CHINESE ADMIRAL ZHENG HE IN CALICUT- CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL

In yesterday's Indian express newspaper, I saw the picture of some Chinese scholars pouring through the ancient records engraved on PALM LEAVES in the Calicut University archives hall.

They were digging up information about Chinese Admiral Zheng He who made 7 trips to Calicut from 1406 to 1433, all trips sponsored by the Ming dynasty.

Well if they read this post, I would advise them to go to Timbuktoo, gold mines, and nearby that place there is a dry desert.

Lots of Malayalam palm leaf records and translated Arabic paper records about Muslim trade with Calicut in the times of Zheng He and his forefathers are buried in sand holes .

Well Zheng He’s father, grandfather and great grandfather has also come to Calicut in HUGE Chinese junk ships.  

Ibn Batuta has clearly written about his meetings with Zheng He’s grandfather – he bumped into him at Calicut King Zamorins court.

He had to wait to see him for a couple of days as this Muslim Chinese man had gone to Cheraman Perumal Masjid at Kodungallur to pray.

Chinese loved to trade with Calicut kings as they were very honest and principled. They loved and honoured  Bodhi Dharma who was a great Kalari sword and martial arts warrior and also a Buddhist saint.

Never mind what Chinese historians or Western historians say, our records state that the Shaolin temple monks were trained in combat by Bodhi Dharma . He taught them the secret Kalari 108 marmas or vulnerable points , which was given to Kerala by Lord Parashurama in 4200 BC.  This Chinese martial art strain is now called Kungfu

Calicut kings were honourable and generous men. , They took pride in never breaking their word , once given. So there was NO need for extensive written marine charter party contracts and on the spot cash payments.

Sometimes it would be paid in the next voyage, such was the mutual trust. Deals and negotiations were done by clasping each others hands under a white Veshti , and using finger pressure. So though the deal was witnessed by all and concluded, NO body knew the first and last bids and the process. Profit or loss a deal was a deal, and the King would die rather than cheat. Chinese never cheated or stole.

Compare this with what Portuguese Vasco Da Gama did in 1498.  He landed at Kappad beach at Calicut .

Majority of his sailors had Pirangi Punnu on the penis ( foreign sore ) - and they used to walk with legs apart.

The Calicut Kings Vaidyar , told the king it is a veneral disease NOT found in Kerala .

Vasco da Gama has the gall to appraoch the King in his palace and say say that he wants to leave behind four of his white sailors as "hostages".

As it is the locals women were pissed off by the ugly lecherous behavior and constant ogling of the white sailors. They thought cultured Kerala Hindu women could be had for sex, the way they took the ugly black women in Malindi Kenya , dime a dozen.

The king demanded why?. 

Gama says "You also have to give four of your blood relatives as hostages, who has to stay on my ship. This is to make sure promises are kept on both sides.!"

The king was aghast, at this "Mexican stand off" type lack of culture.

At night Vasco da Gama's sailors stole pepper vines in large quantities , literally vanadalising large tracts of pepper groves. ( cutting the roots of hundreds of metres long pepper vines) , and took it in pots on their ships in great secrecy.

They had zilch idea that every inch of their thieving progress was being monitored by dozens of eyes in the dark. When Zamorin was told about this , instead of getting angry, he had a hearty laugh and said " Vasco Da Gama can steal our pepper plants, and our soil-- but there is no way he can steal our Thiruvatira Jnattuvela ( tropical wet weather )."

And finally that was what thief Vasco Da Gama did. He sailed away taking 4 of Calicut kings blood relatives as hostages to Cochin, without paying customs duty. His goods from Portugal was pathetic-- trinkets, coloured glass, and glass beads for cultured people wearing diamonds, gold and silk..

Glass HA-- wrong number !  Ancient Indian Vimanas as per Vimanaka Shastra of 5000 BC had heat resistant sodalime glass containers to hold mercury . Our Mahabharata wax palace of 4000 BC, where Draupadi made fun of Duryodhana , had transparent glass windows. The Univeristy of Taxila of 3000 BC had a text Vedic text Shatapata Brahmana . This university had 10500 seats for world students were available as long as they were more than the age of 16. Students came from as far as Mesopotamia, Greece, Syria, Arabia , Russia, Thailand and China. Our ancient kings placed water filled globe glasses to magnify written texts.

Above is a comparison of Zheng's ship with Columbus's ship Santa Marta.

