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Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c5.s5: Note

Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c5.s5

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Note

c5.s5.1

S. India had long been frequented by foreigners before the Europeans effected settlement there in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries¹). Some of those early colonies still subsist, but the people while retaining more or less of their nationality have, however, lost the colloquial use of their own original tongues, and adopted S. Indian vernaculars which now are generally written with foreign characters. The most important of these foreign colonists are:—

c5.s5.2

¹ A great many inscriptions by foreigners must have disappeared quite recently, such (*e. g.*) as the Chinese stone with (apparently) an inscription; mentioned by Garcia de Orta (1563) as taken from Cochin by the Zamorin (“Colloquios da India”, Varnhagen’s reprint. f. 58*b* and 59). So also Marignolli’s pillar (*c.* 1347) see Yule’s Cathay”, p. 344.

A. Arabs

c5.s5.t1.1

The descendants of the early Arab colonists, though very numerous in S. India, are perhaps not in any case of pure descent. In Malabar and the south-west they are called ‘Māppiḷa’; in the east (or Tamiḷ country) their name is ‘Labbai’ or ‘Lĕbbai.’ There does not appear to be any trace in the Telugu country of a similar race. True Muḥammadans they are²), but few have any knowledge of Arabic; their books and letters are now written in Malayāḷam or Tamiḷ with a modified Arabic character. This has, however, been introduced only in recent times. I have given an account of the system already elsewhere³).

c5.s5.t1.2

² They all affect the S. Arabian costume especially the ‘Qalansuwah’ (a stiff cap of variegated silk or cotton. See Dozy’s “Dictionnaire des noms des vêtements chez les Arabes”, pp. 365-371) if they can afford it. The Muḥammadan Arabs appear to have settled first in Malabar about the beginning of the ninth century; there were heathen Arabs there long before that in consequence of the immense trade conducted by the Sabeans with India (according to Agatharchides. i., p. 64 of Hudson’s ed. *Cfr.* also the Periplus of the Red Sea).

c5.s5.t1.3

³ 3; “Specimens of South-Indian Dialects”, No. ii.

B. Persians and Syrians

c5.s5.t2.1

The earliest Christian settlements in S. India were Persian, and a few inscriptions in Pahlavī still remain which belong to that period⁴). They were, however, supplanted by the so-called Syrians who are now in appearance exactly like all the other inhabitants of Malabar, and use Malayāḷam as their language; this they often write with Syriac[^1) (Karshuni) letters to which they have added from the Malayāḷam 'Ārya' character the letters deficient in the former. Syriac is merely used in the churches, though apparently it is pretty generally understood by the more intelligent members of the community. A few tombstones and similar relics in Travancore show that the Syriac-Malayāḷam alphabet is of recent introduction, and that the Syrians originally used only the Vaṭṭeḻuttu character. Buchanan[^2) mentions bells with inscriptions in Syriac and Malayāḷam, but I have not seen or heard of any[^3).

c5.s5.t2.2

⁴ *Cfr.* my Essay “On some Pahlavi Inscriptions in S. India” (4° Mangalore, 1873). The most important of these inscriptions is the miracle-working cross of St. Thomas at the Mount near Madras; unfortunately for the credulous, there can be no doubt that this is of heretical (Nestorian) origin.

c5.s5.t2.3

As both these alphabets belong (so far as my information extends) to recent times, it is useless to do more than mention them here.

c5.s5.t2.4

From the 17th century on, it is remarkable that different peoples of S. India, though long settled in other and, to them, alien parts, have most obstinately preserved the use of their own characters. Thus the sacred books of the Vaishṇavas, which are in Tamiḻ, have been lately printed (at Madras) for the use of the Telugu Sĕṭṭis in the Telugu character with some ingenious additions to mark the Tamiḻ sounds which do not exist in Telugu. Among the Tanjore mss. are several with marginal notes in the Nāgarī character but which are in the Telugu or Tamiḻ language.

c5.s5.t2.5

[^1): Z. d. D. M. G. xxii., p. 548 (from Land's "Anecdota") copied in Lenormant's "Essai sur la propagation de l' alphabet Phénicien", ii. pp. 24-5 (pl. vi.). [^2): "Christian Researches", p. 112. [^3): The Tanjore inscriptions (11th century), prove that utensils, bells, articles of jewelry, copper and stone images were usually dedicated in Pagodas in great numbers (*cfr.* Hemādri's 'Dānakhaṇḍa').

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