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."
In a note on the Kōttayam plate of Vira Rāghava, which is in the possession of the Syrian Christians, Rai Bahadur V. Venkayya writes as follows.*[1] " Vira Rāghava conferred the title of Manigrāmam on the merchant Iravikkorran. Similarly Anjuvannam was bestowed by the Cochin plates on the Jew Joseph Rabbān. The old Malayālam work Payyanūr Pattōla, which Dr.Gundert considered the oldest specimen of Malayālam composition, refers to Anjuvannam and Manigrāmam.The context in which the two names occur in this work implies that they were trading institutions. In the Kōttayam plates of Sthānu Ravi, both Anjuvannam and Manigrāmam are frequently mentioned. Both of them were appointed along with the six hundred to be 'the protectors' of the grant. They were 'to preserve the proceeds of the customs duty as they were collected day by day,' and 'to receive the landlord's portion of the rent on land. If any injustice be done to them, they may withhold the customs and the tax on balances, and remedy themselves the injury done to them. Should they themselves commit a crime, they are themselves to have the investigation of it.' To Anjuvannam and Manigrāmam was granted the freehold of the lands of
- ↑ * Epigraphia Indica, IV, 1896-97.
