Note 45 — J

“The date of the inscription,” Dr. Hultzsch adds, “was the thirty-sixth year opposite to the second year. As I have shown on a previous occasion,45 the meaning of this mysterious phrase is probably ‘the thirty-sixth year (of the king’s coronation, which took place) after the second year (of the king’s yauvarājya).’ The inscription records a grant which the king made to Īssuppu Irappān, i.e., Joseph Rabbān. The occurrence of this Semitic name, combined with the two facts that the plates are still with the Cochin Jews, and that the latter possess a Hebrew translation of the document, proves that the donee was a member of the ancient Jewish colony on the western coast. The grant was made at Muriyikkōdu. The Hebrew translation identifies this place with Kodunnallūr (Cranganore), where the Jewish colonists resided, until the bad treatment which they received at the hands of the Portuguese induced them to settle near Cochin. The object of the grant was Anjuvannam. This word means ‘the five castes,’ and may have the designation of that quarter of Cranganore, in which the five classes of Artisans—Ain-Kammālar, as they are called in the smaller Kōttayam grant—resided.”