A new book of scholarship – The
Jewish Background of Indian People – a historical, anthropological,
archaeological and etymological study of the Lost Tribes of Israel,
written by Abraham Benhur, is a path-breaking investigation into the
history of migrations of people in ancient times. It sheds light on the
advent of Jewish refugees from Assyrian and Babylonian captivity in the
north-west of India after fleeing from slavery in Media and Mesopotamia.
It traces the progress of these people, characterized in the Bible as
the ‘lost people’, in the mountainous recesses of Afghanistan,
prospecting for blue sapphire in the Bamiyan and plying the caravan
trade along the Northern Trade Route (the fabled Silk Route) with
merchandise from India and China. These merchants are known to have
reached as far in India as Tamralipti (Calcutta) in the east and as deep
south as Pondichery in Tamilnadu and Muziris (Kodungallur) in Kerala in
order to link up with the merchant ships from Rome which used to visit
the Malabar coast for the spices and sandalwood.
Benhur marshals
anthropological,archaeological,and etymological evidences that have
hitherto been ignored or overlooked by scholars to link the mysterious
and unclaimed burial sites extant in these parts to the Lost Tribes of
Israel. He is convinced that the disciples of Jesus Christ had traveled
to different parts of the world to seek out the ‘lost’ people, the Bible
spoke about (Mathew, 10:6). St Thomas had come to Kerala because he
knew Jewish descendants of lost tribes lived in this area, from
Gondophorus’ Kingdom of North West India.
The book The Jewish Background of
Indian People says that the Pathans of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India,
the Hindu and Muslim Bhatts of northern India, the Hindu and Muslim
Patels of western India, the Bhatacharyas of Bengal, the Mizos found in
eastern India, Gowda Saraswats settled chiefly along the Konkan, the
Iyers & Aiyankars of southern India and St. Thomas Christians
(Nazrani Mappilas)of Kerala, are all descendants of the lost tribes who
merged into and submersed themselves in the Indian mainstream.
The book asserts that the earliest
converts- Sankarapuri, Pakalomattam, Kalli and Kaliyankal Family
members-to Christianity that St Thomas had secured were indeed members
of these Jewish tribes. The author also traces the progress of four of
these ‘Jewish Brahmin’ converts to Christianity who had later settled
themselves in and around Kuravilangad in Kottayam district of Kerala.
Their present status is traced.
‘The Jewish Background of Indian
People’ presents a detailed account of human mobility in ancient times.
The book is divided into eight parts, viz., ‘The Location of Eden’, ‘The
Anthropology of the Arabs and Jews’, ‘The Lost Ten Tribes’, ‘The Jews
in India’, ‘The Megalithic Dolmens’, ‘the Jews and the Brahmins of South
India’, ‘The Jewish Christians of Kerala’ and the ‘Jewish Background of
Indian People’.
Part 1 is devoted to tracing the
location of Eden and the Biblical version is woven around it, while the
entire second part of the book deals with the anthropology of the Arabs
and the Jews. This chapter traces the origin of the Arabs, the ancient
Arabian kingdoms, the Hebrew tribes like the Ismaelites, Israelites, the
Midianites, the Edomites and the vanished tribes of Moabites and
Ammonites.
The research-oriented contribution of
the author begins with the third part of the book entitled ‘The Lost
Ten Tribes’. The author traces the immigration of the Lost Tribes of
Israel. He thinks that the megalithic burial monuments found in the
Caucuses Mountains, Baluchistan and the Indian peninsula have port-holes
which indicate Jewish authorship. This point is sought to be confirmed
by the writings of the father of history, Herodotus and the Mauryan Era
rock inscriptions found in Afghanistan in the Aramaic script. The fourth
century BC inscriptions in Aramic and megalithic dolmens in
Baluchistan go to prove significant presence of Israelites in northwest
India.
The author has tried to answer some
intricate questions such as how did the builders of the Megalithic
monuments come to the Indian peninsula and how far is the Jewish
ethnicity correlated with the people of ancient India. According to the
author, the Israelites had been the principal operators of trade along
the fabled Northern Trade Route (Uthara Mahapath), in the Persian Age(BC
550-330). These Jews gradually extended their operations to the south
of India along the Southern Trade Route (Dakshina Mahapath) and the
Dravida Path. These Jews had connections with the Scythian immigrants
(the Sathyaputras or Saka-Pahlavas) who had settled down around
Chitradurga in Karnataka in 4th century BC.
