A program to honor and preserve the unparalleled legacy of an ancient language and music tradition that are part of the history and an intangible treasure in the world’s cultural heritage .
The Aramaic (Syriac) language in which Jesus and His disciples preached the Gospel reached South India in the early Christian era. Until the 1960s, the St. Thomas Christians in Kerala, who trace the origin of their faith to St.Thomas the Apostle, celebrated liturgy in this language. Since the vernacularization of the liturgy, the language and the melodies are on the path to extinction in the Syro Malabar Church (3.25 million members)....
Purpose & action plan
The Aramaic project is a part of a larger plan of a digital library of Christian music in India under the auspices of the Christian Musicological Society. This library will be beneficial to the general public, as well as academic departments that specialize in such topics as South Asian and West Asian studies, Indology, musicology, anthropology, theology, religion, Church history, Syriac Christianity,..
Dedication
This website is dedicated to Fr. Chandy Kadavil (1588-1677), a great son of India and a celebrated St. Thomas Christians from Kaduthuruthy, in central Kerala. He was also known by his nickname in Syriac, “Alaksandros hendwāyā” Alexander the Indian. Fr. Kadavil was a great scholar, orator, and a prominent leader of the St. Thomas Christians. He lived at a tumultuous period in the history of the St. Thomas Christians,,....
Source of Inspiration
The source of inspiration for the Aramaic project is the life story of the saintly Palackal Thoma Malpan (Pālackal Tōmmā Malpān, circa 1780-1841), my collateral ancestor, a teacher and scholar of the Syriac language and liturgy, founder of the first seminary of the Syriac Christians in India, founder of the first indigenous religious congregation for men in India....
Aramaic Project - Part I
Syro Malabar Church
The Syro Malabar Church, which is one of the eight independent churches among the St. Thomas Christians (6 million out of about thirty million Christians in India), follow the Chaldean (East Syriac) liturgical tradition. The immediate goal of this project is to locate as many singers as possible in the Syro Malabar Church, who were born in the 1950s or earlier, and record their memories of the language, melodies, and experiences in order to preserve them for posterity.
The Assyrian Church of the East in India is known as the Chaldean Syrian Church. Outside India the name Chaldean Church refers to that branch of the Church of the East which has a separate existence from 1553 AD. The Chaldean Syrian Church in India is based in Trichur, head by His Grace Dr. Mar Aprem.
The Chaldean Catholic Church (Classical Syriac: ܥܕܬܐ ܟܠܕܝܬܐ ܩܬܘܠܝܩܝܬܐ, ʿīdtha kaldetha qāthuliqetha; Arabic: الكنيسة الكلدانية al-Kanīsa al-kaldāniyya; Latin: Ecclesia Chaldaeorum Catholica, lit. ' Catholic Church of the Chaldeans') is an Eastern Catholic particular church (sui juris) in full communion with the Holy See and the rest of the Catholic Church, with the Chaldean Patriarchate having been originally formed out of the Church of the East in 1552. Employing the East Syriac Rite in Syriac language in its liturgy, it is part of Syriac Christianity by heritage.
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We decided to add this section to the Aramaic Project because Jews and Christians in Kerala have a shared history. Both communities share stories of immigration and practicing a foreign-born faith in a multi-religious and cultural milieu. Jews and Christian communities flourished in Kerala and enjoyed upper-caste status with several social privileges. We do not read of religious persecutions. Both communities engaged in respectful interactions with the local society and made valuable contributions.
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16 May 2018 CMSI Admin
Our Mission
Christian Musicological Society of India is an international forum for interdisciplinary research, discussion, and dissemination of knowledge, on the music, art and dance of about thirty million Christians in India, who belong to a diverse set of communities and linguistic groups and follow a variety of liturgical traditions some of which date back to the early Christian era. Founded in 1999 by Dr. Joseph J. Palackal CMI, the Society hopes that such researches will draw attention to the lesser known aspects of India in connection with the rest of the world.
