Making of the Encyclopaedia | Prof. George Menachery | Part 7

    Saturday Evening Post

Making of the Encyclopaedia

From the Horse’s own Mouth

George Menachery

Seven

From this time onwards it became my habit to get up at around 3 a. m. frequently, take my bath, dress and proceed to the bus stop, not only to go to Vadavathoor, but also to any location in Kerala where there was any possibility of examining the exquisite objects of art and architecture of Kerala, especially the churches, or of meeting some person, generally some elderly person, priest or layman, who could provide some information on the history or culture of the St. Thomas Christians. Often I used to board the first bus that came along arbitrarily, trusting in providence to take me to some useful destination. Thus sometimes I went to Kothamangalam, sometimes to Chengannur, sometimes to  Kuravilangad. Wherever I went thus I was able to collect some useful information on the Church, or some souvenir or other publication, or some photographs. In the period from 1970 to 1972 I must have visited at least a hundred locations in Kerala travelling mostly by bus. On a few occasions I hired a taxi for two or three days and visited scholars or bishops or interesting locations or studios in different parts of the State. My journeys were mostly towards the south as there are not many early Christian centres to the north of the Trichur  District.

My mother used to awaken me punctually at any time in the night as instructed by me the previous day and get ready the hot water for my bath. Any appointments I had I used to inform her and she invariably reminded me the date and time of such appointments at the right moment. She was more punctual than an alarum clock. Now I understand that she must have been often keeping herself awake many nights in order to awaken me at 3 a. m. or 3.30. But in those days I was not sufficiently considerate to understand the inconveniences I was causing people who made my life comfortable, especially my mother and father. For I was consumed by my passion to accomplish one thing or another.

Accordingly as mentioned above I boarded a bus from Ollur to Kottayam at 5 a. m. and reached Kottayam by around 9.00 o’clock; breakfasted on a Masala Dosa from Anandabhavan and proceeded to the Vadavathoor Seminary by Autoricksha. In those days the charge was only Rs. 35, now it is nearer Rs. 150. At the Seminary entrance I asked for Fr. Koodappuzha and the boy took me a rather long distance along twists and turns to the staff recreation room near the dining hall. Fr. Koodapuzha was very glad to see me and he took me to the rector Dr. Joseph Pallikkapparambil and introduced me to him. When I mentioned the purpose of my visit Dr. Pallikkapparambil allotted me a room in the staff quarters.   

This meeting with the rector Dr. Pallikkapparambil was one of the most fruitful events in the Encyclopaedia’s tedious journey. From that time onwards whenever I had to visit the seminary alone or in company with one or two of my assistants I was given a right royal welcome and comfortable accommodation. I could roam in the library at will. And Fr. Paul Marocky the librarian lent me rare books like Monier-Monier Williams’ dictionary, and the Malabar Church edited by Dr. Vellian in honour of Fr. Placid, and “Eastern Christianity”of Tisserant-Hambye, all for long long durations. In fact I was asked to return these volumes only after the publication of the Kerala Volume.

I met Dr. Jacob Vellian also there who wrote two articles for the Kerala Volume. Two books by Farquhar edited by him I have included in the Indian Church History Classics, Volume I, The Nazranies. Our trips together to the US to participate in a Seminar on the Early History of Christianity in India, organized at the Concordia College, Bronxville, New York, and again another one at Chennai, by Dr. John Samuel of the ICSCI of Chennai were memorable ones.

Dr. Paul Chittilappilly, who afterwards became Vicar General of Trichur,  Bishop of Kalyan, and later Bishop of Thamarassery,  also was there at Vadavathoor as a Professor. He contributed the article Patriarchal Dignity for the Syro-Malabar Church. This article was much quoted and discussed and had some indirect influence in the Syro-Malabar Church becoming a Major Archi-Episcopal Sui Juris Church. 

For the Encyclopaedia I had envisaged a Propaedia, Micropaedia, Macropaedia approach – though this was before the Brittanica adopted such a style. I had Major Articles which dealt with important topics at great length. But many items remained untouched. Hence I had a section entitled Minor  Articles which dealt in  short articles with some four hundred odd items. Dr. Pallikkapparambil permitted and even encouraged, all the theology students of 1^st Theology, 2^nd Theology, and 3^rd Theology classes to write one or two of these short entries each. This saved me a lot of time and energy, although at the time of going to press I had to trim and polish most of the contributions of the young seminarians. I also appended the names of the contributors to their respective entries in the Encyclopaedia. This I have been told was a great incentive to them to study and write about matters connected with the Church in later years. Many of them took their doctorates. Later on from the ranks of these contributors arose bishops, vicars general, chancellors, seminary professors, provincials, and principals in various dioceses and institutions.

