign trade vigorously, and had an ambitious maritime policy.

Again, while we know much about Cheng Ho’s adventure (mostly from Chinese records, like Ma Huan’s accounts), we do not know why the Ming trade stopped so suddenly in 1423 after the death in Calicut of Cheng Ho, or if the trade at all ended abruptly, as historians claim. The traditional explanation is that the Ming bureaucracy wedded to Confucian ideals of insularity succeeded in convincing the successor of Emperor Yongle to terminate all voyages and even destroy much of the records. Economic historians advance an argument that after 1450 China, like all major economies, had suffered from a prolonged period of economic depression and this might have led to the reduced volume of international trade.

Detail of a manuscript with the Chinese coin used to tie it

These and many other emerging issues on China-Calicut relations came up for discussions in a seminar held in Beijing in September, 2011.    The seminar saw participation from leading historians of Ming History like Prof. (Mrs.) Wan Ming, Professor of History of Social Sciences and Vice President and Secretary General, Chinese Society for Historians of China’s Foreign Relations, Prof. (Mrs.) Zhao Tong, Professor of Linguistics at Beijing Normal University and Mrs. May Yang, a candidate for Oh.D in Sanskrit from Gottingen University. C.K.Ramachandran, Convenor of Calicut Heritage Forum also participated. The seminar was organized by Dr.Liu Yinghua, a friend of Calicut, who has been visiting Calicut for many years now as a researcher in  Sanskrit and Ayurveda at the University of Calicut.

16 manuscripts with Chinese coins

The seminar emphasised that trade and cultural relations between Calicut and China existed even before the Zheng He visit, as documented in Chinese chronicles. It did not stop with the death of Zheng He in 1433. In 2007, Liu Yinghua had, while working with the manuscript section of Calicut University under the guidance of Dr. C. Rajendran, Professor of Sanskrit, discovered 15 Chinese coins being used to tie together the palm leaves manuscripts. These coins belonged to much later period.  Liu identified these as belonging to the periods of Emperors Qianlong (1736-1795), Jiaqing (1796-1820) and Daoguang (1821-1850). This probably showed that trade relations between Calicut and China continued well into the second half of the 19^th Century when the Opium Wars soured the Sino-British relations.

Pro. Wan Ming emphasized the need to discover local evidence of Chinese presence in Calicut during the Ming expeditions.

The seminar concluded on the note that much more research requires to be done in Calicut on the new findings to trace back the manuscripts to their sources to explore if further evidence of transactions with China existed. In the light of the Pattanam experience, it was also felt that archaeological excavations could be a useful source for more detailed information. In view of the importance of Panthalayini –Kollam (Fandaraina) as a haven during the inter-monsoon interval during the medieval times, it was suggested that further investigation could also be conducted there to seek information on the existence of Chinese communities there.

Portrait of a Young Zamorin

The image that comes to mind of the Zamorin is usually that of an old patriarch presiding over the destinies of his territory from the Calicut palace. The formula for succession - the eldest male member from the various branches of the family - confirms this impression that any member of the family gets to become the ruler only during the fag end of his life. Castaneda, for instance, who chronicled the meeting between the Zamorin and Vasco da Gama describes the former as 'well advanced in years'. 

However, there have been exceptions. Conflicts and diseases used to claim several royal lives and adoption of young boys and girls was a regular practice to ensure the continuance of the lineage. This often led to younger members of the family being called upon to take the reins.

Pietro Della Valle

Pietro meeting Queen Abbakka

 We have the portrait of one such young Zamorin in the travelogue of the Italian traveller Pietro Della Valle who visited Calicut in December 1623. Born in a rich and noble family in Rome in 1586, Pietro took to travel primarily to get over his disappointments in love. He travelled in style and kept a meticulous record of his travels in the form of letters addressed to Mario Schipano, the doctor who had suggested that he take up travel to overcome his suicidal tendencies. (Readers may recall having encountered Pietro in an earlier post when he describes his meeting with the brave Queen of Ullal.)

Pietro and his entourage reached Calicut by ship from Mangalore in the evening of December 21, 1623. He was travelling with a Portuguese Captain who was on a delicate mission of not only concluding peace with the Zamorin but also of brokering peace between the Zamorin and the Raja of Cochin. Malabar had witnessed a rather turbulent era (as described in detail by Maddy) and the new Zamorin had assumed the throne only in 1617.

