The invasion of kerala by Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan of Mysore in the latter half of the 18th century left a deep impact on kerala polity and society. This invasion of the mysoreans and Tipu in particular is called the ‘Padayottam’. Much of it’s effects are visble deep down in the keralite psyche even today. To understand what effect this incursion into kerala had on the syrian christian community, we need to study the timeline of events during those tumultous times between 1766 an...

A syrian christian takes his own name which is the name of his paternal grandfather, the name of his father and his house or ‘tharavad’ name. He may make any of these his surname and hence he may be G.J. Olikara, ‘G’ for Gevarghese (name of paternal grandfather), ‘J’ for John(name of father) and ‘Olikara’ for name of his ancestral house from where the line of his paternal family descends. He may be the son of O.G. John, ‘O’ for Olikara(name of the house), ‘G’ for Gevarghese (name of fath...