The Battle of Cochin, sometimes referred as the second siege of Cochin, was a series of confrontations, between March and July 1504, fought on land and sea, principally between the Portuguese garrison at Cochin, allied to the Trimumpara Raja, and the armies of the Zamorin of Calicut and vassal Malabari states.
The celebrated heroics of the tiny Portuguese garrison, led by Duarte Pacheco Pereira, fended off an invading army several hundred times bigger. It proved a humiliating defeat for the Zamorin of Calicut. He not only failed to conquer Cochin, but his inability to crush the tiny opposition undermined the faith of his vassals and allies. The Zamorin lost much of his traditional authority over the Malabar states of India in the aftermath. The preservation of Cochin secured the continued presence of the Portuguese in India.
Background
Since the fragmentation of the Chera state in the 10th century, the ruler of the city-state of Calicut (Port. Calecute; now, Kozhikode), known as the Zamorin (Samoothiri Raja, 'Lord of the Sea') had been generally recognized as overlord by most of the small states on the Malabar Coast of India. Under the Zamorin's rule, Calicut grew as a commercial city, emerging as the major entrepot of the Kerala pepper trade and the principal emporium for other spices shipped from further east (see spice trade).
In the opening journey of the Portuguese to India in 1498, Vasco da Gama immediately made his way to Calicut and tried to secure a commercial treaty with the Zamorin. Unimpressed by Gama, the elderly Zamorin allowed the Portuguese to buy spices on Calicut's markets, but refused to accord them any greater privileges.
The follow-up expedition of Pedro Álvares Cabral (2nd India Armada, 1500) arrived better prepared. The old Zamorin having died in the interim, Cabral negotiated a treaty with the new Zamorin, and a Portuguese factory was opened in Calicut. But within a couple of months, quarrels erupted between Portuguese agents and established Arab traders in the city, in which the Zamorin refused to intervene. In December 1500, a riot was raised and the factory in Calicut was overrun and numerous Portuguese massacred. Blaming the Zamorin for the incident, Cabral demanded that the Zamorin compensate them for their losses and expel all Arab traders from the city. When the Zamorin refused, Cabral bombarded the city of Calicut.
Thus began the war between Portugal and Calicut. The Portuguese quickly found local allies among some of the city-states on the Malabar coast which had long grated under Calicut's dominance. Cochin (Cochim, Kochi), Cannanore (Canonor, Kannur) and Quilon (Coulão, Kollam) opened their ports and invited the Portuguese.
The succeeding Portuguese armadas to India took to routinely bombarding Calicut, preying on her ships, and driving commercial traffic away from the city. The Zamorin quickly learned that there was little point challenging the Portuguese fleets at sea – the technological gap in ships and cannon was just too great – but on land the difference was not nearly as lopsided. The Portuguese presence in India consisted only of a handful of commercial agents, after all.
The Portuguese had come for spices. The Zamorin calculated that if he could exert his traditional authority over the Malabar states and close off access to spices, the Portuguese would either leave or be forced to negotiate terms and make a sensible peace. That meant trying to force his enemy kingdoms of Cochin, Cannanore and Quilon into shutting their markets to the Portuguese.
In principle, the Zamorin's plan was sound. The Portuguese had antagonised some of the residents of the Malabar coast. Their fleets had left a brutish calling card, made absurd demands upon the rulers, disrupted trade and daily life all along the coast. It should not have been too difficult to prevail upon the Malabari cities to participate in a general boycott of Portuguese trade, at least temporarily. But the Cochin rejected Zamorin's unreasonable demands.
First siege of Cochin (1503)
The city of Cochin (Cochim, Kochi) was a growing commercial town perched on the edge of the Vembanad lagoon. The ruling Hindu prince, Unni Goda Varma, the Trimumpara Raja of Cochin, was not secure in his own position. Formally, he was a minor prince, subsidiary to senior family members across the lagoon at Edapalli (Repelim), the official overlords of the lagoon. Indeed, it is quite probable Trimumpara was in the midst of a family quarrel and originally sought out the Portuguese alliance to strengthen his own position against his relatives.
Sentiment among the Cochinese population was largely against the Portuguese. Cochin was not self-sufficient in food, and the people had suffered much from the general disruption of trade along the Malabar coast. Moreover, Cochin had a significant Muslim population – both expatriate Arabs and local Mappilas – and the Portuguese had made no secret of their hostility towards them. Yet these were usually the very traders upon whom the city's subsistence depended. The Cochinese population did not, could not, see the point of the current state of affairs.
Sensing the resentment, Trimumpara Raja had the Portuguese factor Diogo Fernandes Correia and his assistants, Lourenço Moreno and Álvaro Vaz, stay at his own palace, and ensured they were always escorted by loyal guards when walking around the city's markets. But the Zamorin's influence over the Kerala hinterlands had dried up much of Cochin's pepper supply. The Portuguese factors were disappointed at the spare findings on Cochin's spice markets, and the Trimumpara Raja was painfully aware of their increasing interest in other more promising cities, notably Quilon. If the Portuguese abandoned Cochin, the Trimumpara would have nothing to show for his pains.
The Trimumpara's advisors argued against the Portuguese alliance, and urged him to pursue a reconciliation with the Zamorin. They warned him that the continued loyalty of the Cochinese Nairs could not be taken for granted in the event of a war. Nonetheless, the Trimumpara Raja refused to abandon the Portuguese.
In March, 1503, as soon as the Portuguese fleet (4th Armada) had set sail back to Lisbon, the Zamorin decided to intimidate his enemy into compliance. The Portuguese had left a small coastal patrol behind, to help defend Cochin. But the patrol's commander, Vicente Sodré dismissed the rumors of the Zamorin's military preparations and decided to take his patrol to cruise the mouth of the Red Sea. They did not return until the end of the summer.
