Quilon Syrian copper plates
Open-knowledge reference entry
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 (the Christian church) in Kollam, located on the Malabar Coast of southern India. The inscription, which is notably incomplete, is engraved on five copper plates (four horizontal and one vertical) in Old Malayalam or Middle Tamil, using the Vattezhuthu script with necessary Grantha characters. It is considered the oldest available inscription from the medieval Chera dynasty of Kerala.
The charter is dated to the fifth regnal year of medieval Chera ruler Sthanu Ravi Kulasekhara (849/850 CE). 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), indicating the presence of Jewish and Muslim communities in Kerala.
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 medieval Chera ruler of Kerala, Sthanu Ravi (Old Malayalam and 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".
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