A Passage to India


 * A Passage to India
 * by Jonathan I. Edelstein
 * 3 January 2002

Benjamin of Tudela ... The most celebrated of Benjamin of Tudela's voyages -- and certainly the most exotic to contemporary readers -- was his third. His previous journeys, to southern Africa and Scandinavia, were difficult and were hardly everyday matters, but were within the experience of the Mediterranean world. Arab traders, after all, had been voyaging down the east African coast for centuries, and it was not unknown for merchants from Alexandria to visit the House of Submission.

The Spice Islands, however, were an altogether different story. Although Arabs and Persians knew of the islands and were enthusiastic consumers of their products, Western ships rarely ventured past India. Although the Cholas and the Srivijayans frequently disputed ownership of the sea lanes to Java and points east, neither was interested in sharing them with others. By the middle third century, "Khusro's Company" was beginning to challenge the Cholas' hegemony, but even the Company merchants purchased their spice from Javanese merchants in Sumatra or India rather than in the Spice Islands themselves.

There were always exceptions, and brave Arab traders motivated by the possibility of fabulous profit occasionally risked piracy and the Cholas' displeasure by voyaging to the Moluccas. One of the most famous such voyages was made by al-Habaqi, a Najdite merchant who visited the Spice Islands in the early 140s and brought back seedlings to the Isles of Perfume. FN1 Another voyage, that of the Omani merchant Salim bin-Hilal al-Khalili during the 180s, is said to have yielded so much profit that al-Khalili was able  to offer thanks to God by paying the taxes of every Omani subject in the year of his return.

These journeys, however, were very much the anomaly -- and no accounts of them have come down to us. Benjamin of Tudela's fame, in large part, arises from the fact that he was the first Western traveler to describe the East Indies -- and that he journeyed even further, to places even al-Khalili did not go...

From the Chronicles of Benjamin of Tudela, SE 248-49 [1020-21 CE]:

... Isfahan holds the offices of Khusro's Company, but Basra is its heart. Basra is one of the three ports from which the King of Persia has decreed that all voyages eastward must sail, and of these it is the most convenient to caravans from the west.

Basra is a city under Persian rule and is built in the Persian style, but its people are Babylonian, and the sailors' town contains merchants and outfitters from as far away as Arabia and India. Here can be found Nestorian Christians as well as Christians of the Imperial rite and Jews of both the B'nei Mikra and the rabbinic sort. The people cling passionately to their respective faiths, and holy days are frequently causes of strife between them. I was witness to one such clash on the day of my arrival, when I sought a synagogue in which to celebrate Yom Teruah. Instead of being at their prayers, the B'nei Mikra of the city were fighting in the streets with the rabbanim, who call Yom Teruah the New Year and find our celebrations offensive. FN2 I was told that such fighting takes place frequently and that there are also clashes between Jews and Christians during Easter, and that it is not uncommon for people to be killed. When their passions are not stirred by the preaching of holy men, however, all the people of Basra work and conduct business in peace...

... There is in Basra a great statue of the late Persian king Khusro, rising nearly a hundred feet from the public square. The king is depicted in the robes of a judge, holding a torch from which burns the fire of the Nestorian church. The torch is protected by a canopy so that its flame may burn in all weather, and a crew of men is charged with the responsibility of keeping it alight day and night...

... In former times, pirates were the scourge of the Persian Gulf. Now, the Company's ships have suppressed the pirates and caused their kings to sue for peace. However, the rapacity of the pirates has been replaced threefold by that of the Company. FN3 The lords of the Company are aware that Western merchants must either take their goods by caravan through Basra or risk a long and difficult journey through the pirate-infested Red Sea. Thus, they know that they can charge heavy tariffs for merchant traffic and that caravan masters have no choice but to accept. The kings of Egypt and Syria have retaliated by putting a tax on imported Persian goods, but the Company has yet to relent.

Having no other option, I paid the fee for the use of a Company ship, and proceeded to India...

... Khambhat is an ancient port on the gulf of the same name, in the northwest of India. It is the home of thirty thousand souls and serves both Company ships and vessels of Arab and south Indian provenance.

The greatest number of the people of Khambhat follow the B'nei Mikra faith, and in this they are like the others of this region. In former years, the provinces of Rajputana, Gujarat and Sindh were made up of numerous petty kingdoms, but the warrior prophet Karam Chand and his successors have united them into an empire that stretches from Lahore to Delhi. FN4 Both B'nei Mikra and Hindu kings serve this empire, just as B'nei Mikra kings serve the Rashtrakutas to the south.

