Jewish copper plates of Cochin, also known as Cochin plates of Bhaskara Ravi-varman, is a royal charter issued by the Chera Perumal king of Kerala, south India to Joseph Rabban, a Jewish merchant magnate of Kodungallur.[1][2] The charter shows the status and importance of the Jewish colony in Kodungallur (Cranganore) near Cochin on the Malabar Coast.[2]
The charter is engraved in Vattezhuthu script with additional Grantha characters in the vernacular of medieval Kerala on three sides of two copper plates (28 lines).[2][3] It records a grant by king Bhaskara Ravi Varma (Malayalam: Parkaran Iravivanman) to Joseph/Yusuf Rabban (Malayalam: Issuppu Irappan) of the rights of merchant guild anjuman (Malayalam: anjuvannam) along with several other rights and privileges.[4] Rabban is exempted from all payments made by other settlers in the city of Muyirikkode (at the same time extending to him all the rights of the other settlers). These rights and privileges are given perpetuity to all his descendants. The document is attested by a number of chieftains from southern and northern Kerala.[2]
Anjuvannam, the old Malayalam form of hanjamana/anjuman[5] was a south Indian merchant guild organised by Jewish, Christian, and Islamic merchants from West Asian countries.[6][7] The document is dated by historians to c. 1000 CE.[8][2] It is also evident from the tone of the copper plates that the Jews were not newcomers to the Malabar Coast at the time of its decree.[9]
The plates are carefully preserved in an iron box, known as the Pandeal, within the Paradesi Synagogue at Mattancherry (Cochin).[10][4]
^Noburu Karashmia (ed.), A Concise History of South India: Issues and Interpretations. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014. 136, 144.
^ abcdeNarayanan, M. G. S. (2013), Perumāḷs of Kerala. Thrissur (Kerala): CosmoBooks, pp 451-52.
^Fischel 1967, pp. 230, 236.
^ abNarayanan, M. G. S., "Further Studies in the Jewish Copper Plates of Cochin." Indian Historical Review, Vol. 29, no. 1–2, Jan. 2002, pp. 66–76.
^Narayanan, M. G. S., "Further Studies in the Jewish Copper Plates of Cochin." Indian Historical Review, Vol. 29, no. 1–2, Jan. 2002, pp. 66–76.
^Noburu Karashmia (ed.), A Concise History of South India: Issues and Interpretations. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014. p. 139
^Y. Subbarayalu (1 June 2015). "Trade guilds of south India up to the tenth century". Studies in People's History. 2 (1): 21–26. ISSN 2348-4489
^Noburu Karashmia (ed.), A Concise History of South India: Issues and Interpretations. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014. 146-47
^M.G.S. Narayanan (2002), Further Studies in the Jewish Copper Plates of Cochin, Indian Historical Review, Volume XXIX, Number 1-2 (January and July 2002), pp. 67–68
^Fischel 1967, pp. 230.
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