PM Modi gifts two sets of relics from Kerala to Netanyahu

TIL Desk/National/World/Jerusalem/ Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday night gifted his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu replicas of two sets of relics from Kerala, regarded as key artefacts of the long Jewish history in India. They comprise two different sets of copper plates that are believed to have been inscribed in 9-10th Century, the PMO tweeted.

The first set of copper plates is a cherished relic for the Cochin Jews in India. It is regarded as a charter describing the grant of hereditary royal privileges and prerogatives by the Hindu King, Cheraman Perumal (often identified as Bhaskara Ravi Varma) to the Jewish leader Joseph Rabban.

According to traditional Jewish accounts, Joseph Rabban was later crowned as the Prince of Shingli, a place in or equated with Cranganore. Cranganore is where Jews enjoyed religious and cultural autonomy for centuries, before they moved to Cochin and other places in Malabar.

Local Jews once placed in each coffin a handful of earth from Shingli/Cranganore that was remembered as a holy place and a “second Jerusalem.” The replica of these plates was made possible with the cooperation of the Paradesi Synagogue in Mattancherry, Kochi.