Prime Minister Narendra Modi has gifted his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu replicas of two sets of relics from Kerala, regarded as key artefacts of Jewish history in India.
Mr. Modi, who arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday for a three-day visit, presented the relics to Mr. Netanyahu at his home here. They comprise two sets of copper plates, believed to have been inscribed in the 9th and 10th Century, the Prime Minister’s Office said.
The first set is a cherished relic for the Cochin Jews. It is regarded as a charter describing the grant of hereditary royal privileges and prerogatives by the Hindu king Cheraman Perumal (often identified as Bhaskara Ravi Varma) to Jewish leader Joseph Rabban.
Prince of Shingli
According to traditional Jewish accounts, Joseph Rabban was later crowned the Prince of Shingli, a place in or equated with Kodungalloor.
Jews enjoyed religious and cultural autonomy there for centuries, before they moved to Cochin (now Kochi) and Malabar.
Local Jews once placed in each coffin a handful of earth from Shingli/Kodungalloor that was remembered as a holy place and ‘second Jerusalem.’ A replica of these plates was made with the cooperation of the Paradesi synagogue at Mattancherry, Kochi.
Grant of privileges
The second set of copper plates is believed to be the earliest documentation of the history of Jewish trade with India.
These plates describe the grant of land and tax privileges by the local Hindu ruler to a church and oversight of trade in Kollam to West Asian and Indian trading associations.
The West Asian association included Muslims, Christians, Zoroastrians, as also a group of Jews, who signed in Judeo-Persian and possibly also in Arabic and Pahlavi.
The plates bear their signatures that appear to have been cut into the plates by a local workman unfamiliar with the script, the PMO tweeted.
Church’s help
The replica of these plates was made with the cooperation of the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church in Thiruvalla.
