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Risen from oblivion
THE MALAYALAM-JEWISH songs remained unknown outside the Jewish communities of Kerala for long. Most of the research until the 1970's was done by non-Indians, who knew Hebrew but got stuck when it came to Malayalam. The only non-Jewish Keralite known to have taken serious interest in the songs before the 1970's was the historian T. K.Joseph, who borrowed two song notebooks and wrote a newspaper article, which included the Malayalam text of a few verses without mentioning that the women performed to these songs. Dr. A.I.Simon carried out the first substantial publication of the songs in 1947. It included the Malayalam text of five complete songs and fragments of 10 others, with footnotes. A few English translations were made in the mid-1970s by the late Jacob. E. Cohen. He was the only Jewish man in recent times who had both a university-level knowledge of Malayalam and an avid interest in the songs. An intense activity to preserve these songs was seen between 1976-1981. Prof P.M.Jussay of Kochi, a Christian scholar and journalist, collected these songs and in consultation with Mr. Cohen made translations. Prof. Jussay identified and cross-indexed songs from 21 notebooks, which has been invaluable in the processing of additional notebooks and refining the index. In his translations and analysis Prof. Jussay concentrated on songs about early Jewish settlements in Kerala. In the 1980's Ruby Daniel, who immigrated to Israel from Kochi in 1951, undertook a major translation project. She brought to her translation the perspective of a woman who had sung the songs since her childhood in early 20th century Kochi. She made more than 120 English translations of the songs. The archaic forms and linguistic transformations in many songs stymied her. "Most of us, me included, knew how to sing these songs. But no one knew what they meant," recounts Sarah Cohen. And this was what nailed Ms.Daniel too. There was a need to find a professor who could decipher all those and paraphrase the text. That was when Dr. Scaria Zachariah was found for the job. However, the real revival of these songs was brought about by a group of women within the community in Israel. A few elderly women, who had sustained the songs, have passed the torch to a new generation. Women who were born in Kochi and studied Malayalam in school. They reached Israel as young women, quickly became Israelis, got immersed in their new responsibilities, snapping their old ties with the land where they were born in. Now retired, finding time and renewed energy, they have united and sworn to learn and save the songs, which they faintly remember of their joyful childhood in far off Kochi.
K.P
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