Quilon Syrian copper plates


The Kollam Syrian copper plates, also known as the Kollam Tarisappalli copper plates, or Kottayam inscription of Sthanu Ravi, or Tabula Quilonensis 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 (the Christian church) in Kollam, located on the Malabar Coast of southern India. The inscription — notably incomplete — is engraved on five copper plates in Old Malayalam or Middle Tamil, using the Vattezhuthu script with necessary Grantha characters. It is considered the oldest available inscription from the [Chera Perumals of Makotai|medieval Chera dynasty of Kerala].
The charter is dated to the fifth regnal year of medieval Chera ruler Sthanu Ravi Kulasekhara. Until 2013, it was believed that the five plates represented two separate grants, issued at different times, to Syrian Christian merchants on the Malabar Coast. The fifth plate contains signatures of witnesses to the grant in Arabic, Middle Persian, and Judeo-Persian, indicating the presence of Jewish and Muslim communities in Kerala. The record also contains few characters in some undeciphered script/language.
One part of the copper 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. A second inscription mentioning another "Tarisappalli" was discovered in Periyapattinam in 2022.

Summarized prescription

The grant is dated to the fifth regnal year of the medieval Chera ruler of Kerala, Sthanu 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 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 and the builder of the Kollam Tarisa Church". The land, evidently a large settlement with its bonded occupants, 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 bonded serfs to the nagara and the church, including personnel such as agricultural laborers, carpenters, the ezhavar and, salt-makers.
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. The 2013 study on the plates does not provide an English translation.''

Witnesses to grant

The vertical plate contains several signatures of witnesses to the grant in Arabic, Middle Persian, and Judeo-Persian.
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 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 the Quilon Syrian copper plates is notably incomplete. However, two seemingly complete transcripts of the inscription are extant. These are the Garshuni Malayalam script transcript and the French text of du Perron. The interrupted content of plate 4 continues in du Perron’s French text. After that comes a passage mentioning the famous Thomas of Cana or "Knai Thoma" episode. This passage, too, is later interrupted.
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 medieval Chera king of Kerala to the Christian merchants in the city of "Makotayar Pattinam". The dating of the record remains a matter of scholarly debate. The Quilon Syrian copper plates also include a reference to a prior grant, stating that the Christians had previously been endowed with certain rights by the Chera ruler at Mahodayapuram.
The French text of du Perron :
Scholar Perczel gives the following explanation for the presence of Thomas of Cana text within Quilon Syrian copper plates transcripts.
The Quilon grant and the Thomas of Cana grant were originally issued as two physically separate copper plate inscriptions. However, after a period of time, the two grant texts were re-engraved together. In this copy, the text of the Thomas of Cana grant began immediately after the end of the text of the Quilon grant. Later, the grants needed to be separated. The Syrian Christians at Kollam preserved the first four plates and the Knanaya Syrian Christians at Mahodayapuram-Kodungallur held the last two plates. The two plates at Kodungallur, generally called Thomas of Cana copper plates, were lost at some point in time.
The fourth plate at Kollam was re-engraved onto two plates at a later date. The presently available interrupted plate is thus the first part of Plate 4. The modern transcripts of the inscription thus contain the lost portions from the second part of Plate 4.
  • The Quilon grant remained with the community at Kollam
  • * Plate 1
  • * Plate 2/3
  • * Plate 4
  • ** Re-engraving for the second time
  • *** 4a
  • *** 4b
  • The Thomas of Cana grant remained with the community at Mahodayapuram
  • * Plate 5/6

Works cited

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