Eichah VeKinoth [Books of Lamentations, with elegies for the Fast of the Ninth of Av]. For use by the Jews of Cochin.

(INDIA)

(Cochin)

19th century

Manuscript in brown ink on lined paper. Two columns, vocalized square Hebrew with translation alongside into Malayalam (Malabari). The David Solomon Sassoon copy. See D.S. Sassoon, Ohel Dawid: Catalogue of the Sassoon Library (1932) Vol. I p. 32, no. 444.

The Biblical book of Lamentations and accompanying Kinot (elegies) to be recited on the Ninth day of Av, in commemoration of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. The Kinot section comprises twenty-three elegies, including works by Judah HaLevi and Moses ibn Ezra, according to the rite of the Indian Jewish community of Cochin, (today, Kochi, district of Ernakulam, state of Kerala). No published version of this translation exists. Few manuscripts are extant written in Hebrew and Malayalam, the local dialect of the miniscule community of Cochini Jews. Judeo-Malayalam is the only known Dravidian Jewish language. Cochin, a delightful town at the southern tip of India, has had a Jewish presence whose roots are said to extend back to the time of King Solomon. Provenance: Sotheby’s New York, Hebrew Manuscripts from the Collection of the Late David Solomon Sassoon, 4th December, 1984, Lot 35.