1. LEGEND

THOMAS of CAANA is said to have led a migration of Syrian Christian from the Middle East to India some time between the fourth and the ninth centuries. Some place them as early as 345 AD and others as late as the ninth century. Copper plates of Title Deeds exist, but are of a later date.

KNAYI THOMMAN (THOMAS of CAANA) is said to have led a group of 72 families (about 400 people). They came by ship and landed at Kodungalloor. With the permission of the MALABAR PERUMAL they are believed to have settled there. Some privileges and positions were accorded to the Christians and were recorded in Deeds of copper plates. These Copper Plate Deeds are still preserved in Kottayam Old Seminary. Among the privileges and positions granted to the Christians; one of them was that they were placed above seventeen castes in standing. That is; equivalent to the Brahmins.

[LOGAN, MALABAR MANUAL - Pg 220]

THE COMMING OF OUR ANCESTORS

The great man and the legend that was KNAYI THOMMAN is an inalienable part of Kerala History. When he landed in Kodungalloor and settled there on his second visit to Kerala, he had brought with many families from Syria to reinvigorate the existing Christian Society in Kerala, which was in decline. Along with him came a successful merchant and a friend from Syria. His name was JACOB THOMAS. It was on Knayi Thomman's personal request and the general permission that Knayi Thomman received from the Kerala emperor Perumal that Jacob Thomas accompanied him to Kerala. Jacob Thomas had brought his whole family along with him. He was also a distant relative of Knayi Thomman. Jacob Thomas had come to Kerala to do business and Knayi Thomman had a stake in the business as he was a partner also.

As the years passed, the descendants of Jacob Thomas multiplied and settled in various parts of the land. Through many generations they were mainly merchants......and the history in between is lost in the fogs of time......

NOTE

There is a tradition that a group of 400 immigrants from Persia arrived in Malabar in AD 345 under the leadership of a merchant named Thomas of Cana, known as Knaye Thommen. Mention is made also of another immigration from Persia in the year AD 825 under the leadership of a Persian merchant named Marwan Sabriso with two Bishops named Mar Sapro and Mar Prodh. They landed in Quilon. King Cheraman Perumal gave them land and extended to them special privileges, inscribed on two sets of Copper Plates (in Malayalam “Chepped”). Three of these are still in the Old Seminary in Kottayam and two are at the Mar Thoma Church Head Quarters, Tiruvalla.

(The above article was from Kerala Church History - Wikkipweia)

The confusion is that did our ancestors come with Knayi Thomman (Thomas of Caana) in AD 345 or did they come under the leadership of Marwan Sabriso in AD 825? Whether they came in 345 AD or 825 AD, .........our recorded History begins.........in the 1600 s' ...may be even earlier?

As the years pass and the Generations go by; most people and facts are forgotten unless they are recorded. But some times certain basic facts remain intact. They are handed down generation after generation, by word of mouth......from Father to Son......and some how imprinted into the psyche of each generation. One such fact is the story of the coming of our ancestor, JACOB THOMAS. .

Santhosh Antony Ettuparayil

Something to ponder...