As for Dr. Koodappuzha himself, he consented to be a member of the Board of Editorial Consultants, and wrote two major articles: One, The Faith and Communion of the Thomas Christians, and two, The History of the Church in Kerala in the Pre-Portuguese Period. But he performed a much more salutary service. He told me that for information on non-Catholic Churches, in Kerala but specially outside Kerala in India,  the best source would be Fr. Dr. Paul Varghese, then Principal of the Orthodox Theological College, Kottayam, and later the Orthodox Bishop of Delhi as Paulos Mar Gregorios. Straight away I went to the Orthodox Theological Seminary and met Dr. Paul Varghese. He not only consented to be a member of the Board of Editorial  Consultants but contributed the major article The Church in Kerala at the Coming of the Portuguese and the very important article on The Syrian Orthodox Church. But more importantly he was constantly available for consultation on all matters connected with the non-Catholic Churches in India and introduced me to scholars from various Churches outside Kerala who contributed articles on their own churches for the first volume. Later he also became President of the WCC. His assessment of the Encyclopaedia can be read in the extracts from reviews given earlier. All these good omens gave me an added appetite to be up and doing – to work tirelessly to make my dream of the Encyclopaedia a reality. “Because there is a force [as Melchizedek told the shepherd boy in the Alchemist] that wants you to realize your Personal Legend; it whets your appetite with a taste of success.”

 

 

Making of the Encyclopaedia | Prof. George Menachery | Part 6

   Saturday Evening Post

Making of the Encyclopaedia

From the Horse’s own Mouth

George Menachery

Six

This was the kind of thing we fed our prospective contributors. No wonder the best scholars did come forward to share the fruits of their decades-long hard work with the readers of the Encyclopaedia. And the majority of them kept their writings objective, research backed, and providing exhaustive end - notes, bibliographies, and illustrations where relevant. It is a matter of satisfaction that when the first volume (actually Volume II) of the Encyclopaedia did appear (7^th April, 1973) reviewers in India and abroad consented that we had fulfilled to a remarkable degree our somewhat exorbitant claims.

Here are a few extracts from some of the scores of rave reviews which appeared from time to time which will justify what was said in the previous paragraph. [I do not know whether this is the right place to give these extracts. But one has to present those somewhere or other, and this may be as suitable a spot for it as any other. I do not know also whether it may not be putting the cart before the horse. Perhaps this will give a proper idea of the contents of the work. We will continue our narrative of the progress of the work on the Encyclopaedia after this interlude]:

Encomia for the Encyclopaedia

“A necessary acquisition for all theological and university libraries.” - Curtis Bochanyin, Divinity Librarian, University of Chicago

“The STCEI, without question, fills a major gap for reference works on Indian Church History. We are eagerly looking forward to the 3rd volume.” - Newland F. Smith, Librarian for Collection Development, United Library, lllinois.

“STCEI is a long awaited and much needed reference title for all libraries of religion and theology. It is thorough in its coverage of Christianity in India. Its articles are autographed and authoritative. Valuable too are the bibliographies accompanying most of the articles… rich with maps, tables, and plates. A highly recommended reference tool for hard to obtain information” - Kenneth O’Malley, C.P., Library Director,Catholic Theological Union, Chicago.

”A great and indispensable need of the hour” - Valerian Cardinal Gracias.

“The authoritative articles, reproductions of ancient documents and the colour pictures will make the work very valuable”- Joseph Cardinal Parecattil.

Also highly praised by Cardinal Lourdusamy, Cardinal Picachy, Cardinal Vithayathil, Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Cardinal Telespore Toppo.

“The publication of the three volumes of the St. Thomas Christian Encyclopaedia of India is a worthy model for the world Churches and an incomparable achievement and contribution of the Church in India,” stated Oswald Cardinal Gracias in Guwahati, dedicating the work to the nation.

“The publication of the third and final volume is something of which the Encyclopaedia team can be justly proud, but they should not rest on their oars but must continue their much needed work of service to the Church in India today,” His Eminence went on to say.

Telespore Placidus Cardinal Toppo dedicated the volumes to the world Christian community. The two Cardinals officially released the 3rd volume of the Encyclopaedia by exchanging copies of the work, in the presence of Archbishops and Bishops from all over India and members of the CBCI Commissions.

