Religious education in Kerala

Last updated

Religious education in Kerala was historically influenced by traditional Indian religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism through the ancient education system of Gurukula. Abrahamic religions were practiced in Kerala through the early days of maritime trade. [1] [2] Buddhism added educational vocabulary, including Namostu Jinatam, Ezhuthu Palli, and Pallikoodam[ clarification needed ] to the Malayalam language [ citation needed ]. Madrasa institutions, coordinated by various Madarasa education boards referred to as Othupalli or Palli Dar since the independence of India. Modern Christian education began in the early 19th century.

Contents

Hinduism

According to Sudha Nambudiri, Thanthra Vidyapeedam, a low profile Vedic and tantric pathshala (ritual school) in Aluva founded by Kalpuzha Divakaran Namboodiripad and P. Madhavji in 1972 taught students in Kerala's temple shastra, Kerala's form of temple rituals, which follows Adi Shankara traditions in the Gurukulam system. [3] Namboodiripad says Vidyapeedam only admits ten tenth standard passed boys with prior academic knowledge of the Sanskrit language, selected on the basis of their individual horoscopes every year. The seven year curriculum includes theoretical and practical studies in temple rituals based on Tantra Samuchayam, authored by Chennas Narayanan Nampoothiri, the Vedas, the Sanskrit language, Vaastu Shastra, Jyothisha, Yoga and meditation. [3] When completed, students are awarded a postgraduate level degree known as Thanthraratna in Sanskrit by Ujjain's Maharishi Sandipani Rashtriya Ved Vidya Pratishthan and promotes students to temple priests or Sanskrit language teachers. [3] Aarsha Vidya Samajam founded by Aacharya Sri K R Manoj Ji at 1999 is an educational institution for preaching of Pancha Kartavyas; five duties: Adhyayana (Study), Anushthana (Practice), Pracharana (Promotion), Adhyapana (Teaching) and Samrakshana (Protection) of Sanathana Dharma. This institution was born with the Anugraha and Ashirwada of great Gurus for achieving the motto of Krinwantho Vishwamaryam; to make the whole world noble, through right education of Sanathana Dharma, which was not merely a divine call, but also a vision of the Aarsha Guru Paramparas, prayer of the Sadhaks, dream of our ancestors, and the birth purpose of our nation itself.

Buddhism

Buddhism has historical influences on educational culture in Kerala. [4] The origin of the names Ezhuthu Palli and Pallikoodam trace back to the roots of Buddhism. [5] Until the end of the 18th century, the word Namostu Jinatam (Namotu Chinatam) was used in the beginning of Kerala's education courses for praying to the Buddha. At that time, the script of Kerala was called Nanam Manam. It is an abbreviation of the Pali verses Naanam, Monam, Ettanam, Thuvanam, Jeenam, Ennanam, Thanam and Ummanam, corresponding to the eight noble ways: the right perspective, the right goal, the right speech, the right action, the right way of life, the right focus, the right concentration, and the right effort. [6]

Christianity

In 1815, British resident Colonel John Munro founded a seminary in Kottayam for the theological education of Jacobite Christian priests and invited the Anglican missionaries to teach there. From there, a connection was formed between the Church Mission Society and the Saint Thomas Christians of the Puthenkuttukar, or New Allegiance. [7] Restrictions were imposed on Saint Thomas Christian parishes in order to start new schools, and later on the Travancore Diwan after they attempted to take over the schools owned by the community. [8] The St. Joseph's LP School in Koonammavu was the first Catholic school for girls, and the first convent in Kerala was established in 1868 in a bamboo-mat house by Mother Eliswa, who later established more schools for girls. [9]

