Tharisapalli plates

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Tharisapalli plates or Tharisapalli shasanangal(തരിസാപള്ളി ശാസനങ്ങള്‍‍ or തരിസാപ്പള്ളി ചേപ്പേടുകള്‍) are the copper-plate grant which was given to the Nestorian Bishop Mar Sapro Easho by Venad King Ayyanadikal Thiruvadikal in the year 895 AD. The document gifted lands of Tharisapalli near KorukeNikollam[1] to the Nestorian merchants who had taken refuge under the king after escaping the Islamic conquest from the Persian Sassanid Empire.

Contents

[edit] Background

The Nestorians were accomplished merchants and had trade links with India and other countries in Southeast Asia, mainly China. Increasing pressure from the Islamic conquests led a few of them to settle in these places. The plates give information about the arrival of people from Persia under the merchant Marwan Sabriso in the year AD 825 with two bishops named Mar Sapro and Mar Prodh.[2] They had improved the trade in Kollam and raised it to a major port in South India. This led to the king gifting them free land.

[edit] The plates

There were two sets of plates[3] as part of this document, and both were incomplete. The first one documented the land while second plate documented the conditions. The signatories signed the document in Hebrew, Pehlavi, and Kufic languages.

[edit] Significance

This is a major record in the history of Kerala.

[edit] References

Sivasankaran Nair, K ,VeNadinte pariNamam (വേണാടിന്റെ പരിണാമം), D C Books, 2005.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ near the present Kollam and are believed to have taken by the sea.
  2. ^ Marthoma Church Website
  3. ^ "Five of these plates still exist -- Three of these are still in the Old Seminary in Kottayam and two are at the Mar Thoma Church Head Quarters, Tiruvalla." according to Marthoma Church website.
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