Mampalli copper plate
The Mampalli copper plate, also romanised as Mamballi, records a donation from the chiefly family of Venad, present-day Kerala, to the Chengannur Temple. The inscription is the earliest epigraphical record to mention the Kollam Era.
The record is engraved on both sides of a single copper plate in Vattezhuthu with necessary Grantha characters in an early form of Malayalam language. The plate was originally owned by Mampalli Madhom, near Trivandrum.
A second plate, companion to the first one and ascribed approximately to the same date, is owned by Mampalli Madhom.
Contents
The Mampalli record is notable for containing two royal deeds by the chiefly family of Venad.(a) First deed (as an attipperu)
A meeting of Srivallavan Kotai, the chieftain of Venad, with the committee of Brahmin village elders of Chengannur at Panainkavil palace, Kollam.Srivallavan Kotai donated the sole proprietary rights of the deity of the Ayirur Temple, installed by Tirukkalaiyapuram Aditya Umayamma, and the land assigned to the Ayirur deity to Tirukkalaiyapuram Aditya Umayamma.
(b) Second deed (as a kizhitu)
Aditya Umayamma in turn donated what she received— the proprietary rights and the landed property of the Ayirur Temple — to Chengannur Temple as a subordinate property with provision for the routine expenditure and the payment of protection fee to the village assembly secretaries.The village assembly secretaries were to protect the Ayirur Temple and its property and receive 200 para of paddy per year as protection fee. Fine is prescribed — those who violated the agreement by obstructing cultivation or confiscating property in the kizhitu, and their accomplices, were to pay 200 kalanju of gold as fine.
Witnesses to the transaction
The following witnesses are recorded:- Murunkaiyur Tevan Pavittiran
- Itaiyamanam Cannaran Kandan
- Manalmukku Kantan Tomataran
- Punalur Iravi Parantavan
- Kutakottur Parantavan Kandan