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148
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[Vol. XV.
Turning to other inscriptions where the term occurs, we find in the Mamballi platest of Sri Vallavangồdai-"mērchollappatta Ayurur mukkālvattamum patřäragarkkolla idaiy iduñ Sri Vallavangodaiy-adai Adichchap Umayammai atti-ppēļu kondada."-" The mukkālvaltam of Ayurar mentioned above and the idai idu (property in the centre) belonging to the deity were held in proprietary right by Adityan Umayammai related to Sri Vallabhangodai.” It is clear that mukkalvaffam refers to real property situated in Ayurar.
In the Madras Epigraphist's collection for 1905 is a stone inscription (No. 120) where is found the expression “Tiripuradāna paņņina sēvagaŋär tirumukkalvattam." The late Rao Bahadur V. Venkayya has remarked as follows: "Tirumukkālvatļam appears tu mean the holy shrine of the god Śiva." His rendering is supported by the epithet Tiripura (Tripura) dānam (dahanam) panpina--" who burnt the three cities," which applies only to Sira.
In the Tirunelli plates of Bhiskaravarman we read : “Tirunelli mukkalvaţtattu nipru tan-ññátigaļum yogigalum trälar kalyyiluin atti-kkoduttar."-"(The donor), his kinsmen and co-partners gave away the proprietary right into the hands of the officers in the mukkalvattam of Tirunelli." It is absurd to soppose that these people, the kinsmen and relatives of the donor, were sitting on the "oracles of Velichappădu."
The natural inference from these passages is that mukkālvaftam means the real property of a temple--for most temples in South India have landed property attached to them. If so, mukkalvaffasgal would have the same significance, perhaps used in the still widor sense of the belongings of the temple.'
This inference is supported by two circumstances. In the inscription at Kalpătti we have the expression “I mukkālvatfanyab"-these muo. Thus the reference must be to something mentioned before or to something which could be pointed out from the spot. Secondly, the Velichappăda, when in a state of trance, uses the expression those living in this mukkalvattam." I am indebted for this information to my uncle, Mr. S. A. Sesha Sastriar, B.A., now District Muosiff and Magistrate of Anjengo, who has an invaluable fund of information on all matters connected with the customs and usages of Malabar.
I may now consider the possible derivations of the term.
(1) It is not impossible that the word originally meant a round three-legged seat used in Bhagavati temples. If so, it came to be used in the wider sense of the temple itself, then any temple (not merely that of Bhagavati), and lastly, in the plural form mukkālvaffarigal, the belongings of the temple as well.
(2) Vattam may mean anything round, thus & coin. Mukkalrattam would thus inean "a coin (vattam) which represente (in current money) three-fourths (mukkal) (of the money of account)." The current coin of Malabar was the velli, of which five went to the rupee, while the money of account was the panam, which was two-sevenths the rupee. But this meaning would not explain why the word mukkalvadtam is found used only in connection with temples.
(3) Vatļam (Sanskrit vritta) means "a circle and corresponds to the Sanskrit word mandala. Even now the word raffum is used in the Tamil country to denote a definite area or subdivision of a Tālık. Mukkālrattan would mean a three-fourths part of this area. It is an idea as old as the Purusha-suktu hymn of the Rig Veda Sanhita that things material form
Ep. Ind., Voi. IX, p. 337, 11. 17-19.
• Ibid, p. 238, footnote. · Ll. 23-26. Ind. 1st., Vol. XX, p. 292.
• See Sir W. Elliot: Coins of Southern India. .K.g, in the Tanjore district, where this paper is written. The correspouding word in Malalar to-day is anfaw, or de som; but nur inscription belongs to a time wl.ru Tamil words were freely used, c.. mana noted above.
