Burning Haman: The lost Purim tradition of India’s ancient Cochin Jewish community

In 1533, Leonor Caldeira, a Jewish woman who had been forced to convert to Christianity, moved from Lisbon, the Portuguese Empire’s capital, to Cochin in South India, hoping to escape the infamous Inquisition’s scrutiny. However, the respite from persecution only lasted a few years: In 1557, Caldeira and 19 other New Christians — as Jewish converts and their descendants were referred to — were accused of going back to Jewish practice. Four years later, Caldeira was burned at the stake in Portugal.

The allegations against Caldeira included visiting synagogues, eating unleavened bread, and burning effigies, a central Purim tradition for Cochin Jews over the centuries, as Prof. Shalva Weil from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem told The Times of Israel in an interview ahead of the Jewish holiday.

“The concept of creating effigies depicting bad people and subsequently burning them exists among many peoples and cultures throughout history,” said Weil, an anthropologist who has devoted a good part of her career to studying the history, culture, and traditions of Jews in South India.

“Even [the founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund] Freud mentions the power of burning the image of an enemy,” she added. “Today, a fitting example is Guy Fawkes Night in Great Britain, but burning effigies as a symbol of reversal of societal roles and social protest is very common also among Hindus.”

In Cochin, Jews would use straw, rags, and branches to build an almost human-size effigy depicting Haman, the evil minister of Persian King Ahasuerus, who plots to exterminate the Jewish people in the Scroll of Esther. At times, additional effigies would be created, representing Haman’s evil wife, Zeresh, and their 10 sons.

Maria Raposa, another Jewish woman who had converted to Christianity and testified at Caldeira’s trial, declared that Cochin Jews had made a puppet of Haman with palm leaves during “Mordechai’s Fast,” adding that it was reminiscent of the crucifixion of a man.

Scroll of Esther, India, end of the 19th/beginning of the 20th century. (Yakov Finkelstein, former consul general of Israel in Mumbai)

It is unclear whether, at that point, the tradition went back centuries or had been introduced more recently. The earliest source for it dates to a few decades earlier than Caldeira’s cruel death.

“On the day of Purim, after the prayer, they read the megillah and drink and are happy and get drunk and fall asleep,” reads a 1503 manuscript discovered at the Bodleian Library in Oxford and signed by Moses son of Abba Mori, describing his encounter with Cochin Jews. “Afterwards, they make an effigy and take it out into the city street and burn it and stone it with rocks. All Israel, and all of the nations of the world and Ishmaelites and Christians and everyone is embarrassed and ashamed by this act.”

That celebrations involving alcohol and effigies could spiral out of control is also testified by a much more recent story mentioned by Weil, who covered the subject of effigies rituals in Cochin in a recent academic paper.

In 1952, some drunk Jews broke into a Catholic Church in the city and burned an image of the Virgin Mary, apparently having mixed up the depiction with that of Haman.

“The community would usually build the effigies ahead of Purim,” Weil said. “After reading megillah [Hebrew term for the Scroll of Esther] either at night or during the following day, they would parade it on the streets and ultimately burn it.”

Thousands of years of Jewish presence

Now known as Kochi, the city of Cochin in the Indian state of Kerala may have been home to a Jewish community as early as the time of King Solomon (10th century BCE). India (Hodu in Hebrew) is mentioned in the first verse of the Scroll of Esther, where Ahasuerus is described as the king who reigned “from India to Nubia.” Perhaps because of this geographical proximity, Purim was a central festivity in the life of the city’s Jewish community.

Although always small in number — peaking at around 2,400 individuals in 1948 — the Cochin Jewish community maintained a strong sense of identity.

A crumbling old Cochin synagogue ( CC-BY, Emmanuel Dyan via Flickr)

“They were always divided into two distinct groups,” explained Weil. “The Malabari Jews, who had been in India for as long as they could trace back, closely resembled their Indian non-Jewish neighbors. In contrast, the Paradesi Jews, whose ancestors arrived from abroad, primarily from Spain and Portugal after 1492, were generally wealthier than the Malabari.”

Influenced by the rigid Indian cast system, Malabari and Paradesi maintained separate communities and synagogues and did not intermarry. In addition, both groups also employed descendants of manumitted slaves that were referred to with the Hebrew word meshuchrarim (freed). Also, in this case, the segregation was complete, as meshuchrarim did not even have their synagogue and were forced to pray outside or in someone’s home.

Purim, however, marked the one day of the year when lines blurred, and Jews from all groups took their celebrations to the streets together, singing, dancing, and burning effigies.

Prof. Shalva Weil from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. (Courtesy)

“These divisions lasted until the mid-20th century, when a meshuchrar called Abraham Barak Salem, who grew up among the Paradesi and was very educated, to the point he managed to become a lawyer, fell in love with a Paradesi woman,” Weil said. “His activism brought about a real revolution, and he was referred to as the ‘Jewish Gandhi.’ However, marriages between different groups of Cochin Jews remained rare.”

By 1954, the vast majority of South Indian Jews had immigrated to Israel. According to Weil, some 15,000 descendants of Cochin Jews live in Israel today. Some more live in America, Australia, and Great Britain.

“Most of them, however, do not identify as Cochin Jews anymore,” she said.

It is unclear when the community stopped creating and burning effigies as part of their Purim celebrations.

“It must have been until 25 years ago because there has not been a real community in the city for a long time,” Weil said. “However, many Cochin Jews I spoke with remember it.”

Today, only a handful of Jews live in the South India region.

“In 2018, Paradesi Jews from all over the world gathered in Cochin to celebrate the 450th anniversary since the establishment of their synagogue,” Weil said. “I felt very honored to be invited to attend, even though, in a way, the event also marked the end of the community.”

While the custom of burning Haman effigies has faded away, a vast repertoire of para-liturgical Purim songs from Cochin has survive,d and many descendants of Cochin Jews sing the melodies as part of their Purim celebrations to this day.