Scholar Calls for Efforts to Preserve Aramaic and its Indian Connect

KOCHI:
Heritage lovers should make efforts to preserve Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus Christ, which is deeply intertwined with the cultural heritage of the country, said Dr Joseph J Palackal, Musicologist and the founder- president of the Christian Musicological Society of India.
He was speaking at ‘ Abhimukham’, conducted by Sahapedia, an online resource on Indian art, culture and heritage, on the topic ‘ Aramaic Language and Music: Cultural Influences of Early Christianity in India” at Kochi on Wednesday.
“It might come as a big surprise that the Christians in India received the message of Jesus in his own language- Aramaic. Hence, the prominence of the language is so deep that all efforts should be made to retain it. Unfortunately, it is not happening,” he pointed out.
Touching on the history of Aramaic, he said not only language but artefacts, chants, music, literary texts and theology associated with it had flowed to India.
“Though Aramaic tradition flourished in the country, the scenario underwent a radical change when Portuguese landed in Kerala in 1498,” Dr Palackal noted.
“Though they (Portuguese) were happy with the fact that there were Christians here, they could not accept that they were following the Syrian tradition. The Bishop of Syrian Christians came from the Middle East and it was not acceptable to them. Thus, they brought the concept of ‘Roman Catholicism’. To establish their influence on the common people, they introduced many musical instruments, violin being the most important among them,” he said.
Dr Palackal pointed out that there is a resemblance between the Aramaic Christian songs and the folk songs of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, citing Kerala’s folk tradition ‘ Panan Pattu’ as an example.
It is quite surprising to note that the translation of one of the ancient Aramaic chant is in Tamil, Dr Palackal noted. “Until 2014, I too believed that these chants came from West Asia. But the peculiarities seen in the Tamil version is so age old that it shows that it might have come to India in the first century AD,” he said.
Dr Palackal also lauded the interest shown by Sahapedia in the cultural heritage of early Christianity.