(born in Palackal family at Pallippuram, near Cherthala in Alappuzha, Kerala) is an Indic musicologist, singer and composer, with special interests in the musical traditions of the Indian Christians and a Syro-Malabar Catholic priest.
Palackal wrote a Master's thesis at Hunter College in 1995 on the various styles of singing the Puthenpaana [New Song], the Malayalam poem composed by the grammarian and lexicographer Johann Ernst Hanxleden (Arnos Paathiri), analysing the several cultural influences.
[4][5] As part of this doctoral work, Palackal brought out a CD, Qambel Maran,[6] a collection of Syriac chants in the Chaldean tradition of the Syro-Malabar Church; it includes the hymn Awun d'wasmayya, i.e., the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic, arguably in the same words which were used by Jesus when he taught the Pater Noster, compositions by St. Ephrem the Syrian (notably the acrostic hymn Iso maaran m'siha on the name Iso M'siha, i.e., Jesus the Messiah), and the Syriac translation Sabbah lesan of the Latin hymn Pange Lingua by St. Thomas Aquinas; these chants had up to then been preserved in the main only in oral tradition; among the singers is Fr.
He also published illustrations[8] of various facets of their music, culture, and history; these include the picture of an angel playing a five-stringed violin as carved on the wooden altar of St. Mary's Forane Church, Pallippuram, the iconic portrait of Christ the Guru[9] drawn by Joy Elamkunnapuzha, and the picture of the granite Cross[10](c. 700 A. D.) at St. Thomas Mount, Chennai, the earliest available material evidence for a flourishing Christian community in India.
[12] He brought out in 1979 an LP record, Christian Bhajans, as part of an experiment under the aegis of Mar Cardinal Joseph Parecattil to devise a liturgy founded on the Indian musical tradition.