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 AUGUST 2, 1872.]

229

ANCIENT TAMIL ALPHABET.

THE OLDEST KNOWN SOUTH INDIAN ALPHABET.

By A. C. BURNELL, M.C.S., M.R.A.S., MANGALOR.

HE alphabet shown in the accompanying table is that used in the Tamil-Malayalam

inscriptions on copper in possession of the Jews and Syrians at Cochin. There are three of these : A.

A single copper-plate containing a grant

by Vira Rāghava to Iravi Korttan of Kodun galâr (Cranganore of the maps). In possession of the Syrians.

B is not dated, it is however remarkable for two pages of attestations by witnesses which are

in Kufic-Arabic, Pahlavi (Sassanian), and Chal daeo Pahlavi.

Dr. Haug attributes these to the

early part of the 9th century. § Thus all the means for fixing the date of these

documents point to the latter half of the 8th and early part of the 9th century, during which

B. A document on five plates also in posses sion of the Syrians. By this one Maruvân Sapir Iso transfers some ground to a church (?)— Tarisăpalli—built by one isodātavirai, and con

time the glorious rule of the early Abbaside

stitutes the Jews and Syrians trustees.

for such settlements as those of the Jews and

C. Two plates in possession of the Jews, by which Bhāskara Ravivarmā grants a principality

to Isuppu (Yusuf) Rabban. A great deal of vain speculation as to the

Khalifs caused Arab trade and enterprise to spread in

a way before unknown, and which

therefore is the earliest and most likely period Syrians near Cochin. These colonies must soon have extended; the Syrians (rather Manichaeans than Nestorians) are still very numerous in Tra vankor and Cochin, and there is a considerable

dates” has been wasted, but I think the ques

society of ancient proselytes near Cochin, called

tion may be easily settled. A and C are clearly

“Black” Jews ; but western meddlesomeness and bigotry have long done their worst and ruined

the oldest, being the documents by which the Jews and Syrians were originally established. Now the style of writing and language shows that these are of nearly the same date, and about the date of A there can be little doubt.

It is said to have been executed when “Jupiter

was in Capricornus, the 21st of the Mina month, Saturday, Rohini asterism.” Strange as it may seem, no one has as yet taken the trouble to get the necessary calculation worked out, even though this date is expressed in usual and intelligible terms. Some time ago I show ed the passage to the ablest native astronomert

the good feeling which once existed among these different persuasions.

The inscriptions have been critically translat ed and explained by F. W. Ellis (1819) and Dr. Gundert." Unfortunately they chiefly con sist of lists of privileges, mostly obscure and

without importance. Palaeographically they are,

was executed by Perumāl Bhāskara Ravi Varmă,

however, of the greatest value, for they are the oldest inscriptions in Southern India that have been as yet discovered, and give the oldest form of the ancient Tamil alphabet. This alphabet was once used over all the South Tamil and Malaya lam country, but chiefly in the extreme South. It appears to have fallen into disuse in the Tamil country about the 10th century, but was gene rally in use in Malabar up to the end of the 17th. It is still occasionally used for deeds in Malabar,

“in the 36th year against (etir, opposite) the 2nd

but in a more modern form,” and still more

year.”

changed, it is the character used by the Māppilas of North Malabar and the Islands off the coast.f Its origin may be guessed with great probability

in Southern India, and in two days he brought me the calculation worked out, proving that

A. D. 774 is the only possible year. The date of C has been much discussed ; it

Reference has generally been made to

the Quilon Cycle (or rather era) used in Malabar in order to explain this date, but always with preposterous results. I can only suggest (after

rather than proved.

From the earliest histori

comparing Tamil inscriptions in which two years

cal times we find a trade with the east by way

are mentioned) that it means in the 36th year of the king's age and second year of his reign.f

of the Red Sea conducted by Phoenicians and

. Krishna Josiyār. Conf. Caldwell's Dravidian Grammar, p. 60, for another explanation.
 * e.g. Madras Lit. Soc. Jour. vol. XXI. pp. 30ffg.

". a paper

on the Pahlavi language read before the Royal Bavarian Academy at Munich.

iº

into consideration the Kufic-Arabic attestations.

Jour. Madras L. S. vol. XIII. I believe these inscriptions were first noticed by Anquetil Duperron.

Sabeans, t perhaps by Egyptians, and later by Grammar (in Malayalam).
 * Given in the 1st edition of Dr. Gundert's Malayalam

t Conf. Benfey's remarks in Orient und Occident, III. p. 170. I have heard it asserted that there are Indian in scriptions in the Wadi Mukattab (near Sinai), but when I was there in 1868, I looked in vain for them.
 * 1) See M. D'Abbadie's note, ante p. 32.—Ed.

The natives of

India probably stayed at home always as now.