Indian Antiquary Vol 58

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 20

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ JANUARY, 1929
(2) He is given also the city of Cranganore and a jungle close by, which he converts into #town with a church and 62 houses. (3) He is granted the privilege of using seven kinds of musical instruments, a palanquin or an elephant as a vehicle. (4) Dignity' is conferred upon him-probably the title of mappila', son-in-law to the king. (5) Besides, he and his posterity, associates and relations as well as the followers of his faith, i.e., all Malabar Christians, are granted five kinds of taxes. Place. The document was executed while the king was in Carnellur (=Cranganore).
II. QUILON CHURCH PLATES, FASCICLE 1. Date.-Circa 880 A.D.8. The fifth year of Sthanu Ravi, as the dooument says. Donor.-Ayyan, king of Venad, which was roughly the southern portion of modern Travancore. Donee.-The Tarisa (=Orthodox Christian) Church built at Quilon in Travancore by Sabribó, a merchant10, who re-founded11 the city of Quilon in 825 A.D. Purport.-(1) Four women of the Ilava13 caste together with their eight children and one family of the washerman caste are given to the church for menial service. (2) These low caste people are exempted from paying certain specified rates and taxes. (3) The church is made the custodian of the steelyard and weights and the 'kappan', 18 all of which previously belonged to the king of Venad. (4) The Ilavas and the people of the washerman caste given to the church are allowed to go into the Quilon fort and the Christian streets in spite of their being members of two polluting castes. (5) The right of trying the cases of these people is reserved for the Quilon Church. (6) All these have been granted at the instance of Sabriko. Place.-Quilon in Travancore.
III. QUILON CHURCH PLATES, FASCICLE 2. Date.-C. 880 A.D.; later than the previous set of plates (Set II). Donor.--Ayyan, king of Vênád. (See Set II.) Donees.(a) The Quilon Church (of Set II). (6) The Quilon Jews (probably their authorized leaders). 7 See the next topic in this Miscellany."
8 This date is arrived at on the probable assumption supported by linguistio and paleographic evidence as well as Malabar Christian tradition that the Sthápu Ravi in whqne reign the document was executed, is the same as another thipu Ravi a contemporary of the Chola king. Aditya I, the utmost extent of whose reign could be only thirty years from A.D. 877-907. (Smith: Early History of India, 1914, p. 463.)
. A full account of all the four documents mentioned here as well as of the well-known Cochin Jowish plates is given in my Malayalam book The Malabar Christian Copper. Plates, Trivandrum, 1938.
10 Many writers have mistaken this merchant for the bishop Mar Sapor, whorn ho brought in his ship to Quilon along with another bishop, Mar Prodh, in 825 A.D., or a little later. These prolates, who died in Malabar, have been regarded as saints by the St. Thomas Christians. But at the Synod of Diamper, 1509, thoy were branded as Nestorian heretics by the Portuguese
11 The Quilon or Malabar Era is counted from this event. In the Quilon Church plates, fascicle 2, Sabriho is referred to as the person who founded this city of Quilon.
13 flavas means people from Ceylon. These Ceylonese immigrants to Malabar are known as Tyas in British Malabar, and Chokons or Chovans (=ervants) among the Malabar Christians. The Chokons were in military service under the Malabar Christians, as some Portuguese writers say. Barbonn, 1010, gives a description of this caste under the name Ceivil-tivar, 5.6., Chovan-Tiyar.
13 Marignolli, 1348 A.D., says that the Quilon Christians were in his days "the masters of the publie weighing office." (Cathay and the Way Thither, III, 216.) By Afonso D'Alboquorque's time (A.D. 1804 they had lost the privilege of "keeping the seal and the standard weight of the city of Quilon. (Com mentaries of Alboquerque, Beoond Voyage of India, trans. by Birch, I, p. 10.)
Kappdn may perhaps be the seal mentioned above. See Eng. chop from Hind. chhap, startp.