The Kings accountants never needed abacus for complicated accounts calculations.  Zheng always wondered at the great mental Mathematical prowess of the Malayalis. By the time the Chinese acoountants finished rat-a-tat, even the King was ready with the answer done in his mind, using Vedic Mathematics . Calicut kings shared their navigation secrets through the treacherous reef bounded Red sea . Or else you have to berth your slow and clumsy Junk at Aden or Salalah and then take a land camel caravan to Mecca.

The Calicut king was kind to the Chinese and would treat them to lavish spicy dinners and classical music sessions. The Chief of the Chinese junk fleet would always be given a KASAVU PUDAVA , which is a gorgeous multicoloured silk garment with gold threadings .

They also send Kerala Ayurvedic herbs and tonics like Chyawanprash and Ashwagandha , Sandalwood ,Sarasaparilla sherbet cordial, and incense --which the Chinese kings back home loved.

There was a time in Sri Lanka when the Sinhalese king who had usurped the throne from a Malayali/Tamil king was literally humiliated by Chinese admiral Zheng He.  He drew out the Sinhala soldiers protecting the snooty king by using a decoy force.

Zheng then invaded the palace and captured the arrogant Sinhala king.  He took him as a prisoner to Quanzhou China, to give the uncultured Sinhala king few “lessons in humility”.  He also took away the tooth of Buddha , which was returned by Chou En Lai in 1960.

The rightful Kerala king was re-installed on the throne , and the Sinhala king was sent back as an ordinary citizen . At the same time it is on record that Admiral Zheng , though he was a Muslim eunuch ( got castrated at a young age when he was a prisoner ) was NOT anti-Buddhist.

During Zheng’s time Calicut was the richest port on this planet.  India as a whole held 35% of global GDP.  Vijayanagara served this port as hinterland.

Admiral Zheng had several record keepers sailing with him on his passages to Calicut. Some of these records are NOT exacly correct. He records Calicut King as a Hindu Brahmin. Well our Calicut kings ( my hometown ) are Kshatriya clan Varmas . They have never belonged to the Kerala Brahmin Namboodiri or Bhattatiri clan .

Also Zheng’s erroneous  records say that Calicut King’s Chiefs were Muslim. Sorry, all his Chief’s were Hindus except Navy Marakkars.

But certain records like the throne peacefully transits to to the King’s sister’s son---that Calicut coins were 60% ,gold and balance silver ---that Calicut silk master weavers were very good in colourful dyeing – that Calicut people eat no wheat --- that Zamorin’s had a customs department to collect duty -- that Calicut swords were of excellent quality steel-- that Kerala women wore gold bangles, neck chains and toe rings-- that in 1407 Admiral Zheng erected a ceremonial stone tablet in Cheenakotta  –that Calicut king and Cochin king did NOT see eye to eye-- that Kerala people were a martial race --that Bodhi Dharma who taught Chinese Kungfu was a Kalari warrior saint from Calicut.etc-- was correct.

Zheng noted that unlike in other cultures where son kills father, father kills son, brothers gouge each others eyes -- the succession process in Calicut was a very honourable one.

This ceremonial stone also was destroyed along with the dargah at Cheenakotta in Calicut by the British. Wonder what is the need to do all this disservice , to such a famous man. Was it because he was a Mongol Muslim?  

By the way Zheng He is just a ceremonial name given to Ma He by the Ming emperor in 1403. Calicut people called him Hajiar Shamsuddin. His great grandfather was called Hajiar Bayen.

There used to be a Jew quarters ( Joota angadi ) and Chinese quarters ( Cheenakotta ) at Calicut. They have all been destroyed and build over by new buildings, with the sub-division and fragmentation Hindu policy of ancestral lands. Zheng He dies in Calicut.

On his last voyage he sort of gave unofficial “French leave “ to some of his Chinese Buddhist men, who went to Mecca in a couple of ships , led by Calicut king's ship-- and came back as Muslims. The ship landed at Aden and his crew went by Caravan-and it too too long for them to come back.

By this time Zheng was a bit power drunk and was not a hand-kisser of the Chinese King. This religious trip to Mecca report was NOT taken well in China by the Confucious sect intellectuals , who were aghast that Zheng tried to mix King’s trade, and religion.

Above --Calicut king's shipyard at Beypore , Calicut
Zheng was NOT alive to defend himself and lot of false stories were circulated by jealous Confucious followers.

During this time in Calicut , where he stayed at Zamorins guest , he dies a natural death and his body was buried with Muslim honours at Calicut. Haji Shamsuddin’s ( Zheng He’s Muslim name ) dargah existed for 200 years, till the British razed it. 

