Cultural Archive

How did a young Muslim boy grow fascinated with Kerala’s Jewish history? Meet Thoufeek Zakriya, a calligrapher, chef, researcher and one of the few people to have spent over two decades closely documenting the Jewish heritage of Kerala. What began as a childhood curiosity grew into a lifelong journey of learning Hebrew, studying Jewish manuscripts and inscriptions, and recording the stories, memories and traditions of the Jewish communities that once flourished along the Mala

Legend places the arrival of Christianity in Kerala in 52 CE. While that date is much debated, for well over a millennium now, Kerala has been home to a distinct Christian community known as the Nasranis or Syrian Christians. Many books and accounts exist on their religious history. But relatively less is known of the social, cultural, and political position of these Malayali Christians in pre-colonial Kerala. In Episode 7 of Saga, Manu S Pillai sits down with Pallikonam Raje

The maharajahs of Travancore are well placed in popular imagination, with their links to the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple. However, the system of succession followed in their family was unusual. For no ruler could be succeeded by his son, and the queen was not the ruler's wife but his sister. As a result, history has focussed more on the royal sisters (Ranis), while the wives (Ammachis) and children (Tampis) of the maharajahs have faded from the record. In Episode 6 of Saga, Ma

VV Suresh Kumar, a skilled artisan from Kerala, is a master craftsman renowned for his expertise in creating traditional craft boxes like...