Directions to the Binder for Placing the Plates, &c. Portrait of Praun Poory Oordhbahu Portrait of Purrum Soatuntre Purkasanund Brehmchary Hindooftanee Horal Diagram Cancel the Leaves of White Paper after To face Page 37 49 81 Two Plates of the Alphabetical Syftem of the Language of Awa and Rac'hain 143 Broadfide Genealogical Table The Half Sheet Sig. L with a Star, to come before the whole Sheet Sig. L. In Page 215 mention is made of a Drawing accompanying the Defcription of the Meloë Infect, to which References are made in Page 217; but there does not appear to have been any Plate engraved from the Drawing, as there is none in the Calcutta Edition, from which this was Printed. - 167 241 1. HISTORICAL REMARKS, ON THE COAST OF MALABAR. WITH SOME DESCRIPTION OF THE MANNERS OF ITS INHABITANTS. SECTION. I. BY JONATHAN DUNCAN, ESQ. " The 'N the book called Kerul Oodputte, or, IN emerging of the Country of Kerul," (of which, during my ftay at Calicut, in the year 1793, I made the best tranflation into Englifh in my power, through the medium of a verfion firft rendered into Perfian, under my own inspection, from the Malabaric copy procured from one of the Rajahs of the Zamorin's family,) the origin of that coaft is afcribed to the piety or penitence of Purefeu Rama, or Purefram, (one of the incarnations of VISHNU,) who, ftung with remorfe for the blood he had fo profufely fhed in overcoming the Rajahs of the Khetry tribe, applied to VARUNA, the God of the Ocean, to fupply him with a tract of ground to bestow on the Bráhmens; and VARUNA having accordingly withdrawn his waters from the Gowkern (a hill in the vicinity of Mangalore) to Cape Comorin, this ftrip of territory has, from its fituation, as lying along the foot of the Sukhien (by the Europeans called the Ghaut) range of mountains, acquired the name of Mulyalum, (i. e. Skirting at the Bottom of the Hills,) a term that may have been fhortened into Maleyam, or Maleam; whence are also probably VOL. V. A its its common names of Mulievar and Malabar; all which Purefram is firmly believed, by its native Hindu inhabitants, to have parcelled out among different tribes of Bráhmens, and to have directed that the entire produce of the foil fhould be appropriated to their maintenance, and towards the edification of temples, and for the fupport of divine worship; whence it ftill continues to be diftinguished in their writings by the term of Kermbhoomy, or, " The Land of Good Works "for the Expiation of Sin." II. The country thus obtained from the fea,* is reprefented to have remained long in a marshy and fcarcely habitable state; infomuch, that the first occupants, whom Purefram is faid to have brought into it from the eastern, and even the northern, part of India, again abandoned it; being more especially scared by the multitude of ferpents with which the mud and flime of this newly-immerged tract is related to have then abounded; and to which numerous accidents are afcribed, until Purefram taught the inhabitants to propitiate these animals, by introducing the worship of them and of their images, which became from that period objects of adoration. III. The country of Mulyalum was, according to the Kerul Oodputtee, afterwards divided into the four following Tookrees, or divifions. ift. From Gowkern, already mentioned, to the Perumbura River, was called the Tooroo, or Turu Rauje. 2d. From In a manuscript account of Malabar that I have seen, and which is ascribed to a Bishop of Virapoli, (the seat of a famous Roman Catholic seminary near Cochin,) he observes, that, by the accounts of the learned natives of that coast, it is little more than 2300 years since the sea came up to the foot of the Sukhien or Ghaut mountains; and that it once did so he thinks extremely probable from the nature of the soil, and the quantity of sand, oyster-shells, and other fragments, met with in making deep ex eavations. 2d. From the Perumbura to Poodumputtum was called the Mofhek Rauje. 3d. From Poodum, or Poodputtun, to the limits of Kunetui, was called the Kerul or Keril Rauje; and as the principal feat of the ancient government was fixed in this middle divifion of Malabar, its name prevailed over, and was in courfe of time understood in a general fenfe to comprehend, the three others. 4th. From Kunety to Kunea Koomary, or Cape Comorin, was called the Koop Rauje; and these four grand divifions were parcelled out into a greater number of Naadhs, (pronounced Naars, and meaning diftricts or countries,) and of Khunds, or fubdivifions, under the latter denomination. IV. The proportion of the produce of their lands, that the Brahmens are ftated to have originally affigned for the fupport of government, amounted to only one fixth fhare: but in the fame book of Kerul Oodputte they are afterwards faid to have divided the country into three equal proportions; one of which was confecrated to fupply the expence attending religious worship, another for the fupport of government, and the third for their own maintenance. V. However this may be, according to the book above quoted, the Brahmens appear to have first set up, and for fome time maintained, a fort of republican or aristocratical government, under two or three principal chiefs, elected to adminifter the government, which was thus carried on (attended, however, with feveral intermediate modifications) till, on jealoufies arifing among themselves, the great body of the Bráhmen landholders had recourfe to foreign affiftance, which terminated, either by conquest or convention, in their receiving to rule over them a Permal, or chief governor, from the Prince of the neighbouring coun try of Chaldeh, (a part of the Southern Carnatic,) and this fucceffion of Viceroys was regularly changed and relieved every twelve years; till at length one of thofe officers, named Sheo Ram, or (according to the Malabar book) Shermanoo Permaloo, and by others called Cheruma Perumal, appears to have rendered himfelf fo popular during his government, that, (as feems the most probable deduction from the obfcure accounts of this tranfaction in the copy obtained of the Kerul Ood puttee, compared with other authorities,) at the expiration of its term, he was enabled, by the encouragement of thofe over whom his delegated fway had extended, to confirm his own authority, and to fet at defiance that of his late fovereign, the Prince or King of Chaldeh, who is known in their books by the name of Rajah Kishen Rao; and who having sent an army into Malabar with a view to recover his authority, is ftated to have been fuccessfully withstood by Shermanoo and the Malabarians; an event which is fuppofed to have happened about 1000 years anterior to the present period; and is otherwife worthy of notice, as being the epoch from which all the Rajahs and chief Nayrs, and the other titled and principal lords and landholders of Malabar, date their ancestors' acquifition of fovereignty and rule in that country; all which the greater part of their prefent representatives do uniformly affert to have been derived from the grants thus made by Shermanoo Permaloo, who, becoming, after the defeat of Kishen Rao's army, either tired of his fituation, or, from having (as is the vulgar belief) become a convert to Mahommedanifm, and being thence defirous to vifit Arabia, is reported to have made, before his departure, a general divifion of Malabar among his dependents, the ancestors of its prefent chieftains. VI. The book entitled Kerul Oodputtee (which, however locally refpected, is, at least in the copy I procured of it, not a little confufed and incoherent) mentions |