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850
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(AUGUST, 1902.
Brahman is styled Pillay -" Narayana Pillay, son of Gopala Pillay, Brâhman of Srivatesgötra (line), professing the Yajur Veda and residing in the old village or Brahmaņ hamlet built by Chéraman-Perumal-Rája." Mr. Logan surmises that it (mahá-pella) was probably a title of honour conferred on the early Muhammadans, or possibly on the still earlier Christian immigrants, who are also down to the present day called Mậpillas. The Muhammadans generally go by the name of Jonaka M&pillas, whereas the Christians are called Nasrant Mapillas. Jônaka is believed to stand for Yavanaka, i. e., Greek! It is indeed remarkable that in the Payyan repdt, perhaps the earliest Malayajam poem extant, some of the sailors mentioned in it are called Chonavars. The Mâpillas, Muhammadans of the Coast, are said to be the descendants of the early Arab traders, who formed temporary alliances with low-class women. On the Eastern Coast this class is known by the name of Lubbaye. Bishop Caldwell says that the Tamil people style them Tulukkar (Turks) or Jonagar (Yavanas).
Dr. Day derives the word Mapilla from md = mother and pilla = child, showing to whose care the offspring fell.56 Muhammadan parists of the coast, however, disown altogether the application of the term to those who belong to the religion of the Qorán. Duncan says that a Qazi derived the name from md - mother and pilla = a "puppy," as a term of reproach ! Maclean, in the driatic Researches,67 considered that the word came from Mahá or Mohai, "Mocha," and pilla, "a child," and therefore translated it into children or natives (perbaps out-castes) of Mohai or Mocha. A more likely and perhaps a more correct derivation of the word is given by Mr. Percy Badger in a note to his edition of Varthema.58 "I am inclined to think,” says Mr. Badger, "that the name is either & corruption of the Arabic Muflih (from the root fa'lah, to till the soil), meaning prosperous or victorious in which senso it would apply to the successful establishments of those foreign Mussalmans on the Western Coast of India : or, that it is a similar corruption of Maflih (the active participial form of the same verb), an agriculturist - a still more appropriate designation of the Moplas, who, according to Buchanan, are both traders and farmers. In the latter sense the term, though not usually so applied among the Arabs, would be identical with Fella'h, which is also a derivative from the triliteral root falaha."
The indigenous word used by the people in Malabar to denote the country is Malayalam, which some divide into male = hill and ala-wave, meaning the country of the hills and waves; while others derive it from malai - rain. Mr. Logan" thinks that Malabar is probably, in part, at least, of foreign origin. The first two syllables are almost certainly the ordinary Dravidian words mala (hill, mountain) and bar is probably the Arabic barr (continent) or Persian bar (country)." The native name of the country is suggestive enough. It is mala + alam - Malayalam ; mala meaning mountain, and alam, depth : land at the foot, declivity or valley, the whole signifying the land at the foot of the mountains, Malabar being precisely the Piedmont of the Italians. Malavdram is another term signifying the same thing, and the transition from Malavár (the am being but the terminal half letter peculiar to the Malayalam Language) to Malabar is more easy and less open to objection than the transition from Malabar or Monibar or Melibar, or Malangara to Malabar.61 Under the well-known role of grammar "bavayóreabhadah," the letters ba and va or band v are interchangeable. Grimm's Law also points in the same direction. The natives themselves might bave used the words Malabar and Malayâr indifferently, and foreigners, coming into the country, may reasonably be expected to call it by the name by which the natives themselves called it, if not exactly in its original form, still with some modification or verbal variation.
A History of Travancore, p. 86.
** Land of the Perumala, p. 866. 07 Vol. V. p. 28. Page 128. [But see ante, Vol. XXX. p. 501 1., for a discussion on "Mdpilla." - ED.) Sewell, Vol. II. p. 110.
Malabar, Vol. I. p. 1. 61 (Cf. Nicobar from Nakkavram. -ED]
