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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
COCHIN PLATES OF BHASKARA RAVIVARMAN. different form which is employed in the larger Koṭṭayam grant,1 occurs. Just as in the two Koṭṭayam grants, the Tirunelli grant, and the grant of Jaṭilavarman,2― Grantha letters are used in a number of Sanskṛit words,― svasti (line 1 ), śrî (l. 1 (twice) and l. 20),3 sâ of pirasâdichchu (l. 5) and pirasâdam (l. 6), sa of santati (ll. 16, 18, 19). In the foreign word Îssuppu, the syllable ssu is expressed by a Grantha group (ll. 6 and 16). The inscription ends with a symbol which may be taken either for an ornamental mark of punctuation, or for an archaic Nâgarî śâ, which might be meant for śrî. If the second eventuality holds good, the approximate period of the inscription could perhaps be settled by a comparison with dated records in which similar forms of śâ occur. ......The language of the inscription is Tamil─ not the artificial language of literary works, but the Tamil of every-day life, which, as the language of the Tanjore inscriptions of the Chôḷas, does not avoid vulgar forms, like pirasâdichchu (l. 5 ) for piraśâdittu, and añju (in Añjuvaṇṇam) for aindu The world peḍi (l. 7) is probably a vulgar form of piḍi, ‘a female elephant,’ and vâyanam (l. c.) is derived from the Sanskṛit vâhana.4 The form ippari, which occurs before each of the attestations on the second plate, appears to be a corruption of the Tamil ippaḍi, ‘thus.’ A single word shows that, at the time of the inscription, the Tamil language was beginning to develop into Malayâḷam.5 This is the adjective participle śeyyinra (l . 26), in which the y of the root śey is assimilated to the following g, and which thus supplies the missing link between the Tamil śeyginra and the Malayâḷam cheyyunna.6
......The inscription is dated in the reign of king Bhâskara Ravivarman, who is probably
identical with a king of the same name, during whose reign the Tirunelli grant was issued.
The differences between the alphabets of the two records are not more considerable than might
be expected in the case of productions of two different writers, who resided in localities at a
distance from each other. The king bore the title Kôgônmai-koṇḍân, which may be compared with
the similar title Kônêrinmai-koṇḍân,7 and which is synonymous with the Sanskṛit Râjarâja.
The date of the inscription was “the thirty-sixth year opposite to the second year.” As
I have shown on a previous occasion,8 the meaning of this mysterious phrase is probably
“the thirty-sixth year (of the king’s coronation, which took place) after the second year (of the
king’s yauvarâjya).” The inscription records a grant which the king made to Îssuppu Irappân (ll. 6 and 16), i.e. Joseph Rabbân. The occurrence of this Semitic name, combined with the two
facts that the plates are still with the Cochin Jews, and that the latter possess a Hebrew
translation of the document,9 proves that the donee was a member of the ancient Jewish
colony on the western coast. The grant was made at Muyirikkôḍu (l. 4. f.). The Hebrew
translation identifies this place with Koḍuṅṅallûr (Cranganore), where the Jewish colonists
resided, until the bad treatment which they received there at the hands of the Portuguese,
induced them to settle near Cochin.10 The object of the grant was Añjuvaṇṇam (ll. 7, 8, 15,
19). This word means ‘the five castes’ and may have been the designation of that quarter of
......1 See Sir Walter Elliot’s tracing of this inscription in the Madras Journal, Vol. XIII. Part i.
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