Historic Jewish tombstone found on Indian coconut farm
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Historic Jewish tombstone found on Indian coconut farm

When we talk about ancient Indian Jewish communities, the focus is on the country’s west coast. That makes a lot of sense — that’s the part of India that’s closest to the Mediterranean, and so it has the most trading ties to Israel.

And Cochin, home to an ancient and long-lasting Jewish community, is right there.

But what about along the east coast? Specifically, what about the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where Vice President Kamala Harris’s mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was born in Chennai, also known as Madras, in 1938?

A newly discovered Hebrew tombstone — unearthed on a coconut farm in Ramanathapuram, toward the south of Tamil Nadu, near Sri Lanka, about eight hours south of Chennai — shows that Jews were living — or at least dying, and having Hebrew tombstones carved — back in 1224 or 1225. (The uncertainty depends on whether the last letter in the tombstone’s date, which uses the Greek Seleucid calendar adopted by Jews in the Hellenistic era, is a vav or a zayin.)

This was half a century or so after David Maimonides, the theologian’s brother, died in a ship headed to India. And that makes it nearly half a century older than what had been the oldest Jewish tombstone found in India. That marks the burial place of Sarah Bat Israel and was carved in 1269.

Thoufeek Zakriya

Hathim Ali, 32, a young chemical engineer and history enthusiast, discovered the tombstone in an unused well on his property.

It was decoded earlier this summer by Thoufeek Zakriya, a Muslim who grew up in the west coast city of Cochin. He became fascinated by his town’s ancient Jewish history, learned Hebrew, translated many of the town’s ancient tombstones, and became a skilled Hebrew calligrapher. So when word of the find began circulating in Indian media, he got photographs of the tombstone from Ali and translated it.

The date on the tombstone is Shevat 1, meaning either January 1, 1224, or January 18, 1225. Unfortunately, not all of the inscription can be read after 800 years. “So, I could not find the name of the deceased or his father,” Zakriya told India’s The Week. “But I could see a name partially which could be read as Nehemiah in Hebrew. The initial analysis shows a strong Yemeni Jewish influence in the tombstone’s pattern.”

Another Jewish tombstone found in the area back in 1946 had inscriptions suggesting it marked the burial place of someone named Mariam, daughter of David. It is believed that this tombstone is now in the office of the Samsthanam Revenue Officer in Ramanathapuram. “The kind of tragedy is that nobody has actually deciphered its date so far,” Zakriya lamented.

In 2022, a stone pillar with inscriptions suggesting the presence of a Jewish synagogue was found in Valantharai, about 10 miles to the east of Ramanathapuram. The pillar, which, we are told, with no further explanation, locals had been using for washing clothes, featured around 50 lines of inscription. Zakriya explained that this earlier discovery detailed a land donation for a “Sudapalli,” now assumed to mean “Jootha Palli,” or Jewish Synagogue. Interestingly, the inscriptions discovered in 2022 were in Tamil, but the newly found ones are in Hebrew.

Zakriya now lives in Dubai. He was invited to Israel as part of the first delegates from UAE to Israel in December 2020 in the wake of the Abraham Accords. He accepted the invitation, took the trip. When he met Reuven Rivlin, who then was Israel’s president, he gave him a piece of art he’d made. It’s Hebrew calligraphy.

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