Abstract
What the Tamils Said : A Letter from the Kelings of Melaka (1527). In September 1527, some sixteen years after the conquest of Melaka by Afonso de Albuquerque, the Keling (or Tamil-speaking) merchants of the town addressed a collective letter or petition to the King of Portugal Dom João III. The text of the letter is in Portuguese, followed by brief notations by the merchants in Tamil. It has been known to scholars at least since the time it was described by the Jesuit historian Georg Schurhammer, but has not been closely analysed hitherto. This essay presents a reading and translation of the letter itself, as well as the larger context for its production. It points to the difficult relations between the Portuguese and the Tamils, who although ostensibly allied with them, nevertheless found that their interests diverged. This was in large measure because of the assertive claims of the Portuguese casados, or private merchants, who had already emerged as a pressure-group in the Indian Ocean by this time. In the longer term, we see that the rival claims of casados and Kelings would be resolved in favour of the former, and that the Tamil-speaking merchants of Melaka were eventually to suffer a decline. This accounts for their dispersion to other ports and commercial centres.
Published Version
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