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OCTOBER, 1924)
KOTTAYAM PLATE OF VIRA-RAGHAVA CHAKRAVARTI
226
Tiruvalla. (Ibid., Vol. II, p. 13), the copper plates in possession of the Jews of Cochin granted by Pårkara Iravi Varmar at Cranganore commonly known as the Cochin 16 plates (Indian Antiquary, Vol. III, p. 334), the Tirunelli plates of Parkara Travi Varmar (Indian Antiquary, Vol. XX, p. 290), the stone inscriptions of Parkara Travi Varmar (Trav. Arch. Series, Vol. II, pp. 31-51), and the Huzur Treasury plates of the time of Pårkara Iravi belonging to the temple of Tiruvalla (Ibid., Vol. II, Part III, pp. 173-207).
Of all the inscriptions mentioned above the Rajasekhara inscription,17 is pure Tamil. It nust be the oldest. The date assigned to it by the late Mr. T. A. Gopinatha Rao is the eighth century A.D., but I cannot find my way to accept his conclusion. Later on we shall discuss the date of Rajasekhara. We will now take into consideration the Malayalam forms which Mr. Venkayya points out from the dooument in question.
(a) Irunnarula, Alannu.-Tamil forms are Iruntarula and alantu, Malayalam nn is nt in Tamil: nn has taken the place of nt twice in this document.
Let us enquire when the form nn instead of nt came into use in Malabar. The Kantiyûr (southern part of middle Travancore almost close to the Tamil area) inscription of 1218 A.D. uses nn instead of nt five times-viz., kóvinnan four times and chénnan once. In the tenth century inscription of Tiruvanvantûr (Middle Travancore) we find kóvinnan instead of kovintan (Trav. Arch. Series, Vol. II, p. 23). The Tiruvalla (Middle Travancore) inscription of the ninth century uses chennan instead of chentan twice. Inscriptions of the time of Pàrkara Iravi Varmar, who has been shown to be of the sixth century, use the Malayalam form nn; vanniruntu (Ibid., Vol. II, p. 44), køvinnan (Ibid., pp. 39, 47, 49), chênnan (Ibid., pp. 43, 49), Vannu (Ibid., p. 47). In the Tiruvalla temple plates of the time of Parkara Iravi, we find irunnaruli, kagiyirunnu, el unnaruli, vannu, vdinnu, pakarnna, unarnna, chennan and kóvinnan several times. We find from these plates that even in Tiruvalla Middle Travancore, nn began to take the place of nt during the sixth oentury. This change must have taken place in the north like Cranganore much before the sixth century. Yet the use of an instead of nt is enough for Mr. Venkayya to jump to the conolusion that the document in question was of the fourteenth century.
(6) The next Malayalam form which Mr. Venkayya points out is the following
Pavata, kuta, atima, para, nira, sarkkara, enna, ita. In all these words a is used instead of ai, the Tamil form. But this document does not invariably use a instead of ai. It uses ai also, e.g., mural and makotaiyar. Here again Mr. Venkayya did not enquire when this Malayalam form of a instead of ai came into use in Malabar. In the Kayiyar inscription of 950 A.D., we find the form a instead of ai, e.g., amachchan instead of amaitian or amaichchan. We find a instead of ai (irupattanchu instead of irupattaiñchu or irupattaintu) in an inscription of Tiruvitaikkotu (a few miles south of Trivandrum where even now Malayalam mixed with Tamil is spoken) dated 871 A.D. (Trav. Arch. Series, Vol. I, p. 14). In the Tirukoţittsnam inscription of the time of Parkara Iravi (sixth century) Nos. 1 and 3, we find the forms naurutandtu and nanrulainatu (both a and ai). Again in the Perunna insoriptions (sixth century) we have nanrula-natu and nanrule-ndtu (instead of nanrulai nagu and tapa18 (instead of tapai) (T. A. S., II, pp. 34, 44). In the Tikotittanam inscription No. 4 we read mume instead of munnai (Ibid., p. 4). Though this form began to be used at so early a period, the other form was also in use till the seventeenth century in inscriptions. (See the Parur inscription of 1624 A.D., Trav. Arch. Series, Vol. I, p. 300.)
10 It is now with Mr. N. E. Roby, Jew Town, Cochin.
17 In this document is mentioned, as a current coin, a Roman coin which was suppressed in the Roman Empire under Constantius II, 860 A.D. (vids Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. XVII, pp. 662, 663).
18 The reading given in the T. A. S. is tapai. But it is clearly an oversight. Tapa not tapai is quite legible in the facsimile.