Islam

According to K. Mohammed Basheer, Kerala has one of the oldest madrasa ( Malayalam : othupalli / Palli Dar) education systems in India which has been reformed in modern times to include non-religious and religious subjects. [10] Muslim communities, specifically Mappilas, form literate communities amongst Muslims in India. Historically, madrasas used to impart primary education about the mosque and the imams in it. Madrasas were non-residential, whilst residential facilities supported by mosques and the Muslim village community were called Palli Dar. [10] During the British colonisation of India, madrasas were upgraded to centres of primary education. Post-independence, madrasas hold religious education classes before or after regular schools. [10] The All Kerala Islamic Education Board were the first organization to conduct centralized examinations; subsequently, different schools of Islamic beliefs came forward to form their own Islamic education boards to train teachers and conduct centralized examinations: the Samastha Kerala Islam Matha Vidyabhyasa Board (SKIMVB), the Dakshiana Kerala Islam Matha Vidyabhyasa Board (DKIMVB), the Samastha Kerala Sunni Vidyabhyasa Board (SKSVB) and the Samastha Kerala Islamic Education Board (SKIEB). They are all grounded in Ahl as-Sunnah, whereas the Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen Vidyabhyasa Board (KNM) and The Council for Islamic Education and Research (CIER) are rooted in Ahl-i Hadith . The Majlis al Ta'alim al Islami Kerala (Majlis) represent Jamaat-e-Islami. [10]

Although the Kerala government does not have its own centralizing Madrasa board, Kerala madrasas affiliate themselves to various madrasa boards backed by various religious institutions, based on different ideologies. Among them, the Samastha Kerala Islam Matha Vidyabhyasa Board (SKIMVB) is the largest, with 80 percent of madrasa stating they are connected to Kerala. [10]

Since the 20th century, Arabic language classes have been implemented in Kerala for advanced religious education. [10]

Islamic universities operate in Kerala, including Markazu saqafathi ssunniya and Darul Huda Islamic University. [10]

Samastha Kerala Sunni Vidyabhyasa Board

The SKSVB has affiliation of around ten thousand madrasas that account to around one million students and fifty thousand teachers, mainly from Kerala. It is headquartered at Kozhikode, Kerala, along with regional offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengal and Bangalore. [11]

See also

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kuriakose Elias Chavara</span> Indian Carmelite and religious founder

Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara, CMI was an Indian Syro-Malabar Catholic priest, religious, philosopher and social reformer. He is the first canonised Catholic male saint of Indian origin and was a member of the Syro-Malabar Church, an Eastern Catholic church.

Kaniyapuram is a residential and IT industrial area of Thiruvananthapuram metropolitan area of Trivandrum city around 20 kilometres (12 mi) from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. The main centre of Kaniyapuram area is located in NH-66 in between Kazhakkoottam and Pallippuram CRPF Base. The Kaniyapuram locality is a vast area and expands to; Andoorkonam in the East, Parvathy Puthanar in the West, Vetturoad in the South and Pallippuram in the North. The Kaniyapuram town belongs to the Andoorkonam Panchayat, although Andoorkonam still remains a village 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) to the east.The main town in Kaniyapuram is Alummoodu junction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islam in Kerala</span> Overview of Islam in the Indian state of Kerala

Islam arrived in Kerala, the Malayalam-speaking region in the south-western tip of India, through Middle Eastern merchants. The Indian coast has an ancient relation with West Asia and the Middle East, even during the pre-Islamic period.

Religion in Karnataka has played a very important role in shaping modern Indian religions and philosophy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Education in Kerala</span> Aspect of Indian society

The importance and antiquity of education in Kerala are underscored by the state's ranking as among the most literate in the country. The educational transformation of Kerala was triggered by the efforts of both Church Mission Society missionaries like Jon Munro and clergy of Catholic church like Fr Kuriakose Elias Chavara and Fr Charles Lavigne and were the pioneers that promoted mass education in Kerala, in the early decades of the 19th century. The local dynastic precursors of modern-day Kerala, primarily the Travancore Royal Family, the Nair Service Society, Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, and Muslim Educational Society (MES), also made significant contributions to the progress on education in Kerala. Local schools were known by the general term kalaris, some of which taught martial arts, but other village schools run by Ezhuthachans were for imparting general education. Christian missionaries and British rule brought the modern school education system to Kerala. Ezhuthu palli was the name used in earlier times. The word was derived from the schools run by the Buddhist monasteries. For centuries, villages used to set up an ezhuthupally or ashan pallikoodam with one or two teachers. Students used to go this school from nearby areas and learn languages, literature, mathematics, grammar etc. After completing this, students may continue study about specific subjects such as ayurveda, astrology, accounting etc. Censuses during the 1800s showed that Travancore, Cochin, and Kannur areas have many such schools.

