Quilon Syrian Copper Plates

The Kollam (Quilon) Syrian copper plates, also known as the Kollam Tarisappalli copper plates, or Kottayam inscription of Sthanu Ravi, or Tabula Quilonensis (c. 849 CE) are a copper plate grant issued by Ayyan Adikal, the chieftain of Kollam, conferring privileges upon a Syrian Christian merchant named Maruvan Sapir Iso, in the name of the Tarissapalli in Kollam, southern India. The inscription — notably incomplete — is engraved on five copper plates (four horizontal and on vertical) in Tamil, using the Vattezhuthu script with necessary Grantha characters. It is considered the oldest available inscription from the Chera Perumal dynasty.

The charter is dated to the fifth regnal year of medieval Chera ruler Sthanu Ravi Kulasekhara (849/850 CE). Until 2013, it was believed that the five plates represented two separate grants (dated separately), issued at different times, to Syrian Christian merchants on the Malabar Coast. A second inscription mentioning another "Tarisappalli" was discovered in Periyapattinam in 2022 ( Periyapattinam Inscription). The fifth plate contains signatures of witnesses to the grant in Arabic (Kufic script), Middle Persian (cursive Pahlavi script), and Judeo-Persian (standard square Hebrew script), possibly indicating the presence of Jewish and Muslim communities in Kerala. The record also contains few characters in some undeciphered script/language(s).

One part of the copper plates (four plates) is preserved at the Devalokam Aramana of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, while the other two smaller plates are kept at the Poolatheen Aramana in Thiruvalla, belonging to the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church.

Summarized prescription

The grant is dated to the fifth regnal year (849/50 CE) of the Chera king of Kerala, Sthanu Ravi (Tamil: Tanu Ravi). It was drafted in the presence of Chera prince Vijayaraga, Venad chieftain Ayyan Adikal Thiruvadikal, junior chieftain Rama Thiruvadikal, other important officers of the Venad chiefdom (such as the adhikarar, the prakrithi, the punnathala padi, and the pulakkudi padi) and representatives of the merchant guilds anjuvannam and manigramam.

The charter grants land to the Christian merchant Mar Sapir Iso, described in it as the founder of the Kollam trading city (the nagara) and the builder of the Kollam Tarisa Church. The land, evidently a large settlement with its bonded occupants (serfs), is donated as an "attipperu" by Ayyan Adikal. Attipperu, or dhara-purvaka, was perhaps a precursor to the later "janmam" tenure. Sapir Iso also recruited two merchant guilds — the anjuvannam and the manigramam — as the tenants of the nagara under the karanmai tenure. The Six Hundred, the Nair militia of Venad, was entrusted with the protection of the nagara and the church. The charter also granted serfs to the nagara and the church, including personnel such as agricultural laborers (the vellalars), carpenters (the thachar), the ezhavar and, salt-makers (the eruviyar).

Additionally, the charter granted Sapir Iso several titles, rights, and aristocratic privileges. It also states that all revenues from the donated land and its occupants were "exempted", which perhaps meant that these were to be transferred to the church.

Text

''Following is a widely accepted English translation of the inscription (Narayanan, in "Cultural Symbiosis in Kerala", 1972). The 2013 study on the plates does not provide an English translation.''

Witnesses to grant

The vertical plate (plate number 5) contains several signatures of witnesses to the grant in Arabic (Kufic script), Middle Persian (cursive Pahlavi script), and Judeo-Persian (standard square Hebrew script).