“I want to commend to you a good reference book on Christianity in India . I know nothing better on that subject than the St. Thomas Christian Encyclopaedia of India .. It is compendious and comprehensive, scholarly and ecumenical. Some of the best scholars in India and abroad have contributed. There are numerous high quality illustrations and maps .. It covers the whole ground - history, culture, customs, divisions, art, architecture, music, parish, life, liturgical vestments, Christian traditional occupations, dance and drama, institutions, statistics - the coverage is remarkable, and the reliability of the information very high ... It is a tool worth having for any library, for any scholar interested in the history of Christianity, for anyone interested in understanding India and its religious heritage” - Paulos Mar Gregorios (Dr. Paul Verghese), Principal, Orthodox Theo. College and sometime President - the World Council of Churches 

“Like Veda Vyasa the Editor has brought together almost all the information that exist about Indian Christianity into an ordered whole for the first time… “- Antony Cardinal Padiara, the First MajorArchbishop 

“A wealth of essential information difficult if not Impossible to come across elsewhere “- Revue D’Histoire Eccl., Louvain, Belgium  

“It is a lavishly produced work, much better produced than what usually comes from India ... The whole approach is ecumenical both in intent and content” - Eastern Churches Review. London, U.K. 

“Each major article is written by an expert” - R. N. S., New York, N. Y. 

“An extra ordinary publishing achievement of lndian Christianity “- USCC US Bishops’ Council Bullettin. Washington, D.C. 

“A monumental work containing significant information” - Baltimore Review 

“All the facts about Christian India” - The Universe, London 

“Exhaustive, historical, sociological, liturgical, archaeological and cultural information” - Ostkirchlihe Studien,Wurzburg  

“All these are treated with scholarly serenity by competent contributors” - T. N. Sequiera, The Hindu. Madras.

”Authoritative volumes worth possessing” - A.M. Mundadan, The Journal of Dharma  “It is a big mirror in which is seen reflected a panoramic view of the historical, social, cultural and religious facets of the Christian community” - N. K. Seshan, All India Radio

”...contributions are quite outstanding and even throw new light on well-known subjects” - E. R. Hambye, The Clergy Monthly 

“The most important feature of the Encyclopaedia is its pioneering probe into the antiquities of Christianity” - P. Thomas, The Horizon 

“The best authorities in each denomination were invited to tell their story without the editorial cuts” - Metropolitan Mar Aprem, The Voice of the East

”An exhaustive research tool that can be universally recommended” - M. M. Thomas, Chairman, W.C.C. 

“Where governments and universities have failed the loving labour of a few individuals has triumphed” - M. G. S. Narayanan, Mathrubhoomi Weekly.

”Authoritative articles by Indian as well as Western authors deal with every aspect of Christianity in India” - The Indian Express 

“It is to be respected as an extraordinary work of great importance” - The Malayala Manorama 

Justice V. R. Krishna Aiyer [former Supreme Court Judge and president, History Assn.] on the 3rd Volume of the Encyclopaedia: “The third volume of the book St. Thomas Christian Encyclopaedia of India is an extraordinary work with focus on Christianity but being Cyclopaedic has learned chapters on Hinduism and Islam. Truly it is a holistic work, an eclectic theological composite piece. The chapter on Hinduism illumines its ancient and geographical character and true source of its origin. Read on to learn the basic principles and you will learn that this Sanatana Dharma (moral values for all times)... Professor Menachery has done great service to all religions by weaving all of them into a new fabric in his epic voluminous trinity which if popularly read and discussed and read in libraries will surely be the beginning of Jesus and Sankara and Mohammed as the Founders of a New World Order of peace and stability of human rights and equality with a bias of equity. Gandhiji and Vivekananda did it in different ways. I deeply appreciate the wonderful work of Professor George Menachery. It is not narrowly Christian but broadly universal in thinking. Jesus was the greatest humanist revolutionary and died for a dynamic dialectical world order...”

After speaking about the prompt responses received from Fr. Placid and Dr. Hambye and the non-response from Dr. Mundadan we had digressed somewhat into the reproduction of portions of our first brochure and extracts from the reviews which appeared, mostly after the publication of the Kerala Volume in April, ’73. Now let me continue the story from where we had left off.

It was time now for me to delve somewhat deeper into the story of Christianity in India if I were to speak sensibly to scholars on the different topics to be dealt with in the Encyclopaedia and to discuss with them the contents of those topics intelligibly. There were three libraries which I could visit: the library of the St. Joseph’s Pontifical Seminary at Alwaye, that of the St. Thomas Apostolic Seminary, Vadavathoor (Kottayam), or the library of the Dharmaram College, Bangalore.

