Nimmi brings together the Pattanam excavation and the subsequent cultural reimagination of Muziris to present how history and myth come alive through art.
Nimmi I
Pattanam is a village located in the Ernakulam district in Kerala. Here, between the years 2007 and 2015, an extensive archaeological excavation spanning nine seasons1 was conducted which recovered a significant collection of material artefacts. These artefacts belong to different cultural periods in early Kerala, ranging from the Iron Age to the modern period. It included objects like Roman amphora, terra sigillata, West Asian potteries such as torpedo jars and Turquoise Glazed Pottery (TGP) along with Indian Rouletted Ware. These artefacts gave credence to the existence of Muziris, a thriving port city in ancient Kerala. Early historical narratives had considered Muziris a significant port in ancient Kerala. However, there was a scarcity of material evidence for the existence of Muziris, unlike other early ports of the south. Thus, Muziris remained caught up in a tussle between myth and history for a long time until the excavations at Pattanam made it popular through recent art and heritage practices of Kerala. While Pattanam has evolved as a place of historical importance in light of the new excavations, Muziris thrived in the narrative imaginations of a multicultural landscape. The latter is now being displayed before the public as part of a diverse experimentation in art. The Kochi-Muziris Biennale marked the beginning of a new cultural space within Kerala that reverberates its mythical and historical past through new discourse practices.
Pattanam excavation and the regeneration of Muziris
Pattanam was never thought to be a prominent historical site until the local people began noticing ancient artefacts brought to the surface by heavy rains. The natives of Pattanam informed the KCHR team about the presence of old bricks, pottery sherds, and beads that had not ignited their curiosity till recently (Pattanam Excavations Full Report 2007-2015, 12). While many earlier studies predominantly drew on literary references and oral history to push Muziris under a monolithic identity, the discovery of material artefacts provided a broader landscape for further studies. The site of the excavation is located 4 km east of the Arabian sea coast. These archaeological excavations coupled with the Muziris Heritage Project (MHP) and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) brought the studies on Pattanam into an interdisciplinary framework. The Biennale saw artistic experimentation with the recovered pieces of terracotta shards that were presented before the public through an installation at the first edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2012. Artists also laboured to create an imaginary archaeological excavation site at the Biennale venue which explored the metaphoric possibility of archaeology through contemporary art practices. While historical narratives highlighted the bustling inter-continental trade and cultural exchange through the ancient port city of Muziris, artists toyed with the idea of archaeological excavation for telling personal stories and undocumented histories.
There was a strong tendency on the part of the excavation team to identify Pattanam with the mythical landscape of Muziris. As the material findings at the excavation sites strengthened this possibility, the art world began to increasingly view Pattanam as Muziris, and this sentiment was strongly reflected in the naming of the first edition of the Biennale as the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. Pattanam provided the material evidence to assert the cultural and aesthetic aspects of its conceptual equivalent, Muziris. By engaging public interest and the art community in this way, the Pattanam excavation has become a notable example of public archaeology.2
History beyond documentation: public archaeology practices from Kerala
The concept of public archaeology finds its manifestations in art, where, “archaeology figures in different ways as part of artistic projects” (Varghese 63-64). Contemporary Indian artist Vivan Sundaram’s installation, Black Gold (See Fig. 1) at KMB 2012 provides a direct example for understanding the ways in which art represents history. The raw materials for recreating the imaginary landscape included terracotta shards recovered from the excavation site at Pattanam. His work was accompanied by a video projection where Sundaram recreated the massive floods that wreaked havoc in Muziris. Varghese notes that, “In Black Gold we can see the “twin potential” of the idea of Muziris, that brings together the factual realm of historical authenticity and the imaginative realm of the myth, put into effective use to achieve an artistic recreation of the Muziris story that would acquire meaning in the location of the biennale” (182). P. J Cherian, while acknowledging the effort of Sundaram in the seventh season report of the Pattanam excavation, notes the multidisciplinary nature of the excavation through which works like Black Gold can facilitate the production of more artistic work (11).
A Ship of Tarshish (see Fig 2) by Kerala-based artist Prasad Raghavan, invoked the flourishing trade, commerce and cultural exchange that surrounded Muziris. In his first installation, a ship loaded with spices is seen preparing to sail for Tarshish, a mythical port referenced in the Bible, suggesting how the exchange of ideas and culture was commonplace even before the globalization of trade (409). Here, the artist draws a parallel between Tarshish and Muziris while also connecting it to the Jewish presence in Kerala in history. The artist used contemporary objects to construct a ship with containers carrying local spices that were the major items of export from early Kerala.
The above-mentioned installations tried to establish a connection with the archaeological objects by weaving together mythical and historical elements. Both these works were, in a way, experimental in sensibility, but their narratives carried the elements of both myth and history that had remained dormant in public memory. Vivan Sundaram appropriated the flood myth by using broken and discarded terracotta excavated from Pattanam to replicate the floods of 1341 that decimated the port city. Prasad Raghavan played with a Biblical allusion by bringing in the mythical port Tarshish which was portrayed as an affluent seaport. Both artists presented a renewed cultural and aesthetic perception of history by adapting different myths.
Thus, in the archaeology of Pattanam, we encounter diverse ways in which historical spaces come alive through the medium of art. While such works typically take on a contemporary idiom, they are fundamentally animated by local histories and myths that never cease to engage the public imagination.
References:
- Cherian, P.J. (2013). The seventh season pattanam excavation-2013. KCHR.
- India’s First Biennale: Kochi Muziris Biennale 2012. 2012. Kochi Biennale Foundation.
- Raghavan, Prasad. (2012). A Ship to Tarshish and The Ship Sails On.
- Sundaram, Vivan. (2012). Black Gold. Installation and Videography.
- Varghese, Rachel A. (2017). “Past as a Metaphor in the New Utopian Imaginations of Heritage in Kerala.” In Urban Utopias, edited by Tereza Kuldova and Mathew A. Varghese, 169-87. Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology. Springer International Publishing.
- —, (2017). “Archaeology and Its Public(s): Thinking Through the Archaeology – Public Relationship” in Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 5: 56-68.
About the Author: Nimmi Indukumar is a doctoral candidate in English literature from the Centre for English Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, whose research interests include Malayalee diaspora literature, early Kerala in modern-day discourses and the cultural significance of popular art practices from Kerala.