Arabic signatures ― Kufic script

* Maymūn, son of Ibrahīm
* Muḥammad, son of Manīḥ
* Ṣulḥ, son of 'Alī
* 'Uṯmān, son of al-Marzubān
* Muḥammad, son of Yaḥyā
* 'Amru, son of Ibrahīm
* Ibrahīm, son of al-Ṭay
* Bakr, son of Mansūr
* al-Qāsim, son of Ḥamīd
* Manṣūr, son of 'Isā
* Isma'īl, son of Ya'qūb

Middle Persian signatures ― Cursive Pahlavi script

* Farrox, son of (N)arseh, son of Šahrābān
* Yōhanan, son of Mašya, son of Wehzād
* Šahdōst, son of Mardweh, son of Farroxīg
* Sēnmihr, son of Bayweh
* *Sīnā, son of Yākub
* .. son of Mardweh
* Marōē, son of Yōhanan
* Farrbay, son of Windād-Ohrmazd
* Mard-Farrox, son of Bōyšād
* Āzādmard, son of Ahlā

Judeo-Persian signatures ― Standard Square Hebrew script

* Hasan 'Ali
* Saḥaq
* *Sama'ēl
* Abraham Quwami
* Kuruš Yaḥiya

Mention of Thomas of Cana

The presently available text of Quilon Syrian copper plates are notably incomplete (interrupting at the end of plate 4). However, two seemingly complete transcripts of the inscription are extant. These are the Garshuni Malayalam script transcript (17th century) and the French text of du Perron (18th century). The interrupted content of plate 4 continues in du Perron’s French text (with the names of seventeen local notables, some of whom were mentioned earlier). After that comes a passage mentioning the famous Thomas of Cana or "Knai Thoma" episode (available in both transcripts). This passage too is later interrupted (and the signatures in Arabic and Persian follows).

It is speculated that this portion is nothing other than the first part of the lost Thomas of Cana copper plates. This grant was issued by an unidentified Chera Perumal king to the Christian merchants in the city of "Makotayar Pattinam" (Mahodayapuram, present day Kodungallur). The record has variously been dated between c. 4th century CE (345 CE) and 9th century CE.

Quilon Syrian copper plates also contain an indication to the presence of a previous grant (with rights bestowed upon the Christians by the Chera king at Mahodayapuram).

French text of du Perron (translation):

Scholar Perczel gives the following explanation for the presence of Thomas of Cana text within Quilon Syrian copper plates transcripts (the author is quite ambiguous regarding the vertical plate with Arabic and Persian signatures).
du Perron (Introduction, Zend Avesta)">
File:Quilon Syrian copper plates (du Perron).jpg, alt=
File:Quilon Syrian copper plates (du Perron) 1.jpg, alt=

Both Quilon grant and Thomas of Cana grant were initially issued as two physically separate copper plate inscriptions. However, after a period of time, both grant texts were re-engraved together (as a unified copy; on six copper plates, excluding the vertical plate). In this copy, the text of Thomas of Cana grant began immediately after the end of the text of Quilon grant n the same plate, Plate 4 Further later in time, grants needed to be separated (but the separation could not be made perfectly. So the beginning of the text of Thomas of Cana grant became physically separated from the rest of the text). Thus the Syrian Christian community at Kollam preserved the first four plates (plates 1-4) and the Knanaya at Mahodayapuram-Kodungallur preserved the last two plates (plates 5-6, later set at Kodungallur, generally called Thomas of Cana copper plates, was lost at some point in time).

The fourth plate at Kollam (4) was re-engraved onto two plates (4a and 4b) at a further later date (and the plate 4 was probably abandoned). The presently available interrupted plate is thus the first part (4a) of plate 4. The modern transcripts of the inscription thus contain the lost portions from the second part (4b) of plate 4.

* Quilon grant remained with the community at Kollam
** Plate 1 (writing on one side only)
** Plate 2/3 (writing on both sides)
** Plate 4 (writing on both sides) (abandoned)
*** Re-engraving for the second time
**** 4a (on both sides) (presently interrupted plate)
**** 4b uilon grant ending and Thomas of Cana grant beginning(lost)
* Thomas of Cana grant remained with the community at Mahodayapuram
** Plate 5/6 (writing on both sides) (lost)

See also

* Jewish copper plates of Cochin
* Thomas of Cana copper plates

References

Works cited

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Further reading

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{{Kollam, state=collapsed
9th-century inscriptions
Tharisapalli Plates
Vatteluttu
Tharisapalli Plates
9th century in law
849
Saint Thomas Christians
Chera dynasty
Kerala history inscriptions
Kodungallur Chera kingdom