The Syrian Malabar Nasrani people are an ethnic group from Kerala, South India. It refers to those who became Christians in the Malabar coast in the earliest days of Christianity, including the natives and the Jewish diaspora in Kerala. It has been suggested that the term Nasrani Nazarenes used by ancient Jewish Christians in the Near-East who believed in the divinity of Jesus but clung to many of the Mosaic ceremonies. They follow a unique Hebrew-Syriac Christian tradition which includes several Jewish elements although they have absorbed some Hindu customs. Their heritage is Syriac-Keralite, their culture South Indian, their faith St. Thomas Christian, and their language Malayalam. Much of their Jewish tradition has been forgotten, especially after the Portuguese invasion of Kerala in the early 1500s. They are popularly known as Syrian Christians in view of the Syriac (classical form of Aramaic) liturgy used in church services since the early days of Christianity in India. derives from the name The Nasrani people are also called Syrian-Malabar Christians, Saint Thomas Christians , Suriyani Christians or even as Syrian Christians. They are also called as Nasrani Mapillas.
According to Hermann Gundert (who wrote the first Malayalam dictionary), the term 'mapilla' was a title used to denote semitic immigrants from West Asia. Thus the term Mapilla was used to denote both Arab and Christian-Jewish descendants in Kerala. The descendants of Arabs were, and still are, called Jonakan Muslim Mappila, while the descendants of Syrian-Jewish Christians are called Nasrani Mappilas and the descendants of Halakhik Cochin Jews are called as Juda Mappila. Origins The Syrian Malabar Nasranis are some of the earliest people who joined Christianity, including the native people of Kerala and many Malabar Jews from the Jewish diaspora of the pre-Christian era who were settled in Kerala. The community is also comprises several ancient Syriac Christian settlements in Kerala which included Nestorians who were fleeing persecution. The most prominent immigrations took place during the 4th and 9th centuries. The Knanaya Nasranis claim to be the descendants of one such group of 4th century immigrants.
Since Hinduism was the predomininant local religion, some writers claim that the first converts were mainly the Brahmins of Kerala called the namboothiris, but others argue that the claims were made by the later Christians to obtain special caste status in the prevailing caste system of India. A notable point is that the Namboothiri history claims their origin in Kerala in the seventh century CE, while Christianity in India originated in the first century CE. Besides several of the Malabari locals who joined early Christianity returned to their earlier faith during a shaivite revival by the shaivite scholar Manikka Vachkar.
Thus the community consists of people from ethnic groups of Kerala including some Brahmins, the pre-Christian era Jewish diaspora, different trading diaspora of Muzirs, Syriac Christian settlers and the Knanayas. The southern coast of the Indian subcontinent (hypothesized by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus to be the place mentioned as Ophir in the Old Testament) inevitably became a gateway from the Mediterranean world to Kerala. The people there traded in teak, ivory, spices and peacocks, and the area was endowed with a magnificent coastline with numerous ports from Mangalapuram to Kodungallur, also known as Cranganore. In the ancient times it was called as Muziris in Latin and Muchiri in Malayalam. The trade routes brought with them not just riches but also stateless nations and nascent worldviews. Cranganore became one of the earliest settlements of the Jewish diaspora from the later Old Testament period. They continued trade with the Mediterranean world, thus establishing a strong link between the southern coast of the Indian peninsula and the Judeo-Roman world. Laying the links or foundations for what would later be the early 'Judeo-Nazaraean' diaspora. The early Aramaic-speaking Syriac Christians who came to Kerala from Syria (whose kin already had a Jewish settlement in Kodungulloor) were of largely ethnically Jewish origin. The ancient navigation route from the Judeo-Roman world to the Malabar coast British researcher William Dalrymple travelled across the Arabian Sea to Kerala in a boat similar to those mentioned in ancient Jewish and Roman texts and showed how the Nasrani-Jewish people had travelled from Syria to Kodungulloor. He followed the same course as mentioned in the Acts of Thomas, a copy of which survives in a monastery on Mount Sinai. The symbol of the Nasranis is the Syrian cross, also called the Nasrani Menorah Mar Thoma sleeba in Malayalam. It is based on the Jewish menorah, the ancient symbol of the Hebrews, which consists of a branched candle stand for seven candlesticks. (Exodus 25).[20] In the Nasrani Menorah the six branches, (three on either side of the cross) represents God as the burning bush, while the central branch holds the cross, the dove at the tip of the cross represents the Holy Spirit. (Exodus 25:31).[20] In Jewish tradition the central branch is the main branch, from which the other branches or other six candles are lit. Netzer is the Hebrew word for "branch" and is the root word of Nazareth and Nazarene. (Isaiah 11:1).[20] Note that the Christian cross was not adopted as a symbol by Mediterranean and European Christianity until several centuries had passed. Persecution by Portuguese The Judeo-Nasrani tradition of the Syro-Malabar Nasranis was wiped out when the Portuguese invaded Kerala, and denounced the Nasrani account of Christian faith as false. They imposed their European rituals and liturgy and obliterated the Jewish legacy from the Nasrani tradition. The Portuguese described the Nasranis as Sabbath-keeping Judaizers. Archbishop Menezes of Goa, convened the Synod of Diamper in Kerala in 1599.There he ordered all the texts of the Syrian Nasranis to be burnt.
The Portuguese burned the Gospel of Thomas and the Acts of Thomas. The purpose stated by Menezes was to erase all legacies of antiquity and Jewishness.[21] Amongst several accusations, the Nasranis were accused of not worshiping images of saints and biblical figures.[21] They completely obliterated the records of early Nasrani life and Hebrew-Syriac tradition and imposed on the Nasranis that they were local people who were converted and not descendants of early Jewish settlers converted to Christianity by the Apostle Thomas. This despite the fact that the Acts of Thomas (a copy of which still survives in a monastery on Mount Sinai), states that the early Christian converts by the apostle Thomas in Kerala were early Jewish people settled in the Malabar coast.Most of all, the Portuguese burned the Nasrani Aramaic Peshitta Bible known today as the Lost Aramaic Bible that was based on the Jewish Targum and included the Gospel of the Nazoraeans. The Portuguese imposed the teaching that the Jews killed Jesus. The Nasranis, who were, until then, the "living fossils" of the Christian-Jewish tradition, lost their very defining ethos.
