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 "janmaṃ" 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.

Grant No. 1. (Grant No. A2) — First and Second Plates (Plate 1 and Plate 4)

Grant No. 2. (Grant No. A6) — First and Second Plates (Plate 2 and Plate 3)

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).

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).

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 [on 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 [Quilon 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)

References

Works cited

Cereti, Carlo 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.
Perczel, István (2018). "Syriac Christianity in India". In King, Daniel (ed.). The Syriac World. Routledge Press. ISBN 978-1-138-89901-8.
Narayanan, M. G. S. (1972). "Kottayam Syrian Copper-plates of Sthanu Ravi". Cultural Symbiosis in Kerala. Trivandrum: Kerala Historical Society.
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.
Kollaparambil, Jacob (2015). Sources of the Syro Malabar Law. Oriental Institute of Religious Studies India. ISBN 9789382762287.
Singh, Upinder (2024) [2008]. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: from the Stone Age to the 12th Century (2nd ed.). New Delhi: Pearson India. ISBN 978-93-570-5618-2.
Sivarajah, Padmini (13 July 2022). "Stone Inscription of Oldest Synagogue in Tamil Nadu Found". The Times of India.
"Stone Pillar with Inscription on Jewish Trade Links Found Near Ramanathapuram". The New Indian Express. 13 July 2022.
Tintu, K. J. (2024). "The Syrian Christian Copper Plate of Tarisāppaḷḷy, and the Jewish and Muslim Merchants of Early Malabar". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 80: 184–191. JSTOR 27192872.
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.