Part 5, entitled ‘Megalithic Dolmens:
A Structural Study of Jewish Tombs’, is devoted to the architecture of
the megalithic monuments of South India and their affinity with the
burial customs and practices of the Israelites. The megalithic monuments
excavated in different parts of Kerala and elsewhere have been a
subject of great fascination for scholars and laymen alike. Granite
chambers known as dolmens, rock-cut caves (catacombs) cap-stones,
hood-stones, menhirs and terracotta urns, etc., have been excavated from
different parts of the State. These are believed to be burial chambers
of unknown authorship. And similar chambers have been unearthed from
different parts of the earth, such as Baluchistan, Kashmir, the Caucuses
Mountains, Northen Europe and the eastern board of the Mediterranean,
the Nile delta and Alexandria.
Who were the builders of these
monuments? They obviously possessed vast knowledge and impressive
technology to be able to build these impressive monuments. Abraham
Benhur, explorer of the megaliths and author of the book, ‘The Jewish
Background of Indian People’, has traveled extensively in and outside
Kerala to gather data for a new investigation of this age-old mystery.
He has dug into ancient records of great travelers such as Herodotus and
religious texts and the Sangam literature of Tamil Nadu to come up with
a theory about the ownership of these monuments. It is an entirely new
theory. He says that it was the people, the Bible and other records
point out as the Lost Tribes of Israel, who actually built these
monuments.
It is, indeed, a novel inquiry.
Abraham Benhur sets you thinking about one of the most fascinating
topics of ethnography –the Jews and their origin, the Diaspora, and the
Lost Tribes. The author seeks to link St. Thomas Christians of
Kerala,the Pattars (Aiyers and Aiyankars) of South India, the Pathans of
India, Pakistan and Afghanistan to the Lost Tribes and assign the
authorship of the ancient megalithic age monuments found in these places
to the Israelites.
The author gives us an interesting account of the Jewish Kokim tombs
and compares them with the features of the rock-cut caves in Kerala, and
port hole cists found in south India and those found in Afghanistan and
the Caucuses mountains. The comparative study is quite
thought-provoking. He writes: “Since the Jews traditionally buried their
dead in chambers and urns and since similar sites are extant in Israel,
West Asia and wherever Jewish exiles lived, and since it is known that
Jewish merchants had arrived in South India during the time of the
Mauryan Empire, it is reasonable to assume that the tombs found in
Kerala belonged to the Jews. The similarities in the construction of the
tombs found in South India with the tombs with port-holes found in the
Caucuses, North Africa and Europe compel us to reach the same
conclusion.” He points out the laterite rock-cut caves of Kerala having
striking similarities with the soft limestone caves found in Israel and
concludes that the dolmenoid cists, rock-cut caves, burial urns, menhirs
and capstones were all remnants of the Israelites who reached South
India before the advent of Jesus Christ.
Part 6 discusses the myths, legends,
literature and history relating to the Jews and Brahmins in south India.
In order to prove his surmises, the author has made intensive study of
the cultural traits of Aryan Brahmins - the Sathyaputras and the Saka
Brahmins- and the Nambuthiri Brahmin settlements in Karnataka and
Kerala. The ethnic identities of the Tulu Brahmins, the Nambuthiri
Brahmins and the Phallava Brahmins of Kanchipuram have been delineated
with much research. The author says that these Aryan Brahmins actually
had Central Asian and Persian roots. The megalithic monuments of
Brahmagiri (Chitradurga), Coorg (Kodagu) and Wayanad belonged to Jews
who had accompanied Chandragupta Maurya after the emperor abdicated the
throne and became a pacifist Jain monk. The author argues that the
characteristic burial chambers excavated from these places were of these
Jewish people. He asserts that the burial chambers found in the early
Christian centres of Kerala go to prove that it were the Jews whom St
Thomas had converted when he arrived by sea to the trading port of
Kodungallur. There were no Nambudiri settlements in Kerala at the time,
and it was the Israelites who had come in pursuit of trade from north
India who had been treated as Brahmins.
Abraham Benhur deserves whole hearted appreciation for his
work “The Jewish Background of Indian People”.
As a historical archeological anthropological study this work adopts a
different and novel perspective to address a significant issue which has been discussed
by various scholars. Benhur tries to prove that the history of the human race
after the Flood at one point. This opens up an interesting as well as fresh
approach to the study of humanity”
Beaselios Mrthoma Poulose II
Catholicos of the Apostolic throne of St. Thomas and Malamkara
Metropolitan, Kottayam, Kerala
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