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153
AUGUST, 1927]
THOMAS CANA AND HIS COPPER-PLATE GRANT.
and was written on both sides; and all three hung from an iron ring." (Gouvea, Jornada, 1606, fol. 97r-97v.
While I was at Quilon, at the end of January 1924, I motored to Tevalikara, to inquire about these copper-plates; but, as in the time of Fra Paolino, no one there knew anything of them. From the description given, some one in Malabar might be able to tell us whether these plates are possibly any of those now known to exist.
Friar Paulinus a S. Bartholomaeo sought in vain for the Quilon and Tevalikara plates mentioned by Anquetil Du Perron. He writes:
"Matay Matay, a Cassanar, born at Angicaimal, and secretary at Verapoli to Dom Florentius a Jesu, Bishop of Areopolis, wrote Lives of Sainis. But uncertain and supposititious is a copy of the privileges granted by Emperor Ceramperumal to the Christians of St. Thomas, which Anquetil du Perron produces in his Zend-Avesta, Dics. prél. p. clxx sqq., as having been received from that priest in 1758 (p. 190). For:
"1. D. Florentius, Bishop of Areopolis, in his letter to Anquetil, does not mark the place whence that copy was taken, or where it was found.
"2. La Croze and Raulin, in his history of the Diamper Synod (ch. 1, p. 8), tell openly and clearly that the copper-plates, on which were written the privileges of the Christians granted by Ceramperumal, were lost through the carelessness of the Portuguese Procurator, with whom Mar Jacob the Bishop had deposited them. Such too is the general tradition of the learned in Malabar.
"3. The Christians never produced this copy before the king of Cochin and of Travancore, when there was question of the privileges [of the Christians], of their infraction, of the dignity of the Christians, or the honour of the churches, or when any persecution was moved against the churches.
"4. I made a diligent enquiry for these privileges at Collam and at Tevelicare, where Anquetil had thought these writings were hiding, and I could not find them.
"Therefore, that copy of the Priest Matay is uncertain and supposititious, like two apocryphal letters by him: one of the Blessed Virgin Mary, written to St. Ignatius, Patriarch of Antioch, and another of the B. V. M. to the people of Messina, which Matay circulated (venditabat) as true and genuine at Verapoli."63
Friar Paulinus is mistaken if he thought there could not be copies, more or less exact, of the privileges granted to Thomas Cana. In 1924 the Rev. Fr. J. Panjikaran and Mr. T. K. Joseph collected in a short time 13 versions of these privileges. I am afraid many are not genuine, and have been made to air the peculiar views of the Northists against the Southists, and vice versa. One such version which came to light at Gothuruti during my journey would have deserved being printed at once. Will it be suppressed, because it recites the origin of most of the Seven Churches of St. Thomas and attributes them to Thomas Cana? St. Thomas' claim on India is built on stronger grounds than the Seven Churches. Such is precisely the state of the St. Thomas Christians that, if the publication of the different versions of these privileges now current were attempted, it might be viewed by one section of the community as an attack on their dignity. All the old antipathy of Southists and Northists would blaze up again, and who knows whether new faked documents would not be produced! There is still a class of professional bards, who go about the houses of Christians singing these privileges, and from whom variants of the privileges could be extracted. These songs should be compared, translated, published on their own merits, and without any regard for the susceptibilities of
63 Paulinus a S. Bartholomaeo, India Orientalis Christiana, Romac, 1794, pp. 189-190.
"From him [Bishop Florentius] Du Perron got a Sanscrit (?) version of the copper-plate grant by Chera. man Perumal to the Syrian Christians. Du Porron showed this to a Syrian priest at Matancheri, who in bad Portuguese gave him an oral translation, which Du Porron produces at page 175 of his book [Zendavesia]. This version in no way resembles the Portuguese version which has already been given."-Trav. Man., II. 193.
