Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/121

 RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN MALABAR 79 still assert, their non-Hindu system of family life and inheritance. The chiefs were either semi-Hindus or manufactured into high-caste Hindus on their acces- sion to the throne as at least one of them is to this day. The strictly Hindu element was a small one, made up of Brahmans whose ancestors had brought their faith from the north, or of subsequent converts. But although few in numbers the Brahmans held a con- spicuous place as holy men and as councillors of the rajas. This religious freedom was characteristic from early times of the empo- riums along the Asiatic sea- route. Abu Zaid of Siraf, when mentioning the for- eign colonies in Ceylon (circ. 916 A. D.), records that "the king allows each sect to follow its own religion." Manichaeans, Mus- sulmans, Jews, and Christians were alike welcome at the Malabar ports. The coast-rajas had specially fa- voured religions of the Messianic type. If the con- nection of the Malabar Jews with Solomon's fleets must be relegated to legend, traditions carry back their arrival to their escape from servitude under Cyrus in the sixth century B. c. They tell how later colonies came after the final destruction of the Temple, bringing A BRAHMAN OP BOMBAY.