Muziris - Location

Location

The exact location of Muziris is still not known to historians and archaeologists. It is generally speculated to be situated around present day North Paravur, Kodungallur, a municipalities located in Ernakulam and Trichur districts, Kerala state because,

• All major ports in ancient times were situated at river mouths.
• The Malabar Manual of William Logan, Collector of Malabar District during the British raj, assumed Kodungallur, hub of the Chera dynasty and with its medieval forts and monuments, was Muziris
• North Paravur, Kodungallur’s status as the gateway to all three major religions in India— Judaism, Christianity and Islam —contributed to this belief.
• Jews (the Jews have formed the part of the community in Kerala from very early days) claim that it was to North Paravur that their ancestors sailed sometime in the 1st century AD. According to tradition they came to the region in 68 AD in order to escape religious persecution at home. However, there is no direct evidence to support this tradition.
• Christians in Kerala believe it was in Muziris that Saint Thomas, one of the 12 Apostles of Jesus Christ, arrived in AD 52, bringing Christianity to the Indian subcontinent. A Church supposed to be built by St. Thomas and first Jewish synagogue of India could be seen at North Parur (Paravur) close to Kodungallur.
• It is believed Cheraman Perumal sent a missionary group, headed by Malik Ibn Dinar, to spread the faith and build mosques in India. So that’s how the Cheraman Juma Masjid, said to be India’s first mosque, came to be in Kodungallur.

It is not hard to see why Kodungallur thought of itself as Muziris. But a series of excavations there, starting 1945, yielded nothing that went back to before the 13th century. However, archaeological evidences began to emerge from the region in the excavations conducted in the early 1980s.

In 1983, a large hoard of Roman coins was found at a site about six miles from Kodungallur in a small village called Pattanam on the northern shore of Paravur Thodu, a branch of Periyar. The site is situated in the Chittatukara panchayat, of Eranakulam district, 2 km north of North Paravur and 25 km north of Kochi. Now this village is one of the most significant archaeological sites in South Asia. The excavations carried out at Pattanam from 2007 to 2011 have again uncovered evidences which may support its being the location of ancient seaport Muziris. Historian M. G. S. Narayanan has criticized attempts to commercialise the Pattanam excavations in the name of Muziris conservation project. He points out the need for collecting sufficient evidence before proclaiming the site as Muziris. According to M. G. S., there is a deliberate move keep away the major institutions including the Archeological Survey of India from the developments taking place at the excavation site.

It is also postulated that the name Pattanam is an abbreviation of what was originally Musiripattanam, the local name of Muziris.