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192
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ SEPTEMBER, 1924
3. There is a passage in the plate which affords us a piece of presumptive evidence in favour of its oarlier origin :" All articles that may be measured with the para, weighed by the balance, or measured with the tape, that may be counted or weighed." W. Logan says "This is almost an exact reproduction of the phrase so familiar to Roman Jurists : Quæ pondere, numero, mensurave constant" (Malabar, Vol. 1, page 269.) This copper plate, therofore, was in all probability written at a time when Keralam was in touch with Rome. But this interconrse with the Christian West was obstructed during the seventh cuntury on account of tho Muhammadan ascendency in Jerusalom, Egypt, Syria and Persia.
4. It is said in a grantha of cadjan leaves kept at Kulikkattu Matham, Tiruvalla, that during the clays of the Choraman Pertunal, nained Vira Kerala Chakravartti, the tennplo at Tiruvalla was dedicated. The above Matham is the house of a very prominent Bhattatiri 10 (Malayala Brahman), where a vast number of granthas aro preserved. The grantha referred to is only about two or three hundred years old, and the language also is not very old. But it is likely that whenever a grantha was copied, they would bring the language up-to-date and make so.no additions.
Nobody will contend that this grantha is altogether spurious. If it be, however, spurious, how did the Bhattatiri get at the name Vira Kéraia Chakravartti? No record other than the Vira Raghava copper plate has hitherto been known, where we find the name Vira Kerala Chakravartti, while this copper plate was left unrecognised among the Portuguese records from the sixteenth to nineteenth century. After it was recovered, it was kept at Kottayam, and there wero vory few peoplo then who could read and understand it. So there was not the least chance of its being known to the above Bhattatiri, and yet the name is given in this grantha oxactly as it is in the copper plate. " Vira Kerala Chakravartti" not even Vira Keralan or Vîra Kerala Pertuna!. We, therefore, come to the conclusion that the temple of Tiruvalla was dedicated during the days of Vira Kerala Chakravartti. The date of its derlication is given in a chronogram "Chēramanpatakata," i.e., 1,111,526th day after the beginning of the Kali age, which falls in the year 59 B.C. A Hindu image can bo dodicated only on special auspicious days, and there aro several requirements to be fulfilled for a day to be auspicious.:
1. It should be during uttardyanam. 2. It should not be on Saturday or Tuesday. 3. It should be during the bright fortnight.
4. Of the 27 asterisms only sisteon (1st, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 17th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 26th, 27th) are auspicious.
5. The above-mentioned auspicious asterisms will become inauspicious by the following circumstances.
(a) An auspicious one will become inauspicious by the presence of any of the following "sinners," Sun, Mars, Saturn and Rahu.
(6) Each astorism has certain asterisms as companions, e.g., uttirattiti, the autorism of the day uncler consideration, has five companions (2nd, Sth, 11th, 17th and 20th). If the Sun or Mars, or Jupiter, or Saturn stand in any of these asterisnis, its companion ullirattati will become inauspicious.
(Muhúrttapadavi published by Bharata Vilâsam Pross, pp. 197, 198, 112.)
Under these rules it is very difficult to find an auspicious day for tho dedication of an image. But this particular day fulfills all the requirements. Now an astronomer would spend no inconsiderable timo and energy in order to find out an auspicious day in the distant past. The above-montioned Bhattatiri or his predecessors had nothing to gain by forging such a document. He was not publishing it to the world. Simply because I asked him about the dedication of the temple at Tiruvalla he brought out this grantha, and was not in the 10 I am extreinely thankful to this gentleman for his kindly allowing me to copy a portion of this grunthu
