A visit to the lost city of Muziris?

In my last write up I had mentioned that I will be continuing with details of Sree Poornathrayeesha Temple. But I feel that I should first write another blog about the lost city of Muziris before publishing details about Sree Poornathrayeesha Temple. A detailed analysis of Muziris will be posted some time in future, but this is just an eye opener.

MUZIRIS
Muziris is said to be an ancient port city of India in western coast, flourishing with trade especially with Europeans (Romans and Egyptians). No one knows about the time period of this city, but is sure that this was the capital of the great Chera Empire (Empire whose king was called Cheraman Perumal). There are references of MUZIRIS or MUCHIRI-PATTANAM. The references of this city are present in many documents from 3rd Century BC till 7th Century AD. If Muziris is identified, then it can go a long way in brief casing history of Kerala and role of Kerala in India’s Maritime history. There are historical references which states that the City of Muziris is somewhere in between the present city Ernakulam and Kodungallur. And due to very frequent floods the city might have been either submerged in sea or the entire city might have been covered out by sand because of flood from the Periyar River. But there are also references of a place near Karur in Tamil Nadu state which also stake claim as the capital of Chera Empire.
But no excavation or study was done on this subject until some years back when someone dug the land to construct a house found a Vanchi (Boat). This prompted excavation in this area and it is being done for past 4 years running between the months of February and May. Many important proofs have been unearthed from this area for the past 4 years

VISIT TO PATTANAM
On Saturday May 15th, 2010, I was in Tripunithura, Cochin, to attend wedding of my childhood friend. Since the wedding was on Sunday, both my brother and I decided to visit a village Pattanam, a site being excavated by Kerala Council for Historical Research (KCHR), which is about 30 kilometers from Tripunithura. It was around 1.00PM that we decided that we will make the trip and I immediately called KCHR and enquired about the route to reach there.
We were very excited to start off. The route we took to reach Pattanam was through National Highway 17 from Edappally towards North Paravoor. After North Paravoor, we travelled about 2 kilometers in NH 17 and took a left towards Neeleeshwaram Temple at Pattanam Junction. Hardly about 600 meters, we saw the temple and with suggestion of one local gentle man, we parked the car near temple and walked towards the site of excavation. We were walking through a sand filled road when immediately we saw a small wooden gate which served as an entrance to an old house with visitor timings shown in front of the house.

EXCAVATION SITE
The excavation site was behind the house, and was dug 4 meters deep. We could see lot of pieces of pots and other equipments collected. Recently, a wall in excavation site had collapsed but luckily there was no injury to anyone. I am attaching some pictures of the excavation site and items recovered from those sites. And I really feel that we were lucky to touch some items that were made centuries before.

TALK WITH DIRECTOR
After seeing around the excavation site, we went to meet the Director of Muziris Excavation project, Professor P.J. Cherian, former State Editor, Gazetteers Department and Professor of History, Union Christian College, Alwaye, Ernakulam, a great gentleman with loads of knowledge and one of the real initiator of the Muziris project. Talking to the Professor itself was a motivation and to just share some of his knowledge was unthinkable for a person like me. He discussed about the problems and difficulties faced with this project and even went to the extent of saying that this complete excavation would take 3-4 generations to complete. Both my brother and I became instant admirers of the Professor. The Professor mentioned that now the Europeans have started showing interest in Muziris and government along with Archeological Survey of India are also helping which are good signs. Even though being a busy person, we really appreciate the time Professor spent with us and we informed him that we would be there to do any help required.

WAY BACK
Finally on the way back, we were really scared to walk and even drive through the areas as we thought about the history that would be buried underneath. It was really an eye opening visit and our first to an excavation site.

My First Blog

Sree Poornathrayeeshan Sharanam
Sree Pazhayannoor Bhagavathy Sharanam
Sree Thiruvanchikulathappan Sharanam
Sree Pulpally Thevar Sharanam
Sree Vettathukkavu Bhagavathy Sharanam

After relentless pressure from my brother (Vinay Rama Varma) and my cousin Rahul Varma, I finally decided to put my thoughts and research details on blogs. Till now, everything I read about history of Kerala, Cochin etc., was just stored in my mind. With the new age historians tweaking the history in favor of present circumstances, I thought it was time for someone to stand up and let people know what history of Kerala was. Even though there are lots of learned people doing research on Kerala history, I want to also contribute to it. I was also very baffled by the fact that CBSE history text books did have very less mention of history of Kerala. Maybe one liners about Cheraman Perumal, Vasco Da Gama, Zamorin, Marthanda Varma, Swathi Thirunaal, Pazhasshi Raja, Velu Thampi Dalawa etc. What about Cochin (Kochi or Perumpadappu Swaroopam or Maadarajyam or Goshreerajyam), the name written in golden letters in Indian Independence history as the first princely state to join India willingly? The most hospitable kingdom in whole of India where people of all religions co-existed for centuries, the most progressive princely state in British Empire for many years running, the most simplest of the kings who lived for the people, the city which was a hub for trade in west coast of India and so called “The Queen of Arabian Sea”, the state famous equally in Europe and China, the area (Muziris) which had relationship with even the great Roman empire, the city which started the medieval travelers and merchants quote “If China is the place to make money, then Cochin is really the place to spend it”. This made me think that I should put in a sincere effort to show the World that Kerala has a history of its own. Also the golden letters in Indian Independence is now shaded because of lack of polishing. I also wish to polish the golden letters of erstwhile princely state of Cochin, and make it shine in the glory of its illustrious past.

