Quilon Syrian copper plates

For 13th century CE copper plates issued by Viraraghava to Iravikorttan, see Viraraghava copper plates.

Quilon Syrian copper plates
Material	Copper
Writing	Old Malayalam, Middle Tamil
Created	849–850 CE; Kerala, India
Present location	Devalokam Aramana; Poolatheen Aramana

The Kollam (Quilon) Syrian copper plates, also known as the Kollam Tarisappalli copper plates, are Indian copper plate inscriptions which document a royal grant of Ayyan Adikal, the chieftain of Kollam, to a Syrian Christian merchant named Mar Sapir Iso in Kerala, issued in approximately 850 CE. The inscription is engraved on six copper plates in Old Malayalam or early Middle Tamil, using Vattezhuthu script with some Grantha characters. It is considered the oldest known inscription from the Chera Perumal dynasty.

The charter is dated to the fifth regnal year of Chera Perumal ruler Sthanu Ravi Kulasekhara, around 849–850 CE. The sixth plate contains signatures of witnesses to the grant in Arabic (Kufic script), Middle Persian (cursive Pahlavi script), and Judeo-Persian (standard square Hebrew script). Until 2013, it was thought that the plates represented two separate grants issued by Kerala rulers to Syrian Christian merchants.

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. The copper plates also refer to the presence of Jewish and Muslim communities in Kerala, as seen in the sections written in Arabic, Middle Persian, and Judeo-Persian scripts.

Summarised prescription

A modern depiction of Mar Sabor and Mar Proth.

Insignia from Quilon Syrian copper plates (plate 5)

The grant is dated the 5th regnal year of king Sthanu Ravi, 849-50 CE (old Malayalam: Ko Tanu Ravi). It was drafted in the presence of Chera Perumal prince Vijayaraga, Venad chieftain Ayyan Adikal Thiruvadikal, junior chieftain Rama Thiruvadikal, other important officers of the chiefdom (the adhikarar, the prakrithi, the punnathala padi, and the pulakkudi padi) and the representatives of merchant guilds anjuvannam and manigramam.

The charter grants land to Mar Sapir Iso, the founder the Kollam trading city (the nagara), to build the Church of Tarisa at Kollam. The land, evidently a large settlement with its occupants, is donated as an "attipperu" by Ayyan Adikal. Sapir Iso also recruited two merchant guilds (the anjuvannam and the manigramam) as the tenants of the nagara (the karanmai). The Six Hundred of Venad, the militia of the chiefdom, was entrusted with the protection of the nagara and the church. The charter also granted serfs to the nagara and the church. This included personnel like agricultural laborers (the vellalars), carpenters (the thachar), traders (the ezhavar) and salt-makers (the eruviyar).

The charter granted Sapir Iso several titles, rights and aristocratic privileges. All revenues from the donated land and its occupants were 'exempted' (which perhaps meant that these were to be made over to the church).

Witnesses to grant

Quilon Syrian copper plates (849 AD, plates 1 and 4)

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

Quilon Syrian copper plates (plate 6)

Arabic signatures ― Kufic script

• Maymun, son of Ibrahim
• Muhammad, son of Manih
• Sulh, son of Ali
• Uthman, son of al-Marzuban
• Muhammad, son of Yahya
• Amr, son of Ibrahm
• Ibrahim, son of al-Tayy
• Bakr, son of Mansur
• al-Qasim, son of Hamid
• Mansur, son of Isa
• Ismail, son of Yaqub

Middle Persian signatures ― Pahlavi script

• Farrox, son of Narseh, son of Sahraban
• Yōhanan, son of Mašya, son of Wehzād
• Šāhdōst, 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 ― Hebrew script

• Hasan Ali
• Sahaq
• Samael
• Abraham Quwami
• Kurus Yahiya

Mention of Thomas of Cana

Duperron's translation mentioning Thomas of Cana (1758)

Main article: Thomas of Cana copper plates

The Thomas of Cana copper plates are a lost set of copper-plate grants issued by an unidentified Chera Perumal king to the Christian merchants in the city of "Makotayar Pattinam" (present day Kodungallur) at some point between 345 and 800 CE. Translations of the Quilon plates made by the Syrian Christian priest Ittimani in 1601 as well as the French scholar A. H. Anquetil-Duperron in 1758 both note that the 4th Quilon plate mentioned a brief of the arrival of Thomas of Cana (Knai Thoma). However, the presently available Quilon plates do not mention this episode (the second half of the 4th Quilon plate is missing today). It is generally assumed that this was a notation of the previous rights bestowed upon the Christians by the Chera king (and the above said plate was missing).

Translation by A. H. A. Duperron (1758):

“The history of the founding of the town of Cranganore when Pattanam was the City, (he) visited, revered and requested the Emperor and the Minister at Kolla Kodungalloor for a marsh where thickets grow. Measured by Anakol (elephant kol) 4,444 kols of land was granted in the year of the Jupiter in Kubham, on the 29th of Makaram, 31 the Saturday, Rohini and Saptami (7th day of the moon),' the palace, great temple and school at Irinjalakuda also were founded. The same day that place was called Makothevar pattanam (the town of the Great God), and it was made the city (capital). From there privileges such as drawbridge at gates, ornamented arches, mounted horse with two drums, cheers, conch blowing, salutes were granted in writing to the Christian foreigner called Knaye Thoma with sacred threat and libation of water and flower. The sun and the moon are witnesses to this. Written to the kings of all times.”

Re-engraved plates

Some recent studies suggest that the original text of the Thomas of Cana plates and the Quilon plates were re-engraved together as a unified grant giving witness to the historic rights of the Christians. Scholar István Perczel theorizes that at one time the Quilon plates and the Thomas of Cana plates, or parts of them, were re-engraved together (and thus the text of both grants were present on a single set of plates). Perczel notes the possibility that the Christians of Knai Thoma kept their part of the unified grant at Kodungallur, while the Christians of Marwan Sapir Iso kept theirs at Kollam.

See also

• Jewish copper plates of Cochin
• Thomas of Cana copper plates

References

Works cited

• Cereti, C. G. (2009). "The Pahlavi Signatures on the Quilon Copper Plates". In Sundermann, W.; Hintze, A.; de Blois, F. (eds.). Exegisti Monumenta: Festschrift in Honour of Nicholas Sims-Williams. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 978-3-447-05937-4.
• Devadevan, Manu V. (2020). "Changes in Land Relations and the Changing Fortunes of the Cera State". The 'Early Medieval' Origins of India. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-49457-1.
• Narayanan, M. G. S. (2002). "Further Studies in the Jewish Copper Plates of Cochin". Indian Historical Review. 29 (1–2): 66–76. doi:10.1177/037698360202900204. S2CID 142756653.
• Narayanan, M. G. S. (2013) [1972]. Perumals of Kerala: Brahmin Oligarchy and Ritual Monarchy. Thrissur (Kerala): CosmoBooks. ISBN 9788188765072.
• King, Daniel, ed. (2018). The Syriac World. Routledge Press. ISBN 978-1-138-89901-8.
• Kollaparambil, Jacob (2015). Sources of the Syro Malabar Law. Oriental Institute of Religious Studies India. ISBN 9789382762287.
• Varier, M. R. Raghava; Veluthat, Kesavan (2013). Tharissappally Pattayam. Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala): National Book Stall.
• Vellian, Jacob (1986). Symposium on Knanites. Syrian Church Series. Vol. 12. Jyothi Book House.

Further reading

• Veluthat, Kesavan, 2009. The Early Medieval in South India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.