As I was collecting articles on Apostle Thomas and the Kerala Christians to begin with, Kottayam and Bangalore appeared to be the best bet. Since I had a little acquaintance with two scholars at Vadavathoor from the National Seminar days viz. Dr. Koodappuzha and Dr. Vellian I decided to make use of their scholarship and the books at the Vadavathoor library to select appropriate topics for the Encyclopaedia and suitable authors to treat them. I had some contact with Dharmaram also but Vadavathoor was nearer and I could get there by 10 a. m. if I boarded a KSRTC bus from Ollur in the early morning; even the fast buses would stop at Ollur to pick up passengers in the early morning hours. And I could return home if necessary on the same day.

Making of the Encyclopaedia | Prof. George Menachery | Part 5

  Saturday Evening Post

Making of the Encyclopaedia

From the Horse’s own Mouth

George Menachery

Five

Thus towards the tail end of September, 1970, I dialled the Cardinal House and sought an interview with His Eminence. Fortunately he remembered me and asked me to send an outline of the work I was planning. I had made no such concrete schema, so I hastily sat down to make one. I am happy to record that the outline I made then to post to His Eminence was exhaustive and comprehensive and that plan remained all along the blueprint for the Encyclopaedia. I do not know how I was able to incorporate all relevant points concerning the Church in India, especially the Kerala Churches, in that outline. Sometimes I have even thought that I, an ignorant and un-deserving  person,  was truly inspired by the Holy Ghost.

I posted the cyclostyled outline to His Eminence. And two days later I received a prompt reply from the Cardinal House, asking me to meet the Cardinal at 10 a. m. on the 15^th of October. The librarians of my college were always friendly to me, and often overlooked library rules and regulations to lend me even rare reference books, and often they never bothered me to return books on time. I collected one volume each of the Brittanica, the World Book Encyclopaedia, &c. from the college library to show His Eminence and say that I wanted to make the Encyclopaedia of the same standard as these world famous reference works. To anyone this would have sounded preposterous in those days when there was for example no proper colour printing done at any printing house in the whole of Kerala.  The books from  India in those days were condemned by foreign reviewers and librarians for their defective proof-reading, shabby paper, bad printing,  indifferent  referencing, and dreadful binding. I had decided to bring out a work which would give no room for such criticisms. I proceeded to Ernakulam with my little brother Baby (E. J. James) who was on vacation from his Suratkal engineering college helping me to carry my precious burden.

We arrived at the Cardinal House i.e. the Archbishop’s House of Ernakulam, sufficiently early in the morning for the 10 a. m. interview. We were waiting in the visitors’ hall on the ground floor, expecting the Cardinal to come down the huge, right  royal, stair case. Then we heard a sudden loud bell. Devassy the Cardinal’s “boy” and afterwards his trusted lifelong driver led us upstairs to the grand hall where the Cardinal was seated at the far end near the window on his royal chair behind a huge, lovely round table. We slowly walked to the end of the hall with our reference books and was motioned by His Eminence to take our seats. Decades later the cardinal’s secretary Fr. Jacob Ernat was to describe my visit to the cardinal carrying a whole library with me. His Eminence had studied my schema thoroughly and therefore I had pretty little to add. Of course we showed the reference books brought and explained that the Encyclopaedia would strive to adhere to the high standards of those works, in content as well as quality of production. After patiently listening to what I had to say he expressed his full satisfaction and expressed his confidence in me. He went on to give his own suggestions and instructions at large. It was suggested that I get into contact with three persons who could be of great help: Fr. Placid Podipara (who was in Rome), Dr. E. R. Hambye, and Fr. Dr. Mathias Mundadan then at Dharmaram, Bangalore. He was so enamoured of the project that our interview lasted more than an hour. At the end he mentioned that if any financial assistance were required he could arrange it from funding agencies.  At that time I did not know what I was taking on. And I was ignorant of the existence of funding agencies in India and abroad. To create confidence  I boasted that I had set aside the necessary amount for bringing out the work and that if at all I needed some little help at the end, according to my calculation then a shortage of just Rs. eighteen thousands, I shall approach His Eminence.  I did not know what I was in for and the difficulties I had to undergo to meet the huge bills later on were really Herculean. At about 11.30 a. m. we descended the stairs after the interview. Two bishops were waiting impatiently at the bottom expecting to be summoned by His Eminence. This showed us the importance His Eminence was attaching to our encyclopaedia project.  The first person who fully believed in my ability to bring out such a huge research based publication, almost single-handed, was His Eminence Joseph Cardinal Parecattil. And he kindly accepted my request to be the Patron of the work.

