INTRODUCTION
Previously, I discussed about the churches mentioned in Antonio de Gouvea's ‘Jornada of Dom Alexis de Menezes' published in the year 1606 (see here). In this post, I am compiling a list of all the church sites (villages with churches) and Christian settlements (villages with Christians, but no church reported) described in the Surveys and Memoirs of Benjamin Swain Ward (1786-1835) and Peter Eyre Conner (1794-1821) from the early decades of 19th century. Both Ward and Conner were Lieutenants in the Madras Infantry at the time of the survey. Although this blog is about the St Thomas Christian churches established before 1800 AD, Ward and Conner's vivid details of geographical and statistical surveys cover a large number of churches from this period (i.e. before 1800). In fact, they estimate 55 Syrian churches; 64 Romo-Syrian churches; 182 Roman Catholic (Latin) churches, making a total of three hundred and one (301) churches in Kerala during the early 19th century. The information provided in these surveys and memoirs may not be detailed, but the eyewitness accounts are valuable resources in understanding the actual situation of the churches in the early 19th century. One major disadvantage, though, is that these surveys are not indexed and often require tedious efforts to track specific churches. Another drawback is that the names are heavily anglicised and not always easy to identify.
Essentially, in this study, I intend to identify and compile a list of all the sites mentioned in the Surveys and Memoirs of Ward and Conner where a church is reported. I have traced at least 215 churches (192 in Kerala + 23 in Tamil Nadu) distributed over 180 village sites (162 in Kerala + 18 in Tamil Nadu). In addition, 38 (37 in Kerala + 1 in Tamil Nadu) villages can be documented with Christians, but without a church noted. As you can see, majority of the churches and Christian settlements are in Kerala, the remaining in the regions of present-day Tamil Nadu, which however, were parts of Travancore-Cochin at the time of the survey. I am giving the compiled lists separately under three different blog posts, as to include them in a one post will consume too much space and it will be inconvenient for easy reference. I hope this study will be helpful to anyone interested in understanding the church statistics of Kerala using the monumental work of Lts. Ward and Conner as a reference material.
THE SURVEY REPORTS & MEMOIRS OF WARD AND CONNER
The survey reports and memoirs of Ward and Conner are published posthumously. Five volumes have been published, one on ‘Malabar’ and four on ‘Travancore and Cochin’. Though it is often considered that these reports are joined works of Ward and Connner, it is not however the case. The survey of Travancore was almost entirely written by Ward, but in the case of Cochin, accounts by Conner were also incorporated. Similarly, the periods at which the surveys were conducted also vary with the regions. The Travancore and Cochin Surveys were started by Ward on 13 June, 1816 and it was completed by 23 February, 1820. Conner joined Ward at Quilon in this survey on 22 December, 1817. After the Travancore and Cochin surveys, Ward took up that of Malabar survey in July 1824, but went to leave on medical grounds in August 1824, only to resume the charge on 16 January, 1826. However, Conner died on 29 April, 1821 and so the Malabar survey was done by Ward alone, but we do not know when it was completed. Hence it cannot be said to be a joint work of Ward & Conner. This mistake over the twin authorship of the volume of 'Malabar Survey' has been noted in the preface of the 1995 reprint, and accordingly the error might have probably crept in at the printing stage at a later period (that is in 1906 when it was first published) mainly because of the inclusion of the extracts of the memoir of the survey of the Taluks of Palakkad, Chowkaad and Kutunaad, which were earlier surveyed jointly by Lieuts. Ward and Conner during the Survey of Cochin State. Ward also made a separate survey of Waynad during 1826-1827 and completed that in early 1830. He died in South Africa on 19 June, 1835 at the age of 50 after retiring as a Major in the army. Ward and Conner gained wide publicity after the 2018 Supreme Court verdict in the Sabarimala Temple Entrance case, because their reports are one of the earliest written records mentioning the ban on entry of women of reproductive age group into the famous shrine. Lt. Ward visited the shrine on 15-16 December, 1818, he names the place as 'Chowrymullah' and the deity worshiped as 'Chowrymullah Shastha'
PUBLISHED VOLUMES OF THE SURVEYS AND MEMOIRS OF WARD & CONNER
1) Ward, B S & Conner, P E (1906, 1st published)-A Descriptive Memoir of Malabar (1995, 1st reprint), hereafter ‘DMM’.
