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Shingly / Cranganore

The total absence of reliable historical records make early history of Kerala a bundle of legends. Shingly (modern-day Kodungallur, also known as Cranganore; formerly known as Mahodayapuram) was also known as Jangli, Gingaleh, Cyngilin, Shinkali, Chinkli, Jinkali, Shenkala, and Cynkali, which are all derived from the name of the River Changala (or the Chain River, i.e., Shrinkhala in Sanskrit), a tributary of the Periyar. Shingly is famous in Jewish Indian history as a major premodern settlement on the Malabar coast, in some accounts a principality possessed of its own sovereign. The Jewish presence in India could mean a Jewish state in India, a state led be a Jewish dynasty or just overall larger presence of Jews in the subcontinent. Shingly, or Cranganore, was an important port city on the Malabar Coast and had a notable Jewish community dating back to ancient times. This community included the Cochin Jews, who were among the oldest Jewish communities in India. This little Jewish state on the coast of Malabar lasted till 1520.

This small area of southwestern India is of historical significance for at least three religions. According to one tradition, a Cochin Jew colony in Malabar Coast, probably established before the sixth century BCE, attracted the Apostle Thomas to this region. A traditional belief among the Saint Thomas Christians in Kerala is that Thomas the Apostle landed in or around Kodungallur[9] in the middle of the first century CE. According to Kerala Muslim tradition, Kodungallur was home to the oldest mosque in the Indian subcontinent. According to the Legend of Cheraman Perumals, the first Indian mosque was built in 624 AD.

When St Thomas landed in Kerala, there were already Jews living there. Shortly after his arrival, following the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, many more arrived as refugees. Jewish people have been associated with Kerala for a long time. For how long, the historians disagree. Most agree that Jews on King Solomon’s trading vessels visited the Keralan ports about 900 years before Christ’s birth. These Jewish mariners are believed to have brought exotic items such as peacocks, monkeys, and ivory from India to Solomon’s palace in the Holy Land.

Physical evidence about Indian Jewish communities appears from the medieval period. The most interesting are copper plate charters granted to minority communities in Malabar, the earliest of which from 843 granted autonomy to a Syriac Christian community at Kollam, and was witnessed by four Jews. Of greater Jewish interest are the fabled copper plates given to the leader of the Jews, Joseph Rabban, by the Cheraman Perumal emperor in 1001. These plates are still preserved in the Cochin Paradesi synagogue. The plates charter an autonomous Jewish principality under the suzerainty of the Hindu maharajah, granting real and symbolic privileges to the Jews. In Kochi Jewish folklore, Joseph Rabban and Cheraman Perumal became paradigms of Jewish-Hindu relations over the centuries, one characterized by loyalty, benevolence, and affection.

Some say these Jews sailed on the ships of King Solomon, as early as in the first millennium BCE (1000 BCE to 1 BCE). Jewish refugees emigrated from Palestine after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, and spread themselves over this part of the continent. At that time, Palestine being a Roman province, 10,000 Jews with their families came and settled on the Malabar coast at Kodungallur (also known by other names such Cranganore by the Portuguese and Shingly by the Jews, fondly remembered as the ‘Jerusalem of the East’]. In 1341, a flood altered the Kerala coastline and opened up a new harbour in Cochin, but made Cranganore port unusable.

From some centuries before and after the birth of Christ, Cranganore was ruled by the Chera dynasty. The Cheras permitted the settlement of Jewish people in Cranganore. Their descendants lived in India until after independence (in 1947) and the foundation of Israel, where many of India’s Jews migrated (for economic reasons). The Cheras allotted the Jews a small piece of land, named Anjuvannam, in the Cranganore district, which became a ‘Jewish kingdom’. Its inhabitants collaborated in many fruitful ways with their Chera, and then later, Chola hosts.

Cranganore was a leading port and commercial center in ancient and medieval India, associated with the ancient port of Miziris, north of Cochin. Much ink has been spilt attempting to identify the exact location of Shingly. Nobody knows how the name ‘Shingly’ came into existence and why the Jews called it that. The most convincing is Ophira Gamliel’s suggestion in her book Judaism in South India ca. 900s–1950s: Relocating Malabar Jewry (Michigan: Arc Humanities Press) that “the placename Shingly might represent an earlier pronunciation of Chendamangalam” as follows: si?gali> senn??gale> senn??galam > senna?galam > cennama?galam.

