Emy Merin Joy «The Paravur Dialogues: Understanding the First Interreligious Dialogues in Early Modern Kerala»
My presentation intends to introduce an eighteenth-century Garshuni Malayalam manuscript, found in St Joseph’s CMI Monastery Mannanam (MS Mannanam Syr. 74 = MS MalGar 2), Kerala, India, which contains various polemical dialogues and treatises. The first work in the manuscript, which is called the Paravur Dialogues contains five dialogues between a certain Jewish Rabbi Jacob, a Jew, a Pagan (Hindu), a Christian and a Muslim, on various theological topics. The context of this debate is set in the Paravur Synagogue in central Kerala, which was originally believed to have been built in 1616 and destroyed and rebuilt several times later. The manuscript is a treasured piece of writing attributed to the legendary indigenous bishop, Joseph Kariattil (1735/42- 1786) which is proven wrong through my research. The Dialogues must have been the brainchild of a Catalan Jesuit priest, Francisco Roz S.J (1599-1624), who was the first European Archbishop of the diocese of Angamale-Cranganore. I will present a brief context of the Dialogues, debates on the question of dating and authorship and a short historical background of the Jesuit mission in Kerala in the early modern period.
