Knanaya Christian Folk Songs and the Merchant Leader Knai Thomma: Some Reflections on Christian Margam and Knanaya Folklore in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

The current paper intends to foreground and study the folk imagination surrounding the pre-modern figure of Knai Thomma who is believed to have led a group of migrant Syrian Christians from the Mesopotamian region to Malabar (roughly corresponds to the territory of the contemporary state of Kerala) in the fourth century AD through a study of two Knanaya Christian folk songs. Through this paper, the folkloric hero Knai Thomma, who continues to be a significant presence in the traditions of the Knanaya Christian Church which was officially recognized in the early twentieth century, is read against the broader backdrop of thriving trans-regional oceanic trade networks that converged on the ancient port of Muziris in Malabar and the unique configuration of early Christian margam that developed therein.