Medieval travelers (including Benjamin of Tudela) refer to it as Shingli, Shinkali or Ginjalek. In the historical tradition of the Malabar Jews, Cranganore is regarded as their original home and chief dwelling place. Jewish immigrants reputedly established their first foothold on the Malabar coast, and from there branched out into neighboring places and villages. Oral traditions have it that 18 synagogues once stood in Cranganore but archaeological evidence to confirm these claims has yet to be uncovered. The conquest of Cranganore by the Portuguese in 1523 led to the complete destruction of the Jewish community. As a result there was another wave of emigration to other places in Malabar, from which the city of Cochin benefited in particular.

The Cochin Jews in the Indian state of Kerala claim to be oldest Jewish community outside the Middle East. Oral legend holds that they landed in the subcontinent after the first temple was destroyed (586 BCE) and are descended from the tribes of Benjamin and Yehuda.

Traditional accounts of the arrival of Christianity in India in the year 55 CE focus upon St. Thomas the Apostle's mission to bring the Gospel to the Jews already in India. The earliest historical document to make reference to Jews in India is Eusebius' third century Ecclesiastical History, where he mentions the mission of Pantaenus in 181 CE. During the fourth century St. Jerome wrote of Jewish communities in India, and Bishop Simeon Beth-Arshem of Yemen of a triangular Jewish trade among Yemen, Babylonia, and the Malabar Coast of India.

A mid-ninth century writer, Abdul Kasim, described the commercial activities of the Radanites; the ninth century geographer Abu Said al-Hassan mentioned Jewish communities in India and Ceylon; and during the same century ibn Wahab wrote about the Jewish community of Cranganore, near Kochi (Cochin). It was al-Beruni, the greatest Muslim traveloguist, who during the 10th–11th centuries left the most extensive account.

During the 12th century a number of Jewish travelers visited India and wrote about Jewish life there. The most influential was *Benjamin of Tudela, who left extensive descriptions of the Jews of southwest India. It was during the same century that *Maimonides wrote that his Mishneh Torah was studied in India. The discovery of documents in the Cairo *Genizah revealed numerous merchant documents and letters pertaining to the India trade, but no comprehensive study of these tantalizing documents has yet appeared.

The Jewish presence ended with the Portuguese conquest in the 16th century, when the Portuguese exported the Inquisition to India, killing Jews or forcing them to convert to Catholicism. The Portuguese Inquisition, established in Portugal in 1536, was a branch of the larger Catholic Inquisition aimed at maintaining Catholic orthodoxy within the territories controlled by the Portuguese Crown. When the Portuguese began their colonial ventures in India, they brought the Inquisition with them, notably establishing it in Goa in 1560. Jews, including those who had converted to Christianity but were suspected of secretly practicing Judaism (known as "New Christians" or "Conversos"), were a significant target. The Inquisition sought to root out these secret practitioners and punish them.

Facing persecution, many Jews from Cranganore migrated to other regions, such as Cochin, where they found relatively more tolerant environments under different rulers, including the Dutch who later controlled parts of the Malabar Coast. The Portuguese Inquisition contributed to the decline of the Jewish community in Cranganore, significantly impacting its historical presence and heritage.

The Portuguese Inquisition's activities in Shingly (Cranganore) are a testament to the far-reaching and often devastating effects of religious intolerance practiced during the colonial period. The persecution of the Jewish community in Cranganore is a specific example of how the Inquisition sought to impose religious uniformity, often at the expense of rich and diverse local cultures.

India had through the 21st century the largest number of Jews of any country east of Iran. Their population peaked in 1950 at around 30,000–35,000, after which immigration to Israel and other places reduced their number to around 4,000–6,000 in the early 2000s, more if the so-called B'nai Menashe and B'nai Ephraim are counted.

There have been three major distinct Jewish communities in India. The oldest group is found in and around Kochi in the southwestern state of Kerala, who today number fewer than 50. Perhaps 5,000 Cochinim, as they are called in Hebrew, live in Israel. The largest group is known as *Bene Israel and is found chiefly in and around Mumbai (previously Bombay), with active communities in Pune, also in Maharashtra state, in Ahmedabad in Gujerat state, and in New Delhi. All told, there are 4,000–5,000 Bene Israel in India and 40,000–50,000 in Israel, where they make up a significant ethnic group (edah in Hebrew) known as Hodi'im ("Indians").