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JULY, 1927 ]
THOMAS CANA AND HIS COPPER-PLATE GRANT
127
deciphered) in every part of the kingdom for ever, and besides 26 five tributes to Thomas, and to his lineage, and to his confederates, for men, and for women, and for all his relatives, and to the children of his law for ever. The said king gave it in his name. Witnesses: these persons?? :
(L. 1.) Codaxericanden. (L. 2.) Cherucara protachatencomeren, the king's chief door keeper. Areundencounden,
the king's councillor. (L. 3.) Amen[atecou Indeng[uerullen, Captain of the army. (L. 4.) Chirumalap[ro]tatiriuicramen comeren, Regedor of the East side in Malavar. (L. 5.) Peru[i] alatiata adit[en], .... singer(?) of the said king. (L. 6.) Perubal[atialtacottocoude, guard of the king's port (?) (gate?). (L. 7.) Bichremenchingucn [de Carlturte, the said king's chamberlain.
(L. 8.) A[nan Jiperumcouil, Srivener of (all?) the affairs, with his own hand wrote this sealed (1 sedilar[a] ?) and also lucky writing 2
"This is the writing of the ground (chao) of Cranganor, which the Emperor of all Malavar gave to Thomas Cananeo, Armenian, and to the other Christians of St. Thomas. And, as at that time they reckoned from twelve to twelve years according to the course of Mercury, therefore it is said in the olla (Fol. 527r ; 88r) that the said town (povoaçao) was founded in the year of Mercury of February. This manner of reckoning is quite forgotten, because for the last seven hundred and seventy-nine years they count in the whole of this Mala var by the Coulað era 99 However, since the said Perumal, as we said above, died more than one thousand and two hundred years ago, so the Church and Christians of Cranganor are older than the same number of years and much before there were Christians at Paru, in the said Magoderpatanam.30 Afterwards, owing to evil times, the said Church and the settlement of Christians declined with the prosperity of Cranganor and was removed from the said place, and the Church was placed where it now is, on account of a private revelation received by a St. Thomas
26 E ajora distu.
27 The titles of the witnesses could not bo deciphered properly from the rotographs, as the ink has spread. I help myself for the reconstruction of these titles and even for part of the Portugueso translations (1) by means of do Couto, who in my edition has however only the first five titles, the rest being omitted for fear of prolixity ; (2) by means of T. K. Joseph's The Malabar Christian copper plates (Malayalam), 1925, who quotes Mackenzie's Christianity in Travancore, Trivandrum, 1901, pp. 59-61, where we have the other titles, but imperfectly too. I do not know whence Mackenzio could havu got the titles except from the Roz' MS. 'Possibly Mackenzie and Philipps communicated at this time. The copyist employed by Mr. Philipps at the British Museum may have succeeded better at timos to decipher the writing than I can manage from the rotographs. I am now sending to Mr. T. K. Joseph the page with the titles, in the hope that he may succeed in deciphering or reconstructing the Malayalam titles,
28 This is all I can make of this passago : escricao de todos os negoceos cð sua (mad es Jereuco (esta R8]critura sedila(a) e (tam]be afortunada. I do not know what sedilata may mean. All the letters of that word are clear, except the last. Sealed would bo sellada,
We may notice that the date of the copper plate is not given. Perhaps we have to understand that it was April 11, 345, when the first brick of the Church was laid.
29 1804-779 = A.D. 825, which is the generally accepted date for the beginning of the Quilon era. Mgr. Medlycott says it begins on Aug. 25, 825. Cf. Culh. Encycl., New York, XIV, 681b.
80 If we can at all rely on the Acta of St. Thomas (Syriac and Greek), on the de Miraculis and the Passio, we got that the king of Sandarük or Andrapolis, to be identified with Cranganore, was baptised by St. Thomas and became a deacon, called Xanthippus or Xenophon, and by the St. Thomas Christians Andrew, that his son-in-law (perhaps a Parur prince ?) became a bishop, callod Dionysius in the Passio, and by the St. Thomas Christians Kephas or Peter, that Dionysius' wife, called Pelagia in the Passio, vowed chastity and was martyred, a Gruek inscription on her tomb stating that she was the spiritual daughter of St. Thomas.
