Jewish Migrations to Kerala in ancient times

Most people know about the Jewish community in Mattancherry, Kochi, but not many know about the history of their migration to this country in ancient times. 

On two occasions in their history, we see the Jewish people in Palestine becoming scattered.  Both happened when the Temple of God built by King Solomon was destroyed.  On both occasions, some of them came to ancient Malabar.

The first was when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquered Jerusalem and destroyed King Solomon’s Temple (later referred to as the First Temple), about 500 years before Christ.  He took many captive Jews back to Babylon.  After about 70 years, King Cyrus allowed them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple, referred to as the Second Temple.  After Cyrus allowed them to return, some Jews who had become rich and prosperous in Babylon are thought to have stayed on there.[1] 

The Jewish presence in ancient Malabar is thought to have started at this time, when for trade or because of persecution by later kings, some of them emigrated to ancient Malabar, long before the time of Jesus.   We have no evidence for this, but the Jewish people’s own history narrates this. (Claudius Buchanan 1812:137-8. For a full account, see Buchanan 1812:128-150).

The Second Temple was a smaller and modest building. About 20 years before Jesus was born, King Herod the Great rebuilt it on a more magnificent scale, and this was the Temple in the time of Jesus.  This Second Temple, and the whole city of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans around 68-70 AD under the orders of Caesar Vespasian.  Vespasian’s General Titus carried out this destruction.  Afterwards they carried away all the treasure and sacred objects from the Temple to Rome, as is shown below in ‘Titus’s Triumphal Arch’ in Rome.

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[1] William Logan Malabar Manual 1887:247

The destruction of the Temple of Solomon was, on both occasions,  a terrible blow to the Jewish people.  After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD, they were scattered all over Egypt, Syria and Mesopotamia, and some of them came to ancient Malabar.[1]

There was also a third and more substantial migration in the 15th century, which was from Spain and Portugal.  This happened after the Spanish King Ferdinand defeated and drove out all the Muslims from Spain.  He and Queen Isabella also brought in a policy that only Christians could live in Spain, and so forced the vast Jewish population in Spain to convert to Christianity.  Those who refused to convert were forced to emigrate, and many of them came to Malabar and settled in Paravoor, Kochi, Kollam etc.  All three of these migrations are mentioned in the Kerala Jews’ own narratives. 

Swami Vivekananda made reference to this in a speech in Chicago, America, in 1893: ‘I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to southern India, and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny’. 

On all three occasions, our local kings and rulers welcomed them, and allowed them to settle and practice their religion, and continue their commercial and mercantile business, becoming prosperous in their own right.   The only time we hear of their persecution in Kerala was firstly when the city of Kodungalloor was burnt in trade-wars with the Arabs and the Jews had to flee the city to neighbouring cities like Kochi. The second time was by the Portuguese in the 17^th century when the Dutch attacked Kochi, and the Portuguese destroyed the Jewish district of Kochi in retaliation for their siding with the Dutch.  The Jewish community settled in the Mattancherry district of Kochi after this last said event.

There is reason to believe that the Jewish people knew about ancient Malabar because of the trade between the East and West even in very ancient times. 

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[1] Logan 1887:252 ‘The Jews, too, have a tradition that a large number of their nation came down and settled in Malabar at this time, after the destruction (AD 68) of the temple at Jerusalem’

William Logan in Malabar,1887, p246.

Similar accounts of direct interviews with leading members of the Mattancherry Jewish community can also be seen in Claudius Buchanan Christian Researches, 1812:134.  Thomas Fanshaw Middleton, Bishop of Calcutta, after he has visited the Jewish community in Mattancherry, wrote in his diary[1]: 

‘Their synagogue is a plain square building, not differing materially in its arrangements for public worship and reading of the law, from those which are usual in Europe. Their history, according to their own account, is this: that they belong to the tribe of Benjamin, Judah, and half Manasseh, and that their fore- fathers left Jerusalem after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus; that they originally dwelt at Cranganore, from which they were driven by the Inquisition of Goa about 300 years since; and that soon after they were settled at Cochin, they assisted the Dutch against the Portuguese. With regard to the dispersion of their nation, one story current among them is, that the ten tribes are to this day beyond the river Sambattin, which is continually throwing up stones and earth to prevent their return …….. They all believe that they shall be restored to the Holy Land in peace, in the year 1839, and that the temple is then to be rebuilt.’

It was the same hospitality from the kings in Malabar that had welcomed the first Mesopotamian settlers in 345 AD.

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[1] Charles Le Bas: Life of Thomas Fanshaw Middleton, Bishop of Calcutta, 1831:261