An unforgettable Day at
Edathola Bhavanam
Apart from the
400 Arabic malayalm texts recovered from this house ,many malayalam books (bhagavatgeeta
)sanscrit works( leelathilakam)Tamil works,Arabi-Tamil works,english malayalam
works etc also have been recovered from Edathola house.The first copy of Cherur
Padappattu ,which was banned by the British authorities ,was also discovered
from here.The house was also highly used by the authors of ” Mahathaya Mappila
Paramparyam” one of the seminal work in Arabi malayalam literature which speaks
around 5000 similar works in Arabi malayalam.
The research
carried out by the scholars of
Moyinkutty Vaidyar Memorial Research Centre is worth to mention here because
of their unrelenting efforts in
discovering the aforesaid texts which includes the rarest like the First
transilation of Quran in karala.
The transilation of Quran to malayalm was
indeed a ramarkable one.Dr,Kk Mohammed Abdul Sathar ,HoD of history,Psmo college tirurangadi,who made
extensive studies on the lesser known Arabic malayalam texts, was with us today
said that the translation was done by
Moyinkutty Elaya in 1871, but the first imprint was destroyed since the clergy
strongly opposed the translation. Undaunted, the author distributed a second
imprint to all major Muslim houses in Malabar.
A manuscript of Quran written in
1844 and an Arabic-Malayalam panchangam, which shows the cultural connection
that existed between the communities during the time, are some other texts
found from Edathola Bhavanam.
A recently
unearthed letter from Edathola house may attract the attention of historians
since it was written in 1925 by one of the Malabar Revolt prisoners from Salem
jail.Written by Areecan Moideen to Edathola Kunjali, who was the ‘Adhikari’ of
Kondotty region, the letter gives an account of the prisoners of the Malabar
Rebellion in South Indian jails run by the British.
“There were 23 revolt prisoners in the Salem jail, all of whom belonged to Ernad, Valluvanad, Ponnani and Kozhikode,” says the letter referring to the erstwhile revenue jurisdictions in Malabar. Based on his conversations with other prisoners who were transferred from one prison to the other, Moideen said in the letter that the British had locked up the revolters in 13 major jails in South India including Andaman, Madras, Bellary Camp Jail, Rajahmundry, Korappatta, Salem, Thrissinappilli, Kadaloor, Tanjore, Coimbatore, Vellore and Cannanore. Not even small children were spared by the British while suppressing the uprising.
The children were apprehended in Palayamkodu and Singalpettath
prisons, says the letter. Twenty revolters were hanged to death during the
period the author spent there. “On the day of the hanging, Muslims in Salem
came with decorated horse carts,” the letter says.Besides the historical
details, the language used in the letter gives a clear picture of the social
equations prevailed in that period.
The way the writer addresses the Adhikari --
a long-winding sentence -- shows his submissive position.
“It shows the hierarchical social
order existed in the period,” said Dr K K Mohammed Abdul Sathar, Department of
History, PSMO College Tirurangadi, who was in the forefront to recover and
interpret the letter.
The letter is presently kept by Edathola Gafoor, the
present occupant of the Edathola house, as one of the most valuable historical
documents at Edathola.
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