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The history
of Kozhikode has two storylines.
One, propagated by those from other lands; deferentially,
perhaps even unquestioningly accepted and imbibed by the denizens of
the city. A myth. And the other? Drawn from the dusty pages of recorded
history.
The Myth: An ancient age. A seafaring merchant reaches the coastal sands of Kozhikode.
During an audience with the erstwhile sovereign, the
traveller requests that a consignment of jars filled with pickled
food be entrusted with the royal house for safekeeping until his
return from the next voyage. The
merchant’s son returns the following year to reclaim them from the
ruler’s custody. The
king knowing only too well that the jars in fact contained hidden
gold, returns the entire consignment untouched.
The young merchant proclaims: “This is the harbour of
honesty”.
History:
The 17th century European voyager Pyrad De Laval (1607)
writes: “Nowhere in
India does peace and tranquillity abound as in Kozhikode.
And not least on account of the innate natural beauty and
prosperity; those of many religious faiths and independent beliefs
coexist here in amity, interacting seamlessly with each other. The
rulers seek not to restrict or govern religious convictions in their
land. It is not
uncommon to see those of many faiths living together under a same
roof”.
The
passage of time saw Arabs’ ‘Qualiqut’ make way for the occidental Sahib’s ‘Calicut’. Many
institutions (including the university) continue to bear the latter
name with all its colonial connotations.
Nevertheless, it is the name ‘Kozhikode’ that evokes
glamour, sanctity and romance; it is this name entwined with
history, culture, myth and legend.
‘The land that lies within earshot distance of a rooster’s crow from
the Thali temple’
– may be all there is to this city’s name.
Then again, historians may well conclude that it was the
region comprising the Koyil
grounds (Kovil = palace)
between Cannanore road and Oyitty road, stretching all the way from
Palayam road to Mananchira, that eventually came to be known as
Kozhikode. Victory in
war saw the Samoothiri (Zamorin)
take Velapuram fort, convert it into his palace and thus immortalise
his connection with the city’s name forever.
History
nonetheless compels us to delve further into times past.
Late
11th century to 12th century AD.
Rama Varma Kulasekharan Cheraman Perumal chooses to convert
to Islam and embarks on holy pilgrimage to the Mecca.
Manavikraman and his henchmen from Eranad / Nediyirippu
principality (near Kondotty of present day) helps thwart the attack
of Krishna Raya’s army. (Another
version of the story has it that the brothers Maanichan and
Vikkeeran were the main architects of the victory). Even as the royal houses of Parappanad, Valluvanad and
Vettathunad rapidly achieve commercial prosperity as a result of
geographical access to maritime commerce, Nediyiruppu principality
literally suffocates from being cut off from the access to the
Arabian Sea.
As
a token of his appreciation, the triumphant Cheraman Perumal
bequests Kozhikode and Chullikkad to the Nediyirippu Eradis
with his blessings, thus proclaiming: “To die for, to slay for, to
conquer: Long may you reign!”
It
then comes as little surprise that Porlathiri,
the ruler of Polanad would view the new developments across the
borders of his lay as a threat to his own commercial interests,
leading eventually to long years of military conflict.
Victory for the Eradis of Nediyiruppu over the Porlathiri ensued.
From their base at Velapuram fort, the Eradis
built the palace, established their royal court and renamed it:
Vikramapuram.
Revenue
records confirm that four separate provinces or amshams
were in existence: Kasaba, Nagaram (city), Kariyakkunnu and
Kalaththinkunnu. The land gifted by Cheraman Perumal to the Eradis lay within the Kasaba area.
Kozhikode which skirted the banks of Kallai river bestowed
geopolitical and tactical advantage, while Chullikkad which lay
north to the present day Puthiyapalam was an established commercial
hub. Salt pans in this region provided the thrust for the main
produce, sea salt. And
by 12th century BC, Kozhikode had become the Samoothiri’s
seat of power.
Wherein
then did the term Saamoothiri originate? Arabian
merchants called Eradis by
the name Saamiri. Swami
Thirumulpad may have evolved into Saamoothirippad
and eventually into Saamoothiri. Alternately, Saamudri
or ‘Lord of the seas’ (Samudram
= ocean) may have evolved with the passage of time to Samoothiri.