2) Ward, B S & Conner, P E (1863, 1st published)-Memoir of the Survey of the Travancore and Cochin States, Volume 1 (1898, 1st reprint; 1994, 2nd reprint), hereafter ‘T&C-Vol. 1’
3) Ward, B S & Conner, P E (1901, 1st published)-Geographical and Statistical Memoir of the Survey of the Travancore and Cochin states, Volume 2, Part I, Travancore (1994, 1st reprint), hereafter ‘T&C-Vol. 2-I’
4) Ward, B S & Conner, P E (1893, 1st published)-Geographical and Statistical Memoir of the Survey of the Travancore and Cochin States, Volume 2, Part II, Cochin (1994, 1st reprint), hereafter ‘T&C-Vol. 2-II’
5) Ward, B S (1891, 1st published)- Memoir of the Survey of Travancore and Cochin, 1816-1820 (Official Diary, entries from 13 June, 1816 to 23 February, 1820), hereafter ‘T&C-OD’
IDENTIFICATION OF THE SITES & COMPILATION OF THE LISTS
Villages in the Main Texts.
I have analysed both the old (1st published) and the latest (1994-95 reprints) versions in this study. It must be noted that, the works were first published decades after the demise of the authors, Lt. Ward (d. 1835) and Lt. Conner (d. 1821). All the volumes, except the official diary of Ward, ‘Memoir of the Survey of Travancore and Cochin, 1816-1820’ (published in 1891), have been reprinted by the Kerala Gazetteers Department during the period in 1994-1995. The diligently executed surveys cover the whole State of Kerala, which was then the Princely States and British administered provinces called, Travancore, Cochin and Malabar. The regions are divided into Taluks or Districts; subdivided to Adigarams or Hobellies or Proverties (sub-dividions); further subdivided to Umshums (inferior subdivisions) containing Desums or Principal Villages. The principal villages are sometimes divided to Chairies and Moories (sub ordinate villages). It is in these villages, that the churches and settlements are reported. In other words, it must be emphasized that the documents do not provide the names of individual churches, but only the villages where they are located. The primary focus of this study is therefore to identify the villages, and not the individual churches. Nevertheless, churches of prominent Christian centers need not be difficult to find. For instance, you don’t have to be an expert to identify the three churches of Angamaly as the churches of St George, St Mary and St Hormis. Having said so, there are still a number of churches that have to be properly identified, because their current locations do not fit precisely with the villages mentioned in the documents. I have addressed a few difficult locations, especially when multiple candidates are a possibility, but to identify all the churches can be a different project in itself. In addition to this, there are villages with houses, streets, bazaars etc., belonging to the Christian community, but without a church mentioned. This group is separately discussed under the category, ‘Christian Settlements’.
The identification of the villages wasn’t a piece of cake always. This required rigorous background research, analysis of old survey reports, scrutinizing of maps etc. For convenience, and easy reference, I have arranged the church sites (villages) in the alphabetical order of their modern names. Nevertheless, the old names of the sites as they appear in the original documents are also retained. This does not necessarily mean that the location of churches is known by the same name today. The chances are that it could be a nearby site or a subdivision of a large area known differently at present. For instance, the two churches of Caccad (modern Kakkad in Kunnamkulam) are located in an area called Chiralayam today. Although, Chiralayam is mentioned as ‘Chayloolycum-the Romo-Syrian part of Kunnamkulam and location of a small Kolaghum (Kovilakom), the residence of the Kukkaad (i.e. Caccad or modern Kakkad) Karnapaad (Chief)’, there is no direct reference to the churches here. Similarly, the site “Kawokod, a small bazar occupied by Christians” is difficult to identify unless you know it is in Chalissery Grama Panchayath. Likewise, Chalissery also is referred to as ‘Chalacherry with a Pagoda West of Village and near Kawookod Pagoda’, but the Christian angle is left out.
Villages in the Tables Appended.
