Modi on his recent visit to Israel has gifted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with replicas of two sets of relics from Kerala which are regarded as key artifact in the long Jewish history in India.
PM has gifted the replicas of two sets of copper plates believed to have been inscribed in the 9-10th century CE. The first set is a cherished relic for the Cochin Jews in India. It is regarded as a charter describing the grant of hereditary royal privileges and prerogatives by Hindu King Cheraman Perumal (often identified as Bhaskara Ravi Varma) to Jewish leader Joseph Rabban.
It is said that Joseph Rabban was later crowned as the Prince of Shingli, a place in or equated with Cranganore (old, anglicised name of Kodungallur). Jews in Cranganore enjoyed religious and cultural autonomy for centuries before they moved to Cochin and other places in Malabar. Jews would even place in each coffin a handful of earth from Shingli regarded as a holy place and considered it a “second Jerusalem”.
The replica of these plates was made with the cooperation of the Paradesi Synagogue in Mattanchery. 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 the oversight of trade in Kollam to West Asian and Indian trading associations. And the replica of these plates was made possible with the cooperation of Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church in Tiruvalla.
Modi had also presented Netanyahu with a Torah scroll donated by Kerala’s Paradesi Jewish community. Handwritten over a century back, the scroll had been dedicated to the Paradesi Synagogue in Kochi built in 1568. The Torah is enclosed in a wooden case and adorned with silver sheets. There is also a metal crown covered in gold sheets in floral ornament style bearing motifs in a typical south India.
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