12th
and 13th centuries: Arabian trade links flourished and
influenced all walks of contemporary life.
The Vattezhuthu
scripts that survive to this day on the walls of Muchunthi Palli (Palli =
mosque) is a tribute to the harmonious relationship that existed
between the Zamorins of Kozhikode and the intrepid Arab traders. These 13th century edicts from an age otherwise
represented by few surviving stone inscriptions bear the royal
proclamation of “a daily
allowance of one naazhi of rice and decreed land in Kunnamangalam
area towards the upkeep of the mosque”; and exist as indelible
historical testaments to the religious concord that existed therein.
There is ample evidence that Chinese traders frequented
Kozhikode during the course of their voyages in the 13th
and 14th centuries.
Ma
Huan from Chengho’s chinese trading fleet braved the seas seven
times to reach Kozhikode and provides us with excellent descriptions
of the city. The China
street near Tagore Centenary Hall and Silk Street in Valiangadi bear
testimony to the Chinese connections of yore.
Vasco
Da Gama’s historical landing on the bright sands of Kozhikode in
1498 illuminated the twilight of 15th century.
History pauses, bookmarks and redefines itself from this
point in time.
(The
articles by Dr MR Raghava Warrier, Dr MGS Narayan and Dr NM
Namboothiri in the souvenir which commemorated the Malabar
Mahotsav of 1993 are hereby gratefully acknowledged.)
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What
then does history record of the medical profession and its
traditions in this hallowed city?
Perhaps
that the Physician who traditionally tends to ignore the march of
social history predictably yet again failed to record the age and
times of his own profession. And
scanty records remain thereof. Yet
again, we must attempt to piece together the scattered jigsaw
pieces, of words that linger as memories… the written, the spoken,
the recalled and the recanted.
From
newsletters, souvenirs, articles… penned by the likes of Dr CK
Ramachandran, Dr AJ Herman, the late Dr MG Sahadevan; Dr A
Ramanathan, Dr CK Jayaram Panicker and Dr K Madahavan Kutty, who
have spent long years of their lives in this city: from these shall
we attempt to compile our memoirs.
It
may be claimed that modern medicine reached the shores of India when
Albequerque landed in Goa in 1510, twelve years after Vasco Da
Gama’s arrival. However,
the first hospital opened its gates in Goa in the year 1591.
Another century passed before the first Medical school was
established (1703). The
Dutch, the French and the English contributed to the spread of
modern medicine in subsequent decades.
When Calcutta Medical College opened in 1835, it was the
first of its kind in India and indeed the whole of Asia.
Soon after medical schools were set up in Madras (1835),
Bombay (1845) and Amritsar (1860).
Many more years were to pass before Malabar had its first
medical school.
Meanwhile,
in 1882, a major boating accident on the Koduvally River at Nettur
near Tellicherry resulted in the tragic loss of many lives.
Liben Der Fur, a Basel missionary who lived nearby saved many
survivors by administering First Aid as well as he could.
This episode proved to be a turning point in his life: Liben
Der Fur set off to London, qualified in Medicine and returned to
Kozhikode in 1886 to set up practice in the city. By 1892, he had established the Mission Hospital which was
the first of its kind in the region.
He also took the lead in setting up the first Leprosy
Hospital in Chevayoor in 1901 on four acres of donated land.
By then, a Government Headquarters Hospital had also come
into being at the site of the present day Education Offices east of
Mananchira.
Plans
were laid to start a medical school in Malabar under the auspices of
Madras Presidency well before the outbreak of World War I. The
Rev. Dr Robert Herman (The illustrious father of Dr MJ Hermen, who
rose to become a doyen of medical profession in Kozhikode) came to
the Mission Hospital after qualifying from Miraj Medical school
established by Basel Mission in Maharashtra state.
The animosity generated in the wake of the First World War
against Germans caused brief interruption to the operation of
Mission Hospital during this period.
In
the 1920s, the British Government started a Medical school near
Mananchira. The
Headquarters building mentioned above housed the hospital section
and the Training College of present day became the seat of the
medical school. The
late Prof. MG Sahadevan who was well versed with the history of this
institution would bristle with righteous indignation whenever a
claim was voiced that medical education in Kerala had its historical
origins in Trivandrum.
