MALABAR HILL, n.p. This favourite site of villas on Bombay Island is stated by Mr. Whitworth to have
acquired its name from the fact that the Malabar pirates, who haunted this coast, used to lie behind
it.
[1674.On the other side of the great Inlet, to the Sea, is a great Point abutting against Old Womans
Island, and is called Malabar-Hill
the remains of a stupendous Pagod, near a Tank of Fresh Water,
which the Malabars visited it mostly for.Fryer, 68 seq.]
[MALABAR OIL, s. The ambiguous term Malabar Oil is applied to a mixture of the oil obtained from
the livers of several kinds of fishes frequenting the Malabar Coast of India and the neighbourhood of
Karachi.Watt, Econ. Dict. v. 113.
MALABAR RITES. This was a name given to certain heathen and superstitious practices which the
Jesuits of the Madura, Carnatic, and Mysore Missions permitted to their converts, in spite of repeated
prohibitions by the Popes. And though these practices were finally condemned by the Legate Cardinal
de Tournon in 1704, they still subsist, more or less, among native Catholic Christians, and especially
those belonging to the (so-called) Goa Churches. These practices are generally alleged to have arisen
under Father de Nobili (Robertus de Nobilibus), who came to Madura about 1606. There can be no
doubt that the aim of this famous Jesuit was to present Christianity to the people under the form, as
it were, of a Hindu translation!
The nature of the practices of which we speak may be gathered from
the following particulars of their prohibition. In 1623 Pope Gregory XV., by a constitution dated 31st
January, condemned the following:1. The investiture of Brahmans and certain other castes with the
sacred thread, through the agency of Hindu priests, and with Hindu ceremonies. For these Christian
ceremonies were to be substituted; and the thread was to be regarded as only a civil badge 2. The ornamental
use of sandalwood paste was permitted, but not its superstitious use, e.g., in mixture with cowdung
ashes, &c., for ceremonial purification. 3. Bathing as a ceremonial purification. 4. The observance of
caste, and the refusal of high-caste Christians to mix with low-caste Christians in the churches was
disapproved.
The quarrels between Capuchins and Jesuits later in the 17th century again brought the
Malabar Rites into notice, and Cardinal de Tournon was sent on his unlucky mission to determine these
matters finally. His decree (June 23, 1704) prohibited: 1. A mutilated form of baptism, in which were
omitted certain ceremonies offensive to Hindus, specifically the use of saliva, sal, et insufflatio. 2. The
use of Pagan names. 3. The Hinduizing of Christian terms by translation. 4. Deferring the baptism of
children. 5. Infant marriages. 6. The use of the Hindu tali (see TALEE). 7. Hindu usages at marriages.
8. Augury at marriages, by means of a coco-nut. 9. The exclusion of women from churches during
certain periods. 10. Ceremonies on a girls attainment of puberty. 11. The making distinctions between
Pariahs and others. 12. The assistance of Christian musicians at heathen ceremonies. 13. The use
of ceremonial washings and bathings. 14. The use of cowdung-ashes. 15. The reading and use of
Hindu books.
With regard to No. 11 it may be observed that in South India the distinction of castes still
subsists, and the only Christian Mission in that quarter which has really succeeded in abolishing caste is
that of the Basel Society.