09-12-2015, 05:31 PM
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’s book ‘The Jewish Background of Indian People’ is a surprise treatise on the progress of the human family that went on to populate the world after the Great Biblical Flood. It delineates the routes taken by the descendants of Noah to occupy the continents. It is the story that proves that all humans belong to one family and that the different warring races worldwide had their roots in one family. The book informs us and enlightens us about how humanity was divided into clans, communities, tribes and races. It serves to remind us of our true legacy. It points to the right direction that humanity should take.