Pietro's description of Calicut's Bazar and its inhabitants is fascinating in its detail : the Market was full of all sorts of Provisions and other things necessary to the livelihood of that people.  He found the hair style of the Calicut women the gallantest that I have seen in any other nation.  He noticed that the residents were mostly Nairs, but the sea coasts are full of Malabari ( referring to the Moplahs). 

Pietro gives a body blow to Calicut's reputation as 'The City of Truth' when he describes Malabar as 'famous in India for the continual Robberies committed at Sea by the Malabar thieves; whence in the Bazar of Calicut, besides the things abovementioned, we saw sold good store of the Portugal's commodities, as Swords, Arms, Books, Clothes of Goa and the like Merchandise, taken from Portugal vessels at Sea; which things, because they are stolen and in regard of the excommunication which lies upon us in that case, are not bought by our Christians.(He glosses over the fact that Calicut was then at war with the Portuguese and the Portuguese were committing extreme atrocities against the Moplah and Arab vessels at sea. Just two years before Pietro's visit, a joint expedition had been launched against the Portuguese by the Dutch and the English which had effectively blockaded the Portuguese possessions in Malabar)


Pietro had no difficulty in walking into Zamorin's Palace where he and his Captain were almost forced to have an audience with the Zamorin. His description of the Zamorin as he walked into the hall to meet the visitors is graphic: After a short space the King came in at the same door, accompanied by many others. He was a young Man of thirty, or five and thirty, years of age, to my thinking; of a large bulk of body, sufficiently fair for an Indian and of a handsome presence. ... His beard was somewhat long and worn equally round about his Face; he was naked, having only a piece of fine changeable cotton cloth, blue and white, hanging from the girdle to the middle of the Leg.


How hands-on the Zamorin was is clear from the curiosity he displayed on seeing in the hands of a soldier, who had accompanied Pietro, a short firearm with a large bore, which he was seeing for the first time, perhaps. He asked the firearm to be brought to him, emptied the gun power on the ground, and looked through the sight, shewing thereby that he was a good marksman, as they told us afterwards he was.
Although Pietro mentions that the Zamorin kept talking about peace, no one was taken in by his words. The Portuguese knew that he was buying time for a large fleet to reach Calicut unmolested by the Portuguese at sea. For, this was the Manavikrama Zamorin who continued the war in Cranganore with greater vigour. The envoy who came in the ship which brought Pietro was indeed on a mission to conclude a treaty of peace, but on condition not acceptable to the Zamorin. The Portuguese had pleaded that the Zamorin spare the King of Cochin who was their ally.

The talks broke down and the war continued for another forty  years, although the dashing young Zamorin died at the young age of around 40, on 10th April, 1627 at Calicut.

One Hundred Years of a local Logan

One Hundred Years of a local Logan

Logan’s Malabar Manual (1887) has inspired many of his successors to study the customs, traditions and the economy of the area in great detail. The most notable of these were Malabar and Anjengo (1905) by Evans and Innes; Malabar Gazetteer (1908) by C.A. Innes; and A Descriptive Memoir of Malabar (1906) by Lts. Ward and Conner.

Local writers were also inspired by Logan’s example to write on Malabar. The pioneering work in this vein was T.K.Gopala Panikkar’s Malabar and Its Folk  (1900). Panikker’s book was a sociological study of essentially South Malabar and was aimed at removing some of the preposterous notions on Nair polyandry that existed among the colonial masters. The writer showed great foresight in analysing the root cause of the Moplah unrest which had been plaguing Malabar for more than sixty years at the time of his writing.

Two decades before the final outbreak in 1921, Panikker had correctly identified the reasons for the protests and the possible remedies : One cannot resist the idea that these riots are at least partly, though not wholly, due to the oppression of the tenantry by the land-owning classes; and the possible remedies towards their eventual and permanent suppression appear to lie only in some definite scheme whereby the intellectual and moral status of the Moplah population in the backward Taluqs will be raised by means of the imparting to them of free and compulsory education, the suppression of the present defective and dangerous system of Moplah religious instruction and the substitution in its stead of some method based upon a rational and scientific foundation, the permanent reversal of the policy of coercion and the adoption of a policy of concession, but of course within limits, in political dealings with the Moplah classes and their conciliation by other and last but by no means least, the final settlement of the Malabar Land Question which has all along been looming large on our legislative horizon and to which the people have been so eagerly looking forward.

