Introduction
Today, Eid-ul-Fitr:
Celebrations to mark the end of Ramzan – wishing you all “Eid Mubarak”.
Eid, popularly known as Eid-ul-Fitr, is a festival observed by the Muslim community to celebrate the conclusion of the month of fasting. Eid-ul-Fitr literally means 'festival of breaking the fast'. Like other festivals observed by the Muslim community, this festival symbolizes faith. Today I would like to write about “Cheraman Juma Masjid at Kodungallur, Kerala, India. This is the first mosque in Asia and second one in the world.
Cherman Juma Masjid, Kodungallur
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| Present Picture of Cheraman Masjid |
One will find
nothing unusual about this place of worship for Muslims as one drives past this
town in central Kerala, just 30km north of Kochi. But it’s when you go in and
chat up with the volunteers and office-bearers that the enormity of its legacy
actually hits you.
For Cheraman Jumah Masjid in this town,
also known by its anglicized name Cranganore, is not just the oldest in India
and the subcontinent but one built during the lifetime of Prophet Mohammad
(PBUH) in AD629 by an Arab propagator of Islam, Malik Bin Dinar. Local
traditions have it that Cheraman Juma Masjid in Kerala was established in the
year 629CE. An inscription in Arabi-Malayalam language on the gate of the
masjid gives the date as 5 Hijri. This makes Cheraman Juma Masjid in Kodungallur
in the Thrissur district of Kerala, the first mosque of India and one of the
oldest in the whole world.
It is also
testimony to two facts. One, Islam came to India long before the Mughals came
in from the northwest. Two, the entry of Islam was smooth and Muslims enjoyed
the full patronage of the locals irrespective of their religions — a facet that
is still visible and cherished here.
This mosque stands
proud with two other landmarks of Kodungallur, also known as Muziris an ancient
port town in India. The first is the Saint Thomas Church, also said to be among
the first in India built by the Apostle himself around 52AD. He had arrived
here in India and the church has some holy relics from the olden days. The
second is the Bhagavathy Temple of Cheran ruler Chenguttavan, also known as Vel
Kelu Kuttuvan, around 150AD.
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| Vidyarambham At Cheraman Masjid |
In fact, in a
manifestation of India’s cultural syncretism, many non-Muslims are its devotees
and hold “Vidhyarambham”, or the commencement of education ceremony for their
children at this mosque. During Ramadan, iftar offerings are often made by the
non-Muslim communities in the area.
Legends on the Masjid
There are several
legends surrounding the Cheraman Jumah mosque. As one goes: It was built under
the patronage of the last Chera king, Cheraman Perumal, who is also believed to
have abdicated his throne and embraced Islam upon meeting the Prophet at Makkah.
But before he died
at Dhofar in Oman due to some illness on the way back to India, he wrote some
letters asking the local rulers, to whom he had handed over his empire, to
extend all help they could to some Arab merchants who were planning to visit
India.
One such merchant,
Malik Bin Dinar, was given permission by local chieftains to build Islamic
places of worship around the area. The mosque accordingly is called the
Cheraman Mosque in recognition of the help extended by the last Chera ruler.
This apart, Malik
Bin Dinar, who was also a “sahaba” or a companion of the Prophet, was the
mosque’s first Gazi, succeeded by his nephew Habib Bin Malek. Both Habib Bin
Malek and his wife are entombed at the Cheraman Juma Masjid.
Interested reader can click on the image to know the authenticity of the myths as well as other versions.
Renovations happened at Masjid
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| Inside view of the Mosque |
Located
on National Highway-17, Cheruman Juma Masjid is an important Kerala landmark.
The place is called Cheraman Malik Nagar in the honor of King Cheraman Perumal
and Malik Bin Dinar.
The original
mosque itself has undergone several renovations. The oral traditions have it
that the first such refurbishment took place in the 11th century and again some
300 years later. In the modern era a revamp was done in 1974, after which a
reconstruction happened in 2001.
