page_title: Knanaya
section_title: Dance
hierarchical_section_title: Knanaya / Culture / Dance
caption_attribution_description: English: Margam Kali folk dance performed by Knanaya.
context_page_description: The Knānāya, also known as the Southists or Tekkumbhagar, are an endogamous ethnic group found among the Saint Thomas Christian community of Kerala, India. They are differentiated from another part of the community, known in this context as the Northists. There are about 300,000 Knanaya in India and elsewhere.
  The origins of the division of the Saint Thomas Christians into Northist and Southist groups is traced back to the arrival of the Syrian merchant Thomas of Cana who led a migration of Syriac Christians from Mesopotamia to India in the 4th or 9th century. The Knanaya claim descent from Thomas of Cana and those who came with him. The communities arrival was recorded on the Thomas of Cana copper plates which existed in Kerala until the 17th century after which point they were taken to Portugal by the Franciscan Order. The ethnic division between the Knanaya and other St. Thomas Christians was observed during the Portuguese colonization of India in the 16th century and was noted throughout the European colonial era.
  Today, the majority of Knanaya are members of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and the Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church.
context_section_description: The Knanaya maintain a distinct round dance, the Margamkali, or "the way/path" of Thomas the Apostle. This traditional dance was historically performed among Saint Thomas Christians, but the Knanaya have played a prominent role in preserving and maintaining it since European contact. The Margamkali was traditionally a male dance exhibiting twelve players symbolizing the Twelve Apostles dancing in a circle around a lighted brass lamp representing Jesus. It is accompanied by ancient songs about Thomas the Apostle, based on the apocryphal 3rd-century text Acts of Thomas. The song text consists of 450 lines, divided into 14 sections. These songs contain Syriac and Tamil diction, suggesting an origin before the emergence of the Malayalam language in Malabar between the 9th and 13th century.
  The Margamkali declined considerably after European colonization. In the 17th century, the Knanaya priest Anjilimoottil Itty Thommen Kathanar revised the text, which has influenced its current structure. In 1910, scholar P.U. Luke published the text for the first time in his collection of Ancient Songs. In 1924 the European priest and scholar Father Hosten was enamored by the Margamkali he saw danced by the Knanaya in Kottayam. He attempted to present the dance at the 1925 Vatican Mission Exhibition, but it was not performed due to mass disapproval by Northist Saint Thomas Christians. In the 1960s the Saint Thomas Christian scholar of folk culture Chummar Choondal led a sociological survey of the Margamkali. He noted that by that time, it was solely practiced and propagated by the Knanaya and could not be found among Northist communities. Furthermore, Choondal found that all of the Margam teachers and groups of the time period were Knanaya. With Choondal's aid, the Knanaya priests George Karukaparambil and Jacob Vellian spearheaded research on the Margamkali in the 1970s and '80s with the help of 33 Knanaya ashans (teachers). The team systematized the Margamkali and promoted it among schools and cultural organizations. In 1995, Mar Kuriakose Kunnasserry, the bishop of the Knanaya Diocese of Kottayam, established Hadusa (Syriac for dancing/rejoicing) as an All India Institute of Christian Performing Arts.
caption: Knanaya Margam Kali
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