A work, more in line with Logan, was that of Rao Bahadur C. Gopalan Nair, Deputy Collector, Malabar, published with a foreword from Mr.R.B. Wood, ICS, then Collector of Malabar. The book, Malabar Series : Wynad, Its Peoples and Traditions (1911) attempted a detailed study of the political and social history of the place, its people (both the rulers and the ruled) and a study of the beginnings of plantation in Wynad. The most valuable portion of this book is an anthropological study of the tribals and a good summary of the various non-tribal communities of Wynad. The author, who was posted at Mananthawady (Manantoddy, as it was then called) as the Deputy Collector, reveals the instinct of a social scientist in his analysis of the symbiotic relationships in this remote part of Malabar which had known peace only for a generation, after the bloody Pazhassi wars.

The introduction by R.B. Wood is equally erudite. He recalls the existence of ‘Granthams’ in the old houses – ‘ the actual daily diary of the daily life of the ancient people and the Princes of Malabar’ –and wonders : ‘I do not know, and I have met no one who can tell me, exactly how far back the Granthams go: but I understand that it is for several hundred years ... perhaps from beyond the time when the Chinese first sent their annual fleets to Quilon and Calicut. These records are of priceless historical interest: yet the cadjan files are tied up and bundled away in old cupboards and almyrahs, ready to be the prey of the first fire that chances’.

One hundred years after these fears were expressed by a colonial administrator about the possible loss of ‘our’ heritage, are we today able to salvage what remains of these precious records from white ants, fire and pulp factories?

Remembering Dr.K.B. Menon

We had occasion to recall the great contribution of Dr.K.B.Menon to the freedom struggle in the context of the Kizhariyur Bomb Case of which he was the first accused. His story inspired us to do some deeper research into the life and contributions of that great patriot who is now remembered by few. 

It was while looking for persons who might have known him well that we stumbled on a silent social worker who, despite his age and physical infirmity brought on by a fall, was serving his neighbourhood in Pathiripala as a family physician. Dr. P Sankaran Nair who retired as Joint Director, Health Services, Government of Kerala in the 1980s, recalled his association with Dr.K.B.Menon.

He remembered meeting Dr. Menon casually in the corridors of the Madras General Hospital in 1955 where he had come to seek treatment for his stomach illness. Dr. Nair had seen his photographs and immediately recognised him as the MLA from Trithala who, as the leader of the opposition (PSP) was also heading the Public Accounts Committee of the Madras Legislature.

Dr. Menon was so unassuming that he refused to be treated as anything but an ordinary patient. Dr. Nair took him to the Medical Superintendent, DR. Masilamani who attended to him immediately. But Dr. Menon insisted on getting admitted in the general ward so that he could personally experience the travails of the ordinary citizens.

When Dr. Nair told him that he had got his posting as Medical Officer at Ponnani, the legislator requested him to study the health system there and send him a report. Dr. Nair promptly sent a report highlighting the fact that in a year the government was spending only Rs.1200  on the rural health system of which the honorary medical officer was paid a measly Rs. 600 per year and the balance amount was expected to meet the cost of medicines, supplies and other expenses. Armed with this scandalous data, Dr.Menon unleashed a stormy attack on the ruling party which led to immediate improvements in the system.

Dr. Nair recalls another occasion when he met Dr. Menon when he was a Member of Parliament, representing Badagara. Dr. Nair had just then got his posting as Medical Officer in Lakshadweep. Dr. Menon could have offered to intervene and get the hard posting cancelled; but he was no run of the mill politician and such a thought did not strike him at all. Instead, he asked Dr. Nair to send him a detailed report on the medical facilities available in the Islands and what could be done to improve the plight of the Island population. He did indeed take up the issue in Parliament, based on the reports he got from Dr. Nair.

The next time he met Dr.Menon was when he was posted at Calicut (around 1958) where he received a small chit scribbled by Dr. Menon informing that he had been admitted at the General Hospital Calicut and would like to meet him. Dr. Nair saw to it that he was provided the best attention possible. But, Dr. Menon wanted to be discharged quickly. He revealed that he was in possession of a ‘political bombshell’ which he could not blast from the hospital premises. His only request to Dr. Nair was to arrange a car to take him to the PSP Office in Jail Road from where he wanted to let go the bombshell. Sure enough, the next day’s newspapers carried  the story of how EMS government had pledged valuable bamboo wealth of Kerala to the Birlas for starting a pulp factory in Mavoor, Calicut.

We are reminded of the famous tribute to Gandhi from Einstein : Generations to come, it may well be, will scarce believe that such a man as this one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth. 