When I returned home straight away I wrote a letter to Fr. Placid in Rome requesting his permission to publish some of his articles in the Encyclopaedia. Within a fortnight  his reply came giving me a “blank cheque” so to say in the matter, permitting me to reproduce any article by him published anywhere, without bothering to take any further permissions. This gave me great satisfaction as my first effort was so successful, and as they say a first success makes you go forward confidently and joyfully.

Hambye also responded positively and promised all his help and also consented to be a member of the Encyclopaedia’s  Board of Editorial Consultants.

Fr. Mundadan did not send a reply to our letter, although I had mentioned that it was at His Eminence’s suggestion that I was contacting him. He must have felt that an amateur and dilettante like me without any solid background in theology and history or in publishing could convert my tall claims into reality. But more about how he drastically changed his views and why later. Indeed our claims for the Encyclopaedia were somewhat tall. Here are some sentences from a pre-publication brochure we printed. The quotations in bold italics are from reviews that appeared after the publication of the first volume.

“”The first Ecumenical effort of its kind in the world.” “The first Particular Country based Christian Encyclopaedia in the world.” “The first Individual Church oriented Encyclopaedia in the world.” “A Great Cultural Achievement of Indian Christianity.”

“The Purpose:  

"It encompasses within a single work our present knowledge of every aspect of Indian Christianity... Its faith, liturgy, scripture....the culture, habits, trends it has given birth to, its contribution to art, architecture, language, literature, music, education.. to philosophy, social service, medical aid... every other feature of the great Christian Tradition in India... from the most distant past to the present day... from its hold on the far North to its heroic story in the far South... its origins and spread in the West and East of the subcontinent... and its successes and failures in taking the message to hitherto unapproachable areas especially under the changed Indian circumstances now obtaining. The St. Thomas Christian Encyclopedia of India is a reference work on India in general and on Indian Christianity in particular. In addition to a wealth of statistical information and directory material, specialist essays have been contributed by hundreds of Archaeologists, Anthropologists, Artists, Historians, Educators, Biographers, Lexicographers, Cartographers and Researchers, most major articles - there are hundreds of them - running into thousands of words each... “All about Indian Christianity and much about India and South Asia in general studded with marvellous graphics.” To bring together the vast store of knowledge required to fulfill the Encyclopaedia’s purpose, an editorial board was constituted consisting of some of the best minds in the field. In order to ensure the authenticity of each entry the editors enlisted the aid of an editorial advisory board of scholars representing the most distinguished men in the world of Christianity. The most brilliant authorities in India and abroad have contributed their special knowledge through hundreds of definitive articles. Whenever possible the person most closely associated with a particular subject was chosen to write upon it. “The classic often considered as the begetter of most books and reference works in the field for four decades.” Separate articles on each Church, Denomination, Mission, State, Area , Organization, Movement, Saint, Pioneer, Missionary… Many articles on land, people, history, culture, scripture, liturgy, art, architecture, archaeology, dialogue, Indianisation, evangelization, ecumenism, anthropology, sculpture, education, social service, Indology, traditions, customs, manners, world religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Islam,… ”A comprehensive word and picture gallery.” The pages of the Encyclopaedia are illustrated with vivid, on the spot photographs and paintings in glorious full colour and striking black & white reproductions, in addition to the many sketches, charts, maps, tables and diagrams. More than 1000 photographs on exquisite art plates of the giant page size - half of them on full colour art plates. ”Autographed, authentic and authoritative articles.” Its articles are invariably autographed and authoritative and in most cases accompanied by comprehensive and invaluable bibliographies and exhaustive end notes. The maps and other graphics will be of use to the scholar and the general reader alike”

There was more of the same.

Making of the Encyclopaedia | Prof. George Menachery | Part 4

 Saturday Evening Post

Making of the Encyclopaedia

From the Horse’s own Mouth

George Menachery

Four

At this juncture another incident occurred.  This I have narrated in my introduction to the third volume in 2010.

“So I started writing the Introduction, full of confessions, lamentations, regrets, and apologies,…..and also full of gratitude and joy:

On the morning of July 3, 1970, while we were all sitting in our drawing room, my father who was an addict of the Malayalam newspaper “The Express,” which he was getting free for many years, read out an item from it – an announcement that the 19^th Death Centenary of Apostle St. Thomas would be celebrated on a large scale in 1972. Then I said, sipping my coffee, “I think I will bring out an Encyclopaedia on the Church in India for the occasion.”