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| A donation box in brass that had been kept in the mosque for centuries before |
But, the original hall and internal structure including
the sanctum sanctorum has been preserved have
been preserved. Four minarets have been added in one of the later renovations
but attempts have been made to give the look and feel of the old structure in
the exterior of the building. Minarets and a dome are also
modern-day additions. Yet, despite the renovations, a striking amalgam of
different cultures and religions is in full play at the grand old mosque.
Kerala Features in the Mosque
Ignore the minarets,
and the small dome and you can imagine how this building would have looked like
hundreds or a thousand years ago. The museum on site has pictures and a model
of the old structure to help you imagine.
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| Old Pulpit in the Mosque |
The original structure did not look
like anything foreign, the architecture and design both inside and outside
resembles local influence. It was a double storied structure with a sloping
tiled roof. Unlike the mosques of North India, there are no minarets or Arabic
calligraphy or complex geometrical patterns on the outside the building. The
simple entrance must have been inviting and not intimidating, a reflection on
how Islam came to Kerala and got well entrenched in the land.
The main room, which is the part of the
original structure, is small. It probably can host only about four rows of 15
people for prayers. There is an old wooden mimbar with an intricate design.
Along with fans hanging from the ceiling, there is a big brass lamp, not unlike
what can be found in a Hindu temple. This lamp also has inscriptions in old
Malayalam script Vattezhuthu.
In true style of temples in the south,
the mosque also has a pond. Then the minber, or the pulpit from where the Imam
delivers sermons, has some intricate carvings and lacquer work, which is again
unique to southern India. There are also some other artefacts from the times gone by, such as the
redstones that were used to as building material in sizes uncommon today, and
an ancient sewage channel.
A symbol of thriving commerce
between India and the Arab world
Recently the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gifted Saudi King
Salman bin Abdulaziz a gold-plated replica of the Cheraman Juma Masjid and it
was underlining the trade links that existed between India and Saudi Arabia
since the first millennium BC. But the Masjid is also the symbol of the
peaceful entry of Islam into the Indian subcontinent followed by centuries of
harmonious coexistence with religions
Whether or not the folklore surrounding
the origin of the mosque is true is a matter of speculation. However, the
story’s significance lies in the reference to Arab traders visiting India as
early at the seventh century AD. As a coastal trading society, international
trade was an enormous part of Kerala’s history and economy, especially
Kodungallur, then called Muziris by foreign
traders. Spices, the fuel of the ancient world’s trading networks,
were its principal commodity of export. Since 3000 BC Assyrians and Babylonians
had been trading with Kerala. By the beginning of the first millennium AD, the
Egyptians and Greeks, as well as the Chinese had started trading with the
Malabar coast.
The Arabs were pioneers in
international trade much before Islam spread its wings. “Essentially, everyone
came to Kerala for its spices, but the Arabs were the most successful at not
only discovering direct sea routes but also sustaining regular contact. This
meant that they and their network became the strongest in international waters,
till the appearance of the Portuguese over a thousand years later,” said Manu
Pillai, the author of “The Ivory Throne : Chronicles of the House of
Travancore”. It is only the coming of the Europeans traders that disrupted Arab
control of international trade in India.
An emblem of religious harmony
However, there is another aspect of the
origin of the mosque that is important to note. Long before the first sword of
Islam was raised in Sind around the 13th century, the religion had arrived
through the peaceful embassies of commerce in India.
It is believed that the place at which
the mosque now stands was previously occupied by a Buddhist Vihara. But
Buddhism was already dying in Kerala, and the space was relinquished in favour
of this new religion of the Arab traders. Another account states that the Hindu
King who took over Kodungallur, after Cheraman left for Mecca, helped Malik Ibn
Dinar convert a local Hindu temple into the mosque. While mosques all over the
world face the Mecca, this one faces the East since it was originally built as
a Hindu temple. The interiors of the mosque still carry traditional Hindu
motifs and a brass oil lamp, generally found in Hindu temples here, is kept
inside the mosque.
http://varnam.nationalinterest.in/2014/07/unraveling-the-cheraman-perumal-myth/
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