Arts Commentary & Writing, No. ❶🄌
April 13, 2023
Paradesi Synagogue
Also: Cochin Jewish Synagogue, Mattancherry Synagogue.
Echoing ideas of love, nature’s beauty, and longevity, these hand-painted tiles celebrate the Paradesi Synagogue as a space for prayer, community, and human connection.
Edited by Malini Narayan and Pradyumna Sapre
The Paradesi Synagogue, built in 1568, is the oldest synagogue in the Commonwealth of Nations. ‘Paradesi’ means ‘not desi,’ or ‘foreigner’ in many South Asian languages. With its mid-18th century hand-painted tiled flooring from China, a magnanimous clock tower, Belgian chandeliers, stone slabs with Hebrew inscriptions, an oriental rug gifted by the emperor of Ethiopia, and great scrolls of the Old Testament, the site is a multicultural architectural marvel, and one of the most historically relevant locations in Fort Kochi.
The area surrounding the synagogue, colloquially known as ‘Jew Town,’ has historically been the center of the spice trade. Peppered with curio shops, the neighborhood and synagogue are an eclectic collage of global craftsmanship and a distinctly local aesthetic.
Map of Fort Cochin from ‘The True and Exact Description of the Most Celebrated East—India Coast of Malabar and Coromandel as also of the Island of Ceylon’ by Philip Baldeaus, 1744, opaque watercolor on paper. Image Credit: Bartele Gallery
The synagogue adopted the name ‘paradesi’ because it was built by the Sephardic Jewish immigrants. The members of the synagogue formed a community of ‘Paradesi Jews’. The word itself—‘paradesi,’ has connotations of dis-belonging and exclusion. However, the Paradesi community was the antithesis of that sentiment.
It was a space of global exchange and solidarity; with the synagogue providing that inclusive space for Jewish immigrants, of Sephardi and Ashkenazi heritage, from Britain, Spain, Portugal, Syria, Iraq, and many other countries. Today, the synagogue caters to the Paradesi Jews who remained in the Malabar region. They refer to themselves as the Cochin Jews, or more broadly, the Malabari Jews.
Portuguese illustration from the Códice Casanatense, depicting the Jewish people of the Malabar Coast in India, circa 1540, opaque watercolor on paper. Image Credit: Biblioteca Casanatense, Rome
The typical chinoiserie scene of the rural landscape (1) speaks to the relationship between humans and nature—a cohesive integration that is underlies all creation, leading to spiritual oneness. Myopic frames of a tree peonies on a boulder (2) represent the queen of flowers—a sign of good fortune. Bursts of lotus and prunus flowers (3) symbolize unending love, and the beauty in the contrast between winter and summer. Lastly, chrysanthemum flowers and willows emerge from a boulder (4) signifying the fidelity that arises after the transitory states of autumn and spring. T
he tiles together weave a story of the inherent connection between humans and nature that allow one to foster solidarity and spiritual awakening.
Tiles from the Paradesi Synagogue in Fort Kochi, Kerala. Image Credit: Yukti Agarwal
The 1100 tiles in the synagogue, comprise four basic patterns. The imagery is reflective of a love story that is narrated in the Chinese poem:
Two pigeons, lover’s flying high,
A Chinese vessel was sailing by,
Weeping willow hanging o’er,
Bridge with lover’s, father sore
Koong-Shee and Chang did fly,
To a small house not close by,
Happy lovers, ne’er a frown,
Little house was burn’t to ground.
Ne’er no more were lover’s seen,
Weeping willows, sorrow, trees,
Empassioned love birds in the sky
Their love, true love, ne’er will die.