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NOVEMBER, 1874.]
PAHLAV! INSCRIPTIONS IN SOUTH INDIA.
315
Chaldæo-Pahlavi attestations to the grant B clearly legible, which indicates a true Pârsi already referred to, and which is now in the name. E. W. West has made an attempt at possession of one of the rival Syrian Metro reading almost all the names, but, as they are politans at Kottayam. These few lines have neither legibly written, nor familiar to us, I do been already discussed by Dr. E. W. West, not think it safe to venture on an explanation and subsequently by Dr. Haug, whose remarks of them. The shape of the letters is nearly the are as follows:
same as in the books, and the compound cha"Of more interest is a Pahlavi inscription racters are employed throughout. found on a copper plate in the south of India. "Regarding the signatures in the Hebrew It forms part of a grant which records the character, which have been all read by E. W. rights and privileges of the early Christians on West, in his paper on the Sassanian inscripthe Malabar Coast. The grant is engraved tions, the names Has an 'Ali, Mikiâ il on six copper plates, five of which contain, in (Michael), and Abraham are pretty clear. old Tamil characters,* the grant made by an Each signature is introduced by the phrase ancient king to the Christian congregation of hak-gun-kun, which is translated by E. W. his country it the sixth contains the names of West as 'the truth-speaking-doer.' To this the witnesses, in three different characters and interpretation, which appears somewhat artifi. languages, none of them Indian, viz. eleven cial, I cannot give my fall assent; I quite agree names in the Kufic character and Arabic lan- with taking kun as identical with the Persian guage, ten in the Sassanian Pahlavi character kun, 'making, doing,' in fine compositorum; but and language, and four in the Hebrew (Chaldæo- gûn cannot be taken in the sense of speaking,' Pahlavi?) character and the Persian language. as this would be gû alone, but not gûn; .... Its date cannot be ascertained until the besides I doubt if the Arabic word haqg, 'truth,' inscription shall have been deciphered, but we were used at so early a time in Persian. I am, shall not be far wrong if we assume it to belong however, unable to offer any satisfactory exto the 9th century.
planation; I take hak as identical with the “Each attestation in the Sassanian Pahlavi Chaldee hakh, this,' and gûn as the Peris introduced by the words minúkú li, then sian gûn, 'manner, mode, way;' and the whole follows the name in full, succeeded each time would thus mean doing in this manner;' i.e. by the phrase patash gókás húmanam, 'I am hereby (by the signature which follows). Each witness to it;' which language is identical with signature is followed by the words badish guvathat of the books. As regards minúkú, it can ham, 'I am witness to it;' badish is equivalent only be taken as a title which is attributed to | to patash in the Sassanian signatures, and every witness, and which contains the minu, guvaham to gôkds húmanam; guval being Per
spirit,' of the early Sassanian inscriptions. Li, sian guváh, 'testimony,' 'a witness,' and the which follows, is 'I;' and the whole means the
suffix am is 'I am. These readings show spirit of me, my spirit,' i.e. I myself; mina that the writers did not use the Hebrew language; always signifying the invisible counterpart of for the language here is clearly Persian, but in a anything visible on this earth..... The form which closely approaches to the so-called names are difficult to read, and do not look Chaldæo-Pahlavi, which appears from this doculike common Parsi names, nor are they Chris
ment to have been still in use in the 9th century tian ; in line 13 (? 14) anhomá Ormazd' is among certain classes of the inhabitants of
• i.e. Vatteluttu.-A. B.
+ Rather, by A (. 774) privilegee are granted to one Iravi Korttan by the local prince (Vira Råghava); by B some of these privileges are made an endowment of the church, about half a century after the date of A. These settlements of foreigners probably enabled the local rulers in Malabar to throw oft allegiance to the Chêra kingdom, which fell in the 9th century.--A. B.
I Anquetil's version (from a Sanskrit copy) shows that ono plate is now missing, and that it contained the names of Indian witnesses. (Madras Journal, XIV. p. 199.) I saw these plates last April, and found that one (2) had been recently damaged.-A. B.
9 Dr. Haug's date is confirmed by the Tohfut.. Muja. hideen (p. 56), which puts (on tradition, however) the great settlement of Arabs at Cranganore at about 829 A.D. He is, however, mistaken in supposing that the inscription has not been deciphered; the explanation of it by Dr. Gundert (Madras Journal, vol. XIII.) is one of the most remarkable results of Dravidian studies.-A. B.
| 1 would vonture to suggest that these lettere may be also read Min nakab, which conf. the Persian-Arabie raqab) would mean by sign' or 'mark,' which would be much as the same as Dr. Haug's translation of the Chaldoan part of the attestations which follow.-A. B.
