THE ARAMAIC PROJECT TO RESUSCITATE AN INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF HUMANITY By A program to honor and preserve the unparalleled legacy of an ancient language and music tradition that are part of the history and an intangible treasure in the world’s cultural heritage .
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The Aramaic (Syriac) language in which Jesus and His disciples preached the Gospel reached South India in the early Christian era. Until the 1960s, the St. Thomas Christians in Kerala, who trace the origin of their faith to St.Thomas the Apostle, celebrated liturgy in this language. Since the vernacularization of the liturgy, the language and the melodies are on the path to extinction in the Syro Malabar Church (3.25 million members)....
The Aramaic project is a part of a larger plan of a digital library of Christian music in India under the auspices of the Christian Musicological Society. This library will be beneficial to the general public, as well as academic departments that specialize in such topics as South Asian and West Asian studies, Indology, musicology, anthropology, theology, religion, Church history, Syriac Christianity, liturgy, and linguistics....
This website is dedicated to Fr. Chandy Kadavil (1588-1677), a great son of India and a celebrated St. Thomas Christians from Kaduthuruthy, in central Kerala. He was also known by his nickname in Syriac, “Alaksandros hendwāyā” Alexander the Indian. Fr. Kadavil was a great scholar, orator, and a prominent leader of the St. Thomas Christians. He lived at a tumultuous period in the history of the St. Thomas Christians,, who reacted vehemently ....
The source of inspiration for the Aramaic project is the life story of the saintly Palackal Thoma Malpan (Pālackal Tōmmā Malpān, circa 1780-1841), my collateral ancestor, a teacher and scholar of the Syriac language and liturgy, founder of the first seminary of the Syriac Christians in India, founder of the first indigenous religious congregation for men in India (see video), and a father to the Syro Malabar Church......
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Latest Videos
Malpan, Dr. Mathew Vellanickal, a celebrated singer and scholar of Syriac chants, sings the most popular Res Qala ( head melody) in the entire Syriac chant repertory. The chant is known by the initial word in the first strophe: TUYAY (error).
Karunamrutham was a collaborative work. Sr. Sheila had been writing the lyrics and setting them to simple melodies for over a year when she contacted me to discuss the possibilities of a commercial recording. This was in 1987. The timing was perfect.
Introducing Fr. Palackal by Dr. Pauly Maniyattu, President of Paurasthay Vidya Pitam.Teaching St. Thomas Chant. "M'Sabhinan Lak".How ready was India to receive the Christian faith in the First century AD
AUDIO TRACKS
Syriac Chants from South India - CD
Chants in Syriac (Aramaic) from the Chaldean liturgy of the Syro-Malabar Church of the St. Thomas Christians.