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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1902.
There is a curious instance in the Kapadwaņaj plates of A. D. 654, which purport to convey a certain village, - Mahichha[ka]vinirggata-Mahichbakavastavy-aitachebaturvvidyasamánya-Kaugikasagðtra - Vâjasan@yasabrabmachåri-br[A]hmaņa Bappa -patra - Bhattibhat[t* Jaya, 61 - "to Bhattibhatta, a son of the Brahma Bappa who has come from Mabichbaka and dwells at Mahichhaka and is a member of the community of Chaturvedins of this same place and belongs to the Kausika gôtra and is a student of the Vâjasanêya (school)." Here, the same place, Mahichbaks, is presented both as the place of departure and as the place of residence of the grantee's father. The editor, however, has told us that the name Mahichhaka, which occurs twice in the grant, seems "to be a later correction in somewhat different characters." Evidently, in this record we have another instance of a genuine record having been subsequently tampered with. And the person who did that, did it in a carelees and clumsy way, introducing the name of Mahichhaks by mistake for something else, either in connection with vinirgata or in connection with rástavya.
DISCURSIVE NOTES ON MALABAR AND ITS PLACE-NAMES.
BY K. P. PADMANABHA MENON, B.A., B.L. The long narrow strip of land lying between G8karoam in the North and Cape Comorin in the South, the Ghats in the East and the Sea in the West, is known by various names, such as Parasuramakshetram, Bhargavakshetram, Karmabhumi, Keralam, Malabar, and Malayalam.
The first two names have their origin in the well-known legend of the warrior sage ParagaRama's alleged reclamation of the country from the sea. The legend has a firm foothold in the land, and it will, indeed, be long before it can be dislodged from the minds of the people. According to one version, Paragu-Rama or "Rama-with-the-axe," an asserted incarnation of Vishnu, commanded the ocean to retire from the foot of the Ghâts, and, the Indian Neptune demurring to this somewhat arrogant behest, the infuriated Brahmag fulminated the threat that -
"Soon with my arrow will I dry this sea
Till not a drop of ocean shall remain." The threat had the desired effect, for the god of the oceans at once receded to a specified distance and gave up the land to the irate sage. Thus was created Parasuramakohetram, or Bhargavakshetram, i, e., Parasu-Râma's or the Bhargava's land, because Parasu-Rama belonged to the Bhrigu clan.
The process by which Ráma accomplished this mighty deed takes different forms in different versions of the legend. Some say that the warrior sage, after destroying the Kshatriyas, i.e., the royal race, thrice seven times was seized with remorse, and to expiate the sin be made . gift of all his conquered land to the Brahmaps, who ordered him to quit the country. In this difficulty he A seg med his divine powers, Ascended the heights of Gokarnam, and commanded Varuņa (the ocean) to retire from the foot of the Ghats from Gokarnam to a point where the axe he wielded would fall when thrown southwards. The sea-god did so.
The legend is not to be rejected altogether as paerile. It has a core of truth in it; no doubt, encrusted all over with adventitious matter, so as to obscure the gem within. It, in fact, as it appears to me, chronicles, iu part, in the imaginative style of the poets, the effects of volonnio action on the coast centuries ago. The low lands of the Malabar Coast have evidently been raised from beneath the sea-level by subterranean forces. Instances are not wanting of the formation by natural foroes of large tracts of land on the coast, even in modern times. The Island of Vypeen, 18 miles long by one broad, on the north side of Cochin, was thrown ap by the sea not long ago. It is known
Ap. Ind. Vol. I. p. 28, line 2
Loo. cit. p. 86.
Seo Vol. XXX. above, p. 218, and note ,
