In
olden times, the Islanders of Kumbalam depended on small and ordinary canoes for
transport to the nearby Islands to meet their relations and friends. The Chola-Chera
and Pandya-Chera wars commencing from early centuries and the development of
trade and commerce gave a new impetus for the development of faster moving vessels
like a swift and fancy vessel, ‘Odi-vanchi’,
and snake boats, ‘Chundan Vallom’. These
elongated and attractive vessels had a lot of seating capacity for oarsmen
heading swiftly to distant places through backwaters. One could hear the sounds
of their oars cutting into the silent water. It was amazing to watch them
raising the blade of the oars up in air and down into the ‘Kayal’, Lake. Every stroke of the oar struck with such rhythm with
a song that accompanied it locally
called ‘Vanchipatt’. Those vessels glided so swiftly through our
backwaters by leverage against the water.
Till the 1850s, these fast moving vessels were
used for war to transport ‘Nair’ forces
who were experts in ‘Kalari Payattu’,
which was a popular martial art. The ‘Desavazhi’
of Oli Mana maintained a number of such vessels for military use. My
grandparents used to say that these swift vessels drew envious looks everywhere
because these were the same vessels effectively used in the wars against
Zamorin of Calicut. The fishermen of this Island used to be the veteran oarsmen
of such swift vessels to transport his forces. Guarding the coasts of this Island
and the wonderful job of informing the ‘Desavazhi’
about the clandestine movements near the coastal waters were done by these
loyal fisher-folk, who were living in tiny miserable huts, which were seen
along the western coastal shores of this Island.
The
use of these vessels continued during the Chola-Chera wars in the 10th
and early 12th century and continued in the wars against Zamorin of
Calicut and during the Portuguese and Dutch colonial period. As export and
import increased considerably during the Dutch period big vessels like ‘Kettu-vallom’ were introduced for
transport of goods.
The
British colonialists introduced motor boats for patrolling this strategically
important area and they too maintained a military base camp in Oli ‘Kayaloram’, coastal shore. The motor
boats substituted the snake-boats, ‘Chundan-Vallom’,
and the fancy and swift vessels ‘Odi-Vanchi’.
Gradually the ‘Desavazhi’ too discarded
all these swift vessels.
As
population increased; it boosted the cconomic activities too. More and more
people started getting employment and therefore proportionate transport facilities
also enhanced considerably. Regular canoe services were introduced at the
Kumbalam–Edacochi ferry, Kumbalam-Nettoor ferry, Kumbalam-Panangad ferry and
Kumbalam-Thevara ferry, to service the commuters. I recall Narayanan, Madhavan,
Vasu, Bahuleyan, Lonan, Paramu, Karunan and Raghavan; and the younger
generation, Dinesan, Unni, Sasi, and Lalu were the ferry-men at the
Kumbalam-Thevara ferry. I remember Asokan Vadakkechira, a young freelancer,
used to ferry me across in his tiny canoe, whenever I went early in the morning
for ceremonial parades at Durbar Hall at Ernakulam. Narayanan Mattamparambu and
his collegues, Janardhanan, Vasu and Gopalan were available at
Kumbalam-Edakochi ferry. Devassy, Chavaro, Bhaskaran Mannathara and Purushan at
Kumbalam-Nettoor ferry were the veteran oarsmen. They would begin their task of
transporting the commuters from the early hours of the morning until late at
night. Earlier, the
commuters from our neighbouring islands like Panangad, Cheppanam, and Chathamma
depended on the Kumbalam ferry services for their transport to the urban areas
in the vicinity like Ernakulam, Mattancherry, Naval Base and the Cochin Port
Trust at Willington Island, and to Alleppy side. Most
of the students and other commuters had to walk long distances and cross
ferries to reach their destinations in the town and suburbs. Indirectly this
gave them an opportunity to mingle and interact with not only people but also
with their natural environments which are now fast being replaced by concrete
jungles.
The
oarsmen were very vigilant and they took reasonable care to provide a safe journey to the commuters.
There was only one unfortunate episode that I remember, where a young lady, T.D.
Mary Thayamkeril (East) drowned when an overloaded canoe overturned at Kumbalam
ferry.
Excerpts from
MEMOIRS
An autobiography
by
Joseph J. Thayamkeril
Lawyer, Kochi, Kerala, India.
josephjthayamkeril.blogspot.com
josephjthayamkeril@gmail.com
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