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No. 7.]
DAMODARPUR COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTIONS.
145
(2) " Land has been given by many kings, ench es Sagara and others; the reward of these grants) belongs to whosoever at any time poBBBBsOs the earth."
(3) "The grantor of land enjoys pleasures in heaven for sixty thousand years; the cog- fiscator and he who approves (of such confiscation) resides even so many years in hell."
No. 8.-THE KALPATTI STONE INSCRIPTION. By PROZ, S. V. VENKATESWABA, M.A., KUMBAKONAM.
This inscription is on a stone slab set up in front of the Visvanatha-Swāmin temple at Kalpătti in Palghat. An impression of the stone was taken by the Archeological Survey in 1895, and it was among the estampages of the Malabar district sent to me by the Assistant Archæological Superintendent for Epigraphy in 1914 for publication in a forthcoming volume of South Indian Inscriptions.'. It was far from clear. Last August there was & suit connected with the temple, and a fresh impression of the stone was taken by a competent hand at the instance of the District Munsiff's court, Palghat. I was summoned by the court to read it. As the inscription abounds in interesting matter on which some discussion by scholars will naturally be evoked, I have thought it suitable for publication in the Epigraphia Indica.
Of the two sides of the stone containing the insoription the western side, which corresponds to the first half, is altogether worn away by wind and weather and is illegible, except for a few letters here and there, which merely show the continuity of the inscription on the two sides. The eastern side is perfectly legible, as it is proteoted by the mukha-mandapa of Nandi, between which and the flag-staff the inscribed stone is placed.
The inscription is in the Chēra-Pāndys alphabet, popularly known as Vatteluttu, and the language is Malayalam. It is not dated (at least in the part which is now legible); but I would assign it on paleographical grounds alone to the fifteenth century. The only Malayālam letter in the whole inscription is ksha, which occurs twice (11. 21 and 30). Another detail of paldographical interest is the writing of n (dental nasal) for m (the labial nasal), e.g. in karanavarun takshi for karanavarum takshi in line 30. The initial consonant of a word is sometimes needlessly reduplicated, e.g. in chchokkanathar in lines 24, 25. The same symbol is used for a consonant and for the same with a vowel a after it. Thus we have tata written for tta (11. 14, 20) and kaka for kka (11. 21, 22). Short and long tu are expressed by the same symbol (ll. 21, 34). There are two symbols for na, as in modern Tamil. There are no marks of punctuation anywhere.
The subject matter of the insoription is the grant to the temple (of Visvanatha-Svåmin) of land, income, and precious metal and utensils, and the constitution of "marumakan " IttiKkombi and (his) younger brother (anantiravan) as trustees thereof.
The inscription seems to have been ont at the bidding of Rayiran Kaņdatt Pangi under orders from his master, who was apparently the then Raja of Palghat. I understand that the ancestral scribes of the Palghat Räjās are known by that name to this day. Perhaps the word Rāyiran denotes a roribe. Råyiran Keralan is the name of the engraver of one of the copper-plates of Malabar. Other proper names oocurring in the insoription are Itti-Kkombi, Chokkanātha and Emûr Bhagavati. The first is styled marumakan' (nephew), and IttiKkombi and Pangi are dames quite common in the Palghat Rāja's family. One branch of the Raja's family-that at Koņikkaledam-manages the affairs of the temple even now. Very
From the office of the Epigraphist, Ootacamund.
* The copper-plate deed of Karumbat Raman Bavivurman's time (No. 8 of Appendix A of the Madras Epig. Rep. for 1912), to be published shortly in this journal.