Mysore Muslim invaded king Hyder Ali blew up the Zamorin’s palace, after stealing all the gold from underground vaults . Or the artifacts of Zheng could have been seen by all even today.

The Greatest Admiral of this planet,  Zheng He was literally erased from history too. The next dynasty after the Ming Dynastry for some strange reason , erased Zheng He’s AMAZING achievements of being the BEST and most respected ambassador China has ever produced.

When he first came to Calicut on the FIRST voyage with a fleet of more than 300 ships holding more than 31000 Chinese men in 1406, the Calicut locals could NOT even see the horizon and naturally people were very worried.

It was a terribly ominous scene, with women crying out of fear.  

Such fear was unwarranted as the deadly Kerala Kalari sword fighters in long and swift snake boats ( holding 100 warriors each ) could have set the not so maneuverable and  slow junkss ( max speed 4 knots ) on fire. The huge plaited bamboo reed sails, presented a vulnerable target , with thin but heavy, rose wood FIRE arrows -- any time they wanted-- easy pickings. Yes 300 junks came in , none would go back.

King Zamorin knew that a large fleet was coming as his envoy Narayanan Nair  had presented the Chinese king with a most exquisite gold braided cloth, encrusted in diamonds and pearls for his Royal regalia, along with huge ivory tusks , and asked him to increase the trade –and had got a positive reply by carrier pigeon.

But Admiral Zheng’s personal ship was 600 feet long and this majestic warrior measured seven Chinese feet which is about 6 feet 7 inches of British feet. Three generations of Zheng He’s ancestral fathers honourable dealing with Zamorin was NOT lost on him,  and he gave full respect to the people of Calicut.

Zheng He’s grandfather was a Haji and he went to Mecca the first time in Calicut Kings’s sleek and strong as steel  teak wood cum rosewood ship and NOT in the slow lumbering and ponderous Chinese junk, which can be attacked by pirated if stand alone.

This is the reason why Chinese junks sailed as a fleet. It was NOT to show superiority in numbers. It was necessary for survival. Due to the slow pace of the huge junks having huge cargo holds, smaller ships had to accompany them to ward off pirates. Extra ships means extra food and water ships.

Along with traders were usual sailors, soldiers, artists, doctors, teachers, explorers, historians, translators etc. Smaller patrol boats with 10 oars, doubling up as tugs, for clumsy Junks to enter river mouths  were also in this fleet. And imagine the water ships 130 feet long  held fresh water in tanks for 31000 people for two months.

The pepper sent from Calicut to China was in the regions of thousand of tonnes, and this huge dried up and powdered stock lasted for hundreds of years after China closed the bamboo doors to the world, after Zheng's death.

Even from Calicut record stating that his huge fleet sailed as one unit is NOT true. He split his fleet to conclude all operations on return passage in the Arabian sea by the end of May , prior to the start of the SW monsoon.

Calicut was just a trade hub, for Zheng bartered in 34 countries en route including Persian Gulf, Red sea and East Africa. One of his faster junks was accompanied by the Calicut King's ship till Cape Verde—which is where major part of Tripunka or Atlantis sank after being hit by Pashupatastra or the Scalar interferometer missile of Lord Shiva., as per lore.

The Chinese fishing nets in Cochin were introduced by Zheng’s great grandfather. 

Zheng He’s grave in China is empty. However it contains a lock of his hair and his sword with Islamic inscriptions “Allahuakhbar “. 

It was in Zheng He’s time and as per his suggestion that the Chinese Capital was shifted to present day Beijing from Nanjing in 1421.

With Admiral Zheng’s death at Calicut in 1433, the world lost its greatest Admiral and a Genius and a great and imposing leader of men. His memorial grave in China has 7 steps--signifying 7 great voyages.

His stature on this planet can hardly be surpassed--yet how many people know about him?.

Today you may wonder why there are NO Chinese and Jews in Calicut today. What happened to Cheena kotta ( Chinese fort ) and Joota angadi ( Jew Bazaar ) ?. There was a huge Jew settlement at Mattanchery Cochin till the seventies , after which they left for Israel, the land of milk and honey-- the promised land. I have seen some of these Jews in Israel, they are such an unhappy and wretched lot--too late to come back.

Chinese slowly left India and went back to China over the years--when the Chinese junk arrivals after Zheng, slowed down to a trickle. And they did NOT like the Portuguese at all.  Jews and Calicut Mappila ( half Muslim Arabs --two wives there/ two wives here ) could NOT see eye to eye after the mutual distrust in Jerusalem started. The descendants of these half arab Mappilas in Calicut, runs into hundreds of thousands today.

CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL

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