We
know of at least one graduate of the Mananchira Medical School who
made his mark as a family physician in Kozhikode, Dr A Balakrishnan
Nair. In the 1930s, the
Rajaji ministry abolished the MLP course and all medical schools
(barring Royapuram Medical School which was later to become Stanley
Medical College) ceased to function.
This marked the end for Mananchira
medical school. L
Vaidyanathan, Mangesh Rao and Narasimha Aiyer were amongst the
eminent teachers who had taught here along with the British District
Medical Officers.
The1930s
and 1940s saw the heydays of Family Practice in Kozhikode.
In1930, Dr VA Raman established Ashoka Hospital - perhaps the
first private hospital in the region.
Meanwhile, Dr A Balakrishnan Nair in the north of the city,
Dr A Narayana Sami in the central town area and Dr CK Menon to the
south had laid equal and honourable claims to the patient clientele
of Kozhikode, despite the lack of facilities for inpatient hospital care: recalls Dr Ramanathan and Dr Madhavan
Kutty.
It
was only later that Karunakara Pharmacy established by Dr A
Balakrishnan Nair, an alumnus of Calicut Medical College, started
offering inpatient care. Dr
Balaram who ran a clinic in SM Street had meanwhile opened Rajendra
Nursing home. Passing
decades saw the emergence of new medical institutions within the
city area by Dr Muhammed Koya (Calicut Nursing home), Dr Appu Nair (Haridas
clinic), Dr MK Koya (Koyas Hospital) and Dr Subrahmaniam (Manohar
Hospital). Dr PB Menon,
(father of Dr KB Venugopal) lays claim to being the first specialist
physician in Kozhikode; and as an ophthalmologist conducted the
first corneal transplant in Malabar.
The trend towards specialist medical care continued with the
arrival of the TB specialist, Dr PC Nedungadi.
The incredible progress made in the private hospital sector
in the 1960s and 70s is well known. However, the government hospitals continued as the three
beacons of hope, providing care to citizens of all social strata:
the Beach Hospital overlooking the majestic Arabian Sea, Calicut
Medical College Hospital and the Kottaparamba Hospital which
overlies the site of the original Koyil Kotta.
Dr
Jayarama Panicker recalls Dr AB Das in animated conversation about a
hospital which existed in Chalappuram in the 1930s.
People’s Hospital,
which has found scant mention in spite of its historical origins,
was modelled after the famed Motilal House at Allahabad.
Freedom fighters who bore the brunt of police brutality were
denied medical treatment. Even
those in the medical profession who tried to offer them care were
subjected to harassment. Prominent
citizens of the day like Manjunatha Rao took the lead in setting up
People’s Hospital in the face of such antipathy and discrimination
from the officialdom.
Starting
his clinical practice in 1953, Dr Ramanathan became the most senior
of general practitioners in Kozhikode. He started a nursing home in
1973, unable to cope with the barrage of requests for home visits:
he celebrated the golden jubilee of his illustrious medical career
in 2003. The
fascinating fabric of medical
history is further interwoven into by the lives of many
others: Dr Mriga Seth, Dr CV Narayan Aiyer, Dr Aiyyathan Gopalan
(the superintendent of the Mental Hospital, a literary connoisseur
and father of late Dr AV Subbarao), Major Dr Achuthan, Dr UG Menon,
Dr T Balakrishnan and Dr AB Das, to name a few.
One
cannot end this story without recalling the name of Dr AR Menon who
made his mark on the history of Malabar
by becoming instrumental in the establishment of Calicut Medical
College.
Although he was never to practice in Calicut, he became the
Health Minister in EMS Namboodiripad’s cabinet in 1957 that
brought the second
medical college of the state to Calicut.
Fifty
years on, Calicut Medical College which lays proud claim to having
moulded thousands of medical graduates dispersed all over the globe
and became the adopted home of many a teacher of medical science,
commemorates the Golden Jubilee of its establishment.
We rest assured that future generations will cherish the
memories, celebrate the traditions and carry on the successful
journey forward.
Translated
from original article
Arun Dev Vellore
MBBS (Calicut) MRCP
Birmingham, United
Kingdom
arundevvellore@hotmail.com
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