Tuesday 12 March 2013

Seven Chilies and a Lemon


A walk through Mattancherry - the warehouse island of Kochi




The Charm of Lemon and Chilies that brings good luck and keeps away evil eyes off the prosperity, alone wouldn't have been enough to fight the foreign invasion over Trade and Commerce in Kochi in the past.
These wonderful Indian traditions are leftovers from our glorious past and that is exactly what you will find when you take a walk through the narrow roads of Mattancherry. Passing warehouse after warehouse most of which are nearing its state of abandonment or conversion, Mattanchery holds stories in every little corner of hers.



Kochi, Kochchi, Kochazhi,Cochym names are several for modern day Cochin. No account of a place named Mattanchery is found in any history books until the Portuguese invasion. The only proof of a stone age existence of a land nearby comes from the menhirs and dolmens found near Tripunithura, Vennala and Kodanadu in Ernakulam.

Old buildings on the banks of Kalvathi Canal, an entry point to spice trade in the past.




















“Very little is known about the history of Cochin prior to the arrival of the Portuguese as neither inscriptions nor literary works throw much light. Cochin is not even mentioned in any of the earlier foreign notices of Malabar. Neither in the accounts of Pliny, Ptolemy, Marco Polo or Ibn Batuta do we find any mention, though they give detailed accounts of places situated to the north and south of Cochin. Though it is generally believed that Cochin port was formed only as late as 1341 there is also the possibility of its existence as a small harbour even earlier. In 1341 the heavy floods that took place in the Periyar River silted up Cranganore Harbour (Kodungallur). Useless for purposes of trade, this decline in the importance of Cranganore led to Cochin’s rise into prominence and commercial supremacy.”













The name Mattanchery comes into main frame during the Dutch and Portuguese period as a trade emporium specifically dealing with spices.
When The Rajas of Perumpatappu Swaroopam from their ancestral place of Chitrakootam in Vanneri  then migrated to the emerging harbor town of Kochazhi (meaning Small Sea in Malayalam) the modern day Fort Kochi, and made it their royal head quarters,  Mattanchery falling towards south of this new formed island became an ideal location for warehousing the trade goods.












Once a window to the world of spice trade, today, several functional and nonfunctional warehouses still remain in Mattanchery with its shady colonial architecture modified and redesigned over a period of time. Many of them have been converted into tourist attractions and Art Galleries and the ongoing Kochi Muziris Biennale is the latest and by far the largest event to acknowledge the mysterious historical account of Kochi and Muziris.
















Portuguese political artist Rigo 23's work installed at the remains of Kalvathi Canal Dockyard in Mattancherry. Rigo 23's installation work has three parts one of which depicts the myth of Kappiri the slave killed by the Portuguese before leaving Kerala. Some people in west Kochi still believes that the Souls of Kappiris are guarding their masters treasures which are hidden under ground and some claims to have seen him on top of certain trees during some evenings.The myth of Kappiri is a legacy of 165 year long Portuguese domination over Kerala, a battle that began in 1498.


How to get there : The easiest route is via ferry service Ernakulam Boat Jetty which takes you directly to Fort Cochin - Mattancheryy. The route via road is lengthy and often hectic due to heavy city traffic.













Note : If you had tried to count the chilies in the first image and thought there are only six in it, appreciate your sense but there is a small chili hidden underneath which is not quite visible in the image. 

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