It is always hard to do something for first time and I too had similar problems. The first one was to select a blog location. For this, first I thought, I would use a page in www.gosree.org, a website owned and maintained unofficially for Cochin Royal Family. Since what I want to do is an independent and unbiased research, I thought it was better for me to host it somewhere else. So, I selected www.blogger.com, which is being used by my favorite blogger Maddy. Maddy is also my inspiration and role model for writing blogs, even though I have not met him.
The second was to select a topic for my first blog. Many topics came into my mind like "Cochin Royal Family History being tweaked?", "Kerala and Cricket", "Thrishivaperoor Pooram vs. IPL", "L K Modi vs Kelammavan" etc. But being from Cochin Royal Family, I thought it was best to start with either Sree Poornathrayeeshan or Pazhayannoor Bhagavathy. But due to lack of information and knowledge of Pazhayannoor Bhagavathy Temple (but very soon I will blog about Pazhayannoor), and being an Atima (slave) of Sree Poornathrayeeshan, I thought it would always be apt to start with my Lord. Even though temple was handed over to Government of Kerala (Cochin Devasom Board) after Cochin merged with Travancore (Unlike Travancore where the royal family still run the Padmanabhaswamy Temple), the temple still remains the solace for members of Cochin Royal Family. Even though Perumpadappu Swaroopam has many Kula-Devathas (Family\Dynasty Gods), Sree Poornathrayeeshan is considered as the most important god. I have started writing my first blog by prostrating all important family deities of Cochin Royal Family at the beginning.

Many in Kerala may not have heard about the god Sree Poornathrayeeshan till 2001. People who follow the countless utsavams and poorams might know about Tripunithura before this, but others might not have had an idea. The god and temple was made famous in the Mohanlal film "Praja - For The people" directed by Joshi and written by Renji Panicker. In this film, Babu Namboothiri very frequently mentions "ente poornathrayeeshaa..." when he hears any unpleasant news. I have heard from many that there is an over use of the "ente poornathrayeeshaa..." and "ente rishinagakulathappa..." (Meaning the god of Ernakulum Shiva Temple, Rishinagakulam is the old name of Ernakulum). But knowing the people who stay and live near those temples, I do not think the phrases are over used. I have heard many using this phrase for any news they receive, before anything they do, when they get up from bed, when they lie down, when they sit down to eat, when they standup, etc., showing that those people live by praying to gods. Even in many circumstances, I have also used those phrases from my childhood. Even though I am planning on writing in details about Sree Poornathrayeeshan and the temple in my next blog, as a start, I am giving a brief overview.

Sree Poornathrayeeshan is Maha-Vishnu in the form on Santhana-Gopala-Moorthi. The installation is believed to be performed by the middle Pandava, Arjuna. The main idol is one of the largest you can see in Kerala and also the Kodi-Maram (flag post) is the tallest gold plated Kodi-Maram. The annual Utsavam (festival) in this temple starts the festival season for central Kerala. Also Sree Poornathrayeeshan has played an important role in Development of Cochin. Many might not even know about the 14 gold Nettipattams (caparisons). 14 out of 15 Gold Nettipattams (caparisons) of Sree Poornathrayeeshan along with lot of valuables belonging to Cochin Royal Family’s personal wealth were sold to build the Shornur – Cochin railway line by the then Maharaja of Cochin, Sir Sri Rajarshi Rama Varma a.k.a. The Abdicated Highness of Cochin, who is often referred as the “Father of Modern Cochin”.
But the most significant part of Sree Poornathrayeeshan is how the Cochin Royal Family prospered after adopting Sree Poornathrayeeshan as family deity. When Cochin Royal Family shifted base from Vellarapally near Chhowara to Tripunithura in 1755 (or so), there were hardly 4-6 members and hardly 2 female members in the family. But 250 years down the lane, now the family is one of the largest royal families in the world.With that I conclude my first blog and will be posting more details on Sree Poornathrayeeshan and the temple in my next blog.

Paathu Poornathrayeeshaaa…