Whither, Indian Politician?

A Kochi Girl in the Mughal Court - 1707-1732

                                           Cochin -1656      courtesy:www.farelli.info

Portuguese had ruled Cochin for nearly 160 years between 1503 and 1663 before the Dutch invasion. Although the capital of Portuguese India was shifted from Cochin to Goa in 1510, Cochin continued a favourite destination for the Portuguese and many Portuguese families chose to stay on in Cochin, soaking in the sun and sand, gossiping and leading their exclusive fidalgo life. (Fidalgo literally means 'son of somebody' and refers to nobility.)

Juliana was born in 1658 in Cochin to Agostino Diaz da Costa and his wife. She grew up as a frolicsome young girl, playing on 'the sandy beaches, where my sister and I could run with the waves lapping our feet'. When she was five, fate struck in the form of the Dutch who invaded Cochin in 1663. Just before the Dutch attack started, the da Costa family managed to flee to Goa, although they lost all their baggage in a ship wreck. The family then decided to try their luck in another Portuguese enclave, Calcutta, but by the time they reached there, Portuguese there had earned such a bad name through their indulgence in piracy and slave trade that  the conditions were not considered favourable for their relocation to Calcutta.

It was then that the da Costas decided to move down to Agra where the father had been invited to attend on the Emperor. It was here that Juliana got to know the doctor who attended to the Mughal emperors whom she married later. Juliana herself was adept at home remedies, having picked up some from her stay in Goa and from Garcia de Orta's book Colloquios published in 1563. (We in Kerala know much more about Hortus Malabaricus which was published more than a hundred years later in 1678. Garcia was himself a medical doctor - unlike Van Rheede who depended on local vaidyans like Itty Achuthan)

Juliana got to know the royals closely through her husband and even had an audience with Aurungzeb, thanks to the influential Jesuit priest Fr. Magalhaes (a colourful character who worked assiduously for promoting Society of Jesus in India and China). Juliana recorded faithfully the experience of an audience with the Alamgir who had a reputation for being brusque and curt. 'The old emperor was sharp, but I was amazed at the amount of time he spent talking with me. He asked me a great deal about the Malabar region, of the Portuguese interests, and of the Deccan interaction with the Portuguese'.

Juliana was soon appointed as Superintendent of the Zenana, looking after the women in the Palace and teaching the young princes and princesses. Juliana soon came to be known for her piety and her ability to work miracles - putting out fires with consecrated palm fronds and curing illness through prayers. She was particularly close to Prince Muazzam who carried the title Shah Alam and was later to be crowned as Bahadur Shah in 1709, after killing his brother. 

 Juliana continued in the Mughal Court even after the death of Bahadur Shah in 1712 and continued to serve the Mughal household with her advice, prayers and cures. Farukhsiyar ascended the throne in 1713 after another bout of internecine blood-letting, but Juliana not only survived the intrigues of the powerful Sayyid brothers who had the Emperor under their control, but even had powers to get the Emperor to issue firmans. 

British colonial historians have been asserting that it was the English surgeon, William Hamilton who had cured Farukhsiyar of a painful carbuncle and obtained a firman  for trading without duties. But, apparently, it was Juliana who had cured the Emperor with her herbal concoctions (and a liberal dose of Christian prayers). She records that she had got firmans out of Farukhsiyar not only for the Portuguese, but even for the English traders!

Mohammed Shah
courtesy: wikipedia

The crowning glory of Juliana's days in the Mughal Empire was in 1719 when she was asked to physically crown the new Emperor, Mohammed Shah (Rangila)! The day she chose for this was, of course, the day of St.John the Baptist, her Patron Saint. She wrote: 'At mid-morning today, I , Juliana Diaz da Costa, actually crowned the emperor! I carried the crown and placed it on the head of Prince Mohammed Shah'.

Donna Juliana (she had been conferred the title for her services to the Church and the Jesuits) continued in the service of the Mughals. A letter written in 1727 testifies: 'The Chief Surgeon of Bacaim is in the Court, who has been called to look after the mother of the king. The treatment is pending the arrival of Donna Juliana to the palace, to touch and give medicines to the patient with the help of the Surgeon mentioned'.

Juliana passed away in 1732 and was buried in Agra in an unnamed grave! Thus ended the saga of the girl from Fort Cochin who wielded great influence in the Mughal Court during an era when heads around her were rolling in the relentless wars of succession.
Source : Forgotten (2010) by Bilkees I. Latif, Penguin Books