The Idea of writing a booklet on the Christian Heritage of India was already in my mind, vaguely, ever since the 1969 national seminar “Church in India Today” held at Bangalore. On and off I used to think about that. But now I had fixed a date for its completion – not as a mere booklet but a whole encyclopaedia.

Two months later, one day in September, I thought of presenting this idea before Cardinal Parecattil. I was emboldened to do this because I had interviewed His Eminence for a British weekly in 1969 and on that occasion he had strongly praised my interventions at the National Seminar and also spoken highly of my initiative in establishing in 1967 the  first ever lay leadership training institute in India. He even had provided me a cosy First Class Coupe in the Special Train chartered to take His Eminence back from Bangalore to Ernakulam after first returning from Rome as Cardinal.

Well, I wanted to give a blow by blow description of my tedious journey that has now [then] lasted four decades, giving importance to all those who had helped me in realizing my destiny. I wanted to mention dozens of individual writers, scores of museums and libraries in India, Europe, and America (and their curators and librarians), many generous hosts and hostesses in different States and countries, and much more. Then all of a sudden I realized that it would take up many pages to do justice to all these matters, and a good deal of time which would further delay the publication of the volume. So eventually I decided to restrict the introduction to just one or two pages and to write a small separate book entitled the “Making of the Encyclopaedia”.

But I am writing that small book only now, in 2023, thirteen years after I had made the promise to myself. These two incidents, one the National Seminar experience, and two my announcement to the family that I would make this encyclopaedia, and eventually to the public at large, made me apply myself a little more earnestly and seriously to make the dream a reality. And once I had made this decision public there was no escape, and no possibility of going back on it.

Making of the Encyclopaedia | Prof. George Menachery | Part 3

 

Saturday Evening Post

Making of the Encyclopaedia

From the Horse’s own Mouth

George Menachery

Three

And then two things happened.
In those days - even now it is so - the Trichur Public Library was functioning  in the spacious portico and side rooms of the Trichur Town Hall building, erected as a monument  to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George, then emperor of India. As an enthusiastic member of the Library I used to visit the building quite often, mostly in search of detective stories and P. G. Wodehouse. The upstairs verandah of the building housed, at that time, the archaeological museum. As an avid “budding connoisseur” of Indian art and architecture I used to stroll along this verandah from time to time. The lady in charge of the exhibits and the few books for sale, Sarojini by name I think, used to urge me to purchase the publications of the department, as she thought that I was an addict of such books. One day I decided to purchase one or two books, mostly priced at just annas two and three.  Unloading my pocket I found there three rupees. I handed over two rupees to Sarojini – that was her name I suppose - and asked her to give me its worth in the cheapest books in her store. She gave me almost a dozen books, mostly annual reports of the Cochin Princely State’s Royal archaeology department, at that time headed by Anujan Achan if I remember right.
Getting home I threw the cheap, shabby pamphlets on the table, intending to peruse them at leisure, which was contrary to my habit of reading any book as soon as purchased. But on this occasion I had a Simon Templar and a Wodehouse with me from the library which I was hungry to consume.
When I finally got down to reading the booklet size publications I was flabbergasted and spellbound. For Anujan Achan had given in some issues photographs and copies of works of art from the churches of the State – in bronze, granite, wood, ivory, and pigments and had also appended legends and stories connected with some. These works opened my eyes to the fact that many of the works of art in the ancient churches of Kerala contrary to scholarly pronouncements at the time were on a par with if not sometimes superior to the works I had studied at length in the temples of Chidambaram, Thanjavoor, Madurai, Kancheepuram, Sreerangam and the Rock Fort temple when I was a student at the Trichinopoly college for four years. And some of the church arti- facts were older than any Vigraha in Kerala temples, which statues were all post eighth century. This revelation rekindled my desire to write the book which I had almost given up. I started visiting the churches described in the Archaeology reports and other churches. And took hundreds of photographs of these marvels in 1970 – ’71 which was somewhat expensive because in those pre-digital days one roll of film could give only 36 negatives and printing the photographs involved another expense.  That photography pilgrimage to the ancient churches has continued ever since and taking photographs has become much cheaper after the arrival of digital cameras. As the proud possessor  of a large number of photographs now I thought that I might be able to write a good monograph on the art and architecture of Kerala churches.