2. The Song of Evarayi

2a. Miriam Daniel, Rahel Nehemia, Toba Sofer, Simcha Yosef. 
Recorded by Avigdor Herzog, Moshav Taoz, November 9, 1981. CD track 14; I-12.

2b. Four women from Kerala communities (not Kadavumbhagam-Kochi).
Recorded by ethnomusicology students from Bar-Ilan University, Moshav Nevatim, 1994.

Yeruśulāyinnu vannān aṟivāḷan
Ěvaṟāyi tanikkŏḷḷa ĕvaṟāyi mŏliyāru

1. From Yerushalayim the learned wise man came,         
Evarayi Moliyar, the teacher Evarayi. 
To his noble father this was his request:
“Vava, let me go, Malanatu to see.”^[1]

2. “Remember most of all: in shalom you must dwell.”
He went by way of Egypt to Yemen far away.
With a minyan of ten he set off in a ship.
“To get to Malanatu we need a well-built ship. 

3. We must build a ship which lets no water in.”
Then came a carpenter—the best one in the land.
By stacking and assembling, the work was begun.
By the grace of God, the ship-building was done.

4. Gifts of silk and bangles they gave to honor him. 
All the goods they needed were loaded in the ship.
“Now who all is willing? Who will board the ship?”
Rabbi Avaroh     then stepped into the ship.

5. And learned Evarayi also stepped inside.
When the sail was hoisted, the ship sailed on its way,
Half-way to the port, they stopped to look and see.
A hostile enemy^[2] was causing them alarm.    

6. In fright they ran away, fleeing from that place,
And so it was they landed on the Palur shore.
There they sold their goods—all that they had brought.^[3] 
There they heard these words: “A learned wise man comes!”   

7. A crowd of people gathered, assembling on the shore. 
They took his hand in welcome as he disembarked.
“Now what we must do is build a synagogue.
 Indeed, a splendid paḷḷi must be constructed here.”

8. So the place was cleared, and the foundation laid.
Then came a carpenter, the best one in the land.
By stacking and assembling, the work was begun.
By the grace of God, the paḷḷi-building was done.

9. Then Rabbi Avaroh recited all the prayers.
The scripture was explained by learned Evarayi.
To all those who heard, his teaching was a joy.
“Now the time has come to fulfill our ‘neyrcha’^[4] vow.

10. With a splendid feast our vow must be fulfilled.
By catching a deer, the ‘neyrcha’ feast we’ll make.”
“Who will catch the deer? Who will go and catch?”
“The Nayar and the boys and the other two.”^[5]

11. A silver rod was thrust, driven through its mouth.
So the deer was slaughtered and the “neyrcha” feast was made.
Be blessed, oh be blessed; forevermore be blessed. 
Most blessed is Tambiran; O Lord, You are the One. 

Found in six notebooks from Kadavumbhagam-Kochi, Ernakulam, Chendamangalam, and Parur, the Evarayi song resembles “Oh, Lovely Parrot!” in having two basic variants, one from Kochi and the other from the Parur tradition (seen also in the Ernakulam and Chendamangalam notebooks). As the content differs significantly in only two places, we have made this composite translation, noting the significant differences in footnotes. Both variants tell fundamentally the same story about an adventurous and learned Jewish teacher named Evarayi (Ephraim). Setting out from Jerusalem, he followed the path of many Jewish, Christian, and Muslim merchants from the Mediterranean in ancient and medieval times, who traveled in ships to Kerala by way of Egypt and Yemen, and traded goods along the way.

To build his boat at the outset, and to build a synagogue later on, he employed “the best carpenter in the land” and rewarded him with bangles and silk—customary gifts in Kerala, where a carpenter is not simply an artisan but also the architect and master builder of a project.

While sailing along the Kerala coast, the travelers were frightened away from one port by a hostile enemy (stanza 5), most likely referring to the Portuguese. Throughout the centuries, Jewish traders had engaged in friendly cooperation with Muslim traders (Arab and local), but there is a strong historical memory of Portuguese hostility to the Kerala Jews from the end of the fifteenth century onward; the Kochi version reflects this explicitly.

In most versions of the song, Evarayi and his companions settled down in the port of Palur,^[6] where they sold all their trade goods. But at this point in the narrative (stanza 6), the Kochi variant repeats the previous line (“They fled from there in fright, fleeing from that place”) and has them finally landing in “Shibush land.” Shibush cannot be identified conclusively as any particular place in Kerala. Jussay (1986) argues that it was Jewish Chendamangalam, which was in the past called Shenot, though the term does not appear in the Chendamangalam version of the song. Noting that the Hebrew term shibush (disorder, confusion) was part of the everyday Jewish Malayalam vocabulary, Venus Lane suggests that it may refer to the dangerous uncertainty of the earlier place where they encountered trouble, rather than to a final landing place in a location other than Palur.

Both versions agree that Evarayi received a warm welcome and quickly arranged to have a synagogue built. The nercca celebration that followed is a special feast performed in Kerala Jewish communities to mark the completion of a vow. The hunting and slaughter of a deer for the feast was carried out by a member or members of the Nayar caste—a high-status Hindu group from which many local chieftains emerged, including the Paliat Achan of Chendamangalam (see song 14). In old Kerala, the hunting of deer was a sign of royal or noble privilege (Jussay 1986, 150; Swiderski 1988a, 70). 

The Evarayi song has several striking parallels to Syrian Christian Malayalam songs from Kerala. The Christian song “Beautiful Jerusalem” also begins with a leader (probably Thomas Cana) receiving permission from his father^[7] to travel to Malanatu, and he, too, is welcomed at the shore by a hand extended to help him out of his boat—though his adventures in between and afterward are quite different (Lukose 1910 [1992], 5–6). The scene of a deer hunt is likewise found in Kerala Christian legend and iconography (Swiderski 1988a ), as well as in song 32 below (“Prosper Prosper!”).

The four Kadavumbhagam-Kochi women living in Moshav Taoz who performed this song in 1981 sang it to a tune that is also used for two Hebrew piyyutim (Hebrew liturgical poems): “Adon Olam” (’Areshet 1980, 222) and “Yedid Nefesh” (’Areshet 1980, 231). In a 1994 recording made in Moshav Nevatim by ethnomusicology students from Bar-Ilan University, four women from other Kerala communities sang it from memory to a different melody that is also used for songs 38 and 62.

The Nevatim women explained to the students that they were still performing the Evarayi song for their own nercca events, because of the nercca reference in the songs. In contrast, when women singers from Kadavumbhagam-Kochi were asked about the practice, they said that they did not sing the “Evarayi” song for nercca events, but for other occasions.

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^[1] Malanāṭu (the land of mountains) refers to Kerala. In Jewish Malayalam, vāvā is the word for father and a moliyar is a Jewish religious teacher.
^[2] In the Kochi version this line is: “The hostile Portuguese were causing them alarm.”
^[3] Here the Kochi version inserts these two additional lines:
      They fled from there in fright, fleeing from that place,
      And so it was they landed in the Shibush land.
   See the note below for discussion of “Shibush.”
^[4] A nercca—pronounced “neyrcha”—is a special feast to mark the completion of a vow.
^[5] Or the Nayar and his son and the other two (i.e., Evarayi and Avaroh).
^[6] See discussion of Palur (modern Palayur) in the section I introduction.
^[7] Or bishop: Varghese (2005, 43) interprets “vava” in stanza 1 of the Christian  song as referring to the Syrian Christian term for a bishop, whereas in the Jewish song it seems to refer to Evarayi’s own father.