In 1589, the Konkani community of Cochin acquired a revered metal idol known as the Bhimmum from their visiting high priest. He fell gravely ill every time he attempted to leave the city with it. The priest offered to part with the image for enough Venetian gold sequins to cover it on a salver. The idol’s head allegedly rose higher as the coins piled up until Cochin ran out of sequins. This led instead to a contract granting the priest’s descendants hereditary high-priesthood and three days of annual worship.
The idol’s later history was very turbulent. Around 1719, it vanished and washed ashore. The Dutch governor mistook the small misshapen metal figure for a curio and gave it to his children as a plaything. After his wife suffered severe colic and a native doctor’s household endured seven years of illness, the figure was finally identified as the lost Bhimmum. It was restored to its shrine.
Far worse trouble erupted in 1791. The raja of Cochin demanded sugar-cane jaggery from the pagoda for a feast at Tripunithura, but the trustees, including Dagwars Kinni, refused. Officers sent by the raja entered Kinni’s shop in September, saying they wanted to buy silks. They beheaded him and raided the Canarese Bazaar. Amid the chaos, priests boxed the idol and its jewels. They sheltered under the guns of the Dutch fort and smuggled the Bhimmum by canoe to Alleppey. At Alleppey, the raja of Travancore housed it and later endowed a new pagoda for it with lands yielding 12,000 rupees a year.
In February 1853, after a Brahman feast at the Alleppey temple, a Cochin Brahman hid the idol inside a long bread-basket. The basket was used to carry leftover food out of the sanctuary. He had it rowed swiftly back to Cochin. Outraged, Travancore ordered troops from Quilon in 1856 to march on Cochin and force its return. Cochin’s dewan agreed to hand it back. On Jan. 28, 1857, an honour guard of the Nair Brigade awaited the ceremonial boat at Alleppey. The chief priest found that Cochin had sent a decoy idol dressed in the true jewels. A second image was sent three days later, on Jan. 31, 1857. It was another counterfeit. Exhausted by the deadlock, the Madras Government finally settled the dispute in 1859. The idol could remain because it had originated in Cochin and returned there. Travancore then promptly reclaimed the temple lands.