I have been wracking my brain on the only date in the article under the Chapter 'Early History'. The date given when Ittoop left his father's home and migrated to Kottyam ... “This was in the Malayalam year 854”. The corresponding date on the English Calendar is 1679 (Kottayam was ruled by Unni Kerala Varman Manikandan from 1674-1691 AD). It is said that Ittoop Panicker’s wife was 20 years old then. So we can safely assume that Ittoop Panicker was 21 years old at that time. Ittoop Panicker had no children at that time. He died when he was 41 years old, that is twenty years later in the year 1699 (Kottayam was ruled by Udaya Marthanda Varman Manikandan from 1691-1717 AD). We will assume that Thommi Panicker his eldest son was around 18 years old at that time. In the next few years he became a favourite of the king of Kottayam. Then he lost that crucial battle to Pullooraashan. That will be about the time Thommi Panicker was around 21 or 22 years old. Because it is mentioned Thommi Panicker and his family migrated to Kuttanadu. At that time whatever children he had must have been small. The year then will be around 1703. Assuming that Thommi Panicker married at the age of 20, the year will be 1701. Again we will assume that the daughter is the eldest and therefore if she was born 2 years after the marriage. ( I have a theory, Why Thommy Panicker lost the battle. First of all at that age he was very inexperienced. He was at a young age and had only recently lost his father, under whom he worked very obediently. His father had made all the military decisons and he didn't have to think for himself. He always had his father to advise him. So in the heat of the battle he had to make an instant decision and there he faltered. Secondly, and most importantly his first child must have been just newly born or about to be born, and he most probably wanted to see it just one time. In a fight with Pulloor Ashan his chances of survival must have been very slim and that would have made him take that decision to lay down his weapons). Ittoop Neduvely the eldest of the boy’s was born after another three years, the date of birth of Ittoop Neduvely will be 1706. Now I am assuming that Ittoop too married at around 23 years of age and that the three girls were all older than the two boys. An average gap of two or three years between each birth and the approximate date of birth of Cherian Neduvely will be nine years from the day Ittoop married. Ittoop will be around 30 years old by then. So the year will be 1738. Cherian was hard working and serious. So I assume he married a little later than usual, at around the age of 25. The year than will be 1763. The eldest son Ittoop Kokkadu was born in the first year. The daughter was next after three years and the second daughter after another 3 years. Then Mathula after another two years, followed by Itty Iype in another three years. The third daughter was born after another three years and Thomman Ettupara in another three years. That brings the birthday of Thomman Ettupara to 18 years from the date of Cherian’s marriage. That will be in the year 1781. Now I am guessing that Thomman married at around 23 years of age. The year then would be 1804. I will assume that Chachi was born one year later in 1805 and Thresia (Paalaamma) was born another three years later 1808. Now it is a known fact the two sisters were much older than the brothers. Assuming that Chaachi was married to Thoppil Kuriachan at the age of thirteen (1818). Kuriachan’s younger brother Kuncherichan must have married in another two years and the eldest daughter Acchaamma must have been born in a year’s time. That will be in the year 1821. Acchaamma was married to Elambrakottu Ousepachan the older of Chachiamma’s two younger brothers. Assuming that Acchamma was married at about the age of thirteen, 1834, Ousepachan will have been around eighteen years old. So Ousepachan’s birth date would be 1816. Shouvriyar was lot younger than Ousepachan, maybe around 8 years younger. So Shouvriyar would have been born around 1824. Ettuparayil Shouvriyar died in 1921 when he was 57 years old. So his actual birth date is in 1864. There is a gap of 40 years. This calculation may be off by 15 years or more, thus the actual difference may be around 55 years. The year 854 (AD 1679) may actually be any year between 894 and 909 (AD 1719 and AD 1734). (Kottayam was ruled by Udaya Marthanda Varman Manikandan from 1691-1717 AD, and by Adithya Varman Manikandan from 1717-1750 AD. Adithya Varman Manikandan was the last king of Kottayam. In 1750 AD, he was defeated by the Travancore forces and his kingdom was annexed by the King of Travancore, Marthanda Vurmah).

The year that Thommi Panicker migrated to Kuttanandu, on recalculation will be in the year AD 1743. Those were turbulent times, there was war in the South. King Marthanda Vurmah of Travancore had conquered Quilon and was in war with the King of Kayemkulam. The petty kings around Kottayam were restive and trying to take whaterever advantage they could.

It will be fascinating for some who have the time to read Kerala history in conjucture with the family history time lines to get a feel of the period gone by. So I am putting the approximate date of birth of our ancestors.

N.X.Joseph (Mavely) Ettuparayil---------------1891 - 1963

N.X.Kurian (Pullamplayil) Ettuparayil-----------1884 - 1980

N.T.Shouvriyaar Ettuparayil--------------------1864 - 1921

Thommachan Ettupara---------------------------1821?

Cherian Neduvely--------------------------------1778?

Ittoop Neduvely---------------------------------1746?

Thommi Panicker (Mambalam) ------------------1721?

Ittoop Panicker----------------------------------1698 – 1739

Itty Ambukkayam-------------------------------1668? Itty was the third child of Thomas. We will assume that Anna the oldest was born two years after the marriage of Itty and Chacko another three years later. Again Ittoop was born another three years later. So Ittoop was born 8 years after Itty’s marriage. We will again assume that Itty married when he was 22 years old. It all adds up to 30 years. 1698 minus 30 gives 1668. That will be Itty’s birthday.

Thomas-------------------------------------------1632? In the family history it is written - ‘one of the sons of Thomas’… So we will assume that Thomas had many children and that Itty was also the youngest. As in those times it is usually the younger ones who have no prospects especially when the family wealth is depleted. Also only the younger ones will have the audacity to present themselves before the king with a cry for help. So let us say that being the youngest Itty would have been born at least fourteen years after the marriage of Thomas. Again we will assume that Thomas married at around twenty two. So fourteen plus twenty two is thirty six. Subtracting 36 years from 1668 (Itty’s date of birth) gives Thomas’s date of birth, that is 1632.

Chacko--------------------------------------------1602? Again in the family history it is written – ‘two of his sons)… Therefore we can assume that there were other children too. We will assume that Thomas is somewhere in the middle. Let us say Thomas was born ten years after Chacko’s birth. Again assume that Chacko married at the age of twenty. So adding ten and twenty gives us thirty. Deduct 30 from Thomas’s date of birth and we get Chacko’s date of birth. The year is 1602.

Santhosh Antony Ettuparayil.