In April, the Zamorin led a large Calicut army of some 50,000 troops against Cochin. Along the way, he was to be joined by allied Malabari lords, notably the rulers of Edapalli. The Trimumpara's son Narayan rushed with a force of 5,500 Cochinese troops to block the passage of the Calicut army over a ford near Edapalli (Repelim). Narayan valiantly repelled two Calicut assaults, but eventually the Zamorin's agents, by bribery and subterfuge, managed to detach many of the Cochinese Nairs from the frontline. In the next assault, Narayan was overwhelmed and killed, along with his remaining forces.
Narayan's brave stand gave his father and his Portuguese guests enough time to flee Cochin across the water to Vypin island (Vaipim) with a small core of loyal guards. The Zamorin seized Cochin city and demanded Trimumpara hand over the Portuguese agents, but the king refused. Vypin's natural defenses and the worsening weather prevented the launching of an assault against the island. The frustrated Zamorin limited himself to burning the city of Cochin and vowed to return after the weather improved.
Before burning down Cochin, the Zamorin of Calicut removed an ancient sacred stone, upon which the old Chera Kings of Malabar were traditionally ceremonially esconsed as lords of the sea and overlords of all the Malabari states. The sacred stone had originally been housed at the ancient Malabari capital of Cranganore, but had since been moved to Cochin. The Zamorin now moved it once more, to Edapalli.
The main Calicut army returned that same August, and once again Trimumpara Raja and the Portuguese agents were holed up in Vypin. The Zamorin and his Malabari allies were in the process of preparing assault boats against the island, when they spotted six armed Portuguese ships under Francisco de Albuquerque – the vanguard of the arriving 5th Armada – racing towards Cochin. The allied Malabari armies began to melt away immediately. The Zamorin reluctantly dismantled the siege and returned to Calicut.
Preparations
Cochin had been saved in the nick of time, but the Zamorin's armies were sure to return next Spring, as soon as the 5th Armada left. So the Portuguese immediately set about making preparations for Cochin's defense in the fleet's absence.
In the first order of business, a squadron of Portuguese ships did a tour of the Vembanad lagoon, punishing the local princelets who had given their support to the Zamorin's siege. Notable in this campaign was the Portuguese brutal sack of Edapalli, razing the city, with great bloodshed. Smaller towns and villages either met a similar fate, or quickly switched their allegiance over to Cochin. In this manner, the Trimumpara Raja of Cochin was forcibly imposed by Portuguese arms as the overlord of the Vembanad lagoon.
In the meantime, the Portuguese commanders persuaded Trimumpara Raja to allow them to erect a fortress on the edge of the Cochinese peninsula (an area now known as Fort Kochi), just a little to the west of the old city of Cochin proper (around what is now Mattancherry). Fort Manuel de Cochim, as it was named, was the first Portuguese fort in Asia. Built from local coconut palm timber supplied by the Trimumpara himself, the fort was completed in a couple of months.
As soon at it was finished, the Portuguese fleet commander Afonso de Albuquerque, against all odds, suddenly agreed to a peace treaty with the Zamorin of Calicut. It was probably a cynical move on both sides – no one really expected the peace to hold, but it bought them a little time. For a few weeks, the Portuguese could finish their defenses, the Zamorin could prepare his forces, without being molested by the other. But the peace was soon broken again in a skirmish over the delivery of a spice shipment in Cranganore.
In late January, 1504, Albuquerque's 5th Armada finally departed Cochin. They left behind a small garrison of around 150 armed Portuguese troops (some say only 130 or less) in Fort Manuel of Cochin, under the command of the knight Duarte Pacheco Pereira. Pacheco was also given three ships – one carrack (the nau Concepção under Diogo Pereira) and two caravels (the Garrida of Pêro Rafael, and another of unknown name under Diogo Pires (or Peres)).
[Note: It is possible that this 'Diogo Pereira' is none other than Diogo Fernandes Pereira the lost captain of the third squadron of the 5th Armada, who had discovered Socotra and wintered there, and set on a solo crossed of the Indian Ocean around this time. If so, then the nau Concepção might be his ship.
Intelligence networks in south India were such that both the Zamorin and the Trimumpara knew each other's every movement (the element of surprise was never really an exploitable tactic on the Malabar coast). And, sure enough, news soon arrived of the assembly of a large invasion army in Calicut. Unlike the previous one, this army was better equipped. The Zamorin had received a large contingent of firearms (arquebuses and/or muskets) from the Turks. Two Venetian agents that had secretly come to India with the 4th Armada had been busy helping Calicut forge better artillery. At least five European large cannons were ready, as well as a couple hundred smaller boat guns. Notices had been sent to the Zamorin's allies – the lords (Kaimals) of Edapalli, Cranganore, Kottakkal, Kingdom of Tanur (Vettath raja of Vettattnad), Beypore, Chaliyam, Pariyapuram etc. – to prepare their auxiliary forces.
News of the size and arms of the Zamorin's alerted Cochin. Cochin had lost a battle during the previous year's siege. Although, in his new position as lord of the Vembanad backwaters, the Trimumpara Raja could, notionally, call on 30,000 troops from around the lagoon, at most 8,000 might respond to his call, the remainder being "actively or passively hostile."
Rumors soon spread through Cochin that the Portuguese garrison had no intention to stay, that ships were being prepared to evacuate the Portuguese to Cannanore or Quilon the moment the Zamorin's army arrived, and leave the Cochinese to bear the brunt of the assault. The population of Cochin began to evacuate the city. Trimumpara Raja himself began to waver, his advisors urging him to seek out a reconciliation with the Zamorin before it was too late.