Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c5.s5.t2: B. Persians and Syrians

Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c5.s5.t2

Language: English

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').

Linked texts (1)

Dānakhaṇḍa — Hemādri, Sanskrit