Jami'a Nooriyya is an Arabic College, or an educational institute of higher religious learning, the equivalent of south Indian madrasa, located at Pattikkad, near Perinthalmanna in Malappuram district, Kerala. Established in 1963 by Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama, it is the premier orthodox or traditionalist Sunni-Shafi'i institution for the training of the Islamic scholars in Kerala.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christianity in Kerala</span> Third-largest practiced religion in Kerala

Christianity is the third-largest practiced religion in Kerala, accounting for 18% of the population according to the 2001 Indian census. According to traditional accounts, Thomas the Apostle sailed to the Malabar region in 52 AD and introduced Christianity to the area. Although a minority, the Christian population of Kerala is proportionally much larger than that of India as a whole. A significant portion of the Indian Christian population resides in the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tenhipalam</span> Census town in Kerala, India

Thenhipalam is a census town and a panchayat in Tirurangadi taluk in Malappuram district of Kerala, India, with a population of 27,273 as per 2001 census, consisting of 13,293 males and 13,980 females. Tenhipalam forms a portion of the Malappuram metropolitan area as of 2011 Census. University of Calicut, the first university in the Malabar region, is located north-west part of the Panchayat. 'Chelari' is the main commercial place in Tenhipalam panchayat while 'Panambra' is considered the headquarters of the panchayat. The small town between Chelari and the university is called Kohinoor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hinduism in Kerala</span> Overview of Hinduism n Kerala

Hinduism is the largest religion in Kerala and Hindu lineages together make up 54.7% of the population of the state according to the 2011 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vakkom Moulavi</span> Indian journalist and reformer (1873–1932)

Vakkom Mohammed Abdul Khader Moulavi, popularly known as Vakkom Moulavi was a social reformer, teacher, prolific writer, Muslim scholar, journalist, freedom fighter and newspaper proprietor in Travancore, a princely state of the present day Kerala, India. He was the founder and publisher of the newspaper Swadeshabhimani which was banned and confiscated by the Government of Travancore in 1910 due to its criticisms against the government and the Diwan of Travancore, P. Rajagopalachari. He was an avid reader of Rashid Rida’s Islamic magazine, Al-Manar. Vakkom Moulavi is known as the father of Islamic renaissance in Kerala.

K.T. Mohammed Musliyar, who was known as K.T. Manu Musliyar was an Islamic scholar, orator, and writer and General Secretary of Samastha Kerala Islam Matha Vidyabhyasa Board, which is one of the biggest educational organisation in Kerala. He also was a great leader of Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">K. Ali Kutty Musliyar</span> Islamic scholar from Kerala, southern India

K. Ali Kutty, title Musliyar, is an Islamic scholar from Kerala, southern India. As of 2022 he was General Secretary, Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama, the body of Sunni-Shafi'i scholars in northern Kerala and as of 2014 he was Principal, Jami'ya Nooriya Arabic College, Perinthalmanna (2003–present) and President, Ponnani Maunathul Islam Arabic College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sayyid Ibraheem Khaleel Al Bukhari</span> Sunni Islamic scholar

Sayyid Ibraheem Khaleel Al Bukhari is founder and chairman of Ma'din Academy and adviser of World Interfaith Harmony Week. He is a sunni Islamic scholar, Joint Secretary of Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama, General Secretary of Kerala Muslim Jamaat, a body of various Muslim organizations in Kerala and he is listed in The Muslim 500.

Our Lady of Immaculate Conception Church, popularly known as Manjummel Palli, is a parish church coming under the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Verapoly. It is situated along the Eloor - Muttar Road, about 8 km from Kalamassery at Manjummel, in Kochi, Kerala. It was blessed on 4 December 1892 and is one of the century-old churches in Kerala.