At the same time, one needs to also consider the churches listed in the Tables appended to the Districts and the Taluks of these Memoirs. The village lists appear only in two volumes, viz. DMM and T&C-Vol. 2-II. The Tables are entitled ‘Memoir of the Survey of the Talook of Malabar’ in DMM and ‘Memoir of the District of Cochin or Collectorate of South Malabar’ in T&C-Vol. 2-II, respectively. In T&C-Vol. 2-II, there are 14 Tables with 1089 villages; whereas DMM has 13 Tables with 1772 villages. As chapters on three Districts from T&C-Vol. 2-II (Palakkad, Kutannad and Chavakkad) are repeated in DMM, I have not included them in the latter while enumerating the villages. Surprisingly, not a single village from the DMM list (1772 villages) has a church site! There are 45 church sites that can be enumerated from the Tables appended for T&C-Vol. 2-II, out of which, 37 also appear in the main text of the volume. However, 8 churches appear only in the Tables and not in the main text. They are the following:
1. Moooringnoor (Muringoor-Koratty),
2. Muddaloghum (Mathilakam) and Mudalooth (Mathilakam)
3. Pallipooram (Palliprom)
4. Paulaturnutte (Palathuruth-Chendamangalam)
5. Poomungaulum (Poomangalam-Aripalam) Small
6. Pullatoorty (Palluruthy) South
7. Veeriapooram (Unidentified)
8. Vendoorty (Venduruthy)
DETAILS OF CHURCH SITES (VILLAGES) & CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENTS
The title gives the current name of the church site, followed by the corresponding Panchayath and District where it is located. This information comes handy and helpful when different sites with similar names are to be dealt, which by the way, is not uncommon in Kerala. Take the case of the village ‘Pallippuram’, the name appears in various forms, such as Pullypuram, Pallipooram and Pulleypuram etc., in the records of Ward and Conner. Today, they refer to 5 different locations across 4 different Districts in Kerala, one each in Alappuzha, Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram and two in Thrissur. Another example is 'Ooloor', here the same name is used to denote two entirely different locations in Kerala, Ollur in Thrissur District and Ullur in Thiruvananthapuram District! It is also important to learn the context and background of the report, such as the names of surrounding villages, for validating the true identity of the site. An example could be ‘Sherucuddavoo, with a Syrian church’. At first go, I thought it could be either Chirakkadavu (Kottayam District) or Cherukadavu (Kollam District). However, it must be noted that Sherucuddavoo is mentioned 1 mile N.N.W. from Kistnapuram, which is Krishnapuram near Kayamkulam in the Alappuzha District. It was only after proper scanning of the area around Krishnapuram, I could come across the right candidate, which is ‘Chirakadavam’ near Kayamkulam. Another example is ‘Kolunchairy with an Ungady or street of Mapillah Christians, who have a small Church’. Anyone familiar with the Syrian Christian churches of Kerala would go with Kolenchery in the Ernakulam District. However, if we go into the details, Kolunchairy is described as 1½ miles N.E. of Maramun Syrian Church, which is the Maramon Church, and therefore Kolunchairy is Kozhenchery in the Pathanamthitta District and not Kolenchery!
The details are divided to 4 sections:
1) The Anglicised names of the church sites as per the original text. It is interesting to notice the wide range of ways in which the same location is sometimes recorded. I have bestowed maximum attention to retain all the forms even if they are spelling mistakes. Take these examples: Mavelikkara appears as Mauvillykurray, Mavellikeray, Mavellikerray, Mavillykerra, Mavillykurray, Muvillykurray; Njarakkal as Neearakull, Nearracull, Nearrakul, Neoarrakull, Neearrakul, Veearrakul; and Puthenvelikkara as Puthumvaylecuray, Pootunvaleecurray, Pootunvaleccurray, Pootunvalaecurray, Pootunvalecurray etc.
2) Description of the sites as per the original texts. When the same site is mentioned across different volumes, the details are retained in its original format even if there is repetition in the contents. The texts from different volumes are numbered with lowercase Roman numerals (i, ii, iii etc.), and if they are from different pages of the same volume, lowercase English letters are used as subdivisions (ia, ib, ic etc.). For example, the texts on ‘Anjuthengu’ are retrieved from three different volumes and the numbers i), ii), iii) here refer to the corresponding volumes T&C-Vol. 1, T&C-Vol. 2-I, and T&C-OD, respectively; similarly, for Pazhanji, the texts are quoted from the same volume (T&C-Vol. 2-II), but from different pages and hence numbered ia, ib, ic and id.
3) The source of information. It refers to the volume or volumes of the survey reports and memoirs from which the description is taken. For the expansion of the abbreviations used here, see the section ‘Published Volumes of Surveys and Memoirs of Ward and Conner’ given above.
4) Personal remarks, if any. In this section, I have addressed mainly the location of sites that are difficult to identify.
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