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106
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
JONE, 1928
Eighteen salutes were fired.73 When he enters the city gate, after the firing of the salutes,
The sepoys, 74 they give a shout, 25 And all their limbs languish.
On the royal palanquin a flag was raised, And in it sat Raja Varma.75 Chempakassêri76 also is with him,
And the king of Vettattunâd77 too. 30 Mâr Joseph of Urfa78 goes.
Four priests are near him, There are many deacons too. Sepoys79 are close to him,
And Tomman Kinan 0 is with him. 36 You81 came and obtained a permit,
And went there 8% early, And held him by the hand to disembark.
A royal palanquin3 plated with gold
He mounted, and sat down, 40 And proceeding in pomp, entered the fort. In the fort was the Perumal, the king.
(Another tune.) The daytime-lamp, 84 the foot-cloth, 85 and regal musical instruments. We have come with the desire to govern Malabar, Longing to see my children well.
(Another tune.) 45 By the grace of the loving Mother, 86
He slowly got ready and to the king of the solar race 87 Narrated the facts, And obtained a house and compound and slaves.
Those who visited him bowed and received his blessing. 50 And wearing the mitre, he governed three years.88
(To be continued.) 73 This seems to be an individual touch by the author of the song. Firing of guns or petards was not in vogue in A.D. 345, although gunpowder seems to have been known at that time.
74 The soldiers in Cranganore.
75 Raja Varma who received the Bishop at the city gate has to be taken as the then Malabar king. I think I have seen the name Renovarmen in some Portuguese account. Whore ?
76 The king of that principality in Travancore. 77 This principality is in British Malabar. 78 Uraha in the original is modern Urfa, old Edessa. 79 Mar Joseph's own retinue or the king's soldiers sent as an escort. 80 Thomas Cana. In Malayalam he is known as Tomman Kinan, Knayi Tomman, and Kana Tommi 81 The poet addresses Thomas Cana, who is supposed to have landed first to go and obtain the pormit. 83 To the ship.
83 Sent from the palace. #4 Lamp lit by day for processions. This is a special privilege. 86 Cloth spread on the ground for the bishop to walk along. Another privilege. 86 St. Mary.
87 Hindu kings of ancient times are said to have belonged to two races, the solar race and the lunar race. grf Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, belonged to the solar raco.
88 These five documents may, from their style and languago, bo assigned to the 17th-19th century. All the five are from the Ancient Songs of the Syrian Christians of Malabar (in Malayalam), Kottayam, 1910. The theory that these in their original form had been composed in A.D. 345, but were successively changed in wording as the centuries went by, is quite untenable. Nothing peculiar is there in the language and style and wording of them, that may be said to have come down from the fourth century A.D. or even the fourteenth. On the other hand all indications point to their origin in the 17th--19th century.
L. M. Zaleski's The Saints of India, Mangalore, Codiabail Press, 1915, pp. 215-226, has extracts from the above four songs as well as from others. But the translation there is wrong in almost every line.