Pallikoodam or Ezhuthupally Pally is a word in Malayalam and Tamil that denotes a school. These were mostly village schools run by individual teachers and were distinct from Kalaris that taught martial arts.

Musliyar is an honorific associated with South Indian, chiefly Malayali, scholars of Islam. Notable people with the surname include:

All India Sunni Jamiyyathul Ulama, or All India Muslim Scholars Association, is an organisation of Islamic scholars in India.

Dakshina Kerala Jami-yyathul Ulama is the principal Sunni-Shafi'i and Hanafi scholarly body in southern Kerala. The council administers mosques, institutes of higher religious learning and madrasas in southern Kerala districts of alappuzha, kottayam,idukki, pathanamthitta,kollam & trivandrum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama</span> Sunni Islamic organisation in India

Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama of EK Sunnis also known as Samastha and EK Samastha is a Sunni-Shafi'i Muslim scholarly body in Kerala. The body administers Shafi'ite mosques, institutes of higher religious learning and madrasas in India. The Samasta Kerala Jamiyatul Ulama, popularly known as Samastha, is the Sunni scholarly organization with the highest support among Kerala Muslims. The formation of the Samasta was a response of these traditional ulama to the conditions of the post-1921 era, in which Kerala Muslim society in general witnessed a radical shift from the ladder of individual leadership to the ladder of organizations.

Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama of AP Sunnis, also known as Samastha and AP Samastha, is a Sunni-Shafi'i Muslim scholarly body in Kerala. The council administers Shafi'ite mosques, institutes of higher religious learning and madrasas in India. There are two organisations known as Samastha, one named after E. K. Aboobacker Musliyar and the other after Kanthapuram A. P. Aboobacker Musliyar, both of which emerged in 1989, due to organisational disagreement in Samastha.

References

  1. ↑ A Sreedhara Menon (1 January 2007). A Survey Of Kerala History. DC Books. pp. 57–58. ISBN   978-81-264-1578-6 . Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  2. ↑ Katz 2000; Koder 1973; Thomas Puthiakunnel 1973; David de Beth Hillel, 1832; Lord, James Henry 1977.
  3. 1 2 3 Nambudiri, Sudha (11 June 2022). "Idolatry is a discipline". Times of India. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  4. ↑ Gopalakrishnan, P K. Keralthinte Samskarika Charithram. Tvm: Kerala Bhasha Institute, 2001.
  5. ↑ Gopalakrishnan, P.K. (1991). Keralathinte Samskarika Charithram. Tvm.: Kerala Basha Institute. p. 256.
  6. ↑ Panikassery, Velayudhan. Kerala Charitratinte Ullarakalileku. Thrissur, Current, 2012.
  7. ↑ Neill, Stephen (2004) [1984]. A History of Christianity in India: The Beginnings to AD 1707. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN   9780521548854.
  8. ↑ Devika, J.; Varghese, V. J. (March 2010). To Survive or to flourish? Minority rights and Syrian Christian assertions in 20th century Travancore (PDF). Trivandrum: Centre for Development Studies. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 May 2012. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  9. ↑ Surendranath, Nidhi (18 July 2013). "A saint who pioneered girls' education remembered". The Hindu. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 18 June 2022. .. The first convent was a simple bamboo-mat house at Koonammavu, on the land once administered by Vareed Vakayil. The congregation, under Mother Eliswa, was given the task of teaching girls who had no means to pursue education. St. Joseph's LP School at Koonammavu was set up in 1868 as the first Catholic school for girls in Malabar. Mother Eliswa's mission in life was to educate young girls and she set up several girls' schools here. ..
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Basheer, K. Mohammed (2016). Quality enhancement in Madrasa education : an exploratory study. Newcastle upon Tyne. p. 18. ISBN   978-1-4438-5685-0. OCLC   966288166.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  11. ↑ "Samastha Kerala Sunni Vidyabhyasa Board Islamic Education". samastha.in. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
  12. ↑ Mohammed, U. (2007). Educational empowerment of Kerala Muslims : a socio-historical perspective. New Delhi: Indian Council of Historical Research. ISBN   978-81-903887-3-3. OCLC   288383030.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.