In the imperial seat at Udaipur, the maharaja has ordered the building of a great synagogue to commemorate his victories and the light he has brought to the world. There is some grumbling against the synagogue among the people, for both Anan ben David and Karam Chand taught that God is glorified by the soul rather than by great buildings, but builders and stone have already begun to enter the kingdom from throughout India and Persia. Merchants at the dockside sell paintings and drawings of how the synagogue will appear when it is finished -- a domed structure of white marble with intricately carved pillars, scenes from the Torah inlaid on the interior walls, and a reflecting pool outside...

... The women of Khambhat are uncommon in their freedom. To be sure, women of the B'nei Mikra are teachers and scholars in other lands, but they refrain from taking part in public life out of deference to the people among whom they live. Here, the B'nei Mikra are the majority, and there are no others to whom they must defer. The docks and markets are filled with women in colorful saris conducting business, and women even act as physicians and advocates in the courts. The entertainments of the city also include women singers and dancers, which -- dare I say -- I found a welcome change from the austerity of the B'nei Mikra at home...

... Cochin is a port city of a hundred thousand people in the south of India. In Cochin can be found ships of the Company as well as vessels from Arabia, India and even Srivijaya, for here is where traders from the West come to buy spices and fragrant woods from the East. The Company's offices in India are located in the Maldives, but its ships and stores are here, because the products of Cochin include not only spices but fine metalwork, tea and cotton cloth made by local craftsmen.

The city of Cochin is subject to the Cheras, a royal house having sovereignty over the Malabar coast. The Cheras are not vassals of the great Chola kingdom to the north and east but pay tribute to the Cholas to preserve the peace. Sometimes this tribute is not sufficient, and the Cholas and Cheras go to war, but the Cholas have never conquered and held the Chera kingdom.

Among the people of Cochin are many Nestorian Christians and rabbinic Jews. The Christian presence in Cochin predates the Company and even the rise of the present dynasty in Persia; the Nestorians of Cochin bear arms in the service of the Chera king and have no loyalty to the Persian king. The Nestorians are great shipwrights and merchants and are allowed to practice their faith unmolested.

The Jews of Cochin are a curious people. Jews have inhabited the Chera kingdom for centuries -- in fact, their storytellers claim that their presence in India dates from the Babylonian captivity -- but there are also many recent arrivals. These are Jews who have fled from persecutions in the West and are known to the people of Cochin as the "White Jews." Unlike the native Jews of the Malabar coast, who are artisans and merchants, the White Jews are scholars and have founded a great academy in Cochin port.

There are two schools of thought among the members of this academy. One believes that the Torah and Talmud contain all of wisdom, and that the scholarship of Jews should be confined to this alone. The other believes that an understanding of the universe can also be drawn from the Eastern scriptures. These scholars have shown particular interest in the scriptures of the Mahayana, in whose prediction of the Maitreya they see an echo of the promise of the Messiah... FN5

The Chola singers call Kedah the seat of all felicities. FN6 They are wrong, because they have not seen al-Iskandariyah, but their ignorance can perhaps be forgiven, because Kedah is a city of beauty and riches. The people of Kedah delight in building fragrant public gardens and temples filled with statues of their many-armed gods.

The king of Kedah is subject to the emperor of Srivijaya, a kingdom holding sway over much of Sumatra and Malaya as well as parts of Java. Kedah is at the northern frontier of Srivijaya and has been subject to attacks by the Cholas and the northern kingdom of Ayodhya, but its walls have held firm against these raids.

The people of Kedah follow the teachings of the Buddha, but also pray to their own gods. Some of these are also worshiped by the Cholas, but others -- such as the wind god Mambang Angin and the sea god Hantu Ayer to whom the Malay sailors prayed during the voyage -- have no counterparts in India. The port and rivers of Kedah are dotted with temples to these gods and also with shrines, called stupas, containing statues of the Buddha and the Bodhisattvas.

Ships from as far as India, Java and China call at Kedah. The Chinese navigators find their way by means of a marvelous needle which always points south. FN7 This needle consists of a lodestone mounted upon a dish of wood, which is then floated in water so that it may turn with the movement of the ship. By this method, the Chinese may find their way even at night or during a storm...

... The people of Kedah tell many stories of creatures that inhabit the jungles of the interior. Among these are reputed to be a race of giants with tusks, who dine on the flesh of people unfortunate enough to become lost in the forest. They also speak of disembodied heads, once belonging to women who died in childbirth, who stalk the city at night and feed on the blood of their victims. FN8 I was told, moreover, that the islands to the east contain creatures stranger still...