Inscription discovered on the upper gallery, Mala Synagogue
Mala Synagogue is in the news these days for all the wrong reasons [see here, here, here etc.]. The roof of the newly renovated synagogue has collapsed in heavy rain on 11 June, 2025. This has generated lot of heated discussions about the quality of the restoration efforts undertaken by the concerned authorities that came at a hefty cost. In a series of posts uploaded a few years ago, I have extensively covered the history, structure, architecture etc. of the synagogue and the cemetery [see here [Mala]; here & here [Synagogue]; here & here [Jews Street and Houses]; here, here, here & here [Jewish Cemetery].
In this post, however, I am introducing an inscription discovered from the synagogue which has remained hidden for decades. It was found accidentally by Prof. C Karmachandran while guiding a group of students visiting the synagogue. One of the students, drops a pen in the upper balcony and in the process of retrieving it, the inscription was discovered behind the hand railing quite unexpectedly. It was brought to my attention by him during my visit to the synagogue on February, 2024. I understand that the engraving was uncovered a few months before my visit. To the best of my knowledge, no one has noticed this inscription before.
The engraving names the master carpenter who built the synagogue or to be more specific, the person behind the intricate wood works in the sanctuary. Mala synagogue is famous for its extravagantly lavish use of wood inside the building. Remember the elegantly designed and minutely detailed 26 lotus flowers delicately carved into the wooden panels beneath its upper gallery [see here]. The current inscription is found embedded in two wooden panels just under the guardrail of the balcony facing the upper gallery. The abundance of wood in the designs and decorations of Kerala synagogues is well known. However, the identity of the highly skilled native craftsmen behind these delicate works have always remained shrouded in ambiguity. The closest one can get is about a carpenter who designed the Heichal [Ark] and other works of Mala synagogue as mentioned in an old song [Mala Palliyude Pattu/The Song of Mala Synagogue]. However, it must be noted that the song does not reveal the name of the carpenter, but only that he was from Ayyampilly, a location around 20 km north-west of Mala. More importantly, the synagogue referred in this song was destroyed by Tipu Sultan in the late 18th century [see here]. The current building of Mala synagogue, or at least most part of it is from 1909 as evident from the Hebrew and Malayalam inscriptions carved along the sanctuary’s balcony frieze [see here]. Thus, even though most scholars date a synagogue in Mala from the late 16th century [there are traditions that assign a 1000 AD date], the current building is essentially from the early 20th century only. In fact, the extant Mala synagogue is the 2nd latest Jewish sanctuary in Kerala, the latest being the Thekkumbhagom synagogue of Ernakulam built in the late 1930s.
