For a naval organization and hierarchy unique in the annals of history, we can take a brief look at the wealthy and powerful kingdom of Calicut, on the Malabar coast of southwest India, in about the year 1500.
For over five hundred years the zamorins, or kings of Calicut, had maintained without challenge their claim to the sovereignty of the Malabar Sea. The Red Sea trade which followed the monsoon was especially under their protection. With the ports on the Persian Gulf and on the African coast they maintained close contact. The Sultans of Gujerat and the rulers of the Konkan coast recognized the primacy of the zamorins.
Then came the advent of the Portuguese, with their determination to establish an empire in India, and their avowed purpose of establishing complete mastery over the Indian Ocean, which they claimed by Divine Right. The Portuguese initially based themselves at Cochin, on the Malabar coast, and almost immediately clashed with the kingdom of Calicut, which lies to the north.
The naval history of this period, especially in its relation to the Portuguese claim to exclusive navigation, is dominated by a remarkable family of Malabar muslims who were for a century the hereditary admirals of the Zamorin of Calicut.
Known as the Ali Marrakars, the family of Calicut admirals occupied a unique position in the Calicut nation, wielding almost sovereign rights within their own sphere and possessing a monopoly of all naval and maritime affairs by hereditary right. A community-within-a-community, they maintained their naval station at Ponnani, a naturally good harbor south of Calicut. Here they established a strong base, with fortress, dockyards, gun-casting factories, and other facilities. The status of the hereditary admirals was like that of a powerful duke in a medieval kingdom.
During one hundred years of war with the Portuguese, the family produced a succession of four remarkable sea leaders, who in initiative, courage, navigational skill, and persistence bear comparison with the great figures of naval history.
Most illustrious of the four was Kunjali III, who for 40 years carried on a most determined warfare against the Portuguese, with exceptional vigor and skill, achieving victory after victory, never being captured or decisively defeated. Kunjali is reported by Portuguese historians to have captured no less than 50 of their ships in one year, and the “Lords of the Sea” were hard put to maintain their coastal lines of communication. This Calicut admiral was a model of chivalry, considerate in private life, a cultivated gentleman whose knightly courtliness is attested to even by his enemies. A figure of romance, valor, and adventure, Kunjali III stands as one of the great heroes of Indian naval history.
One of Kunjali’s notable victories occurred in 1569. Perturbed by the aggressive activities of the Calicut Navy, the Portuguese Viceroy, Conde de Atouquiera, dispatched a large fleet of 36 powerful vessels under Dom Martino de Miranda with orders to destroy Kunjali’s fleet. Kunjali followed his usual tactics, avoiding decisive action, but constantly harrassing the enemy. The Portuguese admiral became so frustrated by these methods that he accepted a fight in an unfavorable position. The result was victory for Kunjali. De Miranda, wounded in the action, died later in Cochin.
Kunjali was also a great organizer, as is attested to by the ease with which he put successive fleets on the sea, despite the most determined efforts by the Portuguese for 40 years to eradicate him. No sooner was one Calicut fleet destroyed, captured, or dispersed—and the Portuguese viceroys heaving a sigh of relief—than another appeared to carry on the fight.
Kunjali’s tactics were simple. The Calicut ships—called gallivats—were small, lightly constructed, and built for speed. They had two sharply raking masts with large and small triangular sails. About 70 to 100 feet in length, they carried swivel guns or small cannon and sometimes pulled 50 oars. The Malabar admirals had learned early that it was useless for them to oppose the heavily built, heavily armed Portuguese ships in a stand-up fight. Evasion and harassment, combined with speed, enabled Kunjali to refuse action except when weather and position favored him. When forced to fight, he surrounded single vessels by infiltrating his fast, highly maneuverable craft into the Portuguese battle line, overpowering individual ships in boarding actions. He loved to attack the clumsy Portuguese galleons when they were becalmed; his gallivats, when propelled by oars, could move handily in very light airs.
It is customary for Portuguese and other Western historians to refer to these remarkable sea fighters as the “Malabar Pirates,” but they were not pirates in the accepted sense of that word. Of course, we can understand the Portuguese referring to them as “pirates,” but, in reality, we find them to be dedicated, patriotic professionals who were defending their own territorial waters against a foreign aggressor.
The men who served under the hereditary admirals were by no means primitive savages. Ferocious fighters they undoubtedly were, but the chronicles of India indicate that the Calicut Navy had well established rules of discipline and obedience, and a hierarchy of officers who were highly respected citizens in their own community. It must be conceded the commerce raiding, harrassing, evasive tactics of the Calicut Navy have influenced Western writers in referring to them as “pirates.”
The mobility and energetic activity of Kunjali’s fleet are impressive even by modern standards. His speed enabled him to appear in unexpected places. He might suddenly attack the Portuguese settlements on the east coast of India; a few days later, he would be boldly raiding Portuguese-held Ceylon; perhaps two days later, he would be patiently shadowing a large convoy, snapping up stragglers.
Kunjali III died in 1595, but by then, his work was done. In the early 17th century, Portuguese power was on the wane at home and abroad. The energetic Dutch had entered the Indian Ocean, and a new sea power, Great Britain, was making itself felt in the Atlantic. Portugal’s Indian Empire began to decay and crumble away. There are many factors involved in the failure of the Portuguese to establish a strong, enduring empire in India, but certainly we can say that no one factor contributed more to that failure than the dedicated fight of the hereditary admirals of Calicut, who for one hundred years successfully defied Portuguese sea power when it was at its strongest.